Notices by Elyse M Grasso (elysegrasso@historians.social)

@glyph

On Mastodon, we are the algorithm.

Besides things that matter to me personally, I have a policy of always boosting job openings and job hunting posts. I generally try to boost other posts that might useful to other readers, or where someone is looking for information in a non-annoying way, even if it is not a topic that interests me strongly.

As a former librarian I also tend to boost publication announcements unless they are very badly structured...

That's my algorithm.

I am almost ready to publish my first book.
The export from LibreOffice Writer to EPUB is very pretty when I open it in the Nook app, but there are a couple of glitches I need to chase before I upload the file to D2D.
Files inside the epub include the Heading 1 texts, but the TOC shows up as Section1, Section 2, etc.
There are a few blank pages at the ends of chapters.
Some formatted text on the Copyright page seems to have been drooped in the export.
1/2

#WritingCommunity #selfPublishing

My book, Heir of the Bindings, Elderkin Chronicles Volume I, is officially released today in the ebook edition. The paper edition will follow shortly: I still need to format the cover.
Additional information is in the ALT text for the pictures of my publishing company logo, and the books cover.

I will post more when the books reach the Draft2Digital channels, including the international, and library lending ones.

#bookstodon #writingCommunity #WordWeavers #WritersCoffeeClub

Nyx owns the house now, including the tall cat tree (especially when I have annoyed her by chasing her off the stereo receiver). She loves laying in the sun on window sills, and on the office desk which is next to the window, and I don't know how she can stand so much hot sunlight on all of that black fur. She gets annoyed if I close the blinds to keep the sun off me. #CatsOfMastodon

#WritersCoffeeClub 18 What are your biggest turnoffs or turn-ons when reading?

Turnoffs-
Whiny characters, including most of what is usually referred to as romantic tension
Otherwise (or supposedly) smart characters being stupid for the author's convenience
Characters that don't learn
Valorization of skewed priorities

Turn-ons:
Competence porn.
Puzzle solving, or attempts at it-- I don't insist that the characters succeed

#WritersCoffeeClub 22. How did you develop the idea for your first book?

Late 80s/early 90s I went DEEP down the manga/anime rabbithole, I read a lot of Japanese culture, history and lit in translation, picked up some extension and college language credits, joined an APA that was mostly manga/anime related. My friend who ran the APA said she would write a novel if I did. I finished mine. The world and characters were alt-early-Japanese, no worse than EFP cod-Euro-medieval or anime Catholicism.

#WordWeavers 23. Do you do any writing-adjacent jobs like editing, librarian, character art, etc?

Retired now. I have an MLS and worked as a pro librarian 40+ years ago.

In my more recent SW Eng career, I always felt the version control and bug-tracking aspects of my specialty were very archival, but that may say more about me than the work. And I sometimes felt that tools script development used some of the same energy as prose writing. More admin at work left more space for fiction at home.

#WordWeavers 18 How money-savvy is your MC?

Not bad for a 6 year old. By the end of vol 1, he has actually held coins in his hand -- coins that he had earned -- which is unusual for royalty. And he's spent time in the House on the Rock's squares on Market Days, and in the Duchy offices on tax day, so he has at least a general idea of how money works: he bought souvenirs for relatives back in Karnburg with his own money.

Of course, finance in Traventi is a bit different from anywhere else...

@Nichelle Yes. I wish the blue books had more details.

I have added a new member of my household. I am calling her Nyx: she is mostly black, even her whiskers, but has little constellations of white hairs in a few places. Her eyes are green.
I'll try to get some better pictures once she settles into her new home a bit more
#caturday #CatsOfMastodon

Damn. Is it possible to be allergic to 3:30PM?
I noticed years ago that I tended to have a short mid-afternoon sneezing fit and blamed it on something in the HVAC system getting stirred up.
But it continued to happen at other employers and worksites, and at home.
This house is a newly built PassiveHouse and insanely well sealed, and the ventilation is filtered and cleaned. But I just had yet another mid-afternoon sneezing fit, following one yesterday and others in the recent past.

@countcol Isn't aluminum smelting the traditional way to profit from excess production of electricity? Someone needs to set up an industrial process that does something more useful than mine Bitcoins or generate AI slop and wants to run on large but inconsistent quantities of cheap power.

The new house is complete. By the end of the month, 32 months after the Marshall Fire, the last few punch-list items will be finished.

The solar system needs an inspection, and activation on the power company side, but the construction project is done.

Progress on my new house's landscaping: the front yard is mostly done, with the addition of an octagonal meditation labyrinth and a lot of reworking of the drainage in the front yard. The soil here is horrible clay that does not drain worth mentioning, so they had to add a french drain to carry water past the concrete ramp that leads to the front door.

Whatever you are familiar with, is normal...
I am always surprised by reports that most Americans don't own stocks and bonds: most of my college fund came from accumulated tiny stock dividends. So naturally everyone has some stocks and bonds.
My grandfather had to retire from working in the factory in his 50s because of damage from WWI, so while my grandmother continued working at the coat factory, he took care of the house and invested small amounts of money in the stock market. 1/

As a child in the old country, they were so poor that his Mom made him clothes from the cloth panels from an umbrella, but his grandkids all had money toward college from stocks he bought in our names, and there was a little money from investments to supplement Nonna's pension and Social Security: he himself died at 63.
Doesn't quite fit the usual expectations about class in the US, I guess.

2/fin

Oh, boy! The boycott of Amy's Foods has been ended by the organizers after the company agreed to some changes.
I think I know what my first meal in the new house is going to be: 2 years is a long time between roasted veggie pizzas.

(Sometimes being both allergic to dairy and lactose intolerant gets really old, especially since I lived for 1/2 century before the allergy became completely non-ignorable)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/boycott-of-amys-kitchen-ends-after-the-company-makes-drastic-changes/ar-BB1ob2ga

#Introduction for new server: I'm a retired software engineer and long-time but very intermittently active member of the SCA (the hobby for people who collect hobbies) I follow a lot of writers, artists, and academics: including history, history of books and history of religion. I'm an unpublished writer of (very) alternate universe fantasy modeled after unusual time periods and cultures

My house burned in the 12/30/2021 Marshall Fire and Wind Event. Rebuild broke ground 8/7/2023.

#WritersCoffeeClub #Writing 19: If you could remove one rule of grammar, which would you choose?
Any of the ones that were spliced into English by scholars inappropriately enamored with Latin usage.

#WritersCoffeeClub Nov. 1- What's the best writing advice you've heard or read?

Terry Pratchett's immortal advice: "The first draft is just you telling yourself the story."

Second is probably, "Don't chase trends. Writing and publishing take long enough that you will always be out of step." (May not apply to shorter works or self-publishing.)