Blanking myself

I grabbed a new notebook to throw in my bag as the current two were down to the last couple of pages. Once I got on the train, I opened the blank notebook only to find a story snippet – two pages or so.

It’s my handwriting but I don’t remember writing it.

I don’t remember where I wanted it to go, or where I thought it was heading.

I suppose I could treat it like a writing prompt; and start from what I have.

The protagonist is an accurate fortune teller. Nobody wants the truth of their own future, do they? Not really.

I did have an idea about a person knowing the hour of a person’s death. I think it’d be a good thing to curse someone with but I feel Chuck Wendig’s Miriam Black series has done that idea too well.

An accurate prophecy also reminds me of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch.

So what was I thinking of? I don’t know…

This month my challenge was to write something short to give away to my website mailing list.

I failed.

But, in failing, I got a lot of other steps done along the way to that final step.

And the idea I have is good, I think. But it wants to be longer than a quick 5-10k words.

One of my signature traits in fanfiction was writing a one shot of say, less than 5k words. I’d post it and then everyone would ask for more. After thinking it over I would extend it until it was a 200k word epic spanning a decade; with lives lost, worlds-changed, the whole shebang. Tsunamis… there were tsunamis!

So it’s not unexpected that I’d itch to extend this freebie.

I could post it as a ‘teaser’ but fanfic readers would be okay with that whereas original fic readers probably wouldn’t like it.

So, I went back into my Word document files and tried to find all my flash fiction and short stories. I loaded them all into a Scrivener file.

What was most obvious was that I haven’t written many lately. *frowns at self*

Also that some of them are pretty good. *pats self on back*

And a lot could be extended, exactly like my old fanfic one-shots. *rolls eyes at self*

So, maybe that’s what I’ll do… pick one, edit it, run it through Scrivener to make a file, make a cover in Canva, work out how to use Bookfunnel or one of the other delivery devices, and THEN I’ll give it away.

Sheesh… maybe that’ll be next month’s challenge?

Or next week’s; I can get that done in a week. *laughs at self again*

Procrastination

For once, my innate ability to procrastinate has paid off. Count them… one.

I subscribe to Audible – the audiobook arm of Amazon. Each month I pay for a credit that entitles me to purchase one book. Sensibly, I try to make it a big book, or a boxed set, or something that seems like value for money. I won’t use it to buy a book that costs less than the credit did, that’d be dumb. I also won’t use it to get the audiobook of a title that I already own in eBook form. Also dumb, as the website automatically links with my Amazon account and offers the audiobook for the low price of $2.99 if it’s already in my library. I’m not sure how long they’ll keep doing that, it seems like a loss leader to me.

For instance, Anna Karenina is a free eBook; it’s old and out of copyright. The audio production is brilliantly read by Maggie Gyllenhaal. I expect she got paid a lot for that. But as I own the free eBook it cost me less than five dollars to hear Maggie’s breathy voice read to me. I think. Honestly I forget the price.

It’s a neat way to read those classics we all put off.

At any rate, for months, I hadn’t taken the time to trawl through my wishlist and I was busy listening to free audiobooks borrowed from my local library via the online app.

Audible had a promo; buy three books and they’d give you a $20 credit.

Oh now…

I check the fine print: or spend three credits.

I just so happen to have three credits. I’m in. I spent the credits on boxed sets and I used the voucher to buy all the library matches.

Seven audiobooks for twenty bucks? Bargain.

3 million hits

Back in May 2015 Best Friends Share Everything passed 2 million hits.

http://amgray.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/2-million-hits.html

Now it’s trundled past 3 million.

Well… I am amazed. It just keeps going. An odd pairing (okay triangle), a long story (over 200k), and for relatively minor characters like Embry and Quil. I certainly never expected it to be popular but almost every day I get a review from someone and it says something like: they’ve read it 20 times, or so many times they can’t count it; that the characters were their friends and they miss them.

I know people don’t often comment on older fics and I still respond to all the reviews that allow me to reply. I’m still just astounded.

I adore my three and I’m still struggling with trying to work out what I got right with that story because if I could somehow replicate it in an original work, I’d be golden.

And my total hits are: 11,898,571

And as always, Apologies is right behind it.

The banner was made by GoldenGirl and she even made a receipt with an employee discount as Quil’s mother owns the store.