I’ve finally hit the 17K mark in my novel, still mired in Chapter Two, but I am optimistic that I’ll get back into the investigation soon enough… or I’ll just switch to another project. Who knows? I’m more worried that my small spit of an anthology isn’t going to see the light again. The short stories that I have put into it are from an earlier anthology that winks at a punk who succeeds in pulling the rug over my eyes firmly. Not that I am bitter about that particular experience – it did teach me that I can’t rely on a fleabag who won’t dive to the hilt – which is a good lesson for all. If you want to do something right, do it yourself. Too bad the people I talk to at work don’t seem to appreciate that message. So, PayPal pretends to not have the cash, which means I still can’t pay the editor – who is going to get a shout-out in the next blog entry.

Anyhow, I have made a decision about this particular blog – not only is going to be a rather therapeutic diary for me (since no one reads it anyway, I can say what’s really on my fractured little mind at times), I am going to use it to get the word out to some of the gaming companies out there, or to at least their fans that they need to hire me as a writer and soon before my prices skyrocket. Right now, I am a cheap date at $11.50/hr. – far less than I make at work. If everything goes well and my modest Sally Field moment is true, I am going to take my case out here on the blog. I am going to write something for a prospective client – a novella featuring their properties, with all the required legalize to say that I am not trying to get any sort of copyright infringement action started up. I have one idea for a company that I can’t wait to get down on a word processor, but I need to get the background materials first and make sure that everything can work out according to the rules set forward in their books. I will keep you up to date on this as events unfold and books are shipped to me.

Other than that – there is nothing terribly new to report. Managed to stumble into work an hour early… and you’d think that since I volunteered to do this, they would have re-done my breaks and lunch to reflect the new time. Nope. I still had to take my breaks at the usual time: late. At least tomorrow I can go back to a regular late schedule and come home later… and be off on Wednesday. I’m hoping to get a lot more done tomorrow evening as far as getting more work done on the novel. If I manage to do 2K more words tomorrow night, I might treat myself to a movie I have stored on my DVR. I should watch “Victim” since I’ve had it for a year now. Maybe I can knock out two films – “Victim” and “Renaissance” should go. “Renaissance” looks wonderful – black and white rotoscoping. I hope the story can hold up to the effects.

Well, I should wrap up here and call it a night. Tomorrow – the Shout-Outs!

Good night to you, Dear Reader

Sincerely,

Seething With Apathy.

I went to the Writer’s Meeting (only three minutes ahead of schedule because some woman decided to pay for her gas in coins…coins…, I should have been there at least 25 minutes early, between that and my GPS getting wonky on me, what should have been an easy 20-25 minutes to enjoy a late breakfast and a little time alone ended up being a quick ‘throw down the drinks and save the Twinkies for later) yesterday – and they liked me! They like the first chapter of the novel I had written (or at least the first part of it – its 9K words) and they did have some minor things to be done to the manuscript (all good things, and I will definitely use them). They meet on the third Saturday of the month, so I have a good amount of time to get another section drawn together. Don’t know if I am going to continue with the novel or bring something shorter.

The money is still in transit, but I also sent out the anthology – if all goes well, I can still get everything out by the expected deadline and hopefully get another anthology scrapped together – perhaps find another four decent short stories and introduce a second volume. After all – agents and publishers are using self-publishing places like Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble like the NFL uses college football programs (a free AAA minor league). There’s one writer out there who is making $200,000 a year off of Amazon and she just got a $2 million contract now that she had a fan base in place. I’m not complaining – I’m doing the same thing, but I just need to work a lot faster. I need to focus on something and get it finished soon. If I can crank out 4 volumes of the short story anthology for this year (9/11-9/12), I should be able to generate enough cash to pay for editing of the novel project.

This is going to be an odd week for me – I work an hour early tomorrow, get off early as well, regular shift Tuesday and I am off on Wednesday, then regular shift Thursday and Friday… then a black, black Saturday: 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM, then come back at 5:30 and work until 11:30. I need the overtime this week, just so that I can start saving up for the editing of a novel. So, last Saturday (and I only had three hours of sleep that day!) was my last good hurrah for a while. On the upper side – I have a three day weekend coming (Labor Day!), so I intend to completely relax on that day. It’s hard to believe that summer is almost over. We did have a period of summer like weather but that was only a couple of months and now we’re coming back down to more reasonable temperatures. It’s still summer, mind you and I am not going to be happy until we’re back down to 70’s or even the 60’s.

Well, I should be getting to bed so I can get a decent nap before I go into work for the longest week. Maybe with some of the overtime, I’ll get Promethium and Changeling and star my “Here’s Why I Should Be Writing for White Wolf” blog.

Good Night Gentle Readers, I hope your work week is better than mine.

Sincerely,

Seething With Apathy

Tomorrow, I am to meet with a local writers’ group and yes, I am indeed nervous. Not about meeting people – I can get through that as long as there is a minimum of hand shaking, eye contact and naked steel. What I am worried about is the multiple copies of the first chapter of my novel that I am distributing for all to read. Honestly – I know I can take the criticism, but I just don’t know what sort of criticism am I going to get? Gentle advice, cold edicts or harsh phrases of derision – which one will I get? This is why I like the Internet: there is that distance that somehow makes everything a little bit better. I can take online criticism (and boy, have I…) but that whole face-to-face thing makes me a little leery. I’m just not that much of a social creature. When I was acting, it wasn’t me on the stage, it was the character. I could do and say some outrageous things (and I did) because I was back in my dorm room as far as I or anyone else was concerned. Here? Now? Not so much – which is one reason why I like writing so much as a profession – even if your agent wants to shove you out for the entire world to see, it can be kept at a private distance. Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo, Twitter – all of these things, while now crucial to getting and maintaining a fan base, are still somewhat private (even Google – sure, you can show everyone a satellite photo of my house and give everyone every bit of information on what I’ve ordered online for the last 5 years [hint: think books], but if no one has put a picture of me out there [and no, they haven’t], you couldn’t pick me out of a line-up). Even this blog, which is private in that only two other people other than myself know of its existence, and only one of the those people know what I look like (pity her for that…). If an agent tells me to have a Facebook fan page set up, I will do so, and be rather active on it, but with only one condition: no pics of me at all whatsoever. I’m not vain (OK – not very…), but I still want to maintain a modicum of privacy.

Is that so wrong in this day and age? Of course, given that I have this blog, the Facebook page and soon to be a website for writing, perhaps this is a case of the horse not only out of the barn, but in the city choosing an apartment and handing out resumes. I can trust my friends not to blab too much – they might not know why initially, but that will be another subject for another time. I know that this blog is somewhat shorter than what I usually do, but I want to make sure I have everything ready for the group – meaning more death of trees.

Wish me luck.

Best Wishes to you, Good Reader.

Sincerely,

Seething With Apathy

A bit of a writerly update: got paid (sorry local cable company, I’ll let you hold my money next go round) and I got the money for the editor to be deposited into the Paypal account… and I have to wait 3-4 business days to have the money magically flit from the bank to Paypal. Huh? I thought this whole Internet Banking fad kinda hung on the idea of being somewhat instantaneous (Yes, I know – I work in a transoceanic cube where I can sing only ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ – I can hear the conversation I would be having with myself over this very thing). Now before I hear about pots calling kettles black and that sort of thing – here is my point. Every day that I have to wait to get the money to my patient editor is another day I am stuck where I am at now with no hope of anything better coming along. I want to be able to change my linked item to something a little less linty. The time it takes for the editor to work things out is a month away and the anthology is going to hit both Kindle and Nook a few days later. I’m just frustrated that this is another delay that I can do nothing about but seethe… just not with apathy.

As far as other things go – we got hit with rain and my next week schedule gets turned a little topsy-turvy. On the upside, I get Wednesday off to play around and maybe write something. On the down side – I’m working 14 hours that Saturday – some of it to be overtime, which I need in order to get funding started up for editing the novel that I should have finished by December. I figure that this little venture is going to set me back several thousand dollars, even if I get a lot of breaks my way. I’ve looked at Kickstarter. If that works out, I will let you know how that pans out. I’m figuring $3,000 should cover one project. If I can get enough out there, I want to be able to have other novels fund themselves. Right now, it’s still all ground level for me.

Oh! Just remembered, I am going to meet with a writer’s group Saturday! For those of you who know me well, you know that meeting people in the flesh presents a bit of a problem for me – as in I am not a huge fan of it. However, I feel that if I am going to prosper as a writer, I will need to expose my work to others for critique and analysis. It worked for me in the long river clubs, so I am hoping to put lightning back into the bottle again. At the very least, I will be putting my name out there for networking abilities and trying to develop a local fan base. Wish me luck.

Well, it’s growing late and I should be off to bed at some point. I wish you all well and I hope to bring better news in the morning.

Read and Rest Well, Gentle Reader,

Sincerely,

Seething With Apathy.

Well, apparently I had a shy monster standing on the window screen. It wasn’t there this morning, so apparently my taking a picture of it reminded it of the paparazzi so it’s fled. More than likely, it’s holed up in a tower wearing tissue boxes on its feet (a lot them) and ordering a repeat showing of “Eight Legged Freaks” on the local channels… which would explain why there is nothing but “Eight Legged Freaks” on TV.

Right now, it’s Saturday and it’s just me, a glass of milk and “Jennifer’s Body”. I’m trying to finish off another chapter in a novel, but the words aren’t just coming out the way they normally do. So, I thought I would try making a blog entry today and see what would happen. I might end up playing some Left 4 Dead 2 today and just chill out. Next Thursday I’m going to be able to get the anthology edited – which I am now calling “Four Bits and a Dollar” (yours for only $1.50! I get 70% of it, 65% from Nook!). If everything works out, I should be getting some downloads by the middle of the next months. I’m also going to try to use Kickstarter in order to help pay for the novel editing. I think $2000 is good enough for an editor, might be even a little high for the editor I’m using (who will be a much vaunted ‘double shout-out’). I think the reward should be a mention in the post script or author’s notes. Good Lord, that sounds so bad, but hey – I need money to do this. I need to think like a business person.

But that’s later.

Right now, it’s bad movies, documentaries and deli night… and preseason-football. I am recording a preseason game (I like the inflow ebb of the game, the groin smashing? Not so much) tonight and tomorrow – so I got to clear out a little more space. Not a bad problem, but I can only watch certain things at certain hours. All in all – I like what’s happening here with me. I can finally get things together and start writing professionally. I just wish there were certain people here to see it happen, but hey – I should have moved faster, right?

Oh – another good thing about this publication – Tattoo! I don’t know what to get, since I’m doing the anthology. Since I’m charging $1.50, I was thinking about having the picture of a saint holding out a dollar and two quarters – or maybe an angel with the saying ‘deliver me from evil’. I might have to ask around. Could be a ghost holding a dollar… could be my cat with two quarters in its paws. Don’t know – might poll for some ideas. Well, I got another idea for something. So, I am off to scribble something.

Sleep well, Gentle Reader

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

… and by there I mean ‘paid’? Well, I hammered out the details with the woman in the heeled tights holding a hot iron and I found the value of a strong dollar. $211.00 for editing services, and I hope that it all works out. By works out, I mean gets me enough to afford her services for any one of the several novels I have a mind to write. If it does work out, she will definitely be getting a shout-out.

To other things – away!

Work continues to exasperate me. I really had to wonder what sort of criteria they use to dispense the goods and services we provide. One would hope that it’s a little more than ‘do we have a pulse? Can they sign on the dotted line?’ I doubt that, though, given the people I have to talk to on a daily basis. This Friday, I get to work an additional hour – meaning an additional 2 and a half hour to be sucked away from my weekend.

Sorry – don’t mean to gripe about work. Really, other than waiting to get paid so I can hire the editor to get everything squared away for the anthology, there is nothing else to say. I did find out that not only can I self-publish on the Kindle, but I can also do it on the Nook. They ask for a little more money when it comes to pricing, but hey – it means I can get my stories out there to twice as many markets. I can even have one pseudonym exclusive to Nook and the other one to Kindle – don’t know which one gets what. I only have the three, so someone may end up getting both – maybe the big one. I also have to admit, now that getting published is drawing near to me, I’ve been getting a lot of ideas. There is one novel series I was working on and I was convinced that I would only get maybe two or three other novels – ends up the whole series can be stretched out to at least seven if the fans will have it… and that’s the one that can be the most open ended. The others that have definite beginnings, middles and ends need to be worked on some more, but hey – at least these things will see the light of day. Great time to be alive, everyone – have your coca, don’t fret over your Yurt and try not to get epoxy on your fingers. Don’t get chained to what makes you woe.

With the beginning of the pre-season football season (also called ‘let’s cripple the newbies’), I look forward to my hapless team perhaps breaking even for a change. Well – maybe a little less than even, but hey – miracles can happen. I might get off early tomorrow from work. Believe it or not, it’s been known to happen. I’m telling you – never look for logic, reason or sense in a call center it ain’t gonna happen.

A last note to leave you with: there is a big spider on my window.

Yes, I know that has all the clarity of a Bigfoot picture. To give you a good idea as to how big this thing it – from tip of rear leg to tip of front leg is an inch. Yes – an inch. I want to get a better picture of it, but its dark outside and I have no camera with a decent flash, so I had to use a flashlight. If it’s still there in the morning when I get up, I’ll get a better picture for you. Maybe you can tell me what it is and how best to kill it. I’d spray it, but it looks like it would use bug spray for perfume.

Sweet Dreams, Gentle Reader – in spite of the fact that Lloth has taken up residence on my window.

Yours,

Seething Apathy

Hello along. This going to be a shorter one than last night’s because there is too little going on and my Internet connection is poo. So, I have downloaded WordPress on my phone, but there is no way in Hell I am going to type 500 words on a Galaxy S phone. Not to say that it’s a bad phone.  The fact that I can blog here is a testament to the versatility of this little thing. Rather, I am crashing from the exhaustion of all my caffeine reserves and I want to be able to add some more to my commonbook before I go to sleep tonight. If we must rejoice in something — rejoice in that the chain is unbroken and that the magical post #28 approaches with some luck soul is getting a shout-out. Also, rejoice in that the spellchecker for my phone isn’t going lie next to me in the bed crying… much like my Word Office.

Good night, Gentle Reader – if there is good news, I will tell it to you tomorrow.

Sincerely,
Seething Apathy

Hello, all – this is indeed the third posting in as many days – could this be a trend? Who knows? Right now, I am enjoying a podcast I picked at random through Stitcher. I also finally found an editor for a collection of my best four short stories to be sold on a Kindle for a buck. So, I am hoping to get something out before the end of September. I think that a buck is a good price for four short stories (about 14K words). Anyhow, finally finished the mead just a few seconds ago – don’t think it’s going to take the place of my beloved absinthe any time soon, but I would pick it above Monty Python’s Holy Grail… not that the ale wasn’t bad, but it’s not as sweet as I like my drinks. Sadly, I am not drunk enough to feel it. Thanks, absinthe.

I am still very much pumped about getting the Kindle stuff together. On the next shout-out episode, I am going to give the website a big shout-out. So far, the site is highly recommended and the rates seem to be reasonable (in British pounds).

I’m sorry that this particular blog is going to be short, but I am rather tired from work, mead and coasting down on the idea of finally getting published.

There will be more.

Good night, Dear Reader.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Well, today was my first day back at work… and I now I remember why I need either a vacation or a change of jobs. Those of you who have jobs that you enjoy – you have no idea how blessed you are. Seriously – if you leave your job and you’re depressed about having to go home, count that as a blessing. You know the old saw: ‘if you want to see the dead come to life, be here at 5:00 pm’. Enough of my grumbling – I did manage to finish another chapter and I think the secondary character is starting to take over the novel. Jeez – not let someone have sex for… several years, and they’ll do anything to get laid. Enough about my life, though – back to the book. I have a better and more realistic goal: to have the novel finished by the end of November and to have it edited and on Amazon by the week before Christmas. With any luck, I will have a novel out there, earning money… wow – it sounds like I’m turning my daughter out on the street. I hope people like her.

Right now, I’m watching a military documentary. Yes – I enjoy watching documentaries more than I like watching scripted TV. Why, you ask? Simple – there are few really good scripted TV shows out there. I’ve been thinking about trying to write a script, but I don’t have any good ‘script’ ideas. When I write, I see everything like a movie, but I find it easier to write prose than scripts, but then again – I should try to expand my wings. I mean, this is a great time to be a writer. The tools are everywhere. Want to get published? Go to Amazon, they’ll publish it. Don’t have the program to convert the file to Amazon’s format? There’s a program for that. Want to write scripts? There are several script formatting programs – one of them is free. Want to get your script filmed? Good cameras are getting cheaper and cheaper. Actors? Dime a dozen (sorry friends). Need to get it seen – two words: You Tube. At this point, if you have a creative desire – there’s a program for that.

Speaking of which, if you know any artist types who want to draw a webcomic, drop me a line here. I have a couple of webcomic ideas I would like to see fleshed out.

Anyhow, I have so many ideas, what I am going to do is farm them out to various pseudonyms (which I am not listing here – that would break the whole idea of a quasi-anonymous blog for me to say such things as: if I have to listen to one more guy tell me “Can’t you just do something on your end?” like I’ve just been screwing around with them at the end of my day (another 18 minutes I’ll never see on my paycheck), I am going to start throwing dead bodies out the office window. On the brighter side of things – the hot weather has finally broken… well relatively speaking. It was in the upper 80’s here to whet my need for a shower and my sheerest towel. I’m not going to be happy until it’s in the lower 70’s, but that’s just me. I’m a big ole polar bear… well, a big ole hairless polar bear.

Well, Dear Reader – it is time for me to go to bed. I promise I will chat about something more prescient. Maybe baseball.

Good Reading to you, Gentle Reader,

Seething Apathy

“Hurry up and drop, I have things to do.”

I have to go back to work Monday, so it’s going to be a ‘pack in enough good times now before I find myself back up to my neck in frozen waste. No, I am not looking forward to coming back to work. So, I am trying to finish something and get it sent to Amazon.com. Hey, if that writer can write something and make $200,000, I can make a quarter of that easily. You may be asking ‘What did you do the whole week?’ Well, I wrote – finished a couple of chapter, now officially half way through, and worked on another blog entry about how I would improve certain movies. I also spent some time at the movies (Rise of the Planet of The Apes – good! Go see it.), went to the gym a couple of times, watched a couple of movies on my DVR (went from 85% to 59%). Went out to lunch (as previously documented) and just bummed around. Now, some of you might be saying ‘So, you wasted a week’ – and yes, you would be somewhat right. Also, let’s keep in mind this: I spend a minimum of 40 hours a week under a lot of pressure to get 500 things done. For eight hours a day, I have to field calls that have crept through all the stop gap measures and punch me in the ear. So, during my vacation, if I feel like watching a movie, I watch a movie. If I feel like writing, I write. While I called it a working vacation, it is still a vacation.

Also in the news, I have tried B. Nektar Mead. Mead isn’t really what I thought it would taste like. I was thing that it would be more of a honey flavor with some hints of vanilla and cinnamon (I ordered flavored mead – believe it or not, for research). Instead, I got something sweet that didn’t have a honey taste, more like a sweet wine (yes, I know that mead is basically honey wine, but that’s not my point). I don’t mind it, but it took a quite a bit to get me a slight buzz… which I blame on the absinthe. 17% alcohol by volume for the mead versus 64% for the absinthe — you be the judge. I am not going to drink anything tonight, since I am going to go to the gym later on tonight (God bless 24 Hour Fitness).

All in all, I had a good vacation, but soon it will be back to work until the first week in November, when I take off for my birthday week. I hope by then to have enough money to get my own personal birthday gift: a laptop from Alienware for gaming.

Good night, Gentle Reader. Until next we meet.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy