Monthly Archives: October 2015

Listen To My Story (Being Read By a Podcast)

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Holy potatoes, you guys. Happy Halloween!

I have a special announcement that has everything to do with today.

Do you know Blurry Photos? They’re a couple dudes that run my favorite podcast about ghosts, devils, witches, aliens, ancient histories, unsolved mysteries, supernatural chicanery, cryptids, conspiracies, fantastical science. They’re a couple of improv actors from Chicago and they keep the funny rolling while they delve into the weird.

In short, they’re pretty much exactly my kind of podcast.

But you know what else they do sometimes? They tell spooky stories. Haunting tales to chill the bones.

And this year for their 4th annual Ghost Stories episode, they read one of mine.

Go check it out now! It is on Ghost Stories 4, and my story is Weeping Thief, which you may remember being posted to the blog once upon a time. Continue reading →

1K a Day Motivational – “It Inspires Me” October Edition

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It’s Thursday! And more than that, it’s the last Thursday of the month. It’s time to talk about a thing that I watched, read, played, experienced, listened to, whatever in this month, and which inspired the hell out of me to push my creative energies ever further!

I’ve talked about just about every kind of entertainment at this point, but one that I haven’t tackled yet is music.

I’m pretty much always on the lookout for new jams. The soundtrack of my life is perhaps as eclectic as they come, with punk, rock, rap, dance, psytrance, musicals, showtunes, indie pop, pirate rap, steampunk ballads, classical music, video game soundtracks, contemporary classical, polka, ska, metal, emo, gothic.

The list goes on forever with the weirdo shit I put in my earholes and enjoy. Continue reading →

1K a Day Challenge – Week Forty Two

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It’s October 25th, 2015. Week forty two (best week!) of writing 1,000 words per day of fiction. It’s time for another update!

Days 291 through 296 have been successes, with a minimum of 1,000 words per day written.

Stats for Days 291 to 296: Continue reading →

1K a Day Motivational – “But Nothing”

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It became Thursday when I wasn’t looking, and I’m so confused that I will destroy it before I understand it. There is no room for change in my domain. Let it be Wednesday forever.

Or, fine, we can do the next Weekly Motivational.

I’ve talked a lot about a few dozen reasons or excuses that can crop up and prevent a person writing on a given day. I’ve talked about inspiration. I’ve made silly jokes and drawn wild correlations between things that I probably should not have.

So I’m going to go a bit broad this week and tell myself to just shut the hell up. Continue reading →

1K a Day Challenge – Week Forty One

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It’s October 18th, 2015. Week forty one of writing 1,000 words per day of fiction. It’s time for another update!

Days 284 through 290 have been successes, with a minimum of 1,000 words per day written.

Stats for Days 284 to 290: Continue reading →

1K a Day Motivational – The Sometimes Anytime

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It’s Thursday! Run for the hills! You can never hope to escape the Fires of Inspiration, the Fleeting Muse, the Wave of Desperate Hurry. But you can damn sure try.

It’s time for another Weekly Motivational!

Given that I am writing a thousand words a day at a minimum, I can find myself hurrying along, writing the same or similar words over and over again in short succession. I talked a bit about the power of repetition a couple weeks back, so now I’m tackling a related topic: Using Imprecise Language Creates Imprecise Emotions.

Or as I like to call it, The Sometimes Anytime. Continue reading →

1K a Day Challenge – Week Forty

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It’s October 11th, 2015. Week forty of writing 1,000 words per day of fiction. It’s time for another update!

Days 277 through 283 have been successes, with a minimum of 1,000 words per day written.

Stats for Days 270 to 276: Continue reading →

1K a Day Motivational – “But I’m Overtaxed”

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It’s Thursday, and as we all know by now, Thursdays are the best days. Why are they best? It’s best not to question them. They get cranky. And rumor has it someone gave them the launch codes.

Thursdays are for the Weekly Motivational!

Last week I talked and talked and talked and talked about repetition and how it can be useful in your writing. Last week I talked and talked and –

Sorry. Recalibrating.

Sometimes you get very busy, and the things you thought you had time for in your professional life start to stack up and tower over you like a stack of items that can be stacked taller than you.  Continue reading →

1K a Day Challenge – Week Thirty Nine

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It’s October 4th, 2015. Week thirty nine of writing 1,000 words per day of fiction. It’s time for another update!

Days 270 through 276 have been successes, with a minimum of 1,000 words per day written.

Stats for Days 270 to 276: Continue reading →

1K a Day Motivational – Repetition Recitation

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It’s Thursday and that means I look into the future at a more successful me and report back to the present me on what I will have done to get where I will be.

Also known as the Weekly Motivational!

This week it’s not about keeping myself inspired or motivated to write; it’s about a handy little tool in your writer’s toolbelt that I like to call the Repetition Recitation.

Just what is the Repetition Recitation, you ask? Well, the Repetition Recitation is a narrative device by which you ascribe importance to a person or thing by referencing it multiple times in a short timeframe. Continue reading →