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.

Unquiet Earth available

Hey all,

Just thought I would mention that Static Movement’s Unquiet Earth anthology is a available for purchase. My short story, The Ugly Little Zombling is in this one. So if you got a hankerin' for some undead flash fiction, you can buy it HERE

Scaretastic

My short story, Scaretastic, was just published online over at The Fringe. Read it HERE This one was first written as a play on the urban legend of the haunted house where you get your money back if you can finish it.

Exhausted

I am exhausted. Yesterday I visited nearly one hundred local businesses trying to get donations for the libraries summer reading program. After 8 hours and some blistered feet I can say that I collected more this summer than last which is always good, and next year I can go to way fewer places in person. There were a ton of them, over half that just wanted a brochure about the program and a mailing address. Next year I can just mail those places a brochure and I won’t actually go there in person.

But being physically exhausted has me feeling mentally inspired. I am going to write a few chapters of Blood Plague War today. Next time I am feeling uninspired maybe I should move some furniture or something.

A Story Published & A Glimpse Of My Nerdhood

Hi all, sorry I haven’t posted in awhile. I’ve been super busy doing stuff for my real job, as a children’s librarian, and I haven’t had time to do much writing. I do have a new short story out in the April issue of Bards & Sages Quarterly.

Here is the description from amazon:

Where else will you find angels, aliens, dragons, werewolves, talking crayons, and evil garden gnomes all in the same place? Each issue of the Bards and Sages Quarterly brings readers engaging, original speculative fiction from both new and established authors. Also in this issue: our writers talk about why they write speculative fiction.

The part about werewolves is me. Yep, that’s right I did one of the classics. I tried to put my own spin on it, by setting it in ancient Rome It also has a bit of a twist ending, but I think that is okay sometimes.

This one popped into my head when I was surfing the net and  came across Lupercalia, the ancient Roman holiday also known as the Festival of the Wolf…

I almost deleted that last sentence. I went back and forth. But I decided that I am okay with you knowing that I googled holidays in ancient cultures one day when I was bored. Yes, it is a glimpse of just how nerdy I am but hey, this blog is about sharing. Right?

Anyway a preview of Bards & Sages can be seen HERE, and a print copy can be purchased off of Amazon HERE