Tag: family

Almost at four

I’ve got half a dozen things I could blog about, but it’s 2 am and cleaning checks are tomorrow, so I think I’m going to give a quick update and go to bed.

Worlds Away from Home is doing quite well–I’m only two chapters and five scenes from the end.  I’d push really hard to finish it tomorrow, but I’m still waiting on some of my alpha readers for Mercenary Savior and probably won’t start that project until after I go back to Massachusetts at the end of the month.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the seven point story structure Dan Wells talked about at LTUE 2010 (which I missed, but caught on youtube), and I’ve got a TON of ideas for Mercenary Savior now.  I’m practically chomping at the bit to start analyzing this story and working out all the complex plot and character elements.  That’s very good.

While chatting with one of my alpha readers for Mercenary Savior, I had an interesting idea for a direct sequel.  Basically, while James’s storyline has some closure (or should, after I finish this next revision), he’s still got a lot of growing and maturing to do.  My mind is already working it out…should I make that my fifth novel?  Or move on to something else first?  The thing about direct sequels is you can’t sell them without the first book, and if the first book doesn’t sell…

I’m applying for Redcliff Ascent; if all goes well, I’ll be participating in the November training (since September is full).  At first, I was hesitant about this (since I kind of need a job now), but looking at it now, that’s probably the best time to do it.  It’s after World Fantasy, which gives me time to finish Mercenary Savior, and late enough in the year that I can still finish that article for Mormon Artist.  Plus, I can easily get a schedule that allows me to attend LTUE 2011.  The only disadvantage is that I won’t be able to attend all of Brandon Sanderson’s English 318 classes, but that’s not such a big deal (seeing as I’ve taken the class twice already!).

Other than that, life is good.  I’m going home in a week to see my parents and get my teeth done (since my mom’s health insurance covers me until my birthday in September–why pay for a checkup when you could have it for free?), and I’m definitely looking forward to that.  And now that I’m almost finished with Worlds Away, I can see that it’s got potential, and that’s encouraging.  Not this draft, certainly, but once I fix all the holes, it could really go somewhere.

Either way, it’s going to be nice having four novels under my belt.

Falling back into the groove

Today I surprised myself and wrote nearly 4k words, some of which might actually be good enough to keep.  Huzzah!

The novel is coming along very nicely, and I’m starting to get really excited with where it’s going.  That’s huge, because up to this point, the nagging “this is crap, what are you doing with your life?” voices have been getting me down.  Yeah, the draft I’m writing will need a lot of work, but the story’s got potential, and I can see it.  That’s the most important part.

The interesting thing was that after pounding out the first thousand words, the writing started to really flow.  The right words and phrases started coming quite naturally, almost on their own, instead of waiting for me to mercilessly hunt them down.

An example:

The weather was perfect–sunny, clear, and neither too hot nor too cold. Upset by the sound of their engines, flocks of pretty white birds took to the air, filling the sky around the green banks like noisy, low-flying clouds. Down in the cabin, Kariym began to sing a lilting ballad about a young boy in love with his brother’s betrothed. His deep bass voice bellowed over the roar of the engine, lifting Jalil’s spirits. It was a very good day to be alive.

They rode upstream over the river for the next hour. Almost immediately they left the main body of the convoy far behind, taking the reconnaissance position for the advance guard. Occasionally, they passed a town or a bridge–magnificent works of steel and stone that soared over their heads, spanning the entire vast width of the river. Mostly, however, the banks were empty and unsettled–nothing but long, straight stretches of thick green bush, with the occasionally rocky outcropping to break the monotony.

Of course, the writing’s not perfect–I’ll be the first to say that it needs considerable work–but at least it’s decent.  Decent for a rough draft.

One of the most annoying things about writing is when I unconsciously break into alliteration.  I’ll write a sentence, only to realize that I can’t let it stand as it is because every noun, verb, and adjective starts with the same sound.  Like that last phrase: “starts with the same sound.” Augh!

I’m finding, though, that when used in moderation, that tendency towards alliteration can be somewhat helpful.  There’s nothing quite as pleasurable as reading a good story with delicious, flowing prose, like Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed or Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin. Excellent books.  I’d be more than happy if I could write as beautifully as them someday.

In the meantime, though, I’m just plugging away, trying to make the next chapter, scene, paragraph, and sentence better than the last.  Fortunately, now that I’m excited about the story again, things are going very nicely.

Oh, and happy fourth on the fifth.  I spent most of the day with family (not writing), bouncing around Provo and doing various stuff.  I’ve got a ton of chores to do tomorrow, though, so I’d better get to bed.  Night!

The wilderness is calling me…

…and I’m kind of hesitant to answer.

Four years ago, my sister went through Wilderness Quest, a wilderness therapy organization based in Monticello, Utah.  At the end of the program, I went down with my whole family for family therapy.  The experience was incredible–intense, emotional, and very life changing for all of us.

Fast forward to last month.  After graduating college, I had this crazy idea: maybe I could apply for a job with some wilderness therapy organization.  My sister, who worked for WQ after completing their program, told me that they’re always looking for qualified, motivated people for the wilderness staff.  As a clean, addiction-free, college grad, chances are fairly good that I could get a job here.

I talked with my sister for a LONG time about it.  Yes, it’s tough–the teens in the program are very, very troubled, and there’s all kinds of drama.  Some of the kids are forcibly escorted to Monticello by professional kidnappers that their parents have hired to bring them out.

Living in the wilderness is rough, too.  The way WQ does it, you’re in the wilderness for 21 days, on the job 24/7, with two weeks off between work periods.  That’s 21 days completely cut off from the rest of civilization, out in the middle of nowhere.

At the same time, though, that’s 21 days in which WQ pays for all your food and supplies–21 days in which you’re earning money instead of spending it.  And then, after the 21 days are up, you’ve got two weeks of free time to do whatever you want.  Pay ranges from $60 to $135 per day, multiplied by 21 days–not a bad job.  And two weeks of complete freedom…

Perhaps the best advantage to this kind of job, though, is the incredible range of life experience it would give.  Unlike sitting in an office all day, or doing telephone surveys at a call center (my current job), this kind of work offers some real meaningful experience.  Changing people’s lives, seeing them at their best and worst, connecting with them in a truly genuine way–it could have a huge influence on my writing.

Then again, 21 days cut off from civilization…that’s 21 days in which I’m not going to be writing.  21 days in which I’m not going to have a social life (at least, not in Provo).  21 days in which I may miss other important career/writing opportunities.  And two weeks–that’s not really a lot of time, not when you’ve got all your chores to do.

But then again–do the costs really outweigh the benefits?  Maybe I could bring a notebook and write while out there.  Maybe I’ll make up for the missed writing time in the two of weeks, while still having enough time to do my other chores.  Maybe it will force me to make time.  Maybe the improved quality will make up for it–and maybe my new friends in this apartment complex won’t totally forget me when I come back.

I don’t know.  I’m trying to figure out if this is something I should do.  Part of me wants to jump up and start right away–but the other half is holding back.  But at this point, I’m thinking that once my Dad drives out to Utah to give me the old family Buick, I’m going to apply.  I really should.  Should I?

Old About page

Well, now that I’m graduated and can no longer say that I’m a BYU student, it’s time to write a new About page for this blog. Before I do that, though, here’s the old page, in case you want to read it one last time.

About Me

Who am I?

I am an oldest son, an annoying older brother.  I have three beautiful sisters and an amazing mother and father, all of whom I love very much.

I am a believing, practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have a deep belief in God and an abiding faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior and Redeemer.  I’m certainly not perfect–far from it!–but I try my best to love, serve, listen, and appreciate the people in my life, friends and otherwise.

I am a senior at Brigham Young University, studying Arabic, political science, the modern Middle East, and English.  My academic interests don’t stop there, however.  I also love history, astronomy, linguistics, international relations, philosophy, economics, psychology…basically, I love learning.

I love writing, especially science fiction.  I fell in love with the genre as a young boy, when I read A Wrinkle in Time and saw Star Wars episode IV: A New Hope.  Those works triggered my inner creativity, and I have been writing SF&F continuously ever since.  I’ve never been able to stop.

I’m a writer, aspiring to become an author.  I’m not relying on talent alone to reach that goal, though.  I’ve been working hard on my craft since 2007, trying to get my writing up to a professional level while researching the publishing industry.  In that time, I’ve written three unpublished novels and had one short story published with Leading Edge.

I would like nothing more than to be a professional, full-time fiction writer.  I’m not there yet, but I’m on my way.

Contact

If you would like to contact me for any reason, I can be reached at the following email (despammed): joseph dot vasicek at gmail dot com.

You can also find me on twitter and on facebook.

License and copyright:

All work on this website is published under a Creative Commons license. You are free to share or download anything you see, but you cannot redistribute it for money or alter the content in any way.  For more information, please visit the link below:

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Pluggin’ away

Wrote 2,889 words today, bringing the running 7-day total to just under 15,000 words.  If I can keep this up for a month without lagging, I should be able to finish Mercenary Savior 3.0 in time for CONduit.

In the meantime, I’m looking for a job.  A friend of mine who’s in Egypt right now told me about this interesting online freelance contractor, which looks like a promising source of cash in the short term.  Sent in my application, inshallah will hear back soon.  Payment is via paypal on a work for hire basis, with most writers / copy editors averaging $20-$25 per hour, so could be useful.  No benefits, but what the heck.

In between writing and applying with the online writing place, I submitted Genesis Earth to a couple new places, and sent From the Ice Incarnate to IGMS.  I don’t have many short stories, but I really need to send out the few I do have to more markets.  Maybe I can pull out the first couple chapters of some of my novels and call them short stories and/or novellas.  Wouldn’t hurt.

Graduation is coming up in less than 100 hours.  My parents arrived in town about an hour ago, and the rest of the family should be coming shortly.  It will be really good to see them–I’m looking forward to it.

That’s about it for now.  I’ve got some other thoughts on jobs, dating, future plans, settling down, an article I’m writing for Mormon Artist, and the computer I want to build once I’ve got a job, but I’ll write about that later.  Goodnight.

Christmas break 2009

Christmas was great this year!  I spent it in Texas, with my extended family–the family on my dad’s side, who I almost never see.  The break has been a lot of fun so far!  No school or work obligations, lots of time to lay back and relax, plenty of games to play and books to read, plus fun people to hang out with–it’s been great!

Most of my cousins are young teenagers right now, and are a lot different than I remember.  However, I was able to get some presents for them that I think worked out well.  David is into his iPod, so I got him some U2 albums (How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and Joshua Tree).  Savannah and Nash are both avid fantasy readers, so I got Savannah Mistborn: The Final Empire and Nash Victory of Eagles (the one chain bookstore in Midland didn’t have His Majesty’s Dragon, so I got him another from the series).  Daniel, I didn’t know what to get, so I gave him my old camera.

Ashley (who is older) was telling me about how she lived abroad and wants to spend some time in Australia, so I got a travelogue on Australia by the same guy who did A Walk in the Woods. Based on her reaction, I think she’s going to like it!

It was much easier to get stuff for direct family, since I know them better.  For Kate, I got Soulless, a steampunk / paranormal mystery novel that had an awesome release party at World Fantasy 2009.  I don’t know if she’ll like the book, but the party was very steampunk / regency fantasy with the cosplayers, so I think she will.  I got Danny The Screwtape Letters, since I know he likes that kind of religious fiction–turns out he’s been meaning to read it for a while!  Mykle, I got the first book in C. S. Friedman’s latest series, since I know that she’s his favorite author–24 hours after Christmas, he’s already 200+ pages into it!  And for Sarah and Mykle, I got them both $20 gift certificates to Pioneer Book in downtown Provo.  They were very happy with that!

I wish I’d had the time to get presents for everyone in the family, but with moving out, coming here so quickly, and not having a car (or much of an idea what they wanted), it just wasn’t very practical.  I did get my mom a gift certificate to B&N, but I haven’t gotten anything for my dad yet.  I will, though–he wants stuff from our Christmas memories, and I happen to have all my old childhood journals in my carry on luggage.  Lots of Christmas memories in those!

I’m satisfied with what I got, even though it wasn’t all that much.  Besides the generic clothes, socks, ties, candy, popcorn, and other stuff, I got a spiffy tool kit from Robin and a flexible tripod from pop.  Very nice!  They will add some weight to my luggage, but I think I can give some of it to mom or pop to bring home.

As far as writing goes, I’m less than 13k words from the end of Bringing Stella Home 2.0.  It’s not quite ready for alpha readers yet, but I want to get it ready soon (it’s going to take so much work! <sob>).  If I average 2.6k words over the next five days, I’ll have it finished in time to start something new by new years!

That’s the goal.  As for what the next novel is going to be about…let’s just say it’s Homer’s Odyssey meets C. J. Cherryh and Ursula K. Le Guin in space, where Telemachus is a girl and the story is primarily from her point of view.

I hope I can pull it off!

Never a good time to write

I’m on vacation now, staying with my uncle in Midland.  The rest of the family will be out here in a couple of days.  In the meantime, I’m visiting with relatives, going Christmas shopping, and trying to finally finish Bringing Stella Home 2.0.

It’s not going to be easy, though, with all the family stuff going on.  I managed 1,221 words yesterday, but most of that was after midnight.  I get the feeling this is going to be pretty common for the rest of the time here.

There’s never a good time to write–but I think that’s the norm.  If I’m not busy with exams or schoolwork, it’s family obligations or traveling.  There is never a steady routine that gives me time to write.

I suppose part of being a writer is learning to write anyway.

So anyways, my goal is to finish Bringing Stella Home 2.0 before the new year.  I’m about 26k words from the end, so with only 10 days or so to go, that’s going to be almost 3k words per day.  A little steep, but definitely doable.  Also, since this isn’t the polished draft that I’m going to be sending out to publishers, it doesn’t have to be perfect–just good enough for me to make perfect on the next pass.

And now my Dad’s calling me, asking if I’m up and ready to go.  I’ll have to cut this short here, but in the meantime, check this out: explanetary systems forming in the Orion nebula.  Holy crap, this is awesome!  Maybe I should go back to school and become an astronomer.

I’m back!

Wow, I’m back from vacation.  Not “back” as in back in Utah, but “back” as in no longer at the cape.  We drove home to Western Massachusetts this evening and arrived just a couple hours ago.

Family vacation this year was lots of fun!  It was me, mom and pop, and Sarah and Mykle at a local cottage for about a week.  We went to Nauset Light Beach, Coast Guard Beach, Race Point Beach, Provincetown, Hyannis, Moby Dick’s restaurant, the Cape Cod Natural History Museum, and, of course, good old Sheep Pond in Brewster (Brew-stah).  When we weren’t out and about, we were either watching movies or playing Hearts and Shanghai, the Vasicek family card game of choice.

It was a lot of fun to hang out with the family at Cape Cod, but after a week I’m ready to head back into life as usual.  My back is fried, I’ve had enough Shanghai to make me sick (especially considering how CRAZY our family games can get!), and I’m looking forward to no longer smelling like salt water or sun tan lotion.

I’m also looking forward to writing again.  I kept up the writing at the cape–about 1k to 2k each day, mostly in the evening–but man, stuff like moving and vacations and travel and having fun tends to throw out your daily routine.  I haven’t had one for the last week and a half, and I want to get back to something a little more stable (not to mention productive).

Alas, the summer is just about over.  I’ll be flying back to Utah on Tuesday, moving all my stuff into my new apartment on Wednesday (Ben Crowder is going to be my roommate–I think it’s going to be a fun and interesting semester!), helping a friend move her stuff out of storage on Saturday, and doing other get-ready-for-school things on the other days, including filling out the FAFSA, getting parking stickers, books, figuring out what’s going on with my double-major capstone, and blah blah blah other boring annoying stuff.

Gah!  Why can’t I just write all day, every day?  Looks like those days are over…<sob>.

Someday, inshallah, I’ll make that dream a reality.  Someday soon, inshallah!

Genesis Earth 3.0 is almost finished!

Yeah!  Only five more scenes to go!

I love revising.  Every time I finish a scene, or a chapter, or a draft, I look back and think “man, this is so much better than it used to be!” Later, maybe, I look at it and say “okay, it still needs work,” but to know that I made something good into something better, that’s satisfaction!

My self-imposed deadline for this draft is this weekend.  I’d like to finish it tomorrow, but if all else fails, I’ll finish it on Sunday.  Shouldn’t be too hard.  I’ve done a lot of work to get this far, averaging about 2,200 words a day.  The ending is a lot trickier to fix than the beginning, since I’m much better at beginnings and middles than at endings (not as much practice), but it’s coming along.

Yesterday, I wrote about 3,500 words in this beast.  It felt so satisfying at the end of the day!  Finishing up another chapter, knowing that I was right on target.

Today, for some reason, I haven’t been able to get into the writing mindset, but that’s not too bad.  I spent some time looking over the last three or four chapters, making spot edits, re-arranging a couple of the chapter breaks to make them more coherent, etc.  Chapter organization is still a challenge for me, especially towards the end of a project.  Hopefully, I’m doing it better in this draft than the last one.

Today is Pioneer Day, a holiday in Utah.  I’m spending the afternoon and evening with family, so I probably won’t do much more writing today.  Maybe another scene sometime tonight, but that’s okay–the way I’ve re-arranged it, the chapter I need to revise for today needs just one more scene to be complete.  I’ve been working hard these past three weeks, and I’m looking forward to having a fun holiday with family.  The break will probably help me to write better, anyway.

So, that’s how things are looking from here.  In the meantime, I’m getting psyched up for my next big project: revising Bringing Stella Home and getting ready to start something completely new in the fall.  Once Genesis Earth is finished, I’ll be able to commit more creative space to those projects.  Looking forward to it!