I know I shouldn't really complain about my job right now, seeing as the tax payer is paying me to sit around for long periods doing nothing. Paying me really well, actually.
We had a dress inspection (gotta make sure we're all tickety-boo for when nothing happens),we had a practice earthquake session, and then our allotted time at the gym. This REALLYcut into my writing time! I mean, really? Don't these people know I write fiction that doesn't get read by anyone? Lets have some priorities people! But in the midst of all these shenanigans I got a scary call. My wife called in a panic. Seemed our youngest was trying to open the oven drawer and sliced his hand on a piece of loose metal. So I drove home as safely and quickly as I could. He was fine, the cut shallow. I sewed a sock to a onesy to prevent him from pulling the band-aids off, calmed my wife down (she felt as though it were her fault, silly love), and tried to take the rest of the day easy. Then I hit a kind of selfish low moment. I looked at how many hits my website had (8, day before 100), see if I had gained any more followers on twitter, and how many sales I had. They were all low or non-existent. Then I slapped myself. I have an amazing family. If all my personal endeavors or hobbies take a hit, then that's what it costs. My families health, well being, and love are worth more than all the "twatters" and book sales. Maybe I'll make it as a writer. Maybe I won't. I will be a successful husband and father. That's what's important.
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Just one of the many jobs my career has me do is security. I got to spend the entire day outside with no one to talk to. Just the way I like it.
I read Dean Koontz's 77 Shadow Street. Now, I greatly respect Mr. Koontz body of work. The first novel of his that I read was From the Corner Of His Eye, and I was blown away by the mix of contemporary characters, peppering philosophy, and sci fi blend. His other, older works, and subsequent works amused me and made me think outside the book. Except for Tick Tock, I threw that copy away. Lately I have found his work to be in decline. With 77 his characters are cardboard, with a quirk worked in for "originality". The plot seems like a rehashed telling of the Taking and Terminator, with zero believability. There's a golden retriever at the end, like always. Reading this I kept looking for the inspiration that used to glow from his words. He may not be the best author in the world, but he still inspired me. Now I feel as though I have out grown him. Maybe I have grown as a writer and can no longer go to others to get inspiration. Or more probably I've become more jaded and prideful believing that I can do better. Mr. Koontz is published by an actual company, whereas I am, to this date, not. I digress. 77 is not a good read for when you are stranded away from human contact. I am thankful that the public library exists, so that I won't be parted from my hard earned dollar. That said, please separate yourself from your hard earned dollar and buy my amazingly fleshed out, character driven crime procedural that is based on science research and has deep philosophic underpinnings. True Monsters, not in stores now: http://amzn.to/UWZ The new novel is coming along very nicely, and I will be adding an information page soon. Like with almost anything I do or say, I research the topics as much as possible. This time I had to revamp my understanding of human biology, specifically how genes are coded, how the earth is affected by the moons gravitational pull, and slang truckers use on their C.B.'s.
I like to take seemingly disparate threads and tie them together in what I hope is something new. And while many of the subjects in my novels are unique, I also hope that they are also timeless. It reminds me of an incident that occurred almost ten years ago (maybe more), when I was watching a documentary involving ancient black-smith techniques. I learned how the ancient Norse would weld tiny bits of metal together to make a highly flexible, durable sword. When my roommate came home (he was an avid aviation buff, who was getting his pilots license at the time) I told him that it would be a really cool idea if they used lasers to weld tiny bits of metal together and create a lightweight and flexible material that could be used in planes. He said "Yeah. They kind of already do. They use it in commercial airplanes and its a form of carbon fiber. It's really weird how you can learn one thing and then apply it immediately to something you haven't learned, in a really effective way. Too bad you're a few years late." So maybe the ideas in my new novel have been done by others, maybe done better than I could ever do. Maybe they have taken what was already there and clarified it, or given it a new spin. Whatever the case I hope they are at the least engaging. Digital Ghosts will be out soon. It begins with a lightning storm near an orphanage in 1970's New Mexico, and ends with a whimper. It is also the prequel/sequel to my opus, a book I have been researching for fifteen years, and takes place before world war one. Thank you, kind followers of a cult that may never be. I have many things to be thankful for (awesome wife, great kids), one of those is the fact that I have a mind numbing job right now.
This morning I discovered that to get to work via bus it takes over an hour, so that's an hour of writing that I have. When I get to work, I get there a half hour early because if I take any other bus, I'll be late. Then, because of staffing issues, I get tasked off with busywork. Today it was collecting garbage. Then I took a two hour lunch where I wrote the entire time. So basically the taxpayers paid me to do very little and write. While I was outside in the fresh air, I tried to plot and go over dialogue. I may not have had the chance to create an amazing blog entries, but I get paid very well to do very little, and right now, that's okay. Peace out, Homey G's! Often I will get into discussions over superheroes. I am a 30 year old boy, of course I'm going to talk about comics, I grew up in the 1980's with Optimus Prime as my father figure.
Many people tell me they don't like Superman. I'm a Spider-Man/Batman fan myself, but I've always admired good ol' supe. Why? Once upon a time comic heroes of old gained their powers and immediately thought in a JFK vein of "Ask not what my country can do for me, but what I can do for my country". We can extend the imaginary lines of "country" and mean "humanity". Later, in the 80's, superheroes took a dark twist, and they became more self serving, revenge tales. Something "people could relate to." Spider-man was already doing this, he had real problems that super powers couldn't fix. But I digress. The fact is that people, North American people, don't like to feel inferior. No one likes to be wrong, and they will go to enormous steps to do damage control when they do make mistakes, or wrong yet difficult life choices. They especially do not like seeing someone genuinely good, because that means that they might not be as good. What really started this post was a comment I heard recently, "zen people act like they are so much better than the rest of us, like they have some special knowledge that makes them superior". That made me think of Superman. If he really existed no one would like him. When we see someone who has gone through a painful life, we do exonerate them. When a person goes through the same pain we go through, but heals "better" than us, we resent them. I was watching a cooking/zen documentary and they made a good point: when things don't do what we want them to, be it people or things, we put up barriers and disassociate ourselves emotionally, or get angry and try to control them. It's easy to hate or be angry at someone who seems to handle things better than we handle them. In a generation that was taught to "always feel good" and took away first place and replaced it with participation awards, where everyone is "equal" and we haven't been taught to be good "losers", I see a lot of pain on the horizon. Thanks for letting me ramble. Yeah, I'll clean this up a little. Can't have people offended, not on the internet.
I've learned to bite my tongue over the years (those who work with me will disagree, I'm sure). It's more of a political thing. Be nice to the waitress so you don't have spit in your food. That and maybe she's having a bad day and it will be easier to manipulate the situation by appearing sympathetic, and therefore endear her to you so you get better service. Is that disingenuous? Manipulative? Yes. But they are pretending to like me so they can get a tip, so that's okay. Social media is more tricky. You almost have to be friends with people on Facebook whom you work with. Even if you don't like them, because if you don't you get the inevitable "why didn't you accept my friend request?". To which in the real world I would answer, "Because I don't like you and wouldn't piss on your gums if your teeth were on fire." But* in which I have to respond with, "Oh I'm not really on there much. I just use it to play games on." Or some other lie in order to not hear from my bosses "It doesn't matter if you like him, don't piss him off and do your job". Twitter is even harder. I don't want to respond rudely, these are potential customers and networking people. If I offend them I could potentially hurt sales, or opportunity. What to do? I know some people get lots of followers by being rude. I'm sure they lose out on a lot of chances, too. I don't want to be a slave to a tip. I want that tip, though! So if I want authenticity I must be authentic. I can still be polite and speak my mind. Be tactful. Just not say F@ck you. Or "You are an idiot". Or "I know people that smoke crack that make more sense than you." Or "I'm not saying you don't know what you're talking about, but I don't know what you're talking about." Or "Shut up you knob gobbling thunder c#nt". Or "No one cares about your teen pregnancy, just shut up and deal with the consequences. Need help, ask. Otherwise toss off." I've never said that last one. Maybe one day. *Do not start a sentence with the word "but". Writing is easy and hard. Anyone can write, provided they have a grade 5 grammar book and a brain. Not everyone can write well, and that is the difference. I hope I write profoundly and prolifically.
NaNoWriMo is a contest held every year for one month. From the first of November to the last day you write, write, write, with as little to no editing as possible to reach the goal of 50,000 words. I can write approximately 2,000 words a day, if only moderately interrupted, so this might work out for me. It would be great to have almost half a novel written in one month. Giving myself an additional two weeks to four weeks of editing/restructuring, cover art, etc, I could have four novels come out a year. While that may not help produce the most artistic works, it may help my bottom line. Readers often buy books from writers who have more than one book. It's like those "interesting" people who go see Iron Man 2 without ever seeing the first one ("Wait. How did he get that flashlight in his chest?" "Shhhhhh. Didn't you see the first one?" "No. I don't know what's going on"). I want to be an author (paid to write, as opposed to being a writer). I also want to be authentic. Sure, I could pander to the latest trends i order to make money writing, but I'd rather set my own trends. Maybe NaNoWriMo will actually help that. Think about it. You have to write RAW, without self edit, in order to get the words out. Isn't that kind of liberating? Noe self restraint, authenticity, Where my time will be filled with cleaning the van, making my costume for Halloween (I'm the Tinman, the wife will be Dorothy, our 2yr old will be Scarecrow, and the 9mnth will be the Lion), and taking care of two midgets.
I'm not complaining, I just thought I would have prepared myself mentally more for fatherhood and husbandry. On the plus side I get to make a costume and hang out with my wife, who had a hard week. Which brings me to to this wriMofiftywhatever thing that starts next month. Basically, write 50,000 words in a month. Since I average 2,000 words a day, I think maybe I can do it. We'll see how that goes because I'll be taking the bus more, and hopefully there isn't a bus strike (it's been brewing). Well, this update has been boring, but it's been that kind of day. Let me know if you even read it! Although I have found social media sites somewhat gratifying, it's difficult to say if they are beneficial or not.
I can promote my book to a hundred other people promoting their own book, check my weebly site (it at least tells me how many people looked at this post), and wonder how my book sales will look at the end of the month. That last one bothers me. Amazon updates sales at the end of the month. So I have no idea if all my marketing is falling flat. I could literally be wasting my time and not know for thirty days before I should try something new. I contacted Amazon to ask them if there was a feature that at least told me how many people at least browsed my book. I thought it would be a great idea, that way I could market my book more effectively, come up with a strategy of why people were window shopping and not buying, make money which would ultimately make Amazon money. Their response was: "For account security reasons, we're unable to share specific information about our customers and their browsing history. Thank you for your understanding of this policy. Thanks for using Amazon KDP." I don't care if Janey Smith browsed for porn before and after she looked at my book, I don't even have to know her name. I just want to know if anyone looked. Amazon can do this. They have programming designed especially for it, similar to Google's "What's trending now" feature, or their adsense. I understand this is a great marketing tool. It's not like poker. By holding their cards close to their chest, they are taking away an effective money making tool from their submitters. Well, that's my mini rant. Hopefully I made a million dollars on my book and can use that money to create a Nerf army to take over the wonderful Amazon and liberate the stats. Kind of sounds like Cherry Poppin' Dadies, doesn't it?
Basically it's a great chance for writers to get interviewed for the books they have written, and give a shout out to authors they want to support. After all, who will help the Indie Writer except other Indie Writers? What is the title of your book? True Monsters. Originally I titled it and marketed it as The Shepherd's Wolf, a title I was very proud of...until I found someone who published after I did with the same title, and refused to change it. It was a thirty-something-page erotic novel involving beastiality. I contacted them and asked them to change it, but they refused. I was also reading a marketing book at this time and it recommended using a more marketable title, and True Monsters was born. Where did the idea come from for the book? Initially the idea came from my own sense of smell. It's very sensitive, and often I let my nose get plugged so I can't smell. Then one day I kept getting a whiff of a cologne and I kept trying to find the person, like a bloodhound. That's when I developed the idea of a police detective that used her mutant sense of smell to find clues. I toned it down and made it, I think, more believable than that. What genre does your book fall under? It would best be placed under Crime/Police Procedural, though the ending could throw it into philosophy or the supernatural. Once you read the book, you can go through it and see it subtle references and clues you may not have noticed the first time around. Especially the characters Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? In a way I want to avoid that. I want to give the reader a little credit with their imagination, to get to know these characters. When I first read Lord of the Rings Elijah Wood was in Back to the Future Part Two, and I would never have imagined him as a Frodo. At gunpoint? Mila Kunis, as Ginny. Her acting chops have really come around, especially since American Psycho 2. Definitely Ben Kingsly as Revernd Phios would be a dream. Ioan Gruffud would be a great Rob Oldsole. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? Would you catch a serial killer you identified with? Is your book be self-published or represented by an agency? My book is available on Amazon, so self published. The ultimate goal is to be published in paper because in my mind that is the childhood goal. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? I laid the groundwork for about four months, and then my wife gave birth to our first son. The beauty of my current job is that I can take up to nine months off with pay, so I was able to work full time on the novel for six months. So less than a year. My new novel is taking a lot less time. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? That's kind of difficult, as I tried very much to make it original. But what author doesn't say that? I would compare it to a Faye Kellerman's Rina Lazarus for strong female, Island of Dr. Moreau for setting, and No Country For Old Men for moral ambiguity, with a little Dean Koontz action/science for fun. Who or What inspired you to write this book? I wrote this book because I read a novel by a writer who published under a pseudonym, and the story was very, very much like one I had worked on. I felt they didn't do the story justice, and that the characters and plot got cheated. Normally I love the books by this author. This time I finally said, “I can do this. I can do this better.” So I scrapped what I had written and started working on True Monsters, an idea I had bounced around for a while. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? Every fantastic thing is grounded in the real world, and I even have a running list on my website for “doubters”. That, and the ending really pays off. I invite others to ask me questions about the story and the characters on my website amachineofwords.weebly.com My book can be found at : http://www.amazon.com/True-Monsters-Shepherds-Wolf-ebook/dp/B005QH1ZYW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1349735434&sr=1-1&keywords=true+monsters+the+shepherds+wolf One Last Thing: Check out these other great authors! They give excellent feedback about their novels, tweet pithy things, and help out other authors. They are also inspiring. Chris Turner at: http://www.innersky.ca Jeff Whelan: http://jeffwhelan.wordpress.com/ Cheryl Bradshaw:http://cherylbradshawbooks.blogspot.com/ Roberto Calas: http://clumsyseduction.blogspot.com/ Sayed Sabat: http://www.zeus-publications.com/way_to_kabul.htm |
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