Category: Blog

So yeah, I was pretty excited about making pies yesterday.  Though, I was corrected that I was only making one pie and one tart in a pie crust.  Semantics!

They turned out pretty well and I wanted to share them with everyone.

I really enjoy cooking.  It’s an amazing skill to have that I get to use every day, multiple times a day.  Baking, on the other hand, is not something I am terribly comfortable with.  This was (technically) my third attempt at baking.  I know, I know, what about cookies?  I don’t include cookies in this because once you’ve got that dough, just don’t burn them.

I had attempted a raspberry crumble and while tasty, it was rather dry.  My next attempt was an apple pie but I didn’t know what I was doing and used a flan pan.  This was definitely NOT dry and tasted fabulous, but it was a mess to cut.

So, for the actual pie (thanks for the clarification, Désha), I went with a peach pie because we had a lot of peaches on hand.  Well, I mean I thought we had a lot of peaches.  Another run to the grocery store and we now had… too many peaches.

Recipes!

I am not crazy enough to figure out baking recipes of my own until I’m comfortable with the whole process.  For the peach pie, I turned to Alton Brown!  You can’t go wrong with Alton Brown.

The recipe was pretty easy to work with and I thought it turned out really well!  Now I will offer some clarification, those are not what you may automatically assume they are.  They are monkeys!

 

Now, the next one was the one I super excited about.  For some reason, I had bought cranberries on a whim and then didn’t what I wanted to do with them.  I came across this Cranberry Curd tart recipe from Laughing Spatula.  This one was a bit more work and not a true pie (thanks Désha).  And man, is it tasty!

Well anyway, I had a blast making these and they turned out pretty well!

Time keeps on ticking, ticking… into the future…

Here we are at the end of week three of Nanowrimo!  To be honest, I’m not as far along as I would’ve desired.  I was hoping to have at least doubled what I had written the last two attempts and I’m not quite there.  I am within spitting distance though… though I don’t recommend spitting because of paper and electronics and water?  Yeah one of those things, most def…

I’m at the point where I want to be done with the bit I’m in and move on to the parts I’m excited about, but I can’t jump ahead this time.  Last time led to this disjointed affair that was a pain to fix and I’m not talking about contortionists getting busy… though that’s an idea I might have to save for later.  What would have been the cause of this meeting of the bends? Hmm…

Ugh, distractions.  As if the world isn’t enough, my brain wants join in the fun, too.  Well back to the topic (topic, topic, toepic, toepick…).  Oh, to be on the cutting edge of things…

One of the more exciting aspects of this latest week is that the story is going in places I hadn’t expected!  Characters are doing things that aren’t on my list and other characters I didn’t know about are running amuck as well.  It’s exciting! It’s different! And it’s new to me!  There is definitely more going on than I had initially expected.

So besides the doldrums of trying to get this thing done, how was the rest of the week?  Well, not too shabby to be honest.  I am prepping recipes for Thursday because I have too many mushrooms and too much fruit.  And the second one can only mean pies!  My baking ability is relatively untested as I am a much better cook.  But I am excited to make pies for some reason.  Pies, pies, pies.

See?  Distractions!  I’ve been to the grocery store this week in as many days there are in it.  Day one of cooking starts tonight!  Am I prepared?  I think so?

I hope everyone has (or has had… those crazy time dilations) an excellent Thanksgiving!

Now I have to get back to finishing this bit where she punches him in the face…

Has it only been a week?  I swear, sometimes it feels like it’s been a month and other times it only feels a couple days.

This November has been a bit of a time filled… time… No, I don’t like that, no, no, no.  Let me just say it’s been busy.  Most of the 8th and 9th were spent getting to and from places so my writing totals took a hit.  The 10^th was an incredibly busy day but I did finally get to go to Meow Wolf in Santa Fe.  It was pretty amazing.  By the way, if anyone happens to go there make sure to check the mailbox at the very beginning.

The 11^th was an eventful day as I got to see my wife be awarded for being awesome, but then it was followed by a snow storm and us being stuck in New Mexico.  Oh those crazy winds and those narrow mountain passes.  We did get back home on the 12^th and then everything was back to a relative form of normality.

But yeah, my writing times and totals took a bit of a hit.

On the plus, I got more on this one done this one week than I did when I attempted this last year in the whole month.  So yay!  I haven’t quite doubled my overall output for last November and this April, but it’s within spitting distance.

So what have I learned?  As always, writing seems more exciting as an idea than as an activity, but the stories still want out!  Typing in a car with heavy wind and icy roads is about as much fun as it sounds.  It can get cold and lonely in the “chamber of words” as the day turns into night.

And the last lesson for now is, “I love it when my characters talk to me!”

My first week into this year’s Nanowrimo is very important to me for one gigantic, solid reason.  I am GOING to FINISH the first draft of Waltzing Matilda.

Last year was a struggle when I tried to write it.  And by struggle I mean, nigh impossible.  I thought I was prepared as I could be and I was super wrong (check out Writing My Fourth Novel Pt. 2).

But all that work from that attempt (building the timeline, character motivations, et al.) will… wait, I mean WILL pay off.  I have all the information I need… as far as I know at this moment.

Earlier this I did try working on book four but it was an even more frustrating experience than last year.  While I had written more in 2017, it was all disjointed and my brain could not make the connections work.  So I did something, I stepped away from it for many months.

This was probably the best plan, to be honest.  I got to work on a few other things, try and lock down this whole business experience, actually hang out with people and not feel like a mole man.  I had enough time to go on a trip to Ireland and actually got to get some reading done.  You see, I hadn’t read a book by someone else for a year and it was good to take my mind off of the veritable nail balanced on the table.

But as November drew nigh, I knew I needed to get back to it.  I grabbed book three and ripped through it and it was a fun experience.  I had forgotten so much that each page was almost like a new story (well except that déjà vu feeling in the back of the mind that I’d been there before).  I eagerly jumped into the notes and timeline for book four and it all made sense.  It was a tiny bit sparse here and there, but I’ve worked with literally nothing before.

I grabbed what I had written already and… it was disjointed.  Yet, I could see what sort of corrections were needed to make it click.  And that was Day 1 and Day 2 of Nanowrimo.

Here it is into the final day of week 1 and I have made progress into the middle!  Funnily enough, a lot of time is remembering character names and quirks.  It isn’t the fastest I’ve written but I don’t think it’s the slowest either.

And anyway, I have the WILL to GO and FINISH the story!

(Disclaimer: cheers and other celebrations to be set once it is completed)

Whew, what a heck of a ride.

I am super excited that I got The Matilda Season One out on Amazon and also got Nun With a Gun on other providers in these last two months.  I feel like I’m getting a solid handle on this whole thing and that makes me feel pretty darn good.

On top of that, I just got back from a trip to Ireland and we had a blast.  It’s a beautiful country and the people were quite lovely.  And while we ended up crossing the island and driving almost the entire southern coast, it was definitely a needed break before coming back to the daily grind.

On the not-so-great side, I got to bring back a new illness (I mean jeez 2018, can you please stop with that?) which I am finally getting over (and there was much rejoicing).  I also took a mighty fall due to my own stupidity and luckily escaped unbroken.  Bruised?  Yes.  Pride take a hit?  Yes.  Make everyone laugh so they had a story to tell? Also, check.

Nanowrimo is literally right around the corner and after going through my stuff, I realized I haven’t written a story of any length for over a month!  I am setting up to get the fourth Matilda story completely done for this Nanowrimo.  I haven’t succeeded at getting the first draft done during my past two attempts.

So, do I feel prepared? No. Am I going to do it anyway? Hell to the yes!

• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble
• Kobo
• Apple itunes
• Scribd
• Playster
• 24 Symbols
• Tolino

(image courtesy of Ryan McGuire of http://www.gratisography.com/)

These past couple months have been… ridiculous.  Between being stuck in the middle of an enormous work project that seems to have no end, me being as sick as a dog for weeks on end, I’m now fighting my laptop from trying to bite the big one.  As an added bonus, my last release did not go smoothly.

The release of The Matilda, Episode 3 was troublesome.  Everything appeared to go properly for it to only end up as a mess.  And I will give props to the Amazon tech team as they worked with me daily to get it corrected.  It took quite a few days for the whole process, but they kept me in the loop until the end.  I appreciate that quite a bit.

And I know, I know.  No one wants to hear about the job.  It’s one of those necessary parts of life that most of us have to deal with.  But you know what?  I am going to briefly mention it because this project I have been slogging through for months has completely killed my interest in looking at a computer screen by the time my workday is over.  While there is light at the end of this thing, it aint over yet.

On top of that, my very old pc is trying to give up the ghost.  It and I (me and it?) have been battling almost daily with keeping it running so I can keep doing this whole writing activity.  Those fights, along with everything else, have taken it out of me.

And lastly, I’m hip deep into my fourth week of illness and it sucks.  I ran two obstacle course races while dealing with this nonsense and it definitely robbed a lot of the fun out of them.  Luckily, I think I’m finally on the way out of this and I can’t wait!  Good God, I can’t wait.

You know what, though?  Even with all of that, I finally got this post done after struggling with everything.  And progress is progress… right?

I keep checking my personal calendar and I am falling behind.  I need to make some notable progress on one of the writing projects on my docket, but the muse… she has left the building.

I know life can get crazy, but right now it feels like crazy is the norm.  With so many “must do’s” piled up in front of me, it makes brain time for word-smithing a highly sought after commodity.  And while I have chipped quite a few of those tasks down to either completion or waiting on some other piece of the all consuming puzzle to arrive, the pile remains unconquered.

The Puzzle! 

As you click the pieces together, it separates you from your soul…

Hmm, fun idea for a soul trap or demonic possession story.

Err, well so I guess the muse is still hovering above me.   That means it’s just me and my harshly used gray matter that is the stop block to the floodgates of my imagination…

and the fingers to put the words down…