No one really pays attention to Facebook right? I put a picture on my Facebook page that, I feel accurately represents my emotional state concerning my present working conditions:

In all fairness, I can’t pull off the headband the way she does.

Given our current societal fears of workplace violence, my saving grace is that I don’t go by my known name on Facebook… but there are some people from work who I have friended. Maybe that was a bit of a hasty choice. The friending, not the picture. Well, if HR does decide to have a talk with me, then my defense will be: ‘you’ve never worked in a call center, have you?‘ It should work.

I am working on a romance project while the cast of I/O Error decides what they want to do. I’m putting it in the same ‘world’ as a couple of other books just to make things easier as far as what’s what. I need to get a mapping program, since the map I’ve been using looks suspiciously familiar:

I can see the sea from here!

If anyone has a suggestion, feel free. Once I’ve mastered it (please be simple…), I’ll start making maps for the stories just so I can be consistent with the landscape and get a good sense of ‘this is a real place’. Especially with the fantasy stories where everything is interconnected (somewhat… there is a four hundred year gap that I might occupy with something), I want to have that sense of continuity. Also it will keep me working if all goes well for me and the books.

Arrgh – I am so slow today. I need to get more coffee and try to focus on the characters for the new project. So, with that in mind – I should go. My people need me.

Thanks for reading,

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I’m awake at 9:30! I guess all it took was Art Bell and Shiny Toy Guns in concert to me out of bed. So I am a little bit ahead of schedule today… could this be the beginning of a grand new era? I am hoping to get more productive – which is one of my biggest faults as far as writing. I am slow – winter molasses slow. It takes me almost an hour to write this blog and I am trying to keep it short at 500 words. Another fault? Easily distracted. Hopefully, I can beat both by just getting up a little earlier and having more coffee in my system.

I/O Error is stalling out on me, so I am going to work on something else for a while. I don’t know if this falls under the sin of ‘easily distracted’ or I just get bored with what I am doing and move on to something else. So, I am moving on to a romance novel that’s been rolling around in my head for a while. It’s taking place in the same world as one of my other novel series (which I hope to get to one day before I die), so this will allow me to do a little more world building. I’m still committed to my main goal of getting one novel finished by the end of March – since I am doing final revisions on one, this is a goal that looks like I can complete in a reasonable period of time. I’ve got so many ideas flitting about like glittery yarn in front of cat with ADD. Right now, I am getting things formatted in Scrivener so that I can just flip from idea to idea and try to maintain some sort of progress.

Does anyone remember the TV series Kings? I do. Much to my surprise, it’s on iTunes for $12.00. I don’t know how I lived before Apple TV. There are a lot of old series that were abandoned for whatever reality show Universal needed to ram down our throats (bitter about G4? Nope, not me…) on iTunes. So far, the only big complaint I have about it is that there seems to be no support for the NFL, then again – it’s not the season yet, but I can catch hockey, baseball and basketball on it with a modest (!) fee. I’ve been looking to get into hockey, and this would be a good time… but I think I can hold out until next season. Baseball looks good, but I am more of a fan of the home team, so I might try it next season, and I am not a huge fan of basketball, college (no matter how hard my hometown tries…) or otherwise. I am hoping that there will be full games on iTunes during the regular football season. Who knows? I might actually be able to follow my favorite team for a change.

Well, speaking of being productive – I should work on something. I hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I am going to give this to everyone. A lot of it… OK… all of it is accurate. Horribly, horribly accurate – but, hey I didn’t choose this, it chose me. I am still sore and tense when I wake up in the morning. I am beginning to wonder if I should go see a doctor. Granted, I have always been tense and anxious, but this is above and beyond. I’ve been planning to get some more absinthe soon, so I’m hoping to find a way to relieve this stress. I am still rocking out to the Art Bell stream and there is good news! Art Bell might be coming back to radio! Hopefully, this will mean a podcast to listen to on my Apple TV. Yes, the love affair continues. I am going to get a $50.00 card and start getting the current shows that I like (NCIS, The Americans and The Following – don’t fret, there’s more) and work on the previous seasons when I can. I recommend Apple TV if you ever find yourself wanting to cut the cable but keep watching your favorite shows.

I have the titles for the After/Ever series:

• Book One: The Thief’s Cant
  
• Book Two: The Crusader’s Prayer
  
• Book Three: The Magician’s Canticle
  
• Book Four: The Woodman’s Song
  
• Book Five: The Rider’s Myth
  

I am going to put up 23 chapters on Kindle Serials, each for ninety-nine cents. I might gather up all the chapters and put them together into a single book and sell that separately. So far, there is going to be five to seven thousand words per chapter, so it’s going to be a steal either way (especially if I sell the full book for about $5.50 @ 115K words). Of course, I just need to finish something. Today, it’s I/O Error with my mad robots and cursed ships. Tomorrow, it’s going to be poor, poor Rhonda and her issues. Saturday, it’s a little of everybody and re-writes of the first novel.

Wow… I can’t seem to get awake enough today. On a different note: This! Say what you want – I’ve been looking forward to this game since I heard about waaaaaay back in early 2012. I’m a fan of the Bioshock series and I have high expectations concerning the latest chapter. I certainly like how they have plugged into both the zeitgeist of the time for the game and the pop culture aura of when the games were published.

Well – I am sorry to cut this a little short, but I need to get ready for work. I’ll have to do this later.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

It’s been a week since I got Apple TV and I have to admit it has exceeded my expectations. Not only can it pull up things from my iTunes account, but things from my computer – so, I can listen to music stored in my iTunes files and audio podcasts I have subscribed to in iTunes (which are the only ones I get). I am still committed to cutting the cable at the end of the season of Game of Thrones. In the meantime, I am going to get season passes for most of my favorite shows (only this show isn’t on iTunes, but it’s on broadcast, so I won’t miss anything) and get the back seasons. I’ve gotten Burn Notice caught up and I am going to get the current season of NCIS and the remaining five seasons… but first, I am going to get the current season of Warehouse 13. Yes, I am one of the few people who don’t get their tails all bushy over that show – it’s not science fiction, but hey – it’s not wrestling either. It’s another show I heartily recommend, alongside Continuum if for no other reason than Lexa Doig (*sigh*).

Speaking of sighing – I am almost (40 pages away) half way from finishing the re-writes for the first novel. The current project (After Ever) has had one major problem hurtled: one of the main characters now has an ending. This may not sound like a major deal, but I like to know where the story is going to end for the characters and Rhonda was the only one that had any sort of unclear ending to the series… and I so desperately wanted to avoid the clichéd ending
for her. So I figured that I would take an ending that might be a little clichéd, but it’s at least a little upbeat for her given that she is suffering worse than the others that came back. Well… not as bad as William, obviously, but suffering anyway. Now, the only characters I have to nail down are Alanza and The Rider. I am still working on I/O Error, but it’s on a rotating cycle between that and After Ever. After Ever is going to be a subscription series, not to put the cart before the horse, but I am currently thinking about hiring a model for the cover for the first series. If anyone has any suggestions – feel free to drop them in the comments section. Please – keep in mind that the budget for this is going to be around $600.00 for the model. So, if you know any young women who want to earn an innocent six hundred – direct them my way, please.

Well, I am getting another cup of coffee and am going to try to work a little on After Ever and get some better ideas about The Rider. I hope you all have a great day!

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Hey all. I was worse of a shambles than usual this morning. Actually slept through a documentary I was looking forward to watching. A couple cups of coffee later and I was rushing out the door. I blame the late night I pulled — just gave up and wrote the first half of the first chapter for the serial. I am also raising money to hire someone to be a model for the cover if the first book with deals with Rhonda. I am also trying to figure out I should conclude her tale. If I go the temporary happiness route, then she will end up going back to the realm. If I take the permanent happiness route, then she gets better and uses her circumstances to help herself and others. Some of the other characters have a defined story arc, but Rhonda (I keep typing Rhona, dang it) is the one with a more nebulous story to be told. Now, I am still getting everything to be set to sever the cord come later this year. Thanks to my Blu-Ray player, I was able to get my Amazon account to my TV. I took a quick tour through the Free Movies and I am surprised over the content that they have. A lot better than what I was anticipating. Between that, Apple and maybe VuDu — I should have no problem at all keeping myself entertained. I continue my trip through the fogs of nostalgia with the D&DC set I got. “The Eye of the Beholder”… one of the weaker episodes. Still better than here, but unless that beholder was far more allergic to flowers than I am, Sir John should have been one less arm than he was at the end of the episode. At least, that’s what would have happened if I did it. The first episode was a bit on the eye-rolling side with the “white hair/white hare” gag. I do have to remind myself that it didn’t really hit it’s stride until late in the season. The animation is clunky, but… well…

Hey all.  I was worse of a shambles than usual this morning.  Actually slept through a documentary I was looking forward to watching.  A couple cups of coffee later and I was rushing out the door.  I blame the late night I pulled — just gave up and wrote the first half of the first chapter for the serial.  I am also raising money to hire someone to be a model for the cover if the first book with deals with Rhonda.  I am also trying to figure out I should conclude her tale.  If I go the temporary happiness route, then she will end up going back to the realm.  If I take the permanent happiness route, then she gets better and uses her circumstances to help herself and others.  Some of the other characters have a defined story arc, but Rhonda (I keep typing Rhona, dang it) is the one with a more nebulous story to be told.

Now, I am still getting everything to be set to sever the cord come later this year.  Thanks to my Blu-Ray player, I was able to get my Amazon account to my TV.  I took a quick tour through the Free Movies and I am surprised over the content that they have.  A lot better than what I was anticipating.  Between that, Apple and maybe VuDu — I should have no problem at all keeping myself entertained.

I continue my trip through the fogs of nostalgia with the D&DC set I got. “The Eye of the Beholder”… one of the weaker episodes.  Still better than here, but unless that beholder was far more allergic to flowers than I am, Sir John should have been one less arm than he was at the end of the episode.  At least, that’s what would have happened if I did it.  The first episode was a bit on the eye-rolling side with the “white hair/white hare” gag.  I do have to remind myself that it didn’t really hit it’s stride until late in the season.  The animation is clunky, but… well… I can blame this cartoon for at least two of my fetishes.

Well, I need to get back to the front.  Hope you all have a better day.

I tried to go back to sleep and after a few minutes of tossing and turning and trying so hard to not look at the clock, I just decided to stay up and favor all of my readers (hi!) with an early posting. With luck and coffee on my side, I hope to not be a shambling mound at work today. No emergency coffee is needed, yet. Just me, the PC and the Art Bell feed should be enough to keep me going. Tonight, I should have no problems getting to sleep… snerk.

Still slogging through the re-write of the first novel, which I am going to restrict to the weekends and I am going to work on I/O Error during the weekdays. This arrangement will hopefully allow me to get something done before my deadline. My big problem with I/O Error is that there is no good ending for this novel. There’s the Hollywood ending, which works in a film, but I don’t think it’s going to be a satisfactory ending for the novel. It is, unfortunately, the only ending that I can come up with right now. While I am a hybrid writer, I usually know where I am going before I get there. Right now, I am walking through Dante’s darkened woods and my flashlight keeps going out… and what’s that music? I am also going to do a little bit more on After Ever with Scrivener and might do that here and there. I might do it both as a comic book script and as a series of novellas. I’ll just plan on it at work. I have a list of chapter titles – see if you can pick out the theme:

Season One

1. Paranoia
   
2. Hypervigilance
   
3. Flashbacks
   
4. Upsetting Dreams
   
5. Avoidance
   
6. Emotional Numbing
   
7. Intrusive Memories
   
8. Anxiety
   
9. Anger
   
10. Insomnia
    
11. Hyperaware
    
12. Guilt
    
13. Shame
    
14. Self-destructive Behavior
    
15. Insomnia
    
16. Trouble Concentrating
    
17. Hopelessness
    
18. Startled
    
19. Memory Problems
    
20. Not So Close
    
21. Trigger Warning
    
22. Lack of Focus
    
23. (part one) Drinking Too Much (part two) Mental Breakdown
    

Good Luck! As more things happen, this might be the one I share with the readers here – I know a couple of you are/were gamers, so having some sort of input would be nice.

Wow – it’s almost 8:00 here and I’ve almost finished this blog and I’ll have time to do a little more writing than just a dialogue tag before everyone else is awake in the neighborhood. Oh – also got the new Hatebreed album: [censored] amazing! If you need music to wake you up and put on your steel-toes, this is the band to help you along. It’s odd that I am writing and not feeling rushed or distracted. Maybe I only need 5 hours of sleep. We will see about that tonight, won’t we?

Well, off to write something and plot something else. Hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I was tossing and turning in bed last night with my heart hammering in my chest. I don’t know if it was the last drink that hit me at the most inopportune moment, or I was in the throes of a cardiac event. Either way, I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night… and to top it off, I have the beginnings of a headache. This doesn’t bode well for me for today. I don’t know if I should call in, or go in and… who am I kidding? I’m going to go in because I can’t afford to lose this job right now. Maybe in a month or two after I’ve cheapened by cable bill, I might take an ‘undocumented vacation day’. As for now – self-medication and hoping that today will be a light day.

At the risk of sounding like Dr. Tannis, the love affair between Scrivener and I deepens on many levels. It makes planning the novel very easy and it can break down the whole project into scenes, which can make the whole project easier in the long run. Rather than writing a long 100K word novel, I can just focus on the smaller scenes and build them as well as they need to be and save the cutting for the first round of edits. Hopefully, it will lessen the chore of re-writing as well. Again – focusing on the small things rather than the big picture. I might even work on the novel I’ve started on Scrivener and see how that goes. Do that while trying to finish the re-writes on the first novel and maybe try to get somewhere.

I am going to cut this blog a little short – time and headaches conspire to keep me from being somewhat productive today. I will return on Saturday with hopefully a better mood and head that doesn’t conspire to kill me.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I’ve been watching The Following and I have only one thing I would have done differently thus far. The introduction of Kevin (the guy in the Poe mask) was a great scene in the beginning and I was looking forward to a lot of cat-and-mouse with him and the FBI… (highlight for spoilers). They killed him.

I would have done one thing different: I never would have unmasked Kevin, nor given him a name – he would always be called ‘Poe’. Even when he was hanging out with the others, he never would have taken off the mask and never would speak. Even the others in the cult would have been a little creeped out by ‘Poe’.

Agent Hardy

Tell me about this guy.

(Hands Jordy picture of ‘Poe‘)

Jordy

Poe?

Agent Hardy

Is that his name?

Jordy

I dunno. No one knows. He just showed up with a note from Joe.

Never shows up without the mask on. Never says anything.

Agent Hardy

What does he do?

Jordy

Let me put it to you this way: Joe’s Jesus… Poe’s Saint Peter.

I like the idea of there being one of the followers being waaaaay more out there than the others. We get to see the kind of people that Joe attracts. I like the idea of Joe appearing as a messianic figure and not being seen so much in the present. I like the flashbacks seeing him with the followers – seeing the cult progress and grow. Joe should be this mythological figure in the background. We never see him directly in the present day – flashbacks, video interviews, written statements. Joe shouldn’t be a man, but an abstraction. ‘Poe’ should me more like a demigod. Elemental and horrible in his aspect, he is an extension of Joe’s will. We never know how ‘Poe’ gets his orders, but we know that he’s acting as Joe’s agent outside. We should even suspect that there is more than one ‘Poe’, but we never get any certain indication either way. The only time ‘Poe’ is truly revealed is in the end of the season… and that is when we find out whether or not there is more than one ‘Poe’. Personally? Maybe. It all depends on how the first one is handled. It is an idea that needs to handled carefully – we see him too much and he (and by extension Joe) loses his power. See him too little and he’s nothing more than a bogeyman. If we have to have multiple ‘Poe’s figures, then maybe a second one if we keep the death of the first one dubious and only if it can serve to show just how much power Joe has on his followers. The idea is that ‘Poe’ is the Dragon and Agent Hardy’s worst nightmare: a true believer.

Well – I’ve blathered on enough about this. I need to shower and get to work. Hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I’ve been doing some math (yuck) and if I take a hit in the wallet and buy Apple TV ($99.00) and a non-subscription DVR (they exist) for $350.00, I can cut the cable and save myself about $150.00 a month – I’d have to upgrade the IP service to 20 Mb download to handle all the new attention. I checked out iTunes and saw that with the exception of one favorite show, they are all on iTunes to be downloaded. The DVR would be for that one show and various sports events, like the Olympics. I can get a HDMI splitter so I can plug in the DVR, the Apple TV and my Kindle Fire (provided I can find a mini HDMI cord) and after that – get rid of everything. I’m not going to do this until after this season of Game of Thrones. Getting rid of the cable package means getting rid of HBO and that means getting rid of HBO Go unfortunately. Out of everything I am going to lose, I am going to miss HBO Go the most… sure, I hardly used it, but it was nice to know that it was available to me. The $150.00 I would save could go back into my ‘hire-an-artist for I/O Error‘ fund. Also getting all this means that if I quit my job, the only major bill I would have hanging over me is the phone bill… and the mortgage, too – but I can keep going with those for a few months. The responsible thing would be to save up enough money to cover everything for about a year, finish something and get it out there and wait to see what happens. Provided I don’t lose my mind in the meantime. Kids – if you’re going to be strapped to a job, make sure it’s something you can at least tolerate.

I am going to set aside that Hellraiser idea for a while. As I am turning it around in my head, I don’t see where the drama is beyond the guy losing his mind from trying to the Cenobites to take him. It’s a fair-to-middlin’ idea, but it is not really a profitable one. I should concentrate on stuff that should theoretically turn some sort of a profit… which for me would be going back to I/O Error and the first novel. I am going to make myself stay up a little later than usual tonight and work on something. With Scrivener, I can get a lot more organized about what happens when in the chapters where as previously, I have had it all in my head and make it up as I go along. In fact, the way that this is set up, it allows me to see what I am lacking and what I need to do to keep the story moving. One novel I am working on in my head is falling into place, and I see a nice place to bring in a moment of pulling the rug out from under the reader (insert evil cackle).

Well, my coffee grows low and I should replenish. As always, I look forward to hearing from people and I insist that you have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy