Recent Fuss about Libraries

Just recently there has been an uprising of authors and readers in defense of libraries and their usefulness. It was caused by a successful author who is best known for his Horrible Histories series, Terry Deary.

He is quoted as saying libraries "have been around too long", are "no longer relevant" and that they've "had their day."  He believes they are a "drain on taxpayers and authors"

Of those who have responded to this I think Neil Gaiman's was one of my favorites when he stated that Deary was "selfish & stupid, short-sighted and sad" but "mostly selfish". John Scalzi also offered up his two-cents about libraries and how, in no small way, they have made him who he is.

Read about it here: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/02/23/a-personal-history-of-libraries/

On that note, I'd like share my first memory of being in a library and how libraries, like so many people have pointed out over the last week or so, have turned me into a reader.

It was in Grand Junction, Colorado, I was very young and in the 1st grade. I loved books back then, or rather, I loved to have books read to me. I wasn't fond of actually reading, but I loved the pictures. My teacher at school had read us a book called Even Steven and Odd Todd and I had loved it. I thought it was brilliant and I wanted it. I wanted to read it for myself. I asked my mom if she'd get it for me and she took me to the library. I had my heart set on that book, but to my disappointment the library didn't have it. I was told, however, that I could take home any book in the building. I remember looking around and thinking that that was a lot of books.

It wasn't until a few years later, during my sixth grade year that my love of reading exploded into a literary gorging of words. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was the book that started it all, from there came all things Star Wars, I specifically remember reading Timothy Zahn's trilogy and loving every word. My dad then introduced me to Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler and I eventually found many. many more. I own a small bookshelf overfilled with books, the one's I could afford and some I probably couldn't but bought anyway. I have read, hundreds upon hundreds of books (if not thousands) and that would have been impossible for me to do so if it were not for the libraries.

I love libraries, they've helped shape me and they've done the same to countless others. I used to spend hours at the library reading, writing and studying. The library is home for those who seek knowledge, entertainment and access to things they otherwise don't have. I'm very thankful for libraries and librarians, even the grumpy ones who never seemed to like me, because they always had an answer or could find one, and were always brimming with great suggestions.

Read the original interview with Terry Deary here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/13/libraries-horrible-histories-terry-deary 

Stress, Unemployment but mostly an apology

The last several months have been exceedingly stressful. I was fired for missing work when my wife was in the hospital and I had no one to watch my son. I started looking for a job and still haven't found one. I ended up applying for unemployment because if I didn't my family would have to leave our home. My wife applied for food stamps which is really the only thing that has allowed us to eat the last several months.

I can't tell you how stressful being jobless is, many of us in today's society understand the feeling, having been there, but if you haven't it isn't something I'd recommend. As the days go by it gets harder, being turned down and ignored by most places of business is discouraging and if you don't keep yourself busy everyday you start to slip downward into a strangely shaped rut and depression starts pressing in (not clinical depression, though if you do have that being jobless doesn't help.)

It's a weight that presses down on you, especially if you're expected to be the bread winner of the household, and though roles are changing quickly, men tend to fall under that expectancy. Of course, being a man, I also feel the need to go out and work and support my family. I'm married to my best friend and an absolutely beautiful woman and together we have the most amazing little boy (I know, every parent says that about their own kids and there's a reason for that, a reason you'll only understand if you actually have a child because really there's no way to explain the magic, wonder and love that comes from watching your child grow up and learn). I feel a need to provide for them, support them and protect them.

We live in a basement apartment, my wife exchanges her nanny services for the greater part of our rent and until just recently, the unemployment I was receiving covered the rest, but the money I qualified for ran out, I'm still out of a job and still need to pay rent. I'm stressed, job hunting is so time consuming that when you don't hear back from anybody at all it fills you with doubts, about yourself, about whether it's worth the investment (of course it is, you need income to live, not just survive). I'm so very grateful for my wife and all she does and for the time that I've had with my son, who just turned nine months. I've formed a bond with him I hadn't had time for while working and have watched him grow, he sits up and crawls and walks along the furniture, he's getting to the point where he's starting to figure out how to stand up by himself and if he's there he doesn't need to hold on to anything while he does it. I've been able to see him learn all this and it's amazing.

It's stressful too.

I never understood just how hard and tiring being a parent is, even with just one. They demand attention, need to be fed, changed and put down for naps. You need to play with them, spend time with them and love them. Sometimes it's all very easy, but even at the end of an easy day you're exhausted.

Then there are the stresses of everyday life, everything just piles on top of the other and before you know it you just can't handle anymore and you find your patience has run thin. That happened to me today and I took my frustrations out on the one person in this world that matters and I'm sorry, and doubly sorry because today is the one day that I should have done everything I could to make special.

It's my anniversary and I'm very sorry. I love my wife more than she'll ever truly understand and I'm so proud of her and everything she has accomplished and overcome. She deserves to be happy more than anybody I've ever met. I didn't help much with that tonight. She's a beautiful woman, a loving mother and a stupendous wife and I couldn't ask for a better friend.

I'm sorry for everything, if I could take back the words I would. But words spoken can't be taken back, so I'll be sure to speak more carefully in the future.

I love you very much, Ashley.

Happy Anniversary.

The Bad Bug, Short Stories and a Beta Read

Confession time! This last week was not good for my goals.. any of them. Not for lack of wanting to do them, I would have loved to have gone running everyday and worked on my WIP.

Late Monday night I started feeling ill, my stomach was upset and I had a headache. I woke around 3 in the morning and vomited several times (not sure I'll ever like chili again), I didn't feel good the rest the week, yesterday was the first day my stomach decided not to gurgle and roll like a storm tossed sea.

So I got very little writing done and even less exercise, but tomorrow is the beginning of a new week and I'll be back at it (at least I'm doing the blog on time this week).

I've sent out a couple more of my short stories for submissions and have another I'm in the process of writing, once finished I'll be submitting it to Clarkesworld Magazine, keeping my fingers crossed and looking at others that may be interested in my shorts.

Despite this last week, my WIP is coming along nicely and I decided to finally set down a goal for when I want to be finished writing and start the first draft of revisions, a deadline if you will (for myself). I'm aiming for Feb 12th, just a few days before LTUE (which I wish could attend, there's always next year). After that I'll find a couple poor souls willing to read it and give me some feedback.

On that note, I volunteered to beta read The Sometimes Sword by Trevor Green, you can find out more and see what he's up to on his blog beyonddragonsandwizards.blogspot.com. It's a great blog about his going ons, thoughts and goals as he himself works on making his dreams a reality. As far as his manuscript (and I'm sorry Trevor) I only recently started reading it but have quickly been pulled in (I promise to get some feedback to you this week!!)

How are your goals coming along? Have you had any speed bumps in your efforts? Are you helping others live up to their goals? Or accomplish their dreams?

Yesterdays Post, Today

I missed writing this yesterday and I won't say it's not entirely my fault, but between a sick puking baby boy and the video game my wife and I are currently playing, it was very late before I even realized it.

So, I'm trying to make up for it by writing this today while I watch my son, who seems to be feeling better and who keeps disappearing down the hall to the bedroom where his mom is trying to sleep.

I'm doing well with my goals, especially writing on a daily basis and while I still haven't managed to hit my daily word count, the consistency of writing everyday has made it easier to write and I've managed to write more and more in the small amount of time I find during the day to do so.

William has just gone down for a nap and drank most of his bottle, I'm hoping he keeps it down and stays asleep for a good long while. I'm very tempted to go crawl back into my nice warm bed next to my still sleeping wife. I won't though, I promised myself I'd start getting up early and taking care of my daily goals first thing, so I'll be on the treadmill soon and then writing after a nice shower.

How have you fared with your own goals for this year? Are they coming along? Are you struggling? Is there anything that helps you met them?

New Year

When was my last post? Oh yeah, in Octob-..

Oops!

Not surprising I'm sure. Now on to business.

A new year! Which means new opportunities, new adventures and new goals. Yup, I'm jumping on that bandwagon folks! Grumble if you will, cheer me if you must, but I've got me a few resolutions.

Though, I'll call them goals because, well, resolution just seems to have become a negative thing, hasn't it? When you say you have a new year's resolution (or resolutions) no one believes you'll follow through, or at least not for long. I intend to meet my goals, and if possible (and where plausible) exceed them. I'd also like to share them with you, so someone else out there knows.

First off, I want to get healthy (no, I don't mean lose weight, though that'll probably happen, I mean get healthy. Eat right, exercise and all that)

• 40 minutes of cardio 5x/week
• Many much more vegetables, less meat
• No preprepared/junk food (I'm sure I'll have a cheat day now and then)

Also I intend to do more to actively follow my dreams, namely

• Write daily. 2k words Mon-Sat and a blog entry each Sun (we'll get to see each other more often! Isn't that exciting! ... *ahem* Uh, let's ignore that shall we?)
• Actively submit my short stories to lit mags; online and print
• Finish and query at least two novels
• At least start a third
• Read 30 books

I'd really like to become more active in the writing community as well, via social media and in person where possible. I'd love to attend both LTUE and CONduit, though the first probably won't happen. No job, no money and it's in the middle of next month. (Also, find a job, get interviewed, get hired.. but that goes without saying)

Anywho, those are my goals for this year. At least the ones I remember at the moment, which are also the ones I had the presence of mind to write down. Writing them down helps. I'm sure there are more, or will be, but for now these are the things I intend to work on this year.

I hope you all have a great year, that you do something, many somethings. That you take risks, make mistakes and learn and grow and create.

Until next week, enjoy my very favorite new year's wish

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

 

-Neil Gaiman

 

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2011/12/my-new-year-wish.html

Fall! Books! And Pictures!

So.. IT'S FALL!  

*ahem*

Sorry, it's just, well, you know.. fall! My favorite time of year when all the leaves change color and the temperature drops from too warm for sweats and a hoody to just right. It's when I can finally taste the sweet sweet nectar of hot chocolate in all it's many forms, while curled up on the couch and veg to some of my favorite movies like Nightmare Before Christmas, Hocus Pocus and Coraline (amongst many others).

It's the time of year when ghosts and goblins begin to litter the yards, keeping the fallen leaves company and children become even more antsy than usual, waiting for Halloween and the following weeks of sugar shock induced comas, while they fret over costumes for the long awaited night.

It's also the time for All Hallow's Read, something I heard about a few years back and have since fallen in love with. I blogged about this last year and I'm going to do it again this year. The idea behind All Hallows Read is to give a book, a scary book, to somebody on Halloween. It's an idea that's beginning to take off and someday, will become tradition, but for now we have this: http://www.allhallowsread.com/ which explains everything much better than I can. There's even a really cool poster for libraries and bookstores and whoever else!

This fall is one filled with many "firsts" for me, as well as my little Bootstrap. I'm unusually excited about Halloween because it's his first. His mom wants him to be a tiger or something but I see an Ewok in our future ;)

This Mr. Mom thing is becoming a bit easier and more fulfilling as I learn how to use his naps as productively as possible. Cleaning, laundry, fixing computers and writing; I'll get the hang of it eventually.

Here's what the two of us have been up to of late

Visiting Grandma (AKA: Mom)

Picnic! His food and mine

Getting sleepy on said picnic

Still Picnicking

Staring at the Polar popping out of the water right up against the glass. Mom's in the background :)

So there's that, hope you enjoyed the pics!

Plot a lot (I don't)

I believe in one of my previous posts I promised to talk about plotting out a story. I never did. Mostly because I'm terrible at this whole blog thing and rarely get around to writing a post. Also, I've realized that for the most part I don't really plot out any of my stories. I tend to free write, I sit down and let the story flow its course and I just ride along as the words flow out my finger tips.

This works great for short stories, which I tend to write quite frequently, though some tend to go on and on and become things somewhat larger than mere short stories. I've come to the decision that I'm going to start sending out my short stories, entering them in different competitions and submitting them to different literary magazines and such. I figure I might as well, I write them, no one reads them. Aside from my wife after I pester her to death. So, if you happen to know of any legit magazines and competitions, hit me up. I'd appreciate it.

Back to plotting, plots, plot points, etc. Fun stuff. My current WIP has the working title of The Fox Spirit which I talked about in a previous post. I haven't done much with plotting the story, I have a rough feel for the overall idea behind it. Several important plot points I'm excited to write. It seems to work for me. I know some people do a lot of plotting, lots of background and lots of world building (especially if it's an epic fantasy) but there are others who don't really do any plotting at all.

This is basically what the plotline is:

Exposition- Basically it's just the beginning of your plot where the audience meets your characters. Most importantly the main character, or protagonist. What are they like? What do they want? Who are they? Do they have any hopes, dreams or fears? What do they struggle with? These are some fairly basic questions which in most novels are answered or at least addressed in some form during this part of the book. This part ends once you introduce conflict.

Rising Action- This is where your protagonist and other characters start to walk into hell. Usually, the protagonist will have a goal to further the story. Knight goes to rescue princess, detective tries to find killer, etc. This bigger goal is usually interrupted by smaller obstacles which build tension, small failures and small successes that help develop characters and their relationships. In the graph it's all zig zagged, shooting up and coming back down. Giving the reader a burst of action or tension and then resolving it, letting the reader relax.

Climax- The most exciting part of the story. The protagonist generally comes face to face with the problem for the first time and must make a crucial decision. This is where they show what they're really made of and where they change. Up to this point your character is more or less the same person, the climax is the point of no return where your character's choice will determine who he/she will become by the end of the book.

Falling action- Life goes on. Things return to normal, even if the problem hasn't been solved. Loose ends start coming together and answers start falling into place for the reader.

Resolution- Things resolve. It's basically the end. Any remaining loose ends are tied off, unanswered questions are dealt with swiftly and the story concludes. The consequences of the previous events become apparent (the good and the bad) and..

That's it. In a nutshell. You can go through and plot out everything of the story. Beginning, middle and end. You can plot out every detail if you'd like or sketch a simple outline, or just write.

Do you plot extensively? Outline? Or simply write?