mastodon 4.7.3Professional teller of tales
I write the books I want to read but can't find.
he/him
#selfpublishing #sff #dailyhaikuprompt #bookstodon #fountainpens
Tell us a fish story (definition open to interpretation.)
The summer I graduated from high school, I worked as a deck hand on a fishing boat out of Portland before enlisting in the Coast Guard to avoid the draft.
We left the dock at 3am to head for fishing grounds 2 hours away. Returned mid afternoon with the day's catch of whitefish.
Not glamorous. Not fun. Didn't earn much money but learned how to mend a net, how to sort fish.
How to grill shrimp on the boat engine's manifold, fresh from the sea and seasoned with its water.
50+ years later, that fishery doesn't exist.
The last of the Eastern Side Trawlers is in a museum somewhere, probably. Existing mostly as models and memories.
When I think of all the things we've gained in the last half century, I hardly think about those we've lost.
Except that one.
The one that, ultimately, got away.
Have you ever worked collaboratively on a creative project with others? How did it go?
Yes. I wrote a novel with my elder offspring.
It took forever for us to finally put our pieces together.
We're still struggling with the sequel. We each have our own projects and both are loath to put them aside.
Perhaps after this next book we can work together again.
Say something kind about yourself and your creativity.
I'm not perfect.
Not particularly good.
I don't follow the rules, and probably never will.
But I keep trying.
I keep sharing.
And I'm still writing after all these years.
How much do you worry about what others think of your creative work?
Usually not very much.
Of course I want people to read my books. They won't do that if they don't like them.
But I also know that my stories aren't for everybody. They may not even have much wide appeal.
And that's okay.
The niche I like, the one I want to reach, is large enough.
So, sure, a lot of people will bounce off them. It's not what they expect. Not what they like or want.
Doesn't mean they're bad - although quite a few people have said so. It just means it's not a story written for them.
Choose an adjective to describe how you're feeling about your creativity going into next month.
Optimistic.
It feels like my "fallow period" might be coming to an end.
I've become restless with my reading. The game I'm playing is losing its luster. I've let the story's various potentials sort themselves out in the background. Maybe it's time I cranked out a few thousand words to see how they look.
The new month feels like a starting gun.
Our featured creator is a former librarian. What has been your experience with libraries?
In my youth, libraries were sanctuaries. A place to escape the bounds of daily life. Free books. Unlimited stories.
So long as I returned them on time.
In high school I was a student librarian, signing out books, shelving returns. Making sure the order - and the peace - maintained.
I forgot all that in the dark years that followed. Military travel, unreliable schedules.
Never picked up the habit again, but I signed up for a library card when we moved here 30 years ago.
Have yet to sign out a book, but I use the quiet sometimes. Writing new books while surrounded by the volumes of others.
What's your favourite woodwind?
Depends on my mood.
Sax probably. Paul Desmond on Take Five. Coltrane, man. Coltrane.
Clarinet doesn't do it for me.
Although an oboe can make me smile.
I like the moodiness of a recorder. I played one for a time but never got good enough to really enjoy it.
Aside from obligations, what are your biggest distractions from your creative work?
Reading and gaming.
ADHD makes focus a struggle and when hyperfocus points to how to optimize the build out on my latest game or fixates on book 19 of a long running series, it's almost impossible to get anything done.
But there's the "not distraction" that gets between me and the keyboard. The fallow period between works that I've often tried to short-circuit. Preempt.
The time I spend letting ideas stew between the writing binges.
Trying to do the "write every day" thing can only work so long before it all collapses. I'm much happier (maybe more productive) writing a novel over a few weeks and letting things stew for a couple of months in between.
It's less about distraction and more about being me.
Share the last line of dialogue you wrote.
“She needs a bodyguard,” Fidelia said from the hallway.
Last written 5/1/26.
It might be time I picked up this dropped stitch and see what I can knit from it.
I suspect it needs to be deleted before I can continue, as one does in knitting when you find a mistake in the pattern and have to unravel a few rows before continuing.
(Excluding time travel) Do you have a preference between books that progress linearly and books that jump back and forth in time (flashbacks etc)?
I have a preference for stories told well, regardless of the mechanics.
Except present tense. They make my brain itch because I can't put aside the notion that the story had to happen far enough in the past that the author could record it and get it published so I can read it.
You know. Later. Not now.
Once in a very great while, I'll pick up a novel and not notice, but as soon as I do?
*record scratch*
I recognize this to be a personality flaw. Perhaps a symptom of a deep seated hurt or anger on my part.
Our next featured creator is a serial writer. Have you ever written serials?
Not as such, no.
When I first started writing seriously in 2007, I released my novels in podcast form, one episode a week until it was done. I wrote them first before recording them.
The thing I learned about serials? They're only serial while in production.
Once it's done, it's not serial. It's binge. :D
Funny how often people think my little podcast would be a good fit for their content and want to be a guest.
When I point out that Talking On My Morning Walk involves getting out on the sidewalk for 2 miles in the morning and that they need to be here to take the walk with me, suddenly it's not so attractive.
It's almost like they don't really listen to the feed or something. 🤣
If someone were to write a character based on you, how often would exclamation marks be warranted in your dialogue?
Once a year.
Choose an adjective to describe how you're feeling about your creativity this month.
Cautiously optimistic
Do you create work based on the creations of others? (Eg. Pop art, fan art, fan fic, etc.) Why or why not?
No. I don't have time to play with somebody else's toys.
How confident are you feeling in your creative project(s) after this month?
More confident than ever that I'm on the right path.
It doesn't *look* like it, but learning to trust my process and letting it run its own course seems to be paying off.
I'll know better when the Binge Time comes and I start grinding the grist.
Which book world would you like to live in for a week, and why?
Oddly, I can't think of one that I'd be willing to forego a week of my own story to pursue.
How difficult is it for you to receive criticism of your creative work?
Not difficult at all.
I recognized before I began that I'd be writing stories that some people wouldn't like.
My stories don't follow the norms. They're written to fit in the cracks between those books that publishers can sell to bookstores.
To give readers a different kind of story.
When I began I believed that some readers would find my stories and embrace them.
That enough of them would that I could afford to continue writing and publishing them.
Time has proven me right on both counts.
Many readers really dislike my stories. "Nothing ever happens" was the first real critique.
But others, many more than I ever dreamed, have embraced my quirky stories and odd takes on well-trodden ground.
They write to tell me. To share how my stories helped/changed/amused them.
So I'll take the flung mud. It's confirmation that I'm writing something different.
That I was right in thinking that the books publishers will buy are not the only kind of books that readers will love.
And I'll keep writing them as long as I can.
Our next featured creator is heavily involved in the Society for Creative Anachronism. Are you part of any communities related to your creative interests?
I'm enlisted crew in The Royal Manticoran Navy but I haven't been very active lately.
I joined because one of their members thought that TRMN needed a logistical auxiliary and asked if he could use my Solar Clipper ideas as a basis.
I joined, participated in their training and philanthropic work. Stopped climbing the rank ladder, because I didn't have the time (or inclination) to do the work.
Still an interesting group. I don't see them much now that I'm not on FB.
How likely are you to embrace changes to language usage?
I'm slow.
And old.
Foolish enough on my own without trying to use language that sounds fine coming from a 20 year old.
Like, totally.
(But "literally" still doesn't mean "figuratively." I don't care what the dictionary says.)
What's going well with your creative work so far this month?
Watching ideas for how I think this book might go swirl around in my mind is like watching clothes tumble through the dryer's window.
Here a red tee. There dark jeans. Interspersed with underwear and socks. Punctuated by pajamas.
Every once in a while, I'm surprised by a towel I didn't remember washing.
They're not dry yet but eventually they will come out and be folded neatly.
I suspect there'll be at least one missing sock.
When you finish a project, do you tend to feel that you have everything just the way you want it, or is it more like 'good enough'?
Neither.
I learn from the doing but would learn nothing from repeating the same thing.
"Good enough" implies that I've left out something that I could have done.
It's always "As good as I can make it right now."
Then I start again, building on the foundation of what I've learned.
(Seems to be my theme this morning)
you have $100 (or equivalent) to spend on something to support your creativity this month. How are you spending it?
Banking it for cover art
When you see the word 'read', is your first instinct to read it as present tense or past tense?
If the word is sitting by itself, off in a corner, minding it's own business? It's a complete, imperative sentence so present tense.
When it's out partying with others? I try to keep the context in mind and not pass any quick judgements.
If your project will be part of a series, do you know that before you start?
I almost always write in series. Generally trilogy.
The one time I thought I was writing a stand-alone, I was wrong.
Our next featured creator has a "love/hate affair with common tropes." What's your relationship with tropes?
I've been sandbagged by them but I still love 'em.
They're the frame that makes the field for my stories to play in. Their constraints provide the impetus to imagine something different.
Take a trope twist it. Apply it in a different way.
Voilà.
Magic happens.
Someone else promotion day. Tell us about someone else's work.
Sarah Painter - wonderful world-building in a fantasy mystery series. > Rec: Crow Investigations
Cássio Ferreira - Prolific gameLit author with some fun takes on the standard tropes. > Rec: Handyman (See also: Pacifist)
Samson Chui - another gameLit maven who layers time travel on a system apocalypse base. > Rec: Towerbound
Christina Garner - Midlife magic fantasy with a Hollywood backdrop for a life restarted. > Rec: Hollywood Lakes Magical Midlife
Jon Kiln - Straight up SF with a heartwarming take on gardening on really foreign soil > Rec: Garden at the End of the Galaxy
Jaxon Reed - More SF hijinks as scion of a wealthy family establishes a rather different kind of farm on a distant planet. > Rec: Star Farmer (see also: Agents of the Planetary Republic)
Our next featured creator is a Tabletop Role Play Game designer. Do you play, or have you played, TTRPGs?
I've played them in the past, when I had other people around. I gave them up for computer games when I started to transition to hermit.
Board games with the kids growing up.
But it's hard to play a TTRPG by my self.
What's a problem you solved in your creative work this month?
The solution that looked so good going in but collapsed ten days ago? That problem?
Sigh.
TBF, the solution worked until the City inspectors showed up threatening fines.
I've cleaned out the thistles and tumbleweeds. The tree pruning and irrigation work has been scheduled with the appropriate professionals.
The City will be back next week to pass judgement.
I hope to get back to my creative work Real Soon Now.
Have FairyTales influenced any of your creative work?
Not as such. No.