Metamorphosis – I am Published
It is my great pleasure to announce that Allure was purchased and published in American Outdoor Magazine. Which means, I have transformed into a published and paid author. Allure is their first fiction story to be featured; the editor enjoyed the piece and decided to publish fiction for the first time in the magazine’s history. I still retain the rights to the story, and it can be read online in flash fiction section: click me for Allure. Hopefully, this will be the first domino to fall in my career. Either way, it is great to be able to hold a glossy page with my name besides one of my stories. Here’s to the future!
Also, I know that I have been gone for some time. This lack of updates is because my graduate program is coming to an end, and I – in order to be a productive member of society – need to find a job after graduation. As it is looking, I have an opportunity – a great opportunity – to get back into information technology. I will not stop writing, but I know that I will be losing four hours a day out of my writing time… indefinitely. But, I have some good things coming over the horizon for the rest of you. As I write this, a group of my new flash fiction is being reviewed by Harvard Publishing for a contest, a couple of short stories are under review at McSweeny’s and One Story, and I am collaborating with a local artist to produce a short story combined with a series of paintings for a local book release.
Progress Report | January 28th, 2015
Yesterday, at around 10:41 PM, I put the final period in place to complete the rough draft of BlackBox Enterprises – my fourth book. It was a rough and tumble ride because hundreds of distractions bombarded me for the last thousand pages. Somehow, I have no idea how, I was able to push through and get the manuscript completed. A lot has been on my mind as I get closer to completing my MBA. I won’t bore you with the details of my life. But be prepared, I have great news coming in the near future – it isn’t an agent or a book sale so don’t get excited.
Millennial Malaise
Oh no, it is another diatribe. This time I decided to discuss the largest population in the United States of America – no not baby boomers – I speak specifically about the offspring of baby boomers: millennials. Yes, with the death of more and more baby boomers, millennials are now the largest demographic in America. Which means, everyone and their mother is trying to get cash from millennials. Which is funny for me, because I know that most millennials experienced the calamity of the great recession and will never make as much as their parents because the average salary has actually decreased over time and there is a larger pay gap between the super-rich and the super-poor. But enough of that; I am not here to discuss the financial stability of my generation, rather, I wanted to discuss their mentality and the real issues that face them – the mental issues that come from telling an entire generation that they are amazing and special.
99% on a 10 Point Quiz? How!
Remember Algorithms and Polarization? While I was working on that piece, I came to the conclusion that I need to clarify something I was beginning to observe. As Americans, I believe we are sharing and devouring information from a single source – social media – and that is why I have issues with the polarization of these mediums. Even though these sources (social media feeds) could be well balanced and contain multiple viewpoints, I believe we are slowly diminishing them with each click.
Algorithms and Polarizations
The holidays are over and I am coming to you after a nice reprieve. Fourth book’s ending became an amalgam of everything in the book so it had to be re-outlined on giant pieces of paper because there are too many moving parts for my notebook. But, I am here to discuss algorithms today. As a non-scientist, I must warn you that what comes next is a philosophical analysis and not based on research but observation.
Fixed!
Remember when something happened – well that original issue has been corrected and all the pages are working again. However, something else happened… the holidays! I am behind, very far behind. Over the next week, I plan on releasing more short stories, finishing the redesign of the short story section, and perhaps, deploying a philosophical diatribe page for my writings that are more focused on observations. At the current time, I am about to finish BlackBox Enterprises, preparing treatments for an agent or two, and preparing the outlines for a bunch of short stories I will write once BlackBox Enterprises is complete. Expect a bunch of emails with substantial updates, and by bunch, I mean like two or three; I don’t like sending a ton of email.
Something Happened
I noticed something odd, a ton of subscriptions from fake email addresses. While investigating this, I learned that specific pages have imploded. It is at this juncture that I have to reference my old post about open source software and the volatility in open source solutions: Onward my Stallion!
A Whole New Page with Seven New Short Stories
Good news everybody, I have opened up the newest section of the website: Short Story – Flash Fiction. Why is this good news? Well, I am finally releasing part of the short story mound I have built up over the last couple of months. Here you will find riveting stories that take a maximum of five minutes to read, are representative my skill level in July, and are as dense as paragraph written by Kant. I fell in love with this format, but it is very hard to talk about what I want to talk about in such a short amount of words. As such, some of the stories are so dense that they become difficult to read. Fight through and see if you can figure out what I am discussing. These are my beginning pieces, my next set of flash fiction will be more controlled and focused. Enjoy!
Progress Report for BlackBox Enterprises – Keep Chuggin Along
I am writing this on the 17th of November because life hit me hard. This was three weeks ago, and it was a phenomenal week in terms of writing. I was like a crazy person; no one could interrupt me as I pushed forward at ludicrous speed. That continued into the following week (I will be posting up a little more on that soon). Pots of tea, bags of coffee, and friendships were gobbled up in my insane time frame. My goal was to finish BlackBox Enterprises by November 14th, 2014; I failed. My new deadline for the first draft is the 30th of November. (more…)
Two Five in the Morning Nights Later
It has been a rough start to the book. I chose a weekend with events on every night and every day. Yet, I told myself I wouldn’t let myself say, “I can start tomorrow”. So, I ended up getting home at 10:00 PM one day and 11:00 PM the next. On those two days, I dismissed myself from festivities to outline chapters in my notebook (I was physically there, but I was mentally in my own world). While people are slamming beers into their gullet, I was drinking coffee and water with lime. I wanted to participate, because I love my friends. But I knew, I knew I had to continue to working later that evening and it would be better for me to prepare. So I did, and I found myself in a trance like state until five in the morning on Friday and Saturday. Today, luckily, I have been able to focus on my work in the morning before I had plans. After those engagements, I got home and was able to finish up what I wanted to finish up (time for bed). However today did have its weird points; I ate a three day old burrito with brown guacamole on it… because my threshold for “normal” goes out the window when I am working on a manuscript. For those that were with me today, I apologize and suggest you just breath through your mouth.
BlackBox Enterprises Progress
Word Count: 8904
Chapters Written: 5