politics

Jan

2025

Tik… Tok…

The clock is ticking down. Tik…tok…tik…tok.

Now, I’ll admit that I don’t post as much as I used to on Tiktok. Part of that is that when your thing is “Carline Talk,” you have a limited lifespan — once your kid no longer has carline? You’re kind of done. The other part is that the moderation team is… something. I’m not sure what, but they are something (I got a community strike for saying that Ursula was Disney’s contract lawyer — make it make sense!)

But Tiktok is where the book people are, so I stayed. I had some lovely interactions with other writers through Booktok, learned about new books and tools and indie bookstores. Promoted my books and helped promote others. And I learned things — about politics, about uprisings and unrest. I followed people who knew more than I did, and I watched people my son’s age grow and become active in their communities, and push back against the powers that be.

And that’s the problem, isn’t it? The powers that be could not control the narrative on Tiktok. So it had to go.

I’m still hoping for a last minute miracle. But I’m not holding my breath.

Where will I be? Here, of course. Always have a social media avenue you control. ALWAYS. So I have my blog, and I have my newsletter. I’m on Bluesky and Mastodon and Tumblr. I have the whole Meta suite — Facebook, Instagram, and Threads — but those are becoming increasingly more toxic, and I am probably going to focus my marketing efforts on Bluesky and Mastodon. Heck, I even fired up my Fetlife account! (That was mostly to find out what the heck was going on with some nasty local doings — I can’t say I’ve ever sold a book via Fetlife, but I have met a lot of wanna-be doms who lack reading comprehension.)

I’m keeping an eye on Neptune (and am on the beta testing team), so we’ll see where that goes, and I got an email this morning about a crowdsourcing campaign for a social media network aimed at adult content creators. And in the meantime, I’m working on not one, but TWO novels where our hero has to step up and fight back against a corrupt system oppressing his people. If I had a nickle, right?

The first week back was getting into the groove of writing after being off for a few weeks. I didn’t make the wordcount that I wanted on either manuscript, but I did get started on both. Baby steps. This week will be more. Maybe. It’s Highland Games week, so I won’t be writing at all this weekend unless it’s on paper (and they’re calling for rain, so I might not even be doing that. We will see.) If you head out to the games, I’ll be over in Bairn Care, near the clan tents. Come and say hi!

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 4)

7629 / 90000 (8.48%)

The Coral Throne
(The Sea Prince, book 2)

1401 / 90000 (1.56%)

Promotions

It’s Bookmas! Every day for the rest of the month, you can get free ebooks and free tools for writers, with a new book or tool every day! Check out today’s offerings here!

Appearances

6th Annual Love is in the Air
February 8th, 2025
Lakeside Community Center
Port Orange, FL

***

ICFA
March 19 – 22nd, 2025
Orlando, FL

***

3rd Annual Spring is in the Air
April 13th, 2025
Venetian Center,
Leesburg, FL

***

6th Annual Mother’s Day Bazaar
May 10th, 2025
Ormond Beach Elks Lodge
Ormond Beach, FL

***

3rd Annual Summer Artisan Market
June 29th, 2025
Brannon Center
New Smyrna Beach, FL

***

Smut Lovers: The Conference
September 17th – 21st, 2025
Orlando, FL

Nov

2024

Making It!

It’s Maker Faire Week and we are making it! Making what? Well… words. And making it to Maker Faire. I found out this morning that we will be in the Spirit building, in space SF6. According to the map, this appears to be Writer’s Row — we’re one of three authors in that aisle, and we’re next to a bookshop. So come and check us out and read all the things!

Tomorrow is Election Day. You’ve voted, right? Or you’re voting tomorrow? Remember, it’s important!

According to my wordcount, I am just over 75% done with King of Swords. According to the story… not even close. It might be closer to 50%, with the hinge coming in the next chapter. Which may mean this is two books. I hope not, but we’ll see. I’m just going to keep going until the story is done, and then I’ll decide when I edit if I’m breaking it up or just having having the third book be bigger than the first two combined. I’d like to see this book done by the end of the year, but… yeah, we’ll see how that goes. I’m not going to rush it — there needs to be some resting in and around the rest of the end of the year things.

Last week saw the first for me. Worlds Begin was #1 in two separate categories! (And, for the record, it still is! I took this screenshot two seconds ago!)

I have never before had a #1 in a category of anything — best I’ve ever seen was #2.

Once Maker Faire is over, I’ll be starting to reserialize the Heir to the Firstborn books on THEO. It’ll take me a bit to get all of the books uploaded, but once I do, they’ll be available to read the way I originally wrote them. (Mostly — the original serial wasn’t fully edited. Remember, the chapters were originally going live as I wrote them, with minimal edits. On THEO, you’ll be getting the finished and polished chapters.)

And that’s about all from my neck of the woods. Remember, if you come out to Maker Faire, let me know you saw this post and you get a discount on books!