A new home for the blog

FYI, the wordpress hosted version of my blog is slowly being decommissioned.

All new posts will be at Yostworks – Blog

Thanks!

Spring cleaning and con news!

Hey folks!

Suppose it’s been pretty quiet in this little section of the blogoverse for a while now, for a variety of reasons that I might post about later. But for now, I’m just going to give the site a quick dusting and sprucing up.

Some news! I’ll be at Balticon from 23 May 2019 – 28 May 2019.  And not just as an attendee, but as a panelist. I’m super hyped, and will be spending a fair amount of the next few weeks prepping myself as much as I can. Here’s a link to the my schedule, if you’re in the area and want to say hi, either come to one of the panels I’m on or just hit me up on twitter.

Not long after that (13 June 2019 – 17 June 2019), I’ll be at 4th Street Fantasy where I plan on volunteering and generally helping out where I can. If you’re going to be there, let me know and we’ll grab a bite or chat for a bit or something.

I’m going to round out my summer with Armadillocon (02 Aug 2019 – 04 Aug 2019). I’ll be participating in the Writer’s Workshop this year, and then likely spending the rest of the weekend taking in as much as I can. If I end up being part of any panels or anything, I’ll post an update with my schedule on the blog.

That’s it for now. There’s bound to be a few more posts for the month, especially since it’s Mental Health Awareness month, but we’ll see just how much life throws at me in the meantime. Hope everyone’s last few months have been wonderful, and I look forward to seeing y’all again soon.

— Fred Y.

A #PetsOfWonder Photo Contest!

Hi Folks!

Long time no blog. I’d say I promise to do this more, but that’s not really the point of this post. The point of this post is… puppies!

 Well, puppies, and kitties, and snecks, and more importantly, books. Or, one book in particular. Right at a month ago, your not-so-humble narrator got himself published in a little anthology known as Skies of Wonder, Skies of Danger: Stories of Airships, Pirates, and Wizards.

This book has it all. Excitement! Adventure! Magic! Romance! Werewolves! More werewolves! Thirteen stories by twelve really great authors and one me-who-might-be-really-great-too.

To celebrate our one month book birthday, I’ve decided to do a twitter photo contest that I thought would be fun. I present to you: #PetsOfWonder.

The rules are pretty simple:

1. Aquire a copy (e-book or paperback) of Skies Of Wonder
2. Own a pet (stuffed animals and pet rocks totally count)
3. Take a picture of your pet reading Skies of Wonder
4. Post that picture to Twitter with the hashtag #PetsOfWonder by Wednesday 25 July 2018, 11:59PM US/Central

On Thursday the 26th, I’ll randomly draw a winner, who will have their choice of either:

• A print of our awesome cover art!
• A stylish Skies of Wonder bookmark
• A paperback copy of the book, signed by myself

That’s it! If you have any questions, let me know in the comments. Otherwise, I hope to see your glorious #petsOfWonder this week!

SnarkWrites: “Killing the Gods Within Us” – Drafts 1-3

Hi Folks! So, for the past few weeks, I’ve been testing out using Twitch to broadcast writing streams as Snark_Runner. Since I’m not sure how that works with first rights issues, I’ve decided that these stories will live on the blog, and anyone interested can see the evolution of the story within drafts. Last night I finished up draft 3 of this story, so here we go. (Draft 3 will be first, with the other drafts following for anyone who wants to see how it started.

The prompt is from Chuck Wendig’s Terrible Minds, and was just two words: New Life. After a few passes, this is what I came up with:

Travel Tuesday: Holy Shit So Many Photos UK Edition

A collection of photos from my trip to the UK, featuring London, Windsor Palace, Stonehenge, Lacock, Bath, the WB Studios, and Oxford.

There’s… there’s a lot of photos on here. Possibly so many that it’s breaking the post.

Travel Tuesday: PNW Edition

Finally getting around to uploading my late Dec- NYE trip to the Pacific Northwest / a treehouse in Canada.

Viable Paradise: One Year Later

As most of you know, almost exactly a year ago I attended the 20th Viable Paradise Workshop (VPXX), and despite my best efforts, I never quite got around to putting my feelings about that week into a coherent blog post. With the new class about to board the ferry and start their week of adventure, I figure now is as good a time as any to put my thoughts on page about that week and the year that has followed.

[Author’s note: my memory is not great, so this is told to the best of my recollection. The details may be a little off, but the big things are true.]

My life in 3D

Hey folks! It’s been a while since I’ve done an update on my eyes, so here we go.

Things are ok. Not great, but a lot better than they could be. My left eye is near perfect (20/20 yah!) but right eye is being a stubborn jerk and all the eyedrops in the world didn’t seem to have much of an impact.

DFWCon (& The Boy That Cried Coconut)

This weekend I got to hang out at the Dallas Fort Worth Writer’s Conference which will hear by be shortened to DFWCon.

This was the first time I’d gone to a writing conference as opposed to a writing convention (or writing workshop, I promise I’ll get my VP blog up someday). “What’s the difference?”, you might be asking.  Near as I can tell, a convention focuses on celebrating the fandom of the thing, with a couple of panels for aspiring creators and the chance to hear industry experts speak. Armadillocon (a great con that I highly recommend) averages about 50/50 fan/creator. The entire focus of the conference is craft and the business. There’s pitch sessions, there’s one-on-one editing sessions, and there’s a whole lot of wonderful panels.

On Social Expectations and Sushi

This tale, like most, requires a bit of backstory. Thanks to my ongoing eye struggles, I spent the day working from home instead of in the office. Also thanks to my ongoing eye struggles, I’ve accumulated a bit of social debt to my roommate who’s been kind enough to ferry my visually impaired self around so I’m not often behind the wheel of a car. In order to pay off this debt and satisfy my craving for bulgalbi, I decide to take him to lunch at a local Korean restaurant.

A few minutes after ordering our meal, one of the waitstaff drops off a set of sushi rolls. The words “Sorry, we didn’t order this” die on my lips, because they’ve been known to drop off the occasional complimentary roll, even if it is usually the kind of thing that goes to a larger table. Especially two rolls worth. The waitress walks away. This is officially a TABLE GIFT.