Welcome to the New
Space Dock 13!
Helping Authors Write Weird, Bizarre, Absurd, Psychedelic Horror-Fantasy Since 1996!
(We've Moved & Changed URLs; Space Dock 13 is now EelKat.com)
(We are also novel-writing-tips.com, a-pink-unicorn.com, & of course are still SpaceDock13.com)

Want To Meet EelKat and
The Dazzling Razzberry (Autism Awareness Car)
in Person?

We'll Be At
PortConMaine 2018
June 21 - 24

See PortConMaine's Website
For Times, Location, Directions, & Ticket Prices:
http://portconmaine.com

If you are coming from out of state and plan to stay at the hotel, room info can be found here:
http://doubletree3.hilton.com
They give discounts to PortCon members, so be sure to mention you are attending PortCon when you reserve your room!

This Year's CosPlay: Avallac'h

I'm livestreaming making this costume. If you want to see it being made, check out my Avallac'h Costume Making Vlogs on YouTube!

https://www.youtube.com/user/EelKat

See You There!

Who is Avallac'h?
This is Avallac'h
(Note, this character comes from an "adult entertainment" video game Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, and you must be 18 or older to buy the game. Assume all videos and pages featuring Avallac'h are NSFW. This guy's a major pervert)

FAQs:
Yes, you can take pictures.
You don't have to ask to take pictures of the car,
but please ask first before taking pictures of me.

No, I'm not an actor, I do not do the masquerades. No interest in such things.
No, I will not join your group in a skit. I don't do skits. Sorry, I Just don't do them.

No, I do not enter the workmanship contests - I am a professional seamstress,
with a college degree in theatrical costume making and pattern design
and do not qualify to enter such events.
I am also driven by my love for the characters, not winning prizes
and have no incentive to enter such things.

While I'm not doing an official book signing at PortCon, you are more then welcome to bring books for signing,
and if you catch me in the hall, I'll be more than happy to sign them for you.

Thank you!

PortCon takes place in 4 separate buildings: the 2 DoubleTree towers, at the Maine Mall across the street, and starting in 2018, now also in the new Hilton building next door to the two towers.

Almost ALL the events I attend are in the second tower, the shorter one at the back of the gardens, seen here --->>>

In between events, you can usually find me in the main hall of the second tower hanging out with other CosPlayers. We are the annual HallWay CosPlayers of PortCon and we'd love to have you join us!

I will be there at all days of the event.

I live around the corner from the DoubleTree Hilton where the convention is held, so you can usually expect to see me arrive between 7AM to 8AM. (Yes... 2 HOURS before the doors open, the lines to get in ARE that long! If you arrive at opening time, you won''t get in the building before noon time at BEST.)

I typically leave around 3PM to go eat, and return around 4PM (this time fluctuates depending on the daily event schedule. We, my boyfriend will be there, usually go to SubWay at the BullMoose mini-mall) Other then leaving this one hour for lunch, I stay at PortCon all day till midnight/1AM

Changes DoubleTree Hilton Hotel Made Because of My Injury At PortConMaine2017

- Handicapped CosPlayers - Avallac'h CosPlay - On Being a Handicapped CosPlayer

In case you forgot or didn't know, I am OtherKin, ElfKin to be exact, I'm what is known as Genderfluid TransSpecies, a type of Transgender, and this is an Elf, and likely an Elf you will see me, fully "evolve" into, over the next 2 or 3 years. Though born a female Human, I've not identified as either female or a Human since I was 12.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
PortCon is the ONLY convention I will be at in 2018!

I have been CosPlaying since 1987, 2018 is my 31st year as a CosPlayer. In that time I've done 200+ costumes and usually am seen at as many as 12 events each summer. I know, you usually expect to see me at lots of events throughout the year, however, I've been doing this for 31 years now, and both my age and my health are preventing me from being very active of late.

I have arthritis, hip dysplasia, Parkinson's Disease, Autism (Kanner's Syndrome), PTSD, have 3 ruptured discs in my spine, am blind in one eye and fast going blind in my other eye, am deaf in one ear and can not hear well in the other, and since being attacked by a stalker who left me paralyzed for 5 months and 18 months relearning to walk, I'm now on a cane. My health is not good of late and I am no longer able to make full season of event runs. While I have no plans to retire from CosPlaying, I will be doing far fewer events than you saw me doing in the past.

Since 2013, I've only CosPlayed disabled/crippled characters who use a cane or staff to walk, thus allowing me to incorporate my cane into the CosPlay. That is the case this year. The character Avallac'h is both elderly and crippled and that is why I picked him to CosPlay. The Avallac'h CosPlay includes a staff, which will be replacing my cane.

PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH THE STAFF!
It is NOT a prop!
This is an ACTUAL MEDICAL GRADE staff
that I have had custom made for this costume.

I know people like to touch my extremely elaborate, over the top CosPlays, but please be aware,
I am EXTREMELY CRIPPLED and RELY HEAVILY on the cane to be able to walk.
The staff you will see with this costume is real, and I CAN NOT walk without it.

(If you didn't know I am a senior citizen, I'm not sure why, but most people tend to think I'm some 20 to 30 years younger then I actually am, but, yes, I'm old enough to be your grandmother, in fact, you're grandmother is probably younger than me. I seem to be older then most of my fans' grans these days. I does get tiring, young kids in their 30s walking up to me and saying "Gee I wish I was young like you, I'd date you." You're in your 30s, that's means you're a child to me. I was YOUR age back in the 1970s - 40 years ago.)

sigh

The emails I'm getting this past week, have made it necessary to add this notation:

No, I will not make a Witcher character costume for you for free and you likely can't afford to hire me to make one for you either.
These movie-set quality costumes cost several thousand dollars and 400+ hours to make,
with the standard dressmaking cost being $25 an hour + 3 times cost of materials,
while it is costing me around $3,000 in materials to make this, you've not counted in the time it took and the cost per hour I would charge you.
$3,000 x 3 + ($25 x 400hr) = $13,000.
You are looking at around $13,000 to hire me to make this Avallac'h costume on this level of craftsmanship for you.

| The Adventures of The Pink Necromancer: Quaraun The Insane | FAQs |

| Novel Writing Tips | Writing Wizards |

| Fantasy WorldBuilding | Character Creation |

| How To Build A Culture: How I Made My Moon Elf Society |

| Building A Magic System | Writing Absurdism? Start Here |

| Writing Dialogue | Short Story Beat Sheets |

| The Avallac'h CosPlay |

| The Writing Dares Generator |

| Web-Building & SEO For Authors | The Business of Writing |

| EelKat's Guide To Writing Monster Porn | Writing Prompts |

|The Sales Figures & Income Of One of Monster Porn's Top Selling Authors |

| Dungeons & Dragons | Cosplay |

| Life As A YouTuber | Hamsters |

| YouTube Videos By EelKat | Art By EelKat | Health Updates |

| Meet The Scottish Travellers | Stephen King's Thinner Gypsies - The Complete Interviews |

| Amphibious Aliens | Meet The Real Christine: The World's Most Haunted Car |

2018 April/May/June Update:

As you know, most of the year I publish 2 to 3 articles a day.

However, every year during convention season, I take a break from that to go full swing CosPlay.

From early April 2018 to late June 2018, article posting schedule will be sporadic, while CosPlay Season and Convention events are going full swing.

During this time period, you can expect most, possible all new articles to be focused on costume making, CosPlay, and the characters I'm CosPlaying.

UPDATE: It's now divided into 7 pages. The primary page "Meet Avallach" is now over 20,000 words long. At this rate, it'll cross 60,000 long before the costume is finished, and that's not including the other 5 pages. The primary page has now crossed 60,000 words and counting, the whole set of Avallac'h pages are now more than 200,000 words long, and more then 500 pictures of Avallac'h and his friends have now been uploaded on these pages, plus there are now 400+ hour-long videos f the costume making process as we record live, every second of this insanely elaborate, over the top CosPlay project.

As of May 19, just 29 days to PortCon we are embroidering his blue coat in a countdown against the clock to finish in time for the event, while we pray that The Dazzling Razzberry will be re-weilded back together and drivable in time for PortCon, after it's recent vandalism by Old Orchard Beach's ever growing Ku Klux Klan problem.

There will still be daily updates, but the BULK of the daily updates will be limited to the pages linked here:

The Avallac'h CosPlay: Who is Avallac'h?
Obsession: Meet Avallac'h
[NSFW] Avallac'h & His Nude Women | Witcher 3 Game Screenshots
Historical Accuracy vs Avallac'h (to go live later this summer)
The Avallac'h CosPlay Costume Making Vlogs (will go live AFTER finishing the costume)
How To Make The Avallac'h CosPlay (will go live AFTER PortCon)
How Much Did It Cost? ($800+ will run to around $3,000) Budgeting The Avallac'h CosPlay (eing written as the costume is being made, will go live after completion of the costume)
Why do children CosPlay rapists & rape victims? & WHY Avallac'h is a M18+ character.
PortConMaine 2018
On Being a Handicapped CosPlayer: A Look At Events of PortConMaine 2017 That Resulted In 3 Disabled CosPlayers Getting hurt at The Convention and How These Things Could Have Been Avoided

Endorsements:
Would You Take Money
From a Company You Don’t Know?

Home / About / Endorsements: Would You Take Money From a Company You Don’t Know?

By EelKat Wendy C Allen

Ads by Share-a-Sale

"Would You Take Money From a Company You Don’t Know?

I’m curious about something…

I've just been contacted by someone whose trying to get two text links on my hair loss treatment homepage for a client: a hair transplant company. But, despite asking, they won't reveal the company name. So, my gut feeling is to turn it down.

But this leads to a couple of questions:

1. Has anyone else been contacted in this way where, bizarrely, the client name is not revealed?

2. Obviously link building is important as long as it's of value to the visitor. But, Penguin has hammered loads of sites (including mine) that have poor/unnatural links. So, are people still building links like this in return for payment? And if so…

3. I was offered $50 for 3 months for both links. So is this the sort of figure people are accepting?"

I actually have a policy of never placing any affiliate ads on my site, unless it's a company I know and have used. If I have placed the product banner/link myself (not an ad that Google randomly displays), you will also see me mentioning the company and/or it's product over the course of my regular conversation. For example, for the past 3 years my readers have seen/heard/read me saying how much I love Hootsuite. I use Hootsuite every day, many times every day. I chatter about it constantly and often mention it in articles I write. Than after 3 years of talking about how great they are, I found out they had an affiliate program and I figured, heck, I talk about their app all the time, I might as well start linking to their affiliate program and get paid for all this promotion I'm doing of them, and thus as of September 2013, not only do you still see me telling you how great Hootsuite is, you also see me displaying a banner advertising thier product. You can see this banner displayed at the bottom of EVERY SINGLE PAGE on my website, for the simple fact I think their service is great and because I've used it daily for many years now and I mention them so often in dozens, perhaps hundreds of pages on my sites, so I decided it only fair that I put their banner on every page.

On the other hand there are sites like Amazon.com. I love Amazon.com, I shop there every week and have done so since 2004. I used to get paid by them, years ago before the Nexus Law was passed. But I live in Maine, which means that as of October 6, 2013, I am no longer eligible to receive commission from their affiliate program, due to the Nexus Law, but that doesn't stop me from linking to their products even though I'm no longer getting paid to do so. Why? Because, like Hootsuite, I love their company enough to be linking to it whether I get paid or not.

As a general rule, I try to match banners/links to the page topic, for example on several of my pirate topic pages you will see I have placed banners for various pirate themed companies varying from a costume seamstress to children's birthday party plates. I have bought clothen from this seamstress and party supplies from this birthday supplier in the past and therefor feel good about telling my readers: hey, check this out. Had I not had a good experience buying from these companies in the past, I would not have added their affiliate links to my site.

Sometimes however, you might see a totally random banner which at first seems completely off topic, for example the Jelly Belly jelly bean banner you see frequently on my sites, usually on pages with nothing candy related at all. Why are they there? Well, for the simple fact that I could not find a product I use which did have an affiliate banner that was on topic, so I stuck a banner in for one of my favorite products regardless of topic as a way to not have an empty space on the page. Jelly Belly jelly beans have been a staple in my diet for close to 20 years now. Jelly Bellies are something you would expect to see me munching on, pretty much every day, any time, any place, and as I am the primary topic of my author website all about me, it therefore is perfectly on topic for pages to display banners of my favorite candy, in this case Jelly Bellies.

So, if that company contacting you, were contacting me, I'd turn them down straight away, because I don't know them, I don't use their product, and I just don't feel good about promoting a service/product/company on my site, if I don't make a habit of personally using their products myself. Perhaps others would disagree, but for me, I just would feel like I was cheating or lying to my readers, if I put a link to a product I'd never used. My readers look at the ads on my page and say "Hey, I'll try this because EelKat uses it" (I know they do because they have contacted me and said they do), I've had people link back to my blog, saying "I tried such-and-such because EelKat recommended it on her blog..." So I'd hate for someone to be saying I recommended an item, when I didn't actually recommend it! I suppose I do look at affiliate ads differently than most webmasters, because I'm a somewhat famous author and so people are coming to my website looking for information about me, and if I post an affiliate link on my page it's like I'm giving a "celebrity endorsement" to that company, so I'm very, very careful to only recommend products I use.

I suppose if they contacted me, the first thing I'd do was ask them why they thought I would be a good candidate for endorsing their product. I'd also ask them what benefit they think I can bring to their company (obviously they feel you can benefit them in some significant way, otherwise they would not have contacted you.) Me, I have really long hair, and have no need for a hair transplant, and would feel it false advertising to promote hair transplants on my site, because it would imply that my long hair is not my own, but rather that I had a transplant to get it. This would bother me. It would bother me a lot. It would bother me enough that I would turn down the offer regardless of how much it was. I'm not a person swayed by offers of money (as people have learned frequently). I have strong, high moral standards and I value them greatly, to the point that no amount of money ever has or ever will convince me to endorse or promote any product I do not use. Than again I am the founder of The Proctor and Gamble Boycott and am well known for my flagrant contempt for businesses thinking if they throw enough money at me, I'll shut up, so why would any business think throwing money at me would get me to support them?

My point is, you have to go with your gut on this one. It could be a good deal, sure, than again it could be a scam. Who knows? I don't that's for sure. All I know is, for some folks money talks and endorsing products they don't use is fine if the money if right. I'm not one of those people, so I'd turn down their offer. I can't tell you to accept or decline, you have to decide that for yourself. I can only tell you what it is I would do if it were me in your place.

You can read my FTC Disclosure Policy for more information on how I deal with these sorts of issues.

Hope that helps.

Ads by Google

The End?

No, you have NOT reached the end of this article! What you have reached is the end of what it currently online. The rest is coming, hopefully it'll be on here in a day or three so keep checking back. I will remove this message at the same time I put the rest of it online.

As my long time readers will already know a server crash took down most of the old free-hosted site on June 4, 2013 (which was online since 1997 and had reached 6,000+ pages). Thankfully everything was saved on a separate hard-drive and the site is being rebuilt with a new host and for the first time on it's own domain. YAY!

I am currently moving all 6,000 questions&answer articles to this site one page at a time, at a rate of about 4 to 7 new pages being added each day, so be patient. Not all links are yet clickable. This process started on September 2, 2013 and will be ongoing at least through to January 2014. (And it may be well into 2017 before all 6,000 pages will be back online if I continue at this rate of 5 a day.)

Your Questions Answered

Who can I contact if my questions are not answered here?

Welcome to the New Space Dock 13!Helping Authors Write Weird, Bizarre, Absurd, Psychedelic Horror-Fantasy Since 1996!(We've Moved & Changed URLs; Space Dock 13 is now EelKat.com)(We are also novel-writing-tips.com, a-pink-unicorn.com, & of course are still SpaceDock13.com)

Want To Meet EelKat and The Dazzling Razzberry (Autism Awareness Car) in Person?

This Year's CosPlay: Avallac'hI'm livestreaming making this costume. If you want to see it being made, check out my Avallac'h Costume Making Vlogs on YouTube!https://www.youtube.com/user/EelKatSee You There!

Who is Avallac'h?This is Avallac'h(Note, this character comes from an "adult entertainment" video game Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, and you must be 18 or older to buy the game. Assume all videos and pages featuring Avallac'h are NSFW. This guy's a major pervert)