Day 25: Return from Blogcation

Yes. I'm back after a little blogcation -

Did I cheat a little on my original goal? No doubt. My goal of writing every single day for 365 days turned into a goal of 365 posts - which left me so much leeway that now - I've used my loophole to avoid writing for twelve days.

But I came back.

I gave myself permission to not log in and write. I told myself it was okay because I was "thinking about writing" the whole time - unfortunately - there's no machine to take my thoughts and turn them into words on a page (see The Tommyknockers).

And on one level, I am thankful for that (see picture). On another - wow - the amount of writing that I would have finished by now. No one would ever, ever want to hear all of the garbage that runs through my head at any given time (no - trust me - you really wouldn't! stfub :)

So, given there's no Alienware to sub-atomically turn my thoughts into novels - I need a clone. With a clone - one of me could do my day job and one of me could write all day. On second thought, I might need two clones. One for day job, one for running the house (OMG, the house could finally get cleaned!), and the final one for writing all day. Hmm. Scratch that - I need three clones. One for day job, one for housework, one for writing, and one for gaming (thank you Blizzard and Battle.net for beta free weekend!).

This reminds me of David Brin's Kiln People. It's been years since I've read the book, but from what I remember, people could make duplicates of themselves to go about their tedious tasks - or illegal activities- while keeping the "real" person safe and sound. I can't tell you how much time I spend at work trying to figure out how to be in two places at once. Sometimes, I think I'm close to figuring out how to make it happen.

Once I do, I'll write about it - or "I" 2.0 will.

Sneak Peek: Visit tomorrow for a discussion on Stephen King's latest novel, The Wind Through the Keyhole: A Dark Tower Novel. 

NOTE: All of the books I write about, can be found here: My Little Bookstore!
NOTE 2.0 Check this out Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Day 24: Special Announcement

JK Rowling announced her new book The Casual Vacancy release date of September 27, 2012.
The Casual Vacancy is her first adult novel:

"In the novel, the unexpected death of Barry Fairweather leaves Pagford, the small town he lived in, in shock. Pagford appears to be a peaceful, serene town, but underneath that, it is a town at war. Fairweather's death leaves an empty seat on the parish council, and this causes the biggest fight Pagford has ever seen." (Huffington Post)

I also learned the JK Rowling website linked here and above is her new website that launched today. Good luck with it, though, I tried to check it out, but the "timeline" navigation leaves something to be desired.

I did read her Harry Potter series and I'm looking forward to reading her adult fiction. I look forward to reading something that maybe she didn't feel so pressured to write. Some of the Potter series felt rushed and unedited. I saw her speak several years ago (side effect - I was there to see Stephen King) and was quite impressed with her tales of writing the last few novels. Even then, she hinted there was an adult novel - not related to HP in anyway - and that was 2006, now that I do the math.

I think what I love most about this announcement ...

Can you feel the electricity? That moment of excitement that comes with the announcement of a new novel that could be huge? Did you stand in line for Harry Potter books? Twilight? Have you ever seen so many readers gather with such anticipation you could almost reach out and touch it? You walk around, watching the "real" fans decked out in full Hogwart's garb - and most aren't children.

You line up the night before, just to get a spot - to buy a book. You spend hours talking with other book lovers about what could happen in the next book - what's already happened in the previous books. You talk about the movies - the possibilities - and who would be Hufflepuff and who would be Slytherin - because either might be more daring and fun than Gryffindor.

Whether you even liked the Harry Potter series or the Twilight series, you can't deny they brought about an astounding level of excitement about reading around the world that's never been seen before. Of course, word of mouth is much better than the old days - now we have the internet (Thanks Al!) to share good-reads globally.

Will The Casual Vacancy draw the same excitement? Who can predict? 

But, considering most children who began reading the series are now young adults - I'm guessing this could be a pretty exciting September.

We'll have to wait and see (to paraphrase Paul Sheldon).   

(Visit J.K. Rowling's Amazon Page)

Day 23: Zombie Typist

Here we are - Day 23 - the big 2-3. Yup. That's right.
I'm not even a month in. And for those counting - yes, it's been more than 23 days - but I've decided I will stand by my 365 posts - but they do not necessarily have to be consecutive. I will let myself have a day off now and then - especially when RL is a bit hectic.
I know - it's a cheat - but if I don't guilt myself about not writing, then the guilt won't keep me from coming back and facing my own failure.

The biggest thing I haven't worked out - the best time to blog.
For some crazy reason, I keep working on this late at night, while my dog, Dusty, lays on top of me chewing up his toy. Overall, I feel I'm doing pretty well if I'm done by 2am. So yes, when I say I'm sitting here asleep while blogging, I really am many nights (which is why some stop so quickly hehe).

Here's an unexpected side effect of this whole thing -
I can't get to sleep for a couple of hours after I close my MacTop2 - then once I fall asleep, I can't stay asleep for another two hours.
Some days I come home and nap after my "day job." Most days, I don't.

So, here I sit, eyes barely open, struggling to stay awake, knowing my minutes are ticking away - Until I reach the conclusion that I just can't keep it up for tonight and tell myself I'll make up for it tomorrow.

Really.

And maybe, just maybe, tomorrow I will try starting earlier.

Much, much, earlier.