Category Archives: Daily Update
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!
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: 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!
J.R. Murdock 