May 17 Flash Fiction Challenge Extended until May 29.
I’m behind the scenes blowing up pages. Often it can feel like the writing does indeed explode, and revision is all about gathering the pieces and creating something tighter, more concise and clear. Art is half throwing paint at the canvas, and half shaping the colors, lines, and textures.
But this is no art project. I’m working on my GDPR compliance, something I lamented in Cake and Cookies. As much as I’d like to skirt the issue with my 99-words, legal counsel offers a different perspective. As a place intended to make literary art accessible, I want to be as transparent as the EU ruling expects all companies to be.
My issue is that I don’t have a legal team, nor do I have web developers explaining code and cookies. Nor I can’t sit on the sidelines eating cake, counting on the EU to not care about an imaginary ranch where carrots and bacon coincide with 99-word stories from around the world. It’s taken me this long to even understand what I’m required to do. Because I collect information and sell books, subscriptions, services, and patronage around the globe, I must be compliant.
Following a fabulous Friday-through-Monday birthday blow-out, and a looming GDPR deadline (5/25) I’m extending last week’s challenge deadline. Property Values collection will publish May 30, and you now have until May 29 to submit.
Submit your response, using the form HERE.
If you already submitted and are wondering what you can do, here are some ideas:
- Go back to the May 17 post and read and interact with the stories and comments you might not have had time to engage.
- Go to Rancher Badges and start listing the badges you want to submit for June 1 to wordsforpeople@gmail.com.
- Take the TUFF Challenge with your current WIP, or a new story idea you are thinking about:
Grrr! This GDPR is so frustrating. I’m sure “they” didn’t intend it to be such a headache for us little people. Or maybe they did and the big boys just want us out.
Feels that way, Norah. I scratch my head and wonder, especially when I read that the EU intends for this compliance to “level the playing field.” I suspect the complex legalese is due to a lack of clarity among many, including lawyers (or, especially).
They’ll level the playing field all right – everything will come crashing down!
Keep doing what you must Charli, we can wait .. the TUFF challenge looks interesting … am I game!
Thanks, Kate! I’ll eat cookies and let you all play! Another way to do TUFF is that you can use your 99-word story and then go steps 3 (59) and 4 (9). That’s “mini-TUFF.”
lol stop tempting me you tease 🙂
Do what you gotta do… this GDPR thing is important, so it comes first…
in the meantime, TUFF challenge looks very interesting!
Thanks, Debora! GDPR is my own TUFF challenge, only I wish I could condense it all!
😉
I don’t envy web owners that collect personal information right now. I never ran a mailing list, cookies, subscriptions, or anything like that when I had my own business website. I think the TUFF challenge sounds fun. I toyed around with the 6-senses challenge you have on your site last week and it was fun and interesting. I am working on a new one for tomorrow. Becoming compliant is just a step by step process…take a deep breath and it’ll be easier than you think. Sending good vibes your way 🙂
Taking that deep breath and feeling the good vibes! I actually found some good support through the main company for Word Press and I’m really impressed with their mission and the level of support they are offering site owners. It’s still a beast to deal with, though. Glad to hear you played with the six senses challenge. Enjoy TUFF!
Thank you! OOOh…. more time to read and visit… hard to do when the other half is also home on vacation wanting equal if not more of my time 😉 😉
Though right now he’s on an emergency Hazmat call so I had dinner by myself and finished a squishy romance novel. Sometimes you just have to take a slow day. We more or less just got back from a mini vacation up north a bit. Nice weather too.
For myself, I’ve got a week in June where I’ll have both grands all day – then a family vacation in July… Oh it’s summer time… Well maybe not quite yet.
But unofficially. I just checked – no fireflies yet. For me that’s when summer really starts. Not sure if all the rain will delay them? Last year I think the first fireflies did come out in the last days of May.
One foot at a time. Pace yourself Charli, and remember to breathe.
Hugs to all ~ Jules
Thanks for the suggestion! Oh, yes, a squishy Hillerman novels sounds tempting right now, Jules. Glad you had a lovely time and still get to look forward to fireflies.
It’s always fun to see fireflies, but the first of the season is a special treat. Just the first one or three. Then in about a week for a good month or so the whole back yard is lit up – the maples (yes the bugs get that high) light up the leaves from where they first branch up to the tops of the trees – really they do! At least in my back yard 🙂
Good lyck Charli… keep that stash of cookies by your side!
Good luck with that, Charli. Since sharing my own woes, I’ve stopped worrying. I have other priorities before tomorrow but will get to that privacy statement eventually.
It goes against the grain of all we hold dear about writing, but I’m wondering if it’s just simpler to cut and paste some legal gobbledygook that no-one understands.
I have been so busy with grandchildren I haven’t kept up with my blog reading, so I welcome the extra week. The GDPR stuff is a royal pain and I took down my online store where I sold an occasional book/doll. I have a privacy statement but now figuring out if I have to send an email to my subscribers since people do get my posts via email and I send out an occasional newsletter. If canning the newsletter would help I’d do that since I don’t send it regularly. Where is my legal counsel and my webmaster when I need him/her??? I blame Mark Zuckerberg for this mess!
“Kid there ain’t no cookies.”
“But Shorty had her cake and ate it too, an’ now she’s on about cookies. I could sure hep her with cookies.”
“No, ya cain’t, Kid, there ain’t no cookies. Shorty’s talkin’ GDPR.”
“God damn pryin’ raccoons? Jist say it, Pal.”
“No! Not raccoons.”
“Oh. ‘Cause they kin be trouble.”
“Shorty has ta tend ta General Data Protection Regulations.”
“Oh. Huh? Protection? The ranch is safe as kin be. Fictional lives matter here.”
“Good thing, ‘cause real life kin be pretty ridiculous.”
“Yeah, cain’t make that shit up. It’s unbelievable.”
“Yep. Good luck, Shorty.”
Good luck with it Charli. I haven’t even looked at it so don’t know what is involved but like everything, I bet its convoluted and difficult to work out the finer points. I’m getting old – my gripe nothing ever stays the same. I’ll do some more reading.
I see you got your banner up! 🙂 I feel your pain LOL. What a pain! <3
I am also trying to sort this out Charli as I have links to Amazon and TSL Publications on my new blog.
Hi, Charli, it’s past 5/25. I hope you got yours done and are able to breathe.
I think all services big and small were trying to meet the deadline. When the first one came, I thought, oh, this must be an annual thing they are doing. Then the second, the third, the fourth and on and on came. I suddenly remembered some media got in trouble, so everyone else has to have a spell-out private policy. Even the site where my daughter posts her baby’s photos sent out a notice about how they collect and use the data.