Andi Winter

Writer, Reader, Tea Drinker, Chrononaut

Month: May 2017

Today is the day

By

On May 23, 2017

In life

Indecisive Shiba Inu

Need I say anything more?

Well, actually it was yesterday.

Here is what The Daily Stoic had to say about May 22:

“I don’t complain about the lack of time . . . what little I have will go far enough. Today—this day—will achieve what no tomorrow will fail to speak about. I will lay siege to the gods and shake up the world.”

-Seneca*

That was the Stoic quote for the day, but it was the following expansion on the quote that is sticking in my head:

“Today, not tomorrow, is the day that we can start to be good.”

All of which is to say Carpe diem. No day but today**. Face the fear and do it anyway.

Yeah, I’ve been procrastinating. Why do you ask?

525,600 minutes. Nearly half of them are gone.***

What do you have to show for today? Did you move the ball forward?****

 

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*Seneca always comes off to me as Mr. Know-It-All, but sometimes I think he just might be right.

**What? No Rent love?

***Sometimes I need a kick in the butt to remind me about the Big Picture, and there is nothing like a deadline to do that for me.

****Again, talking to myself here. Lots of talking to myself. With a whole lot of mixed metaphors.

Children of the 80’s and geeks unite!

By

On May 16, 2017

In life, reading

cover of "Armada" by Ernest Cline

“Armada” by Ernest Cline

I have discovered a new guilty pleasure: listening to a delightful audiobook at home with a glass of wine. And the first audiobook to receive this treatment? Armada by Ernest Cline.

If you are a child of the 1980’s, or a geek, or even better BOTH, this book was made for you. Pop culture (heavy on the sci-fi) references abound as an alien fleet comes to attack Earth, and it gets even better with the reading by Wil Wheaton.

Yes, Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Wil Wheaton. Gaming nerd Wil Wheaton. Geek Extraordinaire Wil Wheaton.

I can’t remember the last time (any time?) I listened to an audiobook read by someone with so much enthusiasm and love. Wheaton’s reading was infectious and fun. Sure, the story is a bit predictable (especially for readers of Ender’s Game and viewers of The Last Starfighter), but it’s still a joy to listen to Wheaton sing rock songs and do impersonations of Sir Patrick Stewart and George Takei.

While I have only read the print book, I can only assume that Wheaton put the same energy into his audiobook reading of Ernest Cline’s previous book (and soon to be movie) Ready Player One (another fun 1980’s/geek novel).

Now, to find the next decadent wine-worthy audiobook . . .

Face palm

By

On May 14, 2017

In life, writing

Man with head buried in hand

This says it all

So it’s been two months since the surgery, and I expected that I’d get behind some with the writing, but I figured it would pick back up as I felt better.

I didn’t expect that I’d fall this far behind.

Between life, a mini-vacation (which was lovely), and, well, life, I lost track of where exactly I was with the writing and publishing. In fact, I got so lost that I floundered, to the point that the creativity spark fizzled and went kaput.

Insert freaking out about “I’ve lost that creative feeling”* and desperate attempts at recovering my creativity. Because OMG I MIGHT NEVER WRITE AGAIN.

Yes, well.

So I went back to basics. I started writing morning pages** again. I read books about creativity. I wrapped myself in guilty pleasures (you know, the usual: Jane Austen, vampire and/or werewolf romance books, historical scifi-fantasy-romance TV, kid action-adventure novels, space operas, ). I reminded myself that healing takes the time it takes, and that whenever I have tried to force something to happen, the results were Never Good.

Essentially, I journaled, I read, I immersed myself in fun, silly entertainment.

Then I saw a post by Dean Wesley Smith about his process of finding story titles and then writing the story. I gave it a shot, and just finished a 3,200 word story.

Then I saw a post by Chuck Wendig with another flash fiction challenge to write a story mashing up two randomly chosen genres***, and I got started on another story.

With a little momentum behind me, I went back to the publishing and tried to figure out where I left off. Oh right, review the websites with the book and make sure everything looked okay. Which it should, since I have been over this book a zillion times by now.

On the preview, IN THE FIRST SENTENCE OF THE FIRST STORY, right there in front of me, was a spelling error.

On the freaking preview.

<face palm>

So back to the ebook mines. I fixed the problem, finding other minor problems as well, and then uploaded the corrected files. And now I wait for the sites to process and approve them. Which means more time to wait.

It’s progress, I think. Just very very slow, 2 steps-forward-1-step-back progress (i.e. the new normal).

Hopefully this just means a week or so delay, and then I can post links to the book and get on with my publishing life.

Ugh.

 

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*It’s funnier to me if I say it to the tune of “You’ve lost that loving feeling”.

**See Julia Cameron’s classic “The Artist’s Way” for more info.

***I <3 these challenges. They are brilliantly inspirational.

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