|
|
You have discovered Green Sky Press. I'm your host, Leo David Orionis, and I'm pleased to see you. GSP is where I publish my science fiction and fantasy, poems and songs, fiction and non-fiction online. This site was down for a few years, but now that I'm retired, I've put it back together, and I'm writing new stuff! Most of the material from the previous site is here, and a lot of new things, too. Every day I add a paragraph to the "What's New" section, describing what I did the day before, so you can check my progress there.
Someone asked me once, when the two of us were talking about various jobs we'd had, what I considered myself to be at the end of the day. Not what I did for a living, but who I was. I told him I'm a writer. I write stories, novels, poems, songs, web pages, and computer programs. You might object that an author, a poet, a lyricist, a web-site designer, and a computer programmer are five different things, and they use a different mix of skills. But it all feels like language to me; and I'm good at languages.
(On reflection, I'd add mathematics and music to the list, too.)
Simply put, I've been a reader from so young an age that I don't remember learning to read, and I've wanted to write for as long as I've been able to read. This Green Sky Press site is where I publish things for anyone and everyone to read.
Sometimes people read my latest story and pay me the compliment of suggesting that I find an agent and get "really" published. I consider something published when it appears on this site. After all, the point of publication has always been to put the writing out where people can read it. Online publication gives your work a potential audience of everyone in the world!
But I'm not a businessman, I've never been interested in being a businessman, and I've never cared about money, as long as I had enough to pay the rent, buy food, etc. I'm a writer, and my lasting passion is to write. Like a musician who publishes his songs online, publishing my writing online means I can forget about profit and concentrate on my art. That might not work for everyone, but it's what I care about.
With online publication, as long as I can afford a computer, my annual domain fee, and monthly hosting fees, my costs have been met. As long as each of my readers can afford a computer and a monthly internet connection, they're good, too. Actually, in a lot of the world, a reader can drop into a library and use a computer for free, or visit an internet cafe and rent a machine there for very little per hour.
Publishing my work online also frees me from having to satisfy professional agents, editors, publishers, critics, and other people who want money because they know the market better than I do. Since I'm not on the market, their opinions and desires don't concern me. I don't have to change any titles, add or delete any scenes, make my work more sexy or dumber, or include car chases to interest movie producers. On the other hand, if I feel the need to kill everyone off or blow up a planet or two, that's entirely up to me.
Please don't think I don't care about anyone else's opinions. Far from it! If you spot a mistake (factual, grammatical, spelling, or whatever), please write me and let me know. I'll be grateful and I'll thank you right here on the site for your help. But I'm the writer here, and this is my writing. Only I can decide what I write and what I publish here. Comprehendisne?
There should be lots more pictures on my site. Alas, I can't draw! I have a good sense of composition and color, and I can do quite a bit in a technical-draftsman sort of way with the GIMP (the GNU/Linux Image Manipulation Program). But while that might let me publish a chart of timelines or an orbital schematic, it won't stretch to character portraits or action scenes.
So I'm looking for artists to draw pictures to scatter through my site: Covers, scenes, illustrations, artwork of all kind. If you're an artist and would like to make some money, send me e-mail. It won't make your fortune, but I won't cheat you, either.
If you're not an artist, but you know someone who is, please have him or her write to me. Thanks!
I'd also like to collaborate with someone on a webcomic. I have lots more plots than I can write in any reasonable time. One or two of them could be moving forward at the rate of two or three pages or strips per week, while I went on writing other stuff. I would pay up front by the page, and share equally any revenues from subscribers, etc. If we work together regularly, you'll get half the rights to the finished work, too.
Please let me know what you think of my writing. I welcome your comments! If you have a critique or a question about anything here, find a spelling error, etc., please send email to "leo AT greenskypress DOT com". If you find an HTML or CSS error, or just want to talk, I'd enjoy that too.
I also have a Daily Kos account (www.dailykos.com), so you can send me a message on that site. The account is, believe it or not, Leo Orionis. It won't surprise you to learn, I trust, that my Facebook account is also Leo Orionis.
You can "subscribe" to this site if you wish, and I'll send you a note whenever I make a change, or add new material. Just write to me and let me know, by email, DKos, or FB. I announce, on Facebook, whatever I change each day. Mostly that's additions to the T́uliǹgrai Etymological Dictionary, but I also announce new poems, stories, and work on books. If you change your mind about following my work, you can "unsubscribe" just by sending me another email, Daily Kos, or FB message.
All mail I receive will be assumed to be for publication unless you tell me otherwise. Mail will be published on this site, or not published, at my sole discretion. In other words, if I get mail from anyone, I'll consider it for publication unless you say, "don't publish this." But even if it is for publication, I don't have to publish it if I decide not to. I hope that's clear.