Blogs

I'm Going to Do This.

Whoops! I missed my own GAnniversary last week... If I can just spout some words, joining this website has been a freakin' blast! I found a creative outlet and it's been a ride. I found a community of wonderful people that treasure the written word as much as I do. I found a place to call home. I can't stop. This website has ducktaped my foot to the gas pedal, and there are a lot of the community members who had a hand in laying down a strip. I asked to learn to be a better writer and

June 23

Master Lists for Writers by Bryn Donovan

In my ongoing pursuit to bury myself in an avalanche of books, I picked up this gem. This is like a jack-of-all-trades toolbox. It has Character Traits, Character Names, plot ideas, action words, descriptive words, plot twist ideas, and a lot more. It is exactly the sort of thing you'd reach for when you're stuck and you want an idea. Or if you are horrible with names, picking a name from a list. Or maybe you want to spice something up. Or you want a prompt. I flagged a bunch of parts of

Myr in Writing

May 6

Movies

Midway - (2019)

This is a good movie that suffers from the comparison problem. It's a pretty high bar for those interested in world war II movies to leap over the original 1976 Midway. The original had Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, Glenn Ford, Robert Michum, Robert Wagner amount others. The ensemble cast was a who's who of Hollywood legends. So, set that aside if you, like me, grew up with your dad watching the movie. The 2019 movie was well paced. The cast clicked pretty good. And Dennis Quaid and W

Myr in Movies

May 5

Movies

Force of Nature - A "B" Action Movie

I'll have to admit I picked this movie up on a whim. Mel Gibson action movies are usually entertaining. And Emile Hirsch has had an interesting career. It was a bad movie, if you like brain-off B flicks. I'll have to admit this groaner though... saw Mel Gibson and my immediate comment was "He's getting too old for this shit". If you see it somewhere on a streaming service and want to kill some time, there are worse ways to do it. I wouldn't buy it.

Myr in Movies

May 4

Plot Gardening by Chris Fox

I am on a bit of a roll this past weekend. I managed to get through a couple of things in my backlog stack of many things. I picked this up and it was a quick, easy read. I'm old fashioned, surprisingly, as I still love the feel of paper and a bookshelf I can go do when the power's out, so I have this in paperback. I also put a lot of Post-it Flags on various pages of interest. This book talks about a topic and then shows how it is done in a handful of movies that you have probably seen

Myr in Writing

May 3

Business

Press Start - Another Book for Lifelong Learners

Would anybody be really surprised to learn that I am an avid reader? I have a tendency to overindulge on different topics to not only learn, but to see other people's points of view on the same topic. I'll skip the obvious tie to society's ills over not listening to each other's points of view. I just completed reading a book dealing with Gamification and how it relates to marketing. The book is "Press Start - Using Gamification to Power-Up Your Marketing" by Daniel Griffin & Albert

Myr in Business

May 2

Working on something new

Over the past week, I've started working on another story. Several years ago I took part in NaNoWriMo when I was suffering from writer's block. It certainly did the trick, as I managed to write 52,000 words during the month of November. The story I'd planned out had lots of my favourite elements in it; cinemas, the supernatural, a mystery and romance. As I was writing it at a rate of about 1000-2000 words a day, it was rough in places and the ending was a bit rushed as I wanted to finish a compl

April 29

Writing Books - Dazzling Dialog

I picked up this book recently in my never ending quest to improve my writing skill set. It's a short book that is a very quick read. I'd recommend it as it targets a weakness that a lot of stories have and it gives practical tips on how to spot the problems and how to fix them Definitely worth the read. It's available on Kindle as well if you like to keep your library digital.

Myr in Writing

April 24

Distance is Different

Noah is off with his new job and it is taking time to get used to it. He accepted a job as an assistant project manager for remodeling, closing, and opening various stores across the country. While he isn't too far from home during this first job assignment, it is distant enough to bring me back to our dating days. When we first started dating, we were several hours away from each other for the majority of our relationship prior to him moving in with me. We've reverted back to our dating t

March 16

Productivity Feels...Weird

I've had a love-hate relationship with the word, 'productivity.' With my occupation, it is highly encouraged to be as productive as possible, but it feels strange to see myself being the only one performing. My shift ended several hours ago, but I still can't shake my distaste for how few cares my fellow coworkers give. Seeing how the pandemic is still going on, and a lot of people are finally understanding the lasting power it can hold on human life, workers are feeling fatigued. My fellow stoc

February 15

Revisions

I was reading a blog entry by @Comicality the other day concerning revisions of old stories. It struck a note (and has an awesome example of revision in an iconic scene from 'Star Wars') as I have lately been digging out some of my old stories and re-reading them. Some of these things are so old they were printed out on a dot matrix printer (don't ask, kids) or even typewritten, complete with Tipp-Ex corrections. It's always interesting to read back your own work. Sometimes it makes you wince; c

February 9

Time to write

I've been spending quite a lot of time over the past few weeks making sure I am several chapters ahead of posting. There are now only two more chapters left of 'Gone Away, Gone Ahead' before reaching the end. I have had a few comments asking if there’s going to be a sequel and over the past few days I’ve been seriously considering that. I'm still working on the prequel, 'Threadfall', and estimate there's probably another 20-30,000 words to go on that. If someone had said to me that I would manag

February 4

Drained

I am exhausted. Purely and utterly exhausted. Work has been a nightmare. Currently enduring an eight day workday streak, and my night off on Thursday can't come fast enough. And if Rona and her hold over people wanting to buy more groceries isn't bad enough, our store has been plagued with a monumental challenge. If y'all read the newest entry for Dear, Grocery Shoppers, the new process of how our store's stock crew is to perform their job is truly kicking our spirits down. It's been a whi

February 2

Things are Happening!

Well. Yep. Things are certainly happening! A lot has happened in a week. I started a new story, and it's been going well. I now have an awesome editor. And Noah's been busy with his own work, both on Gay Authors, and with his little podcast project he's been wanting to start. For some reason, after having a weekend off, working a singular shift, and now having another evening off tonight, I'm pooped! Bushwacked. Exhausted! I should be going to bed, but my fingers are dancing and I can't mak

January 26

Silent Night

It may be a tad late to let you all know, but my favorite Christmas song is Silent Night. The tone, the pace, and the words all echo in my head. And I had a beautiful silent night. As an overnight worker, my days off work have become silent nights. Noah soundly asleep, along with my neighboring Kentucky residents, and I just wind down. My muscles get a good relaxing rest. No stocking of groceries, no lifting pallets onto stacks, no loud cardboard balers screeching from the back-dock. Pure

January 22

My Whole World Is a Mess!

Folks...y'all...I'm just the worst. My ADHD has caught up to me. My world is crumbling around me as I know it. I am having two completely devastating crises at the same time, and I'm stuggle-bussing at the moment. I blame one on myself, and the other on Noah. So...I'm blaming Noah...for the loss of essential information that I, supposedly learned in elementary school. I couldn't tell if I was just having one of my blonde moments, or if I have legitimately lost some of my memory, but

January 19

Oh, Jeez!

Yeah, look at that title, and you just have to know I'm in a pickle. A kosher dill pickle. Not a spear, not a chip, not even relish. A whole dill pickle. No butter or sea salt to be found. And most certainly not sugar free. I...received a comment on a chapter of Love in the Shadows, which is now almost complete! All chapters are posted, but some minor editing needs to be accomplished. But...this comment. Ooooh, it was a juicy one. A big, juicy pickle. And because of reading this comment be

January 18

I Feel Like a Dad

Just got off work, and my first instinct is to plop in my recliner, and make such a dad-like moan! This was a major mistake. I need to shower, cook some food, and get some fresh clothes on. In addition to this, our new office desk just came in that needs to be built, trash needs to be taken out, and some general housekeeping needs to happen. But...my recliner is so comfy! Let me tell you about this recliner. It is trash. Just a huge dumpster fire. It is a Wal-Mart branded chair, but I

January 16

The End

I have hammered out so many words into Chapter 33 of Love in the Shadows. Just today, I knocked out over two thousand words, beating my quota twofold for the day. And some serious thoughts have been coming into my mind. Am I serious about publishing this story? If so, should I keep it a proper length for a novel? How would I do it? Is there even a good way to end this darned thing? All of those questions have the same answer: yes. But one of those questions can't be answered with a si

January 15

I'm...Actually Doing This...

Starting this blog entry is a little rough for me. Tears are beginning to well up, my fingers don't know where to go, and my leftover hibachi is losing its heat rapidly. I was starting to recognize myself as an actual writer. Over the past several months, I've just been hammering away on my poor Chromebook's keys and my phone's touchscreen, just...going. Non-stop. Writing when I woke up, went on my breaks at work, when I got home, as I tried to sleep. I just kept writing. Just as I'm doing now,

January 14

Finished!

Well, that's it. Apart from a little editing, 'Gone Away, Gone Ahead' is now finished. I was tempted to extend the number of chapters, to keep it going a while longer, but I realised that the story I had originally planned had reached its natural stopping point. I'm not someone who plans out a story in great detail. I know what needs to happen and roughly where it's going to happen, but sometimes the characters start taking me down other paths and bring in more twists and turns on the journ