julesjones

Alex Woolfson, the guy behind my current favourite webcomic The Young Protectors, has written an article about creating a Kickstarter project to fund a print edition of the comic. This is a really good article about the nuts and bolts of putting together a proposal for crowd-sourcing the funding for your project -- and the information he lays out is more generally applicable than Kickstarter. I think a lot of what he has to say about building interest and a fanbase could also be usefully read by people who want to go through a more traditional route to publication. The article is here: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/06/10/how-to-succeed-at-kickstarter/

The Kickstarter itself is worth chipping into, if a gay superhero comic with a touch of romance sounds like your sort of thing. The lowest pledge level, $10, gets you digital copies of all the stuff that's been created for the stretch goals, in addition to the digital version of the book, which has extra content that won't be appearing on the comic's website. "All the stuff" is currently around 20 trading cards and half a dozen art prints, some with options to have the boys (and girls) with their bits on display. :-> If that sounds interesting, you have 8 days to put your pledge in.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alexwoolfson/the-young-protectors-vol-1-0

Another item from Kickstarter that might be of interest -- and it has only a few hours to run. Studio Foglio is running a Kickstarter to fund the print run of the next volume of webcomic Girl Genius, and has a number of interesting rewards, including one of interest to those who've never read it. There's a special pdf-only pledge at $10 that gets you the pdf edition of the new volume -- *and* of all the digital goodies unlocked as stretch goals. Which at this point includes omnibus pdf editions of all the previous volumes. While the comic is free online, this is a very cheap way to pick up a set of pdf compilations. I've been meaning to get around to reading it, and never have, so this was a good opportunity for me to get into it.

(If you're already into Girl Genius, you probably know about the Kickstarter already, but there's a shedload of other stuff available in the unlocked stretch awards, besides the chance to pick up the print edition of Volume 12.)

I wrote this review for the Amazon product page, but given how many of you lot would find it useful, I'm putting it here as well. I should note that the UK distributor contacted me through Amazon after I'd bought it, and asked if I'd be willing to write a review, as there weren't many on the UK Amazon site. However, I'd already intended to write a review for exactly that reason -- I'd had to go to the US site to find enough information to see if the product would suit me. It just got written rather sooner than it might have been without the request.

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I'm a daylight-sensitive insomniac who is tired of waking up with the dawn when I'm sleeping in an east-facing room. The sort of masks handed out by airlines help for the odd night, but they're not good enough for regular use. I bought the Sleep Master on spec, and while it's not perfect, it's a lot better than any other mask I've tried. For me it was well worth the 22 pounds I paid for it. I bought mine for insomnia, but I think it's also worth trying for light-sensitive migraine.

It's a wrap-around padded blindfold held on with a velcro fastener, and has no straps or elastic involved in keeping it on your head. There are padded areas over the ears to muffle sound, and it comes with two sets of earplugs if you want heavy-duty sound blocking.

What it's very, very good at is blocking out the light. It's very wide, the padding ensures that almost no light gets through the blindfold itself, and the cut out around the nose is a good shape that ensures a good light seal in that area.

Comfort-wise, it's very good once you get used to it. It's made from a soft, silky material that feels comfortable against my skin. I was concerned that it might get too sweaty, but so far haven't had any problems. The padding makes it quite thick, which makes it feel a bit odd to lie on at first, but after a few days I didn't notice it. The main problem I noticed was that it rests directly against the eyelids, which means that if you're prone to opening your eyes when sleeping, you won't be able to and it's going to disturb your sleep.

It's held on by a long velcro strip which provides plenty of size adjustment, and which does a good job of holding it securely closed without it loosening during the night, as elastic is prone to do. It's also a lot more comfortable than elastic. The one drawback is that I found that it doesn't reliably stay on during the night, although that may because I'm a fairly restless sleeper. It's easy enough to slip back on if it does come off.

The blindfold by itself does muffle sound a little, and could be enough to mask low levels of irritating sound. The flip side of this is that it adds sounds of its own -- the rustling of satin cloth against skin right next to your ear. This could be helpful, if you find it soothing white noise that masks other sounds, or it could be annoying in its own right. I haven't tried the earplugs it came with, but one pair is the type I used to wear in a high decibel industrial environment as hearing protection, so I know that it's capable of blocking very high sound levels.

Washing directions are hand wash in cold water and drip dry. So far it seems to have survived the experience, and I didn't get any colour bleeding. I suspect that you could get away with occasional mashine washing on the wool cycle if you put it in a delicates bag, which matters if you're like me and have hand problems, but I'm not going to try it unless I need to.

In summary: excellent product which should suit most people.

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An additional bit of review for the blog only -- yes, I'm sure it will be very useful for Other Purposes as well. :-)

I'm probably going to bring this along with me to cons, since so many hotel rooms don't have adequate blackout curtains. If anyone wants to have a look at it with a view to purchasing one of their own, feel free to ask.

Revolutionary, Patented SLEEP MASTER (tm) Sleep Mask. Worlds most effective light and noise reduction package. Helps with snoring partners , insomnia , shift work , jet lag for truly restful sleep. Prevents disturbed rest ensures peaceful slumber

I am at that stage of "Oh god I need to clean up this office" where I have to face the fact that I have Too Many Books. No, really, I have completely run out of room in the downstairs bookcases again, so if I want to put away the teetering piles of "have read it but not yet logged it", something's got to leave. Which means I have to decide what's going to Oxfam.

And once again I am wishing that the Big 6/5... publishers would quit with the DRM nonsense. I have here a box full of books I bought on remainder where I would be only too happy to give the publisher the full cover price in order to buy an electronic copy the next time I want to read it. But I want to *buy* it, not rent it. If it's locked to a specific device, or specific credit card, or a specific cloud account, it ain't mine.

One of the reasons this matters to me is that I've hit the age where I do not have endless vistas of reading time ahead of me. I went out for dinner last night, and found that my current pair of handbag reading glasses can no longer cope with restaurant menus in restaurant lighting. And at current reading rates, I have around ten years worth of books in this house, and that's just the fiction. I have a lot of books where I liked them enough that I might want to read them again, but may not get to them for a re-read in the next few years. I'm accumulating more of them. The reality is that "a few years" may take it past my personal reading event horizon. And many of these books are ones where I don't have much attachment to the physical object. I'd be perfectly happy to shift the physical object out of the door as long as I'm reasonably sure I can get hold of the text again if I *do* feel the urge to re-read. I have a lot more where I know I will want to re-read them but ditto on the physical object.

I think it's time to give in, install Calibre and learn how to use naughty plug-ins. It will make it a lot easier to put that treeware book in the Oxfam box.

Much as I love my Cybook Gen3, it's elderly. So I had it in mind to get one of the Nooks that were being flogged off at £30, should I be able to find one. Of course, there were none to be had, but in my wanderings around the Arndale Centre on Friday night just to be certain, I noticed that WH Smith were having a one day only special on Kobos - £20 off all models. Which made the Kobo Mini £30...

So I now have a Kobo Mini, which I have not actually plugged in and set up yet and thus cannot report on. However, if any other UK resident is interested in getting a cheap Kobo, keep an eye on your local Smith's, since they seem to be running this as an occasional promotion. The purchase included a multi-use discount voucher for 20% off any accessories I buy between now and August.

I want to give some Kickstarter love to my favourite webcomic, The Young Protectors. The writer describes it thus:

As a gay kid growing up, I loved sci-fi, fantasy and action stories. But I never got to see what I really wanted to see and that’s kick-ass genre stories with gay heroes. Not just gay characters who were the comic relief or who committed suicide or got killed in the end so that the straight protagonist could wind up with the girl. But good stories with real, three-dimensional heroes who get a chance to save the day and who also just happens to like other guys.

With The Young Protectors, I've tried to create the kind of story I’ve always wanted to see.

It has a great storyline and stunning art. Also a superhero/supervillain m/m romance. And it now has a Kickstarter to fund the first print run of Volume 1. Said Kickstarter was funded within 18 hours of opening, which tells you something about the quality of Alex Woolfson's work, but there are plenty of interesting stretch goals. You can find out more about both the comic and the Kickstarter project here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alexwoolfson/the-young-protectors-vol-1-0

...are now an option for me.

The shiny new tram line opened today, and I have tested it. Both There, and Back Again. I have confirmed my pre-existing opinion that it is not going to entice me away from the bus for my daily commute -- but that I am going to be exceedingly happy to use it for various leisure activities. In theory it's a quicker trip into the city centre, but in practice it's a less frequent service than the bus, which largely negates the speed advantage. And I never have to stand on the bus even in rush hour, which happy situation is not likely to pertain on the tram. But there are outings which until today involved going on the bus into the city centre, and then taking the tram back out again, and which will now involve taking the tram halfway into the city centre, and changing to a different tram back out again. And thus we will be able to cut a significant chunk of time off the journey.

Alas, Tram! has only come about after some friends who were on the other side of the city have moved away. I never actually visited them there, because by the time I got into the city centre and back out again, it was a fairly long trek, in spite of them being only a few minutes walk from a stop on one of the other tram lines.

I forgot to mention that I have a new toy, namely an account on Authorgraph. This site provides an interface for readers to request electronic autographs from authors, whether to add to their ebooks, or to print out and keep with a print book. And yes, it really is a personalised autograph if you so choose. The author can type a message and then sign their name using a tablet, and the resulting file shows the actual signature process.

It's funded by affiliate links to Amazon, so you can only request signatures for books available on Amazon. However, you don't need to have a Kindle to request or display the autographs.

I've put most of my titles currently available on Amazon into the system, and you can find my account here http://www.authorgraph.com/authors/bookfetishist should you wish to have a play.

I spent a large chunk of yesterday afternoon editing the rough draft of the urban confessions story down from 6100 to 5000 words, and sent it off to Predatrix last night for comments. She seems to think it works, so after another quick typo hunt, I spent a large chunk of this afternoon formatting it according to the anthology editor's guidelines -- which include the requirement to provide a short blurb.

I hate writing blurbs. I believe I have mentioned this before.

Also, I only use MSWord at home when I have no other choice, and while I use it at work, we're still on 2003 at work and I have the ribbon-infested 2007 at home, which results in much swearing every time I have to use the wretched thing and can't find where they've put assorted standard functions. However, the file is on its way to the editor's inbox. If she doesn't like it, I shall probably add some material and self-publish it at Smashwords, at which point I may have to consider setting up a new pseudonym.

It was fun writing fluffy porn, but it was rather noticeable that I had to make a determined effort to stop it from picking up more plot than fluffy porn needs. I could probably get a rather longer story out of it without much effort. Nevertheless, I would like to point out to my usual editor that I can so write a short story that *stays* a short story. :^) Even if not very often...

(If any of you feel the urge to write a confessions story, more details at the editor's website: http://www.writerotica.co.uk/guidelines.htm )

Just been putting my latest royalty statement into the spreadsheet, and it would appear that Dolphin Dreams has achieved over 3000 copies sold since it was released. This is very small beer indeed compared with the sales figures of my friends who are published with the Big 6, but it's not bad for a small press title. I am pleased -- and have an incentive to get on with the new novel, in order to see what happens to my backlist sales if I get a new title out for the first time in five years.