When I was your age…
“When I was your age, I had to walk one mile in the snow and the cold–both ways–to the library to borrow the new Stephen King book. And that book was heavy. Like a brick. I had to carry that book all the way home and anywhere else I was going so I could read it in my spare time. And it took months to read because it’s so long. And you, you don’t appreciate it, because you can just download it to your brain and enjoy the whole book in under thirty seconds. Kids today–you have it so easy.”
-Conversation I have in the future via electronic mind link with my grandchildren, because my consciousness has been uploaded to a computer and they live in a colony on the planet Mars.
Started a New Writing Journal Yesterday…
Finally, after too long, I finished off a writing journal and was able to start a new one yesterday–in the middle of a frenzied writing session, which is the best time to start a new journal in my opinion. There’s something about a new journal, or paper, or a box of pens that just gets me going–the hope, possibility and general “new toy” enthusiasm all play together. I’m trying to feed on that right now to get my writing back on track since life has gotten in the way too much in the last few months.
The writer’s journal I refer to here is only one of a few journals (or notebooks) I keep. I’ve kept several for awhile now. I don’t know why, maybe I just need to keep things separate. These are the ones I keep:
Writing Journal
This is the one I just started fresh. I didn’t really keep one of these until I started college. Before that I did all my writing on the computer (or on a type writer during a few years when we were computerless in my early teens), or in notebooks for classes. I didn’t really have a place for everything to go.
This journal is more of a mishmash of things, grown out of what I used my journal for in college. I do straight up writing in it, also free writing, the jotting down of ideas, musings about plot and characters, strange things I notice in the world, inspiring dreams I’ve had, and anything else that tickles my fancy. I think a few non-writing related to-do lists have slipped in there over the years as well.
Journal About My Life
I started keeping a diary regularly when I was about 11 or 12 years old and I’ve continued it all these years. Sometimes I’m not so good at keeping up with it–my goal is that I write a little bit each night before I go to bed. But sometimes life gets jammed pack with other stuff and I fall behind. I keep this separate from my writing journal because it’s just a record of my life and experiences.
Name and Quotes Notebook
On one side it’s a list of names I like that I may want to use in a story one day (I check them off as I use them). Flip it to the other side and it’s lines from songs, poetry, prose and other things that inspire me in some way. I keep them separate so I can easily reference them when I need them.
Book Journal
This I’ve started more recently as a record of things I’ve read. Before I’ve kept track of it online, but I haven’t been so good at that lately. Now I simply write down the name of the book and the author (or editor) and when I finished reading it, plus some notes about what I thought about the book. This is especially helpful for anthologies I read, since I can write down the titles and authors of short stories that really stood out to me and then reference them later.
Loose Leaf Notes
When I work on a bigger project, like my novel, I need to have certain pages on hand and easy to access (like character info, family lines, time lines, maps and locations, etc). I use loose leaf paper in a binder or a folder for this. This way I can lay it out however I need to and flip through them easily to find the info I need without messing up my writing flow.
Each journal has it’s purpose, though most bits of this and that which don’t have a place end up in my writing journal (or bits and pieces of paper stuffed into my writing journal. Inspiration always strikes at the worst times for me. I have an entire outline of a short story that was written on a newspaper crossword puzzle page). My writing journal is essential in that way.
Another thing that’s really great about it is the journal is a “no judgments zone.” I’ve been struggling a lot lately with being too self-critical and it’s hindering my writing to the point where I wasn’t writing at all. The past few weeks instead of writing on my computer I’ve been writing in my journal and it makes things easier for first drafts. I can push my inner-critic aside and actually get some writing done! I’m going to stick with this for awhile and hopefully get into a good daily writing habit again. Hopefully that means I’ll fill up another writing journal soon and it will take less than three years this time.
Blizzard 2011 in Photos
I’m a couple days late with these, but it was just one of those kinds of weeks where I didn’t I have any spare time.
The boyfriend and I went out in the morning while the snow was still pouring to photograph the mostly untouched tundra. Here’s two of the photos.
Since then most of the streets have been clear, but the sidewalks are a mess. It’s like hiking the Himalayas if you want to walk anywhere. The plowing left snow drifts 4 feet and higher along the side of the road. Such a mess. And to make everything better…it’s snowing right now.
Blizzard 2011
I don’t know what I love more: the way the local news is sensationalizing everything (complete with flashy CGI promos) or the fact that I get to work from home tomorrow.
I don’t recall ever experiencing a blizzard before and so far it’s kind of meh. I mean, it’s just a lot of snow and wind. It’s nature. There’s not much we can do about it and it’s not like it’s a surprise (the local news has been pretty excited about this for a week). The best part about it is watching everyone lose their minds with fear.
Last night the boyfriend and I walked to the grocery store about a block and a half from our home. We did our regular shopping on the weekend but forgot to get peas and romaine. I expected the store to be busy, but I didn’t realize Armageddon was starting this week.
We waited in line for the check out for about 30 minutes. There was a couple ahead of us in line that had an entire cart filled with food, bottled water, shampoo, hair styling products, laundry detergent…it was amazing watching all of the things they pulled out of their cart. It had to be at least a month full of supplies. And there we stood with a bag of dried peas and a couple heads of romaine. It all seemed a little silly.
It remains to be seen how bad this blizzard with be, but I walked through some snow drifts on the way home tonight that were 2 feet deep. Maybe it will make for some interesting pictures tomorrow.
“Isolation” is now available!
Isolation, a horror anthology from Post Mortem Press that features my story “File 8962: Found in Apartment 211 on Clean-Up Day 2″ is now available!
There are a few options to get a copy of this super awesome anthology. Order it in print from Post Mortem Press or Amazon.com
Check it out and let me know what you think about the story and the collection as a whole.
“Isolation” Available for Pre-Order!
Isolation, the newest anthology from Post Mortem Press is now available for pre-order on their website. The release date is January 15, 2011.
In addition to being a kick-ass anthology, it features my short story “File 8962: Found in Apartment 211 on Clean-Up Day 2.” It’s a lovely little humor piece about unrequited love and zombies.
If you’re more tech savvy and prefer an ebook version, it’s already available for Kindle
Consumed By Life
I’m at a weird time right now. I spent November unemployed for the seventh consecutive month and threw my energy into writing a novel for Nanowrimo. I was living and breathing writing and my story and figuring out the whole big mess. I was even dreaming in science fiction for the last week or so of the month. It was fantastic.
Then December came, I finished my novel on time, celebrated the news that one of my stories was accepted for publishing by an anthology, took a break for a day or two, and then dove into working on another short story I was really excited about. Everything seemed great, like I’d finally unlocked the secret door in my mind to continually push myself to write and create and do all these things I want to do without letting fear or procrastination or life get in the way.
Then life got in the way.
Someone hired me for a great little day job, with a fun bunch of people for a company I really respect. Now I spend 3 days a week doing that plus some freelance work here and there, and oh look, another part-time job on the horizon. Fantastic. Time for training. Oh, and holidays are coming? Throw that in too.
Life got in the way. I come home exhausted. My days off quickly fill up with other obligations (I hate whoever invented the holidays). That spark of creativity, the inspiring whispers of the muse–they’ve all been muddled and trampled into non-existence, leaving behind this nagging guilt that I’m not doing the things I want to be doing.
I have no good excuses. There are no good excuses. Hell even writing this post right now is a way to procrastinate working on my story. But maybe it’s a step in the right direction…
Dreaming in Science Fiction
I always find it awkward to make the first post of a new blog. It’s weird because no one reads you blog yet, so there’s not really an audience that you’re writing to and since it’s a new project you feel like you need to introduce yourself or your purpose or whatever.
Screw that, you’ll all figure it out along the way. Besides, who ever goes back and reads the very first post of a blog anyway?
This past week I was finishing up my novel for Nanowrimo. By “finishing up” I mean, “scrambling to write 25,000 words in a very short period of time.” Since I’ve been living and breathing this novel, it has been effecting my dreams.
My Nano novel is a science fiction story that takes place in a dystopian future and involves aliens. All of this intense energy that I’ve been devoting to my project has been manifesting itself in weird, science fiction-y dreams.
Most of them I cannot remember, but the one I had last night was pretty bizarre.
I was with my family (a group of people who don’t resemble anyone I know) and we were living in a future where the world had been devastated and a lot of people were dead. There was no food and we were planning on leaving home to find somewhere better to live. The majority of the dream was us trying to get ready to go as I was slowly discovering what exactly happened to make this world this way. Eventually I discovered the government had been destroyed and now everything was run by a group of hovering helicopter like robots that flew around regularly scanning people to make sure they weren’t doing anything off limits (like writing, creating art, broadcasting anti-robot rhetoric, etc). It was bizarre and scary and I woke up feeling uneasy.
Dreaming in Science Fiction is really fun though, even if some of my dreams were intense or a little scary. It’s like living out a science fiction movie every night. I’m sure in another twenty or thirty years someone will develop some program or nano-technology that makes it possible for us to live out crazy fantasies in our dreams. I’m lucky enough to already do it naturally I guess.