letter meme

1. Leave a comment to this post!
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Post the names of five fictional characters whose names begin with that letter, and your thoughts on each. The characters can be from books, movies, or TV shows

got it from ashes1753 who gave me the letter S

Spock – My first fandom love. I love Spock to this day. He was so laconic and intelligent and those pointy ears drove me crazy, even as a little kid. I wanted to be on the Starship Enterprise so bad I tried to make a version of it in a tree. Other kids had treehouses, I had the freaking Starship Enterprise.

Sulu – (okay it’s his last name but it’s pretty much the only one he went by). I adored Sulu as much as I adored Spock and bonus: I thought he was cute as hell. Even as a kid, I was attracted to Asian men and that has not changed. Sulu had style. He freaking swashbuckled (and George Takei is one of the few celebs I follow on FB/Twitter. He has such style in real life)

Spike – I admit it, he’s what kept me watching Buffy in the beginning (it was a rough time of my life and I actually didn’t like the show. It wasn’t until it reran that I started to truly appreciate it for what it was). I loved evil!Spike. He was cool, funny and well EVIL. Chipped!Spike was interesting if for no other reason than his relationship with Dawn which I really found fascinating. Souled!Spike of season 6-7 and Angel S4 sucked and not in a good way.

Scully – (again with the last names). She rocks. She felt real in ways many women of action do not. I could believe her as an FBI. She was intelligent and funny and a perfect foil for Mulder. Okay, her disbelief in the paranormal/alien life forms got a little old but still, Scully rocks.

Son Goku (and still with last names) I included him because he was one I normally wouldn’t like. I don’t like the loud, dumb brash boy trope but Goku has this amazing innocence, that in spite of the world around him, that barely tarnishes. He is sweet and caring and sucked me in, in spite of myself.

Near misses: Sherlock Holmes, Abby Scuitto, Han Solo and Strider (but only because I was only allowed five and I couldn’t choose between Spock and Sulu and wanted at least one woman and one manga character represented). Oddly enough almost none of my new fandoms are represented. Apparently not too many S names in manga.

Writerly Ways

I am faced with something I’ve really not had to deal with before: creating a promotional buzz. I’ve spoken before about getting an author’s platform which is supposed to help with this. I’m not entirely sure it does. At the end of the day, most of the foot traffic arre from long time friends and the few people who I’m in anthologes with.

You can start a buzz on twitter but after a while, the same people don’t want to keep hearing about it. One of the most common twitter complaints I see is about the people who do nothing but push their own work and do not do anything for their follwers. I do retweet and promo others, not because of this but because I think it’s right. It’s what I would want them to do for me.

You could put up a fan page on facebook. I’m not sure how much foot traffic that would generate but I DO want to put up an author’s page sooner trather than later for Jana. She has done more than I ever expected to just two years ago. I have several book covers I could link to. I’m not sure how to get foot traffic there though.

There is only so many online social media sites you can use. I’ve picked my three. I do not have time for more. I’m not sure google + is all that yet as far as authors are concerned. I’ve not seen too many people listing that one over twitter. Tumblr maybe but again, there is only so much any one person can keep up with.

I could try to get hosted on another person’s blog. I’m part of the campaign platform challenge and I’m looking at that right now. But I don’t yet have a publication date. That hampers me. The timing was bad for this as far as the campaign was concerned. I would like to volunteer time on MY blog for others to look more open, less selfish. I’ve done it already but I doubt it really mattered. Even though I advertised it so there would be more than you guys (Not that I am unappreciative of you in the least but I wanted you plus more because I am greedy I suppose or at least earnst in my desire to help promote her book for her.

I was curious as to other people’s experiences. ozma914 and hierath especially since I know both of you have guest blogged. Was it worth it? My few times doing it there were a little nibble here and there but I wouldn’t call it a rousing success.

Even the launch parties seem to be lacking. I did one yesterday and I have to say it was the worst attended I’ve done. I believe it’s my fifth, the second time at this hosting site. Less than a half dozen authors showed up (compared to last time when I think almost all of us did) and it’s been my experience that the only people talking to each other are the authors in the anthology. Frankly I doubt the publishing house could even do the giveaway since I saw no one who wasn’t one of us. In the end, what good is that?

The launch parties on Goodreads seem better attended, but still I see the same faces, other authors from the same publishing house. That doesn’t mean they won’t buy your book but it doesn’t feel like you’re reaching that many people.

I know book trailers are the big thing but last time I asked, no one admitted to even watching them. I know I don’t. I DO know that people bitch if you use stock footage and in many cases what are you going to use? I do not have the tech savvy to put one together (or at least I don’t think I do. Maybe it’s easier than I think). I surely wouldn’t have the money to hire someone or the actors if need be. I could make some based off my own photography sans people but is it worth it? I don’t know.

Any thoughts from any of you? What makes you want to buy a book? Since the novella isn’t going to be print, I don’t think it’s eligible for a Goodreads giveaway or I’d do that in a heart beat. If nothing else, you see hundreds of people trying to win. You have to think a small protion of them will put it on the to-read pile and buy it if they don’t win.

I don’t like this part at all. Sigh.

And totally random, I’m trying to think of where Aaron and Sebastian (two steampunk fans and presumably geek boys) would go on a first date.

Yearly word count

10300 / 75000 words. 14% done!

Geek love

3983 / 10000 words. 40% done!

Scarred

3695 / 10000 words. 37% done!

Pain! (and weight off)

for what it's worth 4 weeks of exercise has resulted in zero weight loss. Color me not surprised. No recipes this week. too busy.

My back hurts. My couch is broken. I was on it most the day either grading or sorting through the ungodly piles of paper and misc debris that has piled up in the living room. Now my leg is numb and my hip/leg hurts. Thank you arthritic spurs, could you have dug deeper into my nerves. I didn't even get time for a long comforting soak and if I had, my arm would be the one hurting.

I didn't get my lecture done. While I got evil_little_dog's edits for my big bang put in, there is no way I'll get time to edit it all myself so the version that goes up at the site will not be the final version. Just not enough hours in the day especially since I have to get two proposals done at work and I'm running out of time on those too. It's frightening.

I did take time to look up 4 of the houses. Sadly the victorian was cheap because it's on the shit side of town and one of them was in an even worse section. It looks stranded in an abandon post-nuclear 1950's landscape. The houses on the road were kept up but it's just plain shabby.

The one in town wasn't that great but I found one just up the street that for in town living was cute as hell. I looked it up when I got home and sadly it has a pool which takes it to 150K, way out of my league and while I love pools, I'm not sure I want that responsibility/expense.

The last was too far out of town. I heard the dueling banjos. It also had a unibomber, washed out rut of a driveway up to it. I DID see another one that was practical perfect out there. It was nearer (in fact I swear it was a manufactured house), just 2 miles off I-32 and from 32, it was just 2 miles to town. However, when I looked that up it was at a mind blowing 200K+ It probably has tons of land. I didn't look. It didn't matter.

You know what will happen, the moment I buy something the perfect job will open up back home...

I have to do up character bios for my novella among other things. I hope to put them here for people to look over before i send it in.

quote of the day - "Harry Potter is about doing what is right in the face of adversity.Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend" -Stephen King