Status

An off-hand comment from my beloved wife and a weekly vegetable box delivery has sent me down a rabbit hole of experimenting with my method of cooking roast potatoes, looking for techniques I can use to level up my roasties. Yesterday, I experimented with par-boiling the potatoes in slightly acidic water before roasting, then brushing them with a little melted butter to add some flavour as they roasted. The results were deliciously crisp potatoes with a fluffy core when eaten hot, but the texture of the leftovers was disappointing when eaten cold the following day.

Leftovers are important to us, given the haphazard balance between deadlines and spoons that runs our household, so figuring out the perfect tater roast now has a dedicated project page in my bullet journal to track future experiments and their results.

I did a long podcast taping with the PratChat folks last night – my first real “be a writer in public” thing in over a year, and only my second since the pandemic started, and I’m feeling it today. I’ve got a definite out in public hangover today – reserves a low, and largely diverted to wrangling the brain weasels my social anxiety throws my way after any public appearance or teaching gig. There shall be many cups of tea in my future.

GO READ

Cory Doctrow’s recent Wired article on the enshittification of technology spaces is also available to read on his website, and it’s highly recommended reading for anyone working in the arts/publishing/social media space. Indie publishing is often highly enamoured of these spaces and lean into tactics that work best when the spaces are new and not-yet-enshittified, which leads to a lot of folks throwing energy at making things work post-enshittification and wondering why they’re not getting results.

Far better to go in with your eyes open and assume that enshittification is coming. Yes, TikTok was great for organic reach once, but they’re past the period where they’re courting users and starting to figure out how to monetize, and with monetization comes shittiness and the desire to make you pay for reach. This isn’t new either — Amazon and Facebook have both played this game, and coaxed us all into throwing money their way for reach that used to be free — and it’s worth being aware of these things before you go all in on a particular marketing tactic.

And, not for nothing, it’s one of the reasons I’m reverting to the rather outdated technology of blogging instead of leaning into a major social media platform.

Anyway, read Doctrow’s article here.

ON THE DOCKET

Rare day without meetings or commitments, which means I’m diving into a bunch of design commissions and moving them forward. I’m also about to upload some new Brain Jar Press books to various distribution points so we can start marketing the pre-orders next week.

Still wading through two thousand fraudulent orders on the Brain Jar Press store, which means my email will periodically go insane as notifications come through. Thankfully, it seems the orders have halted for a stretch, which is especially useful given a new book launched yesterday and we need to double check every order that comes in.

PETER M. BALL INBOX: 83 (with the sword of Damocles looming overhead)

BRAIN JAR INBOX: 14

BRAIN JAR SUBMISSION QUEUE: 6

OUT TODAY: ECLECTIC PROJECTS 002

The second issue of Eclectic Projects is out today, featuring four original short stories, one serial entry, and one long essay about the worst job I’ve ever worked, digital publishing technology, and the evolution of publishing scams in the age of the internet. Available from all good bookstores, via a Patreon subscription, or right here on the Eclectic Projects store in ebook and print.

STATE OF THE PETER

What started as 400-odd fraudulent orders over on Brain Jar Press has now escalated to a flurry of 3,000+ attempts, which basically means my email is a hellscape of notifications and chat messages. Our payment provider is still doing their job—none of the fraudulent purchases have gone through and I’m spared the mass refunding that would follow if they did—but it’s still a time-consuming process to stay on top of things.

Worse, today, because it’s release day for Matthew Davis’ Bites Eyes over on the Brain Jar site, so I’ll have to keep a wary eye out for the legitimate orders that come through.

ON THE DOCKET

Dealing with some personal stuff today, alongside the fraud orders, but the nice thing about release days is that a large chunk of my to-do list can be run from a phone (it’s all triggering newsletters and commenting on social media posts). Later tonight, when things calm down, I’ll be recording with the fine folks at the PratChat podcast where we talk about Terry Pratchett’s non-fiction collection.

PETER M. BALL INBOX: 91 (with about 1000+ emails due to land today)

BRAIN JAR INBOX: 13

BRAIN JAR SUBMISSION QUEUE: 6

Spent some time rebuilding our submission tracking now that I’m back to being the primary BJP filter for new work, so the submission queue number may be a little soft, but I think I’ve logged everything that needs handling on both the partial requests and initial submission side of things.

Extraordinary number of fraulent orders hit the Brain Jar Press store over the weekend, transforming our usual trickle of notifications into a mighty torrent as I was notified by payment failure after payment failure. On the plus side, our filters caught all the bogus orders as they were sent through and didn’t process them, which means I don’t have to spend my day refunding 400+ orders and talking to our payment provider about each one. On the downside, my email and the order system is a disaster zone that will need a few hours to clean up.

Meanwhile, there are definite signs I need to reset my desk, especially given the number of books stacking up on the side table because I referenced them while working.

NEW WORK

This week’s Saturday Morning Story on Patreon was It’s Not A Job, a short tale about Chosen Ones, Monsters, and the Late Stage Capitalism that may also be a metaphor for art if you squint and look at the story sideways. Currently slated to appear in the September issue of Eclectic Projects, so Patreon backers get a really early look in addition to new issues as the magazine comes out.

Here’s a sample:

So it’s a Thursday and the three of us, me and Wiki and Cady, we’re up on the roof smoking cigarettes before we go clean the twenty-third floor. Our manager would ream our asses if she knew, pitch a fit over the maid service showing up stinking like an ashtray, but Cady wanted a cigarette and she’s got this way about her. She’ll get jack of working and just declare a smoke break, and somehow Wiki and me, we end up on the roof and start bumming smokes even though we say we’ve quit. The three of us, together, wasting time in the shadow of the Hotel sign they’ve bolted up there, on the edge. The big one, each letter sixteen feet high and luminous in the dark.

So we’re smoking when the storm rolls in, these dark, heavy clouds that boil and curl like ink poured into water. Weather that shifts the mood from “what a nice day” to “dear lord, forgive us our trespasses” in the space of a shared cigarette and the short exposition of Wiki’s bullshit theories ‘bout how the Raiders will do this season.

Cady eyes the clouds with suspicion. “Where the hell did those came from?”

“Warm, damp air rising fast and releasing latent heat as they condense,” Wiki says. “You know, like any other cloud.”

“Brain that size, and you still rock the mullet.” Cady finishes her cigarette and flicks it into the tin we keep up there to store her butts. “Some days, you worry me, big man.”

Me, I’m staring at the clouds while they bicker, trying to scratch the itchy tingle out of my arm and ignore the little voice in the back of my head screaming yo, yo, yo, man, there’s something hella wrong here. Trying to convince myself that sometimes a cloud is just a cloud, and the biggest risk the storm represents is the possibility of being soaked. 

Cady is still giving Wiki grief when I finally give in and say, “Guys? Hey guys, yo. I don’t think this is just weather, you know?”

Read It’s Not A Job on Patreon

ON THE DOCKET

Two mentorship meetings to deliver today, plus one more mentee I need to onboard after the email chain ground to a halt while I was sick. I also need to do some prep for the impending recording of next month’s Pratchat and make sure I’ve got my ideas and talking points clear. Also preparing for the launch of Ecletic Projects 002 tomorrow, making time for housework, and getting some writing done. If I don’t clear inboxes of the crushing weight of failed orders I’ll be a grumpy shit for the rest of the week.

Definitely more on the to-do list than I’ve got brains to manage. It’s going to be a messy day.

PETER M. BALL INBOX: 127

BRAIN JAR INBOX: 14

BRAIN JAR SUBMISSION QUEUE: 15