Empty-Head-Monday

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

It’s Monday and my head is empty.  You’re just lucky I’m not roaming the netz looking for brains.

Partly, paradoxically, my head feels empty because I have too many things in there, including but not limited to several characters whining, b*tching and moaning that I haven’t written them yet.

I’m still in catch up mode – might be in it for the rest of my life at this rate.  Partly this is from having been sick, of course, but partly it’s because the way I figure it I’m holding down three jobs, or at least what passes for a job for other people who work on line: I’m doing a blog post a day; I’m (at least trying to.  We’ll see if I make it) writing four novels a year and a few short stories along the way; and I’m doing six to ten posts for PJM (I know it was slack last week.  I just couldn’t.)  On top of that there is the trying to put up the backlist in my copious spare time.  And I’m sure I’m forgetting other stuff…

Part of the sense of tiredness is that this month on Amazon I’m possibly having my worst month ever, and I wonder what is going on, if my prices are too low or too high or if the fact I’m ranty has a bad effect.  In other accounts I monitor, the hits are picking up, but not in mine, so I’m moping around and considering going to eat some worms.

I wonder if it’s because I put up the long collections and now no one is buying anything waiting for me to put more of them up? (ain’t happening.  I put those up because they pre-existed the ebooks, as it were.)

I need to get the musketeer mysteries up.  And I need to write new novels.  I need to get the recording booth set up, and I want to have t-shirts done for the subscribers and I need to finish my web site and… yeah. …And I just want to know where I can get the extra time.  Maybe that’s why we’re painting the recording booth as a tardis.

Of course, the fact this month is lousy in sales so far just makes me go “Why bother?” and that’s a bad thing when I’m on the treadmill and have been running as fast as I can for a long time.

Unfortunately I pretty much know I have a year – two if I’m lucky – to bring this up to where it can support us, (at least we can count on a year, probably.  I am not willing to bet on two.  Though we could get lucky) and honestly, sometimes it feels the more I do the less money I make overall.  It’s distressing.  Or maybe I’m just whiney today.

On the good side and extreme progress, I’ve sent Witchfinder to the editor.  I’m considering entering the obvious “in your face” stuff the early readers have sent back, then setting up a quick-and-dirty create space version so I can send out arcs.  I need to ask the artist about the cover, and if it’s not going to happen, I’ll need to make other arrangements.  But I understand arcs to places like Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist are important, even if they get awful reviews.  I understand it’s rougher (word wise) than my normal work, and I wonder if it is because I wrote it so slowly and piece meal, or if it is because I’ve now revised it four times, because I was trying to fix the structure.  I’ve learned long ago that when I revise something I lose the sense of what I was doing, and tend to kitchensink it, so if I do it too much, it will get rough.  I trust my editor with my words which for writers is more difficult than trusting someone with your life, (I’d probably trust him with my life too. He’s a friend.)  But should I send the earcs out, before that polishing is done?

Anyway, it will get done, one way or another.  Things will go up, even if I’m feeling tired and all discouraged.  It just might take a little while longer – like a couple of weeks.

This week I need to get back to Through Fire and stick wedges under Zen’s nails until she talks to me.  I feel like I’m missing 1/3 of the plot, at least and she won’t talk.  Of course, she’s Kit’s sister.  Torturing her might make her clam up more.

Unfortunately to re-orient from editing Witchfinder to finishing Through Fire, I need to re-read A Few Good Men, and you know how bad an idea that is?  No?   Lucius and Nat are going to camp in my head again.  I had a hard enough time not letting them have the entire series.

There are… characters who stay.  There are characters who show up for a story, then leave, others stay.  Unfortunately for me, those two – let’s face it — bad dudes who took up residence in my head when I was SOCMOB seem to be persistent ones.  I’m not sure if there’s a market for more stuff with them as main characters, so I just worry.  And once I read their book they’ll be awake and trying to get me to write them again.  There is a story, around the time Nat gets invalided from service, and it is either a long novella or a novel slotting in after Through Fire in the time line – but whether Toni would be interested, or whether I should even worry about that is something else.  Should I do them Indie instead?  But then will it sell at all?

At any rate, right now the plan is to finish Through Fire and then Darkship Revenge in the next month (by, say, mid-October) and then do either Bowl of Red for Baen or The Brave and The Free for me.  (And that one is also loud.)

Meanwhile should I go on throwing the back log short stories up there?  Or do I just concentrate on writing novels?  And what about the shorts?  Doesn’t volume count?  Or does volume make it harder for people to find my longer stuff?

And there’s other administrivia that needs to be done.

BUT for now, I’m going to read A Few Good Men and get back in the series mind space.  Then I’ll write the rest of Through Fire, hopefully with the missing third showing up soon.  (WHEN did I become a pantser?  I don’t like it.)

So pardon this scattered and whining blog.  It’s all TXRed’s fault (and for those who don’t read comments, TXRed is a commenter here) for having given me her sinus infection via the computer.  Infected sinuses always make me crabby and whiney.

I’m going to stick to blaming poor Red.

And we won’t even go into the sustained depression that is politics and international affairs, because NO ONE wants me to get locked up in a padded room.  (At least I hope not.)  And September 11 is coming, and I still haven’t got over the anger at what happened last 9/11.  See, if my nation gets angry, I don’t have to.  If my nation tries to sweep it under the rug…  I wake up screaming.

So, yeah, I know.  It’s a whine.  This too shall pass.

Real post tomorrow.  Thank you for letting me b*tch and moan.

251 thoughts on “Empty-Head-Monday”

  1. In other accounts I monitor, the hits are picking up, but not in mine, so I’m moping around and considering going to eat some worms.

    Gummy worms. Works with my youngest.

    More seriously, I think you may be suffering from being popular with military folks– and the sequester is still going on. The guys in my husband’s shop have a 27.5% reduction in take-home pay. (They’re just working for the DOD, but the active guys I know are worried that they’ll be booted.)

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    1. People in the private sector I know are ALSO worried they’ll be booted… Trust me. It was the theme of last couple of weeks for our friends. (Not us, thank heavens. Not so far.)

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      1. Yea– we have been dealing with the boot since 2008…. The hubby is getting tired of being told that there is no money for him and then after we go through the oh no, find other work, VIOLA, there is money again. *sigh… very very stressful

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          1. The pseudo used for this silly goose notifying them of it.

            One hopes that one day there is another job and Viola gets told, Too bad, I accepted a job elsewhere.

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            1. The feeling is understandable, but IMHO Viola is being decent by keeping you informed.

              A colleague at a previous gig was told assured that his job was safe and got dumped without warning soon thereafter. IMO this was upper management’s incompetence rather than dishonesty, but some companies lie deliberately.

              Something similar though less egregious once happened to me. In my case, the situation was beyond my boss’s control.

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              1. Same thing happened to me in 2002 when I got laid off from my first job after college. The market crash after September 11th had caught up to the company I was working at, and we were told there were going to be layoffs. My immediate boss told me I didn’t have to worry, I was doing great work and he definitely would be keeping me. But when the axe came down, they had to lay off about a third of the company — and upper management decided to do the layoffs by strict order of seniority. I’d only been there nine months, so I was gone, and my boss didn’t get a say in it.

                Of course, looking back at it, I was better off gone from that company anyway — there’s a reason there were so many immigrants on H-1B visas working there. My second job paid quite a bit better than that first one did. But the 8.5 months of unemployment in the meantime didn’t do great things for my finances.

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              1. did I spell it wrong? ;-) *sigh… dealing with sinus headaches today as well… and yes, I would have spelled it Wallah… but I wanted to spell it right. Ding dang… caught again

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                    3. And here it is September already . . .

                      On Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 1:19 PM, According To Hoyt wrote:

                      > ** > Cyn Bagley commented: “That makes me feel better– I am in august > company. ;-)” >

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                  2. Hmmmm … I’ve always spelled it “i-t” although, come to think of it I always think Clara Bow.

                    And I now discover “the It Girl” is a series of novels which I strongly doubt I wish to read. I think I’m in danger of losing it. Sh–!

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            2. World’s smallest violin? And I don’t actually know what that one is supposed to mean. Not watching television can be a bit crippling when it comes to staying even vaguely current with gestures and expressions. Maybe I should get a lawn so I can tell younger people to get off it. Or go for steampunk. Then being out of date might seem more like a fashion statement. :)

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                    2. We will meet. There is this medieval theory where you can’t have your eternal fate decided until your actions on Earth are fully spun out. If you think about it, some classes of people — definitely writers — might be in limbo forever.
                      We’ll find a bar!

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                    3. I’m somewhat partial to whiskey, especially Irish, but mostly just some single malts when it’s Scottish whisky. Some of those are good, but I don’t like the blended versions as much.

                      Sigh. I need more money. Could get a nice collection so it would be possible to make real comparisons… now I’m reduced to buying a bottle now and then, and usually there are several months between them. Can be years before I’ll get to try something the next time.

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                    5. Or will the bar be holding up you?

                      On Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 2:19 PM, According To Hoyt wrote:

                      > ** > Cyn Bagley commented: “As long as there’s rum, I’ll be holding up the > bar–” >

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                    3. I probably could have duplicated the cat from what came out from under one bed (her preferred “you can’t get me” place). The carpet changed color with each pass, even before I started using the carpet comb. I had to change the vac bag between rooms and let the motor cool.

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                    5. Which always reminded me of the family story about when my mom fixed jugged hare. (Yes, Mom was unusually adventurous about food, for a 1950s middle-American) My little brother refused to believe — because there wasn’t any hair in it that he could see…

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                    6. You don’t have to eat *everything* you kill.

                      Of course according to the Philosopher Bill Cosby, if you’re an American you can eat *anything* if you have catsup. Or ketchup–it was a record (as in vinyl) so I don’t know which.

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      2. Back in 2000 I stumbled into a little side business selling things in my field over the Internet. That turned into a huge blessing since I lost my job not quite a year ago. I have picked up a bit of consulting work, and some technical writing. My wife works, and putting it all together we are making ends meet. I may not ever hold a full time job again, unless the economy makes a drastic change for the better (yeah right!).

        In terms of sales from my websites, they are WAY down from a few years ago, but still there is some for which I am thankful.

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      3. So it does not seem quite as rosy there, from the ground, as our newspapers keep telling us it is? They seem to be quite sure that things are picking up, and recovery is just around the corner in your country. But I think they have been predicting that for a while now, there just seem to be lots of temporary setbacks. ;)

        Well, our mainstream media… Not that I have taken ours seriously for years, apart from getting a heads up that something has happened somewhere. Then you try to find exactly what from other sources (okay, if it’s something like a natural catastrophe you probably can trust them, at least as far as the actual catastrophe part is concerned – what is being done about it by whom and what kind of consequences are probable can be different questions). Unfortunately we don’t have anything like Fox, as in something big and visible for at least some sort of counterbalance.

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        1. Rosy? We’re in a depression and the twits in power are making it worse. Summer of recovery five is as bad as the rest. As I said, this week was a long parade. Layoffs and rumors of layoffs, and friends (who are solid middle class) having their utilities turned off, and…
          We think we have one solid year — MAYBE two — but if it all crashes we will too. So I’m trying to put as much up as possible, so maybe we can survive. Sigh.

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          1. Yep, as said, even our papers keep reporting these ‘temporary’ setbacks. Things are always starting to pick up, then next week or month there is one. And then things are again just starting to pick up. Rinse and repeat.

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            1. “Unexpectedly!” It is becoming a meme. They tell us how grand it was that unemployment dropped again … leave out that there were less jobs added than population growth and more people fell off the official “unemployed” list (What’s thet you say? Your Unemployment benefits are now expired and you gave up looking for a job? Moved to welfare/disability? You are no longer Unemployed!! Rejoice!) and then two or three weeks down the road, they will “revise” the numbers, spin the correction as somehow better, but add a point or so to the “official rate of Unemployment”

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          2. Depression? Try being an almost 60 year old guy living on SS disability with an 82 mother suffering from the Big A. And wondering what will happen if the SS checks stop?

            I’m somewhat successful fighting my depression so you should be able to fight yours. [Polite Smile]

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            1. Sympathies (or orchestras… which ever is better). I feel your pain– literally. At least one person in this family has a job. Not likely that I will get a job in the near or far future.

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              1. Are we sure it’s a depression and not a suppression? I mean, this doesn’t exactly have all the earmarks of an *accident*…

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                2. “Come see the violins inherent to the system”

                  0bama has claimed his fiscal policies were working to plan … and he never said it was the plan to improve things as most folks would think.

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            3. I understand, Paul. My wife will be 71 in two months, and I’m 67. We’re both disabled. She’s 60% deaf in both ears, and I’m 40% deaf. We are raising our fourth “only” child, age 8, who has MASSIVE learning, emotional, and social problems from a traumatic brain injury and inherited problems (mainly severe dyslexia). We are a bit better off in income, but we’ve also had to help out all three of our older children monthly since 2008. I don’t see that changing any time soon. Basically, my writing is therapy (escapism?), and the income from it goes to support my bad habits (books! postage stamps, fishing). Depression I can fight, but the chronic pain gets to me. Let’s hope things get better, for all of us!

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          3. Worst to worst, Sarah, you’ll always have room and board at our place. I’ll kill any and all lizards that show up.

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        2. Pohjalainen, Fox News isn’t that good. It mixes in more right-of-center opinion than the other four TV news services in the US but its not actually as conservative as made out by the left-wing critics. Its very likely to adopt a more populist than conservative viewpoint on topics as a network, and more likely still to just run superficial sensationalist themes as do all the rest of the news channels. Some of its bigger personalities are not deep thinkers at all (e.g., Hannity) and not that conservative (e.g., Bill O’Reilly).

          But for entertainment value as the left goes bonkers and chews its own fur off in frustration that Fox even exists, its unmatched.

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          1. Yes, but you have at least something a bit different. Ours – well, you get the ones which sound rather like your CNN, and the exceptions are the really lefty ones. We say here that your left is our moderate, and unfortunately that is actually pretty true.

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      4. “People in the private sector I know are ALSO worried they’ll be booted…”

        I’ve been working three years on a project funded “on the side”. We MAY just get our complete funding sometime this month — it’s supposedly “approved”, but “not signed off”. Whatever the difference is.

        Bonus: official, full funding means a REDUCTION in staff.

        Bonus joy: I won’t miss the people we’re losing.

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        1. As my understanding goes…

          “Approved” = Verbal, “yes, we’ll do this”. I’ll get back to you once I have the budget/other clearance to do it.

          “Signed” = In paper, someone willing to put their name and budget concerns to their “yes”.

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  2. A little ditty from my childhood:

    Nobody loves me
    Everybody hates me
    Guess I’d better go eat worms.
    Great big fat ones
    Itty bitty skinny ones
    Oh, how they wiggle and squirm!

    I’m with foxfier, gummy worms sound like the better choice.
    And keep telling yourself that you’re building infrastructure which always seems hard and pointless right up until it starts to really pay off.

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    1. I dunno – earthworms are (I imagine) high in protein and (I guess) low carb. Properly cleaned and prepared they might be tasty. Worm Vindaloo?

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          1. No, calimari is squid. The squid I’ve eaten tasted like rubber, and was equally hard to chew. One of the folks I was stationed with in Vietnam used to get dried, shredded squid in a care package once a month (he was Japanese, from California). He offered me some once. I think I’m still getting it out of my teeth. I was in Vietnam in 1970-71.

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                1. The Koreans I knew basically dragged the dried, salted squid over the burner set on high. It made a piquant smell and bitter taste that was a decent counter to the taste of Kimchee and Soju. It was better than salted plumbs and PBR, OK?

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                  1. Well, the Koreans like Kimchee so…I think it’s safe to say their tastes are not my tastes in this particular.

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                2. “Good calimari does exist. Finding it might be a quest.”

                  There’s this restaurant on the bay in Brindisi that does it right. Best octopus and squid, etc. I’ve ever had.

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                  2. I’ve actually HAD good calimari, but not in Colorado. There was a restaurant in Wiesbaden that used to serve good calimari. There’s a Korean market here in the Springs that has squid, but I haven’t tried cooking it myself. I much prefer grilled trout. Unfortunately, with my back problems lately, I haven’t been fishing in two years now. Soon…

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                    3. Well the squid in Japan has a good flavor. I did eat it at this really small local restaurant. No I couldn’t read their menu, but I was good at pointing at dishes. ;-)

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                    4. What kind of area are you in?

                      I ask, because folks seem to have wildly different ideas of fishing….

                      To me, fishing is creek fishing– if you can walk, you can do it. (Although being able to walk for a while is better.)

                      Some folks do fishing from boats, which I don’t get.

                      Some do it IN the river, which is… counter-indicated for short, fat, clumsy folks.

                      Not being sure what “back problems” means is big, too. :) My folks have nasty back problems, but in totally different directions.

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              4. Sadly, I’m still trying to re-achieve the perfect balance of cross-hatching so it doesn’t curl, and then cooking just enough it’s done and delicious, but not enough to get tough.

                I used to be able to get there with just a splash of oil, a bit of baby bok choy to stir fry with it, and a splash of lemon juice – but it’s more expensive away from the ocean, and I lost that skill when I didn’t practice regularly.

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  3. re:sales, it’s not just you. Mine are only now crawling out of the blast crater commonly known as “July”, and I benefit from being an established (indie) presence. I’d hold off on the warm tub and the razor for a while.

    In further anecdata, I see a great reluctance to purchase individual short stories and much more happiness with short story *collections*. For what it is worth. (They still complain about it being “too short” but it is more of a “I want more” complaint. I can cope.) Something to consider when time is at a premium, as in your case. You can always go back and do individual stories at your leisure.

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        1. I think it is seasonal, because other people are complaining too.
          Problem is I was monitoring a friend’s publishing account while he deals with family stuff and that account picked up by like ten times this month. But since it’s… er… erotica, it might be different cycles.
          And I AM still doing a blog for you. Sorry, if this blog doesn’t show it, it’s been nuts.

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          1. So, once it gets more comfortable staying inside erotica starts to sell?

            Hey, that might actually make some sense, at least in those parts of the world where it does get colder. Even with lots of those who read on Kindle erotica might be something they are more comfortable reading in private. So all the pent up wishes for that type of entertainment get fulfilled now when people finally have a good excuse to stay more inside?

            Well, hopefully once the holiday season starts to get closer people start get interested in more presentable – as in fine for public even in the minds of the more bashful – stories.

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            1. A big factor in the Fifty Shades of Sales was the fact it could be read “privately”, even in public, thanks to the fact that your e-reader looks the same whether you’re reading Fanny Hill or Moby Dick.

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          3. No worries. I know life gets crazy. My own life hasn’t allowed me to do near as much reading of others as I once did. Maybe it’ll slow down…in three or four years. :-P

            I know it can be frustrating, but I know things will turn around. You’re too talented for it not to. ;-)

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      3. Last September was bad. This year it was all summer.

        I put my shoulder to the wheel about the middle of July, went through my whole series, one free book a week, and got the next in the series up, and a YA novel as well. August sales picked up to something resembling normal, and that lapped over the Labor Day Weekend. Haven’t sold _anything_ since.

        Last year, sales picked up again in October, so we’ll see.

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        1. While we did well, it was with two book releases and publicity (thanks for the PJM Fridays, Sarah!). Now that we haven’t put anything new out in over a month and a half, well, I smile at my husband and say “We’re still searching for the magical mythical long-tail sales level!” …and record a lesser number each week.

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          1. Yeah. I’m beginning to think we’re a bit like most retailers, and make most of our money before Christmas. Fortunately for us, readers keep reading. It’s only the vacation months and back-to-school frantic that has us worrying.

            And you know, this free book thing is so odd. I tossed another free book up yesterday and immediately sold two _other_ books. I may hate myself for branching out to Kobo and iWhatever, and losing the free promo days.

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  4. [shamelessplug] Don’t do that Other Thing(TM)! Read Something Else(TM)!! Something of Mine(TM)!!!! Now with Egregious Punctuation!!!!! [/shamelessplug]

    That said, don’t if your focus should be elsewhere.

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  6. > Part of the sense of tiredness is that this month on Amazon I’m possibly having my worst month ever, and I wonder what is going on, if my prices are too low or too high or if the fact I’m ranty has a bad effect

    I suggest another possibility: the macroeconomic “other shoe” is dropping, and people are starting to cut back on discretionary purchases.

    So on the one hand: “it’s not you, it’s them.”

    …but on the other hand: “Oh !@#$”.

    > I have a year – two if I’m lucky – to bring this up to where it can support us

    I’m self-employed, and I hear you. Oh, do I hear you. I’ve got a huge whiteboard next to my desk, and at the top in big characters it says: “25% growth in revenue by 30 July 2014”. And, damn it, I’d better hit that goal.

    It’s rough out there and we’re ALL rowing hard, trying to get to a safe harbor before the boat leaks too much.

    :-/

    Hang in there.

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    1. As the good TJIC says, there are some really deep crevasses in the recent economic data that don’t make it into the headlines because the MSM is still covering for President Empty Suit(tm).

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      1. > there are some really deep crevasses in the recent economic data that don’t make it into the headlines because the MSM is still covering for President Empty Suit

        EXACTLY.

        If there was a normal gaussian distribution of errors in the jobs numbers, we’d expect the corrections to be 50% upward adjustments and 50% downward. In fact, they’re almost all downward. The government is lying to us…and the media is uninterested in digging into it.

        A new Great Depression is rolling over us. We’re 5 years in, with another 10-20 years to go, and no one will admit it.

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        1. At least they’re publishing corrections. That means SOMEONE in the chain is interested in accuracy, even if someone above them isn’t.

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        2. The length of the Great Depression wasn’t based on any kind of fundamental economic factors. It lasted precisely as long as the Progressive President kept futzing with the economy. Once WWII distracted FDR from playing “What’s this lever do?” the economy recovered in short order.

          Hmm, maybe that’s a good reason to support bombing Syria.

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            1. Useful definition of liberal economist: Someone who doesn’t understand the Broken Window Fallacy.

              I should have left some indication that my last line was facetious. I’m pretty much in Roger L. Simon’s camp. In the abstract I’m in favor of bombing Syria, no matter who we hit we’ll certainly kill bad guys. But given the sanity-rending levels of incompetence in this administration they’d probably manage to screw it up. “What? You mean Tel Aviv isn’t in Syria? Who knew?”

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              2. Given Susan Rice’s thoughts about how invading Israel would almost be a just war (because Israel oppresses and randomly murders the . . . oh you know), yeah, a launch into Tel Aviv wouldn’t surprise me all that much.

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                    4. No liberal thinks. What they call thought is nothing more than a steaming pile of logical fallacies, unfounded assumptions, and inchoate emoting.

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                2. Hmph. A launch (accidental or otherwise) anywhere in the vicinity of Tel Aviv is guaranteed to draw the administration’s attention away from all its other problems. Israel would be quite, ahem, insistent in their request for attention.

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                    1. Yes, and conventional iterations thereof. A nation founded in part on the notion “Never Again” should not be tested lightly.

                      From what I’ve seen and read, this feeling runs pretty consistently through their population regardless of other differences.

                      I suspect few in the U.S. have the foundations to understand how intractable Israel can be. We just haven’t faced the same issues.

                      I don’t know if it’s bad, but I’m with you in comfort.

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                  1. Not much.

                    As an aside, I’ve been watching some Swedish crime dramas with subtitles lately (local public television channel broadcasts MHZ network on a subchannel over the air). With some very very superficial political correctness, their crime dramas as just as violent as those here in the US.

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                2. When he started babbling about building a super-weapon against alien invasion as a stimulus project he went on my “Beat with stick until the stupid stops” list. He stopped having any credibility after the third column I was able to demolish with my rudimentary understanding of economics.

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            3. Two problems with that thesis.

              1. After their endless whinging about Bush’s wasting umpty-zillion dollars on Iraq they’ve a little more of a shark to leap to get anybody to believe that this war will ignite the economy. Besides, WWII reversed FDR’s tightening the money supply; these clowns are hard pressed to open the spigot any wider.

              2. We aren’t going to war in Syria. (Adopting NY nasality) We’re just going to fire a shot across his bow, show him who’s boss, flex a little muscle. Make him eat his cheerios with a fork. All we’re going to do in Syria is ring Assad’s doorbell and run away. I doubt we’re even leaving behind a flaming bag of poop.

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              2. Can something be “unbelievably small” AND “just muscular enough not to get mocked?” Asking for a friend. #iykwimaityd
                — Mary Katherine Hamm tweets

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          2. I disagree.

            Once WWII started the government borrowed like crazy (war bonds) and flooded that money back into the economy.

            As WWII ran down we started in on the cold war–same thing, less bodies. Well, less American bodies.

            Then GW the First finished what Reagan started, and what happened? Big recession–really the end of the great depression held at bay for 50 years by government spending.

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            1. Nonsense. The defense cuts following WWII were unprecedented in scale and speed. The defense budget fell by nearly 90% in three years. There was no depression, despite the prediction of DOOM by prominent Keynesians. On the other hand, the falloff at the end of the cold war through the Clinton Minimum was only ~25% over the course of nearly a decade. And the 1991 recession, while sharp, was quite short-lived (the effects were talked up by the media in an attempt to influence the election, sound familiar?)

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              1. … the 1991 recession, while sharp, was quite short-lived (the effects were talked up by the media in an attempt to influence the election,

                Indeed — I clearly remember the NY Times business pages reporting the recession’s end in October 1992. Apparently the editors responsible for the front section of the Times found the business section beneath their notice, as they kept reporting the recession as ongoing well into November.

                And that was when the Times still attempted to pretend to practice journalism.

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      2. I know. That’s the other part of the dragging depression. This last week was friends getting laid off and fearing getting laid off, and at least one friend freaking out about Armageddon plans.

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        1. My godson was in tears the other day because his dad lost his job and I (who he sees three times or more per week) am selling my house and moving to NH.

          (On the bright side, the upside of my move is that said godson and his father will have a place with apples, eggs, chickens and goat meat to retreat to should the SHTF.)

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  7. First response: OK, then you can have my revision and editing headache, too. Because it’s pounding into my jaws and making my teeth ache and I need to go rehearse Bach. After I vacuum under two beds and a desk and three boxes of books to try and get some of the sinus-exacerbating dust out of here. And don’t anyone try and puff it out of my computer until I get back, or else. *waves talon*

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    2. Sweet shattered shells, I had no idea it was that bad back behind the bed! It’s never clogged the attachment before. *shudder* But I can breathe again, which is a bonus.

      OK, end of ramble. I was looking at my regional economic indicator, and noticed that they’re tightening up their hiring and adding more basic qualification requirements. They’re pretty savvy, so I assume they are anticipating that the regional energy boom and ag improvement is going to get swallowed by inflation, hiking unemployment.

      My sales were zip in July, had a surge in August, and I’m hoping the new collection release next month will kick things further. But I’m paid off on the major expenses for this quarter, with a little left. G-d has been better to me than I deserve.

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  8. Anything you write with Luce and Nat, I will buy, in paper form. Might not be the day it comes out–took me months to afford AFGM, but they’ve got at least one devoted fan.
    This time of year is back-to-school. As homeschoolers, we get off cheap, but I know a lot of folks who are super-stretched with all the athletic fees and what-not, not to mention actual school supplies. Folks with college students are in even worse shape. That’s probably part of it.

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  9. Reminds me of a vaguely related question: is Kit from the Darkship series based/inspired by Christopher Marlowe? This popped up after reading some of the stories in that anthology I snagged from Amazon last month.

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      1. I was already in my late teens before I found out that my own first name is one of those which can be shortened to that – well, Finns use the extra -i in the ending, but close enough, and here it’s used only for women – since while ‘Kiti’ does get used both as a pet name and as a name it’s not a common form. I was quite delighted. :)

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          1. I was gonna quip that is something that can be rectified in your next novel in that realm, but it struck me:
            Maybe in DST, somewhat less stable in DSR. You realize you need a different title for the third book, right? Else the acronyming won’t work. Howabout Darkship Quixotes? Darkship Cojones, for Athena’s favourite target?

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        2. My step-mom’s name was Patience (yes like in Firefly), it was a family name. She said she was an adult with kids before she figured out she could shorten it to Pat.

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  11. Sometimes, Sarah, you just have to vent. Maybe today is one of those days. I can vent with my wife, and get things out of my system. Your vent seems to be more in line with your online presence, so this is the natural place to do the venting.

    Today, for me, is just a day when I hurt more than normal, and the pain medication is less than adequate, and I’d like to spend the day in bed. Life won’t let me, so I’m here, drawing comfort from being among friends. Your book sales may be down, but the size of your following is growing and becoming more diverse. There is more than one way to measure success. The fact that we’re here, and we LIKE being here, is also a measure of success, even when you need to vent. Lord knows there’s enough “out there” to vent against! Sometimes, the best advice is to sit down, make a lap, grab a kitten, and do some petting for awhile. Life always looks better afterwards.

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  13. Hmm … I started to comment and the system suddenly hiccupped, leaving an orphaned ‘I’… oh, well. I was having a bummer of a month in sales as well, but it suddenly picked up at the end of the month. I’m hoping it’s a pattern, as the first of this current month are pretty dispiriting as well…

    Hey, I’m going to be part of a blog-hop for authors who write or have written children/YA books. I need to tag three more authors to do a post in two weeks and link to three more. It’s all in the service of building awareness of outside the mainstream establishment children/YA books. Any of the Huns want to play?
    Let me know – email clyahayes-at-mail-dot-com.

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      1. Cheer up – once the economy revives* you should have both YA out and you & Dan enjoying emptied nest.

        *Do not await this with bated breath. Earliest anticipated date of economic revival is Jan 20 2017, although there is some hope of a mild thaw in January 2015.

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        1. Likely that this time next year all the economic reporting will be sunshine-and-roses, regardless of the reality.

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  14. Sarah, I don’t like it when you are discouraged as you should be getting rich from the quality of your work (I think.) I agree that the fouled-up national economy can be causing an effect, i have to watch what I buy since I got laid off in March, but there is some room for your works. And I started out a a SF follower, but really liked the shifter novel I read too so you’ve pened another window for me.
    And OBTW whe nyou were listing jobs you didn’t mention wife and mother, which even if they are almost independent still require your insight and assistance.

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    1. Very much so on the insight and assistance, and on the worrying about their future. And with their shifting (or rather adding) majors, there’s a lot of deliberation involved. The wife thing might be more help than work.
      I’m not exactly discouraged. I’m worried, though.

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      1. You can be proud of the boy`s achievements and it sounds to me like they are prepared for whichever way the country goes. Enjoy watching how well they turn out. But moms are allowed to be concerned.

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        1. This is a bad economy to be exiting college into, right now. A bit of time stretch in school to add more options to the job hunt is not a bad idea, however rough it is on the personal finances.

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            2. Any particular topic? I could do a short primer on Space Law and the Regulatory State. Subtitle: How John Varley broke my heart.

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                    3. Cool. Very cool. I’ll round up some good links for you, and I have some odd ones for that. This one isn’t settled law, and not just ’cause the moon isn’t settled. The quick point, which you likely already know, is that the U.S. never signed the Moon Treaty, so that’s useful for your colonists. Nonetheless, those who signed should scream. More relevant to your issue, the Outer Space Treaty, which the U.S. did sign, states that the Moon “is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.” (You’ve really got to hate the passive voice–it could be used against your colonists) Some would argue that the OST prohibits “national appropriation” by the means listed. This might get your colonists off the hook if they are private people. I’m told the Chinese version doesn’t have “national” in there, so they could really be annoyed. I don’t know if this is true, but it’s fun.

                      Anyway, I’ll get the links and reference a cool article to put on the post, which I’ll start writing this weekend.

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                    4. Essentially, my protagonists are going to declare the Moon is theirs, after they get a colony set up there. The declaration may not be total, and may include provisions for other groups to claim part for themselves.

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                    6. Do they have the means to defend their claim? Absent the means to enforce them, diktats, laws, treaties, Declarations, and suchlike are so much wind.

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                    8. As I understand it, the “the moon is off limits” thing is along the lines of “international law”– it only sticks if they’re big enough to MAKE it stick.

                      Nobody has any authority, so how the flip would they make it stick? World Police America zipping in to fix it all?

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  15. Second the Nat and Lucius sequel! When you wrote it, I thought DST was the best thing you’d written to date, AFGM is even better. And in the department of depressing politics, we need more Nat and Lucius.

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      1. Abigail Keeva Remy? Who is this? Nat and Lucius’ daughter?
        She should be interesting if that’s the case.
        I’d still like another Nat/Lucius story if you want to write it and I hope you do and that Baen is smart enough to publish it.
        Dawn

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  16. Sarah, I used to design/sell custom T-shirt designs. If I can help, let me know. I had to give it up, because of the accident that wrecked my back. I know that I tag a lot of books for my Amazon Wish List. I hope to pull a few off at Christmas.
    For those looking for/hoping to keep jobs. Do the following, in this order. 1) Buy “What Color Is Your Parachute?” 2) Read the whole book. 3) Re-read, and do the exercises this time. It really does work if you do it right.
    Last of all, if you’re staring/trying to build a business, contact me. I can help you with the advertising/marketing. If it helps, make a donation to the “publish a book campaign fund.

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    2. The subtitle on that is “a practical manual for job-hunters or career-changers.” Is it still useful if I don’t want to change jobs or if I’ve found the career I want?

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      1. It’ll help you get your head and your life in the right place to deal with your job and/or career giving you the heave ho. If I’m remembering the right book. ;)

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  17. Pingback: Monday Highlights | Pseudo-Polymath
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  19. In the department of sales- I’m pretty sure I’m going to be giving you a few sometime this month and in anticipation I was trolling Amazon. Several of your short stories are listed as part of the Blood Ransom collection when I found them as $0.99 individual shorts. I could find Blood Ransom for $0.99 as a short story but no collection. Is it down?

    Thanks
    Dawn

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  22. So, would it work to set Nat and Luce on Kit, and have them do the brotherly equivalent of jollying and torturing the rest of the plot out of her? If they’re going to be there, tell them they get no book until she speaks, and need to help! :-P

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