A cold sun came up on the first day of the new year. The lights blinked as the bank of equipment increased its draw. A flash. An oily yellow eye looked up at me. It blinked. I blinked. It’s.., it’s…, “It’s alive!”
So the short story, “First Day Out”, came into existence on 1/1/14.
Several of my off-line followers (friends and family) raved about this story. I quickly adopted it as the piece of fiction that best represents the blog, as any reader of my “About” page can attest.
I decided to continue the story and put up three more episodes of what I started to call the “A New Life” series. The last one, the fourth in the series, was a Valentine’s Day special. These were “The Garden”, “On the Internet Nobody Knows You’re a Monster” and “The Dinner Guest”.
The problem is, nobody came out to watch. The third one got some attention, and still gets Search Engine traffic, but that’s mostly because of the title.
So I dropped the series.
I’ve had a lot of second thoughts. I think the stories are cute and they’re fun to write. On the other hand, if nobody likes them I shouldn’t punish myself by continuing to post them.
So, I’m going to trust you, my gentle readers, to tell me what you think.
I will appreciate any and all feedback.
Hi again Frank
I like the idea of a poll. I’ve started a catblog (philosophical musings of a cat) and am already thinking into the future. If no-one is interested should I scrap it?!
How do you set up the poll?
I like your music too; how do you compose?
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Hi Erik. I did see your “cat blog” post. It seems like a good idea.
As far as polls: When you are creating or editing a post there is a button “Add Poll” next to the “Add media button. Creating the poll from there is pretty much following the onscreen instructions. There is a help topic on it, which is how I figured it out. Part way down the side on the dashboard there is an icon for Feedback. One of the choices from there is Polls. That is where you can check the results.
Music composition: I do a lot of my composing the old fashioned way, siting with manuscript paper at a piano. I enter it into a program named Sibelius. This is a scoring program that allows you to print out the music. From there I export the midi file I use in a sequencer, Cubase, to make the actual sound.
Thanks for the comments!
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Hi Trent
Thanks for your helpful instruction re. polls. I’ll be sampling more of your music. I’m a bit of a classical fan: Shostakovitch to Mozart!
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I would love to read more of frank! The series is unique and funny! :)
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Thanks Pranita! More Frank will be on the way.
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Please keep the Frank series going, Trent!
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Thanks Karen! Frank will show up again at some point.
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Do you know it is funny, I was just thinking the other day about Frank and wondered what is happening with him.
I’d love to see his story here and there – if the story wants to be told, great but I wouldn’t push it if not, see how it feels.
The most important thing is for you to enjoy writing it.
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Thanks Eva. I think I pushed it a little in the beginning, doing 4 posts in a little over a month, and kind of burnt myself out. Since the response was growing less instead of more, well that seal Frank’s fate, at least for a while. I had several other episodes planned out. I’m sure I can continue his story for at least a little while.
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I cast my vote but ultimately it is up to you what you decide to do with this series. I think the stories where all cute and fun but I don’t think I could recommend Frank getting a regular slot in the line up basically because I feel you have more substantial content that you could be devoting your resources to. Think of your writing as meal planning. Frank is dessert. You can have a little Frank but you should fill up on the Main dishes.
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Thanks Alienora! I think some people came into the middle, scratched their heads and didn’t know what to make of it. Or maybe it was just bad timing on my part. I’ll start to think of some new adventures for Frank. I do have some ideas.Thanks Abigail. If Frank became a regularly scheduled event he would definitely on;y show up once a month, though I can see if that might be pushing it. I’ll think about it.
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I love your Frank pieces, and am wondering how it is that they have not been read more widely because they are very good. I wonder if, perhaps, some people fail to see the subtlety, the humour, the irony contained in them – just a thought.
I would definitely carry on with them if I were you!
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Thanks Ali! I’m not sure why they got bypassed either. I most likely will continue in some way or another. (Yesterday I thought I posted a nice long response to you and was surprised when I didn’t see it today.)
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Oh, how very weird! Things DO go missing in this strange cyber world we live in, don’t they? I wonder, sometimes, if there is the online version of the Bermuda Triange at work somewhere, luring our frail ‘ships’ into its whirling vortex of mysterious disappearance!
Glad to hear that Frank lives – or is at least alternatively alive under his own terms! – to fight another episode!
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