Tag Archives: writing

General Posts

40 Year Old Ramblings

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Someone get those damn kids off my lawn.  How the hell do I get this clock to stop flashing?  Speak up.  I can barely hear you.  What’s happening to me?  Holy crap, I’m 40 years old today.

I wish I could offer some pearls of wisdom to the world now that I’m officially over the hill, but about the only thing I’ve learned in this life is that I don’t really know anything.  On this day, I’m grateful for all my friends and family who love me.  I’m grateful for my sons who give me purpose.  The first 40 years have been a wild ride.  I hope the next 40 settle down a little bit because I’m ready for a little tranquility and peace of mind.

This semester has been brutal, to say the least.  Before Thursday, I’d only had two days off over the last two months, and I’m feeling exhausted.  I purposefully took these four days off to recharge for the final push.  Once I get over this hump, I hope to get caught up on the important things I’ve had to shove to the back burner, such as building the second hydro unit and taking care of everyone who claimed a perk during the fundraiser.

For today, I plan to watch football, eat pumpkin pie, and rest a little more.  Hopefully, I’ll get some good news about book four to share soon.  As soon as I know something, I’ll share the news.  Until then, if you want to do something for my birthday, please share the links to book one and spread the word about the series.  All I want today is to sell a few books.

http://www.seventhstarpress.com/

http://www.amazon.com/The-Brotherhood-of-Dwarves-ebook/dp/B0076OCAKG/ref=kinw_dp_ke

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1937929914

General Posts

Monday Evening Ramblings

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I’ve finished the final edits for book four and have submitted the manuscript to Seventh Star Press for publication.  There’s nothing quite like the feeling of finishing a book, especially when it’s been ruminating in your skull for several years.  Having it complete and knowing that it’s close to being let loose on the world is still surreal to me.  Books two and three went through multitudes of setbacks before completion, so this one was finished relatively fast.  However, this one also took more out of me than the others.  I’m not certain why, but the actual writing and editing of this novel was much harder than the previous ones.

That’s all for now.  There’s a lot more I’d like to say, but my brain is too scattered and tired right now.  If you can, please spread the word about book four, and let’s make this release something special.  Stay tuned.

General Posts

NaNoWriMo Ramblings

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I hate National Novel Writing Month. Hate isn’t really strong enough. I loathe and abhor it. The whole concept flies in the face of my strongest convictions about the craft of writing. First and foremost, you shouldn’t need a cheap, bullshit gimmick to motivate you to work. If you don’t have the internal motivations, you shouldn’t try to write a book in the first place.

I also despise the whole rah rah cheerleader horse shit. If you need a cheering section telling you how great it is you typed 10,000 words today, you aren’t a writer. Sorry. Hate to burst your precious snowflake ego, but writing is hard work that requires hours of solitude and months without feedback.

I also hate how it cheapens the difficulty of writing a full novel. This is probably what pisses me off the most. People who know nothing about crafting a book hear that hundreds of thousands of people are cranking out books in one month, and suddenly my three months of busting my fucking ass to write my fourth book seems like slacking. Why does it take him so long? All these people are pounding out fifty pages a day.

This stupid bullshit also floods the market with thousands of poorly conceived, shoddy products that make it that much more difficult for year round writers to be noticed. Thanks. This career wasn’t hard enough already without every starry-eyed, bored housewife or pimply-faced college freshman thinking their 30 day type fest will land them an interview with Oprah.

I’m all for creative expression, and I think everyone should write because it’s good for the soul. But I can’t stand this “social writing” bullshit. If you want to write, fucking write, but do it all year or shut the fuck up. Learn to craft your story and take some pride in the quality of what you say. Don’t flood my fucking newsfeed with tales of how you hammered out 15k words on day one of NaNoWriMo. What the fuck are you going to do with those 3 vanishing plot lines, 16 stock characters, and shifts in POV?

As for me, I’ll spend November finalizing edits on the manuscript I wrote over the summer.