Ben VS the Uncommon Cold

Blog No. 206

I work up on Sunday morning and knew something wasn’t right. My weekend had been the culmination of two solid weeks of work (no time off for good behaviour, or writing). Lots of terrible thing happened that had no choice but to be dealt with. Friday night was seven hours of crap that stuck to me through Saturday morning for my back-to-back shifts. While I managed to get a solid chunk of text written Friday morning, nothing was getting done on Saturday. As soon as I got home from my thankfully easier shift (minus having to mop the floors as the cleaners failed to do for the umpteenth time) I took a much needed nap and prepped all my stuff for Sundays RetroRama. No time for love Doctor Jones. I did my best to get to bed early Saturday night, knowing what was in store for me.

Dinosaurs and Pirates

Blog No. 186

Last weekend was my Birthday. Since I had the weekend off (it’s the slow time at work) I decided to see if my friend (whose birthday is a few days before mine, making him old) was free for me to go and visit. Many moons ago, when we were both in high school, we often had a double birthday bash. It was much easier back then because we lived in the same city, had the same group of friends, and both of us were childless and unmarried. It’s a bit challenging when he has moved to Toronto, has a wife, and is raising his six-month-old child. Challenging, but not impossible.

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.

The Second Time is never the same

Blog No. 142

I am a big fan of the book Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline. I wouldn’t call it my favourite, but I do like it enough to have given it two reviews on this blog in the past. It’s a fun ride that swerves sharply down memory lane. Highly praised and being adapted into a Stephen Spielberg film, I don’t really need to go into too much detail about it. The second offering from the author is called Armada. It has been out for a couple of weeks and even before it was finished, the movie rights were snatched up. Excitement has been rising since the book’s announcement shortly after the publication of Ready Player One. Everything was pointing to Armada being another fun, reference laden sci-fi story. I expected to love it, ordered it as a hard cover, and waited eagerly for it to arrive.

Overly Critical

Blog No. 140

Some time ago I was on a website (either Reddit or Imger, I can’t remember) and I saw a post about someone giving away digital copies of his book. At the time, I couldn’t decide if it was a good idea or not. There was something about it that didn’t feel right (and I don’t mean the three different fonts on the cover). I’m starting to think, now, that the idea was good (why not give away some digital books for free advertising) but I there was something off-putting about the execution. The post was self deprecating, disparaging, and melancholy. It was a woe-is-me, nobody loves me, cry for attention that left a sour taste in my mouth. I can understand being discouraged. Writing is hard, selling what you’ve written is harder, but trying to guilt me into reading your book (or maybe just spilling your sad sack guts on the internet) is a turn off. But hey, a free book is a free book.

Editing is Hard

Blog No. 123

One of the major parts of my writing day is looking at other people’s stories and giving them an edit. Often I’ll catch a couple of typos, notice some structural weak spots and grammar mistakes, and make a bunch of suggestions on how I think the story could be improved. The things I notice jump off the page (fresh from the pile of new story elements I learned about) and if the story is well written, I can be done a couple thousand words in half an hour (extrapolate for longer stores, chapters etc). Sometimes there is a lot more to point out and the task becomes an arduous task filled with long winded explanations and edits based on assumptions and what I know about the author, but usually things go smoothly. If I can avoid supplanting the writer’s voice with my own, I find I add something to the story, helping the author and learning something about my own writing in the process.

Rereading Ready Player One

Blog No. 100

Fanfare, celebration, cheers, high-five’s all around! Something amazing has happened and it’s at the top of the post. I have somehow managed to write 100 of these posts, ranging from barely passable to really not bad. I’d even say I had at least a couple goods too. I’m proud of myself and I’m not all that ashamed because it’s a really accomplishment for me. Sticking with this for so long, so regularly – no small feat for someone with my lack of sticktoitiveness. But again, like always, I am off topic right from the start (the way I like it).