Since our last episode...

I finally got a new chapter written in Blood Plague War, it was kind of lonely writing without Snags. I think I am going to try to work him into one of my novels. Writing has always been a good way for me to get out some emotions and stuff without actually having to take about them. It is one of the reasons writing helps me get to sleep, I've had a heck of a time getting to sleep the past few weeks.

I meant to get back to writing sooner but things have been a little rough lately. Here is a list of everything I would have blogged about since my last post. First I will say that the movie Thor is really good, you should see it. Now on to the bad stuff.

I had a lupus flare up, which makes sense (my flare ups seem to be cause by stress and I was, and still am, pretty upset about Snags) I stayed home sick but my other dog looked so sad that I decided to go outside and play with him, but running while I am having a lupus flare up is kind of a bad idea. Long story short, the ankle is just sprained not broken. The next day my wife's car broke down. Then I got a rejection for my novel The Lion of Solkara, this was the last publisher on my list and the novel is officially retired, maybe it will get published someday.

But the novel rejection really was not that big of a deal since there was an illness in my family. The person who was ill asked that I not even tell anyone in our town about it so I will not announce exactly what happened online. But I did make the six hour trip to Denver with them so that they could get tests and then drove back the next day. Later this week they will be going to Rapid City for surgery, I think I will be driving them again.

Then I got a call last night that my boss' husband passed away. I didn't ever get the chance to meet him, but she is one of the nicest people I know and it really sucks she has to go through this. The assistant director is pregnant and due soon so that means that I might suddenly become really busy at work real soon(I am in charge when the director and the assistant director are not there). Oh, and sometime during all this my wife decided to try and give me a haircut, the result? Now I am sporting a shaved head. Which is actually okay, I kind of look good with no hair.

The plan for this week? Try to get all the stuff done for the summer reading program. Go to a funeral. Take someone to the hospital in Rapid City (about 1 and ½ hours away) wait for 6+hours in the waiting room, bring them home. Go on the radio to talk about the summer reading program. Get my wife's car fixed. Get for sale signs on said car. Get my other novel, Kingdom of the Dead sent off to TOR. Make another doctor's appointment for my ankle if it is not feeling better by Wednesday. Prepare myself for the inevitable lupus flare up all this week will bring on. Spend three day weekend in my pajamas locked away from the world, napping and eating junk food.

At least I am getting all my bad luck for 2011 used up near the beginning of the year, sorry for the grammar,spelling, etc. in this post. I am going to go to bed instead of rereading it.

Taking a Break

I won’t be blogging for awhile or writing much. My silent unacknowledged writing partner, my dog Snags passed away this weekend. He always sat next to me on the couch while I typed away on my laptop. I just can’t seem to get any words written without his grunts, barks, and demands for belly rubbing. I’ll give a week, then maybe I can get something out, he was such a happy dog, he would feel awful if he knew how upset I am.

The Procrastination Helper- Flash Games and a Zombie Game

Okay, its time for another post of The Procrastination Helper this week’s post is about flash games. Free online flash games are great way to put off until tomorrow what you can do today. I like to play games at Kongregate, and Heavy Games. These games are online, which means no downloading, which means no slowing your computer down, which means when you finally get around to writing it is easier. I like to browse the strategy games, in general they take more than one sitting so you get more procrastination for your buck, but they have all kinds of games, even a few old nintendo games.

I am currently playing Rebuild, a zombie game. Here is the creator’s description:

Gather survivors of the zombie apocalypse and manage food supplies, housing and morale while defending against undead attacks. Reclaim the city one square at a time and put your survivors to work scavenging for food, building houses, rediscovering technology and of course killing zombies. Beware of rival gangs, wild dogs, food thieves and even riots as you manage a city in this post apocalyptic turn based strategy game.

Below is a screen shot, the game can be played HERE

New Fantasy Story

I have a short story available in the May issue of Sorcerous Signals. The story is a prequel to my unpublished novel The Laws of Summer. It started out as just a few notes of back story for one of the characters Xander, and ended up being story in and of itself.

Here is the description Carol Hightshoe gives for the story on the Sorceress Signals website: Humans and Half-Elfs fight the wars the Summer Elves refuse to fight. What happens when the Summer Elves finally take the field against their enemies - the Winter Elves and what will be impact on the world?

You can read it HERE

The Procrastination Helper Part 1

I’m back. And I did not win the jackpot. I am however very tired so instead of a long winded post about writing or some odd little post where I think I am funny, I have decided to tell you all about two web series that I have been watching. I have to give credit where credit is do and say that I found out about both of these from reading Patrick Rothfuss’ blog. He is a New York Times bestseller so I figure I am in good company when I watch these instead of write. So here are a couple of tools to help all you procrastinators out there.

The first is called The Guild, here is the Wikipedia description: The show revolves around the lives of an online guild, The Knights of Good, who play countless hours of an unnamed MMORPG video game. The story focuses on Codex, the guild's Priestess, who attempts to lead a normal life after one of her guild-mates, Warlock Zaboo (Sandeep Parikh), shows up on her doorstep.

While I have never really gotten into MMORPG games my old paper and dice roll playing was enough to let me see the humor in the show. You can watch it HERE or it is also out in DVD. I even think you can get it via Netflix.

The second is called The Legend of Neil, here is the Wikipedia description: The series follows Neil, who is sucked into the world of The Legend of Zelda while playing the game. As he travels Hyrule he is mistaken for the hero of the game, Link. The series is "full of self degrading, foul humor", such as when Neil is being sucked into the game he is masturbating and strangled himself with his NES controller.

For this one I have to warn everyone that there are some pretty crude jokes and adult language/themes. But I am guessing you get that from the fact that the Wikipedia description tells you that the main character enters the Legend of Zelda through autoerotic asphyxia. There are parts that are laugh out loud funny, and other parts that make you give a nervous uncomfortable giggle, but as a former Legend of Zelda player, I really enjoyed it. (Yes I have beaten the game, unlike Neil) You can watch episodes HERE

The State of the Union

It has been real busy the last couple of weeks. I had the stomach flu and then I had to do a bunch of stuff for the summer reading program (The Kick-Off Party is June 4th and we are having an international hot dog bar, for anyone in the area who is interested) I have my trip to the elementary schools planned, I will be walking classroom to classroom giving a presentation about the Summer Reading Program. I am also done with planning events for all of the six weeks. This summer's theme is One World, Many Stories and I have been planning programs about other countries. Being a children’s librarian is exhausting.

I have also been attempting digital painting, I say attempt because they are pretty awful, but just like anything else practice makes perfect. I have been trying to get everything done because we have a little vacation planned this week. During June and July I can’t take any time off of work, it would even be hard to take sick leave, so we are headed up to Deadwood. We are leaving tonight and coming back on Friday. Should be a nice little break from work. I am bringing my laptop, I always get some writing done on vacation. Jessy falls asleep a good two hours before I do, and just like at home that is my writing time.

With everything going my writing time has been cut back but progress on Blood Plague War is going forward. I just finished a really hard scene the last one before I start building to the climax. The rest of the novel is like a little movie in my head, which judging from past experience, means I should be able to coast right to the end. I also found a few anthologies that I would really like to write something for. I haven’t had the urge to write a short story since last August. Maybe I only write short fiction in the summer?

Anyway, sorry for the meandering nature of this post. I didn’t really have a plan when I started writing it. Happy Tuesday, and I’ll let you know if I when the $10 million progressive jackpot.

Some Art

I made another attempt at doing a digital painting today. I think this one came out pretty good. Instead of recreating a drawing, I tried to paint a real life scene. I got kind of bored and switched the background around a little. Instead of woman jogging, I made weird glowy woman jogging in space. But important thing is I think I could make a painting from most any photograph of a person now. Sometime I'll have to get a camera and a halloween costume and see if I could do a book cover for Pill Hill. This took me all day so I don't think I'll be doing a lot of art. I probably should have written a chapter of Blood Plague War but this was a nice change of pace.