Peter M. Ball's Blog, page 6

Raymond Chandler’s Lists

One of my favourite pages from Raymond Chandler’s notebooks, where he plans out a list of similes and descriptions that will later find their way into books. There’s similar lists scattered through the notebooks where he describes outfits, makes a note of potential titles, or golden comebacks for his dialogue. Once used, he’d go back and make a note on each list, so he wouldn’t repeat it in a later story or book.

It’s easy to forget that writing is a multi-stage process involving ideation, actually putting the raw components of plot on the page, then layering in details like voice and tone that make the work unique. Often, writers approach this as a single task, sitting down at the keyboard and hammering words until a scene feels right.

Reading through Chandler’s notebooks and realising you didn’t have to do all three at the same time was a revelation for me as a young writer.

Status: 2 Mar 2023

Putting on my editor hat for a moment: The latest release at Brain Jar Press is Matthew R. Davis’ Bites Eyes, a deliciously disturbing assemblage of thirteen flash fictions and short horror vignettes. Available now through the Brain Jar Press store or all good bookshops. Editing short story collections is one of my favourite things to do, and there’s a deceptive amount of depth you can bring to the process to the editor. Probably the most fun I’ve had designing a cover in the last year as well.

ON THE DOCKET

Thursdays are usually my meeting-free day each week, but today is all about seeing folks. I’m catching up with an old friend via Zoom in the morning and have a rescheduled mentee meeting in the afternoon.

This is very much a notebook week on the writing front. I recently doubled down on bullet journaling as my default organisational system, and it’s working moderately well, and the natural next step is doing all my planning and drafting away from the computer. I’ve got about three-quarters of a truly terrible short story draft down over the last two days, after nearly a week of trying to write it in scrivener and stalling out. The redrafting process for this one will be brutal, but that’s what tomorrow’s for.

There’s also a bunch of design work on deck, and a little catch-up on the Brain Jar admin I didn’t get to yesterday. It’s nearly five months since I lost my job and went back to being the primary on-deck person running the press, but I’m finally hitting the point where it’s feeling like I’m almost caught up and ready to get things running smoothly.

(The gods will, of course, smite me for saying that, but let’s celerate the win, eh?)

PETER M. BALL INBOX: 15 BRAIN JAR INBOX: 13BRAIN JAR SUBMISSION QUEUE: 6

I read Tiago Forte’s One Touch Email system yesterday and immediately applied it to my personal email, and the results were pretty extreme. It helps a lot that I already had the infrastructure he talks about between my journal, my Evernote set-up, and my tasks manager, so it was mostly a reminder that system that I typically think of as a waste of time to learn how to use (‘Email to’ functions, keyboard shortcuts) typically have a big effect when you figure out how to use them properly.

Not going to lie: creating a “Task” and “Reference” email that forwards things to the appropriate system did a lot of the heavy listing in cutting down my inbox of doom.

Status: 1 Mar 2023

An off-hand comment from my beloved wife and a weekly vegetable box delivery has sent me down a rabbit hole of experimenting with my method of cooking roast potatoes, looking for techniques I can use to level up my roasties. Yesterday, I experimented with par-boiling the potatoes in slightly acidic water before roasting, then brushing them with a little melted butter to add some flavour as they roasted. The results were deliciously crisp potatoes with a fluffy core when eaten hot, but the texture of the leftovers was disappointing when eaten cold the following day.

Leftovers are important to us, given the haphazard balance between deadlines and spoons that runs our household, so figuring out the perfect tater roast now has a dedicated project page in my bullet journal to track future experiments and their results.

I did a long podcast taping with the PratChat folks last night – my first real “be a writer in public” thing in over a year, and only my second since the pandemic started, and I’m feeling it today. I’ve got a definite out in public hangover today – reserves a low, and largely diverted to wrangling the brain weasels my social anxiety throws my way after any public appearance or teaching gig. There shall be many cups of tea in my future.

GO READ

Cory Doctrow’s recent Wired article on the enshittification of technology spaces is also available to read on his website, and it’s highly recommended reading for anyone working in the arts/publishing/social media space. Indie publishing is often highly enamoured of these spaces and lean into tactics that work best when the spaces are new and not-yet-enshittified, which leads to a lot of folks throwing energy at making things work post-enshittification and wondering why they’re not getting results.

Far better to go in with your eyes open and assume that enshittification is coming. Yes, TikTok was great for organic reach once, but they’re past the period where they’re courting users and starting to figure out how to monetize, and with monetization comes shittiness and the desire to make you pay for reach. This isn’t new either — Amazon and Facebook have both played this game, and coaxed us all into throwing money their way for reach that used to be free — and it’s worth being aware of these things before you go all in on a particular marketing tactic.

And, not for nothing, it’s one of the reasons I’m reverting to the rather outdated technology of blogging instead of leaning into a major social media platform.

Anyway, read Doctrow’s article here.

ON THE DOCKET

Rare day without meetings or commitments, which means I’m diving into a bunch of design commissions and moving them forward. I’m also about to upload some new Brain Jar Press books to various distribution points so we can start marketing the pre-orders next week.

Still wading through two thousand fraudulent orders on the Brain Jar Press store, which means my email will periodically go insane as notifications come through. Thankfully, it seems the orders have halted for a stretch, which is especially useful given a new book launched yesterday and we need to double check every order that comes in.

PETER M. BALL INBOX: 83 (with the sword of Damocles looming overhead)BRAIN JAR INBOX: 14BRAIN JAR SUBMISSION QUEUE: 6

Status: 28 Feb 2023

OUT TODAY: ECLECTIC PROJECTS 002

The second issue of Eclectic Projects is out today, featuring four original short stories, one serial entry, and one long essay about the worst job I’ve ever worked, digital publishing technology, and the evolution of publishing scams in the age of the internet. Available from all good bookstores, via a Patreon subscription, or right here on the Eclectic Projects store in ebook and print.

Sale Product on sale $2.99 – $10.99 Select options STATE OF THE PETER

What started as 400-odd fraudulent orders over on Brain Jar Press has now escalated to a flurry of 3,000+ attempts, which basically means my email is a hellscape of notifications and chat messages. Our payment provider is still doing their job—none of the fraudulent purchases have gone through and I’m spared the mass refunding that would follow if they did—but it’s still a time-consuming process to stay on top of things.

Worse, today, because it’s release day for Matthew Davis’ Bites Eyes over on the Brain Jar site, so I’ll have to keep a wary eye out for the legitimate orders that come through.

ON THE DOCKET

Dealing with some personal stuff today, alongside the fraud orders, but the nice thing about release days is that a large chunk of my to-do list can be run from a phone (it’s all triggering newsletters and commenting on social media posts). Later tonight, when things calm down, I’ll be recording with the fine folks at the PratChat podcast where we talk about Terry Pratchett’s non-fiction collection.

PETER M. BALL INBOX: 91 (with about 1000+ emails due to land today)BRAIN JAR INBOX: 13BRAIN JAR SUBMISSION QUEUE: 6

Spent some time rebuilding our submission tracking now that I’m back to being the primary BJP filter for new work, so the submission queue number may be a little soft, but I think I’ve logged everything that needs handling on both the partial requests and initial submission side of things.

Status: 27 Feb 2023

Extraordinary number of fraulent orders hit the Brain Jar Press store over the weekend, transforming our usual trickle of notifications into a mighty torrent as I was notified by payment failure after payment failure. On the plus side, our filters caught all the bogus orders as they were sent through and didn’t process them, which means I don’t have to spend my day refunding 400+ orders and talking to our payment provider about each one. On the downside, my email and the order system is a disaster zone that will need a few hours to clean up.

Meanwhile, there are definite signs I need to reset my desk, especially given the number of books stacking up on the side table because I referenced them while working.

NEW WORK

This week’s Saturday Morning Story on Patreon was It’s Not A Job, a short tale about Chosen Ones, Monsters, and the Late Stage Capitalism that may also be a metaphor for art if you squint and look at the story sideways. Currently slated to appear in the September issue of Eclectic Projects, so Patreon backers get a really early look in addition to new issues as the magazine comes out.

Here’s a sample:

So it’s a Thursday and the three of us, me and Wiki and Cady, we’re up on the roof smoking cigarettes before we go clean the twenty-third floor. Our manager would ream our asses if she knew, pitch a fit over the maid service showing up stinking like an ashtray, but Cady wanted a cigarette and she’s got this way about her. She’ll get jack of working and just declare a smoke break, and somehow Wiki and me, we end up on the roof and start bumming smokes even though we say we’ve quit. The three of us, together, wasting time in the shadow of the Hotel sign they’ve bolted up there, on the edge. The big one, each letter sixteen feet high and luminous in the dark.

So we’re smoking when the storm rolls in, these dark, heavy clouds that boil and curl like ink poured into water. Weather that shifts the mood from “what a nice day” to “dear lord, forgive us our trespasses” in the space of a shared cigarette and the short exposition of Wiki’s bullshit theories ‘bout how the Raiders will do this season.

Cady eyes the clouds with suspicion. “Where the hell did those came from?”

“Warm, damp air rising fast and releasing latent heat as they condense,” Wiki says. “You know, like any other cloud.”

“Brain that size, and you still rock the mullet.” Cady finishes her cigarette and flicks it into the tin we keep up there to store her butts. “Some days, you worry me, big man.”

Me, I’m staring at the clouds while they bicker, trying to scratch the itchy tingle out of my arm and ignore the little voice in the back of my head screaming yo, yo, yo, man, there’s something hella wrong here. Trying to convince myself that sometimes a cloud is just a cloud, and the biggest risk the storm represents is the possibility of being soaked. 

Cady is still giving Wiki grief when I finally give in and say, “Guys? Hey guys, yo. I don’t think this is just weather, you know?”

Read It’s Not A Job on Patreon

ON THE DOCKET

Two mentorship meetings to deliver today, plus one more mentee I need to onboard after the email chain ground to a halt while I was sick. I also need to do some prep for the impending recording of next month’s Pratchat and make sure I’ve got my ideas and talking points clear. Also preparing for the launch of Ecletic Projects 002 tomorrow, making time for housework, and getting some writing done. If I don’t clear inboxes of the crushing weight of failed orders I’ll be a grumpy shit for the rest of the week.

Definitely more on the to-do list than I’ve got brains to manage. It’s going to be a messy day.

PETER M. BALL INBOX: 127BRAIN JAR INBOX: 14BRAIN JAR SUBMISSION QUEUE: 15

Status: 24 Feb 2023

Every Saturday, I post a new fantasy, science fiction, or horror story to Patreon. These are usually in ARC form—early iterations of the stories that will eventually find their way into the Eclectic Projects magazine series—although the changes between the Patreon version and the published version are minimal outside a few notable exceptions.

I’ve just prepared this week’s story and set it up to go live at 10 AM tomorrow, Queensland Time. It won’t appear in the monthly magazine until October. You can join the Patreon and get the weekly stories for as little as a buck a month (my concession to the fact that everything is awful, and money is tight right now).

I figure the first year of doing this is really just a test to see if I can do it. I don’t think of myself as a fast writer and I’d fallen into the bad habit of leaving things unfinished over the last decade, so I wanted to push myself and create a project where I had to put new writing into the world. I honestly figured I’d make it about three months and fold, but we’re now 36 story posts into the project and even on the worst weeks (like this one) I’ve got an original story done and ready for consumption.

But thirty-six stories means it’s also time to consider the future of the project. I committed myself to a year of stories—and twelve issues of the magazine—in the spirit of truly testing myself, but whether I’ll do another year largely depends on the state of the Patreon subscriptions and sales of the magazines. If you’re inclined to check them out, consider hitting up Patreon or grabbing one of issues below.

Eclectic Projects 002 Sale Product on sale $2.99 – $10.99 Select options Eclectic Projects 001 Sale Product on sale $2.99 – $10.99 Select options ON THE DOCKET

Progressed a bunch of design projects yesterday, then re-thought my approach to projects and time blocking to account for the way my life has changed. I also started my annual re-read of Dan Charnas’ Work Clean, which is very soothing when things get busy.

This morning was all about tomorrow’s Patreon story and prep for today’s mentorship meeting, but this afternoon will be devoted to chores and Brain Jar Work. There’s a contract to be written, page proofs to finish, and two or three books that we’re almost ready to announce if I can just keep them moving forward. Also a print proof to sign off on, and some new print runs to be ordered.

PETER M. BALL INBOX: 45BRAIN JAR INBOX: 16BRAIN JAR SUBMISSION QUEUE: 15

Status: 23 Feb 2023

There’s a work philosophy in Dan Charnas’ Work Clean which boils down to “slow down in order to speed up.” The mistakes you make by trying to get things done fast often end up costing you time in the long run, because things will end up needing to be redone or you’ll have to double-handle things somewhere along the way.

It’s a good philosophy, and one that I’m thinking about a lot as I go back and fix the various mistakes of earlier this week, which include setting up print copies of a book using the wrong type of paper and needing to adjust all the cover layouts once we discovered the mistake.

I’m also thinking about it with regard to rough drafts this week. February through March is typically the stretch of the year where my normal writing process stops working for a bit, since my ramshackle “make it up as I go along” approach tends to rely on having lots of thinking time and writing time to iterate work in various formats and pick up mistakes. I don’t have the spoons for that at present, given the various other stressors that kick in, but it always makes me twitchy about not working fast enough. My anxiety brain keeps pushing me to write all the words right fucking now, so I’m reminding myself that slow doesn’t mean that I’m doing it wrong…

ON THE DOCKET

There are no meetings or mentorship sessions today—a rarity at the moment—so I’m I’m about to knuckle down in the long stretch of uninterrupted time to get some freelance design gigs cleared. Today’s all about interior layouts for a book and mailing off cover samples that have been sitting on my desktop for longer than they should have been.

PETER M. BALL INBOX: 37BRAIN JAR INBOX: 14BRAIN JAR SUBMISSION QUEUE: 15

Expect minimal movement on all of these this week.

The Dice Goblin Gains A New Dice Bag

My dad wore a tie to work almost every day of his adult life, and still had a vast collection when he passed away in 2019. My mum asked if I’d be interested in them, but a) I wear a tie for job interviews approximately once every three or four years, and b) I don’t have a lot of storage in my flat. Ergo, I took an old Phantom tie my father loved (for sentimental reasons) and passed on the rest.

Rather than give the ties to goodwill, my mum partnered with a crafty friend to give the surplus new life. They transformed some into cushions, which my sister and I received as Christmas gifts, but there was still plenty of tie fabric left over. My sister elected to get another cushion, but I have about as much need for cushions as I have a need for neckties, so I passed on that as well.

Instead, we had a quick brainstorm about possible transformations that would fit into my life. “What would be really useful,” I said, “would be a dice bag for all my gaming dice. The pencil case I’ve been using for the last few years has never really fit them all.”

I didn’t think about it much after that. Then, last month, Allan of pop culture artifact generators Type40 kicked off a weekly. Pulp Cthulhu campaign and I was reaching for dice every Sunday. The limits of my set-up were being tested, regularly, and coming up short, and I’d started searching for various replacements online.

Thankfully, I hadn’t pulled the trigger on buying one, because the first words out of mum’s mouth when we gathered for dad’s memorial birthday dinner were “I’ve got your dice bags for you.”

There’s two of them, which means I can split my dice collection into a d10-intensive Call of Cthulhu bag and a more general DnD bag. It may mean buying a few extra rounds of dice to bulk things out (oh no!), but it’s nice to be carrying a little piece of my dad along to every game.

Status: 22 Feb 2023

In March, I’m going to be a gust on the Pratchat: The Terry Pratchett Bookclub Podcast hosted by Ben McKenzie and Elizabeth Flux. Here’s some details from their recent announcement:

For our March episode, we’re going where Pratchat has never gone before: into Pratchett’s nonfiction! Author, publisher and roleplayer Peter M. Ball joins us for a collection of Pratchett’s scribblings about genre, fandom and Neil Gaiman. The specific pieces are “Kevins”, “Wyrd Ideas”, “Let There Be Dragons” and “Notes From A Successful Fantasy Author”, plus “Neil Gaiman: Amazing Master Conjuror” and Neil’s foreword to the book in which all of these were collected, 2014’s A Slip of the Keyboard. You’ll find all of those (except the foreword) in the book’s first section, “A Scribbling Intruder”. Send us your questions about them via email to chat@pratchatpodcast.com, or on social media using the hashtag #Pratchat65.

From the announcement for this month’s episode

I have a lot of thoughts about this collection, and these entries in particular, as you might expect from someone who started an entire product line dedicated to preserving the writing about writing generated by Australian speculative fiction authors. I’m really intrigued by writers like Gaiman and Pratchett alike, who rarely get positioned as exquisite craftsmen because that’s not the persona they often present to the world, yet actually leave an astonishing amount of great writing advice out there when you start to filter through for the gems. Plus, of course, Pratchett’s a writer who rose to popularity alongside the internet in many ways, which makes for some fascinating reading when you position his non-fiction in a historical context.

Send your questions through to the details in the quote above if you’ve got something you’d like us to talk about!

ON THE TO DO LIST TODAY

Bit of a Schrodinger’s to-do list today, as there’s a coaching session later this afternoon that I might not have confirmed in time to actually run. Currently proceeding as though it will take place, but if it doesn’t go ahead this afternoon will be all about layouts for freelance gigs.

Add 700+ words to my current work in progressUpload Eclectic Projects 002 to the three remaining distributor sites (you can pre-order copies from my store now).Edit the essay for Eclectic Projects 003 (holdover from yesterday).Write up notes for the mentee session this afternoonDeliver a mentee session this afternoon or progress the layouts on a freelance gig.PETER M. BALL INBOX: 49BRAIN JAR INBOX: 17BRAIN JAR SUBMISSION QUEUE: 15

Will cull, but not answer, emails from the personal inbox today because 49 is definitely too many loose threads for my brain to keep track of.

Status: 21 Feb 2023

My dad passed away in 2019. Today would have been his birthday. The stretch from Feb 21 to March 19, the anniversary of his death, is one of the rocky parts of my year. Started writing a new short story yesterday, tackling an idea I’ve wanted to write for nearly a decade now.

ON THE TO DO LIST TODAYAdd 700+ words to my current work in progressUpload Eclectic Projects 002 to distributor sites.Edit the essay for Eclectic Projects 003 (holdover from yesterday).Deliver a mentee session this afternoon.Head off to dinner with the fam, who are similarly sad today.PETER M. BALL INBOX: 43BRAIN JAR INBOX: 24BRAIN JAR SUBMISSION QUEUE: 15

Expect minimal movement on all of these this week.

CURRENTLY WATCHING: CARNIVAL ROW, SEASON TWO

Four years after season one, Amazon Prime has brought back their steampunk fey noir series Carnival Row to finish the story. It’s pretty much certain we’re not getting a third season at this stage, which makes me furious because it’s one of the more ambitious fantasy works on screen in terms of world building.

I didn’t expect to care about the show this much. The opening episodes of 2019’s first season weren’t the strongest, courtesy of their sheer amount of detail they were trying to put on the screen and other creative choices: the character names originally felt absurd; Orlando Bloom also felt like the oddest choice for the hard-as-nails, gravel-voiced police inspector who takes the role of central protagonist; the early episodes use gratuitous sex like they’re recreating the first season of Game of Thrones.

None of that suggested an ambitious world or story, but as they laid the story out and fleshed out the details, I find myself entranced by the little things and their resolute determination that viewers would keep up instead of having every little thing explained to them. They’ve definitely found their feet with the early episodes of season two, in all the right ways. Bloom’s Rycroft Philostrate has slowly, steadily nudged away all thoughts and memories of Legolas, and I do hope someone picks on the fact he can play a hard edged protagonist capable of visceral, physical violence after this.