LegendaryLife Blog

It has been a LONG road from start to finish but I’m proud to say that you can now purchase a digital copy of 2847AD, the science fiction book I wrote and researched for extensively and physical form of 2847 A.D.: Solar Horizons from Amazon! YAHOO!!! This has been a major accomplishment for me, I never knew publishing a science fiction novel could be so much work but now that it’s done, it feels wonderful to have achieved this major goal of mine.

If you wish to follow the journey pretty much from start to finish, I have chronicled it on my blog. I mention this in several other postings but these are the major ones.

• 2847: Going Science Fiction
• 2847AD: Writing Science Fiction is Hard!
• Getting through the home stretch
• 2847AD is finally done!
• Transforming your life from Blah to Legendary now available on Amazon!

What made the book especially challenging is that I tried to integrate almost everything I knew about science and then some, at the time. There is so much information out there, it’s really astounding and trying to condense it into a readable form, not only for me but for the general public takes a lot of effort.

I wanted to write a book that was scientifically accurate while at the same time, within the realm of possibility AND readable by somebody who has little to no scientific knowledge.

I believe I have accomplished this goal. I already started on a second volume of this book but had to put it on the back burner for several reasons, including but not limited to the amount of work I’ve been putting into my WoodMarvels.com company. I love design so much… it’s a true passion, as is writing but I think a long break is necessary to get most of the ideas fleshed-out. The further you jump into the future, the more difficult it becomes to imagine the unimaginable and this is really taxing mentally as I discovered. Exhausting even!

My delight: Hydrogen Sulfide

In the book, I describe in detail why I used this very toxic gas, hydrogen sulfide, as a mechanism for suspended animation during long space travels. Today, I watched a TED video and much to my delight, what I described and envisioned is actually coming true! Yes, they have human trials of this and the results are astoundingly positive. Watch the video to learn more about this important toxic gas

TEDTalks : Mark Roth: Suspended animation is within our grasp – Mark Roth (2010)

The Bottom Line

Research, hard work and tremendous passion can even bend even the most impossible of challenges into reality.

Life is rarely perfect at any given time… so waiting for a perfect time to follow through with a commitment is another way of excusing lack of action on a goal or dream.

The best time is always NOW!

There is always a reason not to do something, usually, far outnumbering the reasons to actually DO something. Fear of the unknown, financial, societal, friends, family… all of this creates a pressure of conformity rather than that of adventure.

For instance, if you are offered an incredible opportunity to travel and learn but instead, try to put up roadblocks, delaying even the simplest actions such as getting a passport then most likely, this will only be a dream. Each decision requires small, incremental steps but fearing taking the first one means continued procrastination and excuse as to why it isn’t going to happen.

Fear must be conquered

We all want security, a good relationship and a beautiful house but most people, instead of dealing with what their circumstances as they are NOW, decid to delay action out of fear until all these “dreams” become true before following through with the first step. Put another way, they want the meal in front of them before they go out and buy the ingredients required to make it.

Fear has it’s role in life… but I think society adds a whole new level of them in order to keep people in line like everybody else. There is an old Chinese proverb that sums this up nicely.

The first bird flying out of the tree gets shot

This is told to us from childhood in one way or another. Religion tells us that we must be married before having sex, schools tell us we need a degree before we can get a high paying job. Society tells us that the perfect life is a house, 3 kids and a white picket fence. Why? Because it’s the best way to keep people under control… these are all methods of control, nothing more. I’ve never seen other animals, even our closest relatives get married before starting a family and they look rather content eating plants with a few occasional hunting jaunts in the bush. I’ve never seen an unhappy bird flying around because he didn’t have a nest to live in.

Water, Shelter, Food

These are the basics of life, with them, you can be as happy or depressed as you want. The reason that more than half of the people who have “jobs” are unhappy with their life is because society has added many extra burdens to their life which have nothing to do with happiness. For instance, I don’t have a car… who cares? But we are told that it’s an important part of a happy life… by car manufacturers no less We can either allow ourselves to be influenced by others whose “care” for us isn’t genuine or simply tell them “that’s bull shit” and live our happy merry life.

Nothing is ever perfect, there is never a perfect time, a perfect place nor a perfect circumstance for success… you make due with what you have and continue from there.

The Bottom Line

A poorly executed plan executed today is always better than a perfectly executed plan tomorrow… as tomorrow never comes.

I like goal setting, so here is what I hope to accomplish this year and what I did or didn’t for the last.

Goal setting for 2010

Here are some my goals for 2009, I’ve crossed-out the ones that were accomplished:

• publish my first inspirational/motivational book
• publish another WoodMarvels.com volume (current book one is already in pre-press)
• triple the total traffic from all my sites
• create lasting change in at least 100 people using LegendaryLife.com (thousands will join but not everybody will use it as intended)
• create two new sources of revenue for myself (online or otherwise)
• try to win some sort of award somewhere, somehow
• get WoodMarvels.com pre-cut kits into retail stores (online or otherwise)
• enjoy the gift of life even more!

Things I wasn’t able to predict

• I would write my first science fiction book around the same time as working on my WoodMarvels.com Volume II book, hoping to have it published sometime in February
• I got mentions in newpapers, blog and magazines around the world regarding my design work
• Due to WoodMarvels taking up so much of my time, I haven’t had as much time to dedicate towards this blog or LegendaryLife, though I did launch it already, it’s only a shadow of what it should be, something I hope to rectify sooner than later
• I would accomplish my dream of living in China for a year and learning Mandarin (something I’m doing now)

My 2010 Goals

• I really think this is the year that WoodMarvels.com blows-up on me, in a good way! All the things that I track regarding this site are on a steep upward trend with no letting-up. You can read what’s been happening right here: WoodMarvels 2009 Year in Review as well as the goals I’ve established for that property.
• I want to become fluent in Mandarin, it’s a tough language, but one that I enjoy and being in the country where that’s all they talk is my chance to turn this long time dream into reality
• I still want to win an award of some kind, somewhere, somehow but it seems that my focus for this year will be on WoodMarvels more than anything else, which is great fun

The Bottom Line

Focus still leads to opportunities hitting you from unknown origins.

I started on my second book, part inspirational, part workbook and all passion. I originally started on this book on Feb 8th of this year and it has taken me till the 26th to get it proofed, laid out and a host of other changes before it became available on Amazon! (read about it here)

What did I learn publishing this book?

A hell of a lot, my first book, WoodMarvels.com: Top Sellers took about as long to publish and in hindsight, this one blows it out of the water regarding what I learned.

• Get your proof proofed several times and double-check it digitally before requesting another one! I went through 6 proofs of this book because there was always one small thing that was missed which added well over two months to the publishing date.
• Colors are a pain in the ass! My cover and inside was originally all full color, color correcting over 70 images isn’t any fun so I simply did everything in full color but decided to get it printed in gray scale to save me the trouble except for the front cover.
• Have a good internet connection! Uploading a 200mb file several times isn’t any fun.
• If you are not an American, you cannot get your book released on Kindle! Originally this book was to be Kindled but a few days ago, I was told this was no possible… I guess somebody forgot to tell this to J. K. Rowlings.

Why is this book special?

Other than the fact that there is a heck of a lot of work, which I did all myself, from layout, publishing, graphics, comic strip etc… I’ve read more than my fair share of self-help and motivational books out there and this one is the only one I know that has a mixture of humor, comics and simple task based projects.

Why is your name not on the cover?

Well, this is a book to help YOU transform your life… I though it would be silly to stick a big picture of ME on there with my name in bold letters. I’m taking a different approach towards self-help books… in that the focus is 100% on YOU, not the author.

Can I view a sample?

Absolutely, follow this link to view inside the book – be warned though, as of writing this blog, Amazon seems to have stuck a very early proof in the book in the “Look Inside” feature. I’ve just uploaded the correct versions of all these with the inside in gray scale and the cover looking far better, I figure it will be a few days before they update it. Somebody screwed-up somewhere and it should fix itself soon enough.

Transforming Your Life From Blah To Legendary!: A Guide For Massive Positive And Lasting Changes In Your Life

Is that it?

No actually, I’m less than a month away from releasing my second volume of WoodMarvels.com with 4 pages shy of 200 and a wicked upgrade from my first one… using what I learned from my first volume and this one has taught me how to do things right in the publishing world! Also, my science fiction story 2847AD is slated to be moving along in a few weeks as well. Stay tuned!

The Bottom Line

Publishing your own books is fun!

As you may or not be aware of, in addition to LegendaryLife.com (phase I is complete btw, working on phase II before launch), I am also the proud owner of a site called WoodMarvels.com. It is a site that sells blueprints, EPS files and even physical, laser cut kits!

The Beginning

When I first began WoodMarvels.com, I wanted to create a site that allowed people access to inexpensive blueprints to make wooden models unlike anything available on the marketplace. I wanted to create some really cool looking pieces of work and allow others to build it for their friends and family. Wood is an amazing material and I wanted to bring what is possible with it to a whole new level.

At first, the site only featured downloadable blueprints but about 5 or 6 months into it, I thought, “hey, not everybody has access to woodcutting tools, I wonder if I could sell kits!” About a week later after some research, I found a site that could do JUST THAT! Fantastic! I can now offer woodcrafters plans and those without a shop or cutting experience, laser cut kits which they can assemble with glue. I started gaining attention within various communities and got some designers to show their work on my site.

A full year later, I began to be approached to sell the models I created in EPS format, I ignored these calls initially… who would want EPS files I thought to myself? If you are not familiar with EPS files, they are a digital format that is used as a path reference for laser cutters and other machinery. If you put a line on an EPS file, the laser cutter will cut along that line. It took some convincing that there was a market for it but as usual, I came back around and decided to offer it on my site, a process that I am almost done doing. My biggest fear was that of control, giving-up your EPS files to the internet means that anybody can reproduce your work as many times as they want without any loss in quality or distinction from products bought from my site. It’s equal to releasing the files that make-up a car to the world and then waking-up the next day and everybody has your car but you never got compensated for this mass-produced copy.

The Middle

Well, just today, I realized at how much WoodMarvels.com has evolved, from an idea to a physical business that is making money for other designers and allowing people around the world access towards making some extra money on the side. How is that? Well, I am selling commercial production licenses of all my models in addition to many of the other designers who have joined with me in offering this. By sharing my expertise, others are able to find joy and challenges in their lives, able to find a different avenue to create additional confidence in themselves and most importantly, spreading the fun of wood as a very viable alternative to plastics for everyday household items, including toys!

The End

WoodMarvels.com is growing rather well, client lists keep expanding and so do the offerings. I am generating sales for designers and new opportunities are arising. We are also going to be written-up in a major magazine in a months time! How will it all end? Who knows, but for now, I am really enjoying the rid up and with a second volume being proofed right now for WoodMarvels.com along with the one I wrote for LegendaryLife.com, still a lot happening!

The Bottom Line

What you start with isn’t always what you end-up with.

Buzvia: WoodMarvels.com