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

 

And welcome to 2012, err 2013

A new year!
And the novel engine marches on.
I’m… maybe a week out from being finished with the first draft of my YA Romance book. Its sitting right about 108K. The manuscript scheduled to hit 120K by the time I type “The End”. I know the word count is far and above what most upstart YA writers do, but I’m expecting to cut about 20K out by the time I’ve edit it and another 20k will come out by the time it’s published. Talking with friends, they say larger books are becoming more expected in the YA genre. I hold on to the worry; I don’t believe a publisher would buy an oversized book of an unproven author. The cost of materials aren’t cheap. I keep going back and forth on it in my head.
Even as ‘Oil and Water’ goes onto a shelf to marinate, I have a stack of ideas that want to be written, and I need to start looking over the manuscript ‘Devil n’ Jack’. All these things fight for my writing time, I’m grumpy that I can’t give them all a slice! Ah well.

In other news I’ve started laying the groundwork for a podcast for AoA Publishing, I’ve got the first few hours of recordings done! Now I need to go through and review raw recording so I can edit it into a 30 minute file people would want to listen to. It should be ready for download in about a month.

The other day I got an itch to make a top 10 page of things l like. I wanted to have it done before writing my blog, but it’s been a lot of work so far.  Formatting and thinking through everything I’d ever seen/read/listen to take a lot more time than you’d think. Once I have a bit more done I’ll let others take a good look. 
I was walking by a box of bagels today, and while it might seem like the most news worthy thing in my life, I bring it up because of the logo on the side. It confused the hell out of me.

 Blazing Bagels
“Best Bagels East of New York”

When I saw it, the first thing I thought was; “What kind of company would say: ‘If you go here, you can find better bagels than us!’”
Company ideas that come to mind:

Second Best Pillow Company

We we’ll save your neck, but that shoulder is still going to hurt like hell.

 OR

Pittsburgh Cheesesteak

Not quite Philly, but it’s good!

Oh list goes on and becomes ever more inappropriate as I think about it. Maybe a post for my other blog. :)
Then a second thought came to me; I realized in that moment, I live on the West Coast… Now, I know we live in a global market. But this seems a little off, it’s a long way east for New York to Seattle. Do they only distribute east in an attempt to compete directly with New York for Bagel supremacy?
Ah well…

What I’m reading:
Started book three of Ice and Fire! Woo! It’s a damn thick book for sure!

Violence: A Writer’s Guide by Rory Miller – An author I’ve become friends with after a night of drinking with him.  That night, I learned I’m not worthy when it comes to wring violence. So after my editor (who was also there for drinks) bought me his first book I sat down and read it cover to cover in like 3 hours. And a few weeks later I’m reading it a second time sopping up all the information I can for Dinatech book 3.  The formatting of the book needs work. But the content is worth more than gold if you are looking to write violence in a story. I hope to help Rory with formatting for his next book.

What I’m listening to:
Cray Button by Family Force 5 – I’m getting into a lot of dance music. It might be time to breakout the polyester pants, big collared shirts, and platform shoes… and burn them on my way to the club. This was a song I hear over a year ago and didn’t really think much of it at the time. Now I’m all up in that. -_-

Express Yourself by Labrinth – Another dance song and part of the Windows 8 ads. I enjoyed it enough to buy it. What can say for myself? NOTHING sometimes I have no taste.
Last time I left you with a music video and I’m going to do that again.
 Personally, I’m in love with this video, I’d liked the song, but when put into context with what I’d call a short story, Taylor Swift may have made one of my favorite music videos.

Next time we talk, my manuscript will be done!
Robert

Rolling out the new year.

Happy Holidays! I hope all yours have been…happy? I guess I already said it, demanded it. But I didn’t ask it, how rude of me.

21st came and gone...role call. Everyone still there? Good, good. Will try again next year.

I needed to mail something for the first time in … forever. Meaning I had no stamps. Meaning a trip to the post office! Walking through the door, I found they’d removed the stamp vending machine (I blame budget cuts) making me wait in line with the other three people needing to mail things out of Milton. I was standing there admiring the different box sizes when the lady before me said “I need a roll of stamps.”

Immediately my mind went “WOW” the very idea, a ROLL of STAMPS, was the coolest thing since the invention of shock therapy (something else I may need). I marched right up to the counter and asked for my very own roll of stamps. Forty-five dollars later I was sitting in my car hugging my stamps and saying, “Now what?”

Only I could find a way to make an impulse buy at the post office.

A roll consists of a hundred tightly rolled (obviously) stamps for your mailing pleasure.

Isn't it beautiful?
Don't worry they leave you in the end.

I’ve used one, and at my current rate of use. My son will inherit this roll.

I’ve started to come up with some ideas of how I could better put this roll to use.

One idea is “Strippers” I just love the idea of twenty dollar stamps that you can just sick to a strippers…umm…butt. Maybe I could mail girls about the room to my friends, just by “attaching” a stamp.

Mail me other ideas, better yet. Give me ideas and I’ll mail them to myself.

I don’t think I’ll get another blog out before 2013 so here is my list of things I’ve done:

• Finished and published my follow up book: Corporate Policy
• Put out both my books in one paperback volume: Dinatech Series Vol:1
• Read more this year than ever before.
• I’ve put down 100 books against my goodreads.com list
• Drove across the US
• Went to three writing conventions
• Wrote more blog post than last year! – I did slack off through the end, but all for good reason. Something had to give and I needed my book out.

I’ve got a few goals for next year, and unlike last year; I don’t have complete control of them, the master goal is find an agent. Everything beyond this will be gravy. :D

What I’m reading:

Song of Ice and Fire will be on the list for like the next half year, so I’m going to just assume you know this.

250 Thing You Should Know About Writing by Chuck Wendig – I follow his twitter, I follow his blog, I can blame on a friend of mine. Buying his books I can only blame on Chuck, because they’re funny as hell and filled with quick, sweet wisdom about writing. If you are thinking about writing anything I encourage you to give it a read. Get used to hearing the word “motherfucker” he likes it, and uses it like most people use salt.

What I’m listening to:
North by Matchbox Twenty – More specifically “Put Your Hands Up” They got a little digital on this CD, and while it shocked me at first. I enjoyed it. But I find that one song seems to get stuck on infinite repeat…

 

It's time for a change!

Today, any typos I make I’m going to blame on the Microsoft Surface

I thought I would give it a try and see how well it could work as my mobile authoring tool. If I find that I’m liking it, I might replace out the Mac Air as my mobile tool of choice. There are still some major issues that would need to be figure out. Like right now I can’t use Scrivener on the RT. I’d have to upgrade to the pro when it comes out early next year. I’m also not sold on the windows version of Scrivener, I’d have to take a better look. But it might be fine to when I’m on the road and I can use the Mac version when I’m at home and ready to do final work on a story.

The week has been amazing, I’ve gone from looking at my first proof copy of my paperback book to seeing it for sale on Amazon. I hope to do some promoting of the book as I go, but I’m going to be happy getting back to doing the pen monkey work more.

The irons in the fire right now are; a Young Adult book, a comedy, a magical fantasy, and I’m working on a Vampire romance book per my wife’s requests. Already decided, I’m going to be finishing the YA book first, I’m already 90k into it. Once I have that done, I’m going to sit back and see what’s next. I want to submit some work to for feedback for Westercon, which needs to be done by May. I also hope to run or be part of a panel this year. It’s another one of my goals.

But all of this is just steps to my goal of getting published. This is the next real hurdle. The money be damned, if I can get a book on the shelf with a publishers’ logo on it. My goal will be made. I’m not going to be delusional that I could make King like money or something, just I’d like to say for sure that I’m a published author. I’d like to go to a party and say “Yes, I’m published.” And I don’t have to say “self-published”.

In other news I’m trying to relax a little more, I even spent a few hours over the weekend playing video games and I cooked dinner. I haven’t done much of that as of late.

I’ve also been thinking about dropping coffee as a drink again, I don’t like my dependency on it. But to do so would mean breaking contact with some people I have come to think of as friends. It’s a tough decision to make.

 

What I have I been reading:

A Clash of Kings (Book two of a Song of Ice and Fire) by George RR Martin – This is a big enough book that I’m going to be reading it for a few weeks.  I hear how heart breaking this series is, I’m firm believer in loss for gain. I wonder what I’ll be saying at the end of book 5. If you can put up with the ups and downs I recommend giving it a read.

What I’m listening to:

Lana Del Ray – I found her through some cheap MP3 deals and I’ve been really happy with what I found. I went back and picked up her first album. I will warn you, I don’t think her music is for everyone. But it is for me.  Her voice is quite lovely.

 

I'm back from the grindstone!

Has it been a while? 

Yes it has!  

I've been working very hard for you! 

The last time we talked I was deep in editing hell! My time with the Fairwood writer type authors was very eye opening, but it left me with the ragged tatters that was once my (almost ready) manuscript. It was no longer almost ready and it was in need of some serous updates. I'm sure I've talked about this before. The further I got behind in my release date the more I felt I should cut back on other activities. So I cut the blogging, the reading, the writing. Everything went into getting the book to my copy editor!   

But it's done! Now released on Kindle, Nook, and within a week you can buy both the first and second book together in a 5x8 paperback that you can really hold and stain up with coffee rings. It's about 375 pages, that's thick enough you might be able to read the title on the spine and it will do some damage when tossed at a misbehaving loved one. My physical book will have many handy uses, and if all else fails, you could … I don't know … read it?  

My proofs are in the mail and I thought; What should I be doing now!?  I checked my blog and blanched at the fact I'd not talked to you since September, early September.  

It's December now, exactly 2 months after I left you. I hope you've gotten all your shopping done and are fretting about how in the hell you're going to get these damn boxes wrapped! Even that really weird one with the round sides!  

Late October I flew to the east coast and I got to meet some friends that I'd only ever talked with on the internet. It was her wedding and while she didn't make me the Made of Honor I was honored to have been invited.  While I was there I bought a new car :D Most people can't say they own there dream car. I do!  

She was named Asuka, after much debate in the family. She's a 400+ WHP RS to STi conversion. I named her Asuka, because of the color, and if you don't play nice with her she'll kick the shit out of you! I've made a website for my Subarus, you can follow the  blog at: http://www.subaru25b.com 

In my trip of driving across the United States, I got to see a lot of neat things, also I didn't get to see as much of it as I'd like. I'm going to have to do the drive again sometime in the future. I'll have buy my next car on the east coast and plan to take a little more time off to do tourist like things. 

I found a new channel "The Smithsonian Channel" All I ever watch in Military Channel and History Channel. This one is on the same lines but it's in HD and covers some other areas of the past that I also enjoy. They had this one feature on the Concord and I couldn't stop watching. If you like this like of programing, I strongly recommend it!  

Moving forward I hope to get back to a more active presence on my blog, I'm going to go back under the hood and start looking at getting a manuscript ready for traditional publishing. I've done enough of the work myself! I want someone to do all the work for me! 

What have I been reading:  

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin - Ok at this point I have to admit, I'll take a read at anything! I was sure I was never going to read this series, now here I am! I just finished this book and turned directly to the second book. It's an impressive read and I think there are lessons to be learned for anyone that wants to learn to write.  

Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong - This book is the end of the Woman of the Underworld series, I've been reading her work for near a decade now. I've always liked her books, but this thirteenth should have never been written. It feels so mailed in, it hurts my feelings that she doesn’t seem to care. If she wanted to be done with the series than she should have just stopped till she was ready to come back and do it right. it's been said in the community she was looking to focus on her YA carrier. I'm fine with that, but don't effect your integrity to move on. I'll be very interested to see how her next book looks.  

What have I been listening to:  

M83 - It's a band my brother has been talking at me about for a few months. I at last got a chance to see them live at Deck the Hall Ball at Key Arena. While the sound in that place sucks ass, M83 sounded really good! They looked to be a lot of fun. I'm going to have to get tickets to their next concert for sure.  Also Grouplove on a side note. 

As the summer ends

It’s been a few!

Life has been busy, the summer proving to be far more active than I expected. I never thought much of the summer; many people say summer is the busiest part of the year, with is long day’s warm weather. I can’t say that holds true for me normally, this year would be an exception. I had a ton of activities and many trips starting from April. I’m actually hoping things can slow down through September and most of October. Because starting October 25^th through the end of the year things will be crazy busy.

I’ve got one east coast wedding, plus a drive home from said east coast, if everything works out the way that I want.

Adding one more thing to my list of too much to do; some how I got talked into participating in two damn fantasy football leagues again. I always say I’m not going to do any. By doing so, I hope I only get dragged into one. But once again I failed to keep it singular. At least these ones are free.

After a few months of healing my hurt pinky, I think I’m going to a specialist after all. I don’t think it’s going to heal any better than it already has without help.  Just mark it down as one more stupid thing I’ve done to my body in the name of sports!

I feel the end of my edits for Corporate Policy coming on! I can’t wait be done! There is going to be a little celebration around here! It will feel good to compile it up and send it over to my copy editor! I’ve been itching to just enjoy sometime with new writing, but I’ve been good and not started till I get through these edits!

There is just so much discipline to being creative!

What I’ve been reading:

Assassin Series by Robin Hobb – This covers the three books, I’ve just finished the last of them. It really felt like a long read to me. Like I was loosing progress on my goal of 100 books this year. But I’m right on schedule and there is nothing to be worried about.  This series has a major muddle in the middle and it doesn’t go away easy. It’s most of the third book. I’m shocked to be honest because the first two books were awesome. I have to say some of the story in the books is shocking if you’ve actually met the writer! I’m going to take a break from the world Hobb writes, but I will come back soon. Promise.

Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan – This book had me laughing on the first page and it had me in hysterics at points. It was one of the funniest things I have ever read. It’s one you really should add to your reading list. If you’ve enjoyed anything by Max Berry, it’s a good match. My only disappointment is, the book was written in 2007 and he’s never written another book (that I can find) after. I hope he does at some point; I think I’d enjoy it.

I get the feeling after his first book was so good, he’s gotten a case of the writers block.

Movies:

Definitely, Maybe – My wife and I have been buying all the movies of one actor as kind of a joke. I started doing it with Rachel Leigh Cook and so her actor of choice was Ryan Reynolds. It was her night to pick and her choice was this gem. I don’t mean that sarcastically, I really enjoyed the movie and I can’t believe that I hadn’t heard anything about it before Amazon delivered it to me. It was a sweet movie, with a real edge about how couples can separate and a unique look on how it doesn’t have to be all drama.

18^th Angel – this was my movie with Rachel Leigh Cook starting.  It was rather bad and total cheese. Never own it, never watch it.  I’m happy it only cost me three bucks! I will miss the Spock hand clock.

Music:

Beacon by Two Door Cinema Club – All the bands I like or even know about are releasing new albums this year! It’s been a great year for my iPod and a bad year for my pocket book! This band I’d only first heard about a few months ago. I picked up their first album and I was already begging for more! Luckily I didn’t have to wait too long. Their second album released on the 4^th of September. If you haven’t given them a listen, take my word for it, worth a spin. Very fun happy music.

Robert