• E-Commerce & Social Networking Week in Review February 4, 2012
  Straight from the source, here’s what happened in the world of e-commerce, social networking and selling online in the past week: Mobile Tech That’s Changing the Way We Shop Here at ePN we talk a lot about the shifts happening in the way that consumers shop and pay. We’re always thinking about ways to integrate [...]
• Giving the people what they want even when you no longer understand why they want it
  This post is going to be a weird experiment in being candid and transparent to the point of almost anti-marketing. Bear with me. If you’ve ever wandered over to the Books and eBooks page on this site, among my fiction and non-fiction projects that you’ve actually heard of, you may have noticed a little thing called [...]
• Keep your eyes open to opportunities even if they weren’t part of your original plan
  It was our senior year of college and we were all scrambling around to figure out our post-graduation plans. One very smart friend of mine, lets call him Lem, was applying for grad schools. He was in a very specialized field and his very high GPA meant he was not only getting accepted to schools [...]
• Kabbage awards TheWhineSeller.com an e-commerce Oscar for telling it like it is
  The nice folks at Kabbage have been using the awards season as an excuse to give out some e-commerce awards of their own creation. The previous week they gave out the Golden Globes and this week they gave out the Oscars. Here’s what they had to say about this very blog in their Oscars post: [...]
• 5 Tips for Saving Money on Shipping Supplies and Postage
  Today’s topic was a request from a IRL friend. And not just any friend! This one. Anyway, the request was for some tips on saving money while shipping. It’s a tall order but I promised I’d see what I can do. As soon as I started this post, I immediately realized this has the potential [...]

Posts above were published in the last week on TheWhineSeller.com, MyLittlePonyCollecting.com, PricedNostalgia.com and CultofCummings.com.

You’re going to find it funny that I rarely talk about this book on the blog after you read this because it’s an overwhelming majority of the writing I’ve done this year and pretty much all I think about. You see, guys… this book is the bane of my existence. I’m hoping to help you understand why by giving you a little history. 

When I was in middle school, I wrote a book that we’ll call Proto-Asplode. It was a mystery with a romance… and ghosts. Also, like many things one writes when one is a teen, it was terrible. But while I decided that I was no longer interested in writing that book, I was somewhat enamored with the unabashed teenage-ness to the story. It was, appropriately enough, exactly the sort of book that a teen would write. There was something so stereo-typically cheesy about this book as “indulgent teenage angst writing” that I found myself still drawn to it.

In the meantime, I was thinking about a very loose idea for NaNo 2010 about a mystery in which a viral marketing campaign goes horribly awry when these two trains of thought collided. What if the viral marketing campaign that goes awry is a teen doing marketing for a book she wrote and self-published? And, of course, the book that she’s written is good ole Proto-Asplode. There’s a lot more to this story then just that (which is part of why I’m having so much trouble with it) but this is what I started out with.

I was so busy leading up to NaNo 2010 with it being my first year as an ML and the worst of the issues with my hands that I did no outlining of this idea whatsoever. I figured I’d be OK for two reasons: 1) I already knew at least part of the story from the book I’d written as a teen and 2) thousands of people “pants” (write by the seat of their pants) NaNoWriMo every year and it works out just fine. So, even though I am usually a plotter (aka I plan stuff out ahead of time) I decided to see how the other half lives and try to write this story with no plan.

I also decided to write the book in first person. Full discolsure: I really don’t like books in the first person. But I was writing this book entirely with the Dragon NaturallySpeaking dictation program so I thought that first person would make it easier for talking it out. So, not only was I trying to write a book with no plan, I was trying to write it from a perspective I don’t really care for. I mention this because I’m trying to figure out where I went so horribly wrong with this project.

I wrote the book. As advertised, the characters moved the story along in their own way and the story went some surprising places even without a plan. All sorts of rich and interesting things happened I didn’t expect. But I finished the book with an ending that felt satisfying without ever having revealed whodunit which made me question if this book was meant to be a mystery at all. Even as I was writing it I began to suspect this book wasn’t about what I thought it was about. I was frustrated because I’d ended the month with a draft that wasn’t really anything and I didn’t know where to go next.

So I let it sit. In that time, I thought about it a ton while I was doing final edits on both Three Oranges and Mistress Novel. After 6 months, I thought I had it. I came up with a real honest to God working title (instead of the silly Asplode that I was calling it as a joke) and sat down and wrote  the book over again entirely from scratch. What I’d concluded in that 6 month interval was that the characters and setting were really solid and strong… it was just the plot that didn’t work. So Asplode 2.0 was the same characters in a completely different plot. Parts of it worked great and I was really excited about the new version. I really thought I could be ready to query it by the end of 2011.

As we edged closer to NaNoWriMo 2011, I realized the new plot wasn’t working any better than the original. Things hardcore fell apart. (To put this in perspective, my new working title was about a season… that the book no longer took place in.) I had intended to use NaNoWriMo to just finish the book but I was sitting there in October outlining an entirely new plot. Asplode 3.0 was to be an entirely new story using the same characters. I went through two other working titles I thought were it before I just gave up and went back to calling it Asplode.

To my surprise, as I started writing during NaNo 2011, scenes from Asplodes 2.0 and 1.0 kept finding their way into the story even though the plot was entirely different in this version. Surely this meant I was onto something, no? But while I actually managed to write a version of the story that makes sense from start to finish, it still isn’t really working. I resolved to let it sit again and see what developed. Then a few nights ago, I had what felt like an epiphany and spend many hours outlining what would be Asplode 4.0 (8 pages, this outline was, written in the middle of the night like a crazy person) but, while it’s better, it’s still not quite it. It’s getting better though. I think.

See, I’m having trouble figuring out what goes into this book and what doesn’t. I’ve cut and re-added scenes so many times I genuinely have no idea what should be in the book at all anymore. I’m a “nothing is sacred” editor and I’d be happy to cut stuff… but I don’t know which things to cut. I’ve cut different core elements in each of the three drafts and realized I needed each of them as I wrote. Every time I think I’ve got it figured out, instead I’ve just found another way that won’t work.

I’m getting frustrated. Because if the story wasn’t working at all, I would know to just walk away. But parts work VERY well and I suspect it’s some of the best stuff I’ve ever written. And I think the fact that I can’t stop working on this book means there’s something to it, even if I don’t know what that is yet. I’ve had that feeling of being THIS CLOSE to having it right for a year+ now.

I’ve written many things in my life all the way to the end. With every story, play, novel, or even blog post I’ve seen the problems and have been able to eventually work through them to something I’m satisfied with. I’ve never had a project like this before. I can’t figure out how the heck to fix it. I don’t know what story these characters belong in. I have never more genuinely felt like I have no idea what I’m doing.

I know they say that the experience of writing every book is different but I have, basically, written this book completely over from nothing but the characters three full times now. Four if you count Proto-Asplode. Shouldn’t I know what it’s about by now?

This post may seem a little doom and gloom but, rest assured, I’m still writing. I’m still letting the 2011 draft of Asplode 3.0 sit even if I’m jotting down notes about future drafts as they come to me. I’m also still working on my (too many) other works in progress in the meantime. I’m not taking time away from projects that are working to poke at Asplode. But this project is consuming a lot of my thoughts because it bothers me that I can’t figure out how to fix it and I wanted to give you an understanding of where my mind is with this.

I hate this book. Though, clearly, not enough to stop writing it…

Any advice?

• E-Commerce & Social Networking Week in Review January 28, 2012
  Straight from the source, here’s what happened in the world of e-commerce, social networking and selling online in the past week: Get in the DJ booth with Tiësto Ever been among the thousands of screaming fans rocking out to Tiësto and wanted to see what life is like from the other side of the DJ [...]
• eBay Buyer Pet Peeve: When a seller ships something stupidly
  As a collectibles seller, often times I’m buying the very same sort of items on eBay that I also sell. It’s like flipping houses except that the house was originally listed as a car. (Collectibles sellers know what I mean. ) But one of my biggest pet peeves as a buyer is when I get [...]
• Self-publishers, POD & Indie Authors: What do you do with mis-printed copies of your own book?
  I’m looking at a stack of copies of my play, Daddy Issues, that I have on hand and I notice that one is much fatter than the others. A quick investigation reveals a massive print FAIL: There are actually about 5 copies of the play printed in a wild jumble throughout a single binding. I [...]
• My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic finally coming to DVD with The Friendship Express
  It’s not the Season One box set we’ve all been hoping for but, on February 28, 2012 6 episodes of Friendship is Magic finally come to DVD. Episodes include: Friendship Is Magic, Part 1 (Mare In The Moon) Friendship Is Magic, Part 2 (Elements Of Harmony) Over A Barrel Hearth’s Warming Eve The Last Roundup [...]
• Don’t wait until it’s too late. Live your life and start working towards your goals now.
  When I used to work for Lulu, one of the most frequent things I encountered was people who were desperate to publish their book or software or music before they died. There was this insane urgency, this desperation to get the book out there because they were racing against the clock. In some cases this [...]
• My Little Pony in the NYT, Friendship is Magic episodes taken down, BronyCon recap & more
  As you’ve probably noticed, I’m frantically trying to catch up on all the things that happened in the Ponyverse over the holidays. To keep it simple for myself, this post is going to be a bit of compilation of stuff I didn’t get to blog about as it happened. BronyCon 2012 – Here’s some coverage [...]

Posts above were published in the last week on TheWhineSeller.com, MyLittlePonyCollecting.com, PricedNostalgia.com and CultofCummings.com.

Image via Wikipedia

It’s pretty darn cold out there right now so it’s hard to remember that Spring is right around the corner. For schools, this means you’ll need to start thinking about your next musical. But money is tight everywhere and musicals can be so expensive… if only you had something that could showcase a large number of students and a wide variety of talent without all the extra costs of a musical.

Have you considered The Love of Three Oranges? It’s not a musical but it has many of the same elements of the usual staples and it’s less than half the cost to perform! Let me explain why ditching the show tunes for the trio citrus can not only save your school big bucks… it may actually be a better fit for your student cast.

1. Emphasis on the ensemble instead of a single male and female lead. Wouldn’t it be nice not to have the tears and drama when you post the cast list? There are not only up to 16 major roles, the play is written so that each character gets their moment to steal the scene and take the spotlight. Instead of having to turn away budding talent, you’ll be able to showcase as many students as possible to nurture your drama program for years to come.
2. Flexible cast size and gender ratio. You can’t really predict your audition turn out. Need more female roles? Less? No problem! Most of the roles are written to easily be played by either gender. Need to increase or decrease the cast size? Not only can several of the speaking roles be played by the same actors if need be, the ensemble (think of it as a non-singing chorus) can be as large or as small as you need to include everyone you want to include.
3. Opportunity to showcase a variety of talents including puppetry, dance, juggling and, yes… music and singing. One of the best things about the show is that there are multiple scenes that leave room for you and your cast to get creative. Many schools have inserted musical moments in past productions so the opportunity is there if you want to highlight a particular vocal talent without having to pay for a whole score. But beyond music, it’s a great chance to highlight unusual skills your students don’t normally get to show off.  Have a tumbler in your ranks? A gymnast? How about a ventriloquist, song writer or musician? The extra flexibility lets you play to the strengths of your cast, instead of trying to cram them into a show they may not be a good fit for.
4. Teenager (not to mention curriculum) friendly. I was a student actor. The old standards like Rogers and Hammerstein et al are… dated. Sure, I have the same affection for those old shows as any theatre alumni but, when I was actually in them as a teen? They felt like ancient history even then. Three Oranges gives you the opportunity to update the show as much as you want so your cast can relate more closely to the material they are putting on. Even better? Think of the lesson plan tie-ins! Commedia dell’arte, puppetry, comedy, Italian theatre… A wide variety of teachers can require their classes to attend for the educational tie-in giving you even more audience. You won’t get that with yet another production of Carousel!

In short, Three Oranges gives you many of the things you love about a musical… while eliminating many of the things you don’t. You aren’t just being thrifty with your budget without sacrificing that musical feel… you’re giving your actors meatier material to work with and a show your audience hasn’t already seen hundreds of times.

Still not sold? You can read the play for free on the Playscripts website and decide for yourself if it’ll be a good fit.

Looking for something to do with your NaNoWriMo novel? What about that novel you wrote years ago that’s just been taking up space in a drawer?

The Amazon 2012 Breakthrough Novel Award Contest (good grief, what a redundant name) is now open for entries! This contest is free to enter and open to adult and YA, unpublished and self-published novels. The deadline to enter is midnight on February 5th, though they only take the first 5,000 entrants in each category so you’ll want to get your entry in as soon as possible to make sure that you don’t miss out. The prize is not only a large cash advance but a publishing deal with Penguin so it’s a great opportunity to get your book in front of a variety of editors and publishers.

If you decide to enter, let us know below so we can keep our fingers crossed for you!

• E-Commerce & Social Networking Week in Review January 21, 2012
  Straight from the source, here’s what happened in the world of e-commerce, social networking and selling online in the past week: Download Day Winner Announced! In a recent blog post, we predicted that Dec. 26th would be one of the highest traffic days for new readers buying eBooks.  We crunched the numbers and are happy [...]
• CNN interviews My Little Pony customizers Jodi Moisan & Mari Kasurinen
  Most of the images are of ponies you’ve already seen elsewhere on the web but check out the article for a great interview with these true pony artists. CNN: ‘My Little Pony’ Goes Geek Share:
• Patagonia: a company that actually encourages sales on the second hand market & by eBay Trading Assistants
  I meant to write about this back in September but I forgot and the email got buried in my inbox. But I think this is really cool so I’m posting it now because I think most people still haven’t heard of it. In short, eBay Green Team has partnered with a company, Patagonia, specifically with [...]
• Teens React to My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and Bronies
  Share:
• My Little Pony Friendship is Magic in Forbes
  SOPA, Skyrim and My Little Pony – Infringement is Magic? Share:
• Add My Little Pony themed frames and sound effects to your Facebook photos
  Hasbro recently introduced a new Facebook app that let’s you add sound clips and MLP themed backgrounds to your Facebook photos to create flash photo book-like interactive albums starring Pinkie Pie. Check out Ponyrific Pictures on Facebook here. Share:
• The runner up
  Besides My Little Pony, what’s your next favorite toy of all time? Share:
• Is the only acceptable time to leave an eBay seller a low DSR for shipping cost… never?
  I inadvertently opened a can of worms with this post. I was talking about what I’m like as a buyer, since I know what it’s like to be a seller, and I mentioned that I’m very generous with the DSR stars with one exception… I don’t take kindly to being overcharged on shipping. Now, to clarify, I [...]
• I’ll be on eBay Radio today talking about using social networking to connect with other sellers
  At 3 PM EST/Noon PST, I’ll be on eBay Radio to talk about social networking. And while the topic of social networking as a marketing tool has been covered many times, I wanted to talk specifically about using Facebook, Twitter, and even blogging to connect with a seller’s best resource… other sellers! So, if you [...]

Posts above were published in the last week on TheWhineSeller.com, MyLittlePonyCollecting.com, PricedNostalgia.com and CultofCummings.com.

Now, it may be silly, but I felt the need to make it something memorable. But, of course, as soon as I thought that, I was overcome with crippling tweeter’s block. When you look at the screenshot below, you’ll notice it too me 20 minutes to stop spazzing enough to actual write my 10,000th tweet.

So I finally just tweeted something I said to my parents the other day after I saw The Muppets in theatres as my 10,000th tweet and it was immediately retweeted by someone which made me feel validated as a human. In case you were wondering, my 10,000th tweet was:

The Muppets have a new movie, My Little Pony & TMNT are popular again… I hope you’re all enjoying this world I created with MY MIND!

Which seemed appropriate.

But this is the part I actually wanted to tell you about. I spent all that time waffling about what to put as my 10,000th tweet and exactly 1 minute after I posted it a tweet that I had scheduled several days ago went out. So if I hadn’t posted that status at the exact second I did I would have spent 4 tweets talking about my epic 10,000th tweet only to then have my milestone tweet be the world’s most generic NaNoWriMo tweet. Rarely do I miss looking like an idiot by such a narrow margin and it seemed noteworthy. Evil sneaky attempted milestone theft!

Also I guess it’s a cautionary tale about why you shouldn’t be like me and schedule everything to post at a time different then when you write it. So I guess from now on I should only blog or tweet when I’m actually here at my computer. So, let’s see, I’m writing this now on Dec 1 so I’ll schedule it to post… eh… sometime later.

I have apparently learned nothing.

A big thank you to Katie for taking the time to write all of that up. This has inspired me to finally write up some of the disasters that happened during the original production for future blog posts. If anyone else has been in a production and want’s to share their stories on the blog, drop me an email!

Now I’m just left with one question… lightsabers?

But you know what? I’m not worried. Yes, I’m behind at the moment but I have already finished some major stuff this year writing wise AND had some very exciting things happen behind the scenes. I feel like my writing career is off the the best possible start this year and I know I’ll get those numbers up as the year goes on.

So I feel no shame as I post my count which is still much higher than it was a few days before I WROTE AN ENTIRE PLAY IN 2 DAYS LIKE A BEAST. (Side note: Don’t be jealous. The play is terrible.)

And now, potato and I shall retire to spend the rest of the night getting tipsy on cheap wine, eating mozzarella sticks and watching the Golden Globes.

Aw yeah…

• Your favorite My Little Pony
  I know it’s hard but, if you had to pick a favorite pony, who would it be? Share:
• 4 reasons offer your eBook for free aka Take advantage of those 5 promotional days you got from participating in Kindle Select
  If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed that I’ve been tweeting up a storm about the fact that my newest play, Daddy Issues, is available for free from January 9th until Friday the 13th. Normally, mere mortals small publishers such as myself don’t get the option to make their book free on [...]
• Never enough followers or friends: The sneaky addictive element of social networking
  I remember when I started on Twitter. I wanted 1,000 followers so badly. But then once I hit it… it wasn’t enough. I wanted 2,000. Then 3,000. You have no idea how much it ticks me off that I haven’t passed 5,000 followers yet when there are a wide variety of total LAME-Os with more [...]

Posts above were published in the last week on TheWhineSeller.com, MyLittlePonyCollecting.com, PricedNostalgia.com and CultofCummings.com.