Getting on Track and Travel

Look at that, another week another blog!

I can’t say I’m complete back on track, but I’m getting there. Just a short one this week.

I’m currently still working on edits to Devil n’ Jack, while I have the first 25 pages well polished… Many, many pages still need a good scrubbing. I’d like to have scrubbed by November. Because, boys and girls. It’s time to start putting (digital) pen to (digital) paper and start book three of the Dinatech Series. I have been itching to create and not edit. I have a ton of stuff that want to be writing on right now. But there are only so many hours in the day. I must be good, I must edit!
Monday is my son’s 5^th grade camp, you blink and he’s no longer the 4 year old that we dropped off for pre-school. 
Get this.
Not only will I be going along, but somehow I’ve also been put in charge of a whole cabin! I have enough trouble trying to keep myself out of trouble, now I’ve been given the chance influence a whole legion of trouble makers!  My friend was telling me about how his school was banned from camp indefinitely for crazy antics. I think will try and avoid going that far...
My camp was 6^th grade, and I have to think really hard to remember that trip. Yeah getting old. I’m glad that I get to share this with him. I hope that he enjoys the trip. It sounds like a lot of people are putting a lot of work into this.

On a last note…
I DID IT! I finished all five books in the Ice and Fire series! It’s been six months of work and at times it really was a slog to get through. But, it’s done and now I can talk and be one of the cool kids. We can have great intellectual talks about the story and I don’t have to sit there, hoping beyond HOPE, they don’t say something that’s going to spoil it for me. I’m just SO happy to be finished!
But, the next morning. There was this moment when I looked over my books and thought “Isn’t there just a little more Ice and Fire I could read?” It’s like Stockholm syndrome! Then the second panic came; I’ve have such a MASSIVE backlog now I didn’t know what in the hell I should read next!
I settled on a Sarah Dessen book… of course.

Till next week!

Robert

Geeks and Authors!

Okay, okay!

I know I’ve been a little quieter than you might have liked these last few months. But I promise you, behind the parchment curtain there has been plenty of activity. I’ve been trying to keep my blogs to things that have been interesting and not just blogging to blog.
I have to blame Sarah Dessen for adding to this pressure though. She’s been keeping up on hers. Making me feel guilty!
I came across something that all but whipped my literary mind into action, a music video “For the Win” by Team Unicorn. It features Weird Al Yankovic, Aisha Tyler, and Grant Imahara.  It basically shows off four woman in half clothed medieval Cosplay fighting some kind of evil while talking about Magic the Gathering and Comic-Con.  “Hey we’re hawt and we play games!”

There is one other music video like this done by the guild team.

There seems to be this huge geek movement going on right now. It’s cool to be geek/nerd and I’m not sure that’s really what it should be all about. It fact it kind of goes against the definition of the word
I can’t put my finger on it fully, but it bothers me. WHY DOES IT BOTHER ME?
 

In other news… Norwescon 2013 has come, has happened, and has ended.

In the busy life I’m living I only got to go for one day. I’ll be making this up later in the year when I head to Sacramento for a 4 days and nights for Westercon.
I won’t say that my one 3/4^th day at Norwescon wasn’t productive though. Of the few panels I went to. One of them was “Practice My Pitch” or as I lovingly called it. “PIMP MY BOOK!” basically a room full of people trying to become published authors. On the stage the panelists hold a nice juicy steak in the form of a fast track to an agent.
Thinking that I’d only have MAYBE thirty seconds to convince them MY story is the one they should pick. I was totally super prepped for this panel. It went something like this.

Day of; 12:30 At lunch with Del:

Del: “You know we have that pitch your story panel at three, have you got your pitch ready?”
Me: “Shit I totally forgot that we were doing that today!”

I cram the rest of my lunch down, headed to the hotel gift shop, and bought a pen and a pad (somehow I left the house that day thinking I wouldn’t need to take any notes). Then during the 1pm panel wrote and perfected the pitch I was going to give.

With my pitch ready and an hour to sweat, I decide I need a courage in the form of inebriation!
I downed a few beers I head off to give my pitch.
Getting there and getting settled into seats, it turns out it’s not a pitch at all. In fact it’s more like a four on one interview with authors and editors for places like “Daw”. So after letting someone else volunteer to be the test subject I finally had a grip on what to do and it had nothing to do with the pitch I wrote. Also I checked the clock and it was now 3:20… There are far more people than pitch time.  

It was time for Rob to be assertive!
After a few more pitches, I was picked! “You with the arm higher than anyone else’s.” Del later tells me, my arm found another six inches once she said that.
I walk up onto the stage. I settle into my seat. I give them my idea, why I think readers would enjoy it and making a few jokes about the story. The audience laughed at the right places, things seemed good. It ends I shake hands with the panelists and they grill a few more people after me. I really couldn’t tell you what happened for sure, I was off in jitters land.
After a small and what I’d say; heated debate.
I was picked as the winner!
I couldn’t tell you much of my day after that. I kind of floated about till Cask Beer Festival, then I drank myself stupid in celebration.
The next day I got up and it was on. One week to whip my first draft into something I could show another living person! I have to again thank Amie and Dell. Without them I’d have never gotten it all done and make it look like someone that knew ENGLISH was writing it!
My first 25 pages are currently sitting with an agent…who may or may not be laughing at me. :)

Enough for this week! I try and keep these to 500 words. I’m at 800!
I’ll try and be better about my blog, sorry to those of you who read this dribble, it should at least be on time.

Till next week!
Robert