Gearing Up
A little while ago, I posted about getting back on the horse (wagon?) and writing. Shortly after that, I wrote no real blog posts. As always, it is important to note that writing for me has a priority order and this website is the lowest on that list. While I love waxing philosophical, it doesn’t grow my fiction content. However fiction may be a great place to hide those theories, my writing on the website and in these blogs, can be more pointed and direct.
Thus, I am hoping to get more posts out throughout this year. I made a challenge to myself awhile back to put out at least four posts per a month. I missed that mark at the end of the year even though I took off most of December to focus on manuscript 9 (working title, was: Captivated by a Dick in the Sand, now it is An Unforgettable Truth). However, I put down 25,000 words over two weeks and fleshed out the rest of the world. It was a great time.
Even as I say this, I realize that I’m postponing writing fiction to get this post out for the New Year (I said I would start on the 1st but… well, I got 6,000 words written that day). With that, I must away (not literally, I am going to stay in this chair and write on this keyboard, but it will grow manuscript 9 not the blog section of this website). Have a wonderful New Year and be productive!
Unsolicited Conversation
Cold Coffee, bitter
Smiles dot the morning – Relax
embrace the discourse
~Theodore Maestranzi
Why Reviews are Garbage – Part 2 of N
I am back and I figured I would begin by focusing on an old series I had not updated in awhile: Why Reviews are Garbage – Part 1 of N. Since I initially began the process of outlining how this topic (Reviews being Garbage), I had a good friend visit me to do a writers workshop. During that visit, we took the time to “spiritually” debate some topics. Now, if you haven’t figured it out yet, I debate like an asshole. Since I had begun the preparation for this series before he had arrived, but we somehow got to the topic of reviews, and I began utilizing my research as part of our discussion. The reason I am beginning with this little story is to show that these arguments have been tested in a whimsical three hour debate. One of the first pieces we discussed was the concept of a corporation buying reviews. [Click “Read More” for 1800 words of critical analysis]
New Phone Who Dis?
So, I am breaking my rules here around advertisements because it is a personal story and I have no other way to discuss cellphones without using brand names. Luckily… my endorsement is for a cell phone manufacturer that is no longer in the business. [Click “Read More” to watch me swoon over a phone manufacturer and discuss my strategy for removing social media from my life]
Oh Look… a Saddle
I guess I’ll hop back onto the saddle. At the end of June, I finalized a deal for a home. While doing that, I was working my way through some of the heaviest volume of work I’ve had in a long time (normal job, not writing). So with 10 to 12 hour days, I moved, hung drywall, stripped paint, sealed my deck, ran new circuits, wired outlets, hardwired my entire home with ethernet, and performed various other activities around the house. As of today, I can say life is pretty stable (but I still don’t have a living room). In that time, a buddy took a week to visit me for a mini writers workshop. I wrote for the first time in a month or two and put down a solid 8,000 words in my 9th manuscript (manuscript 8 is on hold due to complexity). So, with all of the dust settling and work moving to a normal level, I am going to begin the process of getting back into the swing of things. I keep adding in activities, and as of now, I am up to working out most of the week, cooking healthy, and reading everyday. The next pieces I need to stabilize my life is practicing my Italian and writing. The goal is to have Manuscript 9 done by the end of this year and start working on manuscript 8 again before 2019. So, expect a lot more blog posts in the coming months… I think I am back.
~Theodore
Like a Ton of Bricks
I haven’t written in a significant amount of time… there are some major life changes going on and I each day I think the dust is going to settle and it doesn’t. I’ve started a weekly review with a good friend and wonderful writer, but I am barely keep my head above the water. I’ll update hopefully later this weekend/get back into the swing of things soon. I need my house in order before I get back to writing. Everything is fine, do not be alarmed, I am just focusing on stabilizing the major pieces of my life.
On Coffee Shops – Haiku
So, I went out for my morning coffee and conversation with my friend who is a barista. It is a normal ritual and it gets me up and out of the home at a normal hour. There is a risk that he will get busy and I won’t be able to get into a deep debate on the productivity of the Death Star or how one would measure productivity of a Death Star (fuel burn per planet destroyed, but I will write that up later). Today was one of those days, so while I am sitting at the bank waiting to get a letter, I decided to write up some of my haikus from the morning.
a line of ants march
one by one, step by step – go
Barista, no break
~Theodore Maestranzi
Alternative Take
a line of ants march
over leaves/sticks… But not in rain
Barista, no break
~Theodore Maestranzi
Small Questions – Young Adult
It is kind of insane that we have different age groups broken up by key identifiers. Like a tiny human that can walk and talk, but kind of walks around like a drunk, is a toddler. While a newborn is human who is fresh to the world and covered in that womb smell (new baby). While a few arbitrary measures of time (days/weeks/months) later that newborn transforms into an infant. So on and so on.
So for the first 18 years of life, humans are sliced and diced into categories based on age – newborn, toddler, kindergartener, middle schooler, teenager, young adult. I probably missed some.
Now, I know that this because we experience the greatest level of growth in those first 18 years. But it kind of sucks as an adult who is young, that I can’t call myself a young adult. Instead we have to call ourselves by our age bracket: twenties, thirties, forties, fifties… ageless… elderly.
So my small question: Why don’t I get to call myself a young adult? Who makes these arbitrary rules?
Theodore, just asking the hard questions.
Haiku – During Yoga
So I walked into the coffee shop to work on some outlines for Manuscript 9 (Crack the joke: typical writer, get on your laptop and scroll through facebook, but jokes on you! I don’t bring a laptop, I bring a notebook and pen!), ignoring the tangent, I was there around 6:45 (normal Sunday to avoid the crowds) but the entire store was converted over to a yoga studio. With a free Americano (since I had to listen to the class), and my mind distracted from outlining, I decided to write some haikus; some were influenced by my mindset and others influenced by the baristas’ insights.
Just to level set, I’ve just arrived and my head has been filed with plots and dystopian scenarios and now I am facing people doing yoga. One the primary themes of dystopia (other than hope) is the near constant representation of human beings as being sheep or following orders (in yoga, if you’ve never been, a leader gives commands and you follow them). These were the outcomes:
~On Commands~
Torrent of fears/ideas
harp, serenity, zero thoughts
chaos over order – freedom
discarded shoes – pile
find inner peace, listen to guide
stop thinking – give in
~On someone pointing out the smell~
smell of ignorance
harps sing, commands, obey the yogi
It’s human nature
Haiku – Jazz Night
While enjoying some jazz and growing sad while hanging with my friend Rachel before she leaves town.
~A Moment About Tea~
Million yellow buds
chamomile and hot water
sooth the human’s soul
~A Moment on John’s Guitar~
some Jazz riffs, a scale
from a breeze to a torrent
musical emotions
~A Moment Lamenting about Rachel Leaving~
Breezy plains, Midwest
a coffee shop see’s a shift
with no wind, sad day
~A Moment Reflecting on Adults Feeling bad about Toys’R’Us
Adult tears – Nostalgia
purple sky – a giraffe dies
fittest survival
or
Adult tears – Nostolgia
purple sky – a giraffe dies
liquidation sale