I get it, you’re not rich. We’re all grinding, errry day. Some of us have illnesses to battle, some struggling with family issues, some people have made mistakes with their money- whatever the reason, I get it. Spare cash is not something a lot of people have…but there are a few things going on here.

This person posted in a “writers helping each other” type of group, and sillier things have been said. Though if the comments underneath it were anything to go by, quite a few people were annoyed. The OP wanted a personalised piece of art, catered to their idea, and it had to fit certain formatting criteria to be used on distribution platforms when the work is published. That means all rights to any stock photos used on the cover (different tiers and varying costs depending on sales/distribution,) there are potential model releases too. Then the designer has to build your shit with a program that costs nearly $350 dollars a year in addition to any backgrounds/scenery stock photos. Then you have to add however many hours they sit and construct your vision onto the digital canvas at the cost of maybe eating something, picking up their kids early or taking another gig worth more money. Unless someone is just starting out and openly asking for projects to practice with, it doesn’t seem likely it will be free.

There are different price points for work like this. I’ve seen covers cost $1000 and others that are $40. It’s usually about finding something you’re happy with price-wise and also artistically. There is a vast market out there and sometimes incredibly simple covers work best. If there is something you like that is more on the expensive side, you may have to adjust your vision or your spending habits…

Credits? For what? Huh? Credits are cool, if you work at (I dunno) a pizza place or somewhere I can get some chicken wingz but, at the end of the day, that doesn’t pay the artist’s electricity bill. Unfortunately, just living life means we all need money to keep things running, and offering an intangible vague thing (unless you want to transfer some bitcoin?) won’t help. Myself, personally I haaaate telling people the cost of things. I don’t like to charge people but when you weigh up costs of materials/advertising/whatever work has gone into making your product, there are overheads and costs which filter down no matter how hard you try to keep a thin margin. Sometimes you already operate at a loss just to get started/set up.

Indie authors/artists/musicians need the most help! They might not have a lot of sales or they’re just getting their business started, and it’s not easy. They need your custom, they need your belief in them. As I mentioned here , sometimes it just takes a local community to get behind someone’s great idea and get them into a better position/spotlight. ART SAVES LIVES. So why not support someone trying their hand at something? It’s easy to go for the big brand with lots of exposure but they don’t need you and they probably don’t really care that you purchased their product.

Why can’t you pay? The post seems kind of demanding and abrupt if English is the OPs first language. I think if someone was to ask politely, explain they needed a payment plan etc. a request like this would be taken seriously…The indie community is usually pretty friendly. There are probably designers who would be able to make it happen through a payment plan arrangement. All it takes is a tiny bit of research and your trusty (but corrupt AF) friend Google.

 

TLDR
*Stuff costs money sometimes. 🙁 You have to pay sometimes.

*There are different price points, weigh up what you want and what you are prepared to pay.

*Research your options

*Support local/small business when you can!

*Give me chicken wingz.

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All content is no copyright infringement intended. All posts are opinion only and are subject to change due to experience, kicking ass and learning how to adult more effectively. If you don’t like it, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya. Elements of original content may be reproduced with expressed permission from Ever Eden.

 

 

 

 

This post is inspired by the pic above, found in an online writer’s group.

Some well-known authors are celebrated because writing isn’t something everyone can do. You know what I mean, I’m not referring to the scratchy shopping list you left on the counter, I mean WRITE.  Mentioned here, sometimes other people aren’t inclined to write, busy or had other goals in their life and are not pursuing what you are. When someone can do something you can’t (for whatever reason) it becomes not only the intended entertainment, but also an appreciation for skill. Even if someone doesn’t gel entirely with the content, it’s the hope they can at least appreciate the artform.

When King of Spades hit stores, a few people I knew who were either not fiction readers or into supernatural genres picked it up anyway. These people did so to support me (I assume) and were curious even though they knew the book wouldn’t exactly be their style. I received positive feedback from every one of these people. I think the novel is a good story/plot (especially in this political and social climate) but also because the people who decided to read it, probably appreciated the humourous parts and turns of phrase.

At the point where a book is published, been through rounds of edits, beta readers etc, it is not the time to give your feedback in a way that you feel you would be telling the author what they shoulda, coulda, woulda done. It’s about the overall feel you took away from the completed book or talk about the parts which stood out for you and why. There’s no longer a point giving criticisms, even if it’s genuinely constructive or helpful – the book is complete. It is what it is. And just because you know them, doesn’t give you an allowance to think your personal opinion counts enough for them to overhaul the book, pay to have it re-issued etc

A review is different.

If you’re relaying an opinion you formed after reading the book, totally fine. But I’ve noticed a lot of people on social media author’s groups lament peers, friends, relatives and family can be disrespectful when it comes to their work, mostly because they think they can. A lot of people seem to still be in the frame of mind that just because a work was indie published, that it’s somehow not worth the respect of traditionally published books. That is a whole other blog post, but for now, I’ll just say that the differences between trad and indie seem to  rely on advances of money for sales that have not yet come to pass but also negatives like being unable to choose elements on your cover/ how your book is marketed while also being open to major changes a publisher or editor deems fit.

If you have a talent, a good story to tell and some time to piece it together, there is no reason why you shouldn’t just do it. That is why the pic at the top of this post bothers me.

So…They literally said that to you? Wow.

To begin with, if they used the term “completely shit,” they probably lack the vocabulary and intellectual prowess to actually have understood your book on any sort of acceptable level. Their interpretation probably isn’t worth much if they can’t supply at least some adjectives they learned in third grade.

One jerk? One jerk is okay. A few are okay. When it gets to where the majority who read your work are making valid criticisms is when you need to pay attention. If many of your reviews complain about grammatical errors (for eg.) maybe you could take some of those criticisms on board.

Was it a random comment? The internet has it all. It has positive and negative and it is Pandora’s box. Sometimes fuckhead trolls live in that box. There are people who will literally wait until someone writes “the sky is blue” only to reply with something implying that it’s racist or it’s actually RED at certain times of the year or during an eclipse etc. You are always going to come across people who are angry, bored, high or other who just want to throw a spanner in the works to get you off your game. Why? I dunno. Maybe it gives them a sense of power or entertainment. Again, some are just fuckheads.

Did you know the person who said that to you? Was it someone you’re related to or know IRL? When I was an older teen and writing more songs, a sibling would openly come into my room and tell me to STFU and that I sucked, knowing I had won competitions and indeed did not suck lol. Their words were usually to annoy me or to get me to be quiet because they wanted to sleep. Did they mean it? Probably not but if you have a person close to you who thinks it’s appropriate to tell you that your work is “completely shit,” they have other motivation and it’s probably not actually about your work. On the flipside, you may have an overbearing best friend or parent or partner who thinks you need to hear their weird opinion and consider it, even though it comes from a personal place and they might not have any knowledge about writing or your genre, demographic etc.

They might be one of those people who read your work about a bank heist and say something like “You know what that needed though? Like right when they come out of the bank with the money, they should like…see a chicken crossing the road. That would’ve been cool, like a metaphor or even kind of humour would have made it better.”

Ok.

People forget that when you wear the Writer Hat, they need to back the f off because even you barely have control. For me, when that Writer’s hat is on…nothing but the potential story is  considered. (That’s what first drafts are for.) I’ve found that staying mostly true to my vision has served me well. I was told not to end the first book on a cliffhanger for eg. My vision was to have the series continue after that so to me, it is working. If you have an idea and a plan, other people’s suggestions could probably be considered but maybe not acted on.

Other criticisms and suggestions come from people who have no.idea. about.writing...are PINCH OF SALT category. I have a friend, bless him, he is coming from a genuine place, but he suggests strategies that I know work for the industries he is in but will fall flat in an author’s world. I appreciate his suggestions and information but if you know the industry or even just knowing your own plans, you need to make a call on just how much you choose to listen to when they talk.

Consider feedback, see if it’s true, if a scene is slow or your grammar is needing a tweak but aside from that, if someone says your work is “completely shit,” move on. It’s not even worth the headspace trying to figure it out.

 

TLDR

*Some people don’t know what they’re talking about, be careful whose advice you take!

*People troll

*If they offer nothing, ignore them.

 

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All content is no copyright infringement intended. All posts are opinion only and are subject to change due to experience, kicking ass and learning how to adult more effectively. If you don’t like it, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya. Elements of original content may be reproduced with expressed permission from Ever Eden.

 

What do you do the second time you ever meet a man? You go riding in his car for hours to the middle of nowhere, where there is no phone signal and just bush and trees as far as the eye can see.

Welcome to last Saturday. Welp, I’m alive. *shrugs* And aside from screaming, “Whatever happens out here, stays out here!” as I awkwardly trample my way deep into the bushes to pee, it was a really good day.

I’m still not a whole person, but sometimes you have to move your feet physically before the inside/rest of you follows. I have a few friends who decided that the following months will be packed with all the things they wanted to say yes to but never did. This wasn’t like that, but when I got to VJ’s house and he was herding us to his gigantic off-road vehicle, I was nervous and very fatigued but thought “Meh, ok, fuck it.” I’d been home for nearly a year, recovering from a broken bone, my autoimmune relapses and sifting through the wreckage of my private life. I was almost well(?)

I’ve got this far in life knowing that whatever you have going on can make you want/need to break out and, for people not into substance abuse, you become a loose cannon. So you are dealing with that caged feeling, in addition to the problem on your mind in the first place.

I was wearing a dress, (which was actually comfortable tbh) and some Docs so it could have been worse, it was only a problem sliding out of his gigantic car and having the skirt section ride up, across from a full gas station, so…that was great. :\ VJ and I spent hours driving and I saw a lot of trees and hill areas that I don’t get to, while bumping and swerving on an uneven gravel path. At one point we reached an area where the path disappeared and I said, “You’re kidding, this is the end of the road?” and he replied, “No…this is the beginning.”

(*if you know you’re going off-road, wear a good bra, ladies. LOL)

Where I live is known to be flat so it’s not often I get to see those things (hills, crazy terrain.) There were some areas that were really inspiring visually (if you’ve read King of Spades,) it reminded me of the parts where Agent Darkrose and Agent Starr drive out of the desert installation at the beginning of the book, and also the road trip right before the car is sniped. At the time of writing this, Red Cowboys is still publicly unreleased but there is a chapter that takes place in a very similar setting(warm climate with miles of forest) and involves guns, blood and Agent Starr. So “over-stimulated” was an understatement in this circumstance.

Naturally, my mind was a million miles an hour and I was telling VJ about the case of Kremers and Froon too, two backpackers who became lost in bushland/forest areas and whose case spawned multiple theories until very recently. I was always unnerved by the fact they were supposedly using camera flashes in succession to light their path when they were lost in the dark…Even though they are just pictures of trees and whatever was directly ahead, I get shivers thinking about how dark it must have been and how desperate they were to need any minimal flash of light. And why didn’t they just stop for the night? Why are all the pictures very close in succession? If they were being chased by something…even scarier.

So, I was telling this ex-military/defence force guy who’s probably done directional training stuff in the middle of nowhere how “until today I was always wondering how ppl really got lost when backpacking,” because I didn’t understand it much. I’d never driven myself anywhere far enough that I was out of phone reception for long or anywhere that I couldn’t see some form of civilization. (Oh, believe me when I say this was a mere speck on the list of the MANY embarrassing things I said that day) Looking around, it was unnervingly obvious that without a car and the gravel paths, you’d likely be dead very soon. There were some creeks and bodies of water but you would probably walk for days before possibly noticing/locating one. And without phone reception (of COURSE he had satellite, phew) you would be absolutely screwed.

 

• • *I just want to stop here and tell the guys n gals who may be reading this DO NOT GO TO AN UNKNOWN PLACE WITH A GUY YOU’VE MET TWO DAYS EARLIER. When I read the start of my own post, I freak out. There is a little more to it, and I knew it was probably going to be okay.  I’m also blessed, and was also able to hang out with someone decent who was not a serial killer. It doesn’t mean you will be so lucky. So please don’t.

 

I was like an overexcited dog that never gets to leave the house. I was excited about everything, taking pics of trees, horses, wallabies, pointing at cows on farms on the way there.
(Everyone loves cows. See?)

After running around up hills and in sludge, I sat down on one of the chairs we brought with us to make the most of it.

I breathed air that wasn’t polluted, didn’t have wifi signals beaming, no phone about to ring etc. and I closed my eyes. We were near a running creek surrounded with flat rocks, mud and a sign that indicated the water rises and floods the area some days. I could hear birds in the trees somewhere to the left across the creek, and smell combinations of wood, leaves, water, dirt. I tried to make myself stay in the moment and think of nothing for a second, because one second is usually all this overworked brain can manage and…then VJ started fidgeting and walked away to do whatever manly, Viking men do in the back of their vehicle in the middle of nowhere.

When I opened my eyes he was walking across my vision with. A. Fucking. Shovel.

I stayed on my chair with my legs crossed, chillin out (because I’m cool like that,) and calmly said… “you gona kill me, bro?”

It was mostly a joke, but I was happy when he laughed too. 🙂

!!!!!

 

Here are some cool pics I want to turn black and white and more spooky. Australia is a great place and it was nice to get out of the city for a while to have an adventure and get some more ideas for the novels.

   

 

TLDR:

*Impromptu road trip to a place I’ve never been.

*Didn’t get murdered. \m/

*Weirdly regained a perspective I’d lost while hibernating and recovering for a year.

*Grateful for the opportunity to spend time with a new person and have fun doing something different.

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For more posts like these, subscribe to the newsletter at the website. We launch soon!

All content is no copyright infringement intended. All posts are opinion only and are subject to change due to experience, kicking ass and learning how to adult more effectively. If you don’t like it, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya. Elements of original content may be reproduced with expressed permission from Ever Eden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s always been real…but people who were paying attention didn’t get news coverage.

In the last few scenes of King of Spades we’re introduced to a throng of Truth for Life movement protesters holding signs and yelling things that are now becoming accepted reality. I know what it’s like to be on ground zero yelling those same things and interviewing, taking notes and pictures of similar. It comes with a vibe and feeling you can’t manufacture. Which is why things such as mob mentality and criminal boldness, knowing you have back up if you act the fool are common in certain movements. When we look at media discussing looting and violence stemming from protests there are a couple of factors some people don’t understand.

“Mob mentality” can go either way. I’ve only been part of groups years ago, similar to those who marched in the UK recently, featuring a cast of characters talking about the rights of the public. You can feel the vibes of the person next to you as you both listen to the words spoken from the stage and feel it resonate. People are spitting truth that you know, even if you don’t consciously know you know (ya know? :P) You’re surrounded by people who share your beliefs and when you go home, you are energised and thinking about how amazing human beings are, and the lives you could be living if you become the best version of yourself.

I imagine being part of “protests” where people decide to burn down a local store feel the same before people start deviating and acting like total fuckheads. They seemingly lack intelligence on how to channel energy in a constructive way and instead do things like follow old people home from a restaurant to scream in their faces and threaten them (there are disgusting videos out there.)

An old school OG Truther, I can tell you firsthand about the articles I saw immediately after 9/11 and the three towers brought down that day. Only two of which were mentioned in the original official 9/11 Commission report, a report several on the panel have criticised since.  There were three main consensuses prevalent in the media of the time: LIHOP, MIHOP and those who unashamedly went on the news circuit claiming “never let a crisis go to waste” regardless of how it came about. Which is precisely what the PTB are doing worldwide right now regarding the Rona. It has been used to further interests by certain industries and the careers of several politicians.

I understand people who are a little smug when the MSM has no choice but to report an event like the march in Trafalgar Square recently, even with their predictable skewed agenda and spin. The subject matter they once called “conspiracy theory” is emerging as unfortunate truth…and even though scoffed at by a MSM scrambling to maintain control, those with ears to hear will hear and it’s a very interesting time. And there are people who are a little unhinged in society, and you will find some in every nook but the MSM and the supporters of establishment narrative takes it so far it’s laughable.

Friendly REMINDER: the term “conspiracy theorist” was deliberately coined to immediately discredit a critical thinker, usually someone who has done the types of research others couldn’t be bothered with. You’ll catch these people spending hours trawling recently-disclosed/declassified official documents, following the careers of big players and the money involved in their seats of power. Some people laugh at them for willingly studying subjects they aren’t going to receive a benefit from eg: no official job, no grant, no qualification and usually only ridicule from people content to follow official narratives so they can sleep at night.

It’s a world of sad facts and questions and once you’re in, you can’t help but see the Matrix’s real code without all the pretty distraction.

The drudgery of that life is not for the fainthearted.

Every phrase, emotive word each news team regurgitates, the scripts they (literally)spread word-for word, all the attempts at division. BEWARE: watch the headlines. They start to read as labels when the MSM is scared. Headlines like: “Anti so-n-so claims to,”   “deniers refuse to ” Because when you assign labels and dehumanise, it makes it easier to divide people and turn them against each other. It’s a known war tactic. (For a cinematic take on it, check out Black Mirror ep: Men Against Fire, where soldiers are up against dangerous mutants they have to exterminate on sight, only to have their neural implants dysfunction and show they are killing harmless civilians.)

I was excited to see the same signs and chants depicted as mentioned in King of Spades, and proud to see people make an effort to say they were tired of being controlled by skewed numbers and nanny-state laws in their region. They did this with respect and were present to listen to speeches and feel they were being heard by coming together…although you won’t find news coverage of it here where I live…(they scared AF of the people and only mention alternative things to make fun of them. They literally claimed ‘Qanon’ as latecomers hijacking the #savethechildren movement even though it originated there LOL!!!!! news.com.au is a joke that makes me laugh every single day.) I can’t say I’m not dubious about Q etc but the facts remain, the recent movement did come from them.

BACK to KOS. Imagination saw the writing on the wall as far back as 2003 and you should read the books!  They also follow a kick-ass woman and touch on themes of mental health, grief, action, respect, love, advanced technology and human possibility through adversity and strength.

Red Cowboys is due out soon and is sure to continue the series in a way that is exciting and satisfying until the next book. It’s here I will say that the book AFTER Red Cowboys is written, titled and almost at the official editing stage, as is the one after that!!! so you will never wait a gap as large as the one we are currently in again. 😉

 

 

TLDR

*Yet again, specificities in the novels come to be?!

*Authorities are afraid of an informed intellectual crowd who want change and not chaos.

*I CAN PREDICT THE FUTURE! Muahahaaaaa 😛 jk

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For more posts like these, subscribe to the newsletter at the website. We launch soon!

All content is no copyright infringement intended. All posts are opinion only and are subject to change due to experience, kicking ass and learning how to adult more effectively. If you don’t like it, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya. Elements of original content may be reproduced with expressed permission from Ever Eden.