Blog No. 309
Last weekend was BookFest 2018. While I didn’t have time to be on the committee this year, they were nice enough to invite me to be a host for one of the panels. It’s not a glamorous job, but it can be an important one. Mostly you are just there to give pertinent information and pull the plug if they go over time. Since they are sometimes back to back, they had me clear the room too. Once the panel was over, I hung around and tried to help out where I could (but other than move some boxes, I mostly just got in the way). It’s a very stressful and exciting time for the organizers. For me, it was interesting and fun. I think I lucked out and got the best panel too. Everyone involved in the festival is welcoming and excited about the event. They mostly want people to come and enjoy it and take part in everything. Even with just my small part, I was invited to everything. Continue reading “BookFest 2018 (and FAHF)”
I was hoping to be able to say that I was finished the first draft of The Neon Heart by this post, but as you can guess, I’m not quite there yet. I’ve been getting some really good writing in with a couple of regular meetings with Christian each week, but with a load of other things on my plate (surprise, surprise) and some bad habits from another summer of slacking, I haven’t quite gotten there yet. One of the reasons is that the story is getting a bit longer than anticipated. Not by much, but when I started, I was planning on somewhere between thirty and thirty-five thousand words. the first draft is going to be more than that, but that’s a good thing. The story is dictating the length and the extra word count gives me more room to cut in the edits. It does mean that I’m not finished, though. I would have liked to be finished by now. 
I can’t remember if I’ve been to Kitchener before. I know I’ve driven past it on the 401, I think I’ve driven through it before, and I know I have definitely been to Guelph. Last weekend was my first time spending any time in Kitchener. Usually, when I’m in another city for an event, there isn’t much time to do anything other than sit at the table (and occasionally check out other vendors) and grab a bite to eat before crashing at the hotel. Getting to do other things in the city is almost always a no go. There just isn’t enough time and often not enough money after paying for the table cost, hotel, gas, and food. There were a bunch of things happening in Kitchener, like the famous Oktoberfest, and while I didn’t get a chance to attend those festivities, I certainly felt the impact. Sadly, it was negative in nature.
Last night was the Third ChiSeries Windsor of the year. It’s the sixth that we’ve had overall, though there was some confusion on why we only did three last year. The answer is because we were invited to start hosing locally after the time the first one would have been. Normally, I write up a perspective post about the event, assuming everything is going to be super-awesome-rad, but I have other things I think can fill a post, so I’m going to try and leave it for next week and see how much I can remember. I still think it’s going to be a good night. I wouldn’t be able to suffer through the disappointing events if I didn’t. We have three great authors (two I know are good people and I assume the third is as well) and the musician is not only a nice guy, but he’s really good at the music stuff too. With that out of the way, I’ll move on the the topic of this post. A good, old fashioned update. 
I’m not sure where to start this week. I don’t think there is anything new to tell you, but, maybe some things have new information (or deserve to be said again). I’m a little hesitant since I’m not sure if I’m just boring people with the same stuff over an over again, or if I somehow (with my magic powers of creativity) make the mundane aspects of my life remotely interesting. Or I could just be screaming into a vacuum like so many others. Either way, my first audience for everything I do is me, and I like to do this every week because sometimes just writing about what’s going on (even if it’s the same things all the time or just reminders about upcoming events) helps me get my head around stuff. That’s a pretty valuable tool. I suppose I’ll just do what I always do and meander on for a while until I get sick of reading my own words and come to some stagnate conclusion. At least on Tuesday evening I went writing after work. 
I don’t know how I did it, but I’m taking credit! The temporary autumn weather is totally because of last week’s post! I know Summer is likely to rear it’s humid head at least once more this year, but I’m enjoying every second of this cool, dreary, damp weather. Right up my alley. It’s perfect for going for a walk, reading under a blanket, or staying inside a coffee shop writing the book you should have had finished at the beginning of Summer. Speaking of which, I sat down for the first time in a long time and just did some writing the other day. I did it the next day too, but getting to work on days off it easy. I’m finding it harder to get the writing in after a long day at work. Baby steps, right? 