Tag: holidays

Writing through the holidays

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, the most magical time of the year—and for parents of three small children, it’s the busiest time as well. This week has been packed with all sorts of things, which means the writing has taken a backseat for the moment. Still, I’ve been managing to get a little work done, mostly in the early mornings.

I’m about 40% done with the rough AI draft of The Soulbond and the Lady, book 2 in the Rise of the Soulbond King Trilogy. I’ve also been working on the human draft of The Soulbond and the Sling, though progress has been slow (which is also why I haven’t been able to update the cover, or make a cover mock-up for The Soulbond and the Lady).

It took me only four days to write the prompts and generate the rough AI draft of The Soulbond and the Sling, which came to about 153k words. That was pretty wild. But the draft turned out to be a little too rough, which is part of the reason why it took so long to revise the AI draft and get it to a state where I was ready to move on to the human draft. So for The Soulbond and the Lady, I’m trying to be more careful. If I can fine tune the prompts to generate a much higher quality rough AI draft, it shouldn’t take nearly as much energy to revise it, which means that I can finish the AI draft of book 2 while I write the human draft of book 1.

I was hoping to finish the rough AI draft of The Soulbond and the Lady before Thanksgiving, but that didn’t happen, so now I’m hoping to finish it before Christmas. But I’ve currently put that WIP on hold so that I can finish the novella version of “Christopher Columbus: Treasure Hunter” in time to publish it in February of next year. I’m currently about 15% done with the AI revisions, and if things go well, I’ll have a finished AI draft by the end of the week, or early next week at the latest.

With the Christopher Columbus series, I’m experimenting with different forms of AI-assisted writing, leaning more into the discovery writing aspect of the creative process. So it might take longer as I figure it out. That’s frustrating, because it means slower writing progress, but by the end of it I’ll hopefully have learned a few more things about AI-assisted writing that will help out with future books. And even with how frustratingly slow it is, I am having quite a bit of fun with this WIP.

After Christmas, when I’ve hopefully finished both of these WIPs (at least through the AI draft phase), I plan to pick up The Unknown Sea again and work on that one until it’s DONE. I’m planning on a release date in March of next year, which might be a bit of a challenge given how crazy it is around here, but I’m really looking forward to finishing this one and getting it out into the world!

I suppose I should post something here

So it’s been more than a week since my last post. Don’t worry, I’m still around: it’s just that this blog is always the first ball to drop when I need to get things going. The post-holiday season was actually harder on us in a lot of ways than the holiday season itself, with insomnia, stomach bugs, and the like, but we’re getting back on our feet and doing pretty well.

The main thing I’ve been focusing on is writing, and I’m happy to say that I’ve been making very good progress these last few days. I’m trying out a completely new process, which I’ve blogged about a little, but I’ll have to write a full blog post on it once I’ve got all the kinks worked out. It basically involves hacking my ADHD to write more, in much the same way I hacked my ADHD to read more.

So yeah, things have been kind of crazy around here, and definitely more off-balanced than I would like. But it’s also turning out to be more productive, too—at least when our toddler isn’t throwing up and I’m able to sleep through the night. Happy new year!

Winter update

This year, I’m spending Christmas with my family in Iowa. Even though I don’t leave until Thursday, I mentally checked out on Monday morning. Haven’t gotten hardly any writing or publishing work done since.

Have I blogged about my thoughts on Christmas before? Looks like I haven’t. There’s a lot of things that I really love about Christmas, but there’s also a lot that I can’t hardly stand.

Things that I hate:

  • The movie Elf. Every single aspect of it.
  • About 80% of the Christmas music played in retail stores.
  • The crass commercialism. BUY BUY BUY!
  • The neverending war between “Happy Holidays and “Merry Christmas.”
  • Pretty much everything about the Santa Claus myth, especially the emphasis on convincing small children that it’s real.

Things that I love:

  • Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.
  • Handel’s Messiah.
  • Nativities and creche displays.
  • Christmas caroling in general.
  • Christmas trees.
  • Secret Santa gift exchanges.
  • Spending time with family.

To be honest, every December 26th, I let out a small sigh of relief. The holiday season is a minefield.

New Year’s is a much more enjoyable holiday. I’m one of the few people who actually enjoys setting New Year’s resolutions, and while I don’t always keep them, there have been some amazing times when I have.

There’s a sense of rebirth that I really like with New Year’s. It’s a time when we all decide to put away the things of last year and focus on the possibilities ahead of us. That’s what resolutions are all about, and why I love setting them.

Then there’s Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year (in the northern hemisphere anyways). It’s always insane how short the days get in winter. Even in Utah, which is not that far north, the lack of sunlight can really get to you. So it’s always nice to know that the shortest day is here and from now, they will only get longer.

So yeah, that’s pretty much the holidays. I probably won’t write much between now and January 1st, though I do hope to finish a short story. I figure that’s a small enough goal that I can actually get it done. As for blogging, I’ll at least do a New Year’s post, after I figure out my 2017 resolutions. Can’t promise anything other than that, but you’re probably all busy doing holiday things yourselves too.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s! I’ll see you on the other side of the holiday minefield.

Oh hey! Happy Thanksgiving!

Funny how holidays creep up on you when you’re in a foreign country.

We have Friday off here in Georgia, due to an Orthodox religious holiday.  I’ll probably head east and check out the Stalin museum, maybe Mtskheta and Qazbegi depending on the weather.  A friend of mine in Tbilisi said she’d get me a Svan hat, so if that works out, I’ll be sure to post pics.

In school today, we made the hand-traced turkeys from construction paper, with “I am thankful for…” on it.  I got to tell the kids the thanksgiving story, too.  I’m not sure how historically accurate it was, but they seemed to enjoy it.  They also enjoyed all the stickers I gave them for their finished projects.  The Nintendo stickers were the most popular.

So what am I thankful for this year?  Let’s see…

  • Delicious homemade Georgian food.  Beans, cheese, bread, potatoes, peppers, chicken, borscht–almost all of it grown right here in the village where I live.  It’s awesome.
  • My students.  Seriously, some of the awesomest kids I have ever known.  Every day when I get to teach them, I feel like a rockstar.  I’m going to miss them when the semester is over.
  • My friends and family.  Even though I’m literally on the other side of the world and hardly ever have internet, I’m glad that we still keep in touch.
  • My readers.  Seriously, it’s awesome that you guys are reading and enjoying my books.  I just wish I could put them out faster.
  • My first year of running a profitable business.  That’s right–with last month’s sales reports, I’m on track to run a modest profit for 2012.  Let’s hope that this growth continues well into the future!
  • The changing face of publishing.  Seriously, it is so awesome that for a very little upfront cost, a guy like me can sell his books across the world and find fans in places as far away as Singapore and the Czech Republic.  There are so many choices, so much freedom, that it’s staggering to see how different things were just a couple of years ago.  Kris Rusch said it much better than I did, so be sure to check out her most recent post on the subject.

There’s more, of course, but those are the big ones off the top of my head.

I know I missed Trope Tuesday again this week, but I wrote up a long post and then got dissatisfied with it just as I ran out of time.  We’re on the magic flight stage of the hero’s journey, but I’m having trouble finding a page on tvtropes that really fits it.  It’s not really a stage that I’m all that familiar with, either, so it’s going to be a bit of a challenge to figure it out.  But I will, don’t worry–hopefully next week.

As far as Star Wanderers goes, I’m working on the final revisions for Homeworld (Part IV) right now.  It’s going really well so far, so I expect to be finished in a week or two.  After that, I just need to get it copy edited / proofread, and then it should be good to publish.

Just to tease you all, here’s the cover:

So yeah, definitely look out for that soon!

I’ve got to go, but I’ll post again when I get the chance.  Happy Thanksgiving, and I’ll see you around!

Merry Christmas from Texas!

Merry Christmas y’all! I’m down here in Texas, spending the holidays with family; it was either Texas with my sister’s family, or Massachusetts with my parents, and we all agreed that the weather was better down south.

My brother-in-law and I drove down here from Provo, and it was a fun little road trip!  We passed through New Mexico just before the storm, stopping at Roswell to see the UFO museum.  Interesting stuff!  Spent a night with family in West Texas before driving across the state today, arriving just this evening.  Highlights include conversations about The Dispossessed, postmodernism vs. moral absolutism, the Lebanese civil war, and the excesses of modern consumer culture.

We’ll probably be here until Wednesday, then it’s back to Utah to drop off the car and back east for me, taking the train back to my parent’s house before heading overseas to teach English.  The last few weeks have been pretty hectic, what with moving and all, but now that I’m out of my apartment and on the road, I think things will be less stressful in some ways–fewer balls to juggle.

I don’t foresee getting into much of a routine again until after the holidays, but I’ve been able to write between 500 to 1,000 words per day in Stars of Blood and Glory so far, and hopefully I’ll be able to keep that up.  And of course, the train ride should be perfect for pounding out words.

Before the end of the year, I’ll probably do the whole reflections on 2011 thing and resolutions for 2012, but posting might be a little spotty over the next few days, at least until after Christmas.  It’s a time for family, after all.  So anyhow, I hope y’all have a wonderful holidays, and I’ll catch you after it’s over!

The Obligatory New Year’s Post

So I guess I was lying when I said that my last post was the second to last post of the year.  Oh well–better late than never, I suppose.

Last night at a party, I told someone that 2010 wasn’t that bad…but it was also the worst year of my life.  I suppose that’s true: I got kicked out of my Washington DC internship, almost failed all my classes, spent most of the year unemployed, and never quite achieved full financial independence.

At the same time, I made a bunch of new friends, started two novels and finished another, published an article about the BYU sf&f community that’s garnered some major attention, and generally had a fun time, in spite of the setbacks.

So really, what is there to complain about?  Not much.  Still, I’m glad it’s over.

As far as new year’s resolutions go, I’ve found that the best way to do them is to make one or two of them–otherwise, come February, you lose steam and none of them get done.

I’ve got a couple private resolutions, but here’s the big one I want to focus on:

Resolved: Read a minimum of one book per week.

I made this resolution back in 2008, but it only lasted until mid-March or so–not so much because I wasn’t reading, but because I didn’t understand how I read.

I’m not the kind of person who finishes every book they pick up; in fact, I only finish about 3/4s of them.  If I don’t think a book is good, I stop reading it.  Sometimes, even if a book isn’t bad, I end up putting it down just because I lose interest.  I’m also really picky; I don’t usually read any fiction that isn’t fantasy or science fiction, because the real world bores me.

At the same time, though, if I want to write well, I’ve got to be constantly reading.  And as I’ve written book reviews for this blog, I’ve found that reading widely has helped me to hone my craft.

So anyway, that’s my major resolution for this year.  Other things I would like to do:

1 ) get Army fit
2 ) live in another country
3 ) write a novel entirely in longhand, with actual pen and paper
4 ) get three new publications (two are already in the works)
5 ) fall in love with someone–and then make it grow into real love
6 ) get a MIDI keyboard and compose original 8-bit music
7 ) get a digital SLR and become an amateur astral photographer
8 ) get an agent
9 ) land a publishing deal
10) honestly, it’s just an honor to be read

Do these goals sound a little outlandish?  Sure…but who cares?  We’ve got a whole new year in front of us; anything can happen between now and December 31st!

Happy New Year!

The Obligatory Christmas Post

Just a quick post, because I figure I shouldn’t let Christmas go by this year without at least mentioning it in some way.

I’m not much of a Christmas person, and I think I get that from my Mom.  I still remember the year when she suggested we stop doing presents altogether.  That didn’t pass, of course, but as you can see in the photo, she successfully downsized the Christmas tree.  Even I would never stoop so low.

In a lot of ways, though, I sympathize with her.  The blatant commercialization of the holiday shocks and disgusts me.  I find nothing redeemable about the Santa myth, and will teach my children not to believe it.  Until Thanksgiving rolls around, I prefer to act as if Christmas doesn’t even exist.

But I’m not a Scrooge.  The holidays are for family and traditions–for being with and appreciating each other, making fond memories, and be quirky together in that special, unique way that makes family what it is (for better or for worse).

When celebrated well, it’s also a time to step back from the grindstone and recharge the spiritual underpinnings of one’s faith–kind of like a Sabbath for the year.  It’s getting increasingly difficult to balance that with all the secular noise, especially in this panicked, self-conscious economy–but hey, faith by definition is never easy.

Anyhow, I had a great Christmas, in spite of the fact that I didn’t go home.

Explanation: we have an arrangement worked out with my sisters’ in-laws, where we alternate Christmas and Thanksgiving.  This year, Thanksgiving was for the Vasiceks to get together, while Christmas was for the Challises and the Laws.

And anyway, home isn’t a place, it’s the people you’re with.  I spent Christmas with my sister here in Provo, and all her in-laws, and it was great.  I managed to get a small present for everyone, and it was a lot of fun watching them open theirs.  I didn’t get as many presents as perhaps I would have gotten at home, but I love everything I got and got more than I expected (an illustrated translation of One Thousand and One Nights, a novel by L.E. Modesitt Jr, and Daft Punk’s Alive 2007 album.  Oh, and some money from home–thanks Pop!).

We spent the day lazing around, watching Northern Exposure (which is actually a really good TV show–or was, back in the 80s when it aired), playing around with our presents, eating dinner, and doing other stuff.  The Laws tend to be laid back, and I like that.  I feel at home with them.

We ended the day by playing Apples to Apples, and let me say, it is a much different game playing it with old people (aka non college students).  The first round, I didn’t get a single card.  The second round, I got “weird” and “unhealthy.” The third round, I got “patriotic,” “shallow,” and a mildly suggestive one which I’ve since forgotten.  Steve should have chosen my card (“picking your nose”) when the word was “bold.” Connie skunked us all.

So yeah, that was Christmas.  I wasn’t expecting it to be super awesome, but it was.  Thanks to the Laws for letting me share the day with them!

And to finish off this Obligatory Christmas Post, here is an awesome Christmas video. Even though it’s not Christmas anymore, you need to watch it–now. You won’t regret it–or maybe you will, but in an awesome kind of way. Just watch it.

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!