Some interesting articles you might enjoy.
John Green did an intro for Hannah Hart’s new Drunk Kitchen Cookbook. You can read it here.
George RR Martin talked about HBO catching up with him on the book series.
Why libraries are still better then Amazon. According to WSJ at least. (I tend to agree, though for other reasons then they give.)
Incredible photography of weaponry throughout the centuries.
Not long ago Humble Bundle updated their Android app.
Now, if you aren’t familiar with Humble Bundle it is an online marketplace that bundles games together and let’s you pay what you want for the games. A portion of the proceeds goes to charity. They also expanded to ebooks, digital comics, and often add sound tracks in with their games.
The app use to allow you to download the Android games you bought through their bundles, now it allows you to download the ebooks, comics and music as well.
This is amazing news! It is a pain in the neck trying to side load ebooks on my phone or tablet. Now I just open up the Humble Bundle app and download the comics and books I want to read, or the music I want to listen to, and it’s all right there. All accessible and regale right in the app.
This is the future. Eventually someone is going to put an app together that will go around all the side load bs and just let me read the content I bought. It isn’t here yet, but I can see enough people asking for it that it is coming. Eventually. Maybe some authors child will be really into programming and will set it up for them.
Not only that, but if there are apps out there that provide this service then amazon will be forced to add an auto install for ebooks as well, something they haven’t done yet probably because they want it to be hard on you so you buy direct from them.
Truth is I don’t mind buying stuff from amazon I do it a lot. But I don’t buy EVERYTHING from amazon so I don’t want to be stuck side loading things all over the place. Plus I’d really like to see all my media in one spot so I can just search for books, games, or music I own and download from one app instead of all of them.
It’s interesting times we live in. Things are changing rapidly and in ten years this will probably seen like a minor irritation along the way to progress.
Some days I wish I could just go the traditional route. I mean then someone else gets to do the cover art, formatting, updating all the back matter, and trying to get my book on all of the different platforms. It’s a lot of work. And that isn’t even the editing, which I started paying someone else to do. then there is setting up Gumroad so I can sell direct through my website, and then…. finally…. some writing.
And let’s not forget marketing, social media and… ARRRGGG!!! It’s enough to make me want to pull my hair out sometimes.
I am not a full time writer. I write when I can, which isn’t as often as I’d like sometimes. Some days I struggle to get the words out, or rather good words out, especially like now when I am sick and my brain feels a little fuzzy. (Hint, I write anyway, even when it’s hard.) But I do have work, and children, and now I have to take my daughter to her job every morning. But I still write. I keep at it, keep hacking away until I have something worth while.
So, today I did some editing, reorganizing of some files, updated the back matter in a couple books, experimented with Gumroad, and I did THIS!
I thought I needed a little bit of a break from “Mermaid’s Curse” to feel like I accomplished something. And boy did I. I love the way the scarab came out. And I’ve already worked on the plot enough to actually sit down and write it. A short story, maybe I can finish it and have the third book in the series out eventually.
But, “Mermaid’s Curse” is still my priority. I want a full length novel on my wall of books, and it is coming along nicely. Just so, I’m off to finish another chapter in that one before I go work on “The Scarab Necklace” for a bit. Let’s see if switching back and forth (like I use to do) will give me the inspiration I need to actually finish something new.
Just to let everyone know, Amazon has finally helped by making three of my books perma-free.
Small Bites contains three flash fiction about some interesting fantasy creatures.
The Ring is a short story that begins a series. It is reminiscent of “Twilight Zone” or “Friday the 13th: the Series”.
Prophecy by Barlight is a comedic short story about a barkeep that goes a little over the top to rid himself of a prophecy.
Pick one, or all of them up. Enjoy them. If you’re really lovely leave a review for me. That would be amazing.
Thank you!
Everyone is talking about Robin Williams today, and in a way his death has become yet another eye opener in a sea of tragedies that mental health is incredibly important and shouldn’t be taken lightly. His death, while a tragedy and a great lose for all of us, especially his family and close friends, will hopefully bring new awareness to those who have never faced depression of how bad it can really be, and for those who do suffer to stop suffering in silence.
The stigma of suicide and depression isn’t as prevalent as it use to be. We understand there are physiological as well as mental reasons behind it. We are more educated and hopefully more understanding of each other.
But is suicide selfish?
I can’t tell you what to think, and I don’t have a medical degree. I just have my own experience, so all I can tell you is what I was thinking, and what I was willing to do to make the pain stop.
That’s right, I suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts. I suffered for years without ever telling another person. I would sit in my bath tub looking at that razor blade thinking of my children and just wanting all the pain and hurry and hopelessness to go away.
Was it selfish? By the time I stood on the edge of the building looking down I had convinced myself that my death would actually be doing people a favor. I wasn’t doing it for purely selfish reasons, I wanted to stop hurting everyone around me. Too give my children a chance to have a good mommy that didn’t spend most of the day in bed crying. To give my husband a chance to find a good wife that didn’t constantly disappoint him.
Yes, there was a lot of “selfish” thought in it. I was hurting, and hadn’t been happy in years. I was thinking I was a bad mom, a bad wife, never good enough for anyone. I had no family or friends besides my three little kids, and they were to young to understand that mommy was broken. I thought the world would be better without me, and the pain would stop.
In my case the depression was caused by my husband’s mental and emotional abuse. Once I got out of that situation my depression started to go away, and now I rarely have to deal with it. Now I know what it is and how to weather it on the rare occasions that it does show up.
Is it any different than a terminal cancer patient that wants to cut their pain short? Because it is physical and not mental it is more real?
Not to the sufferer. To them the pain on the inside is a thousand times worse then the outside. That is why self harm is a thing. That is why I would dig my finger nails into my hands until they left big dents, or bite my arms and wrists until I had deep bite marks and bruises. That’s why there are cutters and hair pullers and everything else.
I was incredibly lucky that my depression had a definite cause and solution. Not everyone else is as lucky.
So is it selfish? I say it is selfish of those who suggest that it is. They think only of their own pain, not the pain the individual who took their life suffered with for years before that moment.
If you do think of harming yourself you aren’t alone. Reach out. Talk to someone. There are people who care.
Imagine my surprise when I answered my phone and the first thing my friend said was “I just subscribed to toilet paper.”
Toilet paper? Is this like a subscription to fruit of the month of Life magazine? This is a thing you can do?
She then explained about the Amazon subscription service and how it works. Apparently you really can subscribe to your favorite toilet paper, or potato chips or any number of other items, and have cases of them sent to your door ever month or three, depending on how often you want them.
While I can imagine a few things I’d rather not go to the store for, and use quite often, like toilet paper, I’m not so sure I’m ready to jump into the “subscribe to all the things!” category just yet.
This seems to be the way of the future though. Amazon Fresh with food, Amazon subscriptions with other products, and now Amazon unlimited with books. And they aren’t the only ones doing it. Netflix, Hulu, Crunchy Roll, iTunes … The list goes on with all the media choices. Why not toilet paper?
Heck, Amazon isn’t even the first one to get into subscribing to physical items. There is also the Dollar Shave Club that sends you razor blades every month for about a buck a day. And others.
Many industries seem to think the subscription service is the new way of the future, and I can’t disagree with them, especially on digital media. But I’m still a bit attached to driving to the store, saying hello to the local cashier that is there everytime I go, and physically interacting with another human being. And while most of my friends are online and live in other states or countries, these small interactions with real live human beings are still enjoyable.
But maybe subscribing to toilet paper, or diapers, or feminine hygiene products would make that check out line a little less uncomfortable at times.
The other day reddit had a thread suggesting that Goodreads should have an “abandoned” category for book lists.
This got me thinking. I’ve actually abandoned a lot of books the last couple years. More than ever before. Not always because they were bad books. Sometimes it was time management issues, or just not quite captivating enough. Every now and then I’d get involved in other things and just forget I was reading that particular book.
The are so many wonderful books out there and not enough time to read them. If there was a heaven it might be eternity in a library with every book ever written. (As long as it comes with a Starbucks.) But this isn’t heaven, it’s just Washington. We don’t have eternity, just 80 years or so. So picking and choosing which books to read is sometimes a bit important. I’m going to spend hours or days with this book, I want to enjoy the experience.
I don’t know if an abandoned book tag is a good idea, especially since people won’t be telling you why they abandoned it, but it would be interesting. You might learn some interesting things about a book, or people’s taste, or what keeps them turning the page.
There is a man who documents his abandoned books. In the The Immerse or Die report Jefferson Smith reads until the book has three ‘fatal flaws,’ and then he tells you what they are. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the book was unreadable or that he didn’t finish it, just that it had some major issues that pulled him out of the story enough for it to be a ‘fatal flaw.’
I know some of the things that pull me out of a story are too much foreshadowing, LOTS of grammar/spelling mistakes, inconsistency, and a style or plot so convoluted that I can’t follow it. There are more reasons, but those are the ones that come to mind right off the top of my head.
Why might you abandon a book? Would you want to share that with others? Would you want to know why others abandoned your book?
That last question… I think I’m a little too chicken to put my sorry up for speculation on Immerse or Die. At least for now.
I went to goggle play looking for a new, interesting game and saw a list of half off games. I’m okay with paying a little bit to own a game and play it whenever I feel like it.
But no, this wasn’t 50% off to own a game. This was 50% off in app purchases. Because in app purchases make more money.
You might think I’m pissed off at devs for doing this, and you’d be slightly right. It is annoying as F to get interested in a game and really enjoy it only to get half way through and run out of “energy” or have long ass wait periods for certain things to load. Even worse; power-ups that cost $1 each.
But no, it annoys me far more that people will actually spend $20 or more on Candy Crush on in app purchases, making this a viable option for devs in the first place.
Candy Crush had over 300 levels. If they split the game up into 50 levels a piece and charged $2.99 for each game package, with chances to win power ups, then I would totally buy it. But I’m not their demographic. The people they want to play their game will spend hundreds or even thousands just to solve one more puzzle.
It seems like more and more games are turning to in app purchases. Thankfully Google now warns you before you download a game. I rejected 20 different games because of the in app purchase tag.
Sadly they don’t tell you what kind of in app purchase is available. If it was a purchase for an expansion, or for new skins I’d be okay with that. It’s pay to win games that really bug me. Or pay to have an enjoyable experience.
Just put a price tag on your game as a whole instead of doing in app purchases!
I honestly forgot that Twilight Tales was going to be free this weekend, and it will only be free until midnight.
But, I also found out that “The Ring” is finally price matched as free with the Kobo version. The ring is the start of a short series of short stories. (Each about 5k words long.) The second book, “The Camera“, is also available.
The Illicit Gain’s series tells the story of several mysterious items, each with a strange power that the wielder can use to do some fantastic things. The first book, The Ring, is about the thief who stole those items, and what happens to him. The second, The Camera, is about an old Polaroid camera and a young boy who happens upon it.
Although the items look ordinary, they are far from it.
UPDATE:
“Mermaid’s Curse” is now nearly 83,000 words long, and I have 13 of 36 chapters left to edit and rewrite. Let’s see what I can get done in the next couple hours. I also shared another little section of the book if you’d like a sneak peak.
Every November I participate in NaNoWriMo. It’s a tough month filled with a lot of writing and sitting in chairs all for the chance just to say I did it, I won.
It’s no wonder that right after NaNoWriMo a lot of people take a long break. We get burnt out. That’s 50k words worth of story completed and our minds are jelly.
But that’s not the only burn out an artist can suffer from.
I’ve been working on Mermaids Curse since October. Yes, that’s nine months with one project. I’ve completed a little over 81k words on it, rewritten over half of it already, and also thrown away about half as much as I’ve kept. That’s well over 100,000 words in the same project. It makes you sick of looking at it after a while.
Burn out can happen when you’ve spent too much time on the same project. When your pushing yourself too hard or when you aren’t taking care of the rest of yourself correctly.
For me, when I am really feeling it I will take a day or two to read something. I don’t get nearly enough time to read anymore. I often will switch projects for a day or two so that I’m still writing but not over working on the same project.
I know right now I feel like there is no end in sight for my dang novel and that makes writing and editing take that much longer. It’s that feeling of defeat that always gets in the way. Oddly enough, when I published ‘Footprints’ a couple months ago that gave me a burst of speed that carried me through the edits of half the book. But I haven’t published anything since then and I know that is part of the reason I’m having issues. Unfortunately I don’t have anything to publish so that isn’t an easy fix, but I’m not giving up.
The ultimate cure for burn out is just finishing the project and moving on to the next one. I know I’ll be so excited when I’m finally finished with Mermaids Curse.
So… This was my break and now I’m off to write some more.
Author Crissy Moss 