I won't even get into what a group of Redditors did to Wall Street hedge funds this week. Which personally, I find hysterically funny that a group of nobodies played the stock market better than the brokers.
However, there's a lot of fear in the air because of the chaos. I'm a writer and publisher, so I see a lot of it in the my industry, even thought the fear exists in all fronts. Remember Yoda's line from The Phantom Menace? "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."
What Yoda left out is how the three emotions can also drive people crazy. You see it in people's refusal to wear masks even though they've been proven to save lives. You see it in the people who attacked the U,S, Capitol because one man suggested they march down to Congress and show the senators and representatives how they feel. Oh, and let's kill some cops while we're at it. You see it in Wall Street bitching because day traders manipulated the stock the same way Wall Street did to the tune of $3B a la Trading Places.
So yeah. The Crazies. Being cooped up in our houses for the last year hasn't helped any.
What am I doing? I'm living in other worlds at the moment. The Justice Universe in particular. I may not be able to do anything here, but Anthea...
Nevermind. This is the book where she goes crazy, too.
ACX, Amazon's production arm, introduced a split- royalty program for the writer and the voice talent. However, many books don't make back their production costs. So a lot of voice talent refuse to do the split payments anymore.
I can't blame them. When I looked into the costs for producing an audiobook version of A Question of Balance, I was looking at $2,000.
Minimum.
That's a lot of work for little or no return.
But it's Audible's latest stunt that has the writers and publishers up in arms. Amazon ended up in a class-action suit filed by customers for how they charged and refunded monies. So executives at Audible went too far the other way. Customers could return the audiobook any time for any reason, or no reason at all.
For the price of one audiobook, customers could return and buy audiobooks multiple times. Suddenly, monies that had been already paid to authors and publishers were being charged against their accounts with no record of any returns.
Not only did the policy exist, Audible actively encouraged customers to use the company as a library for the price of one audiobook.
First of all, I have no problem with libraries or people using actual libraries. However, the writers and publishing believed they had made sales. Months later Audible then claimed the writers and publishers owed them money. There was no explanation why.
Transparency seems to be Audible's big problem.
And this isn't the first time they've ended up on writers' shit list. Two years ago, the Association of American Publishers went after Audible for showing the book's text while the audio played. Audible's parent company Amazon had already been in legal trouble for using the Kindle's text-to-speech function to do the opposite, read the book aloud.
The Authors Guild has teamed up with indie writers to pressure Audible to not dock the writers and publishers for returns. However, Audible hasn't delivered full accountability for the sales lost.
In my humble opinion, there's a recurring theme here. Amazon is turning into another conglomerate looking to screw whoever they can, just like Walmart did after their founder's death. It's a shame, but there's an end to everything. This is the chance for some other company to take over the audiobook field.
And I think it's already starting.
Think about that for a minute.
It's been almost a year since the lockdowns in the U.S. began. The fact that it's the middle of winter is not helping. A lot of people like me suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, aka SAD. Being trapped in your home is bad enough. Adding a huge layer of depression on top of things is not helping.
What do I do to cope? Here's a list of what helps me. This is not medical advice. If you're having seriously issues dealing, please, PLEASE talk to your doctor!
1) If you've got a fireplace, light the fire. The warmth and flames gives me a cheery feeling. Candles work in a pinch.
2) Chocolate, especially dark chocolate. A little treat will lift my mood because it contains the same chemicals the body produces when we are in love.
3) A humorous book, movie, or TV show. My go-to's are Irresistible? by Stephanie Bond, The Wedding Singer, and The Big Bang Theory or Friends.
Just remember to wear your mask and socially distance, even if you've gotten your vaccination. We CAN get through this if we look out for each other!
Two weeks ago, I fielded calls and messages from friends and family in the D.C. Metro Area. All of them have kids. All of them were terrified. I offered safe haven at our house if they decided to bug out, and for a time I thought I would need to call DH's family for additional beds. In the end, everyone decided to stay put for the night, waiting to see if the situation spread from the Mall to the rest of the city.
It's been a difficult first three weeks to the new year. The tension has eased a bit with the lack of violence today, but my shoulders are still sore.
But it snowed last night, and a fresh blanket of white is a new tapestry to the day. The pup and I are curled up on my recliner, and I'm ready to put fresh words on the screen.
Peace be with you all!
The latest bite-size fun bar is available today. The Sweetest Poison dropped at Amazon in the wee hours of the morning for $0.99. I'll post links to the other retailers as they go live.
Enjoy!
Schoolhouse Rock was a large part of my childhood education. Some people definitely need a refresher.
Wednesday afternoon, it really did feel like last century.
I got out of bed and did a few miscellaneous admin tasks, like writing a post for this blog. An hour and a half later, armed terrorists broke into the U.S. Capitol in an attempted coup of our duly elected government.
Make no mistake. That's exactly what it was. Five people died, including a police officer who passed away from injuries inflicted by these terrorists four hours before I started typing this.
What happened yesterday is no different that what Al Qaeda and the Taliban do--rule through fear and threats.
This is not what America is about. I'm not saying we're perfect. Goddess knows, there's a ton of crap we can improve on. But killing people and threatening others is not the way.
And despite these terrorists attempts to subvert our government, the U.S. flag still flies over the Capitol. Congress did its job by counting the electoral votes, and they confirmed the duly elected president.
Invariably, there will be someone who thinks an entertainer, like myself, shouldn't talk about politics. But this is no longer political. This is about the soul of our country and who we want to be.
Personally, I want to vote and speak my mind, rather than live in a Third-world banana republic were thugs make the decisions. What do you want?
NOTE: I'll leave comments on for now, but the first one that supports terrorism will be deleted, and comments section will be shut down.
WMG Publishing is owned by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Between the two of them, they've amassed nearly 100 years of experience in the publishing industry as writers, editors, and publishers.
You can take more than one offering at half-off, but you need to buy each one separately because Teachable doesn't have a shopping cart. The coupon code for this deal is
RESOLUTION
The sale ends in approximately 48-hours. For more info, or if you have any questions, go to Dean Wesley Smith's post.
I've taken both online and in-person classes, and I'm currently doing the Publishing Challenge. I've always learned something from these classes.
And with COVD-19 still raging across the country, this is a safe way to improve your skills as a writer or a publisher.
Just remember the deal ends on Friday!
2020 started off so good for me. I was healthy enough to travel again. I was writing on a regular basis. I even had some writer workshops lined up.
However, the first workshop ended right around the time COVID-19 was recognized as a major problem in the U.S. The news announced the first known COVID-related death when I was laid over in St. Louis on my way home from Vegas.
I haven't done a Monday Movie Mania post for almost a year now. DH and I simply can't take the risk of going to a theater. So, this year will be like some previous years when I couldn't go to movies for other reasons. I'll be catching movies on streaming services, like Wonder Woman 84.
Also, I refuse to put the fucking pandemic in my stories. We're already living it. I don't know about the rest of you, but I want an escape. From the news. From the stupidity of the denialists. From the worry about relatives and friends older than myself. So if you want that type of "reality" in your stories, then please look elsewhere.
Things change, and I'm patiently waiting for the circle to come around again.
In the meantime, I'm planning out my publishing schedule for the new year. I'm also giving myself a little more time between novels by publishing a bunch of short stories sitting on my hard drive. I like writing shorter pieces to explore ideas, characters, and new genres. Stretching my writing wings feels pretty damn good.
I hope y'all survived your first Monday of the new year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the other 360 days.
