Sometimes they're inspiring, sometimes, not

Often times, when listening to books, I get struck by inspiration.  More times than not, it's just a tangential thought to something said in passing in the book.  Other times, I feel like the book drains the inspiration from me, and though the book might be filled with lots of stuff that could inspire me, it seems to do the opposite.

I don't know if that is caused by the particular books, or if the feelings of inspiration make me more or less perceptible to those side ideas.  But I do know that I've never had the "feeling" switch midstream in a book.  In other words, if a book starts out inspiring, it keeps inspiring until I finish it.  If a book starts out sucking away my inspiration, it keeps me in a non-inspired state until I finish it.

Right now, I'm listening to William Gibson's Neuromancer, which was a groundbreaking book that essentially introduced the genre of Cyber Punk.  Although it's entertaining, this seems to be one of those inspirational draining books, as I find I can't think of a single thing worth writing about while I listen to it.

In other news, Megi has pneumonia, but is in pretty good spirits.  Grandma and Candice both have the flu, and are both barely able to move around the house.  Gabe is excited about participating in the 100 mile running club, and is also trying much harder at math.  He isn't very good at math, but I'm very proud of him for wanting to try and be better at it (as opposed to before when he didn't care at all).  And Donna seems to be getting everything right on all the classwork that is sent home.  She can even read a few words now, too.

That's all for this entry, thanks for reading.  (And if you are a fan of my T. Allan Bishop Facebook Page, please click "like" on the link to this I post there, Facebook isn't showing them to most of the people who have clicked like on the page but nothing more, and so a lot of people aren't seeing the blog updates when they are posted there, and the only way to remedy this is by getting more "likes" on posts there...)

Death Takes A Vacation

What's been happening since the last blog?  Well, not much in the writing realm, though there has been one significant happening on the writing front that I'll talk about in a minute.  First, I've only managed to write one day since the last blog post update, mostly because of lack of inspiration and desire.  I've just been kind of blah on creativity the past few weeks.  I suppose there are lots of reason, not the least of which is me not making myself write even through the non-motivational period (like I tell Candice she needs to do with her art when she gets into similar creativity droughts  - I am apparently a hypocrite - at least recently.

A little over a week ago, Candice's grandma suffered a heart attack and had to be carried away by ambulance.  She's fine now, but it was scary for a couple of days.  She made it home just in time for her birthday party (which was also Gabe's and Jeanette's party).  She's been tired a lot more since coming home, but seems to be getting stronger with each passing day.

Gabe has become a greedy little jerk.  Everything is all about "me, me, me" and "gimme, gimme."  I know we're not knowingly promoting such an attitude, and it makes us want to go without giving presents to him for a while if he doesn't grow out of it soon.

Now for the "big" writing news - yesterday I sat down and wrote for the first time in weeks, and not only did I start a new story, I finished a new story.  It's only 3 pages and about 1200 words, but it's a pretty decent story.  It revolves around who death is, and his decision to finally take a vacation, which turns into him taking off a whole year and covers how the world changes in that time.

It was a concept that occurred to me while listening to The Book Thief (which we're almost finished listening to).  It is narrated by death and he describes taking the souls away, so naturally, the though occurred to me "What if he didn't do it?"

Anyway, that's what has been happening with me and my writing lately, thanks for reading.

New Approaches

First, if you haven't read my post on how to best support your favorite independent author, do so now.  Then go support them as best you can.  I'll wait.

OK, thanks.  They'll appreciate it (BTW, the advice will also work for new/lesser known authors with mainstream publishers, too.

So what's happening in the writing world of T. Allan Bishop lately?  Well, the muse story stepped back and hasn't cried out for more to be written lately, so I have it set slightly aside.  The zombie story has reshaped itself, and I've written several sections for it over the past week.  It looks now like it'll be formed mostly of "newspaper articles," "police report" excerpts, "medical and lab report" excerpts, personal letters, etc.  I don't know if that will be just one section that talks about the outbreak and part II might change POV to be first or third person yet or not.  the story hasn't revealed details from that far ahead yet.  I do know that some of the personal notes will be from at least one zombie.  I know that this isn't the first time an approach like this has been used (Stephen King's Carrie comes to mind), but it's a new approach for me.

The Josef Mengele vampire story has been popping into my head a little lately, too.  So, it might just turn out that I start juggling stories based on which one is yelling at me the loudest that day.

I got tired of having to constantly reboot my phone, have apps stop responding, the previously awesome battery life suddenly being non-existent, and the phone not even give me the option to answer it.  I was planning on buying it later this summer when I hoped a sale would be happening (though it was going to be painful waiting that long when it was basically a paper weight).  When I did a search for rumored sales of the phone I had decided I wanted, I found that it was $130 cheaper from Amazon than from Verizon, so I went ahead and got it and will be putting the money I was going to be setting aside for it to the credit card bill to pay for it.  We'll keep the Amazon route in mind when we go to upgrade Candice's phone eventually, too.  If it saves us $$, why not?

I got the Samsung Galaxy Note 3.  The primary reason was because I have large clumsy fingers and figured (correctly) that it would be easier for me to type, etc on it.  The secondary reasons was that it has handwriting recognition and I figured that could help me as a writer, and that it has good battery life.  It turns out the handwriting recognition is AMAZING (but slow).  It recognized my handwriting even when I wrote in my crappiest form and EVEN when I wrote in cursive.  I have to write a little slower to get the handwriting recognition to work and convert to typed text, but I'll be able to use it when waiting in waiting rooms, or lying in bed and getting inspired, etc.  So, as a writer, this is the first time that writing using technology has excited me instead of simply handwriting on paper with a pencil, this is another new approach for me to writing.  Granted, when I really get in the groove, I will still probably use a pad and pencil for now, but eventually this might be the way I go.  (This phone will also allow me to change the battery if/when this one starts to die, too).

That's all I have for this post.  Thanks for reading.

Pricing For Dark Stories For A Restless Night

I was reading The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success from Smashwords today since the words weren't flowing when I had a chance to write, and it looks like my pricing might be wrong.  In it, it discusses sales at various price ranges.  $.01-$.99 had a sales ratio of 5.9x, $1-$1.99 was 3.2x, $2-$2.99 was 6.22x, $6-$6.99 was 2.2x, and $10+ was 1x.  For some reason, in two different years of doing the analysis, having a sale price between a dollar and $1.99 was kind of a black hole for sales.  With that in mind, I plan to now price it at $0.99.  That should get it out to quite a bit more readers.

On another writing note, I did write more for the muse story the other night, though I think the second section that I wrote belongs at the beginning.  It's also shaping up to be a frightening story for artist types.  We'll see if my muse strikes some more later this week.

That's all I have for this entry, thanks for reading!

Muses?

Yesterday I got an image in my head of a painting.  It involved a muse and a painter, though the muse is not the classic simple inspiration type from literature references..  It persisted, and I wrote a small scene describing it last night.  It doesn't fit into any of my current story ideas, but it might end up being a story idea of its own.

I haven't had any story speak to me since finishing Forbidden Knowledge, so hopefully this is a sign that the stories will start to flow again soon.

I finally got the license plate sticker put on yesterday, also.  I had to scrape off ten years' worth of previous stickers first, but it's done now.

I also cut the baseboard for Candice's witch cottage dollhouse.  I think we're getting to a point where I'm supposed to help put it together and/or start wiring it soon, but I'm not sure.  Candice also got inspired to do some clay work last night making miniature wedding cakes with "sugar skulls" on them.  Since sugar skulls are normally 1:12 scale, she's making them in 1:144 scale, which is apparently pretty frustrating.

I think today might be a lazy day with maybe a little bit of inspiration thrown in if I'm lucky.  That's all for this blog, thanks for reading.

Forbidden Knowledge Finished!

Not all books should be opened.  Not all knowledge should be gained.  I know this now, but I’d have considered those words blasphemous for a librarian to utter even a few days ago.

Back then, I ravenously fed on all knowledge and reading.  I cherished any ancient text that my hungry brain could come across.  To me, there was no concept even of forbidden knowledge.

But now I know better.  Now I know that some knowledge should not be obtained.

That is the teaser for my short story Forbidden Knowledge that I just finished the draft of last night.  The story is 4400 words and will probably be in the second book which I plan to name At The Turn Of Midnight.  I'm still not sure which if any of my other story ideas will reveal their words to me next, so we'll wait to see on that.  But I do know that if I don't get the editing and cover design done soon, I'll lose my motivation to publish it, so I'm probably going to make that my focus.

I need to figure out an item that relates to each story in the first book.  My cover design concept is that of a yard sale table, and many of the items on the table are in some way related to the stories in the book.  I'll gather the items, place them on a table out in the driveway and take some pictures.  If any of them look right, I'll design the cover using it.  I probably need to write the back cover "teaser" for the book, too.

So, that's my great news for today.  Thanks for reading!

Recent Progress and Other Random Bits of Information

I did, in fact, manage to write some this past Sunday (640 words it seems after typing it up) on Forbidden Knowledge.  It's up to over 3200 words so far.  I don't know how close to the end it is though, it hasn't told me how it'll end yet.  I haven't written any since then towards it, but that's because a) it hasn't called to me to write on it, and b) I really haven't had the opportunity to write since Sunday.

I'm hoping it'll tell me the rest of the story soon, and then let one of the other stories start revealing themselves.  Maybe the zombie story, maybe the vampire one, maybe the werewolf one, maybe Red at Night (the companion story to Mary's Painting), maybe the time travel one, maybe the murder mystery, or maybe one of the other fifty or so stories that I've jotted down at least a kernel about...

That's it for the writing front, on to some of the "life" topics:

Donna's hand has mostly healed from her burn.  The skin is still a darker red than the surrounding skin, but other than that, it looks great and is pain free (unless she's trying for sympathy, then she can't use it for anything).  She started back to Day Care/Preschool today (she goes two days a week).  This fall, she'll be starting all day Kindergarten and Megi will be taking her slot (we assume/hope) at the daycare/preschool.  We really need to ask to make sure that plan will work out, but the lady in charge is never there when I remember (she's practically never there in the afternoons it seems).

Last night, Gabe had the annual class concert.  He did awesome.  Usually, he loses focus and stops singing along about 2/3 of the way through, and he never does any of the hand motions/signing that might go along with them.  but last night, he sang along for the entire show, and he did most of the motions, too.  You could tell that he really enjoyed the Star Spangled Banner performance where they beat some colored plates together and made several different sounds with them.  I'm not sure if Candice saw how much his face seemed to light up when they were doing this performance, she thought using the plates was hilarious and was trying to control her laughter the entire time.  :-)  I was especially impressed with Gabe performing the entire show because they did a lot of "rounds" and "complementary songs" which made it more difficult for him to concentrate.  We took him out for ice cream afterwards.

On my To Do list in the coming weeks/this weekend is:

1)  Finally put the new year sticker on my license plate.  I've had them for nearly a month now, I really need to put them on.  It's just been mostly too cold lately.

2)  Make some time to write.  I need to figure out a way to write at home where I don't feel like I'm ignoring my family.  Perhaps at the kids' nap time and Candice can work on her dollhouses at the same time so she won't feel the same about me.  We'll both be accomplishing something we want to do, and we shouldn't feel bad about doing it, because otherwise we'd likely just be doing nothing really.

3)  Try to get Gabe's name changed with the Social Security Administration.  It's been changed nearly four years now, we might as well let the Feds know about it...  This will probably be more likely a task for within the next couple of months, but it's officially on my actual To Do list, and not just my "I should do this" list.

4)  Help Candice wiring her dollhouses when she's ready for that and has bought the wiring kits she needs (assuming she wants me to help her).

5)  Clean the garage.  

6)  Carry trash and recycling out of our bedroom (I really should have done that before this morning since today was trash/recycling day).

I'm sure there's more for the To Do List, and I'll add to it as I remember it.

That's all I have for this blog, thanks for reading.

Quick Writing Update 22 February 2014

Last night I wasn't tired when we went to bed, so I sat up while Candice slept and wrote some more on Forbidden Knowledge.  After tying it up this morning (which is very difficult to do with a two and a half year old in your lap, by the way), it appears I wrote about another 750 words, which puts the text just spilling onto the fourteenth page including the title page, and it now stands at a little over 2600 words.

So, yay me.  I have to work crew tomorrow.  Hopefully things will go slowly so I'll have the opportunity to write more on it.  That of course assumes the story will speak to me tomorrow, too.  We'll see.

On a non-writing related note, I've made a lot of progress painting the kids' door nameplates, and hope to finish that stage of the process soon.  Next after that will be gluing the pieces on them and screwing the clips to them.  After that, I'll just need to tie the twine in place on each of them and put the hooks in the doors (and of course take pictures to post here).

That's all for this update.  Thanks for reading.

Writing Update 19 Feb 14

First, some exciting news on the writing front:  I'm up to ten pages in Forbidden Knowledge (not including the title page) now, with a total of almost two thousand words, and the story seems like it still has a lot more to tell me.  I'm excited to find out how it'll end.  Since I finally started listening to Forbidden Knowledge and writing down the story as it relates itself to me, I haven't put much thought (if any) into the other stories.

I think the name for the second short story collection will be At The Turn Of Midnight, and Forbidden Knowledge will be the first story I plan to put into it.  Once I finish writing it (the short story, not the collection), though, I really need to focus my energy on editing and cover design for Dark Stories For A Restless Night.  If I don't, I'll probably never actually publish it, so I'll need to crack the whip on myself.

In other news, Donna burned her hand pretty badly a week ago.  When I first got home and found out about it, the blister was about a half inch by a quarter inch, so I found some second skin and put it on it.  But about 4 hours later, the blister had grown in size to where it was now larger than the patch I'd put on it.  So, we took her to the doctor the next morning and had her treated.  Yesterday, it finally popped, so we took her back.  It's healing up pretty nicely, but I doubt she'll want to mess with the oven anytime soon as a result of the burn.

I'm now bandage free after my altercation with the knife I was using to cut apart ribs last week.  It still hurts occasionally and is still pretty sensitive to direct pressure, but it is healing up nicely.

Gabe had a weird bout with something Friday at school where he was laying on the playground and his eyes were twitching.  When he got up, he walked a few steps and then dropped to his knees momentarily.  They called home to tell Candice that they were going to keep a closer eye on him.  Later, he was (seemingly) unable to track what he was looking at on the computer, so they called home again and we went to pick him up.  He was quite upset that he missed the Valentine's Day party, but we'd rather be safe than sorry.  We took him to the doctor, and she concluded that it was probably one of three things, either a mild virus, a seizure, or heart problems.  We're going to make an appointment for an EKG here soon to eliminate the last option.  The other two aren't nearly as worrisome for now.  If it was a virus, it's likely out of his system.  If it was a seizure, it's likely just a one time thing, as he's never had them before and hasn't shown any other signs of having more.

Also recently, Megi and Candice have both hurt themselves, so, if we can stop having unexpected medical expenses, that'd be great.

I got a decent amount of painting done on the door nameplates over the past few days.  Hopefully, I'll get them done soon and get them fully assembled so I can hang them up and actually have another woodworking project I set out to do completed.

Yesterday, Megi managed to somehow knock her door off of two of it's hinges, stripping out the screws and all.  Mind you, she's only two and a half years old.  We're not sure how she managed it, but in the process of repairing it, I discovered that it had happened before.  It was holding up halfway decently, so I'm still not sure how she managed to do it.  BUT, in looking at the previous handiwork (along with lots of other repair work the previous owners did to the house), I'm surprised the previous owners made money at being in the contracting business, because he SUCKED at basic home repair stuff.  In this case, he used a drywall screw anchor to "fix" the door screws.  In other instances, he also used screws that were a quarter of an inch wide (not deep - wide) for hanging pictures on the wall.  There's lots more, but I really don't know how the man made money.  Then again, maybe he did stuff just good enough that no one realized he was crappy, and he moved because it was getting about time that things might start to fail, so he needed to leave before his reputation would affect his business.

Anyway, that's all I have for this blog.  Thanks for reading.

More Forbidden Knowledge

So, I cut my finger open yesterday.  I was cutting ribs apart to freeze and glanced away for a second while talking and that was all it took.  The knife was extremely sharp, and it didn't start bleeding for a while despite being pretty deep.  The cleanness of the cut (by that I mean how narrow a cut, not actual cleanliness - I was cutting raw pork ribs after all) allowed me to not need stitches, but rather a benzine glue type substance and steri-strips.  Then they put this annoying tube gauze over my finger that I was to leave on for 24 hours (I'm taking it off after I finish typing this since it has been on for around 29 hours how (though, it'd probably be easier to type without it on since it only hurts when I completely straighten out the finger or bump the sore part which is right around the last knuckle on my non-dominant hand's index finger - putting pressure anywhere else is fine).

When I got to Urgent Care, they informed me it'd be two to three hours, so I sent Candice home while I waited so the kids could be put down for their nap, etc.  While waiting for so long, I came up with the brilliant idea to <gasp> write.  So, I walked down the way to the (literally) corner drug store and bought a new pad and some new mechanical pencils, went back and started writing.

I wrote the first sentence of what is to be Forbidden Knowledge, and it promptly yelled at me that I had written something completely wrong.  So I turned the page and started over.  by the way, the wrong sentence read "Nathaniel woke from the repeated rapping at his door."  It now reads "Nathaniel Scribner opened the doors of the library to the complete disarray inside."

That's all you get for now, but suffice it to say that I now see why the story told me I'd screwed up because it's a much better story the way it is heading now.  Did I mention that I now have 5 typed pages?  Woo Hoo for me (and the story).

Well, momentum is going for it, but hopefully it doesn't get derailed.  I have a tendency not to write when I'm around people I want to be around, which usually means I don't write at home unless they are all busy doing other things and then I might take the time to write.

I have no idea how much more the story has to revel to me and my pencil, but it's fairly exciting to see the words as I write them.

On a related note, my "new" laptop that I salvaged a few weeks back started dying.  It was taking me about two hours of getting it to boot/repair startup/etc for every 15 minutes of use.  So, I broke down and got a new one.  I managed to get a decent one for about $400, but it's a Windows 8 machine.  I figured out how to get it to (mostly) behave like a Windows 7 machine, so I can bear to use it.  Now I just need to get a new copy of Office (and not that 365 crap - I need to be able to use it when I don't have internet access, too - plus I don't want to have to keep paying for it every month).

Anyway, that's all I have for this post, thanks for reading!

Vivarium

Well, yesterday, my laptop overheated.  I let it cool down and started it up again so I could shut it down properly.  After that, it wouldn't even entertain the though of turning on again.  This is very frustrating, because the budget doesn't have any room to get a new laptop or have a major repair of this one.  I have a friend who is going to look at it and let me know just how bad it is.  Hopefully, he can get it where it'll at least start again and all I'll have to pay for is a fan and give him some Guinness beer for his time and effort (assuming it's not a major job).  In the mean time, however, I have to share Candice's computer with her and find other things to do with my time.  Maybe this is a sign I should actually get to my "second job" of being an author.

Also, last night, we finally set up the vivarium we've had for nearly a year now that was just collecting dust.  Today, we went and got frogs for it.  Since they're nocturnal creatures, we decided to name them after night related gods.  We've named them Morpheus, Nyx, and Apollo.  Morpheus is the god of dreams.  Nyx is the goddess of night.  And Apollo rides across the sky in a chariot when morning arises.  They are all green tree frogs for us to get the hang of it.  At $5 each, it's not so bad if we fail with them as it would be if they were the red eye tree frogs that run about $50 each.

Eventually, we'll have the other kind (or something cooler).  We'll probably not stop there, either, but we will probably slow down on new pet acquisitions for a while, if for no other reason than the budget won't allow for it.

Candice hasn't been motivated to create lately, so hopefully the new creatures might inspire her a bit.

That, or they'll keep us up all night barking and we'll both lose all creative drive from sleep deprivation.

Here's some pictures of the froggies:

Nyx (The small one)

Morpheus (Adventurous)

Apollo (Shy)

 And the vivarium (the first two are from just before we finished setting it up):

To be honest, we haven't done a single thing towards editing or cover design in over a week and a half.  Don't worry, though, we will still have the book out this year one way or another, and it should be available in the store you get your e-books from.  I have a page or so written on the zombie story, and it is starting to morph into being told multiple different ways within the story itself.  I think there will be excerpts from several different writing sources (scientific documents, personal correspondence, news stories, etc) that when combined in the right order, will tell the basic story.  Don't worry, part of it is still indeed first person point of view from at least one of the zombies.  I'm not sure how it will all play out yet, though.  And to be sure, that's the way I prefer it.  If I know where the story will lead before I get there, I will lose interest in it and not actually write it.


Anyway, that's all I have for this blog post at this time.  Have a nice day and thanks for reading!

Coincidence, A sign, or Just Annoying?

The story I'm currently working on is a first person zombie tale.  It begins with the first death scene from Darkness, though there is no need to read Darkness before it.  It will stand alone.  the connection is just a nice tie-in between stories, where the villain from one story is also the cause of the situation in the other story.  There are a few clues in Darkness, but not reading one or the other wouldn't leave you feeling like you missed something.  (Darkness will be in my upcoming book Dark Stories For A Restless Night.)

The story doesn't have a title yet, not even a working one.  It's still in early writing phase.  For most of my stories, I have at most a vague idea of what is going to happen, if that, and I let the words for the story as they flow off my pencil.

That being said, though, I jotted down an idea back in October when Candice and I were listening to The Shining in anticipation of the new Doctor Sleep book by Stephen King.  It simply read "Not all books should be opened.  Not all knowledge should be gained."  It was inspired by a quick blurb when Jack found the scrapbook in the basement of the Overlook and something told him not to open the book because not all books should be opened.

After that, I proceeded to write a few paragraphs from that, and even got a general idea of where it might go.  I never typed it up, and came across the idea a month later, but not the start of the story that I'd written, so I started it again.  Suffice it to say, none of those ever got typed up even as a place marker to start writing the story.  In the past week, I've come across the idea again, as well as each of the handwritten pages that start the story.  It's very odd that they would keep popping in front of me at different times.

It makes me wonder if it's a sign that I should be working on that story, if it's just coincidence, or if it's just annoying.  Anyway, I've typed them up and at least saved them so that I can work on them later.  Here's the first few paragraphs, let me know what you think of the opening:


Preface

Not all books should be opened.  Not all knowledge should be gained.  I know this now, but I’d have considered those words blasphemous for a librarian to utter even a year ago.

Back then, I ravenously fed on all knowledge and reading.  I cherished any ancient text that my hungry brain could come across.  To me, there was no concept even of forbidden knowledge.

But now I know better.  Now I know that some knowledge should be forbidden.


That's the preface and likely the tag lines for the story.  I'm not sure if I'll switch over to writing more on it now, or if I'll wait, or if I'll split time between the two.

If I keep coming across "signs" to write more on the "Forbidden Knowledge" project, I might have to finally take notice that I'm meant to work on it before my first person zombie story (even though it is finally starting to come to the surface).

As for the zombie story, the preface (as I mentioned earlier) appears in a slightly different form in Darkness.  Then, when I start telling the story, it's in the form of a letter from the main character.  I'm thinking about including pictures of the scrawl along with the typed text to show just how unreadable it is, since it is being written by someone with very little control over their muscles.  What I don't know is if that is just a quick blurb of a story that'll be followed by a separate, bigger zombie story, or if it'll lead to a bigger story within the one I'm already writing.

Other projects waiting in the writing wing include my vampire story where Josef Mengele is the vampire and retells history from that aspect.  Since Josef is the main character in it, I have to find a way to make him more sympathetic, while at the same time still a horrendously horrible person from history.  I also have a werewolf story brewing in my head too, so that it appears like a big portion of the second book might be my takes on some classic horror genres.

Either way, it all seems to be coming together as long as I can keep motivated.

On a different front, here are some season and half-season premier dates we're looking forward to in the near future:

Face Off - 14 Jan 2014
Walking Dead - 9 Feb 2014
Whose Line Is It Anyway? - 21 Mar 2014

Game of Thrones - 6 Apr 2014

That's all I have for this entry.  Thanks for reading.

Close To Completion

Today, I finished handwriting the last of the latest short story I was working on for the book coming out this year some time. It was five pages and my thumb joint jot a cramp near the end, but it was worth it. I still have to type it up and polish it up some, but it ended itself pretty well. I haven't decided yet whether to attempt to write the companion story for this story before putting out this book or have it be the first story I write for the next book. It'll probably depend on how well the writing attempt goes before I make the decision.

For now, my biggest decision will be what to title the first book of short stories. I originally had one thing in mind, then another. Now, I'm leaning towards Dark Stories For A Restless Night. I might think of something more awe-inspiring later.

For now, the book consists of the following stories (And a quick blurb about each):

Mary's Painting - A woman buys more than she expects when she purchases a painting on a whim
Sins of the Father - A priest defends the mission he presides over
The Fall - A young boy awakens after a bad accident while playing
Darkness - A group sets out on a rescue mission in the Mexican jungles and finds themselves at peril
Cat's Eye View - Find out why cats behave the way they do
The Viewing - Witness the last days of life on a distant planet
The Journey - A man travels exestentially through the cosmos
Un-Separation - A man's unhappy and unexpected reunion with his wife

That's all I have for this entry, thanks for reading.

Connections

Today I created my author page on Facebook (It already has 74 likes in around 5 hours! Thanks), so I have most of the social media outlets covered in case anyone actually reads my book and decides to "follow" me.  Here's the list of ways to follow or connect with me so far.  Let me know if there's any other ones I've missed that are mainstream enough to be considered (i.e. not MySpace):

Connect with Me

Follow me on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/TAllanBishop

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Putting more squiggly lines on the paper

Well, I worked Mid Shifts (overnights, 3rd shifts, etc. for those of you not familiar with the term) for two nights at the end of this week, and hoped that it would result in writing some of my story.  Instead what I found was that Mid Shifts are not at all conducive to writing.  They are not conducive to any creative thought, unless it's the ones that keep you awake when you're TRYING to go to sleep instead of trying to stay awake.  Well, aside from that, I did get a few hundred more words written towards Darkness.

I hope to write some more towards it later today or tonight.  Either way, I did at least make progress towards finishing it.

On the non-writing front, we got the curtain rod and curtains for Megi's room today when we went out for a flag pole.  I'll likely hang them this week some time, which will leave paint touch-up, painting doors (both closet and main bedroom door, carpet cleanup, and moving in the dressers which we will likely sand and re-stain after the weather turns warmer (April time frame).  I'm not sure what the next actual project is for getting the house the way we want it, but I suspect it'll become the master bedroom.

Anyway, that's all I have for this blog, thanks for reading.

Christmas Day So Far In The Bishop Household 12/25/2013

The day started at three o'clock in the morning.  Gabe actually woke up around twelve thirty, but we managed to hold him off for another two and a half hours.  The morning proceeded for about a half hour for Donna and Gabe to see what Santa brought them (and for Mom and Dad, too).  We then convinced them to take some of their stuff upstairs to their room to play with while we tried to get just a tad bit more sleep.  We then got up at seven for Megi to see what she got and for the immediate family to open presents from each other (and from family that would not be in attendance later today).  She handled it much better than I expected.  I expected her to be so overwhelmed that she'd shut down, but instead, she, though overwhelmed, took it mostly in stride and really got into the unwrapping part.  She was not at all pleased with the "quality" job that toy manufacturers do at securing the toys in the packaging.  Neither am I.

Then mom made French toast for everyone for breakfast, which was quite good.  We finished watching A Christmas Carol that we tried to watch last night (until dinnertime interrupted the movie temporarily and then Grandma commandeered the television to watch ID).  Then the kids played for a while as Candice and I cleaned and made preparations for the meal later today when the extended family arrives.  And now Grandma is making more finger foods and nick-knack foods that no one wants just because.

Candice was totally in the Christmas mood this year (for the first time in a while) right up until Grandma started adding to the menu last minute and taking over the space in the kitchen we needed to prep for the meal (along with monopolizing her time that we needed, too, because her "it won't interfere" line was total crap.  It turned into "do all this for me.")  Now Candice is completely out of the mood and dreading the rest of the day.  Grandma is completely oblivious to this fact.  And now, instead of having too many leftovers for the fridge, we're almost certainly going to have too many leftovers for the fridge, plus a bunch of other stuff that no one wants to eat, and it'll sit around until we throw it away in a week and a half.

I was dumb yesterday.  I wrote over a thousand words towards my story Darkness, and then forgot to email a copy home.  It was mostly just rewriting myself back to the point where I was a few months ago, though it feels much better to me now.  There are two less characters and I have a better feel for how the story will progress.  The first death in the second party has occurred and they're trying to figure out the best approach for the immediate future.  Logically, they should turn back and take the body to town, but they're farther away from the town than they are to their destination, and with an unknown predator that they can't be sure where it is, they are essentially stuck until they can decide.  They find that the backpack with the satellite phone is also missing, so calling for help is out of the question.  They're going to decide that there is probably another satellite phone at the campsite they're heading towards, which will push them forward and into the climax of the story.

In a few minutes, I'm going to put the sweet potatoes in the oven, since we're planning on having everyone eat dinner around three in the afternoon.  After that, I guess we need to start boiling the mashed potatoes (I've already peeled and diced them) and make the stuffing.  Then it's get dressed for the big event and enjoy the afternoon.

Venialia

Today's obscure word of the day is venialia.  It means minor sins or offences.  I might need to find a way to work that word into a story, I find it to be a neat word.

So, as you may have noticed previously in my blogs, I prefer to write all my stories by hand first.  I have a logical reason for that.  If I'm typing on a computer, I tend to make immediate corrections, and edit, and edit, and edit as I go along.  This slows down the creative flow, and often causes me to lose focus on what I'm actually writing.  As a result, the first time I get my story typed up, it's actually my second draft.  I find that the edits and corrections are more suited to the story after the segment is already written, and therefore does not detract from it as much as not getting the segment properly written would do.  It also helps me attempt to keep up with my creative mind.  Granted, neither method of input comes close to keeping up with my mind.  Some stories I write the entire story before typing anything up, others I will write a few pages at a time before typing it up.  Either way, the only personal writing I do directly to computer are items like this (my blog posts, Facebook statuses, etc).  I've also tried to have a portable recorder of some type to dictate, but that doesn't work for anything except ideas.  I don't "see" what I've dictated, and have a tendency to lose focus if I'm trying to orally state a story.  Also, if I'm orally stating a story, I have to be in the mindset with a story in mind already to tell it, otherwise, my creativity completely drains out (often for days at a time).

My wife will hear me when I start typing something long, because I have a strong typing method when I type fast.  When I'm typing something short, the keystrokes tend to be softer.  When it's longer, though, my speed and intensity increases, which sounds harsher on the keystrokes.  It's especially noticeable with the space bar on most keyboards, probably a result of how the space bar takes input and is much larger with more hollow area underneath it for a sort of echo sound.  She often thinks I'm typing up a response to someone being an idiot online, because until recently, I haven't been doing much writing (also, as noted above, I tend to hand write most stories first).

Lately though, I've been using http://750words.com to try and keep momentum going.  It's a sort of challenge to use it for my intended purpose of story writing, but I use it as follows:  I type up my "second draft" of my stories there before cutting and pasting them into the Microsoft Word document the words will eventually call home while they wait to be published.  I also type up my blog posts there before copying them to my blog site.  I have noticed that I need to copy it on the same day I type it, because once it goes into the archive, if I "export it" it no longer has carriage returns, etc. to mark paragraphs, so I either need my hand written version to use as a guideline, or I need to figure out where they are on my own.  It's a real pain to do after the fact sometimes (unless there's lots of dialog, in which case it isn't quite so hard).

I've made some changes to my blog site recently.  I've put a picture behind the blog title.  Currently, it is Michael Konrad Hirt's A vanitas still life with a candle, an inkwell, a quill pen, a skull and books.  I might change it up from time to time.  Also on the side is recent books I've finished reading (which usually, though not always, means unabridged audiobook).  I also have struggled to figure out how to get my blog posts to automatically post to my other social media sites, then I found "If This Then That" (http://IFTTT.com) where you can set up a "recipe" that, in this case, says "Anytime there is a new blog posted, create a post on <Facebook> or <Twitter> or <Tumblr>" (I had to set up three recipes for it.  It seems to be working so far, so I no longer need to post a link, or copy the text and paste it anymore to accomplish the same task as I used to do.  In theory, every blog post I make will be linkd from each of those sites (and any others that I join in the future).

That's all I have for this blog post.  Thanks for reading.

Today's Writing Update 12/19

Yesterday, I re-started writing Darkness by throwing out 9/10 of it and starting over.  I think the new beginning is much better and flows smoother.  I saved some from the 'middle' just to see if it'll still fit.  It probably will, but will also probably be re-written, too.  Darkness is also the starting point for my zombie story too.  A few paragraphs in the second section will be the opening part of the zombie story.  I think it's a neat idea that the same scene starts two different horror genre stories.  Now, I just have to write them,  If I finish Darkness before I publish my still untitled compilation book, I think it'll be included and will also be the title of the compilation (though I still want something to do with Mary's Painting to be the book cover picture (darkness lays a role in it and most of the other stories as they're all related to dark topics).  If the book gets above 20,000 words, the book will be $2.99.  If it's less but still more than 15,000 I'll price it at $1.99, any less will be $0.99.  Those seem to be the accepted guidelines from what I can tell for self-publishing electronically.  I also think I need to edit Cat's Eye View and Un-Separation to refine them before publishing them in it.  They're still rough around the edges, and I'd hate to put out something I felt was not finished.  My goal is to get it published some time next calendar year.

Yesterday, I also discovered that I was grandfathered in to 750words.com with a free membership.  I had stopped using it because I joined less than a week after what was supposed to be the cutoff without knowing there was going to be a cutoff.  Before my 30 day trial was to be over, I stopped using it because I didn't think I could afford it (though it doesn't cost much of anything).  On a whim after Candice asked if the words I was typing for Darkness last night were for my "500 words", I went back to the website and found out that they'd moved the date to a week or so after I had joined.  So, I'll try using the site again to keep my writing momentum going.

I added a Goodreads widget to the side of my blog, but from what I can tell, I have to update the code myself to get the books in it to change.  I marked a couple more books as finished today and it still showed the old list until I copied and pasted the new code in.  If anyone knows how to modify it to be dynamically updated, let me know!

We're all ready for Christmas (though we still haven't mailed out stuff to my family back east - we'll do that tomorrow most likely).  The only shopping we still have left to do is to buy a few more groceries for the Christmas meal, and some boxes for the aforementioned stuff that needs shipped.

That's about all for this blog entry.  Thanks for reading.

Getting on the Publishing Trail

When I originally started writing, I never intended to have it published.  I was writing for me, to release emotions, since I didn't (and if I'm honest with myself I still don't) know how to deal with most emotions.  Then, I felt brave enough to let a few friends read a couple of my stories.  That was a pretty big breakthrough for me.  But still, I never really had any desire to sell any of my stuff.

Then I married an artist.  And she started selling some of her stuff (Granted, she produces much more than she lists and the sales aren't burning any barns.  Yet.), and this crazy notion got into my head that maybe I should sell some of my art, too.  Then came the "now what" phase.  I didn't have enough for a full book, and wasn't producing anything except a multitude of ideas (many of which I forget by the time I can write them down - or I lose the slip of paper I write them on), so I kept pushing it off.

Then I found that I can publish on my own through Amazon for the Kindle for free, so I started thinking of the basic concept I'd publish with.  Since the vast majority of my stories and story ideas are all short or ultra short, I should focus on short story compilation books.  I don't concentrate on any single genre, so maybe I should split the stories into categories and concentrate on a compilation story for each genre.  Horror, Science Fiction, Mystery, Drama (basic fiction that doesn't fit into the other three genres).  I then set about doling out stories to each book and had a pretty good idea of what goes where.

But still, I didn't do any work on anything new.

Then I found out about Smashwords, which will publish to just about every other electronic book medium except Amazon and also for free.  So, I could have my books for sale for the Kindle, and also for Nook, Apple Itunes, and a couple dozen other places.  Then I started reading in forums about pricing books and approximate number of words for each pricing scheme and I realized that I could put six of my stories that are already completed in the same short compilation novel and price it at about $0.99 or $1.99.  If I get good results, I'm pretty sure that will get me motivated to start putting my pencil to paper again (yes, I do all my first drafts the old fashioned way).

So, I'm putting the following stories in a short compilation book for less than a dollar:  Mary's Painting, Sins of the Father, The Fall, Cat's Eye View, The Viewing, and The Journey.  The only thing they have in common is that they're all darker stories.  I still need a title for the compilation, but as soon as I get that and artwork to design the cover with, I plan to publish straight away.  Who knows, if I get another story finished before then, I might include it also.

Weathering the Storms

Sorry I haven't posted a blog in a while, it's just not been in my "line of sight" to do so.  But gentle prodding by my #1 reader has gotten me to put out a new post.

We seem to have survived the Colorado flood storms relatively unscathed other than getting stir crazy.  But it will extend the timeline for moving the "travel missile" (our luggage holder) into the basement.  I had it in the back yard ready to move into the basement when the almost-tornado hit a month ago that destroyed part of the velodrome under development in Erie and had us sheltering in the basement for an hour or so.  It got blown into our "circle of doom" (where previous residents dug out a spot to put a trampoline and where we eventually hope to build a gazebo) that was filled with water at the time.  So, I waited to get it out rather than trek into the clay-mud to pull it out.  Then, out of sight, out of mind, I forgot about it until the other day and had planned to bring it in this past weekend.  Then the flood rains came mid-week and that didn't happen.  Now the circle of doom is a small pond, and I'll again be waiting for it to dry out enough to retrieve it (and likely rinse it out inside and out) and bring it inside.

Halloween season is upon us soon.  We didn't get the hearse built (again), but I hope to start making small bits of progress on it slowly over the next year.  It would be easier if there were a little more space for it and my car in the garage at the same time, but I have a few ideas about how to do work on it in the mean-time.  I'll probably put the cemetary fencing up about 2-3 weeks out, and the rest of it up the week of Halloween (which I'm taking off work).

We're starting the process of having our awful windows replaced.  We couldn't afford to do them all at once, so we chose the biggest needed ones first.  We're doing 8 windows.  3 are difficult to see through because of shoddy construction/installation, and the others are in our bedroom to hopefully keep the temperatures bearable in the summer months (it currently gets above 80 most days in our bedroom despite the A/C running non-stop).  The new windows are triple paned, and have technology built-in that is at an angle to reflect heat away when the sun is at a high angle (summer months) and allow it in when it is at a low angle (winter months and evenings), which should save tremendously on energy costs.  When the car is paid off, we'll get the rest of them done.  We are also waiting to finish painting Megi's room until they replace the big window in her room.

I haven't been doing very good about writing, and I think a big part of it is I'm not following the advice I give Candice all the time:  just make time everyday and do it.  So, I plan to try and write for a minimum of 30 minutes each day, even if it's crap.  Maybe she can take some of that same time to do some clay work, etc. and we can both be productive.  I've had plenty of ideas coming (many of which I've also not followed my own advice on and haven't written them down), but none of the "meat" of the ideas has been there yet.  Maybe if I start writing on the ideas, even if I know it's not what I intend, the "meat" will reveal itself to me and I can then write in earnest on each project.

I really need some ideas on how to make Gabe CARE about doing his schoolwork.  Even the promise of getting to go play, etc. doesn't entice him enough to want to do anything when he is at home towards doing a few minutes of homework (which as a result, turns into hours of homework).  So, if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

I have done some work on a few of my woodwork projects.  I've cut out the kid's names for door plates.  I need to decide how thick a back to put them on and how I want to mount them to the doors.  I also made some box shelves, which we hung in an asymmetrical manner in Donna's room for books, etc.  I'll probably build some more for Megi's room, too, and maybe a couple for Gabe's room (though figring out where to put them in his room might prove the only obstacle there...

That's all I have for this post (I probably had more, but had to completely re-type it from scratch when my browser crapped out on me), thanks for reading.