Annual New Year's report
Jan 1, 2017 14:40:58 GMT -5
Post by Wes on Jan 1, 2017 14:40:58 GMT -5
I'm not exactly sure of the date, and I can't find any documents that would iron it down, but sometime in the next week or ten days or so will be the tenth anniversary of spearfishlaketales.com.
I originally started the site to post some stories I had written clear back into the eighties. Mostly I wrote them for my own pleasure; writing them was something to do on cold winter evenings when I didn't want to overhear the wife's television. With only limited exceptions, no one had ever read any of them until I started to post them. When I first put the site up, I set it up with Google Ads in hopes that I would get enough money back from them to pay the overhead costs of the site. If I lost a little money on the deal, I figured I could at least develop a few e-mail friendships from posting the stories. That in itself would be worth the effort.
When I first put the site up I included a handful of stories that I had previously posted elsewhere, stories like Rocinante and The Next Generation, just so people would have something to read before we got into the currently posting story. Again, I can't recall if I started with posting Dawnwalker or something else, but I do know that when I got part of the way through that huge tome I started getting e-mails from people asking what it would cost them for me to send them the whole thing. I made a casual reply that I'd send a copy of it for $25.00. I got enough orders to realize that I had something here, and with a few tweaks to the setup things have carried on in much the same way ever since.
Although there have been a few times that weather, computer or health issues have interfered, I have continued to post three times a week ever since. That's over 1500 posts of a chapter each! I never dreamed it would go on this long!
I intend to continue spearfishlaketales.com in the future, although the supply of stories waiting to post is shrinking. I did not have a particularly good year writing in 2016, mostly because I only had a handful of stories that reached out and grabbed me enough to want to write them. It seemed like every time I got an idea that seemed good, I'd think back and realize, "I already did that back in . . ." or something like that. I do have a few good ideas laying out there that need work, and I hope in the next few cold months I may be able to make progress on them. However, the best ideas come out of the woodwork with little forethought and seem to drop into place. I have hopes that I will be able to knock out some more in the coming year, even though I'm not as young as I used to be and I'm starting to feel the years dragging on me a little.
In the past week I got some news that may prove to be very good for me at the paper, which has to remain my primary interest despite the success of the website. At this point I don't know if it's going to mean a little more work or a lot more work, or how much the website will be affected, so I guess I'm just going to have to wait and see. However, I'm going to drop PhotoPost from the website immediately, mostly because it's become something of a pain in the neck and I don't get a lot of reader reaction. I may pick it up in some modified form in the future, and I may not.
Posting plans for the next year remain a little fuzzy. Way back when I posted Starting Late, I got several e-mails asking what happened to Becca and Bree; I always replied that their story had been worked out, but that we had to wait for things to happen in other story lines. Well, once Joe/Joan is over with, their time will have come. It will be followed by another long-delayed follow-up of another existing character. Beyond that, there are several possibilities and I have not settled on which will be next.
Now that we have 2016 finally over with, here's hoping for a warm, friendly, and productive New Year. The best to all of you, and especially to those who have stuck with me since the beginning!
-- Wes
I originally started the site to post some stories I had written clear back into the eighties. Mostly I wrote them for my own pleasure; writing them was something to do on cold winter evenings when I didn't want to overhear the wife's television. With only limited exceptions, no one had ever read any of them until I started to post them. When I first put the site up, I set it up with Google Ads in hopes that I would get enough money back from them to pay the overhead costs of the site. If I lost a little money on the deal, I figured I could at least develop a few e-mail friendships from posting the stories. That in itself would be worth the effort.
When I first put the site up I included a handful of stories that I had previously posted elsewhere, stories like Rocinante and The Next Generation, just so people would have something to read before we got into the currently posting story. Again, I can't recall if I started with posting Dawnwalker or something else, but I do know that when I got part of the way through that huge tome I started getting e-mails from people asking what it would cost them for me to send them the whole thing. I made a casual reply that I'd send a copy of it for $25.00. I got enough orders to realize that I had something here, and with a few tweaks to the setup things have carried on in much the same way ever since.
Although there have been a few times that weather, computer or health issues have interfered, I have continued to post three times a week ever since. That's over 1500 posts of a chapter each! I never dreamed it would go on this long!
I intend to continue spearfishlaketales.com in the future, although the supply of stories waiting to post is shrinking. I did not have a particularly good year writing in 2016, mostly because I only had a handful of stories that reached out and grabbed me enough to want to write them. It seemed like every time I got an idea that seemed good, I'd think back and realize, "I already did that back in . . ." or something like that. I do have a few good ideas laying out there that need work, and I hope in the next few cold months I may be able to make progress on them. However, the best ideas come out of the woodwork with little forethought and seem to drop into place. I have hopes that I will be able to knock out some more in the coming year, even though I'm not as young as I used to be and I'm starting to feel the years dragging on me a little.
In the past week I got some news that may prove to be very good for me at the paper, which has to remain my primary interest despite the success of the website. At this point I don't know if it's going to mean a little more work or a lot more work, or how much the website will be affected, so I guess I'm just going to have to wait and see. However, I'm going to drop PhotoPost from the website immediately, mostly because it's become something of a pain in the neck and I don't get a lot of reader reaction. I may pick it up in some modified form in the future, and I may not.
Posting plans for the next year remain a little fuzzy. Way back when I posted Starting Late, I got several e-mails asking what happened to Becca and Bree; I always replied that their story had been worked out, but that we had to wait for things to happen in other story lines. Well, once Joe/Joan is over with, their time will have come. It will be followed by another long-delayed follow-up of another existing character. Beyond that, there are several possibilities and I have not settled on which will be next.
Now that we have 2016 finally over with, here's hoping for a warm, friendly, and productive New Year. The best to all of you, and especially to those who have stuck with me since the beginning!
-- Wes
