When I wrote the first ancient Lanka short story (which I submitted today, yay!) I hadn't thought about the overall timeline.

Now that I'm considering more stories, I need to figure things out.

I realized most people outside probably don't know who Vijaya is.

So I need to have a story which sets up who Vijaya is, how he came to Sri Lanka and the effect of his arrival. So the next story is probably going to be about that.

That also will be (timeline-wise) the last story in the series. The one I wrote already will be the first.

The rest will fall somewhere in between 🙂

#Writing #LKA #Stories

Submitting (instead of self-publishing) has its own workflows ... like needing to put everything in standard manuscript format.

Working on a couple of LibreOffice templatest to handle short stories and long manuscripts. If anyone wants them, would be happy to share 🙂

#Writing #LibreOffice

The short story is finally done! It's as polished as I think I can make it at this point.

I did 2 (or was it 3?) passes on it yesterday and the wife did as many too.

Haven't submitted fiction in 20 years or so, but I think I'll try @clarkesworld and see what happens ...

On to the next story in the series!

#AmWriting #Writing

Did two edits on the short story and the wife did one edit. She thinks that this is the best thing I've written so far. And that's encouraging 🙂

The ending is better now, but still feel that it needs a couple more edits.

#AmWriting #Writing

Finished the short story yesterday, final word count 4,400 words. My guess is that I did about 3,500 words yesterday but it's hard to tell with the edits and changes.

Not quite happy with the ending. So needs a bit more work. And a couple of edit passes. But getting there?

#AmWriting #Writing

Apparently, using em or en-dashes is seen as a sign of AI generated text.

I use em dashes a lot in my writing.

Fed some of my writing to an AI text detector with an em-dash in it. It says 31% likelihood of AI generated text. Remove the em-dash, and it says 0% likelihood of AI text 😛

#Writing #AI

Wrote about 2300 words yesterday for the short story but had to scrap most of it since I realized that the story won't work that way.

Went back, rethought the whole thing and have what I think is a better ending. But have to write that one all over again 🙂

#AmWriting #Writing

I'm writing a short story about ancient Sri Lanka, before the Mahavamsa, about the Yaksha, Naga, Deva tribes. The story is going so well, that I'm thinking of making this another series ...

Question is, what do I call the series? "Old Lanka" or "Lore of Lanka?" Other? Opinions?

#Writing #SriLanka

Spent most of the weekend re-organizing my writing information — putting plots, characters, and ideas into a wiki and setting up submission info.

But also wrote about 800 words on a new short story. Hopefully, will finish that today.

#AmWriting #Writing

I've now been unemployed for 10 months with almost no interest from employers. I have 30 years of IT experience:

UNIX Hardware Engineer for DEC
Linux Support
UNIX Support for 100+ Statisticians
IT Security (InfoSec, back in the day)
WordPress Plugin Support
Building websites with WordPress

If you know of anyone or any companies hiring, I would love to know. Thanks!!!

Being unemployed really does suck.

#fedihired #getfedihired

Been looking at consolidating all my writing info in a few locally hosted apps so that all data is on my machine.

All writing info (plots, characters, research) on Wiki.js - https://js.wiki

Submissions management with NocoDB - https://nocodb.com

#Writing #Tech #LocalData

"The Recruit" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16030542) new season is as fun as the last if you turn your brain off and accept that the CIA is really stupid & has holding cells where people can climb into the vents to escape 😛

Sit back, relax, enjoy the ride. But don't think too much.

#TV #English

I really hate idiocy-driven storylines and while interesting (if you turn your brain off) "The Night Agent" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13918776) takes the cake for this genre.

Almost all of the characters in this show don't have a single suspicious bone in their body.

In fact, if the characters were replaced by high-schoolers, the'd probably be more suspicious of the motives of the people they deal with, or excercise more security precautions. These (supposedly) trained government agents certainly don't have any clue as to what they're doing.

But, if you turn off your brain, it's fun ... for certain values of fun 😛

#TV #English

Finally finished editing the last chapter of "Raisins of Wrath" I'm not happy with the ending and might need to let that percolate a bit, but at least, the first cycle is over!

Now to get back to the Flutter book and finish writing that one 🙂

#AmWriting #Writing

Somebody who read my first novel 20+ years ago wrote in to say that they're re-reading it and it's just as fun as the first time around.

No sweeter words to a writer 🙂

(How about, "Here's a contract for 7 figures?" I hear some say 😛)

#Writing #Indie

Some interesting new TV coming up ... Haven't watched any of these but the premises look interesting 🙂

The Hunting Party - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21906554
Paradise - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27444205
Watson - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22475008

#TV #English

If your prefer adventure in your fantasy reads, with a low dose of romance, I have your back.

Check out this curated list of books with fantasy tales to your taste:

https://books.bookfunnel.com/escapeintoadventure/4b9rfv8czy

They are all on sale - and some are even free!

(Please boost.)

#Fantasy
#Adventure
#LowSteam

Finished editing 2,000 words for the penultimate chapter in my novella yesterday. Was hoping to get the final chapter done on edit round #1, but a coding project is calling me today 😛

Not sure as to which way I'll go yet, but I guess we'll see?

#AmWriting #Writing

In the past few weeks, I went down a rabbit hole of inexpensive fountain pens made in China. Most models that were less than $3 on average. It's been great. I have a bunch of interesting fountain pens that give a nice writing experience. These are pictures of a few I had in the phone (with descriptions in ALT).

If you are looking for tips, *usually*: Jinhao, the current king of cost-effective pens, makes consistently impressive writers at low prices. Asvine and Hongdian are very good quality, but cost more, and Majohn (Moonman) is also getting there. Wing Sung (Yongsheng) name is licensed by a few, quite good, but how good varies between makers. The grand progenitor of the Chinese fountain pen industry, Hero, makes pens ranging from low price to heirloom quality. All can have both inspired-by and original designs. As for quality, always check reviews. Be patient to learn the characteristics of a pen before writing it off. Pun intended.

I'm also not going to dismiss them as "cheap replicas" because almost all popular fountain pen makers have taken "inspirations" from others and these were not sold under fake branding. Material used may not always be that durable. But with gentle handling (like most fountain pens), you'll be fine.

To be honest, this is the only way you can afford to try different kinds of fountain pens in this part of the world without an extravagant budget.

I quit my coding job in December. Many reasons, but one was to give writing an honest go after keeping it on the backburner for years.

Got my first payment for writing today. Won't pay the rent, but I'm excited to be writing again and am excited to see where this goes 🙂

#Writing