Category Archives: Kerfluffle
JulNoWriMo
I decided to try to do a Novel Writing Month in July. 50,000 words was my goal. I failed.
It’s OK, really. I was just trying to motivate myself to write more of the sequel, to make it a priority. I ended up writing almost nothing during weekends, and I think that’s what cost me. I’m at around 40k, though, and that’s a good chunk of the sequel. I want this one to be around 100k-120k words or so, and I think that’s feasible. In order to tell the story in my head, it may have to be more.
I’ll keep going through August as much as possible. It’s been difficult folding in the writing with the new fitness regime, which takes a lot of time and energy. The results have been worth it though. If I can do 30k a month for August and September, I’ll pretty much be done. I still would like to have the sequel sellable by the end of October, so I need to keep slogging away. Ain’t easy.
Where I’ve Been
Like Jim Anchower, it’s been a while since I rapped at ya. There are various reasons for this, not least being the attempt to pull off a NaNoWriMo in July. Several friends joined me, which was cool, although attrition is beginning to take its toll. I’m working on the sequel to The Curse of Troius right now, and I’m over 23k words into it. I’m having fun and liking it, and 50k written (or more) in July will go a long way towards getting me to finish. It’s tentatively entitled The Siege of Anticus, although I’ve been toying with Northreach Besieged lately. We’ll see. I hate trying to make titles for things.
Five Things for Monday, May 10th
1. My novel is now on sale at Amazon, Barnes & Noble’s website, even a couple of Indian websites and a couple of Asian ones. Crazy. Before I did it, I said I’d be pleased if I sold a dozen copies. I’ve sold 15, so I am now officially happy. I’ve set up a Facebook page for it and already have over 40 fans, a couple of whom I don’t know and never met. It’s cool. I was afraid to set one up, feeling like the world’s biggest narcissist, but Lady Aravan had a good point: I want to write for a living, and I need to promote the thing as best I can. She’s right. Now I just need to stop checking the page incessantly.
Five Things for Friday, March 26th
1. I’ve been reading a lot about the idea that this health care reform bill is going to cost the Democrats a lot in November’s elections. The Republicans are planning on pushing the idea of repeal as a cornerstone of their election plank. The problem I see with that approach is the idea that health reform is going to be on the minds of the public in seven months. I think that overestimates the attention span of the American electorate by about six-and-a-half months at least.
Go Elsewhere For Your Entertainment
Lady Aravan today wrote a thought-provoking post about the human obsession with time tracking. I, on the other hand, can’t think of a blessed thing to write about. Read that instead.
Five Mass Effect Things for Monday, March 8th
1. I, along with Lady Aravan, spent the weekend playing Mass Effect. When some people say that, they mean they spent several hours doing something. What I mean is, we got home from work on Friday night and started playing, played until 2 am, got up Saturday and played from noon until 6:30 am, got up Sunday and played from noon til 11:30. I finished my second full run-through, including at one point going back 6 hours to an old saved game since I screwed something trivial up. Lady Aravan finished the game for the first time, threw in Mass Effect 2, and started playing until she realized that there was a bonus for getting level 50 in ME1 in the second game. So she reloaded a saved game and spent a good number of hours finishing nearly every quest in the game (she missed 1 that I am aware of, and couldn’t get it without going even further back) as well as finding pretty much every debris field and resource on every landable planet. When she finished the game, she was 50 and I was in awe, since even though I went back 6 hours and did the same shit another time through, I don’t have the fortitude to do what she did. Although I have to admit it bothers me that I’m 48. Moral: we like games.
5 Things for Friday, March 5th
1. I know I’ve said it before, but Tosh.0 is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on TV, and it’s remarkably consistent. At least once every episode, I laugh so hard at something that I can barely breathe, and it remians funny through the next morning. Yesterday, both Lady Aravan and I had shit days at work, but after watching the show on the DVR, we were laughing our asses off. This morning, through my surly have, I would murmur “Ole black betty, amburlance” and chuckle out loud. If anyone heard me they’d have thought I was out of my fucking mind.
Five Things for Thursday, March 4th
1. I noticed today how rare it is to make eye contact with a cashier, other than initial approach, and even then both parties are usually distracted. I tried to make an effort to keep eye contact unless it was necessary to break it, since I thought the cashier lady would appreciate being acknowledged as a human being. Instead, she looked back at me with increasingly odd expressions. I don’t think cashiers are used to having their customers look at them much, so when they do, the cashier thinks it odd. I’ll have to try it a few more times.
Three Things for Tuesday, March 2
1. Yesterday was too soul-crushing to write a new post. Nothing noteworthy happened, just the standard work-day stuff on a Monday when you’d give anything for one more day at home with your wife. It was enough to destroy any literary ambitions for the day, even ones as feeble as this.
Five Things for Friday, Feb 26th
1. Lady Aravan and I bought Bioshock 2, Mass Effect 2, and Dragon Age yesterday. We were going to buy our own copy of Mass Effect as well, but they were sold out. With the prospect of a coming snowstorm, fond hopes of a day off filling with gooey Xbox action floated around, right up until 9am when it was determined that I had to come into work. Where less than half the staff actually came in. Curses.
Winter in Derenemyn 