No post today. Relax and have fun. I certainly will.
Author: Seething With Apathy
The Two Hundred and Ninety-Fourth Post: The One Where I Explain Amazon’s Policies and How They Are Going to Change The Self-Publishing Field
Hello — now that I’m done spilling my guts out about next year’s project, I am going to bring up something that has started quite a kerfluffle on Facebook and on the Internet: Amazon’s new borrowing system.
Previously, Amazon did this: you borrowed a book from their service and in doing so, you read it and borrowed another. To you, it was free…and it is as far as you paid nothing. However, if you read 10% of it, it was counted as a “sale” and the author got a little something from it (I’ve been seeing $1.30, but I think it might have depended on the price of the book if bought). This doesn’t seem bad really, if someone reads a book, but doesn’t like it, they return it by borrowing something else. This is an excellent way to try new authors and even support them (Disclosure: I’ve had one of my books borrowed be people and got paid a very little bit). I’m sure you can see where things could become gameable.
Example: you grab a fantasy novel, which could come in at 100,000 words easily. If each page is on average 250 words, you’d have to read 10,000 words or 40 pages for the author to get paid for the borrow. Most erotica comes in at around 5,000 to 8,000 words which comes out to 2 to 3.2 pages for the author to get paid (and less on average, something that small doesn’t usually get the 70% royalties that other things do). Which do you think is going to happen?
Now, I have a friend who writes erotica and romance (Her books are to the left, feel free to buy one or two — she quite good) and she’s not happy about what’s going on. What is going on is that Amazon is switching to a different pay scheme for borrowing books. You are now going to get paid per page read. Yep. If someone borrows a book (and even at Kindle’s prices for books, how is someone going to turn down free? Don’t think it’s possible? The Quietest Heart had nothing May 31st — no sales, no borrows, nothing. When I put it up for free the next day, 53 units given away and it went up and down for a while until the promotion ended in June 7th. Doesn’t do a whole lot for my ego to be honest.), the writer is only going to get paid for what he reads. If you’re a good writer, then you’ll get a good rate. If you’re a middlin’ writer, then well you might enough so that you can take your family out to the upscale Outback restaurant right across the street from the mall.
Amazon has been clever enough to not release the formula that they’re going to use to determine who gets what. I’m hoping that it’s going to be the royalty divided by the number of pages read…which could come out to something along the lines of 2 to 3 cents a page. This is going to do a lot of harm to the self-publishing community. Beyond a lot of people losing revenue (ever read a cookbook from cover to cover?), this puts a lot of advantage in Amazon’s court. Books that don’t perform well hardly get paid (which makes a wonderful opportunity for Amazon to come in with their ad campaign for self-publishers — for mere $100, they can put your book in ads that most people are going to ignore) and books that get read cover to cover might not get the same royalty rate as if someone bought it. If it is not royalty divided by page count, then what is it? What is this going to do to the market in general? If you only get a couple of bucks for a full read (consider that the average book is going to be $2.99 at a 70% royalty [not adding in the reseller 4 to 6 percent] is 2.09 minus Amazon’s “transfer fee” (yep, get you coming and going) and the average length of a novel is 60,000 words. 60,000 words translates into 240 pages which means each page is going to be worth… .008 cents. Read 10% of that book and the author makes .048 cents. Amazon’s Kindle Lending Program and Kindle Unlimited are how Amazon is going to stay solvent. That money that’s not being used it going to go into the war chest, which they need to invest and grow. Why? Read this article (Amazon is #2 on the list) and the change in attitude will become clearer.
There is actually an upside to this beyond that company staying afloat to sell us Kindles. Writers are now going to have to get better. They write a kick ass 10% and a crappy 90% now. I doubt that this is Amazon’s initial idea, but it’s going to be an unexpected benefit. However, while I hope that it will make self-publishing a little more of a good idea rather than a ‘bless your heart’ notion, I am not in favor of something that is going to hurt the honest people out there (like my friends to the right).
What’s a writer to do? People out there are going to go from making about $3,000 a month to maybe 10% of that on a good month. The answer is three-fold:
1) Don’t use their system. Amazon is not the only game in town when it comes to self-publishing. They may be the best know, but there is Kobo, Barnes and Noble and iBook. Draft2Digital is a good service to use. Smashwords is another. They may not have the heft or reach of Amazon, but they’re there.
2) Use Amazon’s referral service as well if you’re a writer. See my links to the right of the page? I get an additional 4 percent when you click on them and buy the book. That helps a lot. It doesn’t take a lot and it helps.
3) Be prolific as a (censored) rabbit. This is the best way to game the system. The more books you have being borrowed, the more money you’re going to get. That’s the best way for a lot of erotic writers to work, since they’re used to churning out a lot of work in a short amount of time.
4) Sell it yourself. This does hand in hand with number one. You have to have a website nowadays (even for a modest blog like mine) You’ve got a captive audience reading your works online — set up a small shopping cart and sell your stuff for the right price directly to the consumer. There are free programs out there to format your book and places to store it online.
Amazon is not the great giant it thinks it is. We are the underdogs and we are all still too pretty to die.
The Two Hundred and Ninety-Third Post: The One Where I Swear I’m Going to Get Off of This Subject by The End.
When last we left Anya, she was heading down to the bakery with some coins and a mission to get some sweetbreads for Rhona. As she walks down the streets, which are quiet (a very hungover quiet), she gets the feeling she’s being watched. She keeps a wary eye around her and notices that someone is shadowing her. Finding the bakery, she walks in and asks for two pastries, watching the reflections of her surroundings for anyone trailing her. She doesn’t see anything by the time she gets the warm rolls. She heads back to the inn, feeling a little better that there is a problem that she can really engage herself with — being followed. Employing tricks she learned, she manages to shake her tail and reverses her path to see who is trailing her. Sadly, her tail is gone now. Heading back to the inn, she opens the door to the room with cooling rolls. Rhona is awake and pouring some tea with a sizeable breakfast set before her. Skein’s Glow proudly announces that breakfast is served. Anya looks over everything — this is a breakfast that would feed a small squad. She sets her bag with two sweet rolls on the corner of the table. Rhona takes out the rolls and takes a bite (almost going into orgasms). Anya doubles up on the sausages and bacon while Rhona takes a little of everything else. They review their plans for the rest of the day…which are mostly dance, drink and have no worries for a week. Anya gets a little behind it, but she isn’t going to tell Rhona about being followed. It’s their honeymoon after all.
The meal put away and cleaned up, the pair head out to see if any taverns are either opening early or never closed. Rhona reaches to grab her mandolin, but Anya manages to talk her out of it (no one works on their honeymoon). They head down and find a dance hall that didn’t bother to close. The pair come in and hear that this dance hall is the beginning of the Long Dance — a contest in which a group of people start at one place and dance, drink and carouse to be judged by their peers. Whoever makes it through to the end is crowned the Master of the Dance and will get a carafe of wine and a nifty title to defend next year. Rhona pulls Anya along and registers, holding up their bracelet clad arms to show. The organizer congratulates them and tells them the rules: someone from the audience chooses a song or a style and the group dances. Those that are voted favorably get to advance, while the losers are eliminated from competition, but not from the general drinking or dances. The winners are rewarded at the finals stage (think of this as So You Think You Can Dance turned into a pub crawl) with a little pocket money (wagers are common, but not deadly serious). THey are told that the event will begin in a few minutes, so they have a chance to get some refreshments and food, as there will be little time in between dances.
Anya asks that Rhona wear both Skein’s Glow (which she is wearing as a cloak over her jacket) and Wandersfar (which Rhona is wearing), but that they don’t use them to sway the outcome in her favor. This is a contest of stamina and grace after all, there is no need for cheating (as it goes against Anya’s principles). Rhona politely and respectfully chides her for her competitive spirit.
“I’m not being competitive. I just want to win.”
The dance starts with a morning waltz. People quickly partner up and dance. Out of the original crowd of 23 couples and a throng of hundreds of followers, ten couples are removed and Anya and Rhona continue on. A whirlwind of drinks and they find themselves at the next dance hall where the music is a little more lively and the judging a little more discriminating. Anya and Rhona hang on, while Anya notices that there is someone in the periphery of the crowd. She tells Rhona to watch that particular person…there is something about him that she doesn’t like. Rhona pooh-poohs it away and they continue dancing. The crowd is now down by four and they head to the next hall. Anya watches and as sure as anything, there he is. As the next dance starts, Anya is told she has to dance or forfeit (not a horrible thing all around, but asking Anya to throw a match of any sort — being it fighting, dancing or tiddlywinks is out of the question). Anya dances on with Rhona, making sure that she tries to keep the stalker in view. In the confusion of switching dance halls, she loses the stalker.
The dance continues on, getting slightly more athletic and the heroines are suffering from Anya’s divided attention. They are narrowly eliminated from competition. The leader calls for a “halftime” so that the dancers can relax and get something to eat. Anya looks out a window to see what time it is. It’s late afternoon now. She makes a quick meal, sitting with Rhona, but seems more intent on trying to find the stalker. Rhona asks her if there is any danger. She honestly doesn’t know, but doesn’t want to take chances.
Would your father actually try to send people out to kill you?
“Wouldn’t be surprised. Congratulations, blessed wife, this is your life now.”
The break comes to an end and the dancing continues through several more halls, leaving Rhona and Anya merrily exhausted at the last hall where it comes down to our couple and a very athletic looking pair from Ozur-Soren proper. The dance starts — three dances, each couple gets to choose one and the Master of Ceremonies picks the final. Rhona picks a lively drinking tune and they dance…not badly. The other couple picks a very active dance and they do well. The Master of Ceremonies picks a cantata and they go at it…with the couple from Ozur-Soren winning. Anya, knowing that being a gracious loser is an equally important skill as being a good winner, congratulates the couple. They say that the two gave them a run for their money. Now everyone joins in the dance, picking partners pell-mell. Rhona and Anya end up getting swept apart, but they trust each other.
Anya finds herself in an alley and she sobers up quickly. The guy stalking her closes the door behind her and takes out a single knife.
“Cheslav sends their regards.”
Anya snorts and comments that Cheslav can’t even be bothered to send their own students, that they have to hire out people to get beaten. The thug comments that Anya is drunk and can’t even unsheathe her weapons. Anya punches one guy, knees another and shoves a third down the alleyway. Even drunk, her training takes over and she holds her own…until someone manages to get run head first into a wall. Before one of them can actually finish her off, the local constabulary scatter the ones able to move. Running on instinct, Anya takes off in a direction to avoid having awkward questions (while she’s not a member of the Scholarship, she’s still a Tarjentian and there are some lingering bad blood between the two).
Running down the street, with blood streaming down her face, she’s called to a door deep in another shadowed alley. She takes it, thinking that at least she’s not in the view of the guards when she’s pulled through the doorway into a room with a stack of books almost twice as tall as she is. This is Ozur-Soren’s other legacy: The Great Keep. Every tale, bit of news, experiment and whatever is recorded here. This is the Library of Alexandria on steroids and raw cow meat. The man tends to her wounds while asking her questions about what’s been happening, particularly with the Scholarship. Anya makes a couple of reports, also commenting on what’s happened with her (‘would make a good tale’) and asking if they have any Tales of Kaspar Tarjen.
“Do I?” He does. While almost every Tarjentian can recite their favorite tale, Anya takes it one step further: she knows about 90% of the tales…by memory. Kaspar Tarjen is the (obviously) the founder of the Scholarship and the source of a lot of folklore. Think of the Tall Tales from the American West, but enshrined in an almost religious sense. The scholar there remarks that there will always be a need for as Kaspar…maybe not in Tarjen, but certainly somewhere in the world someone needs an almost mythic figure to look up to. Anya regards Kaspar as almost a father figure.
Then it hits her. Her purpose in life. What she can do.
She’s going to be like Kaspar. She’s going to fight the evil in the world.
She thanks the scholar and makes her way back to the inn. Anya tells Rhona the idea she had, for a second we might think that Rhona would find this a little silly. Instead, she asks when can they start. Anya says they’ll find the next ship out back to the mainland…but she needs to do this without Skein’s Glow and Wandersfar. The pair understand — they feel it is about time to part ways and be of service to someone else. They give each of them a parting gift — a metal pin that other Rahsaya will recognise as marking them as allies. The pair head down to the docks, pausing to find a young lady who appears passed out by a seedy tavern door. Anya sets the Regalia down next to her (leading off on another tale with the two) and head to a ship. Wherever they go, they will be together until the end.
…and that’s the quick and dirty run down on “Daughter of the Mountain”. This is really just a preliminary look. Things are going to change around and get expanded upon, so what you see here might not even be the same story. I am looking forward to doing this as my Nanowrimo project. Hopefully be then I’ll have a better idea as to what’s going to happen.
On news of a much better sort: My Novel Got Reviewed! 4 Stars! Run and check it out!
Wow — look at the time, I need to get some sleep. Thanks for sticking around with me on this. Tomorrow, I hope to have something else to talk about. Until then, good friends…
Sincerely,
Seething Apathy
The Two Hundred and Ninety-Second Post: The One Where I Try To Wrap It All Up…
OK, when last we left our group, Rhona was dancing and playing and Anya was drinking and try to remember where she had seen the one who was giving her a hate-filled look. She considers walking up to him and asking what’s his beef, but before she can walk over to the table, Rhona comes in and sweeps her away to dance. She balks a little, but Rhona’s charms woo her over and she starte to dance along…with Skein’s Glow assisting in the dancing (and by assisting, we mean making her look a little more graceful that what she really is). Anya ties to heed the cloak’s advice and have some fun. Dancing between the table and the floor to get some drink, Anya sees that the bodyguards and the incoming students are gone. There is something about this that doesn’t strike Anya as being good. Before she can investigate, Rhona draws her back into the center of the dance, much to the admiration of the other dancers (like I said, Skein’s Glow is helping out a great deal).
A few more draughts of wine, ale and mead to boot and Anya and her blushing bride are heading towards the part of town that eats mostly with inns. Here, the innkeepers are a little more aggressive at how they get people to occupy their rooms. One such person spies the bracelets that the couple are wearing and invites them in for the honeymoon suite. Anya reaches into her coin purse and takes out several gold coins. The innkeeper takes the coins and guides them up to the room. It’s nice as far the view — overlooking the farmlands and vineyards beyond the borders of the city of Ozur-Soren. Anya doesn’t take in the view that much. She just sits down on the bed (a nice one by the way) and tries to take off the jacket. Rhona takes it all in and turns around to face her new wife. Anya is shaking and trying her best to hold something back. She sits down next to the Scholar and asks hire what’s wrong.
“How can you be happy? What are we going to do for money?” Anya’s fears come to light.mmshes on a path with no clear direction either to or fro. For the first time in her life she has no hard and fast rule to go by. Rhona sits down and puts her arm around Anya’s shoulder to comfort her. Leaning in she tells Anya that she has no idea where to go or what to do beyond have breakfast, but she trusts that the spirits of the woods, water and wind will not deliver her to more harm than she can bear at once. She also points out that they have two of The Regalia. As long as they are with them, there is nothing that they need to fear. Not hunger, not thirst and certainly not boredom. Anya agrees and is ashamed for her little freak-out. Rhona smiles and says that there is one way she can make it up to her.
Cut to the next morning. Anya walks down the stairs after dressing in plain clothes. She asks the innkeeper if there is a place that sells rolls and cheese. The innkeeper directs her to his cousin who is one of the best bakers in the city. She starts out the door, the stops and heads back up to get her weapons. Creeping in, she grabs her things and puts on a modest vest and some better leggings. Skein’s Glow asks to come along and Anya nixes the idea. She’s in Ozur-Soren and she’s hardly unarmed, even if she can’t get the blades free of th scabbard. Dressing in something a little better than underclothes, she heads out to the marketplace.
I’m going to have to end it here. It’s late for me and I still have to get up in the morning to work on the current project. I’ll try to finish the whole thing up tomorrow. I know this seems a little bad bones, but it’s helping out in the planning process. I hope you’ve enjoyed it so far, and I look forward to entertaining you tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Seething Apathy
The Two Hundred and Ninety-First Post: The One Where I Pick Up From Where I Left Off Last Time…
As I left everyone last night: Anya is getting off the boat where she and Rhona are going to spend their honeymoon in Ozur-Soren. As Anya looks around, she sees a ship flying the banners of Tarjen with a set of students coming off, walking in formation with the jackets of their schools. Anya looks down at her jacket, crafted by Skein’s Glow. While it’s better than anything made by the hands of man, Anya reflects that there is no symbol of her School on her jacket (nor can they be, since she left them in the last book). In Tarjen, the Scholars are to which everyone aspires to be in life. You’re there, you’re set up. Better training, better food and living quarters, even a chance to wield political power. As she watches the students march by her, she sees that they regard her as a civilian (fightin’ words in Tarjen). She recognizes the ranks on the jacket, nothing that these are students fresh out of the Academies — not the ones you want with the job to guard the ranking monarch.
As the students meet with the Provost Marshal (the closest thing the Tarjentians have to an ambassador here). Anya makes her way to the gates to check in and get her weapon bound. She’s asked her name: she stumbles a little bit and finally spits out Anya Sirota (she can’t take her family name, as it would identify her as still in the Scholarship. Yeah, her bridges are burning bright). The gatekeeper asks Rhona for her name. Rhona carefully spells it out with her fingers, using the elvish naming convention of her name and the name of her new family: Rhona of the family Sirota. If you read the previous book, she always identified herself as Rhona of no family. The gatekeeper has no idea what Rhona is doing, so Anya translates, getting as close to emotional as she’s going to get. The gatekeeper asks the purpose and duration of the stay. Anya says one week it’s for celebrating.
“You picked the right time. Harvest Days are here.”
Before Anya says it’s called Exaction Day, Rhona holds up her mandolin. The gatekeeper says that Rhona will have more than enough opportunity to play and make some coin and then asks the question that Anya has been privately dreaded: are you carrying any weapons? Yet another reminder of her past. Those blades she had earlier belonged to her father — the Head Scholar of her School. Instead, she has blades made by Skein’s Glow. Again — better than even Tarjentian crafted blades with ore taken right out of the mountain, but it’s not the blades from her school. She unbuckles her baldrick (belt for holding blades, worn from shoulder to hip) and belt to hand over the sword and dagger set. The gatekeeper just shakes his head and gives her a length of knotted rope to attach to the handles of the weapons. Out of the corner of her eyes, she sees the students from Tarjen handing over their weapons. “Not everything’s bad.” She catches the eye of one of the students…and he’s not happy.
The gatekeeper takes their arrival tax (“for the health of his Royal Highness”) and they pass through into the City of Ozur-Soren. Luckily for them, the monarch has finished up a speech formally beginning the Harvest celebration, much to the jubilation of the patiently sober. Anya’s loathing for this place is similar to the loathing the Soviets had for America at the height of the Cold War. Rhona looks around and sees a bunch of people looking to party and willing to spend coin for the privilege of her company. Anya looks around and sees nothing but grasshoppers waiting for the ants to bring in the harvest. Needless to say, the pair try to make their way to the nearest tavern to wash the taste of hte sea out of their mouths.
Now, while Rhona is finding a tavern that will let her drink and play at the same time, Anya is getting some counseling from Skein’s Glow, which can be summed up in four words: suck it up, buttercup. There is no shame in not taking it easy for a week (or longer) while Anya tries to figure out her next step, even if it’s telling the fat little children of fatter lords with end of the sword goes into the enemy. Anya is stubborn — she’s not going to be some welfare case for Rhona. If Rhona is married to a Tarjentian, then she is darn well going to be married to a Daughter of the Mountains. She just needs to figure out what she wants to do to earn her keep. Saying that, she gets up to dance with Rhona who is herself singing and plying her trade.
Several hours later, Anya tries to keep her spirits up with booze and good company when the students come in — not wearing their Scholar’s jacket but the uniforms of the Monarch’s body guards — and the bodyguards they are rotating out with dressed in their jackets. Anya knows the ritual well — the students buy the leaving group’s last drink and the leaving group buys the student’s first round. As she’s gazing fondly at the group, she recognizes one of the jackets as from her Scholarship. She’s tempted to get up and approach him to get some old gossip, but she also recognizes one of the incoming students as from her Scholarship. Anya is fairly certain that she would not be received well in that group: her father no doubt would be tilling the soil with salt as it were and turning her old friends and Scholar-mates against her. This does absolutely nothing good for her mood, so she turns around and continues to drink. As she turns around, she notes that one of the other incoming students seems to be taking an undue interest in her. She shrugs it off as a mixture of contempt, lust and/or jealousy.
…and that’s where we’re going to leave this for the time being. Thank you for being patient while I work this out here. Hopefully, I’ll be able to wrap it up by tomorrow and bring you back to your regularly scheduled blathering.
Sincerely,
Seething Apathy
The Two Hundred and Ninetieth Post: The One Where I Try To Explain A Sequel…
Hey, everyone. I’m trying to get a sequel together for another book I wrote much earlier. I have a place, a time, some scene in mind and (a first for me!) how to end it so that it dovetails into another book that I had an idea for, but nixed it when I felt it was getting a little too close to a comic book I saw (not that it’s stopped me completely, but it certainly gave me time to pause.
The sequel is called “Daughter of the Mountain” and it deals with the aftermath of Anya and Rhona deciding to run off together (they’re kinda hitched, but that’s a long story to be worked on later). It starts a few days after the end of The Quietest Heart with Anya being a little mopey. I’m sure no one reading it is going to understand. She gets to bed a hot elven chick (“I’m twenty and she looks like that. When I’m eighty…she’s still going to look like that.”) and it’s their honeymoon. From Rhona’s point of view — this is great. She has a companion that’s not going to take any sort of advantage over her or rob her and leave her in a ditch for dead. Life could not be better.
Anya has issues because she has no idea what to do. From when she was little, it was hammered into her tiny little head that her only joy in life would be to rise through the Circles, gain rank and eventually take the Scholar’s Seat to run her particular school and guide the nation of Tarjen to a prosperous new age. What no one counted on was her falling in love with not only an elf (there are no half-breeds), but a female elf (human do not wield magic, and the elves aren’t about to help these simple humans with their fertility problems). Now her well mapped route through her life is in shambles. her coping mechanism (drinking and fighting for her School) aren’t going to be of any use. Why? Read on.
I have this wonderful little fantasy world, and in it there is an island called Ozur-Soren. The way I described it Mardi Gras, Vegas and Ibiza all came together on an island the size of Louisville, KY (400 square miles). On Ozur-Soren is the ruling monarch of the realms — Tarjen, Solvig, Daergal, Imre and all the other places pay their respects (or protection money — however you want to look at it) to Ozur-Soren. This is important because Tarjen’s price is two things: iron ore (which they are famous for) and fighters. Every year during what the Tarjens call the Day of The Iron Price, the Scholars send twenty of their best students to act as bodyguards for the monarch, as well as several tons of iron ore. While one would think that the students would jump at the chance of a year’s vacation…the harsh reality is that these students spend a year away from duels to improve their rank. Imagine if you were sent to work for another company, but everything you did over there didn’t count for anything on either side. Anya’s predicament is similar to the soon-to-be-bodyguards — anything she does now isn’t going to be for her benefit among the Scholars of her school. In fact, she’s lost some standing among her own School. She’s the one that skipped out of duty and tradition because (in the eyes of the Scholarship) she wanted to get laid more than she wanted to fight.
When are they arriving at Ozur-Soren? At the beginning of Harvest. The next weeks are filled with incoming tributes from the various other nation-states. Including Tarjen. So, not only is Anya adrift without any of the underpinnings of her society to guide her, but the Scholarship she served will be coming alongside her. The whole week is going to be reminders of what she’s given up. Is this a great honeymoon or what?
But, I can say in the end that Anya gets her head right. What happens in between landing on the shores of the Fabled White Towers and catching the next boat to the port of Daergal on the mainland? I will save that for another time, but I will leave you with this saying from Don Henley:
Sometimes you get the best light from a burning bridge.
Hope y’all have a good week.
Sincerely,
Seething Apathy
The Two Hundred and Eighty-Ninth Post: The One Where I Finally Sort Out All This Schedule Stuff..
Hello, everyone — one of the major problems I have been having is getting word count (stop me if you’ve heard this one — ok, got it). I need to get serious about being consistent. I need to get at least two thousand words a day. I’m going to use the same approach I have used in the past when I was working on Nanowrimo. Break the project down into three manageable chunks of 700-750 words each day: when I get up in the morning, during work and when I get home. My iPad can log into Windows Online, so there is no hassle of remembering to e-mail myself the work I did at work (y’know, instead of my real job). I know that consistency is the major hurdle. The fact that there is almost a year gap in this blog is testament to that issue. If I can break it down into smaller parts, I can do it. i did it for Nanowrimo last year and managed to turn it into a 55K novel. I can do it with this one. Next January, when I leave my current job and do…something else, I might be able to increase the word count a little and maybe write, then take a thirty minute break.
You could be asking yourself “Why does he keep bringing this up?” The same reason why you make a shopping list before walking into a grocery store: a reminder. This is to keep things in the forefront of my mind. The same reason why I blather on about story ideas — to keep them in my mind and make a record of them in the event that I forget something. Yes, I have forgotten things. Really good things: The Three Brothers and Three Sisters: (Statescraft, Spycraft and Warcraft are the Three Brothers and the Three Sisters are Evocation, Elementalism and… and… dammit). Also for all you novice writers and creative types, a bit of advice: write it down.
With the current project, I am trying to do something different: when I have to make a decision for what’s to happen to a character, I’m going to go the opposite of what I think should happen. Ehren brings back some vegetables and some lemons for the meal they’re having at the wainwright’s house. Vimala (The healing spirit attached to him) says that the mother will be grateful for what Ehren has brought in — after all, the boy is starting to suffer from rickets and scurvy). Rather than be grateful, the woman tells Ehren that the lemons don’t belong to them and that they’re going to get an earful from the owner of the tree. Some of you may recognize as the Constanza method of writing. I’m hoping that in doing that I can keep the reader guessing. i did it at one point in the still unfinished Cat, Rabbit and Clover. it worked in that the main character was able to head off a disaster that would have gotten him fired from the job.
Well, with all of that said, i should go on ahead and get to the 750 I am owed to myself today. I hope y’all have a good rest of the day. As always, there are books that my good friends have written — feel free to try a couple of them through the links provided.
Sincerely,
Seething Apathy.
The Two Hundred and Eighty-Eighth Post: The One Where I Try to Find Something Meaningful to Say…
Well, I am trying to keep the momentum going with this blog. I put in about two thousand words on The Marvelous and Malefic Doomsday Medicine Show. I like how the interplay between Vimala and Ehren (the main protagonists) is shaping up. I’m also trying to flesh out an idea I had. Looking back at works like Faust and the old Blues Legends, it’s an evil spirit that attaches itself to someone, promising power and influence in exchange for a deed…and that price goes up until the hapless victim has no choice in the matter.
So I thought to myself: why does it have to be an evil spirit that does this? What if a good spirit had a similar arrangement? ‘I’ll do this for you, but I want you to promise to eat your vegetables the next time we’re in a good restaurant… and drink your milk. Since I was writing in the fantasy world I established earlier, I went along with it. Of course, the relationship between the spirit (Vimala) and the mortal (Ehren) has changed a little bit now that I’m putting it in the novel (they’re comfortably adversarial, but neither of them can really be without the other. I’m not going to say any more about this right now because I don’t want to give anything away). I’m still looking forward to finishing this scene and painting the wider world of Ehren and Vimala. Yeah, I like world building.
Speaking of building: anyone here addicted to Spotify? I had no idea just how much stuff is on that site. I’ve gotten two good playlists for when I’m writing. I’m not sure how to link playlists here, but I’m fighting the urge to drop everything here and fill up another folder of music. The only downside is that their Bear McCreary station is a little bare. I really wanted to get “Prelude to War” and “All Along the Watchtower” on my writing playlists. Oh, well — they have “Truth and Reconciliation Suite” which works for me just fine for now.
Oh — I have had a chance to see a couple of Summer Films: Mad Max: Fury Road and The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Both come with my highest recommendations, but if you only have time or money for one, my advice is to go see Mad Max: Fury Road. Yes, I know — I am a Marvel fanboy and I should be toeing the company line…but I got so much info about the movie, the cast, the effects, the writer, the director, the catering…there was very little left to surprise me. I know they’re setting up the Civil War storyline with this movie and I’m looking forward to it. With Mad Max — everything was relatively new. The action was clearly filmed and centered on the frame. I missed that. Every action scene now is so jerky and ADHD-like I can’t follow what’s happening at times. With the cast, there was something new and the approach that was taken was different than what I would have done. it was just nice to sit down to a movie and be surprised every now and then. Next up for me is either “Inside Out” or “Spy”.
Well, that’s all the time I have for now. I need to just give in and fill out a new list. Hope y’all have a good day.
Sincerely,
Seething Apathy
ps: I figured out how to share the list. Here’s my writing music list
S.A.
The Two Hundred and Eighty-Seventh Post: The One Where I Talk About an Old Fascination and the New Project…
Hello, everyone! I woke up this morning to Art Bell. If you’ve never heard of him, go on down to the website and take a look around. He’s coming back to the radio (well, the Internet) and I’ve found his show to be entertaining. His show deals with oddities like UFOs, ghosts and the such. I started listening to him when I was working third shift at Anthem (a long, long time ago). Do I believe what he espouses? Some of it. I like the EVP/Ghost hunting episodes and some of the more reasonable conspiracy segments. I bought a subscription when I heard he’s coming back Give it a listen when he’s back on July 20th.
The new project. One of the things that I am liking about this one is that I am trying to make the main character as unlikeable as possible without completely alienating him from the readers. I know that I am going to get a lot of comparisons to the show “House“, in that the character isn’t the likeable sort of person. They’re right, but “House” is really nothing more than an a re-hashing of Sherlock Holmes (not bashing — I loved the show). So far, the main character of The Marvelous and Malefic Doomsday Medicine Show (Love that title!) is not a misunderstood genius, but rather an avaricious individual. If he’s not getting paid, he’s doesn’t give a whit about you. Of course, we’re going to have flashes of humanity here and there, but not enough for us to look at him differently. He’s going to change over the course of the book, like the dragon in “Skyrim” says:
"What is better: to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?"
Which is the theme of this novel: you can overcome the worse parts of your nature, but it takes an effort. I’m aiming to get this book finished and out there before Christmas — this year (I feel that I have to qualify that. I mean…Tyro’s novel has been a project for almost twenty years). I’m looking forward to revealing the antagonist in the book, since it’s a callback to my first novel (still on sale!). I still have that fire in my belly for this one. I am going to try to finish Cat, Rabbit and Clover at some point this year as well, it’s just that the more I write it, the more I want to add and the longer it gets, I just need to focus on the scenes that need to finish and get it off to the editor. I need to get this done because I finally got the title for the sequel: The Three L’s: Love, Luck and Lumber. Evan’s series can go on as long as there is interest in it. Most of the other projects are trilogies (I’ve been told they tend to sell better), and I think the only things that are one-shot works are all my horror projects (which I should get to them at some point) and maybe the one romance idea I have (which takes place at around the same time as the current work — I wonder if they should reference each other?)
Well, speaking of writing — I should get to that for the few minutes I have before I have to get off to work. I hope y’all have a good day.
Sincerely,
Seething Apathy
The Two Hundred and Eighty-Sixth Post: The One Where I Try to Use My iPad…
This is really just a small test to see how my iPad takes to the new interface. Honestly, I liked it better when I could use my Word to type, cut and paste everything on directly. Apparently, Microsoft and WordPress have had some sort of falling out.
I doubt it looked this cute
Anyway, I think I am going to stick with using my main PC for the day to day blogs and use the iPad when I am out at conventions…or I forget to post.
There will be a longer post tomorrow. Pinky swear.
Sincerely,
Seething Apathy
Seething Apathy 