So, my web traffic exploded last Thursday. The reason? A sudden avalanche of interest in the possible discovery of Amelia Earhart’s long-lost plane.
Ice Storm: 12 Days, 36,000 Words!
It’s Day 12 of my “open novel” experiment for Ice Storm, aka my “Development Hell” book. I edited 3,000 words yesterday, bringing my redraft to 36,000 words. That means I’ve got about 54,000 words still to go.
I drew up a chapter from scratch yesterday. It’s written from the point of view of a scientist named Holly Whitlow. She’s got a secret deep in the heart of Antarctica, one that could get her into a lot of trouble. Initially, I hadn’t planned to do a whole lot with the chapter. I just wanted to reveal her secret and give her a quiet emotional moment. But I found myself inspired and turned out a pretty good scene with some emotional resonance. I love days like that…one moment I’m sort of going through the motions, the next I’m experiencing a creative outburst.
Amelia Earhart: Writing about her Lost Flight?
Last Thursday, my web traffic exploded. In case you haven’t heard the news, a group named TIGHAR announced it had discovered a sonar image that might be the wreckage of Amelia’s long-lost plane. I’ve been writing about Amelia Earhart’s doomed flight and TIGHAR’s various expeditions to find it for over a year now (in case, you’re interested, here’s my Amelia Earhart archive).
Anyway for the last couple of days, my Amelia Earhart articles have received lots of traffic. But it didn’t last. A lot of people visited my site and clicked around on the Amelia Earhart stuff. Then they took off, presumably to search for more information on her. I was tempted to do an update, Guerrilla Explorer style. But I decided not to go through with it.
When I started Guerrilla Explorer, I thought I’d see more overlap for stories about mysteries of history, lost treasure, and monsters. But I’ve noticed that audiences tend to be very distinct. Bigfoot hunters, by and large, don’t seem to care much about Amelia Earhart and vice versa. So, while an Amelia Earhart update might get me a few days of heavy traffic, it seemed unlikely to draw in regular readers. And honestly, I’d rather build a long-term audience who’s interested in my books and other creative endeavors than try to snag a bunch of short-term visits.
That being said, I’m thinking about starting a weekly series in the Guerrilla Explorer vein. This would be based on a fictional Guerrilla Explorer character, perhaps someone who would investigate the paranormal and lost cities in a very unique way. I still need to think this through, but it’s on my mind…
Drawing: Day 5 – Hollow Cubes
I completed my 5th lesson from You Can Draw in 30 Days by Mark Kistler last night. The topic was hollow cubes and as you can see from my sketch book, it was mostly about drawing boxes and treasure chests. It’s amazing how the little things matter when drawing a picture. The inner line of the box and the inner lines of the treasure chest lid really make those drawings pop out of the page. By the way, when it came time to freewheel it at the end, I couldn’t figure out what to do. My drawings aren’t bad considering I’ve only been at this for a few days. But I haven’t reached the point yet where I’m taking the art into my own hands and adding my own personal details. I imagine that will come eventually, but for the moment, I’m basically just following instructions and trying to figure out the basics.
Other Stuff
No news to report here. Just the same old stuff. Namely, I’m still thinking about making adjustments to my sidebar (that one on the right with Chaos in it). I might expand it to include international bookstores. And yes, the link to buy Chaos at Diesel (see sidebar) is STILL broken. Diesel has a revised version of Chaos but doesn’t seem to have posted it yet. Finally, the Chaos paperback continues to be on sale for $13.25 at Amazon. Get it and review it!