Well for those scoring at home, yeah we are averaging a blog post a month. Dismal production, I know. However, that’s because a lot is actually going on: good, bad or indifferent. I will catch you up here on Kedrix Request Live except nobody sends in requests and by the time you are reading this little dearie, it might or might not be even close to live. Well, with those disappointing cue marks, let’s start another amazing blog (warning: blog might or might not be amazing depending on whether people actually leave comments once in a while)
Stressors
I thought this might be a random collection of quick hits, but we’ll see what happens. Mostly because its 9:00 in the morning when I am writing this and my thoughts are about as formed as an exploding can of cheese whiz. It doesn’t taste as good either. So that brings up my first topic, I probably can’t eat much cheese whiz anymore. LOL. No…my stomach over the last two weeks has been seriously torn up. Stress has been killing me. So much so, that I was in pain almost all of last week. I still am having some minor pain but I had a major stress reliever on Wednesday that really helped it out along with taking some Probiotics. In other words, I am on the road to recovery, but I have to stop stressing myself out.
Stressers? Well, my divorce date is finally set. October 29th, 2013. Mark it on your calendars. Mostly for the females. That’s when you want to get those restraining orders ready. No, seriously, I had been agonizing about that for weeks. When it came, rather than just turn into a quivering mass, I actually realized it is coming to a head. Sure, and people who know me know that I really would rather not be divorced from Sarah. In fact, I am not even sure I will ever truly love again. I mean, I’m in the process of trying to find new friends (or rekindle old friendships) and maybe actually date one of them (whoever that might be) but its going to be hard and I’m not looking. Not like I used to when this body was about 10 years younger.
So, divorce date set. That helped. One of my close friends also helped my stress by being an awesome friend on Wednesday night and going out with me for some drinks. Now, people who know me know that I don’t drink. Still didn’t, I enjoyed a coke. But it was the idea of doing something after work with somebody that I enjoy time with (and care about too) that meant a lot. I really unwinded that night. It would have been probably better if it was Thursday or Friday but it was necessary because it set the tone for the rest of the week.
Couple that with reading about my symptoms and almost everything I read suggested probiotics. So, I started them on Thursday and throw that together with a couple of glasses of water a day (I know they recommend eight, but I’ll do what I can) and we have a much better Michael. I was honestly concerned, and thought that I would find myself in a hospital if it did not turn around. I am still going to have stressors, but I need to be able to handle them better. Damn it, I’m a good person, I treat people extremely fairly (sometimes better than they deserve), and I just can’t let things get to me. This has been your self-motivational saying for the day.
Writing
I am officially/unofficially done with Chapter 4 in my Driving to St. Louis (I still think I need a better title) book. Yeah, 4 whole chapters and probably about 25-30 pages worth. I know I said a 100 by the end of the year way back in January. I don’t know if I am going to make that, but this late year push has become interesting. Chapter Four was basically some backstory on my Erik character and helps to explain his motivations. Since Erik is also the musical character, I wrote myself into a corner earlier in the week. I had to bust out some original lyrics. So, I did that. The song was called, “The Fire Still Burns”. Wrote about four paragraphs of it (first verse+chorus) which is probably a good placeholder for now.
So where am I going from here? Well besides the obvious, I think the next few chapters are going to go in and out of character motivations/character development. Chapter 5 is going to be purely an action/dramatic type chapter where we get our first road related obstacle that the group of four has to overcome. I mean in this book, shit is raining and its led to a five car pileup that is locking up the interstate. Shit has to be done, an argument or two needs to be had and progress must be made.
Chapter 6 and 7 of course from that will need to be outlined. So I guess, I will revise my original idea from January and say this. I want to finish 10 chapters by the time 2013 closes. That will probably be in the 70 page area (I’m going by Word pages, so it will differ from actual pages depending on edition). From there, I would like to be done with this book no later than fall of 2014. I really like the idea of coming into Christmas 2014 trying to find somebody to publish this sucker or saying screw it and publishing it myself.
I had a friend of mine get in his CDs this week. Well, in order to help him out, his name is Jeff Boortz and he put out his album (and its darn good too). I mean he’s just peddling to his friends more or less, but you know what, that’s a huge and major accomplishment. And he already wants to go back and record more. So, I want that for myself in the writing arena. And the people who have known me for years know I can get there. I just need to do it.
Oh, by the way…for those who are wanting to read St Louie, I am going to get through the first 6 (maybe 7) chapters before passing it over to anybody. I think its important I do for accomplishment if nothing else. But for those who do, let me know. If you are on my Facebook friends (or real life friends who don’t have a Facebook) or have some serious credentials (a writer or editor who really would like to see my work), you would obviously get priority. But a small warning, if I am passing it over to you, it’s because I want real input. Good or bad.
Quick Hits
Okay, the real quick hits section and let’s go. Not playing much video games right now, I’m running out of things to do in Deadpool (33 of 50 achievements) and as much fun as the game is, it’s to the point where I am kinda bored with it. I ran through a game called Midway Arcade Origins too, and basically i played it for achievements. The major reason? The controls are bloody awful. I love retro games and will buy them for almost any reason. But this one just did not measure up. Which is unfortunate since if you have read some of my other blogs, I went through a lot to get it.
Reading, well I am not reading much right now. I usually read a lot when I am thinking about writing and then when I’m into it hardcore, I forget about the books I’m reading for a bit. I am sure I will bust out another Shadowrun novel or something soon. I have enough of them LOL 🙂 But, I did finally get my Shadowrun Returns swag in the last couple of weeks which included a lot of cool things. Among them, an awesome shirt, a Doc Wagon card with my picture on it (the one where I wear a Fedora), and a simply stunning Short Story/Art Book all about Shadowrun. I wish I could have been part of that Short Story group, that would have been amazing. Anyway, if I take some pictures, I’ll make a separate post and put it here.
I have been watching some movies lately to get inspiration for my stories. I stumbled on two gems of a roadtrip movie from the Criterion Collection lately, and I highly recommend them. Those are “Two-Lane Blacktop” and “Something Wild”. Great movies, seriously. And some inspiration from the both of them will end up in my story for sure. Just small tidbits, but good stuff. I also had a couple of great recommendations for movies from my friend Todd who suggested “Rope” and “Lifeboat”, basically Hitchcock films for the human aspect of what I am working through. Those will probably come in short order.
Oh, for those old old friends of mine, I recently logged into IRC for the first time in 10 years. Good f’ing lord that shit has went downhill. Tried joining a IRC chat room for Houston and it was like I was pulling teeth. Nobody freaking talked and when they did it was stilted as shit. So, unless people know of a chat room/channel where people actually freaking talk, I’m probably not going back. I just don’t see the point. When I was in my twenties, IRC chat rooms moved even faster than I could type. Today, I could have one hand tied behind my back with using a smart phone (I was actually using a kindle at one point, I’m not kidding) and keep up.
And I know I don’t talk much wrestling but on Thursday night…TNA Impact, I think I saw one of the funniest segments in this calendar year. Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, Bobby Roode, epic freaking gold. Take the 13 minutes to watch this, it’s seriously awesome.
Final Thoughts
So I close out this blog this week with a little thank you to four very wonderful friends of mine. Each of them I have known for at least a couple of years now, one I recently reconnected with, and one has been talking to me for almost a decade now (and he’s probably sick of it :)). Thank you for being there, thank you for listening to me, and above all thanks for being a great friend in a time where honestly like no other I have really needed it. So, to Lori, Will, Tabitha and Todd, thank you. Take care kids, always keep writing.
P.s. for those who follow my writing on Upcomingdiscs.com, I will be posting two articles this month on the 19th and 26th. The 19th will be dedicated to “The Fog” as I will have the Scream Factory Blu-Ray in my hands by then and on the 26th, I will be writing about Bioshock Infinite. I hope each of those turn out pretty well. Laterz!
