Category: Connections

In 2006 I wrote 255 stories, making it two years in a row without missing an update. Even if a couple of those updates were on Pacific time. Ahem.

This year, barring catastrophic brain injury, we’ll hit 1000 stories (and, even less meaningfully, 1001). We’ll also see the debut of the Anacrusis book, Ommatidia, although our impending move isn’t going to make that any easier to finish than the hecticity of the past six months. Tomorrow morning I’ll post the last completed six-word story from the initial round of submissions. More about that in the next paragraph.

The six-word stories were fun! Since Anacrusis has apparently outlasted Constrained.org and now I need a new paragraph for the FAQ, I’m going to make the offer permanent. Send me a six-word story, and I’ll probably write the other ninety-five, for as long as I’m doing Anacrusis. No guarantees on when and I probably won’t mess with the pennies, but you will get credit in the popup text. I really can’t think of a smaller thank-you for doing my work for me. Wait, no! Let’s talk about pennies again.

People have talked about an Anacrusis wiki. I’ve talked about a blink-fiction community. I’ve also talked about my general distaste for authoritative canon, then put the lie to that by refusing to finish six-word stories about my canon characters. Finally, I’ve got ommatidia.org just sitting around right now.

What if I started a new wiki, as a host for both information on recurring characters and new 101-word stories by people like you? It’s pretty arrogant for me to launch a new site and say “humans! Discuss the amazing things I have created!” It’s also silly of me to try to host stories, since I think all the Anacrusis readers interested in constrained writing of their own already have perfectly serviceable blogs or story journals.

That said, things like the stories I repost from the comment feed, timeline conjecture and the Millicent Resurrection Army suggest there’s a demand. The basic concept here is to throw open my canon and offer you tools to create new canon of your own. Given the opportunity, would you contribute?

“This offer is not connected to posting our site on your blog but we will be very happy if you will write about us!”

I got some pretty neat spam today: Booksprice.com offered me a free copy of either Snow or My Name is Red by, er, “Price Nobel Winner Orhan Pamuk” in exchange (except not in exchange; see above) for my blogging about their site. Not a bad deal. I’m guessing they found me through Technorati–anyone else receive similar email?

The other way they might have found me is that I’ve written about Bookfinder before, and it’s sitting right on Booksprice’s target market. I tested both services against my go-to out-of-print book, Orson Scott Card’s Maps in a Mirror: Booksprice’s results returned a little faster, but it found only copies of the reissued paperback from a few years ago, whereas Bookfinder found multiple copies of the original hardback at comparable prices. Winner: Bookfinder!

On the other hand, Booksprice calculates shipping for you, and it also looks for used CDs, DVDs and video games. Pretty tempting. I doubt it’ll find anything cheaper than the best price you could get on eBay, but it’s probably less hassle.

I’m not interested in either of the books they offered, but I’ve done my part and I’d be happy to give one of them away. If you are interested, shoot me an email and I’ll either give them your address or give them mine and pass the book on to you.

This is the first time I’ve actually been offered goods (or money, or services) for PageRank. I’m on the A-list now! I will take my free convention passes in pairs, please.

Hey Louis Villains. I’m running an in-store demo of Dogs in the Vineyard this afternoon at the Louisville Game Shop, and if you like games that tell stories you should come.

This is the first time I’ve ever run a game for people I didn’t know. I’m kind of nervous!

Live the good life on the offworld colonies

Think of somebody you knew briefly, for a week or two, maybe one night, maybe a month: a camp counselor or a host sister, a bad date or that guy who dropped out before midterms. Think of somebody you owe.

You’ve got one afternoon and one present, no larger than a garment box, to give this person. You have a table at a restaurant anywhere (except Paris) in the world.

Where do you eat lunch? What’s in the box?

Contractual obligation

I know I lied the last time I tried this, but if you are one of the first five people to email me in response to this post, I will draw you a picture, about yourself. Seriously. Also you can post this in your own journal if you want.

Update 10.05.06 1649 hrs: Time’s up! Scott, Maria, Ken, Josh, Hillary and Jon will be getting drawings. Someday. I know that’s six but the last two got theirs in at exactly the same time.