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The July Update

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I called this the July Update because it’s my first update since June 10th. That’s really good new though. I’ve written 14,000 words in the last three weeks, despite being busy at work.

I’m getting some really good things out of my new draft the science fiction piece, Stuck in the Midpoint–or whatever I’m going to call it. In lieu of better content, I’ll leave whet is, for now, the first few paragraphs.

Lance looked up at the Singapore Station space cannon, a long black tower reaching into the sky. From his perspective on the ground, it could have gone on forever. Orange bumps clung to the side of that tower, hurtling into the heavens at extraordinary rates. Despite the heat, he shivered. Two weeks ago, he had graduated High School. Two days ago, he had been in Indiana. And two days from now, he would be in space.

He ran his hand over his forehead and dried it on his pants. He tapped his wrist Crony. “What is the current temperature in Singapore?”

The little computer on his wrist answered, “It is currently eighty-three degrees in Singapore. Todays high will reach ninety-five.” Well, at least he wasn’t going to be here for that, or he would be, but he’d be in suspended animation and several thousand feet up by that time.

His liaison officer patted him on the shoulder. “Time to get in.” He opened the hatch of the orange cargo container and a blast of hot air poured out. It smelled like something rotten.

Smiling apologetically, the liaison officer said, “Well, it’s not exactly first class.” He motioned for Lance to go inside.

“Um,” Lance said, “do you have a cleaner one?”

Over thinking

file518ab73b03e98Something David Weber said really resonated with me. I’m paraphrasing, but it was something along the lines of, “I don’t like to over analyze my process, because it’s working for me, and I don’t want to mess it up.”

As someone who likes to over analyze ever little thing about my writing–and ends up producing stacks of cheap jokes–I’ve taken this to heart. For the last couple days, I’ve just been writing, not worrying about what I’m writing.

It seems to be working.

Brain Fog

file516c376f76148 I don’t have a good reason for posting today other than I haven’t posted in a while.

I was going to write about how I was starting a sequel to Minion of Evil, and I’m finding it hard. But then again, I find the endings hard too. The middles don’t go all that well either.

I only wrote about 4000 words last week. Partly because I was doing research. Partly because I am not quite into the groove, and partly because I’ve been working my butt off at home.

The reason I’ve been cleaning house is I’m making room for a work-out room. As I’ve been moving towards the end of my thirties, I’ve become increasingly aware of my self-induced poor health. For some people, good health is an end in itself. However, for me the scariest thing about poor health is the loss of mental acuity. I will put up with a lot of crap for the sake of laziness, but brain fog is where I draw the line.

Many people see the mind and the body as unrelated parts of the body. However, I am seeing more and more research about how the simple act of reglar exercise can improve mood and mental aptitude. Not only that, but increased mental health makes you seek out increased activity levels. I could start to enjoy exercise–okay, that’s crazy talk.

I guess the bottom line is that I will do anything to hack my brain, even it it’s all-natural hard work. But what if I do all that work, and my brain doesn’t get more awesome? Well, at least I’ll be able to buy smaller pants.

Idle Oxford Comma Speculation

This morning, I was trying to resist ranting on a forum where the Oxford Comma was being discussed.

Reading the comments, there seemed to be a pattern between the two camps. The people who were against the Oxford comma were looking at the comma syntactically as a replacement for the conjunction,

I believe the people for the comma were approaching the problem phonetically–this is where I would pause in speech to denote a new item in the sequence, therefore a comma is correct.

Or maybe I’m wrong.

Oh, and for reference, here’s the original article that sparked the debate, and while I believe is correct in every possible way.

More cool stuff

I received my first 5-star review on Fangs from the very active reviewer Katy Sozaeva.

In full disclosure, I sent Katy a pre-release review copy of Fangs because she reads quickly, she gives thorough reviews, and she likes my work.

Honestly, just hearing someone likes my work as much as Katy does makes me giddy with excitement. When they actually write it down, I run around in circles until I get dizzy and fall down, hitting my head of the coffee table*.

 

* only metaphorically. I did not actually need medical attention.

The Dance of Joy

If you know what this is, we’re both getting old.

This writing gig can get you down. It means long hours or working the hardest you’ve ever worked for a net result of a paycheck which would make a WalMart greeter cry.

Still, I keep on, because I would go crazy if I didn’t. And if I can bring a little happiness into people’s lives, I’m making a difference. Still, there are some days when I get a little bummed out. Lately, I’ve been a little bummed out.

This morning, I woke up and found a new 5-star review on Amazon. It’s amazing how something so small makes all that work seem worth it.