duskpeterson | Entries tagged with admin

As I've mentioned in the past, I earn my living through writing. Up till now, virtually all of my living expenses have been paid for by a donor. However, that source of money is gradually going to be phased out. This year, the donor - and the small amount of money that Noakes can afford to pay me for rent - will pay for my necessities: food, shelter, and medical care. However, my writing income will have to pay for everything else: my transportation, my professional expenses (books, convention attendance, library subscriptions, computer expenses, etc.), my cat's vet expenses, and so forth.

I'm currently earning $50 a month from my writing. This is a problem.

( What this means for my readers )

I've updated my blog profile and the entries about various aspects of my background.

I think it's time for all of us - including, most definitely, myself - to be reminded of the rules at this blog, which are stated on my profile.

* * *

THE SUSAN RULES (not scary! not scary!)

As posted by author Susan R. Matthews on 23 June 2007 at HisExcellency, a fan e-mail list devoted to her science fiction. Reprinted with her permission because I thoroughly agree. --DP

The Susan Rules of Engagement, or How I Expect People to Behave In This Group . . .

(1) Critical remarks about something I've said in my novels or said in this group are not personal insults, and I don't take them as such.

(2) Differences of opinion with other people or with the text are not personal insults either, and should not be taken as such (I don't).

(3) Intelligent, articulate, insightful people (like those who read my novels) (hee hee) are naturally passionate about things that have captured their interest. Please play nice.

* * *

So how do we criticize or react to criticism without breaking the rules? There are various ways to do that, all equally valid, and maybe you folks can post here some ideas of your own. But if you're at a loss for ideas, here's some examples of possible ways to offer criticism or respond to criticism.

( Some ways in which to play nice )

Yasuhime12 asked whether discussions of the Waterman stories are allowed here. Yes, please! Discussions of my stories are always allowed here; I just sometimes forget to beg for them.

(I should mention that story discussions usually take place at LiveJournal, if you want to be where the conversations are thickest. But you folks are welcome to comment at any of my blogs.)

As always, I welcome comments from folks who don't have accounts at my blogging services. But due to repeated spamming at my DW blog (we're talking real spam - comments that are illegible), I'm going to have to screen all anonymous comments from this point forth. You can still post anonymously at my LJ and IJ blogs without going through the screening procedure. Otherwise, you'll just have to wait a bit for your anonymous comment to show up.

I'm entering into my usual fall/winter hermitage in order to write write write fiction. (Wish me luck. Last year's hermitage wasn't much of a hermitage.) With luck, I'll come online about once a month - or less - to pick up e-mail, do needed research, and post Daily Life and Progress Report entries. If you need to get ahold of me over the fall and winter about a time-sensitive matter, please CC your e-mail to my personal assistant (i.e. my apprentice).

Also, if my Muse is cooperative (*pauses to glare at exceedingly uncooperative Muse, who smiles cheerfully back*), I'll be coming online some time in late December to post my holiday gift fic. I can't say at this point which December holiday I'll be posting it on. Hey, I need to leave an element of surprise in the gift-giving.

Finally, a round-up of "thank yous" and "you're welcomes" for the recent posts from MightyMaeve, Lizardlez, and Thetammyjo; a big thank you to Rose Red for continuing the book-buying struggle; and a "sorry" to Yonmei for breaking off in the middle of our discussion - but keep posting, please!

That goes for the rest of you too. Post any replies to my old posts that you want, and I'll get back to you in one of my "reply to comments" round-ups.

And which e-book software do you use, if I'm not being too nosy?

If you have an e-book reader that accesses HTML, I'm also curious as to whether my Website turns up properly in your e-book reader.

Anyone need one? If so, let me know where to e-mail yours, or just drop me a line.

Due to the generosity of a friend (*waves in wild thanks*), I now have a mirror account at Dreamwidth (as you know if you're reading this at Dreamwidth).

I'll be keeping my InsaneJournal and LiveJournal accounts, but this new acount will allow me to cross-post easily.

Geez, I shouldn't be rewarded this much for posting a middle-of-the-night, I'm-feeling-unloved message. But I'm really appreciating how helpful your responses are to my previous post, so thank you very much to everyone's been responding.

Certain issues are cropping up over and over in the responses to that post, so I thought I should deal with them all in one post before I get started in responding individually to folks.

( I didn't mean to suggest that anyone should feel guilty about not commenting )
( You think I should ask more questions )
( You think I should write shorter posts more frequently rather than long posts infrequently )
( You don't have to read the entire Daily Life entry )

I really, really shouldn't complain. I mean, I know authors who are weeping for reader response, while my stories are reviewed so often that I subscribe to Google Alerts to help keep track of the reviews.

The problem is, though, that most of the feedback I get comes from readers writing comments at their own blogs and sites, who are then startled - and perhaps a bit intimidated? - when I swoop down and say, "Hi! Wow, thanks for the nice rec!" Whereas what I'm mostly looking for is a chance to get to know my readers. Not just in threads like this (though I would die and go to heaven if my readers started babbling that much about my characters). What I'd also like is a chance to hear what my readers think on sundry topics, regardless as to how direct a connection the discussion has to my stories. You know, like this thread.

I really can't figure out how to encourage that type of interactivity, so I thought I'd ask you folks: Is there anything off-putting about my blogging method that discourages people from talking back to me, either here or by e-mail?

(Or maybe you're all sweet, shy readers who are in total humility before my awesomeness. Let me just live with that delusion for a while.)

I'm in need of additional beta readers (i.e. volunteer copy editors) to offer editing suggestions on my stories for continuity (did I contradict myself?), comprehension (what the heck was I trying to say?), style (does the sentence read smoothly?), description (did I leave description out where it would be appropriate to include it?), and grammar. If you can help with any other editing matters, that's great, but those are the five areas where I need the most help.

If you think you might be able to help with any of these areas, let me know which of my genres or series you'd be interested in betaing.

( Further details )

I've been having a fair amount of problems with spammers recently. (One of my posts received 39 spam comments.) While I plan to keep my blog open to anonymous comments, it would help if non-IJ folks posting here would sign their posts (with a nick or their name) and would make some specific reference to the post they're replying to. That way, I won't accidentally delete your comment.

Thanks for your help.

Due to repeated difficulties with the LiveJournal feed to my InsaneJournal blog, I'm re-establishing duskpeterson at LiveJournal as a mirror to duskpeterson at InsaneJournal. Because of this, I'll no longer be posting to eternaldungeon at InsaneJournal, which leads to the eternaldungeon2 feed at LiveJournal. If you're subscribed to the eternaldungeon2 feed, please make the switch to duskpeterson at LiveJournal. If you're uneasy about Friending a personal journal, I also post story announcements at powerfic (but usually not site updates).

My apologies to those of you who joined eternaldungeon2 and now have to switch to duskpeterson.

My profound apologies to those of you who joined duskpeterson_ij, and then had to switch to eternaldungeon2, and now have to switch to duskpeterson.

As for those of you who were originally joined eternaldungeon at LiveJournal, and then had to join duskpeterson_ij, and then had to switch to eternaldungeon2, and now have to switch to duskpeterson . . . Will a free round-the-world vacation pay you back?

I'm very much in need of additional beta readers (volunteer editors) for my stories. Specifically, I need help with checking for grammar errors ("No, it's 'who,' not 'whom"'), stylistic problems ("You've started four sentences in a row with the word 'He'"), inconsistencies ("You do realize, don't you, that you've given this character two different names?"), and lack of clarity ("What the heck were you trying to say in this passage?").

If you think you might be able to help with any of the above, please e-mail me. If you're interested in betaing particular genres or series, let me know. And of course, if you're not interested in betaing a particular story I approach you about (or you can't fit it into your schedule), you can just say so.

I can't offer any money or glory, only a first peek at my stories, a small credit line (unless you wish to remain anonymous), and the quiet satisfaction that you've helped make my stories better.

eternaldungeon2 is the new LiveJournal syndicated feed for my blog entries, which will allow you to continue reading my blog on your Friends pages. See the previous post for the reason for this feed. My apologies for the inconvenience to LJ users in having to switch. My thanks to

seryx for being kind enough set up the feed.

I'm currently having problems with the RSS feed for this blog being too large for LiveJournal's syndication (i.e. its Friends pages for outside Websites) to handle. I've set up a digest version of my blog at InsaneJournal -

eternaldungeon - but I need somebody with a paid LiveJournal account to start an LJ feed for

eternaldungeon. Would anybody here to be willing to do so? (I've asked around among my personal friends, but unfortunately - or fortunately, as the case may be - nearly all of them have made the move to IJ already.)

( The details for setting up the feed )

Incidentally, if any IJ users here are uncomfortable with Friending a personal account (which is what

duskpeterson is), they can Friend

eternaldungeon instead. Likewise, the RSS/Atom feeds at

eternaldungeon may be handy for anyone reading this blog through an RSS/Atom feeder.

However, there's no need for anyone else here to switch over to

eternaldungeon. This blog,

duskpeterson, will remain my main blog.

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duskpeterson

Dusk Peterson's Website

February 2012

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Page Summary

Important announcement concerning my website
Blog housekeeping
The rules at this blog
Waterman story discussions
Anonymous comments now screened at my Dreamwidth blog
I'll be offline (more or less) till April
Which e-book formats would you like my novels to be published in?
I've got six invite codes to Dreamwidth
My new Dreamwidth account
Added thoughts about my previous post
A question to folks reading this journal
Seeking beta readers (volunteer copy editors)
To anonymous commenters
duskpeterson at LJ restarted; eternaldungeon2 feed discontinued
Seeking beta readers (volunteer editors)
New feed for LiveJournal users
Blog feed problems

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Love in Dark Settings

Suspenseful historical fantasy on friendship, romance, and loyal service

Entries tagged with admin

Important announcement concerning my website

Blog housekeeping

The rules at this blog

Waterman story discussions

Anonymous comments now screened at my Dreamwidth blog

I'll be offline (more or less) till April

Which e-book formats would you like my novels to be published in?

I've got six invite codes to Dreamwidth

My new Dreamwidth account

Added thoughts about my previous post

A question to folks reading this journal

Seeking beta readers (volunteer copy editors)

To anonymous commenters

duskpeterson at LJ restarted; eternaldungeon2 feed discontinued

Seeking beta readers (volunteer editors)

New feed for LiveJournal users

Blog feed problems