AMAZON VELLA - What do you think of it?

 

Amazon announced on April 13th a new writing opportunity for US writers

through their Kindle Direct Publishing program called Kindle Vella, 

twisting the word “Novella” for fun.

Should you as an author try this platform?

Kindle Vella is structured with short (500–5000 words) episodes 

and a "Token" payment system that authors receive 50% of the proceeds for 

(though there is no clear information on what a token is worth).

Charles Dickens rose to fame and fortune serializing his work and 

serialization is a a popular and established reader market in countries like South Korea and Japan.

Have you ever wished you had gotten in

at the start of the Kindle Books phenomenon?

Kindle Vella likely hopes to compete in securing intellectual property that has been tested, 

that then can be turned into television series, films, and games.

Kakao, a major South Korean internet company is hoping to acquire Radish, 

one of the largest serialized fiction apps used by independent authors,

 and that has recently changed its payment terms to pay authors 

significantly less for their work for the same reason.

I am doing it because it is the only way I can prod myself into writing Night Seasons.

You must make up your own mind about it

of course.

GASLIGHTING and how to survive it

 

Are you feeling lower self-esteem?

Are you feeling growing emotional dependence on the person striking sparks from you?

Are conflicts with that person funneling you down a rabbit hole of 

frustration, confusion, and anger, making you question your perceptions?

You may be being Gaslighted.

When we find ourselves, like now, penned in with people for extended periods of time.

 lies, trivializations, and denial are easier to use to make the unsuspecting doubt themselves.

Are you hearing

"You're being dramatic."

"You're blowing things out of proportion."

"That never happened."

"You're remembering wrong."

You might reply:

"I know what I saw."

"Denying reality does not change it."

"I will not continue this conversation if you continue to minimize my feelings, my thoughts, in essence myself."

"By minimizing me like this, you are saying more about your own deficiencies than mine."

In the end ...

Be kind to yourself  ... 

even if it means walking out of the room ... 

or out of the relationship.

Maybe Someone Needs to See This Today

 

May this new week treat you well ... 

and if not, 

may you play the bad cards 

dealt to you well.

NO TIME OUT FOR LIFE_IWSG Post

 

Seven months of being homeless has taken a toll on me physically. 

I am still not back up to snuff yet. I come to my new apartment dragging.

And not the fun kind of dragon Midnight assures me.

    

I have begun to tackle NIGHT SEASONS again ... slowly.

Two monster hurricanes one after another, an ice storm coming to chill things up. 

working 10 hours straight on Easter ... 

Sometimes I manage only a paragraph, sometimes only a sentence ... but it is a darn fine sentence. :-)

To inspire myself, I read passages from favorite authors, essayists, or poets:

"Live your questions now, and perhaps even without knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers." 

- Rainer Maria Rilke

And I remind myself the greatest artists produced their masterpiece one brushstroke at a time.

 I even got inspiration from a scene from a Sci Fi comedy, RESIDENT ALIEN, appropriately entitled

THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT

Where a dejected former Olympian champion 

climbed the wall of an icy fissure with a broken hand and one ice pick to save her one friend 

to the tune of MARCH OF FLAMES:

Where do you find inspiration to keep on when you feel yourself flagging?