Thanks for the Leap Year

Blog No. 376

I blew it. As I write this, it’s February 4th and I still have five chapters to finish for the fourth draft of Broadcast Wasteland. I have exactly two months to have the book in my hand (one of them being a short month) and the next step relies on other people. That’s not a dig on working with others. We have all had terrible group projects in school or work assignments that have required us to deal with terrible partners. In this case, the other people are all trustworthy, reliable, and give valuable feedback. The issue I have is time. I have to get the book to the printer (talk about reliability issues) by mid March at the latest (very, absolute, definite latest) if I have any chance of getting copies for the April 4th launch.

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.

Update

Blog No. 180

The other night I was in the car with my brother as he drove us to our weekly class at Boarder City Boxing Club. I made note that I didn’t have anything to write about for this week’s blog. Undeterred, he offered several suggestions that I summarily shot down with little thought.

“Why not write about us boxing?” he asked.

“I’ve already talked about it, besides, we’re not really boxing, just conditioning.”

“We’ve started playing Resident Evil 5. You can talk about that.”

“Sure, but Christian is doing this whole horror videogames thing on his blog and the last one was all Resident Evil.” (christianlaforet.com/2016/04/27/digital-death-part-2/)

“Gee man (paraphrasing). I don’t know then.”

“Meh. Thanks for the help, but I think I’ll just do an update. I’m due for one anyway.”

Unintentional March Break

Blog No. 174

Last week we a flurry of activity coming of the super successful weekend Christian and had, everything was moving forward—until it wasn’t. I’m not sure how it happened. (I’m never quite sure how it happens). For some reason, I just stopped working. Progress was good, spirits were high, the intentions were there, then (poof) nothing. It seems to be a disturbing trend. Whenever I’m feeling good, or successful, I totally slack off and throw it all to the winds. It’s not a conscious thing, there are just a lot of video games I want to play and TV I need to watch. If I add on real responsibilities to that, nothing gets done and I have only a few thousand words to show for all that time.

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.

Mad At Last Night Ben

Blog No. 170

            Ever since I wanted to write (even before I did anything about it) there was always a long list of stories I planned to finish. Some of them were going to be comics, or films, or both, then books, stories, novels, or television shows. Sometimes it wavered between several. The point being, I had (and still have) a bunch of stories I want to write. Magically (through the art of hard work and tons of support) I have written some of those stories. Some of them have even turned out well. It’s amazing what a little work and consistency can do. Currently my list of projects (currents and forthcoming) is short. While I want to get to everything eventually, I have to be practical. I have four projects I want to finish this year (if not more, but probably less). Two of those I am currently working on and feel like I should do some kind of an update thing. (If for no other reason than to keep myself accountable).

The Storm

Blog No. 169

I tend to start writing these on Tuesdays. It gives me time to explore what I want to write about, and I can scrap the whole things and start over when I’m not happy with it. This morning, I was sitting in anchor, sipping a coffee before heading to work. I was thinking about the weekend and what I’d like to post this week. Obviously I want to mention Syndicon. I could also talk about my current struggles with keeping up the daily work count. There are editing and Adventure World things I should mention, along with the next event on the docket. But really, I’m just tired and I want to go to bed. I can’t do that though, so I’ll mention little bits of a bunch of those things, or not. Let’s see.

I Miss Writing

Blog No. 160

The collection, No Light Tomorrow, is finally at the printers. After months of hard work, it is out of my hands and (though there were expected hiccups) the sample copy is on the way (or here by the time you read this) and everything is on track for a release event. By the way, unless something drastic happens, the release party will be January 9^th though the place is too be determined. We’ll make some serious announcements when a few more things are settled. Also, keep an eye out for poster plastered around the city, a facebook event, sky writing, carrier pigeons, and, if he got our lists, invitations delivered by Santa.

Halloween Hangover

Blog No. 154

It’s a strange thing, what time does to us. I’m not afraid of age. I don’t worry about getting older (outside of the efforts I make to get healthy). I quite enjoy the age I am and, while I’m terrified of being elderly, (I don’t think I’ll be in very good shape by then) I wouldn’t go back to my twenties if I could. I would love to be able to tell 20-year-old Ben to get off his ass, but that’s something different. Time soldiers on even when we aren’t paying attention. In the same way, life changes, but being in the middle of it, it often goes unnoticed (at least for me). The one day, you find yourself handing out Halloween candy, watching old episodes of Venture Bros. and wondering what time you’re going to get up for your day off the next morning. 

A Blister in an Odd Place

Blog No. 148

The other day I woke up with a blister running around the back of my right heel. It runs in a relatively straight line, about a quarter inch thick, and it hurts when I walk. I’m sitting at my computer right now, so it’s not really an issue, besides, after a couple days the process (whatever it may be) has started to eliminate it (or shrink or whatever happens to blisters when you don’t pop them). I’m not a stranger to blisters. As a youth playing hockey (often using the hand-me-downs of two older brothers) I would start each season with a vast collection in many interesting spots, but never on the back of me heel (that I can remember). How my parents managed three boys in hockey at the same time, I’ll never know, but the blisters, I know very well.