Skip to content

Aug 21

Status, Achievement, Diplomacy

Every job has status.  And you know setting out the status you want and if it’s achievable.

I probably did it wrong when breaking into sf/f.  Call me stupid, or maybe take in account I grew up in a country where “celebrity culture” was not the same as in the US.  What I mean is, guys, all we had was the radio. It’s hard to become a US type celebrity with the radio.  Also, I’m broken in that I never pay any attention to movies, and you need to be really famous for me to remember your face. No, seriously. And even then I won’t give a hang who you sleep with, or what you do on your time off. I’ll just go “oh, he was okay as x in x movie.” And that’s it.

So, what did I want when I first got published: I wanted people to read me. A lot of people. The more people the better.  And I wanted to make enough money to live. But fame? Meh. If I’d thought about it at all, I’d have created a complete persona to be famous, and no one would have any idea who I really was. Read more

Aug 20

1 Comment

Remembrances and Revelations

Mom and Pop Dave are arriving on the morrow, and Caer Dave is (mostly) ready. Fortunately, my ‘rents aren’t judgy, so the crud along the molding may stay there, and the bits of clutter, too. Kitchen’s clean, though, and my computer desk is back up (though now in the laundry roomoffice, my desktop is moved atop it, and I can *just* stretch my hand over and grab whiskey. Not that I’d do that while writing, whatever Hemingway says.
Read more

Aug 20

10 Comments

Gack, ack and crap

Between a laptop that died last week, ongoing issues with my internet carrier and the fact I’m heading out to the orthopedic surgeon’s office in short order, life’s not been fun lately. It also means I haven’t had a chance to figure out a post for today. So I’m leaving it up to you guys until the kilted one posts this afternoon.

Here’s your chance to suggest topics, ask questions, etc. I’ll check in later and try to respond. Until then, I need coffee and good wishes that the doc decides my shoulder doesn’t need surgery.

Later!

Aug 19

15 Comments

The Rising Tide

I had one of those interesting days today, at least, in the ancient Chinese curse sense. In part, anyway. It’s the start of national book week here in Oz, and, I may be trifle biased but a love of reading is greatest gift we can give to children, to the future.

Now, for me, crowds are a hardship. I am very sound and movement sensitive, maybe because I am kind of proof of this whole evolution thing, as in I’m a little primitive. Both little and primitive, that is. Being an urban-dweller requires coping well with a sea of noise and movement, ignoring most of it, and shutting out peripheral stimulus. Your little hunter-gatherer who does this ends up either very hungry, or very dead, or, mostly, both. I was raised in hunter-gatherer tradition, and there’s a lot of it my family history, in my genes, I suspect. I guess I am one of yesterday’s people, to the modern world. But I still have to live in it, a little. Read more

Aug 18

9 Comments

Writing at Speed: Good, Bad, or Painful?

I tend to write faster than some, slower than some. This isn’t really good or bad, except that in the indie market, quantity helps increase (sales) quality. I wrote 93K words on a novel between July 4 and August 8, with a few days off due to Life. As well as writing most of four short stories, plus blogging.

That’s not a brag, just a statement. My schedule gives me three months (mostly) off, and so I made the best of my time. Most people don’t have that luxury. Plus, as I said above, I can write very quickly when the story moves me.

This isn’t always good. Read more

Aug 17

25 Comments

Maslow and Conan

When I started thinking about writing this post I was torn between two topics: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and Conan the Barbarian not-the-story-but-the-movie. I’m not going to try and analyze the latter based off the former, as tempting as the ridiculousness of that is. I’m not, because I haven’t finished the movie. I was watching it as homework for a short I should be writing. I actually bought a DVD player (we had never needed one before as we don’t really consume film type media), and my dear First Reader and I cuddled on the couch (also a first, we tend to abandon the living room to the teens who take up every available square inch of flat space) and we turned on the flick. We expected cheesy, corny, all the tropes of B movies. What we didn’t expect was that about half-way through (Conan and his sidekick are about to find the temple of the two-headed snake) we’d get bored, really bored, and wander off to do something else. We’ll come back to it. It’s homework for me, after all. It’s just that, on that hierarchy of needs, it’s not even on the scale. Read more

Aug 16

9 Comments

Weaving a Series

[This is going to be short, as I’m on vacation, escaping the Texas heat]

What do you do when you are avoiding writing by looking at all the horrible half written stories that never got finished . . . And you realize you’ve got your hands on exactly what your series needs.

“Yes!” The Muse clutches it in delight. “It’s perfect! Get writing!” Read more

← Older Entries