Ask Nat and Microblog
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A note about Graveside Press and my short story
Heads up about the Graveside Press stuff. I too had a piece of fiction that was planned to be released by them. It was a short story that was part of a Middle Grade anthology. It hadn’t released yet, so I’m not suffering from lack of royalties like other authors.
I did get the rights back to my story and it will no longer be published by Graveside Press which is really just Steven now (the owner), I believe, who seems to be the reason authors were not getting paid.
If you have a work published or planned to be published by Graveside Press, you can request to have the rights returned to you. There was a FAQs that Steven made in Google Docs that addressed this, but after about a week he made it private. Not sure why. He’s kinda gone silent. Which as I understand is pretty typical behavior for him.
The email for getting your rights back or if you have questions about anything: publishing@graveside-press.com.
When asked for details about what happened and why authors weren’t getting paid, Steven has chosen to not divulge. Telling authors it’s none of their business basically. He also has offered no apologies.
But he’s still planning on publishing works and taking more submissions. So authors beware of that.
Last but not least… there are many good folks who worked inside Graveside Press, often volunteers, who are good people. They have done great work and continue to be an inspiration. But they were all out of the loop on the business side of things. They are good people and it is these people who read and believed in my short story. Many of these folks have left Graveside and some are spinning off their own press @deadfoxpub — give them a follow.
Moving forward with the story.
I haven’t decided yet what I’m going to do with the short story as I was happy to have it published in an anthology. It’s a Middle Grade sci-fi horror, similar in a way to Blood Frequency and even features an alien that appears in that as well. I’m open to suggestions. One thought would be to make my own anthology of short stories around Blood Frequency. I had been considering doing that. Maybe I should just make this one more piece of that puzzle. The anthology idea was to write a series of short stories that take place in Rolla, Missouri, during the 1990s. This was where and when I came of age, which is what makes it a lot of fun for me. There’s a lot of nostalgia in it.
What do you think? Should I roll with the YA sci-fi/horror anthology idea? Submit this story somewhere else? Publish it here on my own? Sound off in the comments.
Two ideas for leading a decent life
I think two ideas can help people lead a decent life. And that’s “be kind to each other” and “don’t be a dick.” They’re simple ideas. The first is to default to kindness with people. The second is to avoid being ugly to people. Many people fail both concepts on the daily which is sad.
I gave the site a makeover
You may have noticed it looks a little different. That’s because it is. Wanted a fresh coat of paint, especially with the new micro-interviews incoming. Hope you like it.
Going places with characters, the psychology of people
This short story I’ve been working on has been quite enjoyable. I’m pretty proud of it. And it certainly took me through some interesting territory in terms of understanding people. So much in writing (and acting) is understanding the psychology of people. Even people you would generally not like or find repulsive. But to write them well and realistically, you have to spend some time trying to understand and explain their behaviors. Especially if they aren’t villains.
I should probably add that when I say “understanding the psychology of people” doesn’t necessarily equate to empathy or sympathy.
It just means I can connect the dots as to why they do what they do or why they tick the way they tick. It doesn’t necessarily mean I can relate or that I may change my view with regards to their behavior — I just understand it on a psychological level. Which I believe is super important in writing believable characters.
Side note: This isn’t about “The Bride of Usher” which I am currently writing and publishing to the newsletter, but another short story I’m also currently writing called “Blood Frequency.”
My darn iPhone alarm hates me
My iPhone does this thing where it’ll sometimes randomly turn down my alarm volume. Which means I end up sleeping through my alarm. It’s been doing this a lot the past week or so. Did it again this morning and screwed up my whole morning. So annoyed right now. Did a search and it’s apparently a glitch that comes around a lot on iPhones. Been an issue for years.
So now I’m setting my Echo Dot alarms again for backup. Jeez.
If you have an iPhone, has this ever happened to you?
Sup.
I need to get better about writing to the Ask Nat microblog. Especially, as social media seems hellbent on ruining themselves by catapulting content moderation, being insufferable, and caving to right-wing extremism.
I really do think this is a good time for folks to go back to blogging, even if it’s owning their own microblogs.
On that note, would it be fun to just have a collaborative blogging space for likeminded folks? Basically a tiny microblogging platform, because the only posters would all know and trust one another. It could even be private. Just thinking out loud.
As always, you can hit me up with anonymous questions in the Ask Nat form to keep me busy.
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