Category Archives: Blog

Okay, thanks to girlmecha, I have joined a pyramid scheme. No, I’m not selling Amway. There’s a site that pays you to do Google searches. Netbux.org pays you $.02/search if you search from their site, for up to 40 searches/day. Since I do Internet searches regularly on a daily basis–research, amusement, boredom–I figure I may as well get paid for it. They pay via PayPal on the 15th of every month if you earn >= $50, otherwise your earnings roll over to the next month.

Here’s the pyramid part: when you refer people, Netbux pays you an additional $.02/search that they make. I believe their business model is to get as many users and hits on their site as possible so they can provide these numbers to advertisers, who then pay to advertise such a high-traffic site. I believe.

I have no idea whether this is legit, but they only asked for my email address upon registration, so I figure, no harm, no foul. They do send you one ad when you register, but I promptly deleted it and have not been spammed by them since.

(Edit: Here’s their privacy policy verbatim:
“Upon registering with Netbux your e-mail address will be added to an outgoing e-mail invite to an optional subscription to special offers newsletter brought to you by our partner, Focalex. This is totally optional and if you aren’t interested, simply delete the e-mail. Your e-mail address will also be shown to your referrer so he can contact you if needed. Other than this, your e-mail address will stay encrypted and sealed from the public. We will never sell your e-mail address to marketing companies or send you unsolicited mail.”)

So, if y’all are inclined to embark upon this “pay for surfing” experiment with me, I’d appreciate it kindly if you’d click on the link above (or this one: LINKIE) and register. Then surf away from their site. Of note, you do need to type in an extra two digits with your search which is their way of verifying that you’re not a bot or some other cheating surf method. But I figure, that’s earning the payout–one keystroke a cent.

Normally, I wouldn’t try something like this, being incredibly skeptical of such things. But it’s amazing what a little bout of unemployment will get a person to do. Hey, it’s not a get rich quick plan, but it might be skunk food . . .

Writing Stuff

Beginning to contemplate my folktale with an eye toward a rewrite. So many Critters critiques. So behind on thank you notes.

Words: 1219 on A Harmony of Foxes. Chug-a-chug-a.

13,256 / 45,000 (29.0%)

500/day
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The lymph swellings are better, I think, although still tender. I was worried it was going to turn into an ear infection, and with COBRA still up in the air, I was just praying it wouldn’t turn into a fever.

Writing Stuff

Got an odd query from someone via my Tangent email. From what I could tell, they wanted to sent me a story for publication (?) and wanted me to snail mail something back to them (they said “your information”). Wha? We don’t publish fiction, nor do we review unpublished stories. And I remain unclear as to what exactly they expected me to mail back to them. Weird. Obviously, someone who had no clue.

My current folktale is up at Critters. So far, ten crits. *gurgle* It’s been mostly well-received. The obligatory “this is written too sophisticated for younger readers” crit came in already, but that’s nothing new.

19-day “well received but . . . ” from Abyss & Apex
191-day “quite some discussion on this one, and it’s not without support but . . .” from Andy at Interzone with invite to submit more.

Words: 809 on A Harmony of Foxes.

10,858 / 45,000 (24.0%)

500/day
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Had a throbbing, relentless headache yesterday that was resistant to many pills. Had to take a double dose of both Sudafed and Excedrin in order to put it down, and then I was left queasy, shaky, and short of breath. Now I’ve got swollen lymph glands at my throat and under my ear, which indicates that my immune system is gearing up for a big freak out . . . again. Just can’t seem to get a break on the health front.

Writing Stuff

In a dose of the painfully ironic, I felt driven to do research on the novel while in the worst pangs of my headache, so ended up squinting at my screen and wincing at how bright it was, as I surfed and took notes. But when the pills finally started kicking in, before the nausea had peaked, I managed to get productive and crank out words.

I think I’m driving Matthew nuts, playing the recordings of guqin music I found on the Internet. To Western ears (including mine, initially), it can be somewhat jarring and atonal, but the more I research it and traditional Chinese music in general, the more I’m beginning to appreciate its unique qualities. It’s also doing an excellent job of keeping my muse in the proper mindset. I might want to see about using some headphones though.

Words: 880 on the novel WIP. Finally have a working title for the thing: A Harmony of Foxes. It seemed like as soon as I settled on something to call it, aside from “novel work in progress,” the two-line “sound byte” I’ve been tweaking and poking at for the last couple days came together:

A Harmony of Foxes is a young adult novel set in China’s Western Han Dynasty. It is about two star-crossed lovers–a fox spirit youth, and a blind noblewoman–who teach each other the nature of trust and love, in defiance of both their peoples.

10,049 / 45,000 (22.0%)

500/day
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