Taking the Good from the Bad

My summer of travel is over. In June, I was telling everyone that I would be heading off to London for a bit, followed by a trip out to India for a bit longer. A little over a month ago, I returned from India and concluded what may be a recurring theme for my summers, in that I keep referring to them as "The worst summer ever" each year. I was to be in London for a few weeks training employees from my day job on our software product. Once complete, I was to travel out to India for an extended visit of about six weeks for training activities as well. I ended up being in each location for a couple weeks, while the mid-summer activities included being prepared for my impending India trip and tending to a project on fire. We use that term for projects which either have severe loss of resources unexpectedly or otherwise a deliverable date we would need a TARDIS to hit.

My day job had consumed my summer and my ambition of completing my book by now is a complete failure.

Out of the Bad, comes the good...

I actually started writing this blog the week of my return from India and I was a bit miffed, to say the least. When returning to this site, I also saw a blog in my drafts from June titled "What if you're a part-time writer?" The theme is the same, although my frustration is a bit greater these days. My dream job does not pay me enough money to live my current life. On the other hand, I really like my career in the software field. I guess the question is, 'How do I balance these careers?'.

I'm on vacation this week and so far, I've been able to write a chapter, return to my blog and sleep in a little bit. As any writer knows, you can't be a vacation writer because inspiration does not happen on schedule. I've been toying around with the idea of a Sorcerer who can travel through time in Alorya, but I can tell you that I've had at least three moments in which I had the biggest and brightest idea completely die in my head since I wasn't focused on writing at that moment. Oh well...

Keeping a positive mindset, I have not given up. I haven't picked up my bass in years. I haven't played sports in years. There are so many things that I love to do, but instead of doing them, I focus on my top priorities in life. Career, family and enough relaxation to survive. AND, I haven't given up on my writing either. Like an old friend, I can go to my computer and type a few pages without much effort. Conversations picked up midway from where we left off months ago. There's such a comfort in knowing that it's always there waiting for me whenever I can spare a few moments.

A Generational Thing - Music

I thought of this topic when I was at a stop light. It was a nice day and I had the windows down. My mind started to wonder off and I was hoping the guy behind me would have an aneurism when he noticed I won't hit the gas the exact second the light turned green. Somewhere between wondering what green tasted like and which side of a coin was heavier, I heard a familiar tune coming out of the car which had just pulled up next to me. Bon Jovi was living on a prayer, not five feet from me, but I did not bother to look at who was driving. My mind already gave me the image of a familiar woman in her mid-thirties driving an Acura. The Left-Turn signal had changed to green and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man in his seventies driving a Mercedes ML-63 (a hundred thousand dollar car). My mind did a quick mental calculation of the meaning of the song versus the life that gentleman was living. No sir, he was not living on a prayer, he was surfing on a cloud. Performers like Springsteen, Bon Jovi and Bob Dylan would never have been successful if they sang about being a Rock Star, making tons of money and having women throwing themselves at them. A good performer can connect with their audience and give a reflection of society of that era. Some audiences want to live vicariously through the performer, so those performers have their place and time as well. What I remember my father telling me about Rock 'n Roll though had forever shaped my image of the genre. He told me he played the Rolling Stones for my grandparents at some point in the 60's and they hated it. For it to be Rock 'n Roll,he said, your parents have to hate it. I read an article a while back in which Alice Cooper said as much about what was considered Rock 'n Roll for the modern day. They may be playing the same riff and beat as they did thirty years ago, but if your grandfather is blasting it in his Mercedes, it's not Rock 'n Roll. Within the last decade, I went to a Metallica concert with my mom (yes, my mom). I sat around people who were between the ages of ten and fifty. Linkin Park had opened for Metallica at Giant Stadium that day, and I remember the older people around me shaking their heads as the Nu Rock band played their hits. I said to myself, "Hey kids, your parents hate it, so it must be Rock 'n Roll". I was right. After the concert I had to consider that Metallica was not Rock 'n Roll anymore. They're a great band, that's for sure, but they weren't Rock 'n Roll. I had to accept that being in my thirties; it was still okay for me to like Linkin Park as well as Metallica. Hell, I like Elvis and Johnny Cash! In time, I will be of the age where my kid plays a song that I will absolutely hate. That song will be Rock 'n Roll. When I relate it to Sci-Fi, I notice that I've yet to read a book which takes a stab at predicting the direction of music in a futuristic Sci-Fi type of way. We have to understand that when Sci-Fi becomes our reality in fifty or so years, we will hate that music. I thought about including the most repulsive sounding music I could imagine in my next book. That repulsive music that I hate will the futuristic Rock 'n Roll. We will all hate it and that's a good thing.

Podcast - Author Interview with Jon Teetsell

I had a great time chatting with Quinn Barrett of Wise Bear Books.  Although I was nervous at the beginning, it quickly turned into a chat about Science Fiction and eventually my book Alorya.  The most interesting part of the interview for me, was that she asked me questions about Alorya that no one had ever asked.  By asking me about some of the complicated names in Alorya, it brought me back to questions I had been preparing for back in 2008 when I finished writing my first "acceptable" version of Alorya.  To be honest, the interview was exactly what I had been expecting back in those days.

When I first shared my work with friends and acquaintances back then, they had asked me about Scarlett or Aiden.  Soon, the line of questions came to be about the Jaadugar and the Sorcerers.  All in all, it was questions like this which led me to kind of expect the unexpected.  It was because I didn't know what to expect that I became so nervous.  Prior to the interview, Quinn had provided me a list of questions she might ask so I could prepare myself, but when she actually asked me about Mercer, I was thrilled.  He was definitely the character I had the most fun writing about.

Please enjoy the podcast!  With experiences like this, I hope to make many more.

Wise Bear Book - Interview with Author Jon Teetsell

To say that I'm nervous, is like the sun asking for air conditioning and perhaps a little lemonade.

This will be my first ever recorded interview.  I'll be doing a little Q & A with Quinn Barrett of Wise Bear Books tomorrow at 1PM EST.

Quinn Barret is the author of Invisible Snow available in Paperback and on Kindle.

Not that I expect anyone I know to call in, but I'm putting it out there:

Call in to speak with the host

(646) 200-0260

Of note:

•  I'm very soft spoken and once, I was told I sound like Jim Henson's Kermit the Frog.

What scares you?

Do you have any childhood fears? Before any answer creeps into your head, I want you to dismiss any fears of losing your job, the death of a loved one or even your own death. I want you to start thinking about that shadow over by the dresser when you are trying to go to sleep at night. Well, we all have those shadows, but it's what our brain tells us it is that really defines what we're scared of, right? Is it a witch? Is it an alien? Is it Jack the Ripper? They all take a similar shape, but what we convince ourselves it is what really makes us scared.

I have two basic fears which materialize in two ways. That shadow in the corner? Yeah, that's a witch. That brush of air against the hairs on my neck? That's a spider. I guess, psychologically, I could say I'm afraid of women who are furious with me. That would explain the witch. Everyone who knows me knows that I get violent when I'm tickled. It kind of explains the spiders. It's more than that though. I'm not one of those people who go around telling themselves that they don't give a damn. If a woman is or has been furious with me, I can pretty much turn them off with my mental radar so quick that I barely register what they're even mad at. When I asked, "What's wrong?", it's because I turned down all of the shouting and decided to come back once things got calm. Spiders? Little known fact about me - I used to be an exterminator. I worked for Terminix. To say I have killed a few spiders in my time would be an understatement.

A good storyteller can overcome all of the mental barriers we've put up since our childhood. They can remind you of every night you spent under your blankets as a child believing, against all odds, that if you stay under the blanket and stay quiet, this demonic force of evil will give up and leave you alone. A good storyteller can make you scratch yourself absentmindedly as you read about the colony of fire ants covering the crying child entirely. Even writing that last sentence kicked in my "defender of all children" program.

The true masters of horror found a way to get inside every readers head and plant irrational ideas which scare the daylights out of them. We all have different fears, but the master of horror can get you scared of something you're normally not afraid of for a period of time. I'm not scared of sharks. I'm fascinated by them. I love sharks. A master of horror though, can change my love into fear for a few hours though. After Jaws, I walked away from the movie very angry. I knew that there are now going to be more people who would be fine with the slaughter of these wonderful creatures. I also give a nod to Peter Benchley and Steven Spielberg for being so masterful at their craft. It kind of makes you wonder what would happen if they put their talents towards making your scared of other things you're normally not scared of, right? America loves cars, right? Each household will generally have more than one car, which shows the national devotion.

Ever heard of a book called Christine? What about Maximum Overdrive?

We all know about Southern Hospitality in America right? Ever see Deliverance?