… because I have to go back to work tomorrow. So today I intend on watching one last guilt-free hockey game, write some more on the Nano novel and Tyro’s novel and try to get back into the work swing of things. It was a good vacation and I only have to wait a couple of weeks before I take my last one of the year on Thanksgiving day week (I don’t know how I got that one either, but hey…). On a bit of a down note: this was cancelled. On a bit of an up note: I got the invoice for the cover art, so I can get that paid and get everything together before the end of the year. My beta reader is working to get the last chapter done. So – perhaps the first book of the New Year? We can only hope.

Speaking of hope: the Nanowrimo novel is coming on a little bit faster now that I’ve gotten over that expositionary stuff and I am getting into the meat of the issue: the possession. This is turning out a little better – I’ve really found a way to show how inhuman the possessor is with a couple of lines of dialogue (of course, taking over someone’s body doesn’t really hurt either). Now we just have to introduce the wraiths and get some of the ground rules down. Once that’s done, we can get going with the main story and get poor Danny introduced to Rhonda and get after Black Bart (yes, these are all placeholder names…the first order of business once the main work is done is to get all those names changed.). I am fairly confident that I can get this novel finished in November, so far it’s 8K words and I’m in the beginning of chapter two.

The Tyro novel is taking a bit of a back seat – doing double duty with both novels, but right now I am going to focus more on the Nano novel. Tomorrow, I go into the regular work set: Tyro in the morning, Nano when I get off work. Tyro’s novel needs at least 1500 a day, Nano needs 2K. Normally when I get off of work, all I want to do is shoot stuff and go to sleep, but if I want to get productive, then I’ve got a set aside some time in the evening to work. Those midgets are going to have to wait until Saturday evening to get their head shots, I’m afraid. I just have to tell myself that this is a first draft for either project: it is supposed to be horrible. That’s what the revisions are for.

Well – Thor: The Dark World opens this Friday. Thankfully, I get paid, so I am going to see that Saturday and I will give a review of it when I get back. Oh – I am going to write another installment of “I Would Have Done That Differently” for two series: Sleepy Hollow and Dracula. In one, I intend on pointing out that they there is enough history for everyone to use without getting really weird and in the other I rail against sexy vampires… again.

I need to get to Nanowrimo – so I hope you all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Hello, all! I have still a couple of days left on my vacation (everything ends on Wednesday, including optimism), but I wanted to take a week off and completely relax. It was fun. I got some neat stuff for my birthday, including this wonderful thing which I am now using just for writing. Unlike the other two laptops I have, this is possible because I can’t play any games on the Chromebook that are worthwhile – no offense Google…but if I want to play Angry Birds, that’s what I have a cell phone for. I also started NaNoWriMo and if you look to the right, there will be a counter to show how far behind I have gotten. I am going to a write-in today and I hope to get past the bare minimum today. I’m doing the project I was spit-balling earlier, so we’ll see how that goes.

The Tyro novel hasn’t been tended to in a while and that will be taken care of sometime soon. This is a vacation for me, so I took a week off and walked away from everything (except Borderlands 2, to be expected). The first novel is still getting the beta treatment and should be done by the middle of the month, or so I hope. I got in contact with the artist and we agreed on a price ($550 for everything) and I am waiting to hear back for the payment information and to get the covers taken care of. After this, it’s getting the ISBN number and deciding on how many platforms to put it on. After that, I will try to settle down into a double duty sort of thing: working on two projects one in the morning and one in the evening. “Quantity has a quality all its own” and all that.

I did see the movie Gravity. Wow – that is an intense film and I loved it. I am not a fan of 3D, but this is the one film you should see while it’s in the theaters. This is one of the few times where 3D is crucial to the movie experience. You get a real idea of the isolation the main character feels in space, especially in a scene where a tool goes floating off. The peril is a real risk that could happen whenever we go up (if we go up…). Sure, some people are complaining about the physics or some of the dialogue…but unless you’re an astronaut, or a physicist or an astronomer – there is nothing so glaring bad to pull you out of the movie.

Well, I should go get showered and all that. I’ve got a write-in to attend and I live on the other side of town… a side of town that I normally don’t go to, so I’ll have to warm up the GPS and make sure the dogs know where to go. I hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I sent the information off for the artist and now I begin the delicate art of stalking my inbox until I get a response. I thought that as you got older you were supposed to get more patient. When I was younger (and yes, my skin crawls at the use of that phrase), I seemed to have infinite patience. Now? I think Twitter takes too long. Maybe it’s because I am surrounded by things that can get me access to my email account: my phone, my PC and my growing family of laptops (and we’re getting an addition today!). Oh – my team is playing tonight against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Thanks to the lax attitudes concerning listening to music and other devices (otherwise, I wouldn’t have gotten SiriusXM), I can catch this game and hope that the Panthers can carry themselves to victory. They had better since the Bucs are floundering this season… then again; the Panthers are at 3-3 and barely hanging on to the hope of a play-off spot.

Anyways – the novel continues along with the group hightailing it out of the village with their newest companion Looks-Afar. It’s time to put them back into peril. I need to get them onwards to the rest of the tale. As much as I am looking forward to getting them to the next point, I know what’s going happen and I’m not really happy about it. But, hey – it’s in the service of the story, and they’ll get over it in time.

Nanowrimo is starting up next week and the first party is on the 27^th. I am looking forward to this since I am going to try something new: double duty. I am going to continue working on Tyro’s novel, but when I get home from work, I am going to try to crank out the Nanowrimo novel as well. The idea is to see if I can do such a thing and if it doesn’t liquefy my brain too much, I will try working on two projects on a regular basis so that I can get more going and get more out there to be bought. After all, I need to get as much out there as possible. I know some people have told me that the answer isn’t going to be writing more books, but I would beg to differ on that opinion. As long as I am producing new things – and I don’t have a shortage of ideas right now – and I can use what’s new to point people to what’s older, I can hope to maintain a cycle of discovery. I doubt I am going to get Stephen King levels of production, but I am definitely going to try. Really, it’s either that or I lose my mind.

Oh – I’ve been giving Sleepy Hollow
some thought and I have an idea on what I would do differently. I am going to flesh it out a little bit and post it on Saturday – try to bring that little thing back.

Well, I should go to sleep, since it is going to be a long time before I get any good deep sleep… at least December 1^st.

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I just finished watching the latest episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and it’s coming along. There are some little quibbly things I have with it so far (Agent Colson empties his whole clip into a guy on fire. Even I would have stopped after two shots and said ‘plan B – get me a fire extinguisher’, then douse him with CO2 and hit him on the head with the empty extinguisher. Seriously, you’re working with someone who shoots fire and you have electrical equipment. Ever hear of Halon? It’s not like they want him alive for a long time), but it’s a good ‘sit-back-and-watch’ show. This weekend after getting in a few hours of writing, I am going to get caught up on hockey and maybe Sleepy Hollow time permitting. This is going to be the one ‘vacation’ day where I do very little. The actual vacation, I intend on getting something done with the writing job. I’ll also need to get a model for some cover art.

Speaking of writing – I managed to hire an artist for the cover of the novel, and the revisions are being done as we speak. This will be the final pass. After this and when the cover art is ready, I am sending it off, washing my hands of whole matter and looking forward to the celebratory dinner at a nice restaurant across the river. Tyro is coming along (she’s one of the things I am going to work on during the vacation) and Nysa has managed to stammer out that she wants to stay – granted, she picked a bad time to say that she was leaving the group and Marah is not taking this well. Well, that’s not going to be a problem for much longer. Heh-heh-heh…

It’s Wednesday – meaning the half-way point until my vacation. If I can get through today, I can make it to the end. Thankfully, Tuesday wasn’t as arduous as it usually is in the first week of the month. I’ve found a message board for Kindle authors and I’ve been reading it and getting some advice on how to proceed with a lot of things…and it helps to see other people working at this and being successful enough to do it full-time. I’m sure I can get to that level of success. I just need to get something done and get going. Hopefully, I can get the novel out and done before too long. Personally, I will just be happy to have it out and no longer haunting me. It’s becoming like a houseguest who’s overstayed his welcome. It is time to give it a hat, coat and a friendly shove out the door to face the world.

Speaking of Wednesdays – I should get going and shower up for work. I hope everyone here has a good day. Thank you for reading this.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I got it! Well… not got but I pre-ordered Empowered volume 8! One – I like the character. Empowered is not just a pretty face. She’s someone committed to a cause, even to the point of personal embarrassment (you would be too if your suit was described as ‘wearing a soap bubble’) and she’s a lot more honest and forthright about it. Sure – the OEM has its Cinemax moments, but I can look past that and see a story about a courageous woman trying to defy all the odds. If you like comic books, then I highly recommend Empowered (follow the link to get volume one).

OK – that’s out of the way. Back to Tyro and the babbling. I am having a hard time with Nysa’s dialogue when she’s trying to tell the others that she wants them to go and she’ll remain behind. Writing Nysa is a three step process – a fun process at times, but a process nonetheless. Here’s an example: Nysa wants Tyro to share a milkshake with her (no, I am not thinking about McDonald’s chocolate milkshakes. Not at all… move along…). First, I think about what she wants to say:

“Give me some of your milkshake.”

As we can see, Nysa isn’t one for the subtle social niceties. Now, we fit in the code: Nysa refers to other people with a descriptive word. Tyro, in this instance, is always referred to as a body of water: river, ocean, wave… or a puddle is she’s being insulting. Another thing about Nysa’s speech is that she never refers to something by its name; it will be talked about in reference to the subject. The milkshake in this case will be referred to as sweet seafoam. If she was speaking to Mara, there would be a reference to metal. Nysa always refers to herself as fire – whether it’s a reference based on the fact that she’s a redhead (and in my head this woman portrays her), or that out of the group she’s the most volatile or that she has the most magical potential. Now this:

“Give me some of your milkshake.”

Becomes this after rewording:

“The fire wants to boil away the sweet seafoam and drink the steam from the sky.”

Yes – Nysa refers to herself in the third person. Trust me, this is the least irritating part of her personality. Now, Nysa has an odd syntax – and thanks to the Yoda Speak website I can just type in the dialogue and get it back in the right order. Once that’s done, now we have Nysa speaking in all of her babbling glory:

“To boil away the sweet seafoam and drink the steam from the sky the fire wants.”

So now we don’t know if she wants some of Tyro’s milkshake, or she wants to destroy all the water on the planet for a big steam bath. Isn’t Nysa just silly? With the scene I am trying to write, she wants to say this:

“The Master’s soldiers are coming! You have to run right now! I’m going to stay behind because I can lead them away from here if I have to, and I’m in love with the village elder’s boy. Now, go! Go!”

So, this is going to take me a little time to work around, so I might just focus on the other characters and come back to it during break so I can dedicate some hours to it.

I need to get to work. Nysa can’t babble to herself all day…well, she could, but that would be a boring story.

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

… until the birthday vacation! A week and a half of caring less about my job than I do now and catching up on hockey and Sleepy Hollow for me! I was finally able to watch the pilot and I am going to give you my review of what I have seen so far.

This is entertaining but lazy writing. The book of Revelation has been used to death. Same thing with the Four Horseman – while I don’t find it hard to suspend my disbelief and just enjoy the show, there is just the standard fallbacks for the show: religious conspiracy, the Bible, and misrepresented witches. Do I have any better ideas? Give me a minute. Let me watch a little bit more (yeah…poor me) and see what I could do. Some of you are going to say that I should have to see the rest of the series, and I intend to and if I have to eat a serving of crow then hand me my good fork. Just from the first blush – lazy. Don’t get me started on the kung-fu priest…

You may notice that there is no rambling about the nanowrimo project here; I’m still working out some things in my head so they’re not quite ready for the Internet yet. Tyro’s novel has been laying back untouched for the past few days, but I am going to go back to that. Right now, she’s trying to dig out a rock with the help of the hunda Looks-Afar. They are about going to get back on the road with the Master’s agents hot on their heels. They’ve had some good time in the village, and they’re going to be one short, but it’s time for them to go and get along with the rest of the story. I am hoping that the slight break will work out well for the novel. Speaking of novels – the first one has gotten an artist for the cover. I am going to get the money together to pay her and send what she needs. I am hoping for a release in the first of the year. It’s finally coming together!

I haven’t seen any movies in the theatre recently, but when my vacation comes around I am going to go see Gravity and might even see it in 3-D. Mostly, I am looking forward to the time off. The job is hectic and I know it’s going to get more-so with Christmas coming and the tree vendors. My advice? Use cash. Please. I beg you.

As the weather gets colder, I am considering getting some Death Wish coffee and stock up for winter. I need something that’s going to wake me up and keep me warm. Oh, and Borderlands 2 has some new DLC coming out Tuesday and I am going to buy it then and save it until Saturday. I should also get the updates so that I can get the characters up to level 72.

Well, I should get to work on the novel…or get some coffee. Either or. Have a good day and thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Hello, all. I am trying to get the rest of the outline done for today, maybe even finish up act three on Saturday in between the writer’s group, painting the ceiling tiles, cooking and maybe getting caught up on hockey and Sleepy Hollow. Right now, I’m at the library because the house is getting to be far too distracting. I got up much earlier than usual and I am finding it hard to get any mental purchase on the outline – or any other project really. Today, I am just going to chat openly about the outlining project and see what sticks in my head.

Right now, what’s going on is a bridge between the incident at the travel house and the discovery of either Danny’s hijacker or The Maw. I want to reveal a little bit about Ronda and what is driving her to help Danny. She is Touched, so she knows about the culture of the Rahsaya and one of the bigger taboos is that if you take someone’s body, you ward the spirit you displaced. Ideally, you put the spirit in a pocket dimension (work with me in this one) so that it is not aware of the time that has passed or that anything has happened. Rahsaya want as little attention drawn to them as possible. What the hijacker did was the moral equivalent of carjacking. Ronda is really sensitive about this not only because of her background (her father was a village elder and raised her with a very strict sense of right and wrong), but this was done to her a couple of times – several times by her own mother as a sort of punishment, which is why she’s is warded as heavily as she is. I am also going to try to start stirring the first few romantic notions in this scene, but I am unsure how to go about that. Danny is the squishy type – certainly not the person that we would think that Ronda would fall for. We would assume she would be following Brock around – someone who is strong and self-reliant. Danny certainly has a lot more respect for Ronda after finding out that her mother used that ability to keep her in line. They ride along in silence after that revelation.

Bleh. I didn’t get a lot of sleep. I think I am going to call it a day and let my mind wander about with this while I am at work. Sorry, y’all – I was hoping that getting to the library would help, but I think today is going to be a total wash-out. I did get a little done, but it’s not the massive amount I was hoping for. I will come back to the library later on and use it as an office, but I think I’ll just stick to my usual waking schedule since it’s close to the interstate and I can go from here right to work.

As always, thank you for reading. Next time will be better, I promise.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Well, Art Bell‘s show last night was rough…but not so rough that I wasn’t able to get some sleep. The last several ones were from older shows, but the newer ones at the beginning? Brr…

OK – the outline is marching along. I finished Chapter Five (with the female character saying the soon to be classic line: ‘I’ve earned something strong in a mug and between my legs.’) and I am working on Chapter Six – I got a lot done Monday, I don’t anticipate getting that much further today only because it’s Tuesday and the first full week of the month – Statement Week for those in the business. I try to at least get half way through the chapter and I might have to end the act and move on to the main part of the conflict.

As far as Tyro goes – we’re still working with the hunda and this might be one of the shorter chapters. Once the hunda has introduced himself and Nysa goes away from the group, then runs back screaming about the Kheru-Ta. The group runs away with the hunda following behind. This is going to be coming back to the ‘pushing my characters to the brink of agony’ school of writing. I think we’ve had enough of a break in the action to give everyone their breath back. Now, it’s time to get them running again.

It was slow last night, so I thought I would take all the projects I was working on and put them in a spreadsheet. It’s a way of keeping track of what’s getting worked on, what’s getting outline and what’s sitting in a corner and quietly withering away. On the bright side, I am going to be busy for a while (not counting opened series – I have at least 34 books to be worked on, thankfully there is only one open-ended series) which is a good sign since I read somewhere that the people who are writing and self-publishing they have a lot of things out there. So, I am hoping to get at least half of them done (especially the tent pole series) before I die. All the more reason to get back into walking after work since the weather is a little cooler, so I won’t have to towel myself off afterwards. Which would be nice for a small change to be able to sit down at the computer immediately afterwards.

I can’t wait for NanoWrimo! I am going to get through this one and might even try to finish the whole novel before the deadline. This particular season I am going to work on two projects on the same time – it’s not like I am going to run out of ideas anytime soon. I am also going to use this month to see if I can do two books at the same time. If I can do that, then I can get a higher sort of output and get a lot of things out the door as it were. Seriously – my largest single series is going to be George R. R. Martin-esque in size with five books and each book is going to be a minimum of 250,000 words, which means I am going to be working on that for several years, so I want to balance that with something short in order to keep things going. The goal I have is best summed up by one of Stalin’s maxims: Quantity has a quality all its own. I just hope it works.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I was able to finish editing the novel… well, maybe finish is too strong a word. Abandoned is a better word. Yes, abandoned is far more accurate term for what happened Saturday. Now, I am looking for beta readers. What is a beta reader you ask? A beta reader was explained to me as someone who reads a piece and points out places where the story can be shored up here and there. The phrase that was offered up to me as an explanation was: ‘read it like you hate it’ – the idea being that the beta reader who hates it will be looking for problems to point out with glee and abandon. The final word count was around the 65K range and I was looking at the final count to be 85K, so I’ve got 20K words worth of room to play with (…and that was my math trick for the day!) and I want to really flesh out the book. I don’t know if there is going to be a sequel – I did leave it open for that and I have some older ideas that I can fold into that particular world. If you are reading this particular blog and (I haven’t already pestered you to the point of distraction) want to volunteer to be a beta reader for this project, leave a comment on the blog with an email address and I’ll send you a copy.

Now, onto the outline – this novel outline is surprising me. Someone may say: but Mr. Apathy, you’re the writer: how the heck can something you’re creating be surprising to you? First: call me Seething…Mr. Apathy is my dad. Second: yes, the characters can surprise me because in my head, they are fully formed people. I’m just there writing everything down as fast as I can. Given that this is pen and paper writing, it’s a slow process for me and why I’m using only a green ink pen is beyond me.

Not pictured: Hand cramps.

I am going to continue with the outline and hopefully get it finished before the end of October (3 weeks until vacation!) so I can go from it right to NanoWrimo with little holding me back as far as time, sleep and other infirmities of the flesh.

Tyro’s novel continues along at its pace. I have begun introducing the hunda and Looks-Afar which will signal the end of the happy times there and the ushabit’s further running from their Master. I am kinda looking forward to this in as much as its going to further along the story and with any luck, I have gotten past my 200 or 300 word count days and can get back to the 1,000 to 1,500 word counts and finish this novel a lot sooner than I am anticipating. I am still aiming for 2014 to be the year that I release one novel. If I get lucky, I might release two and hopefully get out of the hole I’m in right now.

And on a personal note: The father of a good friend of mine is currently having severe health issues in the hospital. Prayers for his speedy and complete recovery will be welcomed.

I hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

… why we haven’t gotten a decent H. P. Lovecraft film. They’re remaking Godzilla (found the trailer) and Guillermo del Toro left At The Mountains of Madness to do Pacific Rim, but there are no big budget adaptions for anything directly from Lovecraft. Holy Cow, why not? It’s not like he’s been a minor influence in horror in the past 90 years. It’s not like it’s filled with impractical effects. Even if you have to go the low budget route – there is a lot you can do with just the atmosphere. Oh, well – we will have to just quietly hope and pray to our slumbering Lord beneath the waves.

OK – got three-quarters through the fourth chapter yesterday and should finish that part of the outline today. I started to introduce Ronda (remember these are placeholder names – put away your lawyers) and will get more into her (heh,heh,heh) as the tale goes on. I’ve been thinking about how most romance novels end with the guy and the girl getting together in the long term, but what if the pair do just nothing more than hook-up a few times and then go their separate ways? Maybe – but that seems like that would violate the HAE rule in romance. Well, we’ll see what pops up in the outline.

Finally finished Tyro’s eighth chapter and have started on the next one – and I got to introduce the hunda in general and Looks-Afar specifically. The hunda are intelligent, telepathic dogs. Looks-Afar is a young hunda and decides to follow Tyro (…or as he puts it ‘You’re my sidekick!’) along for the books. He’s going to be another touchstone character, someone that we can compare and contrast the ‘normal’ life with the ‘ushabit’ life. Looks-Afar is also going to be a bit of a comic relief himself, or at least he isn’t going to be as serious as some of the other characters. The hunda are the only thing that is from the original draft I wrote those many, many years ago. Hopefully, it will work out better than the first time. They were just here and there, now I am trying to make one a full character in the story.

I feel exhausted today and I don’t know why. Oh, wait – yes, I do. I’m a light sleeper on a late shift and I live near a grocery store, so everyone has to make their pilgrimage by my bedroom window and complain about ‘some motherfucker gonna get his shit taken out’. You might ask why I don’t have the windows closed. I will respond with: I do. The people here just talk that loud. I think I am going to try to lie down for a few minutes and get a quick nap before writing, or I might just sleep until 4:00 and shower and hop out the door.

Well, I hope your day is better than mine.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy