Guys I just refreshed the site and everyone's profile pics went round
someone could probably make a "who do you think took your boobs?" edit out of this with discord making its server icons squarer
Reblogged
i cant belive that you of all people are at risk of homelessness >:(
homelessness isnt a problem that should exist in general, but you, specifically, should have like a million dollars from the star trek novels alone
(chuckle) Wouldn't that be lovely! (And it's kind of you to be thinking that way.)
But alas, that's not how it works.
When you're working in/for other licensed universes—which is always on a work-for-hire basis—the only really significant payment(s) you're likely to see will happen when you've turned in a given book and it's been formally accepted. And even then, the payment's rarely going to be higher than low-to-mid five figures... which (after your literary agent gets their cut, and after your taxes on the income get paid) won't take you very far even in a single year, let alone the years that follow.
If you're very lucky in your publisher, or have a very good agent—which I do—you may even manage to get some royalties on such a novel. But they'll be at the low end of the scale—maybe 2-3% of the cover price. (Bearing in mind that even for original novels in one's own universe, an author rarely gets more than 8-10% of a given book's cover price in royalties.) And when the book goes out of print, the royalties stop.
So just because the owner of the IP makes a lot of money off it, doesn't mean that any significant amount of it necessarily trickles down to the writer. (sigh) Nor does the fact that a book is good, or the writer is good, or both, make any significant difference to this kind of mathematics. Eventually, pretty much inevitably, sooner or later sales of a book drop off and the publisher lets it go out of print.
(shrug) It's not like I didn't know this was eventually going to happen when I wrote my Star Trek work. I did that because I loved Trek (and still do), and I was sure I could write a better Trek novel than anyone else had up until that point. (And maybe that was even true. Who knows.) To have done the work was the thing that primarily mattered.
But let this be a reminder to folks that only a low percentage of writers make enough from their writing alone to live on: and that something like 90% of writers live at or near the poverty line and sometimes slip below it. ...And for all of us, even for strong writers who seem moderately successful and have other income streams, bare patches happen: times when publishers don't pay (for example, I still haven't been paid anything for Disney/Marvel's reissue of my Spider-Man books), times when you can't work, or times when accident or illness or other unexpected circumstance eats the cash you've stashed away to serve as a cushion.
This is not a safe lifestyle. With talent and luck and endless slogging away at/over the writing mechanism of your choice, and with the support of your readers (who I'm very much thinking of at the moment!—and thanks again to the Ebooks Direct customers and Ko-Fi friends who just now saved our butts), it can be survived. Which, from day to day, @petermorwood and I do our best to keep on doing.
...In any case: people who even at this end of time can say things such as you did at the top of this, make me feel like about a million dollars. 🙂 (And since I have both an upper respiratory infection and laryngitis today, that's quite a trick!) ...So thanks.
Reblogged lunarflare64
NJ Democrat senator Cory Booker takes the floor in protest of Trump/Musk, "saying that he will keep going “'as long as I am physically able'.”
“I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able,” Booker said at the outset of his remarks. “I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis.”
“In just 71 days, the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety; financial stability; the core foundations of our democracy. “These are not normal times in America. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate.” -source
I am posting this at 2:30am EST. He has been speaking since 7PM EST. This link (at this moment) is to a live stream.
FUCK YEAH, JERSEY!
So very proud of my state at the moment.
Reblogging and adding the livestream link from Senator Booker's YouTube (the other one was glitching) . It is almost 4am. He is still going STRONG. If you are watching and plan to go to sleep, turn the volume down and leave it up so that the "watching" number reflects the involvement of people supporting him.
If he can LITERALLY stand and protest as a single voice, we can keep it playing and symbolically stand with him.
Senator Booker is on Hour 13 and going STRONG
Just broke 24 hours. That’s a lot of stamina to be sure.
Reblogged demonakira22
Me: Hi, this is Ebony at work; how can I help you today?
Customer: Oh wow
Me: Is everything alright?
Customer: Oh yes, it’s just that you’re so good at this, I thought you were a recording at first
Me, internally: Your, “most people only call me a robot *after* they know I’m Autistic,” joke is an inside thought until you can get to Tumblr; same with the, “script writer,” bit.
Me: Ha, can you tell I’ve been doing this for a while?
Asdfghjkl it happened again
It has been 0 days
Not only has it been 0 days, it has been 3 days in a row
[image description: a screenshot of tags by tumblr user uwuplasmiusuwu that say the following: “#disabled humor #autistic culture #thank you whoever liked this so that I could find the post again #MY PHONE ETIQUETTE IS FLAWLESS #IM SO SMOOTH I DONT GOT FRICTION #WHY AM I FAILING THE TURRING TEST?!?!” /end ID]
Adding the tags from the last post in light of how many times I heard this on Friday, because I lost count
🎶There’s moooore🎶
Me: This is Ebony at—
Patient: Goddammit, why do they only have their fucking voicemail?!
Me, sensing bullshit: You’re trying to reach the *other* department, aren’t you?
Patient: *drops their phone and starts swearing*
So, as of last update, shenanigans have happened at least twice daily on average. I have decided that, if you’re gonna call my autistic ass out, you can listen to me wheeze while I crack up. That brings us to today’s overtime special:
Me: Hi, this is Ebony calling from your doctor’s office
Patient: *hits buttons*
Me: Hello? Are you still—
Patient: Oh my god!
Me, trying not to laugh: Nope, just Ebony.
Patient: I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but I thought—
Patient: “To confirm your appointment, please press 1.”
After that, we both laughed so hard they hung up accidentally. 😂
This is wonderful. If more unknown people called me and I answered them I’d probably be trying to replicate this.
It. Keeps. Happening.
I have no choice but to break down in helpless laughter as I try to reassure people, “I’m not at all offended, this is just the [3rd to 14th] time today someone’s told me that.”
Someone give me the money to buy a decent mic and I’ll do the damn voice acting. 🤣
This used to happen to me all the time when my job involved phone work! I also once read the part of a voicemail machine in a script writing class, and everyone was very impressed how I got the timing right on the “you have one new message” bits.
Right? All it is is pattern recognition, and we already have to have scripts for everything anyway! 🤣
You know, I haven’t updated this post in ages, but I am still surprising folks all the time. Here are some recent highlights:
Me: Hi this is Ebony at—
Patient: My name is [redacted], date of birth [redacted], and my phone number is [redacted].
Me: Okay, could I have your address to sign into your chart?
Patient: *rattled it off*
Me: Great! Okay, what can I help you with today?
Patient: Make my doctor call me.
Me: Can I have a few more details? What problems are you having?
Patient: Ugh!
Patient: Speak to a representative.
Me:
Me, holding back tears: Friend…
Patient: NOOOO— *hangs up*
[I did call back, but I needed to laugh first]
____
Me: Thank you for choosing [Practice], and have a great day!
Patient: Aww, I was gonna say happy holidays.
Me: Oh, same to you.
Patient: Wait, that wasn’t a recording??
____
Patient: My date of birth is [tomorrow].
Me: Happy early birthday!
Patient: Huh.
Me: Something wrong?
Patient: Okay, don’t take this the wrong way, but do you know what the Turing test is?
Me: Sir, I’m gonna be so honest with you. I am sitting on my hands because the urge to do a Siri bit is *strong*.
Patient: But that’d be fucking hilarious!
Me: Yes, but this is a doctor’s office. They wouldn’t want to ding me for being funny, but the quality team would have to.
Patient: Aww.
Me: Yeah…
See, you're probably sticking too close to a generic script, with not enough memorable details to stick out as an individual. Try introducing yourself with your entire full name (unusual middle names would be a big plus here, perhaps with some non-standard apostrophes thrown in for effect) and a detailed description of your hair and eye color to help people picture you in their minds (again, unexpected similes and word choices are what you're going for). You might want to add some humanizing details of your daily life as well, like a brief anecdote about an interaction with some students at your school that'll help you get across your taste in music and general subculture. That way, you'll turn any phone call into an immortal memory.
I want you to know that 1.) you are the first person to pull this and 2.) I need it framed on my wall.
@theshitpostcalligrapher I think this might peak your interest
Reblogged thetravel1
“Rayban charity glasses event” is a scam don’t click any link in a post that says that.
Old tumblr users remember this scam back when it first went out.
Also no, this isn’t a joke. This phishing scam is 100% running its course again so watch out for your mutuals long abandoned accounts suddenly posting it. Please make everyone aware of it since most users here are newbies who have not seen it before!
Reblogged mockingburb
Reblogged lunarflare64
“Why would you want to make a game for the original Nintendo?? No one is going to buy that”
Jokes on you! I sold 1 copy!!!
LOOK AT THAT BEAUTIFUL GRAPH! THATS A SALE BAAAABY
^Me rn
Holy shit yall. I just woke up to 21 sales! The game has officially recouped the cost of all the software I used to make it!!! IM PROFITABLE?!
Since yall blew this up so much I am now able to take pre orders for physical copies! If I can sell 25 cartridges then Homebrew Factory will manufacture a physical release of my Nintendo game! I can’t believe this is happening!
Aww hell yeah! 3 pre orders already! Trucking towards that 25 minimum!
And just like that, we have sold enough copies to guarantee a production run! I can’t believe this happened so fast!
Seriously, thank you all from the bottom of my heart
Reblogged aroacefanartist
i posted this old as balls gifset ten years ago today
Happy anniversary old as balls gifset
We are pleased to note the continued survival of this meme to the point that it, too, is Old As Balls
Reblogged
A friend of mine made a Discord server for her Classicvania style game that she’s working on. The game itself is set to have hours of gameplay, much more than your standard classic Castlevania-style game, it’ll have several difficulty settings (based on how much you get knocked back by attacks and ability to control your direction in the air), and the story is pretty cool, too. Lady Dracula is a direct sequel to the original Stoker novel in which you play Dracula's daughter, going to stop your mother, Lady Dracula, who has gone mad after her husband's death. That also makes it a bit of a genderswap of the story of Symphony of the Night. It looks pretty sweet, and she’s an awesome lady, so if y’all are interested check it out.
She finally put a page up on Steam for the game, so you can add it to your wishlist!
An evolution of the Classicvania genre and a return to the glory days of precision platforming, retro challenge and gothic atmosphere. Transform yourself into a wraith, a spider and a bat to fly, climb and blast your way across Transylvania to do battle with Lady Dracula at her castle keep.