Even the Hard Part was Fun

I had a ridiculous amount of fun creating stories and puzzles for the new series I’m launching this week.  Yeah, my escape room romance mashup is now a series.  That’s how much fun I had.  My playtesters pointed out lots of things I needed to improve or clarify, and it was intriguing to see how things I thought were obvious were interpreted differently by different people.  I greatly appreciated the feedback.  I appreciated a lot less the “help” I got from Word when I tried to turn everything into a nice, neat book.  This is a brief excerpt of a conversation that went on for several days.

Me: Why is it not an option to put page numbers on the outside of mirror margins?  I know I’ve done that before.

Word: That is so last version.  We do odd and even footers now.  It totally gives you more options, and therefore power.

Me: I don’t want power.  I want simplicity.  And now that I did the odd/even thing, there’s a page number on this page where I already removed the page number.  What happened?

Word: I relinked it to the next section when you changed the alignment in that section.  Isn’t that what you wanted?

Me: No!  I turned that off.  Are you ignoring my power?  Why is link to previous even the default?  Why would I make a new section if I wanted it to be the same?

Word: I moved an object in one of your puzzles two inches to the right.  I know it’s not connected in any way to the page numbers, and now it no longer lines up with the rest of the puzzle.  I think you wanted me to do that.

Me: Why? 

Word: Did you notice the arrow?  When you clicked save, I guessed you were telling me you wanted that arrow to point at something else.

Me: Don’t make me reach through the screen and pull you out of my computer.

Word: I relinked sections four – seven again.  Also, I know you said to apply the margins to the whole document, but you need to tell me that for all eleven sections or I don’t think you mean it.

Me: What does whole document mean to you?

Word: I just added a blank page somewhere in this document.  It won’t show up until you turn it into a pdf.

Me: Why did you do that?

Word: It’s fun.  Everyone likes surprises.

Me: There are four blank pages.  And somehow only one of them is included in the page numbering.  This is not a good surprise.  What did you do?

Word: I moved that arrow for you again.

Me: I’m going to ignore that until I get these page numbers chronological.  Then we’re going to talk about how you keep moving stuff for no reason.

Word: I can’t handle all this negativity.  <crash>

Study Guide

 I’m about to give everyone a third very good reason to read or reread the Love in Andauk series. 

If you haven’t noticed, the first ebook in that series, Everything Old, is currently free.  It’s also free if it’s already on your bookshelf.  That’s a great deal, and the first reason.  The second reason is the More Love in Anduak series currently in the works.  Though this series is standalone, being familiar with some of the people who show up as minor characters can only make it better.

This exclusive study guide will be reason number three.  No, I’m not calling it exclusive to sound cool.  It is only available here on the internet.  The characters in these books meet to discuss serious faith and life issues and occasionally veer onto more entertaining sidetracks.  The following questions are pulled from and/or inspired by those discussions.  They can be fodder for you and your friends when your book club meets to talk about all the things you loved (and maybe that one thing you didn’t love) about Everything Old, Into the Fire, By Its Cover, and What Goes Around.

1) St. John Vianny is said to have heard Confessions up to 16 hours a day.  What is one thing you’d be willing to do for 16 hours just one day?  You are not allowed to say sleep unless you are less than six months old.

2) One character liked a picture of a Saint depicted with a giant eagle shielding him from a thunderstorm because he never lets bad weather keep him from jogging.  How could a giant eagle be useful in your life, other than for pretending to be Gandalf?

3) Some Saints have fairly outrageous legends attached to them.  Characters discuss some moral truths that are still present in those stories even when the details may have been embellished.  Is there a story from your life (or perhaps a family member’s) that has been exaggerated over time into something of a legend?

4) How Sacramentals are different from superstitions was discussed at one meeting.  If you invented a superstition, just for fun, what would you say is bad luck?

5) Characters joked about how to handle a vision from God regarding a future spouse if that person hadn’t seen the same vision.  If God sent you a vision, what would spark your sense of humor?

6) Can you name a difficult or simply mundane task that could be made joyful by remembering how it serves God?  Can you name an already joyful task that could be made more joyful?

7) There is some discussion of detachment and greed.  Are there any material goods you don’t understand why anyone wants in the first place?

8) Which book in the series is your favorite?  I don’t remember what page that was on, but I’m pretty sure someone said something about that.

Not a Circus Act

I can’t juggle.  I’ve tried because it looks fun.  I have tossed a few balls in the air, then reached and grabbed helplessly as they fell to the ground and sometimes hit me on the way.  But this isn’t about my lack of coordination.  It’s about figurative juggling and how much harder it is to tell if I’m any good at it when I’m not accidentally pelting myself with anything. 

I feel as though I’m reaching and grabbing as I switch my time and effort between various projects, constantly tossing one thing up in the air to work on something else.

Book 2 in the More Love in Andauk series has a complete draft.  Most of it still needs to be typed.  If I don’t feel like typing, I can toss that up to work on my first book of puzzles.  All my playtesters agree it’s good but too difficult.  They don’t agree on which puzzles are the difficult ones.  Sometimes I don’t feel like trying to guess which puzzle to edit because they all seem super easy to me.  I already know the answers.  If I get frustrated, I can toss that up to work on Volume II.

I had so much fun inventing romantic comedy themed puzzles, I had to make two.  If fighting with Word to stop making automatic “corrections” to my designs doesn’t sound fun at the moment, there’s always some chore around the house that needs to be done.  Mowing the lawn has never sounded more fun than anything, but sometimes I have to snatch that ball out of the air just to keep it from hitting me. 

Annoying reminders from the HOA aside, it’s not clear to me if I’m doing a good job at my figurative juggling.  Sometimes it’s great because I’m always making progress on something.  Other times it’s not so great because I seem to always be distracted by something else.

A good juggler ends by catching everything, right?  I’ve never been to a show where a juggler throws all the balls at his audience.  I do want to throw everything at my audience.  I want to get all my projects to a state fit to share, which means my metaphor just died a horrible death.  I’ll focus on keeping the other projects alive, no matter how much time they spend in the air.