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Sunday, November 06, 2011

Weekend Wibbles

Writing Wibbles, Photo Wibbles, Life Wibbles, I need to start posting in the moment again.

But first, welcome to the two newest followers:

  • S.M. Reine — author, proprietor of Red Iris Books, and (as you may remember) the person who designed my White Pickups cover.
  • Carole Gill — an author whose goal, as she puts it, is to “push the boundaries of gothic romance.”

Your visitor’s badges are at the front desk — in a free-range insane asylum, you don’t want to be mistaken for an inmate!



Hallowe’en has come and gone. Mason had his first trick or treat experience, and brought home a modest bucket of loot. Now when he wants a piece of candy, he’ll say, “Trick or treat? Please?” As he loves Cars so much, Mrs. Fetched got him a pit crew uniform for his first outing.

If I had to caption this particular photo, it would be something like, “Well, they told me to make a scary face, so…” Or maybe “Caaaaandyyyyyy!”

This morning at church, he pulled a good one. He snagged a hymnal and sat down and said, “Read?” I reached for it, and he insisted, “I’m reading!”


Daughter Dearest has also been busy. She had her senior recital last weekend and it went pretty well. The preparations for the reception following were fairly intense, though. Fortunately, I was spared and and just had to keep Mason out of everyone’s hair.

We took video, and I took a few pictures:


I've learned that slightly de-saturating the photo is the best way to deal with the rather intense backdrop on the Falany Performing Arts Center stage. DD really has a gorgeous voice. I’ll link to the video somehow when Mrs. Fetched edits it down, so you won’t completely miss out.


Writing? Right. I’m definitely not doing NaNoWriMo, but cheering on anyone who is. I’ve got two people, John Xero and Chuck Allen, looking over the complete version of Xenocide so I’ll know it’s in reasonable shape. I’m using it as a “test bed” of sorts, turning it into an eBook so I’ll have an idea of what the overhead will be like for White Pickups as well.

My #FridayFlash piece from week before last (Geek vs. Zombies) pretty much confirmed a theory I came up with: if you want lots of pageviews and comments, write a zombie story. I got really close to cracking 200 pageviews, and got nearly 30 comments. Quite a spike when compared to other recent #FridayFlash stories (not to mention the #TuesdaySerial). So the big question: is it wrong to be a “zombie whore”? I don’t think so, not if you write them because you enjoy writing them. I like doing a slightly different take on the zombie apocalypse — such as scavengers on the edges of the horde, or even grass-eating zombies.

I’m working on a soundtrack for White Pickups. I’m about 40% done, and that’s just songs in my own playlists. I’ll continue looking for suitable tunes.


I happened across a site called ifttt (IF This Then That) recently. It’s really handy, the way it can tie many of your online services (and your phone) together. It doesn’t talk directly to Blogger, but does read RSS feeds, so I have it auto-tweet new blog posts and text me when someone comments. Several people have had trouble with Feedburner’s auto-tweet lately, and I pointed them to ifttt. I may expand on what I’m using it for later on. I also need to talk about Calibre, and how it can turn your Kindle (or other eReader) into an offline blog/news reader.

6 comments:

  1. Love the photo of Mason so cute and daughter look lovely too!

    Zombie flash eh - I don't mind it, but I do like the diversity of subjects that our friday flashers write about.

    I've never checked out my page views, I don't think I'll start now though.

    Sounds like you are keeping very busy Mr. FAR! ^__^

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  2. Hi Helen!

    I call Mason the World's Cutest Grandkid. Other grandparents may have their own opinion. Daughter is a sweet young lady, although the guys find her a little intimidating.

    Busy? Always!

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  3. Go ahead and be a zombie whore. There are plenty of us fans out there. And a good story is a good story (and I liked your flash piece). Hell, most zombie stories aren't really about the zombies anyway, so if you have good living characters, you have something interesting.

    Paul D. Dail
    www.pauldail.com- A horror writer's not necessarily horrific blog

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  4. Hi Paul, welcome to the free-range insane asylum!

    I lump zombie stories in the same bucket as sword&sorcery — its label reads: "try to do something original with anything you pull out of this bucket." As you point out, there are plenty of fans (and that goes for S&S too), and I think the fans enjoy a look from a different angle as well.

    I do like your comment about the living characters, for example, Isaac Asimov once said that SF is about *people* rather than science. The science can get superseded quickly, but good characters don't.

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  5. Mason is adorable, and so big! Love that costume!

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  6. Hey Boran! Yup, he's growing like a weed. And oh, is he getting his Terrible Twos on sometimes!

    ReplyDelete

Comments are welcome, and they don't have to be complimentary. I delete spam on sight, but that's pretty much it for moderation. Long off-topic rants or unconstructive flamage are also candidates for deletion but I haven’t seen any of that so far.

I have comment moderation on for posts over a week old, but that’s so I’ll see them.

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