Category Archives: Random Musings

Vegan Schmegan.

I’m going to take a moment away from writing in this post. Kind of. Technically speaking, this topic ties into an idea for a book that I have, but I mostly want to focus on how unexpected life can be and how you never know where you’ll be a year, month, let alone a week from now.

Let’s go back to the beginning of this year. A good friend and coworker mentioned that, with the start of 2013, they were going to do a cleansing fast, which called for two weeks of going completely vegan in their diet. I remember goggling, shaking my head, and commenting on how I don’t think I could ever do vegan.

Fast forward five months later, and guess who has three browser tabs up for vegan recipes? This girl.

Yup, that’s right. The same girl who grew up on a farm, who paid for a chunk of her college education by auctioning beef cattle, whose family Sunday drives involved taking cows to the slaughterhouse, who subscribed to every Paleo blog she could find and considered eventually making “meat-za” (wherein the evil carby crust is replaced with meat, meat, and more meat)….is looking at vegan recipes. And eating vegan food. And has stopped drinking regular milk altogether and is stock piling boxes of Almond Dream. What the hell happened?

Well, when I skeptically eyed my friend and thought of mourning a lack of bacon in one’s life, I had no idea that I would soon be embarking on a relationship with someone who hadn’t had bacon in his life for years. He’s made it very clear to me that he doesn’t expect me to be vegan, too, unless I absolutely want to, but the thing is, I definitely want to try. I’m a far cry away from pulling it off, but I’ve been managing to work into my diet a lot more vegan options, usually pulling off at least one completely vegan meal a day.

I was reminded of that moment in January because that same friend to whom I stated I could never do vegan is now handing me recipes recently, and that’s what inspired this post, because I attempted one of them for my weekly Tuesday Vegan Dinner Night. Yup, weekly Vegan Dinner Night. No meat-za here.

It just really shows how much we can change and evolve in a short time. They always say that you shouldn’t do things for other people, and, while I can’t say I’m doing the vegan thing for myself, I know I’m doing it for us. And I’m loving it. I love having something to focus on; I love feeling accomplished when I’m able to really pull out a good vegan day. I love being so incredibly conscious of everything I eat now, too. That’s reflected in the way I write, too, always wanting to focus on something and pushing for it…even if there are some feta-related hiccups on the way.

There also might be a memoir in the making, tentatively titled “The Half-Way Vegan.” It’s what you get when you switch to almond milk in your coffee, but still brew it with CoCo Caramel Sea Salt…

I’m working on it, babe!

Rejection!

I received a rejection letter today. It wasn’t of a literary variety, though, more of a monetary one, but it did get my brain thinking about rejection letters in general. It’s been a while since I’ve received one in regard to my work, not because I’ve been churning out some brilliant stuff, but because I haven’t been churning out much of anything. Short stories have always been difficult for me and I intend to self-publish most of my novels; eventually I might find one I’ll want to send out to be more traditionally published, though. Still, most of the rejection letters I’ve received have been fairly cut and dry. “Thank you for your submission, but we feel this piece is not a good fit for our publication. Best of luck with you endeavors/submitting it elsewhere.” Pretty standard, not very helpful or critical, but gets the point across. Generally, they give the impression that it wasn’t really a bad story, but it wasn’t a great story. They give the impression that almost anyone who didn’t get accepted got pretty much the exact same letter.

Apparently, though, not all rejection letters are created equal. My experience is fairly small; I haven’t sent out much, I’m ashamed to admit. But sometimes, especially in the good old days, rejection letters can get kind of personal. Check out this post from Cristian Mihai that’s collected a bunch of “famous” rejection letters from well-known authors. It’s pretty interesting stuff, and it almost makes me wish I did get rejection letters a little more scathing, because it almost feels like then they actually kind of care a little bit, you know?

Any good rejection letter stories out there?

Dreams of C2E2.

This last weekend marked one of my favorite weekends of the entire year: the weekend that the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo (commonly referred to as C2E2) rolls into town! I’ve gone every year since I moved down to this area, and this year was definitely not an exception, though we did make the grave mistake of getting only a one-day pass. It is nearly impossible to get the full experience on just Saturday; this year turned me into a three-day passer for life.


(Image from David Ngo)

This year, I even delved into the cosplay a little bit. Here’s my roommate and I doing an attempt at humanized version of My Little Ponies Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Granted, some of the costumes at C2E2 are incredible, and ours only scratches the surface of the wonder of what people can put together to bring their favorite characters to life. I’m constantly astounded by the costumes at this thing; they’re one of my favorite parts of the convention!

My other favorite part? Artist Alley. There’s always a big section of the convention floor devoted to artists, mostly of the comic book persuasion but I’ve seen others, like authors, in the past, to sell and display and promote their work. And I’ve finally decided that I’m going to try to snag myself a table for 2014. By then, I should have at least two books to promote, and I’m brushing up my art skills as well, since art is a much bigger draw than just books themselves. Since the convention just finished last weekend, it’s a long wait until probably winter before I can even figure out how possible this is, but I’m absolutely itching to get it ready right now. It’ll be a different perspective on the convention for sure, and, while I don’t expect the monetary pay-out to be anything at all, I know for a fact the publicity and exposure, little as it might be, would be completely worth it.

I’m always a big fan of the panels, too, especially the professional ones, but I admit, they tend to take a back seat to the spectacle that is the show floor…

Any of my fellow readers frequent C2E2 goers as well? Or do you have a local entertainment expo/ComiCon you like to partake in? What do you enjoy most? Also, I’m on the look-out for anyone who might want to share table space if I manage to get the spot in 2014. The more, the merrier! Of course, I’d also be happy with anyone just wanting to swig by and say hello, but we’ve got a while to go until then.

You know something is awesome when it’s only just finished, but you already can’t wait for the next one!

Victor Hugo is Naked.

Since it’s World Book Night, the fascinating interesting literature posted a list of 23 different literary facts of interest. Now, most of them, I knew already, and I would hope that I did considering my college years were spent studying this sort of thing, but one really struck me enough to want to repeat it:

“Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables, liked to write naked. It was said to help with writer’s block.“

Well, I’m not quite to the point of writing in my birthday suit, but this particular tidbit did make me feel better about the fact that I do a significant amount of work in my jammies, well before a shower makes me presentable for human contact. In fact, it’s usually only in this state that I seem to be able to focus on my writing, with the exception of if I’m on the train or at the Art Institute. If I’m all showered and spruced up, I can’t seem to focus on sitting down and writing, but in the morning and when I get my tea for bed, some of the best writing happens, all in my PJs.

I also seem to have very specific writing places. My “desk” is my bed (maybe that’s why bedtime attire is required?), and on the train or in the Member’s Lounge tends to be the other places I can compose, but no where else.

Isn’t it interesting how we can be such creatures of habit sometimes that only specific conditions will allow us to be efficient and productive? It’s like one must create the perfect storm of this, that, and the other thing to get any work done. Do you feel this way, too? Or are you one of those lucky ones that seem to be able to write no matter what?

Also, I know I haven’t posted in ages. I figured Naked Victor Hugo was a good way to try to inch my way back. And, because I can’t refuse a good visual, here’s a picture of good old Hugo, too, because who wouldn’t want to paint a mental picture of this handsome dude in the buff?


(Image lovingly ganked from Wikipedia)

You’re welcome.

The Pacing of Plot.

As I plow forward in my desperate attempt to get this latest draft of Serpent in a Cage finished in time for a decent publication date, I find myself obsessing a little too much over certain details. I’ve been a trooper when it comes to pushing aside the doubts and striving forward, if only to finish the first draft and then worry about the details, but one of the issues has been weighing more prominently on my mind, and that is the topic of pace.

For me, especially with fantasy novels, the pacing of a book can make or break it. If a story moves too slow, I lose interest in it. Sometimes, though, a story throws so much at you so quickly that you never really feel a connection. It’s definitely the latter that I’m worried about in SiaC. I’m about four chapters into it, and, in the first three chapters, there’s an awful lot of encounters. Some of those encounters are about to swing back around and turn into bigger plot points, but I’m worried that it’s almost too much at once. Will readers find it irritating to have my characters encounter someone, move on, encounter something else, move on again for another encounter before some it starts to tie together? I hope not, and I’m thinking if it does feel like too much, I can always go back and slow the pace down in the revision, with some other perspectives or whatever else might seem fitting.

That’s just the thing, though, these encounters and how I have them set up all seem fitting. It’s hard to tell from my own perspective. I know a great deal of my inspiration and my wanting to write in the first place is based heavily in video games, mostly role-playing ones such as Final Fantasy and Baldur’s Gate, where encounters are basically imperative to moving the plot forward. But I know a common mistake a lot of authors make is to introduce too many players too quickly, and the wealth of personalities in SiaC has been a common criticism in previous drafts.

Do you find yourself distracted when an author has a fairly quick succession of events to throw at you? Do you wish they’d sometimes slow down? How often do you feel they slow down too much? Just some questions rolling around in my brain. I’m throwing in a chapter from a different perspective, happening in the other part of the book, before returning to the busier point-of-views, so maybe that will help. Although that could also just completely interrupt a perfectly good, steady pace with the others! It’s all such a balancing act and I hope I can just manage to get it right…

Switching It Up.

“The road to hell is paved with…blank pages,” I said yesterday and, this morning, for quite some time, I was staring right now that pathway to damnation. And the interesting thing is that I knew exactly what had lead me that way.

You see, I had quite a few things I needed to get done this morning before work, and very little time to do them in, so I had to stave off my usual morning rituals to try to put together a new one. It took a while for me to get into the swing of it, bumbling around like a ghost who’d lost its way, and it became strikingly obvious how much of a creature of habit I am. Most people are; heck, even one of my cats gets distraught now that my routine involves yoga, which he finds strange and, judging by his meows, a little terrifying. But I do find it interesting that, for a little while, anyway, when we deviate from an established path, part of our brain shut down a little and make it more difficult to function. It recognizes the actions as not the norm, and seems to have trouble catching up and reorganizing itself.

What is it about our brains (or, well, some of our brains, anyway. I’m sure some people can change things in the blink of an eye and not be in the least bit phased) that has difficulty breaking from a habit? They even say it takes 30 days to truly break a habit, and, even then, I’m a little skeptical. Eventually, my routine this morning worked, I got some stuff done (though admittedly not as much as I’d have liked!), and everything’s good. But why did it take at least half an hour to start being effective?

Do you feel you’re a creature of habit? How do you feel when you try something different? Or are you one of those magnificent bastards who can adapt to anything with alacrity and skill?

I’m…definitely not the latter, ha!

Author Quotes: Roth.

“The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.” -Philip Roth.

I’m pretty sure Roth won’t mind, but I’m going to have to politely disagree with him on this one.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the sentiment. It’s terribly easy for writers to get caught up in their Next Big Thing, the new and shiny book idea, and the never-ending project that just can’t seem to meet your goals. It’s not uncommon to feel overwhelmed by a project, to drop a manuscript and work on something else, to scrap everything you’ve written so far out of frustration and lack of inspiration. These are certainly hellish things for the writer to deal with, a path littered with discarded thoughts and half-assed attempts.

But let’s look at it another way. To me, the road to hell isn’t paved with anything. It’s just a bleak landscape of writer’s block and blank pages. At least, surrounded by works-i-progress, you’re surrounded by potential. Each one of those WIPs, with the right mindset, could easily be wrestled down and wrangled into completion. Each one of those WIPs represent a glimmer of hope, a silver lining, a stairway to heaven. To me, a road paved with works-in-progress is just the start of the journey. The trick is in finding which one of those WIPs are the exit ramp to success.

So, what do you think? What is your road to writerly hell paved with?

Back to Business.

Writing, especially in the independent field, is a business. And a business will pretty much go to crap if you don’t tend to it, keep it up, strive to accomplish more and more and more, and generally WORK. Unfortunately, writing is usually not a business that helps you pay your bills right away, so there’s always an “Evil Day Job” that usually gets in the way of making your writing job as successful as your dreams make it out to be.

Though I don’t find my day job too terribly evil, I do know it has been sucking up a lot of my time lately. The last six months or so have been an absolute whirlwind, from working retail during the holiday season to being promoted to a different store and being shipped off for special corporate training for a few weeks, the “Evil Day Job” has essentially taken over the writing work and pushed it aside into the dirt. I still jot down at least a page a day, so writing is still getting done, but I’ve almost entirely abandoned my blog, my social media presence, and my association with other writers and readers.

This is not good.

So, now that the holiday season is over, now that things are quieting down, I am comfortable in my new position and ready for the next but waiting for something to open up, it’s time to get back to writing. Today, I’m making the decision to go back to posting every day (except weekends or days when I can’t borrow the roommate’s computer), interacting every day, perhaps even joining up on the next round of A Round of Words in 80 Days, because I miss it incredibly. I want to start sending stuff out and promoting whatever book decides to be next. I’ve really dropped the ball on this part of my life lately, and it’s time to pick it back up and get it rolling again.

That said, let me take a moment to ask whatever reading might still be hanging out: what do you want to see more of in this blog? Do you like hearing more about projects I’m working on? Cool things I find on the Intrawebz? More book reviews or author quotes or whatever else? I’m interested to see what you think!

The Forecast for 2013.

Hello, there, Interwebz, how have you been? It’s been a while since I’ve seen much of you, through no fault of your own. I’ve recently just returned from a pretty amazing business trip to Atlanta, and now I’m back, though I wouldn’t exactly say to the usual grind. It’s a new year, I’ve got a new career goal, and I’ve got to do some re-arranging of how I intend to go about the general minutiae of life. Not exactly a small order, but one I’m intending to pursue with verve and vigor.

I’ve already declared on Facebook that this is the year I “finally get my shit together,” though that’s a little unfair, since, let’s be honest, I’ve got my shit pretty well together, all things considered. I’ve always had in in my head that my thirties were going to be incredible, but then I thought, “Why wait until thirty?” So here are the goals I’d like to make for myself to accomplish in 2013. Resolutions, if you will. Because I felt like breaking out of the box and making a list of things to resolve to do at the start of a new year…

Ahem.

I will publish another book this year. I will read at least 100 books this year. I will be promoted to the next level this year in my Regular Job. I will start working out. I will start paying off more of my debt. I will start painting again and I will indulge in the things that make me happy. I will be unabashedly domesticated and maintain a clean home and I will start eating more “real food” and cooking like I used to. I will travel, and I will not be so overly concerned with what others think of me.

I will finally make a Snow Dalek if we get enough snow this winter.

I will have an awesome 2013.

What will you do this year?

Channeling the Tortoise.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Lao Tzu said that a long time ago, along with a lot of other really great things that I remind myself of whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed with the craziness that is life. This particular quote is a great way to encourage that moment on the precipice of something new and different, and a reminder that, if you want to get anywhere, you’ve got to take that first step.

I also like to think of it as a reminder that a journey of a thousand miles is taken in steps, and sometimes those steps are going to be small. …Most of them, actually.

Right now, small steps describes my writing career perfectly. In a few days, I’m taking off for Atlanta to do some corporate training for the Real Job, and everyone’s talking about how the next promotion is right around the corner. It’s retail management, which is pretty involved and hands-on and that doesn’t leave too much time for my writing anymore. Not having my own computer right now doesn’t help much with blogging and networking, either.

I wish I wasn’t so impatient. I know that I’ll eventually make that thousand mile journey even with these tiny steps, but I wish I could get on with things much quicker. I’ll just have to stop for a moment when I feel the itch of the hare, close my eyes, and channel the tortoise instead.

Not only does slow and steady win the race, but just think of how many more of those thousand miles you can appreciate with smaller, tinier steps. It’s taking me longer to write now, but I know I’m enjoying it even more now because I appreciate being able to write now that I can’t do it as much.

Which are you, a tortoise or a hare? How far along are you on your thousand mile journey, or have you yet to take that first step? What are you waiting for?