So…tomorrow’s election day.

Posted on by under General Bloggity Stuff, SRS BSNS BLAHGING

What’s up with that?

Cheesiness aside, this is a topic I’ve been wrestling with myself on how to tackle, because it’s something that’s been gnawing at my thoughts for a fair bit now.  No, I’m not about to say why a vote for Obama is a vote for (good thing here/bad thing here), nor am I about to do so for Romney or any of the other candidates.  I trust enough people are decently informed (I promise this isn’t a dig at people being informed, but wording shit like this requires a fine-toothed comb I do not posses in my present state and that’s a giant pain in my ass) on the issues that matter most to them, and have decided whose views and beliefs matches their own as completely as possible.  The nagging, gnawing, unpleasant thing in the back of my mind is this: whether it be Obama, Romney, or another candidate you intend to vote for, please go out and vote.

Yes.  Go forth and be a part of the great democratic process of voting for the next President of the United States.

Why, Phil, are you spewing stuff about politics when your blog is supposed to be about fiction?*  Because I believe in the importance of participating in the voting process, regardless of your overall feelings toward the election, the months and months of ads (horrible and tiresome as they can, and do, become), and the unfortunate divide between parties.

Hence my urging to vote.  That, and I honestly don’t give a damn what people think, post-election, if they can follow their opinions with “Well, I didn’t vote” or some variation of such.

Stay safe, happy voting, and remember; it may suck if your candidate doesn’t get elected, but the world will keep on keepin’ on Wednesday.  I’d say “Hey, can’t we all just get along,” but, historically speaking, people who say that seem to lead much shorter lifespans and end up suffering a terminal case of being shot.

*Or maybe you’re asking why I’m talking to myself in the third person, which is a perfectly reasonable concern I will dismiss in a perfectly reasonable fashion.**

** I totally forgot I had meant to insert a footnote, then remembered and felt like an asshole because of it.  I’m conveniently blaming eight hours of retail and elderly people saying “Gimme,” which SHOULD NOT BE A PART OF ANYONE’S VOCABULARY, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.  Pardon the caps lock.

Rolling with the punches

Posted on by under General Bloggity Stuff

Or writing with the punches?

It’s been an oddly hectic time in my life, which is terribly frustrating since I’ve been all “Huzzah, graduation!  Goals goals goals ideas plans” and then life responds with, “Hey, Phil.  I see you have goals, ideas, and plans there.  Let me piss all over them.”  The big issue of sorting out student loans has really punched me in the face, and then there’s other things that don’t bear mentioning here (It’s my misadventures in fiction, folks, not my misadventures in sorting out life; that’s far, far less interesting, and you should all be grateful I’m not making those posts here).

I’m reconsidering my plans for NaNoWriMo, if only because it’s not entirely conducive to what I’m aiming for (I need to try getting my work out there for publication consideration, and though the challenge is totally awesome and horrifying, it’s not really jiving with everything else at the moment; I’ll probably keep with it in some way or another because I’m terribly bull-headed).

Right now the biggest plan is to get “Death at Teatime” out there.  I’m thinking I might dust off some of the things from early-summer, fix them up, and then share them because I realized I have no actual samples of my fiction on here and that goes against one of the major points of this blog.

Thanks to my followers, and anyone who happens upon this blog otherwise, for your patience and sticking with what’s been relatively erratic updating and an unfortunate lack of content.  Also, sorry that I’m sort of not sorry for the post that’s to follow.

NaNoWriMo’s here.

Posted on by under General Bloggity Stuff

NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month for those of us who aren’t particularly fond of acronyms (Hi, my name is Phil and I take issue with abbreviating shit down to silly little phrases), has arrived like it does every year.  I mean, November does show up around the same time, generally speaking, and it’s not only marked by the turning of a calendar page.  As a mildly unrelated side-note, calendars in question should be on November, not December, and so I’ve got to very politely, but very directly, ask you all to shut the hell up with your Christmas cheer and wait one more month.  Much appreciated.  Moving on.

There’s that deep, unshakable feeling of dread everyone who has ever participated in NaNoWriMo feels as it approaches.  It should be noted, by the way, that it’s already almost November 3rd, and I’ve made slightly less progress on this year’s NaNoWriMo than I have on working out my income tax-related business.  I wish I were joking.  However, have I lost hope?  Slightly.  Will I let that be the slaying of my writery-dragon-beast-nonfunctional-metaphor?  No, absolutely not.  I will use that as fuel to kick ass, take names, and write what I assume will be really slap-dash fiction in the name of testing myself and seeing just how close to the edge of madness I can get without falling in (short answer: I’ve already been there and back; got the t-shirt, had souvenir photos taken, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone).

Here is my challenge to fellow writers: if you’ve never, ever tried National Novel Writing Month, give it a try.  Go for it.  I’m not saying hit the 50,000 word mark, as I’m well aware that life is full of unexpected impediments that leave us swearing and cleaning up messes and swearing some more (my life can, at times, be one long series of should-be bleeped expletives).  See where it takes you.  Maybe you’ll end up with something you look at and think, “Man, with the right editing this could be pretty neat.”

People who have been through NaNoWriMo before: join me in returning to it!  If you got to 25k words last time, go for 30k.  Or 40k.  Or maybe even the whole 50k.  Just give it another go, really, because misery loves company, writing loves company, and the two can be oddly synonymous with one another at times (except when there is bourbon involved in writing, in which case the only things suffering are grammar, spelling, and Microsoft Word’s spellcheck feature).

To those of you who started on time and are well into their National Novel Writing Month experience, I wish you the best of luck (with a side of “I hate you” because I totally should be where you all are at but I am instead sitting at the starting line with my metaphorical thumbs up my metaphorical nose).  To those of you who are in the same spot as me: let’s do this!  Updates will occur as possible, and I’m totally going to hit at least 35k this year because of reasons.

Edit, because I am le dumb: click here to visit the NaNoWriMo site for all the shiny information and encouragement you’ll need to get started.

So I sort of fell off the planet for a little there.

Posted on by under General Bloggity Stuff

By “a little” I guess I mean about a month.  Short version, so as to bypass the boring, messy details: a combination of work kicking my ass, some strange insomnia-like nonsense, and a host of other unpleasantries.

However, that still isn’t progress and a lack of progress is no good for anyone, especially since it’s only adding to the stagnancy of post-college, pre-whatever-the-hell-else life.  And that is something I can’t very well let happen.  Some srs bsns stuff coming up shortly, followed by me doing a ridiculous amount of writing tomorrow (got the whole weekend off, and to myself, so aside from maybe a little time for reading, sleeping, eating, and so on, I should be set) and Sunday.

Once again, apologies for falling off the planet.  I’ve come back now, at least, because there’s writing to be done.

Posted on by under Uncategorized

So I decided, after how work went today (in a word: horribly), to take the night off to enjoy a little WoW and watch Elementary.  And then I find out we’re killing the Sha of Anger.  Nerding it up pretty hardcore.  Apologies for the deviation from writing-related stuff, but this had to be shared because, frankly, my mood is a billion times better, which means my writing tomorrow will go a billion times better.  Hell yes.

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Tonight’s goals…not met. And I’m kind of okay with that.

Posted on by under Joshua's Nightmare Updates, Short Stories

Didn’t meet the five pages goal for today, which is something I have mixed feelings about.  A good friend of mine pointed out the obvious problem of having to put my mind to it and be in the right mood to get things done, which helped a little.  I did, however, get distracted by Supernatural returning tonight.  As a quick aside: isn’t Mark Sheppard just the most lovably loathsome king of Hell?  Makes me want to reread Good Omens.

On the other hand, not making as much progress as I’d wanted makes Phil a frustrated writer.  I did get a start on “The Watchmaker’s Apprentice” (it’s a tentative title) and that’s off to a good start.  I’ll be working on that until I go to bed tonight, I think.

I’ve also decided on the first piece I’m posting here first.  It’s only a title idea and bits and pieces to go with it right now, but the idea happened at work today.  I bought a pack of iD gum (I’m a bit of a gum addict, and I generally am not without a pack while at work) before my shift started, and the artwork on the pack really caught my eye.  I’d kept a few of the previous packs, and had taken a real liking to one depicting a large tentacle with a small, yellow bird sitting on its end.

Some point in the near future, hopefully for the enjoyment of my followers and any lurkers out there (or people who just happen upon this blog), I’ll be posting “Admiral Canary and The Colossus”.

To say “to hell with tonight’s goal” or not, that is the question.

Posted on by under Joshua's Nightmare Updates

And it’s a difficult question to answer, I’ve found, because it’s the sort of mentality that leads me into my weird, non-writing funks which get me nowhere but bored.

A bored Phil is not a good sort of Phil to have around.

However, the trouble, I think, comes largely from this: I have a short story floating around in my brain from a couple weeks ago that needs some love.  I may say that’s my five pages for the night and just see what happens with “Joshua’s Nightmare” (which will get love regardless because I had what I feel are some pretty cool ideas at work).  I’ve got another short story title idea in mind and I may just make it

Also, just taking a moment to say “hi” to the new followers, because I totally didn’t expect to log on and see new followers.

First day of actual writing.

Posted on by under Joshua's Nightmare Updates

I started work on Massive, Daunting, Unnamed Project today only to remind myself of the following things (which I suppose should have been obvious):

  • Moving from the planning stages to the actual writing stages is a giant pain when it comes to details
  • I’m *still* terrible at coming up with character names I like
  • Working retail really kicks my brain in its squishy grey-matter ass, so to speak.

Those things considered, I still managed to get a solid start going on this story (which, for the sake of brevity, will be referred to as “Joshua’s Nightmares” from now until a proper title happens into existence).  Not as much as I’d have liked to get written compared to the time I lost to the near-pneumonia nonsense of last week, but a start’s a start.

On another front, I’m starting to consider places to possibly submit “Death at Teatime” to.  I’ve spent the bulk of the summer working on it in some regard or another.  I really need to move past the whole fearing rejection bit, because it’s bound to happen again.  Doesn’t make it any easier, of course.

So tomorrow’s goal, writing-wise, is to at least get five more pages of work done on this.  Just really write and not worry about how it reads or looks.  That’s going to be after a lovely 7 to 3 shift, so we’ll see how that pans out.

And maybe a short-story to throw on here.  I definitely need to organize this thing a little better, so as to not post everything Uncategorized.

Ending this with a guilt-trip to myself: it’s time to sit down, focus, and get this thing going.

So this deserves a proper beginning.

Posted on by under Joshua's Nightmare Updates

And I’d really like to start this blog right-proper.

My name’s Phil, and I’m a writer.  Or I’m someone who moonlights, quite convincingly, as a writer.  I’ve had misadventures into blogging and many misadventures in writing, with the tiny, unfinished graves of many a story occupying a few hard drives over the course of my life.

Ultimately, my goal is to become a published writer.  I mean, ideally I’d like to become a semi-partially-somewhat known published writer, but I’d be cool with a published work at this point.  I’m two rejections into my life as a writer, which means I need to get my ass moving.

That’s where this blog comes in.  After attending Interventioncon 2012 (the best geek culture convention on the east coast, obviously), I set the following lofty goal: that I would complete a written work of novel-length by next Interventioncon, under the threat of receiving horrifying pictures from the depths of the Internet.

I’ll chronicle my misadventures in writing, which may or may not feature original pieces (like Christmas for readers, right?  Right.  You had better have agreed) and use this as a means to hold myself accountable for making progress on Giant, Daunting Unnamed Project, which is still only in the planning stages because naming characters gives me a giant, horrible headache.

Comments featuring encouragement, snide remarks, advice, or anything more generalized are all sorts of appreciated.  Let’s see where this long, windy, and, in all likelihood, sleep-deprived road will take me.