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On Sunday, my younger daughter and I drove down to Bowling Green, Ohio so we could view Monday’s solar eclipse. I was a bit nervous in the days leading up to this. The midwest isn’t known for clear, sunny skies, and the weather forecast kept shifting from partly cloudy to more cloudy and back.

When Monday afternoon finally arrived, the skies landed on partly cloudy. Fortunately, it was thin cloud cover, so we could still see the sun. The only noticeable effect was a haziness in some of the photos.

We settled down in a church parking lot, got everything out and ready, and waited. In addition to my camera, I’d purchased a Hestia telescope and solar filter that works with smart phones.

Click on any pic to see the full-size image.

The Hestia is impressive for what it can do with a smart phone camera. But ultimately — and not unexpectedly — the digital camera did a better job. I’m still happy to have both, and the Hestia has some other tricks for things like deep space photography that I’ll play with more in the future.

Hestia photo is on the left; digital camera shot on the right.

My daughter got a nice shot of me behind the cameras.

I stitched 24 shots into an animated gif of the eclipse, from start to totality. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. The clouds created the variable hazy effect.

I’d seen partial solar eclipses a few times before, but this was my first time seeing totality. It was amazing. The sky got twilight-dark. A few stars were visible. We heard cheers from the stadium a few blocks away. My daughter kept whispering, “Oh wow…oh wow…”

This first shot shows how dark it was at 3:13 p.m.

Next we have totality with an emphasis on the solar flares prominences.

Here’s a close-up of those prominences, each of which is larger in size than the earth.

Adjusting the exposure loses the prominences but gives you a better view of the corona.

Finally, here’s a shot when the very first sliver of sun appeared at the end of totality.

The drive back was a bit of a nightmare. What was a just-under-two-hour drive down ended up taking between four and five hours on the return trip, not counting the time we stopped for dinner. We did end up behind a custom Ghostbusters car for about ten minutes though, so that was cool.

Despite traffic, the trip was totally and completely worth it. I’m so thankful that the weather mostly cooperated. Thanks also to my girlfriend, who reserved the hotel room a little while back as an early birthday present for me, and to my kid, for keeping me company. (My older daughter went with friends, but they also got to see totality.)

Five stars. Highly recommended.

With the new year comes another annual writing income post. I’ve been doing these since 2007, with the goal of giving some actual numbers about how much a working writer makes in a year. (Short version: most of us are not millionaires.) It’s also turned into a nice longer-term look at the ups and downs of one author’s career.

This year, the income post is over on Patreon. Don’t worry, it’s still free for anyone and everyone to read.

As you’ll see, Patreon has become a not-insignificant portion of my work and income. (And starting at a dollar a month, you get access to a monthly short story and all of last year’s posted fiction.)

With that subtle plug out of the way, here’s the link 🙂

2023 Writing Income

Louis C.K. Wins a Grammy for His Comedy Album About Cancellation

Dave Chappelle Wins Grammy for Netflix Special Condemned for Being Transphobic

Meanwhile…

“Between January and September 2021, 24 legislatures across the United States introduced 54 separate bills intended to restrict teaching and training in K-12 schools, higher education, and state agencies and institutions. The majority of these bills target discussions of race, racism, gender, and American history…” (Source)

Half of the top ten banned books for 2021 were banned in part for “LGBTQIA+ content.” (Source)

“In the last few years states have advanced a record number of bills that attack LGBTQ rights, especially transgender youth.” (Source)

“An NPR analysis of this fast-changing landscape found that over the past two years, state lawmakers introduced at least 306 bills targeting trans people, more than in any previous period.” (Source)

“…in recent years, more than 400 anti-voter bills have been introduced in 48 states. These bills erect unnecessary barriers for people to register to vote, vote by mail, or vote in person.” (Source)

“…at least 19 states have so-called “anti-critical race theory” laws or regulations—despite the fact that CRT is rarely taught below the graduate university level. Even more school boards enacted policies or changed curricula in an effort to restrict how teachers talk to their students about race and diversity.” (Source)

In general, it feels like the people complaining the loudest about “cancel culture” are the ones with big platforms (Hi, J. K. Rowling!) and huge followings. Wouldn’t it be nice if they could use those platforms to speak up on behalf of the people who are actually being suppressed and silenced?

I’ve had a Patreon for a couple of years now. I’ve never really done much with it — people suggested I set something up, and a small group has chipped in each month to help support me and my writing. (And I’m very grateful to those people!)

Much as I’d love to just write and never have to think about money, this past year has convinced me to try something new. One of the deciding factors was paying my older kid’s tuition bill this morning.

So I’ve been talking to folks and studying what other authors have been doing in terms of offering rewards to supporters. Here’s my tentative plan:

• Goblin Corps: For $1 a month (or more), you’ll get to read a short story each month. These will be mostly reprints, because I’m not fast or prolific enough to do a new story every month in addition to everything else. Stories will be posted on Patreon to read, and will include some sort of introduction or commentary.
• Space Janitors: For $3 a month, you’ll also get your very own ebook of that month’s short story in .epub and .pdf formats.
• Libriomancers: For $5 a month, you also get a monthly sneak peek and progress report about whatever I’m working on. These will mostly be snippets and commentary on books-in-progress.
• Team Princess: For $10 (or maybe $15, given the costs and time required) a month and up, you get all the other rewards, and once per quarter I’ll mail you a book. It probably won’t be one of mine — it’ll be something I’ve read and enjoyed and want to share. It might be new or it might be used. I’ll throw in a bit of swag, too: a signed bookmark, a Smudge sticker, a goblin temporary tattoo…who knows! (Unfortunately, the economics don’t work for me to do this for non-U.S. supporters. For those people, I’ll send you a recommended e-book instead of a print copy.)

I may add additional support levels as I go. Possible rewards could be anything from short story or novel chapter critiques to video chats to Tuckerizations (your name as a character in a future book or story) to live online readings.

But I want to make sure I can fulfill what I’m promising, which means not overcommitting myself up front.

So…what do folks think? Any warnings or suggestions from more experienced (or just plain smarter) people before I jump ahead with this?