Where I have been for two years.

[Zerohour]

I appreciate the clarification.  Glad to see you were able to return after such a long absence

[Victoria Victrix]

I appreciate the clarification.  Glad to see you were able to return after such a long absence

Me too.  There were a few moments when I was wondering....

I am enjoying Titan Paragon Chat, the only sad thing is my hours are erratic and usually LONG after the rest of you have gone to bed.  But it is glorious just to be able to fly around zones again.

[Paragon Avenger]

I just finished Collision, and I can quite honestly say I laughed, I cried, I cheered, and I'm already eagerly awaiting #5.

I know that it isn't the same thing, by a mile, but this reminds me of how I feel writing my fan fiction.  After they read an entry, they want another.  Well, always leave them wanting more.

[Paragon Avenger]

The life we imagine writers' have:

The writer lives in a big house on the outskirts of the suburbans.
A writing den with book shelf lined walls is where most of the writing gets done.  A maghogeney desk sits in front of french doors leading to a balconey with a breath-taking view of a lake and a far off mountain.  A manual typewriter and a pile of papers adorn the desk.  The clock chimes 10 o'clock, and the writer, still in PJ's and a bath robe, strolls into the room yawning and scratching.  The maid/cook enters and asks about what the writer wants for breakfast.  The writer mummbles something and the maid/cook laeves.  The writer sits in the over-stuffed high-backed leather chair, feeds the typewriter a sheet of paper and begins pecking away at the keys.
The phone rings, it's the agent.  The agents has just signed the writer to appear on one of the late shows.


The life writers actually have:

The 7 o'clock alarm blasts.
The writer jumps out of bed and heads to the bathroom to take a shower and get ready for work.
The writer leaves the studio apartment in the ran-down part of the old down-town area and catches the train.
By 9 o'clock, the writer is in the office making sales calls for an insurance company.
During morning break, the writer jots down a couple notes to work on after work.
After 5, the writer boards the train and returns home.
The writer fires up the laptop and starts working on the Word document that holds the story.
The phone rings, it's a bill collector.  The writer writes a bit a fiction, it's called a cheque.

[Paragon Avenger]

Hey VV,
I had Ms. Liberty saying that she was reading one of your books in one of my Fan Fiction Stories.

"Where were you the night of the sixteenth?"  Super Fire Dragon shot at Ms. Liberty leaping to his feet and pointing his finger.
"Home in bed, reading one of those 'Secret World' books."  Ms. Liberty recounted.
"Dragon, sit down!  I'll ask the questions."  The Fattinator said growing angry at the dragon.

Free advertising.  You're welcome.
;)

[Victoria Victrix]

Well if you are in the world of CoH, Victoria Victrix is a romance novelist there.  It's been in my character bio since I5.

[TheBeatnik]

Seems to me that "Secret World" works remarkably well as the title for a line of romance novels.

[Taceus Jiwede]

Well if you are in the world of CoH, Victoria Victrix is a romance novelist there.  It's been in my character bio since I5.

A Nascar Romance novelist?

[Aggelakis]

A Nascar Romance novelist?

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/6d/c0/a0/6dc0a0110b111cb935824202d2f90a3a.jpg
Literally lol, not the typical "internet lol" which means "I smirked a bit in real life".

[Victoria Victrix]

Actually, since she writes "category romances", those thin little books that are typically issued under a house pseudonym, she'd write anything anyone offered her a contract for.

[Paragon Avenger]

Well if you are in the world of CoH, Victoria Victrix is a romance novelist there.  It's been in my character bio since I5.

So I have to write Victoria Victrix into my Fan Fcition?  Ok, whatever.

[Victoria Victrix]

So I have to write Victoria Victrix into my Fan Fcition?  Ok, whatever.

You can do whatever you want.  I was just pointing that out.

[Taceus Jiwede]

Actually, since she writes "category romances", those thin little books that are typically issued under a house pseudonym, she'd write anything anyone offered her a contract for.

You know this actually got me thinking.  I remember reading in a previous post that you typically don't do "Writer for hire" work.  As in you don't just write any book because some one paid you too.

Is this common in the writing world?  I am a musician and I would say the majority of my money comes from side gigs and things that I would have never done in a million years if there wasn't a paycheck involved.  I know they are different thing's I was just impressed that you were able to make a successful career without having to do a lot of contract work.  So I guess the question is.  Is it more common for writers to stick to strictly personal creation's?  Or is it like other independent creativity based job's where people are willing to "sell out"(I hate that phrase but for lack of a better one) to eat at the end of the day?

At the end of the day I just love playing Music.  I don't care if I wrote it or not.  But I could see how writing would be a lot more soul crushing if it wasn't coming from the heart.

[Paragon Avenger]

Well if you are in the world of CoH, Victoria Victrix is a romance novelist there.  It's been in my character bio since I5.

So I have to write Victoria Victrix into my Fan Fcition?  Ok, whatever.

You can do whatever you want.  I was just pointing that out.

Great!  I was just trying to make a joke.
But I did have VV storm into Tommy B.'s office in "The THeM Story"

[Victoria Victrix]

You know this actually got me thinking.  I remember reading in a previous post that you typically don't do "Writer for hire" work.  As in you don't just write any book because some one paid you too.

Is this common in the writing world?  .  So I guess the question is.  Is it more common for writers to stick to strictly personal creation's?  Or is it like other independent creativity based job's where people are willing to "sell out"(I hate that phrase but for lack of a better one) to eat at the end of the day?

Of all of the writers in SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) 95% of them have a day-job that is not writing.  I'd say 50% of those teach, the rest do almost anything.

Of the 5% that make their living from writing, at least half do so writing something that is not fantasy or SF--these jobs range from writing work-for-hire, such as category romances, to writing articles, to (a very, very, very few) successful blogs, to writing advertising copy.

Of that 2.5% that makes a living writing SF/F, half of them make their living predominately writing work-for-hire (you really didn't think Shatner actually wrote those books himself, did you?).

That leaves 1.25% of all the people in SFWA who make their living writing more or less what they want, under their own names.

[Solitaire]

I have a question for you VV, I have just gotten back of my lunch break where I like to sit down with a good book and coffee, chance to get out of the office and get lost in a good book, to the point where you notice nothing going on around you which happens a lot these days, but that's just me, anyway my question is this;

Have you ever been out minding your own business either like me sat having a coffee or travelling somewhere and seen someone reading one of your books? If so have you ever thought about going over to say hello or have you just walked away with a knowing smile on your face?

[Victoria Victrix]

I've never had that particular experience.  I have had the very peculiar experience, several times, of having someone I am on the phone to--say, about my cell phone plan, or insurance, or something equally mundane, ask me, "Are you Mercedes Lackey the writer?" and then have them squee when I say yes.

Equally bizarre, I have gotten notes from packers in stuff I've ordered saying "I can't believe I'm shipping this to my favorite writer!"

[Arcana]

I've never had that particular experience.  I have had the very peculiar experience, several times, of having someone I am on the phone to--say, about my cell phone plan, or insurance, or something equally mundane, ask me, "Are you Mercedes Lackey the writer?" and then have them squee when I say yes.

Statistically speaking, the odds appear to be in their favor.  Google apparently thinks there's only one Mercedes Lackey in the Milky Way.  I went through page after page of search results: you, you, you, more you, still more you, you, you, that's oh wait still you, you, here some songs by oh wait looks like you, you, you, you, you...

Seriously, the first site that looked like it wasn't you was the Alexapure water purification company, thirteen pages deep.  And that turned out to be someone hacked the site and stuck a link claiming to have some of your work downloadable.  It wasn't: it was a fake leading to an ad leading to usenet.nl and that's as far as I was prepared to go without using a locked down system.

In case you care: [[EDIT: THERE USED TO BE A LINK HERE ~Agge]]

PS: I wouldn't explore hacked sites without extreme caution. 

Once I went from sites about Mercedes Lackey to sites about works by Mercedes Lackey to sites about people who work with Mercedes Lackey to finally sites actually hacked to look like they contain works by Mercedes Lackey but are using Mercedes Lackey for click bait I figured that was enough google for one day.  I probably would have had to scan through people who named their pets after Mercedes Lackey and pancakes with grill patterns that resemble fictional characters created by Mercedes Lackey before I eventually reached a totally different Mercedes Lackey.  And then I'll discover on her facebook page she was named after you in 1993.

Maybe at this point you're so famous that no one wants to name their kids "Mercedes Lackey" anymore.  Maybe there's only a bunch of "_M3rc3d3s L2ck3y!!!_"s out there.


[[EDIT: Removed link. People are dumb. Don't link things. They don't look before they click. ~Agge]]

Edit: PM me if you want to know the link to inform the website operator.

[Solitaire]

I've never had that particular experience.  I have had the very peculiar experience, several times, of having someone I am on the phone to--say, about my cell phone plan, or insurance, or something equally mundane, ask me, "Are you Mercedes Lackey the writer?" and then have them squee when I say yes.

Equally bizarre, I have gotten notes from packers in stuff I've ordered saying "I can't believe I'm shipping this to my favorite writer!"

Bet it's still nice to have people recognise you for the hard work you have put into writing books  :D Hope your using a Mail Box for orders could be a bit concerning otherwise... :o

[Twisted Toon]

I lived within 30 miles (rough guess) of Mercedes Lackey for years. I respected her privacy enough not to try to find her address and knock on her door though. :-)