Tag Archives: life

general posts about my life

The Creative Process

Now that I have completed – at least in a submission form – my latest novel and it’s off to my agent it’s time to that start the gears turning on the next one. That has got me thinking about the creative process and how vague ideas turn into prose.

Every artist has a different thing that primes the pump. For me on of my most valuable tools is a solo trip to a theme park.

Theme parks are not something most people engaging in alone. They are family affairs, days out with friends, or a way for couples to bond, but I discovered a few years ago that solo trips held a special interest for me.

I have been described by some people as a shy extrovert. It is true that forming an initial one on one conversation without someone I do not know is a challenging task, but once that bond is formed I’ll happily chat at length. I also need alone time to think to ponder and to let my idea bounce around in a random Brownian fashion. This alone time doesn’t mean there can be no people, just people I am not interacting with. In my life there are lots of people I care about and lots of people I will interact with if they are around. Since I have a day job and writing is not a full-time profession, I don’t have an empty house to wander through, a solo trip to a theme park perfectly fits my needs.

Theme parks engage me enough that I am distracted, but do not require focused attention, allowing my mind to make those wonderful unplanned connections. I can spend four or five hours enjoying myself and never say more to anyone than ‘I’ll have that hot dog.’

For the last few years, my go-to park has been Universal Studios Hollywood. The annual passes were affordable, had no blackout dates, and on Super Bowl Sunday the attended has been light and the freeways clear. This Sunday will be my last Super Bowl Sunday trip to Universal Studios Hollywood. Now that their newest attraction is about to go on-line, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter,’ they’ve dramatically raised their prices on the annual passes, introduced blackout dates, and in general driven me away.

I am going to investigate Knott’s Berry Farm as my go-to park of the future, but until then, this Sunday will be spent with the tourists and guides at Universal Studios Hollywood.

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Plotting – but not the writing kind

So while my latest novel is in the hands of the beta readers, and my previous novel is under consideration at a top publisher, (which one? puffs on pipe ‘Top publisher’) I taking a little time to read for pleasure and daydream a bit.

The daydreaming is actually turning into planning.

It has been a long time since I had a chance to spend hours just looking at a nighttime sky uncorrupted by light pollution and I fully anticipate that Will is going to be successful in selling my novels. So it occurred to me that a way to celebrate, once that first novel contract arrives and is signed, would be to go somewhere for a weekend where I could enjoy the glory of the night sky.

My sweetie-wife seems amiable to the idea and so the research has begun. Ideally, I’d find a place within driving distance, with a nice way to rent a room or a cabin. That way I can just step out into the night and enjoy nature and the galaxy.

So far finding something that meets all needs has been challenging but there are several strong contenders.

In case you might construe this post to mean that there has been news that I am not allowed to mention. No. The publishing game is a game of patience, and that is a skill I am cultivating. There has been no news, but I remain upbeat.

 

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Celebrity Death and Online Grieving

The next and final installment of my ‘vintage’ SF collection watch is not yet ready, but it will be here soon.

The last couple of weeks have been rough ones for fans of various arts. We lost David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Lemmy (whose art is unknown to me as that is not my music) and Natalie Cole.

Personally celebrity deaths don’t impact me emotionally. While the art that they produced can be evocative and inspiring because they remain in fact strangers to me- the art is not the artist – I am not one to grieve their passing. However that is not so for all people.

It’s touching to see the profile pictures change, the videos posted, the toughing memories recounted, and inspiration shared. Art matters and if the loss of the artist is a source of grief for you, then grieve in all the way that your heart demands.

To those who snidely and with false wisdom dismiss such public displays of loss I say it is none of your business. Just as I do with innumerable that I don’t agree with, scroll on past t something else. There’s no one made happier or wiser by such comments. It adds nothing to the world escape another example of fallacy on conflating wisdom with cynicism.

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2015: A Look Back

This is not review of the major newsworthy events, but a personal retrospective about the year now ending and the changes it wrought upon my life.

I have to say that 2015 has been a damn good year for me. Just about every aspect of my life is improved over this same point a year previous.

I have settled into my new jab nicely. The work is interesting enough to not quite get dull and helping people with their healthcare is not without emotional rewards. It helps that this job represents the highest level of base pay I have earned and promises to continue to grow.

Thanks to streaming services I have been introduced to new musical artists and my appreciation for Jazz, particularly Brazilian influenced Jazz, continues to grow. It should also be noted that the artists I fell in love with this year, Diana Krall and Caro Emerald I have purchased multiple albums because I am all about supporting the artists.

2015 proved to be a fun, engaging, and intelligent year at the movies. The Marvel Cinematic Universe provided new entries into the franchise that entertained and were worthy of cinemas viewing. The Martian proved that SF film don’t have to be dumb to be good and to be massive hits. Discovering Cinefix and MovieBob on youtube has expanded my horizons and deepened my understanding of film and story structure.

Two new short stories sales cheered my artistic side but of course the massive blow-out good news of the year was signing with Will Reeve at the Virginia Kidd Literary agency.

VKA has been a major agency in SF/Fantasy publishing for 50 years and gaining their trust, support, and representation has made a tremendous impact on me. Already we have one novel out of submission, Chris, my short story agent, has been fantastically helpful in getting my short form fiction into the hands of top editors and has been great partner in improving my short form work. Will is great to work with and I look forward to his reaction to my newest novel length effort.

I also finished a new novel this year, proving to myself that I can write to a deadline. (It was a self imposed deadline, more of a drill to practice for when publishers place that expectation upon me. Plotting to finished draft was about 5 months. Not too shabby.)

I remain very happily married to my sweetie-wife whose love and support made everything else in the year possible.

Here’s hoping the for 2016 the trajectory continues.

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Celebratory Trip

As many of you are aware, two months age I signed with the Virgina Kidd Literary agency.  (I am still somewhat boggled by that. They are a premier agency for SF/Fantasy writers.) Also in the month of June I twisted my knee and reinflamed its old injury. Now after weeks and weeks of work with my chiropractor, the knee is doing well. (The WorldCon was a test and I was able to walk 4.5 miles a day without pain.)

So now that the knee was recovered I could do what I wanted to do in celebration, go to Universal Studios Hollywood. My sweetie-wife doesn’t care for theme parks and the rides are certainly not her cup of tea, so this trip was a solo trip. That is sometimes a good thing. I am an introvert by nature and 10-12 hours on my own is good for my emotional state and usually give my brain time to ponder writing issues.

The sun beat down mercilessly on the park today, but I had  the foresight to apply sunscreen meaning I am not burned. There had been a few changes from my last trip in May. (I am an annual pass holder, so I go fairly often.) The Fast and Furious bit has been added to the tram tour/ride. It works pretty well. They use some sort of transparent screen to project footage in such a way that without glass there is a three-d effect. That’s only for the introduction, the main ride is pretty much like the King Kong 360 3D. You wear the glasses and are fully immersed in a fast action scene with events happening all the way around the tram. It’s a fairly well-executed illusion.

Raptor Encounters have been added as a character in the park. It’s very much based on the event sin Jurassic World where a trained works with the ‘tamed’ raptor. The suit/puppet for the raptor was impressive with articulated jaws and eye-lids. The Raptor performers I watched did an excellent job playing the beasts.

Photos and videos are up over at my facebook page. All in all I had a good day.

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No Plan Survives Contact with the Enemy

So, last week I arranged to take today off from my day job. I had been feeling a bit of stress and with my knee giving me issues and the expense of next month’s WorldCon trip I ruled out my usual anti-stress measure a trip to Universal Studios Hollywood.

My plan for the day was to do nothing of importance. Play video games, mindlessly surf the internet and speak to no one except my sweetie-wife when she got home from her work.

Mostly my plan survived intact. I have played quite a few games of Call of Duty, watched a few interesting videos on-line,  spun up bonus material on my Classic Universal Horror Blu-rays, and in general goof-off.

I also finished my scene level outline for my new novel. I had not intended to work on any writing today. The concept had been fun and zero responsibilities, however, the urge to finish this part of the job proved too strong for me to resist. I am glad I gave in. When I reached the final line of the final scene I also reached a fuller understanding of the theme of my story. Truly you do not know what you story is about until you actually write the damne thing.

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30 day experiment

Some years ago I picked a bad habit.

Snacking at work.

I don’t mindlessly eat at home, but at work I cant seem to break this accursed habit of getting junk from a vending machine and eating way too much of it. My small breakfast hasn’t made me this big, it’s not my lunch of a simple salad, and it’s not my sweetie-wifes tasty and calorically sensible dinners. Most of my trouble come from this workday eating, eating when I’m never even hungry.

So here’s my 30 day experiment to break the habit.

No money on me at work.

none. No cash, no coins, no cards. It all stays home. Remove the ability to buy the god damn stuff and I won’t eat it.

I’m going to try this from tomorrow thru May 14th. Then we’ll see what sort of shape the habit is in.

 

 

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A quite pleasant day

I throughly enjoyed my lazy, quiet Sunday.

I slept in quite late, not rising until 9:00 am. By mid-morning my sweetie-wife and I were in Balboa Park. The sun shone bright and warm, the air was crisp and clear, musicians filled the air in hopes of generous tips, and we even we buzzed by a red-tailed hawk that played in the thermals above Laurel St bridge. I succeeded in clocking 3 miles of walking before we retired for lunch.

We ate in a lovely open air restaurant, The Station Tavern, with a nice window seat, the breeze keeping us cool and comfortable. The afternoon we passed with games where we each had turns at victory and defeat.

In the evening we caught up on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, and then after she retired for the night I discovered an original HBO film, Conspiracy, that held my attention with pure dialogue and performance. (Watch closely and you’ll see Tom Hiddleston in a non-speaking bit part.)

 

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Not doing too badly

The last few weeks I have been waiting for word that could signal a major change in my writing trajectory. This has produced days of endless nervous tension and lots and lots of email checking.

While I have been waiting, and a little too nervous to write properly, I have had actually not too bad of a time. I have read two books. (The Martian by Andrew Weir a damn fine novel and Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers a favorite author of mine.)

Last weekend was Condor 2015 a local SF convention. It’s on the small size but I had a terribly good time. So busy that I never too the time for a lunch on any day of the con. I was busy from the time I arrived to the time I left for home. (Because it is very local, just a few miles away we did not stay at the hotel.) I participated in three panels (Vampires and Zombies: Why do we keep writing about them, Emerging Epidemics, and What to do when you feel like quitting. All with great fellow panelists and lots of good interactions)

Tuesday a friend came into town for her book launch. My sweetie-wife and I took a half day off from our jobs and spent the afternoon having a lovely lunch, long discussion, and tasty coffee and tea.

I’m still a ball of nerves waiting for word from professionals back east, but I have to say I have also been quite happy the last few days.

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My Superb Owl Sunday

(Taking a hint from Stephen Colbert I shall refer to yesterday’s big game day as Superb Owl Day and thus side stepping any trademark issues.)

So I do not follow any sports. Being a spectator is boring for me and there is no sport that is so engrossing that I would watch it over doing something myself. As such it has been a recent tradition of mine that on Superb Owl Sunday I drive from San Diego to Los Angeles and spend the day at Universal Studios Hollywood. (The Entertainment Capitol of L.A. – what a sad little proclamation. I remember when, before they build parks around the world, they boasted of being the entertainment capitol of the World.) This is a great day to take the trip. The freeways are clear and the park attendance is low as everyone is home watching 22 grown men fight over a piece of inflated pig hide.

The drive north was fairly clear except as I passed the San Onofre nuclear powerplant the CHPs had stopped all northbound traffic. Luckily it didn’t last more than fifteen twenty minuets. I was close enough to the head of the stoppage to see the flashing lights and what looked like a drone of some sort passing overhead. They released the traffic and there were no clues as to why they stopped us.

I made this trip by myself. As an introvert there are times when I need serious time away from my friends and loved ones, spending hours with just my own thoughts. And while I wander the crowds of the theme park, I am alone, never having to same more than ‘Give me the hot dog.’

This year big sections of the park were closed off. They are currently building he Wizarding World Of Harry Potter, slated for a 2016 opening, and in addition that had taken advantage of the slow season to do refurbishment of the stunt show and other attractions. I felt a little bad for the tourists for whom this would be there first visit to the park, but I still had a quite fine time.

I took the studio tour twice. (It varies slightly by the tour guide and some of more entertaining than others.) Rode all my favorite rides. Got soaked on the Jurassic Park Ride. (Last row of the boat is certainly the one that catches the most water.) Ate foods I normally avoid and in short thoroughly enjoyed myself and returned home that evening energized and refreshed.

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