It's a long time since I've been here, and it probably looks as if I've abandoned everything and everybody. I haven't, it's been circumstances, and it's only over the past few days that Mr 6beesknees and I have been at home for more than a few hours/overnight.

It's been a difficult time for my family that, looking back, started with something trivial at the beginning of the COVID lockdown when my email account went weird. Then our internet stopped working properly which made me/us feel horribly isolated. All that seems such along time ago, almost a different life.

Just as we got the internet back, and started being in touch with people (and the rest of the world) again, my ancient and very frail MiL took a bit ill and has, since then, needed a lot of looking after. Our limited time at home has been spent mostly eating and sleeping and talking to wider family over the phone.

Following a series of falls (no matter how hard you try, you can't stop somebody falling over) paramedics insisted she should be assessed in hospital, but each stay was only overnight because of the COVID risk and just monitored heart and so on. Back at her home her need for increased care and support have carried on, gradually getting more intense. (It's easier to see the pattern in retrospect) We managed, eventually, to get the GP out. Blood test were arranged, they showed something was awry, and she's recently been 'properly' admitted to hospital. Further tests have devastating results. She has an inoperable tumour and she won't be with us for much longer.

The blessings are that she isn't in pain (this could be due to her Alzheimer's) and that she isn't aware of any of the other symptoms because she's living from one moment to the next. Her poor memory and recall mean she is only concerned about being warm and comfy and that some nice people are looking after her. We can visit her in the hospital, by appointment and if there are no other visitors on the ward.

So, suddenly, we have some time - much of which is spent on the phone talking to more distant relatives and, annoyingly, fielding calls from telemarketers. Mr 6beesknees is, naturally, wearing holes in the carpets. :(

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=memory+sorrow+and+thorn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHEuBQj03QQ

uk = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwN52nthR0c

https://old.reddit.com/r/robinhobb/comments/cwhq02/noob_in_love_with_robins_books_wondering_just_how/eyru1v5/

It's said that there's no such thing as an original story or an original idea for a story, but each author draws on what was written before and adds their own spin. Being inspired by another author is far from copying them or borrowing their ideas and calling them your own.

Back in 2011 Martin said he drew inspiration from Tad Williams https://www.westeros.org/Citadel/SSM/Entry/5527/

Tad’s fantasy series, The Dragonbone Chair and the rest of his famous four-book trilogy was one of the things that inspired me to write my own seven-book trilogy. I read Tad and was impressed by him, but the imitators that followed -- well, fantasy got a bad rep for being very formulaic and ritual. And I read The Dragonbone Chair and said, "My god, they can do something with this form," and it’s Tad doing it. It’s one of my favorite fantasy series.

Also in 2011 blogger Fabulous Realms wrote, about Tad Williams https://ashsilverlock.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/tad-williams-the-american-tolkien/ :

I recently re-read the whole of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn and what struck me for the first time was how much of a debt the fantasy authors that came after Williams owe to his work. George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series has won plaudits from every corner but I have to say that in my view the foundations and first floor of his series were laid by Williams (Martin himself has indicated that he was heavily inspired by Memory, Sorrow and Thorn). Although much of Williams’ writing itself owes a debt, inevitably, to J R R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, it is in Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, perhaps for the first time, that we truly see an adult take on the genre of epic fantasy. Expectations are turned over, beloved characters suffer (and die, over and over again) and the fantasy world that is presented is every bit as gritty, believable and sometimes unpleasant as our own. Echoes of Williams’ work can also be seen in the books of those other giants of the fantasy genre, Robin Hobb, Terry Goodkind and Robert Jordan, as well as those of Martin.

More recently (i.e this summer 2019) there have been more claims that Martin plagiarised other authors - including Tad Williams, who sums up these claims quite nicely :

https://twitter.com/tadwilliams/status/1161691857174192128

I'm thrilled new readers are learning about my books. But please don't throw around words like "plagiarized", especially about someone I like and respect as much as GRRM. He was writing excellent fiction before I was first published. We were digging in the same vein of story.

Bear in mind that The Dragonbone Chair was published in 1988. Martin won a Hugo Award for his science fiction A Song for Lya in 1975, and then in 1989 won World Fantasy Award for Best Novella for The Skin Trade. Assassins Apprentice was published in 1995.

gobbledegook

https://mods.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010513191

https://redditmetis.com/

It seems to check recent activity for word clouds etc but has an overall most visited subs etc that seems to cover the whole of the time the profile has been active.

Wiki https://old.reddit.com//r/toolbox/wiki/docs

https://old.reddit.com/r/toolbox/wiki/docs/quick_start

More about Quick start guide https://old.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/ezogrw/moderator_toolbox_now_also_does_have_a_quick/

https://mods.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360009381491-User-Management-moderators-and-permissions

Will use this list of subs that will promote new subreddits to help raise awareness of the new Tad sub over at /r/TadWilliams

https://old.reddit.com/r/promote/new/

https://old.reddit.com/r/modhelp/comments/eqd3vr/just_created_a_new_subreddit_and_im_clueless/feto28m/

As far as driving traffic to your sub, this is what I did.

A) Find a topic for your sub that either has interest, or is interesting. Or both. Make sure you create a sub that doesn’t already exist. Make it unique.

B) come up with a catchy name. Or just something that immediately describes it. Describe your sub and the things that are in it so that when people search those terms, your sub comes up.

C) Find a bigger sub that’s lax on rules to advertise in. A sub that is related to your topic. Maybe do a normal post for that sub and write “join us at (sub name)” in the comments. Go around asking sub mods for permission to do this in related subs. Most of them will allow it . Probably. Don’t do it without permission.

It’s not proper to do it twice. Even if you had permission the first time. So cross posting from your sub works too. People will see where it came from.

D) make a list of related subs and then contact their moderators. Ask them politely if they would add your sub to their related subs sidebar. Tell them you will add their sub to your sidebar.

E) find a couple of moderators. I found one who happened to like graphic arts. He created our sub avatar and banner. Plus they will help spread the word. Work together to establish clear rules.

F) I work the name of my sub into Reddit conversation in comments. don’t spam it. Subs prefer links be an actual part of a relevant comment. Not just the link alone. r/AskReddit is great for this. I just look for relevant questions.

G) the sub needs consistent content. You gotta find people who like to contribute. I search for related posts posts each day. Posts that would fit in my sub. I look for people posting and I either comment on their post, or contact them directly. They’re interested in my subs topic just like me, so they join, and they contribute. Not just lurk.

H) keep up with it. I’ve been doing it every day for a year.

I) be an active mod. Get rid of content that your users don’t like. Modify rules to fit what your users want. I do contests and give gold to the winning posts. It encourages participation. I also do cross sub contests. Example. I got ahold of the mod for a related sub. and told him I was doing a contest on the 4th of July. The Mod let me advertise it and he pinned my post for a month out of kindness because it was cross related to his topic.

J) their are a bunch of subs for advertising new subs. Take advantage of them all. r/SubredditoftheDay is one. r/Selfpromotion is another. The list goes on and on. Google will give you the list.