Tag Archives: plans

New Year, New U(niverse)

Posted on by under Misadventures in Non-Fiction

Same bad puns. Honestly, it sounded better in my head than it reads in the header, but I also originally planned to write it as “You(niverse)”…until that looked dumb, also. So here we are.

Happy New Year to you all, since it is now late enough that everyone has crossed the arbitrary boundary between 2017 and the three weeks of incorrectly writing 2017 on things. I’m sure I will be among those people. I hope you all had a lovely night and didn’t wake up with hangovers today, or if you did wake up feeling hungover I hope it didn’t linger too long. Like many, many, many other people, I am using the new year as a means of setting goals for myself in an effort to talk less and do more. I still refuse to call them New Year’s Resolutions, as the moment that label touches something it transforms into an impossible goal for most people. Continue reading →

Something about better days ahead

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging 2.0

Today was characterized by several moments that, without a doubt, could be considered seeing the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel (although I must say the intermittent uncooperative nature of my laptop keyboard is not one of those moments). Typically, especially during weeks such as this, I am very suspicious of such days. Call it paranoia, pessimism, or whatever, but after a week like this one, I can’t help but assume that light is followed by a freight train.

Perhaps, I say in a show of cautious optimism, that may not be the case this time. I have the entire weekend off. That’s forty-eight hours of potential progress (or failures), and I’m about to carpe those diems so hard they’ll turn to diamonds.

I’m so sorry for that joke. Future generations will probably use that as the official definition of “awful”.

As part of my attempt at forcing positivity from the stinking shit-lump that I called this past week, I’m keeping my goals, plans, and so on for this weekend relatively fluid and open to change. This will hypothetically allow for less fear of, and feelings of, failure. Hooray for thinking ahead. A few new big ideas are also present in my brain-meats, but I’m saving those for later. I need to get through the remainder of this hundred days somehow, after all.

Goodnight, WordPress.

This weekend will feature less lazy posts. I (half-heartedly) promise.

Self-induced madness

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging 2.0

It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time to celebrate and damn the progress I’ve made! This week feels like it has been an eternity, which is unfortunate. Has that prevented me from getting writing done? Nope. Am I particularly excited about how much I did get done? Also nope.

In Progress

A Princess, A Lich, and Some Murders (working title) – It’s also waiting to be approved for posting on Authonomy. I’m also still actively adding to the page count, enjoying suggestions and edits as beta-readers provide them.

Cordelia’s (short story) – Still screwing around with plot details so this doesn’t turn into pointless rambling

Woman Seeks Vampire for Dinner and a Movie (short story) – The title exists, and the basic plot is sort of there

One Hundred Days of Blogging 2.0 – because that should be mentioned since it is taking up fair bits of time

Authonomy stuff – Presently this only consists of A Princess, A Lich, and Some Murders (working title), but has the potential to turn into a means of getting more attention for other works as well, such as things that will be mentioned in the next section. This is what happened to my HarperCollins goal, by the way, as it’s the most likely way I’ll ever get published by them (even if the odds aren’t exactly in my favor)

Backburner Projects

A picture is worth a thousand of my terrible jokes.

A picture is worth a thousand of my terrible jokes.

Warpt Factor (the novel) – At some point, this means I will have to remove the existing material and use it for source bits. Sorry! However, a certain aunt has requested/demanded this happen, and since I’ve lost the original notebook full of information from Warpt Factor (the series) and I wasn’t about to just let this die, I figured “Why the Hell not?”. Keeping in mind, of course, that this isn’t going to be happening too soon. Probably. We’ll see how thin I can stretch myself before I go completely crazy.

The Lodgers (novel) – Yes, this still exists. Yes, it’s going to happen eventually. No, I’m not going to scrap it. However, even if I were to choose to work on two novels at a time (something I’m on the fence about)…this wouldn’t be one of them. It’s not really in the forefront of my thoughts, even if it is a fun bit of fiction to write. It’s also far more of a shift towards purely adult reading, what with the characters and their tendencies toward expletive-heavy speech.

The Devil Sort of Made Me Do It (or whatever the Hell I titled this) – I haven’t forgotten this one either. A good friend of mine has made forgetting it impossible, in fact. Hah.

Submitting more short stories for publication – Most certainly needs to happen. Strongly considering Cordelia’s as a possible submission for The Literary Hatchet.

…

These posts are actually very therapeutic, as they help put things into perspective for me. Especially on days like today, when I feel like I’m accomplishing so little. One book published, and onward towards getting a book published by HarperCollins. To that last end, if any of you have an Authonomy account and would be so kind as to read, critique, and support my novel (if you like it, of course) once it’s available, I would be immensely grateful and most assuredly return the favor.

Ninety days remaining.

One Hundred Days of Blogging – Day Sixteen

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging

Let it be known that I started this before midnight, and will consider this a slight cheat-day, if only because the whole evening was a magnificent series of problems and frustrations.

Thanatos, my new-ish laptop, died. Take a moment to appreciate the humor in something named after the God of Death kicking the proverbial bucket. The entire process of figuring this out took about two hours, and one trip to BestBuy. The diagnosis: one very dead graphics card.

Suffice it to say, I was not happy. However, some good came from that, and so I’m going to postpone my post I’d planned for today in favor of another. It seems more appropriate, given the circumstances.

Day Sixteen – The best laid plans, the way they crumble, and the good that can come of it

It’s been said I have a little black cloud that floats over me, and there are days I’m inclined to agree with that. My history of dental problems that could have been avoided if procedures had been done correctly speaks to this end quite loudly, and with many expletives. It helps no one that I am quick to find myself in a bit of a down in the dumps state. I dare say I’m a bit of a high-maintenance person at times (that is not a happy self-assessment to make).

One thing I have been is a planner. I’m not very good at spur-of-the-moment, and my whim decisions are usually a bit expensive or end poorly (see also: my purchasing a Surface 2 or the time I decided to test the flammability of hand sanitizer). I may not always plan a great deal ahead, but I like to have a general idea of what I’m doing (except in writing, for some reason, which is generally drafting like mad and then calculated editing). Suffice it to say, I usually get pretty frustrated when things go ass-over-elbows on me.

There’s an unsung good side to when the best plans go to shit, though. Tonight is a very good example of that. My very good friend, and brother-from-another-mother (I went there because he’s called me that before, but I think it sounds ridiculous), Jason was so kind as to build me a desktop for Christmas. It’s a decked-out behemoth of a gaming PC, and I got plenty of use of it before I moved to Hollidaysburg.

Somehow, along the journey to my new home, my screen got scratched up a good deal. I had it wrapped in two microfiber fleece covers, with a pillow pressed against it for support, and so I have no idea what the hell happened. I do know that particular monitor isn’t very good at being functional now, which is kind of what matters. And so my desktop just sort of sat around. I could, and should, have replaced the monitor and used my desktop, but I had plenty of excuses instead. I didn’t have a desk here. I have my laptop to use (and now my Surface 2). And so on.

When my laptop of less than six months bit the dust tonight, that was enough of a wrench in my usual writing and gaming routines to force me into some action. After leaving Thanatos in the capable hands of the Geek Squad, I bought a monitor for my desktop. And then I bought a desk, which ended up half-assembled because no one in their right mind assembles a desk after 10:30 at night. I am prone to some very stupid decisions occasionally, but we’ll not dwell on that.

Most importantly from this all: my evening was going to be spent getting some work done on a short story (which is presently in Limbo, unless its last upload to my OneDrive worked), and relaxing to some WoW. Thanks to that unhappy incident, I am now most of the way towards having set up a much-needed space for writing (and PC gaming, yes).

Beyond that, I am very ready to make my trip home to Carnegie, see my family, and just decompress for the weekend. It’s a much-needed vacation, I think. Eighty-four days remaining.