Will Once - somewhere and back again Showing 601-650 of 1,151

[Patti (baconater)]

Got an email saying you had a new blog post up.

Was an empty draft?

[Will]

Should be okay now, or try the link above. I put a blog on without a title and it confused everything. Sorry about that. Can't get the staff these days!

[Patti (baconater)]

Fire them, I sez!

[Will]

A bit harsh perhaps? I was thinking that a damned good spanking might be more appropriate.

[Patti (baconater)]

Where's GL and her whip?

[Patti (baconater)]

Never heard of those gadgets before. I obviously run...ahem...stroll...with the wrong crowd.

Now, if you could get one fitted into a pair of underpants...

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

[Will]

But what does "decimate" mean, exactly?

https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/0...

[Patti (baconater)]

To kill one in ten, doesn't it?

Best read the blog to see how wrong your thinking is. ;)

[Patti (baconater)]

Phew. Thank goodness you got it right.

But no vibrating pants, unfortunately.

[Will]

What would I like for my birthday? That's a harder question that it seems.

https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/0...

[Patti (baconater)]

Wonder if you said whirled peas.

Better read it and find out.

[Patti (baconater)]

I'm gonna upgrade my phone at Christmas. :D

[Will]

Yeah, me too! Although I'll be looking for one with fewer gadgets and better battery life. I'm getting thoroughly fed up with my phone running out of juice so quickly.

[Patti (baconater)]

I find if I only turn the wifi in when I need it, it lasts a good few days.

[Will]

Part one of my adventures in bigamy.

https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/0...

[Jim]

love it

[Patti (baconater)]

Me too!

[Will]

Part two of my adventures in bigamy, in which our hero takes his new wife to the bedchamber.

https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/0...

[Will]

Like it! Bigamy with Big Amy.

[Patti (baconater)]

Love it!

[Jim]

:-)

[Will]

One for the writers. Should you put one space or two between sentences?

https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/0...

[Jim]

Interesting, I've only ever been taught one space

[Will]

That's the more modern way of doing it. When I was a teenager I signed up for a touch-typing course. I figured it was a way to meet more girls! We were taught double space then, although I must admit that my attention was elsewhere. My wife went to secretarial college in the 1970s and was also taught double space.

Now most style guides are most definitely in favour of single space.

[Jim]

when, in the late 1970s, I acquired a typewriter (because I decided I needed one if I was going to make any money out of writing) my late mother inquired as to whether I was going to take some sort of course.

My comment probably tells you everything you need to know about the attitudes within the farming industry to taking on yet another skill set.

"Why, I can press buttons and I know my alphabet?"

[Will]

I have just given up on Moby Dick, risking the scorn of my peers and the retrospective dissatisfaction of Sir Winston Churchill and Rudyard Kipling:

https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/0...

[Will]

I got a little bit further - probably about a third of the way through. Didn't seem to be getting anywhere fast.

[Jim]

Travelin wrote: "I stopped reading at the funniest part, where the main character is forced to share a bed with another sailor. Little did I know that Lincoln had done this, even after he was put into the whitehouse."

That's where I abandoned it, many years ago, and never went back

[Patti (baconater)]

I hope your gout has improved, lovely.

Our Simon suffers with it, too. Not good. :(

[Will]

Thanks! It's slowly getting better.

Is Dave okay?

[Will]

A writing update. News of a giveaway, the publication date for my next book and an apology in advance.

And a picture of Adam Ant. Because... because you never need an excuse to print a picture of Adam Ant.

IMHO.

https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/0...

[Patti (baconater)]

I do hope your promo for Tea does really well.

You know how much I enjoyed it.

I like that term 'BMB bomb'

I do wish more authors would understand just how off-putting it is to experience drop n runs in a forum such as ours.
I know it's time consuming from an author's point view but I think it's worth getting to know your market and making a proper effort in fewer places, rather than carpet bombing the Internet.

What do you think?

[Will]

Absolutely. I do feel sorry for new authors. They want to be successful and to find readers. But if they drop too many BMB bombs they can alienate people very quickly.

The bottom line is that writing is a lot harder than it looks. It's not easy to write an engaging book and avoid all the newbie mistakes around language, plotting and character.

Then it has to be very tightly edited. A self-published book really ought to stand comparison with a professionally published book - and they have whole teams of editors, agents, cover artists, publicists etc to help them.

And then you have to market it without pissing people off. Making friends before you make readers. And that isn't easy. It really isn't.

I hope I'm getting it right. Or at least not too badly wrong!

Many thanks for your support. You are a gem.

[Patti (baconater)]

You're easy to like.

[Will]

Aw - I could hug you! If the missus and Dave would avert their eyes for a second.

[Patti (baconater)]

I believe they'd both allow a hug.

[Will]

Consider yourself virtually hugged!

I'm trying something a little new. Here's the first couple of pages of my new book.

"To Know the Dark" will be published on Amazon on 24 October. It's science fiction/ fantasy for people who don't normally like SFF.

https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/0...

[Will]

Should authors give their books away for free?

https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/1...

[Patti (baconater)]

Mr Once, that cover for Tea is a huge improvement. Did you do that?

[Will]

Patti - no, it was a fiverr creation. I long since realised that my artistic skills do not extend to drawing.

Travelin - let me have your email address (PM is safest) and I'll happily wang a review copy over.

[Patti (baconater)]

You said wang!!!!

[Will]

Yup wang. As in welly wanging.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellie_...

Also means willy. Tee hee. I love dropping these little double entendres into the conversation to see if anyone notices ;-)

Mind you, I do draw the line at the (possible) past tense of tweeting.

[Patti (baconater)]

What's wrong with the word tweeted?

Oh wait. Ohhhhhhhh

[Will]

I tweet, you twut and he ... Nope, can't bring myself to type it. Naughty, naughty!

[Will]

My five day giveaway has just started! Woo, woo. So here's a blog telling other authors how I am marketing the book. So I am telling all about which websites I am using, how much it is costing me and ... gulp ... how many downloads I get from it all.

And, by the way, begging pleading pretty purlease for people to download it. I hate doing that "buy my book" spamming thing, but this is one of those occasions where I don't have much choice.

I might end up with egg on my face and a huge hole in my wallet. Why not come along and have a laugh at my expense?

https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/1...

[Patti (baconater)]

You have my permission to spam the morning thread with the link.

You owe me a cookie.

[Will]

Thanks for the permission, but I'll pass on the spamming. I can't get hot under the collar about other people spamming and then do it myself!

What flavour cookie would you like?

[Patti (baconater)]

Tsk.

You're not gonna make me do it, are you?

[Will]

I think we both ought to be principled. I'll mention it briefly in tomorrow's "good morning".

Mind you, strange things are happening. The number of downloads is shooting up as America wakes and the US based publicity kicks in. We're currently at 450+ downloads - more than double what we managed the last time we had a giveaway.