Tuesday: Feels like Monday.

News For Today

Well, I'm very pleased with my new footstools. I know that seems like a weird little thing but it's actually huge. Being able to put my feet up while I'm computering makes a big difference to my comfort, which makes a difference to my energy levels that would probably surprise anyone who hasn't lived with similar disabilities. My roommate laughed a little to watch me typing while basically fully reclined, but it was very comfortable.

My travel cane is out for delivery today, and I've just ordered my first run of business cards, which identify me as the best-selling author in a field of my own making.

Later today the run-off poll for the Rose and Bay fiction category will begin. Voting for the other categories is already over and their winners can be determined and announced, but due to the more crowded field* for fiction, the limits of Livejournal, and some rather interesting organizational choices another round of polling is needed to determine a clear winner for fiction.

The * is there because the fact that fiction is a more crowded field than webcomics illustrates how little known this award is as of yet, and how insulated indie communities can be from one another. I'm not saying there's anything bad about having so much focus on fiction; weblit could use more attention, and webcomics certainly aren't suffering from a lack of recognition. But I believe that objectively, if the awards were more widely known, then there would have been more webcomics nominated than fiction. The preponderance of fiction nominees is a function of the circles in which the award was publicized during the nominating period.

This is another reason the awards need to improve their organization in the future. They need to be planning for the day when Rose and Bay becomes An Actual Thing in the world, when they might be swamped with nominees in all categories. The run-off should probably be an assumed part of the contest's structure, with cases where there are few enough nominees and a clear enough winner in the first round codified as an exception. Right now the only real qualifying criteria are "the project exists" and "someone who's heard of it also hears about the Rose And Bay awards in time to nominate". I would not for anything want to see it become more exclusive than that, but as more people hear about the RAB** awards this is going to result in some very crowded ballots.

Personal Assessment

Still not sleeping great... sleep is coming on late and being easily interrupted, resulting in me waking up at noon and feeling not fully rested. I think I may be in the early stages of another creative burst. I'm going to see if I can't manage it a bit better than last time.

Dreams From Last Night

I had them, but I only remember my dream from the last period of sleepfulness, where I was waiting at an airport with my parents and our flight was delayed so long I was drafted into the TSA and tasked with going around collecting unattended belongings (which mostly were things like pencils and pens and combs and fast food wrappers that people dropped, meaning I was basically a janitor under the guise of "these things could be bombs"), only to realize near the end of the dream that quite ironically I'd left my own carry-on baggage unattended while I went about my duties. There was also a subplot involving asking various military personnel who were traveling in uniform about the origins of their protective headgear and being given different apocryphal explanations.

Finally a National Guardsman told me that the real reason he wore a helmet couldn't be told or it would cause mass panic.

Random Links

This company makes vardos that can be towed by a modern automobile. This company makes yurts. Why isn't your business plan as awesome as these peoples'?

Plans For Today

You know what? Today is Write For Fun day. Maybe I'll post some stuff, if I end up with something good. Maybe I'll get a good start on some of my other LitSnack ideas. Maybe I'll end up with nothing. I don't know. Today I have no agenda except to lean back and let words flow.

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**Still owes me a horcrux.

At Long Lust, er Last: Day 7: Seven love secets.

Yeah, so, even with the softening of "lust" to "love" in the meme format, this one gets into territory that not everyone's going to be comfortable with... and that includes me, given that I know that my immediate family is reading this blog.

I could friend-lock and filter this post, but I've done the rest of the meme out in the open and so I'd rather not have it go through days 1 and 6 and then have it just sort of hang there without any resolution (any more than I've already done by leaving number 7 off for a week). So I'm posting this in public, under an LJ cut, with the following caveats attached:

If you don't want to know anything about the love life of your Livejournal friend/weblit author/family member/whatever I am to you, don't click to read on and then complain about what you find here. I'm mostly staying away from the TMI stuff anyway, but the point is, if you click to read this then there is no such thing as TMI.

Also, if you are related to me and you choose to read this anyway, please let me go on thinking that you didn't.

( Read more... )

Mid-day update.

So far "write for pleasure day" has mostly been "finish up a meme and then get acquainted with my travel cane day", but I've only really been awake for four hours and the meme was a good warm-up.

Semi-Random Story Notes

So, for years people have been asking about/remarking upon the obvious Discworld influences in Tales of MU and for years I've been saying "I've never read Discworld". Last year... about eleven months ago, to be specific... that changed, and while I can't say there's been a whole rash of new ideas and concepts infiltrating the MUniverse as a result, I do find myself on the cusp of writing something very Discworld-influenced.

To back up a bit: I'm not saying I'm going to write something that is like Discworld. I'm not saying to anyone, "If you like Discworld, you'll love this thing I'm talking about!" or announcing my attention to stand on the shoulders of Sir Pterry or emulate his unique style in any fashion. What I'm writing is neither pastiche nor homage, but credit is quite tautologically due where credit is due, and this story wouldn't exist if Discworld books hadn't fired up an interest in things like the running of a city, concepts of civic duty and pride, and so on

Anybody who's been looking for a modern fantasy story set in the MUniverse that doesn't actually related to MU or any students there might be particularly interested in this, as it's set in a cosmopolitan environment far from the plains of Prax, and involves the politics of the other human-headed empire, the one that Magisteria broke away from. This will probably be the first LitSnack book that's not adapted from existing material of mine or a continuation of the Gifters story.

As part of my "write for pleasure" day I've taken a couple of stabs at starting it, and while I'm not satisfied with the results in themselves, they've given me a picture of the setting, situation, and some of the characters. I'm going to go ahead and post some of that here, as a means of helping me distill what I want to keep from these drafts (as not all of this information actually appeared in the writing, it just became apparent to me as I was writing) and to gauge/whet interest from those who follow my blog.

Malbus is an island located not quite in the geographic center of the Mid-Reach Sea, which used to be the most important body of water to the inhabitants of the old empire. Its position allowed it to be a major sea power and shipping port before the rise of the empire; when it became part of the empire, it wasn't so much conquered as both sides recognized the benefits of joining up. The Mid-Reach Sea still borders many important destinations, but improvements in transportation magic has all but obviated the need for a port in the middle of it and so Malbus has gone from being one of the most important and powerful cities after the Mother City herself to being a huge and inconvenient tax liability for said City.

Countess Lucretia Falcon is the newly-appointed last proconsul of Malbus. The office of proconsul is a figurehead and a sinecure in most cases and doubly so in hers. The empire is pulling out. She's been sent to "oversee" (mainly in the sense of "stand by and watch") the transition from imperial colony to protectorate, a status which absolves the government in the Mother City from doing anything to aid Malbus in any situation but whereby they reserve the right to come back in and assert their ownership should anything interesting or potentially valuable happen.

She's also a hunted woman, with attempts on her life beginning before she even arrives to take office.

The day-to-day task of running the island is handled by an office headed up by Vogt. Note: not ruling, but running. He makes sure that forms get filled out and that everybody gets paid what they're supposed to get paid and everybody pays what they're supposed to pay. Being the person in charge of all the paperwork does give him some influence, but he's loathe to use any of it and even more loathe to admit when he does. He regards bureaucracy as a craft, and himself as a craftsman.

Vogt is a member of a dwarven clan that assimilated into the imperial government ages ago. His name (according to the internet, anyway) means "steward", and it's as much a title as a name. He has a form of polydactyly that gives him seven digits (six fingers, one thumb) on his left hand... dwarves consider this to be a sign of interest. Not necessarily favor or disfavor. On the one hand, seven is said to be the divinely perfect number, but on the other hand having extra fingers on one's hand doesn't necessarily make one any better at hand-to-hand combat or the sort of craftwork that dwarves prize. Vogt's first, last, and only concern is to keep things running smoothly. Perfection and discretion are his dual watchwords.

Marcus (last name to be determined) is a paladin who commands the Knights of Malbus, which operates as a police force on the island. Not the only police force... there is an actual civic police in operation. These things can get somewhat indistinct when dealing with a truly self-contained city-state, but the Knights of Malbus are more like federal agents. They only have jurisdiction in affairs of state. Marcus is motivated by a strong sense of truth and justice, and a desire to protect the people of Malbus from harm.

Marcus may be half-elven. I'm not sure yet.

These would be the central characters of the story, as Malbus is a racially and ethnically diverse city, as most of its population comes from its days as a shipping port and naval power.

These three would be central characters in the story, which concerns the nature of the conspiracy against Lucretia and the future rule of Malbus.

Rose And Bay Fiction - Final Vote

The voting post is now up. Voting is open until the 14th, I believe.