Tell The Truth Tuesday

It's that time again!

Yes, it's Tuesday morning, and it's about time I turned out another Tell The Truth Tuesday. So, by the numbers:

1. Speak Out With Your Geek Out was a fun event, and I'm glad I got to take part in it. I've always tried to display my geekitude in positive ways to show that it's not as scary as some people make it out to be, and I'm glad so many others felt the same way. It was a busy week for me, though, so I didn't get to delve into as much detail as I wanted to for my three posts last week. Then again, maybe that's a good thing. I could write an entire book on my geeky life, rife with more pop culture references than any two Tarantino films.

2. Did you know I was once asked to help create a horror movie that would feature RPGs? It's true! The players of the game would have been killed off through the movie by the villain/GM, and while character death is not foreign to gaming, I was not about to help facilitate the demonizing of the gaming community by working on that kind of project. I do, however, have a script in my head for a film that would put RPGs firmly in the fantasy action/adventure category. Maybe one day I'll put it down on paper...

3. ...But first, I should finish my trilogy. I must admit, the past few months have been hard on my creativity, and the next month isn't looking too much better. Sometimes, you need to take care of business to allow that creative energy to flow freely. Once I'm back on track, then I'll be able to rededicate myself to finishing my trilogy once and for all!

4. My anthology is almost ready to be digitally released to the wild! Just as I haven't had much time lately to dedicate to my trilogy, I haven't had time to get it formatted properly or to get a decent cover to my short story collection. Rest assured, though, it's coming!

5. My readership has gone up! Thanks to my Comic Booked reviews and the "Speak Geek" event, there's been a pleasant increase of readers on my blog, and I'm very grateful for the new page hits. Welcome, new people! I hope you enjoy what you read here and stick around for a while, there's plenty to get you caught up in the archives.

6. Star Wars was re-re-rereleased (again) this past week. I have not bought it. I probably won't buy it until the DVDs I have are no longer viewable, and by then, we'll have the entire series in 3-D for a re-re-re-rerelease. Sheesh!

7. I link to some of my Comic Booked articles here, but not all of them. While I like giving you all an easy way to see what else I'm writing when I'm not on this blog, I don't know if you really want to read all of my press releases, or my write-ups of comic book movie-related sightings, or even my reviews of comic books. But then, I've never asked you, my loyal readers, what you think of that content. Do you want to see more of it, and if so, how much? Would you rather I not link to it at all here? Let your voice be heard in the comment section below!

8. On a related note to the above question, are there any writing topics you'd like me to focus on for future posts? I try to give a little of everything and pass on information that might be useful or insightful to writing and being a writer, but the worst part is writing in a vacuum. Feedback is always welcome, and greatly prized by writers of all stripes! Just put it in the comment section below!

9. I love autumn because of the Pumpkin Spice Latte. I hate autumn because the changing season screws with my head, both mentally and allergy-wise. When is Daylight Savings Time over? I can never remember...

10. I almost forgot! I have a Tumblr account now, where I put all of the geekiness that I refrain from bombarding you with here. You can check it out at the link here, but be warned, it's pretty crazy geeky!

And on that note, I think I'll call it here. Until next time, loyal followers!

Tell the Truth Tuesday

I’ve been pretty busy this past week. Not so much with the Comic Booked articles, though I’ve been doing that, too, but generally trying to keep an income flowing in. Also, spending time with my beloved, who is celebrating a birthday this week. (Everyone say “Happy birthday, Loki!” in the comments below!) But with everything that’s been going on, I didn’t want you to think I’m only going to be linking to my Comic Booked articles on my blog. So, let’s take it by the numbers, shall we?

1) Working for Comic Booked is exactly what it is, work. I used to go to events and talk to comic book creators as a fan, now I’m doing it both as a fan and as a professional. I talk to people and pull together information for an article, then go home and write it all up in MS Word. Then I edit the piece, maybe even have someone look it over for me if I’m lucky and have the time. I log into WordPress and copy over everything I’ve written, adding in links and uploading images to flesh it out and appease the SEO requirements, along with tags, article title, description of article, etc. Then I submit the article for the editors to review for publication on the site. All in all, it’s pretty involved and not nearly as simple as writing up a little piece and sending it in.

2) Though it may be work, writing for Comic Booked is an excellent learning experience. I didn’t even know what SEO was until I started working for them. Getting trained in how to put together an article for them has helped my own writing significantly (specifically in terms of my own blog), and I’m sure there’s still more to learn.

3) I don’t work in a vacuum. There are other members of Team Comic Booked out here, like Nicole Sixx and Cousin Matt, and they’re good people. I’ve covered three events now with Nicole, and I’ll likely cover more with her as time passes. Cousin Matt, it should be noted, is the Comic Booked forums guru, and a fellow gamer!

4) As awesome as it is to write about comics and comic-related events for Comic Booked, they’re not paying my bills. No, I’m picking up every odd job I can to make ends meet, and I’ve been hired as a consultant for two people who own their own businesses this past month. I’ve also been working my organizational magic for a law office, and I’m hoping to get steady office work again soon. Gotta find a steady gig again so I can afford to write, right?

5) In other writing news, I haven’t forgotten about my trilogy or my anthology, it just got pushed back a bit in the wake of everything else happening in my life. More news on this soon, I promise!

6) Captain America was a much better movie than I thought it would be. Tommy Lee Jones is awesome in it, and Chris Evans really sells Cap as more than just an overgrown boy scout. Hugo Weaving did an excellent Red Skull, even if the role was pretty two-dimensional. Very much looking forward to The Avengers, and if you haven’t seen Cap yet, stay for the awesome after-credits sequence!

7) I’m seeing Cowboys vs. Aliens today, which I’m totally hyped about. C’mon, you have James Bond and Indiana Jones in a western version of the alien invasion movie! What’s not to love?!

8) I got Jim Butcher’s new Dresden Files novel, Ghost Story, and blew through it in record time. I maintain that each Dresden book is better than the last, and this one is no exception. Wow. Very powerful story.

9) The completion of Ghost Story means I can get back to the next Percy Jackson book on my list, The Titan’s Curse. So far, it’s pretty entertaining, and I really like this series. It’s no Harry Potter, but that’s not a bad thing.

10) I’m very hungry, and I should probably get my day started. Lots to do, so it’s time to get to it! …Right after I eat.

Tell the Truth Tuesday

It’s that time again! Let’s cut to the chase, shall we?

1. All of the stories for my anthology are edited! Yay! I’ve compiled them all into one document, along with an introduction, and I’m working on the formatting now.

2. My goal is to make my anthology available across the board, from Kindle to Nook and everything in-between, and I have a program to help me with the conversion process, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to accomplish this right off the bat. Anyone know Calibre well enough to give me some pointers? Also, I'm likely going to make a PDF version available for those who want to make their own dead tree edition. More on this another time.

3. Nutella ice cream is epically delicious. This needs to be mass-marketed so I can have it all summer.

4. My Star Tours review is officially my most-viewed page! If you haven’t read it yet, check it out here. And if you have, check it out again because I put up a link to some video I made of my in-line experience!

5. Colorado is a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. I like my SoCal weather way too much.

6. Thor was more fun than I was expecting. There are a lot of big summer movies coming out, and this one was a strong start to the season. I can’t wait to see The Avengers movie coming out next year! (On a side note, I really need to start making some good money so I can see all these movies coming out.)

7. Game of Thrones is seriously my favorite show on TV right now. I rarely watch TV, but I make it a habit to see this one every week, even inviting friends and family over to catch the show with me. There are only 3 episodes left to the first season as of this writing, but I’m sure HBO will run a marathon of all the episodes once the season wraps, and it should be on DVD by the end of the year. If you have the means, I highly recommend catching this series from the beginning.

8. My beloved’s dad let me borrow Anathem, which I was very excited about because I love Snow Crash and I’ve been looking forward to exploring more of Neal Stephenson’s writing. I’m ashamed to say that, since borrowing it last month, I’ve read a total of 5 pages of the book. The thing is MASSIVE, and I have a hard time getting through large books like that because the size always turns me off from picking it up. I feel like it’s a massive undertaking to read it, like I’m about to face down an army of a thousand pages. I suppose I just need to bite the bullet and just knock ‘em out, one page at a time.

9. I need a new day job. Badly.

10. I need a new apartment, too. Fortunately, I have a room lined up so I can get out of my current place, but I need a new apartment, STAT. A new job would help here, too.

And that about covers it for this Tell the Truth Tuesday. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to help my gorgeous girlfriend make a half-elf ranger for tonight’s D&D game….

Tell the Truth Tuesday, Belated Edition

I was busy on Tuesday, when I should have written this, so very busy with geekiness and my beloved. You'll just have to find it in your heart to forgive me as I come clean about a few things today.

1. It's been very windy here toward the beginning of the week, and I think it blew around a whole lot of crap that doesn't like me. Because of this, my allergies have convinced my nose to go on strike. Hopefully, the nasal work force will be back to work soon, and preferably before I run out of tissues.

2. I still haven't finished my rewrite. I KNOW! I hadn't finished it last year, when I said I would, and now it's 3 months into 2011 and I'm still not done with it! But to be honest (because this IS Tell the Truth Wednesday Tuesday), I think it'll be better for it. I've decided to change up the voice of my narrator, which was feeling pretty blah and you don't want blah in your YA novel. I've also decided to add back in a character I'd originally written out, because he adds a lot of tension and drama, and it kind of needs more of that in the middle part.

3. I did, however, finally FINALLY read Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, and I need to get the rest of them now. I'm such a sucker for Greek mythology, and this gives it a great modern twist that I really enjoy. If you heard that the movie wasn't very good (or saw it for yourself), I'm here to tell you that the book is leagues better than the film adaptation. Is it too early for a reboot? Can we call it a do-over? Or can we at least hand out copies of the book to everyone who saw the movie as a way of apology?

4. Intensely excited for the upcoming book of The Dresden Files later this year, called Ghost Story. Jim Butcher is one of my literary heroes, because it took him 9 years to sell his first Dresden story, Storm Front. (Just 3 more years to go for me! *cheers*) Harry Dresden is a fun character to read about, and Mr. Butcher's novels keep getting better and better with every book. If you're caught up on the series and can't wait to find out what happened after the last book's jaw-dropping cliffhanger, you can read the first chapter of Ghost Story here!

5. In non-book news, I bought Season One of the awesome zombie TV series The Walking Dead. Though I haven't read much of the comic books, their televised adaptation is, at the very least, exciting and engaging. It makes me wonder why it's taken them this long to realize "Hey, zombie movies are popular. Zombies are blowing up (literally and figuratively) in comics and novels. Why don't we make a zombie TV show?" If you have the means, and you're not squeamish about corpsified people shambling about over the 6(!) episode season, I highly recommend it.

6. Also, I bought that and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Six through Amazon ON MY PHONE. And the only reason I bought them is because they were more than half price. Who could resist? I know I couldn't, and though my wallet begrudgingly gave up the money, he's glad they were at such an amazing price.

7. My allergies are killing my concentration. Time to wrap this up.

8. Wow, this entry is linkalicious. So much good stuff made by good people for you to check out! And I'll be shameless and mention that, if you're tempted to buy any of the awesomeness linked above, a portion of the money made through those Amazon links goes to support your penniless writer as he works tirelessly in the literary forge to craft for you the very best YA urban fantasy novel he can. (What? I have to pay for photocopies of my manuscript somehow, don't I?)

9. I actually thought about linking to my Windows 7 phone up there in #6. I think my allergies are making me a little link-happy.

10. I'm putting together a steampunk outfit over the course of the year. This is not relevant to writing at all, but certainly fits my geeky pursuits. So there.

OK, time for me to dive into the comfort of my bed so I can sniffle myself to sleep. More goodness coming later this month, mark my words. Which are already marked. In this blog. ...Yeah, I'm done.

Tell the Truth Tuesday

Stolen from Laura and Lisa Write, because it's an awesome idea and it adds something to my blog other than story structure or quotes. So here goes!

1. I haven't finished my manuscript. In fact, I recently went back and rewrote the first chapter of my rewrite, which means I need to rewrite the rest of the rewrite so it flows naturally from that new opening. On the plus side, the new first chapter is so much stronger for it. Less talk, more action!

2. It's another overcast day here in "sunny" California. I think I'm going to put on my WoW Horde hoodie for the first time in months and walk to work in it.

3. The Coffee Bean definitely has better coffee, but they don't have the Pumpkin Spice Latte I love so much. Thank you, Starbucks, for having a location near to both work and home.

4. I should really be getting ready for work, not typing up truths for my blog. Whatever, I've got another few minutes.

5. October is my favorite month. It has my birthday, Halloween, and awesome weather. Bring on the Fall!

6. Now that I've mentioned the Pumpkin Spice Latte, I really want one. Mmm, coffee...

7. I still have no idea what costume I'm going to wear for Halloween. I should put more thought into that. Otherwise, I'm going to slap together my usual - Indiana Jones - and I think people have had enough of me as Indy over the years.

8. I should have gone to bed early last night, but I was redlining a manuscript for Barbara Deutsch. Why? Because she's helped me get this far as a writer, I feel honor-bound to help her with her own book. It all comes full circle.

9. I'm countering all the seasonal coffee with actual exercise this time! Hooray!

10. I'm really leaving for work now, I swear. Until next time, my faithful followers!