Hah, yeah, it's been pretty crappy. I have a proofreading sample to turn in to see if I get a job and I'm afraid to send it after all the rejections. <_<; lol, I use all: mohair, fake fur and kk wigs, so I'm covered for any cat taste. xD And since I like to leave my dolls sitting around precariously... (well, precariously for a house with cats, that is I can put them out of a dog's reach but cats climb! XD) ... Although, I can very well argue that the last pup I had around for like a month (a street-rescued pup we had for a while until we found him a home) could climb like a cat. XD Honestly, we barricaded the entire place to keep him in a pup-proofed area and he got through climbing. All of a sudden he'd appear in the strangest places (mind you, after chewing up the hell out of everything)- I called him Houdini. lol (On second thought, I should have called him Jaws XD his chewing skills were as good as his escaping act) Thank you for all the links! I'll start bookmarking and looking around (once I'm done with my "morning coffee" routine: mails, forums, etc before idle browsing xD)~ that first link does look promising in regards to contracts and reposts though. That's always good to keep in mind if one decides to get published via publishing house. Frankly I've never been one to follow blogs very consistently, I only really started two years or so back when I needed some real help with decluttering (and now I follow just the two blogs on the subject of decluttering/simplifying one's life, mostly for inspiration sake and the occasional cool tip xD). I think I really need to find a decent rss reader to make a proper following though. (And I never remembered my question after all Y_Y)
Boo for crap weeks. :/ I don't know what particular circumstances you're going under, but I kind of know that feel, bro. >_<; xD The only time any of my cats (well, I only have one now, but as recently as about two years ago, I had two) was interested in my wigs was when my friend came to visit and brought her doll with the mohair wig. Neither of them was interested all in my other wigs - just that one. I think Berri did try to lick it, though. Either lick it or pick it up in her mouth. So if you don't use mohair wigs, you'd probably be okay. xD Let's seeee.... http://www.thepassivevoice.com/ <-- My #1 publishing blog. It sort of picks up the most interesting/useful articles around the net and gathers them into one place. The guy who runs it (he's on vacation right now, though) is/was a lawyer. As I understand it, he was retired until he started this blog and seeing all the crazy contracts publishing houses were putting out made him decide to become a publishing contract lawyer to save authors from having to rely on (often shady) agents to do their negotiating and ending up (with or without their agent) signing bad contracts. So if I ever get an offer from a traditional publishing house, I'm hiring him to go over the contract. :B http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/ <-- He's sort of the leader of the idea of, "Charge a decent price for your work. Don't sell yourself short." He does a lot of posts on the math of publishing and how to act as your own publisher. It's very worth the time to go back through his older posts. He's an extremely prolific author with several pen names (most of which he's open about). http://kriswrites.com/ <-- Dean Wesley Smith's wife. Her Business Rusch posts are pretty much self-publishing's Thursday routine. It's very interesting to read from the start of her posts under the Business Rusch tag and read backwards in chronology. For one, it gives you an extensive background into the history of publishing. For two, you'll actually see her position on self-publishing shift as she writes. She starts out kind of, "Yeah, self-publishing is okay, I guess. But get traditionally published first and only self-publish what you can't get a traditional house interested in." To more recently deciding, "99% of what I publish is going to be self-published because right now, the traditional publishing industry is off its rocker and I don't feel comfortable working with them anymore." Like her husband, she's extremely prolific. I forget what *his* claims to fame are, but she's been given awards both as an author and as an editor. She's got some serious, serious writing stars next to her name. http://accordingtohoyt.com/ - She's an author who was born in Portugal and due to various circumstances (mainly not quite fitting in in her home country), she became a foreign exchange student as a young teenager and essentially is more American than Portuguese now. (She's in her 40s now, iirc. I know that she has two sons and the youngest just graduated high school, anyway. Also - cute story - she married her host family's son. Eventually. It wasn't a love-at-first-sight sort of deal, but it's sweet.) I really like her, though I suspect she's an acquired taste depending on personality types. She writes a lot of insightful posts on thinking about your writing or how she made it through her career/why she writes; etc. I typically don't follow, "How to" type writing blogs, and this isn't a "how to" type writing blog. I think she's more towards getting you to think about your own approach. I would be remiss if I didn't add: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/ He's kind of "the" guy in self-publishing because he puts himself out there and in no-nonsense (often rude) terms, points out what's wrong in traditional publishing (and sometimes e-publishing). I don't always agree with his points (especially how he says he's looking forward to when writers don't get paid for their work by fans, but by advertisers), but he can be worth the read. He's also the first self-publishing blog I ever found and the one who opened my eyes that this is something that someone can do. There are other writing blogs out there, some of which I might even recommend, but I think those are more or less the ones I *most* recommend right now. xD And if you followed no others, I'd recommend Passive Voice, just because if any of the others makes a really important post, it usually gets reposted there.
lol, I guess that means you were playing it a little too much. I downloaded it but I haven't yet gotten around to installing and playing it, I've just had such a busy shitty week, that I don't much feel like experimenting with any more new stuff. <_< Honestly, I've had the worst streak of rejections this week work/study related (and after a lot of running around to make ends meet too T_T), so I'm kind of even afraid to touch anything. Dog people drink coffee. That's an interesting finding (and perhaps not entirely off) lol Perhaps it would interest you to know I have a dog (but I'm not precisely active and social offline)? Though I would totally have a cat (or two) if I had no BJDs (wig-licking, augh) and my dad liked cats. :P And definitely, there are more cat people online, so perhaps you're onto something there. Oh, I couldn't remember, I was fairly sure it was in regards to self-publishing of short stories or something of the sort; I remember as much because I was reading that note about EL James making 1m/week <_< and reading the comments of someone talking about self-publishing, the question came up in my mind... but I thought I wouldn't bother you and surely I would remember it by the next morning. Surely. So there you go. I should make heed of my local saying on regard to things that are certain. (It doesn't translate well to English though xD) But but, yes please, DO link me to a lot of writing blogs! Self-publishing and writing tips are all cool by me.
xD I had to stop playing Prince Maker, at least for a little while. xD I started dreaming in the format and my brain kept trying to schedule an order of activities, so I kept half-waking up to try to figure out the schedule and the stats. xD (I wasn't even dreaming about Prince Maker - it was something else. xD ) Yeah - I think that the type of people who drink hot tea are... more common online? I mean, obviously, I run into a lot of coffee'o'holics, but I think of it almost like cat people versus dog people. Obviously the overlap isn't perfect, but I find by and large that "dog people" drink coffee and "cat people" drink tea and there are more cat people on the internet, based on personality type. xD (Dog people are usually more active and social offline. Cat people are usually more homebodies and social online.) It's massively stereotyped, but seems to be (as generalizations go) semi-accurate. xD If you think of what you were thinking of, feel free to ask anytime. xD I've been tempted to link you to a lot of writing blogs. Most of them are themed more towards "self-publishing" than actual tips on writing, but some of them are about writing. xD
Right. XD Still makes little sense to me, but I guess it works. And lol hey, King of the Demons is really good, imho. Congrats. XDDD Right, monsters that rip clothes off, that does makes sense. Really? XD I guess, I've got the coffee thing from movies, but so far most Americans I've chatted with were all "Ewwww coffeeeeee", except for one, who was like "Coffee? Where?" and one who liked it and couldn't have it. <_< But then again, I haven't talked with enough to make a generalization I suppose. X) But now that I think about it, I seem to get the tea thing a lot with people I chat regardless of country, so maybe I move in tea-drinking circles without realizing it, and I'm just the odd one out (I'll have coffee over tea any day, though I don't particularly mind tea... I do, however, drink it as it comes- no lemon, milk or sugar in my tea. I do change hot/cold though xD). Yes, Stargate movie was a bit cheesy XD it came with the year it was filmed on I suppose. lol Hmm I wouldn't know. I did get a couple emails not long ago, and one today, so maybe it's working again. Now, I'm fairly sure I had another random question about writing for you today but I can't remember what it was about, at all. x_x
xD If you're a Bodyguard, you unlock the Military Training class, which lets you talk to the teacher, who knows a little something about the plot/past. xD I just (well, last play through) became King of the Demons (cannot for the life of me figure out how to trip the last bit where my boy resolves to become Emperor so I guess King of Demons is the best I could get?), so maybe there is a Prince ending. xD I suspect it's "Prince Maker" because it's familiar, but it could have prince endings. xD And it had a sexy graphic because a monster caught him! (And apparently ripped off all his clothes. xD ) That's a little odd that in your experience, Americans are into tea. xD In my experience, if an American is into tea, it's usually the sweet/iced tea type. xD Unless they're sick, in which case they'll drink tea. But I do live in the South, where sweet/iced tea is a way of survival. Hahaa. xD But I've always had the idea that Americans are known for coffee. Not in the same way that, I dunno, Columbia is known for coffee - but known for being coffee drinkers (particularly Seattle). I will keep that in mind with Stargate. xD I did enjoy the movie, even though it was a little cheesy. xD It's why I was on the fence about the series. xD Man, it's been ages since I've seen it... I ought! I'm not sure. They weren't working on Menewsha until today/yesterday-ish, I know. There were a few weeks there at least where they just weren't working for anyone and apparently Insomniac let something lapse. So if it lapsed for Mene, it probably lapsed for WTF. xD But hopefully it works now? :x
Whaaat, I don't think a bodyguard makes a good Emperor, but okay. xD And if there's not a prince ending why is it called Prince Maker? :P But lol, so sorry you got caught releasing your son from jail (?) XD I would've been pissed too if one event ruined it for me. Why did that ending have a sexy graphic though, I wonder. XDD Haha, ah, I don't know what's with coffee over there (or over here). Most people I ask from the US are all into tea because as children they were given tea. XD Here we all drink milk coffee since we're young, so I guess we're just used to it. Granted, the stronger coffees are an acquired taste (I can't stand it without sugar unless it's damn GOOD coffee lol), but everyone still has it. (That and "Mate" is Our Thing XD). There's a coffee style you might enjoy too- here we call it 'teardrop' (instead of coffee with a drop of milk, it's milk with a drop of coffee xD- I can't stand it because for some reason pure hot milk makes my stomach cry lol but a lot of people drink it). Mocha-stuff is good though. X) Re the spoiler. Ah, I see.... I think. xD But yes, one can't judge an author on their writing (or subject of it). Yeah, most the books I've read from LeGuin so far are like that with the sci-fi. I don't know if she has any 'harder' sci-fi stuff, but the ones I read were really relaxed about that aspect, and were still considered sci-fi. You should definitely start with the original movie. In my (biased) opinion the coolness of the series decayed more or less with further installments. So, Original Movie > SG-1 series > Atlantis > Don't bother with anything else, imho. xD (And the only reason I liked atlantis was because I liked the bad guys loool - oh, and the looks of Mr. Muscly. xD) XD Well, *I* didn't expect the why for the zombies, so maybe? X) I mean- surely, certainly, yes. But then again I was paying a bit less mind to the why and a bit more mind to the rest of the story and totally pinning for a pairing so... <_< Oh, I meant to ask, are the notification emails working properly? I thought a few times I missed a couple notifications, but after I 'came back' to the forum they seemed to arrive normally. So I was all confuzzled on whether I missed it in a sea of spam or what. <_<
xD According to a walkthrough, you would absolutely have to work the Bodyguard job 3/4 times to complete the ending where you become Emperor... I'm not sure if there's a Prince ending, because I've had my reputation with all three races get Prince or better and still ended up an Architect and so on. xD (I got DAMN close to the good ending last night and then my boy got sent to prison in what I think was a random event and not storyline related and... it didn't end well because I chose to try to break him out of jail and we got caught. xD; I'm so mad. LOL. But I saved a few YEARS before that so at least I don't have to start completely over...) [Also, that ending had a "sexy" end game graphic, so I'm not seriously angry. xD Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to see a half-naked pretty bish picture, right? 8D] I actually might be able to drink coffee if it were made your way. xD I only have coffee in little bits with lots of chocolate. xD Like, mocha ice cream or mocha iced lattes or something. xD So coffee that's mostly milk and sugar is pretty close. xD The spoiling has to do with insinuations/rumors about his personal life that made me go, "Omg, there's a bit of that in his books so... It could be true. >_>;;;" But I know it's not really fair to listen to that, since it could be more than half based just on what he wrote and it's not fair to judge an author by stuff in their writing. Especially when it's fantasy. (I know another half of it has to do with people he knows, but I don't know what the rumors against them have as basis. I guess I should really research, but...) Anyway. xD; Yeah. :3 The first Earthsea book is the one I've read and the one that makes me want to read more. :3 And I like the sound of the sci-fi stuff. 8D And Stargate is daunting because there's so much to read/watch. xD But I know what you mean about people not letting a series end gracefully. :x After a certain point, all that makes sense to do has been done, so that's when you either recycle a bit too much or you jump the shark and it goes into wtf territories. >_>; Nah - I'm just being over-dramatic for the lols. xD I'm not really surprised steampunk and zombies met already. I just hope she wrote about why it happened a bit differently than I did. xD
XDD You big cheat! :P and lol I think not having him work is a great idea when you're cheating, I'd be curious to know how that ends up (I bet he'd be a prince then or something, XD or maybe just a regular old bum). Ah, I didn't know they had specials on BigFish, though I don't really visit often enough to notice anyway, so huh. Interesting to know though. Hahahaha, I grew up in a coffee-driven house. I love it- so long as it has 2 big sugar spoonfuls and at least 3/4 of milk xDDD Sadly, I'm fairly sure most tech things are kind of terminally outdated now within the year. <_< They do it on purpose of course. I bet they have all versions ready and only delay it not to iron it out, but to have you buy the one that will be old next month. ;P Ah! How does Lackey get to co-author, I wonder. And don't worry, I rarely find myself spoiled (Hello, I'm Tahiel, I love cheating in computer/console games and being utterly spoiled for books/movies <_<; ). But yes, I'll definitely put them up there on my list to give them a try, though unless I get a physical copy it might take me a while to get to them. I really enjoy LeGuin, her sci-fi stuff is very fantasy-ish (or you could say it's mostly fantasy with a bit of a vague mention to space ships / space travel, in the ones I read XD). Her fantasy stuff are also very fantasy, though in some books (The first Earthsea one comes to mind) she does a lot more telling like a storyteller than showing like a writer. But I found in my opinion, it worked for her. Card I like- I read a few short stories of his and then read the longer books made off those short stories (Ender, Songmaster... ). Frankly, I should've stuck to the short stories, even if I was curious to see the whole of the story and how it ended for the characters. xD That isn't to say I didn't enjoy, say, the two Ender books I read (Songmaster I was rather disappointed with the last half), but the short story I liked much more. What's daunting about Stargate? XD You should start by watching the original movies (All the other movies based off the tv series suck, imho- tho the series are quite entertaining for a tv show, except the very last spin off; I've always said people over there never know when to finish a series -or comic book series- before it gets stupid). Then again, I can't be really impartial about Stargate. I have a crush in at least one character on each of the series/movies and watch it at least partly because of that. lol loool, I'm sorry I ruined it for you? <_< There's really little else that hasn't been done, I think. XD And I agree that you should read it first. X) I'm sure it's quite different from what you had in mind anyway! XD But now I'm curious about your novel too haha. 8D
Sooo supertired right now since I've been working on a game and didn't have my midnight snack, so this will be relatively quick. >_> xD Well, I don't intend for him to get stressed. >_> With the cheat code, I generally make him Study - Work - Play for his three-things-to-do-in-a-month schedule. I can afford it that way... Y'know, by cheating. xD (And the work is really intended to make him rack up points in different endings. I'm sure it must have something to do with the endings you get... though I'm tempted that the next time I play, I never have him work a day in his life. 8D ) Cute Knight games are pretty cheap, at least. I got mine for around 7 dollars usd each. Well, that's what they sell for, technically I may have purchased them for between 0 dollars, 2.99, or somewhere in-between. I spend money every once in awhile at BigFishGames and sometimes set aside enough money so that by buying the 2.99 specials, I can earn a free game by the end of the month. xD But I have to be in a gaming mood and have roughly 20 dollars I can blow to do it. >_>; No coffee. Coffee is yuk! :talk2hand: ...but tea. Yes I'd want it to make tea. >_> (And I don't mind if my tech is outdated... as long as it's worky-outdated and isn't going to be terminally outdated within a year of purchase. <_<; ) I'm of mixed minds about Piers Anthony... he was really the first "real" fantasy/sci-fi author I ever read. He's certainly not the best, but I used to enjoy him a lot and I still read those two and a book he co-wrote with Lackey (which is how I found her). I'd ramble about my mixed feelings more, but I don't want to spoil anything by bringing in nothing-to-do-with-the-books-really stuff. xD Especially as I do like these books and hope you'll enjoy them if you read the summaries and think it sounds interesting. xD I've only read one LeGuin so far, but I liked her. :3 Heard a lot about Card, but not read anything by him (yet). I've always been tempted to get into Stargate since it seems like what I'd enjoy, but I've always been daunted by it. xD Nooo - not yet. But I'm a little sadface that steampunk+zombies has been done before. xD I'm worried about reading it now. My first "officially steampunk novel" is meant to have zombies. (SPOILER. lol.) Miss Greenwood and the Unsightly Horrors, iirc. No, I'll have to read it first. That way I can enjoy it and ditch anything that I wouldn't feel comfortable including. Unsightly Horrors is only a few thousand words in, after all. xD
