My dear Susan has blessed me with a mini-sabbatical -- a two-day stay at a local lakeside cabin. The cabin is small, off the beaten path, and quiet; exactly what I need to finish up work on my second book, Invading Spaces. In order to make my self-imposed August 9th deadline (the date of Oklahoma Videogame Expo) I need to submit the book to the publisher/printer sometime in July. How soon I finish the book determines whether or not I get to see a hard copy proof before I order the final products -- a big risk, indeed. When finishing work on Commodork I didn't have enough time to order a hard copy proof; as a result, the first 30 copies had a slightly off center cover, and no UPC number. While it wasn't the end of the world, it was less than perfect and somewhat disappointing. My original idea of including custom arcade tokens with each book looks to be cost prohibitive, but I'm still brainstorming ideas.

I only brought the bare essentials along on this trip: the laptop, a change of clothes, and a copy of Funny Farm on DVD. If that movie can't get you in the mood to write, nothing can.

I'm turning off the modem now. I'll check e-mail before bedtime, and once or twice tomorrow. Other than that, consider me offline for the next 48 hours. I return to the land of the living Wednesday morning, going directly to work from the cabin.

While I'm away, here are a few questions I'd like to ask those of you who purchased Commodork and/or are considering purchasing Invading Spaces:

01. How important is it to be able to order my books through Amazon? Would you still purchase the book if it were only available through either the publisher or directly through me (via PayPal).

02. How important is media shipping vs. first class shipping vs. priority shipping? With Commodork I made priority shipping the default shipping method and it seemed to work okay but I would like to hear your feedback.

Looking forward to reading your responses on Wednesday.

- Rob

PS: I already see why the cabin placed a flyswatter out on the kitchen cabinet ...