BrainWyrms

Resolutions for the new year:

• Finish “Sword in Velvet”
• Complete two short stories
• Get 50% out of debt
• WIN NaNoWriMo 2009
• Get married on June 21, 2009
• Change Name (again)
• Release a podcast once per month
• Cut back on Twitter and Podcasts - much fun, need to spend more time writing.
• Run an RPG once per month
• Get down to visit Sylver.
• Begin calling her once a month.
• Start emailing her once a week.

That is such a short list, and yet… I get about half way down and start to hyperventilate.  I still need to rearrange the list in order of precidence, but this seems to be it.  This is what I intend to spend my next year doing.

In order to make the time that I am going to need to do all of this, I’m going to have to pretty much reduce my twitter usage and podsumings by about 80%.  I will probably feel a lot more alone (again) from this, but I’ve been spending more time paying attention to all 400 of my twitter ‘friends’ and I certainly can’t keep up with all of the podcasts that I’ve been downloading.  Even with designating the entire 8 hour work day as podsuming time, I still can’t keep up.

The funny thing was how much more addicted to podcasts I am.  With twitter, I went through and turned off sms notifications for 90% of my peeps.  I have yet to remove 1% of the podcasts though.  I guess that a 140 character update just doesn’t compare very heavily with a 30 minute update from someone who’s thoughts I am interested in.

On a different note, I think I figured out the end of “Sword in Velvet.”  I like it becuase it is unexpected, suits my temperment, and opens up a sequel in a drasticly different flavor.  I don’t know how well it will work out though.  If it works, it’ll be awesome.  If it doesn’t, then it will leave any readers pissed off at me.  Heh.

ShapeCard 2008, originally uploaded by Nomad Scry.

This is the long promised picture of the story postcard that Shape sent me this year. As you can see, the postal system was utterly brutal to the inks.

My friend Shape has this marvelous little thing that she does where she writes a bit of micro-fiction on a postcard and mails it out.  I love the freeform chaotic wildness of the idea and am thinking about trying it out myself.

Unfortunately, the entire thing is fragile and delicate.  And the postal services are not.  Not only are the automated machinery rough and tumble, the handlers are too.  My post card came with a few banded swaths rubbed quite clean.

I felt so happy and sick when I got it.  I used the poor lighting as an excuse and didn’t really try reading the story on the post card.  Once I get over the loss, I’ll study it more and see if I can’t read the story hidden on it.

I certainly had something that I wanted to say.

But then I got shocked and feared into silence by the evil, white, blank screen.

GAH!

I am planning on doing NaNoWriMo this year. Next month. I don’t actually think that I’ll be able to ‘win’ this year, not with my utter lack of experience with long form writing (also known as ‘commitment’) and my peculiar lack of mechanical knowledge with English as a language. At 1667 words per day, I could theoretically make the 50,000 words for the ‘novel’, but … I rarely write more than 300-500 words a day. And that usually drains me for several days.

Which I don’t in any way think is my real problem. It is like a muscle. I’m not exersizing it in a healthy way, so it hurts everyime I do start to stretch it out.

And I’m about to attempt the marathon. Ha!

Today is Mur Lafferty’s “Playing for Keeps” run on Amazon.  Basically, there is a technique for ramping your sales rank on Amazon up real high by having a large group of purchases in a short period of time.  And “The Tribe” has been running through our podcast authors as they get publishing deals and basically doing our best to get some noise going.  So I have purchased a copy of “Playing for Keeps.”

I think I’ll like it.  It’ll be weird to actually read her voice instead of hearing it piped in the way I usually do.  Then again, I’m not real familiar with her fiction.  I love her tone, but usually that is form her podcasts “I Should Be Writing” and “Geek Fu Action Grip.”

Anyhow, “Playing for Keeps” is a super hero novel about the other guys.  The ones with somewhat less useful abilities, like our heroine Keepsie.  her power is that no one can take her stuff away.  That’s all.  No flying or throwing cars or seeing through steel.  I like odd stories and I like comic book style hero stories.  But I really did not like the “Wild Card” series, so I am excited and a mite nervous to see how I feel about “Playing for Keeps” once I’ve actually read it.

I’m pretty confident that I am going to enjoy this tale, but if you want to taste before you buy Mur has made “Playing for Keeps” into an audio book as well as a PDF, both of which are currently available for free.  So check it out, and then go do your part by purchasing a copy today!

Shadow Light
January 1, 1996
2:55AM

Onto the battle plain one strode, experience, and powerful. this one would fight its way to Death’s door for a lover’s flower.

The other crouched in shadows, hidden by trees, dying leaves.

they were blood, but that was as like as they ever did get, and yet not friends, not enemies they had remained. Now they searched together for the one who had broken honor with both.

The field was strewn with dead and dying, horse and rider, footsmen, all alike. And all destroyed by one grey hand.

The warrior strode across the plain towards the prey, not missing a stride as white armor sunk and crunched in among the broken, littered bodies. An arrow shrieked through the air, and impaled itself in the white knights armored side.

And on went the march.

The other crept from shadow to shadow, always hidden, invisible. No arrow for the darker one, for no eye had seen, no ear had heard report of hidden’s position.

Grey, from behind a rock, mocked White’s stalwart progress, derided the strength that ignored the wooden shaft. Another arrow was readied, point blank it would be fired.

White saw, and knew its end had come. Blanched face to match the armor, yet fate was not avoided.

Little claws ripped into flesh, the armor went astray. White drew the gleaming sword and removed her brothers head, but not before Black’s claws dug out her brother’s heart.