For the next couple of days, I’ll break from the format and just talk about what’s going on with me at Arisia. Perhaps this adventure will be a good story. Here is the beginning.

It’s not quite 10AM and I’m sitting at a table in the airport. I bought a breakfast bagel from Peet’s, along with a decaf Americano that is okay. Melissa sits across from me, her $5 water still unopened. I’m using the airport wifi, which appears to be faster than the internet I get at home. This all sounds ideal, right?

I should have noticed the first hint of trouble last night, when American Airlines sent an email saying, “Are your plans flexible?” No, American Airlines, my plans are not that flexible. If I could get in sooner, that would be better, but all of the options you’re presenting me with will get me to Boston later, and I’m already not too happy with getting in after 10PM. I’ll pass.

This morning, we finished our packing, hopped in my car, and made it to the airport with enough time. It didn’t take too long to find a spot in Economy, and the shuttle driver was fun to talk to. He’s a huge fan of the Kings, and his interest is strong enough that it has me thinking I should watch some highlight reels and get caught up on basketball.

Then we went to check our bags and discovered that we had been rebooked. Oops! We only thought we were going to leave Sacramento on time. The flight is delayed, and since we can’t catch the connecting flight in Phoenix, that’s been rebooked to a later time, with seats that no longer keep Melissa together, or towards the front of the plane.

Here you go, Mr. Buhl. Please enjoy your complimentary downgrade. We hope you like sitting in an airport a few extra hours, and that extra legroom you paid for is no longer available. Did we mention that we’ll reimburse you in any way? Of course not, because that’s not how any of this works.

I hate flying.

Scratch that. I hate airports, airlines, and airport security, and the empire of bullshit we’ve created that makes the miracle of flight something to be despised. I hate anticipating the inconvenience and the discomfort. I hate all of the aspects around flying.

Actually riding in a plane? That part is cool, actually. I’m a nervous flyer, and so the takeoff and landing has me gripping the seat. A few times I’ve been in turbulence that rattled us around like dice in a cup, and that was not super fun. It’s safe for me to say that I find flight exciting, sometimes terrifying, and I respect it and look forward to it. I think it would be amazing to learn to pilot a plane. That’s probably not going to happen during this lifetime, though.

Anyway. That’s all off my chest, now. I’m looking forward to getting to Boston. It looks like sleep will continue to be a scarce commodity going forward.

Let the adventure begin continue.

I just got home from another day in the office. This is the 10th post in a row. I’m not sure it will be very long, but we’ll see what we can do!

Personal News

The thing about going into the office is that I have to get up early, and I don’t get home until late. My day is shrunk, and I’m generally more tired by the end of it. After two days in a row, I’m exhausted. Almost like having a cat in heat, yowling in the wee hours of the morning.

I’m tired, but it’s Wednesday night, and I want to play games with my friends. I still have some packing to do, but it doesn’t usually take me very long to get ready.

Upcoming Events and Such

The only event in my mind is the one directly in front of me. Arisia 2024. I’ve never been to it, and I don’t think I’m going to know very many people there. I’m not on any of the programming. All I know at this point is that I’m going to work the Water Dragon table as much as I can, and hope that I do a good job.

The Topic: Finishing Projects

As a writer, it’s extremely important to finish your projects. It’s equally important for programmers.

When is a story finished? When the writer types “The End”? After the final edit from your publisher? After the last copy of it has been sold?

The line is different for different stories, I think. There’s a few stories I’ve written that will never see the light of day. There are some that I started and abandoned. Then there The Repossessed Ghost which is out in the world, and One for the Road which will be out in the world Soon®.

I believe that a story can be finished multiple times. Or, a writer is called upon to finish multiple stages. It is a milestone to finish the first draft. It is another milestone to complete the next revision, and the revisions after that. There is a finishing point after submitting the story to your critique group and taking in their feedback. And for some of us lucky few, there are stages during the publishing process.

If you’re struggling as a writer, it’s good to narrow your focus to the stage you’re on, and just finish that. Finish the first draft. If that’s too big a target, finish the chapter. Or finish the paragraph. Some days, it’s all you can do to finish each sentence. Finishing one can give strength to finish the next, until you have a whole pile of sentences that hopefully, someday, you can shape into something presentable.

I just got home. I don’t normally go into the office these days, because there isn’t much point. Today, my boss was in, and a new developer started today. If I didn’t go in today, I might have missed out on a free lunch!

Personal News

For those following the tragedy that is a tiny black cat in heat, I have important news: she’s settled down. She didn’t yowl throughout the night. She is behaving like a regular cat once again. We can all rejoice!

I still had to get up much earlier than normal in order to make it into the office on time. And, I have to get up relatively early tomorrow to do the same. It’s okay, though. Thursday, our flight isn’t until around 10AM, so we can sleep in. Our departure can be leisurely and carefree. It’s almost like we’re taking vacation.

Upcoming Events and Such

I check in for our flight tomorrow, and we flight the next day. I checked the weather, and it doesn’t look as bad as I thought. There will be freezing weather and precipitation, and it’s altogether much colder than I like, but I don’t see anything to make me think our flights should get canceled.

I’ll wear sweaters and jackets and be just fine.

The Topic: Maybe One for the Road?

While One for the Road will definitely be available online on Friday, it looks like the physical copies I was hoping for aren’t going to be printed and shipped on time.

This is a huge bummer, but it’s not the end of the world. There’s still one more surprise surrounding this story, and it may or may not be revealed on Friday.

It’s possible that this is a blessing in disguise, as my campaign for promoting the story — talking about it on this blog — may not be the highway to success. I’m not sure what else I can do, though. I’m not posting to Twitter. I’ll post more to Facebook once I have links for purchasing the story. I can spread the news around my day job, but the reality is I just don’t have that much reach.

I don’t exactly have a fanbase.

Well. Maybe if I keep writing and keep trying, something will happen. What else can a person like me do?

Okay, let’s write a real post tonight. The cat’s still in heat, but we’re soldiering on. Melissa read somewhere that this can last up to 21 days. Worst case scenario, we’ll have a chance to get good sleep in Boston this weekend.

Personal News

I’m heading into the office tomorrow, assuming my car starts. I realized around lunch time that I hadn’t driven in a while, so we were going to take it through Wendy’s. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t start. The battery got too low. I have jumper cables, and I have an EverStart jump start device, which is plugged in and charging as I write this. The EverStart has never worked for me before, but we’ll give it another try and hope for the best. If my car starts, Melissa and I will go for a long ride.

Upcoming Events and Such

Not much new to report, with Arisia still right in front of us. Boskone is the next month after that. My birthday is in March, and I’m not entirely sure which events we’ll do later in the year. There are some I want to do, but it’s hard to commit at this point.

The Topic: Writing is a Magic Trick

I wanted to get back on topic and say more about One for the Road. It’s about a couple of well-meaning witches in a modern world. The main character, Tina, is recruited by her best friend Alexa to help with a dire situation, because there is certain magic Tina knows that Alexa needs.

Magic.

Recently, I was talking with someone about writing, and they were talking about how they needed to go into great detail about some part of the story that didn’t really have anything to do with the plot or the characters. They just felt compelled to fill in the blanks, because stories are supposed to have depth, right?

Well… not really.

Good writing is a magic trick. The writer creates the illusion of depth where none exists. Given a few key words with the right connotations, the reader fills in the blanks themselves. The writer doesn’t have to go into painstaking detail about everything. In fact, if the writer attempts it, they’re going to create a slow, lumbering slog that readers won’t enjoy. Chances are, the writer won’t enjoy writing it, either.

Short form writers have to learn this more than novelists, though all writers can benefit from this idea. Just provide the details necessary for the story to remain structurally sound, plus a little bit more. This keeps things tight and the opportunity to speed up and slow things down according to the demands of the story. It also allows the reader to be a more active participant in the story.

Readers will imagine details the writer leaves out. They will imagine details that are difficult to put into words. And they’ll do it without thinking about it. If the writer crowds them out with the minutia, the reader will get bored, and the story will be less vibrant.

Good writing is an illusion made up of a bit of misdirection and a smattering of obfuscation.

It’s magic, which is what One for the Road is all about.

Good evening. Right meow, I’m doing what I can to keep the blog streak going. But it’s not easy.

Personal News

The cat is still in heat. Melissa and meow haven’t been sleeping very meow.

Didn’t I mention meow didn’t sleep very well? I tried to nap, but that didn’t work out very well. The weekend is almost over, and I’m so, so tired. Meow.

Upcoming Meow and Such

Rowr meow meow rowr rowr. MEOW! Rowr rowr rowr.

Also, we board the meow on Thursday morning, so Meow and I should get some sleep in Boston, at the very rowr.

The Topic: Cat Cat Cat

There’s not meow for me to say, really.

I tried to get ahead on the work berowr going on vacation, but meow couldn’t focus. I meownaged to get some, done. But not e-meow.

Anyway. Tomorrow, I’m meow’ing things are better.

Good evening! It’s Saturday, and this is day 6 of my 366 day death march blog challenge. I just finished meeting with my critique group, and I’m all fired up! Let’s begin…

Personal News

I think Pancakes is starting to settle down a little bit. She was still yowling well into the wee hours of the morning, and she woke me earlier than I wanted to get up. For the last several hours, though, she’s been quiet. That’s good. I need a break from her feline shenanigans. I need to rest this weekend.

I’m writing this from my work laptop, because I’m still focused on Day Job activities. I need to find a break and get back to fiction writing, but that’s easier said than done. There’s still too much to do, and not enough of us to do the work.

Upcoming Events and Such

There’s nothing new to report for events. Arisia is less than a week away. I met with Steven earlier today and we went over last minute details I’ll need in order to be effective in Boston.

I also ordered my own Square Reader, so I’ll have that as a backup in Boston. I’ll also have it whenever I go to an event on my own and have the opportunity to sell my books.

The Topic: Keeping it Real

Ideally, I’d like to be saying something more about One for the Road, but it’s a short story and there’s only so much I can say about it before it’s out. It’s a good story that you’re going to love. You’ll love it less if I beat you over the head with it.

I’m going to take a break from the plan tonight and instead talk a little bit about what’s going on with me, and one of the reasons this blog project is important.

The depression isn’t really gone. It’s still there, in my mind, offering ideas and thoughts that are not good for me.

Tonight, while offering critique, I felt myself pulling away from my friends. I was fairly convinced that the critiques I was offering were not useful or good. It’s not good because I’m not good. I’m a terrible writer, and whatever I have to say about their stories should be dismissed out of hand, because I should be dismissed out of hand.

I recognize the lies, and I’m able to shake them off. Part of why I can do that is because I’m doing this. I’m writing something. I’d rather I was writing fiction than opening up on this public forum, but the act of writing is giving me strength to put myself in my place.

[Quick Note: The cat just started yowling, so the misery of being in heat continues, it seems.]

One of the stories I read today, from Spencer, was an allegory about the mindlessness pursuit involved in capitalism. The people in the world of that story were all about making paperclips, because there was money in paperclips. There were people that could not pursue their passion because their passion didn’t pay the bills, even though what they were doing was more useful than making paperclips. Everyone was on a treadmill, and no one could see a way off.

That story hit home. I’ve been feeling it. I need to pursue my passion in order to hold myself together, but at the moment, I’m not seeing a path in which I can sustain myself on my writing.

Anyway. I needed to let some of that out. Tomorrow, hopefully I’ll get more sleep, and I’ll return to writing about something a little bit more fun.

It’s the first Friday of the new year, and boy was it long. I’ll talk more about that in a moment. This is 5 in a row, and it almost didn’t happen because of a really long work day.

Personal News

Pancakes, Chris’s cat, has entered her slut era. Can I say that?

She’s in heat. It’s ridiculous. None of us got good sleep last night, and I thought I had an early meeting this morning. I did not. I zombied my way through the day, took a brief nap during lunch, and then had to push through some more work which stretched on to just before 10PM. Not ideal.

As I write these words, Pancakes is in the other room, loudly voicing her distress. Chris tried hooking her up with some catnip, but she seems uninterested in it. She wants out of the house, and she wants what only another cat can give her. She is inconsolable.

None of us will survive.

Upcoming Events and Such

Tomorrow, I meet up with my critique group. I don’t have any submissions this time. I need to get up early and get my reading done. I’m also going to meet up with Steven of Water Dragon on Zoom, I think, so we can go over anything I might have missed for Arisia. He won’t be able to make it to Boston, so I’m going to try and fill in as best I can.

It should be fine. It’ll keep me busy.

The Topic: The Demand for Sequels to One for the Road

Melissa would like me to make writing her a new story every year a regular occurrence. Specifically, she’d like a sequel to the story that’s coming out a week from today.

I would love to write more stories in that world! Melissa wants the next story to feature Baby New Year, and I have a loose idea what that might be.

Is there a downside to writing this sequel? Well…

My ability to focus on writing is circumstantial. When I have the time, energy, and focus to actually draft, I want to work on something that can go out into the world.

Generally speaking, sequels don’t sell as well as the first book, so if the first book tanked, you’re pretty much wasting your time writing the next book. It’s one of the reasons I recommend other writes avoid writing sequels before the first book has sold.

I’m not saying One for the Road is going to tank. It’s one of my best stories! I think it has very broad appeal, and it’s short enough that people don’t have to commit too much to enjoy it.

I will say that I have never put out a story this short before, and I’m not sure I’ve done a great job of marketing it. I’m talking about it here on my blog, and I’ll post some more information to the social media I’m on, but social media really doesn’t translate very well into sales.

Another way to look at this… I will write more stories in the One for the Road universe, even if I’m only sharing them with Melissa. But if more people clamor for the sequel, I’ll be that more incentivized to spend my time writing it.

Thursday the 4th, and the 4th day of this challenge. I almost missed it! But that’s going to happen from time to time.

Personal News

Chris has a sweet, adorable kitten named pancakes, and she’s now just old enough to go into heat. Consequently, she tries to get out of the house at every opportunity, and she yowls the song of her people constantly. Mournfully. There is no consoling her. Not in the afternoon. Not in the evening. Not in the wee hours of the morning, when we’re still trying to sleep.

Thus, I am tired. I have been tired most of the day, which is bad because the work days are not merciful. I wound up taking a nap during my lunch break, and I took another nap when my normal work hours ended. When I’m done with this post, I’m going back onto the work laptop in order to get a couple more things done.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to sleep tonight.

Upcoming Events and Such

There isn’t much to report that I haven’t already mentioned. Melissa and I will get on a plan, one week from today, and we go to Boston for Arisia.

I’m looking forward to it, but I have to be honest. I’m not going to know that many people there. I’m an unknown, going to a convention that is unknown to me. There is potential for good things to happen. It is also possibly a waste of my vacation time and money.

I will be kept busy in the dealer’s room, though.

The Topic: Another Urban Fantasy, Huh?

When I think about how I spend most of my writing time, I usually think of my SciFi stories. My formative years were spent reading a lot of Heinlein and Asimov. I read fantasy, too, but I always thought my first published stories would be SciFi.

I suppose my first one was SciFi. Unclaimed Goods is in an anthology, but apparently that book sold fewer copies in 4 years than The Repossessed Ghost sold in 6 months. If one were to go searching for my name, they would not find Unclaimed Goods anywhere, which is a shame because I really like that story.

A week from tomorrow, when searching for my name, you’ll be able to find The Repossessed Ghost and One for the Road. Both are urban fantasies, though they’re both very different in tone and approach.

That’s something interesting about urban fantasy. I think a lot of people think about Dresden Files, or Iron Druid, or Ilona Andrew’s stories. Even my Mel Walker stories fit with those in feel and presentation. But there’s room for more than just gritty, down-on-their-luck characters working through the conflicts by the cut of their wits and the punch of their magic.

One for the Road is more whimsical. Tina and Alexa are more relatable, I think. There may be stormy, troubled miscreants in their world, but they don’t appear in this story.

I can’t wait for the 12th when it’s actually out in the world.

I just finished my work day, and I’m starting to feel a little punchy. I may take a nap before I play video games with my friends, like we do every Wednesday night. But first, I must complete day 3 of the 366 marathon!

Personal News

I feel like I should say a little bit more about the depression I’ve lived with the last couple of months. The season contributes to it, but the lack of writing seals it. All of the dark voices in my head grow in volume, and I start to believe the terrible lies that linger in the shadows of my mind.

I’m not working on any fiction at the moment, but I’m writing every day in this blog. It helps. I’m already more productive at work. Some of my confidence is returning. I feel more in control of my emotions.

But the darkness is still inside, and the lies still linger like a bad aftertaste.

I don’t want to dwell too much on it because I still want to keep things positive around here. I’m sure I’ll talk more about it this year, though.

Upcoming Events and Such

Arisia is still looming. Melissa and I will fly out on Thursday the 11th, and fly back on the following Monday. I’m going to miss a couple of days of work, and considering we have a new person starting that week, I will be missed. But this was planned out well in advance, so they’ll just have to soldier on without me.

I am not on the program for Arisia. I’ll be in the dealer’s room most of the time. I’ll bring my microphone, and we may have a Live at Arisia episode of the Small Publishing in a Big Universe, if the recording comes out well.

The Topic: Jennifer Brozek Made me a Better Writer

I’ve mentioned Jennifer several times on this blog. She’s my go-to example of someone that is a great outliner. She’s organized and efficient, and she does a great job teaching her techniques. Once or twice, I have attended courses taught by her and Cat Rambo.

When I was putting together One for the Road to give to Melissa, I knew I wanted to make it a Christmas present, and I knew I didn’t have time to let the story rest. I like to let my stories sit for a month or two before working on revisions, just so that I can get some distance and fresh eyes. I didn’t have months for Melissa’s story, though. I had days. So I reached out to Jennifer to see if she could take a look at it for me.

She agreed to help me, and rather than just sent me the story back with some comments, she sent me a full edit. It was incredible. There is a reason she’s a Hugo nominated editor.

I… uhm… didn’t give Melissa that version of the story. I read it, though, and I studied the places Jennifer changed. I went back to Scrivener, revised according to what I’d learned from Jennifer’s edit, and gave that revision to Melissa.

One of the key things I learned from Jennifer’s edit was that I tend to overstate things. I still do from time to time, but now I know to look for it. Jennifer left a note suggesting that I don’t trust the reader enough. The truth is, I don’t trust myself, so I cram more words onto the page when fewer would be better.

Over time, my critique group has gone over my story, and I ran it through a Writing Excuses Workshop in Utah. I’ve also worked with an editor with Water Dragon.

Jennifer isn’t the editor of One for the Road, but I made sure to include her in the acknowledgements, because she not only helped make the story better, she made me a better writer.

So… you should go check out her books.

Good evening, friends! It’s 6:30PM on the first Tuesday of 2024. I’m full of words and pizza. Let’s see which I pour into this blog post.

Personal News

Today began a bunch of pair programming with one of my developers. I’m trying to build him back up, and it started rough. We had a fundamental disagreement, and he wasn’t seeing where I was going with the project until late in the day. When he finally saw it, it was very satisfying. We’ll continue the pair programming tomorrow.

There’s some other stuff I would love to talk about, but I’ll save it for another time. I think that my commitment to writing a blog post every day is helping my general outlook, because today was the easiest day for me to manage in weeks.

The writing here may not be much, but it’s something.

Upcoming Events and Such

Arisia is coming up quickly. I’ve never been to that convention. Come to think of it, I don’t remember visiting Boston before. I probably won’t see very much of it because of the convention, but a visit is a visit. If something stands out that I should check out, maybe we can head to Boston a little earlier in February.

It Started with the Final Convolution

One More for the Road comes out on January 12th, with physical copies available in Boston at Arisia. I will post links and such, and maybe update the picture at the top of my blog around that time, too. It’s a very sweet story, and I really hope people check it out!

The story would not have happened if Melissa and I had not attended the last Convolution. It was it’s 4th year, and the 3rd I attended. It was never huge, but it was something special. It had a lot of potential, and it’s a shame that it died the way it did.

The last Convolution was different than the rest in that it was more workshop oriented. Most of the time when I go to writing conventions, the programming amounts to several rooms occupied by 2 to 5 people behind a table, having a conversation about a topic in front of an audience. The topic is almost always world building in disguise, though sometimes there is some light information on the business of writing.

I might be overgeneralizing a little bit. We’re not here to talk about other conventions. We’re here to talk about the last Convolution.

Most of the programming involved joining a group of people in a room, pulling out pen and paper, and then following instructions to go through some sort of writing exercise. It was excellent! I was fully in my element and really enjoying it.

Melissa, on the other hand, did not like it. Not at first, anyway. She’s nervous about her writing. She doesn’t want to share it. She doesn’t think she can do it. But then as she worked through her fears and produced some words with the rest of us, I think she got to see that she’s got some writing muscles.

She was having fun by the end of the convention. That’s when she had the idea.

“A witch pulled over for a DUI. And she’s wearing a red dress. Why was she pulled over? What’s her story?”

Those were her words. She said them several times, and she asked me to write it. And I kept telling her, “No, that’s your story. You write it!”

On January 12th, you will all have the chance to see the result!