Author: TJ Edwards

An Update From Beyond The Screen

Holy crap, it’s almost halfway through December! Time flies when you suddenly have more hours at work and you have a dynamic duo of puppies who are extremely well behaved (until they decide otherwise). Needless to say I’ve been getting into a routine with the little guys but writing has very obviously taken a backseat for the moment as my routine currently goes: Puppies, Sleep, Eat, Shower. Either way, for those of you who were enjoying the daily posts I will get back into that habit as soon as my puppies stop turning pee pads into confetti… but for now the updates will be sporadic although I am more on top of my emails now as I have been trying (Read: Struggling) to keep up with those!

So, where am I in regards to completing my story?

Absolutely no closer! I have considered bringing my story to work to write on my break but as any retail manager knows, that’s near impossible. I get paged to the counter and around the shop a million and one times a day. Just at work alone I do over the daily goal of ten thousand steps. When I wake up my routine is take the puppies out to pee, breakfast for pups, out for poop (Pups only!), then if I have time breakfast, brush teeth and head to work. All excuses, I know, but until I get this new routine down I will be focussing on getting these pups trained properly. We’re not supposed to have them as our Strata setup didn’t approve them, however we’re going to make sure they’re the best behaved they can be. The final chapters of the story are coming together and I already know the last paragraph and its phrasing. However in a movie (because of the visual effects) it could be much more subtle!

How are the pups?

Puppy Lounge
Thor and Loki, sound sleep together… after a hard day of trying to destroy each other.

 

Loki
Life is hard for Loki the Destroyer.
Thor Lounge
Thor the Conquerer napping after sitting on Loki for awhile.
Guilty as charged!
Thor’s guilty face. Still damn cute.
I'm sorry
Loki’s “I’m sorry I just bit you” face.

Needless to say, I am absolutely taken by these two cute as hell fluffballs, despite their ability to get into trouble and absolutely tear apart their pee pads. It’s hard to stay strong when little Thor whines when we leave him alone. Luckily for us, they’re never truly alone as they do have each other and they do cuddle up (as well as try and murder each other). They’re both cuddly (on their own terms) and Thor likes to ensure Loki stays in line. Frequently if I am correcting Loki’s behaviour he also comes in and nips at his smaller counterpart. This is different to their play time nips… but then again, maybe I’m reading it differently. I’m sure the little sausage dog is laughing and saying “Haha, sucker… you got caught!”

It has definitely been a big adjustment for me not only routine wise but health wise as well. I haven’t had any time to really get bored and snack throughout the day which is great, but on the flip side my allergies are taking their toll on my energy levels throughout the day as their dander fights with my immune system. Do I regret getting them? Hell no. Just look at Loki’s eyes… just little balls of love. They’re actually quite well behaved for only having them for a week! It is rough at times as their little cries just tug on the heart strings unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. These are my first pets ever and I’m so glad I finally got my dachshund. It’s been years in waiting and it’s so worth it!

How is work?

Retail is definitely not the dream, but I love it. Christmas is the one time of year that challenges my passion for helping people as occasionally the customers can ask for more than I can offer. Not only that but with the holiday stress on everyone, customers can get rude (so can staff, don’t get me wrong) and make easy situations harder than they need to be. I’ve also been told that I am most definitely stuck in my current role until at the very least September next year. This is good because I can push to ensure the team is up to scratch for then but also I will be the one in charge of many decisions and planning the opening of the new store next September. It’s going to be another month of working my rump off, but that’s fine. It’ll be a great experience and I still have to learn the program for rosters as well as get deep into our Telco and Finance sections. I’ve got a bit to learn before I get my own shop anyway, I’m just really excited to help build a team and a culture where people want to be at work and love being there! This is how successful stores run! I’ve done it before with EB Games and HMV, so I’m excited to get my own shop again and get that vibe back into my life!

And such is life!

All in all, things are going really well, as soon as I work writing into this new schedule I’ll be on my way to virtually the right life! Lately I’ve been reading mostly Puppy Training books (Cesar The Dog Whisperer actually works!) and the new tunes I’ve been listening to include Jake Bugg’s Shangri La as well as KO and his various songs (Two faves Capable and Moving Mountains). Every once in awhile its good to get into some new tunes! I love that I get free streaming music through work! Although the last album I bought was Bad Religion’s Christmas Album!

So, lastly I want to wish you all happy holidays, no matter what you celebrate, no matter where you are, I want you guys to just enjoy the time with family and friends. This is one of the first years where I’m content. People asked me what I wanted and the only thing that jumped to mind was more time to write and still get everything else in. Despite not owning a next generation console, I’m not even interested in them at the moment. There’s simply nothing out until next year and by then they should be available in shops. Either way, how are things going with you ladies and gents? Where’s your writing at? Anything new in your life? Did you finish your NaNo project yet? So many questions! Take care and until next time!

 

TJ Edwards or: How I Learned To Stop Procrastinating And Edit My Novel

I reread the conclusion to my novel Jefferson and the Magician’s Curse today. This is a big deal because I have now fully finished rereading the entire thing. Do you know what I noticed?

The ending was good… But it could be so much more…

What do I mean? Well, I had an ending. I edited from eighty five thousand words up to the ninety thousand word mark. Then I had an epiphany as I read through the last pages of my story.

This was all too easy, the end? Too nice. Let’s crush some souls.

I’d like to think that at the end of my story, the reader will see the signs. They’ll see them and beg, BEG the protagonist not to do it.

But then… he does.

It is perfect and completes the ultimate circle. Besides the fact I have to rewrite the final ten thousand or so words of my novel, it works on many different levels and fits in perfectly. Much like finding the diamond puzzle piece that makes it all combine together… I feel… I feel…

Liberated!

Don’t ask! It feels so good to have crushed the ending I had with this new, Ending Version Two, Superior. This does put me a bit behind now though. I thought, edit some words… finish it today. Editing fifteen thousand words is easy once you get going. Just do it, I told myself. Then suddenly without warning, this comes through and despite the ending of the story already being written, I decided to rewrite it. I still want my book to be over one hundred thousand words. But now, it feels whole. Now it has things like foreshadowing, suspense, drama, action (which have been spit shined and polished) and now it has this moment. The moment the whole book has been building up to and is executed so perfectly it makes my mouth twist into an insane sort of grin smile. I think this might be called winning.

So now that I have to rewrite the final ten thousand words, I’ve set myself a deadline of the end of December. This is a near impossible target as in retail I work many hours, and then followed up by everyone wanting to see us over the holidays I think I may have to start overlapping mundane tasks (Brushing teeth and Showering, Eating and Writing) or get up earlier and go to bed earlier (which is hard when social events run until nine to eleven at night). If anyone can figure out how to write while they sleep… there is money already in the bank for you.

But the reason I decided to smash into it today was because I reread some of Ray Bradbury’s “Zen in the Art of Writing”. Mr Bradbury has so much energy and passion that immediately after reading any portion of it, you leap up and run to your computer to write. It is most disappointing that this man is gone as he will never know how much he influenced me from his small pocket sized book of writing suggestions. If you are a writer, go find this book and give it a read. I’d love to discuss it and when I eventually get published, he will definitely get a mention.

Also, procrastination is so easy. Pick up the challenge of eliminating all of these distractions we have at our fingertips and focus on what matters most to you. I put my phone away, used an app to limit my access to the internet and told myself to get to ninety thousand and read the rest. Now, things have changed… the story is going to rock and once I end the novel, it is then on to my partner to read. I just hope she enjoys it as much as I do!

Anyway get out there and write. Also, what is everyone writing right this second? Fantasy Novel? Story of a boy and a girl? I’d love to hear from you!

NaNoWriMo Ends, Christmas Begins.

From the frying pan and into the fire. From bad to worse. From craziness to insanity. From NaNoWriMo and into Christmas. All of these sentences mean the exact same thing when you work retail. Have you been wondering where I have been recently? I have been working myself really hard to prepare for christmas, and for puppies (Which arrive this saturday. Which… OMG I’M SO EXCITED, FACE MELTING CUTENESS! YAY!). I’ve never had a pet, so I don’t even know how these little buggers are going to take to our house. We are very much hoping they’ll take to each other and become the best of friends. But… I have worked retail for the past (Oh Man…) decade.

Christmas in retail is like being stuck in a building crammed with people and someone pulling the fire alarm. There are so many people and so few staff that trying to get to everyone is near impossible. Not only that, but I’m not sure when or how people came to the conclusion they’re entitled to everything, but they definitely do. My product was defective, and now I want a new one AND a fifty percent discount. Oh ha ha… oh wait, that guy was serious. Christmas brings out the crazy in people. Also, people make it very clear that “This is a christmas gift, so I need it before then.” I’ll be honest for all of you out there, no matter if you need it next week, or next year… the exact same process is in effect for both situations and you will get it ASAP in both scenarios. I promise!

So I know some people who did really well this year at NaNoWriMo (Congrats from me to Becka, BTW Check out that NaNo Cake!) Also Lorie and a few others!) I also know many who didn’t do so well… one notable one especially: Me! I had set the target of the end of November to be completely done my edit. I can give you a million reasons why I didn’t accomplish my goals, but not one as to how I tried to. I failed because I didn’t try to. I admit my defeat and move past it. No sense dwelling on it. But I am now aiming to have it done by the end of the month.

Of course as I mentioned earlier, I work retail. The hardest part about that at Christmas is I always want to do really well for budgets and the team morale. This involves me and some (Read: Many) extra hours at work. Arrive early, leave late, rock it for the entire day and revel in my own incredible productivity. Then I come home and glance at the couch before passing out on, near or around it. Horizontal is the new vertical, and I love it. So comfy. Anyway it seems I need to start waking up before work to get back into the habit I made to write.

Anyway congrats to all those who managed to hit fifty thousand words, and congrats to those who made those fifty thousand words matter! I will be back ASAP with more progress! Talk to you all soon!

I'm Not Dead! (Yet…)

Sorry about the sudden break, it has been an unanticipated one. I’ll post something more substantial when I get a second but between work and social commitments, my only spare time (Less than six hours) is for sleeping. Which is actually frustrating me because I enjoy writing and want to do more of it.

Tonight’s post is mostly being typed through extremely squinted eyes and as a questions.

The question of the day is where the heck are you on your own personal writing?! I’m talking about your nano novel, your screen play, your poetry anthology. Anything, let me know and I’ll post it in my next post! Anyway I’ll get back to you as my eyes barely stay open to write this,

Running a store, and selling through christmas is a big thing… so lets hope I don’t screw it up! Talk to you soon!

TJ

Fragments of Stories: Past, Present and Future.

Writing being the crazy whimsical pastime that it is, inspiration can suddenly flood in at any moment, drowning you with scenes, lines and concepts which are of the utmost importance. For me, these moments occur regularly and randomly. Sometimes they are about the same story. Other times they are mere flashes that string together as if my brain were assembling a movie trailer (complete with soundtrack). Some of you out there may understand… many of you most likely are phoning the people with the lovely white jackets on my behalf. Whatever the case may be, tonight I am going to take you on another journey, but this time into my flashes of inspiration.

So sometimes, I talk to myself. I’ve mentioned this before, so this should come as no surprise (depending on when you’ve joined… if you’re new, Hi! I’m TJ, and I talk to myself! Now you’re up to speed…). These conversations can lead to insanely inspiring scenes of awesome moments. Sometimes just a line itself begs to be written down and never forgotten. Tonight’s post is brought to you by a journey for water, in the middle of the night. Everything is completely unrelated to that… now, enjoy the fragments of my ideas and wonder how I piece together stories from these.

***

“I’ll never forget you.”

“Try.”

A knight clad in demonic armour forces a two storey pair of doors closed and drops the security bar into place. With a single bloodied hand, he leans against the door. I won’t forget you. A clattering of footsteps enter the room behind him and snap him from his daydream.

“Well. If it isn’t the fallen paladin… God abandoned you to the depths of hell did he?” A man sneers with a laugh. The other men chuckle as they enter the room.

“I wouldn’t know anything about God.” The demon knight narrows his eyes as he glances over his shoulder. Fifteen. He thinks to himself. Fifteen I can handle.

***

A ball of flame descended from the heavens and rained fire and ash down upon the kingdom of the Magi. Being the last of the fire Magi, Lorell ran desperately through the streets as he screamed, “Petra! Petra!” Finally he spotted her as she ran from a burning building.

Without a second thought, Lorell embraced her and patted out the flames with his bare hands. “Petra… oh thank the gods you’re alright.” As he held her tight, he could feel his body tingle. “We have to get out of here!” He yelled as the roaring inferno in the sky rumbled toward the kingdom. “It’s going to-” Suddenly, Petra went limp in his arms. “Petra?! Petra!!!” Lorell watched as her skin began to blister and burn. “No! There’s no time!” He clutched her close and pulled his cape around her. The sky grew bright and the earth shook ferociously. Then in an instant, all was seemingly over.

Lorell opened his eyes and stared into the pile of ash in his hands. He couldn’t recognise her any more, but he knew who and what it was he was holding. Standing straight up, the ashes drifted away into the breeze… Lorell looked lifelessly at the scorched earth around him. Organics turned to ash, bricks melted, metals ran tiny streams in the road. His immunity to fire had paid off. But it certainly didn’t feel like it.

***

As the police arrived, the train driver was sitting on the side of the road, still visibly shaken.

“Is that him?” Asked a broad shouldered detective, staring down a small man in a blue police uniform.

The smaller man leapt to attention as he realised who he was talking to. “Yes, Detective. That’s him.”

Walking up to the driver, the Detective sat down next to him. “Coffee?” He asked politely. The driver replied by shaking his head. The Detective smiled. “Good thing too, I only brought one of these. Want to tell me about it?”

“He-he fell, no jumped! He jumped from the overpass!” The driver exclaimed. People had been waiting for this moment, and the area went silent.

“Whoa slow down bud…” The Detective’s silver tongue calming the man a tiny bit. “He jumped in front of you?”

“Yes! I couldn’t have stopped, or missed!” The driver was nearly shouting, the attention of all around were beginning to stare.

The detective scratched his chin. “Well then, where’s the body?”

“Uhh detective?” A small bald police officer asked in hushed tones, in hopes that he wouldn’t be too much of an interruption. “You may want to see this.”

As the pair stared at the front of the train, the detective shook his head. “Call it in.” He said calmly.

The young officer peered up at his mentor. “Are you-“

“Yes,” The detective interrupted. “It’s not every day you see something like this.”

The detective watched as the younger officer walked away and then turned back to the front of the train. He stared at the perfect outline of a human like figure, dented into the front of the train. “Incredible… just incredible.”

***

As the small army of rebels began to retreat, the king pushed his men into pursuing them and killing them all to the last man. “Leave none alive! Not even the children and livestock!” He yelled, cackling in his glory. “But bring me their heads on pikes, so that I may revel in their agony and defeat every morning before dawn, and each night after dusk!”

As the king rose to inspect his newly acquired lands, his right hand knight Zero, removed his helmet. With astonishment, the king recognised him as the rebel leader. “You, how long have you…”

“Long enough to understand war. Understand people. Understand you.” The rebel said as the others also removed their helms. “You lead your men into the valley where my archers will kill them to the last man. Your people deserve better. They deserve a real king.”

“A real king? There have been no heirs in a thousand years!” The king scoffed. “You’d have more chance finding unicorn horns!”

“Yet here I stand… a testament to the love between the elves and humans, once. I come to unite the races and lead them into battle. A war is brewing…” The rebel sighed. “I am the final son of Balthazaar, prince of elves and Merida, queen of men. I am a man with the gift of eternal life.”

***

“Why, hello my boy! What’s your name?”

The boy shocked from his wonder, turned to see a round man in an ill fitting black suit twirling the tip of his fiery red moustache.

“Jefferson, Sir.” Instinctively the boy hung his head as he was taught to, out of respect for his betters.

“Chin up, Jefferson, you won’t see a thing staring at the ground!” The man tipped the boy’s chin up with his finger. “Only ten dollars to see the greatest show in the world!”

Sadness washes over Jefferson as he turned his pockets inside out. A small smooth pebble falls to the ground and both watch it roll to the man’s foot.

“A fine specimen! May I?” Looking to Jefferson’s innocent face for permission, the man smiles warmly. Jefferson shrugs with an eyebrow raised in curiosity. The man stoops to pick up the tiny pebble and polishes it on his shirt. “Thank you very much! A bit of spit and polish…” With a quick spit and some more rubbing from his shirt, the man produces a gemstone. “Perfect! This is worth roughly thirty dollars my boy!” He produces a twenty dollar bill from the breast of his jacket. “I assume you’d still love to see the show, so this should suffice as payment.” With a bow and a smile, the man vanished into the crowd.

***

His brother’s lifeless eyes stared deep into his soul, judging him through and through. I’ve done the right thing… haven’t I? As he met his empty gaze, the swordsman withdrew the blade from the stomach of his victim. After all the searching, after all the hunting… he had finally managed to kill the last of the Templars.

***

Those are just a few images and moments from my mind tonight. Now I am tired, and I’m pretty sure I open at work tomorrow… so I must be off! I have so many more fragments so I’ll keep you posted to also see what piques your interest! Hope you’ve enjoyed and I’ve got a question! How do you manage your ideas? Write them all down separately? Convert them into the current story idea? Or leave them alone until you’re ready? Let me know and I’ll talk to you soon!

The Plight Of The Self Publisher

As a writer in this day and age, we all have hundreds of options available for us to run out and get the story out there. You can use Amazon, Lulu, iBooks and the list goes on and on. Which one do you choose? Which will get you the best audience? How do you do formatting?

Okay, I’ll be honest. I’m not going to talk about any of that. I’m no expert. I’m not even a novice. But I’ve got some nifty experiences to share.

So as you may see down the side bar to your right (no, your other right) there are three options for my short story, Circle of Vengeance. They’re conveniently the above three examples. For each of these there has been a drama in one way or another, from fonts to random characters in conversion (I’m looking at you, Amazon).

So I chose the iBookstore first because frankly, loads of people I know have iPads. Even more people have iPhones. If I combined the two, that’s a lot of people to get my story completely free of charge! So I browsed the iBooks Author app for Mac and settled in converting my story. It went super well and I submitted it. Long story short, bam! Self Published. However some fun facts! First, iBooks is on iPhone, the only problem is books created with iBooks Author are iPad and Mac only. Fine, no worries. But there’s more! Only certain templates do landscape or portrait meaning if you turn my book on an iPad, it maintains its orientation. I’ll fix that as soon as I can.

Next I wanted more people to have access to my story, so I rushed out and looked into Lulu.com. Sweet a PDF format for general use! Don’t mind if I do! I uploaded and everything seemingly went well. No bad feedback and when I look at the file, it is as I expected. Easy and decent. Not bad. However it wouldn’t let me convert to ePub. Fine, I figured I could just head to Amazon and get an ePub there. Simple, right?

Wrong! So I’ve submitted and resubmitted my story a few times and tried to get rid of the little “i” beside my name at the very beginning. As it is a ghost, I cannot rid myself of it. Fine. Also, I am stuck putting in a price of ninety nine cents for what they estimate to be twenty seven pages. It sells itself really. *Facepalm* So at least people can read my story on an iPhone now, right? Yes! With the free Kindle app and by paying a dollar for it. I cannot change the price and I have tried to get them to price match both Lulu.com and the iBookstore which are free. They won’t. Curse them I say! Curse them!

Also, embarrassingly enough, I bought my own book through the Kindle store. Strangely enough, my purchase has yet to show up in their sales figures, which makes me wonder how accurate they are. Unless I don’t count because I am the author… who knows really? Technology is awesome… until it makes no sense!

Because I’m in a fantastic mood tonight and back on track with blog posts, I’m going to share a few things with you! If you’ve read any of my posts of interest, you may recognise these details! Anyway, gather ’round for story time with TJ!

***

Everyone has to get a first job. Everyone starts somewhere. Some people got a paper route. Others worked for their parents. Maybe they got a job where their friends were working. Maybe they focused on studies as they progressed through high school. Me? Oh, well… I tried really hard to get a job back in my small hometown of Sackville, Nova Scotia. For those of us who grew up there, it felt busy enough and it felt big enough. Now that I’ve seen Rome, London, Paris and Sydney… Sackville? Yeah, more like a rural town. Anyway, I digress.

So jobs were hard to come by and I was stuck in a rut. I handed out resumes and everyone was asking for more experience. How can I get a job to get experience when apparently I need experience to get a job? Seemed like a subtle way of saying no politely. Anyway I went around town and gave out fifty resumes. Finally after weeks of no callbacks, I gave in and phoned in for a favour. One of my friends’ moms worked at the local mall (it has since been replaced by a strip mall) and she said she’d let me know if something came up. February passed by, followed into March and then finally came my call! I had a job! It wasn’t much but it was three days of solid work!

My first job and the most laughable moment of my entire life.
My first job and the most laughable moment of my entire life.

Three days as… The Easter Bunny. I begged and pleaded for anything else. Toilet cleaning. Anything at all. Instead, I decided to give in and not look that gift horse in the mouth. I took the job because hey, ten dollars an hour and free chocolate was as good as it gets at sixteen. I walked that mall like the best damned Easter Bunny you’d ever seen. I did learn some things though. Number one, laugh at yourself… that way if anyone else laughs it simply doesn’t hurt. Number two, all children who like the Easter Bunny are crotch height and manage to hit you like a soccer ball to the groin. Number three, all kids run head first and ninety miles an hour. Finally, I rock blue silk vests.

For the longest time, I left this on my resume. I dropped Burger King (which was the worst work environment I’ve ever had), condensed my stint with Empire Theatres (simply three or so years, ended off at Supervisor) and condensed my stint at EB Games (three years there, ended off as Store Manager). I kept it on there to prove to anyone reading my resume that I had a sense of humour and it always got me at the very least into an interview so people could ask about it. The above photo was taken with an ancient camera phone (Motorola Flip Phone, looked like it had a giant nipple on top… which was the camera).

Today I share it with you, so that you make shake your head and laugh! Maybe you’ll email me to ask if that is really me. Maybe you’ll comment because you’ve never known anyone who has been a holiday mascot (official term) before! Most of all, I share it because it was my rite of passage. It taught me humility and hard work (and toughened up the groin area) and I still carry that boy in the Bunny suit with me today so I never forget how lucky I am to have a job, but also all the great things around me!

Speaking of which, thanks again for sticking around and keeping in touch! This has been an absolute blast and I hope you’ll make the effort to get in touch! I can always use more friends that write!

Productive Day? Don't Mind If I Do!

Have you ever had one of those days, you accomplish nothing yet planned to do everything? Yeah? Not me, sucker! No, today I wrecked what I set out to do and put the beat down on some tasks for the week. On the writing front, I finally was passed back the story I’ve been cowriting with a friend, I bought some satin for the “book cover” attempt and managed to rewrite The Journey’s second piece, Shattered Memories! On the home front I cleaned dishes, laundry and tidied the living room! On the outside the home front, I traded in some games to acquire the much sought after Zelda 3DS XL, swung by work so they could make a delivery, coached the staff in the Telco department and picked up a few new Pop! Vinyl figures! Only things I didn’t get to work on were some edits for my novel and weeding the garden! But I do have tomorrow off, so I will rock it then!

On the flip side, I’ve been watching the NaNoWriMo posts this week as the triumphant begin validating their novels and the ones who miss target are left in a crumpled shamed mess. It’s heartbreaking as some of the concepts and writing skill are definitely there, but those writers may give up because they feel as though they failed. I can only hope those people are reborn from the ashes of their 2013 NaNoWriMo attempt, only to smash 2014, or simply write for another month! Never give up, don’t let it win! Your story needs to be told, there’s an audience out there just waiting for it!

*GASP*

Okay! After all that, I am posting late to hopefully catch up on my blog posts. I hate being behind and I will get ahead. I must. Interestingly enough, The Journey hasn’t been getting anywhere near the amount of comments as other posts! Which as much as I don’t mind the break… I miss the flood of questions and comments! I’m curious to know if the writing is sound or if my style is way off base! I’m also curious if people would want to keep reading! Either way, I’ll keep writing it, as I enjoy the story thus far and the characters. Hopefully that will keep up! If you ladies and gents out there lose interest, perhaps I will too!

Today I’d also like to talk about the posts that seem like professional blog posts on “How To Write”, or “How To Get Published”. I’d like to give you all a disclaimer about this site and what I mean when I toss out suggestions. Nothing works for every single person. What works for me, may not work for others. What I suggest on here are simply more tools you can add to the old writing tool belt to hopefully keep it shiny and challenging. At no point did I ever say these are the definitives. They may work, they may not. Nothing works like your own commitment. I only say this because I watched as one of the many blogs I followed had a minor meltdown because the information that they gave was wrong. People will believe anything if it’s on the internet… and that frightens me!

So, I suppose I’ll just ask… are you ladies and gents out there quiet because it is NaNoWriMo make it or break it week? Or did everyone pick up an Xbox One or Playstation 4 and have thrown productivity to the wind? If you’d like, I am available for some guest blog posts (Because Idle Hands are the Devil’s Tools) or you can just comment on here with word counts! I’d love to know how many of you have hit that fifty thousand word mark, if you happen to have read this post, please post a comment! I promise I’ll reply!

Tomorrow I think I will try and smash out the final fifteen thousand word edit of my novel. The problem with that for me, is that concludes my novel and then it goes on to seek out publication. I won’t officially start that until January, but in the meantime I may get a professional editor to go over the story (after my partner of course) as well as look into some options for publication. As this is my first time trying to do the whole professional publication and seeking out a publisher, I am prepared for that gauntlet of rejection that awaits me. The good news is though, once it’s out there and hitting up the publishers, I can move on and work on a new story. With fourteen more ideas waiting in the shadows, I just need to choose one and I think I already have.

Also, if you’ve made it and want to gloat, toss me an email or comment and I’ll give you a callout so people can check out your blog or novel or whatever you’d like me to point them in the direction of! See you tomorrow and good luck to those squeezing in those last few words!

The Journey – Shattered Memories

Just tuning in? Great! You’re not too far behind in one of my latest short story attempts. Here is my sacrifice to the WordPress Gods that this post doesn’t up and disintegrate like my last one! Some changes have been made from the original writing that no one ever got to see, but each was for the better. The last piece of this story (Renamed The Journey – Broken Dreams) is located -> Here! <- Enjoy!

***

“Wake up.”

“Huh?” I asked, my voice weak and from the depths of slumber.

Once again the voice penetrated my comfort, harsh and stern, it was at least familiar. “We don’t have all day.”

I opened my eyes wide and the stark white room sent my head spinning. I sat up abruptly and closed my eyes in defence, my hands rubbing half of my face each. “More questions?”

“Of course. Perhaps you’d enjoy some breakfast?” The voice asked again. I immediately made the connection between the voice and Doctor Harris. My stomach grumbled for me and I slowly opened my eyes. Through the narrow slits, I swallowed my morning breath and blinked at him. “That’d be good.”

He motioned toward the table and I adjusted my hospital gown, to at least appear somewhat decent. Of course, at the look of the incredible looking sandwich on the table, all of that went out the window. “Oh my god…” I said between mouthfuls, it was uncontrollable, as though I were watching myself with utter embarrassment. “Ham, cheese… this is so good!” If it had been poisoned, I wouldn’t have even noticed. It was gone before I considered examining it.

“Ahem…” Doctor Harris cleared his throat at my incredible display of gluttony and smiled politely. “Where were we yesterday?”

I felt the air evacuate my lungs and my heart skip a beat as the images from the crash came flooding back. Couldn’t I have a moment just to forget? I stared at him, my heart as cold as his icy blue eyes. “I don’t quite remember… something about where we are?”

“Yes, good. Your short term memory doesn’t seem to be affected.” He glanced up at me from his notebook, and I detected a hint of sarcasm. He took a sip from a glass of water before him and leaned back in his chair. “Well, I suppose I’ll ask again. Do you know where you are?”

“I’m in Morning Sun, Iowa…” I could tell even I was unsure of my answer, my tone completely giving me up to the Doctor. “At least, I was… No idea where I am now.”

“I told you. You’re in a hospital. Not in Morning Sun, but in Mount Pleasant.” Doctor Harris  stated. He didn’t realise it, but he hadn’t actually told me all of that. But new information, was good information.

“Why am I still here?” I could feel my panic begin to choke me. “Where is my father?” I stood and leaned across the table, hands firmly on its top, waiting for his answer.

The doctor stared at me for a moment and his eyes squinted for a second. “Tell me about your father.”

“No, not until you tell me if you found him or not!” I yelled, and could feel my pulse pumping through the veins in my neck and hands.

The doctor calmly motioned for me to sit down as he fumbled around with some papers until he found a plain white envelope. I sat, breathing heavily and stared at the parcel as he passed it to me. “Here,” He said in the most emotionless voice I’d ever heard. “Are these your parents?”

“Parents?” I asked, dumping the photos clumsily onto the table. I stared at the two images before me, a young couple most likely not even thirty in age. “No, I’m almost as old as these two… they’re not my parents at all!”

Again the Doctor calmly motioned, but this time it was for me to be quiet. As his hand hovered in the air, I stared at him. With the adrenaline in my veins, I considered ripping that arm off and beating him to death with it, but alas, I needed answers. “If those aren’t your parents…” He said, his hand lowering to retrieve the folder. “Then I’m afraid your father wasn’t involved in the accident.”

“That’s stupid! I was there, I was in the accident!” I yelled with no concern for volume, my head shaking in disbelief. “Look, we were driving a van and we got hit from the driver’s side… the vehicle divided in two and I was separated from him!”

“I’m sorry, we only found you and those two at the scene.” Doctor Harris said softly. “There was no van, and certainly no other victims. You were lucky that a man came bumbling by and spotted you in the snow.”

Was this another dream? They always felt so real. Maybe dear old Dad had put me in a mental institution, guess I pushed him too far. The words crept from my mouth amid my confusion. “But I-”

“But nothing. It’s time for more of my questions.” The Doctor sternly interrupted. Shocked at his sudden bravado, I felt as though a mute button had been pushed and my words were gone. “Okay…” He said with a sigh. “Next, do you know what day it is?”

“Thursday, twenty third of October.” I shrugged as I spoke, in all honesty I assumed the accident was two days ago. Maybe it had been only one.

“Good.” Doctor Harris said with a reassuring smile. “And what year is it?”

“Twenty twelve.” I said confidently.

The Doctor suddenly stopped writing in his notepad and glanced up again. “Sorry, could you repeat that, a bit louder please?”

“Twenty twelve…” I said confidently. “Two thousand, and twelve.”

The Doctor leaned back in his seat and raised his eyebrows as he stared at his small notepad. The year was written on the page and underlined three times. “Is everything okay Doc?” I asked uncomfortably.

“Oh yes. Everything’s fine.” He quickly replied as he glanced to me and back to the pad of paper.

Suddenly, a voice crackled over a speaker in the corner. “Harris, that’s enough for the moment. Can I see you in the office?”

Doctor Harris hurriedly hopped up and gathered his belongings. “I’ll be back in a little bit.”

“Who was that?” I asked, the whole situation suddenly made me feel extremely uneasy.

“That’s my boss.” He said quickly as he made his way to the door. “Feel free to have a rest, you need all the energy you can get to recover.”

“Thanks…” I said as the door slammed shut behind him. “…for nothing.” At least he hadn’t found my Dad’s body. Perhaps he was still alive and wandered off.

***

“What is it Val?” Doctor Harris asked. “I’m on the verge of-”

“I know.” Val said, his tone sharp. “Listen, this girl just confirmed she came from the twenty first century. Before you go back in there, you need to do your research.”

“Of course, how silly of me.” Doctor Harris smiled nervously. “I’m just so excited. If she can naturally travel through time, imagine what this could mean for us!”

“Yes. But it’s only a matter of time before the others catch wind of this.” Val stated, his tone grim.

“We already know.”

As Val and Doctor Harris turned to the clean cut man standing behind them, he smiled politely. “James Hargrove. Nice to meet you gentlemen.”

“Who are you?” Val asked, annoyance in his voice. “And how did you get in here?”

“The same way you two travel through time. The only difference is, I’m a few tiers higher than you.” Hargrove said as he leaned and stared into Tamara’s room. “Do we know what we’re dealing with here?”

“A natural traveler!” Doctor Harris proclaimed. “She somehow can see the fourth dimension.”

“That’s preposterous.” Hargrove said calmly. “The human brain cannot handle such a thing. To see every point in time at a location in the universe is simply too overwhelming for the mind to comprehend.”

Val suddenly pushed his way between the kind doctor and Hargrove. “Well why don’t you tell us how she travelled back from twenty twelve to nineteen thirty four with nothing but some cuts, scrapes and head trauma!”

“I’m not sure.” Hargrove said. “But she’s my prisoner now. You know the laws against unauthorised time travel. She’s killed eight people just by appearing and causing the car accident in your time.”

Doctor Harris cut in. “Yes but-”

“No excuses, you have a code to uphold!” Hargrove yelled as he turned to face the doctor. “You two have both made some terrible mistakes. I’m sorry.” As Val and the Doctor were about to protest, they disappeared into dust and Hargrove stood between the piles as they settled to the floor. “All unauthorised travellers are to be handed over immediately to our group.” With a shake of his head he turned to the nearby door. “Come in and clean this up. The girl is coming with me.”

The door opened and Val and Doctor Harris entered the room. They looked to Hargrove who stood amid the settling dust and gave a quick smile. “Now remember, you’ve been brought here for a purpose. Once the girl and I leave, things are to continue as though we were never here.”

Val and Doctor Harris nodded as they cleaned up the piles of dust, unbeknownst to them, that they were cleaning up their own remains.

***

I’d love any and all feedback on this piece of writing, or any piece of writing I’ve posted! Hell, even just an email to say Hi is fantastic by me! I seriously try really hard to get back to everyone who takes the time to leave a comment or email! Thanks and I’ll most likely post again later, hope this was worth the Digital Devils and the wait!

The Quick Post & Poem

So today work reached a new high in disrupting my writing. Get up early I say. Write before work I say. Today had me falling out of bed after six or so hours of sleep and landing into pants. As I wrestled with the little energy I had, I mentally prepared for the three hour drive ahead of me.

Today was a training day three hours away and then three hours back. We left at six in the morning and arrived at our destination shortly after nine. The day was full of useful information and I learned a ton. Then we drove three hours back home, dodging kangaroos, and finally after arriving home I barely had enough energy to reply to emails and comments.

This being said I do have the next two days off, so I’m going to try and smash out some editing and a few posts for the old blog here! Also I am going to try and silk cover a book I have here and see if I can custom make my own cover. I’ve been considering that if I do get my novel published I am going to hand make around ten copies with hand made silk covers as presents for my loved ones! I’ve got some ideas on how I can achieve what I want and the only thing I may have trouble with is somehow cutting an oval cleanly out of silk.

Other things I’m working on my days off: Editing Jefferson & The Magician’s Curse, Rewrite of The Journey Part Two, Pick Up New Zelda 3DS Console with Game, Look into getting automatic garage door opener, weed front and back garden, laundry, clean the house, and catch up on sleep.

Also, I promised you a poem so here you go ladies and gents.

The Fallout

A lake, seemingly frozen in time,
Serene the scene, with calm, cool glaze,
Not so much as a ripple, simply sublime,
Invoking emotions, in mystic haze.
Extinction for those, who ruled the world last,
Beauty unbound, at the end of days,
With no memory, of times that passed,
A sunrise, sets, against nature’s ways.

Sadly tonight I am fighting to stay awake so I think that is all my poor brain can muster. I promise, I’ll get back to some more meaningful posts very shortly but for now, this will have to tide you over! Also if you haven’t read Circle of Vengeance, I would love any and all feedback whether or not you think I’d like it or not. I want to get published so I’ll take the harsh critics and the kind ones. Either way, I think I just typed “snrahdl;s” for one of the above words so I’m off to bed! The Journey Part Two, live tomorrow!

Also, a number of the people I’ve been hassling or supporting have made it just above the forty thousand mark for NaNoWriMo and I can’t explain how proud I am that they’re still plugging along! I’m the kind of guy who always strives for more and challenges myself! Anyway, until tomorrow!

Curse The Digital Devils!

So, you know when you have everything planned to happen a certain way and then you check while you’re away and it doesn’t? So it seems the next portion of my story, “The Journey” disappeared into the matrix and I’m left with what appears to be a two hundred and thirty seven word draft that was the only part I had actually removed from the story. Thanks a ton devils from the digital land! Technology is incredible and until it decides it doesn’t want to work for you any more. When the computers rise up, they’ll simply drain all of our bank accounts to zero, order more computers for back up and crush us mercilessly, MERCILESSLY I SAY!

Phew… now that my insanity plea is solidified it seems I have to rewrite my story post. But that’s fine. I was sort of happy with its direction. But first, how are you NaNoWriMo Writers doing? Let’s see here…

Ravings of Nonsense has added a few words, getting up to eight thousand, one hundred and seventy eight. Don’t give up!

I think we’ve lost M.L. Swift and J.R. Vowles to the NaNoWriMo heavens… their last counts, are the last ones we have. Let us know how it’s going gents!

Christine Fichtner hasn’t posted a new count, but was at a healthy thirty thousand last I posted and she’s informed me that she’s at thirty eight thousand now! Home stretch Christine! You’ve got this!

Valourbörn hasn’t posted an update either, hopefully Alex is still crushing the word count, especially after getting back on track!

ElitistGeek was sitting at twenty seven thousand last week and I’ve noticed the old tracker is at a delightful thirty six and a half thousand.

Nikki and her Novel are sitting pretty around thirty eight thousand. Here’s to hoping she makes up the smidgent she’s missed and I’m confident she’ll get it done!

Morrighan and her Muse are sitting at thirty three thousand, which is a bit behind but nothing to worry about! I think she’ll definitely pull through in the days ahead. Hopefully she’ll leave the editing for December and just focus on the art of writing! Not that editing is a bad thing, but November is National Novel Writing Month, not National Novel Writing and Editing Month (Man, that’d be a mouthful… NaNoWriEdMo)!

I think there will be a few who will achieve the fifty thousand word goal they’ve set for themselves! This is a great effort whether you wrote five hundred or fifty thousand. To write is what we are celebrating! You’re all winners in my book and I’d like to see you all celebrate the win of making the effort and the time to write this month! It’s not easy, especially in the holiday season!

As for me… I’m embarrassingly still at the eighty five thousand mark of editing my novel. My partner wants to read it so badly and I guess as this is my first foray into seriously looking at publication, I’m nervous for anyone to read it. I could finish it tomorrow. I could finish it right now. But a part of me is purposely holding back and I can tell. Some of my writing is really well done, but I definitely feel I could easily add another ten thousand words in description alone as the story is so dialogue heavy.

Either way, I’ve got to rewrite a continuation of The Journey and I’ll post it ASAP! Blah! Cheer on the above writers and reach out,  follow and like them! Maybe that will get them back into the swing of things! Later and wish me luck!

In a last line to all you NaNoWriMoers out there… think of it like this, until December, Deleting is a form of Censorship! Get those words out there and hit those numbers!