Holly Lisle's Blog, page 91
April 1, 2013
The DragonScale Sweater is done
Back in September of last year, I posted an in-progress picture of the Dragonscale Sweater.
I finished it Saturday, and gave it to my future sister-in-law, for whom it was originally intended as a Christmas present (hah!) yesterday.
I took pictures before I gave it to her, though. 
DragonScale Sweater, Full Front
DragonScale Sweater, Full Back
DragonScale Sweater…the tricky bits
Close-up, the dragon scales
March 29, 2013
A Spiritualist Angle emerges… #WABWM
In working through the Create A World Clinic, I’m also developing the worldbuilding for a story of my own, demonstrating the techniques I use and showing my work as part of the course.
And today, I got the first hints of a practitioner of one of the branches of the Spiritualist movement operating in the story’s past.
It was an interesting catch, which arose from something I remembered vaguely from two separate threads of US history that ran simultaneously: that the Roaring Twenties were concurrent with several new approaches to the 1800′s fascination with table rapping and materializing physical manifestations of spirits.
I got 625 words today. But they gave me in an interesting direction, and provided a good demo for the Divide for Conflict section of the Line World chapter.
March 28, 2013
Sneak Peek: My Wallpaper, Blinkie, Shin-Banger Demo #WABWM
This is a tiny demo scene from Create A World Clinic, but I think it’s fun. And I got it by interviewing a chicken puppet and a player piano, which made the process of getting the details for writing it entertaining.
Yes, that’s all worldbuilding.
And I got 1035 words today.
Black night, and the houses on Wickham Street huddled together, familiar and old, cold and shivering in their wooden bones. On the street, nothing moved, as if the bitter wind pouring down from the north had frozen the world.
Minutes ahead of the coming blizzard, a night rose bloomed, shooting into the air silent as a hunter, blazing red against low, scudding clouds, blood-bathing snow and houses and ice-slicked street in its hard light, glaring down in unblinking fury until sudden blackness claimed it.
Emmi Hanson, breathing air that froze her from the inside out, hurrying against the storm smell of imminent snowfall, skidded and slid down a sidewalk salt had only cleared in patches, her head full of worries and her stomach knotted with a fear she could not explain or describe. That long blast of red light had sent her pulse racing, but she’d already been terrified…which was why she’d come home.
Her house was three down, and she wished she could have parked closer. Something was wrong. Something she couldn’t see and couldn’t name was after her.
She picked up her pace, looking at the light pouring warm and golden from her family’s living room window. She should have told them she was coming. They should have known to look for her.
Hurrying, she didn’t see the black ice that threw her to the ground. One instant she was almost home—the next, lying stunned with her chin, lip and cheek cut, and the palms of her hands scraped raw and bloody, while the ruby eye in her gold ring glowed with the same mad light that had abandoned the sky.
March 27, 2013
Wallpaper, Blinkies and Shinbangers: World Clinic moves forward #WABWM
Today in the Create A World Clinic, I started into one of my favorite parts of worldbuilding: developing active description.
Got 1044 words so far on how active description is different than the passive description that pushes readers to skim, and introduced the three critical elements of active description: Wallpaper, Blinkies, and Shinbangers.
It was a fun writing day. Looking forward to putting together the worksheets for this section tomorrow, and finishing up my demo.
March 25, 2013
Back to the words, and the World Clinic #WABWM
The hiatus from writing was longer than I’d like, but necessary. Had to get the classroom built, get the lessons in place, get the sales page done.
BUT now it is done. Which means I have some time to go in and answer questions in the community.
Also means I get to get back to writing again. My goal for this morning is 1000 words on Create A World Clinic.
However…I’m out of practice. My head hasn’t been in words for a few months, and my start might be rocky. So I have my timer set up, I have my page set up, and I have three hours to give this today, because I have four other MUST DOs on my list. But writing gets my first effort. I will, however, be gentle with myself if I can’t get a full thousand my first day back.
Sorry I’ve been gone so long…this year is going to be a bit like that, though. For a while, anyway, as I get my other classes transferred to the new classroom and get them going again.
Anyway…onward.
March 24, 2013
All my student’s books and names are up now…
It’s taken me almost two weeks to get this done, do in well, and make it look nice.
Your books covers, quotes, and where I had both pictures and your permission to use them, are on the How To Think Sideways page now. Thank you again—I think they look amazing.
Right column, starting about one third of the way down, plus several in the main body of the text.
Plus, down at the bottom, a few of the nearly four-hundred recommendations without covers I have from students.
March 15, 2013
Sales page crashed for some folks, discount BACK until Midnight-ish SATURDAY
I don’t know if it was the timer I was using, or the link from Aweber messing things up, or WHAT it was that went wrong.
And I didn’t know ANYTHING had gone wrong until I’d already shut everything down and deleted all the discount pages.
THEN I checked my email, and found a LOT of people who’d been trying to reach me WHILE the discount was on to tell me the page was broken.
It wasn’t broken for everyone. But many of the folks it was broken for sent me screenshots proving it was broken for them. And I didn’t know because I was just BURIED in Support getting new students into class and setting up the new pages.
A lot of people DID get in.
But apparently a LOT of people didn’t even have a chance. I notice the jump of over a hundred emails in the newsletter box, which is why, when I had the chance to look a mail, I checked. Some of them were from the other side of the planet, and I’m guessing they won’t get this email now until they wake up. So they’d end up missing the discount AGAIN.
So here’s the deal.
Margaret pulled deleted pages out of the database for me for members, and meanwhile I put together a page that will work.
The temporary main page, which I’ll simply delete at midnight, DOESN’T HAVE THE DISCOUNT PRICES ON IT. They’re in the buttons, though. So write down the price you see on the page, click through the button, and you’ll be able to compare and see the discount is there.
The member sign-up pages do have the right prices–Margaret got those. And if you ARE a site member with a login that works with the orange login box, please remember to sign in so you can get your membership rebate and/or bonus.
Because I DON’T KNOW what went wrong, I’ve put together a letter without a timer. I’ve kept anything fancy out of my Aweber email so there won’t be any funky codes that can screw things up.
And because I have no idea how many people this problem affected, the deal is open for everyone.
At midnight-ish SATURDAY MARCH 16, EDT , I’ll shut it down again. Midnight-ish, because without the tracker, I have to do it by hand.
So you agree that if you’re not there in time this time, I did my best and you won’t hit me with “missed it by three seconds, can I still have the discount?” Okay.?
Get in there in time to give yourself time to read the letter and click the button of your choice.
Here’s the page:
http://howtothinksideways.com/htts-ul...
Holly
March 13, 2013
Too busy to announce my own launch here…
How To Think Sideways ULTRA launched yesterday at noon.
I’d worked 27 hours straight starting Tuesday at 8 AM to get the launch live on time, and Margaret and I spent all day and a lot of the night YESTERDAY fixing little bugs that hadn’t shown up in testing, and helping folks who forgot their passwords and I realized just this minute that I’d forgotten to post the link to the course on my own website.
Which is, in fact, pretty lame.
The sign-up page describes EXACTLY what you’ll receive. A lot of the 27 hours I spent the day and night before was me writing it to make sure I didn’t miss ANYTHING.
How to Think Sideways ULTRA: 3-Day Introductory Discount.
The discount is $100 (or more) But it’s already almost half over because I was swamped for so long. I’m sorry about that. But if you want to get the course with the discount, you do still have some time.
It goes up to the regular price Friday at noon EDT.
March 10, 2013
EARLY Download: #HTTS ULTRA Pre-Launch Bonus
I got the first HTTS ULTRA Quick Fix done early, so I posted it early.
If you want to get it now (instead of tomorrow at noon when I send out emails), go here:
The Cure for the Blinking Cursor
It’s only going to be available until Tuesday the 12th at noon, though, so don’t wait around.
