I’ve spent most of the morning working on my website. I’m finishing up the Ebay search widgets for the 378 science fiction and fantasy (pulp) magazine titles that I’ve selectively determined belong in a ‘complete collection’ of such. (Going by a collector’s definition, not all SF magazines are ‘pulps’; some are bedsheet-pulps, some are digests, some are slicks and some are even paperbacks.) (My selective definitions are: English language, content primarily SF and/or Fantasy, professional-level publication, periodical of quarterly or greater frequency. There are a few exceptions here and there which are justified because I like them. This is not a Library of Congress project.)
This has taken me a bit longer than I anticipated (but less than a week longer) – part of which delay is due to having taken a part-time job on the weekends. I knew I was doing the job, I just forgot to subtract 28 hours from the time available estimate.
But I have fewer than 30 titles to go now, so, if I can motivate (after spending the past four hours working on other pages) I should be done today.
This has a (small) potential to bring me in a few pennies – and a large potential for partially automating my own searches of Ebay. It has already come in handy with searches for stuff by A. Bertram Chandler (I’ve set up searches for him on Ebay US, CA, IT, JP, AUS, UK, FR & GR – host countries that have published his works). I’m hoping to add a few more authors as time goes by. Anyone can request a favorite to be added simply by emailing me.
Then – time and the agreement of the stars permitting – I’ll finally get the whole site converted over to run under a CMS of one brand or another (probably Joomla), which ought to make life easier. I have a friend who is quite proficient in that program/interface/frontend/whatever. I’ve tried working through it on my own and quickly realized I needed a little handholding. But watch out. Once I learn how to set up my own SQL databases, I’m going to be all over the place.
The PT job? Back to paintball, sad say. I’m field managing a local playing facility because I have ‘good organizational skills’ and ‘good customer service skills’. I do enjoy showing new players the ropes (there’s almost always something funny happening on the field), but it can get boring quickly because I’ve been seeing the same stuff nearly every weekend for the past 25 years.
On the other hand, I’m learning to steal character traits and physical makeups from the customers for my writing. If you want real characters, there’s nothing for it like people watching. I play games in my head while watching the customers play, figuring out what words I’d used to describe a voice, or a facial complexion, or how I’d adapt a real-life scene for a story.
Any job a writer can get that pays them and let’s them workon their craft at the same time is a good job.
Leave a comment