Category Archives: Blog Post
Daily Update: Will it just rain already?
Sinus medication, nasal spray, rolls of toilet paper, boxes of tissue paper, paper towels, difficulty waking up.
Yes, these are things I’m struggling though right now. There’s a storm system trying to roll in and it’s really taking its time. With each passing day I just wish I could easily drain my head, but it’s not happening. The only thing that’s working for me is to take the serious medication which knocks me out and helps me sleep, but I have a hard time waking up. <grumble> So far I’ve gone through a roll of TP, a box of tissues, and a roll of paper towels. I’m a mess.
I have been writing, though. With My Teacher is a Zombie out there and doing well, I’ve gotten to work on the next in the series. My Teacher is a Werewolf. I sat down and banged out a good number of words last night. I had to help my favorite daughter with an essay that she mostly wrote on her own, but I was next to her for moral support. Until my meds kicked in and started nodding off.
Hopefully today will see some more words getting banged out. I’m tired and my brain isn’t firing on all cylinders. It’s part pressure from the fluid in my head and part medication for sinuses. But you can’t edit what you don’t write so no matter how awful the writing, I will continue to write through the suffering .It’s not easy and I think I’d rather be pulling my own teeth at times, but I’m getting words out. We’ll see how it goes.
Work, on the other hand, is going great. Even with limited focus I’m still getting further along with the project I’m working on. It’s nice to be ahead of schedule and be able to muddle through a day with limited success knowing that better days are ahead. I’m happy with the progress and even though I’ve a lot to do, I’m happy with what’s done already.
I wish I had more to say. I probably do but my brain won’t let me do any more. So…
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Where’s my head at?
I wish someone would answer that one for me. My brain has been all over the place. I’ve had restless nights’ sleep. I’ve woken up the past couple of nights with the blanket wrapped around my legs and pillows on the floor. Despite waking up several times my dreams have obviously been tormenting me. Oddly I can’t even recall these dreams apart from trying to escape from something or someone. I wish I knew why.
I used to be able to blame my odd dreams on eating right before bed. Or perhaps my musical selection (I like to fall asleep with headphones on).
Speaking of which, MixZing has a cool sleep timer that turns off after a set amount of time. I usually set it for 30 minutes.
I wonder if my weird dreams have to with with switching from Metallica as my bedtime music to Joe Satriani. Hmmm. I’ll have to try something else tonight and see what happens.
So my productivity has been way off these past couple of days. Putting down 1000 words has been a struggle (except for these blog posts which just seem to fall out of my head). I’m not stuck in my story. Quite the opposite. I’m having a blast getting my characters into position to be threatened with death and dismemberment. But once I put my hands on the keyboard all I can think about it anything other than the story.
So I type anyway. I usually get moving and get distracted and then have to sit down and try again. There’s been a lot going on since I got back from Up North. This weekend my favorite daughter has a volleyball tournament. I should still be able to get myself into flow and knock out a good amount of words. Tonight she doesn’t have practice, but we’ve got our tax appointment. I guess I should get my documents together.
I’ve also got a lot going on. Many projects in fact. I need to record my story for Tee and Pip. I need to record my episode for the Action Pack. I need to get recordings from Mike and Scott so I can start piecing it all together. There’s plotting on Jack Kane I need to get on. Editing of Jack Kane that’s going well, but slower than I’d like. And of course I’ve got my writing goal that I’m watching slip further and further behind each day.
I feel like I should take a day off and just pound away on the keyboard and see where I end up at the end of the day.Hmm. Maybe, maybe not.
So yeah, there’s a lot going on. I need to get my head straight. Write down a priority list, and start knocking things off that list.
On the happier side, I’ve gotten a couple of stories out there. I got a review for My Teacher is a Zombie. The person wasn’t able to download straight to the kindle so I’m not sure why they commented about that rather than ask for help. Heck, I would have emailed it to the person if they’d asked. I’ve got all my contact info there. I am happy that I’ve had several free downloads and several people have bought a copy. I set the option for ‘set your own price’ so people can pay what they like (even get it for free). It just makes me happy to see people download it.
I’ve got a few more stories in the wings. I’m waiting on either editing or covers. As soon as I get those two I’ll put those stories together and get them up on smashwords and everywhere else. It’s been fun getting them out. I was planning on one per month, but I think I’ll just get them out as I get them out and see where we sit at the end of the year.
I’ve got many words I need to write. I guess I should get back at doing that. First I need to finish out the day job, then I’ll write, do my taxes, and write some more.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Let’s get serious for a minute
There comes a time in every person’s life where they must begin to understand their limitations. A time for reflection and deeper understand of one’s self. A time when…
Wait, where was I?
Oh yeah, so I mentioned the other day I was helping my favorite daughter and her friends shoot a video. The video was for a project. I helped with the acting by dying twice, getting dipped in ketchup, and rolling in the wet grass more times than I would have liked. I was also the only one to do a ‘costume change’ because of the aforementioned ketchup dipping. Want to see what the final product looked like?
Yeah, I didn’t think so.
In happier news, Kance Encounter is available everywhere. You can name your own price over at smashwords (even if you want it for free). It’s .99 everywhere else. Same goes for My Teacher is a Zombie! That’s right, Dan Dan the Art man did an awesome cover for me and I’m all kinda excited about getting that one out there. Check either of them out, let me know what you think. Here’s the link to my author page where you can see all my smashwords titles.
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jrmurdock
You can also pick up the titles from Amazon or B&N.
If you hit the Amazon of B&N link look for me as some of the titles in the search aren’t me. It’s funny some of the titles that actually show up.
My Teacher is a Zombie is getting a lot of hits, very few sales. I’ll let you know if that picks up. I’m just excited to get that one out there. I’ll be doing more in the series so let me know what you think.
You’re still thinking about that video, aren’t you?
Work has been crazy busy. Taking lunch to type this up. Things won’t be slowing down any time soon either. Ah well.
Writing has been difficult. I’ve got a scratchy throat. Not sure where it came from but I hope it goes back there. It’s made breathing painful and swallowing unbearable. It’s an annoyance that I don’t need and it’s kept me from getting down as many words as I’d like. That combined with many personal things to deal with (shooting the video, the editing, special effects, sound, etc) and getting my favorite daughter registered early for her classes next year. There have been a lot of distractions. I’ve still managed to get a good number of words down, but far less than I’d hoped. I’m falling further and further behind on my Lent goal. I think I’m at 82% of my goal to date. I’ll have to work on getting that number back up.
Even with being down on my Lent goal, I’m still 10 days ahead of my annual goal. Perhaps I’ll get a big block of time to really knock some words out, now that I’ve got that video edited and all.
Ok, ok, you keep bringing up that video. Here it is.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: More Rain
I actually enjoy gray days and a good strong rain. Yesterday it was hail, today it’s just a steady drizzle. Last night we did have a couple blasts that work me up. My throat is killing me so I must’ve rolled onto my back and been the old man snoring. I’d say get off my lawn but there’s no one out and about (at least not walking) in this rain.
I’m not sure why, but the mood to write (fiction) hasn’t struck me. I did force myself to sit down and write and got out a good 800 words. It’s hard to write when you just aren’t feeling it and by golly last night I wasn’t feeling it. Those 800 words happened around 9:30PM and I was pretty much done by 10PM. I had intended to write much longer, but it just didn’t happen.
I did, however, go into twitter and clear out some people I was following. Most hadn’t posted in twitter for over a year (if at all) and quite a number weren’t following me back. Some were celebs who had millions of followers, but did very little posting. They just don’t get this social media thing so why follow them? It was pretty cool to look back through my list and I’m guessing it was listed in the order I began following people. I cleared out about 200 people and promptly found another 100 or so to follow. I’m nearly back up to my limit.
Going through all those followers/following in twitter reminded me that I’ve all but abandoned FaceBook. It still appears to be as busy as it ever was, just without me. I’ve missed it a little bit, but I’ve been crazy busy with writing. I haven’t even thought about FamrVille until I started writing about facebook. Kinda funny. Perhaps I’ll get back over there sooner or later.
Even though I’ve not been writing I’ve been busy with other things. I’ve gotten Kance Encounter up and available on Smashwords. Head on over there if you need a does of fantasy. I WILL be writing other stories in this same universe so be on the lookout for those.
Oh, speaking of works, Don’t Eat the Bread has a cover and will be available soon. I’m working on the edits for that and hopefully it’ll be out next week. Dan Dan the Art Man is also busy working on the cover for My Teacher is a Zombie. It’ll be fun to get that one out there as well. I have many more stories to tell and that I want to get out there. I’ve gotten some great reviews on the ones I’ve put up so far, so I don’t see myself stopping any time soon.
I’ve been having a blast using Scrivener. So much in fact that at first I was a writing fiend with it, now I’m a little distracted by it. It’s not that it’s a bad tool. Quite the opposite. I’m busy looking at all the bells and whistles and having a blast organizing all my works. Between spending a little time on learning Scrivener and a little time messing around with my word count spread sheet, I’ve gotten less writing done than I should. That all should change tonight. I just need to sit down and get cracking!
Speaking about getting cracking!
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: This weather is trying to kill me
It rained on and off all night. Not just a light little rain like we normally get. This was LOUD pounding rain. We don’t normally get that. We usually get this long drizzle that goes on for days with spurts of more intense rain. It woke me up several times. By 6am the sun had started to come out, so I woke up and read for a little while.
Then it decided to start raining again. I had to go pick up my favorite daughter from her friend’s house. As soon as I stepped outside it started to rain. <sigh>. I picked her up and got her home so she could get ready for practice. Today she had a 1 hour private lesson before the 2 hour practice. I like to stay at her practice and watch and help out where I can.
Of course as soon as we stepped outside it decided to hail, again. As soon as we got into the car, it stopped. As soon as we got to the school and out of the car, it started raining, then hailing. <sigh>
Yes, it’s been on and off all day. Lots of little hail that’s melted almost as soon as it hit the ground. It did stop for a while, but I’m sure it’ll start again. Thankfully I’ve stayed well medicated and it hasn’t attacked my sinuses to the degree it normally does.
During practice I was ‘shagging’ balls. I stood with two balls in between courts. And what happens? One of the girls from the other court nails me in the side with a ball! So of course I had to dramatically fall to the ground. There was much laughter. I sprang up, said “I’m okay, I’m okay. Who hit that ball?” Again, much laughter and I returned the balls to the bin and continued ‘shagging’
My favorite daughter just interrupted the typing of this post. There’s a place next door to the Rancho Market and Bakery that just opened. It’s called Pistachio Sweets. They’d had a sign up for the last 7 months. We were on our way to get some baklava and what do you know! After 7 months they finally opened Pistachios! WOO WOO!
It’s the same owner as the Rancho Market and Bakery so it has the same awesome baklava, but they’ve also got ice cream, and other baked goods. OMG! Fricken awesome. I couldn’t believe how good everything is. I would have bought a lot more, but hey, I’ll be going back that’s for sure.
Ok, where was I?
Kance Encounter. Remember when I started talking about this title? Well, I finally got it up and online. It’s over at smashwords. Head on over and grab yourself a copy. Dan Dan the Art Man did the great cover for the story. I’ll be doing more in the same universe this year. I had intended to do one per month this year, but I’ve gotten a little sidetracked with other projects. I’m still going to put out more stories in this universe and I’m also going to work on the re-writes for Of Gnomes and Dwarves. More will be coming. Just you wait and see.
Speaking of getting more out, I’d better get on that. I’m behind on my Lent goal and I have a lot of words to write.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: When it rains it pours
It’s a little damp in San Diego today. It rained while I was in San Fracisco, now it’s raining at home. Oddly it rained up North it hit me and hit me HARD. Back home I took the good medicine last night. Sorta wiped me out, made me a little groggy. My head wasn’t in the game. That happens. I’ll get over it.
Unfortunately it’s affected my word count a little bit. I’m falling behind on my Lent goal. Ah well. I will do what I can to catch up. I’m still 11 days ahead of my annual goal so I’m not overly concerned. I’m pounding out words and I will keep at it on a daily basis.
I got approval for my final script for my MoPO story. The next keyword from the Tee and Pip podcast was “Jungles of China”. Oh yeah, I’m a tease. Final approval means I get to record. Being that it’s raining (not just a little rain but HARD rain) means I won’t get that done today. I’d love to record, but the rain would provide way too much background noise. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
I also need to record another Unorthodox Writing Tips for Mike Plested’s Get Published. We talked during the week and there is no hurry for it, but he’d like to have one handy just in case. I’ll keep writing them. Oh yes I will. Someone is getting benefit from them I’m sure. It’d be nice to hear from anyone, but I’ll keep writing them all the same.
My favorite daughter had a volleyball clinic today. This one was with the varisy coach from her school. Many girls showed up to this one unlike the last clinic. They walk through some very basic things which is good for the girls in my daughter’s group who’ve been playing for a while, but haven’t had those simple things explained.
Speaking of my favorite daughter, she convined a couple others in her class to read Astel. Maybe you heard about this book? I self-pubed it last year. It’s still out there and I sell a copy or twoa month. Not a lot, but hey, I’m happy.
Anyway, they had to do a project around the book and they decided to shoot a video. Today. In the rain. <sigh> So at two different points I had ketchup on me (simulated blood) and I got hit by lightning (I’ll have to edit that in) and fell onto the wet ground. So I smelled like a wet dog dipped in ketchup for a short time, but the video came out pretty good. I’ll post it to youtube at some point as they need it online to be able to show the class. We did each scene multiple times and there are some effects I’ll need to figure out how to add. If you’re a wiz with video editing and have a little time and would like to help, I’d love to hear from you 🙂
I may do a segment soon where I review not books, but authors. I’ve had contact with many authors over the years and it’d be nice to put something like that out. Not just reviewing their works, but my overall impression of the person. I started a list and I’m not sure how long it would run, but it could be a fun thing to start. I just don’t want it to come off as me blowing smoke up people’s arses. I’ll have to let that idea stew for a while and see where it goes.
I’m about to head back into the rain. Wish me luck! It’s supposed to keep going into tomorrow and possibly Monday. We needed the rain so I don’t mind. I just don’t like going out into it. Ah well.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Sharing is Caring
You listen to the Shared Desk, don’t you? If you don’t, you should. If you do great, skip the next paragraph, collect $200, and take a ride on the Reading Railroad.
So there are these two authors I know; Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine. A great couple of authors that have done great things on their own but put to the two together and you get two great things that are even better together. They’ve got this series of books out. Maybe you’ve heard of them. They’re the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. On their podcast they talk about this as well as everything else they’re up to and even a little bit about the world of writing.
Tee and Pip have another novel coming out in the MoPO universe. It’s called the Janus Affair. I have not read it yet, but you can’t be darned sure that I will. During the first novel they did a series of 99 cent Penny Dreadfuls. They were also called Tales from the Archives. Stories by different authors that tied back into the MoPO universe. They were all great fun.
Well, I’ve been holding back for a while, but some time ago I had inquired what their plans were for the second book. Were they doing a second set of Tales from the Archives? Had they sent out requests for authors? Could someone volunteer to take on an assignment? I asked a LOT of questions. I’m like that. I get overly anxious, a little excited, and somewhat starstruck when talking to world famous authors. Even though I’ve known that since before they were world famous 🙂
I sent off a writing sample and did the normal wait game. I’m getting used to this wait game when it comes to writing. No, really. The part I’m having trouble with is when you get the nod of approval then don’t want to go out ranting like a madman when you hear “Hey, let’s run with this one.”
Now, like most authors I suffer from insecurity. I also seek approval of my ideas. I like to think I keep things in check for the most part, but it’s difficult when you’re waiting. So when Tee gave me word that I was going to be included with the next round of Tales from the Archives, I leaped for my keyboard. I bashed out three different ideas and sent them off. And waited.
Yeah, writing involves a lot of waiting. I had an idea which he might go for and started my research in that direction and had a plot already formed in my head. As soon as Tee showed the slightest interest in the one I thought he might, I fired off a plot, characters, questions, and the like.
Then I waited again. Tee, now looking for a job, was slow to get back and I fully understand that. Me, being the eager beaver that I was, got to writing. I knew I could do re-writes if needed. I was excited, I was pumped, I wrote like the wind. I had the first draft done in three days, and was going through edits when Tee came back with answers to all my questions. I’d almost forgotten about my plot and questions. I was just excited to be writing a really cool story.
As stories are wont to do, mine changed course in mid-writing. I felt the initial idea had some weak points and I wanted something a little stronger. By the time I was going through the second draft, I read Tee’s answers. My response to him was “I must be a mind reader” as I had gone in the direction he’d indicated and later that day uploaded the first iteration.
I’ve been writing for quite some time. I’ve heard a lot of stories about how edits go back and forth. I wasn’t surprised at all when Tee sent me the message “Don’t be worried about all the edits, I’m digging the story.” Honestly, he changed far less than I expected and the story is stronger for the edits. There were a lot of little additions that made the story better, and some modifications needed so the story stood out from the other tales.
My re-writes are back and I’m just waiting for final approval before I begin with the task of recording. All I can say is WOO WOO!
I mean, it’s very cool to be included in the group and I’ve seen the names of the other authors. You’re going to want to follow along with this batch of tales. I highly recommend getting the other penny dreadfuls as I’ve read them all. They’re all separate or you can buy the bundles. Don’t forget to pick up Phoenix Rising if you haven’t already. I LOVED the book. But please don’t take my word for it.
When I attended World Fantasy Con 2011, I listened in on the panel for Steampunk by the founders of Steampunk. When the panel was asked “Who do you see as up and coming in the genre of steampunk” K.W. Jeter (the man who coined the term ‘Steampunk’) said instantly “Tee Morris and Pip Ballentine.” You can check out the video of this panel online. It’s worthy of your attention.
As soon as the story is available you can be sure I’ll be shouting out as loudly as I can about it. No, really. 🙂 If you listen to the Shared Desk they only hint you get about my story is the word “Terracotta”. Oh, you’ll have to wait. Yes you will. I need to get back to what I do best! So…
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: I’m home again
Let me start out with a surprise I got today. My story, Don’t Use the Phone, got reviewed over at The Digital Inkspot. I was greatly surprised and delighted by the review. I saw another review for the same story that I somehow missed and was also happy with that review as well. It’s a great story (in my own opinion) and it’s still free. So go on over and grab yourself a copy!
So I was away for a few days. I did a LOT while up in the bay area. So much in fact that I’m surprised that I got any blog posts done. It was up early, to bed late. The last day it was in the second day of rain up there. My sinus gave me a reprieve the first day of rain. Perhaps it was all the Chinese and Indian and Sri Lankan food I ate while up there. But Wednesday did not agree with me at all. I was a slobbery mess and felt sorry for the kid sitting next to me on the plane ride home. I kept asking for more napkins from the stewardess and putting the used ones in my pocket. It wasn’t a happy trip home.
On the plus side, despite my head feeling like it was being crushed underwater, I wrote. I decided that I needed to heed my own advice and stuff head be damned I was going to write. I wrote in the airport… hold on, I’m missing a little point here.
I had left for the airport with ample time. Silly me, I said I’d fill up the rental car before I dropped it off. Silly mistake. There is apparently a law that forbids a gas station from being with 20 miles of the airport. Therefore I got to the airport, spotted where I needed to drop the car off, then remembered I needed to fill it up. I drove, and drove, and drove and even told my GPS navigator to find me a gas station. It did. I went there. Gas Station #1 didn’t take credit cards. Well, this was a company business trip, I needed to put the gas on the card, right? Gas station #2 also did not take credit cards. CONSPIRACY! Gas Station #3 did take credit cards. I locked up the pump and the guy said “Make sure you use the right zip code” I had, I tried again, locked up the pump again. He was busy under the hood of a car and said to try another pump. I did, it locked up also. I went to a third pump with my personal card, it locked up. I went to a fourth and tried it as debit. Locked that pump up. Other people started to arrive at the gas station so I left not wanted to feel the wrath of the man when he realized I’d locked up four of his gas pumps during the soon to be rush hour.
I went back to station #1, used my ATM to fill up the tank, and went to drop off the rental car. I dropped off the car and God decided I wasn’t damp enough and opened the sky a little bit more. Of course I didn’t see anyone so I flagged down a kid in a rain suit and he told me to quit standing in the rain and just leave the keys in the car. I did and made a bee line for the bus to the airport. God must’ve felt bad for the bus waited for me.
Getting back to the airport I took off my shoes and socks and put on filp flops. SO much easier to go through security. I stood that looking at my wet shoes and my carry on. I looked at the wet shoes again, gave them a shake and stuffed them in. I got my boarding pass, still tried to figure out why the crosswalk was outside saying “Walk, gotta get on” and decided that it was just some weird local custom I’ll never understand. People in line were friendly as were the TSA folk. My stuff made it through unscathed.
I sat in the airport and wrote. I wasn’t in the fiction writing mood, but I did write something that I will post here in the future. I wrote a lot (nearly 2000 words) before I got on and on the plane. My sinuses nearly shut me down, but we still went to the in-laws house and said hello and talked for a while before my father-in-law said I looked like I was going to fall out of my chair, which I nearly did, and we called it a day and went home. I took my hard core medicine and dumped my suitcase on the floor and at 7:30PM went to bed.
I woke up at 5AM, read for a little bit, went back to sleep, and woke up again at 6AM. I decided that was enough sleep and got up.
I like the Bay Area even if it did try to kill me, but hey, San Diego has tried to kill me before. I don’t hold it against them. I’m just happy to be home. Rain is scheduled for this weekend. I hope it doesn’t run me down too badly.
For those keeping score, I missed my 2000 word daily goal two of the three days I was away from home. That puts me a little behind, but as I keep saying, I can get caught up. Just you wait and see! Just you wait.
Daily Update: Going Home Today
One thing I have always known about myself. I’m a homebody. I like being in my house. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I love to travel, but I’m very content to be home. I miss my things, my daily regimen, being with my family. I miss my favorite daughter and I really miss the wife. It’ll be good to fly home later today.
Being away I did not get nearly as much writing done as I thought I might. I did have a great time being out and about though. Last night Mike took me to a Sri Lankan restaurant. I have Black Pork Curry. I’d never had anything with curry in the name so I figured, why not.
According to Mike it wasn’t much of a curry as curry is more of a stew. Even his chicken curry was more chicken and rice than curry. So I guess I’ll have to be trying it again at some point.
Oh, the food! Wow! Good stuff. It had a different kind of spice than what I’m used to. It wasn’t overly hot. It reminded me a lot of mole (moh-lay) sauce which is a spicy chocolate chicken dish. Not at all what I expected to have, but I enjoyed it all the same.
After dinner we went to a theater to watch John Carter. Upon arrival the kid tried to sell us tickets to the IMAX 3D version of the movie. The next 2D version didn’t start until 9:30PM which would have been too late as both of us needed to get up and be at training in the morning.
*note: I can’t see 3D effects in movies. Every time I’ve gone to see one people will jump, duck, bob and weave. Me, I’ll sit there trying to figure out what’s going on and wonder why the picture looks so grainy and awful. This has ruined more than one movie for me. Most notably Avatar. Had I seen the effects I might not have been so hard on the movies awful plot. Yes, I’m sorry, Avatar’s plot was really dumb and you won’t convince me otherwise.
So standing there looking at the kid, he did try to recommend other movies. I had my heart set on John Carter. I wanted something with good visuals, something of a plot or at least a story. On their list Mike spotted Chronicle. I saw the commercials. I did want to see this movie, so off we went.
Being the only two in the theater felt weird. It’s been a long time since I’ve gone to a theater to see something that wasn’t the main feature. I think in total six people showed up for the movie.
I really liked this movie. The only issue I had with it was the premise that it was a ‘chronicle’ shown through one of the main character’s camera(s). The first one got lost which doesn’t explain how the film was recovered. They also didn’t explain how the kids got their powers. Also toward the end of the movie with more action happening There were a lot of camera angles impossible with some of the alleged cameras filming the action.
Even though I had a small issue with that, it didn’t detract from the story. A kid abused all his life gets power that can change his situation and he does so, in the worst possible way. If you were on the fence about seeing this movie, go (or wait for the video rental). There were no BIG theatrical effects that require you to see this one in the theater. It’s got great characterization and a plot that paces well given the storytelling method.
Today I have a half-day of training, then it’ll be pizza, and a drive back to the airport. I should be able to get some writing in while I wait for my plane and on the flight back home. Like I said at the start, I can’t wait to be back home with the wife and my favorite daughter.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Two Days in One.
Yesterday. Holy cow.
So I had this training session yesterday. It’s for work. It’s dry material. The instructor knows it’s dry material. He does his best to keep in interesting. It’s still dry material, but we need to go through the lessons.
I met my friend Mike.The one who’s done all that music work and cover work for me in the past. You know, for V & A shipping, Billy Barbarian, Murdockian Tales. Yeah, that guy.
He’s a local to this area and we headed over the Bay Bridge. Saw Alatraz and the Golden Gate. Saw, as in, “Hey, see that over there.” We didn’t atually visit. What we did visit is China Town. That was so muh fun. A very touristy place and there were no tourists. Being a Monday night there was no one out and about. Oh, sure, there were a couple of people. It was nothing like what I expected. I had expeccted wall to wall people.
Being a local, Mike pointed out shops to buy touristsy things. I bought touristy things for the Wife, Mi Suerga, and My Favorite Daughter. I think they’ll like what I got and it was all so inexpensive. That caught my by surprise.
It was neat to see some things and I’ll mention that more in a later post and why it was so cool to see them.
Again, the local Mike piked out a place for us to eat. He’d been there before. A young boy followed us to our table. Sat at our table. Climbed up on our table. Giggled, laughed, had a great time. High-fived me. I took a picture with him. I took a picture of the menu on the white board writting in Chinese. I ate something with pork and noodles. A little sweet with a great spiy after taste. It was some good stuff.
Afterward I called up J.D. Sawyer. Mike and I drove over to hang with him. We had a beer, a great cigar, and a lot of conversation. Being both authors we discussed authorly topics. Suh as:
Works in progress
Works in print
upcoming works
legal rights
story concepts
story finances
how little writers make
We also talked about many other author friends and shared a lot about those authors. We talked about (in no certain order)
Scott Sigler
J. C. Huthins
Mur Lauferty
Gail Carriger
Scott Roche
Jake Bible
Paul E. Cooley
Mike Stackpole
Terry Bisson
Mike Plested
Lorna Suzuki
We talked about publishers
Dragon Moon Press
Hades Publiations (Edge)
Flying Island Press
Kindle / Amazon
Smashwords vs Paypal
It was hard, but I did allow Mike to talk as well. He and J.D. share a common interest in photography so they also did a lot of talk about photography. Before we knew it, it was late, the cigars were long cold, and the wind had picked up significantly. Mike and I called it a night.
Perhaps it wasn’t just two days in one, it was three. I did so muh that I woke up this morning and started packing for home. I sent a great deal of pictures home for the wife and my favorite daughter. I miss them. Even keeping myself busy didn’t keep my mind off of things. Even though I’m having a great time up here, I do miss them. It’ll be nice to go home and sleep in my own bed.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
J.R. Murdock 