Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

News For Today

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan, "news for today"... the week I've had. I've been sick. I took the slow, dwindling death spiral that Gift of the Bad Guy was slipping into and turned it into what I really think might be Act II of my internet writing career, the answer to the question that's been plaguing me for years: "I've done the impossible... what do I next?" I made $2,000 off a fundraiser I started as an impulse after almost throwing the idea out five or six times.

All that and I've got another little project I'm involved in that I'm not ready to talk about because it's too soon to know if it's going anywhere but if it does go anywhere then several individual people are probably going to shit bricks, and another, separate idea that I'm not ready to talk about. Ugh. I'm so used to instant gratification, this long-term planning stuff is really throwing me off.

The news for today is no news for today. The news for today is everything that happened in the week leading up to it.

So, when the smoke settled and the dust cleared, I went and I ordered a Kindle. Not the DX. I don't really see the point to that when I have a netbook. I was going to get the cheapest most basic one, but $50 more for free 3G service seems worth it. Too often I end up paying for an internet connection for a few hours while I'm traveling.

I had been planning on getting a Kindle in a few weeks, but I decided I need one now. Knowing how Gift of the Bad Guy looks on my smartphone is very useful. I'm very happy with the fact that I've made it readable on the phone. But I need to be able to see how what I'm doing looks on a popular ebook platform. This design concern is why I went with Kindle rather than looking at other electronic books

And also, if I'm going to get into ebooks, I need to get into ebooks. My "dirty secret" is that I don't do much fiction reading on my computer at all. If I'm sitting here I'm working or I'm unwinding from work. I keep catching myself falling into the trap of not reading any fiction, not doing any pleasure reading, and that's no good.

Also, the Kindle seems like it would be easier to read in bed than a computer or a book would be. My arms get tired really easily. There are a limited number of positions I can sit with a book in my hands, doubly so if it's hardcover.

So it's a good business move and it might help me carve out more space in my life for reading, which is a good thing.

Personal Assessment

I'm fucking awesome. I have no idea when the last time I really slept was, though, and this could be problematic. I laid down for a few hours between Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon/evening, but I don't believe I fell asleep. Part of this is creative euphoria and part of it is the fact that I spent so much of the week before either hibernating or about to pass out. Seriously. I'm astonished I got a story done on Monday, even though I think I started it a few days before.

Dreams From Last Night

See above.

Plans For Today

Well, sleep will hopefully happen. I'm going to start the Aidan, Jr. story today. It'll have a construction post because it's outside the spoilerific territory that the main story's in right now. It'll be good to do that, I've been missing it lately.

Om Nom Nom

So, it turns out there is news for today... I just made my status post too early. In between when I wrote that and when I woke up, I received notification that Tales of MU was nominated for a Rose and Bay award, which recognizes excellence in crowdfunded creativity.

The awards are only a year old (i.e., this is their second year). Given that Tales of MU is probably one of the most successful one-person crowdfunding projects on the interwebs (see also: last week) and that winner is decided by voting, I feel I have a strong chance of winning. I initially had mixed feelings about that... like, I have an unfair advantage, and maybe somebody else could use the attention/honor more than I can?

But that's not how awards work, and it's not like I actually know that I have a lock on the thing or anything. There are only a handful of votes for any project so far, but it's early and they had to restart the poll at one point. But it seems like the Rose and Bay Awards aren't so well-known yet that they'll change someone's life. At this point in the award's existence, if I win, I'll probably be boosting their profile, honestly. I have thousands of readers, and not all of them are plugged into the wider indie/weblit/crowdfunded scene. And everybody who goes to the voting page to vote for Tales of MU will be seeing the other projects on the ballot.

Anyway, voting is open to the public at this post: http://community.livejournal.com/crowdfunding/259183.html You must be logged in to Livejournal to participate (not a choice I'm a fan of, though it probably does make ballot-stuffing harder)... if you don't have a Livejournal account, you should know that you can sign in to LJ with any OpenID, Twitter, or Facebook account. I know my blog is not read by everyone so I'll put a notice up with the next story I post.

Magic Under Construction: Falling Into Grace

This is the beginning of the promised story about Mackenzie's brothe.

Began: 2/6/2011, 5:00 PM
Status: In progress (11:00 PM)
Hours Writing: 2
Word Count ~2000



( Spoilers )