• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer

Stephen M. Miller

Award-Winning, Bestselling Christian Author

  • Home
  • About
  • Books
  • Blog Features
  • Bible
  • Contact
Painting/photo of Jerusalem Temple-Casual English Bible

Blog article I didn’t write

Stephen M. Miller
Woman walking a dog
I WISH. Walking the dog, which was on my to-do list, is not why I missed writing Friday’s blog article. I missed everything on my to-do list. Some days are Mondays, whether or not they’re Monday. Photo by Hartwig HKD / flickr.

MY BAD. I forgot to write Friday’s blog. It’s Thursday’s fault.

Some days a writer doesn’t get to write. I had a double whammy: curveballs from an editor, computer drive failure.

Editorial surprises

I was going to write my quota on the current book project that’s underway. But the book that’s on the designer’s desk consumed much of my day. With the book designed, for the most part, they asked me to go ahead and acquire the art I had suggested: photos, paintings, etc.

They also needed me to convert some of my maps into color because their designers didn’t want to wade through the explosion of unorganized layers I created with each of the maps. (Yes, I make the maps for my books. And, yes, next time I will organize the layers into groups).

The maps were fine when the book was going to run in black and white. But after editors and designers saw what I submitted, they decided to run the book larger and in color. So I had to convert the maps. I had done that for most of the maps several weeks ago. The ones that came on Thursday were some lingering ones we missed earlier.

Happy to do this, since the payoff is another beautifully designed illustrated book.

The map corrections and art acquisition took most of the day. At least I contacted the art suppliers. I’ve heard back from only two so far. But they’re the ones I most needed to hear from.

The editor also asked me to create the Art Credits page for the book, which is something I’ve not been asked to do before. I set up a format and ran it by the editor. He said they also need my suppliers to sign an art release form.

Pain in the butt. I understand wanting to protect against lawsuits. But it seems to me if I ask for something from the suppliers and I use the key words that show up in the art release form, it should be enough that the supplier says okay in an email reply and then sends me the art, for which I pay the negotiated fee.

Not good enough. Old School needs a signature on a dead tree.

It’s a little embarrassing to ask my suppliers for this extra step when most of them are giving me a steep discount (as a frequent flier) and some are charging me nothing.

I’ll keep pushing back on this, though it’s swimming up a corporate stream. I’d probably have better luck fly fishing.

Disappearing drive

I have three drives in my computer.

C-drive for the main software programming.

E-drive for my documents, photos and maps.

F-drive for my videos and some backup, though I also have a backup in the Cloud, for the benefit of North Korea or some American kid with no girlfriend.

The F-drive, off and on for months, has gone invisible. Each time it disappears, I freak, then restart the computer. Sometimes the F-drive reappears at that point, as though the restart dragged it out of bed. Other times it doesn’t reappear. In which case I go inside the computer, unplug the cables and then plug them back in. That always worked. Until this week.

I called Digital Storm tech support, the builders of my computer. We managed to get the drive to reappear. Then they had me test it. Afterward, they had me switch the cables with the E-drive. That way, we could tell if the cables were the problem. If the E-drive failed with the F-drive cables, then the problem was the cables.

No such luck. The F-drive failed later in the day.

I had a to-do list for Thursday. Writing Friday’s blog article was there. But not one thing on the list got done.

Some Thursdays are Mondays.

Random book winner this week

Connie Seibel.

I give away one free book a week to a randomly selected subscriber to my free blog and quarterly newsletter.

Connie is random this week.

Bible Gateway Blogger Grid

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X

Like this:

Like Loading...
View All Posts - Ordered by Most Recent First
« Previous
Next »

About Stephen M. Miller

STEPHEN M. MILLER is an award winning bestselling Christian author of easy-reading books about the Bible and Christianity and author of the Casual English Bible® paraphrase. His books have sold over two million copies and include The Complete Guide to the Bible and Who’s and Where’s Where in the Bible.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tom Fowler

    January 10, 2015 at 8:58 am

    Remember the old song, by John Denver, I believe: “Some days are diamonds, some days are stones.”

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sidebar

Casual English Bible Website

Featured Book

Complete Guide to the Bible

Complete Guide to the Bible
Buy from Amazon
Buy from Books-A-Million
Buy from Christian Book Distributor
Buy from Google Play

Latest Posts

  • When our faith glitches May 5, 2025
  • Job is the right book for me now April 16, 2025
  • Q for AI: “Do most scholars say Jesus never existed?” April 3, 2025

  • Home
  • About
  • Blog Features
  • Books
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Vimeo
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2025 · Stephen M. Miller · All Rights Reserved

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
Reject AllAccept All
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT
%d