Sunday, August 29, 2010

It's Gonna Be A Monkey

I could entitle this blog post "Why You Should Never Take Your Wife To Lowe's When There's A Sale On," but if I'm being honest, it was at least partly my fault.

We've been wanting to redo the bathroom into something a little brighter. White wood paneling, a nice green up top, some more modern fixtures...you know, the usual. We were just getting started on the project when I was laid off from work. So naturally we cut back on our expenditures and the bathroom remodeling was set aside.

Well, months later we've come to a better financial point even though I'm still laid off. The future is still pretty uncertain, but things are looking up for a decently long while. Thanks to Bethany's sister, Heather, we have a short little family vacation coming up and then my unemployment extension came through, retroactively, which helped out a lot.

I mentioned last week that we've cleaned up the library, moved the computer and recreated the closet space in the bedroom. We went to Lowe's last night to get a closet organizer that Bethany's had her eye on. We like Lowe's now that we're homeowners and it's fun to walk around and dream about how we'd like to change our house. As we walked, we noticed the vanities had new low prices. Then we noticed the bathroom mirrors were on really, really good sale and then we stumbled on to the good sale on the faucets for the sink.

It was too good to pass up. We had intended to paint this week anyway if the schedule worked out. Now we have our sights set on something a little more ambitious: a complete overhaul of the bathroom. But it should be relatively simple. I have people that can help me with the sink. The painting should go like painting always does, painful to do but simple at the same time. The worst part will be stripping the wallpaper, which I'll be spending all day on today after Patrick and I pick up the new vanity with the built in sink.

The best part of all of this is that the entire remodeling will take less than $210, including vanity, paint and fixtures. I was pretty proud of that. I figured the sink alone would run a lot more than that.

Here's the catch.

We have a big Saturday planned. We're having a D&D session with some good friends that will take most of Saturday. The food will be excellent, the company even better and the game a lot of fun. We also have a bridal portrait session set for Friday evening after Bethany get's off work. We'd hoped to make it to Roanoke Friday evening to lay in some supplies for the pantry at Sam's. Oh, and take away Bethany's help Tuesday as she goes with her mom to Lewisburg to try out for the Greenbrier Valley Chorale (Bethany's already a member. It's her mom that's joining).

That's a lot of work on a short deadline. In the words of Bucky Katt, "It's gonna be a monkey."

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Coming Home

Today was a pretty busy day. Patrick and I got up early and headed west to split wood at my grandparents' house. It was a successful day, even if Patrick has no concept of time and made us 40 minutes late leaving this morning.

But more importantly, perhaps, today was the day that Devan made it back from Iraq. His plan landed around 8 p.m. this evening in Lynchburg, thereby completing his tour of duty in Iraq. I haven't seen him yet, nor have I heard from him and I figure I won't for a few days. After all, he hasn't seen his family since the first of the year and they deserve a happy, long and uninterrupted reunion.

Patrick summed it up pretty well on the ride home this evening. "I'm glad we didn't have to carry him."

Sadly, there are many friends and families who had to carry their loved one to their grave. I'm very happy that Devan made it home safely and we didn't have to. I still can't fight that twinge of sadness I feel when I think about those who didn't make it home. I have no concept of being in the military and I have no idea what war and combat are like. I have good friends who do. I have family members that do.

Grandpa (Mom's Dad) fought in World War II. He was a combat engineer and from what he's told me (and what he hasn't) I know he's seen his share of combat. He also told me about what it was like seeing all those soldiers that were nothing more than boys stretched out in rows under tarps as they waited for burial overseas or for transport to the home they would never see again.

I've never forgotten the look on his face when he told about seeing that. I doubt I ever will. The image of that in my head reminds me to shut up when I think about disagreeing with the reasons behind the war and open my mouth to support those fighting it instead. It's a free country and we have a right to disagree about what's going on. But before we do, I believe we should take a moment and think about what it's doing to the soldiers who are actually fighting the war and think instead about how we can support them.

The war is winding down. The last combat units left Iraq last week and there are only about 45,000 troops left overseas in a "peacekeeping" capacity that is considered a non-combat role. The time to debate whether or not we should have been there has arrived, though we are still a few years removed from the overall judgement of history on the subject.

But before that debate begins, we should all take a moment and thank the people who went to war and say a prayer for the families of those that didn't make it back. We can't all fight, but we all can, and should, respect those who have.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Looking For Artwork

I really want an Amazing Spider-Man poster for my library. And I mean a good one. Not one of the new contemporary art styles. No, I want a really badass, 90s Todd McFarlane Spider-Man piece of art. That was the Spider-Man I grew up with and those really big eyes on the mask were awesome.

The first comic book that I ever purchased with my own money was Spider-Man Megazine #1. 92 pages of classic Spidey stories. It had Daredevil and the Vulture and the Human Torch and I was hooked for there after on Spider-Man. He was just a teenager, a kid really, who like books and science and was a photographer who just happened to have super powers and therefore had to save the world while trying to have a normal life. No matter how big the opponent or how bad a beating he took, he came back for more and never stopped mouthing off about it.

I admired that.

Now this poster is from the McFarlane era and pretty cool, though it's a little large. Or this one, which is the cover for Issue #122 that was an extremely major turning point in the series waaay back in the day. Now this poster is pretty vintage McFarlane, but there's no way I'd ever shell out that much for it, even if it was never displayed.

I hear all you people out there in blog land laughing at my penchant for comics books. But let me show something. When I'm rich and famous (notice I said when and not if) I'll be buying comic books like this one right here.

Yes, that's right. That comic is selling for over a grand. How cool is that?

Sunday, August 22, 2010

I Am The Man Of The House

I am the man of the house and I take on manly construction projects.

Ok, so all I really did was clean out the desk nook in the bedroom, break down the desk, move the shelves to more useful positions and hang the closet rod, but still. It was manly.

If you're wondering, I still have no idea why the lawnmower won't start. I began taking the thing apart and pieces started falling out so I just put it off until wiser heads could prevail. If they don't prevail by Tuesday I'm going to borrow a mower.

My next big project will be to clean the guest bedroom and really put it to rights, which Bethany will be taking a pretty big hand in. There's not much that needs to be done there, but we needed the closet space to get things moved out of that room and moving things out of that room will make space to move some stuff out of storage and get our small storage room converted into a temporary third bedroom.

On an unrelated food note, I tried out a new potato snack. I found the recipe on the Food Network web site and you can find it here: Garlic Roasted Potatoes. The recipe is just as easy as it sounds and really pretty tasty. We didn't have any small potatoes so I quartered three jumbo russet potatoes and put 'em in the oven for an hour and it worked just fine. Simple, quick prep time and a perfect snack. You just can't ask for better than that.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Cleaning The Room Of Deep Thinking

I've spent the last five hours of my Saturday cleaning The Room of Deep Thinking.

My library, not the bathroom.

It worked out pretty well. I was able to free up some shelf space for magazines and a few books by tossing some old back issues of photo magazines I have no real interest in keeping. I've narrowed the collection down to three years worth of Outdoor Photographer and the six issues of Rangefinder that I somehow snagged for free. The computer has been moved into the library, which fits nicely on my old desk. I've even stored my acoustic guitar in its case under the desk, where it can be easily accessed, and my electric is in the stand in the corner where my fantasy section is shelved.

I took stock of what I have read and haven't read in my library as I cleaned. I moved two volumes to the To Read Shelf in the bedroom. Other than those, there are only half a dozen books in here I haven't read and I plan on donating some of those to the library. My comic book collection is put away a little better now. I'm hoping I'll find a couple extra binders as I'm cleaning the rest of the house so that I can get my entire Spider-Man collection protected.

Now that the computer has been moved, space has been freed up in the bedroom for the closet that we both could make use of. Once that gets put in place, then we'll have more room in the spare bedroom to actually have a spare bedroom free of clutter. And once that happens we'll be able to clean up the smaller storage room, shift what needs to into storage into our main storage room and then perhaps redecorate and have a small but serviceable small bedroom just off the room with the television.

I should have had all of this done by now since I've been off work for six months. I guess I just wasn't in the mood 'till today, when I finally had a free Saturday and Bethany was tied up with processing wedding photos.

Maybe since I've cleaned she'll take me out to dinner if I ask real nicely...

Friday, August 20, 2010

The Sad Happiness Of Peter Pan

I've come to the irrefutable conclusion that Peter Pan may be the saddest happy character I've ever met.

Take a moment to wrap your brain around that statement. I know it's a contradiction in terms, but it's true nonetheless.

The original Peter Pan, written by J.M. Barrie, was a play turned into a novel that became an instant classic. It told a story about Peter Pan, the boy who would never grow up, who would forever be a kid living a life filled with adventure in a place called Neverland. Complete and total bliss, right? No responsibilities. No bills. No job. Just constant wandering adventure. It's everyone's dream.

But then there comes this moment at the end when Wendy chooses to leave for London and Peter can't bring himself to go with her. He feels the stirrings of an emotion he'll forever be too young to understand, yet he lets Wendy return to London without him. He's forever attached to her, however, and he returns to see her and even takes her daughter back to Neverland with him.

It's sad because Peter Pan will never be able to love. It's forever lost to him because he chooses to remain a Lost Boy in Neverland.

I read Peter Pan a couple years ago and this all hit me hard then. Yesterday I finished Peter and the Starcatchers, which is the unauthorized prequel to Peter Pan written by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. In it we meet the orphan Peter who will become Peter Pan. They show us when he first meets Molly (Wendy's future mother) and the rest of the Lost Boys. It was a great read. A kid's book that's just a lot of fun right up to the end.

At the end, Peter had to make a choice. The experiences of the book had changed him so deeply that he realized he could never be happy anywhere other than Neverland. Again it was the heavy realization that Peter could never experience more than those first stirrings of love.

How big a choice is that? To be a worry free kid that never grows up or to be the boy who grows up to experience love. The authors never come right out and say it, but that's funamentally the choice he had to make.

Heavy stuff for a child's tale, don't you think?

Thursday, August 19, 2010

The Small Engine Mechanic

So I'm just a little slow in getting this day started. Don't ask me why because I'm probably not going to give much of an explanation. I'm a writer. Sometimes we keep odd hours. That's the best that I can do.

Today I'm going to see if I can be a small engine mechanic. My Dad lives in West Virginia and I can hear him laughing now as he reads, but nonetheless I'm going to try my hand at it. My lawnmower is refusing to start yet again. I ran into this problem earlier this summer and fixed it by taking the top off and adjusting something until it started running. I had no idea what I adjusted then and I still don't know today. All I do know is that the same fix  isn't working this time.

Plan B is to take the lawnmower apart, see what it looks like on the inside, fix whatever is obviously wrong with it and then see if I can put it back together. Sounds like fun, right?

Yesterday turned out to be an excellent writing day. Despite some scoffing at my drink preferences by The Student Knitter I cranked out an entire chapter to the tune of four glasses of Kool-Aide. I thought it was a pretty successful stretch at the keyboard and it proved that you can never be too old for Kool-Aide.

Since it's 12:30 already today it's time to load up my iPod and see what kind of damage I can do with the mower.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

The Never Ending Cycle Of Kool-Aide

Every Wednesday should start out this way.

I checked my e-mail this morning before leaving the house and discovered that Amazon was offering me a free copy of the latest New York Times Book Review for download on my Kindle. Naturally, I took them up on the offer and then discovered another link to a free sci-fi novel that looked to be of interest. Yes, every Wednesday should start out this way.

I'm finding that keeping my promise to write something every day is more difficult than I first imagined. Simply put, life just gets in the way. Take this weekend, for example. I was busy at a wedding Saturday, at my Grandma's birthday party on Sunday...Monday I blogged, fulfilling the promise, Tuesday I was away from the house the entire day, and today I've been pretty busy running errands and catching up on house work.

Now it's five o'clock and I'm finally ready to sit down and see about getting some serious ink on the page. Well, almost ready. I need a tall glass of cherry Kool-Aide. Oh, and I need to look up Ridley Pearson's first Lou Boldt detective novel and see if I can get it for a penny...which makes me think that I need to go to the library and get my card renewed so I can enjoy the mystery section there...which reminds me that I applied for a job at the library in Goshen, which makes me think that I should get a hair cut on the off chance that get an interview, which reminds me that I should go change the laundry over, which brings me back to the Kool-Aide...

You see, it's a never ending cycle.

But since it's now 5:25 and I've taken a phone call that completely interrupted my train of thought I'm going to wrap this up and actually do the writing I've been blogging about.

I still need a glass of Kool-Aide though.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Beating The Deadline

Now this was a busy Monday. But it's all good, because there's a nice bit of rain falling outside, dinner's on the stove and smelling wonderful and I have some free time to sit down tonight and look through some more of what Devan's sent me on the latest project.

I should probably tell you what it is, to begin with. I've mentioned our current work in progress a few times on the blog now without going into any details. Tentatively, it's called The Hunter, though I have to stress that it is very much a working title. Having read and enjoyed a good many young adult and children's books lately we've decided to focus our writing efforts and talents in that direction.

And since Devan and I have always been given to flights of fancy, this series of books is going to be about Druids. The old school kind of Druids that belong in the forests and are very wise and powerful. Katezerine is our main character and she'll be learning what it means to become a Druid and what impact that will have on her life. I'd tell you more of the plot but we're still fleshing out the details.

One aspect of this project that I'm enjoying is the chance to do a little actual research. Druids really existed. The legends that built up around them are somewhat far fetched, but there is a great deal of history to sift through and play with.

The writing has been fun and a little different. Since it's aimed toward younger adults, Devan and I both have had to make the effort to tone down the use of the big words that are so much fun to use. The writing also takes on a lighter tone as well.

So this should be an interesting read. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Looking Up To Falling Stars

I broke my own rule yesterday and didn't get anything at all written. In my defense, however, I was feeling pretty rough and there was a celestial light show that required my immediate and undivided attention beginning at about 9 p.m. last night.

Didn't see it, did you?

Last night was a rare conjunction of the Moon and four planets, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Mercury. A conjunction occurs when two or more heavenly bodies are in the same patch of sky. Last night it was five. Since we couldn't see it from our house because of the trees Bethany and I drove through Clifton. Turns out that the drive through town is mostly west and had a near perfect view. The Moon was a thin crescent and there two faint pinpoints of light (Saturn & Mars) above it and one very bright (Venus) dot of light. It was really beautiful. If you missed it, you missed a great show.

Last night, well last night and early this morning, was also the peak of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower. About this time every year the Earth moves through a band of debris left behind by the Swift Tuttle asteroid (I believe it was an asteroid) that broke up a long time ago. The belt of debris is pretty wide and the Earth careens through it every year, resulting in a pretty spectacular meteor shower. It's called the Perseid shower because the meteors appear to come from the constellation Perseus. No matter which direction that they streak across the sky, the tails of the meteors always point back to the radiant point, which is located in the Perseus constellation.

Bethany and I drug the hammock around to the darkest spot we could find in the yard and laid back and looked up at the night sky for nearly two hours. We had no sooner pulled the hammock into position than we saw one of the best meteors I've ever seen streak across our entire field of vision. It was followed up by dozens more in probably the best shower I've seen to date.

So, no, I didn't get any writing in at all yesterday. But it was worth missing.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The Science Of The Art

Last night I stared at a blank page on my computer screen for thirty minutes before I typed something I liked. Thirty minutes. That's an eternity for writer's block. And it's all Devan's fault.

People often ask me he we work together. Sometimes they're asking because they're honestly interested in the writing process. Sometimes they ask because they know the two of us and know how loud and pointless our arguments often get. Either way, it's an adventure.

Most of the final copy you see in just about anything Devan and I write is mine. A lot of the ideas are Devan's. The way it's worked so far is that Devan comes up with an idea and wraps a story around it. He tells me the story, writes some of it down and changes it a million times in midstream. I add in my ideas, throw in a few promising subplots and work at fleshing out the characters. Once we have an idea where we're going, he starts a draft and then I follow along behind him on another draft, adding in my characters in plots. The initial inspiration may be Devan's and the polished writing may be mine, but it very much takes to of us to tell the stories we tell. Devan goes for the big sweeping stories that take an entire series to tell. I go for the stories within the story that drive the characters toward where they're going.

I don't know if I've over simplified the process or not. It involves a lot of Pizza Hut pizza, occasionally some ribs and usually a great deal of debate, some of it loud. The differences don't always get worked out before the writing is done and sometimes it takes writing it out and seeing how it works to settle the debate. Yet the story always comes out.

But there are times when Devan just leaves me completely and totally blocked. His first drafts are more outlines than anything else, usually a lot of dialog with only a few important details thrown in. Unless it's a vital part of the story he usually leaves the scenery for me.

Take tonight for example. I have two characters going out for an evening run through the forest behind one girl's house that turns into something monumental. I have no details on any of the surroundings, no idea where I'm at except for England and absolutely no notion of what the girl's parents names are, what they're like or any idea how much of a future role they're going to have.

So I stared at a blank page and made four false starts in thirty minutes trying to bridge this gap. If Devan wasn't in Iraq right now I would've called him and yelled loudly. I'm still thinking about writing an e-mail with the Caps lock on so he gets the message anyway.

At least I made it past the writer's block in time to get a few hundred words down before calling it a night.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The Actual To Read List

I thought that since I've blogged a bit about my To Read List that my own readers might be interested in what's actually on the list. So I'll oblige.

In no particular order:

1. Peter & The Starcatchers by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson.
2. Peter and the Shadow Thieves by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson.
3. Peter and the Secret of Rundoon by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson
4. Dance of Death by Preston & Child (currently reading)
5. Book of the Dead by Preston & Child
6. Wheel of Darkness by Preston & Child
7. The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander
8. The Wine Dark Sea by Patrick O'Brian
9. The Green Mile by Stephen King
10. The Host by Stephanie Meyer
11. Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor
12. Happy To Be Here by Garrison Keillor
13. Lake Wobegon Summer 1966 by Garrison Keillor
14. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
15. Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
16. A War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card
17. First Meetings by Orson Scott Card
18. Leaving Home by Garrison Keillor
19. The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christie
20. Don Quixote by Cervantes
21. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
22. Shadow of the Giant Orson Scott Card
23. Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card
24. Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
25. Secret Adversary  by Agatha Christie
26. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
27. South of Broad by Pat Conroy
28. The Sword of Shannara Trilogy by Terry Brooks

So there you have it, a 28-title deep reading list. Some of these titles are on my Kindle, though not nearly as many are as stacked up on my nightstand. And I'm saving the Shannara trilogy for the trip I hope to get to take to Tennessee.

Any comments, additions?

Monday, August 9, 2010

How Much Wine? The Whole Bottle

Monday morning finds me at home polishing off the last of Brimstone, which had a cliffhanger ending that is going to completely disrupt my reading schedule. But that's another story for another blog.

At any rate, the week looks promising and open. I'll spend today processing Bethany's wedding pics and cleaning the house. There's a load of laundry spinning 'round the washing machine as write. Later, if all goes as planned, I'll hit the gym with Bryan and then cook pork chops for dinner.

Oh, speaking of dinner, we were invited down to Patrick and Amber's apartment last night for our first dinner with them since they were married. We made a pretty interesting chicken dish out of a Food &Wine cookbook. I'd tell you what it was called, but I can't remember and it doesn't matter anyway since we completely changed the recipe. Admittedly, the first mistake was mine. I misread the amount of wine that was supposed to be added to this dish. Instead of the six tablespoons that was listed, I read off six cups. So we upended the whole bottle into an eight-cup measuring cup and realized we were going to come up two cups short. We dumped it in anyway brought it to a simmer with an extra three-quarters of a cup of crushed tomatoes.

It was then that Amber read the recipe and realized that we'd blown it completely. Being the fearless souls in the kitchen that we are, Patrick and I started improvising. We threw in the entire can of tomatoes, parsley (which apparently should have went in with the wine) and tossed in some sliced and baked zucchini and squash. Forty minutes later it was an excellent dish, nameless but very tasty when coupled with the nice loaf of bread from the Food Lion bakery. I'd link you to the recipe as I've done on previous posts, but it's impossible since it came out of a book at their house and since we more or less just made it up as we went along anyway.

One of the highlights of the week will be the book sale at the C.P. Jones Memorial Library in Covington Saturday morning. I'm planning on taking some books over to donate to the sale on Wednesday when I go into town. I don't really need any extra books to read since my To Read Stack is pretty deep at the moment, but I'll at least see a few people I know and will probably take Bethany's grandma with me.

Thanks to the estimable Special Agent Pendergast, I'm rediscovering my love of detective novels. Bethany even bought me a used copy of Agatha Christie's The Labours of Hercules, a novel I started to read so long ago that I've forgotten how it goes.

I'm also pretty happy to say that the writing seems to be going well. The resolution to write every day is starting to pay off as I'm finding the tone for The Hunter, the first volume in mine and Devan's new series.

So it's Monday. There are plenty of jobs in the paper to apply for, I have a baked potato to eat for lunch, a television to watch and enough books to keep me happily reading through the month (I think). Life's pretty good.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Time, Space & Oreos

So today has turned out to be a productive day for a Friday.

I took the time to crank out some wedding photos that, admittedly, should have been processed by now. I had no sooner finished over 400 of them before Bryan called and we hit the gym for a workout on the basketball court. My game started off pretty sweet when I hit two threes and six free throws before I missed my first shot. After winning the first round of 21 my game went downhill from there and I lost the next two.

Now I'm back at the house and the first thing I notice when I walk in is how much extra space the new refrigerator takes up. It's not a lot, but it is noticeable. The refrigerator has, I guess darkened the kitchen, but in a good way. I like that we replaced a white appliance with a black sided refrigerator with stainless doors. I also like that it has plenty of space in the freezer. It's a bit taller, though, so I have to stretch more to reach the Oreos on the top of the 'fridge.

I have about an hour now before Bethany should be getting off from work. I'm going to see what I can get done on some of my writing projects.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

If It Ain't Rainin', It Must Be Snowin'

Chalk this one up to the notion of "It's always something."

We woke up this morning to find that our refrigerator wasn't cold and that our freezer was on the way to thawing out, neither of which is a Good Thing. Apparently our recent string of luck with household appliances and motor vehicles is holding true and I'm fairly certain there's a hole in the muffler of my Jeep.

But I digress.

So after rushing a lot of meat to Covington to a friendly freezer, I spent the day looking for, purchasing, accepting delivery and installation and then restocking the freezer with our still frozen meat. Oh, I almost forgot the best part. We were fortunate enough to find a slightly larger side-by-side refrigerator and freezer combo than our old one. The added width wasn't a problem but the extra height sure was. Fortunately the cabinet above the refrigerator had up to an inch and a half that I could cut away without fear of getting into the actual cabinet space itself. I borrowed a reciprocating saw and went to work.

Have you ever used a reciprocating saw? 'Cause if you haven't, you should. I highly recommend it. It's fun. I now want one for Christmas. That saw will cut most anything any time and anywhere. There's no limit to the damage you can cause with one of those. Fortunately, Bethany hasn't looked at the cabinets above the refrigerator yet...

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Looking For A Way Around The Block

It was a busy Wednesday for me, so much so that I didn't get to set down to blogging like I'd planned to earlier today. But there's still 50 minutes to go before midnight and therefore my resolution is still intact.

I've been thrown for a loop by Brimstone, the Pendergast novel that I've started reading tonight. Pendergast has tea with a character that was supposedly from The Cabinet of Curiosities, two books prior to Brimstone. I don't remember her at all and I have a very, very good memory when it comes to things I read. I've been completely thrown for a loop and I've appealed to Patrick for help. Maybe I just missed her.

A good deal of my thought this past week has gone toward my writing career. Since I'm unemployed, I do have some time to focus on it. I'm caught at an awkward point between novels. With The Crownless King I wrote something very intensely personal and with a character that had a great build toward becoming a hero. I want to write something like that again. But everything can't be like that, can it?

Blood & Steel is about 75% completed (first draft, that is). However, I feel like I kind of lost the thread of the story somewhere, as if I stopped listening to Sam tell me his story and started filling it in with my own. I haven't been able to recapture the feel that I had for it.

I guess this is what you would call Writer's Block. Any thoughts on how to get around it?

Monday, August 2, 2010

A Resolution

Welcome to August.

I heard something interesting on Barnes & Noble's Meet the Writer podcast. It was an older podcast and it featured an interview with Ridley Pearson. It seems to me that I've read something of Ridley's in the distant past, though I'd have to look it up to tell you. His most recent claim to fame is his collaboration with Dave Barry on Peter and the Starcatchers and the series that follows.

He talked briefly about his writing process and his advice to writers was pretty simple: Take a set time, every day, and write. Make it happen.

I realized I don't do that. This blog is a prime example. I blog when I feel like it, when some random adventure comes my way or, sin of all sins, when I have time. I realized today that if I'm going to be a successful writer I need to write every day. Without exception. So I'm going to start doing that. This blog will turn into a Monday-Wednesday-Friday publication and my August resolution is to have a minimum of 12 regularly scheduled posts by the end of the month. That's not to say I won't write more, but there will be at least three a week.

I'm at an interesting point in my life where my future can go just about anywhere I want it to go if I choose to make it happen. I think it's high time I made something happen.