I don’t know if any of you are either Dr. Who fans or Sherlock fans (I like them both, but my fandom is usually a bit more on the reserved side), but this is something you should see. It is the work of one man, a lot of editing software and more patience than I’ll ever have for the visual medium. This is some really good stuff – looks like it was really filmed by a crew at BBC One and put together by Moffett himself. Really worth a look when you have the chance.

The novel continues to get edited, and I am glad that I am doing it just because I am finding some small plot holes that I can patch up with a sentence or two, which is good because I want to cram in at least 9,000 more words in it so I can get to the nice round number of 80,000 and move on to the next novel which will be a lot larger (almost double the size). Also, it’s going to be put together a lot better than this one. The first one is a learning experience (lesson number one: edit the plotty stuff first. Lesson Two: the cover is the last thing to worry about) and the second one will be a stronger effort, provided I can get the outline finished soon. Hopefully this will be a quiet Friday… or not…

Speaking of novels – I’ve started reading Infinite Jest and I was wondering if I am on track in thinking that it has a Monty Python-esque sense of humor to it: very dry and absurd. I don’t know if I am reading it right, but I am going to tough it out – it’s one of those books that people say that I should read… then again – people tend to throw a lot of books at me… no, wait – that’s when they want me out of the house. Never mind.

This is going to be a little short because I do have to edit down a couple of pages and I want to make sure that I finish the next chapter today to keep me going this Saturday. If I am lucky, I am going to be at least half-way through the novel coming into the week before Christmas. I know that I am not going to do anything Christmas Day (The Christmas day Horror Movie Marathon – brought to you by NetFlix!) and I have a hard deadline approaching.

Well, thanks for reading and I hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

… so I can start ignoring them on January 1^st.

The most important one: Really ramp up the production of the works:

1. Finish an outline every month
2. 1,700 words a day, six days a month, this will allow me to…
3. Finish a rough draft every three months.
4. Have a finished novel out at least once a year.

    

This is completely within reason (well, I’m not so sure about the first one given I’ve had with getting the concept of Tyro’s third novel down. However, I have so many other things to work on) and if I am to gain any traction and get this career thing going, I should have some sort of structure or plan to adhere to. The most important thing that I must remember is that if I fall short of a goal – it is not the end of civilization or my career. Yes, I am one of those insufferable perfectionist types when it comes to my writing. Yes, this is going to be a problem, but it is one that I can head off at the pass. Like the old saying goes: ‘art is not completed, only abandoned‘.

Speaking of abandonment – the editing is coming along. If I can get at least two pages done, I’m doing good as far as being consistent. However, having only 2 ½ weeks to get it done so I can get the final word count (pro-tip: have the whole thing done before you get the art done, just sayin’) to the artist so she can resize the cover. I gotta get this out by Tuesday after Christmas so I can ring in the New Year with a sale or two and hit the ground running as it were.

I am running a little late on this because I hit snooze rather than wake and went back to sleep. While waking up to Art Bell is a great way to get up…I am still getting up. Bed gravity is always hard to overcome in the winter…that and a whole host of other problems that I won’t go into at depth right now. That and the circuit tripped twice because I have a small space heater that just decided that it was the most important thing in the room and blew everything else aside.

I am working on the outline for I/O Error while at work (making me, technically, a paid writer) and it’s creeping along. I am glad I have the night shift so that there are a couple of hours in which the calls are few and far between enough so that I can get a chapter finished. When that outline is done, it will be the next novel to get written. Tyro is going to get an occasional update. One of the things I am going to do is not start writing a series before all the outlines are done. This way, I can avoid that problem of people having a long wait in between books (I’m looking at you, GRRM). Long books, like The Pentateuch of Able won’t see the light of day for years, but it will be nice to surprise people with regular offerings. I never liked the idea of ‘market oversaturation’. Seems like a ploy to inflate demand.

Well, I need to get to work. As always – thanks for reading. If you like this, feel free to subscribe over on the right. Also, one of my good friends and better writer Amy Valenti has a couple of books out. I highly recommend her to anyone looking for something different.

I hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Now I get to work three long days and get a four day weekend – lucky me! Right now, I’m working on an ‘I Would Have Done It Differently‘ for the show Dracula on NBC. I’ve watched all the current episodes and I have a lot of problems with it.

First all: it looks like the major powers were set up by asking the question: ‘what does our target audience hate the most?‘ and someone yells ‘greedy corporations!‘ (I’m going to let you contemplate the delicious irony of an arm of this corporation writing an anti-corporation screed in the first episode) and someone else yells ‘oil‘. Seriously – this was handled as subtly as a hammer blow to the head. A shadowy cabal of hidden masters running a corporation… where have I heard that before, I wonder? This is the best villain you can get? I can do a lot better than that. Way lot better.

Second: While I like some of the notions that they bring up (Van Helsing allied with Dracula), there are others that I am simply tired of seeing: one of them is Dracula as a symbol of unrestrained sexuality. Yes, I know: that’s what he was in the literature (Given everything else I’ve seen in the series, I wonder if the research into this was nothing more than a vampire movie marathon) and that’s where he is the most effective, but there are a lot of other ways that we can use the Count. Rather than rooting him in the Victorian Era – put him in the Edwardian Age in the trenches of World War One, exulting over the mechanized carnage of modern warfare? Picture it: standing in No-Man’s Land, arms wide as bullets smack into him with no effect and shouting ‘This is your modern age! Mr. Harker! No longer do you glory over the warmth of dying blood on your blade! No longer do you get to hear the coming of death in a man’s final gasp! A sterile Hell for me to weep over and for you to reign unchallenged!‘ If we really want to shake up the Count – let’s ditch the Gothic romance/obsession angle and get back to what he was supposed to do: make us fear for our souls.

I am not saying that there is nothing good about the series, but it’s just that they’ve hit all of the obvious tropes (including this one, this one, another one and this one with Lucy/Mina) in trying to please a wide base and really ignoring some really good changes to tell a story about the death of one age and the birth of another a la From Hell. Am I the only one who feels like this? Feel free to post something in the comments section.

Sadly, I must go and shower and get ready to go to work. I hope y’all have a good day and thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Well, I am having some computer issues that I am trying to sort out on my own. This edition of my vacation is being brought to you by my newly rediscovered Nook. Since I had some time while my computer is doing a virus checkI thought I would clean off my desk. Lo and Behold, I find this little thing under a pile of papers that bad inexplicably not fused into diamonds. I hooked it in and left it to charge. Now it is back up and running while my Kindle gets a little vacation of its own.

Sadly, the issues with the computer are keeping me from getting anything else done (that and some of the mess has transferred to the little desk where my Chromebook is sitting). I am one of those nervous types that couldn’t focus on the work at hand without neurotically checking the computer to see if it hasn’t blown up yet. At least it was Black Friday, so there was little to be expected anyways.

Oh! Before I forget, I have been invited to a cyber-release party for Amy Valenti – fellow author and good friend. If you look to your right, you should see a couple of links to her work on Amazon. I recommend her highly as a writer of erotica and also as an editor – she edited my first book. I will report back on what happened. I’ve never been to one of these sort of things before.

Well, this will be a little short, mostly because it is late and I need to get some sleep. I will actually post some things about how I would do “Sleepy Hollow” and “Dracula”. I might even end up using the Dracula idea for a novel. Who knows?

As always, thank you for reading please feel free to leave a comment below.

Sincerely,
Seething Apathy

No post today. Relax and have fun today.

Huzzah! I made it through the store with a majority of my vices intact! I got the last minute things I am going to need until I can get to an open grocery store on Friday. If you’re going to a store on Thursday, I consider you part of the problem. Stay home. You don’t have to be with your family (I’m not), but I am sure that there are people who will have to work tomorrow who want to be with their families. Everything will be there Friday, I promise.

As I was getting ready for tomorrow, I didn’t have much time to do anything constructive. Tomorrow isn’t going to be any better, frankly. All day football, turkey pizza and apple pie, and you want me to do what? Seriously?

I am still working on the I/O Error outline on paper and I keep wondering about the concept of robots being able to see and interact with ghosts, so I am just going to babble aloud here and let me know if this is going to be too irritating. So – here it goes: the whole notion about robots seeing the ghosts aboard the doomed ship The
Shepherd goes back to the notion that machines can pick up more information than people can – whether or not you want to chalk that up to a filter that living people have versus the genuine non-bias of a machine, or just that ghosts use the electro-magnetic fields to lend them more energy to overcome that barrier enough to make some sort of mark (I am going with a little from column A and a little from Column B) – and I am running along with it as well as the notion of Asimov’s Laws of Robotics. In particular, I am looking at the first two: Rule one: a robot must not allow a human to come to harm, either by action or inaction. Fairly straightforward, right? CL4-TP, as irritating as he is to some people, can’t do anything to you under this broad definition even if you merit it. However – in the story, there is a corollary. Human is defined as a person on board The
Shepherd by the invitation of the captain and is designated under three classes: guest, crew and officer. If you have an invitation (permission) – oh, if there is an official nautical term for this, please let me know what it is – by the captain, then you are considered a person and the robots that are part of the crew will do everything they can to see to your safety. If you are not there by the invitation of the captain… then you’re out of luck. They’re not going to kill you, but if you’re stuck in something and about to die…sorry, dude.

Rule two: A robot must follow the instructions given to by a human so long as they do not go against the First Rule. Now, here’s where we’re getting a little complicated. Going back to our corollary of what defines human, there were two classes of people: guest and crew. How do the robots know which one to follow? Simple – officers are the top of the food chain, followed by crew and finally guests. So far, no real problem – the orders trickle down from the top. If the Captain says jump, you jump so long as it’s not into a vat of molten steel. Now, the protagonist’s issues come with the problem of not knowing which member of the crew giving her orders is one of the real crew members, or a ghost. Since all input is equal to her coming from the crew, the protagonist can’t make an effective call and acts in what it considers a logical mode. Everyone else thinks she’s going nuts. Now – here’s my problem: how is it that one robot can see the ghosts and interact with them, but all of the others can’t? I have an idea and I will further explain it to you Friday.

Two words: Quantum Computing.

Thanks for reading, and as always – feel free to drop a comment.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I actually got a little work done today. I’ve started the (hopefully) final edits for the novel and I am going to get a lot more work done tomorrow. I am confident that I can get everything done by the first of the New Year. Whether or not I will be able to have a release party, I am not sure – but I am leaving that notion open. This is a vacation, after all – I should be relaxing a little. Having said that, I am going to have to go to the grocery store tomorrow…so much for relaxation time. I am not very good in crowds, especially store crowds, but I will pack my headphones and load up on some calming music. I am looking forward to editing this and hopefully putting in some padding where some is needed. After all, I have to get to 80K words. What’s the world record for use of the word ‘very’ in a single sentence? I’ll bet I can top it easily.

Currently, where I live, it’s getting cold (check local listings for current temperature and dancing penguin schedules in your area) and I am hauling out the winter clothes a lot sooner than I had expected. Thankfully, I have coffee to keep me warm, but I must admit that I am feeling the cold a lot sooner than I did a few years ago. I wonder if it’s because I am losing some insulation on my body or that I am just getting older and more sensitive to the temperature changes. I fear it’s the latter. Oh, well – can’t do anything about that.

Enough about the weather – let’s talk about TV for second. I am caught up with Dracula and I am somewhat disappointed with it. I think I am going to take it off the queue on Hulu Plus, but I do like what I am seeing with Almost Human and the performances that the main cast is bringing in. Arrow has still impressed me and I am going to watch a couple more episodes and see what it has in store. Sleepy Hollow has lost me a little (this Saturday, I think I will go to that least visited category: TV and Movies and try re-vamping both Dracula and Sleepy Hollow), but I am going to try to get caught up over the next few days. There are really a few shows that I will watch on a constant basis: The Colbert Report and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Everything else is catch as I can. I also need to get back to watching some documentaries – especially Monsters Inside Me. I have an idea on how I can turn one of the ideas in it into a particular plank in a horror novel idea I have called A Game of Chinese Whispers – more on that after I finish up the novel and get some more headway into I/O Error. So many things to do and all of them are going to make me happy. Eventually.

However, I should get some sleep, since I have to get going for the grocery store tomorrow. Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a comment.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

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