Happy Holidays

I probably won't get a chance to update again before New Year's, so I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of December and a great start to 2016.

I contacted a friend of mine who's a web developer about fixing up my Fantasy Football website, and the book continues to come along. Things are exciting on this end, and hopefully on yours as well.

See you in the new year!

-RS

Onward

A few updates: I'm about a third of the way through editing my book. It's slow-going; honestly I can't seem to find motivation to just tear through it. I'm forcing myself to do something every morning, but it isn't enough. A part of me thinks I should just start the next one (I think I feel like this one will need a lot of cleaning up) but I know that unless I start publishing things I won't be able to move forward. So I'm going to finish editing this one and probably do a third edit before I publish it as an ebook. Then I can start the next novel.

In other news, my FF has a technical problem. I contacted their hotline and online "coach" or whatever and neither could help me change its default color (which is this hideous orange). Their suggestion was to delete it and restart, which is crushing. I don't want to keep updating it if I will have to delete it anyway. I think when I get paid next I will hire an actual designer to make me one so I can jump into in earnest, but the Fantasy season is almost done. I might wait to do it sometime in the offseason, we'll see.

-RS

Beta Site

I haven't been able to post much content on my Fantasy Football website just yet, but I'm getting there. I'm gradually getting the hang of formatting the site, but it still looks awful. I wish I had more of a background in this area, but the best thing I can do is keep plowing forward. Once I'm a little more proud of the product I'll link it here; I'm loathe to start sharing it on social media until it feels more polished. Let's call it the beta site for now.

The book is coming along. As I feared, progress in that area slowed down when I introduced more work to my time by focusing on the Fantasy Football site. It's hard to juggle so many things at once; I still work 40+ hours a week, exercise almost every morning and try to make sure I spend time every day with my fiancé. I keep trying to find more time in each day, but I'm running out of non-productive things I can eliminate. I'm a little concerned I'm trying to do too much too fast and I'll burn myself out, but I'm sick of thinking of things and going, "I wish I had begun that two years ago."

I hope everyone has a solid Wednesday. I'll update again soon!

-RS

Two Projects?

I started a Fantasy Football blog. It feels a little ridiculous because 1) the season is almost over and 2) I'm not sure anyone wants to hear my opinion to begin with, but it's fun. I have zero idea about how to build a website so it looks rough as hell.

Between that and editing my book I feel like I'm being productive. It's hard to work so much (actual work and then doing everything else, too) and I don't spend as much time as I used to reading or playing video games. That's probably not a bad thing, however.

So far in the last two months I've made a ton of lifestyle changes. I guess this is growing up.

There's the book and the FF site now. This blog could I guess be considered a third project, but two updates a week isn't that rough yet.

Hope everyone had a nice start to their Decembers!

-RS

It's done!

My book is done, sort of.

Like I said, I still need to edit and make it longer but at least Step 1 is complete!

I've already done submissions to some agents and publishers, although I've steeled myself for plenty of rejection. I figure that if there hasn't been any interest by the time the edits are complete and I'm satisfied with the book's state and length then I'll just put it on Amazon as an ebook. I'd certainly rather turn it into a "real" book, but at least as an ebook I get some money for it and then I'll begin working on another novel, probably in a different genre.

Also, I bought a website url! It has nothing to do with the book, it's for yet another side project. I don't want to spread myself too thin, but I also am tired of limiting myself. Fingers crossed.

-RS

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving! If you don't celebrate the holiday, I hope you have a happy Thursday.

The end of the year is almost here, which is funny to me. People in my age group always act mindblown when December hits despite having seen a year end two dozen times by now. It always happens, stop seeming started by it. "Can you believe 2015 is gone already?" Yes, because that's how time works.

Updates next week!

-RS

End of the Beginning

I'm almost done with the first step of my book, which feels like a nice achievement.

In my mind the first step should be write the book. I guess it's a little abrupt, but what's the point of thinking of anything else related to producing a novel if you don't want have one completed? So it's almost wrapped up.

Step two will involve equal parts querying agents/publishers and editing. I want to work on earlier chapters and add a few things for cohesion, but I also need to look toward the long-term idea for what I'm attempting.

Anyways, with the holidays almost upon us things feel very positive. It's lookin' up, I tell you!

-RS

I Was Mistaken for a Veteran

I wear a black coat in the fall. I got it from H&M a few years ago. Here's what it looks like, in case you're curious:

If you search "H&M men's coat" it's actually the first picture that comes up. I don't pull it off the way the model does. I look a lot less presentable, but it gets compliments.

I went to the grocery store on Veteran's Day and it was pretty busy. I was in the checkout line in front of a little girl and her mom, but the little girl was staring at me the whole time. When I made eye contact with her she pointed and said, "He's a veteran!"

All eyes were on me right away. I shook my head but her mom was saying, "How do you know?"

The girl kept pointing and said, "His coat."

I shook my head again but the cashier handed me my receipt very deferentially and instantly said, "I could tell by his hair. You're a hero, sir."

My hair is very, very short. I had totally shaved it not long ago, so the combination of shaved head and military-ish jacket were giving people the wrong idea.

I looked from girl to cashier and said clearly, "No, I'm not a hero, I'm not-"

The guy interrupted and spoke over me, loudly telling me, "You are a hero, and don't let anyone tell you differently!"

There's probably a special place in hell for people who impersonate the military on some sort of remembrance day. At the time, I looked from cashier to little girl, shrugged and said, "Okay. I'm a hero. But I'm not a soldier, sorry." They both looked confused and I turned and walked away.

I may not be the hero a grocery store deserves, but I'll be the one it needs.

Have a good rest of the week!

****Disclaimer: This is half-true and half-embellished. Please don't send me death-threats for trying to be funny, I'm well aware I'm not.

A Time to be Writing

This time of year feels like it was made for coffee and words. The weather just encourages me to not stay outside for very long. Our dog is a little stir-crazy, but that kind of just makes thing cozy.

I've gotten about 60 pages done. I think I can at least double that by the end of November, so I'll make that my goal. My new routine gives me about 90 minutes a morning to sit in front of my computer. Being able to see the word count go up makes things feel very productive.

2015 is fleeing. Hopefully I can keep making the most of it, but things feel good for now.

Happy Halloween!

I feel badly that all I'm doing is posting updates rather than content. My new project is coming along though. Not quite as quickly as I'd like, but between work and life it's not easy to devote more than a few hours every day.

In any case, happy Halloween! Good costume idea: grab a paperclip and say you're going as yourself from the future with the latest in Apple technology.

I'll post something of substance soon, promise.

Two Million Views

It was pretty cool to check the other day and see that my old Cracked articles are still gathering page views. Since I last looked several of the pieces have eclipses two million views each! It was a cool feeling.
I'm close to ten-thousand words for my new project. Not much, yet. My goal is to finish it before the end of November. Wish me luck!

Day of the Groundhog

It wasn't my intention to begin a blog, consistently update it and then abandon it for two and a half years. Part of that was life; I met someone and suddenly the need to write that always itched inside disappeared. Whatever I found through writing was only found through writing, until I met her. Then all of my time had to be with her. It just felt right.

We're engaged now, and while my feelings haven't lessened my desire to be creative and productive has grown. I started working on something this morning. It's rough, and not at all the type of writing I ever wanted to do, but it's something I'm excited about and eager to keep attacking.

In the mean time, I want to bring this blog back to life.