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Like Laika
A blink there, a dancing needle here, a switch over there, and of course, the occasional bleeps. Some would say that was me, but I was so much more. To be honest, I never really cared for my mission but it has gotten better. Luckily, I don’t have a nose, otherwise, I would...
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Better than a Ream of Paper
Clickity-clack, the hammers press through the thin black ribbon and deposit an imperfect letter against the interwoven fibers. In a moment, a world begins to form from the displacement of ink throughout the paper. The letters are malformed and off-center at times, but he...
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Frank’s Slipstream
Undertow ho! Dodge to the left dodge to the right! It doesn’t really matter which way he goes, it’s going to snag him, undertow always snatches and drags people. To be honest, it is negligible, because he has been swimming for so long… oh so long. But he is really good at it,...
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"Be kind"
"We're all afloat in a turd soup."
Progress Report for June 15, 2014
Another busy week, so this will probably be a short writeup of the work I completed in the last week. The week has been busy, between work and my summer class, I haven’t had much time to write. But, the goal is to write at least 10,000 words a week. So, I stayed in and worked on Tesla’s Travels for all of Saturday and Sunday. That is why this post is so late in the day, I literally just finished up the thirty third chapter. Also, I was able to finish reading another book: The Suicide Shop.
But I am tired, so let’s get to the numbers for the week. Tesla’s Travels is now sitting at 55,152 words and is 33 chapters long. That means, I wrote 10,884 words in the last two days. I think, based on the outline, the rough draft will be completed in a week or two. Then to editing!
Read MoreCommitment to your Privacy
Over the last week, I decided to spend some money and improve my website. This was for two reasons: 1) make it more accessible with quicker load times, and 2) increase my audience’s privacy. In order to do that, I upgraded my hosting server with more “stuff” (super technical term) to handle requests and queries. Also, I have a few more tricks to improve the speed of delivery but didn’t enable these tricks, because they will probably take a hefty time configuring and testing. If you feel it is moving to slow, go to the Contact Me page, send me an email, and I will enable them.
But here are the great improvements to you!
Read MoreProgress Report for June 8, 2014
This one will be short, because I am in Chicago with friends and took a break to write up a quick post. So, in the last week I have finished reading Light in August then started and finished The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea. Being home, it is hard to focus on writing because there are constant distraction.
However, I was able to get Tesla’s Travels to 28 chapters and 44,268 words. That means, I wrote 10897 in the last week.
Read More30 Years – books, Books, BOOKS!
I grew up in the Chicagoland area but chose to live somewhere else. My reasons were simple, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t miss the area. So, I come up occasionally to see my family and friends. Sadly, I get nothing done when I’m here because there is always somewhere to go, someone to see, and something to buy. Add in the traffic, and the painting that should appear explains why I haven’t returned. This area is not conducive to writing. If I don’t write; I get disgruntled.
Why am I here and posting about Chicago and books when I am supposed to be working on Tesla’s Travels? It’s Printers Row Lit Fest (June 8th, June 9th), and I will be going with my editor and a few amazing friends to buy books. Yes, I love books and will be searching for: French authors, Japanese authors, and the Redwall Series (a friend and I are collecting then rereading the series for nostalgic purposes). If you have any author suggestions, shoot me an email! We will all be there on Sunday.
So, I will explain why I am looking for French and Japanese authors. Part of my writer training is to read entire traditions of literature. This was a growth exercise handed down from Dr. Niculescu during one of our lunches. It is simple, how can you write in a tradition of literature without experiencing that tradition. So, I began reading the classic authors in American literature (because I write in that tradition). However, he ended his exercise with a suggestion: read other traditions and you will be able to write in multiple forms.
That is the exercise, and I decided to absorb the Japanese and French traditions into my Being. French is simple, I can read anything (as in enjoy it) French, digest it and love it. For me, the story never matters in French writing, it’s their underlying philosophical currents that pull me down like a undertow. It may come as a surprise (not really if you read any of my manuscripts), but I study French philosophy more than German.
Then there is the Japanese tradition I will read. I am currently reading The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima. My reasons for reading this tradition are slightly different from the others. I want to get a world view, and books allow me to be transported to a different culture and different time period (Light in August just took me to Mississippi during the early 1930’s). Japanese authors, like any author, are writing about what they know and what is important to them. These differences are clear in the first chapter of The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea. Which means, I will soon be in Japan post WWII, and I am excited and scared!
If I am lucky, and my ideas about this festival are correct, then I am going to get some great books at amazing prices.
Oh, and while I was home I decided to print out Journey to God single spaced, click this post to see a picture.
Read MoreProgress Report for June 1, 2014
On Friday, I noticed pain in my left hand while typing and it kept getting worse. So, I took the weekend off as a mini vacation and iced it. Instead of writing, I began outlining two short stories, prepping short stories to go to magazines tomorrow, reviewed an arc in Tesla’s Travels, and played pool and had some beers with friends. Also did a little editing for a great friend of mine and read the bulk of Light in August. Still haven’t heard from the agent who has my current treatment. That means, I will begin prepping a new treatment to go out in two weeks.
As far as Tesla’s Travels goes, I am now sitting at 33371 words and 22 chapters. Since Sunday, I have written 8156 words. It is slow moving, but I think I can have the initial draft done by mid June; if I increase my pace.
Read MoreProgress Report for May 25, 2014
Oh joy, a week has already passed me by, and I still am not into the full swing of writing. Instead of writing from Tuesday to Thursday, I went out with friends and practiced presentations for a workshop. Everything with the workshop went off without a hitch and it was well received (collaboration tools and how to use these tools to improve student engagement in in an online course). Since I lost that time, I decided to stay in this weekend and work as much as I could on Tesla’s Travels. I wrote a lot over the last couple of days and like how the story is coming together. Also, I finally got to the point where my personal dreams (like nighty night dreams, not aspiration types of dreams) are completely based in the story. Which isn’t that great, because Tesla’s Travels is a frightening world to be a part of.
Either way, the current word count is: 25215. That means, I wrote 10,800 words in the last week. The goal is to hit my old stride which is about 5,000 – 7,000 a day. Otherwise, I will miss my deadline for the middle of June.
Read MoreA Suggestion from an IT Professional
After my bachelors program, I worked in IT (it was strange since I studied philosophy and sociology). Soon after starting, I was absorbing as much as I could about computers and IT infrastructure. It took me a short period of time to understand the systems and understand the faults with corporate network architecture. Nonetheless, I built a home lab and run about five different servers for my home office. This was designed for training purposes, but I applied best practices to my home. One of those best practices is having UPS (battery/surge protector) to protect and keep your computer online in case of a power outage. Being an impoverished writer and graduate student, I can’t afford 100 dollars for my desktop computer that runs my servers. While I have the money, the reason I wont buy one is for a different reason.
I have a laptop. If you want to avoid losing your data during a power outage, but don’t want to spend money on a UPS, use your laptop as your primary writing computer (it comes with a surge protector and battery in case of a power outage). You also have a small screen making it harder to see notifications from social media.
I decided to offer this little tip, because I have lost work in the past due to a power outage. Those documents were not related to my writing. Now, I know myself very well. When I write something, I write it and say, “Awesome! That story is done!” So if a power outage wiped out my files and corrupted one of my manuscripts I know I wouldn’t go back and rewrite it. It would be lost to the ages. Luckily, I am paranoid and designed my infrastructure to mitigate any disasters that could happen (all document files are automatically backed up across three computers, a raid 5 NAS, and onto a server with my website host). No matter how impoverished you are, make sure to protect your data from loss. I doubt many people would rewrite a manuscript after it was destroyed. If you can’t afford fancy computers and things, just get a thumb drive and make sure your files are replicated on the thumb drive and your hard drive after a session. That way you have at least two copies in case one fails (you can use a service like dropbox, but I suggest you read the terms and services so you don’t end up indebted to a company).
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