Hello, all – this Monday was a little rough for me. The plumbers had to come in and replace the toilet at 9:00 AM. So, not only was I having minor panic attacks, but I was also running on a few hours of sleep. When they left and I came down, I decided to take a nap and I had an odd dream. I am surprised I remembered it.

I was driving in my car to work on a particular stretch of highway (I-65 S for those of you playing the home game) by the airport. I was zipping along at a good clip – I know it was a dream because there no police pulling me over. This is a three lane highway and the lanes on either side were at a standstill. The lane I was in was barely occupied. It was just me zipping along. When I passed the airport, I saw something that looked like a toll plaza, but there was a chain-link fence on the other side. This is what was stopping the cars in the other two lanes. Ahead of me there were two other cars. I slowed down and eventually stopped. On the other side of the fence, there was no road, but what looked like a sea of lava within the confines of the road. On the other side it was the same landscape: the overpass, the clearings and the buildings were all there and unchanged. Just the road ahead of me was lava. The attendant there on the other side of the fence grabbed a big hose and started to spray the lava. The lava hissed, steamed and eventually cooled. He unlocked the gate and the cars ahead of me started to travel on this road. I followed, but a lot slower than what I usually travel. The road was bumpy and unmarked, but I still travelled it. When I came over the large hill is when I woke up.

I am following the schedule, so when I am done here it’s off to work on I/O Error. I am trying to get this novel done so I can go on to the next one-shot. As far as the series, I am going to go on ahead and start Tyro’s series. I’ve gotten some really good ideas about it, and I am amped up to start the big series. This is the one that I hope will put me on the map as it were. It’s a really good series (or it is in my head) and it’s one that I am very passionate about. I hope that passion will show itself in the work. I have to admit: Tyro is probably the closest thing I will ever have to a daughter.

As far as the smut goes, I did finish one (As Kinky as We Get) and I was working on another one when the week ran out (Appealing – spoiler, this one is based off a fantasy I have). I’m going to go back to it later on. As far as the smut goes, I want to have a three month buffer (6 stories – I plan on releasing them twice a month) to work with. I hope everyone has a good day. I should get to work.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Well, the plumbing in the house has been acting wonky and since I came upon a windfall, I figured I would use it to get the bathroom fixed. I am not going to go into the details, but this is costing me a lot of money (charging me for the water coming in and going out? Stay classy, City) over the long run, so I’m going to try to stem the flood as it were. I hate to admit it, but so far this house has been a money sink. I’m still considering arson as a financial tactic, but we will see what happens. I am so happy I have some pain killers left over from the time I was sick – maybe they can take the edge off of having the plumber here. You’d think that as often as one shows up, I would have this many problems… but, no. A stranger comes in and I have to be peeled off the walls.

Smut continues, but it’s coming a little slowly as the week ends, so I am going to organize myself for a big push to finish one piece on Saturday before I head out. I might even be able to get both finished – one is at the half-way point and the other one is heading for an act change. I might even work on one a little bit when I get off of work today. I’ve got another couple of ideas, but they need to be fleshed out (ha-ha) before I commit them to the screen as it were. I’m kinda worried that there is only so much depravity I can claw my way through before I run out of saleable ideas. Oh…wait…I have Wikipedia. Never mind, then – let the smut flow. As you might be clicking on that link and thinking this, I am gambling that there are a couple of people out there thinking this and they’re going to tell their friends. Besides – I should try to do things that interest me, which will reflect on my work. Did I mention that I am a jaded, bitter middle aged, world weary person? Sorry, I should have put that in the bio.

The plumber is here, so I am going to get myself a shot of rum and wait patiently as he fixes (hopefully for the last time) the bathroom. I am still committed to having this house torn down and rebuilt once I either hit the lottery or sell enough books. Smut-ward, ho!

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Hello all – I know this is coming out a little later than usual, but I am just slow in getting my act together as it were. Rather than sitting down in front of the keyboard with breakfast in one hand and my Kindle in the other reading the news; I just sliced myself some lemon pudding cake and plopped down in front of the TV. I watched Stephen Colbert and one of my favorite music videos on iTunes before settling down to write. I’ve had my morning Pepsi and will zap a lunch-like object later on today, but it’s hard to get going in the morning. Maybe coffee should be implemented. Do I have any? I should check.

As far as the erotic literature smut is going along, I am finding it interesting writing. I just sit down and act out various fantasies in my head and put them to paper. Now, before anyone gets a hold of these things and makes this face I am going to say this as a pre-emptive disclaimer: I Am Not Actively Into What I Write. Let me be clear – I am writing some kinky things at the mental prompt of: what sounds interesting? As far as sex goes, I am doing this, which might be giving cause to what I am writing right now. Seriously (and here is a peek into my so-called normal life) – when I do have sex, I make vanilla look kinky. Parents! Do not let your children grow up in a repressive Catholic household! They will grow up to be horribly, horribly repressed writers, or worse – accountants. I am going to finish one by the end of the week – more than likely the aptly titled As Kinky as We Get.

This weekend, I am going to work on more writing and I am going to go see a movie and take myself out to dinner. I just don’t know if I want to go see Oblivion or After Earth. Both have actors I really enjoy watching, but I only have enough finds for one movie outing this week. I might see Oblivion because it’s Tom Cruise (say what you want about his whack-a-doo religious/philosophical beliefs – the man’s a damn good actor) and save After Earth for a little later. I also have some light housework to do, but that can wait until after the movie. This is why I don’t have people over – there are only so many films that I can watch before I actually break down and do housework. Seriously, Hollywood – get crackin’ as I might have a guest coming down at the end of the month and my place is a wreck.

Well, I should nuke up something for lunch and get to the kink as it were. I don’t remember if I mentioned this, but I have been on a campaign to lose weight. I am now at around 260 pounds, a considerable drop from 370 from the same time last year. All I have been doing is really, really restricting my caloric intake to under 2,300 calories a day – not hard when you eat pretty much nothing but cereal, Lean Cuisines and sandwiches and cut out all the popcorn (popcorn is a comfort food for me…well… all food is a comfort food for me, which is how I got here).

OK – off to smuttery. Hope everyone here has a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Hello, all – I stayed up late last night playing Borderlands 2 with the newest DLC character Krieg and I finally made myself put the controller down and turn off the Xbox (the last one I am going to buy – no backwards compatibility? Screw you Microsoft) at 5 AM. I get in about 12:30 AM and I usually go to sleep around 2:00 and wake up around 10:30. So I hit the snooze button a couple of times… and finally got out of bed. I do have a question for the people who might be reading this blog and playing Krieg as well – is it just me, or does Krieg seem to jump up levels like crazy? I gained three levels in the Natural Selection Annex and I didn’t even finish the challenge. I know that if he gets a Pull the Pin kill, it doubles the XP – but I don’t get a lot of those just because of my playing style. I’m not complaining since I am going to go on ahead and play him to 61, but it seems that he’s zooming through the levels.

I continue along with the schedule and the smut. I’m almost done with one and I’ve found one I started on my laptop, so I just need to send it to my network drive. I want to get at least four done this week (going to try to finish one today and the other tomorrow – worse comes to worse, I’ll just work through Saturday and save the movie/dinner combo for Sunday) and use some public domain pictures for covers and post them onto Kindle. I’m trying to average 7K keeping in mind the purge Amazon did recently and only charge $2.00 for them. I’m going to try to build up a 3 month buffer over the next couple of months so that I can release a new one a week and hopefully build some cask up for a cover artist for I/O Error.

Well, I am afraid that I am going to have to cut this a little short. I don’t want to hit the showers without having written something. Thanks for dropping by.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Ever woke up one morning and you just feel… off? Like there is something misaligned, or just plain missing, and you’ve just found that out? I am feeling that right now, along with some of the usual pains in my back and where that boil continues to stubbornly hang onto life. I’m supposed to go see the surgeon in a couple of weeks to check up on it, but I don’t think this feeling comes from that. It’s a feeling I’ve had before and most of the time, I just chalk it up to existential ennui and leave it alone. Today – I don’t know about that. Now, I could be having issues with the pain medication I am still taking. I did have to take some last night because my back was keeping me awake, and it still is hurting, so I am taking the recommended dose. I’m going to keep on taking it until it runs out and after that – that’s it. No more.

As far as writing goes, I am trying my hand at writing literary erotica erotic fiction smut. I am also trying to settle into a new schedule: Week One is for writing the stuff that I know is going to generate some cash, since my goal is to ultimately get out of the job I am at now. Week Two will be for one-shot novels (Out, Out Brief Candle
and
I/O Error to start with) and Week Three will be for long standing series (The Unchained series and Spooksayer) and Week Four will be for serials (After Ever). I know that a story can usually hold my attention for a week before I start drifting onto other things. So, hoping to harness my powers of distraction for good instead of ooh! A Quarter! Anyway – I am going to try to knock out a couple of short pieces this week and next week get back to I/O Error. I am trying to find a way to work that suits me and can keep me productive. If I can get something out there that can pay a little bit, I can start to transition to writing full time. I have found a decent editing program online and I’m using Word to keep my grammar manageable, so all I really need is some flesh-and-blood people to read and point out plot holes and inconsistencies. I’ll also need an artist, but I can stalk deviantart.com and find some people there. I would do it, but I have neither the talent no the time to try to master GIMP.

Well, I am bummed that Warehouse 13 is getting cancelled. I don’t know what is going through the head of programming at Sy-Fy sometimes. It is a good show… its science fiction as far as I am concerned. At least Continuum is getting a second season with them, which means I will have to buy the season pass as soon as it comes up on iTunes. I’m also going to get the season pass for Longmire and buy the first season. That is a gorgeous looking show with a stellar cast (Katee Sackhoff among them). I bought the season premiere and will get the season pass soon. My phone bill is coming up, so I’ve got to keep $150(!) aside for that.

I should get back to writing, so I will wish everyone here a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Hello, everyone! I am feeling a lot better now. I apologize for my long absence, but I have been ill and unable to sit in front of a computer for a long period of time. I am not going to go into the gory details, but I am just going to say that I am edging towards health. Thanks for everyone’s well wishes and prayers. Now that the news is out of the way, we can go on to the other matters in this blog.

Obviously, I haven’t been able to do any work on the computer, but thanks to my Kindle Fire I could jot down notes for some of the series I will be working on. I’ve worked on the magic system for Tyro’s series. There wasn’t a big change to everything; just the motivations of Tyro’s Master have changed. There is something that I am calling in the notes the book of life (I am working on the true name, this is just a working name) that gives the bearer a way of achieving true immortality. Right now, the various Lords can’t exist outside some sort of medium and that medium becomes corrupted and will eventually decay. When the book is complete, it will give the owner a way to find complete, incorruptible immortality. No one knows how many chapters exist in the book, but they scour the world finding loose pages and using them as currency (if you doing something nice, they might let you copy a page or two). It is some of these chapters that the different Lords use to create the various ushabit (like the main character Tyro). So – while I haven’t been able to work on I/O Error recently, I have been working on other things when I wasn’t looped out on pain meds.

I did get to go see Star Trek: Into Darkness. I enjoyed it greatly and recommend it as a good Saturday film. It is a little long for me (my lower back was beginning to get sore about half-way through), but it was well put together. Of course, I am not going to go into great detail because I don’t want to run the risk of spoiling anything. Trust me; this is a good film and not really limited to just the Trekkies. I think I am going to go see After Earth this weekend since I am getting paid and I’m going to do some housecleaning in Saturday morning and will need to leave the house for a couple of hours – so dinner and a show for me. I am looking forward to a couple more sci-fi films coming out: Ender’s Game and Elysium. I have to admit that since I have cut the cable, I’m not able to see any commercials for movies. However, I can go to Apple Trailers and get some dates from them. I am also going to recommend a book for everyone: Throne of the Crescent Moon. I like the use of Middle Eastern mythology and fantasy elements – it’s something I am not very familiar with, unlike Western fantasy elements. Run out and check this book out.

Well, I do need to get back to writing, so I hope everyone is having a better time. Again – feeling a lot better, thank you.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Remember when you were younger and you had that one pet that was a little… over-friendly? I had such a pet – a grey and white cat named Shadow. He was a… simple creature. Very affectionate for a cat – always greeted me in the morning when I walked into the living room with a friendly meow (it could have been a demand for food, but indulge me in my memories). Whenever I sat down to watch TV or read a book, he would hop up in my lap and nuzzle my hand. When I was feeling down, this would be the prefect tonic for me. His gentle purring and the warm weight of him on my lap would help me to shuffle off the woes of the day. He never clawed, bit or scratched at me. He was a very good kitty.

Until I tried to read or do schoolwork, then it was a little different. Reading for pleasure was different – paperbacks can be held with one hand and turned with a minimum of fuss. Schoolbooks? Not so much. Even when I did my schoolwork at the dinner table, I would feel the inevitable pressure of four paws and kitty belly (there was no such thing as feast or famine for our cats, it was either feast or ‘this again?’). When I would eat dinner, I’d have to shoo Shadow out of my lap and scoot my chair in as close I could and still breathe. 85% percent of the time, Shadow was a welcome part of my day, but that 15% got rather irritating.

What does this have to do with my writing? Well, new plots that come up are like Shadow – they immediately hop into my lap and start nuzzling my hand. Sometimes, I can indulge them to their fullest and other times I have to set them down and say later. Sometimes, they go along and quietly wait on the floor to be picked up and petted. Other times, they leave for another room.

Then there are the Shadows. Those plots that hop in my lap regardless of where I am to snuggle down and gently put their paw on my hand. I got one of those right now, so I am going to work on it, since I am only doing the re-writes on the weekends and planning one novel in the morning and writing another one when I get home (for those of you playing at home: The Quietest Heart; Out, Out Brief Candle and I/O Error). This new idea I think would actually work as a script for a series. Given the advent of Netflix and YouTube, this could be a practical project. The idea? A cult deprogrammer goes toe to toe with a cult leader who always seems to be one step ahead of him as far as hiding certain people and making which ever subjects the main character can get to a little harder to crack than others. The deeper the main character does, the further away he seems to drift from his support and family. Is it a battle of wits, or a subtle trap?

Right now, I’m doing the background research about cults, deprogramming and the such. So, I am fairly certain I am appearing on some database. I wonder if they’ll let me have a cat to pet affectionately?

Oh, well – I must shower, shave and plot. Have a good day.

Sincerely

Seething Apathy

Disclaimer: I am a Marvel Fanboy.

Iron Man 3 is definitely the way I would want to end the franchise, if they’re going to end it. Everything is brought together, all the loose threads are brought together and the main character comes away a lot better than when he went into the movie (in fact, the opening takes place before the first Iron Man movie to give us a look at what Tony was before his changes). I even like the idea that they refer to the Avengers movie, showing that there is continuity even in between movies. I am not going to give away plot points for this movie, but I will remark about the one thing I like about the current crop of Marvel films and even the Rami Spider-Man films.

As gifted and as talented as the heroes are – they’re still people at the end of the day. Horribly flawed people that can manage to go past that and do great things. As much as I like this line – he’s also an alcoholic narcissist on borrowed time. Captain America isn’t just The First Avenger – he’s a man out of place in every way possible. Spider-Man? Wow, are his therapy bills going to be enormous. Yet, as much as hubris seems to be a mindset for a lot of these characters, they manage to get their minds right in time to save the day. While this isn’t strictly the purview of Marvel – I am fairly certain if we had our parents gunned down right before our childish eyes the last thing we would do is transform ourselves into this. More than likely, we’d grieve and go on our way with which ever aunt or uncle is going to raise us.

What I like more about the Iron Man series, and particularly the way the series ended (thus far) is that we got to see Tony Stark become transformed into a hero almost unknowingly. Captain America asked for it, but he had to earn it. Spider-Man didn’t want it, but took it because of his uncle. Thor was born into it and it was expected of him. Tony? Didn’t want, didn’t seek it out and her inheritance wasn’t bound up in it, but when the call was made – he took it up with only a couple of hesitations. Unlike all the others, he still had a lot of issues accepting the mantle – which is something we don’t see a lot of other heroes do. We don’t see Batman (in his Dark Knight incarnation) standing in front of the window shivering from a panic attack about how close Bane came to killing him. We don’t see Captain America having a quiet crisis of survivor’s guilt if he watches Saving Private Ryan. While some people would say that stoic fearlessness is the hallmark of a hero, I would disagree. The hallmark of a hero is seeing a situation where one’s death is almost certainly guaranteed… and plunging headlong into it even though that person is scared beyond his wits. That’s what makes Tony Stark a hero in The Avengers and what makes him a bigger hero in Iron Man 3.

Go see the movie, and wait for the after-credit scene. It’s hilarious.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I got my new phone. I got it just in time for this to come out. No, I am not normally a new adopter of technology. I was surprised to get the Kindle Fire when I did. Honestly, I wouldn’t have gotten my current phone but I need to have a mobile phone that can use a mobile credit card program and that program won’t work on the old OS. I’m not mad – I like my new phone, but I don’t like being pushed into adopting something new. I sent my old phone back and got a modest credit (Seriously, just a couple of bucks) on my bill for it. I just need to personalize it with some ring tones and a better wallpaper. Also, the gas company had to come in and replace the meter – to my credit, I had no breakdown and the man was polite enough to come in, check on things and leave; nice of him to do that – even if I only got 4 hours of sleep last night, which means more coffee for me. Win-Win!

I checked the pages on my novel, and I only have 93 pages remaining out of 230. Didn’t really think I was that far ahead. I am definitely in the mind set of ‘going to get this done before I die’. I am still working on the outline of Out, Out Brief Candle. This one is going to be the first novel published under my real name (the current one will be under a pseudonym due to the subjects involved) and I am looking forward to starting it. As I have said earlier, it’s a straight up monomyth that’s rather heavy on the fundamentalists vs. everyone else argument. I’m having more fun crafting the world than anything else. For that, I’ll need to get a little research done from the History channel… y’know, from when they had programs of historical value. The series Life After People gave me an idea as to the look of the novel in my head. I’m working on the ‘casting’ – when I write, it’s like I am watching a movie in my head so I have various actors playing the roles. I don’t know if anyone else does that, but it works for me. I/O Error is vexing me still, so I might let it cool down a little bit longer and switch to another project that’s in the writing stage. As long as I stay busy, I’ll be fine.

I saw the movie Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and it was passable. I like the subversion of the “Psycho Hillbillies” trope, but I really had to make myself get to the half-way point before I got too tired to watch any more. I might sit back down over the weekend and watch it again from beginning to end. Alan Tudyk really shines in this movie, and the college kids are… well, almost forgettable with the exception of the ringleader, who really channels his inner seven-popped collars douchebag brilliantly. I’m sorry that this review is a little half-baked, but I didn’t finish the film. I’ll watch it this weekend and give you a more in depth review. In short: if you like Sean of the Dead and Cabin in the Woods, you will like this movie.

Well, off to nuke something and shower… and get rid of the beard. Y’all have fun now.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy