Go on, talk about it.

Okay, I’ll go first.

Today, I got a lot of work done… at work!

I’m serious!

On the weekends I get to work at around quarter past five. I set up everything for when I open and then I sit down for a coffee and a cigarette or two. Then, at six a.m., I open the store. It’s always very quiet for the first hour and a half to two hours, sometimes even a bit longer.

First off I make my way through all the paperwork that needs doing but that still leaves me with a whole lot of time before it gets any busier than a customer every twenty minutes or so.

Sometimes I use the time to do some cleaning around the store and sometimes I spend the time reading…

(If my boss is reading this - I swear these are all lies! ALL LIES!)

But today I decided to get some writing done. I keep all of my writing files synched to my treo 650, so I can write or make notes wherever I am.

I’ve been working on a short story for several months now, (not because I was working very hard on it but because I kept pushing it aside for other things but always kept it on top of my work list.) and yesterday I picked it up again and got a few hundred words done… see yesterday’s entry, I think I remember mentioning it.

But, anyway, At work this morning I picked up my Treo 650 and the words start flowing out of me and I tap out over a thousand words on that little keyboard.

Over a thousand!

So, I actually got a whole lot of work done at work.

Oh, the irony!

Then, once I was home, I had a bit of lunch. Then a nap. (hey, I was up at 3 a.m.!!) and then finally finished off the story. And gave myself a pat on the back. Good boy! Good boy!!

It’s called Out of Reach. It’s about a family heading out on holiday… in outer space!… and they run into trouble….

- insert suspenseful music here.

I’m really happy with the way it turned out but it’s kinda funny. Not ha ha funny but weird funny. I began writing this story because there was a scene in an old crappy short story that I wanted to keep, so I started writing this story to fit it in.

Then I didn’t write it in.

I know what you’re thinking - Osh me gosh! are these things probable?

Yes, Yes they are.

Bye now.

I’ve been very busy the last couple of days, the amount of work I’ve done could almost fill up a half hour lunch break. If you got back to work a little late and then got a warning by the boss because you are always late, you lazy bastard!…

Anyway… I’ve almost finished a new short story, called Counting Sheep, it just needs a bit more editing and it’ll be good to go. It’s not so much a new story as it is a rewrite of an old short story that I’d already rewritten before.

It was once a chapter in a novel of interrelated stories I was writing, it was one of my favourites that came so easily it seemed to write itself. Then, when the book I was writing changed to a more linear plotline, it became the opening scene. I rewrote it then and it turned out great.

Even though it turned out great, there were differences in the story that I lost but I wanted to keep. So, for a couple of months now it was sitting in my To be written folder.

But now, it’s finished. It turned out pretty great, I don’t know if it still has the effect of the original, I’ll have to wait till it’s not so fresh in my mind to see.

Also in the things I’ve been up to category, I came across this article today at Tor.com about The Weirdest Book in the World. I haven’t read the books they talk about there but still, as I read it, I seemed to take it as a personal challenge.

I had one of those revelations that always seem to motivate me to create a good plot followed by a couple of chapters that I delete for being crap soon afterwards.

So, those books can have the title of weirdest book in the world if they want… for now. But someday I shall be published and you’ll see just how weird a book can be bitches!

damn straight!

It makes me giggle on so many levels…

Presently, I’m taking a break and watching the classic Michael Keaton movie Multiplicity. I remember when this first came out, me and a friend of mine would constantly quote Number 4’s lines to each other. “I like pizza!”

But the other good news I have today is this -

My writer’s block, or should I say writer’s laziness, is starting to ease up and I’m actually getting stuff done. I say ‘ease’ because it’s still running slowly, dripping through in dribs and drabs. But if I can keep it up, It’ll pick up speed and I’ll be rolling like a penguin on a steep hill.

Here’s a little word count thing-a-mabob -

Well, That’s it for now, just a short update. Back to work, Steve.

In the previous entry I was talking about the lack of places to buy cult graphic novels and such. While this is true for the most part (in fact there was a couple of years there where I didn’t even have a local bookstore), I got a pleasant surprise yesterday when I wandered into my local Angus’s.

I not only found a copy of Volume One of The Sandman - Preludes and Nocturnes, I found it in the 50% off box. Score!

Also missing from my previous entry, which has been pointed out to me with a vengeance (and a belief that this blog reaches more than two people), I am working on plans for a comic/graphic novel of my own. I can’t tell you much about it just yet, as I’ve only come up with a backstory for the main character and a few faint ideas for plot so far, but I can tell you this - It will be awesome and everyone will be wanting a copy, so get in early and order it now… years before it’ll be ready!

I will be doing the writing and… (what was her name? the one that pointed out this was missing from my blog? Oh, I can’t remember… Let’s just call her - Franky Neener) will be doing the artwork.

And there aren’t too many more this year. Naughty-Eight is flying by like a Penguin with a rocket pack and it doesn’t seem like anything will slow it down. Not even Batman.

At around this time every month, I’ve come on hear and written about how this coming month will be the month where everything begins clicking into place like clockwork. This coming month will be the one where I get into a routine and stick with it. This coming month will be the one where I get so much work done I’ll have sentences coming out of my ears.

And yet…

Some days I put it of until ‘later’, some days I get a little done and then take a break that lasts the rest of the day, some days I stare at the screen and say ‘….’ for a while before giving up.

BUT

This month will be the one where I get things done, Where I’ll get into a routine and everything will click into place.

I swear.

Maybe.

Lately I’ve been reading comics. I haven’t read that many comics in the past. I read spiderman and Xmen when I was a kid but I never really stuck with them.

I grew up in an area without comic book shops, and for that matter limited book shops, so I didn’t really have access to anything that wasn’t sold in newsagents.

It’s one of the things I love about this internet hooey. Access to things I’d otherwise not have access to, or even know about.

My first comic book that I actually loved was Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. I came across it in a strange way. I was searching for tattoo designs when I came across a tattoo of Nny. I searched for the title and found out it was a comic book. I downloaded all the comics and CDisplay to read them through and that was it. I had to buy them all.

Then came Y: The Last Man. I can’t remember how I came across the series but I found it around issue 20 and followed it all the way through to the end. It was a great series and, as you know, I love post-apocalypse stuff.

It’s been a year or so now since that ended, (around about, not sure of actual time though), and I haven’t read any other comics but I have been looking for other stuff I might like.

Then a few weeks ago, in much the same way as I came across JTHM, I came across a tattoo of a cool looking key. It was the key to hell that Lucifer gives to Dream in Sandman.

I thought about checking it out but I didn’t get around to it for a while

Not until, a week or so ago when I came across the trailer for the Watchmen movie and thought it looked awesome. I decided I wanted to read the comic.

So I downloaded it, and at the same time I remembered Sandman and downloaded that as well.

The first Issue of each had me hooked.

I read Watchmen right through to the end and it was great. It was also interesting coming back and watching the trailer again too. Everything made more sense and I was able to see where everything shown in the clip fit into the comic book, and made it that much better to see.

I’m still reading Sandman, I’m up to issue #39 now. It’s been awesome so far and I’ve been loving all the intertwining stories and the off shoots and the shorts between the stories as well.

Well, that’s what I’ve been doing with my time for the last couple of days anyway.

How about you?

I think I really went off topic there for a while. I was going to simply write about how I’m going to throw my all into work starting tomorrow - the 1st of August.

(interesting coincidence, kinda, One issue of Sandman that I read today was about Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus… otherwise known as Augustus…)

I think that’s all I wanted to say. Anyway, you’re boring me. Leave me alone. Go on! Git!

Until next time….

A Computer that broke down… Again.

Organisation, Procrastination, and Illumination.

And learning to leave well enough alone.

It begins with a blog entry I was reading about workspace organisation and productivity. The writer talked about how they organise their workspace in order to avoid cleaning it to get out of work. I have a neat workspace, but I rarely use it anymore. Not since I bought my laptop.

Since buying my laptop, I’ve spent most of the time with it sitting on my couch in front of the television and avoiding work by clicking through my favourite sites and reading others blogs (and so on…), Ignoring my workplace for various reasons - The latest being that since I updated it to Vista it’s been having problems with the dual monitor display, Often the second display was fuzzy and unreadable. Obviously a second display isn’t necessary, but how many excuses stand up to argument?

Well?

So, after finally getting around to checking all the cables and plugs and what-nots, I realise it’s Vista and it’s lack of proper support for my card that is the problem. It came down to a choice between buying a new video card or downgrading my computer. Buying a new video card costs money, so guess which choice I went for?

So, I’m installing XP back onto my computer. Everything it going fine until it comes to installing all of my programs and drivers and everything else. All of these things were kept on my 400gb external hard drive/media player. This cool little box I could use as a second hard drive or plug it into my tv to play all my media files, at least I could until about six months ago when the Tv part of the box broke down.

And then, finally, when I needed it, the rest of it broke down. I could not access my drive no matter what I tried.

Ever since the tv part broke down, I had considered installing it into my computer as a second hard drive but… well, I didn’t get around to it. And now seemed like the appropriate time.

So, that’s what I did. I installed it into my computer, the drive came up on the bios, it came up in the hardware list in the control panel. Everything was going smoothly but the drive didn’t appear on ‘My Computer’. I figured it may’ve had it’s own formatting that only the media player recognised and I would need to put a new partition on there to access it.

I downloaded Partition Magic, because I’d had success of making new partitions without any data loss with the program in the past.

The same could not be said this time.

I lost Two Hundred and Seventy Gigabytes of backups, photos and downloads. 270gb!!!

The downloads, I don’t mind so much in losing. Although it was A LOT. I can always download it again if need be. It was mostly just movies and tv shows I liked. Including a complete collection of The Outer Limits episodes, The Young Ones, Black Books, The Mighty Boosh, Doctor Who and old cartoons like Dungeons and Dragons, The Tick and Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

The worst part was all my photos and backups. Most of the photos I don’t have anywhere else, and in the backups (amongst stuff I have on my main drive) was all my old short story attempts and other writing notes. Some of it I have on paper, but there is a lot of stuff I’ve lost there.

Over the last few days I’ve been trying with various programs to save as much as I can but a majority of the files are corrupted and unsalvageable.

I’m now almost ready to give up. I’m on my last attempt now and so far I’ve saved a little, but this has been a major loss.

But I’ve had worse things happen.

Soon I’ll clean up everything and get my workspace neat and tidy again. Then we’ll see who’s the productive one.

ME!

This just plain looks awesome.

I thought this was hilarious so I had to pass it along. It’s by Jim C. Hines, Check out his Livejournal - here

I am the Very Model of a Modern SF Novelist

I am the very model of a modern SF novelist,
I’ve manuscripts space opera, anime, and fantasist,
I know the kings of fandom and the best flamewars historical
From Andrew Burt to LiveJournal, in order categorical;
I’m very well acquainted too, with matters editorial,
I keep my cover letters brief and never too suctorial,
About rejection etiquette I’m teeming with propriety,
With many cheerful facts about your online notoriety,
I’m very good at worldbuilding and proper use of ansibles;
I know the hyphenated names of beings unpronounceable:
In short, in matters space opera, anime, and fantasist,
I am the very model of a modern SF novelist.

I know our genre history, from H. G. Wells to Arthur Clarke,
I’ve read so much time travel, I’ve a pretty taste for paradox,
I quote in panel talks the wise advice of Crispin and Miss Snark,
I study wormholes, galaxies and theories about matter dark;
I can tell a work professional from books Publish America,
I know the Eye of Argon from Conan of Cimmeria!
Then I can hum the melody from every last John Williams score,
And whistle all the airs from that infernal film Fantastic Four.
I’ll write you books of goblin war and princesses who won’t conform,
And tell show you every detail of a goblin warrior’s uniform:
In short, in matters space opera, anime, and fantasist,
I am the very model of a modern SF novelist.

In fact, when I know what is meant by “grok” and “droid” and “FTL”,
When I can tell at sight the sword Excalibur from Anduril,
When twists in stories I perceive by reading just one paragraph,
And when I know precisely how to pen a clever epigraph,
When I have followed breakthroughs yearly in e-book technology,
When I know more of grammar than my profs from University–
In short, when you run out and buy and read every last book by me–
You’ll say a better novelist has never writ a fantasy.
My works even appear in many dialects European,
Thanks to the perserverence of my agent JABberwockian;
In short, in matters space opera, anime, and fantasist,
I am the very model of a modern SF novelist.

Well, that’s says about all I was going to write in this post. Today, I began. I began writing ‘when the aliens left’ which I’ve changed working title to - Crater.

Almost immediately the characters began taking on a life of they’re own. (well, character… as I’ve only introduced one so far…) but already things are developing.

Please. No applause necessary… or heard.

But everything seems to be clicking into place for it.

Also, today… and yesterday for that matter (it’s been a fair pair of days.) Dr. Horrible came online. I enjoyed it… a couple of times. Doogie rocks as the twitchy Dr Horrible, (He has a Phd in horribleness) and Nathan Fillion is hilariously smug. Now I have to wait another two days for the last installment. DANG!!

Also yesterday, I finally got some books I ordered off amazon a couple of weeks ago. I got Steampunk, The anthology by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer. I came across steampunk not too long ago, maybe six months or so. I knew of the concept though, in fact I have plans of a novel from a year or two ago that would have been a little steampunk, but I didn’t realise till recently that it actually had a name and a great following. I had been deciding whether or not to get it since before it came out and finally have. It looks awesome.

I also got The Call of Cthulhu and other Weird Stories and At the Mountains of Madness By H.P. Lovecraft. I’ve been wanting to read Lovecraft for a long time now, and I’m glad I got these. I’ll be reading one of them straight after I finish The Martian Chronicles.

I have to say At the Mountains of Madness is a very aesthetically beautiful book. It’s got a feel like an already old book. It’s thin at around 200 Soft pages and a beautiful picture on a matte cover that just has that feeling on your fingertips that adds to the reading experience. Be Gone Glossies!

Exactly how I’d want my books to be published.

Maybe, one day, you’ll pick up a copy of Crater and say the same thing. Cross fingers.