Why do we do it? (No excuse, sir!)

Get that chin in, maggot!  Oh, sorry, flashback. There is only one answer to a "Why" question when you're a freshman at the Academy, but I digress... 

There’s been a lot of noise on the interwebs lately about how or why people should blog or even in some cases not bother to blog at all.  Some of it I agree with and some of it I think is bordering on the ridiculous, but is that really anything new?  Everyone is entitled to their opinion.  

I am fast approaching my one year anniversary on this blog and looking back I had no idea what I was going to do with this site when I started.  The entire purpose has always been just to have a space out here in the nether to share stuff that interested me, and the largest focus has been on writing, because that is what I’m doing with the bulk of my “spare” time.  On the other hand, I always did intend this to be a place to connect with other people.  I am extremely flattered that anyone is reading this stuff.  I’ve found that I really like to see people stopping by and reading and leaving comments, it has its own addiction.   I love being able to connect to my favorite authors in this new electric frontier, it’s easier than ever before, so in that vein I started this blog with the hopes of one day having my book published and have a place to connect with my readers.  Maybe that’s conceited, it’s certainly not intended to be -- I like to think of it as hopeful.

Belated Blog Awards and NaNoWriMo!

I’ve been strangely busy in the evenings the last couple of weeks; either that or I’ve been playing too much on World of Warcraft of my new beta test group Star Wars the Old Republic!  Can’t really talk about that but suffice to say it’s pretty damned awesome. 

I’ve been meaning to put up my new blog award for several weeks, and just got another one, so I’m putting them both up together.

Many thanks to Megan Lollman!  Her blog is Megan Rae Lollman: Words from an aspiring author from the Midwest.  She awarded me the Liebster Blog Award, which is aimed to showcase bloggers with less than 200 followers.  The rules:

"What's it about?"

I don't know about you, but when people find out I'm writing a book, they get very excited and ask me what it's about.  I have a real problem here.  I actually get a little embarrassed by this question, as if being a science fiction writer is akin to being a junkie or a male prostitute or something equally vile.  I don't know why.  I love science fiction!  I mean I rarely read anything else, I love almost all the genres of SciFi equally.  I also like the vampire genre a great deal.  There is some really great stuff out there, and some really crappy stuff too.  I'm hopeful that mine's not falling in the latter camp.


My WIP doesn't fall into an easily definable category.  It's not a vampire story that has roots in the Dracula type vampire, at least not completely.  It has elements of the traditional vampire, but mine are called Nemesi and they started from an alien virus.  See? ... science fiction.  

The Life Cycle of an Idea

     Kids are able to make up stuff on the fly, but as adults we have a really hard time with people changing stuff on us. Why is that? Do you remember when you were a kid and the world was full of wonder and nothing seemed impossible? We could dream big. One of my dreams was to be an astronaut -- I really wanted to be Han Solo, truth be told. We could tell outlandish stories to our friends that made no sense, but we told them anyway because it was fun! Remember fun? I see my kids do it all the time. They take a simple idea and run it over and then back over it and run it over several more times, making it different each time and laughing all the way.

Respond!?!

I've been wondering what makes people respond to blogs. There are several that I check almost daily, and some gets hundreds of responses and some get almost none. One of my favorites is Charlie Stross. He has a robust and regular posting that is usually thought provoking on purpose and he has a very intellectual group of followers that love to mix it up. I don’t feel smart enough to even post on his site, but I love to lurk. Another of my favorites is new author Mary Robinette Kowal, who is also very regular in her postings, but I don’t think I‘ve ever seen more than a handful of responses to her posts. She isn’t fishing for responses and it doesn’t seem to matter to her. I have no idea how many hits she is getting, but whoever they are rarely engage with her. I think she’s fascinating.

Blog Award

The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award

I was presented with this award by the wonderful Kristie McMartin http://lifebykiki.weebly.com/everyday-epiphanies.html

And she was presented the award by her friend Pippa Jay  http://keirbeyondredemption.blogspot.com/

Thanks to both of you!

The rules of this award are as follows: 
1. Thank and add a Link To the Person who Nominated You.
2. Share Seven Random Facts About Yourself.
3. Pass the Award on to 15 deserving blog buddies.
4. Contact those buddies to let them know.

From Guilt to Remorse

I miss writing.  But it’s more like a nostalgia thing now.

At first I felt guilty.  Writing everyday has been a part of my routine that I worked very hard to make a habit. The only thing I've written is my blog for the last month.  The worst part is my studying is not going fast enough.  I thought I would be ready to take the first test by now, but I am only halfway through the material, with 5 tests still in front of me.

Week in Review 17-23 Jan

It was a struggle this week for blogging and writing.  I did manage to get 3000 words this week and passed the 400 page mark, but begrudgingly.  I am in the climax and trying to get it right, and its coming a little at a time.  My muse can be stubborn at times.  That coupled with work and home events kept my mind from any productive blogging, if there is such a thing.  The grand total right now sits at 96100 words.

Week in Review

I'm a little late getting this up due to MLK Day.  You might think that would give me more time, but I usually find a way to expand my time wasting to fill the available time alloted.  It was a fairly productive week writingwise.  I wrote 6191 words this week for a total of 93106, and am edging up on the climax.  Seems like I say that every week.  I think I'll get through it this week.  In fact if I push I think I can finish the first draft this week, two weeks at the outside.

Writing Guilt

      I started down this writing road about 3 years ago, or was it 4?  Slowly but surely I've learned the tools of the trade.  I've also slowly become more immersed in the act of writing.  I have a day job still and will for at least 9 more years, but I'm preparing myself for writing success and a career after my current career.  I write more and more in my spare time.  When I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing or blogging about it.  I recently saw a quote:

"Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else." - Gloria Steinem

I find that to be very true.  Then there's this one:

"Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life." ~ Lawrence Kasdan

      LOL, it's so true.  I used to like to watch a few TV shows or catch up on DVDs of movies that I missed at the theater.  Now I just write in my free time and if I'm watching one of those TV shows or a DVD I feel guilty, that I really should be writing instead.   Anyone else have this issue?


Clear Ether!

The Publishing Landscape Has Changed

The publishing landscape has changed dramatically in the last two years and continues to change.  Distribution was always tough for a small publishing house and forget it if you were trying to self-publish.  But that's all changed now.  Dean Wesley Smith has a section on his website devoted to debunking the myths of writing and publishing a book.  Here is one gem I found in the comments section below his post about self-publishing:

More on the future of publishing

          Just after I finished my last post Jane Fancher posted that she had run into Patty Briggs this weekend and mentioned that she was releasing a new book and posted a link to it.  In that post Mike Briggs, Patty’s husband who runs her website, linked to another post by Kristine Kathryn Roush about the very subject I had posted on earlier.  Her blog is usually focused on the business end.  She knows the publishing industry from the inside and from the writer’s perspective and she is in the middle of a series of articles trying to define where the industry is heading and what it means to writers.  I am linking all the posts below that she has already published as of today.  They are lengthy and very well researched and very informative.

Rearranging day

     I renamed the book and rearranged the format of the Blog today.  I 've been waffling on the title for awhile and finally made the plunge.


     I really should be writing instead of goofying around with this blog, but I am easily distracted.  I'm happy to be back to writing the first book, I missed the characters and they are anxious to get going with the story.  I really need to buckle down and just write.  I was doing a little editing today and was happy with a lot of what I had written.  It's always nice to go back and say,"Wow, did I write that?  It's not bad."  It's a hellava lot better than, "I really suck, I should just quit writing."  I know there are weak areas, but I hope to clean those up on the edits. 

The Podium

     This is my writer's podium so to speak. I've been at this for several years but it's been in fits and spurts. My first novel is nearing completion of the first draft and I'm starting the second one as part of National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo for short. The idea is to try to write at least 50,000 words in the month of November. I figured it would be a good chance to start on the second novel even if it won't likely be very good prose. Quantity over quality is the idea for NaNoWriMo. The plan is to have at least a working kernal of a novel or novella by December. Then, hopefully take that momentum into finishing my first novel draft and start seriously editing it, I've done some along the way but it still needs a thorough going over.


     Vim Dicaré is the working title for my first book and I will be tracking progress on the Vim Dicaré - Progress page.


     The second book is tentatively titled Revelation Void
It's my NaNoWriMo entry for this year and I'll be posting updates of how that going on the Revelation Void - Progress page.