I Suck at Social Networking

So, I realize that it’s been over a month since my last blog post. (Shit, really? *runs to check last blog post date, then checks the current date.*) Okay, not really over a month, but pretty darn close to a full month. Far to long for a blog that people will keep reading, right?

I’ve also noticed that I hardly post anything on Twitter anymore, and that most of my posts on Facebook are just sharing cool things OTHER PEOPLE have posted.

And it’s not like I stopped liking or enjoying these things. I love this blog. I love Twitter and Facebook, and all the friends I’ve made through those places.

I just suck at Social Networking.

I think the reason for this is the social part. I’m not really good at that part off the computer, when dealing with people face to face. Why should I believe that I’m better at it online?

And it’s not like there’s been nothing going on in my life. Lots of stuff is going on.

The ren faire guild my wife and I belong to is going through a restructuring that looks promising, and has us both wanting to stick around where previously we were considering quitting.

I started a tabletop RPG group and managed to get in one actual session of play before it was put on hold as the couple who’s house we play in decides on if they are moving or not.

Recently, my family took a trip to Disneyland and California Adventure, where we had a blast!

My wife celebrated her 40^th birthday.

I’m celebrating my 10^th anniversary at work this month.

I just got a brand new phone (a Samsung Galaxy S II), and man, am I super excited about that!

And there’s things happening in the world that I am interested in, too.

Occupy Wall Street is going on.

Steve Jobs died (today!), and I’m still sorting my feelings on that. Hopefully, I have a blog post on that soon.

There’s TV Shows that I’ve become interested in.

Doctor Who (I’ve just finished Season 5 on Netflix, but it runs out there… I can’t figure out how to watch Season 6 online without paying $3 an episode on iTunes, and I’m starting to go through Doctor Who withdrawals).

Haven on SyFy (I still cringe to type that) is awesome.

The webseries, The Guild, is running a really funny and fantastic season right now.

And, of course, there’s writerly stuff to talk about. I’m still trying to get myself to finish the Snow White in Space novel, hopefully before NaNoWriMo, because I plan on starting a whole new novel in November. But the truth is, I’m struggling getting myself to sit in front of the computer and write. I just seem to want to play video games. I don’t know if that’s a sign that this novel sucks and I just give it up, or that I’m just procrastinating, and I should suck it up and move on.

My point here is that it isn’t like there’s not stuff I can talk about. I just, for some reason, am not talking about them.

Normally, this would be the point where I tell you all that I’m going to change all that, and post here more often, and talk on Twitter and Facebook more often, and become a better Net-citizen.

But the truth, that’s a promise I’m not sure I can keep.

But here’s what I can promise. I promise that I will TRY to post more often, about whatever happens to possess my geeky little mind, whenever I can. No set schedule, because it’s obvious I can’t keep one for very long. But, as often as I can manage.

So, I’m still here, and I hope you’re still reading. Here’s to hoping that I can keep this up again.

Thanks for sticking with me, and for those of you that haven’t unsubscribe from my blog after this post, double thanks. There’s some cookies and milk for you in the kitchen.

WIP’s, WIP’s and more WIP’s

So, as I mentioned, the other day, I created a spreadsheet to keep track of not only my submissions, but also my WIP’s. And it turns out, I got more WIP’s than I realized I did. And I added another one last night. (For those that don’t know, WIP stands for Work In Progress. It’s Twitter shorthand for any project you are currently working on.)

Now, the good news is that in addition to the progress of each WIP, I also have a due date, so that I can make sure to get stuff done in the right order. It really helps me stay focused and not project hop. But I want to spend a moment to talk about the project I just added.

I was contacted through Facebook that some old friends of mine, also writers, are getting together to work on a potential anthology using a setting created by one of them. The idea originally was to do a straight up Sword and Sorcery, al la Conan, with lots of action and in a very low magic setting. That has since changed somewhat, but that’s what happens when you collaborate. I am working on the rough ideas for a story for this setting, and it’s kind of exciting to be working with these two guys.

Now, the question comes to mind, what are the plans for this project? One friend suggested publishing it as an eBook. I’m still a litter nervous about doing that. I don’t have the money to lay out for a proper eBook launch, including editors, cover design, formatting, etc. On the other hand, I’m not really against the idea of doing it this way, as it’s unlikely that a group of unknown authors can get an anthology just featuring us can get published in New York. So, it’s something that I have to think about, because the truth is, I want to know how we’re going to go about this before I invest a lot of time working on a story.

This is not to say I won’t be writing a story for this project if it’s only for ourselves and never sees the light of day. I’m having fun right now, and that’s the important thing. Just that if we do go with a full book, we need to talk about how that will look before we start writing. At least, in my opinion. So, I will have that discussion with them soon.

This brings up something else that’s been on my mind lately. With the creation of the spreadsheet, I saw that one of my WIP’s missed it’s deadline, and so there’s no chance of it getting included in the project I was writing it for. So, now I’m left with a project that’s one third of the way through its first draft, wondering if I should even bother finishing.

On the one hand, it just bugs me to leave a story unfinished, even if it won’t get used. On the other hand, it kind of feels like it’s not worth it. Why should I finish a story that the project it was done for is closed? On the OTHER other hand, I could just finish and file it away. You never know, there might be a use for it later.

So, that’s where my mind is right now regarding my projects. I’ll probably figure out all this stuff by next week, but I’m also sure that this is a topic that will come up often.

Until then, keep on remembering the future!

Of Geeks and Car Troubles

Phew! What a week!

First, let me update you all on the writing angle. No submissions this week, but, I am working on three projects right now. Two short stories are in the work and a flash fiction piece for a podcast is also up and running. I’m working on draft two for the flash piece (the one I posted on Friday, in fact), and I am working on draft one for the other two stories, which will be submitted to magazines, one that pays and one that doesn’t. I know, submitting to a mag that doesn’t pay? But, it’s a new mag, and a publishing credit if they take me. So, while I continue to research them, I’ll work on a story assuming I want to submit to them. If I decide not to submit, I still have a story I can submit to other places. And if I do, and they take me, then like I said, publishing credit.

So, that’s the writing front. In other areas of my life, things are very interesting. My wife and I just dropped a huge chunk of change to get some needed maintenance on our car. You know, stuff like oil filter changed, new oil, new tires, alignment, tune up, that kind of stuff. Then, this very morning, on the way to work/school with our boy, the car breaks down. Turns out the plug for the oil filter fell off, and there was river of oil on the side of the road. So, back to the dealership for the fix and a rental car. The good news is that the engine itself was not damaged, they’re going to do the fix, and also replace our wearing breaks (not really in need, but it would be soon, so hey, cool) and a detail, all for free to make up for it being their fault in the first place.

So, rough day today. But this weekend?

Man, it was awesome! A group of friends of mine do this thing every year, a weekly gaming get together we call Hyphen-Con. It’s a two day affair where a bunch of RPG geeks get together and play RPG’s on one day, and board/card games on the second. And I had a blast! I ran a game of Danger Patrol (retro-future pulp sci-fi narrative game, it’s fun, you should Google it) and played in a fantasy game that used the mechanics from the Smallville RPG, which was also fun. I’m not sure I’d be really interested in a Smallvilleesque campaign, but the one-off was pretty cool.

And board game day was filled with awesomeness. Settlers of Catan, Dominion, Puerto Rico, Zombies, Kung-Fu Fighting, and those are just the games I played in. There were a ton of others.

So, great weekend, filled with geeky goodness, and while I am exhausted now, it was well worth it. I’ll probably take a night off of writing today, for recovery as well as other prior engagements, but I’m ready to jump back into the pool tomorrow. So, until then, remember:

No matter where you go, there you are!

Why I am in love with Ray Bradbury

Yes, I said “in love” up there. I’ll explain that in a minute.

Let me start off with my weekly update. Work progresses on my current WIP. I stumbled a little with the bad guy, but I’ve gone back to basics with him and now he’s working much better. I was trying to make him all nuanced and maybe not a real baddie, but it ended up making him really clumsy and uninteresting, so I ditched all that and just went back to him being a bad guy, pure and simple. It’s a little black and white, but the subtleties of his personality came come out later.

I’ve also settled on a short story plot for my submission I plan on making to the Splintered Lands site. I’m rather happy with it. Next step will be to read some of the Splintered Lands stories already written, so I can work mine into it a little better.

On the submission front, I did a single submission this week, which was to send of my novella from NaNoWriMo, The Life and Times of Aries Webb, to a contest. The grand prize is a professional edit from a Del Ray Books editor, and a shot at getting said book published. That would be awesome. Everyone keep your fingers crossed.

Now, to the title of this little rant of mine. I’ve been reading Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury recently, and with what he is saying in there, and the lecture he gave at a Learning Annex I went to a few years back, I’ve realized the secret of his profile writing, and why his stories are always so engaging. Love.

For those of you that know anything about him, this is probably not a shock. He says it all the time. Find out what it is you truly love, he says, and write about it. Find ways to combine things you love. When you were growing up, did you love army movies and dinosaurs? Write a story about WWII soldiers that find a secret Nazi island where they are breeding dinosaurs to fight the allies with. On second though… don’t, that’s an awesome idea, and I may have to use it later.

For him, it was circuses and trains and dinosaurs and Buck Rodgers. These all lead to Something Wicked This Way Comes and the Martian Chronicles and a hundred other stories he’s done over the years.

So, I’ve been thinking about what I love recently. And amid the other things I’ve listed (D&D, video games like Mario Brothers and Zelda, Star Wars, Star Trek, The Hobbit and others) I’ve come to realize that I’ve been in love with fantasy and sci-fi since I was a little boy, when my dad first introduced me to it.

He gave me books like E.E. Doc Smith’s Lensemen, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit and a little book called Fahrenheit 451, by a Mr. Ray Bradbury. I realized that along with my love of space ships, laser guns, sword fights and dragons, I was in love with Ray. I’ve been in love with him and his passion since I was a little boy, and I’ve rekindled that love recently with this book. I’m itching to go back through my collection and find the books of his I still have. In addition to Fahrenheit 451 and the Martian Chronicles, I have a few short story collections of his. His passion and his love shows through in his work, and even today, those words of his and that passion of his influences me in my writing.

And what I’ve come to understand is that I want that passion and that love to show through in my writing as well.

Because this is what people are talking about when they say “write what you love, not what will sell.” Because if you love it, and I mean REALLY love it, to the point that you would be willing to break up with your girl friend because she wanted you to stop playing D&D (true story on my part), then that love will show through when you write about it.

So, while I fall in love with Ray all over again, I’m going to keep writing, and hope that my love shows through.

I hope you will too.