Crazy week.

The ups and downs in my personal life are affecting my work, but I'm still pushing through and being productive. I don't have much in the way of random thoughts, and I've got an errand to get to in a bit, so... I'll get right down to it.

WRITING

• The Sharpened Edge of Fate - Slowly working on this one. With the changes, I have to juggle the timeline, and I'm still working on how to integrate the new major character. I do love these books. I'm excited to wrap this up next year.
• Poem a Day - Some days are better than others. I'll start posting some of these for title suggestions and voting for audio recordings once I'm done posting Cameos 2 and Recycled Imagination to Patreon.
• Critical Community Theory - This is the codename for a TV show I'm working on. I call it this because I feel it could be the spiritual successor to Community, Big Bang Theory, and Critical Role. I finished the pilot in April and sent it off to a contact in So Cal to go over it. I'm new to the whole scriptwriting thing, so of course I'm going to get help from people I know working in the industry. My buddy brought up some good points. Now, I have to figure out how to make it work and still have all the elements of the pilot to springboard the rest of the first season.
• Story a Week - I'm really happy with how the second story came out. It's a solid draft, and it's going to be even stronger when I go back to it. All the seeds are there to take it from being a cool and slightly surreal sword and sorcery story to a deeply engaging tale about the nature of community and individuality. The third story, which I'll post this coming Saturday, was rougher to write. It's different than my usual forays into fiction. I think it works. It may be the kind of story I need some distance from before I really figure out all the seeds I planted.

PATREON

I've decided to add everything I've posted to Patreon over the last week, so those of you not on Patreon can see what you're missing.

• Epic Epistolary Episodes - This is the first installment of a story told in letters from one brother to another. It seems our narrator, Nathanial Hayze, has been pressed into naval service aboard the HRS Ferret. The story will continue until next May, with one letter a month. Supporters of Grunt or higher will receive these letters in their snailmail box.
• Birthday Reading - On my birthday, I featured at the Sacramento Poetry Center. This is a video of the reading.
• Short Story a Week #2 - Patrons can suggest titles.
• Wondering Project, March 8 - Wondering about neutral relationships in writing.
• What Are We to Time Anyway? - A poem that was published by the Sante Fe Writers Project
• Voices In My Darkness - A poem about the monster under my bed.
• Wondering Project, March 9 - Revelling in a well-crafted sentence.
• Wondering Project, March 10 - A bar conversation about breaking writing into two distinct categories.
• Upgrading Rule #34 - I love this poem a lot. I love watching people cringe a little when they hear me read it. I made it available for anyone to hear. Mildly NSFW. Enjoy!
• Spreading It On Thick - A poem about a bizarre tarot spread with cultural icons on the major arcana.
• Wondering Project, March 11 - Random thoughts and observations from a writing conference.

READING

• Gentleman Junkie, by Harlan Ellison - Working my way through a bunch of Harlan Ellison books I have on my Kindle that I got years ago in a massively good deal. I can see how he influenced late 90s and early 2000s Gallowglas. I still can see some of the smudges of his fingerprints in my work, especially in Spellpunk and some of my flash fiction. I think I may need to broaden my current short story reading so I don't fall into the unintended trap of letting Harlan slip too much into my current writing.
• The Hundred Days, by Patrick O'Brien, narrated by Patrick Tull - The 19th book in this series. I've got one more after this. It's so good. I've been listening to these since my late 30s. They're like old friends.
• Wonderworks, by Angus Fletcher - Each chapter in this book keeps teaching me how little I truly understood writing. This invigorates me. Last night, I was reading a chapter about crafting suspense, and I considered how I might integrate that within my 4 Principles. That thought made me realize I should be doing that with everything that excites me about writing. Once I finish this, I'm going to set it aside a bit, then go back to it to see how each chapter applies to the 4 Principles.
• America Fantastica, by Tim O'Brien - I'm diving back into this one again to be ready for Reading as a Contact Sport on June 14. This book is Tim O'Brien at his best. It has so many lessons to teach the careful reader about writing about going beyond likability and exploring heartbreaking, engaging characters. I hope you'll join us for the discussion. It's sure to be a good one.

WATCHING

• WWE - Nothing groundbreaking at the moment. Storylines are continuing. I'm invested, but not wanting to speed up time to get to the next twists. Comfort viewing. I'm still hoping we get the return of Ron "The Truth" Killings out of the John Cena heel turn.
• Another Simple Favor - I semi-watched this last night while I was cleaning up my work station and folding laundry. I enjoyed the plot twists of the first movie. This one seemed trying too hard to make things twisty, but didn't do as good a job as it relied on some of the same devices as the first one. Also, the biggest twist relied on everyone but the protagonist to be absolutely stupid, willfully unobservant.
• All my other shows are on break. Anyone have any suggestions on what I should watch?

That's my wrap-up for this week. I wish I had more in the way of insights or thoughts about anything to give you, but I don't have the bandwidth to spare. Hopefully, life will settle down this week, and I'll be able to give you more than just some bullet points. What have you been up to?

Oh, yeah... I also use Amazon links to get a small commission because I'm a struggling creative in a late-stage, free-market capitalism hellscape.