"Dreams of November"

So I'm thinking about re-joining martial arts. I can dream, can't I? I mean I feel like some old guy with the aches and pains I already get in my wrists and hands. I really feel like I gotta do something though. I mean I'm 27 and I only seem to expand in all the wrong places and/or directions. It would be nice to have some place to exercise in the winter. I was always hesitating to exercise in the cold and the rain. And it's always dark when I get home. Now it's light outside until 9:30 or so but I still don't exercise or jog all that often. So what's the excuse now?

I am also thinking about taking a creative course at the local junior college starting mid-august. This in preparation for the novel-writing fest in November. The course, of course, would be "credit/no-credit". Just because I'd like to learn how to write creatively doesn't mean I need to kill myself in some class. Of course how much will I get done in that class once November comes? I don't know. It could be fun though.

Actually I'm doing a few things in prep for November including reading a seven-book-long series, and recording a commercial-free four-hour long block of programming from a local radio station and converting it to MP3. It's mostly Techno/"Trance" of the king that doesn't have that much vocals. Very few anyway and I found this helped a bit while I was writing. As did the official chat room of the event.

Now I was planning on doing a dry run for the July write-a-book-in-a-month event, I even went into the chat room to contemplate it on July 1st. But that did not quite happy.

This may in large part have been on account of I was reading those books this whole month of July. Hard to do both if I really expect to get through all seven. At this latest reading pace I'm sure I really will.

The series is The Dark Tower. I made it through first three with much enthusiasm and was enjoying them quite a bit. Now, on book 4, the author has decided to dedicate about 90% of the whole thing to a flashback providing the origin/background of the main character. Only problem is I don't care. The longest book yet in the series and I honestly don't really care how it ends or what happens as the fate of all characters have already been described in one way or another and besides which it seems to move incredibly slowly. At the part I am now reading there some coronation dinner of some thing or other. Why is it so important that this is described in such details? I haven't the slightest idea. This makes it really difficult to read seeing has how I'm not in anyway shape or form interested in said story.

In any case I seem to be looking forward to November for some reason.

With all this going on I've had very little time or patience for PC gaming. Just too much reading and/or sleeping I guess. Not that I've cancelled my WoW subscription mind you. Oh no, couldn't do that! I also some how managed to avoid buy PC games in the mean time. It's a strange habit not playing PC games for weeks on end but continuing to buy PC games all the same. It's like I'm just locked into some kind of habit I can't escape from buying things I don't and need and won't play/use.

I did stop reading long enough to see the new Superman movie. I found it very mediocre in nature. Either that or perhaps just poorly edited from a much longer movie. I was expecting to be really pissed from the noticeable absence of the famous line "...and the American way". Then I tried to imagine the movie in more of a different light: if the whole movie makes Superman in essence an allegory for America it is true American helps not just itself but every country on Earth, even the ones that hate us. So to watch headlines in a montage showing all countries/locations in which Superman swoops in and saves someone instead of only saving people in his native Metropolis.

Of course the allegory view kind of falls apart once you see the countries Superman helps actually acting thankful for the help instead of blowing shit up, burning him in effigy and/or blaming him for global warming (reflections from the red cape no doubt). At that point I guess I could just say, "Well it's only a movie". I mean people acting grateful for help and aid? Preposterous.

All things considered I am still planning on renting it on DVD, as I am reasonably confident there will be lots of extra scenes included on it.  ¶ 7:29 PM 0 Comments

 

"Kingdom Come"

Ya, it's a clever title. I have been reading a relatively lot these last couple months. First a few Heinlein books: Stranger in a Strange Land and Job: A Comedy of Justice (both very good) and have started some Stephen King books. My first Stephen King books in fact. Specifically the seven book epic The Dark Tower Series. I'm on the second book with 120 pages left.

The first book, called The Gunslinger, was only 300 pages long. According to the new introduction by the author he wrote it in his mid-20s and I think it shows actually. Not necessarily in a bad way, it's just a writing style you might expect from an author just starting out. In fact it was Mr. King's first book. The first one he wrote entirely out anyway. I think it was published somewhat later.

Anyway it's a kind of a mix of Sci-Fi and Western. The Gunslinger was kind of a brief introduction to the main character and the strange world in which he lives. There are several flash backs to both his childhood and to some experiences he had in a little town called Tull. Since he wrote that book knowing there would be many to follow he didn't go into a lot of detail on what the main character looked like or why he was seeking the "Dark Tower".

The second book, The Gathering of the Three is a little longer at 340 pages and you can tell is written by a much more experienced author. In this one there is a description of the Gunslinger from the perspective of your average person from our world. His descriptions of the mysterious doors were certainly well done.

This brings me to the other part of this post: writing. Specifically November is the write-book-in-30-days thing. I haven't been writing a whole lot lately so I thought I'd better start. I also realized last year my inability to write a book that actually sounds like a story. I think I got caught up in the phrase "show don't tell". Well of course you have to describe things that are going on and happening. But some where in the mix I must have been a little confused or something. In any case it was obvious I should be reading a lot more to give me an idea of how stories are actually presented.

The Gunslinger is the perfect book for this. The Heinlein ones were actually quite well written but not necessarily a good model to learn from. The first Dark Tower on the other hand was perfect to model after. As is I think the second one. I would like to have all seven read by Halloween, right before the book month thing. A very lofty goal, for me anyway. That'd be five books in only four months. I would have to read one of them inside of two weeks or really quick anyway. I suppose I could do that. There's lots of time to read at work and I can always read a hundred pages here and there on weekends.

Of course when I'm not reading I'd like to writing. Writing like this in a blog or writing some kind of story I don't know. But the more writing the better I think. I mean assuming I really do participate in November. I think this November will go much better than last year.

In fact I wanted to start writing a book for July. Since I forgot to turn off my alarm on Friday I was even up at 6am yesterday morning. So I had lots of time to start writing. I didn't know where to go or even how to start so I only got as far as a working title. I have a rough outline/synopsis floating around in my head but no ideas beyond that really.  ¶ 9:36 AM 0 Comments