An Update Worth Sharing

Blog No. 278

I find myself in the rare position where I have more than one thing to talk about and I didn’t have to scramble to find a topic this week. As it turns out, if I tantalize people with the idea of images of me looking like a dork, they all want to see them. Last week, I didn’t have those images, but now I do. If you are just reading the teaser, you have to click on the whole article to see the pictures. I buried them further down. That’s called strategy. The image you see up here is actually from the Chapter’s signing I did with Christian over the weekend. Turns out that when the sun is shining at it’s St. Patrick’s Day, the mall isn’t very busy.

In-Action!

Blog No. 274

Action! 2018 is over, leaving me a little more at ease with the rest of my scheduled events (which can be found on the event page). Up next I have a signing at Chapters on March 17th, but that’s a ways away. If you can’t wait to get a copy of All These Crooked Streets (and I don’t blame you if you can’t) you can get them at Chapters Devonshire and Anchor Coffee House on Huron Line. They are likely going to be in Biblioasis soon too. As for me, I’m going to be spending the time getting The Thinking Machine out and working on the next novella that I hope to have out in June. There are some other minor writing projects I want to (and some I have to) get done in the middle somewhere, but they can take a back seat for now.

Action!

Blog No. 273

The first target date for the release of The Thinking Machine is this weekend, and I totally blew it. Not only am I nowhere near ready to release the book, I haven’t finished editing it yet. Nowhere near may be too harsh, but from where I’m sitting, it seems farther away than I expected. I have myself to blame (as always). I had a terrible December for productivity and that was on top of a pretty terrible year as a whole. I just sucks to go gung-ho into a new year (fervently trying to shake off the negativity of the last year) an to fall flat on my face out the gate. I still hope to have it out soon, but there is no way I’ll have it out by the Action! Con.

2018

Blog No. 266

Writing is a lonely task. Most of the time, it doesn’t bother me. I don’t tend to get lonely very often, and even just watching a movie, reading a book, or spending time online can usually cure me. Even when I’m sitting alone, writing, most of the time I’m peachy keen. I think the reason why I like to write out of the house (and why I’m more productive there too) is because I’m surrounded by people, even if it’s all superficial. It’s strange, though, because I tend to hate people. I prefer to be at Anchor, surrounded by friends and interesting people, but in a pinch, Tims can do the trick. While I’m writing (as when I’m reading a good book) I completely disappear into the world. I’m totally immersed. It’s often a good ride, but once in a while, the loneliness hits and I really don’t want to sink into that world. 

Multi-Topic (Because one wasn’t enough)

Blog No. 196

The last few weeks have been stuffed full of tasks needing my attention. More than writing or publishing, I’ve had work, family, and general domestic responsibilities come home to roost. I’m not sure if any one of them is worthy of being a blog post on its own, but perhaps together they can make up the approximation of one. As usual, I’m not necessarily sure where I’m going from here. It may just be a list of stuff I’ve been doing (not including all the slacking off I manage to fit in throughout the week. But that could be fun right?

Even the Smaller Ones

Blog No. 195

Last weekend I was invited to Essex for a Farmer’s Market. Initially, Christian and I thought we were going to be at the Busker’s Festival in Walkerville, but that fell through. Somehow, as if by magic, the organizer of the Farmer’s Market called up Christian, asking if we’d like to get a table there. I’m not sure how things work out like that some times, but it seems to happen a lot with us. We’ll be wondering what to do in the coming month and be invited to an event, or another author will tell us about something we haven’t heard of yet. Most of the events are small, but that doesn’t matter much. Sometimes it’s nice to have an easy day filled with nice people.

London Nerves

Blog No. 181

One of the banner images at the top of my page (the ones that change when you reload it) is a snow-scape taken from the balcony of my tiny apartment when I was living in London Ontario. It was several years ago now, and I was only there for eight months for school, but it was a very formative time in my life, so it’s really stuck with me. I even talk to people like I know London like the back of my hand, but, while I’m acquainted with the place, I realize I will never know it like someone who was born there or lives there. Still, I have the lay of the land and a few potent memories that stick out above the jumbled mess in my head.

Daylight Saving Time is a Jerk

Blog No. 173

Daylight savings sucks. What the heck world (or at least countries who follow the archaic rule). There has been study after study about how daylight savings is a bad thing. Productivity goes down, accidents go up, people are inevitably late (or early depending on the season) and sleep cycles are put out of whack for weeks if not longer. It costs money and I believe it shortens people’s lives. And for what? An extra hour of sunlight? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for that sunlight, but at what cost? Besides, it’s already been figured out that we’d get the benefits of the time shift all year. So why only do it in the summer? Let’s make this switch our last and stay at the hour ahead forever.

The Weekend of Firsts

Blog No. 172

A few years ago (as documented in the deep bowels of this blog) I worked at Chapters. Initially, it was a love affair for the ages. Raises came quickly, the people were great, and I was surrounded by books. For a university list student, it was great. Eventually, all things must end, and my time at Chapters did just that. I moved on and (a little while later) started down the road of writing, perusing my dream of becoming a working writer, free from the shackles of any job, be it book based or otherwise.

During my time at Chapters, there were a few things that constantly ran through my mind. Gee, some of these books are terrible, how did they get published? Even I can write something that bad. Why aren’t I writing? And the big, Wow, some of these authors who come in to do singings are just people. I’m people. Why not me? There were other thoughts, but they mostly revolved around lunch and when my next break was. The pertinent ones are those first italicised thoughts. In January, a few years after leaving Chapters, I fulfilled the first of those quests. My book was published (by Christian and me) and it was put on the shelf in Chapters. Now, Saturday in fact (from 1pm to 4pm to be precise) I will be doing my first Chapter signing.

The Sickness

Blog No. 171

Over the last week or so, I have spent a bunch of days sick in bed (or on the couch). As is common knowledge, being sick sucks. It’s a big pain in the back side. The biggest issue I’ve had is the lack of productivity (other than the pain, maybe). Just last week, I had that boastful post about writing a novella, and I am no further along that I was. That also sucks. I’ve also not done any edits, or, oddly, much reading. To top it all off, spending so much time lying around has put my back out of sorts. Big, big pile of suck.