I'm Baaaaack!

I’m in a good place right now.   I finished Air War College a few weeks ago, and then my father-in-law took all his kids and grandkids (including me) to Disney World for a week.  We had a wonderful time together despite the fact that it rained every day.  We all got along; nobody got hurt or sick or sunburned.  Just so happened to be a Star Wars Weekend also, and for anyone that knows me or my family that was a big deal.  Only downside was my boys’s aggravation with the sporadic internet in our room.  We also went to Universal Studios for a day and the Harry Potter castle ride is probably the best ride I’ve ever been on.  All-in-all an awesome trip! 

A small jump for joy!

The weight has lifted.  I am complete with Air War College as of yesterday.  I feel lighter and my mood is noticeably better.  But...but..now I have no excuses to stop me from writing.  I need to get back in the writing saddle again, but I've been absent for so long that I have to find the horse and put the saddle on it.  I was so looking forward to this moment, but once it arrived I felt of barely perceptible pang of fear... just enough that I was able to notice it, and it surprised me.

I opened up my manuscript a few days ago when I had finished my last active part in the process (I had to wait for my mentor to approve and send in my self-assessment), and started to muddle through it.  I was on fire when I had last touched it and had made some really big strides in the revision, not only with correcting some syntax and tagging issues, but with a few concepts that I wanted to tweak.  I knew I was on my game, and it was thrilling to understand where I was at and where I needed to go to finish the last big revision. 

Things I Like

I was reading Chuck Wendig’s blog, Terribleminds, this morning and he mentioned something about avoiding negativity and to keep things positive.  Talk about things you like, he said, so I am going to make a list of things I like.  This is not a comprehensive list or in any particular order, just things that came to mind this morning.  Keep in mind that I got up at 5:30 A.M., and I’m a bit groggy.

Things that make the happy:

-I like being married.  I love my wife.  That’s an easy one, but I actually like her too.  She’s very concerned about making our lives better all the time, and she rarely slows down.  I wish she would take more “me” time frankly, but it makes her happy to take care of her family.  She’s extremely smart and is usually way better than average at anything she devotes time to.  She is a great caregiver for our kids, and they have turned out pretty awesome so far (they could always take an ugly turn off the road into the deep chasm, but so far they are turning into awesome adults, that I actually like to spend time with.)

BLACKBIRDS is out TODAY!

One of my new favorite novelists, Chuck Wendig has a new book out TODAY!  It's Blackbirds.  Here is the blurb: 

Miriam Black knows when you will die.

Still in her early twenties, she's foreseen hundreds of car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, suicides, and slow deaths by cancer. But when Miriam hitches a ride with truck driver Louis Darling and shakes his hand, she sees that in thirty days Louis will be gruesomely murdered while he calls her name.

Miriam has given up trying to save people; that only makes their deaths happen. But Louis will die because he met her, and she will be the next victim. No matter what she does she can't save Louis. But if she wants to stay alive, she'll have to try.

The cover rocks and I've heard nothing but great reviews so far.  I love his wit and his twisted view of the world.  I haven't read it yet, but I did pre-order it. I'm certain it will be entertaining and colorful.  Hopefully it will be here in a few days.  Please give him a look see.

Clear Ether!

Impacted by Concept - The Quantum Thief

This is not really intended to be a book review, but more the impact the book is having on me as a writer.  I’m reading a book by Hannu Rajaniemi called The Quantum Thief.  It’s his first novel and I have to say that I’m extremely impressed.  He runs a think-tank in Scotland and has a PhD in String Theory -- big brain on this guy.  The stuff in his novel is an absolutely fantastic extrapolation of social media and the internet into the far future and it’s stunning.  I read an editorial piece yesterday by Bruce Sterling (Beyond the Beyond) in the newest issue of ARC talking about Futurists and the art of predicting and how it’s not realistic to expect anyone to get it right, but sometimes the story tellers hit on the right chord.  I think Mr. Rajaniemi is not just striking the right chord, but making a symphony.  BTW, he also has a short story in the same edition of ARC.

Let That Thing Fester

The title of this post is so awesome that I feel like the post itself isn't going to live up to it.  I actually thought of saving it for another post on the subject but I'm going to go with it anyway.  I'm having issues finding time for this currently, and I 'm not proud of it.  I know I’ve been absent lately but I have been doing the job of three people at my day job (literally) and cramming for my Air War College Exam.  The good news is we have enough people back at work that I can get back to just doing my own job and I got the results back from my exam, which I passed with an excellent!  I’m only one test away from finishing now, so I’m buckling down to get through it and then I can refocus on finishing the edits for Clear Ether and get it out to some beta readers. 

Writing Advice for the New Novelist (Revisited)

I decided to take a look at this advice to see if it was still valid after more than a year of learning.  I tweaked it a little and added a bit here and there.  If you have something you think I'm missing I'd love to hear it.

• Choose your voice for the story and be consistent.   I think most authors will tell you to avoid present tense, so past tense is the most common method.   Third person narrative is the most common, but books are also written in first person, Twilight by Stepanie Meyers is a good example, and second person, Halting State by Charles Stross is a good example of this form, but is fairly rare.  There also variations on how to use the third person in the form of omniscient, objective(primarily used for news reporting) and limited, which can lend itself to a narrator that is unreliable.  Unreliable just means you only see what the character sees and feel what the character feels, whether it’s a true representation of reality or not.  Third person works very well if you are changing the narrator.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_mode

Feeding the Idea Machine

When someone meets a writer it is a common theme that it goes something like this:

“Oh, you’re a writer?  I’ve always wanted to write a book, but I just can’t seem to come up with any original ideas.”

I think most of us can relate to that before we actually took the plunge.  Not all, a few of you Stephen King types out there that were born to write probably never questioned the process, but a lot of us have felt that anxiety of coming up with something interesting enough to invest the time in for a novel length book.  The funny thing is writers don’t struggle with this at all once they become writers.  Most people I have ever talked to or read something they wrote about the subject all have the same theme:  coming up with ideas is the easy part.