Book Bonus: Travel Powers Jobs

Travel Powers have a teleportation-like skill that allows them to move faster. See what exactly they can do here.

James Ottosparrow is a fifth class travel Power. He works in a mine, where his ability to sense objects in the dark helps him map out new areas and ensure the structure of older areas. While being able to sense obstructions doesn't provide fine details, it's enough to avoid running into walls or missing a crevice. He works with earth Powers to construct a safe working environment for the other miners. In his free time, he volunteers at a community theater, managing props and handling the stage lighting.

Travel Powers can usually outrun their foes,
unless their foes have cars or horses.
Then the travel Power waves goodbye,
just like everyone else.

Giovanni Ross is a fourth class travel Power. He works for the FBI, investigating international crimes. While travel Powers are not encouraged to work in espionage, criminal activities, especially those that cause human suffering. Saving people through investigation and being able to move quickly--or sense people within forty feet--give him an advantage in the field. His partner is always willing to make sure his uncontrolled skips occur in safe environments, pelting him with ping-pong balls at unexpected moments.

Sara Nyugen is a third class travel Power. Her ability to skip without interference allows her to enter the planes she works on without removing paneling, performing maintenance on hard-to-reach areas. She's part of her local live action roleplaying group, as well, where in addition to participating in the LARPs, she sometimes helps the game masters at night, monitoring for trouble and helping LARPers recover lost items.

Marra Adeyemi is a first class travel Power. She works for the government, of course: investigating rogue Powers and bringing them to justice (or, if needed, rescuing them). She also helps handle diplomatic relations between the Powered community and those without magic, paying damages and settling wrongs caused by magic. Unlike many Powered, her hobbies have nothing to do with magic: she and her husband share a passion for music, and relax by flute and violin.

---

Tone-deaf Kelly has long considered her inborn music magic to be useless. But after a disaster drowns the American South in magic, including her whole family except her twin brother, she discovers her “useless” magic lets her hear the voices of those lost. Now, with the help of her twin and her handsome, green-eyed neighbor Derik, she’ll face magic itself to save them–only the attempt may cost her everyone she has left.

Available now on:
Smashwords
Barnes and Noble
Amazon.com
Kobo 
iTunes

The Striped Queen

 In the mansion on the hill, there's a small cat. She sashays across the bridge as if it were built for her. Perhaps it was. For there are no humans in this mansion, not anymore.

Decades ago the gardens planted were tame and sweet, flowers dancing in their boxes at the touch of the wind. Now their grandchildren pour out of their beds and swallow the gardens whole, chasing away visitors with rowdy untidiness.

The striped queen lays her claim to a mouse that begs its freedom. But a merciful queen is a hungry one, so the end is quick, but satisfying to only one party.

Yet an empty mansion eventually calls for a resident of the two-legged kind, just as a friendly cat eventually calls for a friend. And the two together... perhaps the stranger's feet rattling the bridge was inevitable.

The little queen popped over the edge to see who broke into her lair. One large and time-worn hand stopped to scratch her ear, and she decided the female human smelled decent, aged but sound and kind. With a purr and rub, she invited her new friend into her home.

No judgement was passed for the dusty state of the furniture, nor of the lack of sustenance in the dirty kitchen.

 

There may have been a pause at the doorway of the bedroom with the ex-human, but the bones were decades past being troublesome, and in the little queen's mind had always been there, because of course for her, they had.

But the boots trod silently on, and stopped in the stillest room, which hadn't ever held much human smell to begin with. Here the woman lay herself on the bed, and made her hands properly busy digging into the fur of her host. The tattered rags of the jacket wouldn't have kept the cold out, but the smooth fabric of the bed held on to warmth, and soon the ladies, snuggled back to knees, slept.

Every queen finds herself nose to nose with danger eventually, and when morning came, the dogs rose with it. Howls and hunters crashed the gates, feet swarming across the bridge.

So the little queen ran for the garden, a garden no visitor dared to trespass. But this visitor was her friend, and despite her clumsy human size, followed her close, through bramble and rose and under the delicate flower that stung like fire at the barest touch.

There they waited, in the center, in a garden running free. And the dogs howling at the edges of the garden argued that the flowers would not keep them safe, and their masters--for dogs had masters instead of friends or roommates--howled with them.

Then the fires began, and the smoke rose. The little queen meowed and yowled, but the smoke didn't abate, and her new friend smelled of salt and wetness. So she dodged between the flagstones and into the fountain, the root-pried mortar opening into the tunnels below, where puddles of water still flowed. Distressing, yes, that a queen must wet her feet; but the air boiled above.

Her friend, though, proved her worth, plucking the queen from the puddles and holding her dry. Together they roamed the dark wet chambers, until the queen smelled the way they should have gone: dry, the scent proclaimed. The striped queen struggled and squirmed her way free, and her friend with a confused cry followed. Into the hill the tunnel went, up and up and up, far beyond the mansion's walls. And then they came to the secret place, where mice never went and no birds stayed. The air barely churned and nothing grew.

But her new friend cooed and jumped, and dove into the chunks of metal and strange perches. She became wild, unpredictable and loud in her frolicking. Whatever catnip the metal was to humans, it stole the senses from the queen's friend.

The queen thought to run, to run and hide, but her friend caught her up and placed her high and out of danger. And when the night came, and they slipped out together, her friend had calmed enough to offer her the first bite of dinner, fish caught from the stream a day and half past the queen's territory and served on one of the metal plates her friend had carried with them.

Three weeks later, the two queens sat by a tame fire of the warm new cottage, feasting on fish from golden pans. And if the human's hands were a bit dirty, well, the striped queen wasn't one to judge--for what good was a home, without a garden to roam?

Capability mindset

I find one of the best ways to keep myself growing in opportunities and abilities is to have a capability mindset. It's not just for writers (in fact, although it applies to writing as well, I consider it just as useful in the business world).

It's not automatic. Keeping a capability mindset means actively pulling myself out of a limit mindset.

What are the benefits of being "capability-minded" instead of "limit-minded"?

First, I should probably define the terms.

What Is Capability?

Capability is not potential. It is not possibility, either. It is what you can do. It is what can be done, based on one's current assets, abilities, attitude, and desires.

Capability changes day-to-day, but one can usually get a reasonable idea of what people are capable of. It emphasizes what people can do, not what they cannot; it highlights their strengths, not their weaknesses.

For example, one coworker might be extremely efficient, but not exactly detail-oriented. The capability set of this person might be speed with a moderate level of precision.

Another coworker might be extremely precise, but not particularly fast. The capability would be an extreme level of precision.

Today, I might be feeling tired. My capability is that I'll be able to go to work, with a little energy left over to put towards one or two small extra things, such as either writing or cleaning.

What Are Limits?

Limits tend to be the default mindset. It's what we cannot do. This is easy, because our minds tend to try to define people by what their limits are.

The first coworker's limits might "not particularly precise, but fast." This person has a higher than average number of errors, but works fast.

The second worker's limits are that he's slow, but does a thorough job.

I'm tired, so I can't do much after work on this particular day. I'll only be able to do one extra task, such as cleaning or writing.

What's the Difference?

The reason to be capability-minded is that it puts a person's strengths before his or her weaknesses.

However, we rely on strengths to accomplish our tasks. Focusing on limits invites comparisons--coworker #2 might say, "I'm not as fast as #1." Then coworker #2 tries to increase speed, but begins to make more mistakes, because he is trying to remove his limits without acknowledging his strengths. Although he wants to keep his precision high, he has prioritized speed.

If he were capability-minded, thought, he might say "I'm really precise. I would like improve my speed, too, but it's my precision that my coworkers rely on." Coworker #2 then begins working on getting faster, but this time, because he focused on what his strength was first, he takes care to maintain his precision and perhaps even manages to improve it.

If I'm feeling tired, and focusing on how tired I am, I might husband my resources and pull some of the attention I should be able to put into work elsewhere. I also get more tired because I'm thinking of my tiredness. I go home, do the shopping, and then crash on the couch.

By focusing on the energy I do have, I know I can put full attention at work. Then, afterward, I have enough energy for something small, like shopping. After that, I re-evaluate. Perhaps I have enough energy left over to go on a walk and get some exercise. Perhaps I don't, and still fall asleep on the couch.

The Advantage

It's a form of positive thinking, one that rewards productivity. It also makes opens my mind to possibilities. If a project comes in, I evaluate it: how important is speed? How important is efficiency? How do I maximize both?

Say speed is the only thing that's important. I get Coworker #1 to do it for me. The rate of error is within acceptable bounds, because otherwise Coworker #1 wouldn't have been hired; therefore, the product is what I want.

But say high-quality is most important. I get Coworker #2 to do it for me. I carve out the time and ensure there's enough for Coworker #2 to get the job done. This may mean I hand off a couple of items to #1, if need be.

Say it needs to be done fast but clean. Who do I get to do it?

I might have Coworker #1 do a first job, and then ask Coworker #2 to skim through and check grammar and formatting, taking no more than 10 minutes. Or, I might as #2 to craft the introduction, #1 to do the rest, and #2 to edit at the end.

Thinking about their capabilities--what each does well--makes me want to take advantage of them. It seems simple, but if I were thinking of their limits, I'd probably have handed the document to #1 and just hoped for the best.

Thinking about what people can do encourages me to think creatively, and makes me more likely to problem solve. When I think about limits, I confine myself by accident. And that's why I work with a capability mindset: because I find I do more when I focus on what's available, instead of what's not.

Distraction!

Started playing EarthBound, the 1995 classic game, for the first time. So far I've beaten up a lot of skater punks, stepped on bunches of ants, and watched my beloved bee mentor get squished. And not in that order.

It's supposed to be a great game. I'm excited to finally discover it--and how did I miss it for this long?!

Also got my hands on a tablet. There may be more "art" soon, depending on how long it takes me to figure out what I'm doing...

So no book bonuses today, I'm afraid! Author got distracted. Bad author, bad... Go play more EarthBound as punishment. (Yes, me'am).

The Face Thief

How do you tell a story without words?

"The Face Thief" is a cute animated short movie about a detective hunting something that steals faces, and discovers a surreal world the more he investigates. Oh, and the whole thing is done without words, which is useful because it's not actually in a language I speak. (Warning, it's a beautiful story, but you may cry at the end.)

Click on the link to watch it.

http://io9.com/a-private-eye-must-stop-a-thief-who-steals-faces-but-th-1631194238?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_facebook&utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Publishing Industry News

This week's publishing news and industry blogs post covers 8/22-9/4/14.

Publishing News

Authors United prepares for another letter addressing Amazon's sales tactics.

Ellora's Cave publishing house confirms their sales have dropped dramatically on Amazon, likely to to revised algorithms. Many of Ellora's Cave books are erotica, and this may factor in to the sudden sales drop due to lower visibility following the search algorithms' modifications.

Bath reader? Kobo debuts a waterproof e-reader.

Amazon unveils KDP Kids, with the aim of making it easier to create and distribute illustrated digital children's books.

Barnes and Noble experiments with the Espresso Book Machine, the POD printer that allows customers to print and purchase any desired title even if they can't find it on the shelves (including self-published, traditionally published, digital-only, and public domain titles).


Industry Blogs

QueryTracker's Publishing Pulse for 8/29.

Also on QueryTracker, how to format e-mail queries, and why it can be so tricky to do so (and how to avoid those pitfalls). Also, how to ensure your payoff scenes have maximum impact.

Is AbsoluteWrite a great resource for writers, or a bully-board? Victoria Strauss weighs in, and her verdict is that the smear campaign against AbsoluteWrite is unjustified. Not just with an endorsement, but with a critical look at the major sites behind the AbsoluteWrite criticism, she says it really is a valuable resource and shouldn't be dismissed based on rumor and trolls run amok.

On The Editor's Blog, you'll find out how to diagnose your characters to see if any of them have the highly fatal Right Place, Right Time syndrome, that kills not them but your readers' suspension of disbelief.

Agent Janet Reid answers questions and offers advice. One common misconception is that writers shouldn't write series; Reid counters with writers shouldn't mention a sequel in the query. After many queries, the writer gets lots of "it's good but not for me"; is there something wrong with the story or has she just not found the right agent? (Probably needs some work to get the final push. Try writing another book, or checking the pacing.) She also comes across a definitely-a-service-to-avoid.

Agent Nephele Tempest has a nice set of writers' links, including opportunities for writers for September and October.

Mythcreants blogger Chris Winkle tells us how to know when to cut a scene. Yes, even if it's a darling: if there's no purpose to the story, it'll only weigh you down. (Hat tip to another of Tempest's posts.)

Diversity in fiction is important. Author David Mack and Buzzfeed writer Daniel José Older remind us of just how important, and why representation--or rather, the lack thereof--is still systematic and needs addressing.

And have you considered buying a BookBook? Rather hilarious ad on the newest technology: paper and ink books.

Copyright free, or in this case,
expired copyright; that is, images so
old they're now considered public domain.

How about some copyright-free images for your blog? 2.6 million copyright-free images were released through the Internet Archive on Flickr by academic Kalev Leetaru.

Which is a great time to bring up  The Visual Communication Guy's infographic on image copyright, "Can I Use That Picture?"

Also, on another note, one of my writer friends is teaching a course at Wake Tech in NC. If you want to take a fiction-writing course, check it out. The details:

FICTION WRITING FOR BEGINNERS

A new fiction writing class is starting at Wake Tech. Learn to find and trust your creative voice.  Whether you have started to write and need to finish something, or if you are just getting started, this class will help you.

Turn your experience and imagination into marketable fiction. Learn tricks for overcoming writer's block, and creating characters and plots.

Dates: Wed’s, Sept 10 – Oct 29, 6:30-9:30pm     

CE Non-Credit #: 127035      Location: Leesville High School

Website: http://www.waketech.edu/programs-courses/non-credit/register-online

What publishing news have you encountered in the past two weeks?

Book Bonus: Sample Jobs for Telekinesis Powers

Some Powers have obvious jobs, such as regeneration Powers, who become doctors and medics. Others, such as telekinesis Powers, have a less obvious career path, and find themselves useful in disparate fields.

Jerald Mayers, a third class telekinesis Power, works in an army warehouse, where he stores and retrieves crates via magic, and occasionally rescues falling things from landing on peoples' heads. With magic, he can shift around crates and loose items that are inconvenient to reach, saving time when crates in the back or on the bottoms of stacks take damage.

Lucinda Wong works at a steel factory as a fourth-class telekinesis Power. She works with the machinery that handles hot steel, from checking the grip of mechanical arms to replacing parts in the machinery, even moving small cameras over the machinery for trouble shooting. With her magic, she minimizes the time spent waiting for metal to cool before problem-solving, and helps ensure no person has to approach the metal while it remains at burning temperatures.

David Goldsmith works construction as a fifth-class telekinesis Power. His magic can't lift much weight from a great distance, but he can operate some equipment remotely, although for safety reasons he only operates push-button items that require no steering or supervision. This eliminates activating cranes, which might swing wild or strike objects he couldn't see, but includes pressing elevator switches or opening doors when everyone has hands full. With his ability to "see" obstructions behind himself, he can walk backwards without fear of falling or running into things--nice with two-person hauling jobs. His magic also allows him to "handle" dangerous objects, such as live wires that escape hands, by pinning them down until they can be safely retrieved; and delicate jobs, such as setting wires in hard-to-reach areas.

Stacey Martins, a first-class telekinesis Power, works in the military on an explosive ordinance disposal task force. Diffusing explosives might be terrifying work, but when robots cannot provide a careful enough touch, with a good camera image, she can work with dexterity at 40 feet, employing up to ten "hands." When not on emergency diffusing, her unit works full-time in demining. Her unit is often called on to clear areas near civilian locations, or areas where people would like to settle but that have been historical war sites. Once mines are located, she can remove them from the ground at a safe distance, keeping all personnel out of the potential blast zones, or if necessary remotely detonate them. 

---

Tone-deaf Kelly has long considered her inborn music magic to be useless. But after a disaster drowns the American South in magic, including her whole family except her twin brother, she discovers her “useless” magic lets her hear the voices of those lost. Now, with the help of her twin and her handsome, green-eyed neighbor Derik, she’ll face magic itself to save them–only the attempt may cost her everyone she has left.

Available now on:
Smashwords
Barnes and Noble
Amazon.com
Kobo 
iTunes