Click HERE for the Audio Edition!
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As you probably guessed from the title, this entry is a mixed bag of news.
(CAUTION: This entry also contains strong language!)
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THE GOOD:
I’ve been derping around with the Submission Grinder, a wonderful tool created by Diabolical Plots to help writers weed through the mountain of online magazines without having to check every single one on the net personally. Just fill in some parameters for the story you are trying to sell and BOOM! There’s a good chance something will come up that will be useful to you. I’m still playing round robin with my pair of short stories, and while I know I should be writing more, nothing has really come to mind. However, I stumbled across a book called The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction. I’d seen the term pop up before, but hadn’t really looked into it. (It’s possible that “flash fiction” sounded too much like “slash fic” for me.) Apparently, flash fiction is a term for “short short stories.” Although the lengths vary from publication to publication, flash fiction is usually less than 2,000 words. So, I decided to try my hand at it, since there is apparently a huge market for it. It’ll be an interesting challenge, but I actually already wrote down a rough draft for an idea and will work on refining it. Wish me luck!
THE BAD:
Some of you may have noticed that the links for the Cat’s Cradle Audio Editions are no longer working. That is because my entire Cat’s Cradle channel was deleted from YouTube.
Why? I have no fucking clue.
I logged into my Gmail account, only to find a message that one of my videos had been removed from YouTube. Shocked and stunned, I checked to see why. The video was for Entry #106: “I Dare You,” which is about the struggles of time management. It was flagged for “inappropriate content.” I scoured that video, trying to find what could have possibly been the reason for such an action. I couldn’t find anything and the appeal system is a joke. (Basically, you get enough space to write a sentence and then a few hours later, you get another email saying that your video was reviewed and their decision to delete it stands.) Okay. That’s frustrating, but fine. I’ll deal. I’ll have a strike against my account, but I’ll be extra-careful and try re-uploading it in a few months. So, I uploaded my latest Audio Edition for Entry #144: “Inferior Origins,” which is about the dangers of handling fictional backstory.
A day or so later, I received another email saying that that video was removed for inappropriate content. At this point I was tearing my hair out in frustration because there was still no explanation as to what was flagged as inappropriate. I used my single sentence in the “appeal” form to ask for an explanation. At this point I didn’t care about getting the video reinstated. I just wanted to know why so I could keep it from happening in the future. To comply with their rules.
Four days later, I got an email saying that my entire Gmail YouTube account was terminated because another video was flagged as inappropriate within six months of the first strike against me. The offending entry? “2015: The Year in Review.” No explanation. No appeal. No means of contacting anyone to find out if these were legitimate flags or some spam-bot or a malicious troll. And of course, not only did that annihilate the hours of work that I’ve put into creating Audio Editions for the last two years, but it also erased all of the saves, favorites, and views of other YouTube videos that I’d been enjoying, like THUNK, Extra Credits, Last Week Tonight, or DNews Plus.
Really, that loss isn’t what burns me. What infuriates me to no end is that my account was terminated with absolutely no explanation as to why. I can deal with unfair treatment if I know why it is happening. But to be treated unfairly AND not know why it’s happening? That is unacceptable. I’m looking into alternate means of making Audio Editions available again, so I hope you’ll be patient while I figure out what to do now.
YouTube: I enjoy much of the content provided on your site. But in this instance, you can go fuck yourself.
THE UGLY:
….*sigh*
I’m still editing All’s Fair. (Yeah, it needs a new title, but for now I’m still using the old moniker.) In the last two days I’ve regained a little steam (hah, hah) and have made some great breakthroughs with character motivation and streamlining the plot… but overall the process is going too slowly. I have to force myself to work on it, and since so much of what I’m doing right now involves rewriting old scenes and crafting new ones, I don’t know if that’s wise. But “taking a break” sounds too much like another procrastination tactic. I’m tired of not having things finished and this was supposed to be a short fun project and it’s going to get done because I’ll be damned if I’ll let another year go by without a goddamn finished manuscript.
The Cat's Cradle : On Hiatus! 