PS I am writing, honest

Yeah, been working on Spider-Girl issue 14 today.

It’s going kind of slow – the plot’s mutating, so I am re-plotting it on the fly, but it’s mutated in good ways, I hope. Need to get back into the brain-space I was in when I was writing it steadily.

But it is going.

Happy New Year’s Resolutions

For those of you following the Western calendar, anyway. First day of 2008. We’re living in the future, I tell you. Flying cars just around the corner.

So I’ve been gone for a while again, but rest assured I’ve been thinking of you (and replying to the odd comment, and email). It’s funny, I realised yesterday that while I scour YouTube and Yahoo! Groups for the occasional masking-related bit, then get all bitter and upset that no-one’s doing anything, at the same time… I’m not doing much of anything myself. Which seems a bit two-faced, if you’ll excuse the pun.

New Year’s Day is a very good time to look at that sort of thing and wonder if you can’t make a change. So here I am, looking at it.

In the past couple of days I’ve dug through Google Docs, and a few other spots on my hard drive, checking out unfinished work. I have a lot of it. (Not all of it has seen the light of day, either.) I’m sure a lot of writers have similar issues, and many more ‘wannabe’ writers (which I still classify myself as, really) but I doubt many of them have the same issue… which is that often these stories are left unfinished by me because they served their purpose. In other words, they got me excited, and that was that.

Bugs me, though.

Sure, there are some stories that haven’t been finished because I can’t figure out how to finish them, or more likely, I don’t have an ending that I’m happy with. (Father Knows Best is a large, irksome example of this. Part 4 has an ending. I’m just not sure it’s the one I want.) There are others which I abandoned because I just decided the idea wasn’t worth spit anyway, or that basically I didn’t want to write that any more.

Truth is though, if I get right down and look at it, many if not most of these things I could finish… I just choose not to. I was looking at a couple of particular things in the last couple of days thinking “Might be fun to finish that”. So that’s why my New Year’s Resolution – as regards ‘this field’, anyway – is…

… finish more stuff.

Oh, and I think I might ask for your help in that. So stay tuned.

Soooo…

… he said, looking around a little furtively. What’s going on with me?

Well, the mask fiction – indeed, the prose fiction – is a little light, right now. As I said in the previous post, I’ve been concentrating on ‘other’ writing recently. I’ve finished another play recently (Yaaayyyy!!) which is going to require a lot of polish to get to a performance level. At the same time, in conjunction with the actors I worked with for the reading of the first play, we’ve decided to stage it next year at a fringe festival here – so that is now taking up a certain amount of time too, with new drafts and revisions and discussions about all sorts of stuff.

The interesting – well, to me – side effect of all this is that the moment this stuff takes off, my urge to write mask fiction diminishes. No prizes for guessing the two are sort of interconnected. The better I feel about me, as a person and as a writer, the less I feel the need to write fiction that frankly, doesn’t do much for making me feel recognised and validated. (Perhaps now you can see why I value your comments so much.)

So, that’s why the fiction you’re used to seeing here has pretty much dried up. I don’t have enough time to sustain two writing ‘careers’. However… before you write me off, here’s the good news. I’m smart enough to know this doesn’t mean I’m quitting. Hell, I drafted this post once before, and something about writing it made me go scribble down 1,600 words of Spider-Girl issue 14, so I still like doing it. I’ll just be doing it a lot slower. Make sense?

Anyway, my sustained mask fiction burst at the beginning of this year had a lot to do with getting my other writing going, so much as you might hate it, dear reader, you had something to do with this situation. Which I won’t forget… and I thank you for.

Okay, back to writing… of all kinds.

Wherethehellyoubeen

So… where have I been? Easy… not here. Been writing. But not here.

And that’s in a dual sense; I haven’t been writing mask fiction, I’ve been writing other stuff. I’ve been working on a couple of different things this year – both plays – and one of them is shaping up quite nicely. I have actors interested, we’ve done a read-through of it, and it’s looking good. So that’s taken a lot of time, and other stuff has slipped.

Doesn’t mean I’m going away for good, just means my energies aren’t as focused as they have been at other times this year on this stuff.

When I do switch back into mask fiction mode, Project T is what’s been worked on, and that still progresses in fits and starts. I hope to have it done pre-Christmas, which (I think) is a sort of realistic timescale.

That’s it! Just wanted to say ‘hi’. Feel free to drop me a line – my name at gmail dot com.

A couple of questions answered

Hey folks. A slightly hungover Sunday morning for me, after a cocktail party for a friend’s birthday last night. Cocktails are the devil’s work – hangovers are either his too, or Jesus’. Can’t figure out which.

Thought I’d pop in briefly and address a couple of things in comments. In response to my suggestion that the next thing I release won’t be a Spider-Girl story, well, that assumes everything goes to plan. I have Project T on the boil, but honestly, I’d need to get a lot further ahead in that before I feel comfortable unleashing it. More likely, I’ll finish this short story idea I had whilst returning from my business trip. It kept me smiling all the way home, so it’s a nice potential one. ETA? At least a couple of weeks, so don’t get too excited yet.

Another point raised by Liz Rees (hi Liz!) was the ending of Spider-Girl 12. While I won’t spoil it here suffice to say it actually is pretty much the exact same plot as an early Spider-Man issue, so it wasn’t something I came up with really. The big difference here being exactly where Betty stands in the story. I was quite pleased with it though; the ending is a springboard to a lot of stuff, and it all comes from her character, so that’s the best kind of plot development.

Finally, a small favour. Clicked on an ad recently? Don’t go thinking for a second that I’m rolling in dough here, ‘cos I ain’t, but in terms of clicks this month has been waaay lower than last month. I know I moved them down on the right, but still, they’re easy to find. Just takes a second of your time. As I’ve said before, if you’ve enjoyed anything I’ve written… click on an ad for me. Ta.

Oooh, dear

Just logged in and saw that I haven’t touched any of my writing since the 6th. Two whole days without a single word being written. Oooh. Not good. Why the break? You really want to know? You probably do. You ain’t gonna like it though….

I had what I described as a ‘perfect storm’ of gadgets happen to me earlier in the week, and it consumed me for a bit. First, a (very) shiny new MacBook Pro, courtesy of my work. (I first asked for a Mac when I joined, so it took just under three years; not bad really.) Behold the shininess!

Alright, I’ll admit it, some of the shiny might come from the flash. But not much. Of course, this shouldn’t affect the writing much, really – in fact I hope the opposite is true, as the true spirit of Apple takes me and I find myself possessed by the muse, wearing a beret, and hanging out in coffee shops sipping a perpetual espresso.

Of course, the fact that re-learning how to do everything (just posting that picture took me 15 minutes of work) shows you that some adjustments may have to be made.

This isn’t what you should worry about though, folks. Worry about the fact that despite me doing so well this year, writing so much more than I ever have… I’ve gone and got myself a distraction. Yes: I also now own an Xbox 360.

This will be an interesting test of willpower.

Heads up

This is a quick post to give you advance notice that I can’t guarantee Spider-Girl #12 will go online this weekend. I know I’ve left you all hanging on anxiously, but don’t get too excited. The next issue wraps up the whole Doc Ock arc, and while I hope you like it, I doubt you’ll like it as much as #11. I know I sure as hell didn’t like writing it as much.

Anyway, I have quite a few things to do this weekend and also I know I’ll want to take some time to edit and polish #12, so I’m just saying right now that I can’t guarantee it’ll appear in the next two days. Just FYI.

Elsewhere, I’ve been enjoying moving forward with Project T, which sits in another tab at just over 28k words now. I don’t think I’ve said this before specifically, but I generally aim for a PG-13 (in US parlance) sort of rating with Spider-Girl… there’s quite a lot of talk about sex, and implied sex, and occasional actual sex… but it’s not full-on, Technicolor sex. Nor are there curse words – y’know, to save the kids.

Well, it’s nice to occasionally write full-on Technicolor sex and use as many curse-words as I like, put it that way….

Oh! Also, I came up with something entirely brand new in the ol’ shower this morning. By the time I’d had breakfast the idea was pretty much locked. However, I had another thought this evening which I thought I’d run by you.

This story idea could basically have a character in it that’s a female, masking as another female. Or, it could be a man, masking as a woman. Then it hit me; maybe it could be both. It might be fun to actually write two different endings to the story – or two different second halves, I guess – and let you choose your preferred kink.

Good idea? Bad idea? Let me know. Got no idea when I might get to writing said idea, but hey. We’ll call it Project B for now.

Well, I guess I’m full of it.

I’m over 2,000 words into Spider-Girl issue #13. So much for that break of mine, eh?

Well, it helps that it’s a ‘bridging’ issue, as I thought it was going to be; I’m tying up fairly essential plot elements that were left over from previous issues, and introducing things for the next big arc… codenamed ‘Crossover‘ as I’ve said before.

I remembered what I meant to say the other night. I will be writing a ‘cast of characters’ post at some point, hopefully this week. If you’re struggling to tell folks apart in ‘Project SG‘ then hopefully this’ll set you right; and if you’re a Marvel fan wondering just what the hell kind of changes I’ve made since I started, well, this should sort you out as well.

Alright, that’s it for now.

Couple of little things

First of all… ads have been moved down to the bottom of the sidebar on the right. Please don’t forget they’re there! I’ve expanded the ad box too so there’s a few more choices to click on. Go on, go do it now; new fiction’s out today, after all. Hold down ‘Ctrl’ (or… what’s the Apple equivalent? Ah, you’ll know) and you won’t even leave this page.

Second… new poll. I’m not going to ask you guys for a vote every single time I post something. Instead, I thought I’d wait until a whole arc is through. So – here’s the poll for the Green Goblin arc, which ran from issue #5 through to issue #8. Liked it? Hated it? Here’s your chance to make me feel all warm and tingly inside. Or all empty and hollow. Either way, I can take it… so vote for me, would you? Remember – you’re voting on the whole arc, overall. Hope that’s okay.

Third and final. I know there was something but I’m too tired to recall what it is. Must… sleep. Night everybody.

Going commercial. Kinda.

So first of all: don’t panic. I’m not about to start charging you for anything. (Although, if anyone wants to pay me, my rates would be reasonable.)

However. Long-time readers and friends will know I’ve thought for many, many years about just how I might make a bit of money (however small) from the effort and time I put into writing fiction that’s primarily, let’s be honest, there to help you get off. I mean, even the lowliest of working girls and boys get paid, so why shouldn’t I when the results are the same, right?

Okay, I don’t want to put anyone off their food here, so I’ll get right to the point. I’ve slapped some Google Ads here on the blog. So from now on, here’s the simple request I’ll add to any fiction I post:

If you liked what you just read, go to my blog and click on a Google Ad.

That’s it. If enough of you click, I’ll get a bit of cash. I think this is pretty much a win-win situation for you and I, because:

• It costs you nothing but the click, and the time to load another page. (And if you’re smart, and running a modern browser, you’ve probably got tabs going on. You can open stuff and not even look at it.)
• Did I mention it costs you nothing?
• The ads are targetted by keyword search, so hey – you might even find something useful via one of them.
• And being Google Ads, they’re completely unobtrusive. I’ve moved the ads up to the top right for a while just so you can see they’re here; but before too long I’ll slide ‘em back down the sidebar. They’re just links.

I absolutely cannot see any reason not to do this. So basically, if you’ve ever read one of my stories and liked it, click on an ad or two. Heck, click an ad each time you visit this blog. Costs you nothing. Gets me cash (eventually, it takes a lot of clicks). We all benefit. Click one now!! Heh.

Just for clarification: I will always be writing and releasing fiction for free. I will not hold you folks to ‘ransom’ before releasing fiction (“If I don’t get 5,000 clicks no-one gets any more Spider-Girl!!!” or similar). I will not install any kind of intrusive ads at all (no pop-ups, pop-unders, or similar). If Google Ads changes to do that kind of thing, I’ll drop them.

Finally, for those of you concerned about your privacy… I don’t think you should be. Google Ads don’t look at you or your browsing, they look at the page they’re on. Considering the sort of sites I’ve seen appearing so far on the ads (mostly, about writing) I am pretty damn certain you’ll be okay. But frankly, if you’re really concerned about what some anonymous corporation might know about you by checking your web browsing habits… well, I can direct you to some good conspiracy sites.

I would very much like to hear your opinions on this, good or bad. I’ve always listened and reacted to people’s opinions and comments, and I’m not about to stop. So feel free to comment below or email me – the address is my name at g mail dot com.

Annnnnd finally… one day I may well produce actual printed material of mine that you can buy (reprinting stuff you can already get on the web for free, natch). If anyone would be interested in buying a ‘Collected Ghostly Writer’ I’d love to hear from you too. Right now I think I might be the sole person in the world interested, but you never know…!