Dan

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:42:53 GMT

Uhg, home for a week, almost enough time to get caught up enough to leave again tomorrow. Should be another fun, hot, trip to do the family reunion thing in Atlanta. I think I liked the 1/2 hour flight on the last trip better than the cross country flying for this one. Maybe the kids will be feeling mellow and we'll all just read :)

Summer

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:03:51 GMT

I know, I should probably be doing my part to inform you of the Zombie apocalypse, but I'm good at denial. The kids started summer break today, so they're downstairs playing video games. It's another hot day (for around here, at least), so all the drapes are closed to keep out the sun. No banging on the doors, so I can pretend everything is normal and I just have to get through one more day of work before we head off on our first family vacation of the summer. We've been looking forward to this too much to let a few undead spoil our plans. I just hope there are enough pilots around tomorrow, and no latent zombie infection carriers get on the boat with us on Sunday.

Fri, 23 May 2008 18:13:42 GMT

Heading off to BayCon in a couple of hours, and I really shouldn't plan to work the first half of the day. It's a bit hard to concentrate when I keep wanting to do things like pack. And finish my critiques that I had hoped to have typed so that they'd be legible.
Happy long weekend to those that get it :)

Writing workshop

Mon, 05 May 2008 04:41:44 GMT

I have what may be my first face to face critique coming up at the end of the month. This year I payed enough attention to the deadlines to get a story submitted for the Writer's Workshop at BayCon. I was just happy to have made the deadline before, but I just got the stories that I have to critique for it. My critiquing experience so far has been pretty limited. I've only done it for a couple of online workshops, where I had plenty of time to review and reword what I was saying before I'd post my critiques. I get to make notes and such for this, but it'll be different. Of course, it'll be different getting my own stuff critiqued this way, too, but I'm more worried about the other side of it. And so far I've printed them out, but haven't read past the first paragraph on either one to know how much I might even have to say.

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:43:44 GMT

I almost missed out, but happy World Book and Copyright Day, everyone!

Goblin War

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 05:49:59 GMT

If I just saw the title of this book on the shelf, I probably would have passed it over. Looking at the cover, I would have picked it up to check it out. Having read the prior two in the series, I had it on pre-order. And I finally got a chance to read it over the weekend.
Jim C Hines (jimhines) has put together another very fun read, closing the trilogy in a way that left me satisfied, while the world and characters have plenty of room left for more when he (hopefully) returns to them.
If you've heard Jim say anything about this book, you've probably about his riff on The Giving Tree. All I can say is Thank You :)
The characters were all very engaging, and I want to read more about several of them. In a good way, that is. Part of the time I was reading in the same room as my wife was working on something, and I started to feel bad that I kept disturbing her with my laughter. But I figure she'll get me back by reading it in bed while I try to sleep, so I didn't worry about it too much.
For the third book in a series, I think he did a great job keeping it open for new readers. Although after you read this, you'll want the first two anyways, so you might as well get them all and go in order to get the full enjoyment.

Jim Butcher

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:41:26 GMT

I made it out last night to see Jim Butcher, and I'm glad I went. I had a great view, too, based on the fact that I was in the first row of standing audience, so I could see over the heads of all those poor suckers that had to sit in the chairs the whole time.
Based on travel distance and not knowing just how bad the traffic would be that direction, I left with plenty of time, giving me a chance to enjoy my current Audible book, Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik. As a side note, I can understand why it can happen, but it takes a lot longer to get back into a world when they switch readers for books in a series. After sitting through not too bad traffic, I got there in plenty of time so I didn't miss anything, which was good, but I had time to kill walking around a bookstore, which was bad (at least on my wallet).
After a very entertaining and informative Q&A for about an hour (I need to get a writing teacher that I can blame everything on), he signed for another hour. And of course I didn't take my camera, so I don't have any pictures. But if I did, my card reader would probably be acting up, anyways.

Out of practice

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:07:21 GMT

Well, I got my writing time in while my son played chess again on Saturday, and then I even ended up with some more on Sunday. And I basically realized how out of practice I am. I had to keep stopping myself from just summarizing the rest of the story and putting it off till the next revision. Sure, I did some of that, but I'm talking about wanting to do a paragraph for basically the second half of the story. Of course, that means I didn't finish the story, but if all I wanted was a summary, I already have that in some notes. I'm curious about my word count, but this was longhand, and the notepad doesn't have a nice little word count function. Depending on where I am when I ~~get~~ make time to finish, I may start the typed draft and see if it rolls on better in that form.

Happy Leap Day

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:12:20 GMT

Really, it should be a national holiday. Well, maybe just a work holiday would be good, so I could send the kids off to school and then sit and write all day :) Ahh, but I guess that's not to be. But I do have a couple story ideas that have done some good brewing in my brain, and my son has another chess tournament tomorrow, so hopefully I'll at least get a few hours of writing in on one of them.

Rambling comparison

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 20:15:18 GMT

I was hit by one of those obvious but interesting thoughts the other day, and since I don't post very often, and since it's actually similar to John Levitt's guest blog over at the League of Reluctant Adults, I was inspired to share.
In my day job, I'm a computer programmer. When I start a project that's more than a decent size, I might start off with a design document, where I figure out the flow of the program(s), and the best form to tackle them with. And quite often I'll go back to this and make changes as I'm actually writing the code. I might give the design to some of my teammates to check it out and see where I missed the mark. I write a version of the code and see if I can get it to work for me. Then I'll get those teammates to look over this. Some of them like to pick apart my syntax, others might be good at catching the overall errors, or pointing out simpler ways to do things, or how to make it more efficient. After taking their comments into account, I send it off to the test team for functional testing, and user testing. So I sit and wait while they're looking it over. Then I get back comments about how great it is, or, more often, some tweaks and little changes. We might go back and forth a few times like that, then it's ready for production. Before it actually gets there, I have some additional stuff to do to make sure the people that will be using it know that it's coming and so forth, and then it's out for the users.
Any of that process sound familiar to you writers? :) Of course, with the day job I usually start off with requirements, and they're more detailed than "write something I'll like".

OK, I also think it funny that I just hit spell check and it's giving me options to correct "blog".

Willpower of a succubus

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 00:09:15 GMT

In Richelle Mead's ( blue_succubus ) first novel, Succubus Blues (Amazon) Georgina reads her favorite book 5 pages at a time to make it last. I was hoping to stretch out the second book in the series, Succubus on Top (Amazon), in a similar manner, but was too caught up in the story to count pages until I was done. The relationships are wonderful to watch, and the dialog is sharp and engaging. Very much a character book, but great characters that are fun to read about, and enough plot to keep things moving. My feelings toward Bastien, Georgina's long-time friend and incubus, were back and forth through the book, but by the end they were all straightened out. And once again I'm stuck waiting for the next book to come out.

Vampire Academy

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:57:26 GMT

Funny thing about deadlines, whether they're met or get pushed out, there's suddenly time to breath. And to read.
In this case, it was Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead ( aka blue_succubus ).Put blunty, I enjoyed the book. The vampires have a well worked out culture and world just sitting there hidden amongst humans. Well, pretty much anything would be hidden in the middle of nowhere past the middle of nowhere Montana, which makes it a perfect place for a school. I found the main characters very well realized and believable. I keep wanting to say it's a young adult book that happens to have vampires, because the parts that made me squirm were definitely the teen parts, but it's not that. The vampire culture and who they are permeates the whole thing. Now excuse me while I go make sure I have the next book in the series on pre-order.

Goblin Hero

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:17:08 GMT

Time for another mini review to say I really enjoyed Goblin Hero by Jim C Hines ( jimhines ) This one took me a little longer to fit into my schedule than the first in the series, Goblin Quest, but I blame that more on day job craziness than the book. (And we don't need to mention any extra long breaks during the day while reading Goblin Quest that might have added to that craziness).
So in this book, Jig is back, and having to deal with the repercussions of his adventures in the first one. In particular, as the goblin hero, he gets sent to help when an ogre from deep inside the mountain comes looking for assistance. While he does have "help" on this adventure, he still has to rely mainly on that uncommon thing among goblins, common sense. A fun, fun read, with the quotes that begin each chapter providing icing on the cake.

Amazon craziness

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 22:48:27 GMT

Not that I have any time for reading in the next few days, but this is just one of those things I feel compelled to share. I think Amazon had some of their number people over working shipping for a while. Let's start with a bit of history. Back in the beginning of July, I finished reading Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead (aka blue_succubus) and immediately went to preorder what I could from her. So I put Vampire Academy and Succubus on Top in my shopping cart, and added Storm Front by Jim Butcher to bring the dollar value up to free shipping. They said I would have to wait until December for the order, since that's when Succubus on Top would be coming out. I figured, "bummer, but I guess that's fair since I'm not paying the shipping". Well, December comes, and I hear they're shipping Succubus on Top, so I get excited that my books will finally be coming, then I get an email from Amazon that the release date has changed, so my order is postponed. Then another one saying they will split my order up, since the release date changed. So on Thursday I got Storm Front, Friday I got Succubus on Top, and Saturday I got Vampire Academy. So for my free shipping, I had to wait until the last book came out, and then they sent them each separately.
So I just laugh and go back to finishing my day job work so that hopefully soon I'll have time to breathe and read again.

Merry Christmas

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 23:34:26 GMT

As I come up for a quick breath of air amidst all the holiday activities and day job end of year deadlines, I just wanted to say Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year.

Help me win a book

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 23:41:55 GMT

OK, so it actually is an interesting and informative interview over at League of Reluctant Adults with C.E. Murphy, so it's worth a look. But let's be honest, the book sounds cool, so why pass up an opportunity to get it for free? For me that is :)

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:37:48 GMT

I found out yesterday that chess tournaments can be an interesting place to work on story revisions. It's nice and quite, but still has lots of people around to see how they move and such. Kind of like a library without all those annoying references handy. And no, it wouldn't be good if you're actually in the tournament. But I was there as chaperon and support for my 7 year old son (who didn't place, but had a lot of fun). Something about trying to watch a game from the parent seats at the side of the room made the tournament itself less distracting than I was afraid it might be.

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 21:08:38 GMT

This just looked like a good time to see if I could figure out the linking feature.
Jim Hines is coordinating a holiday drive.

Goblin Quest

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 01:39:31 GMT

Once again I found time to start a book that I then made time to finish. This time it's Goblin Quest, by Jim C Hines (jimhines). And luckily enough, through an accident and Amazon ambiguity, I already have the second book in the series on my shelf and ready to go.
I'll have to call this a very fun book. You start with your standard fantasy role-playing type milieu, then do a major shift into the viewpoint of one those little runts you wouldn't even gain any experience points for. Of course, this particular one has a little more going on inside his head than even he would believe. Enough to raise the questions that are usually ignored, and then, with a little help from the author, to answer them in often effective, and always amusing, ways. I can imagine trying to game with Jim Hines and never making it through a dungeon, with all the laughter breaks that would be required.

Do mice really make plans?

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:15:10 GMT

At least some of my grand plans for today have worked out. I was going to have the whole day to myself, with my plan to get in several hours of actual writing time. Then I made the mistake of going back into the bedroom after dropping off the kids at school. Several hours later, but feeling more refreshed, I awoke feeling hungry. And then there was the daily exercise bike ritual to take care of, and assorted of the usual distractions, and... Well, I did find a few hours in there at least. Enough to discover that my handwriting has gotten even worse than it used to be when I'm not trying extra hard to write so the kids can have a chance to try reading it. And to get the first very rough draft of a story actually down on paper. Next I need to find the time to get the first revision/typing done and see if it has a chance at life or not :)

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:42:58 GMT

We made it out to a mini-date last night to see The Seeker:The Dark is Rising. My quick summary review is that I found it entertaining. Of course, the rarity of the event, actually making to see a movie in the theater, has some entertainment value in itself. But the movie kept my interest, even if it wasn't the greatest movie ever. And with all the comments posted everywhere about how much they changed from the books, I'm eager now to find and read them. There were some scenes that could give those prone to it nightmares, but my wife handled it pretty well :)
Oh, and it was also entertaining to watch The Doctor (Christopher Eccleston, I know he's been in lots of other stuff, but that's how I know him) as the bad guy.

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 16:08:39 GMT

Just a quick Happy Birthday to rhonawestbrook, a young woman whose blog is always full of the positive side of life.
And with a day job deadline looming, I think that's all I have to say for today :)

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 19:19:09 GMT

Well, it's been quite a while, so I've both lowered by level of what's worth posting, and actually did some things that got close. I sent off two stories last week. One to the Writer's Digest Short Short Contest, and one to the ever popular Writer's of the Future contest. If the contests don't like them, I'll have to see if I can find them a home someplace else.
And I also got a shed put together on the side of the house to keep all the yard tools out of the rain this winter, and put in some fun hours helping at an American Cancer Society fund raiser. So a productive weekend, but always to short to get it all done.

Back to work

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:08:15 GMT

Two weeks of vacation is very nice, and working a couple days in there to keep up with email and such definitely makes the coming back day nicer than it could have been. But there's still a big difference between looking at family and scenery all day and staring at a computer screen all day.

No outcry?

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 04:02:05 GMT

I'm at least getting some reading time in on this vacation, and I've been shifting my reading list around a bit lately to catch up before books on it get turned into movies. So I just finished Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, and I'm really surprised I haven't heard of any outcries coming out about The Golden Compass being made into a movie.

First off, I enjoyed the books, and sure don't want to start an outcry, but I'm confused. I suppose if they stick with just the first book, it doesn't actually get into anything that might cause it, but the first book mainly just introduces things and starts asking questions, so where's the fun in that. But when the main part of the trilogy consists of throwing just about every organized religion on it's head, you'd think there would be some controversy. Maybe I just haven't seen any of it, and there's really a lot of it going on.