Blogging to write

I suppose I must seem obsessed.  I'm working to a bit of a deadline in a way though.  To create all the PDF download files, I need Acrobat Professional and since I've lost my license key, I'm using a trial version with a 30 day limit, now ticked down to about 18 days.  I have done the bulk of the catalogue now, so I can focus more on marketing the Kindle books and the printed book.  At the moment it's all format, format, format and what I want to do is write, write, write.

There are issues with the storefront too.  I can't give away a complete freebie.  If the checkout total is zero, it doesn't recognise that anything is then owed to the 'customer'.  A new 'free stuff' page has been added to the outer storefront instead, but it's a shame that the specials I've added just won't work.  The feature item for Journal of a Cat of Leisure looked great on the front page with a photo of the Cat herself.  Whatever I do though, a zero total amounts to a zero downloadable product.  There might be a way around it but it will no doubt mean getting into the code and I can't really face that just now.

[Edit] Free download items are fixed and remain listed in account downloads after checkout.  Much easier than anticipated, so Foobyevsky continues to grace the storefront, not that I'll wait with bated breath for downloads to begin.

For a turn-key solution though, the store application is brilliant.  PHP and MySQL, my old friends, and it's so easy to configure.  It was mildly deflating at first to have nothing to do, then I started customising the appearance a bit and changing stylesheets, then I ripped the outer shell to put on straightforward html files for the outer site.  So I got to do some tinkering, if not much.

What I've been doing might look like I've been putting a lot more strain on my eyes than I actually have.  The designs were done years ago and sitting waiting to be used for something.  I exported some graphics, compiled some documents then printed to PDF.  Using WYSIWIG software, it's hardly vision intensive.  I've been working with each of the programs used for so long now, I can almost read without looking - I know where things should be and it's only when they aren't that I have to focus in.

What is under strain is my imagination.  I really want to be writing before I lose the gist of the story.  Didn't think it would take quite so long to compile all these documents, didn't think I'd lost my Acrobat licence key and didn't think the wireless card on this laptop would be quite so flaky.  Seem to be resetting it every half hour, which when your whole product hinges on being online, is quite a chunk out of your productivity.

The drive is still coming from the charity angle.  It's not for me, so I feel like I have to give it more than I would were there only me to lose out by getting nothing done.  I've not heard anything back on a few prospective emails sent out, so I have some follow-up calls to make, hopefully not too long or I'll never afford the phone bill.

My passion though is still writing and I'm really excited about the story I've got.  Giving nothing away until I have things at a stage much nearer to going public though.  My lead is cool with a catchy name, there's potential to write a sequel and from there perhaps a series.  If it turns out alright and I get somewhere with it, of course.  If not, I'll probably just blog a whole lot more...