#me when i realize based on my posting schedule nine pages is over 2 months

[marenwithanm]

Y'all ever thumbnail comic pages and get incredibly daunted by realizing just how long it'll take you to do just one scene?

[kyberphilosopher]

Important Information

Rules:

I am a minor. As such, smut can not be requested and can not be written. As a compromise, smutty themes can be used as overtones or undertones, often vaguely or simply eluded to. But pure smut? Not for a few months, which is when I’ll be 18. Sorry horndogs. 

Please request through the submission inbox, or my direct messages. Further more, be polite. Be clear. If I ask a question to clear something up, answer it. Don’t let it dangle. I will always ask if there’s anything else you so desire (a word count, any details) so please tell me if there’s nothing else or if there is. English is also not my first language. 

Do not request something against canon. I have written like that before and did not enjoy that. This means if something is considered canon, say Star Wars, such as a line of dialogue or something shown on screen, I would refuse to write you into it. I feel that it distorts the fiction so much you wouldn’t really be in it, and the characters wouldn’t be themselves anymore. Allow me to write you into the world as a side character, as something not shown directly but something that could fit into canon. 

Some fictional characters have different versions of them. For example, Movie Anakin Skywalker, and the Clone Wars Anakin Skywalker. Ben Affleck Batman, or Christian Bale Batman? Or even, Comic Accurate Batman? Specify for me. If not specified after asking for it, I will write the character with headcanon information pulled from multiple ‘canon’ sources. This will be referred to as ‘headcanoned canon’.

Reblog my stuff? Absolutely. I see all my reblogs. But take it an post it to a different site? No. Don’t do that. Maybe I’ll spread over to Ao3 one day, but for now, please don’t. 

Last one I can think of for now. But luckily this can be updated over time. I don’t write drabbles. I know! But just imagine all the times you’ve read a fic so good, only for it to end so soon. I like the thought of writing something both high quality and high quantity, which means I won’t be satisfied with anything under 2,000 words. Unfortunately, this may sometimes come at the expense of time. Especially if what you requested doesn’t fit into my current hyperfixation. 

List of Characters I’ve Written, or Am Open to Writing:

Aayla Secura, Star Wars (Clone Wars)

Ahsoka Tano, Star Wars (Clone Wars and Live Action)

Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars (Clone Wars and Live Action)

Asaaj Ventress, Star Wars (Clone Wars and Books)

Boba Fett, Star Wars (Live Action Original Movies and The Mandalorian)

Bodhi Rook, Star Wars (Rogue One)

Bo-Katan Kryze, Star Wars (Clone Wars and The Mandalorian)

Cal Kestis, Star Wars (Jedi: Fallen Order, Beginning and End of Game)

Cassian Andor, Star Wars (Rogue One)

Darth Maul, Star Wars (Clone Wars)

Din Djarin, Star Wars (The Mandalorian)

Finn, Star Wars (Live Action Sequel Trilogy)

Jyn Erso, Star Wars (Rogue One)

Leia Skywalker, Star Wars (Live Action Original Movies)

Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi, Star Wars (Clone Wars and Live Action)

Padme Amidala, Star Wars (Clone Wars and Live Action)

Poe Dameron, Star Wars (Live Action Sequel Trilogy)

Rey, Star Wars (Live Action Sequel Trilogy)

Rex, Star Wars (Clone Wars)

.✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.★.*｡･ﾟ✫*.

Batman, DC Comics (All Live Action, All Comic, Arkhamverse, All Animated, Headcanoned Canon)

Bane, DC Comics (Games)

Barry Allen/The Flash, DC Comics (All Live Action, Headcanoned Canon)

Black Canary, DC Comics (Birds of Prey Live Action Movie)

Bruce Wayne, DC Comics (All Live Action, Headcanoned Canon)

Catwoman/Selina Kyle, DC Comics (Headcanoned Canon)

Christopher Smith/Peacemaker, DCEU (All Live Action, Headcanoned Canon)

Cleo Cazo/Ratcatcher 2, DCEU (Live Action)

Conner Kent/Superboy, DC Comics (Titans, All Animated)

Damian Wayne, DC Comics (Animated and Injustice)

Dick Grayson, DC Comics (Titans, All Comic, Arkhamverse, All Animated, All Versions)

Harley Quinn, DC Comics (All Live Action, All Comic, Arkhamverse, All Animated Versions)

Jason Todd/Red Hood, DC Comics (Headcanoned Canon, Arkhamverse, All Animated, Titans, All Versions)

Katana, DC Comics (2016 Suicide Squad Live Action Movie)

Poison Ivy, DC Comics (Arkhamverse, All Comic, All Animated, Headcanoned Canon)

Tim Drake/Red Robin, DC Comics (Arkhamverse, All Comic, All Animated, Headcanoned Canon)

Raven, DC Comics (Headcanoned Canon, All Animated, All Comics, All Titans)

Robert Dubois/Bloodsport, DC Comics (DCEU Live Action)

Scarecrow/Johnathon Crane, DC Comics(All Live Action, Arkhamverse, Headcanoned Canon)

Starfire/Koriand’r, DC Comics (Titans, All Comics, All Animated, Headcanoned Canon)

Superman/Clark Kent, DC Comics (Cavill’s Live Action, All Animated, All Comics)

.✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.★.*｡･ﾟ✫*.

Annie Leonhardt, Shingeki no Kyojin (Marley Resident, Season 1-3, Season 4, Titan Form)

Bertholdt Hoover, Shingeki no Kyojin (Marley Resident, Season 1-3)

Carla Jaeger, Shingeki no Kyojin (Pre Beginning)

Eren Jaeger, Shingeki no Kyojin (Season 1-3, Season 4, Titan Form)

Hanji Zoe, Shingeki no Kyojin (All Seasons and OVA)

Jean Kirchstein, Shingeki no Kyojin (Season 1-3, Season 4)

Levi Ackerman, Shingeki no Kyojin (All Seasons and OVA)

Marco Bodt, Shingeki no Kyojin (Season 1)

Mikasa Ackerman, Shingeki no Kyojin (Season 1-3, Season 4)

Moblit Berner, Shingeki no Kyojin (All Seasons and OVA)

Sasha Braus, Shingeki no Kyojin (Season 1-3, Season 4)

L Lawliet, Death Note (Season 1)

Ryuk, Death Note (Season 1)

Touta Matsuda, Death Note (Season 1)

Raye Penber and Naomi Matsura (Season 1, Pre Beginning, Throuple Headcanon Canoned)

.✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.★.*｡･ﾟ✫*.

Connor RK800, Detroit: Become Human (Deviant, Android, Mid and Post Game)

Chloe RT600, Detroit: Become Human (Deviant, Android, Pre, Mid, and Post Game)

Gavin Reed, Detroit: Become Human (Mid and Post Game)

Kara AX400, Detroit: Become Human (Post Game)

Luther TR400, Detroit: Become Human (Pre and Post Game)

Markus RK200, Detroit: Become Human (Pre, Mid, and Post Game)

Nines RK900, Detroit: Become Human (Post Game)

North WR400, Detroit: Become Human (Pre, Mid, and Post Game)

Other Worlds and Fandoms Coming Soon. 

.✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.★.*｡･ﾟ✫*.

What You Can Expect From Me:

Fanfiction

Headcanons- While I’d consider all of my fanfiction headcanons, I’m referring to those little bullet point things you’ll see writers do. Here’s my deal on that. I won’t do romantic headcanons for the characters listed above. By that I mean you won’t see anything titled, “How Poe Dameron Would Cuddle”, or anything of that sort. But you probably will see just my own little headcanons for fun. Like, little fun facts. You know, “Superman’s favorite food is ____”, “Nines hates rats”.

However, I will write romantic headcanons for my OC’s. But that’s for later.

Further regarding fanfiction, I typically write angst. Not sure why, it’s just what I started with because I thought the plots were strongest and I wanted to see where I could take it. Like I said, no smut, but you’ll find allusions to it. Fluff? Yeah, it’s there. Hard for me to write fluff without a plot, but it does exist on my page. 

Original Stories

Most people ignore this, but if you see that I’ve posted it won’t always be something regarding your favorite character. I write my own little stories that’s basically just glorified, book length headcanons for a few worlds, but mostly the Star Wars galaxy. Don’t worry, there’s no need to pay attention to it if you don’t want. It’s something I do in my spare time besides x readers and oneshots. 

Spontaneous Posting

What I mean by this, is that unlike a lot of writers, I don’t work on a schedule. There’s no “once a week posting”, or anything like that. What I finish and give the okay to, is posted. If you’ve requested something, I’ll let you know that it’s about to go out. So sometimes a burst of fics may be pumped out in a week, or none will for up to a month.

Going by EST, I typically am most active at night and early morning. Especially in the summer. During fall this may change.

I rarely put out a post that is unrelated to my writings. If it is related to my personal life instead, it will be posted, but not saved. Documented and available, but never pinned or anything. 

FAQ:

Do you write queer pairings?

Yes. My earlier works usually elude to a female reader and it’s blaringly obvious, though it’s shifting into androgyny for ease of reader. I would prefer to have an androgynous reader instead of a set in stone male or female one. 

Am I reading a queer fanfic written by a straight person?

You are not. I am androgynous myself in terms of gender and unlabeled in terms of sexuality. 

Do you write for poc?

This question shocks me, though I’ve gotten it twice. Then I realized- it’s because so many writers forget the point of a reader. The reader may be described as blonde, or white, or thin, or female. You will not find that here. There will be no set in stone appearance for the reader except for mentions of whatever hair you may possess (apologies to those without hair). There will be no talk of ‘light skin’, or ‘curvy figure’. The farthest I’ll go is describing you as pale, if say, you were sick. Because any race or skin tone can go pale, you know? The only thing I’d do- rarely- is give you a real age. But only to further the plot if needed.

 My point is, ‘Y/N’ is not just a pretty white person with long hair. It’s inclusive to anyone. I’ll stand by that. 

Do you write headcanons?

Answered in the above section. Long story short, I’m working on it, but on my terms. 

Do you write song fics?

I haven’t before. Why? They make me cringe. I don’t know why. I’ll write a fic based on a song, or with undertones of a song. But those little paragraphs with the lyrics that aren’t even in time with what you’re reading if you were to read and listen at the same time? I don’t think so. 

Do you know what sex is?

I do. 

Will you have e-sex with me in the direct message chatbox?

I will not. 

Why do you write on tumblr?

I started writing just to share an old word document with over 300 pages worth of an Original Star Wars story. I tried my hand at fanfiction because, while I don’t read it often myself, I know a lot of people do. It helps them escape reality. And, I’m a pretty good writer, I think. At least I can only get better. I’m just one more person trying to put something out for people to enjoy, and maybe even rely on. 

Will you ever write for real people?

If I ever wrote a fanfiction about Christian Bale or like Barack Obama I think I would just disappear. I can’t do it. It’s like warping my own reality. 

How often do you post?

I don’t know. 

Do you have a taglist?

I did! But only for Star Wars. If you want to be tagged in something, let me know. But you have to be specific. Just for a certain character? For a certain fandom? A certain plot? Just og stories? Be clear. 

Dynamics I Enjoy Writing:

Man simps for person who almost wants nothing to do with them. 

Hero simps for villain or villain simps for hero despite the obvious consequences.

Two jokesters destroy some area while left alone together. May get along better than they would admit. 

Two people who are not expected to get along, get along well. 

Hero and villain are best friends but won’t admit it.

Basically if I’m left to my own mind most of my fics will fall under one of these dynamics. Not always- definitely not always. But I kinda like them. 

Numbers:

800-273-8255 USA National Suicide Hotline

1 (300) 22 4636 Australia Suicide and Anxiety Line

1 (833) 456 4566  Canada Suicide Hotline

800-810-1117 China Suicide Hotline

0145394000 France Suicide Hotline

08001810771 Germany Suicide Hotline

8888817666  India Suicide Hotline

810352869090 Japan Suicide Hotline

0078202577577 Russia Suicide Hotline

08457909090 UK Suicide Hotline

4408457909090 Ireland Emergency Hotline

1-800-656-4673 US National Sexual Assault Hotline

741-741 National Panic Hotline (for people who prefer to text)

Anything else? 

Nope. Can’t think of anything. We’ll see if anything changes. Thanks for checking it out. 

Header Credits to: @moonknights​

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, late June - early July 2019

Welcome to my latest summary of recent news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & ecommerce! This covers articles I came across from June 21 to July 13, although some may be older than that.

I may not be able to do the next update until early August, given the upcoming Etsy search changes and my schedule, but I will continue to tweet big news, & may do a short post or two here. 

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES

On July 9, Etsy announced it would be giving “priority placement” in US searches to items that have no additional shipping cost starting July 30th. Obviously we don’t know how this will really work until we see it in action, but the outcry has been predictable. I summarize the facts in my blog post here. There is also an admin Q&A thread, a survey, and plenty of news coverage:

Etsy's Free Shipping Push Sounds Like a Marketing Gimmick (Motley Fool, through Yahoo)

Etsy faces backlash over attempt to push free shipping (Engadget) “And while a large business can take advantage of economies of scale to lower the shipping cost, that's not usually true for an individual crafter who may only sell a modest number of items.”

Etsy sellers aren’t happy with the platform pushing them to offer free shipping (The Verge) “Implementing flat shipping fees in prices can pose a challenge to international sellers who ship worldwide. Cambridge-based artist Katie Fuller, whose run her Etsy shop since 2015, says including the cost of shipping in her products would put her at a disadvantage. “If I [raise my prices], then I’ll be making my prices uncompetitive for customers elsewhere. Most of my customers are in the UK; it wouldn’t make sense for me to do it so it sounds like I can wave goodbye to my American sales.” 

Etsy Will Start Pushing Sellers To Include Free Shipping (Fortune)

Why Is Free Shipping So Important to Etsy? (Inc.) “... 75 percent of consumers today now expect their delivery to be free even when orders are less than $50 according to a survey published by the National Retail Federation earlier this year. That number has increased from 68 percent last year.”  

As marketplaces compete with Amazon on shipping, sellers are shouldering the burden (Digiday UK) “Like Etsy will soon do, eBay said it does prioritize items that ship for free in its search results and offers sellers pricing tools to help them better figure out how to factor in shipping costs.”

Etsy Stock Is Getting a Lift as It Jumps on the Free-Shipping Bandwagon (Barron’s) “Etsy stock rose 4.3% to $66.78 Tuesday afternoon as the S&P 500 was about flat. ... Roughly 70% of items sold on Etsy in the U.S. weren’t available for free domestic shipping in the first quarter, according to Etsy; it wants that number closer to zero.”

Remember, Etsy started boosting items that ship free to Canada in Canadian searches in January, but they never announced it, or gave us tips, or tools, etc.  We won’t know if the US version will work exactly the same way as the Canadian until the former is released; a short test in the US in late May-early June generally took the first three rows of search for free shipping items, even if they weren’t all that relevant. 

ETSY NEWS

Just in case you didn’t receive an email, Etsy is making changes to their policies. They include the fact that all new listings will be set to auto renew as of July 25 (but you can change them to manual), and info about their advertising tools. Keep an eye on the latter - I think they might be releasing something new soon.

Etsy will be releasing upgrades to the sales tool in August, including the ability to offer sales in specific countries only. Hidden in that post is also a promise to increase international advertising & promotion: “We’ll also continue to invest in the success of our international markets. In the coming months, you’ll see increased marketing efforts across many channels, all aimed at bringing more buyers from your country to Etsy.” (I suspect this is related to the free shipping announcement which came a few days later; they want to reassure non-US sellers that they won’t lose too many sales.)

Etsy released new attributes and sub-categories again, including in Accessories, and Bags & Purses. 

Shops in vacation mode are now showing up in search, as of July 10. The number of shops found in a shop search nearly doubled, to over 2.8 million, but only about half of them have active listings. No word on whether or not this is a permanent change; for many years, shops with no active listings have not been searchable on Etsy. 

Etsy is working on personalizing search by using image recognition identifying 42 different styles, and the engineers involved are presenting a paper [pdf] on this topic at a technical conference. They are about to start testing this, so expect to see more personalized results soon. I need to do a short post on this topic alone, but right now I need do some more research before that will be possible. I found this interesting, though: “Since sellers don’t reliably convey a product’s style in their descriptions, scanning text alone produced results that were “okay but not great,” says Fisher.” Quit being unreliable describers, folks! 😁

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

A common question: how long does it take to get to page 1 of Google search? Answer: it depends, plus it might not even be worthwhile if the search doesn’t convert. The article explains why. 

How to fix the 5 biggest SEO mistakes website owners make.

Writing a title for Google search is very important, and many people do it wrong. Here’s how to do it correctly. 

Long-tail keywords: definition, why & how. And even more on why you definitely should aim for very low-volume keywords. (I do a lot of this.)

Somewhat advanced content: how Google's neural matching works, and how to optimize for it. “Based on the information Google has given us about neural matching over the past nine months, it appears to be most active when users have a problem they don’t know how to describe... To capture these opportunities, you need to know what problems your target audiences are facing. You also need to pinpoint what information is going to solve their problem, help them accomplish tasks and make decisions.”

Link building doesn’t require a lot of technical skill, but it does involve marketing skill. Or some public relations (PR) skill. [video & transcript] Remember, some types of links are definitely better than others. (If you don’t know what link building is, read this.)

Advanced content for people who code their own sites: Google says you won’t be able to use “noindex” in robots.txt as of September. (Bing never recognized it.)

How to game Google to make negative results disappear. I don’t expect anyone here will be paying for these services, but it is useful to see what you are up against when you are trying to get your own website to rank. More of us may also be up against AI-generated spam in Google rankings sooner rather than later. Someone is always trying to game Google. 

Was there a Google algorithm update around June 19th? Maybe. The big update at the beginning of June hit the Daily Mail hard, and the so-called “diversity update” apparently didn’t change much.

CONTENT MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails)

The best time to post on social media depends on the platform, your target market, and what you are posting.

Sell health products? Beware of the changes to Facebook’s algorithm, which are designed to limit views on fake health claims. 

Facebook outage gave insight into how their machine learning process describes your photos. “... a lot of internet users don’t realize the amount of information that is now routinely extracted from photographs”. 

Facebook will be reformatting their Business Page layout, & removing some sections, so make sure you check this out & move any content you want to keep by August 1. 

What works best on Instagram has been changing; here’s what you need to keep up with. Brand engagement rates on the platform have been dropping this year, likely due to the increased competition. Get some of that traffic back with 8 SEO tips for Instagram. 

Want people to watch more of your YouTube videos? (Pro tip - that’s part of the search algorithm, so you should.) Here’s 3 things you can do to get people to stick around longer. 

LinkedIn has some good marketing tools, including ad tools & analytics. They’ve also recently changed their algorithm to show you more things you might be interested in, as opposed to just the things that go viral site-wide, among other changes. 

Twitter ends tweet geotagging, supposedly due to low use. 

A judge in Hawaii ruled that repinning a photo on Pinterest can infringe copyright. 

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS)

Retailers are spending less on YouTube ads overall, possibly due to the US struggles for brick & mortar stores, as other sectors are actually spending a bit more than the previous year.

Amazon’s share of the online ad market is expected to increase to 8% by 2023, compared to 3% now.

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING

For tracking activity on your Facebook page, set up Facebook Analytics & Facebook Attribution.

Advanced content: new coding tools in the Google Search Console. 

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS

Amazon’s Prime Day is actually 2 days this year - July 15 & 16. Apparently it is now the official start of back to school shopping for many people.

Beware of Alexa if you care about privacy & data retention: Amazon admits that Alexa data is kept “indefinitely”. “...for Alexa requests that involve a transaction, like ordering a pizza or hailing a rideshare, Amazon and the skill's developers can keep a record of that transaction. That means that there's a record of nearly every purchase you make on Amazon's Alexa, which can be considered personal information.” (Google Home is not necessarily better - they are letting subcontractors listen to your random conversations, not just your instructions to the device. “According to the whistleblower, the recordings presented to them are meant to be carefully annotated, with notes included about the speakers presumed identity and age.”)

Walmart’s ecommerce division may lose as much as $1 billion this year. Their brick & mortar business is still doing fine, however. 

You can now “try on” Gucci sneakers through its app. Expect to see more of this happening fairly quickly, which is something that people who sell clothing, accessories & jewellery should be watching closely. 

A. C. Moore is launching a new handmade marketplace, which you can sync to your Etsy & Zibbet listings. So it looks like that was their reason for investing in Zibbet a few years back. It’s not yet clear that they’ve put the work in to make this successful, but we’ll have to wait to see how it looks once it is launched, and how much they advertise it. 

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE

Dark patterns: how websites manipulate people into buying things they weren’t shopping for. [NY Times article - paywall after your limit of free monthly articles.] “... researchers developed software that automatically scanned more than 10,000 sites and found that more than 1,200 of them used techniques that the authors identified as dark patterns” including outright lies. 

Call-to-action phrases [infographic] that can help your pages convert. These work on web pages, emails, social media etc. My favourites are in the “lower-risk” section; I don’t think enough articles focus on this aspect of conversions. 

Wedding gift buying may be changing as traditional wedding registries drop in popularity. Apparently lots of people want cash to pay for their own expenses & trips now. 

MISCELLANEOUS (including humour)

Great list of marketing definitions you will find helpful if you do much industry reading & research. (Pretty sure I posted this before, but it has been updated.)

Chrome is becoming more & more like spyware; the author suggests using other browsers. 

The Wayback Machine now compares current web pages to their previous versions. “One of the best uses of this feature I can think of is to track changes in privacy policies.”

How not to design a payment app: make it easy for anyone to change the password. 

[topicprinter]

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Joris de Ruiter of ConvertCalculator, a brand that sells calculator form builder.Some stats:Product: Calculator form builder.Revenue/mo: $5,000Started: January 2017Location: RotterdamFounders: 1Employees: 1Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?Hi all! My name is Joris de Ruiter and I’m the founder of ConvertCalculator, a SaaS business that helps small businesses automate their sales processes and grow their business.I started coding the project in September 2017 and launched the MVP in one week. One week later, I onboarded my first paying customer.Since then 3500 businesses signed up which resulted in over 1 million calculator page views. Right now, the business makes $5000,- in monthly recurring revenue with 150 customers.imageWhat's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?I started my first business together with my roommate when I was at university; a creative agency. We started out doing social media and online marketing campaigns. We pivoted to web design when we were one year in. We mostly build simple marketing websites for small businesses, also doing SEO and online marketing.Besides client projects, I started over 10 projects to get out of the “money for hour” trap. All of them failed.After building websites for a couple of years, I realized my talent lay mostly in coding more complex web applications. I quit the agency to do web development contract work, all alongside my search for that one project which would take off.In September 2017 a client approached me and asked if I could build a “calculator” for their website. I thought about all those times entrepreneurs approached me wanting a “price quote calculator” for their website. In nine out of ten cases it was just too expensive to build.So instead of quoting my client, I suggested they pay $30,- per month for it. They said yes. This was my first validation for the product.I just listened to Tyler Tringas’ podcast on Indiehackers, which suggested to check Upwork for the demand of a potential product. I did that by searching for “price quote calculator”, and yes, I found several requests for developers to build custom price quote calculators. This was the second validation for the product.This was enough for me to get an MVP out. I created it in one week, launched my marketing website and showed the calculator to my client. They loved it, but the project was put on hold, so no paying customer yet. You can imagine that this really bummed me out.I decided to promote ConvertCalculator on Quora and Help forums for website builders.imageAn example of a Quora comment. Check it out here.One week later I got my first user ready to start paying. The problem was I didn’t offer a way to upgrade yet. I remember I was at the airport and getting a third email from that customer “complaining” that he couldn’t checkout yet.I was going on a surf trip and didn’t want to keep him waiting, so I started coding in the plane, pushing the update out when I arrived in Portugal. When I came back from my first surf, I got my first payment confirmation email from Stripe.That was the validation I needed to keep going!Take us through the process of building the product.So I got my first paying customer in the door, followed by a second one a couple of days later, but the product was still very early-stage.I knew I needed months of coding to get to real product-market fit. I learned from previous projects that the worst thing you can do is develop behind closed doors, so I started improving the product incrementally, with a lot of input from customers. In fact, I scheduled 2-3 calls a week to get more and more insights on my customer's real challenges.Two of my core values are freedom and independence, so you can imagine I am really big on bootstrapping. This meant that 2018 was a hectic year; building and growing ConvertCalculator and doing contract work to pay the bills.End of 2018 I was on $2500,- MRR, and I decided to go full-time; hoping I had enough runway (with my limited savings). That proved to be successful and I haven’t looked back ever since.Until today I do everything myself, development, design, marketing, and customer support. The only help I got (big help I must say) was from a startup advisor. He helped me prioritize, make better decisions and focus more on the customer. He is now a dear friend, and we created a side-project together called ContactBubble; a floating contact form for your website.Describe the process of launching the business.There is not a lot to say about my product launch. I don’t really believe in those “great moments that change everything”. In my view, it’s all about showing up every single day, making progress in small steps.I didn’t really have a smart launching strategy, I just pushed my website and app to production and started talking about it online. I initially didn’t launch on websites like ProductHunt or HackerNews. I never felt my product was good enough. I did get a lot of customers via Google, product forums, Quora. A year into it I decided to launch on ProductHunt and HackerNews. My product performed reasonably well there, but I didn’t get a lot of actual customers via these channels.When I “launched” I just picked a price that felt right and went with it. I had three plans (Hobby: €9, Pro: €20, and Premium: €60), but I hadn’t had time to build actual Premium features, so you can scratch the last one.Over time the product became more valuable, so I decided to increase pricing. That’s the best thing I could have done! Not only did revenue increase, but conversion rates did go up as well. My advice to anybody is to “raise your prices”.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?The single most important thing related to growth to date is SEO.In my opinion, It’s the only truly sustainable way of growing a SaaS business that you can control directly. Another one is word-of-mouth, but that’s something you earn with creating a solid product and doing good customer service.imageMy main strategy for SEO was creating landing pages for every single use case of the product, such as lead generation, quote building, and order forms. This way I could focus every page on a small set of keywords, that all flow to the homepage, which is optimized for, the more general, term calculator form.Although this strategy worked, I realize I need to focus more on creating blog posts to cover niche subjects and provide my customers with valuable information on how to run their business online. Another opportunity is link building, on which I didn’t focus at all.I haven’t explored a lot of other growth areas yet (besides launching on ProductHunt and Hackernews). The reason being that I do customer support myself and I want to remain sane and grow calmly.Actually, The second part of 2019 will be the perfect time to explore other growth channels, especially advertising and content marketing. So exciting times ahead.How are you doing today and what does the future look like?I can’t complain! ConvertCalculator is profitable and growing at a steady (but small) pace. The down-the-line conversion rate is 1.1% (from visitor to paying customer), which is ok and the customer lifetime value averages around $700,-. I would say that I’m ready for the next phase: growing the business.I have two goals for 2019. The first one is growing too $ 8000,- MRR. As I mentioned earlier I can achieve this by experimenting with other growth channels and spending more time on marketing in general.The second goal is to phase myself out of the day-to-day operations, meaning that I can spend all my time on product development and strategy. To make that possible, I will need to (1) improve documentation and UX and (2) hire customer support and marketing specialist.I have a long-term goal as well, although not directly related to ConvertCalculator; I want to live a more balanced life. That means that I want to spend 3-4 hours a day on work, and leave enough time to spend on things and people that bring me true happiness.Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?Yes definitely! I’m a person with a lot of imagination and I’m always thinking and dreaming about big and crazy things. This is great for creativity, but you can imagine I have had real difficulty with productivity / sitting down and getting things done.Starting a business means you’ve got to carry your own weight. This pressure kept me in work mode and learned me to stay grounded. From the success of ConvertCalculator in particular, I learned that grit is the number one derivative for success.What platform/tools do you use for your business?For customer support, I used to use a chat app, but I didn’t like to be in “support mode” all the time, so I created my own tool called ContactBubble, making it easy for people to reach us and easy for me to answer questions. Because customer requests are just sent to email, I need a good email client/customer support platform to follow up. I use Front and I love it!For hosting, I use Heroku and MongoDB Cloud. The dev stack is based on MeteorJS, with React and TailwindCSS (love this!).For email marketing, I’m using MailterLite, but I’m going to try out EmailOctopus. I haven't found any good (and reasonably priced) tool for email automation, so this is all hard-coded in the platform.For productivity I use Trello.What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?The IndieHackers podcast helped me a lot! I remember countless times when I was in my car to go surfing and listening to another podcast and thinking: Yes I need to do this!Regarding books, I got a lot of guidance from Essentialism; this especially helped me to not do things, in order to focus on more essential things. I also get a lot of inspiration from reading books about eastern philosophy, especially Zen.Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?The absolute number one is “do fewer things”. Focus on the truly essential stuff, and do this right. Don’t put all that other stuff on a todo list either, maybe write it down somewhere if that helps, but I don’t do that either.Another important lesson I learned is that “done is better than perfect”. So let go of your inner perfectionist and get the work of the door.The last one, and I think that’s the major reason why all my other projects failed, is ** to talk to customers**. You don’t have to do everything (or anything) they say, but you will learn a ton. I scheduled 2-3 calls per week for a full year now, and I still get valuable insights from customers sometimes.Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?I’m about to fill the first position, so no. I want to be careful with hiring; I want to hire when it really hurts.Where can we go to learn more?You can learn more about ConvertCalculator via our website. If you are interested in ContactBubble, you can find it here.You can find more about me and the other projects I’m doing, you can go to Stay Bold.If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.For more interviews, check out r/starter_story - I post new stories there daily.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM

[strmyweather]

“There’s always gonna be another mountain / I’m always gonna wanna make it move”

(This is Part III of a multi-part post. Read about the back story and the most recent tipping point here.) 

I’ve fought the body composition fight on many levels over the years, from Paleo to Whole30 to intermittent fasting to gluten-free to a ketogenic diet. I had varying degrees of success with each one, and plenty of ‘non-scale victories’ and learning experiences, but none of these methods were proving to do the trick this time. I even tried training for a half marathon (since my lowest adult weight had been just prior to PA school, when I was participating in a workplace weight loss challenge, exclusively running for exercise, and had never heard of CrossFit). The race was fun, but even all that extra cardio training really didn’t impact my body composition at all.

I happened to make a PCP change around this time, and I knew my new provider was a fan of phentermine. We talked about it at length, and after reading a couple of studies and hearing her thoughts, I decided I wanted to give it a try. I won’t say that I wish I hadn’t done it, because the quick progress—which was reflected in the gym; it was suddenly much easier to hold a handstand, to kip a couple more reps on the pull-up bar, etc.—definitely helped with the motivation to stick this out over the long haul. However, I eventually stopped the medication of my own accord after eight or nine weeks; it was severely impacting my sleep and I was noticing heart rate issues in the gym. By that point, I had lost roughly 17 lb and was back at my ‘Philly weight’ of about 156, which is what I’d maintained easily throughout my two years in the city and which I’d always thought of as a healthy/functional size for me. However, it ‘felt different’ this time—in hindsight, probably because my body fat percentage was still significantly higher than it had been when I’d been this weight before. The fit of my clothes hadn’t changed as much as I would have expected, and nobody in my life was ‘noticing’ that I had lost weight; despite the pretty significant numerical difference on the scale, my outward physical appearance didn’t seem to have changed much. I wasn’t sure what to do next.

And then, the universe offered me a gift in the form of a dear friend from Philly, who texted me that she and her husband were starting Renaissance Periodization—often abbreviated as simply ‘RP’ or ‘RP Strength’—and she thought I might be interested in ‘playing along’ with them from afar.

RP consists of two major tracks: ‘cut’ (fat loss) or ‘mass’ (muscle gain). At its core, the approach is just regular macro-counting—carbs, protein, and fat—but with emphasis on nutrient timing as it relates to workouts. In this way, it’s different from other ‘diet plans’, because it’s athlete-specific. Another wrinkle is that RP bases its ‘workouts’ on the amount of strength being demanded of a muscle—pure cardio sessions are generally not ‘counted’ by RP. CrossFit is considered a ‘light’ training day under the RP plan (whaaaaat?), and straight endurance exercise, like running or biking, doesn’t count at all. (This is one reason that the RP plan may not be the best approach for the average Joe or Jane who isn’t strength-training.)

I’m the first to admit that RP’s core tenets are pretty dramatically different from anything I’d been doing before—and as someone who came into this approach with a pretty solid base of nutritional knowledge and experience, that truly shocked me. I definitely had a healthy degree of skepticism at the outset; ultimately, it was reading the 100+page RP e-book—which delves deeply into the science of the rationales behind each of the guidelines, and explains why it all makes physiological sense—that convinced me to go all in. To summarize (in decidedly less than 100 pages), RP is based on the following premises:

(1) WEIGHT loss requires a caloric deficit… This one is pretty obvious. Physiologically, you’ve got to take in less than you burn off.

(2) …but to avoid MUSCLE loss, a certain amount of protein, spread throughout the day, is required. RP calls for five or six ‘meals’ in a day, with total daily protein split evenly among them, and with two of the ‘meals’ being shakes—a whey shake (quick-release protein) during training and a casein shake (slow-release) at bedtime. This advice isn’t guided by the old school of thought that we need to eat every couple hours “to keep our metabolism from slowing down”—science has long disproven that one; rather, RP asserts that frequent protein intake specifically prevents muscle catabolism during fat loss.

(3) Carbs should be taken in predominantly around the workout—including DURING the workout itself… As a 6am CrossFitter, I trained fasted (on an empty stomach, just drinking BCAAs dissolved in water) for four-plus years. Now, I drink a shake made with orange juice and vanilla whey protein—about 1/3 prior to arrival at the gym and the other 2/3 throughout the session. After an initial couple days of belly discomfort, my body adjusted, and now I eagerly look forward to my ‘liquid Creamsicle’ every morning. (And I had to admit: certain movements, particularly wallballs and thrusters, started to feel just slightly less horrific once there were some high-GI carbs floating around to provide some extra power.) For me as an early-morning exerciser, this whey shake and the immediate post-workout meal are the two ‘meals’ where I get the largest amount of carbs; my carb number then tapers off throughout the day as I get further out from the training session. (This pattern will obviously be different for someone who trains at noon vs at 5pm vs at 9pm; one of the things you get when you buy the ‘official’ RP plan is a multi-page Excel spreadsheet that specifies exactly what the numbers would be for your gender, bodyweight, and training schedule.)

(4) …and, therefore, on a non-training day, an athlete requires far fewer carbs. On a day without a workout, the total amount of daily carbs is slashed approximately in half (partly accomplished by the omission of the whey shake). The permitted amount of fat goes up a bit (depending on how ‘deep’ into the plan you are), and stays more steady throughout the day.

(5) As you move through the phases of the plan, carbs and protein remain essentially the same; it’s the FAT that changes. I dare you to find me an athlete on a low-carb diet. (I’ve tried it, more than once, and, to be frank, it made me feel like absolute shit.) Just as protein preserves muscle, carbohydrates (a) serve as the body’s preferred fuel for workouts, and (b) prompt the insulin response that ‘opens up’ muscle cells to allow protein to enter. Since both these macros serve a purpose in terms of performance and muscle-building, it doesn’t make sense to cut them. The purpose of fat, on the other hand, is primarily for taste and satiety. (Of course we all need a little fat for hormonal purposes, especially women, but the necessary amount isn’t hard to get when your diet includes meat and nuts.) So the RP plan starts with a ‘base’ (maintenance) plan, then moves through three progressive phases (either ‘cuts’ or ‘masses’ depending on your goals), each of which changes the overall calorie balance primarily by adjusting the amount of FAT that’s taken in. The progressive adjustment is necessary in order to continue seeing changes, because our bodies are smart and can alter their metabolism to ‘get used to’ anything after a little while; this is one reason why RP doesn’t recommend sticking to ANY plan for longer than 12 weeks without taking a solid couple months at maintenance. Personally, while I did do the full 12 weeks, I had great results from just cuts 1 and 2; I didn’t ever go all the way to cut 3, because that’s where the plan starts slashing carbs, which didn’t make sense for my purposes (I’m trying to be a better CrossFitter, not win figure competitions).

Things I Like:

It’s straightforward. RP counts a food item as just one macro, rather than making you count everything. Nuts are ‘just’ fat, meat is ‘just’ protein (assuming you’re sticking to stuff that’s 90/10 or leaner), and non-starchy veggies are altogether ‘free’. There are certain exceptions (like beans or dairy), but in general, you don’t have to count all three macros for each food.

It’s not possible to ‘run out’ of macros. Since RP mandates that the meals are spaced out throughout the day, with specific numbers based on what time of day you’re training, you can’t take an IIFYM-style approach. I clearly recall previous macro-counting days where I would happily eat pizza for lunch… then realize it was 3pm and my carb/fat macros were mostly used up, so all I had ‘left’ for the rest of the day was (say) 40 grams of protein. Not only is that an annoying and stressful situation, but it’s also difficult to plan for in terms of what kinds of food you need in the house to fill in the gaps. Which brings me to my next point…

RP is predictable. Most of us stick to more or less the same gym schedule—a 6am athlete is pretty much always a 6am athlete. So, after the first couple of weeks, you’ve learned what your macros are on training days vs rest days (and at what times of day), and have figured out a few options for meals you can build around those macros. Once you’ve learned what foods correspond to the numbers, you don’t have to think about the actual numbers so much. (By this point, I don’t even remember the specifics of what my AM and PM shakes actually consist of; I just know how much of each ingredient to dump in.) Food is mentally simplified to just ‘fuel’, rather than ‘fun’.

It’s cheap. Once you do what I affectionately call ‘the protein load-in’ (frozen meats in bulk, giant containers of whey + casein proteins, a big jar of nut butter, and a stock of any shakes/bars you’re going to incorporate), then you’re pretty well set for a while. The only extra things I’ve had to buy on any kind of consistent basis are bananas, orange juice, deli meat, egg whites, and Trader Joe’s frozen carrot noodles (one of my staples—only 16g carbs in half a box!). I also happened to start getting a weekly CSA box right around the time I started this adventure, so one of the ways I keep things from getting boring is by finding ways to use whatever fresh veggies happen to show up that week.

Things I Don’t Like:

It’s a lot of math. Especially in the beginning when you’re first figuring it out, and especially if you’re batch-cooking things with a lot of ingredients that you have to add all together. There’s definitely an ‘overwhelm’ phase in the beginning, partly because…

It never feels like enough food. If you’re like most of us, you’re accustomed to two or three large-ish meals throughout the course of a day, and also to the concept of being able to eat until you feel generally satiated. With RP, you get a set quantity and that’s it, and the quantity you get is going to feel a LOT smaller than a ‘normal meal’. (Which is a good reason to load up on veggies…!)

It can be stressful. Trying to scan a restaurant menu for something you can eat is an awful feeling. If your schedule is unpredictable, you have no time to meal prep, and/or you have a bustling social life, RP may be more trouble than it’s worth.

YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS MUCH TUPPERWARE. Seriously. When meal-prepping on RP, I am regularly reduced to using Ziploc bags and empty gelato containers to store my portions.

Egg whites. I dislike them on principle because all the nutrients are in the yolks! But on an RP cutting template, one whole egg will push you perilously close to the threshold of your allotted fat at any given meal, while still leaving a lot to be desired in terms of the protein count. So, yeah. Egg whites. (Sigh.)

However, overall, learning and incorporating this complex plan—and seeing how well it has worked—has been an absolute light bulb moment for me, partly because it draws on my medical education in terms of just how much sense it all makes. In hindsight, I can’t believe how much I’d been unconsciously working against myself. Apart from the fact that I was consistently training in a fasted state (the very point at which muscles most need nutrients and, physiologically, are most primed to absorb them), my standard post-workout breakfast for years had been chicken sausage with two hard-boiled eggs (which is obviously high-protein, but contains (a) almost zero carbs to help that protein be absorbed, and (b) a fair amount of fat, which slows digestion and therefore causes the protein to be absorbed that much more slowly). And we won’t even discuss my attempts at intermittent fasting or a ketogenic diet. This also explains why I saw comparatively minor visible results with the phentermine despite a 17-lb numerical loss—because I wasn’t paying attention to macros and therefore probably lost a significant amount of muscle during that time period (which kills me!). In short, I’d been shooting myself in the foot—with multiple weapons—for literally my entire CrossFit career… and never realized it.

I’m in week 12 as we speak, and am definitely ready to be done with this cut, because I’ve reached a point where I can tell I need a break, both physically and mentally. I’ve been feeling under-recovered in the gym for the past few weeks due to the persistent calorie deficit, and I definitely miss having a social life and the occasional cocktail or restaurant meal. An RP cut isn’t intended to be sustainable over the long haul (again: no more than 12 weeks—it’s not a ‘diet’ that you stick to for the rest of your life; it’s a plan to help you to eat for a specific performance goal), so these are all completely ‘expected’ complaints at this stage. By contrast, the RP base plan really did feel easy and sustainable (and actually encourages a couple of cheats each week), so I’m excited to soon be able to return to that.

Stay tuned for Part Four / the transformation (everyone’s favorite!).

[lovelyparanormalbooks]

Book Blitz: Trials and Tribulations (Interview + Excerpt)

This is my stop during the book blitz for Trials and Tribulations, these are two anthologies set in Faith Hunter’s Rogue Mage universe. This book blitz is organized by Lola's Blog Tours. The book blitz runs from 20 February till 5 March. You can view the tour schedule here. Trials (Rogue Mage Anthology #1) By Faith Hunter, Diana Francis, Misty Massey, Lou J Berger, Ken Schrader, Spike Y Jones, Christina Stiles, Tamsin Silver and Melissa McArthur Genre: Anthology/ Urban Fantasy Age category: Adult Release Date: November 28, 2016 Blurb: 21 Vignettes and Short Stories set in Faith Hunter’s World of Thorn St. Croix.

The Rogue Mage world began long ago, when the epic battle between the High Host and the Darkness was won and lost. TRIALS takes fans of Thorn St. Croix into the past, before the opening pages of BLOODRING. These stories, set in Faith Hunter's Rogue Mage world, are adventures with new characters and old, facing dangers unimaginable. And they must save the world all over again.

If you ever wondered what happened between seraphs, kylen, second-unforeseen, mages, seraph-touched, spawn, humans, dragons, and their creatures before the series, now is your chance to delve deeper and wider. TRIALS features new short stories from nine authors—including Faith Hunter—and vignettes from the Rogue Mage role playing game. You can find Trials on Goodreads

You can buy Trials here: - Amazon - Barnes & Noble Interview: Lucienne Diver  1. What was it like to play in the Rogue Mage world? At first it was incredibly intimidating. Faith is such an amazing writer, and the world she’s created is so rich and textured that it was a challenge to jump in and feel that I was doing it justice.  But because the world is so well-realized, it really lives and breathes, and once I got a handle on the approach I wanted to take, it was a lot of fun. Who doesn’t want to write a kylen? Or the woman with a dangerous secret she’s afraid he’s come to expose? Who doesn’t want to fight the good fight in a post-apocalyptic world? 2. Was it hard to develop your character within the confines of the Rogue Mage world? Not at all. Aoife (pronounced ee-fa), my heroine, is an itinerant storyteller and something a little more.  She’ll carry packages and messages for the right price. Not smuggling per se, but not necessarily things that are approved by the Administration of the ArchSeraphs.  She’s such a product of her upbringing.  Aoife grew up in an Enclave where her parents were in service, so she’s got a healthy distain for neomages who treated her and her family as though they were lesser because they were only human.  As soon as she was of age, she left to make her own way in the world, but with some specialized knowledge, like bataireacht, the Irish stick-fighting taught to her by her father, which is very handy in the dangerous Post-Ap world Faith has created.  Put Aoife in the same mule train with a second or third generation kylen (the product of a union between a seraph and a mage or human) and you have instant tension. Add to that the mysterious parcel she carries and dangers stalking their caravan, bring things to a head, and Aoife discovers where she really stands in the grand scheme of things. 3. Tell us about your character. What species, etc. I jumped the gun on this question above, but the short version: Aoife describes herself as “standard-issue human” and is proud of it. 4. When your story was finished, how did you feel about your character and story? I really love Aoife. I know we’re not supposed to put too much of ourselves into our characters, but I identify with her in so many ways, from the skepticism and continuing evaluation of beliefs to not being a joiner. I love that I was able to use my time in Ireland and the nature of the place and people themselves to inform her development, and I’m very pleased with the way she turned out. I hope my story will resonate with others the way it resonates with me. 5. Tell us about your other projects. My latest novel, Faultlines, is a young adult thriller dealing with some serious issues that are close to my heart. In short, six months ago, Vanessa's best friend Lisa changed, pushing everyone away, Vanessa included.  Now she's committed suicide.  As Vanessa struggles to come to terms with Lisa’s death and to reconstruct the last months of her life, someone begins taking revenge against those he or she perceives drove Lisa to suicide.  Everyone thinks it's Vanessa, the former best friend and some begin their retaliation. As vengeance, counterattacks and clues mount, it becomes a race to the truth…and hopefully not to the death. In addition to Faultlines, I’ve written the Latter-Day Olympians urban fantasy series featuring a heroine who can, quite literally, stop men in their tracks, and the Vamped young adult series featuring a heroine who goes from chic to eek when she becomes one of the undead (think Clueless meets Buffy).  My short stories and essays that have appeared in the Strip-Mauled and Fangs for the Mammaries anthologies edited by Esther Friesner (Baen Books), in Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories (HarperTeen) and the anthology Kicking It edited by Faith Hunter and Kalayna Price (Roc Books). The Trials Authors: Faith Hunter Diana Francis Misty Massey Lou J Berger Ken Schrader Spike Y Jones Christina Stiles Tamsin Silver Melissa McArthur Excerpt: Kicking the snow from his boots, Zadok took a calming breath and faced the small house, trying to project the confidence of a seasoned healer, rather than the fear of an acolyte on his first solo cure. His smile was stiff on his frozen face, the air so cold and still that his flesh felt brittle, as if it would crack and fall from his bones should he move wrong. The short trip had been brutal, his contingent of six guides and fighters more accustomed to the vicious cold and hard pace than a mage who had lived his entire life in the comfort and ease of the Seattle Enclave. He’d gained an appreciation for the humans who lived in the frozen wastes, losing his snide sense of superiority, which had been based solely on his mage abilities. He never would have survived the short trip without the assistance of the others. He glanced at the human woman, Sarai. She’d saved his life when he’d stepped off the track and crashed through the snow into the creek beneath. The driving snow had already drained Zadok's mage energies dangerously low, forcing him to draw constantly on his prime amulet to fight it, and he'd lost precious body heat to the icy water. Not even his amulets could fight off hypothermia. While Howard, a mule, started a fire, Sarai had activated all of his Healing amulets, stripping him down and crawling into a sleeping bag with him… naked… sharing her body warmth with him… offering him her life energies. He’d accepted the gift of her life, stealing the energies of a human in ways no Earth mage was permitted. Now she smiled at him, encouragement in her glance, seemingly hinting that some bond still lingered between them. Zadok nodded once at her and opened the door of the fortified building. Stepping inside the thick stone walls, he took in the dwelling with a sweeping glance. Perhaps twenty humans were gathered around a huge fireplace in the large room. Except for a table before the fire, the furniture had been shoved against the plastered walls. On the table was a blanket-covered form, a body racked by shivers. The gathered humans looked up, fear and stress grooving their faces. Zadok took a second calming breath and the stench of rotting flesh, old urine, and feces met him. Fear threaded through him, knotting his muscles, causing him to pant. Am I too late? He gulped, frozen on the threshold. Gently, Sarai pushed him into the room and closed the door behind them, leaving the others to set up perimeters. As if she were his servant, she took the satchel from his numb fingers and whispered, “You can do this. I have faith in you.” Louder, she said, “The healer Zadok has arrived from Seattle Enclave to work an incantation of healing on your kirk elder, Judith. He requires a surface for his implements, a cup of warming chai, and space to work.” Within moments, the humans had helped him from his winter gear, brought him hot chai laced with brandy, placed a table before him for his mage amulets, and eased the body from the tabletop to the floor, creating a space wide enough for him to work a healing circle.

Tribulations (Rogue Mage Anthology #2) By Faith Hunter, Lucienne Diver, Spike Y Jones, Jean Rabe and Christina Stiles Genre: Anthology/ Urban Fantasy Age category: Adult Release Date: December 30, 2016 Blurb: 17 Vignettes and Short Stories set in Faith Hunter’s World of Thorn St. Croix The Rogue Mage story began with the post-apocalyptic novels BLOODRING, SERAPHS, and HOST, when epic battles between Thorn St. Croix and the forces of Darkness were fought. TRIBULATIONS (Rogue Mage Anthology Vol. II) takes place during and after the series timeline. These stories and vignettes, set in Faith Hunter's Rogue Mage world, are adventures with new characters and old, facing Darkness and an uncertain future. The relationships between seraphs, kylen, second-unforeseen, mages, seraph-touched, spawn, humans grow deeper, and the battles with dragons and their creatures grow more dangerous. TRIBULATIONS features new short stories from five authors—including Faith Hunter—and vignettes from the Rogue Mage role playing game. TRIALS and TRIBULATIONS will soon be followed by TRIUMPHANT—the paperback omnibus (both Anthology Volumes I and II in a bound format). TRIBULATIONS Authors: Faith Hunter, Jean Rabe, Spike Y Jones, Christina Stiles, Lucienne Diver. You can find Tribulations on Goodreads You can buy Tribulations here: - Amazon - Barnes & Noble The Tribulations Authors: Faith Hunter Lucienne Diver Spike Y Jones Jean Rabe Christina Stiles