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InterNutter

Indie writer seeks audience with an audience. Paying customers welcome. [pronouns: ze/hir] Daily free stories happen because it is an excellent counter to Writers' Block.

Burpengary East http://www.cmweller.com 12161 posts

Small Progress

It's the first of March, and that means that I have seven more days to live through whilst simultaneously fearing acceptance and rejection. Acceptance means I get money, but I also have the possibility of going on book tours and talking at conventions and meeting fans.

And I have social anxiety.

If I am rejected... well, I have to go through all this AGAIN, and with a different Agent-to-be. Or, as I've been starting to shorten it, A2B. Which means another three months of fearing both acceptance and rejection.

By the time I reach the end of the list (and demand my $400 back from the peeps who sold it to me) I will be absolutely shattered. Assuming I survive that long.

I did manage to get in maybe 80% of a good sleep, last night, so that's a little something on my score.

But every day I don't get a rejection is a day closer to the possibility of being accepted. And I've managed to calm myself down by being absolutely mean to myself.

Now whenever I get anxious about the whole agent thing, I remember these points:

  • I am not Stephanie Meyer
  • I am not E. L. James
  • I am a better writer than either of them (strictly MNSHO)
  • So therefore I will not rocket to instant fame and success
  • KFZ is not going to be an instant best-seller
  • I will not get any kind of notice until about five books in
  • Which is a little shy of five years away
  • By which time, I shall be thoroughly prepared to present myself however I wish
  • Besides, judging by how much my daily stories are earning on Steemit, I'm going to be niche for the rest of my life.

I want to be judged on my writing's own merits. And this is judgement of a kind, I guess. But, on the plus side, every day I practice. And every day I get better. And while everything I write may not be a winner, something in there has to be.

The shotgun principle is a thing for a reason.

I've written almost 1500 fictions to date, and I plan on writing many more than that. I'm failing as fast as I can and success has to be in there somewhere.

Gotta keep on going. And as soon as I'm done here, I have to cook myself some real food. That's the pick-me-up I really need.

Challenge #01519-D058: Watch What You Say

[Person #1]: (after describing the expedition) Won't be any fighting or danger, just research

[Person #2]: (who's seen this shit before) Yes, it will be totally safe. Nothing can go wrong. At least it won't be raining.

[Person #2]: You could just as well held up a sign that says "Fuck Murphy" on it, and expect less trouble. -- RecklessPrudence

"It's an exploratory mission into uninhabited territory. The entire system is incapable of hosting life. What could go wrong?"

"O Powers... you

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Average, ordinary, everyday... disorder

So here's how things are going for me...

  • Shitty time getting to sleep, because:
  • Anxiety over the book being accepted
  • Anxiety over the animation/animatic I'm planning
  • Anxiety over whether or not the finished thing will get me hated and exiled over the fandom because someone thinks I want to make money about the thing
  • I have a tablet glove on the way and NOT being tracked by the Australian postal system
  • I have a neat fan-comic on the way that has
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Challenge #01518-D057: Hazards of Companionship

...well... thank you... I was suffering from a shortage of waking up screaming, this should help for the next month. -- RecklessPrudence

Humans are the most advantageous crewmembers to have. Especially in what they insist on calling 'crunch time'. They will walk, or run, into danger and saunter back out again with barely a scratch. They are fiercely protective of any being they view as part of their pack, insanely profitable to have in a ship's crew, and invariably adaptable.

They're also

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...uuuuuuurrrrrgh...

Bad things I did, yesterday:

  • Talk up a big game about eating food but not actually make any
  • Consume half a packet of sugarless caramels
  • Stay up 'till eleven because laundry

The results from those bad things:

  • I'm frelling tired
  • I'm feeling a little weak [A bout of artificial sweetener-induced intestinal issues will do that to you]
  • I am not fully functioning

Worry not, dear readers, I did actually get two actual meals in. Breakfast care of the Coffee club, and bunless

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Challenge #01517-D056: A Strange Land

The past is another country. -- Knitnan

Pam walked around the corner into another world. At least, that was what she thought to begin with. The very air smelled different. Disgusting, in its own way. None of the buildings were familiar. And everyone was dressed really weird. And everyone was staring at her. Pam clung to her purse and tried to be discreet in digging out her self-defense stuff. It had, of course, settled to the very bottom of her bag.

She

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Statistics Sunday

I forgot about gathering my statistics, yesterday. And I'd eaten a rough quarter of a packet of salted macadamias before I remembered.

To quote Homer Simpson: D'oh!

So, with last week as a reference. This week's stats are:

Weight: 77.2
Fat Weight: 29.6
Waist/Height: 0.547
Blood sugar: 2.8
Blood Ketones: 5.8
Breath Ketones: 18.9

The blood sugar and blood ketones are slightly in the danger zone. I forgot to eat, yesterday, and ended up with

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Challenge #01516-D055: Me and a Shadow

http://toxixpumpkin.tumblr.com/post/100767877989

And a third -- Gallifreya

It was literally the brightest outfit that Janice had ever seen. Lights and all. It included vibrant colours in the spaces between the tiny, laundry-proof LED's. There was even an alice band with lights in it.

"Mabel..." said Janice. "What the heck?"

"Oh, there's a shadow-girl in the neighbourhood. I'm helping her out today."

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Prompts remaining: 14 Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!

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Scary stuff

I'm going to spend some time every weekday learning a little about how to animate. Starting with sourcing the best, cheapest, dummins-proof animation software and learning how do deal with that.

Recommendations are welcome, by the way.

This is as well as spending some time every day doing all my writing projects, the daily doodle, and squeezing in a little good old-fashioned fun.

I'm also pondering going to Lulu to print some hardcopies of some of my eBooks. Legal obligations prevent me

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Challenge #01515-D054: A Good Host's Reward

Pick a second! -- Gallifreya

There's one advantage to being an early riser. Usually, it's watching some kick-ass dawns as they happen. Today, it was meeting Brutus. He's what most people call a gargoyle. I'd go into the difference between the real gargoyles, which are decorative stone waterspouts, and what people call 'gargoyles' but are actually called grotesques. Those are decorative stone building features with no inherent function.

But I wouldn't call Brutus 'grotesque'. He's kind'a pretty. Even with his stone skin

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::Yakety Sax at 10rpm::

There's a party to go to in scenic Coominya tonight. There's cleaners coming today. I have to shop for nice clothes [I've shrunk and the kids have grown] and help clean the house.

Somehow, I have to fit in my Instant, my novel (1000 words on Fridays!) and a doodle to up my leet art skillz sometime this afternoon.

Update: I got an email from the cleaners saying they can't come and clean. FUN.

On the plus side, I have the free

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Challenge #01514-D053: One Miserable Evening in a Dragon's Lair

http://toxixpumpkin.tumblr.com/post/100767877989

Pick one! -- Gallifreya

Of all the experiences in the multiverse, there's nothing like sprawling across the head of a friendly dragon. Alas, since this dragon was fighting a bout of the 'flu, it meant that Sam was doing the sprawling in a budgie-smuggler, and kept one hand on the fire extinguisher.

Dragons sneeze fire. And even though Bloodflight was comfy in his cave, there was still the risk of setting a few things on fire.

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Smooth mornings!

Hooray, I have life figured out enough that the mornings move like a well-oiled machine. Now, if only I could do the same thing for myself.

Alone, I clog up with fascinating things until a half-hour task takes most of the firkin day. And then I complain about having zero time to fart around and play games.

Sometimes, I am a complete dummins.

But I have learned a few things from some of it. Including a new word that I plan to

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Challenge #01513-D052: A Lucky Escape From Grebnak 5

"Is that going to blow up?"

"Well, I mean, only if i mess up, " -- OohLookShiny

"Hwell," sighed Ax'and'l, "put the concoction down."

"Relax, I know what I'm doing."

"I will not relax, I have fifteen near-death encounters as evidence in my favour." Ax'and'l considered those past incidents, "Including seven where you said you knew what you were doing."

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Prompts remaining: 10 Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!

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Some terrifying things I learned

Thanks to my friend, RecklessPrudence, I've learned that, though autism is older than we think it is, how autistes were treated hasn't really changed so much.

An autistic child before the true rise of the Industrial age would be called a "Changeling". And, despite the entire "be kind to the fae" mind-set, a Changeling child would be horrendously mistreated until the Fae gave the 'proper' child back.

This included beatings, being held to hot items, and tying them to a chair and

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