Feedback update!

I got a couple of new feedback emails over the weekend, both of which made me squee happily. Between moving house and everything else (including emailing for permission to post the emails), it took me until yesterday to get them up on the Testimonials page. But it’s all updated now! Go check it out!

One I was particularly pleased by was from Michael G. Stern, a writer for US television. It means a lot to receive feedback from a professional writer!

But I am touched by all the emails that readers take the time to send to me. Thanks to all of you. It helps to remind me why I’m doing this, makes me push on through the awkward times, and encourages me to make sure I get those posts up every day.

Lots more to come. Can’t wait to share it with you all.

New guest post!

The Apocalypse Blog has its second guest post up! Huzzah! Everyone go read it right now.

I’m so pleased with how this one came out. I wasn’t planning on having guest posters write the group (just the parts in their own characters’ voices), but Rissa did it so well that I couldn’t object. She caught the cast characters perfectly, I think.

I’ve had a couple of other readers express interest in doing guest posts, too. Wonderful! Can’t wait to see them and wind them into the storyline. The more the merrier!

Thanks for doing such a great job, Rissa!

Glitch fixed!

I’m sure you’ll all be relieved to know that the Apocalypse Blog is all happy and fixed now. Normal service has resumed and Monday’s post has been fixed. I posted it an hour later than the original post, so hopefully all the RSS feeds have picked up the proper, non-borked version.

The problem was that yWriter (the handy piece of software that I use to write the fictional blog in) and WordPress (that powers the lovely site) don’t talk to each other very nicely. The last WP update changed the way I need to copy-and-paste from yWriter to WP. I’d love to say it fixed the issues with getting them to communicate, but instead it was just shifted around slightly.

It’s all good now. Carry on.

Glitch

Some of you may have noticed that last night’s Apocalypse Blog post was a bit weird. Not sure what caused that, but I’ve taken down the messed-up post for now. I’ll look at it tonight when I get online and fix it properly – for the meantime, please bear with me!

I usually check the output when I post, but I was in a rush last night between one thing and another. Sorry everyone! Hopefully normal service will resume soon.

Onwards and upwards

This weekend has been yet another busy one. I’m tired and sore, but the new house is looking great and I’m feeling good about everything. The cable install went smoothly and I now have internet there. All I have left to do is pack up all my stuff here at the folks’ place and spend a small fortune at the supermarket. That’s next weekend’s job.

Last night, I had a lovely dinner with a good friend of mine, who writes wonderful m/m romance. I plan to pick her brains about sorting out a proper website for my writing stuff (rather than just a writing blog), which I’m aiming to tackle once this move is over and done with.

Today, I found myself with an afternoon to relax. So I updated the Apocalypse Blog’s Chronology page with the new info, as I have just started a new ‘chapter’ there. I need to do the Cast page too, but that might stay on my list for a while.

I also added a feedback page. I got another lovely reader email yesterday and wanted to share it with you all, and so I decided to put up all the comments I’ve had recently. If I’ve missed any feedback that you think should go on there, let me know!

Now I think I should go write today’s blogfic post. Time to throw another spanner in the Seeker works. Hope you’re all well out there in the world!

The day-maker

Last weekend was hectic and frazzling. There was all the house stuff to sort out, and other things I was trying to get into order, and writing I never got to. At the end of it, I didn’t get done quite a bit of what I had hoped to.

Then an email popped into my inbox. It was out of the blue, from someone I had never met or spoken to before. And it completely made my day. I have asked permission to share it with you all, and my lovely reader was kind enough to agree. So here it is:

Just wanted to let you know that I really enjoy reading the Apocalypse Blog–I’m a newcomer to web fiction, tried reading a few, but this one’s the only one that was well-written and interesting enough to hold my attention. I’m a writer myself, so I can appreciate how hard it must be to update it daily–kudos to you for that! I always pay most attention to characters and I love yours; they’re so complex, and their interactions are always interesting. You bring Faith to life so well, it seems like she’s a real person blogging from a parallel universe or something where this is actually happening. Your writing is great, it’s really easy to just get into and absorbed in, which is a real feat considering this is the thrill-a-minute internet. 😉

I also love how you bring your setting to life. It’s all very dark and desolate, but there’s these glimmers of humanity and hope sometimes, and you bring all of that across so well. You ought to look into getting stuff published, if you haven’t yet!

I’ve never liked zombies–can’t stand them, in fact–but I really like this story and I hope you stick to it.

It’s the kind of email that I think every writer loves to get. I don’t get a lot of feedback from my readers – though I know you’re out there! – so receiving something like this means the world to me. 

And my reader was kind enough to let me know that at least some of the stuff I was aiming to do was working. Like the real-time aspect, giving the impression that you’re all reading this as it’s happening, and the lighter parts that make the darkness worth the fight. It’s so hard to know if I’m hitting my marks unless someone says! 

Without my readers, it would just be me whistling into the dark. I love knowing that you’re out there. And I apologise for not making it easier to reach me – I do regret not putting comments onto the Apocalypse Blog. Silly me.

Thank you. To all of you who have given me comments and encouragement in the past – thank you so much. I don’t make a big deal out of every one of them, mostly because you’re all so nice and I’m not good at blowing my own trumpet. You make a big difference to me and what I do. 

The Apocalypse Blog is almost six months old. Almost halfway to the finish line. I hope you all come with me.

Moving, shaking, writing

Wow, I haven’t posted here at all yet this month. It’s been a weird week and a half, and I’m sneaking this in on the sly.

I made a snap decision last week. It was because of a lot of things – which I won’t go into – but I think it’s the right decision. It’s time for me to get my own place.

At the moment, I’m sharing with my folks, mostly so that I can save enough money to buy a house. Now is the perfect time to buy, but I don’t have anywhere near enough money to do that. I look at the bills I’ll be facing, and unless I want to live in a shoebox at the arse-end of a grotty apartment building, it’s just too much. And I don’t want to live in a shoebox, or in an apartment building. I’d rather the place wasn’t grotty either, kthx.

Which leaves renting. By far the cheaper option, and it means I can afford a house of the type and size I want, in a reasonable location. It’ll give me much more time to save up for that eventual house that will belong to me. It’s a plan.

I was so wound up that I went a little bit nuts last week, and I got myself a list of places to look at on the weekend. Only one of them was remotely what I wanted – a bit smaller than I’d hoped, but clean and nice, and a little bit kooky. Turned my application in this week, and now I’m waiting for a response. Hopefully I’ll hear by the end of today (looking unlikely now), or tomorrow at the latest.

So I’m a bit caught up in the notion of moving to a new house, filling it with furniture, getting everything set up, and not going crazy in the process. I’m also running on the edges of exhaustion at the moment, which is not helping.

I meant to do some work on the novel on the weekend, but wound up procrastinating and gaming instead. It just seemed like Too Much at the time. Hopefully I’ll get to at least a little bit of it tonight – I’m determined not to let it slide any more. If this moving business takes over my life for the next few weeks, I’ll never get the damn thing done. And I want to get it done. It’s a good story! I think I could sell it, if I can only get it done already.

I am managing to keep up with the Apocalypse Blog posting – thank goodness for my train commute. I’m trying to get my head down this week to cover this weekend’s posts, so that I can go furniture-hunting. Moving shouldn’t interfere with the blogfic too much, as long as it doesn’t take too long to get the internet connection turned on. (I’ll have to wait for the bed before I can move in properly anyway.) I’m going to have to work extra-strictly in the meantime to build up some buffer, just in case.

In other news, I had an interesting meeting with my boss and team leader this afternoon. I can’t say what it was about yet (I have been sworn to secrecy), but it was good news (for me). Things are going to get interesting in some ways, and easier in others. If ever there was a time I needed some good news, now was it!

Also, my Creative Writing Group has its first Author Talk tomorrow. Marriane de Pierres is coming to chat with us! How cool is that? Maybe I should put together some probing questions for her. Or maybe I’ll just go along and make stuff up like I usually do. I’m looking forward to it – hopefully we’ll get a good turnout!

Wish me luck!

Apocalypse Blog’s 200th Post!

The 200th post has just gone up on the Apocalypse Blog! How awesome is that?

Wow. It’s boggling when I think about it. If I had only done one a day, I’d be two-thirds to the finish line! As it is, I’m just less than halfway.

It feels like forever since I celebrated the 100th post. The posting has slowed down some since then, I’ve had pneumonia, but it seems to have settled down to a post a day now. The posts are gradually creeping longer and longer, but I’m trying to keep them to a reasonable length. Some days it’s easier than others!

Just because I haven’t done it in ages, here are some fun stats for the Apocalypse Blog:

There, wasn’t that entertaining? Whee!

Here’s to the next 100 posts. Lots more to come, faithful readers!

Blog Fiction

It’s curious how this blog fiction thing has taken over my life.

Honestly (and I know I’ve said this before), this started as a way to make sure that I wrote something approximately every day, and a vague attempt to get my writing Out There. I’m happy to say that it has achieved both of those ends.

I’m regretting the schedule. Of course, I only recently stumbled onto some handy advice about what to think about before starting a fictional blog, five months into this endeavour. One of those things to think about is, of course, how often you can feasibly manage to post.

A post a day is a lot, but I’m keeping up. Sometimes, that’s all I’m doing, but that’s okay – I am insanely proud that I haven’t missed a day yet, though it’s been close a couple of times. It’s an interesting learning experience. I know I could pull back and post less often, but I feel like I made a promise to my readers when I started this. I’m too stubborn to back down now anyway.

Also, the real-time aspect of the Apocalypse Blog is interesting to juggle. I couldn’t imagine catching up on a week’s worth of elapsed time in a single post – my posts are already hovering around 1,000 words each on a regular basis (I should update my spreadsheet and work out what my average is). I still struggle to keep my posts down to one a day sometimes – I don’t think posting less often is going to happen anytime soon, unless I get sick again.

The other mistake I think I made was not turning comments on. Honestly, I never thought of it as a problem (or a negative point) until I found Blog Fiction and read the post on comments. The thing is, the format and concept behind the blog makes it difficult to put comments on there – the blog isn’t technically posted online, so Faith can’t respond, and I thought it would be a bit weird to have out-of-character stuff on there.

Of course, in doing that, I cut off a route of feedback (readers can always comment here if they want to, but it’s not the same, I know). And I love feedback. Those of you who talk to me about AB know that I love hearing what people think, what they like and don’t like about it. I get ideas from you! It’s awesome!

Another thing that I see mentioned about blog fiction is internal links back to earlier content. I considered doing this at one point, but honestly I didn’t have time (there are a lot of posts to go through to find specific events). I feel bad because I could easily do it (and unlike comments and external links, it would be feasible within the world of AB for Faith to do that inside her own blog). Perhaps I should start doing that.

Well, part of why I started this whole thing was to learn stuff, and I’ve certainly done that. I’m filing all this information away for later, and for when I start my next blogfic. Yes, I do intend to do another one. I have the damn thing crawling around in my head already (and the test site for it has been up since February, damn), but I’m not going to start that until the new year.

• Target for the Apocalypse Blog: continue to the end of the year.
• Next year: shiny new blogfic

Might as well aim high, right?

Week of the Cliffhanger

I’ve been having fun with the Apocalypse Blog this week! I knew that the meeting with the Pride would go on, but it’s really stretching out now. The posts kept reaching 1,500 words before I realised, so I’d go back and pick a good place to chop them off. And what’s a better place to end a post than a cliffhanger?

I don’t often have the chance to use them, and it makes a nice change. I didn’t want to overuse them, too – I’m not writing Alias, after all (though I love their cliffhangers – they made me burn through the DVDs at an alarming rate). But it’s been a while since things were tense in this kind of way, so I’m enjoying the chance to indulge. I have so far restrained the urge to put ‘dun-dun-DUN’ on the end of the posts, and I’ve only had one reader go ‘aaah! what’s next!’ at me (I love comments like that), so it’s all good.

I won’t string it out for much longer, though. I don’t want to overdo it and make the tension stretched thin and annoying. Today’s post should round up that awful encounter and start to bring the story back up to the present – one drawback of trying to keep the ficblog real-time is that I can’t go nuts over single encounters like this without blowing out my post lengths or skimming entire days of events. I’m trying to keep the post lengths down so they don’t get unwieldy and annoying for my readers. And I have to say – it’s not easy trying to keep track of which day you’re writing about and what has happened since the events in the post. Occasionally I squint and can feel my braincells dying under the strain.

It’s so good to get this stuff down, though. I’ve had most of it planned out for a while (meeting Bree again has been a notecard on my wall since December, complete with details of her situation), and it’s exciting to be able to flesh it out and rock it across the page. There’s so much temptation to rush towards my markers – the events that I know I want to cover – but I’m glad I haven’t. There’s so much more in there because of the space in between – I hadn’t planned for Ben to be sick during this encounter (though he was marked to get sick from the start, because I’m evil), but it worked out well. I think. And as for Sally… poor Sally. Today is her post, so I won’t talk about it yet.

Speaking of which, I need to rewrite it on the way home. I got most of it down this morning, but I need to rework it pretty heavily – sometimes my group of eight main characters feels very small, and other times they’re a lot of balls to keep in the air. Occasionally, I miss a catch.

That’s one reason – probably the main one – why I don’t like this hand-to-mouth posting. I miss the days when I had the current week’s posts all scheduled up and could work on next week’s at my leisure. While write-and-post might be Faith’s style, it’s not the way I like to work. I’m planning to spend a day doing nothing but ficblog writing this weekend, so that should be rectified soon. Fingers crossed!

I have managed to do some more admin this week too. The Cast and Chronology pages are updated, and I had a sad moment when I moved Sax from the Current Cast Members list to the Past Cast Members list. Poor zombie Sax. I wonder if he’ll turn up again.

I’m also gearing up to get going with the novel again. I’ve been having a hard time with it, but I’ll talk about that in another post. I’m going to concentrate on being happy that I am still engaged with and enjoying AB, and haven’t become bored or frustrated, even though it’ll be five months old in a few days. Each time I think about that, I am more sure that I’m going to make it all the way through to the end of the year.

I think this is enough chatter from me for now! Be well, my friends. Write happy.