Category Archives: Blog Post
Daily Update: Out of Town
Yesterday was an adventure that started very late in the day. I had spent the day with the wife and my favorite daughter. Then I had to pack up and fly up to Oakland and drive to San Ramon.
I got to the airport early thinking I’d be able to get a better seat if I did. Oddly enough I was one of the last people to board the plane. I’ll have to figure out how to get a better seat on the return trip. I did, however, manage to write around 900 words while waiting for the plane.
It’s nice to see that the airlines don’t have weight restrictions for their stewerdesses anymore. Ours weren’t deathly thin and did their jobs well. One even helped rearrange luggage so I could stow mine as many people had taken up far more space than they needed to.
As soon as the green light was given to turn on electronics I fired up the laptop and went back to writing. I wrote another 800 words on the plane and even got in some editing. I declined a beverage, but took the offered pretzles. In hind sight this was a mistake.
Once I had consumed the pretzles I moved the trash as best I could from one hand to the next. In doing so dumped the remaining salt onto the netbook’s keyboard. <sigh> I dumped, I blew. I pressed the keys really hard. Still a couple of keys stuck a little as I typed.
You’d be amazed how often you use the keys that are unavailable. I didn’t think it was going to be much of an issue until I started hitting the C key for all I was worth until I heard a crunch of the salt bursting into tiny bits.
I also got a good 20 minutes of editing in on Jak Kane. I hope to do more writing and editing tonight. I’m in a great groove right now and I don’t want to slow down at all. Yesterday was a 2800 word day and I feel great about that.
After landing in Oakland it was the usual wait for everyone else to get off the plane before I could disembark. Getting my bag out was a lot easier than putting it in.
The crosswalks in the Oakland Airport talk to you. They say “Walk, gotta get on” I had to listen several times, but this is what it sounded like they said.
My rental car, the ecomony model, is from Washington. At least I feel like I traveled furthen than I did. It’s automatice and very no frills.
My navigator guided me down a long winding road in the dark, and thankfully not in the rain. I had gotten off the freeway almost as soon as I had gotten on and thought the Solar Flare was still playing its games with me, but no. I made it to the hotel. Apparently I had gotten the more direct route vs the freeway route. I’m sure in the day time it’s quite senic.
Today I’ll be in training all day. In fact I should get going. Don’t want to be late.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Yesterday was a LONG day.
Yesterday started at 5am. We got up, got ready, and were out the door around 6am. Then we picked up one of my favorite daughter’s friends and our good friend Martha and headed for Rancho Bernardo. A 40 minute drive later and we were at the volleyball center.
As we drove up there some odd things happened with the navigator on my phone. First it took a while to connect. That was just annoying, but it did finally connect when we were about 10 minutes out. Then it showed me being on the wrong side of the road going in the right direction. Then off in a ditch. Then in a field. Then about a quarter mile away. The driving the wrong direction. Then I lost the GPS signal. The only plus was the map kept showing me where I truly was.
Oh yeah, Solar Flare. I laughed. Thankfully it talked me in once I got off the freeway.
They were the second seed in their pool. That meant Ref, play, off, play, ref, play. We were going to be there for all the games.That was fine.
We watched the 1 and 3 seeds play. It went to three games and the #1 seed won the third game. Barely. Very tight match.
The girls played the #4 seed. It went to three and the girls barely won the third game. Very tight match.
#1 played #4. It went to three games and the #1 seed won the third game. Barely. Very tight match.
We played the #2 seed. It went to three and the girls barely won the third game. Very tight match.
Are you seeing where this is going? All the teams were great and every match went to three games. Each game was high scoring. I think the biggest score gap for our girls was a 25 – 20 game.
By the time it got to the final two games, everyone else had left. It was only our group still playing. The refs split us up onto two courts. Normally one of the teams not playing will ref a game, keep score, things like that. Well, splitting them up meant parents got to volunteer. I got to flip the score and cheer from the floor. More than once I almost got trampled as we played the #1 seed. Because parents were doing things there were some delays.
The #2 vs #3 went two games. I’m not even sure who won. I was watching an epic battle between our girls and the #1 seed.
First game went 25 – 22, we lost. It was tough. The girls played at a level I’ve known they were capable of playing at. So many volleys went on and on and on that when the ball finally feel there was a collective gasp from all parents. Each point was a battle. There were so few mistakes made that losing the first game was draining.
The second game went very much the same except the girls pulled out a win. Again more epic battles, so great spikes, digs, blocks. It was a joy to watch.
I’m not sure what happened on the third match. I think the girls just plain ran out of gas. They’d been playing all day, it was hot, but they still battled it out. At one point the score was 7 – 1. The girls rallied back and soon the score was 10-7. Again each point went on and on. The other two teams had left. You could hear every squeak of shoe, grunt as they jumped or hit a ball, stomping of feet as they ran across the court. In the end, the score was 15 – 10. The girls had lost, but put up a battle to be proud of.
How did my kid do? She played every game. At one point as I sat keeping score she pointed to her her and I could see tears in her eyes. I motioned to the coach and he looked at her and pulled her out. The girl that went in didn’t know the position well and got a little confused, but still played well. After 5 or 6 plays, some water, a little aspirin, my trooper tapped the coach and went back in. It’s one of those moments that brings a tear to your eye. I remember the coach talking to Kasie before the match and I didn’t know what was going on, but apparently she was crying before the match. The coach thought she was upset, but she was really in pain.
This is why I call my kid my favorite daughter. She can be a real trooper. It was tough to see them lose, but it wasn’t due to lack of effort. Over the entire day there were a couple of mistakes, but they’ve really stepped up. Watching my kid block, stuff, RUN! hustle, and make plays was just amazing. I can’t say it enough. I’m proud of her. She even kept playing after taking a ball to the face! I wish I had gotten a picture of that.
As a team, they’re coming together a a unit. I’ve been to nearly all of their practices. I’ve been to all the games. I’ve seen their evolution. Wow. That’s all I can say. Wow.
I did manage a post early in the morning while we waited for the games to start. I accidentally posted it on the Action Pack blog. Whoops. I then deleted it. Thought, oh dang! Managed to get onto the web based version, recover it, copy it, and post it over here. Whew. That was all the writing I got in.
After the games we went back to my best friend’s house to drop off his wife and kid. We stayed there for a bit and finally packed up and went to eat lunch/dinner at T.G.I. Fridays. After a filling meal we went back to his house. We all sat around talking, the girls came and went, came and went. Finally Curt and I decided to watch a movie. Hugo was supposed to be great so we started watching it.
I will say this, the start I LOVED. The mystery, the build up, the automaton. The emotion.
Everyone else nodded off at some point because it had been such a LONG day. I did not. I loved the movie, but was sad to see them include so much about the filmmaker. It was like watching a documentary, not a movie. Yes, and interesting documentary, but it went from movie to documentary and stayed there. Lost were the steampunk elements, in was the reality of the man’s life. Incredible reproductions of the sets, yes, but I wanted more story and less history.
I see why the movie won so many film awards. It was a documentary, disguised as a movie, about film and a famous filmmaker. To be honest, even though I enjoyed the movie, I felt slighted. I felt duped into seeing one thing, and getting another. I would still rate the movie high and a must-see movie, but I would warn viewers before going in what exactly they are getting so they don’t feel tricked by the switch-a-roo in the middle of the movie. #justsaying.
We got home it was about 9:45pm and felt like it was midnight. I watched to write. I tried to write. I nodded off at the keyboard and that was that. Today will be a little different. There will be a little house cleaning, I’ve written my post. Then I’ll pack and be on my way to the airport. Knowing I’ll be doing much waiting I’ll have my netbook with me and knock out as many words as I can. I’ll ignore the person or persons I sit next to and write as much as I can. I should be able to get caught up today if I write as much as I’m able. I’m only a couple thousand words behind. I will let you know tomorrow.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Happy Birthday Dad
Today is March 10th. My dad would have been 69 today. We lost him a couple of years ago to cancer. He put up a brave fight but in the end it got him.
My dad was always filled with a smile even up to the end. I spent much of the last month of his life working from his home and helping to take care of him. It wasn’t easy to watch him waste away. He would get up and greet me with a smile and I would help him to a chair where he’d promptly fall back asleep after his medication. He would always wake up with a smile and we’d talk as long as he was able and then he’d fall back asleep. This cycle was hard to handle for both of us.
It’s hard to say what I miss most about my dad. My parents had divorced when I was very young and my relationship with him didn’t begin until I was in ky teens. Even then I was more into my life and thinking about my freedoms instead of spending time with dad.
Once I graduated from high school all I wanted to do was be out of the house and on my own. I did that. I would call monthly, but I was never close as I could have been. I don’t think it was until I got married and had my favorite daughter that I really appreciated my dad.
One of the thing I miss most about my dad is his storytelling. Funny how it wasn’t until I was older that I figured out he was either telling me an urban legend putting himself in the story or he was just exaggerating the truth. He love to do that. He also loved telling shaggy dog stories. Those really long jokes that lead up to a really bad pun.
Beyond the jokes and exaggerations he always had stories about people he’d met or done business with. He had started the same business three times in his life and made it successful each time. The first iteration had him traveling the world making contacts in the business. This gave him a comfortable and confident presence whenever he came into a room filled with people.
I try to emulate that confidence when I’m faced with crowds or big groups. I don’t try to be the center of attention, but instead try to insert myself into a situation that helps me be memorable without going overboard. I don’t always succeed but hey, I try 🙂
I will post more on my dad in the future.
As for writing: I managed to get 4000 words out yesterday. Not just 4000 words but a good 4000 words. I hit a flow yesterday and I wasn’t going to stop until I had to. To Fall From The Sky is really shaping up and I love the direction.
I am now 10 days ahead of my annual goal and it seems that the more often I write the more and faster I write. Gee. Imagine that. LoL.
I have been using and am still getting used to scrivener. I think now that I’m understanding it a little better I’m liking it more and more. There are a few things I’ve found that will take getting used to and I’m sure I can adapt.
Today my favorite daughter has a volleyball tournament. They are starting soon so I’d better go.
Until Tomorrow!
Woo Woo!
Daily Update: Still Tired
I managed to hit my goal again. I’m still sluggish after Tuesday. I’ll get over it. At least I’m hitting my writing goal each day. I like that. To Fall From the Sky is coming along nicely. It’s moving in a different direction, but I was prepared for this. It’s not slowing me down at all and I like this new direction. It adds some threat that was missing if the enemy stayed put. Having him on the move is a big help and by doing so it may open up the novel to a sequel should the ending call for one. It could remain a concluded story, but leave a little question in the readers mind of “what happens next?”
I’m quickly approaching the 100,000 word mark on the year. I didn’t think I’d be here so quickly. I’m excited. I didn’t plan any celebrations for hitting that first marker, but we’ll see what happens from here. Maybe I should reward myself with a trip to Fry’s just to look around and spot something I’d like when I do finally hit my goal.
I’ll do an Unorthodox Writing Tip on rewards. I think it’s good to set a goal and a reward for when you hit that goal. Otherwise what’s the point of having the goal in the first place? Let me write that down, I’ll be right back.
Okay, did you miss me? Yeah, I didn’t either.
My favorite daughter had a great practice last night as did the entire team. They were mostly positive, having fun, and playing well. I’m hopeful for this weekend. Two pluses, they’re positive, and the game is close. So half the team won’t be getting up at 4am to make the game.
I haven’t posted about it in some time, but Sputtery Truck is running great. Beyond that the check engine light went off. I’ll need to see if it just burnt out or if the error code actually cleared. It’s been running smooth since the new engine was dropped in. March is marching on and soon it’ll start getting hot. I need to get the AC recharged so I won’t have to drive everywhere with the windows rolled down. The Wife and my favorite daughter can’t have their hair mussed up. 🙂 I kid, I kid.
I also haven’t posted about MixZing. I’m still using it on my tablet. I still use WinAmp on my phone. I use the tablet when at home and the phone when I’m driving. I’m mostly happy with MixZing. There are in app ads, but they’re short and I can get past them quickly enough to do what I want to do. I like the playlist feature, but it adds songs onto the playlist once you complete the songs you’ve added. Not sure if I like that or not. I’d almost rather have it either stop or go back to all songs ans shuffle. I’ll have to look and see if there is an option for that.
Next week I’m up North for some training. Work related stuff. I’m already planning in my head what I’ll do about my writing time. I will write while away. I will blog while away. I will NOT miss a day. I should probably plan on what I’m going to pack. Hmm…
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Hey Howdy Hey
First on my head, I’ve got a new story that has gone back and forth and it’s looking good. I’m really happy with the way the story has turned out. It’s a great blend. I can’t wait to announce this one. I’m bouncing up and down inside. I’m chomping at the bit. I’m an eager beaver. I’ll have to relax, but hey, there’s always time for relaxing later.
I was beat last night. I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before. You read about the poker game, right? Yeah. Kept me up past my bedtime. BUT I still had to get my words done for the day. I’m proud to say that I did. I’m going to try and average 2000 words a day for lent and I’m 3000 behind that goal. I’ve hit 2000 a day most of the time and went over a couple, but those days I fell short are hurting. I’ve still got time to catch up. I can do this! right?
Of course I can!
Why can I do this? Cuz I’m tracking what I’m doing. I get antsy now when I don’t write daily or I miss my goal by a large margin. I don’t worry when I miss. I don’t get stressed, I just know that I’ve got a little extra to do.
Besides that, I’ve got a buffer on my annual goal right now. Now just a little buffer, but an 8 day buffer and it’s growing each time I hit that 2000 word goal. Knowing I have buffer has eased my mind greatly.
To Fall From the Sky is really taking shape. I’ve changed the ending in my mind more than once and an event just happened in the story that has me thinking I’ve come up with a far better ending. I need to rip the reader’s heart out, then hand it back to them. It’ll be awesome and I think I can pull this one off.
Work is work. I’m making progress on my project. Thank you for asking. It’s another big project, but progress is going well thanks to some great documentation and mock-ups. Gee, I wonder who made those? Hmmm…
I missed my favorite daughter’s volleyball practice Tuesday night. I’ll miss it again tonight due to a release. She’s got a tournament this weekend and Sunday I fly out for a training I have for work. Going to be a busy couple of days, but it’ll be fun all the same.
Speaking of work
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: I got to play poker last night
Last night was another fun night. I don’t normally do things without the wife and my favorite daughter so doing something two nights in a row (Tobias Buckell’s book signing the previous evening) is quite odd for me.
It was a charity poker tournament held at the Viejas Casino. The buy in is a tax deduction and goes to some much needed causes. There are still prizes, but it’s not about the prize, it’s about having a good time and playing poker.
I’m not sure how many we started with, but once again it was over the 200 person limit as my friend Curt (late as usual) would up in the overflow room (as usual). Our friend, Todd, invited us the first time four years ago and last night was the 6th annual. Each year it’s a lot of fun to play poker with a lot of really bad poker players (I’ll get to that in a little bit).
We started out the evening smack talking. Well, ok, Todd, a couple of his friends, and I started out the evening smack talking. Curt showed up late and got stuck in the registration line. While some of us ate dinner waiting for the event to start, Curt hit the slots and won back his entry fee before the event even started. The man is the luckiest person I know with his luck level reaching that of Gladstone Gander proportions. No, seriously.
After dinner and much smack talk and a “last longer” bet made, we all headed into the Dreamcatcher Lounge. Filled with laughs, loud conversation, unusually quiet background music (class rock) and the sound of chips being placed into neat little stacks.
I found my table and because we were all in line together and they forgot to shuffle the seat cards, four of us wound up on the same table. There was much smack talking to be had. We also had a gentleman named Frank at our table. A very loud, boisterous person with a bounty on his head. Each “Posse” member (two at each table) had a $25 bounty on their head. My friend Todd, who won last year’s tournament, had a $75 bounty on his head.
I found myself in a hand early with 5-6 of diamonds. Not a great hand, but hey. Two diamonds and a 6 hit the flop. Smack talking with one of Todd’s friends ensued. The turn brought a 5. I now had 2 pair and a flu draw. Nice hand. The river brought another 5. I had a full house. Much smack talking continued, but little betting. Lucky for me as Todd’s friend had pocket 6s. His 6s over 5s beat my 5s over 6s.
Here’s where things got a little weird at our table. I knew our dealer wasn’t shuffling well. I kept getting the same junk hands, but she also raised the blind levels on us by her watch and when the MC announced the blind levels were increasing. So in less than an hour we were at 400/800blinds which is pretty high.
Right before our table broke the table folded to me in the small blind. I looked down at Q-2 spades and decided I’ll pick up the Big Blind (800) and was quite surprised when she called me. She had A-3. I managed to pick up a couple of twos and made three of a kind to double up before our table broke.
Going to my new table the blinds were 200/400. Color me confused. One of my other table mates said when he got to his table it was 100/200 which is where they should have been at. I know this was a charity event, but I felt a little slighted on the time I should have been playing and I had lost a good amount of chips because of the high blinds. But hey, it’s charity and I had a good time. If it had been a real event, I’d have been upset.
I noticed that shortly after our table breaking and getting our new seat assignments, one of Todd’s friends had busted. Talking with him later, he took a bad beat getting Aces cracked.
My new table was a little quieter and after a few hands of mostly folding, I figured pretty conservative. Before the break I was on the button and decided, with K-Q, that I’d steal the blinds. The table had folded to me and I shoved as soon as the action got to me. The small blind looked down and called. The big blinds I’m not even sure if he looked, but called right away.
Now my bet wasn’t small. It was 3200 to call into a fairly small pot. Based on earlier play I had expected them to just fold so getting two callers was surprising.
Back to the action. The flop came A 8 8. I missed and I figured one of them had an Ace, the other maybe a pair. The small blinds shoves all in and the big blind instantly calls. Wow. One of them must have an 8 and the other an Ace, maybe?
Remember, this is a charity tournament. People don’t play poker like regular people. They don’t have to have a hand to play or even good cards. They’ll play everything and just hope for the best.
The cards all turned up. My K-Q I thought was dead. The small blind had K-9. Wait, what? Did I see that right? Sure enough. K-9 called my all in and shoved all in on a missed flop into a ‘dry’ side pot. The big blind turned over Q-J. I stood up, blinked a few times, and said out loud “really?” I mean, I was in good shape. Not just good shape, but I was looking to triple up. I was going to be in good shape. All I’d have to do was avoid a J or a 9 to lose and avoid a K to split the pot. The turn was a 3. Good for me as my two high cards still played. Then I let out a groan as a J hit the river. I shook my head and threw up my hands. I congratulated the person on his amazing call. He said something to the effect of “I don’t even know what I’m doing. I just keep winning.” I wished him luck and went to share my bad beat story.
Nearly all of us lost to a bad beat. Todd knocked out one of his friends. Todd with KK, his friend with AK. All the chips were going in the pot on that one, but mostly it was more experienced players taking bad beats from players who either really didn’t care and were just shoving chips around having a good time or taking bad beats to people who had either no idea how to play or knew enough and were just getting lucky.
There were drawings, there was food (I’d eaten already though), and then there were slots. Todd had to get up early for a flight so he left shortly after he busted. Curt and I stayed and watched it get to the final table and for the final drawing. The person who lost “on the bubble” (one before payouts) won the last raffle drawing of the night.
Curt, you remember I was talking about how lucky he is?, decided we should play some slots (or maybe it was my idea, I forget) and we sat, played, talked. I watched my money disappear into the machine and much spinning of fake reels and down down while I watched him hit bonus, bonus, bonus, cash out, bonus, bonus. I grumbled a lot. I did move to a different machine that ‘felt lucky’ and won back some of what I’d lost.
Some of the people started getting weird in the casino. For example I stood next to Curt while he was hitting a bonus on a machine (again) and some older lady walking by leaned in close to me nearly putting her head on my chest and sighed LOUDLY! Curt turned around and as “what was that?” I pointed to the lady. She sat at another machine and started at us for a bit.
Another girl sat down at a machine and gave Curt some advice on the bonus game. It was difficult to tell if she was just giving information, trying to flirt, or trying to pick up a ‘date’. After that bonus round it was time to head on home. By head home I mean into the parking lot to our cars and talk for another half hour before getting sprinkled on and finally heading back home.
I got in somewhere around 1:45am. Changed, kissed my favorite daughter on the forehead, kissed my sleeping wife, and went to bed. I smelled like my mom’s bar (smoking is allowed at Viejas) and woke up to that smell. Despite gum after my dinner (I was so tired I didn’t brush before bed) my mouth tasted like my clothes smelled. I’m sure I snored quite well last night also and I had some strange chase dreams I can’t really remember this morning other than when I woke up, I was AWAKE! Perhaps it was from all the oxygen they pump into the casino. Who knows.
Todd, Curt and I will be making plans to go play in a regular tournament. One with a more even playing fields, less wild players, and a better blind structure. I’ll post when that happens.
I didn’t hit my writing goal yesterday, but I’ll pick up the slack today. Just you wait and see.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: I Met an Author
Yesterday was a fun day. I got to head over to the Mysterious Galaxy bookstore and buy a new book. What book? So glad you asked.
I picked up Arctic Rising by Tobias Buckell.
I don’t frequent book stores as much as I would like. I was never really a fan of the big chains for a couple of reasons. Mainly they sold a lot of books I wasn’t interested in and when I had a question or would look for a suggestion the staff had other interests in books I wanted to purchase. They also sold coffee and being that I don’t like coffee and really don’t care for the smell of coffee, it made my shopping experience less than desirable.
That being said, I love Mysterious Galaxy. I’ve been there a few times and each time the staff is pleasant, funny, and they make the entire experience enjoyable for me. They know their way around speculative fiction and have an amazing selection of book. I even saw a copy of Scott Sigler’s The All Pro on a shelf where I sat. If you live in San Diego, or Redondo Beach then Mysterious Galaxy is where you want to shop. Heck, even go online and you can pick up some signed editions. I’m sure Tobias left a few of Arctic Rising there.
On to Tobias. I’ve seen his picture online. I follow him on facebook, twitter, his blog (I’m not stalking him, really). So I had an idea what he looked like and when I got into the store he was wearing a hat and I didn’t recognize him. I would have greeted him straightaway if I had. I felt a little silly, but hats throw me off.
Tobias filled us in on his writing endeavors and spoke about his health issues setting him back and having trouble getting anything out over the past three years. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long. I loved his first three books (Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin, and Sly Mongoose) so I was anxious for a new book from him. Hearing he was going in a new direction was fine with me as I enjoy his writing. He mentioned the Executioness a couple of times. I have this on my tablet, but have not read it yet.
His new book, Arctic Rising is being sold as an Eco Thriller. He talked about how he had been doing research and keeping notes and saving articles to use in a book and when his agent (he talked extensively about his relationship with his agent and the direction of his career) asked if he’d like to try something new, he looked at his research and jumped at the opportunity.
Sadly he got started and his health took a turn. In those three years, much of what he’d been writing about with the book was coming to be. When he was writing the book it was considered New Future Sci Fi. He was pleased in some ways to be right, and leery at the same time. Made me anxious to jump into the book.
I bought the hard cover so I’ll be reading the book at home and I will post a review once I’m done with it. Just in hearing him talk about the book and reading the excerpt, I’m sure I’ll be happy once I dive in.
Enough about Tobias. This is a blog about me, right?
Even though I went to his signing I was still able to hit my word count for yesterday. I’ve made it a personal goal to try and get caught up and average 2000 words during Lent not just hit 2000 words per day. It’ll be a challenge, but I’m finding that I’m good with a challenge. I’m only 3000 words behind that actual goal (probably less) and I’m already seven days ahead of my annual goal (I can take a vacation now WOO WOO)
But in all seriousness, I’m hitting a writing flow these days. I’ve been writing daily since the 1st of January. I haven’t missed a day. It was a bumpy start, but I’ve stuck to blogging daily which has really helped when it comes to sitting down and writing fiction. I just sit, start typing, and in a couple of minutes I’m typing again. It’s also helping me keep up with my typing skills.
I mean, I can touch type, sure. I have a bad habit of looking at my fingers as they’re typing out the words instead of looking at the screen to see what I’m actually typing. A few minutes every day of typing and bang. I’m back to touch typing again. It’s only take two months and it’s like I’ve rediscovered writing.
If you’re a writer, or you want to be a writer, I put this challenge to you. Write every day for two months. No excuse. No requirements. Set a word goal (200,500,1000) something low and obtainable. Don’t overreach. This is like working out. You can’t expect to be running after a couple of days. Build up and keep it going.
Speaking of running, I need to get walking again. My favorite daughter is even bugging me about that. But first, the day job.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Working hard or hardly working?
Have you ever sat down to work (or just to get started on something) and BANG! Everything you planned on doing is right out the door before you even touch the keyboard?
Yeah, I’m having one of those days. Seems that each time I touch the keyboard something else is jumping in to say HELLO! and interrupt what I was planning on doing. Once I collect my thoughts and get going there’s another one. Some days I feel like I need to disconnect from the rest of the world just to get something done and I can see why many writers do that during their writing time.
Alas, this is my actual job getting in the way of me getting other parts of my job done. It all needs to be done, but there are parts I need to do, calls I need to be on, and then there’s the coding I’d rather be doing. I really like programming and when something gets in the way of that I have a tendency to get even less done because it takes time to get into the right frame of mind.
Anyway, I had planned on getting this blog post out first thing this morning, but early morinng issues caught me and haven’t let go. I’m taking a late lunch and hopefully I’ll get a little coding in before I call it a day and start typing words. Such is the life of a programmer.
Sorry, just needed to vent a little bit. I’ve got some Golden Earring – Twilight Zone turned up and a writing candle lit.
I hope you enjoyed last week’s little jaunt into my life. It’s been a fun trip and I know I have many stories to tell from those days. I wasn’t always all work and no play. Wait, I’m still not. I’ve just gotten older, not more mature, mind you. Hopefully I’ve gotten a little more responsible with age.
I had a lot of recollections while I wrote all that up. One thing I noticed is that I’m really bad about keeping in contact with people and oddly, I think those same people are just as bad in keeping in contact with me as well. Out of all my Navy buddies, I’ve only heard from two over the years who’ve tracked me down and only one friend from school who also tracked me down. I’ve always kept in touch with Sean and Jeff over the years and we’ve all gone our own ways as time has gone on. Even though all three of us still live in Southern California, we haven’t all gotten together in a very long time.
I think I’ll add that as one of my goals for this year. To get the band back together for at least one night. My friend Jeff plays in a Black Sabbath tribute band in L.A. and he’s playing all the time. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find a date he’s playing, pick up Sean on the way to LA, and go hang out and have a good time with lots of loud music. You heard it here. Keep me to it!
I hit my writing goal for yesterday. Not just hit it, but passed it and kept going for a little while. I managed 2500 words even with everything we did yesterday. I feel great about that. It means I’m not going to let a little thing like not having enough time keep me from hitting my writing goals. We’ll see what today brings me.
Well, that was Lunch. I should go write some code now.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Hey! It’s Sunday!
Fist, an update on the Lost Boy.
Some people have asked and I think it’s great that people are following along and reading this blog. The boy who’d been lost had returned home after the 3 day long party. Yes, he got sucked in to going to a party. That night the boy, Diego, made all the kids (all younger than him) take out their batteries and sim cards and the boy’s parents destroyed those items. The following morning when the police went to Diego’s house to ask about the boy, the parents refused to allow the police in due to no warrant. There were a lot of boys there.
That Sunday morning (at around 2AM) the police found the boy at a bus stop with a woman under the influence (of what they were unsure) but the boy appeared to be unharmed and not under the influence of anything. The boy was crying saying that he needed to help get the woman home. The police took both of them home.
The parents were very happy to have him return, but he wouldn’t say anything about who/what/where/why. Apparently there were death threats made for anyone who talked about the party.
The parents made the boy go through the entire neighbor hood to collect the “missing” signs they’d hung up and apologize to everyone who had a sign. Then he had to sit down on Facebook and send everyone a thank you and an apology for what had happened. Then he had to call the school, talk to the principal, the teachers, and everyone who helped with searching for him.
As far as I know, he still hasn’t spoken about what happened at that party and no charges have been brought against the parents.
I didn’t hit my 2000 word writing goal yesterday. Went to a friends house for a BBQ. Had some awesome food. Ate until I couldn’t eat no more. Slept in a little bit today. Going to try and knock out a bunch of words today. I was going to write more on my adventure to try and fill in some holes, but going back and re-reading, I think I’ve covered it pretty well from my time after high school until now. I’ll be having fun adding some memories into some of my stories. I added one in My Teacher is a Zombie and my favorite daughter got a good laugh out of it.
Right now I need to take my favorite daughter to her volleyball lesson. today I may very likely sit in the truck and write so I can get caught up on my word count today.
Oh, if you didn’t check it out, I have a guest blog post over at Dan Dan the Art Man’s blog about TV memories. Oh the joys of childhood television watching. Check it out. I hope you like it.
I’m going to get at my writing.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Filled with Woo!
I’m a patient person. I’m really good at waiting. I really am. It doesn’t bother me when a waiter or waitress is slow or behind. I can wait. I’m usually never in a hurry. I don’t mind taking my time. I keep telling myself that the wait will be worth it.
I have several works out and some have been out since the end of November. I’m waiting. I have to look at it as longer is better. If the work were to be rejected outright I’d have heard something by now, right? So I have to assume that the longer, in this case, is better. I just need to be patient and keep plowing forward with other works. I need to keep submitting anything I’ve got finished and see what happens. I cannot allow myself to dwell on works I’m waiting on because the waiting will kill me. Just a little more time. People are busy. I understand.
On that note, I’ve begun working on the next episode of Golden West. The story is going to take a slightly different direction. I like where it’s going and the story will be stronger in the end. The first Action Pack episode is getting great reviews from those who’ve listened to it. That has made the three of us involved quite happy and hopefully we can keep it going strong. I know my second episode is building up to be quite interesting.
My Teacher is a Zombie is getting some editing done to it. I’ll be bugging Dan Dan the Art Man once again for a cover on that one. Once I get the second Episode of Golden West out of the way I’ll be doing my Teacher is a Werewolf. The characters were so much fun I need to keep those ones going. I’m having a lot of fun just writing. Even To Fall From the Sky is coming along nicely. I had an epiphany while writing the other day and WOW! I now have an even more powerful ending in mind that will take the story in the same direction, but just make it a more powerful ending.
Writing 2000 words a day during Lent is helping me really work out some writing issues I’ve had in the past. It’s great hitting a flow where words just seem to fall out of my head. Still not as fast as I would like, but I know with time I’ll get there. I can type fast, I can write fast, I just need to keep at it and both will get faster. There are so many stories in my brain that I need to write, it’s just a matter of making the time to write them all.
Stories like How I Got to Where I Am today. Let’s continue, shall we?
After submitting Of Gnomes and Dwarves: Book 1 to multiple agents and editors, I got disheartened. It’s tough to take rejection and everything I got was a form letter. The only plus side was my work was going quite well and I was learning how to program. My father had sat me down at the age of 12 and handed me a book on how to program in BASIC on a TRS-80 (maybe I was 13). I took another programming class in 10th grade and I loved programming. Why I switched and went into electronics I’ll never know.
So when I started doing web pages full time for my job, I was in heaven. I love designing for he web and I’ve been doing it as my job full time since 2001. Mostly I do back end work with getting things tied to databases and developing working interfaces, but lately I’ve been doing a lot more front end work. The field changes so quickly.
I think when it comes to writing that’s what I love about programming and creative writing. They’re both similar in the fact they require a certain amount of creativity, planning, and dedication to sit for hours alone and just type. Be it code frameworks or plot outlines, I find creativity in both endeavors.
As for my writing, I hit a slump after a lot of rejections. I took about a year or more off from writing. When I came back to it, I read several books on writing. Alright, closer to 30, but I was reading as much as possible. I took a challenge from one book and decided to write as many short stories as possible and in one year I wrote over 100 short stories. Of those 100 I submitted nearly half as I knew half were really bad. Of those 50 or so I submitted I had 10 publications. This was when online fiction was just starting out and there were no real strong ebooks. Half were online and half were anthology and smaller magazines. I was excited. I got back into writing fiction with V&A Shipping as a NaNoWriMo novel. I got the entire book written during that November and I felt great. I wrote Astel, Billy Barbarian, I even started three other novels that I didn’t finish, but I had strong starts to.
Then I lost my grandfather. That took the wind out of my sails. A year later when I started writing again my mother lost her husband. He’d never really been my dad, but I loved him all the same. I had difficulty getting back into writing, but I’d been playing around in the podcasting community for a while. I decided to podcast V&A Shipping. As I was recording the episodes I started writing again. Then I lost my dad.
It was a difficult one, two, three. But when I lost my dad I kept on podcasting and did Billy Barbarian and a number of short stories. What finally got me out of my writing funk, after trying to write and only getting a couple rough starts going, was Mike Plested suggesting that we do a collaborative work together. Bring out Jack Kane.
Sure it took he and I over a year to write, but that was due to many stops and starts. Finishing that book lit something in my brain and suddenly I decided that I needed to stop puttering around with my craft and get serious. I needed to treat my writing like it was a part time job. That’s what I’ve done since mid-December and this year I intended to keep a string of words flowing out and have not missed a day.
I started with writing this blog daily. That’s helped more than you can imagine. Then I decided that I needed to do more than just blog, but I needed to write daily. Not just write daily, but keep track of how much I was writing each day and to keep that word output in front of me so I could keep tabs on myself. And not just keep tabs. I needed to PUSH myself to do more. To do better. To perform at a level I’ve never performed at.
I’m not going to reach publication with works sitting in a drawer and hoping for the best. I’m not going to get published sitting back and waiting to get discovered. I always knew that, but keep myself from doing what needed to be done. Guess what, I’m writing more than I ever have. If this year turns out like I hope, I’ll produce as many words in 2012 as I have my entire time writing. That will tell me that I am capable of writing more fiction. yes, I’ve been blogging a lot, but once I get rolling, I need to keep rolling.
Look out world, 2012 is the year for Murdock to announce that I’ve arrived! Just you watch. This blog will chronicle all I am doing and all I’ve done. Some I cannot talk about yet, but as soon as I can, you’ll see. You’ll see.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
J.R. Murdock 