S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 94

Ink Saver

As a science fair project, 14-year-old middle school student Suvir Mirchandani discovered that switching to Garamond as the typeface font for printed documents could save thousands in the cost of ink -- and on a larger scale, millions:

"Ink is two times more expensive than French perfume by volume," Suvir says with a chuckle. He's right: Chanel No. 5 perfume costs $38 per ounce, while the equivalent amount of Hewlett-Packard printer ink can cost up to $75.

The young teen theorized that his school district could save as much as $21,000.00 by switching to the thinner Garamond, which uses less ink, and went to do the same math for the federal goverment:

Using the General Services Administration's estimated annual cost of ink -- $467 million -- Suvir concluded that if the federal government used Garamond exclusively it could save nearly 30% -- or $136 million per year. An additional $234 million could be saved annually if state governments also jumped on board, he reported.

So will everyone switch over to Garamond to save all that expensive ink? Probably not -- but I can tell you from now on I'll be using it instead of Times New Roman or Arial for what I print out.

Related links: Make your own fonts for free with Fonstruct

New Cover Art

I'm very pleased to announce that we have a new horror cover for my next novel, and it's absolutely a career landmine landmark:



I would love to hear your opinions of it, but before you comment I'd like to point out some of the ways in which it's going to ruin my life help create buzz for the new series. While I have considered killing myself over haven't always fared so well with pink covers in the past, I think this one is worse has so much more potential to create buzz. You won't find this particular shade of pink on anyone's just anyone's novel, you know. In fact I think it's destined to become my personal cover art curse career trademark color.

The authentic Victorian-era model used to depict my protagonist is also tragic a thoughtful and provocative choice, especially considering her physical and mental disabilities striking appearance. Very few ladies can pull off looking like a loon wearing a top hat. I applaud the art department for reaching out to the local mental institution modeling community to find such a special lunatic lady.

I'm also utterly appalled enraptured by the new title chosen for my story; I think it will completely mislead reassure readers as to the compulsory sex scenes romantic content of the story. Romance readers, you no longer have to fear the appropriate troubling genre label of urban fantasy or steampunk on my books; as the title screams suggests it's all about the love.

And if any doubts about the new cover linger in your mind, you might want to check the date. Yep, gotcha!

Original image credit: Izismile.com

Con Ten

Ten Things That Always Seem to Happen at Conferences and Conventions

And You Live . . . ?: At some point the largest/freakiest/scariest dude that you see at the con will ask for your home address, personal phone number or other information you would never give out to a stranger. S/he will not tell you why s/he wants this information. This person will also do this five minutes after everyone who came with you leaves for lunch.

Bathroom Breaker: The queue to use the facilities is never short, but will be at its lengthiest when you really, really, really have to go.

Closest Encounter: You will be caught in a crowd and find yourself wedged in a corner with possibly the cutest guy/gal you've ever met, who astonishingly wants to chat with you. This will happen at the precise moment you have an attack of gas, the burps, or your breath turns lethal dragonish.

Critical Asker: While browsing through your stock, a pleasant someone will regale you with a painfully detailed list of all the things they dislike about your last book, your cover art, your web site and/or your writing. When you're ready to melt into the floor in complete and utter misery, your critic will mention how cash-strapped they are and ask for a free signed copy of your latest release.

Gift Giver: Someone you don't know will hand you something unexpected that astounds you and then will disappear into the crowd before you can thank them (Cupcake Girl, I thank you for the lollipop.)

Hunger Games: You will stand (starving) in line (behind 20+ people) at the only food concession that sells tea as well as coffee and bagels along with all the sugary buns. While waiting you will debate the merits of bagels versus buns and tea versus coffee with the person behind you. When you finally reach the counter the person in front of you will grab the very last bag of the tea you prefer, and buy the only bagel left in the bread case.

Let's Get Physical: People you don't know will touch you. This usually comes in the form of a handshake or an arm press but occasionally you'll get a grabber/hugger/kisser. If you get the latter, they will be wearing bright red lipstick that transfers during the grabbing/hugging/kissing to your cheek, your neck or your lapel. You will not be aware of the lipstick print they left until three hours later when you see it in the restroom mirror.

Loyalty Payback: You will meet someone who has loved something you've done for years, and confides in you that love, and never expects anything in return, which gives you the perfect chance to do something for them (Heather!)

Objects Desired: When selling at a con, the item you invested the most time/money/hassle in creating/obtaining/transporting will move slowly or not at all. The cheapy item you almost left home because you didn't think it was worthy, on the other hand, will be snapped up by every other customer and sell out the first day. P.S., you will always bring extra of the former and zero of the latter.

Uh-Oh: After a long final day at the con you will return to your hotel to strip and take a nice, hot shower, which is when you will discover the front zipper on your trousers has been open and displaying a swatch of your pink floral underwear for an unknown amount of time.

Canadian Sub Op

Here's an open call for Canadian writers who might be interested in submitting stories for The Exile Book of New Canadian Noir anthology, and the editors are looking for "previously unpublished dark fiction that spans across genres to capture the whole spectrum of the noir esthetic: its traditional form within crime fiction; its imaginative forays into horror, fantasy, and surrealism; its dystopian consequences within speculative fiction; its disquieting mood in erotica; its grim journeys into frontier fiction; its stark expression in literary realism. We will look at noir fiction of any stripe, within any genre or any combination of genres. Although writers need to be Canadian, there is no restriction on setting. Stories can be set anywhere." Length: 1-8K; Payment: 5 cents/word. No reprints, electonic submissions only, see guidelines for more details. Deadline: July 2nd, 2014.

Instant Crush

Anyone who reads PBW regularly probably realizes how much I love The Presurfer, as I'm always swiping links from Gerard to repost here. I found Gerard originally via The Generator blog -- also his brainchild -- which I raided habitually for fun writing gennies. I don't often develop instant online crushes, but if I have one that's never waivered it's Gerard.

Lately I've been noticing a trend of incoming links from one Tumblr blog, which I went over to investigate (I try not to do that, but the name was irresistable to me.) After reading many pages of hilarious but true Q&A's, I've gone and done the Daft Punk thing again. So if you want some fascinating discussions on characters and how to avoid making them into dreaded Mary Sues, check out Mary Sue Problems on Tumblr. Also, for those who love sparkling twit wit, tune into Mary Sue Problems on Twitter.

Elsewhere & Le Chocolat

Today over at the series blog we're having a massive MegaCon giveaway, which includes signed print copies of Disenchanted & Co. and The Clockwork Wolf, a signed Mandi print by artist Shawn Surface, some fun Pumpkin Spiced comics and necklace by artist/writer/vlogger Paige Lavoie, steampunk accessories extraordinaire from Mrs. Pettigrew's and Yours Truly, a very cool Muma tote from CosplayMooMoo, plus a collection of my daughter's anime art. Stop in if you get a chance, enter to win and it might all end up yours.







For the Friday video, Simon Pénochet has filmed the delicious work being done in Alain Ducasse's new chocolate factory, which was built from an old Renault Garage in the center of Paris, near Place de la Bastille (with background music and narration, for those of you at work):

La manufacture du chocolat Alain Ducasse from BLAST PRODUCTION on Vimeo.

(Video link swiped from Gerard at The Presurfer)

Quilting Picasso Update

While we were away at MegaCon I did work on my Picasso project, too, and made some progress primarily with stitching:



I decided against embellishing the lady's tresses with thread or fiber to make it look more like hair -- the thought was tempting, but I wanted to follow Picasso's lead and go bolder there. I thought of all the Latinas I grew up with, and how flowers tucked in their dark hair always looked so lovely, which I thought would also compliment Picasso's lady:



I'm not sure if I'm done with the flower, but I'm leaving it alone to brood over whether or not to add some crystal beads for some faux dewy sparkle (I really like it plain, but that may be a bit too bold. It's also glaringly white, which I could tone down with a bit of strategically- and sparingly-applied watercolor.) To pay homage to the artist's love of southern light I showered the background with vertically stitched holographic golden thread, which came out exactly as I wanted so I'll continue it on the left side.

I'm working at a snail's pace on this project, which normally would aggravate me, but I think going slow and carefully is helping me avoid the stress of pushing myself too fast toward the finish line. Sometimes in order to make better creative decisions it is worth applying the brakes, to give yourself time to think and process and consider. What you lose by sacrificing speed you can make up in replenishing the well as you work.

Off (But Call Me Tellervo)

I'll be mostly offline today so I can run errands, catch up on housework and take care of all the things that seem to multiply whenever you go out of town. Like laundry. Who knew my empty hampers would fill up by themselves while we were away? So that your stop here was not entirely wasted, check out this neat name generator I spotted over at The Presurfer:

According to VisitFinland.com, "Finland is a country where things are based on nature and old mythology. Even people’s names are inspired by the woods, animals and mythological characters." They've also set up the Finngenerator, a name-changing generator to help you try and find your inner Finn -- which I did:



So now you must address me as the daughter of a forest god, who is or is on a slope (is that a fancy way of saying I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe?) If you give the generator a whirl post your results in comments.

MegaCon Report

Now that I'm back home, and I think the dogs have forgiven me for being away for three straight days, here's my report on MegaCon 2014 and how things went for us.

We arrived a day early to take advantage of the pre-event load-in and set up our booth, and I am very glad we did that. While the booth area was exactly as promised, the arrangement of the draping and the tables was not what I'd envisioned (and for that I blame me; I was going by memories of the one I attended some years back.) Luckily I brought extra of everything and was able to adjust our set-up to fit the space. I also -- by complete chance -- chose the perfect fabric to compliment the gold and red theme colors of the exhibitors hall, so our booth looked custom-designed to fit our surroundings.

Before we travelled to the convention we actually set up the booth first in a matching space we taped off in our garage at home, and that was probably the most valuable prep we did, because once we were there we knew exactly where to put everything. We did a bit of rearranging to maximize the space and allow browsers room to roam, and that resulted in us getting rid of one of the eight-foot tables the convention people provided.

Friday, the first day of the convention, was quite busy, and when we weren't selling we spent some time working out how to run things as efficiently as possible at the booth. This was also wise, as Saturday, the second day, was absolutely insane. For most of the day we were packed to the rafters with attendees; the aisles were constantly jammed. If I have to criticize the convention folks for anything, it's the utter failure to provide adequate space for the attendees to move through the rows of booths easily.

Our booth attracted a lot of notice for several reasons (my daughter being very attractive was probably #1.) I didn't see any other booths selling books, so I think we cornered the market there, and having traditional books out drew in a lot of the older attendees, like the Moms and Dads who had brough their kids to the con. We sold 80% of the books I brought, and my daughter's art and my steamunk jewelry also sold briskly. Altogether our sales covered our expenses plus provided a nice profit.

We were so busy I was able to leave the booth only to run to the restroom for most of the convention. I did get a chance to make one trip to the LEGO pit, which was my favorite part of the last MegaCon I attended. It was totally worth wading through the packed aisles, too -- the LEGO guys and kids are so inventive with their exhibit. They had television shows like Fringe and Lost depicted in blocks, as well as an entire city with streets and skyscrapers. The designs and attention to details were absolutely marvelous.

I also loved seeing all the handmade cosplay costumes worn by the attendees. You may not think you can make magic with some cardboard and poster paint and colored tights, but oh, my, they truly did. I was very happy to see how many guys dressed out as my favorite cosplay character -- Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly -- and spent more than one moment surreptitiously sighing over a handsome version who wandered into our booth.

My daughter gets credit for being the most patient kid in the universe; she spent much of the convention explaining to me things I saw that I didn't recognize or understand (like this guy in the pink bunny suit.) It's always tough having parents who are really old enough to be your grandparents, but she never complains. My guy gets extra kudos for coming along to provide all the heavy lifting, furniture rearranging and errand-running; no matter what we asked he did it (and this is really not his thing at all, so it was especially nice of him to sacrifice three days he could have spent more happily at home.)

If I could go back and redo some things, I think I would have brought an extra bookshelf to put out more books; they were our bestsellers. I would probably have more of a selection, too -- I brought books written by authors who are also friends of mine, but I probably should have stocked a bigger variety of titles and genres. Also, while all my jewelry sold well, what went the fastest were the dozen sets of little key earrings I made -- and those I made really as an afterthought so there would be something inexpensive for buyers who didn't have a lot of $$$. If I had made and brought fifty more pairs of those I could have sold them all the first day.

All in all the entire convention experience was very positive, so I'm calling it a complete success. My thanks to Karen W., Heather, Jenny and Harold, Monique, Sue, Annie, Brandon, Deborah, Michael, the nice young guy who asked me all those questions, and all the other lovely people who stopped to visit the booth and chat with me -- you made my MegaCon especially wonderful.

Blast from the Past: Be Happy We Work at Home

We've made it home from MegaCon 2014, which was absolutely amazing. I'll be spending today unpacking, cuddling with the pups and trying to remember what I did with my mobile, but over at the series blog I've posted a slideshow of some pics I took this weekend.

To wrap up blast from the past week, here's one of my favorite ten lists:

Ten Things That Would Happen if Writing Became a Day Job

Accounting: could slow down in a big way and no one would notice. Meanwhile, the payroll clerk would become everyone's BFF.

Bosses: would have to do a lot more reading, stock up on Pepto, hire an extra secretary just to answer their intercom or phone extension and learn how to speak editor ("Get it done" = "If you can send this to me by close of business today I'll authorize your D&A payment").

Business Conferences: would have to include new events like Project Pitchorama, Character Dress-up for Literacy and The Vampire Ball.

Casual Friday: would be pretty much every day, and would have to be expanded to authorize the wearing of pjs, yoga pants, fuzzy socks and T-shirts with slogans like "OCCUPY PUBLISHING".

Company Coffee Pot: would burn out from overuse every other month or be filled with extra-large tea bags immersed in something vaguely purple that smells a bit like like the Queen's perfume.

Desks: would be buried beneath stacks of corrected chapters, two years of The Writer back issues, three dozen pens that ran out of ink and assorted widgets/gadgets/gizmos, index cards, newspaper clippings, and at least one hundred sticky notes inscribed with enigmatic phrases like "Sx scene Chap 9!!!!" or "Dismember by ch. saw?"

Offices: would need three walls of book shelves, stereo systems, scented candles, locking doors, pillows to scream into and at least one large window overlooking something pretty.

Personal Calls: would have to be authorized for mid-afternoon moments of panic when the employees need to call their best writer pals to say, "I suck. Go ahead, just tell me the truth. I suck."

Supply Closets: would have to be kept stocked with six months' supply of toner, bond paper, highlighters, red pens and lots and lots of notebooks with cute kitten covers.

Water Cooler: would be much more popular, at least until the boss discovers someone refilled it with wine.