Every writer puts their heart and soul into every story; they chip away at the idea, plot, or characters, polishing each in turn until the end result is as good as they can make it, but it rarely ever shines as brightly on the page as it did in their imagination. Every writer longs for those rare occasions when, against all odds, they capture lightning in a bottle–when the story and its characters carries them off so completely that they forget they’re telling a story at all.
I’ve rarely loved anything I’ve written as much as I love this story, and I hope you’ll read it, whether or not you’re familiar with my other work.
Before she was a prisoner in Marianne’s crystal mines or just another face among the multitudes in the city of Seven Skies, Maddy had a different name and everything she could want—governesses, gowns, and gold to fill her pockets. And though she wasn’t the son her father had wanted, it was inevitable that one day she would inherit his title.
But Maddy’s predictable world is turned upside down when an extraordinary servant girl challenges everything she’s ever known; there’s a wider world beyond the comfortable confines of her castle, full of wonder and magic, and Maddy finds that the one thing she doesn’t have is the only thing she really needs.
I’m excited to be one of the fantasy authors contributing to this ridiculous project. Our Outrageous Fantasy is a chaotic, comedic web serial, in which each chapter is written by a different author, and only the previous chapter is guaranteed to be canon. It’s a bit like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, except with more talking cows.
The project is being organized by the folks over at The Fantasy Inn. I hope you’ll check it out! The first three chapters have been released, and they’re a hoot.
A common service that authors (especially indies) will provide to their fans is an email newsletter they can subscribe to in order to get notified of new releases, works in progress, and so on. For the last couple of years, I’ve been struggling to find one that was accessible enough for my purposes. (I’m blind and use a screen reader to operate tech.) I tried a few services that were well-known and reputable, but they were all severely lacking in accessibility. Just how inaccessible was shocking in some cases.
I came away from the endeavor figuring that I’d either need to use sighted assistance or roll my own solution–a prospect I didn’t particularly relish. So the whole project was put on the backburner for a little while.
Recently, a service that I’d not previously heard of began advertising on several RelayFM podcasts. DirectMailMac.com is different from the other services I’d tried in several ways, but the most key was that they use an application (macOS) rather than a web interface, to build and manage your mailing list.
With no expectations of success, I decided I’d at least check the service out and see if it was usable at all. I downloaded the application and began to explore.
At first, I was pleasantly surprised. All controls were labeled properly and accessible. In 2020, this should be the minimum apps are shipped with, but sadly, many developers won’t even put in that relatively trivial amount of effort. All the basics worked though, and I was becoming cautiously optimistic.
The real surprise came when I tried to build an email. This is generally done in these kinds of mailing list services by drag-and-dropping chunks of content around to create your formatted newsletter. That’s fine when you can see what you’re doing, but not ideal when you can’t—particularly if you want the result to be visually attractive in the end.
DirectMail’s macOS app detects if you are running VoiceOver (the Mac’s built-in screen reader) and, when you add new content blocks to your email, offers a UI that walks you through the process of properly placing it in relation to other blocks already there.
“Do you want this block of social media links above the footer text or below the spacer?” “Do you want this new text block to appear in the first or second column?” It’s all quite intuitive. You can even add descriptions to images embeded in your newsletter for visually impaired subscribers.
I have no idea what prompted this company to put this level of work into making sure their app was not just accessible but a great and fully usable experience for VoiceOver users, but I love them for it! I wish more companies would put that kind of time and effort into making sure all their users had a superb experience.
As a result, I’m preparing to relaunch my own author newsletter–and the best part is, I can design and write it fully independently! If this is a service you have a need for, I cannot recommend DirectMailMac.com highly enough.
Entering the final phase before release of a new story is both the best and the worst. The excitement and anticipation is awesome; ironing out all the technical bits and pieces is tedious. The upcoming release is one of my favorite things I’ve written. Can’t wait to share! ✍🏼📚
One of the most difficult things to deal with as a blind author is book cover design. Entrusting the “face” of your work to someone and never entirely knowing whether the final product fits within the theme inside your head is frustrating and stressful. ✍🏼📚
I wish I could be excited for Star Trek: Picard. I’m a lifelong Trekkie. But TNG and Picard are my least liked series and captain of the franchise. I’ll check it out eventually, but it’s weird to have a new Trek that I am not excited for. 🖖🏽😔
I spent a number of wonderful hours over the holiday season building Lego and Mega Construx sets with my family. (Mega Construx are similar to, and compatible with, Lego bricks.)
First, there was the Masters of the Universe Castle Grayskull set, and if you’re reading this blog you already know of my love of the MotU property.
But this isn’t just a recreation of the outside of the castle. Mega Construx has gone all out and largely recreated the entire play set that came with the action figures, drawing on elements mainly from the 1980s toy, but also from the 2002 and 2013 versions as well. Inserting the Power Sword into the whole to the right of the Jawbridge causes it to open on its own!
Just like the 1980s toy, the throne moves to activate a trapdoor on the left side of the front interior of the castle, dropping unwary foes into the dungeon below. That dungeon, similar to the later incarnations of the castle, has a working dungeon door and opens and closes. The door even includes a turning lock with an insanely tiny removable and turnable key.
Much like the 1980s and 2013 versions of the play set, the Mega Construx kit includes the side wall of the castle which attaches by a hinge, allowing the two sections to be closed up.
Inside the side wall is a 3d recreation of the computer console that, in the 80s, was only a cardboard cutout, as well as a working elevator, modeled mostly after the 2013 version.
But this 3508 piece monstrosity was not the end of the brick building fun.
Also from Mega Construx, the the Masters of the Universe Wind Raider vehicle comes with moving wings and a working grappling hook which can be pulled back to the ship via a clever crank mechanism.
But, lest you think our nerdy fun ended with MotU, there was another set, which I received as a Christmas present that was also awesome!
One of my favorite TV sitcoms of all time is F•R•I•E•N•D•S, but being blind, I never had a great sense of the layout or detail of the iconic Central Perk coffeeshop. That, however, is no longer the case, now that I’ve built this fantastically fun set from Lego.
“Could this be any cooler?”
The man whose hair shines brighter than the sun.
“Smelly cat, smelly cat, what are they feeding you?”
I’ve been a huge Lego fan for most of my life, but haven’t done a lot with them in recent years. This has really rekindled my enthusiasm for the hobby, and I’m totally blown away by the quality of Mega Construx. I will be building more this year, I fear.
“Now everybody’s talking about this new decade/Like you say the magic numbers,/Then just say goodbye to the stupid mistakes you made.” – Song of the Day – Waiting for That Day by George Michael 🎵
