One Hundred Eight Roses

Last night, I asked on twitter for 100-word-fiction prompts. This one is from @AlphaRaposa).

Eight p.m. on a Tuesday was not when Semele expected a knock on her door, but she opened it anyway. “Jarah, I thought we agreed…. What?”

“One hundred eight white roses, delivery for Semele cy’Sakamoto.” She could barely see the Store’s delivery-ogre over the piles of roses, but he sounded like he was laughing at her. “From Jarah cy’Pelletier, surprise, surprise.”

“Jarah sent me a hundred roses?” Semele glanced at the calendar. “Can’t even pretend it’s an anniversary.”

“One hundred and eight.” Definitely laughing. “Do you accept?”

“What am I going to do with…?”

“Do. You. Accept?”

“…yes?”

“Heh. Congratulations.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/813521.html. You can comment here or there.

A beginning of a basic overview of starting a webserial

I am in the process of starting two new webserials – Angry Aetherist (Edally Academy) and Jumping Rings (Inner Circle) – and thought the steps I go through might be useful for someone else.

This is by no means comprehensive, but it’s a base list to start from.

  1. Have a serial idea, title, and a buffer. At least a month’s worth of material to post is a good rule of thumb.
    1. No, really, have a buffer.
    2. Know when and how often you’ll post and stick to it. Once a week regularly is better than “three times a week” that turns into “when I can make it.”
    3. It helps to google the title – something I wish I’d done with Inner Circle – to see if it’s already in use.

  2. If you can, have a dedicated site with an easy-to-remember/type URl.
      Things that help to have on the site:

    1. Links to your other fiction
    2. A table of contents or
    3. Readily visible link to your starting page & easy navigation buttons

  3. You have a site up? Good! Start posting your story. Make sure your posting schedule is visible on the site and stick to it.
  4. Once you have 3-4 installments up, start promoting yourself:
    1. http://webfictionguide.com/
    2. http://muses-success.info/
    3. http://www.epiguide.com/forums/local_links.php
    4. [community profile] crowdfunding and crowdfunding
    5. http://www.projectwonderful.com/ (although ads are a subject all in themself)
    6. Twitter – esp. the #weblit hashtag. Promote each installment, but be careful not to overspam people.
    7. Link to your serial from other sites – your writing blog, if you have one, other serials you’ve written… you get the idea.

  5. Continue to post on your posting schedule.
  6. If you’ve linked to your serial at sites like Web Fiction Guide, it doesn’t hurt to ask your readers for a review; the reviews put your story on the front page, which drives traffic.
  7. Speaking of readers: Engage, but don’t fight. Chat in the comments but don’t yell at people.

I know I’m missing steps, but this is a beginning, at least.

Can you think of anything obvious I’ve missed?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/813232.html. You can comment here or there.

The Week In Alder

The Highlights

Edally Academy has its own website!
Coming Soon! “What Follows,” an anthology of the End Times – coming out next Friday!

Some Stories
The Haircut – Patreon theme story
Insult Atop Injury – Reiassan, for Thimbleful Thursday
Icon Flash: Order – a tiny story of Stranded World

Help!
Edally Web Page: I Still need your help!

My Serials
Edally Academy Chapter 10: May Our Failures be Small, Educational, and Overlooked by our Enemies
Interlude: From the Stables to the Home
Interlude: A New Look at History

Other People
Fallen From Grace, written to my prompt by K Orion Fray

(It was a short week, as I focused on getting the Edally & Inner Circle web pages going)

Some Stories:

Fae Apoc in all its permutations
Whilst at Doomsday – Luke visiting Doomsday Academy
IconFlash: Trees (Ce’Rilla)
One-Off
Under the Sea, a Selkie story for the Giraffe Call
Reiassan
Semi-Formal Timeline of Reiassan, finally
Aunt Family
Family Secrets and Cat Secrets – after Cats & Grannies. and Cat’s in the Attic.
Space Accountant
Bunking Arrangements, a story of Space Accountant for Ladies’Bingo

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/812918.html. You can comment here or there.

Insult atop Injury

Thimbleful Thursday is a new microfic prompt site (mine!). This week’s prompt was “Add Insult to Injury” and the word limit was 300 (270-300).

This piece is 303 words, and comes after Other Soldiers, Other Fates.

Reiassan has a landing page here.

“And there we go.” The chains between his shackles locked securely to the back of the goat’s saddle. “Ready to travel.”

Hiron had, he supposed, been in worse situations. He had been a thief before he was a soldier, after all, and a beggar before he was a thief – in far-South Bithrain, what was more, where beggars who did not have the excuse of an injury or a disfigurement were looked at as something lower than the shit the goats left in the gutters.

And yet there was something absolutely humiliating about being taken as a captive by a Calenni woman. Okay, the Calenni had won the war. Okay, long before that he’d gotten slashed in the calf and ended up in their stinking prisoners’ tent. Okay, long before that he’d found himself conscripted into the army, because the good lords weren’t wasting meals nor space on thieves when they could shove a sword in their hand and send them to the front lines.

All of that put nicks in what had once been a mighty pride. But now, now – still healing from the injury to his calf – Hiron found himself in the hands of a goat-faced Calleni woman.

“You’re pretty.” She patted his shoulder. “You’ll do just fine.”

Hiron found what was left of his heart sinking. He wasn’t being picked up as some sort of field-hand, was he? He had to have misunderstood. Her field-Bitrani was awful.

“I’m sorry.” He tried Calleni – nearly as bad as her Bitrani – in hopes that something would make sense. “I’m not-”

She grinned – like a goat, argh – and patted him again. “I know what you are. Mine, now.”

Hiron slumped against his chains. As if every blow he’d suffered wasn’t enough, he was being taken as a war-bride.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/812544.html. You can comment here or there.

Whilst at Doomsday, a brief Continuation (@inventrix)

This comes after this piece.

Nehara cy’Doomsday was stunning, a beautiful young lady, distractingly so, and her sweet smile suggested that she knew it.

Or that could have been decades of cynicism and time spent around Mike VanderLinden talking. The girl was young – she was still a student, after all. Might be older than Myst was

Indeed. Luke shook the hand the girl proffered. She was wearing the school uniform of black-and-grey plaid, he noticed, with red-on-red accents and a very practical looking red utility belt. Cy’Doomsday, indeed.

He cleared his throat. “It’s rude, I know, but – are you Navajo?”

She dimpled, a lovely smile that – down, boy. Damnit, a woman almost three hundred years younger than he was should not be doing this to him. He was a happily married man! “Most people can’t tell. But you’re Seneca, aren’t you?”

“I am.” Centuries of practice let him manage not to clarify that with half. “You have a good eye.”

“I’m not sure you’ve encountered The Res?”

Luke tightened his wings to his back. “I’ve been on reservations.”

“Oh, oh, not that.” Both of her hands moved in soothing motions. “I’ve heard stories – both from Professor Lily and from people at home. No, no, The Res, that’s different. When everything started going bad, a bunch of the really active tribespeople started pulling in, setting up a safe place in the middle of one of the biggest reservations. They put the word out – and the worse things got, the more people came to live there. Then they just claimed more & more land.” She smiled brightly at him, and, this time, Luke found his interest academic rather than sexual. “Turns out all of what used to be Arizona is ours now. And it’s still growing.”



Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/818625.html

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/812511.html. You can comment here or there.

Under the Sea, a story for the Giraffe Call

To [personal profile] alexseanchai‘s prompt

When the war came, she went, not to ground, as so many of her friends and cousins did, but to water, to the sea.

The bombs were falling all around, but she slipped on her seal skin and slid under the water, down where the Leviathan still remembered her, down where her other family, her seal family, still lived. She found the little place she had built, so long ago, where those like her – and those like dolphins and true seals, merfolk and otters – could breathe safe air, deep under the ocean and yet dry and homey. The humans were clever, but none smart enough to find this place.

It was not the first time she had gone to see, and it would likely not be her last. She was, if not eternal, near unto it, and she did not like war at all.

There she stayed, with otters and selkies, seals and merfolk, under the water, while above the rockets fell and the cities burned. They were clever folk, humans, clever at destruction, clever at building it all up to destroy it again. But she was more clever, and she had her refuge from all their brilliant ideas.

The years past, under the sea. Otters and seals, dolphins and merfolk kept her company. The true animals grew old, and died, no matter the magic she used, but the merfolk and the selkies, the naiads and the kelp-dryads, they stayed the same, as she did. Above the sea, the war raged on, and stopped, raged again, and stopped. The humans were clever, and eventually they found peace. Still she waited.

It was safe, under the sea, never too cold and never too warm. It was peaceful under the sea, no war and no armistice, no fighting and no treaties. But the humans were clever and the merfolk and selkies were eternal – but they were not, as things went, so clever.

The humans were clever. And no matter how long she was gone, there was always someone waiting, when she slipped onto the beach. There was always someone who remembered how to steal her skin.

As she pretended to fight against the farmer who had “captured” her, the selkie found herself smiling. It was safe, under the sea. But on the ground things were interesting.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/811835.html. You can comment here or there.

Coming Soon! “What Follows,” an anthology of the End Times

How would an Immortal deal with the End Times?

The world will inevitably come stumbling into apocalypse, and They will be there to witness it. Dryads, demi-gods, deities of every pantheon- is it possible for the Eternal to handle an ending with grace?

Should it come through disease, disaster, or religious fervor, discover What Follows…


This anthology includes a story by yours truly (what, immortals & end times, do you think I could resist), as well as stories by K Orion Fray (the artist formerly in my attic) and our friend who I’ve referred to here as Skan.

Anticipated release date is next Friday!

It will be available in eBook and POD (POD specifics to follow); eBook will be available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords.

Again, that’s next Friday! And it’s an anthology I get to be in with friends of mine!

(Also, it’s an apocalypse anthology, so extra bouncing).

Stay tuned for more details!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/811532.html. You can comment here or there.

Edally Web Page: I Still need your help!

I’m working on listing the cast for Edally – everyone who appears in every chapter.

That’s a lot of people.

What I could use from you: Grab a chapter/Interlude (Claim here first to avoid duplication of work) and list all the named characters in it.

For every chapter done, I’ll write you 250 words about… whatever Edally/Reiassan related words you want, although preference given to things at least tangentially related to Edally (rather than, say, more Rin/Girey).

The first of the stories can be seen here, if you want to know what you’re getting.

And if you think I’m offering up a lot of bribery, between this and my request for reviews, well… you’re not wrong

Chapter 1 – Claimed by Capriox
Chapter 2 – Lilfluff
Chapter 3- Claimed by Capriox
Chapter 4 – Claimed by Rix

Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Interlude: In the Onadyano Tower Dorms
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10 – thnidu

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/811313.html. You can comment here or there.

Semi-Formal Timeline of Reiassan

Note: This will conflict with several dates posted here and there. I’m still working on that!! But this is meant to give me a solid reference from which to work.

Dates of R are listed as years from landfall on Reiassan.

Lyuda Era – approx. 500 R.
Edally Academy was begun approximately one thousand years ago, in the time of the Emperor Eleddeltendel…

Skirmish Era, from 200-750 R

About 500 years ago, the original tower of Edally was torn down.

Rin & Girey Era: 900 R.

Edally Academy (Serial) era: 1650 R.

Doonts it with the stick of Officiadom.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/811085.html. You can comment here or there.