'Lalitha' (_Helen and Lalitha: The Lost Years_) is Repaired

Smashwords had been telling me, for a little over a year, that Helen and Lalitha had problems.  Now, a lot of my stories have problems, but what Smashwords considers to be a problem, and what I consider to be a problem are completely different things, so I tend to ignore it when SW raises these red flags.

But, as you are aware is one of my failings, I tend to read my own stories repeatedly (because, of course, I think they're so amazingly awesome).  Pretty soon I learned that, well, there was indeed something that needed to be fixed in, of all things, the Table of Contents of Lalitha. If the TOC were good, at the bottom of my e-reader there would be a white line, with irregularly spaced tickmarks across it, the chapters.  But the tickmarks of Lalitha were a cluster at the beginning, and then just one in the middle.  So I got into the manuscript, and painstakingly chopped out the TOC, and re-constructed it carefully.  (Having done similar things to a couple of other books, I have got it down to a fine art.)

The book was uploaded, and it is "on sale" for free.  (I know; that doesn't make any sense.)  But, honestly, Lalitha is one of the best-written of the Helen stories.  By which I mean, when I sucked a chunk of the story out of the Helen monster manuscript, and cleaned it up, and removed all the irrelevant paragraphs, it was one of the most successful results of the process.  On the Run was a little less successful, but I love it, like a mother loves an idiot child.  The order of the series is:

1: Helen, Cindy, Pat, Lisa, and the Violin

2: Helen at Ballet Camp

3: Helen and Lalitha---The Lost Years

4: Helen on the Run---The Lost Years

4.5: Helen at Westfield

5: Helen and Sharon

6: Helen at the Beach

7: Helen and the Flower Shop Girl

8: Helen and Handel's Messiah

9: Helen's Concerto

I should really re-number these.  For instance, Flower-Shop Girl is rather an independent episode, whereas Westfield describes Helen's relationship with Rain, who was an important influence on Helen.  There is another episode that sort of takes place at Westfield, before filming for the "Pelican Movies" takes place.

OK, happy reading!

Kay

New 'Helen' Story Under Construction

Dear Readers,

I was reading out of the enormous file, called Helen, from which all the Helen stories have been extracted, and I realized just how much I had stripped out of it, before re-forming the episodes into Helen at Westfield, and so on.

By now, people have read as much as they can stand from those books.  A very few determined readers have sprung for the nominal cost for those books; most new readers just download Yraid, which I have to admit has a lot of charm.  But some of the incidents and accidents that make the characters in the Helen story three-dimensional have been ripped out.  This is partly because some of those stories are sort of irrelevant to the main thrust of the overall plot.  But they are also partly because they reveal these characters to be somewhat less high-minded than I wanted them to be, as occupying the world in which Helen, the person, has been placed.  So my plan is to write a collection of vignettes, called Helen Out-takes, or something on those lines, and put it up on Smashwords. If I do, I will either make it free, or price it at 99 cents, like most of the other books.  Remember: I'm not a professional author, and don't depend on your payment for my livelihood.  If you manage to steal copies of these books from your buddies, I really don't mind; except, of course, I would never know the actual number of people who have bought the books (and hopefully read them).

Chronologically, these stories will take place after Helen returns from Hollywood, and go on from there.

For those of my readers who are wondering whether I'm still babysitting the house with all the animals: no; I'm back home, where I live.  The people for whom I was house-sitting have been back for close to a month; and I said my fond farewells to the fur-babies, giving them as much loving as they could stand, and left before my friends arrived back.  I did not want to deal with any viruses they were bringing back from parts unknown, though I believe they're as careful---or more careful---than almost anybody else I know.

OK, back to work.

Kay

Going Beyond the End of the Helen Story!

Well, I’ve succumbed to the disease that all writers of series are prone to being infected with, namely being unable to end the series!  Helen’s Concerto was a perfectly good ending of the Helen series (even if I could make a few edits that would make it really a fantastic book in its own right).  But I wanted to depict how the couple handle the perfect storm which has been our lives the last few years.

I had remembered writing roughly 45 pages of the new book, but I was wrong!  I had actually written 53 pages.  (I know; not a huge deal, but as lethargic as I am now, this is a big difference.)

Kay

Update On an Update!

Dear readers, and fans and stuff like that:

The other day, I happened to get myself Adobe Digital Editions, which is (as far as I know) just another ebook reader.  To my horror, the book I had chosen to read—Helen and Lalitha—had random paragraphs in boldface!!!  This was beyond horrible; I hate when that sort of unexpected thing happens.

I hurried to check the original Word file, and there was nothing that could have caused this peculiar effect.  Either I had noticed this problem and proceeded to fix it, and then forgotten about it, or ... I don’t even know what else it could be.  Now that I'm charging 99 whole cents for this book, it behooves me (word of the month) to give readers as error-free a book as possible.

Not just that book, but all  of the books need to be repaired in one way or another.  But, for some reason, maybe from staying indoors too long, my energy level is way way down, and I only sit at my computer about once a week, so at this rate, it will take the whole year, or a big chunk of it, to get all the books fixed up.

OK, here I go, to link to this post on Don’t Wait For The Movie!

Stay safe, and try to stay home,

Kay.

My First Experience of Helene Grimaud

I was idly cruising around on YouTube (having been fed an enormous lunch by some friends who were visiting me sort of illegally.  These are the people with whom I visit whenever I visit, so we're all going to get sick together, or we're not going to get sick.)

Anyway, a link attracted my attention, it was a Brahms piano sonata, played by Helene Grimaud.  (There are some accents I must add to her name; I don't know enough French to do it on my own, I must go check the spelling somewhere.)  So I clicked, and---I was listening through headphones, because at least one other person was also on their phones, listening to something or other---and my socks were completely knocked off!

I have never been much of a pianist; I can play just enough to entertain myself.  And I had seen Brahms music lying around the house of my music teacher, and---can you believe it?---it is written in three lines!  I'm going to find an image of Brahms piano music and put it on the side here.  Playing piano music on three staves is just insane.  But, oh my goodness, not only was it amazing, she was just beautiful.  She had cut her hair short, for this video, and ... well, if I were a pianist, I would want to look exactly like her.

Unfortunately, I have bought into the long-hair philosophy; sooner or later I shall have to get rid of it, and begin to look hip, even if I'm not actually hip.

Then, I stumbled on this cover of a song by David Byrne, by a young musician whose name is Joshua Turner: https://youtu.be/ROOmeQHf6dA

He says that it's all live, but you can't overlay tracks like this unless some of them are recordings.

Now I like David Byrne, and Brahms piano sonatas!  I think the secret to living fully is knowing what to click on!!!

Kay Hemlock Brown