Deby Fredericks's Blog, page 33

Rings of Power, Part 2

As part of our Thanksgiving Day, my husband and I watched the Season 1 finale of Rings of Power. Even when shows drop all their episodes at once and we could binge them, we tend to watch just one or two at a time. We both grew up in the age of broadcast only television, when there was just one episode at a time and no replays. Weird, I know. But I I enjoy having think time between episodes. There’s a kind of anticipation that you don’t get with binge watching.

So how was it? There are too many spoilers to dance around here, but I’ll just say the writers didn’t disappoint me. The main plots weren’t resolved, but they came to appropriate points of rest. There were twists and revelations, especially around the identity of the mysterious “big’un” rescued by the Harfoots. As with any great drama, a main character’s mistaken assumptions play a huge role.

The finale opens new horizons for where the plot may go next, not in an arbitrary way but through organic development. I hope there will be a next season for this show, and that the current staff of writers and directors will be there for it.

As a P.S. to the previous thread about Twitter, you now can find me on CounterSocial, @DebyFredericks@counter.social

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

Dragons Don’t Do Gratitude

Thanksgiving Day is coming here in the USA. Here’s a repeat of a funny post from 2015. Seriously, I’m grateful for all of you who follow and support me. Happy Thanksgiving!

Hommana hommana, I peer into my crystal ball
And learn the most mysterious thing of all:
What are dragons grateful for?

Ikartya of the Emerald Scales — Gratitude, what’s that?

Ysislaw, Emperor of Sillets — My hoard.

Fruq the Furious — My flames, which destroy my enemies.

Tetheus of Shoredance Island — Delicious sheep.

Gnawrath, Most Malign — That my family is far, far away.

Cazarluun the Wraith — That I killed Sir Whatsizname before he killed me.

Carnisha of Mount Cragmaw — That humans are so easily deceived.

P.S. — Ysislaw, Cazarluun, Tetheus and Carnisha are all characters from my stories! Ysislaw is from my second novel, Too Many Princes. Carnisha is in my story that appeared in The Dragon’s Hoard anthology last spring. Tetheus and Cazarluun are in short stories that are thus far unpublished. However, their statements here don’t necessarily represent their roles in the stories.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Call For Posts

The podcast edition of Fall Folk Fest’s live radio broadcast is now live! Listen here if you are so inclined. I am in the middle of this segment, around the 34-minute mark, and it’s under my children’s pen name, Lucy D. Ford. All the performers were wonderful, and it’s worth listening all the way through.

Now to my call for posts. Not that I’m obsessed with Twitter or anything, but the changes there will truly be significant for independent authors like me. Change, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. Instead of woeful crying, maybe we should consider this an opportunity for new kinds of outreach.

With that in mind, I’m open to guest posts. I’d love to hear about what new avenues you’re exploring. Why did you choose a certain platform? How is your experience in trying to migrate? If you’re interested, you can e-mail me, cat09tales -at- hotmail -dot- com.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Difficult Conversation

I think I mentioned early this year that I was planning to ask one of my publishers, Sky Warrior, to return the rights to my book. I e-mailed, and was told she is discussing with another publisher to buy the Sky Warrior catalog. That publisher promptly sent me a contract for one book, The Seven Exalted Orders. That’s great news, but there’s no word on any of the others.

Things do take time in publishing, I understand that. The new publisher is also a small press, and they’re taking on a whole bunch of work and have to communicate with various authors. However, I’m finding it not helpful when there is no communication about expected timelines.

I’ve sent a takedown request to Sky Warrior, since they definitively said they are not planning to publish my work any longer. They have agreed to do that. Now I’m watching to see it actually happen. I’ll keep poking them until it does, and then I’ll begin trying to discuss which of my books the new publisher is serious about. Meantime, I did revamp my web site to show these books are no longer available. That was a little sad.

I need to be firm with myself, as well as them, and not let this process drag on.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Fall Folk Festival

It’s today! I will be doing my on-air segment with KPBX-FM that showcases many of the Folk Festival performers. My time will be around 11:30 am PST and I will be announced as Lucy D. Ford, my pen name for children’s work. If you want to hear me read one of my short stories, you click here to go to the radio station web site, and then click on their live stream.

You also can go the Folk Festival’s web site and click on a link there. At this time, I do not know whether there will be any archived forms of the broadcast.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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The Twitter Thing, Part 3

Well, it happened. Musk bought Twitter and showed up with his usual horrible smirk, carrying a kitchen sink. Then he proceeded to fire most of the staff and introduced the idea of a subscription fee. Any posts that criticize or mock Musk seem to mysteriously vanish. People’s heads are exploding and they’re all talking about leaving for other social media.

The problem is, for writers and other creative people, there really isn’t a substitute for Twitter. It’s like Amazon. You can try to sell your books in other places, but Amazon still dominates the marketplace. Twitter is a one-stop show for industry news, calls for submissions, news about great books, and conversations with fellow authors. I’ve consistently picked up opportunities there. I frequently mention my books there.

Twitter also allows an unlimited intersection of interests. Right now my feed is a mix of publishing and writers with politics, Dragon Age fandom, environmental affairs, and cute animal pictures. So far, the alternatives I’ve seen would require me to join a different server or e-mail list for each one of my interests. It really sounds like too much work.

So what’s an independent author to do? My response has been as varied as my interests. In the past, my Twitter was separated from my Facebook. Twitter has been part of my writing and Facebook is more personal to friends and family. Since the takeover, I’ve been posting more material to both platforms. I’m considering other social media, too, although nothing has really caught my interest as yet.

I’ve been satisfying my vengeful side by rejecting a lot more ads on Twitter. I know, the company has to pay their employees (such as remain) and ads are how they do that. I’m just being more strict about the ads I’ll tolerate looking at. Promoted tweets and ads that are meant to look like comments in a thread have got to go. I’ve also gone through my followers and blocked a lot of lingerie models. If someone comes along to analyze my brand based on who I follow and who follows me, I want them to see the ACLU and a bunch of fellow writers, not would-be porn stars. Not that I judge how the models try to support themselves, but adult services are not for me.

And, yes, I blocked Musk himself after he tweeted a conspiracy theory about the vicious beating of an elderly man. Political violence is on my auto-block list.

I’m also asserting myself in terms of the algorithm that controls what tweets I see. I’m systematically watching for people whose tweets I enjoy and making sure to follow them. Then, I go to their profiles and click the bell icon so I’ll get notifications when they post. If my main feed becomes too chaotic, I can find the people I really want to see by going to my notifications.

As for Musk’s plan to institute a subscription fee, I’m actually not so upset about that. I mean, I pay a monthly fee to Pandora so I can listen to their music. My husband pays for Netflix and Disney + each month. A Twitter fee wouldn’t be that different. So I’m on the fence about that. I want to see how bad the service gets before I commit.

What about some of you? I’d love to hear if you’ve changed social media. Where did you go, and how easy or hard has it been?

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Woman At Work, November/2022

What’s Happening? The holidays are upon us already! Some parts of my husband’s family do not do Thanksgiving for religious reasons, so today I’m going for an early Thanksgiving with family. In addition, it’s been widely publicized that Twitter’s unwanted change of ownership went though. I’m sure I’ll be commenting on that in future posts.

What I’m Working On. The Tale of the Drakanox, of course. I keep thinking I’m almost to the finish line, but then there’s something else I have to figure out. Still working on it, though!

What’s Next? Fall Folk Fest is next weekend. I’m on the radio Saturday, which will be pretty exciting, and then my regular reading is on Sunday. Guess I’d better pick out what I’m going to read, and start rehearsing it pretty soon.

Fun and Games. Skyrim is one of my old favorite games that I’m revisiting for a while. When I updated for my new console, I discovered some new features. Shadows and rays of light appear around objects. There’s a survival mode, too. My husband even started watching me and left his previous game, which was badly glitched during the console upgrade. Now he’s playing Skyrim, too.

I hope you all had a fun Hallowe’en!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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That’s Too Political

SpoCon’s swan song was a really great weekend. I came home tired, in a good way. I also sold almost all the books I brought, which is always a good feeling. And, yes, there were a few tears during the closing ceremonies. It was the end of an era, and we all knew why, but that didn’t make it easier.

Today I’m sharing an excerpt from the panel discussion, “That’s Too Political.” I was joined by my old friend Manny Frishberg, with newer friends S. Evan Townsend and Michael Hodges.

“That’s too Political” is an accusation that gets thrown around a lot recently. It’s meant to stop uncomfortable conversations. The panelists all agreed that all fiction is political. Science fiction and fantasy have been at the forefront of this more than many other genres. Anyway, this is what I remember about my closing thoughts.

“One book can change the world. Books are that powerful. When people say, “That’s too political,” it is a form of censorship. They want to stop the conversations that challenge their world view. Through a coordinated campaign of school and library censorship around the country, they want to stop kids from having empathy for a gay, or a Black, or someone thinking of suicide, or someone with a mental illness.

“We as writers must not permit this. We writers cannot be silenced.”

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Oni

This is just a quick post, as I’m in the middle of SpoCon. We discovered a cute kid’s animated series called Oni, a Thunder God’s Tale. A young girl,in spirit schoolmaster trying desperately to discover her special power.

Definitely Italy for young viewers, but we like it. Watch it if you can on Netflix, YouTube, and similar streaming services!

SpoCon Schedule

This weekend is SpoCon, and I’m all over it! The process of testing equipment and packing books is already well under way. Here is my schedule for the weekend.

Friday, 7 pm, That’s Too Political, a panel about the accusation that various arts are “too political” and how the history of fantasy and SF has always challenged the comfortable.

Saturday at 11 am, Creatures! There are so many great creatures in folklore, but authors often want to create something new and distinct. Where is the balance?

Saturday, 1 pm, Reading. I read from a selection of my work and take questions from the audience.

Saturday, 2 pm, Autographs. Just what it sounds like.

Sunday is doubled up for me. I’m running an Animal Crossing Treasure Hunt from 8 to noon, but they also scheduled me for a 10 am panel, Landscaping, A Reflection. We’ll have to see how that shakes out.

SpoCon doesn’t have a book seller this year, but my books will be at the Marmot Market for those who are so inspired.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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