I got a brilliant* idea today when my mind broached the subject of putting on the rollerblades again: Why not do it on the lawn, where the ground is softer, and the grass will keep the wheels from spinning out of control?
It wasn't so bad. It wasn't good, mind you**, but I didn't ever fall down and I didn't get hurt, even though I went around the backyard five times. THIS I can do ten times in March, though, truth be told, I doubt it will help me learn how to rollerskate in the end.
I was looking up K-pop bands to reference in my "Lara and the Witch" story, and ye gods, they all have such awful, generic names, more times than not in all caps. I had originally used BTS, the only Korean band I knew before, but settled on something called Blackpink, which I'm sure my old coworker Carolina (who listens to all that stuff like she was cursed to be eternally thirteen) would dismiss as too mainstream.
Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In March: 1018
In anticipation of recording another chapter of my own story, I grabbed a couple of stories by W.W. Jacobs, the author of probably the greatest short story of the Twentieth Century, "The Monkey's Paw." Having never read anything else by the man, I sat down and recorded "The Toll-House," about four friends who dare themselves to spend the night in a supposedly-haunted house (amazing to contemplate that that particular premise was an old one even a hundred years ago).
I tried to give all four (British) friends different voices, and the story was quite short (about twenty minutes to record, fifteen or so once edited down), but it didn't really do anything for me, and I saved it to my laptop and promptly deleted it (like I did a pair of H.P. Lovecraft stories I recorded last fall while at the cabin, realizing I'd never do anything with them).
However, there is another story by Jacobs that I'm going to read through and see if it's worth recording.
Push-ups Today: 146
Push-ups In March: 1022 (the push-ups have finally passed the sit-ups in total--what a joyous occasion!)
Unfortunately, I sat down to record the third "chapter" of my D&B story, and it was already past one o'clock. I considered the wisdom of recording so late when I was up past three the night before, and ultimately chose not to. I went ahead and published "A Sidekick's Errand" on Amazon, and was surprised to discover that there wasn't a Series page for The Sidekick Chronicles.
Turns out, they implemented this Series option (where you can create a series and tell Amazon how each installment fits in--whether they must be read in a certain order, whether short stories and prequels fit in or are ancillary pieces, etc.) since I published the last story, and only the "Dead & Breakfast" series has a Series page.
I created a page for this story (which is the fourth one I've published--fifth I've written--and is a sequel to "Birth of a Sidekick" but a prequel to "A Sidekick's Journey"), but now I'll have to go in and add those details to the other three. Then, if I am ambitious enough to finish "Sins of a Sidekick," I might be able to put that one out and the long-delayed "A Sidekick To Miracles" after that. Although I wonder whether it matters or not. Since the stories have been written out of order (2 then 4 then 1 then 6 then 3), does it matter in what order they're read? I imagine the Conan the Barbarian stories are just as enjoyable reading them in publication order as chronological order, no?
Which makes me think of the ever-lovin' "Lara and the Witch" stories. If the first two I wrote take place in one town and all the rest after that take place months or years later in another town, there's no point in numbering them, right? Especially when I could write ten stories in between "You're In Good Hands" and "Bundling Made Easy" over the next couple of years. Is it enough that I just keep writing them, and mention early on that one is set when Lara is in high school and another is set when she's in junior high?
I don't suppose any of this really matters. The amount of sales I generate for each little $1.99 or $2.99 short story are practically zero, and I really should just sit down and podcast each one instead, since that earns more money, and might actually get a couple of new Patreon supporters after a while (I did record another Patreon-only episode this past Sunday, in which I present a [fairly-mediocre] story that was otherwise only going to be available in my "Female Protagonist" audio collection.
Words Today: 543
Words In March: 9078
*Your mileage many vary.
**I know I'm writing an Old Widow Holcomb story, because she uses phrases like "mind you" and "let it alone," and nobody else I know does.
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