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#GiveThanks Day Three

(30) My wife posted today that she’s grateful for Tillamook Mudslide ice cream. So am I!

(31) I’m grateful for the original Star Wars series for cultivating within me a deep and lifelong love for science fiction.

(32) I’m grateful for Michael Ende and his magnificent book The Neverending Story, which remains my favorite novel of all time, and showed me as a child just how powerful and moving a book can be.

(33) I’m grateful for Madeline L’Engle and A Wrinkle in Time for helping me to realize that one day, I would be a writer.

(34) I’m grateful for Ursula K. Le Guin and her masterful book The Dispossessed for showing me how the written word can make you feel you understand a fictional character from a completely alien culture better than you understand yourself.

(35) I’m grateful for Orson Scott Card and Ender’s Game for keeping me up until 4am and giving me one of the most incredible reading experiences of my life.

(36) I’m grateful for David Gemmell and his Drenai Series for moving me to tears with the inspiring heroism of his characters.

(37) I’m grateful for my childhood teachers who encouraged me to read and instilled in me a love of reading.

(38) I’m grateful for Terry Pratchett and his wonderfully entertaining Discworld books, which definitely helped me to become a funnier person.

(39) I’m grateful for Paperback Swap, which has been a wonderful tool for swapping books and building my personal library.

(40) I’m grateful for all of the wonderful books I have yet to discover.

(41) I’m grateful for Goodreads for helping me to organize and keep track of the books that I read, and to set reading goals.

(42) I’m grateful for the ability that I have to blog about my writing and my reading, something that didn’t really exist until just a couple of decades ago.

(43) I’m grateful for NaNoWriMo and the encouragement that it gives all of us to write things we didn’t think that we could.

(44) I’m grateful for Brandon Sanderson, his wonderful books, the positive influence that he is on the fantasy genre, and for the class he taught at BYU that both I and my wife were privileged to be able to take (though we didn’t know each other at the time).

#GiveThanks Day Two

(15) I am grateful for my American heritage, and the rights and freedoms that I am able to enjoy because of that.

(16) I am grateful to have access to many good books, more than I can possibly read in one lifetime.

(17) I am grateful that my copy of Destroyer of Worlds by Larry Correia came in the mail today!

(18) I am grateful to live close to the Orem Library, which really is a first rate library with a great staff and an excellent selection of books.

(19) I am grateful for the two mature apple trees in our backyard and the fruit that they give us.

(20) I am grateful that we have space for a garden and were able to have an excellent harvest this year.

(21) I am grateful for the art that hangs over my computer, which my sister painted back in high school:

(22) I am grateful for my nieces and nephews and the chance to be a good uncle to them—also, that one of them considers me her favorite uncle!

(23) I am grateful for the mountains that surround the valley I live in, and the many opportunities I’ve had to climb them.

(24) I am grateful for my local church community, especially our bishop and ministering brothers.

(25) I am grateful that our family finances are reasonably secure.

(26) I am grateful that I was able to graduate from college debt-free.

(27) I am grateful that I was able to study Arabic in one of the best undergraduate Arabic language programs in the country, and for the experiences that I was able to have while completing that course of study.

(28) I am grateful that I was able to teach English in the Republic of Georgia, and for the experiences that I had while living in that country.

(29) I am grateful that I’ve been able to travel across the United States, including both coasts and every major region of the lower 48 except the Pacific Northwest.

NaNoWriMo 2020 Day Twenty-One

  • Words written: 1,763
  • Total words written: 30,853
  • Stories written: 6
  • Total words behind: 4,147

I’ve been hitting a lot of resistance whenever I try to write a story that’s inspired by drawing Mythulu cards. I suspect that’s because my subconscious mind hasn’t had that much time to work on the story, so the first creation is happening largely when I put words on the page. I used to consider myself a discovery writer, but now I think that my writing is a lot better when I take the time to prewrite—and yes, that includes outlining.

Still, I really like where this story is going. I think it’s going to be a good one.

#GiveThanks Day One

President Russell M. Nelson, the spiritual leader and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, put out this message today about gratitude. In it, he invites all of us to turn our social media accounts into our own “personal gratitude journal” between now and Thanksgiving, which we celebrate next week here in the United States.

I don’t really do social media anymore, but I do still have this blog, so in keeping with President Nelson’s invitation I am going to spend the next seven days building a list of a hundred things that I am grateful for.

(1) I am grateful for my wife, and the wonderful influence for good that she is in my life.

(2) I am grateful for the fact that our baby is healthy, happy, and developing well.

(3) I am grateful for our home, the roof over our heads, and the shelter it provides us from the elements.

(4) I am grateful for the scriptures and the teachings of living prophets and apostles, which have and continue to provide me with guidance, direction, comfort, admonition, and answers to life’s difficult questions.

(5) I am grateful to live in an age when incredible advancements in medical knowledge make it possible for us to live without fear of the diseases and ailments that have plagued mankind for thousands of years.

(6) I am grateful to live in an age when my words can be read across the world at very little expense to myself, and I can hold in my hand a device that has access to almost all of the collective knowledge of mankind.

(7) I am grateful for my parents, who raised me in a loving home and provided me not only with the necessities of life, but who raised me to be the man I am today.

(8) I am grateful for my sisters and the positive influence that they are in my life.

(9) I am grateful for my in-laws and the support and love that they give us.

(10) I am grateful that I am able to pursue my childhood dream to be a writer, and the numerous opportunities that the self-publishing revolution has made possible.

(11) I am grateful for my readers who make this writing career possible.

(12) I am grateful for my health.

(13) I am grateful for the fact that we have food in our pantry and refrigerator, and do not need to go hungry.

(14) I am grateful to live in a community where crime is low and people are generally friendly and willing to help when we need it.

NaNoWriMo 2020 Day Twenty

  • Words written: 334
  • Total words written: 29,090
  • Stories written: 6
  • Total words behind: 4,243

Not a good day today. I think I had a minor panic attack yesterday, due to an ongoing plumbing problem in the house, and the baby didn’t let us sleep much last night so I’ve basically been a zombie all day. Finished a flash fiction piece I started yesterday and started the new Mythulu story, and after struggling with the opening for about an hour, it’s starting to show some promise.

Regardless of whether I actually win nanowrimo this year (I still intend to push for that, though with how far I’m behind it’s looking rather iffy), I’m really happy with the fact that I’m producing a lot of new stories. They all probably need to be cleaned up substantially before I should submit them, but that’s not too hard, and I really need to build up my submissions queue again.

Even better, I’m developing a new method for generating these stories, and having a lot of fun doing it. One of my goals is to write at least one new short story every month, and these Mythulu cards are a great tool for both generating and refining my ideas.

NaNoWriMo 2020 Day Nineteen

  • Words written: 2,026
  • Total words written: 28,756
  • Stories written: 5
  • Total words behind: 2,911

It occurs to me that if I can win nanowrimo 2020, that will be a major accomplishment that few will be able to boast of, even those who win nanowrimo regularly. The whole year has been crazy, but this month especially… hoo boy. Things are escalating quickly. Then again, it could be that more people finish nanowrimo this year, just because it’s a good way to keep your head down and not pay attention to all the things you can’t control. Just keep swimming.

Finished another story today, and I think it’s actually pretty good. Working on a fun flash piece that I’ll probably knock off in half an hour tomorrow morning. I’m still running behind, but the gap is slowly narrowing.

NaNoWriMo 2020 Day Eighteen

  • Words written: 2,344
  • Total words written: 26,730
  • Stories written: 4
  • Total words behind: 3,270

My graph on the nanowrimo.org site looks like a wavy shadow following the line where I should be. Still in the game, just not where I should be. If it keeps going this way, maybe I’ll do a stream-of-consciousness interview with each of the major characters from Queen of the Falconstar to pad out my numbers at the end. Or would that be cheating? I guess I could use them as bonus content after the novel comes out.

Anyways, good progress today. Instead of working on that Mythulu story, I dusted off an old short story outline from the trunk and decided to run with that instead. It’s turning out pretty good, perhaps even pro material–if all of the professional professional short story markets in science fiction didn’t skew so damned hard to the Left. But even though this one is clearly political, I’m writing it in such a way that either side can pick it up and run with it. Hopefully. But I’m not going to take out that creepy slogan that keeps popping up everywhere, “build back better.” Because those Davos crowd creeps, with their Great Reset, are truly the enemy. Do you know how much good I could do for the world right now if I had a death note? Which would also make for a great, yet unsaleable story.

NaNoWriMo 2020 Day Seventeen

  • Words written: 971
  • Total words written: 24,386
  • Stories written: 4
  • Total words behind: 3,947

So that story that I mentioned yesterday turned out to be a flash fiction piece, much to my surprise, and it took far longer to write than I thought it would, so by the end of the day it was the only thing I’d written. I don’t feel too bad about it, considering that I’ve got a baby to help take care of, dinner to make, and a publishing business to run, but it’s frustrating to still be behind.

I drew the Mythulu cards again in preparation for the next story, and this is what came up:

  • Necro + Desert
  • Dream
  • Eroded
  • Peacekeeper
  • Beyonder
  • Fool
  • Fungus
  • Yin and Yang

I’ve got a pretty good story in mind for this one, but I won’t be starting it until tomorrow.

NaNoWriMo 2020 Day Sixteen

  • Words written: 3,498
  • Total words written: 23,415
  • Stories written: 3
  • Total words behind: 3,252

Good progress today. Finally finished that space whale story. Needs to be trimmed down quite a bit, but I think there’s a good story in there, even if it’s still in the rough.

So now that I know I can come up with a good story using the Mythulu cards, I think I’ll try it again. After playing around with it a bit over the last couple of days, here are the cards I’ll be using:

  • Clone
  • Physical Dependency
  • Caste
  • Fire
  • Addicted
  • Healer
  • Negligible Senescence

Should be fun!

NaNoWriMo 2020 Day Fourteen

  • Words written: 2,709
  • Total words written: 19,917
  • Stories written: 2
  • Total words behind: 3,416

Well, the third nanowrimo story isn’t finished. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that I made some progress on winnowing down that gap between where I am and where I should be, and if things keep going at this rate (as frustrating as it may be), I can probably build a small word count buffer before Thanksgiving rolls around.

Also, my wife and I had an interesting idea for how to write more, even on a busy schedule. She was agonizing over her own nanowrimo, so I asked her how much she can write in half an hour, and she said she can write about a hundred words in five minutes, so I suggested that she set a timer to go off at the top of every hour, and when it goes off, sit down and write 100 words. Don’t feel obligated to do more, but just feel obligated to sit down and write. Because I’ll bet if she does that, she’ll end up writing much more.

Interesting ideas, but it’s late and I have other things I need to do. Night.