Almost missed my post for the day. It’s 6pm here. There’s been a lot going on.

Speculations 002 is out today, which you should check out and subscribe to. This issue features me rambling about quantum entanglement.

After finishing and publishing the newsletter, today was mostly about wedding stuff that needed to be taken care of. The mountain of craft supplies for decorations continues to grow, and finding a photographer is proving to be something of a challenge. I am completely in favor of paying someone fairly for their skills and service, but I just can’t bring myself to hire someone whose hourly fee is twice what my entire outfit for the wedding is worth.

My mom called me today from some store in the mall of my hometown, and used Face Time to show me the various silly little things she had found for the wedding. She needed me to pick a color and have an opinion about candy. Apparently we’re going to have some sort of self-serve candy setup for wedding favors. My dad insists that is a real thing he has seen at his catering gigs.

Did I mention I’m writing a short story about zombies on a space station crashing a wedding?

Speaking of space stations, I haven’t seen this week’s episode of The Expanse yet. We’re watching it after dinner, and I’m excited.

Last night, instead of watching The Expanse, I went to Ladies Game Night at Outlaw Moon, which was a really good time. I discovered the game Takenoko, which is in some ways very similar to Settlers of Catan, a game I’ve been fanatical about in the past. Takenoko has some different mechanics, and the art is really cute. It’s full of pandas and I need a copy of it.

I joined a Twitter writing challenge this week, where everyone commits to writing at least 500 words on their current project every day for a month. It’s my first real attempt to join one of these Twitter communities, and so far they’ve been a very friendly and welcoming group. Check out writingchallenge.org if you’re curious.

I’m warming up here on the blog before diving into my story. I have a word count goal of 1,000-ish that I would like to hit before dinner. Luckily that happens to be at a later time than usual this evening.

I have a ridiculous confession. This story I’m working on was preceded by the most complete process of outlining story beats, character development, location descriptions, etc., that I’ve ever done. And it’s the easiest time that I’ve ever had in producing prose. I always thought I was a pantser, and apparently that self-image has been holding me back for a long time. I’m a little annoyed at myself, but mostly I’m excited, because I’m having a lot of fun writing this.

In marketing news, I hit 500 Twitter followers yesterday. I’m hoping to have 1,000 by the end of the month. And once I have a few issues of my newsletter done, I’m going to start marketing it pretty intensely. I haven’t quite figured out my tactics for that project yet, but I’m hoping to document it here and provide something useful to any writers or artists trying to build a list.

Building my newsletter audience should get easier once I’ve finished this short story. It’s tied into the shared universe of two different books that I’ve been working on (I figured out they’re in different times but the same universe by doing the development work on this story!), and I’m hoping to use it to build some interest in those projects before they’re released. The whole “free download if you sign up for the newsletter” technique really does work.

I had my doubts about this trick a while back, but yeah, free stuff is a weirdly motivating thing. If you care enough about what someone has to say in that free thing to give up your email address, you’re probably ok with or even interested in hearing what else they have to say. As long as unsubscribing is easy and permanent, everyone is being treated like an adult in control of their information. It took me a little while to work out that this is one of the most ethical forms of marketing on the internet.

In blogging news, did you hear that the Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened up its entire collection of public domain work to be used by anyone? I may never look on Flickr for featured images again. Go play with that.

I’m going to blame the glass of red wine I drank while writing this blog for its meandering and its length. Have a lovely evening and a good weekend. I hope you are warm if you are somewhere cold.