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Well, Picassa has effectively killed my incentive to use it any more for posting the cartoon. Sometime in the past week, they changed how they handle links to web albums, so that I can't simply e-mail the link from my computer, but have to do it from the Picassa website instead, meaning I have to have addresses set up there, probably need a Gmail account (which I don't have and don't plan to get at this time), etc. And it looks like if folks want to see the cartoon, they now have to log into Google as well, which don't work if folks don't have a Google account. Basically, Google took what used to be a simple, handy operation for me and made it useless in their attempts to pimp themselves. Fortunately, I think I have found a way around that. I'm testing out Zoundry's Raven this week, to see how it works for posting blog entries and images. What I like best is that I can upload images from my computer to a designated place on MY webhost, as opposed to some third party service like the aforementioned (and now useless) Picassa. So let's see how this works shall we? I'll upload my cartoon with the click of a button and...
Presto baby! Now if you click on the thumbnail below, you get the cartoon but not the Picassa album. Looks like this will work just fine for now. Still need to get a regular web comic site set up though. I'm working on it... Labels: Cartoon |
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Sunday, August 31, 2008
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 Ta-daa! Here's the latest installment in The Adventures of Cynical Woman. This one really is true. My youngest gets into my purse all the time and spreads the contents everywhere. The resutls have been everything from frustrating to funny to both. Enjoy the laugh on me. Labels: Cartoon, Write-At-Home Mom |
Friday, August 22, 2008
Cartoon on Playing for Keeps - the success of podcaster and novelist Mur Lafferty
 For once, I have the cartoon done a little early this week. I pulled an all-nighter last night to get this done. Not the strip I had originally intended to put out, but it occurred to me yesterday afternoon that Mur Lafferty's novel, Playing for Keeps, was going up for a big push on Amazon.com on Monday and... What? Who's Mur Lafferty and What's Playing for Keeps? You mean you don't KNOW? Mur Lafferty is a writer and podcaster extraordinaire. She's the host of the podcast show I Should Be Writing, the podcast for wanna-be fiction writers written by a wanna-be fiction writer who it just so happens now has a published book. For some time, Mur's been writing novels and podcasting them a chapter at a time, gaining an audience in the tens of thousands as she gave away book after book in MP3 and PDF format. Yeah, that's right, she GAVE HER BOOKS AWAY! And in the process gained a HUGE following. Earlier this year, her super hero novel, Playing for Keeps, was picked up by Swarm Press. I had previously bought a copy of Playing for Keeps, one that Mur had self-published, and let me tell you, it was a thoroughly enjoyable read. I'm looking forward to seeing what the newly published book will look like because guess what? I'm a book junkie and I'll buy the book a second time, even though I already have a hard copy and the PDF and the podcast. And I'm not the only person who will do that. See, here's the thing. Not so many years ago, someone figured out that the way to hook a reader was to give them a story. For free. I think that someone was Tee Morris who podcast his first novel, Morevi: The Chronicles of Rafe and Askana, for free after publishing it with Dragon Moon Press. Tee is big on promoting his work, and does an outstanding podcast called The Survivor's Guide to Writing Fantasy in which he discusses how authors can promote their books. Podcasting Morevi worked so well for Tee that he podcast his second book as well, and now he has a huge audience all clamoring for his third book which he, along with fellow podcaster Phillipa Ballantine, pushed at Amazon.com on August 8th. Phillipa's book, Chasing the Bard, is another free podcast novel, and a damned good one. Both she and Tee had such huge response on August 8th that they climbed the charts that day and stayed on the charts for a while after. And these are two books published by a small press! Other authors have struck it even bigger than that. Scott Sigler, who landed on the New York Times bestseller list, podcast a number of his novels for free before landing a major contract with Crown. And he started, just like Tee and Mur and Phillipa, by podcasting his work for free. It's an odd concept, and a very uncomfortable one for many writers, giving away your work. We all put so much into our writing, hoping to get published, hoping to make money, so how can we just give our stuff away? Especially when so many of us fall victim to e-pirates who take our books and post them to groups for others to read without concern for the fact that they've stolen our work. And yet, the idea seems to work. Give your work away. Build an audience. And then when the time comes, when you have that audience, you can go to a publisher and say, "Hey, I've got twenty thousand people listening to the podcast of my novel week after week!" Or maybe "Hey, the free PDF of my last novella was downloaded fifty thousand times!" And that publisher might take a long hard look at that built-in audience you've worked so hard to gain and think, "Hey, if I publish this guy, I've got a sure thing..." And then you might just have a contract for a book. I give away a lot of my work for free. Each week I podcast a new erotica story on my fiction podcast, Heat Flash. I get about two thousand downloads a month, which ain't small change. I also publish a lot of free reads on the Erotica Readers and Writers Association, and I know people see those stories because I get e-mails from folks who enjoyed my work. I've got the cartoons which I post each week. I'm working now on a novella to put together as a free downloadable PDF and a podcast. The idea is to offer the PDF at my website and my publisher's website to give people a taste of what I write, and to distribute the PDF via my blog, podcast feed, etc. The PDF of course will have my URL and a buy link to any other work I have available. And the podcast version of the novella will hopefully gain me an even larger audience than I already have, an audience of people willing to spend some money on any current or future books I write. Yeah, it's a lot of work, but I keep thinking, I would be writing anyway (I should be writing, according to Mur), and yeah maybe I could publish a novella through an e-publisher for money, but in the long run a podcast might do me more good. It's an experiment, and one I'm looking forward to trying. In the mean time though, Monday -- August 25th -- is Mur Lafferty's day. If you like super hero stories, if you like a good read, if you want to be a part of publishing and podcasting history, stop by Amazon.com and buy a copy of Playing for Keeps. Help push Mur up the charts. Visit her website - www.playingforkeepsnovel.com - to find out more and get lots of free goodies, including extra stories and video, and enjoy Mur's work. She's a good writer. She's given her readers a lot. Now let's give her some love. Labels: Cartoon, Podcast, Writing Business |
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Cartoon! And thoughts on when Life interferes with work
 The above cartoon is something that actually happens way too often around this house. And it's not just that writing interferes with my sex life, it also interferes with other things too, like spending time with the family, sitting down to eat, watching TV, sleep, etc., etc., etc. Writing has a way of taking over one's life and forcing all other those other niggling little concerns to the side. Apparently though, Life has a way of pushing back. It happens every now and then. I get hit with Life. We take a vacation, someone in the house gets sick and then we all get sick, shopping for school consumes a week instead of just the one afternoon. Life butts its head into Work and the two of them duke it out until Life squashes Work flat on the mat, and that's that. Whole weeks that were meant to be devoted to writing the Great American Porno Novel are suddenly eaten alive by weddings, illnesses, and laundry. Because honest to god, the laundry can only be ignored for so long. I just got off a Life jag. My computer was choked with audio files from the podcast and graphics files from various art commissions. It took me two days to clear off enough space so I could work again, and frankly I know I'll need to take another two days some time very soon to finish the job. Then my cousin's daughter's wedding came up and that was a week right there, from having to find a dress to wear to the big event and then driving nine hours to see the family and help out with the preparations, plus another nine hour drive back. And as much as I bitched about the time away from work, I have to admit that I really do enjoy seeing my family. I don't see them often enough. Of course, I got sick the day before we left. It was my second time being sick in two weeks. The first illness just put me flat on my back with exhaustion and insomnia for a week while the hubby was out of town (I really hate it when his Life interferes with my Life, but what can you do?). The second time around, I had major congestion, which really sucks when you're driving from sea level up way high into the mountains. Man, I thought my head would explode. And of course, the husband caught what I had, but that didn't stop him from enjoying his Plans to see BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN in concert last night, which ate yet even more of my time for Work because that was another couple of hours on the road just to get to the concert, then an hour to get into the venue plus another hour to wait for the show to start and then three hours of raging rock n' roll that have left me completely deaf. Another hour or so to drive back got us home around 1AM, so that effectively killed any plans I had to get up early this morning to do some work. In fact, I've been dragging all day long, trying to get stuff done in dribs and drabs. So far, I've washed some laundry, gone for a walk, recorded my podcast, finished the above cartoon (which I know is terribly late, but then hey, this blog post is all about how Life interferes with Work), and now I'm writing this post. It is my sincerest hope that I can somehow get my shit together tomorrow and get up at the butt crack of dawn to get some writing done for the podcast. I seriously need to get to work on next month's stories. Then in the afternoon I need to handle the hundreds of e-mails that flooded my inbox while I was away dealing with Life. Once I get through that, I may have a chance to do some more writing or even start the next cartoon, but I've got a feeling that recovering from Life will take a bit longer than just the one day. I can only hope and pray that in the middle of this there are no further significant interruptions. Although if hubby is in the mood tomorrow for a nooner... Hey, it's not like my Work won't still be on the desk when we're done. Labels: Cartoon, Write-At-Home Mom |
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Cartoon for 8 August 2008!
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Um, this cartoon was actually done on Friday, and I meant to post it then, I really did! But stuff came up and then the weekend went all wonky and... Well, it's here now:  Sorry! So sorry! I haven't slept in three days... Labels: Cartoon, Write-At-Home Mom |
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Cartoon for 2 August 2008
 The angel in this one is my husband. No kidding. When he was growing up, his parents had these religious icons/hand-painted plaques made up for each member of the family. Michael's said "Saint Michael the Magnificent." It's pretty much true. And face it, any guy that put up with me enough to marry me would have to be an angel or a saint. Labels: Cartoon, Write-At-Home Mom |
Saturday, July 26, 2008
I Am Loved...
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Alessia Brio of Coming Together likes my cartoon. I'm so happy! I'm also a little delirious, but that's because I'm SICK! Labels: Cartoon, Coming Together |
Cartoon for 25 July 2008
Yes, I know it's actually the 26th. Yes, I know I'm late. I had to check something first before putting this up on the site. Here it is; bask in the glory of my cartoon: True story, by the way. I wrote about a gay robot angel for Coming Together: With Pride. The book is available from Phaze books. Check out www.coming-together.com for more details. And don't forget the radio show we're doing tomorrow night on Passion Internet Voices Radio. That should be at 9PM-11PM EASTERN time, not 7-9 like I had originally reported. There'll be excerpts from some of the stories, including one from yours truly, and interviews with some of the authors. I've got a nasty sore throat so I may or may not be able to make it tomorrow night for an interview, buy I'm hoping! Any way, do something good today. Buy a copy of one of the Coming Together books. All proceeds go to charity. The proceeds for With Pride are donated to AVERT.org, to support AIDS and HIV research. Labels: Cartoon, Coming Together, Conventions And Appearances |
Friday, July 18, 2008
Cartoon for 18 July 2008
 This is probably the last cartoon that will show up on the blog. I'm setting up a web comic account at Comic Genesis so I can put these some place that will be easy to update and navigate around. Meanwhile, enjoy this one and I'll let everyone know when the webcomic site is set up. Labels: Cartoon, Write-At-Home Mom |
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Latest Cartoon Is Up!
 I can't tell you how many times I've been in this situation. And it's not just because I write erotica. I just simply don't fit in with the Mundanes, you know? Maybe it is the erotica writing, or the weird-ass art I do. Maybe it's the horns (they're real, you know). Or maybe, just maybe I'm a complete and total freak. You know, I like the sound of that last one. Being a writer is pretty lonely, lots of hours spent at the computer banging out a story. Being a stay-at-home mom is pretty lonely. Lots of hours spent with the kids; they're precious, but can't carry on an adult conversation. Being a writer and a mom, and being in the erotica genre? Kind of puts me waaaaaay out there. But not so far out there that I'm on my own. I got my posse of moms who understand me. Or if they don't understand me, at least they like to read my dirty stories ;) Labels: Cartoon, Write-At-Home Mom |
Friday, June 27, 2008
Cartoon - The Hazzards of Writing
I'm still trying to recover from my non-vacation to Disney, plus a week of summer camp for my oldest child. The house is a wreck. I've barely managed to do any work. I would be two pounds thinner after traipsing through Norfolk Botanical Gardens all week long, if it weren't for the fact that the only easily packable snacks we had to take with us were all junk (yes, I ate my way through the garden - blergh!). However, I did manage to finish up a cartoon for this week. And here it is: This has happened to me many times, and it always, always sucks. But you know when the characters take the story out of your hands, you've got something good going on with the writing. One thought I'm having. I'm considering doing this cartoon on a semi-regular basis, maybe weekly if I can swing it. It's a lot of work, but I'm hoping that as I become more familiar with the program I'm using and I develop a process, I'll get it done faster. I'm thinking this could be a good marketing tool, no? Post the cartoons here, post links in some online erotica groups, etc. It's a way of attracting potential readers. If they like the comic, then they can find the URL for my writing website on the strip, come visit the site, see some of my writing and art, and so on and so on. Plus I could create bookmarks out of these strips and take them with me to conventions. When I was younger, anytime I found a comic strip I really liked, I always cut it out, laminated it and used it as a bookmark. I still have some of those strips too. Yeah, this could really work. Labels: Cartoon, Write-At-Home Mom, Writing tips |
- Jumping Through Hoops
- Yahoo Groups vs. Blogs
- Episode 20 - Sudden Death
- Swamped by Promo and Other Nusances!!
- Writing and Self-Indulgence
- Free Reads this month at ERWA!
- Erotica Art Demo - Deviltry part 05 (still Not Wor...
- Erotica Art Demo - Deviltry part 04 (Not Work Safe...
- Erotica Art Demo - Deviltry part 03 (Not Work Safe...
- Erotica Art Demo - Deviltry Part 02 (Not Work Safe...
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