Category Archives: Writing

The Zoo

Here I go through all the effort of converting to WordPress, and then I never use it. Hmmm.

I left home yesterday for a dentist appointment for Jared at 9:30 AM, and we never got home until about 7:30 PM. I’d call that a full day.

After the dentist appointment, I took the boys to Marnie’s work, and we all had lunch (I had the best meatloaf, I’m going back!). After that was a trip to the zoo including a ride on a steam powered train, and then I dropped them off at Grandma and Grandpa’s house while Marnie and I went to Chapters. Bed time was okay, though Ryan had a tough time sleeping.

Reading
Soul of the Samurai (Thomas Cleary)
– If anyone can point me to an authors web site, I’d appreciate it.

Gardens of the Moon (Steven Erickson) (link 2)

Writing
Yesterday was a research day. I definately need more background and ‘flavour’ in the outline, so I can put it in the novel. I’ve currently got so many minutae stuck in my head that I don’t know where to start.

Jonathan Sherwood has a good article on sex in fiction here.

Misc
This is a cool picture link

Thank God It's Friday

I never noticed, but I’ve now gone past the one month mark on this blog.  True, a couple of weeks of that was while I was on holiday, but I’m still counting it.  It hasn’t yet (and maybe it never will) become a habit.  We’ll have to see.

Raising kids is a tough job.  I knew that before I took over this job, but I keep getting reminded of it everyday.  This week, especially, has been tough.  It seems that when ever the boys are at home, they start to bicker and get into trouble.  I can’t seem to keep them busy enough.  I’m glad this week is over and Marnie will be home for the weekend.  I need a break, before I lose it again.

Yes, again.  I pretty much lost it this afternoon with them.  They both got a smack on the bottom and timeouts.  The timeouts were okay, but the violence and raising my voice at them (for a prolonged period) is definately not okay.  I ask them to work on things with me, but I know it’s really my job to keep my self in check… not theirs.  I’m working on it.

I’ve become a REACTIVE instead of a PROACTIVE parent.  I react, usually badly, to the things that happen in my household, that the boys do.  When I started, I was proactive.  I helped create the situations that stimulated the boys, and guided them a bit more.  I’m hoping it’s the stress of summer.  They say that knowing the problem is half the solution.  I hope so.

Reading
Soul of the Samurai (Thomas Cleary)
– If anyone can point me to an authors web site, I’d appreciate it.

Writing
I’ve finished going through the outline, and started integrating my story evolution into the outline.  So far, I’ve identified three new scenes, which will probably end up in a prologue of sorts.  Personally, I don’t like prologues, but it certainly starts the story with a kick, without having to mess up the timeline.

I’m starting to get ansty.  Although I’m reading, editing, and writing the outline, I don’t feel like I’m WRITING.  I feel like I should just get in there and write the damn thing.  I’ve felt this way when I starting speccing a piece of software.  At some point in the design, I’ve always felt like I should just be coding it for chrissakes.  Ahh well….

Jonathan Sherwood is posting about the process he used to write his novel.

Just another day in Paradise

A slow day around the house. Just the regular stuff, misbehaving kids, yelling, etc. We did drop by the kids old daycare place, where they played for about 4 hours. That was fun. Once we got home though, the bickering started again.

Reading
Soul of the Samurai (Thomas Cleary)
– If anyone can point me to an authors web site, I’d appreciate it.

Writing
I’m going through the outline a scene at a time and checking for coherency and buildup of suspence and conflict. So far, not too bad, though I still think I’m going to be 20K words short of a novel. Hmmm.

I have put a temporary title on the project though… The Anshi Legacy.

Birthday and School Prep

We had a fairly cloudy/cold day out here today, and I was not looking forward to having the kids in the house all the time again.  So, I did what any sane parent would do: get out of the house.  We spent about 2 1/2 hours at the mall during midday and did some shopping for birthday cards, Marnie’s gift, and school backpacks. 

Tomorrow, I’ll sit down with the boys and figure out a craft they can make for Marnie’s birthday.  I’ll see if I can get them to make her some birthday cards as well.  All I have to do is try to keep it a secret from Marnie (who doesn’t read this blog anyway).  More than likely, one of the boys will start telling her all about it! 🙂

I’m actually finding things a bit weird.  When summer holidays started for Jared, I was panicking about how to fill the days so they’ll be happy.  Now that Jared is going to Grade 1 full time, and Ryan is going to pre-school three afternoons a weeks, I’m worried about what to do with all my time.  Just weird.

Reading
Soul of the Samurai (Thomas Cleary)
   – If anyone can point me to an authors web site, I’d appreciate it.

Writing
I outlined scenes 40 and 41, which is pretty much all I have right now.  I should probably add at least 20 more scenes, but without an additional sub-plot, I may not be able to.  I’ll start fleshing out the outlines a bit more tomorrow, and see where it gets me.  Right now, the antagonist basically stays in the background.  He’s a plot motivator, but not a central character.  I think if I can bring him to the forefront a bit more, I’ll get a more solid story, and my extra scenes.I outlined scenes 40 and 41, which is pretty much all I have right now.

Here are a couple of things I found on the net today.  This is a cool speed test for your Internet connection.

Clarkesworld is a new (for me) online magazine that pays about 10 cents a word.

And finally, a piece of advice I found on the Asimov’s board.  There is a thread talking about the best thing any one has said to you, as you were leaving their employ, and this one just stuck with me:
“You must never be above telling a bold faced lie.  Now off with you!”
It was told by a boss to his employee on the employee’s last day.

Camping

First off, I’ve made another executive decision concerning this blog… all entries will be time stamped with CST, no matter what time zone I’m in. For example, it’s actually 10:24 PM where I am, but this entry is marked as 9:24 PM.

This was our first full day camping. It rained last night, quite a bit, but the tent stayed dry. I suspended a tarp over it before we went to bed. Right now, I’m sitting in front of a camp fire while Marnie and the boys are in the tent telling each other ghost stories. Jared likes to go on and on; maybe he has the story tellers blood. I would be proud.

The morning was spent in the van, mostly. With the rain and the wet, we decided it would be a good time to visit the local touristy area. We did, it was. The end. By the time we got back to the campsite, the sun was out and the day was beautiful. We had a quick lunch and spent the day at the beach. The boys made instant friends, which means Marnie and I got a chance to talk to other parents. One of the parents we spoke to lived only 5 miles (the next farm), from the child that was kidnapped and sexually molested a few weeks back. Bad juju.

Tomorrow we plan a hike and more beach time. More fun should be had.

Reading
The Stay-at-Home Dad Handbook (Peter Baylies)
(although I didn’t read a page today)

Writing
Outlined scenes 36, 37, 38, and 39 in the novel, then I got too tired. It’s wierd, the thoughts just flowed and the words in the outline came easy, but then I hit a brick wall. I need to sleep.

The Flow of Time Changes on Holidays

Well, holidays are proving themselves to be tough on writing (and blogs)!  Let’s see if I can quickly summarize what’s been going on…

I drove into Saskatoon yesterday, for a quick visit with Ann and Pauline.  It turns out that I managed to land on Pauline’s birthday for the second year in a row.  Dumb luck, I call it.  The date is now in my calendar, so instead of fluking into it, I can actually plan it out next year.  Since it was her birthday, I picked up lunch.  And, since I picked up lunch for Pauline, I got Ann’s as well, which kinda threw Ann into a funk.  She recently got a part time job, and with the extra cash she was making, wanted to pick up the tab for all of us.  Me, being the thick skinned scum-bag that I am, didn’t pick up on her sense of pride, etc, etc.  I’m hoping by the end of the visit, she was over it a bit.  My bad.

Darryl and Diane came over for a two day visit before that.  That can make Gramma’s house a little tight, let me tell you!  We ended up with six adults, two kids, and Abby (yes, they brought the dog).  Abby was brought up to be a house dog, unfortunately she is quite large, which can be problematic at times.  She’s a great dog though, which helps a lot.

That just about summarizes the last three days.  I’m actually posting this on the fourth, in the morning, but I’m going to date it to yesterday.  The eternal optimist in me thinks I may actually get out another blog entry today.

It looks like I can’t post this at all… the server seems to be down, although every other system appears to be up.  Figures.

Reading
Blue Bamboo – Japanese Tales of Fantasy – Osamu Dazai

Writing
I haven’t actully gotten any writing done, but I have managed to think up another sub-plot for the novel.  It should increase the scene count, which should in turn increase the word count a bit.  At my current scene count (outline only), I’d guess I’m at about 80,000 words, and I need to be at 100,000 at least, so the extra scenes should help.

Calgary!

Ahh, what a day.  The kids (and I) spent a night in the tent.  It took them a LONG while to fall asleep, at least a couple of hours.  I found myself getting more and more upset with them.  Finally, I basically gave up, and left them to their own devices.  I crawled into the tent at about 10:30 PM, and they were sleeping like little angels.  And then they were awake at the regular time, which basically means they were operating on 2 hours less sleep.  That was not good.

By the end of the day, Ryan was bursting into tears for no reason, and Jared was slurring his words, sounding like a little drunk man.  When I finally got on the plane for Calgary, Ryan was crying almost uncontrollably, and Jared refused to let me out of a hug, telling me not to go.  How can he not want me to go, when all I’ve been doing for the week was yelling at him?  I dunno, and I don’t pretend to know.

I ended up sitting next to Brian on the plane.  I had interviewed with Brian several months ago, and if the family would have been willing to move to Calgary, I’d be gainfully employed.  They didn’t, so I’m a stay at home dad instead.  It was good talking to him, he’s a cool guy.

Gregor (my bro) picked us up at the airport, we had dinner and dropped Brian off at his hotel.

I’m now sitting in my brothers living room and typing in a short blog entry, while him and his wife sleep.  I already miss the boys, even though they have been absolute horrors this week, and I can hardly wait to see them again.  Tomorrow, I’ll buy them gifts and have them ready for my return.

That’s all from Calgary today.  Cya.

Reading
Kushiel’s Avatar (Jacqueline Carey)

Writing
The sixteen rules of fiction http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000906.html is a good read.  While you’re there, read his article on the DaVinci Code, it’s spot on.  Make sure to read some of his follow-up articles as well.

Some days, nothing goes right (part II)

I must have built up some pretty bad karma.  I ended up going to the same store three times today, to replace the same item.  Two of them didn’t work right.  Aaargh.  And last night, I came home and found my 4 year old tent up against the stucco of the house, trapped in a corner by the wind.  By the time I extricated the damn thing, the fly was completely shot.  It had more holes than Swiss cheese.  So, I bought a new tent, and it is HUGE.  It’s a two room tent, so Marnie and I can be separated from the kids.  We’ll see how it holds up tonight, since the boys and I will be in it… with a 70% chance of rain and thundershowers.

I’m off to Calgary tomorrow for a couple of days.  I’ll try to post while I’m there, but we’ll see what happens.

Reading
Kushiel’s Avatar (Jacqueline Carey)

Writing
I looked at some of my old stuff, and although parts of it still sing to me, most of it sounds stilted and uninspiring.  Maybe it’s the mood I’m in, maybe it’s really just all crap.  It’s never been bought, so it’s probably crap.  I’d better snap out of this funk, or I’m never going to get anything written.  Is this what writers block is?

A. R. Yngve has a good post on ‘losing your nerve’ here http://aryngve.blogspot.com/2005/08/losing-your-nerve.html

Short and sweet

Nothing much to say today, and it is the weekend, so I normally won’t post (I think).

I asked Gavin to look after the house/plants/garden while Marnie and I are gone.  It’s easy money for him, but he is nervous about killing everything.  He’ll let me know on Sunday.  If he says no, there’s a company in town that will do it as well, for the same money we offered Gav.  So things should still live in this dry spell while we are gone.

We all went out for dinner to Marnie’s bosses house.  I set up their computer, and they fed us.  We all had a good time, I believe.  The kids had a blast, and another very late night.  We finally got them into bed at 10:30 or so.  Once again, Marnie and I carried them in and put them into their beds, already sleeping.

Reading
Kushiel’s Avatar (Jacqueline Carey)

Writing
For those that write Science Fiction, heck even for those that do not, this site has some excellent and up-to-date information for you. http://www.eurekalert.org