Go · Fiction · Finance
Go · Fiction · Finance
Sep 22, 2024
With Shimari Go Discipline making Featured Article for September over at Sensei's Library (and thank you to whoever did that), it seems like the company is on the cusp of success. However, more work must be done before I can enjoy a well-earned retirement.
Since Go is still the best game ever, I'm doubling down on my commitment to building software about it. This week, the brower extension got an update with a move-tagging feature: during play on OGS, you can mark a move for later review using a newly-injected button panel. If that doesn't excite you, hopefully the phrase “additional quality-of-life updates” does.
In other news: Air Mirth One continues its reign as the only Go airline, and I encourage you to follow on Twitch if you want to catch the next flight. We've yet to successfully land... but each day is a new opportunity.
May 31, 2023
Nothing kills the momentum of a technology-based business like a lack of dev time, revenue, marketing, in-person appearances, and hope for the future. But once spring returns, along with the sun, there's sure to be a boost in all areas. To leverage this, Mirth Turtle is launching a new Go airline! Let's just hope I have enough runway.
Something else to blame for killing business momentum is the shifting online landscape. With the slow, sad collapse of Twitter and subsequent failures of various Mastodon servers I migrated to, I was lacking a reliable social network on which to post cat pictures and Go memes. But not one to wait around for some billionaire to hack together the next misinformation machine, I built one of my own where only I can post! Along with consolidating underappreciated bangers from years past, it sends out weekly newsletter-style emails so you'll never miss a post because of a corporate algorithm. Now I have reliable microcommunication and I don't have to deal with randos challenging my correct opinions or posting their own.
In more chilling news – this year has brought the grave uncertainty of AI. Now that those electric brains are threatening to upend even my backup careers, it feels timely to look back at my 2015 novel Ghostcrime, in which I predicted an eerie amount of this cold robot future (but not, unfortunately, soon enough to stop it from happening). Here at Mirth Turtle HQ, Dawn's working hard on a new edition with more bonus appendix material, an updated cover from Bruce and even a tabletop RPG! Keep an eye out for that... as well as any genius-level logic machines attempting to steal your livelihood.
Oct 17, 2020
If you're a Go player, have I got news for you – I built some training software! Share your games, track your successes and missteps, and see how your training is helping.
And if you don't know how to play Go already, you can also learn from scratch.
Apr 2, 2020
In many respects, self-employed life and quarantine life don't look very different. I was social distancing for a good month before stringent measures came into effect here, just writing code, blog posts, spreadsheets, etc. In terms of work style, not much has changed for me.
But of course everything has changed.
Will people still want cutting-edge Go software in the world after the pandemic? What about stories about badgers? If I even manage to survive, will any investors be left? I'll need someone to give me truckloads of money.
Stay safe everyone.
Feb 26, 2020
With springtime just around the corner, I've been working hard on upgrading the sites and getting ready for my next big project. SPOILERS: it's Go-related.
If you play Go, you're going to love it, and if you don't play Go yet, maybe it'll convince you to give it a try.
In April, I'll be exhibiting at the Spring Geequinox again, and I'll likely have something to show you by then, as well as a few more suprises.
EDIT: Geequinox is unlikely to happen but the title ended up being pretty accurate.
Dec 31, 2019
Looking back on 2019 and attempting to evaluate my self-worth based on my creative output is a bad idea but I'm doing it anyway. Probably my biggest accomplishment was the company re-brand, but the stock market game was more fun, both to make and play-test. There are still ways you can manipulate the market in order to win, but I wanted to leave that mechanic in the game, for realism.
I also experimented with doing a Go live stream this year and worked out the kinks, some technical, and some with the format itself. 2020 is going to bring a different flavour of stream as well as more Go content and tools, but this was a solid start.
That was pretty much it for this year – not my most prolific, but now I've got some bigger projects in the works, and I'm carving off more time for creating. Please help by purchasing a Lifetime Membership.
Oct 9, 2019
It seems like just yesterday I created my small comedy publishing company, but in fact it was back in 2011, almost 3,000 days ago. With the changing tastes of the market over the years, the business, too, has had to change – but never as drastically as now. I've done a full re-brand, and I'm pivoting to an entirely new model.
Instead of a comedy company that occasionally produces Go content... it's a Go company that also produces comedy.
I present to you Mirth Turtle Media.
Apr 2, 2017
I'm sure winter has been hard on all of us here in the Maritimes. Between the biting cold & the hours of darkness, I wouldn't blame anyone for losing the motivation to write.
On that subject, I haven't been doing a ton of that this winter, but nevertheless, I'm going to be selling the books I've previously written at this year's Spring Geequinox. Why don't you drop on by? It's the weekend of April 22nd, and on the Sunday I'll be running a panel on Go.
I am still planning to have Volume 2 of Snapback done for Hal-Con this fall, though. If you haven't read Volume 1, the eBook is only $0.99. Or half-price if you also buy Ghostcrime! A whole dollar is pretty steep, I know.
Dec 1, 2016
On the subject of events that make me feel like a legitimate author, Halifax alt-weekly The Coast just published a review of Snapback! Thanks to Adam Fiske for writing those words.
The book is available now in paperback, ePub, and PDF. And there's still a $2 discount if you buy the digital edition along with Ghostcrime, a thing I wrote that also has reviews.
Buy them for yourself, or as solstice-holiday gifts! You... do know you're obligated to spend money on people you love, right?
Nov 13, 2016
Last weekend I showed up to Hal-Con with a table full of newly-minted copies of Snapback, and I tell you, did the occasional person ever stop to look at them! In all seriousness, I did move a good number, and it was a successful weekend.
But then shortly after, I succumbed to some November sadness, as is expected, and I only just got around to producing an eBook version of the damn thing. So the PDF is up here now, and if you want a physical copy, you can order one of those, too. There's $5 shipping on that link, so if you're local and just want to pick it up from me, let me know when you order and I'll reimburse you the $5. God I'm accommodating.
And as for the eBook, a deal mechanism is in place, so if you buy Snapback and Ghostcrime eBooks together, you get $2 off the purchase! I'm just throwing money away. For literacy, though.
Oct 22, 2016
It's exciting times here in the living room that has become my studio -- after months of writing and years of editing, dithering, re-working, giving up, un-giving up, etc., Volume 1 of Snapback has been sent off to print! I'll be selling it for $10 at Hal-Con in two weeks. The eBook will also be available, if I can muster up the energy to produce it.
The foundation of the story took a long time to get right, but I'll be able to 'churn out' further volumes much faster now, and publish them digital-only. Volume 2 is about 2/3rds done at this point, and will probably be available early next year.
I guess another reason I'm excited for this to be out is that I built a 'price combos' deal system into this online store last year, when I only had Ghostcrime for sale. But now, with more than one book, I can bundle them together and offer discounts, making use of carefully-written, well-tested code from last November! Why am I even a writer. It is clearly more torturous than programming.
Jun 18, 2016
I've been sitting on a novella for years, so long now that the technology the characters use seem dated. It's never been perfect, though it gets better every year, and it's always needed some art, which I am not qualified to do. The book is called Snapback , and it's about some Go-playing friends who get wrapped up in an international board game conspiracy.
Bruce Delo loved the draft I sent him, and we thought he might be able to do the images, but he's going to be pretty busy on the next volume of Kobra Stallion. If he's going to get it out for Hal-Con 2016, I can't take him away from production. It is huge. And from the script and the first 50-60 pages, there's no doubt it's going to be amazing.
Recently, though, I've been working with Dawn Davis, and she's going to illustrate! This is very exciting news because Dawn is mega-talented and I think her style really works for the story.
So, at long last, Snapback will be released. It's going to the first in a series of 3 or 4 short novellas, all hopefully adding up to the bulk of one regular-sized novel. This lets me release faster and experiment with episodic structure.
Can't wait to see you all at Hal-Con.
