Tee Morris

Writer, podcaster. and streamer

Technology

Skylanders: Where Gamer Girls (and Their Characters) Kick Butt Too!

Roughly six weeks ago, as you might have heard on a recent episode of The Shared Desk, a friend of ours — Lisa-Anne Moore — introduced me, Pip, and Sonic Boom to the new Activision game Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventures. Sonic Boom was intrigued by the concept of this game, that concept being that at any point you can swap out characters within a game, all dependent on what you need at that moment. The Boom perked up, however, when she heard about a character named “Sonic Boom.”

Imagine her elation when she found the character of Sonic Boom was a girl.

From the Skylanders Portal Masters’ website, here’s Sonic Boom’s story: [Read more…] about Skylanders: Where Gamer Girls (and Their Characters) Kick Butt Too!

Tee’s Top 5 from 2011

Looking back on 2011Recently, J.C. Hutchins asked across various social networks for people to sum up their 2011 in one word, and then sum up their hopes for 2012 in another. I responded with three.

Yes, I’m a rebel. Screw the rules, ‘cause that’s how I roll.

Man, I really need to make “avoid talking street” a New Year’s Resolution. Now where was I? Oh yeah, Hutch’s “Sum Up Your 2011” question…

I responded with “The Small Step” because I’ve started looking ahead already to 2012. Planning for appearances. Pre-production for a book trailer. Considering a posting schedule for Volume Two of Tales from the Archives.  And, of course, the release of The Janus Affair. It just feels like everything is piling on already, and I’ve still not put away Christmas decorations.

Not sure what it was about this week — maybe the storm front breaking, maybe the sunrise, maybe the unusually smooth commute to work, who knows? — I started to look back. 2011 has been one astounding year. A year of change. A year of direction. Some of these items may some across as a touch trivial, but they defined the year for me, and are helping me work through tough spots and dark times. I stopped to think of those high points and put them out there on this blog, my intent being that you might find five things to be thankful for at this time. [Read more…] about Tee’s Top 5 from 2011

Full Court Press: Harper Voyager Puts My Steampunk On Sale

It's a sale!Just a quick bit of news before the holidays — the 99¢ sale of Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel is now officially on! And here’s where you can find it…

Kindle — http://amzn.to/o31YFI
Nook — http://bit.ly/rBBrT7
Kobo — http://bit.ly/ulBPet
iTunes — http://bit.ly/uuQ0XS

That’s right, Harper Voyager has lowered the eBook price of Phoenix Rising down to 99¢ for a limited time, and this isn’t just for Kindle, but all ebook readers out there. We’re getting the word out today, so if you’ve been curious about steampunk, or how I write in novel-length with Pip Ballantine, or just in the need for something new to read, here is the 2011 Airship winner for 99¢. Feel free to leave us a review and tell a friend!

Something tells me this is hint of things to come. Pip and I are working on a new trailer, bigger and badder than the last one. We have a Christmas Special in the works for both The Shared Desk and Tales from the Archives. And we’re looking ahead to 2012. All this before Christmas.

I need a vacation.

The New Venture: A Friday Addendum

So, this eBook thing. It’s been a trip.

We’ve not been at it for very long, but Pip and I have learned a lot. The biggest thing is that Smashwords’ “Meat Grinder” (the one-stop online application that creates a multitude of formats) can be a fussy, fickled wench. And sure, it’s great to handle all the other formats, but imagine our surprise when we were being asked by Nook users “Why are you using Smashwords? Why not use PubIt?”

And we responded with “Yeah, why not?”
Now, after a whopping half-an-hour for set-up, the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences is making their first round of short stories available for the Nook as well as the Kindle. Here is the complete list of the Ministry’s 99-Penny Dreadfuls, ready for both devices:

  • The Evil that Befell Sampson, written by Philippa Ballantine
    Amazon –Nook
  • Dust on the Davenport, written by O.M. Grey
    Amazon – Nook
  • The Astonishing Amulet of Amernatas, written by Nathan Lowell
    Amazon – Nook
  • A Ruby in Rain, written by Grant Stone
    Amazon – Nook
  • Darkest before the Darkwater, written by ME!
    Amazon – Nook

As I mentioned in my previous post, you should expect more Ministry shorts coming from both Pip and myself. Some will be podcast in the 2012 for Tales from the Archives: Volume 2, but many will be available only as eBooks.

For those of you enjoying your digital short fiction on iPad, eReader, and other devices, we will continue working with Smashwords and all its quirks. Don’t mistake — Smashwords does make it easy. Amazon and Barnes & Noble, however, are making delivery a touch faster.

Thank you, everyone, who have already invested in our 99-Penny Dreadfuls. We hope you keep coming back for more! Please, do leave us reviews on Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com for our short story offerings, and tell a friend curious about steampunk to give our short stories a spin. Who knows — your 99¢ suggestion might lead them straight to an exciting steampunk adventure. Available for both the Kindle and the Nook

Black Friday: The Dark Side of Viral Videos

Social Media carpetbaggers (as I call them here, and I’m liking the term the more I use it) would challenge me on many of my work beliefs and ethics, two of which that have been brought to light just this month:

    • You can’t make a viral video. They just happen.
    • There is such a thing as bad publicity.

      I have seen this as a topic on many a conference track — “How to Make Your Videos Viral!” or some such nonsense — and I also get the “Let’s make a viral video…” request a lot from my day job. After my skin stops crawling, I pull no punches and speak the best-kept-secret truth that the carpetbaggers won’t admit: you can’t make a viral video. A video goes viral due to traffic on social networks increasing awareness (of a product, person, or cause), and through self-replicating processes that gain momentum on both the Internet and mainstream media.

      Did you catch that “self-replicating” part? That’s key. No one can make self-replication happen. You can promote a video, sure, but that does not necessarily guarantee it going viral.  The constant thread (if there is one) is luck. Good or bad, it comes down to luck. You can’t predict it. You can’t produce it. You never know what will strike that nerve. Viral videos just happen.

      And in the case of Rebecca Black, that is exactly what happened. What two comedians referenced off-handedly has now become 2011’s viral sensation. [Read more…] about Black Friday: The Dark Side of Viral Videos

      Six Years Ago Today

      This is me, six years ago, recording Morevi: The Chronicles of Rafe & Askana.

      Six years ago, I was talking to Evo Terra about podcasting Morevi with support from The Dragon Page, a podcast about Science Fiction and Fantasy literature. This was all to promote Morevi‘s upcoming sequel, Legacy of Morevi. Evo paused, and said “Let me get this straight: You want to podcast Morevi. That’s a really big book, Tee.” [Read more…] about Six Years Ago Today