@markmcelroy@pkm.social
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

markmcelroy

@markmcelroy@pkm.social

#Ulysses for long form #writing. #Obsidian for #planning and #PKM. An #author and #novelist whose #graph is packed with #ScienceFiction, #Apple, #LGBTQ+ issues, #journaling, #hobonichi, #facilitation, #FictionWriting, #Tarot, #faith, #Methodism, #ObsidianMD, and #pizza

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markmcelroy, to random
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Y’all! After more than a decade of chasing the Northern Lights … I finally saw ‘em tonight, in Norway.

So much joy!

Clyde, with eerie glowing auroras behind him
Pink and green auroras
An eerie aurora that looks like a dragon in the northern sky.

markmcelroy, to random
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

OMG, y'all! Last night, at dinner, when two table mates found out I was a writer, they whipped out their phones and bought copies of Parallel Lines then and there.

And today, one of them came up to me and said she'd finished the book in one sitting ... and loved it!

I gotta say ... that's the best part of our cruise so far. 😀

nicole, to random
@nicole@pkm.social avatar

PSA: @apolaine and I have seen an uptick in bot-generated spam accounts on the server recently. We've banned the accounts, but we've also decided to institute approval-based registrations for now.

Anyone wanting to sign up to pkm.social will now need to submit a request to join, and then have that request manually approved by one of the moderators (that's Andy, me, or @leah). This is purely to keep pkm.social spam-free-- all real people are still welcome!

More info: https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/111953045633249137

markmcelroy,
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@nicole @ellane @apolaine @leah Thank you for all you do for us.

markmcelroy, to random
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2/7: I write because...

... it's about time.

I started writing fiction when I was 9. I got an M.A. in fiction writing, landed trad publishing non-fiction contracts, and then took jobs writing scripts, presentations, and books for others ... but not the novels I dreamed of.

Nothing feels worse than not doing what you always meant to do, day after day, year after year. A half-century later, I'm finally writing for myself. It's about time!

(Write your books now. Don't wait.)

markmcelroy, to Logseq
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

As a note-taking reader and writer … I find that when I’m reading and writing non-fiction, I take a lot of notes. When I’m reading and writing fiction, I take far fewer notes. (When I'm writing a novel, I might go for days without touching #Obsidian or #Heptabase.)

When reading fiction, what kind of notes do you take in #Obsidian or #Heptabase or #Logseq?

#PKM #WritingCommunity

markmcelroy, to random
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Cannot believe I’m saying this, but if you haven’t looked at , you really should, especially if you’re a visual/spatial thinker.

anderlandbooks, to random German
@anderlandbooks@bookstodon.com avatar

Dec 22 Whatever

Don't know what's wrong, but I suddenly feel so disconnected from my WIP. Like it is no fun anymore. I'm 25k in, and this is usually the place I start to feel truly connected to my MCs. But today? All seems bleak.

markmcelroy,
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

@anderlandbooks This happens. Stick with it. These disconnects are like storms: they blow in, they blow out.

When it happens for me, it’s usually because I’m not sure where the story is going. I can get back on track by looking at the big “tent pole” moments I’m headed toward. Sometimes, I skip ahead and write those — anything to keep the words coming — and then discover, in the process, what had gone wrong before.

This will pass. You can do it. Go, go, go!

markmcelroy, to indieauthors
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

- Something I have experienced, but haven't seen broadly spoken about online regarding advertising: one you place an ad, you're going to get spam messages made to appear like messages from Facebook Ad Services warning you the ad violates Facebook's terms and will be taken down unless you click a provided link. The link goes to a legit-looking scammy page for collecting usernames and passwords.

Don't fall for it.

bengillam, to ObsidianMD
@bengillam@mastodon.social avatar

Id love it if there were some good intermediate guides or articles for - I want to dive deeper but seems half the time when i search for how to make more effective use of a certain feature all that i get back is very very basic starter guides which don't even scratch the surface.

markmcelroy,
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

@bengillam I think part of this has to do with the fact that:

A) intermediate applications of tend to evolve out of personal problem solving, and are therefore less likely to be showcased and

B) for many people, the basics (with tweaks to structure or differences in how and when they're applied) prove to be enough to meet their future needs.

Later stuff by Bryan Jenks and certain presentations (dataview!) by @nicole certainly qualify as more advanced.

markmcelroy, to DoctorWho
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

Is any holiday bush complete with a topper?

I THINK NOT!

markmcelroy,
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@sfwrtr okay: a compromise. How about a weeping angel???? 😎

markmcelroy, to random
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Nov 28
Do you target your work to a specific audience?

Given so many books and so few readers, I think we have to.

is going to appeal primarily to LBGTQ+ people who'd like an Atlanta-based sci-fi romcom. The age of the main characters (40's) enhances the book's appeal to an even more tightly-defined audience.

I don't say, “What can I write for audience X?”, but once a story emerges, I do consider “What will this story's audience expect or appreciate?”

markmcelroy, to random
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

Friends: my first novel, , the gay sci-fi romcom, launches today on Amazon.com!

By purchasing a copy today in ebook, paperback, or hardback, you help make a real difference in the visibility of the book. If my posts here or on my website have been helpful to you, I'd really appreciate your support. Thanks so much!

Paperback: https://amzn.to/3GhJXZ9

Hardback: https://amzn.to/49PQNCJ

Kindle: https://amzn.to/3t2Mfbj

Sample Chapters and More at: https://markmcelroy.com/parallellines/

markmcelroy, to random
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

(I am cheating by changing "antagonist" to “protagonist" in the question below. Sorry!)

26Nov- What question would your protagonist dread being asked by an interviewing journalist?

Interviewer: "How many people would you say you've slept with?"

Thomas, : [Long pause] “Today?”

markmcelroy, to ObsidianMD
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

10 things I’m thankful for as a writer:

  • My husband’s encouragement and patience

  • My MacBook Pro

  • Having finally published a novel

  • Starting to sell short fiction

  • Still (barely) at a point in American history when books with gay characters can be bought and sold

  • The training I received at the Center for Writers at USM

  • The power of independent publishing

  • Readers like you. Thank you. And Happy Thanksgiving!

markmcelroy, to random
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

Happy to report no data loss, in the end, during yesterday’s kerfuffle with the plug-in and/or sync. I had access to copies of the files via Time Machine and Backblaze, and the text I wanted was also in my Paste clipboard history.

But ... rightly or wrongly, I think that ends my experiment with longform as my writing environment. It's back to for me when writing novels.

markmcelroy, to random
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

1 of 2: I set up a folder in as a project yesterday. This morning, on my laptop, two files are blank, and they have no sync history. The Longform app is still installed, but no longer recognizes that I had a project in progress.

When I ran to my desktop machine and opened Obsidian, I was relieved to see my files and project intact -- but then Obsidian synced ... and the same files blanked, and now the desktop also fails to recognize my folder as a Longform project!

markmcelroy,
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

2 of 2: I've posted questions in the excellent discord, but I gotta say this kind of experience (in what has always been a flawless and fault-free setup) doesn't instill confidence.

I wonder what went wrong! Has anyone else had this kind of issue?

markmcelroy, to random
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

14: How would be better if a secondary character were the MC?

Les: It woud have a lot more sex!

Davina: It would be mercifully shorter, because I'd kill Thomas (MC) on page one.

Miguel: It already is what God wills it to be. Why change that?

Anna Denise: It would have come out ten years ago because, unlike Mark, I'm efficient.

Who's right? Find out November 28th, when the book premieres on Amazon.com!

markmcelroy, to macbookpro
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11/12 Do you write on a laptop, typewriter, legal pad, stone tablet, animal skin, papyrus, foggy bathroom mirror, etc. etc.?

Always a computer: either my or my . (Just got my M4 Pro yesterday!)

On-the-go ideas get shoved into , usually via the mobile app.

And truth be told, I'm always writing in my head: poking at structure, listening to dialogue, wondering what Character X would do in Situation Y. So, my primary medium? Imagination.

andypiper, to random
@andypiper@macaw.social avatar

Today is the day I get fibre to the property, and not just to the nearest cabinet and then boosted across old copper cabling! Community Fibre due to install in a couple of hours. 🤞🏻

markmcelroy,
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

@andypiper Wonderful! Here in our small Mississippi town, we are still on painfully slow cable modems. (Our rural areas actually have lightning-fast fiber ... it's the town that's not covered!) Enjoy!

markmcelroy, to LGBTQ
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

In our town, a number of homophobic people campaigned to shut + people out of our local church using the usual scare tactics: painting us all as immoral, hyper-sexual, lascivious monsters who “throw who we are in people's faces" (in my case, by being proud I've been married for 30+ years to the same wonderful man).

Last night, an acquaintance suggested that the candid sexuality in my new novel will "just prove those folks were right all along."

That kinda hurt.

markmcelroy,
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

@mlevison Thanks. It stirred up a lot of old fears of disapproval, of "ruining things" -- a slew of old recordings in the voice of my mom.

I talked about it with Clyde, my husband. He agrees we just gotta be ourselves, and be true to the material, whatever people say or think.

He's braver than I am -- one of the reasons we're good for each other. :-D

markmcelroy, to mastodon
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

Dan Blank’s Substack post on finding a way to do social media that feels natural and authentic to YOU really resonates with me.

For me, is the first online space since the very early days of Twitter that has felt, from day one of my time here, like a place where I could just be me. No strategies. No attempts to game the system. No automated or scheduled posts ... just sharing ideas and connecting with real people. Smaller? Yes. Better? Yes.

https://danblank.substack.com/p/your-social-media-reset-why-smaller

markmcelroy, to random
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

Yesterday’s inquiry to the about got me lots of good advice and a great deal of insight. Thank you!

I've been debating whether or not to go with D2D for several days now (a new strategy for procrastination!), but thanks to all your input, I have a verdict:

I'll do Amazon directly and exclusively for the first 90 days. ( I'm already very familiar with and comfortable with their system, after all.) Then, I'll go wide with D2D for all other channels.

markmcelroy,
@markmcelroy@pkm.social avatar

@Firlefanz Thanks for the support .. and the tip … and the lead on the Google Play store!

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