It’s supposedly the end of the world and once again I’m disappointed. That may sound odd but well, I’m bored with the way things are and have been going for quite some time. I’m a big fan of shaking things up and a little death and destruction is the perfect way to do that. I think it’ll keep the human race as a whole on it’s toes.
It’s also the holiday season, another reason to wish for the end of everything Read the rest of this entry
I’m torn today, on the one hand I was going to blog about how the third book is coming along. On the other, the protests and violence in the middle east has reached a fever pitch and looks to get worse before it gets better. As well as the fact that our own political election seems to be tearing the country apart, making me wonder if this will or how long before this leads to violence here as well.
I’ve been trying to use social media more to get my name out there. Not sure if it’s working but I’m at just about 100 followers on Twitter and I think I may be addicted to it. Not because it’s awesome or a lot of fun by any stretch of the imagination. Mostly, because I get emails telling me someone new is following me or someone responded to something I wrote and that’s kind of exciting. I use Facebook as well but That’s old hat for me now . 🙂 I will say this about twitter the 140 is way too short for my long winded ass.
On another note I’ve had some really positive feed back on both books 1 and 2 lately. I’m positive I didn’t fix all the grammar issues with book 1 but I may have fixed enough that it’s not noticeable unless you’re looking for it. (please don’t go looking for it now, thanks) Got a nice four star review which was one line. To me that’s perfect. BAM I liked it a lot here 4 stars! Perfect review in my eyes. Also had a couple people tell me in person that they couldn’t put it down which was very nice to hear. Not sure if they’re saying it to be nice but it’s great to hear anyway, plus they finished it in like two days so they may have enjoyed it. 🙂
On an actual writing note I started jumping around a bit and began writing a part that I knew i wanted but didn’t know WHERE I wanted it. It seems to be turning out pretty well so far, I’m about 3000 words into that section so it’s coming along. I don’t usually write that way but I needed to slow down a bit and figure out where I was going with the main story so I figured writing this section might clear that up a bit. So far it hasn’t but the fog may be lifting a bit.
Just wanted to toss out a little update. Now back to work with me.
Hope you all had a great labor day weekend!
Don
The other day I brought back a character that I introduced in book 1 but didn’t use at all in book 2. I’m not sure how I’m planning on using this person yet but it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. I also created three new characters yesterday while I was writing. They were needed addition since I’ve killed off a number of other characters over the course of two books. I have a better sense of what these characters are going to be doing but still not sure how it will all turn out.
I keep getting angry at myself for not having a more complete outline of this new book. I do have one I swear. It’s kind of vague and has such great headings as Middle, I’m not sure but there may not be anything written under middle… I’m bad at outlines. It seems that I’m also bad at pre planning my books. I’d like to be better at it, much better at it, but at this moment I just don’t seem to be. It doesn’t seem to slow me down much though. I mean it may not seem great compared to big name writers but a book a year for the last two years and another on the way maybe by years end, seems pretty kick ass to me. Maybe on those days when I get stuck I’ll pull out the outline and work on that instead… hmm that could be a good idea!
Then again do I really want to mess with what’s been working so far? I sat down the other day with absolutely no clue on what to write and came up with the three new characters and how they came to be. Maybe I’ll work on trying to combine a little more planning with a tad less spontaneity.
have a great night all, back to work for me!
Don
Book 2 is now up on Amazon for kindle. The paperback version takes a bit to catch up so that should be up sometime in the next couple days. In the meantime it can be found in paperback at createspace.com for $7.99. Barnes and Noble seems to be taking a bit longer with the nook version but it will be up there as well as soon as it’s ready.
It’s funny I was so anxious for the last couple days and today it’s here and now I’m looking around like what the fuck? I think I may have been over prepared because now I’m sitting around checking off my list of places to post it and I’m already done and it’s not even noon. This was much more difficult and time consuming the first time around. If I got that much better at this part of it I can only pray that my writing got that much better the second time around… Probably not but one can dream. 🙂
Anyway I guess this frees up a bit of time to go mow the lawn or something else that seems not as fun.
Enjoy your weekend all and don’t forget to pick up Book 2!
Don
P.S. Oh yeah, book 1 is free this weekend on kindle as well. If you haven’t picked that up do that as well!
I took the weekend off from writing and spent four glorious days in Booth bay Harbor Maine. I had never been up there before and it was beautiful! if you’ve never been I’d highly recommend it. We stayed in a little cabin on the coast and woke up every morning to ocean views and fresh air (which tends to make you very sleepy and unusually hungry!)
While I was up there I did a lot of driving around and it is an amazing mixture or rural Maine and coastal Maine. Basically there is lots of trees and dirt roads mixed with lots of lobster and fishing villages, how can you go wrong?
The food was amazing. i think I managed to cram almost all the types of seafood they have into one meal or another. Had haddock, scallops, lobster, and clams… think I may have passed on the shrimp this time and I didn’t have any oysters. Ah well, maybe next trip. All in all it was a very relaxing weekend and a place that I would love to go back to sometime soon.
I’m home again now though and that means that there is work work work to be done. I’m getting ever closer to the end of the second book and I’m hoping to have it finished (the writing part) by the end of June. A big thank you to everyone that has picked it up so far and to all that hopefully will in the future!
Just a little note here at the end. I heard a story today about an old man being kicked out of a Barnes and Noble because they have a policy of not allowing men to shop or hang out in there children’s section alone. He was shopping for his grand kids who live in another state, but that is neither here nor there. It is disgusting to think that any man who is in a children’s section alone must be a pedophile. I know that if it had been me they would have had to call the police to drag me out kicking and screaming. I am a lot of things but to assume that any man would hurt a child just because they are alone in a children’s section of a store is ridiculous beyond reasoning. If someone is that worried that their precious snowflake is going to be stolen or hurt they should lock them in a vault at home, or at the very least maybe keep an eye on their own kid instead of some old man harmlessly talking on a cell phone for a minute.
Oh, and when last I checked B&N has apologized to the man, which I hope is cheerfully refused by his lawyers that he then sues their asses off with. Good luck old man, whoever you are.
Anyway, back to work, enjoy your night!
Don
Today I read a yahoo news story about how people saw a plane, not a meteor, flying over Texas a couple days ago. I looked at the picture that yahoo had available and zoomed in on it with photoshop and low and behold there was no plane there to be seen. The contrail from said plane as well looked nothing like any other contrail from a plane that I have seen either. Now, I’m not an expert in planes but even from a quick glance at the photo on the story I could see it wasn’t a plane.
I also read the comments left by people on the story and a few of them lived in Texas and supposedly saw the incident and seem to be completely convinced that it was NOT a plane as the government claims. Have to say I’m gonna side with the comment leavers and say that it was NOT a plane. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this kind of thing though… Which brings me to the point of today’s post.
When I was a lot younger I heard a story which gave me the inspiration for my book After the Storm. Scientists had reported that they had been studying a meteor for the last ten years and after going over the numbers again and again they were sure that it was indeed going to hit the planet Earth in about 17 years. They made their announcement and it was covered by the news media for a day or so.
It got pretty good coverage actually, and a couple days after it was announced that the scientists were actually wrong and the meteor was definitely NOT going to hit us at all and that it would miss us by more than a million miles. Seems pretty odd that these experts in their field could study something for so long and be off by so much, and then suddenly discover their mistake AFTER they announced it. Seems really odd to me, actually it sounds really fishy to be honest. Well, truth be told it sounds like an out and out lie but i was trying to be nice.
A few weeks later I remember mentioning it to someone and they told me that I was crazy and that they had never said it was going to hit us just that it was going to barely miss us. I then went to some other friends and brought it up to them and they agreed with the first friend. After that I went to outside sources and could find no trace of the story and bringing it up to people that I didn’t know. Some of them vaguely remembered but for the most part I got the same reaction as my friends.
Now, I’m not saying people are stupid, well I’m trying not to say it anyway, but i find it odd that people only hear what they want to and only listen to sound bites. i find it kind of sad actually that no matter how hard you try and get someone to listen, most never do.
The same thing happened during 9-11 I was watching the coverage in a hospital waiting room and heard that one plane had refused to answer radio calls and that fighter jets had been scrambled to intercept. a few minutes later that jet “mysteriously crashed in a field in Pennsylvania and the feds were on the scene and had it roped off before the media got there and didn’t allow any footage to be filmed. Now, that one I understand because the “right” thing to do was to shoot the plane down before it took out the white house or whatever target they were aiming at and possibly killing thousands of people. I do get that the american public isn’t and probably never will be ready to accept that we shot our own plane down but they didn’t need to try and make heroes out of the poor people that died on that plane. I don’t mean this to be inflammatory it is just another example I remember of this kind of thing happening.
I do apologize if I just offended anyone it was not my intention, I just really dislike my government lying to me and the rest of the public and treating us like we are idiots. If they don’t want us to know something they should just outright say we aren’t telling you. I am perfectly fine with the ” We can’t tell you because it’s a matter of national security.” line, If I don’t need to know then I don’t need to know, but please don’t treat me like I’m an idiot.
Well, it isn’t but I wish it was. Funny how many odd looks I get when I say that around some people, but it’s the truth. I really do wish for the end of civilization as we know it. Now you may shake your head in disbelief or gasp at such a horrible thing, because what would the world be without the internet or starbucks or laws for civilized folks to follow or a government to tell us how to act or protect us from blah blah blah…. You know what it would be ? Nirvana, Valhalla, Heaven, call it whatever word for paradise you choose, that’s what it would be for me.
Now I’m sure there are some out there that are like but what if you didn’t have all these great medical leaps to keep you alive and healthy or these hospitals close by in case of an emergency? I’d die, and that’s OK, because with or without them, I’m gonna die someday anyway, we all are. Wait, but what about the government to protect us and keep us safe? I haven’t needed them yet and most of them are corrupt and make too many stupid laws because people are either too stupid to have common sense or too afraid to stand up for themselves. I on the other hand try to be neither of these things so I see no need for the government or the silly laws they impose on the stupid or cowardly. Nor do I need them to protect me I’d be fine with protecting myself and if I don’t then so be it.
I guess I was just born a few hundred years too late, because to be completely honest I find most of what we call life these days to be boring, tiresome, unhealthy, and down right dishonorable or despicable. people keep telling me that I’m crazy to want to be rid of all these “Incredible” modern conveniences and I keep wondering why I keep talking to sheep.
Truth be told I am not the most in shape of people or one of these healthy lifestyle folks either, but it is because of this “civilized” culture that I am the way I am. Please also understand that I am not blaming the things around me I am just saying that because everything is easy it has made me and most of us incredibly lazy and out of shape compared to previous generations like my grandfather’s era . The older I get the more I understand how much I have let myself down in not taking better care of myself and am trying to rectify said situation, so that if I am lucky enough to see the end of this civilization I will be in good enough shape to survive long enough to enjoy and take advantage of it.
Oh, and if it turns out that I am not fit enough to survive it that is OK as well, it really is.
I truly have not been trying to preach nor do I want to tell anyone how to live their lives. The thoughts above are how I see the world and why I write the post apocalyptic stories that I do. I was just trying to give folks a glimpse into the way my mind works. Hope it was at least enjoyable and maybe even a little thought provoking.
Have a great day!
Don