Status

I’m looking at writing competitions.

I had a plot for Herostratus, but it was just nihilism. There’s enough of that. We don’t need more.

Discord isn’t bad, but I’m not sure what the point of it is.

Oh, according to Jetpack LC has 56 lifetime views. It has 283 subscribers. Something’s a little fishy.

Amazon KDP

To enroll in the Kindle Lending Library and Kindle Unlimited the book needs to be a part of Kindle Select. This means Amazon has exclusive digital distribution rights. You cannot enroll in KDP Select if more than 10% of the book is available digitally anywhere.

KDP is just Kindle Direct Publishing, and that is just the term for Amazon’s publishing arm. It’s basically self-publishing as the author is responsible for editing, cover, layout, etc, but Amazon does distribution and point-of-sale. KDP does not require exclusivity.

I’m not sure if I want to use that service (KDP Select). I like putting my stuff online for free, but that doesn’t pay the rent. Can’t cash checks against exposure and frankly, I’m not getting a whole lot of exposure. I’m not sure what to do.

Highland/Lowland trade

The resource differential between the lowlands city-states and the highlands of the Doon subcontinent drove economic development in both.

Geologically, the lowlands of Treveriane were mostly sedementary rock. Prevailing easterlies blew nutrients and plant matter to the fields, but the soil was largely devoid metals. Those same winds caused frequently flooding, and the tectonic instability that made Treveriane sink caused frequent earthquakes. The lowlands were thus a poor source of metals.

Meanwhile the highlands were rich in iron, nickel, and tin, and devoid of air. Agriculture was challenging, often impossible. The mountains broke up the wind, and much of the highalands were impromptu deserts, poorly watered. Often the best land was above the treeline.

The driving exchange is then food for iron. In years past it was food for tin and food for bronze. The lowlands have furthermore developed coking furnaces and foundries, but find that moving coal, including coke, is difficult to do up and down a cliff. The amount of iron that needs to be moved to create one unit of steel is significantly less than the amount of coal needed for the same. Now much of the flow of metal is iron down the hill, as it’s called, and food up it.