For those who have not been keeping track, I haven't run a live serial since April 2021. Between mathNEWS and Mercury fic posts, I've spent over two years on reruns. I've no idea how much of that has been due to parenting and how much due to pandemic teaching (not to mention teaching under conservatives). But I've decided we're due for another.
I will try to keep serial updates to the every two weeks schedule, with the first week for voting and the second for me to write. I say try, because even though I'm only teaching part time, it still feels full time. We'll see if I can manage it.
It will also be an Epsilon style story, but (at least at first) not from the perspective of the Epsilon station.
More backstory here: From February to May of this past year (2023), a friend of mine did a campaign based on the "Troubleshooters" Roleplay system. (This after my Avril character passed away in TORG in January; I posted about that on my home blog.) In this "Troubleshooters", I played Angel Rusée, the bunny ears veterinarian. Given Epsilon is the resting ground for many of my RP characters, I've decided to bring her back here.
She's visually "played by" Charlotte Yaeger from Strike Witches. Different personality (I think, I haven't seen much Strike Witches, I searched bunny ears).
The role-play setting is the year 1963, in a fictional Europe based on Belgian and French style comics. There is a joint French-Japanese mission to the Moon slated for 1964. Of course, Europe still has the Iron Curtain and we don't have sexual equality, so it's not all wonderful. Sometimes, it's difficult to even figure out what day of the week it is (see below).
I don't know if this is a good idea, but I want to try it, so we'll see how it goes.
Here's our first votes. How do YOU think the serial should go? (What might YOU read?)
Writing related, I have now joined AO3 (Archive of Our Own) as it's been suggested that Time & Tied might play well there. Recall the story's already on RoyalRoadL so it's not like my website is the exclusive location.
Knowing that, here's other (unpolled) questions, should I run it at the same time as Epsilon here? Should I wait? Alternatively, should I even start there with T&T, or would it be better to start with something else, like the fanfic I've just been reposting?
I don't yet know how engagement works on that site. Input appreciated.
Meanwhile, FWI, "Time Untied" is now 265,000 words (officially splitting off into "Time Denied" around the 160,000 mark) and it's GETTING there. I'm actually far enough along with the plot threads out that I can see a resolution in the nebulous future. I'll be trying to tackle it again in November, as per usual. I hope audience interest hasn't completely waned, some earlier edits will be needed before the unveiling.
We could be a year out, unless that's optimistic, depending on whatever else happens in my life.
COINS UPDATE
As long as I'm updating, let's also talk coins. We haven't had any behind the scenes update since my "Summary of 2020" post back in April of 2021.
A reminder, to end 2015, I had 42 coins from that year. During 2016 I got 37 minted coins (some in BC). During 2017 I got 20 coins minted that year (some before June). During 2018 I got 21 coins minted, during 2019 I got 17 coins minted that year, then pandemic. During 2020 I got one, plus a quarter to start 2021, so calling it two.
In 2021, there were also only two (and again the quarter might have been the start of February 2022, I don't recall). Conversely, in 2022, I started getting current quarters in MAY. By the end of the year, I had 10 coins (half were quarters). So, easier time travel is returning.
Except, this year, 2023, nothing yet. I strongly suspect that's because we have no more queen. With the death of Elizabeth II about a year ago (Sept 8) all the Canadian coins will need a new image on the back.
I have come across more coins of prior years subsequently, by the way. Ten 2022 coins, including a special loonie. Nineteen 2021 coins including a special dime. Twelve 2020 coins (though no nickels). I'm not entirely sure why I've kept collecting. Proof of concept, maybe?
The time car may possibly make a return for the T&T sequel, so let's say it's research.
STATS UPDATE
I don't want this to be long post, but let's finish up with thoughts on Stats, since once again, it's been over two years since I've said much of anything.
First, my publicity has been abysmal. There's no time for that, and teaching, and parenting, and actual writing, and some reading too. Not if I want to shop for groceries and sleep and mundane stuff like that.
Absolutely not helping was the implosion of Twitter a year ago (with the idiot billionaire who will not be named), and I've moved to Mastodon. Last month, JetPack finally allowed for auto-posting there instead of Twitter (I'd already been using Tumblr in place of Twitter, even though I never spend any time there.) The thing with queuing up posts a couple months in advance is one tends to forget that they're going out on the Sundays.
As a reminder, my engagement high water mark was in 2017, when I had almost 7k views across all the content on this site. Since then, there's been more content and less views. In 2020, with everyone stuck at home, I was down to 1,635 page views on the site (670 visitors). In 2021, we had 1,394 views (402 visitors) and in 2022 a slight uptick to 1,531 views (896 visitors) overall.
Meaning we're mostly holding steady (even though content has increased), seemingly with a lot more people looking at less views per page. That's not great.
It's continuing this year. So far in 2023 we've passed 1,300 views, but with over 1,000 visitors, implying a lot of people arriving, looking at a single page, then leaving. I need to fix that, and I'm hoping the new organic serial will help. If you have other suggestions, let me know.
In terms of interaction, the last comment I had was May 2022 (thanks John), so it's been a year of silence there too. At least about the site, fortunately, I have had commentary on some of my Mastodon posts. I mostly talk about "Time Untied" there, though occasionally my other writing.
Speaking of, shout out to #TimeTravelAuthors, the hashtag which didn't even exist 14 months ago, meaning this must be the first mention on this site. It's because of that group, that I had a short story published in December 2022. (On paper in February 2023.) It's in this anthology, The Accidental Time Traveler's Collective, and you should check it out because there's lot of other great stories there along with my "Free Will".
That was added to the catalogue of all my writing as well.
That's all the key stuff, let me know if you think there's something that I missed out on, or if you otherwise have any questions. The above polls will be open for a week, then I'll see if I can crank something out.
Thanks as always for reading, and take care.
