Still, I am always amused when I am asked to speak to groups (Girl Scout troops, grade school students, Lansing Bronies Meetups). Such an occurrence, as rare as they are, happened earlier this month. Old Pal Jeanne² (OPJ), asked if I would be willing to chat with her writing group. OPJ is a librarian in metro Detroit.

After I finished laughing, I said sure. Because, if’n there is one thing I love, it is the sound of my own voice.

“Do you want to come here?” she asked. “Otherwise, we could try Skype.”

“Skpe would be better,” I said. “I try to limit my drives to Detroit from November through March. Snow is a harsh mistress.”³

“Do you have a webcam?”

I paused. The video side of Skpe had not crossed my mind, as I only ever used the service for audio (and to join Mysterious Cities of Gold chat groups, obviously). But then the sci-fi geek in me perked up, “Hey! It’ll be like Star Trek! Or like those video phones in Viper!”†

I agreed, and the date was set.

OPJ’s writing group started as a National Novel Writing Month support group, so I had plenty to chat about. My self-published novel, The Magic of Eyri, began as a NaNoWriMo project. I shared my experiences with self-publishing and, to my surprise, I was able to keep the swearing to a minimum.

It was odd addressing a room of people in such a way. While there was about a dozen, give or take, in attendance, OPJ’s camera was limited in its coverage. But, I am very much accustomed to talking, at length, without seeing who (if anyone) is listening. The upside to podcasting, I guess.

I had to make sure the parts of my apartment visible to my webcam were tidy. I was sad to dispose of my mountain of Clif Bar wrappers, but out of context it would look rather bad (I was going to make some kind of mosaic, but who has the time?). I had thoughts of placing props in the background to impress the group (copies of Hamlet, The Iliad, and Plato’s Republic; a globe, my third-place high school bowling trophy), but I ended up playing Civilization III for too long and ran out of time.

There were also more important logistical problems, mainly: Which geeky t-shirt do I wear? (answer: This One)

The chat itself was a lot of fun, and I would be happy to do so again. In a text message after the finale, OPJ said, “They loved you!”

And the best part about a Skype chat? No one can tell if you are wearing pants.

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¹ Or rather, ‘the thinks he is funny one.’

² Name changed.

³ And then we ended up having a super-hot March. It was about 80 degrees (F) on St. Patrick’s Day Weekend. Insane!

† It was like Knight Rider, but with a Dodge Viper. And it couldn’t talk. Which was the show’s greatest failing, after starring a Dodge Viper.

I start teaching a blogging class tonight, and the phrase applies to me in a round-about-way. Nothing is keeping me from blogging, I have been writing online (in various forms) since the early 2000s. Being paid to blog, however, has been quite the white whale/unicorn/Chinese Democracy. While I don’t paid to blog,² I do get asked to write for other websites, which has plenty of its own value—a quick thank you to The Idler, Lost Highway, TEDx Lansing, CiesaDesign, Elder Signs Press, Cinema Soldier, as well as Capital Area District Library and Capital City Film Festival (both coming soon).

This is where the class comes in. While I do not get paid to blog (unless you count the 2.3 cents I earned in Google Ads last year), I do get paid to teach a class on blogging. The class in question (hello students!) is for the Michigan State University Alumni Association’s Evening College. Got all that? It is a non-credit, continuing education course. I don’t give out grades or tests, but I do have homework (“Go home and watch Firefly. Then write an angry blog post about it being canceled.”)

Tonight marks my second semester teaching, with the biggest change being a switch from four sessions to six. My lesson plan is pretty much the same, just spread out a bit more. During my first semester, a friend teased me with, “So, you teach people how to type?”

Funny, but not quite. While I teach some basic blogging stuff (with social media thrown in), using WordPress.com is the focus of the class. WordPress is a powerful bit of software, and it has a bit of a learning curve for the uninitiated.

What I enjoy the most about teaching is it is, to use the zoo term, an enrichment exercise. Talking to a room full of adults for two hours once a week, for six weeks, is quite the shake-up to my routine. I usually spend my Monday evenings being terrible at board games. I am sure I will have some stories to tell after six weeks, which will make it back here—and it all comes full circle.

Also, the best part about teaching again is I had an excuse to buy a laser pointer.³ ZAP!

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¹ Or in my case, “Those who shouldn’t, teach.”

²  I am paid to write freelance articles, like those for Capital Gains, which I consider different than blogging. Still, online writing is online writing, in that any experience writing for others is good, paid or not.

³ I mentioned this to Stephanie, and she said, “You don’t already have one? What kind of a geek are you?”

I really enjoy when I am challenged, to some extent, to lay on the stupid. This is where Fiction 440 comes in. It is a Lansing based group, which challenges folks to write a flash fiction story of no more than 440 words. The stories usually have to contain certain words or feature a theme.

Tonight is the 10th edition of this event (at Soup Spoon Cafe), and the stories had to include the words Score, Sack, and Fumble.

Now, Fiction 440 doesn’t require your stories to be stupid or silly, but that is just what I go for. These stories are read aloud at places which serve booze, so with that in mind, I try to make my stories as ridiculous as possible (here is my first submission, Party Pooper).

My entry for tonight’s event, A Good Day, is below. It has ‘space Vikings.’¹ Yes. I have a feeling I will not be asked to attend the next event. I also wrote this in about 20-30 minutes, and went right up to the midnight deadline, so if there are any grammar or smelling errors, that’s why. Which is fine. Sometimes you just need to take a Devil May Care approach to writing and crank something out, space Vikings or not.

Erik stood on the bridge of his dragon head spacecruiser and watched the chaos on the view-screen. Lasers flashed outside. Ships exploded. Men died. It would be a good day.

Erik hurled his mug of space-mead to the floor, “To battle.” The crew cheered as the spacecruiser broke its orbit and screamed for the planet’s surface. The Pantheran laser satellites were only a threat above the planet. Erik’s brother Lorn, expecting an easy sack, ignored the satellites and approached Panthera at maximum speed. His charred, lifeless ship floated in the starry ship-graveyard above the planet.

Erik gripped the handle of his laser-axe, Veinbiter, as the ship entered Panthera’s atmosphere. The time to mourn his brother would come later. Now, there was only time for one thing: battle. Erik snapped on his stained, purple helmet as the helmsman counted the seconds until touchdown. Each of his helmet’s dents and scratches told a story.

The dragon head ship burst through a bank of orange Pantheran clouds like a nightmare. The Pantherans who were not in awe, ran, as the wedge-shaped ship landed and shook the ground. Erik was the first off the ship, and whirled Veinbiter over his head. A pair of Pantheran warriors roared and flashed their yellowed, dagger-like canines. They lunged for Erik, but Veinbiter was faster and tore their silver flesh. Blue blood sprayed and pooled at Erik’s feet.

Two. A good start, Erik thought, but far from evening the score of his lost brother. Lorn’s brawn and blade would be missed, but Erik looked at the upside: it meant more Pantherans for him.

Another pair of Pantherans felt Veinbiter’s kiss and joined their brothers on the ground. Four. A decent effort, for an ill man, as Lorn would have said. Another swing of Veinbiter, and a head sailed several yards. Five.

Erik threw his shoulder into a Pantheran making a feast of one of his men, and they exchanged blows. Erik’s helmet had a new story, and his tally went up to six.

A thunderous roar cleared a space around Erik. An eight foot tall Pantheran warrior with a flowing silver mane, roared again and ran for him. Its clawed feet tore up the shimmering green grass, and its silver tail whipped about with every step. Erik pulled a detonator from his utility belt and hurled it at the stampeding beast. The Pantheran fumbled with the detonator as its curved handle became entangled in its mane.

A flash. An explosion. Seven. Under his helmet, Erik smiled. Today would be a good day, indeed.

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¹ While it does not take place in space, I highly recommend the Viking novel, The Long Ships. Its influence on this story cannot be stressed enough. Here are a couple of other flash fiction pieces inspired by the book. One . Two. They are equally ridiculous.

Stephanie was over, as she sought a distraction-free zone to fill out some paperwork. Like the villain with the golden grail at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, her choice of my apartment was a poor one.

“Do you want a copy of Maxim featuring Lara Flynn Boyle?” I held up the magazine in question.  Ms. Boyle was, of course, scantily clad and flashing a smoldering pout.

Stephanie halted the assault on the ream of forms requiring signatures in triplicate. “What? She hasn’t been relevant since 1999.” Her pen resumed its work. The dotting of her ‘i’s tapped out a loud SOS.

I inspected the cover. The date read, December 1999.

The rest of the box contained more Maxim back issues, and they served as a time capsule from my final high school years. I decided to keep the Flynn Boyle Maxim, ¹ not because of the pictures, but rather because of the interview with NHL tough guy, and former Detroit Red Wing, the late Bob Probert.²

The rest, however, were put in the Recycle pile with issues of Game Informer and Nintendo Power.³ These magazines summed up my high school years: hormones, sarcastic humor and video games. †

The real gems, however, were to be found in a binder full of my high school era writings. “Oh boy, my screenplay,” I said.

Stephanie made the pen-equivalent of a record scratch.  “WHAT?”

I held up the beat up red binder, stuff with a thousand sheets of loose leaf paper, of which about twenty featured my hieroglyphic writing. I flipped through a few pages, “Well, screenplays, to be exact. Handwritten, even.”

Stephanie’s eyes narrowed, as she calculated how long it would take her to reach the door. “What are they about?”

I read the summary for the first screenplay, Summertime Blues. Two recent high school grads go on one last road trip before starting college. Stephanie shook her head, “I feel like that has been made a million times already.” Then I read the character descriptions. Stephanie raised her hand halfway through the description Fred “Fatty” McStew, the chubby sidekick. “If his parents are Scottish immigrants, and he was born in Michigan, why does he have a Scottish accent?”

“Probably because I saw Rushmore the week before writing this.” Summertime Blues lasted about five pages or so. Then, my second attempt at a screenplay began. “’Workin’ the Stand,’” I read aloud. “This was based on my job working a concession stand at a movie theater,” I flipped through a few pages. “And apparently, my attempt at a Kevin Smith movie.” What I had written was pretty much Clerks in a movie theater. Highlights include a running gag about Snow Caps and filling napkin dispensers with napkins stolen from the donut shop next door, ‘Jim Gordon’s’ (a Batman AND a Tim Hortons joke in one? Gold!).

Rounding out the rest of my high school oeuvre, were (too) many dark, terrible poems I must have wrote after A) Listening to the Misfits for six hours straight, B) Banging my head against the wall, or C) Both.

Ah, Youth.

(I still happily listen to the Misfits, because according to the cover of my binder, they rule)

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¹ I also set aside the infamous issue in which Melissa Joan Hart posed (clothed), because…well. I don’t have a defense for this one.

² I went to Steve Yzerman’s retirement ceremony, and when Bob Probert walked out on to the ice, Joe Louis Arena SHOOK with cheering and applause.

³ I did keep my Nintendo Power issues from the ‘80s. If’n I need to know how to beat Dragon Warrior or Megaman 2, I know where to look.

† OK, my twenties as well. And thus far, my early thirties.

After signing up, I saw they had my novel, The Magic of Eyri, listed, and that if I was the author, I could apply for Author Status. Why not? After a couple mouse clicks and a short email, I was given the title of Goodreads Author a few days later (despite my novel being self-published, but hey, take the wins where you can, right?).

Now that I am a Goodreads Author, folks can become “a fan” (which is probably only a few pegs lower than joining the Mr. Belvedere fan club¹). Neat.

I found a few friends of mine on Goodreads and added them, because it is What You Do, and I saw an alert that one of my friends, John, was now “a fan”². I popped over to his page, and I was listed with some of his other Favorite Authors in the sidebar, which gave me a chuckle.

I should see if they want to collaborate on a book. And then I woke up.

I didn’t expect to be listed alongside big names like Orson Scott Card and George R. R. Martin anytime soon, except perhaps as a punchline.

Joking aside³, I know I do have fans of Magic of Eyri† and the other nonsense I churn out, and when I have been lucky enough to meet them in person, I am always grateful. If you have 10 fans, or ten thousand, each one is a win–and take them where you can.

Except Spambots on Twitter. Those don’t count.

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¹ FACT: I was a member back in the day. I have the stickers and the T-shirt somewhere. This is not a reference to the SNL skit.

² In all honesty, John has been one of my biggest fans and supporters since the book came out in 2007. I don’t forget stuff like that. Same goes for my Magic of Eyri co-star, Robin.

³ I’m a fan of Ender’s Game, and I want to read the Game of Thrones  series at some point (and watch the show–c’mon, Netflix). I have played the game though, but before the show came out.

† I have been very lucky to meet a few fans at conventions, and some have even emailed me–mainly when the Magic of Eyri podcast was on hiatus. That kind of stuff keeps me going.

I wear glasses. Tiger Sixon *doesn't* wear glasses. Big difference.

A self-portrait of sorts for my Lost Highway B-movie Reviews alter-ego, Tiger Sixon. Yes, I am now a member of the popular satirical B-movie review website. My first review was Food of the Good, and my second, Zone Troopers, went up on Monday. Look for at least one a month from me.

Why the “character”? The rest of the Lost Highway gang has a character, so I decided to join the fun–plus it gives me some extra material for jokes (read the bio below). For the record, I’m not really a fan of anonymous blogging, but–this is “in character,” which is different, and I’m obviously not hiding anything.

Tiger’s “bio” (I wrote the first two paragraphs):

Tiger Sixon has friends in high places–Outer Space. As a secret operative for the government, Tiger met a trio of aliens after they had a rough landing outside an abandoned mini-golf course. Ignoring orders to bring the aliens back to headquarters for “tests”, Tiger went on a joy ride with his new friends in their UFO–and ran up a hefty bar tab on his government issued credit card in the process.

After returning to headquarters empty handed, but full livered, Tiger was arrested and locked up in a government base somewhere in Death Valley. The government wants Tiger’s knowledge of the aliens and their UFO, but he won’t talk. The government forces Tiger to watch weapons grade b-movies in hopes he will go mad, crack, and share his secrets. So far, all the government has been able to get out Tiger is plenty of snark with a side of sarcasm.

Lost Highway has secured government funding normally reserved for public orphanages to allow Tiger’s b-movie immersion studies to be revealed to the public. Feel free to follow him on twitter at http://twitter.com/tigersixon or his top secret facebook page that he’s updating with a Somalian iphone hidden somewhere in the base. Also, never mention his name in public. Big brother is watching and will swoop down on you like a spider monkey.

All in good fun. A big thanks to Steve Jencks at Lost Highway for asking me to join the team.

Re: the photo, nothing fancy here, just held the camera in front of me and, groan, used the on-camera flash along with a second light source. I ran the final shot through some filters in Photoshop to make it look more comic book like.

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I had the pleasure of being a guest at the science fiction and fantasy fan convention, ConClave once again this weekend.  I had a great time like always,  running into  Jim C. Hines, who was there promoting his latest release, Mermaid’s Madness, and the always entertaining M. Keaton.

It is fun to reconnect with writer friends and to make new ones at these conventions.  I was a part of nine events, including the Writer’s Workshop (I read and critiqued stories), panel discussions (ranging from zombies to werewolves to comic books) and I was even a contestant in a Last Man Standing Sci-Fi/Fantasy Trivia Contest–and I came in 2nd place.

My prize for coming in second is that my name will be used for the name of the president of the CDC in an upcoming zombie novel (The Ravening) by Stewart Sternberg. Stewart said that there will be a quote at the start of a chapter, which will be attributed to said CDC president, so something along these lines perhaps, to give you an idea:

“I see no reason to panic. As long as none of them bite you, you’ll be just fine.  Oh, and wash your hands.  Seriously, people.”

- Daniel Hogan, President of the CDC.

I’m excited to see what Stewart comes up with–he’s threatening to make it something that will cause an angry mob to show up at my door. Hey, I can use the publicity.  The novel will be available in stores and obviously I’ll do a post once that happens.  The grand prize winner will be made into a character that gets ripped apart by zombies.  Lucky.  Amusingly, I lost my shot at first place by not knowing the name of Barbara’s brother in the original Night of the Living Dead (Johnny).

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Speaking of Mr. Sternberg, we were on a panel about werewolves at ConClave, which I recorded for this week’s podcast.  Check it out. I’m glad I recorded it, because between late nights at work this week and getting ready for the con, I didn’t have the next episode of the Magic of Eyri finished. Hooray for filler. Give the panel a listen, it is a fun time. Jon David, Rick Moore, Charles Zaglanis and William Jones join us as well.

I also updated my Writing Samples and Resume pages.

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In Halloween costume news, I swung by a local costume shop–one of the mega costume stores that appears in early September and disappears on November 1st, like some kind of costuming Bringadoon.

My plan for the moment is go as The Man With No Name character from thee Fistful of Dollars trilogy.  The main thing I need to pull this off is the trademark poncho Clint Eastwood wears.  Thankfully, they had ponchos (not the exact design, but that’s OK), so that part is taken care of.  Next, I need to find a decent looking gun with a hip holster, and a hat.  I can get the Eastwood squint/scowl down, no problem–and I’ve already been working on the voice (which I use for the Magic of Eyri podcast).

All in all, this should be an easier task than last year’s Ghostbuster costume.

http://magicofeyri.com/2009/09/fantasy-writing-panel-podcast/

The panel featured Jim C. Hines (Goblin Quest series, Stepsister Scheme, Mermaid’s Madness), Phil Kline (Curse of the Kitsune) and myself.  It runs about 49 minutes and is worth a listen–especially when Jim starts talking about his werewolf-muppet story.

The audio quality is not on par with my normal episodes, as I just set up a recorder on the table and let it go, but I did what I could in GarageBand to make it a little better (tried to cut out some of the long pauses too).

Joining me in splendid 64 kps glory are Jim C. Hines and Phil Kline.  I haven’t listened to the audio yet, but I’m sure it turned out just fine (or fine enough for this purpose).

I’m curious how this will turn out and if people will like it or not. This will not be a regular feature, but I know people do enjoy this sort of thing (listening to writers talk about writing)–otherwise no one would ever attend any of the panels I’m on. I keep meaning to record non-podcast stuff to have at the ready if I ever need filler in case I don’t have an episode ready or something comes up (illness, vacation, pirate-ninjas).

Regular transmission of episodes will continue on September 27th.

Starting with the next episode, things really start kicking into high gear, action-wise anyway.  And we’ll meet some new characters too.

Event this Tuesday: I’m going to be part of the Fantasy Author Panel at the Delta Township District Library. Join Jim C. Hines, Phil Kline and myself as we rap about writing fantasy fiction. FREE. 6 PM to 8:30 PM.

We will be signing and selling books afterwards…well, I won’t be selling books, but I’ll be giving out free podcast CDs.  I may only put the first few episodes on there and make them audio CDs instead of .MP3s. We’ll see.

The novel I’m working on, while mostly goofy fantasy/horror, does have characters using guns. I figured it would probably be a good experience to try using a firearm myself, so I can write about their use a little more realistically (although the characters in my novel are using fire arms comparable to late 1800s/early 1900s weapons, but whatever).

We stopped at Dick’s Sporting Goods and each picked up two boxes of 20 rounds of ammo for my friend’s M4A3 Carbine rifle and then we were off to the range. My friend also had a handgun, the style of which escapes me at the moment, but it was semi-auto and its clip held 19 shots.

The biggest impact this outing had on me was just how LOUD the guns were. When I fired that M4 for the first time, I thought for sure I went deaf (yes, I had ear plugs in but they sucked. If I ever go again, I’m buying a set of those earmuff things). The effect the gunfire had on my hearing was really interesting–how it distorted the sound I was hearing, etc.

I didn’t have much luck with the handgun, as I barley hit the target. I had similar luck with the M4 at first–but once my friend helped me with my aiming, I improved greatly.

Not bad for my first time out. This was at a distance of 50 yards. My friend was even impressed.

I was really happy with my results after I finally learned how to aim. I fired sitting down, with the barrel propped up on sandbags. I took my time too and the main thing I had to get over was the sound when firing (as in “oh man, here it comes…EEUGH”).

I certainly noticed the difference between firing a rifle and firing a handgun. The differences are night and day, that’s for sure.  The handgun kicked up more than the rifle, which makes sense because the rifle had a stock and it was supported by the sandbags.

I enjoyed the outing and I would gladly go again. Target shooting was a lot of fun. I’d like to give a handgun another chance, since that is mainly what my characters use, but I certainly liked the rifle more–but that might be due to me being able to sit down and line up a shot instead of standing up to shoot.

Lastly, today proved to me that when the Zombie Apocalypse arrives, my weapon of choice will be a high-powered rifle.

I don’t know what has caused me to get in the zone once again, but I’m happy to be there  (I do have a couple theories though).  At this pace, I’ll hit my first draft word count goal of 80,000 words by the end of the month. Not bad for a novel I started back in November.

I have been really focused this week it seems, and more than I have in a while.  I do know that while I was on a 10-day run of antibiotics earlier in the month, I had zero productivity. The side effects of said anitbiotics were depression and, my favorite, unusual tiredness. I had both and it sucked.

Getting back into my daily excercise routine has helped a lot too (especially the yoga).  I also think that I’m enjoying the section I’m currently writing, which always helps.  And to be honest, talking to the teens for that Teen Writing Workshop at the Delta Township District Library probably helped fire me up too–talking to them about writing The Magic of Eyri reminded me, “hey, I can do this.”

The 2nd draft of this novel will be both easier and harder than the first–but I’m looking forward to it.  Once I get the 2nd draft done, or maybe a 3rd, I’m going to try and find an editor.

Jef started things out by drawing Frazz for us, live, on a large easel. I always like watching talented artists draw in person, it is nothing short of magical. Jef and I have known each other for a few years now–I first met him at a similar event in 2005 in Grand Ledge, although at that event he was talking more about censorship (I think) instead of just doing a general (but still entertaining) overview of what he does.

At that event in 2005, I hadn’t started writing The Magic of Eyri yet (I had ideas, but there were nowhere near what the final novel became). He mentioned writing and drawing a children’s book of his own, so after his presentation, I asked him for advice on starting and finishing a novel (and a sketch of Frazz).

He would tell me later that it was what I asked him that impressed him most, although I can’t remember exactly what I said. I didn’t ask the questions that he typically gets (“how can I get rich by drawing pictures” or along those lines). His advice to me, which is something I still follow, is to “just do it.” He told me that I didn’t want to be 80 years old one day and thinking, “hmm what if I had written that novel.” Jef told me to write it and at least i would know–and who cared if it was good or bad, at least I wouldn’t regret not trying.

Shortly after self-publishing The Magic of Eyri in 2007, I dropped Jef a line, thanking him for the advice, which had driven me to start and finish the novel. We had lunch and swapped books: a signed copy of Magic of Eyri for him and a signed Frazz collection for myself. It was great.

Jef Mallet is one of the nicest and greatest men I have ever known–and one of the things I like most about him is that he isn’t afraid to write ‘smart’ humor. He challenges his readers, and he loves doing it.

I love his stories about the comic strip business too. He told this joke about FoxTrot, Bill Amend. Bill used to live in California, but moved to Kansas City–which was where his syndicate was based. The joke went that Bill did this in order to have a whole extra time zone when it came to deadlines. Jef laughed and added that if you knew Bill, such a story wouldn’t be too far from the truth. Jef told this other joke about an artist, who years ago, whenever he’d read about a plane crash in the States, would call his syndicate and say “yeah, my strips were on that plane.”

The interesting thing is that nowadays, Jef doesn’t even have to mail his strips to his editor. He scans them and emails the files. But he added that he’s always up against a deadline–something I can relate to since starting the Magic of Eyri podcast (granted, I’m not doing daily episodes…I don’t even want to think about that).

The other great story he told was of a ‘strip feud (read the comments part)’ with Pearls Before Swine creator, Stephan Pastis. Pastis ran a strip featuring and overzealous cyclist named Jeff (Jef Mallet is an avid cyclist). Jef called Pastis up about the strip and he confused the strip was about Jef–even saying that he added an extra ‘f’ in the name at the last minute.

Jef took the whole thing in stride and in good humor. He kindly returned the favor in a strip after that, referencing Pastis’ previous career as a lawyer. Hilarious stuff.

Seeing Jef again this week was a much needed creative recharge for myself. The next day, I wrote nearly 1,000 words of my current in progress novel, the most I’ve written in one sitting in a long while–and I gotta get this first draft done by October because I want to take a stab at a nonfiction story come this Novembers Novel Writing Month.

The bands ran a very eclectic gauntlet, from latin jazz to indie rock to worship Christian rock. Thankfully, there was an excellent turn out, a bit over 200 people–which was great for a library on a Thursday night. Ryan and I each had score sheets and took notes while each band played, and we were also told to base our choice on crowd reaction (partially, anyway).

After the four sets, we made our choice–Alumenium, the latin jazz band. This was actually a pretty easy choice, because Alumenium just knocked it of the park from the get-go. They were a young group, which I think caused us (at least me) to underestimate them, but they were all great musicians.

My second choice was Commodore Cosmos, because I really enjoyed their lead singer’s presence and lyrics. Don’t Ever Tell was a decent pop-punk band (great drummer) and honestly, they were severely hurt by the lack of a quality sound system for the show (this event was the first of its kind, so that will be handled better if they decide to have another battle of the bands…and given the 200 or so folks that turned out, I think there’s a good chance there will be). I don’t really get worship music/Christan rock at all, so SOULvation Band, while good performers, wasn’t really my thing (although my favorite part of the evening was when the lead singer told the audience to “Get down with your GOOD self!”). And given the amount of fans singing along in the audience, SOULvation Band didn’t look like they were hurting for exposure.

What Ryan and I tried to base our final choice on was, which band would benefit the most from the studio recording time? Alumenium was definitely a band we could see doing some great stuff in the studio–especially since they were all pretty young and would only get better–and the type of layered music they did would work better in studio than live, I think.

This got me thinking: how many big bands/musicans have had a moment like this in their lives? I don’t know if it is me being egotistical or something, but I couldn’t help but wonder what effect I’ve had on the course of music history, for better or for worse. Likewise, say that by coming in second place, Commodore Cosmos decided to hone their chops even more and end up becoming the next big indie rock band (rejection is a great motivator, ask any writer with a stack of rejection letters. Or this other guy).

It makes you wonder (ok, maybe just me).

I’m working on a novel right now (Night of the Lonely Werewolf, working title) and I’m at about 65,000 words (out of a goal of around 80,000), and I realized I was losing track of where things were going.

I had started this story back in November for Novel Writing Month. I got the first 50,000 words done in 24 days and fell off the wagon for the next six months.  I only recently started working on it (nearly) every day.  The problem with there being such a huge break between working on this thing, is that I forgot where I originally wanted to go with the section of the story I’m currently writing.

However, since it is the first draft, I write whatever feels good/works for the moment and move on, but today I had to stop and think about a few things. I have some plot points I need to make sure get resolved, and I need to figure out how to connect certain plot points to others.

So, I opened up to a new page in my notebook (I try to keep a note book for whatever novel I’m working on and try to keep everything together) and started writing things down. I do the ‘draw a word in a bubble and connect other bubbles to it’ thing–whatever that is called (Brainstorming?).

It helps.  It may not work for everyone, but it works for me. It helps get my thought process going a bit faster, and I think it is because I can see everything before me, “Ok…they’re going here, and this character wants this…Oh, wait, I can have that character do this…” You get the idea.

Doing that helped me work out a couple snags for the section I’m at, and how to link it with what I wrote back in November (and to the rest of the story as a whole).  I know there are computer programs that can do that same process, but honestly I just prefer writing it down on paper–I can get ideas out faster, I think.

And some times, those spur of the moment/top of your head thoughts or ideas can be what your story really needs, especially when you’re working on a first draft.

Well, for me, that early age was 28 years ago today.

Ah, being born in the early 1980s. What a magical time. Well, parts any way. The toys were certainly better (metal Transformers? Yes please! Toy guns that looked like the real thing? Woo hoo!).

I felt really old today, while at breakfast with some area Twitter users, one of them didn’t know what the film Short Circuit was (one of Guttenberg‘s finest).

Another interesting thing is that I dug out my old Super Nintendo last weekend and started playing the game EarthBound again.  The copyright date on it was what really got my attention.  1994/1995.  I was 14.  Half my current age.  Is it interesting or sad that at twice the age I was when the game came out, I not only still own it but will still play it? (and still remember everything about it)

I’m enjoying life as a 28 year old more than that of a 14 year old, that’s for sure. Thing is, now when I can stay up until 3 AM playing the game if I wanted, I don’t have the energy for it. I’m lucky if I can handle playing for an hour straight. Fourteen years ago, that’s all I did.  Kind of funny I guess.

I’d like to know, back then as a 14 year old, where I thought I’d be at 28.  It seemed so far away back then, and now, the years fly by.

Example – A year ago today, I was Paradise, MI (Upper Peninsula) with my, now ex, girlfriend. We went to Tahquamenon Falls, followed by a bear ranch. That night, we had dinner in Christmas, MI (a little West of Munising)–so, I had a Christmas dinner on my birthday. That all seems like it happened yesterday, but it was exactly a year ago.  (I probably remember most of those details so well because it was one of my favorite birthday-days)

Today, now single, my parents are coming in from Detroit to take me to dinner somewhere in Lansing. What a difference a year makes.  And it is a far cry from the birthday parties of my early teens–renting a Sega Genesis from the local video store (prior to me getting a Super Nintendo) and staying up all night with friends playing games.

But, a lot’s happened over these last fourteen years: middle school, high school, five years of college,  joining the ‘real world’ after college,
various girlfriends, making and losing friends, losing loved ones, writing a novel, self-publishing it, etc.

Heck, in the past year alone I’ve started doing freelance writing, a podcast and found out I’ll have a short story in an anthology.

I’m interested to see what happens over the next year, let alone the next fourteen.

Well, like the Magic of Eyri before it (NaNoWrimo ’05), it took some time for me to work on it after Novel Writing Month. Problems included the holidays, travel, starting freelance writing, starting the Magic of Eyri podcast and other things in my personal life.

Having finally turned a corner, I’m back on track. I’ve been working the novel every day this week, even if only for twenty minutes or so at a time. At least I’m writing every day. I’m at just under 62,000 words and my goal is 80,000 for the first draft (a fry cry from Magic of Eyri’s 170,000+ words).

The problem with getting back into writing a genre novel (fantasy-horror-detective-steampunk, in my case) after being away from it for so many months is that I kind of forgot some of my ‘rules’ and what my characters were doing the last time I spent time with them.

Being a firm believer in “The First Draft Can Be Crap” philosophy, I tried not worry about that problem and just kept going. Still, it can be challenging–especially when you’re dealing with things like werewolves, magic and pseudo-steampunk technology.  If I were just writing memoirs about high school or something, this would be considerably easier.

While kind of breaking one of my first draft rules (don’t read/edit what I wrote), I’ve gone to the beginning of the manuscript and started reading so I can remember what I was doing back in November/December.

I think it’s a good sign that I found quite a bit of it amusing (which is also what I’m going for, I like writing ‘humor’ into my stories). It also helps that I kept notes during the original writing/world building process. Those come in handy.

This draft is far from perfect, but I want a first draft done by Summer’s end (September).  After that, start work on the always important second-draft.

I’m just happy to have my inspiration/writing drive back again.  The last six months were kind of scary.

I gotta say, this is already paying dividends.

Say I’m working on editing a podcast episode. I’ll set the timer for twenty minutes or so, and just work for that period of time and not do anything else (on the flip of the coin that is me, once I get into the zone while working–I don’t stop, so the timer doubles as forcing me to walk away from the computer for a bit).

9 times out of 10, I’ll reset the timer for another twenty minutes (give or take) and keep working, which is great. But other times I’ll work for the allotted time, do something else for a few (see: wasting time on the Internet), and then get back at it.

It is really helping with getting me back on track with novel writing. I’ll say to myself, “Your Royal Awesomeness Self, you’re going to write for twenty minutes and I don’t care if it is genius or crap.” (it is mostly the latter).  To wit, I’ve written more this week than I have in the past few months. Huzzah.

I kind of fell off the creative horse a bit since the New Year while going through a bit of a rough patch in my personal life, but I think I’m back in the saddle (at last).  Yoga has helped with that too.

Speaking of yoga, I’ve only been doing it for only a few weeks and I’ve been seeing results from the get-go. I really started seeing the benefits of yoga when I began doing it in the morning right after getting out of bed (so I’ve been doing it at least once a day, but usually twice a day during the work-week).

It wakes me up and energizes me. I’m also way more toned than…probably ever…and I’m actually developing upper body strength.  And I recently dropped down to 140 lbs*. (what my doc says I should be at for my height), having been at around 160ish a few months ago.  I think the biggest thing I take away from doing regular yoga is getting used to the breathing exercises, which help with stress a great deal and help me settle down after staring at a computer screen for hours on end.

And being swimsuit season, I sure picked a good time to drop twenty pounds.

*now staying AT 140 is the real trick, as I will go up and down a couple pounds daily, but I wasn’t able to get any where close to that for the longest time before starting the yoga stuff.  I do other exercise besides yoga and I try to stick to a ‘lots of fruits and veggies and not too much meat’ diet.

The contest was to write a short piece about a character reminiscing of their days at Miskatonic University, a fictional university that is mentioned in the works of horror writer, H.P. Lovecraft.

Winners of the contest will have their stories included in the Tales Out of Miskatonic University anthology (edited by William Jones, who also set up the contest). The anthology is a collection of stories that take place at MU and are written by present day writers.

I’m not getting paid for this, but I get a writing credit–and that’s fine by me, it was a flash fiction piece (a very, very short story–mine was around 330 words), so it isn’t like I wrote an epic novel. Because, now when I send out other manuscripts I can list that in my cover letter (as well as put it on the ol’ resume).

While I can’t put up the actual story online, I can say what it is about–I went with a bit of a different direction, making it more humorous and satirical. The narrator (this is a first person point of view) talks about being awarded a track scholarship to MU and is a background character for lots of wacky stuff going on around campus.

Lots of Lovecraft stories deal with characters finding some kind of ‘forbidden knowledge’ or science gone wrong or beings from other dimensions. My narrator isn’t directly involved in any of that, but his (ever changing) roommates are.

Think Death Star construction workers. Something like that.

I don’t know yet when Tales Out of Miskatonic University will be released, but I’ll do a post once I find out. And better still, I think it might be available at bookstores.

I’m excited!

Case in point: for the past few weeks, I’ve been on the search for a battery powered electric timer. I’m trying to get better at my time management skills (when I’m home and just goofing around on the computer), so borrowing a tactic I picked up from a co-panelist (Mary Robinette Kowal) at PenguiCon last month, I decided to invest in a timer to give me some kind of boundaries.

I’m very much a person that thrives with deadlines, due dates and challenges. So, when I have none of those, my mind wanders. A perfect example of this is National Novel Writing Month. I can write 50,000+ words in 25 days while I’m on deadline, but good luck getting me to finish a manuscript on my own after that. Seriously, I hate it.

So, the idea with the timer is I set it for say 20 minutes and force myself to work on (whatever) for that time, or set it and say “I can goof off on the Internet for this long, after that, back to work.”

A great concept. Well, getting the device itself proved to be quite the task.

I wanted a timer with Hours and Minutes, because I’ll have situations where I have a hour or more of ‘free time’ and need to stay on task (say, before band practice). I had a heck of a time even finding a place that had timers with Hours. At last I found what a thought was one of these, but after I got home I realized it was Minutes and Seconds. D’oh. Returned.

Then, I finally found one that had Hours and Minutes.  Got home, tried it out and the screen was screwed up (which I couldn’t figure out until actually using it). Returned.

I know what you’re thinking, “Why not use your oven timer or set an alarm on your cell phone?” A) the oven time isn’t portable B) I like seeing the countdown and also not having to do the math in regards to what time it is when setting an alarm.

After returning the second timer, I at last found one–and I’m using it right now. I have five minutes to go to get this post up, so I think I’ll end here.

In other writing news, I was contacted yesterday about helping out with a local teen writers workshop. Don’t know the details yet, but I said yes.