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

I love this artist. I love her voice even though I can’t understand a single thing she says sometimes. Why is such an odd confession? Because if you were to look though my music library, you’re going to find these guys, and these guys and almost everything that these
two have put out. I guess that I am starting to mellow out in my old age. Well, I did discover her while watching Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. So whatever I have lost in metal cred, I hope to gain in anime cred… or would that be yen?

Anyways, I am still plugging away at I/O Error and it is transitioning from plug to slog. While I am attracted to the main premise and how to make it work I am getting stuck in a minor scene to the point where I don’t really want to tackle it. So, I think I will just wrap it up as best I can and get on with the rest of it. Maybe something better will come to me in the meantime. I am still in the planning phase for Out, Out Brief Candle (working title), but it’s getting along a lot better than I/O Error is. I’ve got the route that the main character takes thanks to Google maps; I just need to get the outline of the story finished. It’s a simple monomyth – almost sounds like I’m mailing it in as it were. Hopefully this one will pan out a little quicker.

Well, there is little else to report on as far as the homefront goes. My paycheck is a little less now that I am officially working part time, but then again, I’m getting burned out at work. Since they’re not replacing the people that have left (especially the higher ups, which were the first to go when the company got bought out), I have a sneaking suspicion that the department is going to be moved to a brand new location… out of state. The company is only hiring for two positions: neither of them are technical related and this particular company has a history of moving departments around geographically. So you can see why I am a little anxious about getting a novel finished.

Since the dishes and the laundry refuse to do themselves – I guess I should take care of it. Hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

So… yeah. Nothing really earth-shattering or even mildly trivial to report here. I’ve taken to walking to and from the library at night after work in an attempt to get some exercise and for some odd reason, the joint of my nose hurts when I press down on it. See? Absolute boredom.

Out, Out Brief Candle is getting scribbled down on my little graph notebook. I am going to get some things settled down in it before I whip out Scrivener to use on it. I just seem to focus on one project. So, I am going to try to follow some sort of schedule as far as getting one out of the planning phase (Out, Out, Brief Candle), one finished (I/O Error) and one re-written (The Quietest Heart – which is turning into a disaster). I am still trying to get something finished by the end of the month, so my weekend plan may be nothing more than sitting my butt down in front of my laptop and getting the last one done. The re-writes should come a little faster since it’s now just a matter of cutting down unneeded words and tightening the prose. I can do it if I apply myself. See? I said that with a straight face – that means I’m serious. Since today is Thursday, and I got hammered yesterday at work, I am hoping to be able to get a little more done on Out, Out Brief Candle… particularly the faction of ghosts I am calling the Riders for now. I used to call them the Fisher Kings – a name I think I am going back to later on given what the Fisher King is and what that concept represents. Also, I want to use the title the Rider on another project. I really hate using the same sort of title over two different projects, especially if they don’t have the same continuity. So, I might keep the title of Fisher Kings. I’ll need to put that in the notebook.

As for movies – I’ve seen Wreck-it Ralph and it is a funny movie. If you’re a gamer, you’re going to get a lot more out of it than the average person. I saw it with a non-gamer and they were impressed with it. If you have little ones, they’re going to like the animation. I’ll also let you know of this – there’s an unexpected voice actor in the movie. I am not going to say who it is, but when you see who it is when you see the cast list, you’ll flip. If you can’t wait, or can’t get to imdb, highlight the empty space after this sentence: Alan Tudyk is the voice of King Candy

I am also going to finally go see Evil Dead this weekend. I think I am going to bail on the writer’s group this Saturday. I should have enough for movie and lunch and I haven’t been to Clucker’s in a while.

Well, I should get to the notebook and to my other lunch. I hope you all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething with Apathy