It's interview time.

In a never-ending quest to get to know my original characters better, I'm opening two of them up to be interviewed. The year is 2001, they're both 20-somethings, one male, one female. They're not a couple, although they do know one another. Will you come play with them? Here's what I'd like:

- direct the question to one or the other, either the male or the female.
- ask a question, any question. Nothing's out of bounds, although depending on who answers, there might be a slight sense of propriety about it, I won't know until I get there.
- you can of course ask more than one question or ask questions of both characters, just let me know which one for which question.

I'll answer from them, in character, and thank you profusely for your time.

This entry's here too with comments.

First via Jim Hines, and then others on LJ, I was introduced to Amazon's Kindle Worlds while guzzling my morning coffee and trying to wake up. At first I didn't quite believe it existed. Now? I still can't, kind of.

Kindle Worlds: Not bigger on the inside (via Oshun) raises good points, especially #3: why would you sign a contract to give Amazon all rights to your work? If this were original work, I'd run the other direction the moment I saw those terms. One could argue you're lucky to have the opportunity to legally publish your fan fiction at all, but my next question then is: why does it have to be published to be worth something?

This may sound strange coming from me, with my talk about feeling like I'm not worth anything as an author unless I publish something, but fan fiction is not, by nature, something that I think would benefit from publication of this sort. To me, fan fiction is fun, community, fannish conversation, speculation, and most importantly, being able to explore what I want to explore, when I want to do it, in the way I prefer, without having to meet someone else's content guidelines. It's freedom. I can enjoy my process to the fullest extent - and that means not editing if I so choose, or writing some kind of weird biblical allegory, or an AU, or a crossover with Fate/Stay Night, if I think the story will benefit from it.

Granted, I don't have any rights to fan fiction I might write today, but I'm also not looking to get paid for it. Bringing money into this makes it less about the fiction or the experience, and more about meeting standards and earning dollar signs, which I personally don't like in this context. Hell, I hate writing gift and exchange fics precisely because I have to stress about meeting someone else's standards for the canon or characters. As for money, I'd rather make it on something I created from scratch-- because I may have an exaggerated expectation of my ability in that area.

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All of that said, at the moment I don't have a dog in this fight. None of those properties interest me, and the chances of a property that does strike my fancy appearing on their list is slim. If that comes to pass, the question then becomes: do I love it enough to write for it, to jump through their hoops, and not care about the rights to the words I just typed? It's true I'm using someone else's characters in this scenario, but the development, leg work, and writing time/skill are all mine. I could put all of that into something I do have the rights for, or something more fun and without restrictions. Since fan fiction to me = fandom participation, bringing money and Amazon into the equation complicates it to questionable benefit.

Since there's very little to see right now, I reserve the right to change my views, but I'm going to let other people do the early adopting.

This feels like an April Fool's joke. Remember DeviantHeart?

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Links:
- Kindle Worlds: A (Former) Fan Fiction Writer's Perspective
Writer Tamago. Pimping especially because it makes a really good point about creating original characters for fanfic and later deciding you might want to use those stories elsewhere. The KW contract would make that a problem.

Related:
- Filing off the serial numbers - from fanfic to novel (part 1) (as a companion to the above; Kara Braden)
- Amazon’s Kindle Worlds: Instant Thoughts (John Scalzi)
- Getting Paid for Your Fanfic? Here Comes Kindle Worlds! (Dawn Felegund)
- Amazon Jumps Into the Fanfic Business (Jim Hines)

This entry was originally posted at http://myaru.dreamwidth.org/819603.html. Discuss here or there as you prefer.


Comments at DW:

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, I'm heading out for Phoenix Comic Con! And though the trip itself will be long and boring, the weekend promises to be a blast. So come out and see me! Here's my schedule.

Also, here's my Twitter feed. I link it here, because the odds are very high that I won't be doing any blogging - just snapping selfies and other assorted shenanigans, and uploading it all for your amusement.

So! Tune in, show up, be amused. That's my suggestion.
And for now ... I'm outta here!

[:: zoosh ::]

We had a number of good captions, but only one made the Wright Household sing!

"99 squeaky toys on the wall, 99 squeaky toys…"

Originally posted to Welcome to Arhyalon. (link)

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/05/22/madison-im-at-a-room-of-ones-own-tomorrow-4pm-note-the-time/

I’ll be doing a rare afternoon tour appearance tomorrow in Madison because at 6pm, A Room of One’s Own welcomes the Guests of Honor at Wiscon, the (completely fantastic) science fiction and fantasy convention. So if you’re coming at 4 o’clock to Room of One’s Own to see me, stick around afterward for the GoHs, which include last year’s Nebula and Hugo Award winner, Jo Walton. And if you’re coming at 6pm to see the guests of honor, why not come out a little bit early to see me? It’ll be more speculative fiction writers than you can shake the proverbial stick at.

So remember, Madison: Tomorrow (Thursday, May 23), A Room Of One’s Own, 4pm. Don’t be late! See you there.

Title: Chekov Takes the Helm
Author: jelazakazone 
Fandom: Star Trek Reboot
Pairings/characters: Pavel Chekov
Rating: NC17
Word Count: ~650
Content notes: masturbation
Summary: Chekov sits in the Captain’s chair
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters and am not intending to profit from them
Author’s notes: I can’t remember exactly how this idea happened, if I raised it or if fuzzytomato02  suggested it, but then she pointed me to the Star Trek Kink Meme prompt: “Self loving Chekov Some how he finds himself alone on the bridge and decides to have a wank in the captains chair. :) and I HAD to write it. Chair!kink FTW. Thanks to fuzzytomato02  and fleete  for the beta! Any mistakes or lapses are entirely mine.



( Pinpricks of excitement danced on the surface of his skin...Collapse )


This entry was originally posted at http://jelazakazone.dreamwidth.org/725032.html. Feel free to comment here or there.

C.E. Murphy explains the economic realities of a writer's life, e.g. contrary to popular opinion, most authors aren't spending their free time rolling around on piles of cash. Then Laura Anne Gilman chimes in to agree.

It takes courage to live the life of a freelancer. Many of my friends who are full-time writers are backed up by partners who have a more reliable stream of income, but even that is no guarantee of financial stability. All it takes is one health crisis, one natural disaster or family emergency and the whole house of cards comes falling down. And let's not mention the other perils of a writers life--publishers going bankrupt, checks arriving months after payment was due, option books being declined, series canceled, publishers merging and slashing acquisitions, being orphaned, well I could list more but frankly it's too depressing.

When coworkers learn I'm a published author, the first question they ask is generally "Why are you still working here?" The perception is that I'm rich, and no matter how much I explain otherwise, I'm not sure I've changed anyone's mind. Instead of accepting that this is the reality for most writers, they then assume that I'm simply bad at it :-)

And that’s a wrap for series 7. Join Deb, Erika, Liz, and Lynne as we discuss whether the season closer was everything we hoped it could be or left us feeling slightly uncomfortable. Were the fans properly serviced? Was the last climax really a climax? Was the “reward” video of Matt Smith and David Tennant really much of a reward? We cover all this and more.

^E

Also covered:
Series 8 is a thing! And Matt Smith will be in it!
All the Doctor Who DVDs!
Daemons action figure set available for pre-order!
Hello Sweetie Podcast!

Download or listen now (runtime 1:05:59)