Reasons to be in Iceland tonight

Reasons to be in Iceland tonight:

1. Jolabokaflod

And now, a word from our sponsors

No, I don’t have any sponsors.  I would be happy to mention them regularly and give them appropriate exposure if I had.  Given my personal principles they would also be ethical businesses, belong to one of the ethical registers on their stock exchange, be non-consumerist in product terms, or be of a charitable, philanthropic or not-for-profit nature.  That means most indie authors would get a look-in!

But, you say, why are there advertisements appearing at the bottom of your pages?

Blame Chuck Wendig

I’m sure Chuck Wendig can be blamed for a lot of things, particularly my flash fiction.  Ok, I’ll take responsibility for that myself, but he sets the challenges each week.  No, this time it was his excellent blog on being an indie author, or a self-published author.  Or, rather, a published author who happens to be the publisher too.

These ideas are right up there at the start of his post 25 Steps to Becoming a Self-Published Author. If you click the link, be warned that Chuck labels his blog NSFW – which as I understand it means Not Suitable for Work.  It has language, and occasionally concepts, that are not suitable for Middle Grade readers, that’s for sure.  But the sense he talks keeps me going back for more.

Who’s stealing your ideas?

I don’t know whether it’s summer madness, but there seems to be a lot of anti-social behaviour on the internet at present.  From plagiarism and piracy to threats and bullying, all the baser side of human nature appears to be online, with nothing better to do.

I now have a US Tax Number

Ok, if you’re under about 30 you aren’t going to be at all interested in this, and if you’re over 30 you probably won’t be much, either.  Unless you write books.  I’m in the UK.  So as far as the US tax department is concerned, I’m an alien.  The good news is they have now recognised that I exist and pay taxes in the UK, and by the magic of tax treaties, I will now get all of my royalties for sales in the USA.