GUEST BLOG: Rose Fischer, author of WRITE AWAY: QUICK GUIDE TO CHARACTER FLAWS

On November 30, 2015November 26, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Writing2 Comments

I’m home by now, or at least I’d better be. One more guest blog anyway, because there’s a REAL good chance I want to sleep in this morning. In fact, hopefully I’m still in bed. Regular programming resumes tomorrow. Today’s guest blogger: Rose Fischer!

I lurk in a lot of writing groups and forums. I participate now and then, but mostly I lurk. It’s the online equivalent of people watching. I get lots of ideas that way. So, if you see me listed as a member of any group that you belong to, be advised. I’m watching you!

One way I do like to participate is to answer questions. Over the summer I noticed that the same questions would come up over and over. Answers were a mixed bag. Some were awesome. Others were clearly composed while the author was smoking a big chunk of her living room carpet. Eventually, I got tired of answering the same questions. So, I thought, “Hey!” Why don’t I put all these answers into ebook form where I can go into more detail than I can in a comment!”

Then I said, “Great idea, self! Now you have to pick a question to answer and come up with examples to illustrate your points.”

“You mean like a blog post?” I asked.

“Sure! But probably longer than a blog post. Maybe 3 or 4 posts put together.”

“Okay…STAR WARS!”

“Well, that was random. What about Star Wars?”

“Star Wars is awesome! All of my best writing related posts have used Star Wars examples!”

“Okay,” I nodded. “So what are you going to do with Star Wars this time?”

“People keep asking about how to come up with character flaws. It seems like they don’t realize that if they have a story at all, they already have the basis for flawed characters. I could talk all about Luke Skywalker and now he goes from this whiny, self-absorbed naïve little idiot to a big cocky still-self-absorbed idiot and then turns into a serene, kickass Jedi idiot who totally underestimates…”

“Whoa, whoa whoa. Slow down there, cowgirl. Everybody already knows you don’t like Luke. Why don’t you write a book about character flaws that uses Han and Leia?” I suggested, in my best diplomatic Jedi voice.

“What?! Han and Leia don’t have any flaws!”

“Of course they do. Leia’s got major tunnel vision and a chip on her shoulder. Han’s greedy, jaded, as self-absorbed as Luke any day of the week–”

“STOP SAYING MEAN THINGS ABOUT HAN!”

I rubbed my eyes and said, “Okay, look. Why don’t we compromise here. We can write a book that uses Luke, Han, and Leia ALL as examples and examines how their flaws are actually the inverse of their positive traits.”

“Okay, FINE. I’ll go write a dumb book that’s totally fair and treats all three of them equally. And I won’t even act like I think Luke is a complete numbskull or make farmboy jokes or reference Mara Jade calling him farmboy. Are you happy?”

“Yes. I’m very happy. And I think everyone should go buy our book now. And stop making threats about men in white coats.”

So yeah. I also talk to myself a lot. This is my new ebook.

It’s not crazy, I promise. You should buy it if you’re a writer who likes Star Wars. Even if you think Luke Skywalker is cool.

Rose B. Fischer is an avid fan of Star Wars, foxes, Stargate: SG-1, and Star Trek. She would rather be on the Enterprise right now.

Since she can’t be a Starfleet Officer, she became a speculative fiction author whose stories feature women who defy cultural stereotypes.

In her fictional worlds, gender is often fluid, sexuality exists on a spectrum, and “disability” does not define an individual. She publishes science fiction, science fantasy, horror, and biographical essays.

If you haven’t been scared away, you can connect with her on her:

Website http://rosebfischer.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rose.b.fischer

email: rosebfischer1@gmail.com

Come see me tomorrow at @StarbaseIndy!

On November 26, 2015November 26, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Blogwanking, Geek, Uncategorized4 Comments

I should be packing right now; I’m spending the next three days at the Wyndham Indianapolis West in, uh, Indianapolis at the Starbase Indy science fiction/ Star Trek convention. I will, hopefully, both have a really good time and sell an insane number of books.

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It goes without saying that I think if you’re in Indianapolis or within reasonable driving range that you should come see me. At least, it should go without saying, even though technically I just said it twice.

“But, Luther!” you cry. “Who shall post roughly every four to five hours while you are awake? How could we go a weekend without you? Isn’t it true that it’s been a year since you missed a day?”

First of all, no, not quite; the last time I missed a day was December 23, 2014. So it’s been almost a year. Second, as of right now my next six posts are set up, taking care of the blog through Monday morning. You’ve got two from me (well, one’s a Station Identification) and four guest posts coming from four very capable writers, at least one of which genuinely deserves to go even more viral than the Syria post (35,456 hits and counting) did. You’ll know it when you see it. There’s also an announcement coming Monday morning! Your hint is that it’ll be on Cyber Monday. Let your brain run wild.

Anyway. Don’t spend too much money in the big boxes this weekend, kids. The sales aren’t that good anyway. Support local and independent retailers and all that. And come see me!

In which I have no idea where I am or what’s going on

On November 25, 2015November 25, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy, Uncategorized4 Comments

As of a couple of days ago, it’s been a solid two months since I managed anything like the work schedule I’ve grown accustomed to over the last 15 years, and as of right now it’ll be another two before I’m officially supposed to return. Last weekend my brother and his fiancée were in town along with my best friend and we had Thanksgiving with my family a week early. My son is on Thanksgiving break, and he’s home with me right now.

What this means is that I am a complete mess in terms of knowing what day of the week it is or when I’m supposed to be doing what or basically anything else. I wrote the headline to this piece before I actually started it and I swear it was originally a #WeekendCoffeeShare post, meaning I thought it was bloody Saturday.

Thursday/Tomorrow is Real Thanksgiving, which will be celebrated with my wife’s family, and Friday through Sunday I’ll be at Starbase Indy in, well, Indianapolis. I won’t be able to go anywhere or do anything tomorrow, though, so anything I need to buy or print or get done for Friday actually needs to be done today because everything righteous will be closed tomorrow.

That’s not helping.

So, yeah, today’s a weird day, and I have absolutely no idea what’s going on with my life right now. I’m hoping the week after Thanksgiving holds a bunch of good news, but I’m not talking about that until it happens.

In other news, the Syria post had 10,316 views yesterday. Remember when I was kvetching a little bit that it didn’t look like I’d get as many views this year as last year and that I really wanted 100K out of this year? That post has been live for about exactly a week (within half an hour) as I’m typing this and it’s had 29,445 views, so so much for worrying about that. It’s finally starting to show some signs of slowing down, and tomorrow is a major national holiday, so right now I’m guessing yesterday was the peak, but we’ll see what happens.

Much more to do today, so we’ll talk later.

#Weekendcoffeeshare: Ass O’Clock in the Morning edition

On November 21, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Stories7 Comments

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If we were having coffee, it would have to be quick this time around– we have the first of two Thanksgivings today, one of my oldest friends is in town, and I got shit to do this morning, since I didn’t manage to get the kitchen fit for human habitation last night and I still haven’t confirmed that our cord-cut television set can handle the footballing that everyone seems so concerned about this afternoon.

It’s been a good week, short of a fairly major medication-related flare-up yesterday, and while I haven’t gotten as much done on Sunlight as pure wordcount might indicate I’ve been pretty happy with what I’ve created. We’d also spend some time talking about that Syria post, which has picked up three hundred more Facebook shares since I went to bed last night (currently at 1300) and may be actually legitimately going viral now rather than just being Really Damn Popular. As I said yesterday, I’m waiting to see if Reddit gets ahold of it. So far, no, but Facebook is pushing it just fine on its own.

This week’s going to be crazy busy, too, what with Actual Thanksgiving on Thursday (that’ll be my wife’s family) and exhibiting at Starbase Indy on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afterwards. If you happen to live in the Indianapolis area I insist that you come and see me. I also have to spend some time grading tomorrow one way or another; we’re in “Suck it up, buttercup” mode on that right now and it just has to be done.

Another thing that’s happened this week: it’s been a week to get in touch with old professors, find out that they still remember me, and promise to send them copies of Searching for Malumba, which is another thing I need to make sure to do this weekend. I should have ordered more copies of Malumba; with the three I currently have promised to professors (one of whom is going to be at SBI giving a talk, awesomely enough, and doesn’t know she’s getting a book yet) I only have three to actually sell at the convention. Selling out of books is a good problem to have, mind you, but I’d rather have enough stock on hand, and CreateSpace ain’t getting me more on that kind of timeline.

Oh, also, it’s snowing.

How was your week?

On anxiety: an observation

On November 20, 2015November 20, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Stories9 Comments

This post probably could have just been a handful of Tweets, but I’d kinda like it a bit less ephemeral than that. First things first; I’ve talked, a couple of times, about some of the things about Penny Arcade that make it somewhat problematic for me to be a fan of theirs. That said, when Mike gets something right, he really gets it right, and you probably ought to read the piece he put up yesterday on his, and his son’s, issues with controlling anxiety.

Second: I am, as most of you full well know, currently on medical leave due to (primarily) anxiety issues. I’m taking Clonazepam after having a genuinely shit reaction to the Lexapro I initially started on.

Every so often, I catch myself feeling like I’ve managed to pull a con on somebody. Not often, but it happens. This got you on medical leave? Really? Because most of the time, I’m fine. It’s the 10% of the time when I’m not fine, and the unpredictability of the arrival of that 10%, when it becomes clear that, yes, I really do have a problem right now, and it is best for everyone if that problem does not strike during a time when I am responsible for educating the children of other people.

I just got out of the shower maybe twenty minutes ago– shut up, I’m at home by myself, I’ll shower when I want— and all the sudden the whole world crashed down around me. I’m not going to get into the details, but it was bad.

And then it hit me that I had forgotten to take my pill this morning. My routine was a little disrupted from usual and I forgot.

And it took, oh, six hours without any Clonazepam in my system for me, out of nowhere and with no particular anxiety-inducing trigger, to be reduced to a miserable, shuddering wreck.

(And I should also be clear that I’m still having occasional flare-ups while on the medication. But they apparently trigger immediately if I forget to take it. Is that just what my life was like before I started taking this shit? Jesus.)

It continues (morning blogwanking)

On November 20, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Blogwanking, Uncategorized8 Comments

Yesterday was the highest-traffic day in the history of the blog, including the time where I was Freshly Pressed:

Screen Shot 2015-11-20 at 8.11.55 AM.png

You’ll note that I had more individual visitors than I had pageviews the day before, and I’m pretty sure the day before was the 2nd or 3rd best day I’ve ever had. That’s pretty impressive. As of now, 8:17, I’ve already got 160 views, so thus far the pace hasn’t slowed down any. And check this out:

That’s all time ranked posts, using the old stats editor. Leaving out the home page and the “About” page, which aren’t posts, that means that a post I wrote less than 48 hours ago is now the 7th highest-traffic post I’ve ever written.

Dag.

I don’t think it’s going to catch the Snowpiercer post, which has five times as many hits as its closest competitor, but it’ll be really interesting to see how far it gets before interest fizzles out. Another interesting detail: right now, traffic appears to be driven almost exclusively by Facebook referrals. As of this second the page has been shared on FB 759 times and 31 on Twitter, but I got 671 referrals from FB yesterday and only 13 from Twitter. Not one click through StumbleUpon, Reddit, Tumblr, or any of the other usual suspects. My autoshare on FB has reached 907 people and the Tumblr share doesn’t have a single note on it. Less than ten from Google +, which I think is funny, since those might be my first G+ referrals ever.

I’m actually kind of scared to see what will happen if Reddit gets ahold of the post. Which I suppose you can take as an invitation if you’re a Redditor.

Still no trolls, either. Amazing.

Now (again) if I can just get these people to buy books. 🙂

So that’s going well

On November 19, 2015November 19, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Blogwanking3 Comments

rusnrd6jsjs4njnofrit That little post about Christianity and the Syrian refugees yesterday got 636 pageviews, a single-day record for any post not involving Freshly Pressed. The site in general had 890, with 620 unique visitors. As of this exact second, 6:33 in the AM, we’re looking at the fourth most popular post written in 2015 (total 733 views) and absolutely the fastest-moving thing I’ve ever written for this space– remember, this is still in less than a day— because even the Snowpiercer post took a minute to get moving.

Also as of right now: 347 shares on Facebook, a number that has changed while I’ve been writing this and is close enough to half the total number that Snowpiercer has amassed that it’ll probably be there by the time my son wakes up in a few minutes. (EDIT: It got six more before I hit “post,” so it’s there.) It’s already at nearly 100 views today, and it is, again, 6:36 in the morning. I can’t quite call it “viral” yet, but it’s definitely doing quite well.

Also amazing: I haven’t had to slap any trolls around yet, although I don’t expect that to last.

Maybe I’ll get my 100K pageviews for the year after all.

Now all I gotta do is get these folks to buy some books. Good morning, Internet.

In which I investigate

On November 17, 2015November 17, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Blogwanking, Reviews5 Comments

Huty1913428 I’m issuing a qualified thumbs-up to the new text editor, guys, and I’m surprising myself by doing so, believe me. The only thing I’ve found that doesn’t work like I want it to is moving images around, and that feels more like a temporary bug than a deliberate decision someone made. It’s also pretty easy to fix in HTML if the image won’t slide around properly in the WYSIWYG editor.

One thing I’d like to see is a way to copy posts straight from the new editor; I actually use that feature quite a lot what with the various hashtagged posts I do every week, and it’s kind of annoying to have to go through the My Sites menu to copy a post or to just hope the original (as in, the black-and-white one from three years ago) editor pops up. However, now that I’ve typed enough that I don’t want to cancel out, I do seen an “All Posts” arrow in the upper-right hand corner, so maybe that’s where I’d go before I start writing if I wanted to copy a post. (EDIT: Nope. As of right now, you need the admin page to copy posts, which is unchanged from the last version of the editor.)

Another minor annoyance: Choosing a category does not unclick “Uncategorized” automatically like it used to. They should fix that.

Continue reading “In which I investigate” →