EXACTLY! Almost every opportunity they have to actually hold people in power to account, they bloviate or proselytize instead of actually demanding answers that put those in power on the record definitively. Their follow-up questions almost always are either missing or suck entirely.
My current goal is to live just long enough for my overall arc to be realized in my works so it all makes perfect sense to readers.
Despite being in a near-universe, the broader statements on humanity/deeper themes all hold.
Janice was an interesting character to write in a short story that was very interesting/difficult to write. My goal (as a writer) for it was to write a story in which all of the main characters could be viewed as both a protagonist and antagonist. I don't know if I succeeded or not.
E.D. Fink is a fun one to write and I hope much of his part in "M.A.H.M." is fun to read.
Technically, *all* of my characters are in an alternate universe. My books are set in a near-history to now (very practical real world reason initially, became something much bigger in my canon later). The entire divergence between our reality and the one in my books is a LONG arc.
In the short story "Every Opening" (in "Tales From Our Current Apocalypse" - www.enlightensomeonedaily.com/TalesCA.html ), Janice devotes her entire life to both hiding and making up for the biggest mistake of her childhood. She's doing fine until her daughter goes a-snoopin' and sluthin'. #Booksky
This is the novel "M.A.H.M." by W.L. Swarts next to a candle.
he is already working around it, as opposed to truly being introspective. In some ways, his lying even is just how he is at any given moment; it's what he (appears to) believes in the "now."
it was he was accused of. Internally, I'm not certain he believes he has ever made a mistake because (despite his lying nature), he is constantly adapting. He is, in many ways, the ultimate in looking-forward and not being reflexive on either the past or the present. So, if he encounters an obstacle
This is one of those questions that really highlights the differences in the many characters I've written...
But, in "M.A.H.M." - www.enlightensomeonedaily.com/mahm.html - compulsive liar E.D. Fink would never admit to having made a mistake, simply because he would deny having said or done whatever
Post-convention work is a lot, like pre-convention work, working the convention and planning for future conventions.
No one asks follow-up questions when I tell them I started my publishing company because I didn't want to die on the convention trail as "that card guy..."
*Sigh*
Yum Yum Bake Shop in the early morning.
I went to my happy place
Best of luck! It's tough, but also more directly rewarding.
I always advise going solo. See the benefit of your art and find your audience instead of padding some multibillionaire's bank account.
Half a very rich cheesecake with my morning cup of coffee.
This morning, I am considering how any cake is coffee cake, if only we have the courage.
And cake.
And coffee.
#Foodsky #Humor
Everyone here is self-promoting. Last year, people were sharing and boosting each other. Now, they are poorer and more afraid and there are more people.
It's not you: the platform is choked and the world is scared and poor, getting even attention is a bigger ask than it used to be.
Perhaps my pep-talk didn't land the right way.
You started by saying you were having trouble finding reasons to keep trying to promote yourself on this platform. The intent behind what I wrote was to say "It's not you, it's here."
My wife said it more succinctly when I mentioned this to her:
But it's the medium, not your message. Perhaps, from that, you might take heart.
about the results of your attempts to market here. It sucks because you've got a cool take and a distinctive voice and a neat idea, but the eyeballs that are here using the same hashtags are, largely, peddling their version, not so much looking to consume. Or, at least, not buy.
That sucks.
return with me to the beginning and take heart; you didn't know what else you could do to market yourself through social media and were feeling demoralized.
I suggest that if you acknowledge that this platform is not designed for you to stand out and sell yourself, you might feel less futility
like you in the world and -when it comes to sales - you're competing with the hobby enthusiast, the side gig spouse whose business is subsidized by a partner, the guy who only needs $X for this month's rent and will not care about the real value of his labor.
If this all sounds like doom and gloom,
when marketing ourselves, namely our competition (even if only for attention and time, if not money). Artist spaces on social media are packed with artists producing and desperately trying to stand out from other artists to make a sale. Instead of showcasing our unique strengths, you're shown those
I think that social media is a rough place to try to market, especially here because the concept of connection here is for like & not the equal and opposite.
Bloggers connect with bloggers, writers with writers, film buffs with film buffs. Most of us here are connecting with the thing we need least
Their youth together is pretty wonderful and innocent.
perfect Bavarian cream doughnut, so she expresses the need for freedom both in word and action in her professional/personal life. She couldn't do either as effectively working under anyone else's thumb.
She does.
Personally, she is distrustful of anything remotely authoritarian in the government. This works well as, professionally, she writes about government overreach and political conspiracies. However, paired with that, she travels the U.S. sampling from local doughnut shops in search of the
It really does!
Like me, most of my characters have gotten to a position in life where they do not see the value of spending a life simply servicing another's machine... they want to live and experience and, barring that, just not waste their time or life doing something that makes them miserable.
I have an opinion on this, if you're interested.
It's a strong motivator and one of the big underlying questions of "Every Opening" is: "What is the true value of truth?"
It's wish-fulfillment in my writing; my characters take a lot more risks than I do.
This is the novel "Within These Walls" by W.L. Swarts sitting next to a candle.
Jennifer and C.M. from "Within These Walls" - www.wlswarts.com/wtwpage.html - just went camping. They shared a tent while Jen's mothers had their own. It's perfectly normal and innocent for them. The turned earth was just the first attempt at a firepit.