Tag Archives: ramblings

A First Year

15 Replies

Trent-11-9-2018-phone-2-print

I have always enjoyed writing.  I also enjoyed creating stories.  The problem is, those two things didn’t always coincide quite right.  I would write stories in my head and nonfiction for school, work or different organizations, but I always grew frustrated with myself when I tried to actually write those stories out.

One morning in November of 2009 I posted a poetic line about the beautiful, unseasonably warm day.  A friend told me that she thought it sounded like a great first line of a short story.  So I sat down and over the next few days I wrote a story to fit that line.  What came out was the story Indian Summer, which I posted a few days ago.

A week or two later I wrote another story, a “short-short” of about 500 words.  A few weeks later, in mid-December of 2010, I wrote another longer story.  The new story, Five Long Walks, I planned out in my head before starting.

I was hooked. Continue reading →

I’m Back! Maybe…

28 Replies

shark-sign

I am still here!  No, I was not eaten by sharks.  I just kind of faded away….

I was posting pretty regularly until about a month ago.  In the last month, well, I’ve had three posts in the last month…  Yeah, not very good.

But hopefully this little lull is over!

I have been reading some of your posts the last few days.  Not really catching up – that would be impossible!  But sticking my toe in the water so I can get back into it.

I may offer a little more detail later, but for now just a quick paragraph or two or three.

It started because I was ultra-busy at work.  I do read some posts and actually write some of my own posts, during breaks from work.  I had no breaks for a few weeks so no reading or writing.  I actually had one day that went from 6 AM to 10 PM without stop.  It was a Friday…  When I leave work after being beat up all day, the last thing in the world I want to do is sit in front of a computer….

A second part of why it started when it did is that I was a little down back in early August.  I’ll admit, a big part of that was after releasing The Halley Branch.  Does anyone else get a little “Post-Publishing Depression”?  At least this time I didn’t read a few long rants about how much people hate indie-author-bloggers, which I did after releasing The Fireborn….

After that I took a vacation.  I didn’t go far.  Actually, I spent a week on Cape Cod (surprise).  My parents came to visit during this week.  I did not feel like blogging at all.  I tried to stay away from the computer as much as possible.

And now I am back.

Hopefully I’ll have something a little more interesting for you soon :)

swan-pond-aug-23

 

Stories, Stories, Stories

16 Replies

Fiction

A few months ago I discussed doing a book of short stories after I put out The Halley Branch.  Currently I am in a bit of a hiatus.  I have some people beta-reading The Halley Branch and I’m not doing anything else.  I decided that I should go through and pick out stories to include in the story book.  Most of my stories are currently first draft, so I have a lot of work to do once I decided on which ones to include.  It would be nice to start now so I can do at least two more drafts of each story, possibly three or four (I did four drafts for Seasons of Imagination).

When I did Seasons of Imagination I had a couple of people go through a couple of hundred stories and pick out their favorites.  I read through all of them at least twice, trying to pretend they weren’t mine and grading them all.  I sat down with the lists and one of the alpha-readers and decided on the final list.  I passed it by both of these “alphas” to see what they thought and got two thumbs up.  Easy.

Well, neither of my alphas are available now.  There is nobody out there that I could possibly ask to go through a couple of hundred short stories (300 – 15,000 words, with an average of about 2,000).  I mean, do you want to read through several hundred thousands words and pick your favorite?  I didn’t think so.  So I have been reading through them.

Not easy. Continue reading →

Dunces and Dreamers…

2 Replies

“He also had a faraway look in his eye, which Elliot always reserved for dunces and dreamers.” – The Fireborn

No matter how suitable you are to receive the ancient sword Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake, the biggest requirement is that you are actually someone who can believe that the possibility exists that the Lady of the Lake will give you the sword Excalibur.  That is, you need to be able to see far beyond the mundane (a dreamer) or be so stupid that you can’t understand why it is impossible (a dunce).

Or so goes one of themes I’ve often used in my writing.

Dunces and Dreamers, Dreamers and Dunces.  As I look in the mirror, both that reflecting my physical image and that reflecting “the real me”, I wonder if the two are so far apart…

The Weekly Smile 69 #weeklysmile

7 Replies
Weekly Smile #WeeklySmile

Weekly Smile #WeeklySmile

I want to say a few things about doing the weekly smile twice a week.  You know, I’m a pretty optimistic guy, and I find a lot in life to smile about.  I try to see the silver lining in the darkest clouds, though, being human, I’ll admit that I often just see the rain or that tornado hidden behind the rain…  Overall, though, I’m a pretty happy guy.  I have a huge dark side, but that doesn’t make me smile any less.

But when I sit down and think about it, what sticks out?  Doing that twice a week isn’t always easy!  This week, I’m planning a lot of good stuff (which is great!), but it will make for future posts. A few bad things happened that haven’t showed their silver linings yet…  Not to me personally, but still.  And yet, I am smiling :)

This is a Wednesday morning that I got up, have a huge amount of work to do, and the brain just isn’t turning.  With that in mind, I’m going to bring up something that I already shared on my Weekend Coffee Share (If We Were Having Coffee) post on Saturday.  I hate repeating like this.  I hope you don’t mind. Continue reading →

Expectations

42 Replies

In the 80s

Expectations, or when drunken girls turn nerds into heroes….

I was reading a post by Lisa on “Zen and Pi” when an ancient memory came back, one I haven’t thought of, mostly likely since it happened all of those years ago.  First, I want to say that I don’t want to downplay her (Lisa’s) serious post with this bit of silliness, but there was something in there that brought this up.

One weekend night during my Senior year of college, one of my roommates and I went out drinking.  This was Ohio State, so this was a very big past-time 😉 All of the nightclubs were off of the southeast corner, while we lived off of the northeast corner of campus.  This is a huge campus…

We were both Introverts.  I don’t know about other college age Introverts, but back then I often had trouble going to clubs, though I did it all of the time.  The sensory overload makes my brain turn off.  I see all of the excitement around me and want to join, but don’t know where to start.  Back then it too often ended up with one or two too many beers.  No, I wouldn’t get sick or falling down drunk or anything like that (not often), but I might be a little more than just slightly tipsy. Continue reading →

Poetry and Prose – A Divergence?

1 Reply
Mt. Lafayette

Mt. Lafayette after starting down the ridge

Two paths either diverge or collide, I haven’t decided which…

Early in the history in my blog I decided to post a poem every Tuesday.  This was my first regular feature and the only one that has lasted.  In the past several weeks I’ve occasionally gone back and read a poem or two or five.  I am not a great poet, but I do enjoy many of them.

People who have been reading my blog recently might know that I am in the middle of a writing streak.  I’ve been posting quite a few stories, have been posting a serialized novel and have been editing two other books off line. My prose writing is full-steam ahead.

OK, here is where it all goes wrong. Continue reading →