More proofs for your delectation, ladies and gentlemen! This time, Masque. The tardiness of this post can be attributed to Christmas with all its fun and fury and flurry.
Behold!
Masque can be preordered on both Kobo and Kindle, and will be out on Feb 1, 2015! Paperback will be available from Feb 1st, from either CreateSpace or Amazon.
“For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.” -Luke 2:11
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” -1 Timothy 1:15
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” -John 3:16
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” -Luke 2:14
Born to die upon Calvary,
Jesus suffered, my sins to forgive:
Born to die upon Calvary-
He was wounded that I might live.
-Ron Hamilton
Merry Christmas, guys.
Well, A Time-Traveller’s Best Friend (Vol. 1) is now up for sale on Amazon. It’ll be a couple of days before it becomes available on Kobo, iBooks and B&N, but it’s getting there. Now to persuade Amazon that when I selected a $2.99 price point, I did in fact want a $2.99 price point and not a $3.50 one . . .
Oh, and also to try not to check my sales every two hours.
Everybody knows what the Pirate Code is. (And if you don’t, immediately go and watch all four movies in the Pirates of the Carribean franchise. Seriously.)
Take what you want! Give nothing back! Or, depending on which part you’re talking about; Those who fall behind, get left behind. Or even Parlay? The part I want to talk about, however, is Take what you want. Give nothing back.
I’m relatively new to the blogosphere. I’ve been blogging for about three months now, steadily learning as I go; and I’m just beginning to scratch the surface of it all. There are so many people who blog, or comment, or reach out on twitter, or . . . And so on. It’s just slightly overwhelming. Now, I’m the kind of person who has to be reminded to say hello to people. When I see someone I need to talk to, I generally march up to them and say something like: “Oh! Bags! Where are they?” or “Where’s my chocolate cake?” I have to make a distinct effort to engage in small talk.
It should therefore come as no shock to realise that I’m only just beginning to grasp the vast social possibilities of WordPress, Twitter, Tumblr, et al. Because it’s not just me blogging to whoever will listen. It’s people out there, all writing about what they love, or what interests them, or what annoys them. Sometimes they reach out and touch me and I get to see a little bit of them. Sometimes I stumble onto a subject that interests someone else, and they get to see a bit of me.
It’s a community out there. We comment back and forth, reblog, and tweet (or is it twit?) to each other. And I’ve been running on the Pirate Code because it just didn’t occur to me that to get the richest experience out of all this, I was going to have to give something back.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to find a man with a goat. And someone who can go: “OooOOoooh!” while doing spooky fingers.**
*Pic from the Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides.
**Seriously. Watch the Pirates of the Carribean.
My mum has this habit of talking to people who aren’t in the same room. Oh, they usually begin by being in the same room: after all, she’s not senile. The conversation will begin perfectly normally: a discussion of whatever quilt she’s working on, the tv show she’s currently watching, the nifty little thing she’s making for sis, or dad . . .
Then will come the inevitable call of nature, or the desire for a cuppa, or a furtive look in the pantry to see what delicious something my sister has baked that day. I’ll leave the room with a quick: “Hang on, I’ll be back,” and the conversation will continue just as if I was still there. In the background will be mum, chuntering away happily about something I can’t quite hear, while I raid the fridge and occasionally yell out: “I can’t hear you!”
She’ll keep talking anyway. And when I walk back into the room there I am in the conversation again, as if I was there the entire time.
Or she’ll walk up the other end of the house to her quilting room while she’s still talking. From the bowels of the house I’ll hear snatches of the conversation as it moves from quilting room to bedroom, and eventually, back down the hall to me. Then I’ll be inducted back into the conversation. No worries.
It’s fascinating. A motherhood talent along the same lines as having eyes in the back of your head.
Very well: to extrapolate. Blogging feels something like that. I spy hits on the counter with my beady and sometimes feverish little eye; maybe two or three a day. (You in the back- I heard that snigger.) But by and large, it feels kinda like talking when nobody’s listening. And in just the same way that mum doesn’t seem to mind, I find that I don’t, either. Sometimes you just have to talk, even if nobody’s listening.
To extrapolate even further . . .
Writing as a whole is a bit like talking when nobody’s listening. Even the big authors had that at first. You write what you write regardless of who sees it, or what they think about it, or if you’ll ever be published. You write because you love it. You craft, and you learn, and you grow. And you keep going because you know that somewhere, sometime, someone will be listening again.
Readers will always be a big part of what we do: after all, we write for them as much as for ourselves. Well, we’re readers ourselves. But sometimes you just have to keep talking even when nobody’s listening.