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Monday, October 17, 2011

Updates...

I was pretty excited to get home and do an update today because, you know, it's been since forever since I wrote in here.  But now that I sit here with my Guinness Black Lager at my side, I find myself at a loss for what to say.

Things are status quo, which isn't great but at least nothing's going wrong that I know of right now, so I'll take what I can get. The hunt for a library gig is going nowhere, perhaps not surprisingly.  I wish I could find the time to volunteer, to at least get my foot in the door somewhere. I need to figure out what it is I'm going to sacrifice to make said time, because it needs to happen.

We're struggling financially right now, but that's largely our own fault. Julie and I have lived just a bit beyond our means over the past year or so and it's just time we reign that in. Things aren't out of control, yet, so it's good we recognized it when we did before they get there. And really, it could be far worse. We're paying our bills, we have a roof over our heads. There's enough in the savings account that I managed to get the front stairs fixed. That's definitely a plus.

I'm back into the grind of looking for an agent, this time for The Chronicles of Charlie Morning and Mr. Night. Reliquary has offered to publish it--indeed, Darrick really likes it. But I really, really would like to see this one on the shelves in major booksellers.  You know, before the major booksellers are gone. Besides, if I have to go with a publishing model that doesn't include distribution, I'm seriously thinking about doing the self-publish route. I need to do some more research on how to promote in that market, but there are authors making a mint on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com selling for the Nook and Kindle. And Amazon, at least, will offer print sales as well through CreateSpace. Not sure about B&N--I'd have to look into that. Not to mention, I'd see far more profit from self-publishing.

At very least, I can get myself into print via print on demand through DriveThruFantasy.com. It'd be trade paperback, which is more expensive than mass market, but it'd be print.

The secret, again, is self-promotion, and that's something about which I have a lot to learn. I've learned enough about graphic design that I feel confident doing a cover myself, though the artwork for such would probably set me back a bit. Things to think about.

Let's see...what else? As many of my readers know--particularly those who are close friends in real life--I've gone through a rather dark bout lately. There's innumerable reasons for it, which I shall not get into on a publicly readable forum like this, but suffice it to say those who are close to me are in the know. It's also the main reason I haven't written much lately. It's time, however, for that to stop. I'm happy when I'm writing, so there's no reason whatsoever why, when I feel crappy, I shouldn't write. It only makes sense.

This is how I communicate. I'm certainly better at this than I am most other things.

Oh! Speaking of, I posted on facebook that I really miss writing for the Buffy/Angel,  Highlander, and Forever Knight Lyric Wheels. Some folks might be wondering what the hell those are. They were fan fic circles in which I participated in the early 2000's. The Lyric Wheel was named such because every story revolved around lyrics. You would throw your name into the hat and be randomly paired with another "wheeler." that person would send you a set of lyrics, and you them. You had to write a short story, in genre, based around those lyrics, and the story had to incorporate a line from the song--but having the song playing in the background or having someone quote it directly was cheating.

I did three of the Wheels--one based on Highlander, one based on Buffy and Angel, and one based on Forever Knight. If you don't know what Forever Knight is, you're banished. Some of my fan fic is still out there on the web if you know where to look. Some of it actually wasn't too bad. One of my personal favorites was the one where I gave Angel a happy ending--and it didn't involve the Buffster. We had another one, in the Highlander wheel, where we had to do a crossover with another genre. I crossed Highlander with the X-Men and had Connor MacLeod, Annie Devlin (from the TV series), and Wolverine fighting Sabretooth over Mariko Yashida's apparent murder. In the end, Mariko turned out to be an Immortal, and Annie became her teacher.

Yes, I know Mariko is dead in the X-comics continuity. I dealt with that in-story, too.

Anyway, fun times. The Wheels petered out sometime in the middle 2000's--I never did hear why exactly. But I miss them. They were a lot of fun, and a great way to keep my chops up. I also really liked the community that built up around them. I miss them dearly.

Well, I guess that's about that. I've prattled on here long enough. I should really get back to the "How Did I Get Here" posts at some point soon. Those seemed to be fairly popular....

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Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom, and Mary Magdalene.

I'm not a mad bible thumper--Sophia, however, is my inspiration and always in my heart