December 2013 Round-Up

After some difficult times last month we’ve started to accept that it’s possible James may never be well again. I hate to say that, because all either of us wanted was for him to be better, but there are some things we have no choice about and with this there are limited options unfortunately. So the plan is to start looking into how we manage the problem, to make him more comfortable, as well as sort out his eating habits, which were affected by spending six months on antibiotics and about three, maybe more, on diclofenac. We just have to take things one step at a time right now.

I have also started to accept that it’s possible, although I have no formal diagnosis and I’m really not sure that I want one, that I have Asperger’s Syndrome. James already agrees, Mum is looking at some links I sent her to see what she thinks, and the more I read (my focus is on women with Asperger’s) the more I believe that I do have Asperger’s. This may be something I talk about more in the future. Right now I just want to do the research before making a final decision, as well as talk to Mum, because she’s known me since I was born (obviously).

Last month I entirely failed to get my website into any sort of order, so that’s something I will be doing in January and have actually already made a start, with the plan being to make the stories I write much easier to navigate. I want to make it obvious which ones are finished and which aren’t, so anyone who is interested in funding me to write more knows what their money is likely to go towards. What I’m going to do is put the first part of every story on the landing page (or pages, depending on which collection it is) and then have each part lead to the next one, with information at the end of the last part which will say if the story is complete, which story or stories follow on directly from it, and how, if the story is incomplete, to get more. I also need to get all of my pages updated to show my price increase, as 1000 words will now cost £3.00 instead of £1.50 and this, depending on how fast I’m writing, may see my hourly rate rise to as much as £6.00, because on good days I can manage to write 2000 words in an hour.

Check out my schedule to see what I’m planning on doing this year. It will be updated in the next couple of days to show prompt sessions, which I’m going to experiment with a little more this year; raffles, as I am planning on continuing them (and I will be posting the winners for the extended November raffle this month after totally failing last month); and anything else I might come up with. I still love experimenting, so I’m hoping that this year I’ll be able to come up with something interesting and new that everyone enjoys.

Fiction posted:
The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments: Part 9, 47th continuation; Part 9, 48th continuation; Part 9, 49th continuation; Part 9, 50th continuation; Part 9, 51st continuation; Part 9, 52nd continuation; Part 9, 53rd continuation; Part 9, 54th continuation; Part 9, 55th continuation; and Part 9, 56th continuation.
Advent Story: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8; Part 9; Part 10; Part 11; Part 12; Part 13; Part 14; Part 15; Part 16; Part 17; Part 18; Part 19; Part 20; Part 21; Part 22; Part 23; Part 24; and Part 25.

Other: Update: 28th December.

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.

2013 Fiction Posted

The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments

The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments part 1

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Update: 2nd January 2014

Yesterday was not a good day, due to lack of sleep, so instead of trying to do my normal first of the month posts I left it to today. I’m glad I did. Even though I’m still tired I’m feeling much more with it, so I’ve been making plans for the rest of the year. I’ll be honest – I still can’t quite believe it’s 2014, but it is…

2013 was not an easy year. We were hoping for some much and instead James spent eight months in pain, spending time in appointments with doctors and specialists, having scans that didn’t help us to understand why this has happened, and, of course, on the day that he was told that it was possible he might never get better we lost our best friend, Lenny (a staffordshire bull terrier, who had accepted us as his secondary humans, and loved to give James a cuddle on the bed). I got lucky, really, as I started helping Teresa with doggy day care, which means I am able to help James out more financially now and I get to spend my days with dogs I fall in love with faster than I should. Just before we lost Lenny we gained Tilly (a rottweiler terrier cross) and then Bobby (a chocolate labrador) came to live with us, so it hasn’t all be bad, although I know we all still miss Lenny. He was a very special boy, in more ways than one.

The new year isn’t going to change all that much, although it does mean remembering that it isn’t 2013 any more, and hoping I don’t accidentally write the wrong year on things – which is something I always end up doing, no matter how hard I try not to. Nothing is going to magically get better, unfortunately, even though I wish it would, because I hate James being in discomfort all the time (although he doesn’t show it as much any more I know he feels it). I don’t know exactly what steps we’re going to be taking to make things easier for him, but we do have some plans for, hopefully, increasing his weight, because being on antibiotics for six months destroyed his appetite. He’s down to weighing 10 stone and he looks skinny.

For me things aren’t going to change much. Day care is getting steadily busier, as word about us spreads, and I can only see that as a good thing, even though I do spend more of my time that I should crawling around the floor to get lost balls. (Baxter, our regular boxer puppy, is one of the worst for that, and then he looks all sad, so I find myself getting his ball for him even though I told him last time that I wasn’t going to get it if he lost it again.) I’m still going to be writing, because I can’t give it up, although there were times last year when I found myself wondering if all the hard work was worth it, when I’m getting so little in return. However, when I was writing my list of posted 2013 fiction, I realised that there is so much on there that I enjoy writing that I can’t simply give it up, even though I may feel disappointed that things aren’t working out the way I hoped they would. So, the plan for the year is to post 10,000 words a week (not including Case updates), starting from Saturday the 4th, with my aim being to complete some of the many stories I’ve started, as well as start some of the ones I haven’t got round to writing yet. I have so many ideas and it feels like I’m never going to have enough time to get them all down on paper. I want to start earning some income from the site, with my aim being £100 a month (which, I worked out, will make me £2.50 per 1000 words if I manage to reach my goal word count every week).

I’ve update some pages to show my price increase. All sponsorable stories that are currently on the list will stay at their current price, but new ones will be £3.00 (approximately $5.00) per 1000 words. Until I see how things work out I can’t see myself changing this for at least a year, especially as I’m not entirely comfortable with the idea of charging much more.

One thing I really want to get done, that I wanted to do last year, is get the ebooks sorted. I hope, if I get them published as soon as possible, I might see some more readers, as I know not everyone is comfortable reading online. The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments is first on the list, followed by the advent stories, and then everything else. I’ll also be working on the introductory ebooks, starting with some of the worlds I know most about and then going from there. Would there be more interest in the ones for the World Walkers and Fae World collections being all in one, by world, or have them by world first and then gather them together? Both of them will take more work than a lot of the others, as I don’t know as much about some of the worlds as I’d like to, but I want that to change.

Is there anyone who might be interested in some email exchanges? I have some ideas, but I’m not entirely sure how to get them all down on paper, so being able to talk about them helps.

Another thing I want to work out is how to make some of my worlds shared worlds, because I would love other people to work in them too, but I’m not entirely sure how to go about it (especially as I want them to be able to crowdfund if that’s of interest to them), and input is always appreciated. That’s one of the reasons I really want to be working on the introductory ebooks – to give any other interested writers an easy way of finding out how things work in my worlds, although I know with some of them it’s not going to be easy. I find things out as I write stories, so right now I don’t have enough stories written for some worlds to be able to know everything as well as I’d like to.

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.