WORDS, Writing

The Joy of the Creator

I can be pretty moody at work, depending on how much stupid is being thrown at me from all directions. I would say that my average mood has gone from anger to indifference as of late as I slog through each day’s 8-hour adventure.

There are brief moments of happiness to be found, though, whether its from coworkers’ jokes, a good lunch, or even the occasional not-completely-angry-at-us customer. I was having something of a ‘blah’ day earlier this week when I stopped to have a conversation with one of my cubicle-neighbors. The conversation awoke my muse and I spent my lunch hour starting on writing a short story that was inspired by that conversation.

The story isn’t anything terribly special; it’s supposed to be a quick gag story that I’ll post onto my website. But I enjoyed writing the beginning of that story, so much so that I returned to the office a few minutes late. I spent the remainder of that afternoon in the office in a really good mood. I was happy not only because of the work I had done, but also at the anticipation of finishing that story. Thoughts of dialogue and plot points popped into my head on occasion.

I don’t know if it was because I hadn’t written anything in awhile, but that one hour or so of writing made me feel wonderful, even if it I wasn’t something terribly important. There’s just something about creating something new that is very satisfying, second only to the euphoria of finishing it!

Eduardo Soliz, FURRY, WORDS, Writing

Rewriting History

writing I previously mused about the universes my stories take place in. There, I mentioned that the majority of my stories did not take place in ‘the real world’ (Earth-Prime). Instead, I have a parallel world (Earth-F) that is inhabited by furries but is otherwise similar to our reality, but for the problems that possessing fur, claws, and sharp pointy teeth might introduce.

I recently found myself writing two stories that inched a bit closer to the real world than usual and went through the trouble of making sure they didn’t get too far away from their real-life influences.

The first, “Rules of the Game,” was based on the invention of basketball by James Naismith but transposed on to a world where a furry basketball league exists (FBA). While I had the basic outline for the story down, I took it upon myself to research both the real-life events that led to the creation of the game as well as what limited information I could find on the fictional history of the Furry Basketball Association. While I didn’t have to do so, I did the research in the interest of accuracy and I’d like to think the story came out better for it.

Another as-of-yet-unpublished story (“Epiphany”) gives a fictional account of what may have influenced the creation of some well-known characters. I could have simply written the story with no regards for the real events or individuals involved, but I wanted it to make real-world sense even though it doesn’t exactly take place in the real world. Once again, I did my research and I hope that the story stands up to scrutiny.

I might be the only one that cares about such things, but such is the price of having an anal-retentive computer guy brain!

Books, One Sheet Stories, WORDS, Writing

Three Years and Many Words Ago…

On October 27, 2011, I uploaded One Sheet Stories to Amazon.com, which marked the beginning of my adventures in self-publishing. Three years later, I have self-published a total of six e-books to the tubes so far: one non-fiction book and five super-short story collections. My works can be found on Kindle, nook, iTunes, and Kobo.

Like many other creative persons, I hoped that my creations would be well received. While the number of copies of One Sheet Stories that were sold that first year could be counted on one hand (it’s free now), my second book, The Rules of Tech Support, has sold over one hundred copies and was downloaded over four hundred times when I gave it away on Amazon.

One reason I write is in the hope that this endeavor can result in financial independence, but realistically it will take some doing. I have received a small amount of royalties. Not much, but enough for me to let Uncle Sam know, for what that’s worth. There are definitely no plans for me to quit my day job anytime soon. I have, however, gained knowledge from my successes and failures that I have begun to share with others.

I like to think that my writing has improved over those three years; the fact that I give away some of my earliest works for free now is a reflection on how rough some of those early stories were. As evidenced by the slow start, I may have been a bit premature in attempting to sell my works. If nothing else, I learned that I needed to package at least seven stories to justify the ninety-nine cent price tag. Lessons learned and all that.

My attempts to sell paper copies of my books were met with what I can only describe as a fantastic level of indifference (insert lamenting about how ‘nobody reads anymore’ here), but the opportunity to spread the word about my work and talk to like-minded individuals have made up for the lack of financial success. Luckily the financial costs are low and the potential for higher levels of success are there, so I press on.

Of course, there are things that I still need to work on; length in particular is something that still vexes me. I have at least one idea for a novella that I would like to complete someday, but only a few partially finished chapters sit unloved on my hard drive. I have also taken a few tentative steps towards writing different kinds of stories, but the majority of my works are still humorous (I hope). Marketing is another challenge that I am looking forward to addressing in the future.

As I enter my fourth year of being a self-published author, I can only hope that as I write and publish more, I sell more and who knows, maybe someday I will get to really say ‘take this job and shove it’ for good. As my fourth year begins, I have two follow-ups to The Rules of Tech Support in the works as well as another science fiction collection and of course, more furry stories.

Writing and publishing has been an adventure for me so far, and I hope that you (and many others!) will join me on what should be a fun ride in the years ahead. Thanks for reading.

Books, Con Fluff 1, Con Fluff 2, CREATIVE, FlipSide Stories, FURRY, JUST SAYING, Nine to Five Lives, One Sheet Stories, Seven Super-Short Sci-Fi Stories, WORDS, Writing

Earth-Mine

writing
When I started writing fiction, I didn’t give much thought into linking my short stories together or having them take place in a shared universe. As time went on, I did find myself putting some of them into a few distinct worlds:

“Earth Prime” is our home-sweet-dimension, and given that the majority of my stories involve some combination of furries, super-science, and fantasy, I don’t know that many of them actually take place here. I do have a few sci-fi stories that take place ‘twenty minutes into the future,’ that is, near enough for us to relate to them (I hope!).

“Earth-F” is a parallel version of our world inhabited by furries. These stories tend to be humorous and I like to ‘Hanna-Barbera’ the names in those stories. For example, in a story that took place in a television studio, an older character referred to old-time TV stars such as “Mewcille Ball” and “Droopy Sales.” I know, I know!

On “Earth H-minus” mankind has destroyed itself in what becomes known as the “Final War” and after their intelligence has been increased due to increased mutations, the furries eventually inherit the Earth. One as-yet unpublished story takes places in a period where humans and furries coexist, though not harmoniously. Society is eventually rebuilt by the furries but I haven’t quite hammered out the predator/prey relationship rules yet or if the humans were completely eradicated. Yeah, its not exactly a happy place.

The ‘Enchanted Forest’ stories obviously happen in a fantasy world, but I haven’t done much there (like come up with a clever name) though it has been established that magic does have limits. For now, anyway.

I should probably sit down and figure out just where all my stories fit, because inevitably some reader out there is going to try to ‘connect the dots’ and completely screw it up. Well, assuming I haven’t already! 😀

Click here if you’d like to read some of those stories!

TECH, Uncategorized, WORDS, Writing

Feels Trip

writing I consider myself an entertainer, and I write partially out of the hope of bringing a brief moment of happiness into someone’s life. If I can put a smile on someone’s face, then I consider that a win. Unfortunately, since the overwhelming majority of what I do is online, and I’m just getting started, feedback can be hard to come by and so I never get to see those chuckles, smiles, or groans (at the puns, I hope). I suppose it’s one of the downsides of publishing in the digital world, though I am working on attending more conventions so I can “press the flesh,” as it were.

Thus, when feedback does come along, I feel good because it means someone is reading, even if they didn’t like what they read. If I get positive feedback, then I have a ‘YOU LIKE ME YOU REALLY LIKE ME’ moment. While I do know that people are buying my work based on sales reports, actually hearing from readers always give me the warm fuzzies.

Writing makes me feel good, which makes others feel good, who tell me, which makes me feel gooder and want to write more! Its a happy cycle! 😀

Con Fluff 2, FURRY, JUST SAYING, Uncategorized, WORDS, Writing

Second Lives

A real stinker

As a creator, you never know how your works are going to be received. Things done on just a whim can become your Next Big Thing while your Magnum Opus sits next to it unloved despite all of the blood, sweat and tears that have been (metaphorically, I hope) poured into it. You release your art into the wild and it’s up to John and Jane Q. Public to sort it all out.

In the same way that ‘stories write themselves,’ characters can take on a life of their own. “Chris the Watchfur” was intended to be a one-off character in a conbook story titled “The Tell-Tale Tie,” which can be found in the upcoming Con Fluff 2. The story and character were inspired by my friend Chris Holm, who took it upon himself to draw the character. A friend also drew the Watchfur as part of an artist Secret Santa, and when I later needed a villain for another conbook story, he made yet another appearance, this time as a supervillian with time-based superpowers. Oddly enough, other characters I have written for the explicit purpose of writing a series of stories with them have not managed to escape the confines of their first story.

Not bad for a one-off character, and a crook, no less!

Books, BUSINESS, Con Fluff 1, CONS, CREATIVE, FOOD, FURRY, HOUSE, JUST SAYING, RANDOM REVIEW, RANDOMIZER9.COM, TECH SUPPORT, WHATS GOING ON, WORDS, Writing

RANDOM REVIEW: 2013 A.D.

2013 As the final hours of the year tick away, I have to say that 2013 was a really good one for me.

After years of dealing with apartments and all that malarkey, I broke down and bought a house. Home ownership has been pretty awesome so far: I went from one-bedroom apartments to a two-bedroom house with a garage and a huge backyard and rabbits and I can barbeque and have friends over and I love it. Given the age of the house, home repairs and replacing things will eventually come but for now its been smooth sailing.

On the e-book front, I decided to try to sell printed copies of my work at a few conventions and events and failed spectacularly, at least from a business standpoint. I can count my total sales on my hands. People just don’t read much anymore, or at least not the types of folks that go to anime or furry conventions. On the plus side, I did get to talk to lots of folks, present some panels and if nothing else, hopefully inspire some folks to ‘go it alone’ themselves. I only published one new e-book (should have been two, but life and all that) and definitely need to up my output next year.

2013 was a fun year of conventions, camping, writing, video games, furries, cookies, home maintenance and most importantly, friends and family. I am optimistic that 2014 will be even better; my goal is to compete at least two story collections as well as the follow-up to “The Rules of Tech Support,” which is my best-seller so far. I am also hoping to attend some new conventions, make new friends, and well, get some work done on the house. So without any further ado:

MISSION START!

BUSINESS, JUST SAYING, RANDOMIZER9.COM, TECH, TECH SUPPORT, WHATS GOING ON, WORDS

“De-empathized”

Tech support folks are often accused of not caring about customer problems. Most of you won’t want to hear this (and the rest of you will nod your heads in agreement), but the unfortunate truth is that yeah, many of us in tech support really don’t care about your problem.

A tech support person hears so much wailing and gnashing of customer teeth over the course of their job that it eventually fails to have any meaningful effect. We eventually become ‘de-empathized’ and thus lose our ability to feel empathy or sympathy towards our customers. Most of us don’t start out with much to begin with so it doesn’t take very long to reach that point.

Why? A few reasons:

First, a tech can interact with a lot of customers, particularly if they do phone support. Let’s assume a tech talks to 20 customers over the course of a day: That adds up to 100 people over the course of a week, or 5,200 people in a year. Considering that the majority of them of them are calling because something is not working, a fairly high percentage of them are going to be angry, upset, and frustrated. While most people are civil, many are not, and of course, there are a few jerks, to put it politely. I submit to you that it is very difficult to hear all that negativity (to say nothing of the stupidity) and not have it affect you.

Secondly, techs get the same paycheck regardless of how many problems they fix or don’t fix. If a tech puts in extra effort its probably because you’re being nice, or at least civil, but there are usually no consequences for not being able to fix a problem. As much as I hate to admit, there are some problems that we can’t fix.

Finally, there is the repetition of hearing the same cries/pleads/screams for help day after day after day. When you hear every customer tell you their problem is a matter of life and death the phrase becomes meaningless. There is a saying that sums this attitude up best: “A failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.” The constant exaggerating by customers only aggravates us further; are we supposed to believe that a customer just sat behind a computer for three hours on a stuck install?

Don’t confuse indifference for laziness, though: Those jaded-don’t-give-a-crap support people are still going to do their jobs, but they are going to do it without a single shred of touchy-feely-ness. I can’t pinpoint exactly when I stopped caring, but I haven’t cared about my customer’s problems for quite some time, now. Unfortunately the lack of empathy and concern can be heard loud in clear in my ‘phone voice’ at work, and I’ve been called out on it on occasion.

But just like I do when I hear the cry of ‘it has to be done now’ or ‘it was working yesterday’ or ‘its your company’s fault.’ I sigh, fix their problem or tell them it can’t be fixed, and move on to the next person. Its just water off an apathetic duck’s back.

BUSINESS, CONS, CREATIVE, FURRY, JUST SAYING, Oklacon, RANDOMIZER9.COM, WORDS

Faith In Humanity -1

It would appear that I may have been ripped off again by an artist at Oklacon this year. 😦 Last year I paid for a commission that I never received, and this year I ordered a print that has not yet arrived in the mail even though the seller said they would be sent out ‘as soon as we get home.’ I am holding out hope that it will appear in my mailbox any day now, but my optimism is fading now that its 2-1/2 weeks after the fact.

Part of it is my fault, I suppose: I’m often told that I have too much faith in people, and I don’t deny that’s probably true. I like to think that most people are honest, particularly if they are conducting business, so I didn’t bother getting the names of the folks involved. After all, they have my contact information and they can let me know if something comes up. Unfortunately, that also leaves me no recourse should the seller fail to deliver. (ba-doom tish) I hold out hope that the sellers weren’t being dishonest: maybe life got in the way, or they lost my address or USPS lost the package or their computer crashed or house burned down or something else happened to explain why I didn’t receive that which I paid for.

Like I said, too much faith in humanity.

It sucks that some less-than-honest (or perhaps incompetent) characters that were in the Dealer’s Den have to cast a cloud on what was otherwise an fun time. I plan to going back to Oklacon next year, but I’ll be holding onto my cash a little more tightly.

Naturally, the optimist in me still expects to find that print in the mailbox tomorrow, but he’ll eventually give up after another week…maybe.

Books, BUSINESS, CAMPING, CONS, COOKING, CREATIVE, FOOD, FURRY, JUST SAYING, Oklacon, RANDOM STOPS, RANDOMIZER9.COM, TECH, WHATS GOING ON, WORDS, Writing

51 Things I Noticed at Oklacon 11

oklaconlogo This year marked my second Oklacon, and I did a much better job of keeping up my usual list despite, or maybe because I kept it on old-fashioned paper!

Fursuit parts are apparently very good for keeping yourself warm.
This is a great con for attention whores: Just yell or talk very loudly and EVERYONE on the campsite can hear you.
Anyone playing the guitar at 7AM should be shot or at least kicked in the nards.
I’m thinking that its about time to retire my old Sears Hillary tent. 😦
I was happy I could get a signal on my Verizon iPad in nearby Watonga, OK, but then I got to the campsite annnd its gone!
Even instant cappuccino tastes great when you’ve been sleeping in 30-degree weather.
I’m not sure which is bothering me more: not wearing my university ring or not having a comb in my pocket.
Someday Dr. Nuka will tire of my ‘What’s up Doc?’ greeting and get all sciencey on my tail.
Somehow ‘All My Exes Live In Texas’ got stuck in my head.
They should probably make sure the participants are able to play volleyball out of suit first.
Plastic hammer + heavy metal stakes = FAIL
I was a bit overdue for a shave on Thursday but the cold is keeping me from doing so.
Good idea: Putting QR codes on my dealer’s table sign. Almost Good Idea: Putting QR codes on my dealer’s table sign at a con where cell reception sucks.
Maybe its just me, other folks seem to be doing just fine. Just what I need: another reason to dump Sprint.
I learned today that Canada apparently has its own version of Texas called Alberta. The thought that each country in the world may have its own ‘Texas’ might explain a lot…and fills me with fear.
One of the researchers was having problems with her camera and was getting frustrated, I had to quip: “This is the part where they usually call me at work.”
Even though I’m not at work, my tail was still dragging at about 4PM…should have had that second cup of coffee!
The collective rolling of eyes could almost be heard whenever someone insisted they were the only one in the furry fandom whose fursona was an X.
Best money I’ve spent recently: $15 for a small stool for sitting in the tent; its a little snug in the forbidden zone, but otherwise worked well.
Its funny how the lack of data turned my smartphone into a glorified watch…and a phone.
I only posted once to social media all weekend and haven’t missed it. It feels good to be talking to people that are actually sane.
The rain snuck up on us Friday night but surprisingly nothing got into the tent…there but for the grace of God go I.
Unlike last year, the bathrooms were kept up and I even contributed by plunging a few times and even fixing a toilet, nice to put that homeowner skill to use.
I should have been annoyed by Reville being played at 9am, but instead I found it amusing…because I was already awake.
My writing panel went well, four people showed up!
Hot dogs? At a furry con? Say it ain’t so!
My laptop is a battery…a big, frakking, heavy battery.
The zipper on my tent was misbehaving and the first thing that came to mind was ‘MY KINGDOM FOR SOME DUCT TAPE!’
Things I forgot to bring: wet naps, duct tape, mayonnaise and once again, a roll of toilet paper.
I could only not shave for so long, Saturday night the face fuzz was gone.
I might need to switch to Mountain Dew from coffee, the Dew seemed to keep Nuka going.
He graciously gave me one of his, and I gave him some of my cough drops, balance of the universe and all that.
Yeah, it was great to hear my dealer-neighbors bicker back and forth like an old married couple…which they probably were.
Furries apparently really hate sports, which is yet another way I stick out in that club in addition to being straight and over 30.
From the ‘clever idea’ department: Previous year’s con shirts: $12 for 1 or $10 for 2
Hearing the rules for ‘Predator and Prey’ made me think of ‘Calvinball.’
When in Rome: I got mustard on my camera’s strap during lunch and my first instinct was to try to suck/gnaw it off.
Part of me want to either stay in a tent alone or get an A-frame bunk next year…hmm.
f I had known coffee cups/mugs were going to be sold at the auction I would have been there in a shot.
I wonder what the organizer thought when I gave him my tax form that said “Sales: $4”
A guy nearby needed help tearing down his ‘insta-tent.’ I knew there was a reason I didn’t like those things.
Well, that and they cost twice as frakking much.
Very thankful to have a second person in the car on the drive home, I probably would have had to stop for sleep otherwise.
Saw so many Braum’s burger/ice cream/grocery joints on the drive up/back that we had to stop at one on the way home. Quite good! Still haven’t been to Waffle House.
Put over 1,100 miles on the Excelsior the whole trip and used up just over two and a half tankfuls of gas.
Flying J has REALLY good coffee. That, or drinking instant coffee at work for so long has ruined my taste buds.
We encountered absolutely zero traffic problems on I-35 from Oklahoma City all the way down UNTIL we hit San Antonio and spent 25 frakking minutes going the last 5 miles home…REALLY, SAN ANTONIO?
Good Idea: Empty fridge beforehand so no food goes bad during the drip. Problem: No food in fridge to eat upon return.
While I only sold 2 storybooks during the weekend, it was still 2 more than I sold during Furry Fiesta. *shrug*
Thank you, Sharon.
I can’t wait to do it again!

Eduardo Soliz

IT Guy, short story author, podcaster, and furry!

Category Archives: WORDS