Ouch!

I started writing Dirty Little Freaks #14 on Sunday, and I actually got most of it done. It’s not a very long story, so far only about 500 words, but it’s okay.

And then Monday came. And I decided I had waited long enough to get on my new bike, so I rode to work.

Ouch.

After a two-year hiatus of riding, my body is pathetically out of shape. I’ve gained back most of the weight I lost a few years ago, which I had sworn never to allow to happen. So now I’m back at square 1.5 (not all the way to square 1 because I didn’t regain ALL the weight), and I’m starting over.

The reason I stopped riding was because my poor bike was worn out. I had been riding it almost every day for eight years. And yes, I do mean every day. The bike had well over 10,000 miles on it, and while I paid for the shop to rebuild it every other year, they had never changed out the chain, and it should have been replaced after the first 5,000 miles. Between the stretched out chain, the worn out gears, and the overall wear and tear on the poor thing (including a cracked frame), I just couldn’t ride it any more.

In February I bought the new bike, fully intending to ride it in March. And then March happened. You know the old saying that if March comes in like a lamb it goes out like a lion? Well, after last month I am convinced that both the lamb and the lion were eaten by a polar bear. So I never got a chance to ride my brand new bike. Until Monday.

I took the “easy” route to work, avoiding the worst of the hills. About three miles. But by the time I got there, I knew just how badly out of shape I had let myself become. And then I had to do it again after work. By the time I got home I was so beat I couldn’t move. My wife helped me get my helmet and bike clothes off so I could collapse onto the couch. When I could finally manage to function again the first thing I did was adjust the seat height. I had thought it was okay when I left for work, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that it needed to go up at least an inch. I also installed my bike computer, so I could track my mileage and speed. Then I took some Advil and went to bed early.

On Tuesday I did it again. Adjusting the seat really helped, and I wasn’t nearly as winded or worn out by the time I got to work. I stopped to vote on the way home, so I can’t say how I would have felt if I hadn’t, but I’m hoping there was at least some improvement. I was, however, very disappointed by the numbers on my bike computer. Before I stopped riding I was averaging fifteen miles per hour on my rides, and now I have trouble getting over ten.

I’m going to continue to commute by bicycle as much as I can from now on. It will save me about $40 a month on parking, not to mention gas for the car. And it will help me get my fat ass back in shape. Hopefully it won’t be long before I can make the ride without feeling like someone is sitting on my chest. Either that or I’ll have a heart attack.

And I WILL finish #14 this week. And do my taxes. It’s good to have goals.

I’ll check in again on Sunday (if I’m still alive) to let you know how I’m doing. See you then!

P.S.: My new bike is a Marin Muirwoods 24 speed with disk brakes. And it’s black. If I make it through the week maybe I’ll post a picture.

A Little Personal Time

Today I thought I would share a few things about my life recently. You know, just to keep you guys up to speed.

I just got a new bike. I was hoping to fix up my old one, which would have cost about $300, but the mechanic found a crack in the frame, which meant that instead I had to get a new one. The bike shop gave me a deal, since the old frame was out of warranty, but still, the new bike cost me $650. I can’t really complain, though. I got about eight years of use out of the old bike, putting over 10,000 miles on it over the years. It had a good run.

I’m looking forward to riding again. I had to stop riding my old bike because it was completely worn out. The chain was so stretched out that I probably could have taken at least two links out of it. The gears were so worn out that I was essentially down to a single speed from the eighteen I started with. And I had to keep my back fender on with wire ties, because the screw fell out and I didn’t have a spare. I have been trying to scrape the money together for an overhaul for the last two years, and was finally able to do it when I got a bonus at work.

It’s too bad that I had to spend the whole bonus on a new bike, but at least I’ll be able to ride again. The new bike is pretty awesome, with disc brakes and twenty-four speeds. I’m looking forward to getting it out on the roads and trails and seeing what it can do. I also really need the exercise.

My next news is that I just finished reading Warm Bodies, by Isaac Marion. Yeah, it’s the book that the movie was based on. And yes, the movie and the book are very much alike: OUTSTANDING!!! You should definitely go see the movie, and you should also read the book. I’ll leave the order up to you. If you are following me on Goodreads, you will see that I said the book is “worth adding to your go-bag for the next zombie apocalypse.”

And if you aren’t following me on Goodreads, WHY NOT?!

And lastly, my lovely wife of over fifteen years is having a birthday on Friday, so I am taking a few days off of work to spend time with her. Happy birthday sweetie!

That’s it for today. I need to get some writing done now. I hope to see you guys back here on Sunday!

Trying to find Balance

One of the hardest things for me as a writer is finding a balance. I’m not talking about balancing plot points and character development, although that is difficult as well as important. No, what I am speaking of is finding a balance between my writing and the rest of my life.

Part of being a writer is opening yourself up to the rest of the world. You have to share a vital part of yourself in order to engage the reader. The tricky part is figuring out which part, and how much you can show. Show too much, too soon, and people will think you are overeager. Show the wrong parts, and people will get bored, or angry.

Kind of like being an exotic dancer.

Think about it. If you went to a strip club and the dancer showed you the goods right off the bat, you would be a little disappointed, wouldn’t you? After all, part of the show is the “reveal”, and you can’t have a reveal if you never cover it up in the first place. And if the dancer never showed you anything, you would be just as upset. After all, you paid good money for this show, and there are certain expectations about what is going to happen when you get inside.

Okay, now this analogy is starting to get me off-balance. See what I mean?

What I am trying to say here is that I am having trouble reconciling my personal life with my writing. I have certain, deep-seated beliefs that frequently conflict with the things that I write. There are many times when the words that come out of my head make me uncomfortable, because they aren’t the kinds of things that I believe I should be writing. And yet, there they are.

I’ll come right out and say it. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Otherwise known as the Mormons. Yes, the same church that Mitt Romney belongs to (even though I think he’s a bad example of our faith).

One of the tenets of being a member of my church is living the law of chastity. That means so much more than just not having sex. It also means avoiding pornography and keeping your lustful passions confined to the marriage bed. And it means that when I start writing about sex and use four letter words in my stories I am either walking a fine line or stepping over the edge. And that’s what makes me uncomfortable.

This is tough for me. On the one hand, I’m not being unfaithful to my lovely wife. I’m not even looking at dirty pictures on the Internet. But when I write about other people having sex, it’s like letting a fantasy out of my head. And it’s probably not a fantasy I should be having in the first place, much less share with the rest of the world.

What makes it even more difficult is that I know for a fact that there is a huge market for erotica out there, and writing about sex would be an excellent way for me to make enough money to keep the hounds at bay. An important consideration in this economy.

Last week I announced my “Dirty Little Freaks” project, and I said that it would possibly contain some erotica. To be honest, I’m rethinking that decision, for the reasons I have just stated. I started the series with an introduction to the narrator, Boomer. I wrote it as a one-legged midget who uses his “other leg” to make up for the missing one. He used words that I would never use in public (or in private, for that matter).

I don’t think I like this guy. I think he needs to go away.

But that means that I need to come up with something to replace him. I kind of liked the idea of a dirty little freak introducing the stories as tales of the strange and unusual that he came across in his travels around the world. But that also means I would be limited to stories set in the modern age, and on this planet, and it may be better to open the floodgates a little wider and give myself some more room to play.

I was thinking that doing this series would be a good way to have some stories on file for possible submission to assorted magazines and anthologies. And the more different types of stories I have, the more options I have to present to editors.

Pardon my rambling. I find that I have a tendency to start on one topic and end on another. I hope you guys don’t mind. And this post is getting a bit long-winded, so I had better wrap it up anyway.

But first, a few other things that I need to say about my struggles with balance.

A few years ago I made a commitment to lose weight. I started at 320 pounds and by the time I was done (about a year and a half later), I was down to 175 pounds. I was proud of myself, and I swore I wouldn’t let myself get that fat again.

I broke that promise. I am back up to 290 pounds, and I have to say that part of the reason for the weight gain is the hedonistic lifestyle of being a writer. I have splurged on unhealthy food and gone out to eat at restaurants when I should have been dining at home. I have enjoyed cake and candy when I should have been sticking to carrots and celery. I have stopped exercising, and my bike (which I used to rely on as my main mode of transportation) is rusting in my basement.

I’m sick of it. I hate what I have let myself become and I have made a resolution this year to get back on my diet and start dropping the pounds again. I have started logging my food intake again and I am trying to keep my calories under control. I plan on getting my bike to the shop for an overhaul this spring so I can start riding to work again.

The diet and exercise will also be taking time away from my writing, which will make it more difficult for me to meet my writing goals, but it is more important to me right now for me to get back to a healthy lifestyle.

This is the balance that I am trying to find. Balance between my faith and my words. Between my diet and my urges. Between my health and my writing.

Life is all about finding balance. I am working on finding some in my life. How are you doing in yours?

November 14 – Catching Fire

Things are starting to improve. And I should get my new Kindle Fire by the end of the week.

Goal 1: I will work on my writing every day.

I still don’t know how this dance is going to end, but at least I’m starting to feel the rhythm. Thanks to the effort (and it has definitely been an effort) that I have put into NaNoWriMo this year, my writing is beginning to get a little easier. I still can’t keep up with Zombie Joe, but at least the gap is closing.

I am bringing in the back story as a plot point, and I introduced two new Valkyries. Someday I may write their story as well. The series is all about the women and the guys who love them, so all the characters I bring in have their own story to tell. The problem is finding out what those stories are.

In case you were wondering, the first one is named Jeanne, and she is a French-Canadian living in Toronto. The second is named Sierra, and she is a biker chick in Fargo, North Dakota. If you have any ideas for their story, I’m open to suggestions.

Goal 2: I will participate in NaNoWriMo in November.

Thanks to some weekend marathon writing sessions at the local coffee shops, I have not only caught up with the NaNoWriMo schedule, but I am actually a day ahead. My current word count is 23,439. I’m going to try to stay ahead, and maybe even get a little more cushion for “just in case”.

Goal 3: Diet and exercise to lose at least 10 pounds by the end of this round.

Thanks to the Thanksgiving dinner at work last week and the snacks I enjoyed at the coffee shops, I am more likely to gain 10 pounds by the end of the month. I keep saying I am going to buckle down and be better at keeping the calorie intake down, but so far it isn’t happening. I am thinking of getting out my old pants again, or buying new ones. The ones I have been wearing just keep getting tighter.

I am still going to try to lose weight this month, but I’m not going to get too upset if it doesn’t happen. I was also hoping to be back to 200 pounds by my birthday in January, but that is definitely out of the question. But I will still have it as a goal for next year, and hopefully by the time NaNoWriMo rolls around in 2012 I will be back in fighting trim.

I shall return on Thursday for another update on the life of a writer. See you soon!

November 10 – Staying in Motion

The best thing I can say about NaNoWriMo this year is that I am staying on schedule.

Goal 1: I will work on my writing every day.

I’m still plugging along on my Valkyrie story. I’m past the first plot point and right now I am writing about how she is being trained to understand and use her new powers. I brought in Miranda, the Valkyrie from my first story, as a trainer. I used this as an opportunity to have her tell Nicole a little about how she got her powers, which was a short story I wrote several months ago as a writing exercise.

And no, I didn’t copy and paste. I reread my original short story and had Miranda tell Nicole the Cliff Notes version through dialogue. It was all new prose.

Goal 2: I will participate in NaNoWriMo in November.

I fell behind on Sunday, got farther behind on Monday, but managed to catch up on Tuesday and stay ahead on Wednesday. My current word count is 15,092. I don’t have anything to keep me from writing until Monday, so I am going to try to see if I can get enough down to get me ahead of schedule. I would like at least two days worth of cushion so I don’t have to worry about not being able to finish on time.

Goal 3: Diet and exercise to lose at least 10 pounds by the end of this round.

I got on the scale again this morning, even though I normally only weigh myself on Mondays. I am down one pound from Monday, but that probably isn’t due so much to actual weight loss as to normal fluctuations. And of course, the cafeteria at work is having their annual Thanksgiving dinner today. There will be tons of food for only $6.50, which is a deal I just can’t pass up. I had a light breakfast, and I’m planning to take an extra dinner home to share with my wife. I will also try to control myself and maybe not clean my plate at lunch time. That way I will have more food to take home and won’t feel so guilty.

Tune in again on Monday for another exciting NaNoWriMo update! Same NaNo time, same NaNo station!

November 7 – Trying to Get the Wheels in Motion

One week into NaNoWriMo and I’m still struggling.

Goal 1: I will work on my writing every day.

As I write this, I have 10,419 words on my NaNoWriMo story. I am finding it very difficult to get enough words every day to meet my goal. Last night I ended the day with less than 10,000 words. I need to write at least another 1250 words by the end of tonight in order to stay on schedule.

The problem seems to be that I’m just not that excited by the story. Part of me feels that I have already written this story, even though I am trying to make this one something different than what I wrote for Finding Valhalla. I’m using mostly new characters, although some of the original ones are making their appearances here. I’m also making this story come before the other one in the timeline of the series. I even made the Valkyrie a normal girl who receives her powers as part of the story. So if there are all these differences between the two stories, why do I still feel like I’m repeating myself?

Goal 2: I will participate in NaNoWriMo in November.

My wife and I went to Culvers on Friday. I did some writing and we had the fish dinner. I invited others in the area to come and join me, but it was last minute notice and nobody showed up. On Saturday I went to Cool Beans on the east side and met with Zombie Joe and Jesi, along with a few others. I got all my writing done for the day while we were there, which was good. Joe is making me feel bad though, because he has almost twice the word count that I do.

Goal 3: Diet and exercise to lose at least 10 pounds by the end of this round.

The last week was bad. I got on the scale this morning and found I have gained five pounds over the last week. Not good. I only had a banana for breakfast, and I swore that I am going to be better at watching my diet for the rest of the year.

I’ll see you again on Thursday with another NaNoWriMo update! If you are participating, good luck and keep writing. If you aren’t, why not?

November 3 – NaNoWriMo Begins!

Two days down for NaNoWriMo, and things aren’t going well.

Goal 1: I will work on my writing every day.

About 1500 words on Tuesday and 1800 on Wednesday. This is good, and has me on schedule for NaNoWriMo, but there’s a problem.

All that work I did on my outline was good, and got me off to a good start. The problem is that I’m only two days into NaNoWriMo and I’ve already hit section five on the outline. According to my plan I should be at over 5000 words, but I’m only at 3600. At this rate I’m going to finish what I had planned for the first section by the end of day tomorrow. My only hope is to work on expanding some of the scenes and give more detail and description. This is something I need to work on anyway, but I’m not sure it is something I can do in the frenzy of November.

I knew I was going to end up flying by the seat of my pants at some point this month. I just didn’t think it was going to be this soon.

Goal 2: I will participate in NaNoWriMo in November.

The kickoff meeting was a big success in that about twenty people showed up. Unfortunately, it failed me in that I didn’t get enough writing done to make the quota for the day. I made it up last night, but only because I was able to skip the regular Wednesday D&D Encounters game and work on my writing. I wrote a little bit this morning too, so I am currently at 3600 words. I don’t have any plans that will conflict with my writing tonight or tomorrow so I am hoping to make enough progress to get a little bit ahead of the game.

Goal 3: Diet and exercise to lose at least 10 pounds by the end of this round.

Between the tons of candy left over from Halloween and the brownies and cupcakes at the NaNoWriMo kickoff meeting I am not sure I even want to know what is happening with my scale. I was telling people that chocolate fuels creativity. I need to start telling myself that it also makes you fat.

I’ll be back on Monday with another update on my progress. See you then!

October 31 – Things are Getting Scary!

Today is Halloween, which means that NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. I’M NOT READY!

Goal 1: I will work on my writing every day.

I tried working on my outline over the weekend, and have yet to get past the halfway point. As a matter of fact, I tossed out most of what I was planning and started over because I didn’t think it was good enough to keep the reader’s interest and keep the story moving.

My plan now is still to start with a car chase, as Nicole goes after the speeding Kari and Michelle (my ill-fated Valkyrie). She is going to catch them when they lose control and arrest them. On the way back though she will have to stop to deal with Matt, her boyfriend. This is an important change, because in the first draft of my outline I didn’t introduce him until after the first plot point. Considering that this is meant to be a paranormal ROMANCE I thought it might be a good idea to bring him in earlier.

So while she is dealing with Matt, the two troublemakers are stealing her patrol car. She will commandeer Matt’s car to chase them down, catching up to them in a state park. They run into the woods and she follows them. They meet a giant and she follows her police training and tries to arrest everybody. A fight follows and the giant takes out the Valkyrie. Nicole picks up the fallen woman’s spear in self-defense and the giant impales himself on it. Once the giant is dead, the goddess Freya will appear and give Nicole the powers of a Valkyrie.

This is a fairly good start, but it also leaves some questions that I have to answer in order to make sure I know where I am headed. Otherwise I will be leaving gaping plot holes and the story will suck!

1. How did Kari and Michelle know that the giant was going to be there?
2. What was the giant doing there?

There are probably more questions that I will need to deal with, but those are the biggest ones. If you have questions you would like answered, leave a comment and I’ll try to work it in to the story.

Goal 2: I will participate in NaNoWriMo in November.

Just a few more hours before we start. And I have to deal with Trick-or-Treaters for the next two hours. And Castle is on tonight. That doesn’t leave a lot of time to finish my outline!

We’re having a local kickoff meeting tomorrow night instead of our normal critique group. Zombie Joe has made arrangements for a meeting hall and we’ll be getting together after work to get some writing done. I’m hoping we will be able to do more actual writing tomorrow night than we did at the kickoff meeting last year. These things tend to be more about the chat and less about putting the Hands on the Keyboard. And I REALLY want to finish again this year. I haven’t done much writing in the last several months and I need to get back in the habit.

Goal 3: Diet and exercise to lose at least 10 pounds by the end of this round.

The scale is still not my friend. I haven’t lost any weight yet. On the positive side, I haven’t gained anything either, so at least I’m not getting worse. And unfortunately, the write-ins of NaNoWriMo are usually not diet-friendly, since they tend to be focused on ingesting large quantities of caffeine and sugar. I don’t do the caffeine, but I can’t resist the coffee cake and a Ventí Caramel Apple Spice when we meet at Starbucks.

This month is going to be a struggle, but I’m hoping to come out on the other side with another finished first draft. And I’m still hoping that this draft will suck less than the mess I wrote last year.

I’ll continue to keep posting on Mondays and Thursdays with my progress, but don’t expect a lot of deep thoughts as I will be concentrating more on my word count for my book than my blog. If I get into trouble I’ll be sure to post it here, and hopefully one of my faithful readers will have some helpful advice.

Thanks for sticking with me for this. Wish me luck!

October 27 – Running Out of Time

I’m still working on my outline, and time is running out. I know that I don’t have to have the whole thing plotted out before I start writing next week, but the more I get done the better it will be.

Goal 1: I will work on my writing every day.

I think I have a good general idea of the main plot points, but I was only able to get my head wrapped around a possible opening hook yesterday. The hook was hard for me, because I didn’t want to put too much in the reader’s head at one time yet I wanted to make sure they wanted to keep reading. I need to introduce my main character, yet hold some of the story back for later. So I had to take a look at what I had to work with and what I wanted to accomplish before the first plot point and try to come up with something from there.

1. Nicole is a state trooper. That is something that can be stated with minimal explanation to introduce her quickly and without a lot of exposition.
2. At the start of the book she is a normal human being. This is a little more of a problem. It essentially means that I have to write the beginning as a person who unexpectedly is confronted with the existence of the supernatural.
3. The supernatural world needs to be introduced right away.
4. There are other Valkyries in the world. I thought of bringing in Miranda (my first Valkyrie) at the beginning, but since someone needs to die in order to make Nicole a Valkyrie, I don’t want that person to be Miranda. So instead I will have to come up with another character in order to kill her off. However, I do think I can bring in Kari (Loki’s daughter) as a tie-in with my first effort.
5. Nicole has repressed memories of a supernatural experience. This is a very touchy issue. I will somehow need to introduce this backstory as a part of her character, but I don’t want to just blurt it out. I need to put it in there as hints and emotions, things that affect Nicole on a subconscious level. A little foreshadowing would be appropriate here, but I’m going to mainly focus on these inner demons.
6. Nicole is very protective of others. This can be shown when she joins the fight against the monster, even though she is way out of her league.

With these things in mind, I decided that I should introduce Nicole as she is chasing Kari and the ill-fated Valkyrie for speeding. They have an accident and Nicole is tricked into driving them to battle. The journey there will allow me to lower the tension from the chase in the first scene, and give me an opportunity to describe the location and hint at some of the backstory. When they arrive, she will be confronted with the supernatural world and will join the fight even though she is overmatched. When the other Valkyrie is killed, she grabs her spear and through sheer luck is able to kill the monster.

That is my plan for the first one-quarter of the book. It will take me up to the First Plot Point, which is going to be when Freya recruits her as a replacement for the slain Valkyrie. I don’t have anything else outlined, but my general idea is that she will be struggling to learn her duties as a Valkyrie until the midpoint of the book, when she decides to use her new power to hunt down the creature that killed her father. The Second Plot point at the three-quarter mark will be when she has to reveal her power to her boyfriend in order to save him. The last part of the book will be a struggle between his male ego and her protective nature until at the end she is forced to choose to allow him to sacrifice himself as a hero in order to fulfill her role as a Valkyrie. This is the part that is going to be the most difficult for me. I am thinking that I will probably have to bring Freya back to make sure that Nicole understands the importance of this. It may even have to include a discussion of the nature of love.

I can’t believe I just wrote that. This is definitely going to be a challenge for me.

Goal 2: I will participate in NaNoWriMo in November.

The countdown continues. Just a few more days and it will be time to start writing. Like I said, I am still working on my outline. It’s going to be tough to nail it down before Tuesday, but with a little focus I will get a bit more done over the weekend.

Goal 3: Diet and exercise to lose at least 10 pounds by the end of this round.

I have walked to work every day this week, so I am getting some exercise. I am also planning on getting on the exercise bike tonight while watching The Lovely Bones. I’m also planning on riding while watching Chuck tomorrow night.

I’ll be back Monday with one last update before NaNoWriMo starts. See you then!

October 24 – Distractions

For the last couple weeks I have been fighting a losing battle against distractions. Between reading, Internet games, and a whole truckload of other things, I haven’t been able to get any writing done, and my planning for NaNoWriMo is stuck.

Goal 1: I will work on my writing every day.

This just isn’t happening. I managed to get through the REAMDE book by Neal Stephenson, finishing it late Saturday night. Of course, then I had to start Sex On The Moon, by Ben Mezrich. I have three other library books to read as well, but I think I will be able to renew at least two of them.

I have also been spending way too much time on the Internet recently. And, just like you would expect from the World Wide Web, none of it has been productive. Part of it is reading my Google+ stream, but I have to confess that most of it is simply wasting hours playing games on Google and Facebook. I WILL stop for NaNoWriMo. I have to. But they will be calling me from their dark corner for the whole month, whispering my name and promising me sweet diversions. What can I say? It’s an addiction.

At least there aren’t any cool movies coming out this week. I would like to see the new Three Musketeers movie, but I don’t mind waiting for it to come to the cheap theater, or even to DVD. In Time looks interesting, and Tower Heist looks like a lot of fun. There are a few movies coming out in November that I would like to see, but nothing that I can’t wait for. The next movies that I am really excited about watching will be Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, both coming out in December.

So that is my problem. That’s why this post is so late today. I’m trying to cut back on all the stuff distracting me from my writing, but right now it isn’t looking good.

Goal 2: I will participate in NaNoWriMo in November.

I talked about posting a review of REAMDE on my last blog entry. I’m not good at evaluating books, so don’t expect much. Essentially, I gave it three stars, which means I liked it enough to finish it, but not enough to want to read it again, and certainly not enough to qualify for Best Book of the Year. It had an interesting plot and characters, but it was simply too long. I think that there was probably quite a bit of that book that could have been cut out without affecting the story. And the marketing team that linked it so strongly to the virtual world referred to in the book should have taken a closer look at the actual story before hyping it so much. About the best I can say about it was that a gaming world was present in the book. The story, however, was primarily set in the real world, so there was really no reason to make such a big deal of the game on the cover blurb.

Goal 3: Diet and exercise to lose at least 10 pounds by the end of this round.

Still no progress on the diet, and the exercise bike is gathering dust. The good news is that my wife has also committed to cutting back on the high-calorie foods, so hopefully we will both be able to start losing weight soon.

I’ll check in again on Thursday. I’m trying to think of a topic. Maybe I should go over my basic outline for my NaNoWriMo novel. That will give me some more incentive to actually finish it before then!