Good Essay

Distributism vs. Redistributism--good little essay by Dr. Pournelle, something to think about.

Two Things Worth Reading

Magic by Lazlo Zalezac isn't finished yet, but it is funny and well written. It's on the Storiesonline site, so you might need to take care if you read at work.

Evo and Proud is an anthropology blog worth going back and reading from the beginning if human nature interests you. In fact, reading from the beginning is the best way to use the site; the knowledge builds.

Progress Report

I've been tired and uncreative. Part of this is health related, part of it is a long-term case of the blahs.

Anyway, I don't know when I'm going to get writing again, if ever. For those of you who read Magician's Merger, thank you.

Why Write?

I find that creative acts, over the long term, give more lasting satisfaction than non-creative acts. For this I have no explanation; I simply take it as a given of my psychology. Two exceptions to this rule exist. The first is reading. I love to read and do it close to compulsively. Literal years can go by without a single day in which I haven't read for at least a half hour. The second exception is finding things out. I'm insatiably curious about a wide range of stuff. Add these three things together, and one can immediately understand why writing is an excellent thing for me to do. It is a creative endeavor that allows me to make constructive use of my constant reading and curiosity.

So, why haven't I written more? Why in the past did I always give up? Depression, anxiety, fear, weariness, self doubt--all have knocked me off course. However, a few things have changed over the last few years. One, the Web now makes it possible for anyone to share his or her work without gatekeepers. Two, I've been on antidepressants long enough that many of my negative emotions are under control. Three, Alexandra Erin has pointed the way. (If Ms. Erin happens to read this, thank you.)

Alexandra Erin, by her example, has demonstrated that fiction writers on the Web can both find an audience and get paid for their work. Some people disparage pecuniary considerations, but I don't. For one, getting paid for an endeavor allows one to spend more time doing it. There are only so many hours in a day, so many days in a life. For another, as a first approximation, people are willing to pay for what they value. (Yes, there are exceptions. That's why I called it a "first approximation" and not an absolute truth.) Money is a sincere compliment and indisputable evidence of value received.

Therefore, there are a few things I want to accomplish with my writing. One, I want to improve my craft, because skill in itself creates satisfaction. Two, I want to find an audience of reasonable size. Three, I want to make some income from writing. Ultimately, I suppose the dream is to make enough income from writing to support myself. Can I do these things? I have no idea, but managing to complete the first volume of Magician's Merger was a significant step.

Volume one was highly educational. I learned that discouragement and lack of inspiration pass with rest. I believe my skill grew as I wrote, and I learned what it takes to complete a novel-length work. It also felt good and continues to feel good. I suggest that anyone who dreams about writing just grab a free website and start writing and posting. Nothing else will teach you more, and it helps you get over the fear of rejection. If it's your first work, don't worry about giving it away for free. It's unlikely to be a masterpiece. Just think of it as an educational expense.

I purposefully didn't put up a donation button for the first volume of Magician's Merger. I wasn't about to ask people for payment for something I might not even finish, and I figured that reading and constructive comments were plenty of payment for the efforts of a beginner. (The advertising on my site brought in only a small amount of money, which I simply rolled into advertising for my site.) For volume two, I'm going to put up a couple of donation buttons and see what happens.

If I see my audience growing and a stream of money proportional to audience size starts coming in, it will be evidence that my work is of value to others. That would encourage me to continue. If the audience doesn't grow and people don't find my fiction of value, that will tell me something, too. (If you like my work, don't worry. I just want to see some growth and some income for my second effort. I think my expectations are realistic.)

Anyway, at this point in my skill development, it seems that volume two is going to have to continue in a highly serialized manner, with maybe one or two major story arcs along the way. I've been doing a lot of thinking and research while trying to develop a tighter plot, and I haven't been able to do it. I hope to develop that skill as I continue writing, but thus far, I don't have it.

I've also decided to post all of volume two as a serial on BlogSpot before I post it all at once on Storiesonline. That, I hope, will bring more eyes to my donation buttons and advertisements. It will also help me find and eliminate mistakes before I subject my work to the Storiesonline rating system.

Thanks for reading.

The Secret Commonwealth

Hardcore fantasy readers might find The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies by Robert Kirk and Andrew Lang to be interesting reading. Lang, a nineteenth-century folklorist, had printed and wrote a long introduction to a seventeenth-century manuscript by Kirk.

Both parts are worth reading if you like the topic. The language is old, and by our standards the spelling is eccentric, but you will see where this little book has had an influence on contemporary fantasy. Definitely read the footnotes and make free use of Google.

Progress Report One

I have approximately four thousand potential words for a second volume written. I have a synopsis partially filled out.

Lots of thinking and navel gazing are yet to be done.

For those who are curious, volume one is somewhat under 111,000 words long. The whole thing needs another polish or two, at least. I'm having trouble working up the enthusiasm.

Chapter 36 Is Up

Chapter 36 of Magician's Merger is up.

That's the end of volume one. I intend to try a new experiment: work in advance for volume two rather than post as soon as I have written. I don't know how far in advance I'll work. Maybe I'll write the whole thing first. At any rate, I'll make progress reports in this blog occasionally.

In the course of writing Magician's Merger, I received no mean comments and no nasty email. Only one review, so far, has been negative. Everyone else has been supportive and/or made constructive criticisms. Thank you.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for catching mistakes. Thank you for spreading the word.

Writing Guides

Other than the dictionary and grammar and punctuation guides, the two most useful how-to books about fiction writing that I've read are Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain and Trail and Error: A Key to the Secret of Writing and Selling by Jack Woodford. The rest have caused me more confusion than anything.

Chapter 35 Is Up

Chapter 35 of Magician's Merger is up. It's longer than I've been averaging, and it was a lot of fun to write.

As always, mistake catching is appreciated. If you like the story, please spread the word.

A Change in the Weather

I've finally read the entire archive of A Change in the Weather. It's good stuff.

Chapter 34 Is Up

Chapter 34 of Magician's Merger is up.

Typeface?

I've changed the typeface on this blog and on the Blogspot version of Magician's Merger. Is it easier to read? Harder to read? No difference?

Chapter 33 Is Up, Finally

Chapter 33 of Magician's Merger is up.

As always, caught misspellings and such are appreciated.

Poop

We are coming up on the endgame here. There is at most a handful of chapters to go for this "book," I think, and Ursus just informed me that there was no way he could ever go along with the plan I had in mind.

This installment writing has its drawbacks.

I'll try to get chapter 33 out tomorrow.

On Why a New Chapter is Taking So Long

Short answer: I've been totally out of it--sleepy with poor concentration. I've written about 1700 words of the next chapter, but it has been slow going. On the other hand, I haven't given up.

I suppose I should go change my claimed posting frequency on Pages Unbound.

Chapter 32 Is Up

Chapter 32 of Magician's Merger is up.

I so wanted to make a joke about Santa slamming into the roof, but "A Visit from St. Nicholas" was never written on Arthur's node.

Chapter 31 Is Up

Chapter 31 of Magician's Merger is up.

How am I doing regarding balancing out action with everything else?

I Feel So Proud

I have received my first hatchet job (by motonousmuse).

Now, I've never considered Magician's Merger to be great writing. It's an experiment more than anything. What can I produce if I don't give up? Everything about it is geared to keeping me writing. I post as soon as it's beat into decent form. The writing gets one or two polishes before posting. I don't have an editor, etc.

But, Jeez, this person makes me sound illiterate.

(If you are enjoying the story, don't worry about it. I'm not discouraged.)

Chapter 30 Is Up

Chapter 30 of Magician's Merger is up.

This one took longer to write than I had hoped.

The story Arthur's mom tells is similar to one my mom told me. I've changed a few of the details. I'm sure my mom believed what she had said.

Yes, there are similarities between Arthur's mom and my own, but there are also a lot of differences. Most of my characters have in them pieces of people that I knew, but many things get changed. Sometimes more than one person gets combined.

Some of the properties of the cantankerous younger brothers were drawn from me.

Chapter 29 Is Up

Chapter 29 of Magician's Merger is up. Thank Bog.

Caught typos, misspellings, and homonym mistakes are always appreciated. Spreading the word is always appreciated. Blogs, forums, and social bookmarking sites are all good places to spread the word. My sincere thanks to those who do so.

If you are coming from Storiesonline when you read this and are worried about linking to a site that has (gasp!) erotica, I do mirror the story from here. I think the story itself is worksafe, at least in my estimation, and I don't accept pornographic ads on the Blogger site.

Actually, linking to the Blogger site is slightly more advantageous for me. The small amount of revenue I make from Project Wonderful ads has been been paying for the ads I use to promote the story.

(At one point in today's installment, I so wanted to write "consummate Vs". If you don't get the reference, Google it. I doubt you'll be sorry.)

Revisions

Over the next several days, I'm going to be revising Magician's Merger. I'll be doing some polishing, fixing typos I happen to catch, and italicizing the inner dialog in the earlier chapters. I don't foresee any changes in the storyline, so there is no need to reread anything.

Mana vs. Manna

This issue just came up in an email.

Mana vs. manna: I figured either word works for what I wanted to convey. I believe Larry Niven, within the fantasy genre, was the first writer to use the first word to mean magical energy, but I think the term actually comes from the magical practices of some culture that I can't recall. The second specifically refers to food given by God, but metaphorically refers to something that is there for the taking,

In the end, it's just a handle for the stuff that powers magic. I wanted to be clear that it is different stuff from everyday physical energy and doesn't necessarily follow our laws of physics. As far as I'm concerned, it can be called anything. That's why I had Ursus say that it has lots of names and we might just as well call it manna.

Of course, now I have people thinking I'm making a homonym mistake. I guess I should have just made up a word.

Chapter 28 Is Up

Chapter 28 of Magician's Merger is up.

Getting this one finished was hard. It wasn't because the writing was difficult, but I've been sleepy lately. I'm not sure if it's blood sugar issues or medication issues or something else. It isn't lack of rest, because I've been sleeping a lot. In any case, I would go to write and want to dose off at the computer, which is not good for production.

Chapter 27 Is Up

Chapter 27 of Magician's Merger is up.

I had wanted to have a new chapter ready for yesterday, but I had a fantasy of writing something like, "And then the asteroid struck, and they all died." This let me know that the next chapter was going to have to wait.

Scary Mary

I read and enjoyed Scary Mary.