On the @fictionable#podcast we talk fiction, autobiography and colourful language with Donal McLaughlin – an author who insists he is not his character.
That small moments build into bigger adventures. That magic, is something real. That the greatest of all the world's alchemies is the discovery that a life is something cumulative.
At last I have been able to verbalise (textualise) my thoughts concerning the publication of my work. My attitude may be summed up by reference to the attached .gif.
You have to jump through all their hoops (formatting, stylesheet, citations, etc.)
You have to transfer all rights to them (no limits cited) for a remuneration of precisely zero pounds, euros, or dollars.
They will sell your article to their subscribers, keeping the proceeds.
If you want to make your article available to everyone, not just their subscribers, you have to pay the journal that has appropriated the rights to your creative, scholarly work a tidy sum that is somewhat to the north of €2800.
This is the route intelligent academics choose. (Don't laugh.)
Perhaps I'm not quite that intelligent, but I do have what I believe to be a better model:
A. If you want to sell your article, upload it to ko-fi at a price of $1.
Advantages over submission to "Folklore":
i. You can write it the way you want. No hoops.
ii. Your work is already worth more (to you) than the value "Folklore" grants.
B. If you want to give your article away (aka "Open Access"), upload it somewhere on the Web, and point hyperlinks at it.
Advantages over submission to "Folklore":
i. Your work is just as accessible as it would be, were it published by "Folklore".
ii. You just saved more than €2800. Buy yourself a celebratory beverage of your choice.
There is a disadvantage, however: no peer review. But if people can read it, they can evaluate it. Some of them might even let you know what they think.
This is how it happens for me. Perhaps, also how it happens for you. My morning begins with words, or maybe the words begin with me. Either way, you sit at your desk. You study. You stare. You read. You search for tracks and trails. Impressions in the snow.The marks of something worth following. The signs of something following me. A slow and awkward gait towards anything resembling spring...
"That was the truth of magic - blood and guts and semen and spit, organs kept in jars, maps for hunting humans, the skulls of unborn infants. The problem wasn't books and fairy tales, just that they told half the story, offering up the illusion of a world where only the villains paid in blood, the ogre stepmothers, the wicked stepsisters, where magic was just and without sacrifice." - Leigh Bardugo
A trivial point in what Stephen Hawking describes as “the outer suburbs of an ordinary spiral galaxy, which is itself only one of about a million million galaxies” in the vast cosmos of which we are only an infinitesimal part.
The harsh reality is that "history can live without one person", Chuck Palahniuk says. It does not need us at all. The world keeps turning whether or not we're here.
There’s tons of affordable paid providers too. You get a lot for the cost of one bubble tea per month.
And of course there’s the option to run your own site, which is probably easier and cheaper than you think. It’s worth giving it some thought.
But whatever you do: definitely keep a copy of your writing in a place you control, even if it’s just a bunch of text files. You never known when or for what you’ll need it.
Naldela: “I’ve only been seeing both for barely 2 years, but I love the sunset. The time when usually a stressful day ends and peace returns to the streets.”
Ykril: “I love it at sunrise to be woken up by my sweetheart in a very special way, but most of all, I love to watch the sunset together with her. Because as soon as the last sunbeam has disappeared behind the horizon, you can feel that the darkness is her strength.”
Calling all #readers of #trans#queer#erotica, I've got some paperbacks of "Heckin' Lewd: Trans and Nonbinary Erotica" still available. Selling signed copies for $25 USD + shipping.
If interested, comment below or email me at [email protected]. Supplies are limited so order ASAP!
This bounded infinite of empty is a source of consternation and possibility. A fathomlessness that breaks all beliefs, beyond all we could ever ask or think. The white whale. A blank page. An eye-level ether. A pale winter. You know the feeling. You sit at your desk. You stare. The blinking cursor glares back at me...
✍️ New: The big list of academic #writing resources
A list of books, blogs and tools to hone your scientific writing. I've tried to cover the basics of academic writing, deeper dives on style and even data #visualization.
‘He is steeped in the traditions of Western #philosophy but comes from a world where the #desert reminds you constantly that you are surrounded by a vast inimical emptiness; the ancient #Christian hermits used to sit in the #Egyptian desert because from there you could place a toll-free call to #Paradise’
Life on the other side of adolescence. When high-school is finished. When college is done. After you're all grown up. After you realize you really haven’t at all...