Hello, all. I’m on the official first day of the vacation (hence why I am writing this a little alter than usual) and I am going to say this: my Nanonovel has gone from a loving embrace of two kindred souls to a MMA title bout without all those rules like ‘no biting’, ‘no eye gouging’ and ‘no foreign objects (I’ll have you know, ref, that the two-by-four I am currently clubbing my novel into submission with was purchased from the Home Depot right down the street – that’s as domestic as they come, sir). Really, this thing is making my tear my hair out – which is my best feature, by the way, so I cannot bear to lose that. I am considering just abandoning it undone and short of the 50 K. Nanowrimo is starting to sap the joy out of writing for me, and I have another novel that’s done and that I need to finish up the editing on so I can get that ready for the printers by January 1^st. So, I think I am going to cut my losses here and let it go. The story isn’t gelling the way I want it to and I know I need to work some more on it in my head. So, to quote a 4-star general: “We’re not retreating; we’re advancing in a different direction.” So, on this vacation, I am going to go back to the Tyro novel and start outlining I/O Error. That way, this vacation can still be somewhat productive and I can have some fun.

Speaking of fun – I had a pretty good day today. Discovered a new series on TV – OK, not new, but it’s one I hadn’t seen before. It’s Arrow from CW – the same station that didn’t do Nikita any favors, but this one is good. Thank God for Netflix. Now if I could only remember the hockey games, I would be set. I have to admit, that this was the first time in a while that I have been able to sit down a watch a TV show. At least between Hulu Plus and Netflix I can try new shows and get caught up on the ones I like… well, except for the ones on FX. I still have to buy those on iTunes, but there are only three that I am actively interested in: American Horror Story, Wilfred, and Sons of Anarchy. All three of them I recommend highly based off of past performances – especially Sons.

Tomorrow, I will get back to Tyro novel and leaving one of their own behind. Maybe I can get some more headway in it while I’m here as well as get the outline for I/O Error done. After Tyro’s novel is finished, I’ll work on I/O Error more than likely start outlining another horror story – either Valentina’s Feast or Game of Chinese Whispers. More than likely the former because I’m still working out the details for the later in my head and it’s not really ready for the paper yet.

Well – that’s all for now. I hope you had a better day than my hockey team did. Feel free to drop a comment, or just say ‘hi’. Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Hello, everyone! I am here on vacation and I am just trying to stay in the developing groove of posting at least once a day during this week and the next. So, I am relaxing, letting nothing dictate to me what needs to be done immediately, or even ‘when you get a moment’. Right now, there is nothing more pressing for me than getting some yogurt, doing a little laundry and some dishes. Other than that – my motto will be: Cum promptum hoc faciam. SO, there might not be any posts other than the occasional ‘still here and enjoying myself’ send-ups. I will be writing, but it will take on the slow, leisurely pace of someone who has no Nanowrimo deadline looming, or an artist needing to know how large this book is going to be before she can finish the back cover. I have no extra pressure than from what I am going to exert on myself for Thanksgiving.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I won’t be able to do the whole stuffed crust thing, it’s just that the budget for the pizza was considerably tighter than I had forecast of first and the cheese was the easiest thing to get rid of and make it. I am still going to have a homemade stuffed crust pizza one day, but it won’t be for Thanksgiving, nor will it be for Christmas (we have hamburgers on Christmas). More than likely it will be for the first meal of the year. What better way to ring in the New Year than around a mouthful of homemade stuffed crust pizza? I can feel a new tradition being started.

I have been outlining I/O Error and I still have some hesitations about it. I’m taking two tropes that normally don’t go together at all: Robot Gone Mad and Cursed Ship. The switch I am doing with the first one is that we’re seeing things from the Robot’s point of view. More often than not with this particular trope, we’re seeing events unfold from a human’s point of view: we’re told that Robbie is going crazy and he demonstrates it by acting wacky and/or lethal. Well, I’m going with the idea that we’re watching all the events from the robot’s POV. Robbie (or in the case of the main character, Gail) isn’t going crazy – it’s responding to what it thinks are correct procedures and in line with the commands encoded within it. As far as the Cursed Ship trope – this one I am toeing the line with. I did my research on naval tradition as far as these sorts of things go and apparently, there are a lot of things that can go wrong with this. I would say more, but I don’t want to spoil anything. I am re-doing the outline and the rough draft so that I can get it right, since this is going to be my first horror novel. I just hope that my doubts about it are just a matter of jitters and not warning that I am venturing into territory best left to the professionals.

Well, my jeans are dry, so I’d better get them folded and put an end to all this unnatural usefulness on my vacation. Thank for reading, and as always – feel free to drop a comment or two in the box before.

Oh – on a bit of a housekeeping note: I am now without a plumber (business issues) and if anyone has anyone they can recommend in the Louisville area to come by every now and then to check on the pipes that would be appreciated.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Seriously, I just found out I had another 20 hours of vacation time and they let me put it forward into 2014. So I’m going to get a couple of days off in the first full week of the year. Not a bad way to start off 2014, but I am still going to angle to get The Olympics off next year as well. Actually, I am hoping that I can get out of the whole thing before October, get the vacation and declare my two week notice by e-mail the night before I leave my vacation. Would be the best thing to have my final two weeks off paid and get to work on the novel.

I am still pushing through the Nanonovel and more than likely going to try to get completely caught up (and hopefully to pull ahead) on Saturday. I am going to try to get some more done today, but it is looking like the majority of the work is going to be on Saturday, which isn’t too bad for me. I just want to get this done and out of the way so I can get on to I/O Error and take a break from fantasy/romance/steampunk for a while…well, not really much of a break since I’ll be working a little more on the Tyro novel to get it finished. After that, it’s going to be an assembly line process of writing one novel, editing another and outlining a third. 2014 is going to be the Year of Production. Hopefully, it will also be the Year of Freedom.

Beyond vacation, I can’t wait for next week since it’s Thanksgiving and I am looking forward to cooking the dinner. I will post pictures of the ensuing meal here and let you know if the food has killed me or not. This is the only time that I really go all out and cook. Most of the times, it’s either something really quick (beans, rice, sausage and a healthy amount of honey mustard), microwavable meals or sandwiches. It’s amazing that I am alive sometimes. Anyhow, this Thanksgiving is going to be a simple meal and a nice dessert from Cheesecake Factory…followed by a coma. Because – tradition!

I should get to Nanonovel since it’s creeping up past the afternoon and I will still need to shower, shave and all that. Thanks for reading, feel free to drop a comment (I respond!) and I hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I am still going to try to pull out the Nanonovel, but I am more than likely to try to get as caught up as I can get during Saturday with the write-in. It’s really going off the rails, but I am going to stick with it because I’ve gone this far and there is no reason to turn back now. Thankfully, I’ve got the vacation coming up, so I can gain a lot ground and hopefully get to the 50K mark by the 29^th and try to get a little over just for pride’s sake. After that – the story goes away to get a little further done in my head. I’ll try to get back to it, but it’s going to be one of the back-back burner stories. Don’t worry – I am not giving up on it, but I’m thinking I should have let it grow more in my head. Lesson to the rest: don’t rush a project. Let it grow and build on its own. You’ll know it’s finished… or at least when it’s ready to be abandoned.

Everything is coming along as far as the first novel goes – I need to get the final edits down so I can get the artist my final page count. I am shooting for an 80K novel – short for a fantasy, but I think in the right range for romance. I do have an idea in mind for a sequel concerning two of the secondary characters, but not for the main characters yet. Which is OK – I am right now focusing on the Nanonovel and getting the first one out of the door on January 1^st. Going to be a great week next week – mostly because of me not being at work. I can feel that everything is coming together in this novel. Just got to make it for the final sprint and speaking of final sprints, I have written the blurb for the back cover:

The elf Rhona fleeing her past hears a voice calling her in the deep woods.  Taking up an urgent quest from creatures born in an age of myth, she must rely on her wits and skills to survive the task.  Bringing the Scholar Anya to her aid, Rhona finds herself fighting against evils older than her kind and the malice of humans around her.  The stakes grow increasingly perilous the closer to gets to her rendezvous with the Blade of Everthirst.  What will she surrender to save the world?  Her music?  Her life?  Her heart?

Hopefully, this will entice some people to read the book. Honestly, this took me sweating blood to get it out. 50K novel? No big problem. 100 word blurb summarizing that novel? Dammit, Jim – I’m a novelist, not a miracle worker.

All of this reminds me – In a month and a half, the latest volume of Empowered comes out! Looking past the kink and the fan service, this is a well-crafted series about accepting one’s destiny regardless of how uncomfortable or desperate it makes you. I recommend it highly and it’s one of the best OEM out there.

Well, I should try to pull the Nanonovel out of the fire and put it back in the pan. Thank you for reading, and I hope you all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

OK – when I feel that a novel is starting to go off the rails, I stop it and go on to something else. I go on to something else because everything isn’t coming together right at that point, so there is no need to spin my wheels as it were. Well, that would be all well and good, except that the project that going awry is the Nanonovel. The one that I am trying to get to 50K by the end of the month and it’s not going as planned. So, now I’m just trying to get along with it, but honestly, I can feel the call of other projects (sounds like a concert in my head with all the projects I have) – particularly my horror works. I’m just going to have to tough this out and see if I can get to at least 50K and then set it aside and work on it after I have gotten some distance and a better outline. Oddly enough, the whole thing is coming apart about where the current outline ends. Hmm…

Anyways, Thanksgiving is almost here and I’ve got to get everything together. Since it’s pizza, this might be the cheapest dinner to date. Seriously, I am going to cook some turkey meat (or chicken) and put it on a homemade pizza crust – stuffed of course – and bake it with pepperoni, cheese and maybe some ground beef. Spend the rest of the day watching football and maybe outlining something during the commercials. Yes, I don’t vacation very well when it comes to writing. Well, that and I am finally getting my feet under me as far as working projects go – thanks to the Chromebook. Seriously, the Chromebook has a great platform for office work (and writing) but it doesn’t have anything as far as games go – sorry Chrome, but the best game you have is Tetris. Granted, I like Tetris, it’s a great time waster – but I have it on my phone, so I don’t really need it on the Chromebook. Even better, I can set up multiple accounts, so I can separate horror from romance from fantasy from smut. In case you’re wondering – no, I am not getting anything from Google or Chrome for this…yet…. (hint)

With the vacation coming up, the only other plan I have after I am done writing for the day is to settle down and play the latest DLC from Bioshock: Infinite – which is still a game that I highly, highly recommend to everyone. This current DLC is supposed to take place in Rapture before the Fall – and I must admit that I bought the book that supposedly chronicles it, but I haven’t read all of it yet. I wish someone would put it out on an e-book format so I could take it with me. I’d do it, but I have a lot of better things to do than sit in front of a computer and type out someone else’s words.

So – with all of this said and working on my second cup of coffee, it’s time to put on my YouTube playlist… you know, the one I cannot play in front of my pastor and get working. I hope y’all have a good day, feel free to submit comments and thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I have another vacation coming to me next week, where I’m out for six days, then I have another four day weekend and that’s it. No more days off until (hopefully) February when I am going to try to get the Winter Olympics off. With this vacation, I am going to get the final changes to the novel done and aim for the New Year’s Day release. I also need to get the blurb written for the back cover and see if it’s too late to send it to the artist. As far as the NaNoWrimo novel… sigh… it’s going off the rails a little, but I want to get through the 50K limit and then I might set it aside and try to get Tyro’s novel finished and get away from fantasy for a while and get to some horror. It’s not that I’m burning out from writing romance/fantasy, but when a book starts to shudder through the turns, I know that it’s not ready for the first draft.

So, the horror story that I am working on is going to be I/O Error. I still like the concept and I am going to re-do the outline to get it to fit in the structure. The idea of robots and ghosts is (as far as I can see) a fairly original idea. I am not going to say anything else right now since I am going to work over the outline and I don’t want to put anything down yet until it is done and in ink. Speaking of ink – I should get some ideas together for the celebratory tattoo for both books: the first novel (The Quietest Heart) and my first book. The tattoo for the first book is ready; I just need to get it on my forearm. The second one? Not so much, but I am willing to field some ideas. No faces, please – the idea of having a face on my body is a little disconcerting for me. I am working on getting Tyro’s first novel finished by the middle of the new year and I am going to get I/O Error started in December and aim to have it ready for editing by end of March.

I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is around the corner, which means I need to get the stuff together for the pizza. Yes – I said pizza. I am going to make a stuffed crust pizza topped with turkey, pepperoni and ground chicken. For dessert, there will be cheesecake and more football than you can shake a stick at; followed by napping. Lots of napping and dishes for me, but it’s part of my week off, so I can’t complain. After that, I need to get stuff together for Christmas – such as the marathon list. Anyone have any ideas of horror films for Christmas? I’m not really focused on ‘holiday-themed horror films’ but I want to have enough films to stretch the whole day. I like J-horror as long as it’s subtitled. If you have any really good ideas, feel free to put them in the comments.

Well, I’ve got to get my word count in for today and a shower. Thanks for reading and I hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. I have to get up at 7:30 AM and get out the door by 8:00. I get to go to the writer’s group and get started at 9:30 (and they keep creeping the time up on me…) and try to stay awake until they close everything at 1:00. Now, you might be telling me that it’s only three and a half hours and I should suck it up. You’re right…I’m getting up earlier for this than I get for my day job. After that, I duck out for a quick lunch and go to the NaNoWrimo write in from 2:00 to 5:00 and try to make up a 3,600 word deficit from Wednesday. I did about 2,000 today in a couple of hours, so getting the 3,500 in three hours shouldn’t be a big deal. Even if I get half that, I will come home and start the laundry, do the dishes and make up the difference while half listening to a hockey game. As long as I hit 3,500 by midnight I’m good.

Am I complaining? I hope I don’t sound like it (except for getting up at 7:30, that just sucks balls). It’s going to be a  good excuse for me to eat out for all the meals, this cutting down on the numbers of dishes I will have to do. I’m spending time writing, which is what I want to do for a living and I like hanging out with other writers, still it’s a good way to network. The only downside is that I’m not going to have any time to get caught up on any of the series I’m watching when I do watch TV. Speaking of which, I got the series package for “American Horror Story: Coven” this week. Next week, I’m going to get caught up with “Sons of Anarchy” and maybe in the first of December I’ll indulge a private vice if mine and get the current season of “The Ultimate Fighter” and gaze at Rhonda Rousey.

As far as the first novel, I’m getting ready to give the artist my step of approval and see if I can get a blurb for the back cover before anything goes to print…which I am still looking at getting it out there at the first of the New Year. After that, I’m going to focus on only one novel at a time. I thought I could do double duty, but that is sadly not the case right now. Maybe when I can dedicate more time to writing, but not right now with the day job. All the more reason to work hard with getting the first novel our and finish the Tyro novel. The Nano-novel is going to be a low priority. I’ll finish it (hopefully by the end of November) and set it far aside and get back to the Tyro novel and get it done and ready to be released as the second novel of the year and try to get the second novel finished and out the door before year’s end. After that, I think I’ll work on I/O Error and give fantasy and romance a rest.

Well, I’ve got an hour and a half until the marathon day. I’d better get my iron pills and caffeine ready. I’m sure you’ll have a more restful day than me, but it won’t be as fun.

Sincerely,
Seething Apathy

I did get some writing done in the morning before I went to sleep – four hundred-ish words, so if I can get another 1,400 today I will hopefully get back to at least getting the 50,000 word count by the end of November. I kinda doubt that the novel will be fewer than 50K. More than likely, it’s going to get to the 75K point and wrap up quite nicely. A wonderful and rare thing from me: a one-shot novel. No sequels, no branching tales or anything like that. Personally, I am a little stunned. Usually when I work on something, I’ll get caught up with the characters and the world and keep on going in my head. Not with this one. The main character rides off into the sunset with the girl, cue credits. A nice change if you ask me, especially considering most of my one-shot novels are my horror stories where…well…something gets the girl.

Only the Japanese are going to appreciate the love scenes…

I am working on the post-Nano projects, since it looks like I am going to get the first novel released by the end of the year. I’m going to split my attention between two works: the Nano-novel if incomplete (as certain as the tide rises and falls in my flooded basement [speaking of Cthulhu]) and trying to finish the Tyro novel. After that, I am going to work on I/O Error and depending on how long it takes me to finish the other projects; I will also work on the second Tyro novel. The only thing that will keep me from working on two things at once is if splitting my attention detracts from the work. My only goal at this point is to finish something again and build upon the successes. 2014 is going to be my year…just in time for the collapse of e-publishing.

I have been re-reading The Shining to get ready for Dr. Sleep and I forgot just how unnerving some scenes were for me. Growing up in a similar setting to Danny, there are certain undertones that I’m picking up on now that I might have missed in the previous times I read it. I’m also reading it under the lens of everything that happens to Jack Torrance is a hallucination and we’re sitting in the front row of his breakdown. It’s also going to be interesting to read some of his older work to compare and contrast with his newer work. I don’t know about you, but I could tell there was a tonal shift concerning his work after the accident. Not just supernatural horror versus psychological horror, but just a shift in the darkness of the tone. I wonder if I am the only one who has been picking up on it. Then again, I’ve been reading his work ravenously since I was a kid and consider him one of my writing professors (whether he knows it or not…more than likely not).

Well, time to get back to work and try to get a decent amount. I am resigned to this Saturday being the big makeup day, so it’ll be a day of travelling, writing and eating out for all three meals. As you can tell, I am completely heartbroken.

Thanks for reading and I hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I am hitting a brick wall when it comes to the Nano-novel today. I got up early and already my day has been changed because I have to do a couple of errands that I couldn’t put off until I got home from work. I am such a creature of habit that I am out of my writing groove and it’s already after 12:00 pm here. I think I am going to declare the day over and go on to something else once my PC has done all the updates (at least this time it didn’t shut itself off before I had a change to save some pictures) and restarted. I am another day behind on the novel and I can only hope I can make it up either tomorrow or Saturday with the all-day writing event. It is days like this that I seriously wonder about the practicality of doing this full time. I say this now, of course, since I am not at my day job. After a couple of calls, I am certain that I will say even a bad day of writing is better than a good day at work.

Oh! I got the first draft of the cover from the artist back today. It looks goooooooood:

© Renu Sharma

Wow. That’s all I can say about this. The artist got the color of the cloak exactly right. This is definitely worth what I am paying her for (about a whole paycheck for me) and I am definitely going to hire her again for other covers. She has my complete endorsement. If you’re a writer and you need some cover art done – you can’t do better than her.

Well my computer is going to shut down. Surry everyone, but with everything that is happening here, I am going to call it and get my shower and lunch together. I hope your day is a little more productive than mine.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Hello, all. I am doing this a little late since I’m trying to catch up with missing writing the Nano-novel Sunday. I think I’m back on track to finish on the end of the month (whether or not I’ll be done with the story is another thing). The One thing I am trying to remember as far as writing this is something that one would think I’d have down by new: it’s the first draft. It’s going to suck by design.

Some of you are probably telling at your screen now, reminding me that I’ll need to write many, many drafts before the final novel is done and that I need to be patient so that the final product – what everyone is going to see – will be the perfect draft. No one cares how the hot dog is made, they only care how it tastes in the end. I’m obsessed with everything being right as soon as the words hit the screen. Granted this is good when I’m editing it for the first time, or plotting everything out in my head. When I’m writing the first manuscript? I need to allow myself the luxury of being sloppy. No one is going to see the rough draft outside my writer’s group or maybe a close circle of writer friends (applications pending), so I can be a little bad. I need to maybe have that cross-stitched and hanging on the wall next to my favorite Stephen King quote.

Sorry If I seem like I’m rambling, but trying to catch up has me a little exhausted today. Saturday it’s going to be a default long day for me: writer’s group followed by the NaNoWrimo write-in. Thankfully, it’s being held at a local coffee house. Sure, I’ll end up buying enough coffee to float a luxury liner and the drive home will be interesting if I get caught in a traffic jam at the wrong time (“Officer, you should know better than most people that you only rent coffee. Well, I rented a lot of coffee. Besides, it’s not like as anyone goes swimming in that river…”).

Well, the Tyro-novel is languishing where it is. My only goal now is to get the Nano-novel finished and out to rest before the first round of edits. With any luck it’s going to be shortly before the end of November and I can get back to Tyro’s novel and start outlining the horror novel. I need to start to establish some sort of ordered routine. Maybe I’ll get to that in December.  Maybe I’ll get a nap in first.

Mmmm… naps.

I hope you all have a good day and thanks for your reading patience.

Sincerely,
Seething Apathy