Farrah Wethers:

Feeling Pins and Needles (book 4)

#NANOWRIMO2020 (and some other stuff)

AMBER LOVE 06-DEC-2020 My work is supported by monthly backers at my tip jar on Patreon.com/amberunmasked. If you have enjoyed any of my books, it would be helpful to me if you could leave a five-star review at Amazon; anything three-stars or less tanks the average.

Also, pick up a digital copy of Insider Art at Gumroad for only $10. It’s 270 pages of all-ages comics, crafts, and short essays. Lots and lots of cats! And those cats have now been featured on Insider Art fabric at Spoonflower perfect for mask-making.

What to do now after reaching 50k words:

For people like me, we have to keep writing until we reach 80k words. Then take a break. Then edit the crap out of the mess of we made during November.

Gift Ideas:

‘Tis holiday shopping season for many people. I know most hate Amazon which I do agree is an evil corporate empire run by a greedy POS, but the platform of Amazon has made it possible for writers like me to get our books out there. If you have a writer in your life to shop for, I have an affiliate list of ideas for writerly gifts. Likewise, I have one for geek ideas, cats, witches, and yoga.

Writing Applications:

There are also plenty of software tools out there most of which are subscription based these days. Scrivener still seems to be the most affordable one but they haven’t rolled out their online version yet so it’s either Mac OS or Windows based not browser. You pay only once and get free updates. Maybe that will all change when they move to an online version. I assume they’d have to have a financial model like all the others. These are the companies listed as NaNoWriMo official sponsors besides Scrivener: Campfire, Storyist, ProWritingAid, AutoCrit, Hermit, Dabble, Novelpad, 4thewords, Novlr, World Anvil, Writing Mastery Academy, Scribendi, Save the Cat!, and The Great Courses Plus. I’ve left some off that are specifically about self-publishing sites. As far as I know this list is either for drafting your work or this new “auto editor” style. I guess they’re like Grammarly, but have more built-in AI for fiction. I honestly don’t know how or if they actually work.

Now, if the person you need a gift for is making comics whether writing, drawing, coloring, or lettering — there are a bunch of the core of classes at Comics Experience that you can purchase for them. There’s also the separate Creators’ Workshop which is a monthly access plan.

Memberships:

Thinking outside the box. Perhaps the writer in your life would like membership into one of the many societies like Sisters in Crime, SFWA, Mystery Writers of America, Horror Writers Association, Romance Writers, etc. There may be qualifications to get into some of those, but I think SinC is open (also it does allow anyone not just women).

MWA is having a bad time at the moment due to its national office being shutdown from the pandemic. They can’t process credit cards at this time. They do have different types of membership. Basically if you’re published by one of their approved publishers (not comics and not self-published) then you can probably qualify for their regular active membership. They other levels for agents, editors, reviewers, and others. Then they have affiliate membership which is for self-pubbed authors or fans.

Charity Funds in Their Name:

If the person you’re shopping for doesn’t fit into those categories, but is into comics, there’s the Comic Book Legal Defense Fun which I believe is finally under new leadership; and the Hero Initiative. They aren’t really memberships so much as organizations with specific missions of helping creators and retailers out.

Speaking of, if you want to donate to the Insider Art retailer fund for women and NB comic shop owners affected by the pandemic, go to the Gumroad link above and you can name your own price for the book. That way you also get the digital copy of the anthology and have made a difference.

Unique Gift Options:

Offer to pay for their webhosting for a year or their domain name. The domain is the least expensive part of running a website. You can even offer to pay for a professional website designer like 801red or UberDorkDesigns. This can also lead the way to creating a writer’s brand identity. Something we have to think about now that publishers don’t do all that work for us anymore.

Or… maybe you have another skill that would come in useful like financial services (tax filing sucks!) or project management. If your author loved one wants to run a Kickstarter, maybe you have a better handle on doing that kind of daily project management. I’ve heard it basically becomes another job. There are more fulfillment services now that make life easier too.

The Plan Continues:

I’ve been writing on an off. I had to spend time working on more cat detective stories. I’m also not being strict about my word count target on days when I do work on Feeling Pins and Needles now that the pressure is off. Since it’s part of a self-published series, I don’t have deadlines from an agent.

My housekeeping has been tragically neglected. I finally did some laundry yesterday. Gus is still insisting on daily walks even though it’s freezing out. The backyard birds have been very happy to be spoiled. The trade off is that Gus will jump up the tree once in a while though he has yet to murder a bird in 2020. He’s only gotten two in his lifetime. The animals have their own gift registry.

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.