It’s another NaNoWriMo update and I have some good news and I have some bad news. And I have some moderate news that can be perceived as either good or bad.

And a decision.

And an Icy pole.

It’s getting to be freaking hot these days. It’s at 31.5 Celsius today. It’s supposed to be five degrees cooler tomorrow, so I’m crossing my fingers.

It’s going to be a bitch of a summer this year.

So, here’s the reason why I’m here today and not trying to hit my NaNo word quota while wiping the sweat from my forehead.

I kind of… well… finished.

I know! Right? I’m quite a number of words short of the 50,000… in fact I’m still short of getting halfway.

I knew this story was short. It wouldn’t make a thick novel. But when it was just a black spot on my brain I thought it may reach 50,000 words.

Ha.

Half way into it I thought it may reach 30-40 thousand words.

Ha.

I just wrote the last word which was word 19,134.

Now, some of the scene’s were a little glossed over and some were a little *cough* left out. There is also something missing that I haven’t quite put my finger on yet. But even with a complete rewrite I don’t see adding another 10,000 words.

Anyway, it’s definitely in the novella category. But hell, I’m not padding the story out with crap I don’t want just to make the thing longer.

I have learned a couple of things from NaNo this year already…

- I shouldn’t have any trouble hitting 10 grand of words every week. It’s pretty easy If I don’t procrastinate so much. So I plan to keep this up.

- Writing is still fun. It’s obvious but you forget sometimes.

- And some other stuff too.

So here’s my conundrum - which is mildly humorous as well.

Last year I got bored with my story and gave up to work on something else. This year I was going well but ran out of material. HA! (I did say mildly humorous…)

Now, do I…

One - Begin my rewrite now? (Which I believe counts for NaNo since I’m still working on the same novel(la).

Two - Start work on a fresh project and still count it toward NaNo? (Which is a bit iffy on whether or not it counts. It’s a different project but I’m still aiming for 50,000 words)

Or

Three - Forget the NaNo thing and just work on what I want with no set goal… or a personally set goal…

Well, what do you think?

You may remember at the beginning of the month I made a little To Do list. You may also remember that I’m not the greatest of actually getting shit done.

That being said, Here was my To Do list for september -

1. Write everyday.
2. Finish the current Short Story I’m working on
3. Rewrite the last short story I wrote.
4. Start on novel. Get through a few chapters at least. Let’s say 5.
5. A couple of Doug updates. (I’ve gotten a bit behind on the Doug updating lately).
6. Let’s throw another short story in there just for the hell of it
7. Do other stuff too.

No. 1 - Fail - I tried to do this and managed for the first week or so but it kind of slowed afterwards and I took a number of days here and there and in between.

No. 2 - Pass! - That story I was working on was Where Wolf. I finished it like a mofo! You can read it here

No. 3 - Pass-y fail-y kinda thing That was Out of Reach. I rewrote parts of it but in the end gave up on the total rewrite I planned on. I may get back to that sometime in the future but for now… Meh

No. 4 - Fail… With a capital F!. Five Chapters? What the hell was I thinking?

I did, finally, find a half decent way to begin the novel and it’s slowly moving along which is awesome. but five chapters? I must’ve been nuts!

No. 5 - I’m gonna say pass… Because well… I got one done. So that’s more than nothing. Go here to see.

No. 6 - Fail. There wasn’t any old ideas I felt like working on so I started thinking up some new ones. I considered about writing a story about gay spiders called Arachno-Fabulous, but didn’t get further than the title. There are better ideas in the stew pot, so keep an eye out and an eye in.

No. 7 - Pass. - ‘Cause I did do other stuff. Including fixing up this site and adding a static front page like I’d always intended to do.

There were also some other changes as well, as shown in these before, during and after transformation pictures….

That’s all for now folks. Check back tomorrow when I come up with a really difficult to complete ToDo list for November!

If you check the little drop down menu under Works, or check the page itself, you’ll notice there is a few more titles there.

Not one, or two but Three new titles.

at the top of the list is Counting Sheep. It’s a short story about fifteen hundred words long. You may remember me talking about it a few posts ago. It’s the one based on a short story that an opening scene from a novel I planned is also based on… kinda sorta.

It’s pretty much done now, A little different than I had originally planned but it turned out pretty sweet anyway.

The next on is Where Wolf? . This is my favourite piece I’ve written so far. It was one of those pieces that just flow so easily and readily that it seems to write itself. And it turned out awesome.

It began a year or so ago as an Idea for a novel. But I never got started on it and finally it moved from my idle folder down to my archived ideas folder. It was almost completely forgotten about until I did some spring cleaning on my computer files a few months back and I realised it would work well as a short story.

And I was right.

And if you want to argue about it, I’ll poke you in the eye.

The final addition is Out of Reach.

This one began as a scene that ironically isn’t in the story. The scene was from another story I wrote a while back that I didn’t think to much of. (Though I may still use it for something).

There was a great scene that I particularly wanted to use, so I decided to combine it with an opening scene from another idea that I never got going on.

I worked on it for several months, slowly tapping out the words. But it’s finally finished enough that I can throw up my arms and cry DONE!!. It’s not the greatest it could be but I’m just sick of writing it now. I almost didn’t post it but I thought Three new stories sounds better than Two.

And if you don’t like it, I have one thing to say about that - “Read ‘Where Wolf?’ instead, it’s real cool!”

Okay, I’m bashing it a little too much. It’s not as bad as all that. I swear.

Well that’s all for now, I might post more later because I’m suddenly at a loss as to what to work on now. I have a couple of ideas but I don’t know if I’m ready to begin the novel yet…

First things first - Check out my site now bitches!! Yes, Yes it does rock. - www.JeremyBoland.com

It took a lot of fiddling and code writing and screwing around, and a couple of days, but I finally have this new kick ass looking site up and going. My site and my blog, which were once two separate entities are now one and the same, and all my old pages are here too. I’m not sure if I’m going to leave it opening onto my blog or make a front page but that can all come later.

My old site still exists, at least for the moment, at www.jeremyboland.com/old/.

Doug of the Darkness has reached the 10,000 word mark, and it’s still going strong-ish. If your not up to date with Doug of the Darkness or haven’t even read Doug of the Darkness, you should head over to the Doug of the Darkness website and start reading Doug of the Darkness now. You won’t be borry.

What else, What else, what else? Isn’t it always like that. You go into writing a blog entry thinking ‘how will I fill it all in?’ and then halfway through you forget all the topics you wanted to go over.

The other day I came up with a completely new idea for a book. What I mean is - Most of the things I’ve worked on in the last (I don’t know how long) have been rewrites of old stuff, working on old ideas or it was based on two old ideas put together… so on and so forth in that fashion, you get the idea.

I mentioned it in passing in the last entry but that was only when it was an inkling of an instigating circumstance. But slowly it grew in my head and at the worst possible moment, while I was at work, more and more ideas hit me. Between customers and fixing a cupboard door that fell off it’s hinges I wrote a whole synopsis of a back story for the novel in my moleskine.

(I’m very excited about this)

I’m not sure if it’s going to be one persons stories (probably in first person) or a series of interrelated stories that encompass the whole events… I’m leaning toward the latter. Just know, I have some great ideas for it either way and I can’t wait to get started on it.

But first, my workspace could do with a bit of a tidy up…

Also excited about - Act One of Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is released today. I’m a big Whedon fan, Fillion fan and Doogie Fan, So this is just Awesome.

In other news, I just finished reading Hal Spacejock 4: No Free Lunch, and I recommend it to anyone who likes fun and light scifi about interesting characters with quite a few laugh out loud moments. Not only is this a great series, by the way, but they work as stand alone novels as well, There are references to previous novels but nothing that would confuse a new reader.

At the moment I’m reading The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury and I’m loving it. My favourite section so far is ‘Night Meeting’… with ‘And the Moon be still as bright’ coming up second.

Anyway, I think that’s all for now. In the mean time check out this hilarious clip of Patrick Stewart in Extras

P.S. - Do people actually buy these things?

ME!!!

Over at Writers Cafe, I entered my short story Icy Dead People into a contest where the top prize was to be published in an anthology called Anthology of the Living Dead.

And I won!

Don’t believe me? Take a look yourself - Link.

Kick ASS!!

One of the coolest things about this anthology is it’s supposed to have an Introduction by Tom Savini! Go Sex Machine!

Four, if you include this blog entry…

Due to a long afternoon nap yesterday and a few too many coffees I wasn’t getting any sleep, or even attempting it. At around one o’clock I finished editing some photos of me in my spanky new glasses and uploaded them to my various sites as profile pics.

With my procrastinating finally done, I was free to go back to writing the next Doug update. I had been, well not blocked but… stalling, for the last day or so because I wasn’t sure where I was going but suddenly - Inspiration struck me like a cricket bat wrapped in tin foil - And I was off and writing.

I finished the entry two hours later and uploaded it - Check It!!.

I think it’s one of my favourite scene’s for a while now.

Also, as I mentioned a blog entry or two ago, I finished a new short story. I’ve finally given up editing it and Have uploaded that too. It’s called Alterations. It’s gotten a little bit of good feedback so far over at writing.com, but some have also complained of it’s ambiguity. Maybe I’ll turn it into a novel sometime, but not just yet.

There was also the short story I finished a couple of months back. I finally got around to rewriting it and I’ve finished editing that as well. It’s called Dah’min. So that’s posted on my site too now. Read, enjoy, have a coffee, pat a kitty.

In other news - I’ve entered Icy Dead People into a contest at Writers Cafe, where the winning prize is being published in an anthology! Do I think I’ll win? Not a chance, unless no one else enters. Cross your fingers for me?

And here’s the bonus… for me… I’ve finished one of my New Years Resolutions!

Booya!!

#3 - Complete 3 short stories.

Now - Onto the Novels!!!

So, All in all it’s been a pretty eventful few hours of the freezing cold morning. It’s now 5am. I’m going to bed…

Good thing I’m still on holidays.

Good night/morning and remember to check out Dangers in the night Sky, The latest update to Doug of the Darkness… and my new short stories Alterations and Dah’min.

My year isn’t going too well so far.

My new years resolutions basically boiled down to work hard, get healthy and be thrifty.

so far I’ve been even lazier than usual, completely unhealthy and spent all my money on frivolous things.

for the first seventh of this year I give myself an F -

and now I’ve chipped my tooth on a piece of popcorn. It wasn’t even good popcorn.

I guess I’ll have to see a dentist sometime soon. There goes more $’s down the drain.

Todd is pissed.

I also put a bid on for a Laptop on eBay last night too. Yeah, I know what I said but hey, If you guys don’t read my words, how can you expect me to keep to them? Don’t worry though I’m limited myself to something cheap. Under the 500 mark.

In other news today. This blog is boring.

I wanted to start writing in it more often but there is only so many ways I can say Today I did no work.

So I’m thinking about the next entry. A topic apart from myself and my progress.

Any suggestions?

February. The Beginning. Time to put the fingers to the grindstone and the eyes to the smelling salts. Time for all the lazy to move aside and make way for the productive. Time to get into a serious work routine.No more excuses, saying I’ll do it later, No more waiting for inspiration to hit.

It’s time to write, bitches!

…Or so I thought.

Day one was a bust. I couldn’t write at all. My computer froze up for half a day. So did my pen and paper. I swear that’s the reason I didn’t get anything done. That and inspiration didn’t hit me…and I’ll do it later.

Really my computer did freeze up. But I didn’t bother to fix it because I was busy reading the end of Perfume. Which is now on my list of favourite books, by the by.

Look!

Now that your sufficiently distracted…

I had work last night., Sucky, Sucky Work, and as usual a spark of inspiration hit me as I walked in the door. Several ideas came to me all at once where I could do naught about it but take down some notes.

At least they were good. I think they were anyway. I haven’t looked at them this morning.

But many questions still remain - How do you get into a good work routine? what is a good work routine? how can you stop yourself from falling out of it again? how can people stand chatting on phones? why isn’t there someone who walks around giving out free pizza door to door?

and most importantly - Can you make me a coffee? I’m trying to work here!

So here’s the plan… in convenient bullet format! yee!

• Write 1500 words per day… (starting from day two)
• Write …. Blog entries per week. (insert number there. I found last november, when I was writing more, I was writing more blog entries too. So maybe it’ll Work in reverse. I was thinking daily but… let’s say 3 a week? yeah? good!)
• Turn off the Damned TV. - I didn’t have it on during the day at all for ages but then suddenly it came sneaking back. Those things are EVIL!! But I do likes me stories! Go Dexter, Kill dem peoples!
• Make coffee. Coffee good.
• Coffee Real good. Make Coffee Now.
• okay I’m back with the coffee.

In other news IT happened to me again. My super natural power of coincidences. This seems to happen to me all the time. I’ll mention something in conversation or I’ll want to see something and then with a wave of an invisible magicians wand there it is… a few weeks later.

A while ago I had a sudden hankering to see Jurassic Park again. I hadn’t seen it in years. So I went to the DVD Shop and asked about it. “it’s been discontinued,” they said “You can’t get it anywhere”. Screw you then, I thought. I bought it on VHS from ebay. cost me 20 bucks. A few weeks later I was walking by that same DVD shop and what do I see there in the front display? The Jurassic Park Trilogy Re-Released!

It happens to me a lot.

So, The reason I bring this up again, I was talking with a friend ( hiya Jo!) about Good News Week and other great old Australian shows a few weeks ago and then just a few nights ago I was watching the Colbert Report and I thought to myself - We really need some Australian News/Comedy shows, Then maybe I’d know what was going on in Australia.

…A wave of the invisible magic wand…

Good News Week was back on the air last night! Paul McDermott and all! Kick ASS!!

I’m very happy about this… and my coffee.

but now, it’s time to get to work.

Check out my new camera! Ain’t She the Swankiest?

I Think I’ll call her wanda.

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