Sable Aradia's Blog, page 73
May 9, 2017
Spotted on Reddit: Kodos, Kang in Tight Race in North Vancouver
A little nerd humour for the BC election today.
North Vancouver has become the ultimate battleground for a pair of intergalactic candidates.
Reddit user hpka spotted these Simpsons-inspired campaign signs on the Mount Seymour Parkway.
Read the full article at the Vancouver Sun.
May 8, 2017
I Just Discovered #Writeometer
This is going to sound like a product endorsement, and I suppose it is, but I just downloaded this thing (which is free) and I love it! I was looking for an app where I could keep track of my word count outside of NaNoWriMo, and this was the first app that popped up on my search. It had a lot of good ratings so I thought, what the hell? This turned out to be a good plan!
First of all, it’s more than a word counter. You start a project, and then you update that project as you go. You set a daily goal and a project goal, and it gives you the date you should be finished if you match that. Or, you give it a deadline and an overall word count goal, and it tells you how many words you need to write in a day in order to achieve it. It keeps a graph to chart your progress over time. Here’s a screenshot. It’s in French but you get the idea. The middle image is the project screen (note the inspirational quote about writing at the top of it). The left image is the graph, the right image is a bar graph of the same project for quick viewing to get a sense of where you’re at.
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But I think the best feature is the timer. It offers a standard 25 minute countdown to word-sprint in. The timer starts as a bright green circle that will fade to white, then turns pink and finally red as the time counts down. It will notify you with a sound and/or a vibration when the timer runs out, and run it in the background or take over the whole freakin’ screen (my preference, especially since I have disabled my notification sounds on my phone due to chatty Facebook friends.)
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And it’s brutal! I accidentally started it and tried to shut it off. It asked me “did I really want to fail this session?” The options were, “Keep writing” or “It’s important.” I clicked “It’s important,” and it offered me an inspirational quote about how “words are loaded pistols,” said by Jean-Paul Sartre, and then it gave me the option to either quit or to “keep firing pistols.” I guess I would classify all of this as “gentle nagging.”
You can set little rewards for yourself for doing the job. For instance, they start with “eat a cookie” or “take the dog out for a walk” for your 1 guava award (and yes, they use guavas as their counter-thingy). “Browse Facebook” is a 2 guava award (I made it a 3 guava award for myself; I would spend all day Facebooking if I wasn’t really firm with myself.) The sidebar menu shows a little guava icon with a number to keep track of your total right at the top, plus your menu options.
On top of all this, it posts inspirational quotes to inspire you on command, plus under the toolbox, it gives you a word of the day to expand your vocabulary, access to a full thesaurus and dictionary, and a “word salad” option to spark inspiration (the one that spoke of Piccadilly and Tutankhamen puts me in the mind of a steampunk book, but that will have to wait!)
Anyway, it’s free, and you can get it on your phone app store, or at the link below.
Now I gotta go back to work! I haven’t been on Facebook in a couple of days and I’m sure my friends are starting to miss me, and I need one more guava before I’m allowed to do that. 
May 6, 2017
How to Cope with the End of the World
Let’s imagine a thought experiment.
An aggressive viral plague has struck humanity. Spreading astonishingly quickly through our modern world of dense cities and international airliners, we’d already lost the fight in a matter of weeks. Civilisation has collapsed and the vast majority of humanity has died. But you’ve survived. You fell deliriously ill, but through some innate immunity you lived through the raging fever, and have woken up in your cold house, with no electricity, no water in the taps or gas feeding the boiler or stove. The streets are eerily quiet, and no airplane contrails criss-cross the sky. You’re a survivor in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
These are all tropes we’re familiar with from books like Canticle for Leibowitz or The Road, recent computer games like The Last of Us, and films like I Am Legend or Mad Max. On the whole, these narratives feature protagonists wearing a little too much tight leather, and a lone hero striving through the wilderness. But how realistic are these scenarios?
Read the full article at BBC.com.
May 5, 2017
Well, I Finally Did It . . . Sign Up for My Newsletter!
I finally accepted the wisdom of those with more experience than myself, and despite deploring spam, I have gotten an email newsletter service. Which means, of course, that you *know* I’m not going to send you worthless garbage or pester you daily! If you subscribe I will let you know about my projects and new releases, and I will occasionally cross-promote other stuff in a similar vein to what I write. Also, I’ve got a freebie incentive just for signing up! Just click the Subscribe button below, or you can now find the same button in my Sidebar right here on the blog. Thanks in advance![image error]
May 4, 2017
May the Fourth Be With You
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#maythefourthbewithyou
Pity You Can’t Publish It
Some of you may know about my Spelljammer fanfiction the Toy Soldier Saga. For those who don’t, it has a special place in my heart for many reasons. The first is that I love the Spelljammer D&D campaign setting. I think it’s an amazing amount of fun! A few characters that I played in that setting have stuck with me. One of them gave me part of my Pagan craft (and pen) name.
Another reason is that I have what I think is a really good story that works well in the setting. I’ve been trying to get someone’s attention at Wizards of the Coast for years, but no luck. The closest I got is when some friends or fans of Troy Lockwood bitched me out in my comments section because I had inadvertently altered an already altered graphic for inspirational character art, that someone used as their profile pic on an ancient forum, and apparently they recognized the origin of his art in it. I’m not sure why they took such offense.
I think it’s too bad, because I’m loyal and I think my story has the potential of being a significant force in the fantasy market, but fine: I have figured out a way to adapt it so that I am no longer using any of their copyrighted material or intellectual property, but so that I’m maintaining consistency in my story. I have an easier time of it than most; it’s not like any of my major characters are major characters in the existing setting, nor have I described any events that change anything about the way the original setting is portrayed.
I’ve already written two stories that happen outside of, but around, the existing events of the main story, that have been accepted for publication in a small magazine and an anthology. Now I’m planning on submitting a section of the first novel that has been adapted into a novella for another magazine that is specifically calling for fantasy space opera (I mean, how perfect, right?)
Stephen B. Pearl is a Canadian speculative fiction writer with some good advice on his YouTube channel in how to take your fanfic and turn it into a publishable story (which he has done successfully). I seemed to have been on the right track, and I appreciate his helpful suggestions! Because I thought it might also help others, I have shared it here:
Hey! Please support my Patreon and get first access to all my work and special exclusive goodies! Thanks!
May 2, 2017
The Storytellers: Celebrating May New Releases!
*ALL TIMES ARE IN PDT! FOR EDT, ADD 3 HOURS! FOR LONDON TIME, ADD 8 HOURS!*
Sarah Buhrman, Rebekah Dodson, Kayla Kirby, and Diane Morrison invite you to join them and many other amazing indie authors to celebrate their new May releases! In addition, many of these authors are participating in the Kindle Storyteller competition, which is exclusive to Kindle UK, so this may be the only way, outside of the UK, to get your hands on some of these new books! There *will* be a Rafflecopter!
Thank you to all the participating authors! This is now the final roster!
* Preference given to authors with new releases in May
* All genres welcome
* Please mention if you’re entering the Kindle Storyteller competition
* Please invite as many people as you can who would *genuinely* be interested! Most events like this use a guideline of 50 invites.
* Because many of these authors are doing Kindle Storyteller, please invite as many people in the UK as you can!
* All times are in PDT
* There is a Headtalker and a Thunderclap for this event. We would like to encourage all participating authors to support one or the other or both.
* We would like to encourage all participating authors to donate something to the Rafflecopter!
Friday, May 19th:
9 am – Tom Fallwell
10 am – Simon L Michael
11 am – KL Donn Author
12 pm – R.E. Danielle
1 pm – Felicia Beasley
2 pm – McKayla Schutt (Jennifer Ellis PA)
3 pm – Iris Sweetwater
4 pm – Desari-Ann Howard-Gibbs
5 pm – Trey McIntosh
6 pm – Author Amelia Bronson
7 pm – Tricia Andersen
8 pm – Alexis Angel (Alicia Freeman PA services)
9 pm – Annie Buff
Saturday, May 20th:
9 am – Rebekah Dodson
10 am – Amanda Feldman (Jennifer Ellis PA)
11 am – Kayla Kirby
12 pm – Sarah Buhrman
1 pm – Philipp Kessler
2 pm – Andrew Mackay (Jolene Huber PA)
3 pm – Author J.P. Barry (Kim Christensen Byrd PA)
4 pm – Tanya Sands
5 pm – Courtney Cannon
6 pm – Jade Royal Author (Qua Zesty PA)
7 pm – Josette Reuel
8 pm – Jessica Miller
9 pm – Nia Farrell (Tasha Hooks PA)
Sunday, May 21:
9 am – Jeannette Keats
10 am – Amy Pacifico Cecil (Alicia Freeman PA services)
11 am – Rotem May
12 pm – Author K. L. Roth (Meagan Kent PA)
1 pm – Nancy Miller
2 pm – Brian Hagan
3 pm – Brittany Adkins
4 pm – Author Gen Ryan
5 pm – Diane Morrison (Sable Aradia)
April 30, 2017
Ha! I Made My Deadline After All!
Well, I suppose I’m nothing if not amazing under pressure!
After last night’s blog post, I promptly took a nap because I was exhausted (one of the reasons I figured I was not going to make my deadline; that and the expanded story). Then, as many writers do, I woke up at eleven-thirty at night and realized I was wide awake.
Well, since I was awake, I might as well write, I figured. And suddenly the idea came for me of a place to end the story, at least for now. Sure, there’s still a whole book in the thing, but I found a spot that seemed like a good place to cut it for the moment. And lo and behold, I was just starting the big fight at the climax. Maybe there was still time! The story wasn’t due in until the 3oth, and it was the 29th, so why not?
I double-checked the website for the submission guidelines, and just to make things more interesting, I suddenly realized that the pay was in Australian dollars. Oh shit! I said to myself. What time is it in Australia?
I looked it up. By now it was 5:30 pm in Australia (I assume in Sydney) on the 30th of April.
So away I went. And I wrote like a crazy woman, and I did about twice my normal daily word count. I was putting the finishing touches on the formatting as the sun came up and the birds started twittering in the trees. It was 6:30 am Pacific — 11:30 pm in Sydney — when I hit “send” on the submission email.
So I made it. Barely. I can already think of some mistakes I made in the edit, and my partner who does all my editing didn’t even get a chance to look at it . . . but it’s done. And it’s in.
Now I guess we’ll see! If it makes the anthology, great! If not, regardless, I have a book that’s off to a tightly-plotted good start that I believe has some real potential.
Go ahead, laugh at me. I don’t blame you!
Oh yeah: also, I’m a winner at Camp NaNoWriMo. Yay for me!
Not Making My Deadline
If I have one big flaw as a writer (indeed, as a participant in life!) it’s that I’m terrible for deadlines. I’m the one who streaks in to work at the bell (and sometimes a couple of minutes after the bell). I’m the one who always did my homework the night before it was due (and often in the class before it was due). And making a writing deadline is a hit-or-miss prospect for me, especially if it’s self-imposed.
I received a conditional pass in the Writing class I did in high school because of my inability to meet a deadline. Impatient with it by the last term I just turned in all of the required work in a big batch in advance. This did not amuse my English teacher and I flunked the semester. This kept me from a perfect honour roll status through high school, and strongly influenced my decision to not pursue writing in university; and indeed, not to go to university at all, since writing was the only thing I really wanted to study.
I’ve gotten better at it over the years, but the truth is this is just not something my brain does well. Time and me don’t get along. I always think there’s more of it than there is. Unlike the perception most people have of those who are perpetually late, I am anything but lazy; my problem is that I’m always trying to do too much!
Also, I don’t do “short” story well. How in the hell do people write under 3000 words anyway? I haven’t been able to do that since the third grade!
My latest failure in making a deadline was in making an anthology on soldiers and an apocalypse that I wanted to make today in an Australian publication. I was trying to write a story about British Royal Navy sailors encountering a viral apocalypse during the Napoleonic Wars. Ain’t gonna happen I don’t think: it’s 7:30 pm over there on deadline date. And the story is turning into a short novel anyway as more complications reveal themselves to me.
Oh well! On to the next Wyrd West Chronicles story and my Kindle Storyteller entry!
What suggestions do you have for helping to make deadlines?
