Progress On The Female Front

One of the goals I set for myself in May is to get the Female Protagonist audio collection published.  And believe me, it's waaaaaaaaaaay more work than just doing the text version (even a paperback text version).*  Some of the files are old, and have to be leveled and noise-reduced.  For some reason, I included Author's Notes at the end of the stories (most of them, anyway), and a few of those I hadn't recorded before, so I have to sit down, record them, clean them up, edit them, and then upload them.

But there's a palpable thrill I get seeing the total runtime go up and up and up.  It happened when I reached two hours, happened on three, and I imagine it'll happen on four (and five and maybe six, who knows how long we'll get here?).

I've found two typos in the Author's Notes (should that be capitalized?), and I'll go ahead and fix those in the digital version, but I don't know that I will for the print versions--who even reads A Word About The Story at the end?

Here's my current screenshot of progress:

More than halfway there.  I think can do this.  Just pretend you'll buy it, and I'll work faster.

*I originally typed "waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay," but didn't want to be childish.

Another Day, Another Gallon

A couple of years ago, I read an article about a woman who drank a gallon of water a day for an entire month.  It totally changed her life for the better, and in the end, she threw water (for lack of a better term) on the whole thing by proclaiming she was glad the month was over and she'd never have to drink water again.

It pissed me off enough to write this story, "A Gallon A Day," which is available o'er on Amazon.  It gives the month-long blog posts of Catherine Reilly, who tries drinking a gallon of water, as difficult as it is, every day for the month of April.  And it really does change her life . . . in increasingly impressive ways.*  I'm not sure how successful the story is, but it was really fun putting myself in the shoes of a made-up stranger for thirty-one fake blog entries, something I'd enjoy trying again one day.  Check out the story HERE!

P.S. I did record an audio version of this one, but though it's quite well done, it'll only be available in the Female Protagonist audio collection, available soon.

*I originally was going to write it from a male point-of-view (to make it less like a copy/parody of the actual woman's experience), but feared it would grow tiresome after having sex with eight to twelve co-workers, strangers, and supermodels throughout.  I still wonder how different that would have been from the woman's perspective.

Uh Oh, Now I'm Committed

Or should be, anyway. 

I keep sending Big possible cover art for stories I've written, to see how they'd look.  Some have been so-so, some have been horrible abominations*, but some are rock-solid.

This one, though, that he just sent back to me, gives me pause:

This isn't the exact image he sent me, because I tried
 pasting a new mushroom into his hands, then
accidentally hit Save.  The sentiment's the same, though.

You see, it's one of many I've sent him and then dismissed, because it would be for a story, "Accept No Substitutes," that I haven't written yet.  It was the first of three Lara & the Witch story ideas I came up with in 2023, and the only one I haven't turned into a finished tale.  

In it, Lara Demming gets a new substitute teacher (for Mr. Seckler's Science class) and there's something sinister about him, something that sets off her admittedly-limited supernatural alarm bells.  Turns out, he's someone (or something) Old Widow Holcomb is familiar with, and happens to be  much more powerful than she is.  

Gosh, it sounds so good when I logline it that way.  But I never wrote it, only the first chapter or so (it's got to have a happy ending, right?  And not contradict the other stories I've written in the series, so I need to figure out where it's going before I just strongarm my way through it).

But now that Big has sent me this quite-excellent cover image (the original image had him holding an apple, but I like blue mushrooms), I feel like I'm semi-committed to.  If Big were to, say, send it to me again with the title, byline, and "A Lara & The Witch Story," I'd absolutely HAVE to write it.

Hint, hint.

*I've written an entire post with images like this one, of a young woman raking leaves:

Don't make me angry, Mr. McGee...

Or this one, of a teen girl hanging a banner in a high school hallway:

Well, that's sort of right.

Rish Outcast 279: Under the Covers 2

Rish and Big Anklevich move into the Skynet era, as they talk about using A.I. to create (and replace) their story covers. 

They talk about a dozen or so covers, and their struggles to improve them.  Check out THIS PAGE of the blog to see the various images (or https://rishoutfield.blogspot.com/2024/04/under-covers-2-images.html, if you're nasty). 

Of course, to download the episode, Right-Click HERE.

Of courser, to support me on Patreon, go HERE.

Course of supporting Big on Patreon HERE.

Logo by Gino "Under The Lovers" Moretto.

Don't Know Why/There's No Sun Up In The Sky

One of my favorite stories that I've written over the years was this little thing called "Stormy Weather," about a blizzard in a small town and the mayor who tries to keep everyone safe.  It's one that turned out just as good in my hands as it seemed in my head, and I'm 95% happy with it.*

Anyhoo, this was the cover art that it had been saddled with for these past years:

And it's not bad, at least as far as my self-made covers go, though it is square instead of rectangular (but I didn't know, in those days [though I should have, since it was 2015 when I published it] that they had to be rectangular).

So, cut to 2024, when we're upgrading the covers for stories (and yeah, a couple of them are "upgrades" simply to make them all uniform), and this was one that I thought could be made more indicative of what the story was about.

But I had a computer create some art for me of a huge snow-covered turn-of-the-century house . . . then a separate image of a wrought-iron fence, but A.I. could not create both for me**

Which do you prefer?

Of course, you can go to THIS LINK and buy a copy, or also find out which version I decided to go with.

*I always wanted to expand it, add and develop a couple of characters, and put in the scene with the car stuck in the snow that I started to write then got rid of.  And who knows, maybe doubling its length that would ruin it.

**It also could not make it look like it was snowing, or in a blizzard, or in windy sleet.  But when I simply typed "Snowy sky," it could create that no problem.  It's not quiiiiiite ready to take over the world just yet.

2024 Goals - May Update

I need to post my goals/New Year's Resolutions much more regularly, because every time I do, I am reminded of where I'm falling short.  So here are 2024 goals I set.*

1.  Exercise 222 Days
I'm well on my way.  By my count, I'm near to one hundred days of exercise, which is way past where I technically HAVE to be to make my goal.

2.  Put out 5th audio collection
I got the introduction from Big, so that means it's all on me.

3.  Release "Balms & Sears" novel
No progress.

4.  Clear out my room . . . a bit
Oh . . . oh no.

5.  Finish "Melancholy Christmas Night" story
It appears I finished that one on the third of February.  Not sure of the date, but around then.

6.  Write "Sins of a Sidekick" novella
Oh my lord, I've actually started it.

7.  Write 10 stories (and finish them)
I wrote "Your Partner on the Road" and the currently untitled Witchcraft Fair story, both in the Lara & The Witch series.  I wrote a very short comic tale "I've Got A Secret."  I also wrote the holiday story "The Day Before The Day Before Christmas."

8.  Put out 10 episodes of The Podcast That Dares Not Speak Its Name
I only have two so far, but I shelved that series while I ran "Ten Thousand Coffins" for two months.  Started on another one yesterday.

9.  Sell Trypticon

I tried once, and failed.

10.  Avoid retail price, wait for clearance
I'm about 40/60 on that . . . in the good way.

11.  Do 3 things that scare me
I gotta say, putting out a physical copy of my writing, that people could buy or not buy, was scarier than it should've been. 

*Episode 269 of the Rish Outcast goes into these in much greater detail.

Everyone Needs A Friend, Even In Paradise

Years ago, I wrote a story for a contest called "Friends In Paradise," and it wasn't until this past month that someone mentioned what a terrible title that is.  I was unable to come up with something better in 2011, and you know, that's how it'll have to stay for today.

But I didn't ever publish it in text form (at least not that I have a cover for), so when I got it out and dusted it off to include in my collection "Female Protagonist," I started thinking about what I would want as a cover for it.

Basically, a little girl smiling at or playing with a bunch of bugs, preferably on a Hawaiian beach.  And the program gave me images like this one:

There was a more horrible one it gave me, but I'll save it for a night when I'd rather not get any sleep.

I like this one: the girl is prettier than necessary, but the wasps look like wasps,
she looks happy . . . except for what is she holding?

Anyway, after a lot of tug o'war, I got a cover that I liked, and Big made it look professional(ish).

If you haven't read the story, grab it RIGHT HERE.  Bzzzzz.

Rish Outcast 278: Ten Thousand Coffins 3

Rish presents the third--and longest--chunk of his Sci-Fi/Horror novella "Ten Thousand Coffins."  So, there are now three awakened humans aboard the Dawn Breaks, and one vampire. Or is it two and two?

Afterward, a bit about the Skipper, and is it just me, or is Rish more defensive of this story than usual?

If you wish to download the episode, Right-Click HERE.

If you wish to support me on Patreon, click HERE.

If you wish to hear the longest Taylor Swift song, you might as well go HERE.

Logo by Gino "No Clever Pun This Week" Moretto.