The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 09

[Candy_Kane54]

@filthytrancendence - I'll be leaving tomorrow morning. I won't be popping in tomorrow but will try to pop in from time to time while gone.

It's going to be sunny and hot as another heat dome settles down over us. Tomorrow, I'll be heading up to the Upper Peninsula where it's cooler. I'll be checking out some lighthouses that I haven't seen yet while I'm gone.

I've got a fresh pot of coffee going and the teapot is hot. Donuts and danishes on the counter for those with a sweet tooth.

I'll be taking my laptop with me so I'll try to get some writing done while I'm gone. For now, I'm trying to set up the next scene before I spend the rest of the day packing and making reservations.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Safe travels, Candy.

 

[TheRedLantern]

I'll be leaving tomorrow morning. I won't be popping in tomorrow but will try to pop in from time to time while gone.

Does that mean that @filthytrancendence is in charge of the coffee shop while you're gone?

I'm picturing @Candy_Kane54 watching the waves from a cliffside near a remote lighthouse, thinking deep thoughts about the meaning of human existence, and writing in a nice Moleskin notebook while Enya plays in her headphones. Smash-cut to the coffee shop where the rest of us are blasting Ozzy Osborne, doing sweaty body shots, jumping off the furniture, and biting the heads off of bat-shaped pastries.

Hopefully @Candy_Kane54 loves us enough to bail us out of prison when she gets back.

 

[iwatchus]

I'll be leaving tomorrow morning.

Have a spectacular vacation. And let someone else make the coffee for you for once!

 

[GrantBricksly]

Oh....My....God!!!

Finally, Chapter 2-3 of my story is being published!!!!!!!

it's been 2 months, and finally it made it through! I was literally in the process of typing out a post of how I was giving up... and I just looked and it will be live tomorrow!!!

Holy crap guys! I've been trying to get this thing published for 2 MONTHS!!! I've edited it so many times I've lost track of what I was doing....

I already have 2 more full chapters done...I was going to start chapter 6 but stopped, to do editing on chapter 2-3....and went ahead and edited all the other chapters too, just in case!

OMG....Holy Crap......WOW......

 

[MillieDynamite]

Happy trails to you, tomorrow. Come back soon. Want a cup of Irish with Jamison in it before you hit the trail. (Holy shit, I sound like Pops.)

@filthytrancendence - I'll be leaving tomorrow morning. I won't be popping in tomorrow but will try to pop in from time to time while gone.

It's going to be sunny and hot as another heat dome settles down over us. Tomorrow, I'll be heading up to the Upper Peninsula where it's cooler. I'll be checking out some lighthouses that I haven't seen yet while I'm gone.

I've got a fresh pot of coffee going and the teapot is hot. Donuts and danishes on the counter for those with a sweet tooth.

I'll be taking my laptop with me so I'll try to get some writing done while I'm gone. For now, I'm trying to set up the next scene before I spend the rest of the day packing and making reservations.

 

[filthytrancendence]

@filthytrancendence - I'll be leaving tomorrow morning. I won't be popping in tomorrow but will try to pop in from time to time while gone.

It's going to be sunny and hot as another heat dome settles down over us. Tomorrow, I'll be heading up to the Upper Peninsula where it's cooler. I'll be checking out some lighthouses that I haven't seen yet while I'm gone.

I've got a fresh pot of coffee going and the teapot is hot. Donuts and danishes on the counter for those with a sweet tooth.

I'll be taking my laptop with me so I'll try to get some writing done while I'm gone. For now, I'm trying to set up the next scene before I spend the rest of the day packing and making reservations.

Got it. I'll get things going starting tomorrow and until I see you're back!

 

[filthytrancendence]

blasting Ozzy Osborne

Don't worry, I'll keep everyone calm by playing nothing but Coldplay's discography the whole time

 

[NuclearFairy]

Don't worry, I'll keep everyone calm by playing nothing but Coldplay's discography the whole time

But Coldplay doesn't make for a good dirge.

 

[TheRedLantern]

But Coldplay doesn't make for a good dirge

It does if you're married and cheating

 

[MrPixel]

Safe travels, CK!

 

[filthytrancendence]

But Coldplay doesn't make for a good dirge.

Every time I remember this happened I have the strong feeling I'm making it up, but I swear to god this is true, and I can prove it because there were cameras there.

When Steve Jobs died, I was working for Apple (retail). So obviously that was a big thing. They shut down the store for the day of the funeral and did a live simulcast of the event in Cupertino to all the locations. And about 60% of the thing was actually a concert. And Coldplay was the headliner. And the song I actually remember them playing all these years later was Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall, which was the only new song they did, and I'm pretty sure it was unreleased at the time which is probably why I remember it. And I remember not being able to decide if that song was really apropos or not. Still can't.

Anyway, I guess you'd think that, but apparently whomever organizes billionaire funerals doesn't agree.

 

[NuclearFairy]

Every time I remember this happened I have the strong feeling I'm making it up, but I swear to god this is true, and I can prove it because there were cameras there.

When Steve Jobs died, I was working for Apple (retail). So obviously that was a big thing. They shut down the store for the day of the funeral and did a live simulcast of the event in Cupertino to all the locations. And about 60% of the thing was actually a concert. And Coldplay was the headliner. And the song I actually remember them playing all these years later was Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall, which was the only new song they did, and I'm pretty sure it was unreleased at the time which is probably why I remember it. And I remember not being able to decide if that song was really apropos or not. Still can't.

Anyway, I guess you'd think that, but apparently whomever organizes billionaire funerals doesn't agree.

That's, yeah weird to me.

But then whenever I think of what would make a good dirge (possibly because I can't make out the words in most songs) I usually think of old country or metal music. Pop just sounds too happy and easy going.

Like, Iron man or ring of fire I think would make an awesome dirge.

 

[filthytrancendence]

That's, yeah weird to me.

But then whenever I think of what would make a good dirge (possibly because I can't make out the words in most songs) I usually think of old country or metal music. Pop just sounds too happy and easy going.

Like, Iron man or ring of fire I think would make an awesome dirge.

It was definitely weird. But Steve was weird, Apple is weird, California is weird, and very rich people are very weird. Makes it impossible to tell if something was intended as a crass attempt at morale boosting or an earnest tribute to a strange man. Could very well have been both.

Chris Martin had a sense of humor about it at least. I just re-watched that to see how it jived with my memory. The first song they play is Yellow (the song that made them famous) and the first thing he said was "we played this song for Steve 10 years ago and he said it was shit and that we'd never make it."

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Freaking pool water is 96 degrees.

 

[NotWise]

Freaking pool water is 96 degrees.

Not very refreshing.

 

[ItsJustMeApathy]

Got an email from Amazon, a statement of my royalties. I made a whopping 86 cents! I will try to not spend it all in one place

I guess no one wants to read a post apocalyptic smutty romance story because it's been sitting for a year now with only one sale for the paperback(thanks mom ) and now someone read it on their kindle.

 

[Belegon]

Morning all! a quick coffee for me than off to physical Therapy.... already put 600 new words on my latest, hopefully more of that coming later.

 

[iwatchus]

Good morning. Missing CK's morning posts -- hope she is having a good time.

We are having our driveway redone. My SO loves sitting there watching the machines do their stuff. It will be nice having a flat driveway again.

I am almost finished my four major editing passes of my novel. My SO is starting to read it and has already made a bunch of useful comments to me. I will probably be reading to publish the beast once I get their final comments.

 

[filthytrancendence]

Good morning everyone,

As you probably saw, CK is on vacation for a bit, so you're stuck with me for the duration.

In an attempt to assuage your disappointment, I've baked a couple loaves of challah and started the coffee brewing. Naturally, Coldplay will be on in the background for crowd control purposes...

I've finally made the decision to shelve my WIP for now and start something new. It is the most optimistic thing I've been writing in a long time and my state of mind has swung the other way too far to do it justice. I think I need to bang out something short and achievable to get the momentum going again, so that's what I'll be doing over in the corner.

 

[MrPixel]

Morning, all! Thanks for tending to the coffee, FT.

I think the story that has been sitting in the can for two years - ~100K words in 12 chapters - has been edited and proofread to within an inch of its life. So now I get to write the headers. You know, the stuff you fill out when uploading the story, title, description, and those accursed tags. I long-ago determined doing it at upload time is perilous and asking for errors.

Today's tasks are:

• Run to the heart doc's office to get poked for blood tests. Lipids, so no food until then.
• Resume hacking at the weeds in the backyard. First pass 2/3 done yesterday. Second pass next week provided the "30% chance" of storms tomorrow doesn't become a 100% chance of yet another frog-choker.
• Shower. Again. Forecast heat index is 108°. We can't seem to break this heat dome. Brutal.
• Sit-down lunch someplace C doesn't hate (she's tired of the local Mex place).
• Swing by the grocery store for the cereal C forgot to put on yesterday's shopping list.

Busy day. Oh, then there's:

• 3-1/2 hour dress rehearsal for the opera production. Opening show is tomorrow night.

The opera is proving to be fun. It's work, but I'm buoyed by the awesome college kids on stage, the actors/vocalists. There is some incredible talent, especially the lead soprano whose voice is delightful and most definitely not the usual grating operatic style. Kudos to the producer and director - the production is proving to be impressively tight.

 

[NotWise]

My most recent story (Mom, etc) turned into a study of view and voting behavoir. This is the graph of views over time.



Breaks on this line usually reflect changes in where the story is available on Lit. The obvious break after 1 day corresponds to the publication of the next day's stories, which buried Mom, etc deep in the New list and category hub. The graph only covers the first three days, but there are no noticeable changes after that. The little bend at 0.4 days surprised me, and I searched back through some other stories. It seems to be common, but not usually so pronounced. I don't know what causes it.

This is the graph of votes vs views.

I usually take bends in this graph to show changes in the viewing population. There are obvious bends at about 4500 views ( 1 day on the first graph) and 5200 views (2 days on the first graph). There might be a slight upward bend at about 2400 views (0.4 days on the first graph), but it's hard to say for sure.

Publication of the next day's stories caused a big decrease in views/day and an increase in votes/view. The smaller number of readers were more prone to voting. My followers could have been a prominent part of that group. The beginning of the third day didn't change views per day, but it created a sharp decrease in votes/view. That was when my WIWAW essay went public. It's associated with a big change in the voting pattern.

I also promoted the story on Bluesky on the morning of the third day and probably got a few views and votes from that. There are a number of other Litizens in my network on Bluesky, and my prejudice is that they were responsible for the little kick. My promo scrolled off my page after a couple hours, and it probably disappeared for other people, too.

What I find surprising is the change in the rating. I record the rating but I don't usually pay much attention to it. Here's its pattern over time:

0. to 0.4 days: 3.56 (16 votes)
0.4 to 1 day: 4.11 (19 votes)
1 to 2 days: 4.16 (19 votes)
after 2 days: 4.81 (21 votes)

The trend has been to a higher rating, but the publication of the essay after 2 days corresponds to a surprising change in the population and the rating.

 

[NotWise]

I've finally made the decision to shelve my WIP for now and start something new. It is the most optimistic thing I've been writing in a long time and my state of mind has swung the other way too far to do it justice. I think I need to bang out something short and achievable to get the momentum going again, so that's what I'll be doing over in the corner.

Been there. Hope the ideas flow. For me, it's useful to sketch out a synopsis of the story. If I can make a detailed synopsis work, then I can usually make the story work.

I went the other way with my WIP. I initially restarted Girl in the Photograph and fixed its major structural problems, but that story is a paranormal romance that ends with the main character's demise. Different readers will probably see the ending in different ways, so it was potentially a downer that I don't need right now.

I set Girl the the Photograph aside to work on a different story I conceived at about the same time as Mom, etc. The new story is for Toys and Masturbation. Most of the stories in that category are short, with corresponding low scores. I wanted to do something a little different from the norm.

 

[filthytrancendence]

I wanted to do something a little different from the norm.

I kinda want to try and do something for a contest, but what I should probably actually do is write something for Erotic Horror. I've not done that yet and I'm in the right frame of mind and I've got about 4 half-ideas kicking around in the back of my head that I'm pretty sure I could wrangle into something coherent.

 

[NotWise]

I kinda want to try and do something for a contest, but what I should probably actually do is write something for Erotic Horror. I've not done that yet and I'm in the right frame of mind and I've got about 4 half-ideas kicking around in the back of my head that I'm pretty sure I could wrangle into something coherent.

You can write a contest story for Erotic Horror. I don't think I've seen one place in a contest, but there's nothing to stop you and you get the long exposure and extra views by doing it.

I hope to put my Toys and Masturbation story into Summer Lovin' (Summer in Santa Fe, in this case), but that means writing a lot faster than I have lately.