Original Goals

Blog No. 191

I’m tired today—unbelievably tired. I haven’t felt this exhausted in a long time. I can’t even remember when I was this wiped out. It’s not like I did anything extraordinary. I have had a few nights that went later than usual (some my fault, a few definitely not) thought that’s not terribly unusual. Perhaps the number of night in a row has become abnormal, but they really weren’t so late. The heat has affected my sleeping, and I have been sleeping poorly on top of that (for reasons I’m not allowed to know apparently). There seems to be no end in sight (for either the lack of sleep, or today, which is dragging like one of those dredges, or maybe an anchor). I’m not sure what that has to do with anything other than it’s the most prominent thing in my life today. When you’re tired, everything else seems to fade a bit. The amount of red squiggly lines I’ve had to go back and correct is absurd.

Little Books

Blog No 156

Each week I sit down and write one of these blog posts. When I’m done (and it’s posted) I spend the time before the next one furiously brainstorming what to write about. Last week, due to the book I was given by my mother, I decided to write about book lengths. Instead I wrote about audio books, my mother, and a little about my brief time in another city. I don’t know how I got so far off track, but it happens, and I am happy with how that post turned out. Now I want to try again (this time more focused) and explore the topic of book lengths. I can only hope I manage to stay on track. You may need to check out the last post Thoughts about Books for this to make sense.

Currently I am working on the final layout issues of the short story collection that Christian and I are publishing. I’m also a third of the way through writing my first novel and picking away at a novella that I’m rewriting, hoping it will be the start of a series that has been on my mind for my years. They are all writing, but the lengths are very different and therefore they are written in different way. The story structure, the detail, and the plot vary greatly based on the length of each publication.

Thoughts about Books

Blog No. 155

Much of the following story has been told on this blog before, but it may have been a while ago, or you may have not read it, or you have and I’m telling it again anyway.

Some time ago I was in London Ontario for school. I was only there for eight months, but in that time I made some astounding discoveries. One of the greatest was audio books. I took the bus to campus most days. The school forced students to buy a bus pass and I wasn’t about to pay for a parking pass. I wasn’t overly experienced with riding the bus (coming from a family of drivers) but I was given a crash course. The first month or so I tried to read during the short trip. Sometimes it was things for school, but mostly it was for leisure. At every stop (and there were many) I would look up from my book and lose my place. I’m a slow reader naturally, so over the twenty minute ride, I wasn’t getting more than a page read, and being distracted at every stop wasn’t helping.

Collections and Lies

Blog No. 153

How tired are you of hearing about this, so-called Collection, that Christian and I have been yammering on about for the last year and a bit? If you are as done with it as I am, get ready to be exasperated, because that book is done and ready to print! Boom! What started as a lark back is 2014 will be out before the end of 2015 and it will be spectacular. Don’t believe me? The title is No Light Tomorrow. How does that strike your fancy? Still not convinced? It’s over 30 000 words spread across six stories written by two authors! You know, a short story collection. You want more? The cover was designed by an actual graphic designer and approved by none other than the authors themselves. Even better, it will mark the first book released by the newly formed Adventure Worlds Press, a publisher in name only dedicated to printing whatever Christian and I want and nothing else. How exciting is that? If your answer was ‘very’ that this collection is right for you, and we want you to get excited.

To recap some of what has happened up till now, back in the distant era of 2014, somewhere near the beginning of that fretful year (fretful being used for dramatic purposes only) two authors, Christian Laforet and Ben Van Dongen, were sitting in a coffee shop, working on their writing and discussing the future. What you will see next is a dramatic retelling of the situation and has little to no bearing on the actual past and does a terrible job representing both the individuals included in the story and the situation as a whole.