Hey all

I decided to write a blog today because it has been nearly a month since I wrote one. I have just been kind of busy. Right now I am fighting off a potent flu virus so instead of writing something interesting I will leave with this youtube video of Disney's Adentures of the Gummi Bears, it was a childhood stapple of mine and I just found it on youtube. I always feel a little nostolgic when I am sick and I actually sat down and watched four episodes before I realized that I was a grown man sitting on my couch watching over twenty year old cartoons.

Stuff and More Stuff

I have a bunch of stuff to write about today, sorry for the weird jumble of info. So in no particular order…

Item: Chicken Pox. I had them, it sucked. Why won’t people stay home when they are sick? Why do they all think the library is a great place to go when they are too sick to go to school or work? I could rant on this one for awhile, but instead imagine running a fever for four days with red itchy spots all over your body, now imagine that you know who did that to you and that they had told you “it is a good thing to take your kids out when they have the chicken pox. Every adult has already had them, and the kids need to be exposed to it.” Imagine what you want to say to that person, then pretend I wrote that.

Item: Twins. It is official we are having a boy and a girl. We had the ultra sound yesterday. It was really fun to watch them swimming around. At one point the ultra sound technician was trying to get a good view of the boy’s face, the girl promptly swam over and rubbed her bottom on his face until we looked at her again. I am not sure what that means but it has to mean something.

Item: Mile High Con. We won’t make it this year, for those of you wondering. Maybe next year but I do not want to try driving six hours with a pair of two month old babies.

Item: Short stories. I think I am done writing short fiction. The last three times I sat down to write one I hit the 10,000 word mark and decided “this should really be a novel”. I am not done forever but apparently the stories in my head have gotten a little more complex over the past few years. I am sure I will have an idea now and then that works better in a shorter format, but for now I am done. I still have five or six stories that haven’t been published, if no one picks them up you might see them here.

Item: Blood plague war. It’s done. WOOT!!! Just finished it last night. I am not sure if I will even put the time into editing it. I have known the story was broken for awhile I just wouldn’t admit it. Maybe if I sit it on a shelf for awhile I will come up with some ideas to fix it during the editing process. The problem is that about half way through the novel it switches from a book about a group of people dealing with a natural event (the blood plague) to a novel about people in the middle of a civil war. It feels like two completely different novels, maybe I can weave in some stuff to make it more uniform but I don’t really want to look at the thing right now. To put it another way, I kind of have a love hate relationship with the stuff I write, and Blood Plague is sleeping on the couch, and if it doesn’t watch it’s P’s and Q’s it might have to find a hotel for the night.

Item: New Novel. Okay, I agree. That is an awful title. But I am only two paragraphs and an outline into it, give me a break.

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.

Back to our scheduled program

I am back at work and back to writing. I got a little over a thousand words done on Blood Plague last night. Which still puts me way behind where I wanted to be. My wife goes to bed about two hours before I do, this is my writing time. When I had the flu, I would just turn on my computer, stare at the screen for about ten minutes and then go to bed. It was a little slow going last night, I had to remember where I was and what I wanted to happen. Taking a week off of writing (completely off, I didn’t even think about my stories, which I don’t think has ever happened to me) made it a little rough.

Hopefully I can find a little extra time this week to catch up. I had a couple of blog posts I wanted to do last week, about writing and stuff, but I am going to postpone those until I get a couple of chapters written. So I won't be blogging again until next week.

Diseased

I am home sick. Usually I get a little writing done when I am home sick, but this flu virus has knocked me out. I started catching it Monday night, and I can barely stay awake. I guess I won't get much done this week. This blog post took me ten minutes to write, it is about 70 words long. 7 words a minute not good. Back to bed.

Diseased

So I had the flu last week. I work at a library, someplace that people LOVE to go when they are sick. The library employees tend to take turns getting sick all through the flu season. But it wasn’t the normal flu, comparing this hideous pestilence to the normal flu is like saying a gunshot wound is a little scratch. I left work early on Tuesday, I was running a fever of 101 I went home and went to sleep. Somehow my voice rose two octaves higher while at the same time becoming whispery raspy thing that even I didn’t recognize.

The next few days are kind of a blurry haze of coughing and sleep. I remember working one day because five other members of our nine person staff called in sick. I remember sleeping, and reading a little, though I couldn’t tell you what I read. I remember my wife making me soup, and being extremely nice while at the same time teasing me about sounding like an eight year old girl who had been smoking her whole life (see the high pitch, raspy sentence above)

To make a long story short... too late(bet ya can't guess what I watched while I was sick), it was an awful week. I got nothing productive done, and now I am playing catch up.

Health Issues and Writing

I didn't get much writing done the last week and a half. I had a "flare up" of my lupus. What does that mean, I pretty much felt like I had the flu. I was tired, like really tired, I had joint pain, and felt "sick".

This time it was a little different, the joint pain from lupus is caused by arthritis, when you have a flare up it starts to develop in your joints. Before my knees ached and elbows hurt, but last week it was in my hands. My knuckles were swollen and it hurt to pick things up much less type. I am really hoping this is not common, I am just starting to figure out my voice when I am writing, I don't need problems typing.

I did get my story for the PHP Pink Elephant shoot out down. The theme was bloody carnival and I think my story is one of my better pieces of writing. I also finished the first chapter of Twilight of Worlds. When it rains it pours and I have ideas where both my other novels are going. I wish I could type three stories at once.

Feeling Better

I am feeling better already after only one day of antibiotics. It is just amazing how a much a sinus infection can effect the way you feel. For the first time in a couple of weeks I actually feel like writing!

In a side note my humorous fantasy story, Henery the Hero, has been accepted for publication in Golden Visions ezine. I'm off to write or maybe play the xbox for a few minutes and then write. Procrastination is a friend of mine...

Going to the Doctor

So I went to the doctor today. I have sinus infection, which is the reason for my fatigue and stuffy nose. There is a strong possibility that I have high blood pressure and the doctor thinks that I have discoid lupus.

When I heard lupus I kind freaked out but apparently the kind I have isn't so bad. While still an incurable disease, this kind of lupus is mostly just a reoccurring skin rash, and I am allergic to the sun. It is also causing an early onset of arthritis which is why my knees have been hurting so much lately. So my general feeling of poopyness and lack of motivation when it comes to writing finally have a cause.

But on the good side with my allergy to the sun finally developing I am hoping my other vampric abilities will soon manifest themselves. Oh yes, the league of vampire librarians will soon rule the world! Our secret plans are bearing fruit. Then the world will know true fear as we organize the entire world by last name and title, hahahahaha...or um...forget that last part. That must be the fever talking.

No. Really, the national library conference is just a place where we go to network and learn the latest in library technology. There is no secret room for dark rituals, or covenants with shadowy evil beings of immense power. The dewy decimal system is just a way to organize books, it isn’t a form of ritual worship and magic that brings unimaginable power to the library staff. And of course it would be silly to think that we take the souls of patrons that don’t return their books, why would we want those silly old things?

Just an update

Well, I am one step closer to my goal of getting all my stories(that I have the rights too) reprinted online. The Plant which originally appeared in The Middle of Nowhere anthology, is being reprinted on Static Movement. I thought it would be a good fit because the editor of Static Movement is also going to be editing the sequel to The Middle of Nowhere.

I am still plugging away on God's War getting one chapter written a week,and I have been getting one chapter in Kingdom of the Dead, and Summer's Blood edited a week. So far I haven't had to do any major rewrites so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Ever since the weather warmed up I haven't been feeling 100%, I am really tired for no reason, and I just can't seem to get myself motivated while at the same time I have been struggling with sinus problems. I don't know it is the flu or possibly allergies but whatever it is I hope it goes away soon.

By my count I had a good 10 hours last week that I could have and usually would be writing or editing, but instead I listened to my mp3 player and watched movies. I just couldn't motivate myself to open my laptop, how lazy is that?

The Dentist

Last weekend I had a cold, and I have still been running a fever. Today at work my face started to hurt and my fever got worse. So I made a doctors appointment.

It turns out that my wisdom tooth is infected. The doctor said if I had waited any longer to go see him that he thinks I would have been in the hospital. So he gave me some antibiotics and told me I had to have my tooth removed or my infection would come back. He said I had to make an appointment as soon as possible, he tried to call and get me an appointment for tomorrow, but the office was already closed.

So tomorrow I have to call and make an appointment to get my wisdom tooth pulled. For me the two scariest things on the planet are dentists, and public speaking. So I was sitting here all nervous and decided to write to take my mind off of it.

Somehow I got almost 3000 words written in a little less than an hour. Maybe I should go to the dentist more often... or maybe not.

Writing Habits

So it is nearly 3 in the morning and I am still up with an upset stomach. I apologize if this post makes no sense, I am really tired. I am usually in bed by 12.

I was just sitting here thinking about the changes in my writing habits lately. Since Christmas I have only written one short story. I am still accomplishing my goal of writing one chapter a week in my novel, but I started to wonder why no ideas for short stories have been coming to me, and why I have only been writing one day a week. (Before Christmas I was writing everyday for about an hour after Jessy went to bed)

I have narrowed down the culprits.

1.

Earth Defense Force 2017

Jessy got me this for Christmas as an after thought, she had a little money left over and apparently the game was fairly cheap. When I got it I had not played a video game in months, now I play this game everyday. It is a first person shooter where giant bugs from outer space are invading earth. Which sounds kind of silly, but it is super fun. Especially when you lay out a line of C70 bombs and let the bugs come to you and blow it. Something about the giant explosion that levels a full city block brings out the little Lex Luthor in me and I can't help but laugh manically.

2.

Adobe illustrator. This is the program that I use to make the covers for Pill Hill Press. I have been busy using it for book covers, and promotional items. Also another small press liked our covers so much that they are paying me to design theirs! I am not making very much money but I finally have concrete proof that the graphic design classes I took while getting my Applied History degree were totally worth it.

3.

Oh the dreaded google. Vile lovely mistress that saps away my time. How can I spend two hours on you and do absolutely nothing?

4.

I caught the flu, went to bed early for a week, got over it and somehow caught it again and was sick for another week. How does that even happen?

5.

Okay, so when they advertise Netflix as being cheaper than the video store, they are totally right, but we have seen all the movies we really wanted to see. So we decided to start getting old tv shows that we never saw. Since Christmas we have seen: All the episodes of Firefly (It is awesome! I love the space cowboys!, All the episodes of Dark Angel (Not nearly as good, but Jessy like it), a season of Dexter (We liked the first season, dv-red the third and needed to watch the 2nd to get it off the DVR), and now we are watching Legend of the Seeker(It's not bad, but I can't say it is good). What's next? We're thinking Battlestar Galatica.

6.

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time book series. I started reading this series when I was in high school. Nearly 3 million words later, there is a new book out. I try to read it and realize, I have no clue what is going on, so I have to reread the entire series. I am on a Knife of Dreams, once I finish it I can finally read the new book. But as I said that means that I have read nearly 3 million words since Christmas, no wonder it seems like I have no free time.

In my opinion it is totally worth it. If you like fantasy and want to read something that is truly epic (and not just in word count) try this series. Someday I want to be half the writer Robert Jordan is, it feels like I know every character in the books, and according to google there were 96 POV characters by book #8 A Path of Daggers. Knife of Dreams, the book I am currently reading is book #11.

So there it is. My List of reasons not to write. But I am finally over the flu. I am 84.3% done with Earth Defense Force, and I only have a measly 400,000 words left to read in the Wheel of Time. I should be done with those by the end of the month. Then maybe I will find more time to write.

I think lack of sleep is making me ramble. I better stop now. Goodnight.

Here are a couple of youtube videos about Firefly

Firefly Opening Credits

A longer remix with more scenes from the show.