Coronavirus Pandemic Day 131 - Sticking to a Schedule

While working from home for the last eight years, I already had a problem with the days being indistinguishable. I mean other than DH working a traditional job and having the weekends off. But the effect seems to be amplified with so much shut down or limited because of the coronavirus.

Even worse, DH was literally ordered to take some vacation time by not just his boss, but some other upper managers and executives at his company. I'm kind of glad because he's had a major case of the doldrums.

But by the same token, DH has been lecturing me about MY stress levels and taking the weekends off.

I admit I was very stressed since my return flight from Vegas right at the start of the pandemic. But things have eased a bit by sticking to a schedule. Getting up at a consistent time for the most part (gabbing on the phone until four in the morning did not help over the weekend). Setting how many words per day I need to reach thanks to the tools at Camp NaNoWriMo. Leaving the afternoons for editing. And taking breaks to watch Scorpion, Supernatural, and The Big Bang Theory.

I need some comfort watching right now, and it definitely helps.

Now, I need to finish A Twist of Love so I can read the latest volume of the Dresden Files, Peace Talks. DH finished it yesterday, and he was giggling a lot over the weekend.

Consequences

This picture in the form of a magnet rests on my refrigerator door. There's two reasons for it.

Reason #1: In any career, a person must continue to learn new things. Sometimes though, the lessons become so embedded in the subconscious that you don't realize you've learned it until you use it.

Reason #2: I love the TV show Supernatural. I didn't watch it for the first four seasons because I was afraid I'd jinx it.

On a side note: Every frickin' time I fall in love with a show in it's first season, it gets canceled. Misfits of Science. Cancelled. Quark. Cancelled. Almost Human. Cancelled. Hell, I didn't watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer until the John Ritter episode late in the second season because I didn't want it to get cancelled.

Anyway, back to Supernatural. Once the producers and writers got past creator Eric Kripke's original five-season story arc of stopping the Christian apocalypse, the following season dealt with the ramifications of Sam's last episode of Season 5 decision.  Subsequent seasons create a gigantic pile of decision/consequence until the stack tumbles with the twelfth (current) season back to the variation of the original problem, stopping Lucifer.

Consequences of past decisions has been an occurring theme over the last two seasons of The Walking Dead and in the last several books of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series as well.

As I'm working on the last three books of the Bloodlines series, I already knew they dealt with the consequences of Sam's creation. But I started wondering how to work in the consequences of the other characters' decisions into the last volumes.

And when I was re-reading a section of Ravaged the other night, I realized I had already done so. Specifically, the consequences of Bebe's decision in Blood Magick and Alex's in Blood Sacrifice. I knew these two characters need to be in Ravaged, but I didn't know why until I watched the mid-season finales of both The Walking Dead and Supernatural. And in separate conversations, Logan (who made a very brief appearance in Zombie Love) and Alyson (a new to readers character) come right out and say, "Yeah, it's your fault because of what you did/failed to do, but now, we need to figure out how to clean up the mess."

Wow! Talk about an epiphany.

So, keep studying the things you like, understand why you like them, and it'll improve your writing.

Copyright - Playing in Someone Else's Sandbox

There was an interesting discussion over at The Passive Voice regarding Amazon's new Kindle Worlds Store.

For  those who may not know, Amazon has licenses with several copyright holders where freelance writers can submit stories based on the copyright holders' properties. If those stories are accepted, the freelance writer gets 35% of the net revenue for stories 10,000 words or higher. In return, the freelance writer gives up all other rights to the story for the life of the copyright.

Now, the inital stories have been done by some excellent writers, including one of my mentors, Colleen Thompson. Colleen is an award-winning romantic thriller author. She wrote The Jersey Devil Made Me Do It for the Pretty Little Liars series.

The established writers in the inital program, like Colleen, J.R. Rain and Scott Nicholson, were approached by Amazon for the project. Make no mistake that their contract terms are not the same as Joe Shmoe off the street.

The official Terms and Conditions haven't been posted yet, but here's Amazon's rough breakdown.

One thing you have to remember--if you participate in Kindle Worlds, you are essential playing in someone else's sandbox. What this means is that Alloy Entertainment still owns the copyright to its characters. (No, Sara Shepard, the author of the Pretty Little Liars books does not. Alloy Entertainment hired her on a work-for-hire basis.) Basically, Alloy is having you all try out for them.

Why do I suspect is that Alloy Entertainment approached Amazon about this "opportunity"? They recently fired L.J. Smith of Vampire Diaries fame because the execs want Elena to end up with Stefan and L.J. wanted Elena to have her HEA with Damon. So what better way to find docile, compliant little writers, willing to accept non-negotiable terms than through a KDP clone, who will think this is a great idea?

Despite my snark, is this really a bad idea? Maybe, maybe not. A lot of it depends on what your career goals are. On one hand, writing for one of these series could expose you to a whole new audience. (There's a reason why Amazon would approach a top romantic thriller author to write a YA mystery story.) On the other, that's a lot of writing time to give up, especially if you write a novel for one of these "worlds."

Why do I call this whole thing playing in someone else's sandbox? It reminds me of little kids.

Billy invites Jimmy over to play trucks in Billy's sandbox. Jimmy builds a sandcastle with Billy's sand and truck. Can he take it home? No, the sand and the truck are Billy's. Billy gave Jimmy permission to play with his toys for the duration of the visit.

Translation: The holder of the copyright has control over the intellectual property. He may permit you to use his characters, settings or situations (i.e. his "world"), but he OWNS it. If I wanted to write a short story set in Harry Dresden's Chicago using former police officer Karrin Murphy, then I need Jim Butcher's permission. How each of us is compensated for this short story needs to be negotiated between Jim and me. Well, actually, "our people" will do it.

In the case of Kindle Worlds, there's no wiggle room to negotiate. You take or leave it.

Some folks at The Passive Voice are very upset by Amazon's (aka Alloy Entertainment's) stance. But this isn't the iron chokehold traditional publishers had on writers. We can make a very good living without relying on hand-outs from Alloy.

Clara invites Jennifer over to play dolls in her new doll house. Jennifer brings her own doll with her. Clara does not own Jennifer's doll just because it was in the dollhouse. Jennifer does not own the doll house just because her doll was in it. Clara gave permission to Jennifer to place her doll inside the house for the duration of the playtime.

Translation: If you create a new character for the copyright holder's setting, then you own that character, but not much else. A perfect real-life example is the legal battle between Neil Gaiman and Todd MacFarlane. Todd invited Neil to write a issue or two of Todd's Spawn. Neil invented Angela, Spawn's heavenly counterpart. Afterwards, Todd used Angela whenever he felt like it and didn't pay Neil a dime. In this case, Neil DID NOT give up his rights to Angela when he signed the contract with Todd.

So is this really a bad contract with Kindle World? That's something you have to decide for yourself.

When you consider you're writing for someone else's copyrighted world, not really. Many people are referring to this as monetizing fanfic. After seeing what happened with Fifty Shades of Grey, they are probably correct. (For those not in the know, FoSG started life as a Twilight-fanfic novel called Master of the Universe.) To me, it's really work-for-hire on spec. (And if you don't know what that term means, you REALLY should not be submitting to Kindle Worlds!)

If you feel it's unfair, then walk away. No one's going to give you crap if you do.

But what you have to look at is the entire compensation package, not just the money.Could the fan spill-over to your own work be worth giving up your claims to that little story? If you think you can use it to your advantage, then check out the program.

But most of all, know your copyright! Kris Rusch constantly pushes The Copyright Handbook, and I highly suggest you buy yourself a copy. Know what you can and cannot do with your intellectual property as well as someone else's.

And for the love of Murphy, don't EVER sign a contract you do not thoroughly understand. L.J. Smith learned this lesson the hard way.

Jim! How Could You?

I finished Jim Butcher's Changes the other night. Needed some time to digest it. And now I just gotta talk about it!

For the stupid FTC regs, I bought the damn book from B&N with my own damn money from the Day Job. And guess what? I'm taking it as a business deduction on next year's taxes!

Gotta love the research angle.

For those of you who haven't read Changes yet, you are hereby warned!

*SPOILER ALERT**SPOILER ALERT**SPOILER ALERT**SPOILER ALERT*

Wow. Jim pulled out all the stops on this one. Pretty much every surviving foe and ally make an appearance in this huge tome. (Though I did miss Billy and the wolves.) For long-time fans, it's the equivalent of one of those Marvel or DC mini-series extravagansas. Except more interesting.

Honestly, the only thing that gave me pause was the whole "secret baby" angle. When I first heard the summary, I thought, "Really, Jim, really? That's so '80's Harlequin." But he handles it well, and there's no happy Dresden family at the end. Let's hope Maggie never finds out what Daddy did to Mommy because (a) we're talking expensive therapy and/or (b) a major smackdown if Maggie has even half the power of Daddy or Great-Grandpa (aka Sir).

The Ebenezer thing. Saw that one coming for some time. Thank god the Blackstaff is finally out of the family closet.

But as for other family secrets. . . anyone else besides me think there's more of a connection between Odin and Dresden than the Grey Council? Why else would the All-Father show up in a battle with stupid, overconfident vampires?

Jim Butcher, do NOT EVER AGAIN give me a heart attack about Butters! Glad to know our favorite polka-playing morgue nerd learned a few things hanging out with Harry and Murphy.

Best thing of the book? Murphy finally, FINALLY takes up Fidelacchius (even if she claims it's a temporary gig). And does a damn fine job of swinging the holy blade.

And finally, I don't have a problem with cliff hangers. But waiting until next year? Aaagghh!

I think it's Gentleman Johnnie Marcone now that Harry's proven himself by taking down the entire Red Court. Harry has repeatedly said Marcone's next when Chicago's mob boss reaches the top of the food chain. DH thinks it's Rudolph for Harry destroying the corrupt cop's sugar daddies and mommies.

So, I want to hear your opinions. Who's the hitter at the end of the book and what's the motive?

Progress

Currently reading - Changes by Jim Butcher

For those of you keeping track (like Julie), no, I haven't finished Eclipse yet. DH finished Changes Friday night. If it weren't for plans on Saturday and Sunday, I'd probably have it finished by now. And DH really wants me to finish it so he can talk about it without blowing the revelations.

You know, like the stupid kid who told me Leia was Luke's sister before I saw Return of the Jedi.

In compliance with FTC regs, I bought this book with MY OWN DAMN MONEY. And guess what? I'll take it as a fucking tax deduction too! Because it's market research!

Seriously though, great book. It'll have you thinking just how far Harry may cross certain lines. I won't spill spoilers, so in the immortal words of Stan Lee, "'Nuff said."

In the meantime, I'm still slogging through edits on AVT. Teri and Faye's critiques on the first twenty-five pages along with a long talk with Christie over coffee Friday morning helped. Christie's normally a hugger, but thankfully she refrained because she was still trying to cough up a lung after contracting the dreaded man-flu from Mr. Craig earlier in the week. As an immunocompromised person, I truly appreciate that.

Back to the editing situation:

As I've said before I have this weird tendency to write short. Weird as compared to most other writers I know, anyway. This means crap doesn't make sense to other people because it's still in my head and not on the page. Oops. Thank Djehuti, I've got great c.p.'s to point this out. Now, I just need to go back and layer in the missing parts.

Anyone else out there have this particular problem?