Keith Graham

In 2010, I put together 13 computer related stories and published Error Message Eyes. It made me a couple of hundred dollars over the last 12 years, but it was not what I would call an overwhelming success.
It occurred to me recently, that I had written quite a few more computer oriented stories in the last 12 years, so I started collecting Error Message Eyes, Release 2.0. The new book has 24 stories, but I only used 5 from the last book. I took all the Mizuki stories and put them in order. I then wrote three new stories by assembling fragments and finishing them, so that Mizuki is now a novella.
One of the things that I hated about the first book was that it was riddled with errors and typos. I used a combination of straight quotes and curly quotes. Every time I read it, I cringed.
This time I installed something called LanguageTool, https://languagetool.org/. I have to absolutely recommend this software for anyone who is suffering, as I am, from brain fogging drugs to treat seizures. The Firefox and Chrome plugins make your web writing much cleaner (although not 100% error free). I use LibreOffice and the installation there is much more complicated, but worth it. It freezes up LibreOffice regularly, but CTRL-ALT-DEL lets me kill it, so I can start again. You just have to save your work whenever you stop to think. In spite of its faults, I like it.
Shaun Lawton volunteered to do the artwork, so I am eager to see what I get. I like Shaun’s art. It is high-tech, bold and colorful. He said it would be done quickly almost two weeks ago, but I think he underestimated the time investment he would have to make.
I have done two proofreads of the book and am 30 pages (out of 220) from finishing the third time through. I like to rewrite as I proof and wind up adding new typos. I will be starting over again tomorrow for the final proof. I don’t want to be surprised when I check the book and find typos that I missed.
I want to do a major spam operation to all the editors, forums and FB groups that I can find. The digital version of the book will be free for the first 4 or 5 days, and I hope that it will get enough downloads to make it to the Amazon top 10 list. If I do this, I might even make money when I start charging for the book. I’ll charge as little as I can for the paperback.
For vanity’s sake, I want to make a hard cover version and buy a few for myself, and one for Shaun and one for John Shirley. John was a major inspiration for the stories in the book.