It's been a while since I posted on this blog, I know. It's also been a long while since I posted on Twitter, talked about my writing, let alone really had a good writing session. What's been going on, some of you might have been asking?
In August of last year, my family moved up to Ohio, where my wife is a native. This involved me quitting my full-time job at the time, preparing things in boxes, arranging for a truck, etc. Once I got up there, I had the fun task of continuing what I had started back in Virginia: getting a job. This meant playing the "apply for a job" game. Those who have engaged in this game know it can be a frustrating one. Between vague rejections that amount to "You don't suck, but you do suck," and having your heart played by potential employers ("This was a great interview, you're an outstanding candidate!" *sends rejection email the next day*), it can all take a toll on your ego. Add to this that when I finally did get a job, it was a part-time one with incompetent management (eg., forgetting that we have to work Christmas Eve, and throwing me on the shift last minute - not making that up), and management that wasn't even present in the building 99% of the time. One of my coworkers was an extremely toxic employee who thought every new employee was her replacement (and called me as much), thought everything you did was an act against her, and blew a gasket at you if you got fifteen extra minutes on your schedule and she didn't. Eventually I did complain to management, and they did straighten it out a little bit, but it didn't do much to make me want to stay there. What's more, it was having a toll on my desire to do anything else that brought me joy. I went home to my family bitter, and I had no desire to write, draw, read, or anything else, because on my mind was the fact that I had to go back to work the next day. It's really astounding just how much of an effect a toxic coworker can have. I actually did some research and found that 54% of employees are more likely to quit because of one, yet only 1% of workplace bullies are ever fired because of their attitude. But I digress...
Part of me wanted to resign from my job and become a full-time author, while still doing freelance design jobs on the side for sustainable income. The only dilemma is, at this moment, I don't make enough to justify going full-time. It's also harder when you have family to support, and can't just make a shot in the dark. Some full-time indie authors are women with husbands who already work full-time, or are husbands whose wives have taken up the mantle of having a full-time job. If that works for them, great, but I didn't want my wife working and taking time away from our daughter. As the reality of this situation set in, yet another potential escape from my nightmare seemed to have crashed and burned.
Ever have a moment where nothing you do seems to prosper or be blessed? That was my condition. I got into a deep depression. I didn't see any real value in myself. I didn't see any value in my work. Here I was, in my 30's, and stuck in a part-time job, barely able to afford for my whole family. Nothing I did seemed to help. I tried applying to other jobs, but continued facing rejection. I had no impetus to do anything but remain stuck in my life.
Now things have changed around. I got a full-time job offer which I accepted, and I resigned from my last job. The day after, I discovered my trust writer's journal, started looking through it, and soon began to add new ideas and concepts. My confidence was rejuvenated. Suddenly my creativity had returned. As cliche as it may sound, getting away from the toxic environment had given me a sense of self-worth that made me want to be creative and continue exploring my other talents.
Bear in mind I've been lurking on Twitter, and I've seen some of you sending me DM's, tagging me, etc. I did see it, and I intend to respond to you all as soon as possible. My goal is to get back into the swing of things, writing and doing what I love the most. So keep an eye on Twitter and the blog, because there'll be a lot more updates ahead!
Showing posts with label Personal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal. Show all posts
Monday, January 9, 2017
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Love/Hate Challenge
So I was tagged for this a long while ago by the good Crispian Thurlborn over at his blog. I've been working on this a while, and realized I should probably finally post this. So here you go!
I know I'm cheating by only putting 5 for each, but...well there it is.
Also, I tag...you! If you want to do this, go ahead!
Things I Love
1) Things that make me verbally respond in a positive way
We've all read a book or seen a movie that, for one reason or another, caused us to verbally respond. Granted, more often than not, I'm doing it in a negative sense, but I absolutely love it when something causes me to verbally respond in the positive.
One example is when I reading Clash of Kings, specifically the scene where a riot breaks out in King's Landing. As survivors gather back at the castle, some begin to wonder what happened to Sansa. Suddenly, in walks the Hound, carrying Sansa on his back. When that happened, I literally held up my hand up into the air and cried, "Yes!"
When you end up verbally responding to a work in a positive way, there's a strange feeling of connection between you and that work. It's difficult to describe, but I'm sure many reading this post know what I mean.
2) When a story makes an effort to put some realism in combat.
Whenever action becomes part of the story, you almost need to be resigned that movies will be movies, and books will be books. We all know the trope about people who jump into mud and come out perfectly clean, or the gun that never runs out, or the guy who can take ten bullets and shrug it off as a flesh wound (eg., Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai). It's pretty much expected.
That being said, I do appreciate it when there's some effort to put some realism into the situation, even if it's a little. One of the things I loved about the gunfights in Last Man Standing was that Bruce Willis had to reload his handguns every now and then. One of the things I loved about the climactic battle between Aragorn and the Uruk-Hai at the end of Fellowship of the Ring was that Viggo Mortensen played Aragorn exhausted, like he really had just fought an army of orcs.
Little things like this can add a sense of urgency, uncertainty, and suspense that otherwise wasn't there.
3) A strong father figure
Being a father myself (and of a little girl, no less), one thing I've become more aware of is the stereotype of the doddering daddy. If the MC is a teenage or preteen girl, then her father is often the secondary villain. You find shaking his finger at her vile shenanigans throughout the story, but at the end coming to his senses and shrugging off whatever it was she was doing, whether it was dating the social outcast at school or committing mass genocide. Dads get treated like bumbling, backwards idiots who need to succumb to whatever it is the manchildren and teenage girls want them to do.
That's why I adore it when you have a story that features a strong, or at the very least relatable, father figure. I don't necessarily mean something as extreme Liam Neeson's character from Taken; I just mean someone who you can understand is trying to take care of his family, and is looking out for the future generation. Heck, even Homer Simpson had that kind of appeal early on, before the new writers Flanderized the entire cast; as goofy and stupid as Homer could get, you also understood he was trying to make ends meet, and was just trying to be a good father to his three children (see, for example, The Simpsons Christmas special). Even Peter Griffith had some of this appeal early on in Family Guy, before Scott MacFarlane discovered he could make money off his fanboys by making five or six series based entirely around cutaway jokes.
Point is, having a father figure that isn't just a caricature to appeal to the sensibilities of teenage girls, and actually functions like a father is supposed to, is an enjoyable aspect to the story.
4) When characters actually care others have died
A pet peeve of mine is when a story has a character die, and the other characters either don't mourn at all, or mourn for maybe like a few seconds, then move on. I know that everyone responds to death and grief in their own way...but I'm fairly certain people respond to it somehow, let alone at all. The sheer nonchalance of some people after seeing their friend or lover die reminds me of that line from the MST3K Hobgoblins episode: "C'mon, Nick...oh yeah, he died. Oh well!"
On the other hand, I love it when they make reactions to death far more realistic.
One of the best examples of this I can think of is in the horror movie Abominable. A female character, after seeing her friends get brutalized by the title monster, has to be calmed down by the MC. She's weeping. She's distressed. You know, she's reacting like any rational person would after a hideous beast murders their lifelong friends. I give great kudos to Haley Joel and Matt McCoy for their performances in that scene, and filmmaker Ryan Schifrin for putting such a scene in his movie.
5) Actors who put great effort in a historical role
We all expect good acting - that's pretty much a given. What I love, however, is when an actor or actress puts such an effort into a historical role that they're able to repeat all the nuances and intricacies of that personality.
One example is Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland; after watching some documentaries on Idi Amin, seeing Whitaker play him was like seeing Idi Amin live on the screen. He probably didn't look as much like Idi Amin as other actors, but he was able to capture the mannerisms, the ways of speaking, etc.
An even greater example is Robert Carlyle in Hitler: The Rise of Evil. My wife probably remembers washing her hands in the bathroom while I watched the movie, and suddenly hearing me leap up and say, "Robert Carlyle is a great actor!" Why did I say that? Because of a scene where Robert Carlyle, after finishing a speech, lowered his head and rubbed his mustache. Why is that so significant? Because I've seen videos where Hitler did that, either out of nervousness or in-between thoughts. I've rarely seen other actors playing Hitler imitate that motion, but Robert Carlyle did.
Things I Hate
1) The Third Act Break Up
This is the nickname given to the cliche most often seen in a romantic comedy where, either around or after the climax of the story, the couple breaks up. (The Nostalgia Critic referred to this as "The Misunderstanding," since it's often based around a misunderstanding between the two characters.) Granted, this scenario can happen in general romances as well, but I've seen it the most often in romantic comedies.
And it's one of the primary reasons I rarely watch romantic comedies.
I might compare this to the James Bond cliche of the villain leaving Bond and the girl to die. It doesn't give us any suspense - we all know that Bond is going to escape. It's not like they're going to pull one over on us, have Bond and the girl die, and then cut to the end credits. We all know Bond is going to break out and go on to defeat the villain. Similarly, we all know the boy and girl are going to get back together. The movie isn't going to end with them still broken up. The movie isn't going to show them with other people, and then cut to the end credits. They're going to realize they were idiots, get back together, make up, and end happily ever after.
Some people try to defend this because it makes us care about the characters. No, it doesn't. It just drags the film on for another ten minutes until we get the conclusion that we all saw coming. I've even seen films where it was completely unnecessary; there was absolutely no reason for the couple to break up, but the writers had them break up anyway, because...reasons.
2) When a horror/monster story becomes a string of killing scenes
Something that gets old real quick is when a story just sort of becomes a string of murder scenes tied together for no other reason than they all involve the same killer. At some point, it becomes episodic, and you just sort of watch one killing after another. I've seen this in serial killer and monster stories. Amazing as it sounds, I end up getting bored and disinterested. Halfway through I end up thinking, "Yeah okay, we get it, he kills things - let's move on."
Some people might find this a ridiculous contention, as a string of killings almost comes with the territory of anything involving a monster, be they human or not. However, plenty of entries into this have managed to keep it interesting by having something else going on. One example of this is Predator 2: even though you have the Predator going around killing people, you still have the parallel story of Danny Glover figuring things out. My point is, so long as the storyteller gives us some other reason to become emotionally invested in the story besides a rising body count, then there's a reason to continue being invested until the end.
3) Endings that ruin everything
There have been a few times when I've sat through something, either a book or a movie, and thought, "Hey, this is pretty cool!" Then something happens. Something occurs that ruins my entire experience.
Maybe it's like the movie Cube, where they randomly decide to kill off most of the characters for absolutely no reason, and in a way that leaves plot holes so big a semi could drive through it. Maybe it's like The Village, which is an otherwise good film destroyed by the worst plot twist ever conceived in film history. Either way, the payoff ends up being one that leaves a bad taste in the viewer's mouth.
4) When the military is absolutely incompetent.
Let me qualify this by adding that I'm well aware not every serviceman (or woman) is perfect. I'm not making any claim of perfection. However, many stories take potential military fallibility and make it extreme. Maybe my being a military brat has a part in this, but it's a major pet peeve of mine.
One of the most infamous examples of this is in the Italian horror film Nightmare City. In that film, the military is told that shooting zombies in the head will kill them. Guess what one thing no soldier does for the rest of the film? That's right. No one shoots the zombies in the head. Most of the time they shoot them in the chest, then stare like DERP DERP and permit the zombies to kill them. Two-thirds into the movie you find yourself screaming "SHOOT THEM IN THE HEAD! SHOOT THEM IN THE HEAD! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, SHOOT THOSE BUGGERS IN THE HEAD!"
By contrast, one of the things I liked about movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the remake of Invaders from Mars is the very fact that the government and military characters are competent. They figure things out, they handle things in a rational manner, and while they aren't perfect in everything they do, they aren't so over-the-top stupid that you wanna bang your head against the wall.
Perhaps a slight addition to this might be when civilian characters, for no previously established reason, are far more competent or powerful than the military characters. It's hilarious in movies when a full-time nurse suddenly knows how to handle an assault rifle, or a desk clerk can suddenly beat up a team of special forces, or a small town sheriff knows how to drive and fire an armored personnel carrier. Seriously, unless there's good reason these characters can do those things, it's just ridiculous.
5) When something bad happens to a baby.
Chalk this up to me being the father of a little girl - a father who held her in his arms when she was a newborn and realized what it was like to have a precious little life in your hands. Whenever I see an infant on screen, or hear about one in a story, I think about my daughter. I know my wife feels the same way.
I'm fully aware life isn't fair, and that, sadly, bad things do happen to babies in this world. However, as far as the world of fiction and storytelling goes, I can't stand it when a story takes the cheap route for tragedy or suspense by putting a child in danger, or even kills them. It's like killing off an adult character or letting a female character get raped for nothing else but "muh drama." It's tasteless, unnecessary, and goes for shock value rather than any kind of development.
If you want an example of this, I recently watched Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. There's a scene where the "PredAlien" (yes that's a thing) rises up in a hospital amid dozens of crying newborns. You don't see anything, but the implication is that, off screen, the PredAlien killed them. I was already hating the movie beforehand, but at that point it completely lost me beyond any point of redemption. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one who found that scene tasteless, and Requiem is considered by many to be the worst in the series (though granted, for a host of other reasons).
I know I'm cheating by only putting 5 for each, but...well there it is.
Also, I tag...you! If you want to do this, go ahead!
Things I Love
1) Things that make me verbally respond in a positive way
We've all read a book or seen a movie that, for one reason or another, caused us to verbally respond. Granted, more often than not, I'm doing it in a negative sense, but I absolutely love it when something causes me to verbally respond in the positive.
One example is when I reading Clash of Kings, specifically the scene where a riot breaks out in King's Landing. As survivors gather back at the castle, some begin to wonder what happened to Sansa. Suddenly, in walks the Hound, carrying Sansa on his back. When that happened, I literally held up my hand up into the air and cried, "Yes!"
When you end up verbally responding to a work in a positive way, there's a strange feeling of connection between you and that work. It's difficult to describe, but I'm sure many reading this post know what I mean.
2) When a story makes an effort to put some realism in combat.
Whenever action becomes part of the story, you almost need to be resigned that movies will be movies, and books will be books. We all know the trope about people who jump into mud and come out perfectly clean, or the gun that never runs out, or the guy who can take ten bullets and shrug it off as a flesh wound (eg., Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai). It's pretty much expected.
That being said, I do appreciate it when there's some effort to put some realism into the situation, even if it's a little. One of the things I loved about the gunfights in Last Man Standing was that Bruce Willis had to reload his handguns every now and then. One of the things I loved about the climactic battle between Aragorn and the Uruk-Hai at the end of Fellowship of the Ring was that Viggo Mortensen played Aragorn exhausted, like he really had just fought an army of orcs.
Little things like this can add a sense of urgency, uncertainty, and suspense that otherwise wasn't there.
3) A strong father figure
Being a father myself (and of a little girl, no less), one thing I've become more aware of is the stereotype of the doddering daddy. If the MC is a teenage or preteen girl, then her father is often the secondary villain. You find shaking his finger at her vile shenanigans throughout the story, but at the end coming to his senses and shrugging off whatever it was she was doing, whether it was dating the social outcast at school or committing mass genocide. Dads get treated like bumbling, backwards idiots who need to succumb to whatever it is the manchildren and teenage girls want them to do.
That's why I adore it when you have a story that features a strong, or at the very least relatable, father figure. I don't necessarily mean something as extreme Liam Neeson's character from Taken; I just mean someone who you can understand is trying to take care of his family, and is looking out for the future generation. Heck, even Homer Simpson had that kind of appeal early on, before the new writers Flanderized the entire cast; as goofy and stupid as Homer could get, you also understood he was trying to make ends meet, and was just trying to be a good father to his three children (see, for example, The Simpsons Christmas special). Even Peter Griffith had some of this appeal early on in Family Guy, before Scott MacFarlane discovered he could make money off his fanboys by making five or six series based entirely around cutaway jokes.
Point is, having a father figure that isn't just a caricature to appeal to the sensibilities of teenage girls, and actually functions like a father is supposed to, is an enjoyable aspect to the story.
4) When characters actually care others have died
A pet peeve of mine is when a story has a character die, and the other characters either don't mourn at all, or mourn for maybe like a few seconds, then move on. I know that everyone responds to death and grief in their own way...but I'm fairly certain people respond to it somehow, let alone at all. The sheer nonchalance of some people after seeing their friend or lover die reminds me of that line from the MST3K Hobgoblins episode: "C'mon, Nick...oh yeah, he died. Oh well!"
On the other hand, I love it when they make reactions to death far more realistic.
One of the best examples of this I can think of is in the horror movie Abominable. A female character, after seeing her friends get brutalized by the title monster, has to be calmed down by the MC. She's weeping. She's distressed. You know, she's reacting like any rational person would after a hideous beast murders their lifelong friends. I give great kudos to Haley Joel and Matt McCoy for their performances in that scene, and filmmaker Ryan Schifrin for putting such a scene in his movie.
5) Actors who put great effort in a historical role
We all expect good acting - that's pretty much a given. What I love, however, is when an actor or actress puts such an effort into a historical role that they're able to repeat all the nuances and intricacies of that personality.
One example is Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland; after watching some documentaries on Idi Amin, seeing Whitaker play him was like seeing Idi Amin live on the screen. He probably didn't look as much like Idi Amin as other actors, but he was able to capture the mannerisms, the ways of speaking, etc.
An even greater example is Robert Carlyle in Hitler: The Rise of Evil. My wife probably remembers washing her hands in the bathroom while I watched the movie, and suddenly hearing me leap up and say, "Robert Carlyle is a great actor!" Why did I say that? Because of a scene where Robert Carlyle, after finishing a speech, lowered his head and rubbed his mustache. Why is that so significant? Because I've seen videos where Hitler did that, either out of nervousness or in-between thoughts. I've rarely seen other actors playing Hitler imitate that motion, but Robert Carlyle did.
Things I Hate
1) The Third Act Break Up
This is the nickname given to the cliche most often seen in a romantic comedy where, either around or after the climax of the story, the couple breaks up. (The Nostalgia Critic referred to this as "The Misunderstanding," since it's often based around a misunderstanding between the two characters.) Granted, this scenario can happen in general romances as well, but I've seen it the most often in romantic comedies.
And it's one of the primary reasons I rarely watch romantic comedies.
I might compare this to the James Bond cliche of the villain leaving Bond and the girl to die. It doesn't give us any suspense - we all know that Bond is going to escape. It's not like they're going to pull one over on us, have Bond and the girl die, and then cut to the end credits. We all know Bond is going to break out and go on to defeat the villain. Similarly, we all know the boy and girl are going to get back together. The movie isn't going to end with them still broken up. The movie isn't going to show them with other people, and then cut to the end credits. They're going to realize they were idiots, get back together, make up, and end happily ever after.
Some people try to defend this because it makes us care about the characters. No, it doesn't. It just drags the film on for another ten minutes until we get the conclusion that we all saw coming. I've even seen films where it was completely unnecessary; there was absolutely no reason for the couple to break up, but the writers had them break up anyway, because...reasons.
2) When a horror/monster story becomes a string of killing scenes
Something that gets old real quick is when a story just sort of becomes a string of murder scenes tied together for no other reason than they all involve the same killer. At some point, it becomes episodic, and you just sort of watch one killing after another. I've seen this in serial killer and monster stories. Amazing as it sounds, I end up getting bored and disinterested. Halfway through I end up thinking, "Yeah okay, we get it, he kills things - let's move on."
Some people might find this a ridiculous contention, as a string of killings almost comes with the territory of anything involving a monster, be they human or not. However, plenty of entries into this have managed to keep it interesting by having something else going on. One example of this is Predator 2: even though you have the Predator going around killing people, you still have the parallel story of Danny Glover figuring things out. My point is, so long as the storyteller gives us some other reason to become emotionally invested in the story besides a rising body count, then there's a reason to continue being invested until the end.
3) Endings that ruin everything
There have been a few times when I've sat through something, either a book or a movie, and thought, "Hey, this is pretty cool!" Then something happens. Something occurs that ruins my entire experience.
Maybe it's like the movie Cube, where they randomly decide to kill off most of the characters for absolutely no reason, and in a way that leaves plot holes so big a semi could drive through it. Maybe it's like The Village, which is an otherwise good film destroyed by the worst plot twist ever conceived in film history. Either way, the payoff ends up being one that leaves a bad taste in the viewer's mouth.
4) When the military is absolutely incompetent.
Let me qualify this by adding that I'm well aware not every serviceman (or woman) is perfect. I'm not making any claim of perfection. However, many stories take potential military fallibility and make it extreme. Maybe my being a military brat has a part in this, but it's a major pet peeve of mine.
One of the most infamous examples of this is in the Italian horror film Nightmare City. In that film, the military is told that shooting zombies in the head will kill them. Guess what one thing no soldier does for the rest of the film? That's right. No one shoots the zombies in the head. Most of the time they shoot them in the chest, then stare like DERP DERP and permit the zombies to kill them. Two-thirds into the movie you find yourself screaming "SHOOT THEM IN THE HEAD! SHOOT THEM IN THE HEAD! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, SHOOT THOSE BUGGERS IN THE HEAD!"
By contrast, one of the things I liked about movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the remake of Invaders from Mars is the very fact that the government and military characters are competent. They figure things out, they handle things in a rational manner, and while they aren't perfect in everything they do, they aren't so over-the-top stupid that you wanna bang your head against the wall.
Perhaps a slight addition to this might be when civilian characters, for no previously established reason, are far more competent or powerful than the military characters. It's hilarious in movies when a full-time nurse suddenly knows how to handle an assault rifle, or a desk clerk can suddenly beat up a team of special forces, or a small town sheriff knows how to drive and fire an armored personnel carrier. Seriously, unless there's good reason these characters can do those things, it's just ridiculous.
5) When something bad happens to a baby.
Chalk this up to me being the father of a little girl - a father who held her in his arms when she was a newborn and realized what it was like to have a precious little life in your hands. Whenever I see an infant on screen, or hear about one in a story, I think about my daughter. I know my wife feels the same way.
I'm fully aware life isn't fair, and that, sadly, bad things do happen to babies in this world. However, as far as the world of fiction and storytelling goes, I can't stand it when a story takes the cheap route for tragedy or suspense by putting a child in danger, or even kills them. It's like killing off an adult character or letting a female character get raped for nothing else but "muh drama." It's tasteless, unnecessary, and goes for shock value rather than any kind of development.
If you want an example of this, I recently watched Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. There's a scene where the "PredAlien" (yes that's a thing) rises up in a hospital amid dozens of crying newborns. You don't see anything, but the implication is that, off screen, the PredAlien killed them. I was already hating the movie beforehand, but at that point it completely lost me beyond any point of redemption. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one who found that scene tasteless, and Requiem is considered by many to be the worst in the series (though granted, for a host of other reasons).
Monday, January 11, 2016
Why I don't get too political
Those who have followed my Twitter account, or even this blog, might notice I don't often get into topics of politics, religion, etc., if ever. There's a good reason for that: I don't ever intend to do so. That's not to say I haven't let little things slip every now and then, or there haven't been hints of my opinion towards certain topics, but by and large I've tried to avoid engaging in any sort of discussion that might cause people to foam at the mouth and go crawling up the walls. That's also not to say that I'm afraid of ticking people off (I have in the past), but there are some good reasons I've sought to avoid contention as much as I can.
As usual, let me clarify (as has to be done, because this is the internet) that I'm not trying to control people. Yes people are free to act however they pleased. I'm not saying you're any less of a person if you don't do things exactly the way I do.
That being said, here are some reasons I tend to avoid controversial topics on Twitter or this blog...
1) I don't have an interest in discussing politics on this account. Do I have political opinions? Sure. Do I have strong political opinions? Sure. But I made my Twitter/Gmail/Whatever-Else accounts for the specific reason of sharing my work, finding assistance from others, and interacting with readers and fellow authors alike. I'm not interested in spending all night debating about this topic or that. Frankly, I need to be in the right mood to have a detailed discussion on something. Otherwise, I'd rather just chat, joke, and assist fellow writers, and/or have a friendly conversation with my readers. If anything, that's what I enjoy about this account. It's the primary purpose. Some people, on the other hand, use their accounts in such a way that I want to tell them to just drop the author shtick and make themselves political activists.
2) My work should speak for itself. If anyone wants to know my opinion on a topic, then it's amazingly easy to find out. You can simply do one of two things: you can just ask me, or you can read my work. Obviously, every author's writings are influenced by their worldview, one way or another. That's not to say there aren't works that exist solely for exploring topics, or were written just for fun, but worldviews sneak in, one way or another. If you read enough of my work, you'll probably figure out pretty easily how I see the world, or at the very least have some taste of it.
3) I don't want my work connected to my opinion. Some people might contest my first reason by saying that people like J.K. Rowling or Stephen King get very political on their social media accounts. Keep in mind, however, authors like them already have an established fanbase. No, let me rephrase that: they already have an established cult of personality. Rowling or King could probably come out and deny the Holocaust, and you'd still have fans out there ready to defend them to the death over it. And if you deny that possibility, keep in mind that people like Roman Polanski or Woody Allen still have die-hard fans out there ready to defend them as great artists (heck, even some die-hard Michael Jackson fans were defending his "sexual choices" up until his death). I, on the other hand, don't have the cult of personality that Rowling, King, Polanski, Allen, Jackson, or loads of other artists out there have. I'm still fairly new to this scene. If I goof up early, it'll probably be what I'm marked by for the long-term, just as some people like Andrew Dobson or Chris-Chan have learned the hard way. Again, it's not that artists can't have opinions, but I don't want to be known as "that conservative author," "that liberal author," "that communist author," "that Libertarian author," etc.
4) I don't want to tempt myself. I've written before about authors who become drama llamas on social media because they follow or have followers who hold (GASP!) contrary opinion. My goal is to keep myself from falling into that same trap. It's not that I would easily succumb to it, but if I permitted myself to get too worked up over this conversation and that, it would become easier to get into that mindset. Right now I've gotten into a good personal habit of seeing a post that makes me want to begin a "well actually..." response, but in the end I simply pass by it. Combine with this the fact that a lot of people tend to get pretty nasty online when it comes to hot topics, and revert to insults and petty attacks rather than civil discussion - again, I just don't want to get myself involved in anything like that.
As usual, let me clarify (as has to be done, because this is the internet) that I'm not trying to control people. Yes people are free to act however they pleased. I'm not saying you're any less of a person if you don't do things exactly the way I do.
That being said, here are some reasons I tend to avoid controversial topics on Twitter or this blog...
1) I don't have an interest in discussing politics on this account. Do I have political opinions? Sure. Do I have strong political opinions? Sure. But I made my Twitter/Gmail/Whatever-Else accounts for the specific reason of sharing my work, finding assistance from others, and interacting with readers and fellow authors alike. I'm not interested in spending all night debating about this topic or that. Frankly, I need to be in the right mood to have a detailed discussion on something. Otherwise, I'd rather just chat, joke, and assist fellow writers, and/or have a friendly conversation with my readers. If anything, that's what I enjoy about this account. It's the primary purpose. Some people, on the other hand, use their accounts in such a way that I want to tell them to just drop the author shtick and make themselves political activists.
2) My work should speak for itself. If anyone wants to know my opinion on a topic, then it's amazingly easy to find out. You can simply do one of two things: you can just ask me, or you can read my work. Obviously, every author's writings are influenced by their worldview, one way or another. That's not to say there aren't works that exist solely for exploring topics, or were written just for fun, but worldviews sneak in, one way or another. If you read enough of my work, you'll probably figure out pretty easily how I see the world, or at the very least have some taste of it.
3) I don't want my work connected to my opinion. Some people might contest my first reason by saying that people like J.K. Rowling or Stephen King get very political on their social media accounts. Keep in mind, however, authors like them already have an established fanbase. No, let me rephrase that: they already have an established cult of personality. Rowling or King could probably come out and deny the Holocaust, and you'd still have fans out there ready to defend them to the death over it. And if you deny that possibility, keep in mind that people like Roman Polanski or Woody Allen still have die-hard fans out there ready to defend them as great artists (heck, even some die-hard Michael Jackson fans were defending his "sexual choices" up until his death). I, on the other hand, don't have the cult of personality that Rowling, King, Polanski, Allen, Jackson, or loads of other artists out there have. I'm still fairly new to this scene. If I goof up early, it'll probably be what I'm marked by for the long-term, just as some people like Andrew Dobson or Chris-Chan have learned the hard way. Again, it's not that artists can't have opinions, but I don't want to be known as "that conservative author," "that liberal author," "that communist author," "that Libertarian author," etc.
4) I don't want to tempt myself. I've written before about authors who become drama llamas on social media because they follow or have followers who hold (GASP!) contrary opinion. My goal is to keep myself from falling into that same trap. It's not that I would easily succumb to it, but if I permitted myself to get too worked up over this conversation and that, it would become easier to get into that mindset. Right now I've gotten into a good personal habit of seeing a post that makes me want to begin a "well actually..." response, but in the end I simply pass by it. Combine with this the fact that a lot of people tend to get pretty nasty online when it comes to hot topics, and revert to insults and petty attacks rather than civil discussion - again, I just don't want to get myself involved in anything like that.
Sunday, January 3, 2016
One of Those "Year in Review" Posts
Everybody does them, right? Especially authors. Especially Indie Authors. Why? Because we can.
And this is my blog, I can do what I want with it. Ha!
It's been a great year so far. Not only did I start publishing my own work, but I managed to get a few decent works out. What I got accomplished this year:
Here are my goals for 2016 thus far:
In the meantime, I'd like to thank all my blog readers, as well as those who read my work!
And this is my blog, I can do what I want with it. Ha!
It's been a great year so far. Not only did I start publishing my own work, but I managed to get a few decent works out. What I got accomplished this year:
- In April, after pushing back the release date for beta reading and editing, I finally published Gods on the Mountain, my first fantasy work featuring the characters Edmund the Enchanter and Diane the Dagger Maiden.
- In June, I published Raw Head, a novelette that was my first entry into the horror genre.
- In September, I published Daddy's Girl, a horror novella about a girl in college protected by the spirit of her deceased father.
- In October, I published The House That Homed, a comedy-horror novelette about a bunch of teenagers and addicts going into a haunted house.
Here are my goals for 2016 thus far:
- I intend to edit and publish my current horror work-in-progress, which most of my Twitter followers know is currently named Deadly Whispers (though this might change). It's already written, I just need to review it, get it edited and beta read, and then it should be good to go. I hope to do that within the next few months.
- I intend to finish and then publish the sequel to Gods on the Mountain, whose title will be released in the near future. I've written maybe 20% of it so far, and I hope to finish it, get it edited and beta read, then finally published by the middle-to-late of 2016.
Of course, those are my two main goals. There are other projects I have on the side, or that I'm working on when I'm in the mood. However, I do want to focus on getting those two accomplished.
In the meantime, I'd like to thank all my blog readers, as well as those who read my work!
Thursday, March 12, 2015
10 Favorite Screen Characters
I got tagged by CL Schneider to do a "10 Favorite Screen Characters" blog hop. Basically, list ten of your favorite characters from a movie or TV show. I'll put the people I tag on the Tweet for this post.
Now let's get down to it...in no particular order...
Now let's get down to it...in no particular order...
The Third Doctor (Original Doctor Who series)
 |
| "You, sir, are a nitwit!" |
Audrey II (Little Shop of Horrors)
 |
| "I'm a mean green mother from outer space!" |
Doc Holliday (Tombstone)
 |
| "I have not yet begun to defile myself." |
Number 5 (Short Circuit)
 |
| "Your mama was a snowblower!" |
Daniel Plainview (There Will Be Blood)
 |
| "Did you think your song and dance and superstition would help you, Eli?" |
Elsa (Frozen)
 |
| "Don't let them in, don't let them see..." |
Nabeshin (Excel Saga)
 |
| "It's Nabeshin!" |
Nekron (Fire and Ice)
 |
| "I must admit that until this moment the idea of mating with her filled me with loathing..." |
Theoden (Lord of the Rings Trilogy)
 |
| "So it begins..." |
Crow T. Robot (Mystery Science Theater 3000)
 |
| "Kids, today's word is booger!" |
Monday, December 29, 2014
Lo! A Blog Hop
Introduction
So I have been tagged in a blog hop by CL Schneider, over at her blog. Here is how it works, as she explained it:
1. I visited the Waterloo battlefield for my twelfth birthday.
Being a military brat, I grew up surrounded by a lot of military history books. So one day, when I was about ten or so, I started to read some of them. One of the first ones I read was The Limits of Glory by James McDonough. It was a book about the Battle of Waterloo done in the style of Michael Shaara's famous The Killer Angels. After reading it, I became an instant Napoleonic, and a lover of military history. Not too long after, my father was stationed in Germany, which meant I had access to a lot of foreign countries all along the border. One of them was Belgium, which was of course home to the Waterloo battlefield. So, for my twelfth birthday, my mom took myself and my sisters to Belgium, where we toured the battlefield, watched some light shows demonstrating the phases of the battle, and toured some of the nearby museums. It was definitely one of the best birthday experiences I've ever had. Some kids say they went to Chuck E. Cheese; how many could say they stood on the spot where Emperor Napoleon was decisively defeated and Europe was saved?
2. I am a huge Akira Kurosawa fan.
When I was thirteen, my dad showed me the movie Seven Samurai. I loved the movie, and it's one of the few films over three hours that I've watched many times over (the only other one probably being Gettysburg). I loved the movie so much, in fact, that I went out and looked for other films Kurosawa had done. I encountered Rashomon and Kagemusha, and after that I was hooked. This spring boarded me into other things: it was Kurosawa and his films which got me into studying Japanese history (especially the Sengoku Jidai), Japanese culture, and the Japanese language.
To this day, I have an extensive DVD collection of virtually all his films, as well as a few VHS tapes of those films not yet available on DVD. Kurosawa had a major impact on me in terms of visualization and how to make respectful filmmaking. I think it is also fascinating that he is one of the few filmmakers where you can see the growth of his persona from his earlier films (which were all about young earth shakers looking proudly to the future) and his later films (which were all about older characters looking mournfully back on "the good ol' days"). His films could be artistic without being indulgent, and could be emotional while being subtle. They have just as much an impact on me today as they did the first time I got into them.
3. I was present for the San Francisco earthquake of 1989.
The 1989 earthquake, made famous for taking place during the World Series, happened while my family was living there at the time. I've seen video of the earthquake on YouTube, and one thing I definitely do not remember is the earthquake building up so slowly. The way I remember it was I was in the living room with my mom, watching her play the original Zelda on NES (yes, my mom was a gamer, believe it or not - I think she beat most of our games). Suddenly, the house began to shake, and the TV went out. My mom and I rushed to the hallway, where we met my sisters, and we all huddled together while it went on. The funny thing was, in the midst of the house rocking back and forth and all this chaos, the only thing I remember thinking at the time was, "Oh no, the glasses in the kitchen are breaking!"
Thankfully, no one in my family was hurt, nor were any of our neighbors, and though we camped out that night, by the next morning it was clear that the house was safe, and we went back in without any problems.
4. I nearly died at birth.
When I was being born, the umbilical chord was wrapped around my head and arm. When they began to try to pull me out, the chord would wrap tighter, and cut off my breathing - as a result, my heartbeat would begin to slow down. The funny thing about all this was that no one noticed anything was wrong until a nurse happened to study the machine monitoring my heartbeat, and informed the doctor about it. In the end, my mom had to have a c-section.
5. For a brief period of my life, I was deathly afraid of the toilet.
When I was four-years old, I had a series of dreams in which the toilet, chanting "PEANUT BUTTER! PEANUT BUTTER!" came out of the bathroom and ate me. This was compounded with an incident where, hearing my own breath echoing off the bathroom walls, I mistook it for the toilet breathing. This convinced me, in my youthful imagination, that the toilet was not only alive, but out to get me!
Now some might ask here, "Did you stop using the toilet and go back to diapers?" No, not at all. If I had to do my business, I still went to the little boy's room. However, the minute I flushed, I would run like a bat out of hell out of the bathroom. Over time, I just grew out of this fear, and the toilet and I have had an understanding ever since. Also, don't ask me why the toilet was chanting peanut butter in my dream. To this day I have no idea. It is a hint at just how non sequitor my subconscious can be at times.
6. I have an unhealthy fascination with My Immortal.
For those who don't know, My Immortal is a Harry Potter fanfic written by a girl named Tara Gillespie, and is considered the worst fanfic ever written. No, really, it's that bad. It's basically about a Mary Sue character who is a goth vampire attending Hogwarts. While there, she engages in a relationship with Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter, then goes back in time to seduce Voldemort and hence keep him from becoming evil (I'm not making this up!). Everything about this fanfic is bad. Aside from the main character, who is obviously an author self-insert, virtually every aspect of the Harry Potter world is canon wrecked: Snape and Lupin are buddies; Draco Malfoy owns a flying car his father Lucian gave him; McGonagall is a villain; Umbridge and Fudge admit early on that Voldemort has returned and actively seek to stop him; the list goes on and on and on. Oh yeah, and Hedwig is transformed into a human who becomes Voldemort's bisexual lover. Did I happen to mention this fanfic has a lot of canon wrecking?
On top of this, the grammar problems make for some of the most humorous mistakes ever seen in literature. Tara warns readers that, due to the scariness of a certain chapter, viewer "excretion is advised." Snape's name is misspelled every possible way, including "Snake" and "Snoop". Lupin is described as "masticating" to a sexy video. I could literally write a book on all the grammar and spelling errors found within the forty-four chapters.
There is still debate to this day on whether Tara was writing seriously, or whether this was meant to be a trollfic. Either way, there is some level of brilliance seen in My Immortal, whether one wishes to attribute it to admiring a trollfic author's handiwork or reveling in schadenfreude. Yet despite myself, I cannot help but going back to it over and over again. The bad grammar, canon wreckage, and completely incompetent descriptions of sex ("he put his boy's thingy in mine" - let that sink in for a moment) make me literally L-O-L every single time.
If you want to know more about this fanfic, there's the My Immortal Wikia. I would also highly suggest the dramatic reading by LRMReading, who are three Scottish guys that read bad fanfiction - their reactions alone are worth the listen!
7. I currently have a side project to translate the Gospel of John into dovahzul.
Dovahzul is the dragon language found in the game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It entered my mind a while ago to attempt to translate the Gospel of John into Dovahzul (since they already have a Klingon project in the works for the whole Bible). It's an on again, off again project that I mostly do when I get bored and then remember that I started it
A friend also encouraged me to translate it into Dunmeri, but...first thing's first.
Blog Listing
As other people have said in regards to blog hops, I really don't follow too many blogs out there. So I'll just make a list of those that I'm familiar with in the indie writing world, with links to their blogs or websites:
CL Schneider
Adam Dreece
Jennie Davenport
Briana Morgan
SA Hunt
Willow Raven
My tagging will be done on Twitter.
So I have been tagged in a blog hop by CL Schneider, over at her blog. Here is how it works, as she explained it:
This blog hop is designed to show our readers a more personal side to ourselves. We've been challenged by another author/ blogger (somewhat like the 'ice bucket' challenge) to list seven interesting facts to help cast light onto that tough writer’s/blogger's persona we all like to project. But we want to show that behind every story is a story, our story, my story, and like everyone else I have dreams, hobbies, problems and goals. This blog hop is a way to share some of them with you, my readers.Now, without further ado, seven fun facts about me (in no particular order).
The rules are that I share 7 Lovely Facts about myself, and links to at least 15 blogs that I enjoy reading. If I’ve nominated your blog (see names below) please don’t feel any obligation to join in but, if you do, please link back to the blog of the person who nominated you...share facts about yourself and nominate 15 blogs (or as many as you can).
1. I visited the Waterloo battlefield for my twelfth birthday.Being a military brat, I grew up surrounded by a lot of military history books. So one day, when I was about ten or so, I started to read some of them. One of the first ones I read was The Limits of Glory by James McDonough. It was a book about the Battle of Waterloo done in the style of Michael Shaara's famous The Killer Angels. After reading it, I became an instant Napoleonic, and a lover of military history. Not too long after, my father was stationed in Germany, which meant I had access to a lot of foreign countries all along the border. One of them was Belgium, which was of course home to the Waterloo battlefield. So, for my twelfth birthday, my mom took myself and my sisters to Belgium, where we toured the battlefield, watched some light shows demonstrating the phases of the battle, and toured some of the nearby museums. It was definitely one of the best birthday experiences I've ever had. Some kids say they went to Chuck E. Cheese; how many could say they stood on the spot where Emperor Napoleon was decisively defeated and Europe was saved?
2. I am a huge Akira Kurosawa fan.
To this day, I have an extensive DVD collection of virtually all his films, as well as a few VHS tapes of those films not yet available on DVD. Kurosawa had a major impact on me in terms of visualization and how to make respectful filmmaking. I think it is also fascinating that he is one of the few filmmakers where you can see the growth of his persona from his earlier films (which were all about young earth shakers looking proudly to the future) and his later films (which were all about older characters looking mournfully back on "the good ol' days"). His films could be artistic without being indulgent, and could be emotional while being subtle. They have just as much an impact on me today as they did the first time I got into them.
3. I was present for the San Francisco earthquake of 1989.
The 1989 earthquake, made famous for taking place during the World Series, happened while my family was living there at the time. I've seen video of the earthquake on YouTube, and one thing I definitely do not remember is the earthquake building up so slowly. The way I remember it was I was in the living room with my mom, watching her play the original Zelda on NES (yes, my mom was a gamer, believe it or not - I think she beat most of our games). Suddenly, the house began to shake, and the TV went out. My mom and I rushed to the hallway, where we met my sisters, and we all huddled together while it went on. The funny thing was, in the midst of the house rocking back and forth and all this chaos, the only thing I remember thinking at the time was, "Oh no, the glasses in the kitchen are breaking!"
Thankfully, no one in my family was hurt, nor were any of our neighbors, and though we camped out that night, by the next morning it was clear that the house was safe, and we went back in without any problems.
4. I nearly died at birth.
When I was being born, the umbilical chord was wrapped around my head and arm. When they began to try to pull me out, the chord would wrap tighter, and cut off my breathing - as a result, my heartbeat would begin to slow down. The funny thing about all this was that no one noticed anything was wrong until a nurse happened to study the machine monitoring my heartbeat, and informed the doctor about it. In the end, my mom had to have a c-section.
When I was four-years old, I had a series of dreams in which the toilet, chanting "PEANUT BUTTER! PEANUT BUTTER!" came out of the bathroom and ate me. This was compounded with an incident where, hearing my own breath echoing off the bathroom walls, I mistook it for the toilet breathing. This convinced me, in my youthful imagination, that the toilet was not only alive, but out to get me!
Now some might ask here, "Did you stop using the toilet and go back to diapers?" No, not at all. If I had to do my business, I still went to the little boy's room. However, the minute I flushed, I would run like a bat out of hell out of the bathroom. Over time, I just grew out of this fear, and the toilet and I have had an understanding ever since. Also, don't ask me why the toilet was chanting peanut butter in my dream. To this day I have no idea. It is a hint at just how non sequitor my subconscious can be at times.
6. I have an unhealthy fascination with My Immortal.
For those who don't know, My Immortal is a Harry Potter fanfic written by a girl named Tara Gillespie, and is considered the worst fanfic ever written. No, really, it's that bad. It's basically about a Mary Sue character who is a goth vampire attending Hogwarts. While there, she engages in a relationship with Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter, then goes back in time to seduce Voldemort and hence keep him from becoming evil (I'm not making this up!). Everything about this fanfic is bad. Aside from the main character, who is obviously an author self-insert, virtually every aspect of the Harry Potter world is canon wrecked: Snape and Lupin are buddies; Draco Malfoy owns a flying car his father Lucian gave him; McGonagall is a villain; Umbridge and Fudge admit early on that Voldemort has returned and actively seek to stop him; the list goes on and on and on. Oh yeah, and Hedwig is transformed into a human who becomes Voldemort's bisexual lover. Did I happen to mention this fanfic has a lot of canon wrecking?
On top of this, the grammar problems make for some of the most humorous mistakes ever seen in literature. Tara warns readers that, due to the scariness of a certain chapter, viewer "excretion is advised." Snape's name is misspelled every possible way, including "Snake" and "Snoop". Lupin is described as "masticating" to a sexy video. I could literally write a book on all the grammar and spelling errors found within the forty-four chapters.
There is still debate to this day on whether Tara was writing seriously, or whether this was meant to be a trollfic. Either way, there is some level of brilliance seen in My Immortal, whether one wishes to attribute it to admiring a trollfic author's handiwork or reveling in schadenfreude. Yet despite myself, I cannot help but going back to it over and over again. The bad grammar, canon wreckage, and completely incompetent descriptions of sex ("he put his boy's thingy in mine" - let that sink in for a moment) make me literally L-O-L every single time.
If you want to know more about this fanfic, there's the My Immortal Wikia. I would also highly suggest the dramatic reading by LRMReading, who are three Scottish guys that read bad fanfiction - their reactions alone are worth the listen!
7. I currently have a side project to translate the Gospel of John into dovahzul.
Dovahzul is the dragon language found in the game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It entered my mind a while ago to attempt to translate the Gospel of John into Dovahzul (since they already have a Klingon project in the works for the whole Bible). It's an on again, off again project that I mostly do when I get bored and then remember that I started it
A friend also encouraged me to translate it into Dunmeri, but...first thing's first.
Blog Listing
As other people have said in regards to blog hops, I really don't follow too many blogs out there. So I'll just make a list of those that I'm familiar with in the indie writing world, with links to their blogs or websites:
CL Schneider
Adam Dreece
Jennie Davenport
Briana Morgan
SA Hunt
Willow Raven
My tagging will be done on Twitter.
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