Ken Conant

What age does my kid need to be so that I no longer have the Paw Patrol theme song perpetually stuck in my head?

Why is it that as soon as I put my head on my pillow and close my eyes to go to sleep, the solution to resolving the plot point I'm stuck on comes to me?

It either comes to me then, or in the shower when I have nothing to write with.

#AuthorSky #Writing #UpAllNight

If you ever want to feel like a complete failure at adulting, show up to the post office with a package and a pre-paid label on your phone. They will send you to FedEx to get a QR code that can be used at the post office to print the label.

#Adulting #TikTokShop #SelfPublishing

I'm signing copies of my book The Count's Gala: A Logic Puzzle of Cryptogram Clues This unique puzzle book is a detective mystery that combines cryptograms with a logic puzzle. Get your signed copy to... TikTok video by KC Cluer

I finally got The Count's Gala up on TikTok shop and am signing copies to mail out to my first customers on TikTok!

#Cryptogram #LogicPuzzle #PuzzleSky #BookSky #Mystery #Detective

Guess what? It was no big deal, my barber who has cut my hair for years was excited to see the book. She had no problem putting it on the coffee table for all of her waiting clients to see. All I had to do was ask!

#SelfPublishing #Author #BookSky #SelfConfidence

I'm not always great at promoting myself, or my work. I typically get in my head overthinking the entire process. Yesterday, I brought my book to my barber and asked it I could leave a copy that I couldn't sell (because it is bent and scuffed) on the coffee table in the waiting room.

My goal when writing my books is to write one single sentence per day.

About half the time, this sentence sparks another and another... But, many times that one sentence is all that comes out.

When I try to force "major progress," I typically make no progress.

#writersky #booksky #selfpublishing

In my next puzzle book, the main character will set out to uncover unspeakable evils. I'm going to just spoil the twist now, they are going to instead discover extraordinary good! I want to believe that most of the people on this planet want to do good, so that is the art I'm going to create.

The good news is that I have a new plot, a compelling and exciting mystery! This is the type of story that has caused me to lose sleep because I'm so excited about it. More details to come as I work on this new idea.

#WriterSky #BookSky #Puzzles #LogicPuzzles #Cryptogram #PuzzleSky

I almost lost sight of the importance of creating a compelling story, in writing my next book. I was really focused on building more intricate puzzles, but quickly realized I was missing a great plot. This forced me to take a step back and re-evaluate.

There are a few things that set The Count's Gala apart from other puzzle books. The obvious one, is the cryptograms being clues to the logic puzzle. But, one of the most important things is the story, all of the puzzles work together to build the mystery.

Got started on writing the first logic puzzle in the follow-up book to The Count's Gala last night! Get ready to learn about some of the crazy trips the Count took around the world! #WritersSky #Puzzles #Cryptogram

The Count's Gala: A Logic Puzzle of Cryptogram Clues The Count's Gala: A Logic Puzzle of Cryptogram Clues [Conant, Ken] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Count's Gala: A Logic Puzzle of Cryptogram Clues

My new book The Count's Gala: A Logic Puzzle of Cryptogram Clues is now available on Amazon.com!

If you are looking for a unique puzzle book that combines different puzzle types in one big mystery, then this book is for you!

#Cryptogram #LogicPuzzle #PuzzleBook #BookSky

Give Yourself Permission To Try Something New Dismantling The Lies We Tell Ourselves That Stop Us From Starting

We keep telling ourselves lies that prevent us from starting something new. Let's dismiss the lies and give ourselves permission to try.

Unlocking Deeper Insights A Practical Guide to Applying Feedback Effectively

Get the most out of feedback on your work, even when you are unsure that you are getting feedback.

#writing #creative #writersky #substack #substackwriters

Last night I had to remind myself that small steps are progress. Writing a few sentences, then relaxing with an episode of Bob's Burgers was still a win!

#writesky #writing #amwriting #writers

“It looks like the cover of a high school science book, not something I want to pick up and open.”

-My wife, reviewing an iteration of my book cover design

What is some funny feedback that you have received on your work?

Notes on my self-publishing journey And the many ups and downs that were involved along the way...

A good reminder that you can “wing it” and “fumble around” and still accomplish cool things.

#writing #selfpublishing #creative #writingcommunity

Series: Unlocking Better Feedback The Art of Asking for (and Getting) Better Feedback

Excited to kick off a new series on feedback! 🎯 I'll dive into getting actionable, specific, and constructive criticism for your work. Check out the teaser post, the series starts Thursday!

#writing #creativewriting #creative #selfpublishingtips #indieauthor #writebetter #feedbacktips

Why My Book Isn't Published Yet And Why Delaying It Again Is Okay

Over the past month I have been pushing hard to wrap up my book, only to be delayed again. In that time I have also discovered substack, and realized this was a better platform to document my journey in some detail.

#WritersOfBluesky #WritingLife #Substack #WritingOnSubstack

The one that surprised me though, was the last name Almond. I somehow wrote three sentences without using the letter M. Thankfully finding a word with the letter M to naturally fit is not too difficult.

#puzzles #logicpuzzles #cryptogram #wordgame #booksky #writing

When introducing the characters, even with common food words, I had to make sure my clues include all of the letters of each name somewhere else within the #cryptogram. For letters like X and J, I was intentional about finding words with these letters to add to my clues.

I'm half way through verifying all the #puzzles in my book. One of the unique challenges of #writing in #cryptograms is naming the characters of the book. Part of the puzzle is to figure out the character names. I gave most of the characters last names based on food to avoid odd spellings issues.

The wind got taken out of my sails a bit with the RNG setback on my puzzle book the other night. It took me a few days to regain some momentum, a few nights of struggling to just do one small thing. Finally feel like I'm back on track! #motivated #logicpuzzles #booksky #writing

I wrote my own RNG last night specifically for my application, and verified it would not generate repeating patterns of letters. Unfortunately the entire book needs to be re-encoded before I can restart the final verification process.

#logicpuzzles #programming #booksky

Savvy solvers likely would have identified the patterns pretty quickly. In addition to making the initial puzzles too easy they would also be exposing #puzzles earlier than I intended them to be identified.

After the first letter was set, encoding of the rest of the alphabet fell back to my duplicate character handling code. This resulted in frequent sequences of letters in perfect alphabetical order.

Random number generation - Wikipedia

Minor setback with the book found last night. The RNG that I used to help encode the alphabet for each #cryptogram likely used the current time only to second as a seed. Running it 26 times within a second resulted in a single random number being generated 26 times.

Feeding seaweed to gassy cattle can reduce methane Methane emissions were cut by almost 40 percent in grazing cattle who ate seaweed pellets.

"Denmark became the first country to implement an agricultural tax on cow flatulence"

Denmark is out there taxing farts! Pull my finger....

Somehow I missed #WQuers, and I like a lot of wordle posts. Thanks for the suggestion, I have added it to the feed!