Skip to content

Month: January 2023

Content Strategy with Kristina HalvorsonContent Strategy, Halvorson, Hip-Hop Content Strategy, Content Monster

Content Strategy with Kristina Halvorson

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on January 31, 2023

What Hath Halvorson Wrought?

So, Kristina Halvorson is the author of Content Strategy for the Web.

I was excited to hear her speak to the Content Strategy New England Meet Up group on May 24, 2010.

What are the Essential Elements of Content Strategy?

• Auditing and Assessment – so, what’s the available content? What are the skill sets of the persons in the organization? What is their work flow? Just what do their competitors do? What are the needs? Also, what are the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)?
† Messaging/Substance – what are you trying to say? What should your readers leave with or act upon? Can you archive older, less vital material in order to retain it but also have it leave more room for content that is more in demand?
• Structure – usability and design are key. Make it easy to browse for and search for content. Add a taxonomy and metadata.
† Workflow and Governance – what are the tools to move content through an organization? What are the metrics, and how will they be analyzed? How does the organization decide which content is going to go out there? Who makes the decisions?

Companies With Issues

So, Ms. Halvorson talked a lot about working with companies that simply do not seem to get it. Also, she made it clear that these strategies need to be implemented by humans, not automated CMS systems.

Tips included:

• Make and stick to an Editorial Calendar
† Create a Governance Policy
• Identify Standards and Goals
† Create and adhere to Benchmarks
• Establish Guidelines
† Create a Content Inventory

The truth is, over fourteen years later, every single bit of this still applies.

Recommendations from Halvorson

She recommended not only her own book but also a blog post by Rachel Lovinger, The Philosophy of Data.

And she had one final whimsical, yet still serious tip: When you find cool stuff, tweet about it.

And so, we will.

Twelve Plus Years Later…

Content strategy is less of a discipline that needs to justify itself. Rather, now, it is more of a discipline that needs to herd cats. It is a dance of social media, content, advertising, and corporate egos.

It is also a dance of language. A company has to know what it is saying, and it may have to define that for its customers and prospects—the primary audience for the blog and other content machines.

Also, much like years ago, companies don’t seem to know what they have half the time.

A Content Strategist can make a decent impact in a new job just by figuring out what the business actually owns. And then figuring out if it’s dated or current, relevant or out there, and if it’s following linguistic requirements.

This doesn’t even get into SEO and any attempts to use the various subsets of marketing (like advertising, etc.) in a synergistic fashion.

Advertising creates a campaign to tout a blog post, which you share on social media. It’s the transcription (more or less) of a recent livestream, now available on YouTube.

Embed the video in the blog post to aid visual learners. And link to the blog on YouTube and anywhere else you’re housing the video—so people can get the gist if they prefer the written word.

When all of these work together, content strategy is the conductor or perhaps the ringmaster, making everything work together and making everyone better.

And when they don’t, well, those egos may have had a little something to do with that…

But you never heard that from me.

2 Comments
Social Media Background Check Being Used For Jury SelectionSocial Media, Social Media Writing, Social Media Writing Part, Social Media Writing Part 3, Best Lengths, Hesitation Generation, screen name, Happy Holidays, Relentless Pace, Cyber Infidelity, Podcasting, Neurotic Writers, Social Media Balance, Social Media Perfection, Losing Control, Social Media Tips, Employee Passwords, Look Like Online, social media, Social Media Platforms, Promoting Writing, Social Media Marketer, EditMe Webinar, Demand for Social Media Jobs, Stumbleupon surpasses, Less Conversation, Snapchat Settles with FTC, Quickly Boost Results, Hype, Auto-Service Economy, Sharing Less, Social Media background check, formatted, Four Important Social Media Stats, Cheat Sheets, Seduction, social back, Social media background check, Collaboration, Wikileaks, Editme Webinar, Cyber Legacy, Campaign 2012, Demographics, ways, Time-saving tips, Campaign 2012, Happy Holidays, Neurotic Writers, Sharing Less,

Social Media Background Check Being Used For Jury Selection

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on January 26, 2023

Is a Social Media Background Check Being Used for Jury Selection at all Ethical?

Social media background check? What? So, in 2010, the ABA Journal reported that lawyers admitted to using the Internet to ferret out information about potential jurors.

And essentially what happens: in some instances, while reading off the names of the members of a jury pool, a lawyer or paralegal Googles them. Sometimes the names are released the night before (at least, in Los Angeles County they can be), but it can also happen where lawyers only learn who would potentially sit on a jury on the day of selection.

State By State Differences

While state courts allow lawyers to bring laptops into courtrooms, Googling the jury panel isn’t what they have in mind, says Paula Hannaford-Agor, who directs the Center for Jury Studies at the National Center for State Courts.

However, preventing counsel from checking potential jurors’ backgrounds online might pose a Constitutional question and may very well violate the First Amendment. Though the law remains fluid in this area, with no decisions or tests yet.

Personal Thoughts

With all of the above said, I don’t know where I fall on the spectrum. Preventing Googling doesn’t just seem like a First Amendment issue – it also seems to exist as more of a common sense one. Because with the invention of the telephone, when a lawyer suddenly could learn more about jurors (and far more quickly than sending letters or asking a messenger to run somewhere or another), was that ever questioned?

And did it bother the jurors? Or did they perhaps not know about it? Or, maybe even if they did know, were they still so dazzled and flattered by the use of the brand-new technology? Did it make them not care, or see any implications?

Privacy?

And then we have the other end of things. Do I really want to be Googled if I’m in a jury pool? Welllll, lawyers look for every other possible advantage and nugget of information. So what would lead me to believe that they wouldn’t look there as well? If I exist as a somewhat sophisticated potential juror (and I’ve practiced law fer cryin’ out loud), I know that. And in particular in an expensive or high stakes (read: death row) case, both sides will look for every possible angle.

They scrutinize my bumper stickers. And my dress. My hair. Whether I’m wearing nail polish. My voter registration records. My work product, which is available online. Because they look at anything and everything.

Plus, as an avid Facebook and Twitter (and LinkedIn, and SparkPeople) user, I well understand the openness of my online life. And, for me, particularly after losing a boatload of weight, I feel it’s important to be open about a lot of things. Perhaps I overshare. No, wait, I definitely overshare. I know my life is open and there are all sorts of cracks in the armor.

Yet at the same time I, like many other people, feel there’s still a place to put on the brakes. Somewhere in there, there are vestiges of privacy. However, are they still available to me if I end up in a jury pool?

However, I’m not in a jury pool under my own volition. Hence I believe that, even as I share yet another “before” photo or mention that I’m turning a particular age or whatever, that I can throw up a wall.

Can’t I? Even a little bit?

Your Thoughts on a Social Media Background Check?

I’m curious as to what others think. Is this a squishy, I-want-to-be-left-alone area, or should we all just get over it? Is it the crest of a slippery slope? Would it erode privacy even more? Or did I get all hot and bothered over nothing?

Gentle reader, what do you think?

Years Later, What’s Different?

Right now, a social media background check seems almost quaint. You can more or less expect a social media background check for employment. And you can kind of expect a social media background check by the police. At least, in the higher profile cases, I would think.

Hell, you would probably do well to do a social media background check on yourself. So, this doesn’t feel so weird or invasive anymore.

It is, in its essence, just another way for the legal profession to attempt to get an advantage during a trial or for negotiations, nothing more.

I bet the next thing we are going to see are motions written by AI, or at least with its help. That is, if we are not seeing those already.

4 Comments
Supercharging Your On-Line PresenceOnline Presence, Supercharging your online presence, pet peeves, careers, virality, Alibaba

Supercharging Your On-Line Presence

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on January 17, 2023

What Does it Mean When You Say You’re Supercharging Your On-Line Presence?

Supercharging? Yes! This post is a riff on the February 2011 edition of Law Practice Today

About a thousand (er, twenty) years ago, I used to practice law. And, of course, things were far different then as opposed to now. But I have retained some of my old interests and connections, and would get the paper version of the ABA Journal for years after I had hung up my shingle.

Once a lot of that started to go online, I renewed my interest in any number of facets of law practice, in particular how it collides and dovetails with the Internet and, these days, Social Media.

Viral Marketing Gone Wrong

And I have seen enough tone-deaf Social Media campaigns (Able2know is rife with laughably bad viral marketing attempts, for example) to see the need for a publication like Law Practice Today to try to clear up some misconceptions and get lawyers going in a good — or at least non-harmful — online direction.

What is great about this article is that it doesn’t just apply to attorneys.

Get Your Own Domain Name

The first point made in the article is: You need your own internet domain name. Well, yes. And it continues to surprise me when companies and individuals who are attempting to make a splash (or at least not appear to be totally out of it) online don’t do this.

C’mon, people, domain names are cheap! Go to GoDaddy or HostGator and buy one! You can direct WordPress to be posting through a domain name that has naught to do with WordPress. This is not too tough (hell, that’s what I’m doing with my blog), or you can hire someone to do this. It’s a lot, to me, like buying business cards with your actual name on them versus cards that just say “Lawyer”.

Rejuvenate Your Website

The next point is: Rejuvenate Your Website. No argument here. Stale websites are as appealing as stale bread. I am not saying that you need to update every minute or every day or even every week but I see an awful lot of abandoned blogs and websites out there — or at least they appear to be, as their most recent changes occurred in 2010.

That means it’s been at least nearly two months since anyone changed them. Surely there is news, or at least even cosmetic changes would give one’s readership/potential clients a feeling that someone was minding the store.

Use a Good Profile Picture

Point number three is: Your picture is worth a thousand words. A good picture is, well, good. You might not be able to afford to hire a professional as the article suggests. That’s okay if you at least get a decent photographer friend to take a lot of pictures. How many? How’s one hundred? Lighting varies. You might not smile perfectly the first time. Your tie might be crooked. Your hair might be flying in your face.

You might not be looking directly at the camera. There are any number of reasons why a photo can go wrong. And get your pal to snap photos of you in various places, doing various things, so long as they are germane to the site. For a lawyer, that could be in the office, or in front of a courthouse or in front of the office building or with colleagues or alone.

After all, with a good hundred photos, you might end up with several usable ones. If there are choices in different locations, you can use them to make different points on your site.

Fill Out All About Me and Profile Pages

Point number four is: It’s All About Me. That is, create an “About Me” page. There’s a place to put a photograph or two, eh? It doesn’t have to be long, but give it a little personality. Be sensible, of course. This is probably not the place (assuming you’re a lawyer) to tout your ninja skills.

But if you play tennis or have two kids or are from Omaha, by all means, those things are perfectly fine here. Otherwise, you’re just nameless, faceless Joe or Jane Lawyer — and I, as your prospective client, can find a million of them.

Give Visitors Takeaways

The next point is: Give visitors something to “take away” from your blog. Me, I write articles and I allow the reprint rights. So if my experiences can help you, then by all means reprint my articles, and I wish you well, so long as you respect my rights in the matter.

Work on SEO

The next point is: get on Google+ as it gives you a boost in rankings. For an SEO beginner, or someone with a limited budget, this is easy and free and it takes nearly no time.

Here’s another point: Make Sure You Advertise on Google Local. I felt no need to do this, but I’m not trying to push ecommerce directly through my site and blog. Your mileage will, undoubtedly, vary.

LinkedIn

Next point: Be LinkedIn. Hell yeah. Here’s my LinkedIn profile. Yes, I will link to you – just send me a request. Also, I have found that LinkedIn is an excellent way to get to know people attending an event with you. If you can get a hold of the guest list in advance (and with Eventbrite, evite and others, you can), look those people up on LinkedIn.

Hey, you might have something in common with them, their photo might be up so that you can recognize them and they might be someone you’d like to know, either personally or professionally.

Gather Business Intelligence

Then there’s the penultimate point: Use Social Networks To Gather Business Intelligence. People share all sorts of stuff these days. Want to know if someone is moving? Going on vacation? Selling their business? Changing jobs? A lot of that information is out there, free for the taking. And other things are out there, if you know how to dig.

I’m not suggesting that you turn yourself into a creepy stalker but if a possible client is tweeting about buying land, and you’ve got a real estate practice, well, do I really have to connect the dots for you?

Tell People the News (About You or Anything Else of Interest)

Here’s the last point: Be the Evening News. The idea is, broadcast Youtube-type stuff, either your own or pass along others’. Agreed, but I wouldn’t overdo this, particularly not at the expense of other types of content, which are generally easier for Google to index (and for you to get an SEO bounce from).

But by all means, if it adds value (there’s a big if right there. I adore the Old Spice Guy but he does not help me on my site), add it.

The bottom line, I think is: don’t be afraid. Yes, the Internet can bite you. But it can also be quite a good friend to you. So start supercharging.

Leave a Comment
Starting a Twitter StreamTwitter, Twitter Stream, offsite connections, visual elements, Twitter followers, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, Demystifying Twitter, metrics, verbal elements, Amazoncart debuts, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, metrics, verbal elements, Bruins denounce Twitter hate, Twitter bigots, lost dogs, using Twitter to track, Shift in Twitter Trends

Starting a Twitter Stream

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on January 12, 2023

Let’s Look at Starting a Twitter Stream

How do you go about starting a Twitter stream? Should you plunge right in, or hang back? What about oversharing?

Yes, I know it’s called X now.

Your Account

You need a name! Let’s say you’ve taken my advice (or decided this on your own), and gone with an account just for writing. If you want a personal account, you make a second one.

Fine, but you need a name. How about a word like writer or author somewhere in there? You can’t go beyond 15 characters. Fortunately, you’ve got both letters and numbers, so you could conceivably add wr1ter or auth0r if you liked.

Go as short as you can while remaining coherent and unique. An abbreviations like wrtr is well-known, so you don’t have to worry about people getting confused.

Your Look

Settings are important in Twitter as they are with every social network. Twitter moves them on occasion. Every large site does beta testing, where they experiment with different layouts and looks to see what you’ll click on more often—this is normal.

Currently, they are under where it says “More”.

But you change your profile image from the profile page. Add a profile image and make it a head shot or at least a picture of the cover of your book, if you have one. Don’t keep the egg!

A background image is nice but not strictly necessary; Twitter has some pretty decent generic images if you are unsure of how you want things to look.

Who do you Follow?

Spend a little time chasing hashtags. #amwriting, #amediting, and #MSWL are great for getting started. Know an author you like is on Twitter? Then follow him or her! Publishers and agents are also good choices, as are your friends from NaNoWriMo or Wattpad or the rest of the writing community, even the fan fiction writing community.

Follow people who put words together into sentences and stories. Applaud their efforts and read what they have to say. It matters.

Your First Tweet

There’s no reason not to just say hi. It doesn’t have to be momentous. Be kind and supportive. Other writers are not your enemy and they’re generally not your competition.

That is to say, you can own both Untrustworthy (note shameless plug) or the Twilight books. Owning one does not make it impossible to have the other. A book collection is only limited by space, taste, and budget. It’s not like pie.

More to come later!

Leave a Comment
Almost Everything But the Tweet – Conquering Twitter (Visual Elements)Twitter, Twitter Stream, offsite connections, visual elements, Twitter followers, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, Demystifying Twitter, metrics, verbal elements, Amazoncart debuts, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, metrics, verbal elements, Bruins denounce Twitter hate, Twitter bigots, lost dogs, using Twitter to track, Shift in Twitter Trends

Almost Everything But the Tweet – Conquering Twitter (Visual Elements)

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on January 10, 2023

Almost Everything But the Tweet – Conquering Twitter (visual elements)

Visual elements. There are two areas on Twitter where you can make a visual impact, and it has nothing to do with what you’re actually tweeting. No, scratch that, there are three. Kinda.

Avatar

So the first, most obvious one, consists of the account’s avatar. Here’s where you should put the company logo. Don’t have a logo? Then it can be a picture of the person doing the tweeting, as this is supposed to be something of a conversation.

And for God’s sake, make it someone real. Otherwise any offsite connections are going to get awkward right quick!

For authors, try the cover of your most recent book!

Other visual elements of choice for an avatar can be a picture of the company mascot, if there is one.

Or a photo of one person (the main user) on the Twitter team, although if two or three people are doing the tweeting, what about a closeup of both or all three of them, photo booth style?

This will depend upon your industry and your image therein. But at the very least, you must get away from a generic Twitter avatar.

Background Visual Elements

Where’s the second area where you can make a visual impact? It’s your background. Here’s where your company logo can go if it’s not already being used for the account’s avatar. And if you have a well-known logo, that will add to the visual impact, so long as you’re not using the logo for both the avatar and the background. Because that constitutes overkill unless both are subtle.

Depending upon monitor or device size and screen resolution, some parts of the background will be hidden or revealed. So make sure to place the logo on the left of the background, preferably near the top, and test the look on several different-sized monitors and devices, and using different resolutions and operating systems.

You will not be able to customize the look for each setup (like you can with Cascading Style Sheets), but at least you’ll get an idea of where you’re being cut off. Naturally, you want to optimize your visual elements for whatever setup your customers are most likely to be using.

If your target audience has vision problems (e. g. perhaps they’re elderly), the most likely setup may very well involve a larger than standard screen resolution.

More About the Background

Below the upper left corner is some space directly above where the tweeting actually occurs. To the left, vertically, you have a little room in which to place the company web address, a telephone number and possibly a short slogan.

Twitter is meant to be short and sweet; don’t get caught up in adding a lot of verbiage here. Less can certainly be more in this case. Keep in mind, too, that no one can search on any verbiage you place here in the background image.

You can also add a picture just below your logo, or in place of it, in the upper left corner or along the left side. Try, perhaps, a picture of the Twitter team. Because you can great impact from offering pictorial evidence of who’s listening. Another option: place a picture of your main product here.

There is also some space to the right. But it’s just the gifs or jpgs you’ve put into tweets. A savvy social media manager will look at design elements and see if they can use that space as a part of a more unified design, although not as a focal point.

For example, maybe it’s a recipe for making a roasted chicken. Your first image might show the bird (a before shot). The second might have a short list of ingredients (although keep in mind the print may be small).

Third might be brief instructions. Fifth could just be the cooking time and temperature. And the sixth and last one (currently, there are six images on the top right, but Twitter may change this) could be the finished recipe.

Tweet Now, Or Later?

What’s part three? Visuals are also something, like every other part of Twitter, that you can schedule. This can come from a free or quasi-free website or software like Buffer or HootSuite.

But, what do I mean by timing? Picture this. You’re up early, and you’re kind of groggy. So all you really need is a cup of coffee. Then wouldn’t an image of a cup of coffee catch your eye? It just might.

And maybe this is small or even too subtle. But it’s another way to use visuals. Consider what the day looks like for the people in your Twitter stream. When are your followers up? If your followers are in the Philippines and not Boston, then you will need to think of everything as 12 hours opposite from the way you see it. So don’t put up a happy wake up cup of coffee image when your Filipino followers are heading to bed or going out to parties.

Visual Elements: The Upshot

What you tweet is, naturally, important, but consider the other areas where you can enhance your message. These basic visual elements can help you to place an exclamation point at the end of your tweets.

Leave a Comment
Character Review — VelexioCharacter Review, Josie James, Greg Shapiro, Jazminder Parikh, MD, Johnny Barnes, Dalton Farouk, Peri Martin, Carmen D’Angelo, MD, Dr. Devon Grace, Tommy 2000, Lex Feldman, Velexio, Character Reviews are Coming, Ixalla, Elise Jeffries, MD, Frances Miller Ashford, Marnie Shapiro, Ceilidh O’Malley, Dr. Mei-Lin Quan, Trixie LaRue, Tathrelle, Nell Murphy, Craig Firenze, Adger, Astrid Hennigsen, Benjamin Chase, Bobby/Jerry Brodie, Cyndi Mendez, Dez Hunter, Eileen Bragin, Eleanor Braverman, Judge John Lowell, Keisha Darnell, Minka Lopez, Nell Murphy, Noah Braverman, Olga Nicolaev, Peter Ray, Rachel Gifford, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sally Bowles/TSTO Tiles, Shannon Duffy, Student #17, Tad Lewis, Ginny Carey, TSTITO, Selkhet 3000, complex evil characters, Emma 1000, They Say This is the One, Elston Young, Trinity Hawthorne, Character Creation

Character Review — Velexio

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on January 3, 2023

Consider Velexio, One of My Original Characters

Who is Velexio?

I needed a true villain character for Untrustworthy. This was a character who would have exactly zero redeemable character traits. Enter Velexio.

Where Did Velexio Come From?

I realized I needed a villain for whom the reader could never possibly have any sympathy. Adger, at least, is someone doing things for love. Or at least lust. But not this guy. Nope. Never, ever this guy.

The Past is Prologue — Backstory for Velexio

While I do not really have a back story for him, my intent for 2022 NaNoWriMo (and possibly also 2023 NaNo, if I end up with too much material and not enough November), is to create a prequel story for this universe.

As a result, a lot of his motivation and history will come out in that prequel novella. But there isn’t a lot in Untrustworthy itself.

Description

Velexio, like all Cabossians, is bipedal, but his genitals are a part of his hands. Both men and women can get pregnant, and the main idea behind this society is what it prizes. Caboss only prizes fertility. Same-sex unions give rise to sterile offspring—and that simply will not do.

But he does not have to worry about any of that. His two fertile children neatly prove his virility.

And so he has no problem looking down his barely existent nose on the sterile members of the population.

Purpose/Theme/Motivation

When we first see him, he is already in a position of power. But as the timelines shift, so do his roles. However, he is never truly out of power or out of control.

Quotes

“Now, I do not have to tell you that things are rather dire indeed,” Velexio began. “The war is going rather badly, and we are definitely losing. Gentlemen and, uh, Tathrelle, we have been approached by the Cavirii about our terms for surrender.”

“Sir?” asked Tathrelle, “have they shown their faces yet? I know the people are most anxious to see what a real Cavirii looks like. There have been so many ridiculous rumors; I am sure no one really knows what to believe any more.”

“Uh, no, they haven’t,” Velexio said. He sighed. “I would like to speak without interruption now. It’s, it’s unfortunate, you see, for our Jacarollium mining operations have risen in efficiency to 26 percent.  We’d hoped to utilize it in our weaponry, but I am afraid that might not happen. And the percentage of steriles in the population is at 58 percent. All those potential soldiers! They could use that weaponry, I am sure of it. I, it’s rather troubling, and the people will understandably be alarmed.”

The general who was seated to the left of Tathrelle said, “It might mean rioting. We cannot have that. Order must be maintained, at all costs, for the security of Caboss.”

“All too true,” agreed the general on the other side of Tathrelle, “We cannot tell the people the details.”

“But that’s my job,” Tathrelle protested. “They elected me for the singular purpose of telling them the truth about the government – about how it’s run, about how things are going and all of that. If we outright lose the war, it’s going to affect everyone. You cannot tell me not to tell them.”

The general across from her, looking very smug, said, “You heard it; there’ll be rioting if we tell the people. We’ve got to be subtle about this sort of thing. You cannot just blurt it out, as if you were a child telling a secret in a schoolyard.”

“Do not, no, do not tell them all of it,” Velexio cautioned. “In fact, let’s do this, Tathrelle. I’d like for you to tell them that the war is going well and that the Cavirii are in communications with us and that the government needs to concentrate on those communications, so details will not be forthcoming.”

Outside, the disembodied voice intoned, “All steriles are strongly encouraged to volunteer for military service. Pregnant males are identified with orange clothing as they are carrying steriles. Females who are carrying steriles are strongly encouraged to voluntarily self-identify that they are carrying steriles by also wearing orange. Parents voluntarily sending their sterile infants to military rearing and service will be fairly compensated for their sacrifices. Remember, a self-sacrificing citizenry is a happy one.”

Tathrelle looked aghast at Velexio. “Are you suggesting that I lie to the people?”

Relationships

He definitely had a wife before the start of the book, but I have nothing about her. As the Cabossian society continues to slide inexorably into fascism, it becomes harder to be single, even if you’re a widower. So, he decides to pick up women. But it doesn’t go exactly as he plans.

Tathrelle

Because he has worked with Tathrelle, he knows her fairly well and can at least determine if he thinks they are at all compatible. Due to the application of a certain drug, he has about as much of a memory of older timelines as she does. He knows what she has been, and just what she could be.

The drug and the idea of memories crossing timelines, rather neatly predicts Time Addicts.

Ixalla

He doesn’t even know Ixalla and, when he comes onto her, she has fallen on hard times. But just like Pygmalion with Galatea, all he wants is to remake her. He wants no barriers to his enjoyment. He won’t allow for any.

Conflict and Turning Point

Just like with the other characters, the turning point is the rioting. As an alien Kristallnacht erupts, continues, and eventually dies down, he changes. Beyond being a man who wants political power, he turns into a killer. And into someone who wants to control, well, everyone. If absolute power corrupts absolutely, then it’s even worse when it crosses multiple timelines.

Continuity/Easter Eggs

Like with the other characters in the book, there isn’t a lot of continuity to tie him to any of my other universes.

Future Plans

He will—like the other three main characters—be a part of the prequel story, which I am tentatively calling Unreliable. I am toying with the idea of making that one multiple-POV, much like Mettle. His point of view will likely be as ruthless as I have been writing him all along.

Velexio: Takeaways

Every story needs some sort of a villain or at least some kind of an obstacle. This character absolutely takes to the villain character arc.

As my writing has improved, I can see that he should have more depth to him. Something, anything redeemable at all about him would have made for a better character. But in all, for a story I wrote when I had a lot less experience, I think he turns out well enough.

There is nothing easy about him.

Velexio — what, you didn’t think fascists only came from Earth now, did you?

Want More of Velexio and the Rest of Untrustworthy?

If Untrustworthy resonates with you, then check out my other articles about how an alien society devolves into fascism.

Character Reviews: Untrustworthy

Untrustworthy Universe

Leave a Comment