Yesterday I signed up to be a $10 Patreon member of Mur Laferty’s website Murverse.com

Stupid? Maybe… Optimisitic? Maybe….

Except life (and progress) is doesn’t happen on “what if’s” but rather on attempts (and numerous failures) in order to get something done.

So right now you might be thinking “what is it I am attempting by doing a donation?” Well let me elaborate a bit.

As part of another podcast I listen to (TheDeadRobotSociety) I posted the begining of a story as kind of a humor piece. It was only 600+ words but I thought it was worth some commentary by those reading it. At the very least I would get a “cute” or “oh that sucked” or something. I got zilch.

So that means….

Nobody cares…. which isn’t what I am striving for as an amature author

Everybody loved it and was too awestruck to say anything…. yeah right

Nobody liked it…. which isn’t so bad save for the fact that nobody had the “bravado” to say so much. I am a big fan of honesty, even brutal honesty. They of course probably don’t think this same way and are going under the direction of “better to say nothing than to be negative.” But here is the crux of it, how am I going to identify my weaknesses if I nobody points them out?

So it was the silence that drove me into Murs arms. * did that sound creepy? If not I’m afriad I might be losing my restraining order edge.

Now does that mean that Mur might at some point find my sight and read this. Sure, but I’m not really embarassed or hidding much of anything. Lots of events cause people to take certain actions in just about every decision they make. I am looking for feedback and according to her sight those that pay the $10 a month are granted just that.

Am I using her? I am not the type of person to try and take advantage (The restraining order comment was a joke) of people. Still… we all use people. We know a person that knows a person and suddenly we have a contact for a service that needed tending. It’s called capitalism. That being said I know she can choose to drop my ass should she feel the need but I gather from her personality, from having listened to so many of her podcasts, that she would just come out and say I’m being bothersome. I actually don’t plan on utilzing her all that much but right now could really use a reality check as to if my stuff is worth anything. Call it a moment of doubt. I need somebody to give me the facts of the Pens and Papers (spin off joke about the Birds and the Bee’s). Writing isn’t always pretty, you got blood and swelling and feeling of excitement which ultimatly result in a sudden release of pent up thoughts all over your paper. What? Isn’t that what writing is all about? Releasing your inner self and getting it out for everybody to see?

I think $10 a month might be worth it.

We shall see 🙂

In thinking about “B” Jenner and he/she’s issue with gender identification I occured to me that perhaps we need a more “N”eutral means of identifying our binary genders. I hereby nominate the “Nhe” as my canidate for this roll. It is “N”either male nor female and maintains a “N”either stereotype.

All in favor say “Nhe!”*

*Yes Nhe does not equal Ni but can’t we all just get along?

I don’t mean to ignore my little blog-o-page but sometimes finding the time is tight.

Its been over a week since I last said something…. so here goes something.

I just got done reviewing a number of papers for my in person writing group and emailed them off. I am behind schedule in reviewing the works of my online writing group friends but hope to catch up soon.

Much of my weekend time is spent doing “family” things and recently my “work” time has been doing work like things. Sooo…. something has to give… or be severly delayed.

In what little time I do manage to scrape by I have been spending watching the DareDevil Netflix show and the CW show iZombie. Yes I realize I don’t fit the typical iZombie demographic but tuff scooters. I do try and balance it out with my game of thrones and Agents of Shield.

I have kind of stalled a little bit on cleaning up my Mr K story but that is mainly because I am at chapter 16 and my online friends have only gotten through chapter 18. So I’m almost caught up with them.

That is it for now…. almost.

I have been having the imagination itch to think up another story idea and so the back of my mind has also been working on taking things around me and turning them upside down as to be foundation of something new. So far nothing has really sparked but that’s okay. It’s just an itch. I have like over thirty first draft stories which still need to be cleaned up.

Tootles.

After watching the SNL skit (full admission I youtubed it just today) I’m almost afraid not to vote for her. If I don’t she will eat my soul. Nicely done Kate, nicely done.

Today Disney released all six of the Star Wars movies on the various digital markets. Being both an Amazonian as well as Googlian I chose to go with the later. I figured I would always(more likely) have a google phone than I will have an amazon phone. Amazon’s entry into the market last year kind of bombed and while I can’t predict the future I can make an educated guess that my next few phones will probably be google based.

Now why did they chose today of all days to release the movies? I know that Disney owns both Star Wars as well as Marvel and with the Avengers II coming out on May 1st I can see them not wanting to over-saturate the market, but come on…. “May the 4th be with you!”

Idiots.

So this last Wednesday I had jury duty. I didn’t actually sit in on a trial but spent the entire day in the lounge area waiting to be(not) selected for a trial. I got to watch episodes 3-7 of the fourth season of Game of Thrones in preparation for Sunday nights season five premier. It wasn’t a bad day, just not an entirely productive one. Still I was getting paid to watch TV so it’s a “win/win”?

Upon my leaving the courts I was awaiting the lightrail train when a homeless woman came up to me and broke the #1 rule of “Hobo Begging for Free Change Club” which is to not insult the person digging for said change until after it has been passed to you. This woman’s mind was so whacked out from normal she apparently forgot this. It’s almost like she is some delinquent that lives on the fringes of society…. ohhh…. I get it now.

WTF?! I haven’t finished re-watching all of season 4 yet. Damn job and family life keeps getting in my way.

I’m thinking the only way I’m going to be able to watch it is by letting my kids starve. Hell it builds character and besides castle black doesn’t have enough food stores for all them wildlings.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled reading time to bring you this *Action News Update.*

(as seen on Faux news) “Some people say…”

Somebody in my writing group told me that my story, as of chapter 2, had too much negative climax. They felt as if they hadn’t been emotionally vested enough in the character to want to see it through and it was more of turn off instead of drawing them in.

My goal of the story was to have a character who keeps having bad things happen to him throughout the story but through sheer will, circumstances, lack of other options, chooses to go on and get back up. They choose to pick themselves back up time and time again. Kind of like Rocky Balboa does throughout his movies. He takes it hit and goes down but the guy keeps getting back up.

So… how do I fix this?

More importantly….do I fix this?

I have given early chapters of my story to a number of people and this is the first I have heard of being “turned off” like this. So does this mean there is an actual problem or rather that this one person just doesn’t like the taste of “what I’m cooking?”

I can’t fix everything that every person mentions as it is ultimately my story and to cater to every ones ideological whims no longer makes it “my story” but a version of what other people want. So…. if 4 out of 5 dentists tell you that you have a cavity i’m sure you have one. If 1 out of 5 dentists tells you that you need caps I tend to think that this dentist is wanting to buy a new corvette.

Now to this same person, a person I do trust, I mentioned my whole Rocky Balboa thing along with my secret plot and they mentioned that I watch the show “The Walking Dead.” Apparently there is a character, Glenn, who is kind of a nobody who keeps getting kicked around but is still like able. I haven’t seen the show but I guess now would be as good of a time as any.

I went up to Lake Tahoe for a mini vacation over these past few days and due to limited vacation time at work (thanks to my constantly sick kids) and am back to the grind. Let me tell you coming back on a Friday leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.

I did get to spend some time with my wife and even though it was short it was sorely needed. There is nothing like spending quality time on a condo’s couch in your underwear eating snacks and watching a movies with your spouse. Unfortunately she had more clothes than I would have liked but c’est la vie.

In getting back to second draftifying(new word) my Mr. Kobayashi story I just got done splitting old chapter 13 into the new 13 & 14 as it took on more mass during the cleanup. I hadn’t been able to really get much done over the past week or so due to life issues but hope to be pressing forward once more.

So to sum it up the first draft of my story came in at 72,000 words. Right now I am finishing up chapter 13/14, of a total of 33 chapters, and my present word count comes in at 34,800 where I was previously at 25,100. That’s an extra 9,000 words or 38% fatter. So 72,000 at 38% fatter should put me at around 100,000 words overall.

Now to be fair my first couple of chapters had some heavy growth which dwindled down considerably until I reached chapter 13/14.  For instance 11 & 12 were both originally 1,900 words each. They now sit at 2,100 & 2,000. My original plan was to inflate it some as 72,000 did seem a little thin but I was also hoping to keep it under 90,000 overall. We will see.

* Thanks Obama!