Groceries

Kickstarter pays for groceries.

The last day or two has been full of debate about this fact, but fact it is.  Yes, on the surface Kickstarter is a way of crowdfunding arty projects - for buying paint, or cover art, or renting theatre space or what-have-you.

But pigments pay for the groceries of pigment manufacturers.  Cover art pays for the groceries of artists.  Theatre space pays for the groceries of the theatre owner, and also the construction guys who built the place, and way too many other people to list.

The reason I'm talking about this at all, as some of you have probably already guessed, is because there's been some debate over whether Kickstarter should pay for the groceries of writers.  [And whether anyone should support Kickstarters at all because there's no guarantee you'll get the product you're funding.]

This was sparked by one particular author starting a Kickstarter to fund her next book, and listing her living expenses as one of the things the Kickstarter was paying for.  Met with a debate over whether Kickstarters should only cover "production costs" of such a book, and whether the time spent actually writing the book counts as a production cost, the author promptly took the Kickstarter down.

After that she wrote a blog apologising, with an addendum about the vitriolic nature of the YA world/internet, and from there debate has raged into the usual talk about "bullying" and "entitlement" and all the things these dramas usually touch on.  [There were some problems with the wording of one of the rewards of the Kickstarter, and I feel that the words bullying and vitriol are thrown around way too quickly when what's happened is more like "push back".]

I usually stay out of internet dramas (because I don't have the energy, am not directly involved, or am supposed to be writing), but in this particular case my feelings are strong, and so I thought I'd share my opinions of Kickstarters.

First, would I ever run a Kickstarter so I could write full time?  Not very likely, since:

1. I would feel totally stressed about then writing the book.
2. I would probably just play computer games all the time and then feel stressed AND guilty.
3. I don't think many Kickstarter backers would want to pay me the hourly rate of my day job.

So I write on the train in the morning, and usually feel too tired in the afternoon and my readers wait a year or so for each of my books.  However, I fully support other people running Kickstarters so I can get the things they want to make.

The first Kickstarter I helped fund was the DoubleFine Adventure game called "Broken Age" - or "Broken In Half Age" as the developers promptly overran their budget and have so far delivered only half the game.  I'm pretty sure the first thing those Kickstarter funds went to was champagne.  I'm still happy I funded it, and am confident I'll get the rest of the game.  One day.

Another Kickstarter I funded was "Put a TARDIS in space!".  That little blue box still isn't up there, and the Kickstarter organisers post occasionally apologising because the satellite launch people keep pushing back the launch date.  I'm still highly entertained by the idea of a TARDIS in space, and will sit back and wait for it to get up there.

I've supported at least three books on Kickstarter, and have received all but one of them.  The last was a bit delayed (though not nearly as delayed as Diane Duane's several years overrun early experiment in crowdfunding), and I'm confident I'll get it.

Probably one day I will back a project where the organiser takes the money and runs.  I understand how the model works.  I'll be annoyed, but it won't stop me backing Kickstarters.  I'll continue to support Kickstarters for books I particularly want, whether they've been already written, or are still a gleam in the author's eye because - while the people who run Kickstarters seem to chronically underfund the cost of their own time - their time is just as much of a production cost as anything else in those Kickstarters.  And the time of people who write books, just like satellite launch companies, and computer programmers, eventually translates to groceries.

"Groceries" are just another way of saying "what it takes to make this thing happen".

January SFF Sale

If you're looking to sample some Indie SFF, then this 1 January sale is a great place to start!  There's a wide range of sub-genres, and even a few compilation/box sets.  I haven't read all these authors myself, but can recommend Patty Jansen if you're looking to try another Australian writer.

Some of these specials will only last for a few days, and I'll be switching my prices back starting from 3 January, so get them while you can!

Smuggling across a gaming round-up

I've a guest post over at The Book Smugglers all about some of the games I've played this year.

A Year's Passing Gift

To celebrate another year successfully negotiated, I've set all my (non-compilation) ebooks to $0.99 (USD/your currency variation thereof) for the remainder of 2014*.

The price changes will show up slowly over the following days on:

• Smashwords.
• Amazon.
• Kobo. (changing the price seems to make this briefly appear 'unavailable')
• Slower than the others: Apple/B&N/other vendors.

So if the holiday budget is pinching, hopefully this will at least give you some cheap reading.  Meanwhile, I'm knuckling down and heading toward the end-run for Pyramids.  Tentative release date of late February 2015 (but no guarantees there - depends on the beta and editing cycles).

* These prices will probably meander over into 2015 for a number of vendors, because it can be a real pain to get the prices back to where they're supposed to be with the way Amazon price-matching works.

Update and giveaway winners

I'm now back in my own house, with a couple of weeks to play Dragon Age rest before heading back to work.  While I made progress on Pyramids, and have a much better idea of how everything works (I'm very amused by the idea of 'allegiance' in this world), it's extremely unlikely I'll get through the first draft before the end of the year - but I will play Dragon Age push on diligently and try to get a reasonably early release next year.

The winners of the Five Thousand Stars giveaway are:

• Dave V
• Jessica C
• rachael

I will email to arrange prize delivery.  Congratulations!

Four Cities

The last bit of this holiday is cities (arranged for the end on the basis that cold autumn weather and tromping in the country aren't that attractive a mix).  So a complete change of pace as we returned the rental car (fortunately checking the return location a couple of days beforehand so that the fact that that branch had closed down didn't throw us into a complete panic), and switching to trains to go briefly to London, then Paris, Zurich, Venice - and then flying back to London to at long last actually explore it a little.

In each city we took an open top bus tour (well, in Venice we rode the vaporetto - water bus) and ate stereotypical local food (crepes in Paris, fondue in Zurich, pizza and pasta in Venice, and high tea in London). 

And chocolate and cake.  Lots of chocolate and cake (the kirsch-soaked cake in Zurich was probably the closest to drunk I've been on this trip).  The high tea was entertaining but filling.

You can't really get more than impression of a city spending only a couple of nights there - especially when constantly tired from the hauling suitcases-travel-adjust-haul suitcases cycle.  But there were plenty of highlights along the way.  I got to walk along the Seine:

We also visited the Louvre, which was freaking enormous.  Not just lots of artwork (so much, so many) but this great big spread out building with huge staircases and endless hallways.  

That was really the impression I took of Paris overall: sweeping, sprawling and festooned with statues.

Zurich, by contrast, was a more compact, keeping close to the river and lake that forms its centre (an impression increased because we were staying in the Old Town, with lots of narrow streets).  Far fewer statues, and rather persistent rain, but we ended up quite happy about this when our bus tour ended in a cable car ride up a small hill and into the first snowfall of the season.  [Only the second time in my life I've been in snowfall, and made a short walk through a forest to a chalet cafe magically lovely (and wet and cold).]

The train ride from Zurich to Venice was particularly spectacular, with lakes and dramatic, snow-kissed mountain slopes in every direction.  But it was warmer in Venice, which was also good.  Our hotel room overlooked a canal.

Each day singing gondaliers would pass below our window, and there were beautiful bells, and...sirens.

We didn't know what the sirens were about until about midday of the first full day there, when we discovered that in November and December in Venice, high tide is often....high.

The sirens are to let the locals know that today's high tide will flood the low-lying parts of the city.  The shops all sold these things called "high tide boots".

It wasn't a tremendously difficult thing, once you knew about it, and we proceeded to get ourselves lost in winding alleyways, and to goggle at the sheer variety of masks, and glasswork.  On the second day we returned just after what appeared to be a school graduation, and the streets that night were full of a different kind of singing, roistering and joyous.

After a short plane flight (so cramped after the much more comfortable trains) we were back in London, and apparently it was Christmas.

Barely scratched the surface of London, after five nights, but did enjoyably 'research' things for Pyramids (still slowly progressing, but definitely not out this year), and buy lots of tourist tat, and stumble around, not at all lost thanks to Google Maps, but rather footsore.

Next up, 24 hours of purgatory, and then...Dragon Age! :D :D

County of Mists

We did manage a couple of lucky days when Cornwall was visible, but this week was definitely as much fog as not.  Still, lots of fog is a novelty to me, since we only occasionally get fog in Sydney.  We were staying in a converted fancy old hotel called the Headland, where there were coastal walks right from the doorstep.

One our first excursions was to the Eden Project.

The two domes contain a Mediterranean and a tropical environment.  The tropical environment one was not exactly a novelty to someone who grew up in Townsville, but did produce an amusing game of "didn't we have one of those in the back yard?".  Banana, pawpaw, coffee, tamarind...all familiar from home.  The Mediterranean habitat had a vine area with statues of maenads - very vibrant and full of energy and violence - impressive.

One place I particularly wanted to see was St Michael's Mount (confusingly similar to Mont St Michel in France), where the outgoing tide uncovers a causeway.  We had a couple of fortunate hours exploring before the fog rolled back in.  Also one of the busiest places we visited - due to something called "half-term".

The last of our walks was along the southern-most coastline in mainland Britain - an area delightfully named "The Lizard" (with a town called Lizard).

After this, no more country walks, but instead lots of trains.