I’m busy working on a short story, so I’m going to let one of my characters post for me today. Okay, guys, duke it out and the winner does the post.

Guess who? Like I would let anybody else do this.

Bud Blossom

Yeah, it’s me, Bud Blossom. “MomGoth” is writing a story with ME in it, finally, but she always has somebody else narrate it, so she doesn’t need me to be there, just Cosmo’s perception of me. She thinks I’m always wanting to be in her stories, but what I really want is for the stories to be about me. Less work, more glory.

If you don’t know me yet, I’m kinda-sorta Chinese-American. Own a restaurant on a houseboat on Cherokee Creek in a little midwestern town she made up. Indiana, I think it’s supposed to be. Yeah, Indiana. I talk all “no savvy Eengree” — you know, pidgin — when I want to irritate my servers, but really I talk just like everybody around me.

She made me up for “Blossom on the Water”, which sounds a helluva lot prettier than it is, since I’m the Blossom in the title. Then Cosmo’s mother needed a job in “Tara Incognita” and it turned out she worked for me. After that, MA stuck me into a story here and there. She thinks she’s wrestling me to keep me out of them, but the truth is, she’s the one who keeps bringing me up. That’s because she’s bone-lazy, and a strong character is easier to write about.

After she had a few stories about me, some of my employees, their friends and relatives, she collected them into THE KING OF CHEROKEE CREEK and self-published it. Some of the stories she had sold here and there and some of them were new. She could have used one of those for the anthology she’s writing for this weekend, but she gets a kick out of me, whether she admits it or not, and she wanted to write a new story. She gets a kick out of Cosmo, too, so he’s doing the grunt work and narrating the damn thing. Better him than me.

Well, I gotta get back to work. The staff should be coming in to do their side work for the lunch crowd, and Lonnie’s already in the kitchen. No, not that Lonnie. I’m imaginary, not stupid.

WRITING PROMPT: Let one of your characters write a blog post on the subject most on his or her mind at the moment. Him- or herself, for instance.

MA

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Slept in until after 7, then got all internetted up and lost track of the time.

Found SO many good places this week!

First, the April A-to-Z challenge is open for signing up. I participated in this last year and met the fabulous Damyanti, who wrote a flash fiction Every. Single. Day. No, I won’t be doing that.

2 Little Hooligans is what I guess you would call a “mommy blog”, filled with crafting and cooking and fun stuff, like this post on making ice cream in baggies.

I can’t categorize Treehugger. It’s about alternative stuff like … Well, go have a look. It’s all kindsa stuff that makes your dear old MomGoth go into a happy fugue state. Like crab art. Like these transforming tables. Like keeping food fresh without refrigeration. Like this bookshelf/workstation. I mean … .. ! Is it any wonder, I’m late posting today? This is great stuff for my tiny houses stories!

Then there’s the awesomely awesome Medieval Castle website. Not just everything you wanted to know about castles, everything I wanted to know.

Finally, spend the rest of the day being amazed at Julian Beever’s fantastic pavement art. Wow.

Hope you enjoy my finds for the week.

Oh! I almost forgot– I have a new BFF website this week. It’s called Polyvore, and I can put together my very own Pretty Lady Outfits. I find it oddly invigorating in the way of writing. Maybe it gets the creative juices stirred up, or maybe putting together stuff I want to go together gets the left-brain organizational circuits whirring, but fifteen minutes on Polyvore gets me hitting on all cylinders. Whatever works, right?

WRITING PROMPT: A character is walking down the street in a town he or she has never been to, and a pavement artist is drawing a scene from the character’s life; something that happened just before he or she left home, that no one witnessed.

MA

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It’s all foggy here this morning, which brings lots of thoughts to mind.

The first thought, of course, is of getting up to a foggy day here in the country when our youngest was little, and her saying, “It’s a misty, moisty morning.”

Click to enlarge, click back arrow to return to post.

The second is of Charlie and my honeymoon (yes, that is grammatically correct) and our 25th anniversary, both of which were spent at Natural Bridge State Resort Park in Kentucky. Every morning, the fog completely enfolded the lodge, but burned off as soon as things warmed up. I’m talking about the sun, people; get your minds out of the gutter.

Then, if I’m going to have to drive through it, I get creeped out thinking of Ardis Moonlight’s “Buffalo Trace” in GHOSTS ON THE SQUARE.

That makes me think how handy an inland lighthouse could be, which brings to mind the Best. Lighthouse. Story. Ever! Ray Bradbury’s “The Fog Horn”. That story breaks my heart, every time.

But then, me being me, I can’t think of the words “fog” and “horn” together without thinking of … You’re way ahead of me. Yes, Foghorn Leghorn, the chicken’s chicken.

And now, if you–I say, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go have breakfast. Cereal, that is. Pay attention, son! You’re not–I say, you’re not listening.

WRITING PROMPT: What does fog make you think of?

MA

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It’s the first of the month, so there’s a new Hot Flash (micro-mini story) on the Hot Flashes page. You might have to think about it for a minute, especially if you haven’t had your morning cuppa.

Next, I’m happy to announce I’ve given birth to a bouncing baby science fiction romance story posted at the Race to the Hugo Award. Mitchell Allen and Holly Jahangiri are both in there working and posting, too. I must have been subliminally influenced by new blog follower Nicholle, because I gave the main characters the last name of Brisbane. My mind is such a rag-bag!

And, since Wednesday is Food Day here, I have a “recipe”, if you want to call something so simple by that name.

BOK CHOI AND ORANGE SALAD

• bok choi, cut into bite-size pieces
• oranges, cut into bite-size pieces
• almonds, toasted in a skillet

And that’s it. I should have tossed it before I took the picture, because it looks all garnish and no salad. We used Honey-French dressing, but you could use anything you think would taste good with it. An Asian-Ginger would be nice. Rice vinegar and sesame oil would be VERY nice.

Hope your February is as wonderful as February ever gets!

WRITING PROMPT: Make a list of first names and a list of last names and organize them by “sounds like a good guy”, “sounds like a bad guy” and “neutral”.

MA

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Cold got you down? GIVE IT HELL!

So there’s this drug store here, Butt Drugs — yes, the one in the commercial — and one of their features is all these old remedies nobody else carries around here, like headache powders (which my late mother-in-law used to flush her stoma), henna rinse, oil of cloves, and this cold preparation.

You never know what’s going to turn up around here. Sometimes I just stand on the sidewalk and go, “Huh.”

I’ve shared the commercial before, but I can’t resist sharing it again.

I love this town.

I’m posting today at Fatal Foodies on the subject of veggie seeds.

WRITING PROMPT: What’s the weirdest product on your local shelves? Write three different reactions to it. Or feel free to use 666 Cold Preparation.

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Guesting today is the FAH-boo-loos James Hutchings. I recently finished reading James’ THE NEW DEATH AND OTHERS, a collection of short stories I can’t recommend highly enough. I asked James to share his thoughts and uses of Creative Commons and he shared:

Not James Hutchings

Many writers, whether published or just starting out, are very nervous that someone else will steal their work, whether that be another writer using their ideas in their own stories, or someone making pirated copies of their books. When I put out a collection of my writing, I specifically gave permission for anyone at all to copy my ideas, or even to cut and paste whole stories. I also contacted the Pirate Party, a worldwide network that wants to lessen copyright, and told them that I was giving anyone permission to put my ebook on file-sharing sites. In this post I hope to show why I went against common wisdom.

Creative Commons

I used a free service called Creative Commons. Creative Commons is useful for people who want to give the general public permission to use their work, but with restrictions. In my case I didn’t mind people using my work for non-profit purposes, such as posting on a blog, but I didn’t want to allow anyone to make money off it. Similarly I wanted anyone who used it to give me credit. I could have just listed these things myself. However I’m not a lawyer, and perhaps I would have worded it wrong so that someone could twist what I said to do more than I meant. Also I could have been unclear about what I was allowing and what I wasn’t allowing. Sure, someone could email me and ask, but the whole purpose of having a written statement is so that people don’t have to ask.

Creative Commons has a series of different licenses, which give permission to do different things. They’re all legally ‘tight’, and they’re all summarized in plain language. So all you have to do is go to their site and answer a series of questions, to get to the license that does what you want. In my case I used the Attribution Non-Commercial License.

Why?

That’s what I did. But why? Common sense would suggest that I’m giving something away for free that I could be selling. However I believe that, in the long run, I’ll be better off. The main reason is that I’ve seen how many people are, like me, trying to get their writing out there. Go to Smashwords and have a look at the latest ebooks. Then refresh the page ten minutes later, and you’ll probably see a whole new lot. The problem that new writers face isn’t that people want to steal your work; it’s getting anyone to show an interest in your work at all. If someone passes on a pirated copy of my work, it might get to someone who’s prepared to buy it – and that someone would probably have never heard of me otherwise. Even if they don’t want to pay for what they read, I might come out with something else in the future, and perhaps paying 99c for it will be easier than hunting it down on a file-sharing site.

Science fiction writer Andrew Burt tells the story of someone who disliked his book, and to get back at him decided to put a copy on a file-sharing site. The effect was that he got a small ‘spike’ in sales immediately afterwards.

I also have some less selfish motives. Many people would assume that the purpose of copyright is to protect authors and creators. Leaving aside the fact that someone else often ends up with the rights (how many Disney shareholders created any of the Disney characters? How many shareholders in Microsoft have ever written a line of code?), that doesn’t seem to have been the intention in the past. The US Constitution says that Congress has the power “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” Note that protecting ‘intellectual property’ isn’t mentioned. The authors of the Constitution seemed to see the point as getting ideas out there where people can use them: almost the exact opposite of keeping them ‘safe’ and ‘protected’.

The original idea of copyright seems to have been a sort of deal: you have an idea, and we want you to get it out into the world where it will do some good. To encourage you to do that, we’ll give you a monopoly on its use for a limited time. After that, anybody can use it (it will enter the ‘public domain’).

A lot of people don’t know that copyright used to give a lot less protection than it does now, especially in the United States. In the US, it used to be that works were copyrighted for a maximum of 56 years. Today copyright in the US can last for over 100 years. In fact Congress keeps extending the time. In practice, they’re acting as if they never want ideas to go into the public domain.

This is great for the owners of ‘intellectual property’. But it’s hard to see how this “promotes the Progress of Science and useful Arts,” or how forever is a “limited time.” In a sense it’s a theft from the public. Anyone who publishes work has accepted the deal that the law offers, of a limited monopoly in return for making their idea known. Congress has been giving them more and more extensions on that monopoly, but doesn’t require them to do anything to earn it.

It probably doesn’t matter that much that Disney still owns Mickey Mouse, or that Lord of the Rings is still under copyright. But remember that these laws don’t just apply to the arts. Similar laws apply to science as well. So a life-saving invention could be going unused, because its owner wants too much money for it, or because it’s tied up in court while two companies fight about who owns it.

Conclusion

I’m far from an expert on either the law or the publishing industry. However I hope that I’ve given you, especially those of you who might be thinking about publishing some writing, a different take on the whole issue of whether authors should worry about their ideas being stolen. At least I hope I’ve shown you that there’s a different way of thinking about it, and that that way doesn’t require you to just give up on making money; in fact that it might be more profitable as well as better for society.

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bio: James Hutchings lives in Melbourne, Australia. He fights crime as Poetic Justice, but his day job is acting. You might know him by his stage-name ‘Brad Pitt.’ He specializes in short fantasy fiction. His work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, fiction365 and Enchanted Conversation among other markets. His ebook collection The New Death and others is now available from Amazon, Smashwords and Barnes & Noble. He blogs daily at Teleleli.

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This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License.

WRITING PROMPT: A character steals something and then learns that it was free anyway.

MA

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This story originally appeared at the online magazine DARK VALENTINE which is, alas, no long with us.

The Prophecy of Te-Rahga

The doors of my Wisewoman sanctuary burst wide, chunks and splinters of their oaken bar clattering to the stone floor. Nala and Brinsi, my great-granddaughters and guards, drew their swords and stepped between the threat and the wrinkled shell my body had become.

Gonsheol strode in with a swirl of cape. Born the same village as I, in the same hour of the same year, he still looked in the prime of his life.

“So,” he said, smug power radiating from his strong body and vibrant voice, “after all these years, the prophecy ends unfulfilled.” He chuckled at Nala and Brinsi. “Tell them to sheath their swords, old woman. A good warrior knows when blades are useless.”

“Stand down,” I rasped, my voice worn to near-nothing by age and spell-casting.

My kinswomen stepped back, not at ease, but not on guard. They had been raised on the prophecy. We had spoken of it often, since the day when even I had to admit that time was eroding my strength with increasing speed.

“If I kill you, my power disappears,” Gonsheol said, knowing none of us needed reminding, “but, while you live, my power is incomplete. That time is nearly over. None can destroy me but you, and I’ve never allowed you close enough for long enough to do it.” He stepped nearer to the dais on which I sat. “Your sorcery is gone, is it not, old woman? Don’t bother to lie. You know I know.”

My head sank, eyes unable to bear the sight of him. My hands, no longer capable of sending forth the spells my voice could no longer sing, rested to either side of my woven mat. He was right. The only enchantment I could still do was a very small Stasis. It kept me upright when my body wanted to sag. It kept me awake all day and blissfully asleep all night. It kept me alive just a little longer.

“You’ve tried so often to get within spelling distance,” he said. “How is this? Is this close enough?” He approached me. Ten years ago, it would have been close enough for me to kill him. “This?” Two years ago, I could have paralyzed him at that distance. “This?” His knees almost touched the dais. My kinswomen tensed, gazes darting between the two of us.

“Throw him out,” I croaked.

They reached for his arms. He sang a brief phrase and did no more than flex his biceps. Their hands tugged, but his body gave not a hair’s-breadth.

“You throw me out,” he taunted.

I didn’t want to. On the contrary.

Stasis is a small spell, quick and simple to sing. My voice quavered and my left hand shook as I laid my threadbare spell over his strong one, piggy-backing his into my control. My right hand shook as I drew a shortsword from beneath my mat.

“Never mock a prophecy,” I whispered.

WRITING PROMPT: A tiny bit of strength is used to great effect.

MA

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I just love it when I’m asked to talk. It happens so seldom. But Mike Murphy of Emerging Novelists did just that, and posted the interview.

It’s starting to think about being Spring in these parts. We had a couple of mild days, just to tease us, and I got out and snapped a couple of pictures.

The snowdrops are in full bloom since I got this picture. Mother Nature does this to break our hearts when she subsequently buries these little beauties under umpty-ump inches of ice and snow and freezing rain.

And here is a stump my husband is killing slowly, in conjunction with jolly old Mother N. He heaps what folks around here call fossil rocks on top of them, and Ma Nature sends rain and moss and bugs and what-have-you to nibble away at their flesh. The Melbourne Method. ~shudders~ Not the Melbourne Method!

Oh, you precious Internet! If I were still single, I would marry you, I love you so much! While I was searching for the name of that slow method of dealing with enemies, I came across The Peter Lorre Collection of Sound. OMG!! What a treasure!!!

Well, that made my day.

WRITING PROMPT: Whose voice, other than people you actually know in person, do you love to hear? Why do you love to hear it?

MA

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Sometimes they’re the same thing, yeah?

But first, a repeat of a FANTASTIC tool for anybody who has to write anything. It was designed for the fiction writer, but would be great for a report, a speech, a non-fiction book, and anything else that needs to be free AND structured. You could probably use it to plan a web site. Anyway, it’s yWriter5. It’s kind of complex, but there’s an ongoing help forum on the web site, lots of help documentation, and working with it opens up its possibilities. I am SO NOT an outliner, but this program makes outlining work for me as part of the flow. It’s amazing. And it’s FREE. Did I mention it’s FREE?

If you have any questions about spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, or usage, Dan Persinger is your man. He does not suffer fools gladly, but he does suffer them, which is why he tolerates me. He writes mysteries under the name of Jack Hardway. The fact that that name totally cracks me up probably says something analyzable about me. Anyway, Jack Hardway also has a blog (or, as he correctly calls it, a web log) with the subtitle A Lot Of Writers Are Dopes.

While at WordCamp last year, I met Niles Flores, a woman who loves blogging, social media, web design and Egypt, not necessarily in that order. Her business site, blondish.net, is the mostest funnestest business site EVAR.

My new BFF is HootSuite. That’s what I’m using to schedule promotional posts on FaceBook and Twitter. I can schedule three at each place at different times a day, then relax and just use the social networks to be social. I like it because it works on both networks, and I can write the promos that make sense for each. No Twitter hashtags in MY Facebook stream, (oops! I think I just did that by askident. My bad.).

[By the way, many grammarians ~waves to Dan Persinger~ dislike multiple sentences inside parentheses inside a sentence. Tough.]

My best time-waster is Pinterest. It’s invitation-only, so, naturally, Holly Jahangiri invited me in order to waste my time and distract me from the Race to the Hugo Award. Nice try, Holly. Won’t work. yWriter5 has foiled you. Ha HAAAAA!!

WRITING PROMPT: A character “wastes” a lot of time on something that becomes suddenly useful. An oldie but a goodie.

MA

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Okay, Mom and I went to the hairdresser’s yesterday and got perms. I haven’t had one for a long time, so I was a little … Yeah, that’s boring. Anyway, here’s my new ‘do. I didn’t tell her to slap all that gray in it, so don’t ask me what that’s about.

Here is Hope Schneider, who gave me the ‘do. Love ya, Hope! She looks a bit iffy here, but she was just in a hurry to move on to her next customer, for she is much in demand.

While you’re at it, check out the color on that wall. I think part of why I love going to Hope’s is that warm, friendly color.

Anyway.

Karen Syed of Echelon Press, my publisher, has tasked me with (Do you hate that? I hate that. Forget I said that.) Karen Syed of Echelon Press, my publisher, has given me the task of promoting my books regularly rather than desultorily on Facebook and Twitter. I said, “Ebberyday?” She said, “Yes.” I said, “EBBERY day?” She said, “EBBERY day!!” So I’m trying out some tools which, if they continue to serve my purpose, I’ll recommend tomorrow. So far, so good.

WRITING PROMPT: A character who wears his or her hair the same way for years gets a new do. On purpose, by mistake, under compulsion or why? What’s the effect?

MA

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