Think of shows as old friends

Today I’m having one of those “I’ve got the chills” moments.  Then, I thought it would make a great blog topic. That never turns out well.

I was watching the opener for one of the many anime that I obsessed over years before. And as I sat there watching it, here is what I was thinking…

I want you to think about a book, or movie, or TV show that you grew up with.

In the moment it really shaped your life. Over the years, when you think back, it’s like a longtime friend. Now, let’s say you’ve bumped into this show at your local coffee shop. Remember how much time you two spent together? How they understood you, and amazed you with their eye opening imagination?

Now, it's years later, you look at them and you wonder, “Hey buddy. Do you still have it? Can we still be the best of friends?”

I’ve come to find… That the answer is: no.

While that story was a great part of your life, and you’ll never forget the times you spent together. Not even for all the tea in China. You simply can’t go back. 

Your tastes were different. It was a different world. You’re older, wiser, and/or more mature. Maybe you've finally had that lobotomy you’d been saving up for. All these things could contribute. Or maybe, deep in your heart of hearts, you know it really wasn’t that good.

Then, there are those remarkable few stories that no matter how much time passes it’s still your best friend. You two can carry on like they only walked out of the room to get another beer. I find myself thinking of those from time to time.

I’d started a top 10 ten list of my favorite stories but I rarely find time to work on it. 5^th Element, Wizard of the Grove, Orange Road and I”s are just a few that I never get tired of. I mean it. I’ve seen 5^th Element twenty-seven times in theaters and I can’t even count the times I’ve just sat on the couch watched it from cover to credits.

To be clear, I rarely read/watch anything more than once. There just isn’t enough to time to experience it all before I’m dust.

Sorry,  this post has been mostly me rambling.

From Beer to Apocalypse: The Second Round

If you’ve been waiting, and I know most of you haven’t been. This Tuesday, the first page of From Beer to Apocalypse: The Second Round will be released. It took longer to get moving than I expected, but now the waiting is over.

Prepare yourself!

Robert

Are those crickets?

I've been embarrassingly negligent to my author blog. For that I’m sorry.
I just looked, it's been over a year... A damn year is unacceptable.
While I've been working my storytelling butt off and doing more writing than I ever have. But I never felt like I’d done enough to make it worth posting my progress. I thought with my focus in writing I’d have plenty to talk about. But it seems the old saying is true, “Writing is the loneliest of professions.”

Let’s do some updates:

People ask me all the time if I’d finished book three in the Dinatech series (Named: Deadline). Yes I have.  It was the first thing I worked on when I started to focus on writing. Currently, I've finished up my second draft of the novel. What I need to do next is story edits.

“But Rob, why haven’t you started the part you like the most?”

I needed to make some hard choices.

I put it aside, along with Devil n’ Jack and all my other projects. I needed to work on the story I want to sell to a publishing house.

Nic and Kennedy’s story has been living with me now for about six months and their friends Anna and Lilly have been telling me their stories as well. I've worked hard on Oil and Water. I’ve been fixing my style, my processes and how I research.
So what happens when you spend all your time with hormonal teenagers?

You want to kill them!

I might have written a few scenes where they drive off cliff off in a fiery car crash. I bring them out when they aren’t behaving.

In a version of writing therapy I took a vacation and wrote a different story. A fellow writer reached out for some help on his blog. It gave me the chance to try two firsts at once. A horror story and working in the short story format. Years ago I had an idea for a horror novel and when Clark asked for help I felt it would be a good time to try it. As we get closer to June I’ll be talking more about this.

My goals in the next month:

To start work on web novel two of; From Beer to Apocalypse. My co-writer and I have picked up a new website and I've started getting the site in place.
I want to have page one published by the end of March and once again meet our goal of a page per week. I think we are going to move from Mondays to releasing on Tuesday though.

Start edits on Deadline. Till I find an agent for Oil and Water it’s in a place where I can slow down and take my time with it. Dinatech is, and always will be my independent project. It’s time get back to this before I become the unknown George R. R. Martin of Independent Sci-Fi. I want to try for November of this year.

Other things I’ve been writing:
Aqua Digest – This is a blog I started to cover my obsession with the NFL football team, Miami Dolphins. I’ve written a few things already but as the off-season starts to become interesting I’ll have more to say. I mean they just let Brian Hartline go… But that’s a post for another blog!

Offensive Mind – Everything else that I want to write about but doesn't have a blog is posted here.  It used to be something that was more of a privet journal, but I just didn't find it that much fun. I’ve changed its format and made it more public.

Talk with you soon... umm, sooner,

Robert