I'm still alive.
Not that anyone thought I was dead...right...?
Life suddenly got busy, or perhaps I suddenly forgot how to manage my 'free' time, or perhaps I just needed more sleep--regardless the reason, I've not found time to keep this blog updated. Sorry about that. I will try to be better. Really.
How are my year-long goals coming along, you ask. Don't ask. While others were catching the swine flu, I caught a bad case of procrastination. Or maybe it was cabin fever. Whatever it was, is, hopefully, I'm getting better soon. I miss my bike, and my computer, and 'free' time...
Yes, I think it is a time management problem. I'll have to talk to management about that.
I hear my wife and little girl coming in from walking my little guy to the bus stop. Time to get to work on cleaning the house and getting it in shape for a combined Mother's Day/Birthday Party for tomorrow afternoon.
Quick writing note. Have considered and taken some notes on a new beginning for The Legend and the Dark. Many readers have commented that though the book starts out fine it really gets going in later chapters and perhaps I need to make the main character more relate-able and heroic earlier on. Good advice (thank you). Will hopefully find (make) time to work on a first draft for that new beginning in the next few weeks.
Must go. Have a great weekend all - and Happy Mother's Day.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Welcome Back...
Hey. Welcome to 2009. A bit late, I know. Sorry about that. I don't know what happened to the time. Where does it go? Can we get it back? No? Huh...
I really don't have a great excuse for being gone for so long. Life happened. I guess that sums it up fairly well. Too vague? Ummm...okay. Specifically, I spent a lot of time with the family and they got used to hanging out with me more. They're spoiled! After spending most of my free time last November working on the Nano book, (and thank you wonderful wife for allowing me to use all that free time for writing) I thought it only fair to spend time (especially around the holidays) with the family. I love my family, so I've enjoyed the extra time with them as well.
But now...I'm looking to find a happy medium. Time with the family AND time for writing.
Yeah....we'll see how well that turns out!
In addition to hanging out with the family, I've also worked to reorganize our unfinished 'basement.' My office is now nicely tucked into one corner and I'm surrounded by my books, both fiction and non-fiction. I like my new digs - and I'm looking forward to spending more time here writing. With my office moved out of the family room, it opens up that space and makes for more play space for the kids. I've learned something about their toys--the two-year-old's toys are big, the five-year-old's toys has many pieces. In short, all their stuff takes up a lot of room (and rather than having toys scattered all over the house, I'm working towards locating their toys in two rooms - the family room and their bedroom. We'll see if that 'plan' works!)
As for the writing front, I have worked towards improving my writing by reading. I've read Stephen King's book, "On Writing", Donald Maass's book, "Writing the Breakout Novel", Les Edgerton's book, "Hooked: write fiction that grabs readers at page one and never lets them go", and I'm currently reading Jessica Page Morrell's "Between the Lines: master the subtle elements of fiction writing" and Nancy Kress's "Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint." I've picked up a lot of great ideas along the way--ideas hopefully that will improve my writing and reduce the number of rejections I receive this year.
Ahhh, the children are demanding my attention now. Must go.
Have a great day, all.
I really don't have a great excuse for being gone for so long. Life happened. I guess that sums it up fairly well. Too vague? Ummm...okay. Specifically, I spent a lot of time with the family and they got used to hanging out with me more. They're spoiled! After spending most of my free time last November working on the Nano book, (and thank you wonderful wife for allowing me to use all that free time for writing) I thought it only fair to spend time (especially around the holidays) with the family. I love my family, so I've enjoyed the extra time with them as well.
But now...I'm looking to find a happy medium. Time with the family AND time for writing.
Yeah....we'll see how well that turns out!
In addition to hanging out with the family, I've also worked to reorganize our unfinished 'basement.' My office is now nicely tucked into one corner and I'm surrounded by my books, both fiction and non-fiction. I like my new digs - and I'm looking forward to spending more time here writing. With my office moved out of the family room, it opens up that space and makes for more play space for the kids. I've learned something about their toys--the two-year-old's toys are big, the five-year-old's toys has many pieces. In short, all their stuff takes up a lot of room (and rather than having toys scattered all over the house, I'm working towards locating their toys in two rooms - the family room and their bedroom. We'll see if that 'plan' works!)
As for the writing front, I have worked towards improving my writing by reading. I've read Stephen King's book, "On Writing", Donald Maass's book, "Writing the Breakout Novel", Les Edgerton's book, "Hooked: write fiction that grabs readers at page one and never lets them go", and I'm currently reading Jessica Page Morrell's "Between the Lines: master the subtle elements of fiction writing" and Nancy Kress's "Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint." I've picked up a lot of great ideas along the way--ideas hopefully that will improve my writing and reduce the number of rejections I receive this year.
Ahhh, the children are demanding my attention now. Must go.
Have a great day, all.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays
Like the title says: Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays everyone.
This has been a strange month. Normally, I'm much more organized about the holidays. I usually have all the Christmas shopping done by late Oct/early Nov and all of it wrapped by Thanksgiving or early Dec--this year, I bought my last present this morning and just finished wrapping it now. My wife still has my presents to wrap. She thinks she'll wrap them tonight while I'm sleeping. Hopefully she and I will get more sleep tonight -- we found out last night the little girl has an ear infection. She did not sleep well. We did not sleep well. Two hours max for all of us. At least my wife is off now until next Monday. I'm not so lucky -- but at least I'm off Christmas day.
As I mentioned in the previous blog post - time flies. I honestly don't know what happened to this month. November I spent every day writing. December--I've been on the computer and online maybe six or seven times. Hopefully, I strike some sort of compromise or balance come 2009. I have begun to read the NaNo book -- so far, it's not quite as crappy as I thought, but it does need loads of work.
Must run now. Need to help my wife get ready for tomorrow. Christmas Eve we spend the day with my extended family celebrating Christmas -- Christmas day we spend with her family. The day after Christmas is the day we usually spend in our pajamas (unless we head out to brave the cold and snow and look for after-Christmas specials). I'm really looking forward to all three days.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a very prosperous, safe and Happy New Year!
This has been a strange month. Normally, I'm much more organized about the holidays. I usually have all the Christmas shopping done by late Oct/early Nov and all of it wrapped by Thanksgiving or early Dec--this year, I bought my last present this morning and just finished wrapping it now. My wife still has my presents to wrap. She thinks she'll wrap them tonight while I'm sleeping. Hopefully she and I will get more sleep tonight -- we found out last night the little girl has an ear infection. She did not sleep well. We did not sleep well. Two hours max for all of us. At least my wife is off now until next Monday. I'm not so lucky -- but at least I'm off Christmas day.
As I mentioned in the previous blog post - time flies. I honestly don't know what happened to this month. November I spent every day writing. December--I've been on the computer and online maybe six or seven times. Hopefully, I strike some sort of compromise or balance come 2009. I have begun to read the NaNo book -- so far, it's not quite as crappy as I thought, but it does need loads of work.
Must run now. Need to help my wife get ready for tomorrow. Christmas Eve we spend the day with my extended family celebrating Christmas -- Christmas day we spend with her family. The day after Christmas is the day we usually spend in our pajamas (unless we head out to brave the cold and snow and look for after-Christmas specials). I'm really looking forward to all three days.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a very prosperous, safe and Happy New Year!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
General Ramblings
Time flies.
I can't believe that
a: we're 11 days away from Christmas
b: we're 17 days away from the New Year
c: NaNoWriMo ended two weeks ago.
I've been trying to catch up on missed sleep--sleep I missed while working on the NaNo book--but I really don't think one can 'catch up' on sleep. At least, I can't. I might have a day where I actually sleep 8-9 hours in any given 24 hour period, but it just doesn't feel like 'catching-up'.
Oh wells. What's that saying....I'll sleep when I'm dead?
I've just started reading the NaNo book. I took a couple of weeks off, to put a little distance between myself and the book. Also, I've missed reading...and watching movies...and hanging out with the family. My little guy-the five year old-has discovered PlayStation and loves Super Heroes. With so many super hero movies out over the past few years--the Spider-Man trilogy, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk etc he loves playing the super hero type games for PlayStation. Most recently, he and I have been playing Ultimate Alliance (a game that allows the players to pick a 4 man (or woman) super hero team from twenty or so Marvel super hero characters). My little guy's favorites are Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Captain America. I like Thor and Thing.
Anyway--over the past couple of weeks, I've played video games with my little guy, played dollies with my little girl, and tried to convince my oldest (he's 15) the importance of getting good grades in school (especially in high school) and how he really needs to study for his finals. Hopefully, I've succeeded.
Also over these past two weeks, I've worked on reading a few books. I'm almost done with Stephen King's Cujo (somehow I've lived this long without reading the book or seeing the movie). I've also started Peter David's Sir Apropos of Nothing. I own the entire trilogy so I thought it was probably a good idea to actually read them. I have a few series like that--bought because I like the writer, like the story idea, liked what I read on the outside cover, but never seemingly having the time to actually read the book(s). Early new year's resolution - to read more of the books sitting in my personal library!
Another early new year's resolution - to finish editing my NaNo book by summer.
Another -- to ride 1000 miles on my bike--summer 2009. I used to ride 1-2k miles on my bike every summer when I was younger. I'd ride at least 10 miles every day, often times logging closer to 20-30 miles a night. I was in great shape then--and I'd like to get back into shape for 2009. I've already lost twenty pounds this past summer by exercising more and watching what I eat and I'm only about 5-10 pounds away from my ideal so I'd like to use my bike to achieve that goal. Another benefit of riding--it usually frees my creative mind. When I was younger, I'd jump on my bike whenever I'd need to plot or think about advancing my storyline. The blood would start flowing. The brain would start working, and by the time I was done with my ride, I was ready to write again.
I really am rambling today!
I should finish this up -- I have some Christmas presents to wrap yet today.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas--Happy Holidays--Season's Greetings and a very healthy, prosperous and Happy New Year.
I can't believe that
a: we're 11 days away from Christmas
b: we're 17 days away from the New Year
c: NaNoWriMo ended two weeks ago.
I've been trying to catch up on missed sleep--sleep I missed while working on the NaNo book--but I really don't think one can 'catch up' on sleep. At least, I can't. I might have a day where I actually sleep 8-9 hours in any given 24 hour period, but it just doesn't feel like 'catching-up'.
Oh wells. What's that saying....I'll sleep when I'm dead?
I've just started reading the NaNo book. I took a couple of weeks off, to put a little distance between myself and the book. Also, I've missed reading...and watching movies...and hanging out with the family. My little guy-the five year old-has discovered PlayStation and loves Super Heroes. With so many super hero movies out over the past few years--the Spider-Man trilogy, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk etc he loves playing the super hero type games for PlayStation. Most recently, he and I have been playing Ultimate Alliance (a game that allows the players to pick a 4 man (or woman) super hero team from twenty or so Marvel super hero characters). My little guy's favorites are Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Captain America. I like Thor and Thing.
Anyway--over the past couple of weeks, I've played video games with my little guy, played dollies with my little girl, and tried to convince my oldest (he's 15) the importance of getting good grades in school (especially in high school) and how he really needs to study for his finals. Hopefully, I've succeeded.
Also over these past two weeks, I've worked on reading a few books. I'm almost done with Stephen King's Cujo (somehow I've lived this long without reading the book or seeing the movie). I've also started Peter David's Sir Apropos of Nothing. I own the entire trilogy so I thought it was probably a good idea to actually read them. I have a few series like that--bought because I like the writer, like the story idea, liked what I read on the outside cover, but never seemingly having the time to actually read the book(s). Early new year's resolution - to read more of the books sitting in my personal library!
Another early new year's resolution - to finish editing my NaNo book by summer.
Another -- to ride 1000 miles on my bike--summer 2009. I used to ride 1-2k miles on my bike every summer when I was younger. I'd ride at least 10 miles every day, often times logging closer to 20-30 miles a night. I was in great shape then--and I'd like to get back into shape for 2009. I've already lost twenty pounds this past summer by exercising more and watching what I eat and I'm only about 5-10 pounds away from my ideal so I'd like to use my bike to achieve that goal. Another benefit of riding--it usually frees my creative mind. When I was younger, I'd jump on my bike whenever I'd need to plot or think about advancing my storyline. The blood would start flowing. The brain would start working, and by the time I was done with my ride, I was ready to write again.
I really am rambling today!
I should finish this up -- I have some Christmas presents to wrap yet today.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas--Happy Holidays--Season's Greetings and a very healthy, prosperous and Happy New Year.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
NaNoWriMo
Today marks the end of NaNoWriMo.
I finished my latest book's first draft a couple of days ago, but I added a few scenes and ideas and padded the word count with an exercise to reveal another side of my main character. Doing this allowed me to reach my monthly goal of 60k.
My official NaNoWriMo-2008 word count was: 60, 086.
I've enjoyed this fast-paced writing exercise. I will likely try this again--perhaps before next November. I'm tossing around the idea of doing another attempt on my own in May 2009. We'll see...
For the time being, I'm going to let this draft rest for a few days, catch up on some reading and sleep, and then start editing/rewriting on Draft #2.
Oh -- and I have a tentative working title for this latest book.
...Test of Will...or maybe...A Test of Will...or...A Test of Wills.....or something...I figure it will come to me before I get the final draft done.
Thanks for joining me on this month-long journey.
Take care all -
I finished my latest book's first draft a couple of days ago, but I added a few scenes and ideas and padded the word count with an exercise to reveal another side of my main character. Doing this allowed me to reach my monthly goal of 60k.
My official NaNoWriMo-2008 word count was: 60, 086.
I've enjoyed this fast-paced writing exercise. I will likely try this again--perhaps before next November. I'm tossing around the idea of doing another attempt on my own in May 2009. We'll see...
For the time being, I'm going to let this draft rest for a few days, catch up on some reading and sleep, and then start editing/rewriting on Draft #2.
Oh -- and I have a tentative working title for this latest book.
...Test of Will...or maybe...A Test of Will...or...A Test of Wills.....or something...I figure it will come to me before I get the final draft done.
Thanks for joining me on this month-long journey.
Take care all -
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
NaNoWriMo
It's offical.
I copy/pasted the NaNo manuscript into the NaNo's word count computer--they have me at:
54,520.
Just a few hundred shy of what I had on my computer, but what does that matter (though it's odd how different computers count differently, isn't it?)
I'm only about 5k shy of 'the end'. It would be nice to get it done before the big Turkey day, but I've got a lot of projects I need to finish around the house before Thursday....so, I might not reach 'the end' until this weekend.
Either way, I'm amazed I (will) finished the rough draft in approximately one month. I've never written this way before. I'm usually a careful, cautious writer. A plotter. A tweaker. An edit-as-I-go type of writer--but this way of writing has shown me that I 'can' write fast, I 'can' write a couple of thousand words each day for multiple days/weeks in a row even while working and being home with the kids---and even if the first draft is crap (I'm sure most of it is), I at least have the story out of my head and now I have something I can work on.
Time to celebrate a little (with breakfast-I'm hungry). The kids are waking up--gotta run.
Take care all (and to those participating in NaNo - good luck reaching the 50k by Nov 3o. I wish you all the best!).
I copy/pasted the NaNo manuscript into the NaNo's word count computer--they have me at:
54,520.
Just a few hundred shy of what I had on my computer, but what does that matter (though it's odd how different computers count differently, isn't it?)
I'm only about 5k shy of 'the end'. It would be nice to get it done before the big Turkey day, but I've got a lot of projects I need to finish around the house before Thursday....so, I might not reach 'the end' until this weekend.
Either way, I'm amazed I (will) finished the rough draft in approximately one month. I've never written this way before. I'm usually a careful, cautious writer. A plotter. A tweaker. An edit-as-I-go type of writer--but this way of writing has shown me that I 'can' write fast, I 'can' write a couple of thousand words each day for multiple days/weeks in a row even while working and being home with the kids---and even if the first draft is crap (I'm sure most of it is), I at least have the story out of my head and now I have something I can work on.
Time to celebrate a little (with breakfast-I'm hungry). The kids are waking up--gotta run.
Take care all (and to those participating in NaNo - good luck reaching the 50k by Nov 3o. I wish you all the best!).
Saturday, November 22, 2008
NaNoWriMo
NaNo Update:
Day 22:
Word count (unofficial count--official word count will come sometime after Nov 25): 51,102.
I did it.
Actually, I passed the 50,000 word mark yesterday, Friday, Nov 21 at about 5:30pm.
Yea!
But, the book's first draft isn't complete yet. I'm near the end. I can see it. I know how it needs to end. I'm just still working out how to actually get to that end point.
I can't wait to write, "The End".
I also can't wait to start rewriting it. Parts are mildly good. Some parts are okay. Large chunks---really, really bad! First draft bad. Don't want anyone else to read it bad. So bad, sometimes I'm afraid to read it because I know it will be cringe-worthy bad.
Did I mention, some of it is bad?
Overall, I like the story. I like the characters. I like the world the book is set in. I know, I know--I'm being vague, but I don't want to talk the book to death here. I want to get a second draft maybe a third draft done before I start talking specifics (or let anyone read it!). I don't even have a title for it yet. I've had a few ideas, but nothing I've fallen in love with yet. When I do think of something, I'll post it here.
I'm tired.
50,000 words in three weeks while working part-time at night and being a stay-at-home dad with two small and wildly energetic children and only getting 3-5 hours of sleep each night has been challenging to say the least. I'll probably still try to keep up with a similar writing routine now that the NaNo challenge is basically done with only a few modifications to allow me an extra hour of sleep each night. (Falling asleep at the computer while writing really doesn't accomplish anything!)
Speaking of children--mine are running around demanding my attention now. Gotta go.
Take care all -
Day 22:
Word count (unofficial count--official word count will come sometime after Nov 25): 51,102.
I did it.
Actually, I passed the 50,000 word mark yesterday, Friday, Nov 21 at about 5:30pm.
Yea!
But, the book's first draft isn't complete yet. I'm near the end. I can see it. I know how it needs to end. I'm just still working out how to actually get to that end point.
I can't wait to write, "The End".
I also can't wait to start rewriting it. Parts are mildly good. Some parts are okay. Large chunks---really, really bad! First draft bad. Don't want anyone else to read it bad. So bad, sometimes I'm afraid to read it because I know it will be cringe-worthy bad.
Did I mention, some of it is bad?
Overall, I like the story. I like the characters. I like the world the book is set in. I know, I know--I'm being vague, but I don't want to talk the book to death here. I want to get a second draft maybe a third draft done before I start talking specifics (or let anyone read it!). I don't even have a title for it yet. I've had a few ideas, but nothing I've fallen in love with yet. When I do think of something, I'll post it here.
I'm tired.
50,000 words in three weeks while working part-time at night and being a stay-at-home dad with two small and wildly energetic children and only getting 3-5 hours of sleep each night has been challenging to say the least. I'll probably still try to keep up with a similar writing routine now that the NaNo challenge is basically done with only a few modifications to allow me an extra hour of sleep each night. (Falling asleep at the computer while writing really doesn't accomplish anything!)
Speaking of children--mine are running around demanding my attention now. Gotta go.
Take care all -
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