waking from hibernation

Well maybe not from hibernation, but I've been quiet on the blog for quite a long time.
I'm gearing up to have some fun with NaNoMoWri - or whatever it's called. Basically the idea is to write as much as you can in a month, hoping to get to a completed novel.

Right now I'm working on story ideas and concepts, or as it's sometimes known, wasting time on the internet. I'm having a lot of fun with things like this : article on the large hadron collider and the Higgs Boson's plot against it.
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I'm also living the text dream - recently I've moved back from gui programs to shell programs(think old school unix days), and man I'm having fun. This was started by the failure of the mouse buttons on an otherwise decent 7yr old laptop, and has now moved to a whole new computing experience for me.

Anyways that's what I'm up to currently.
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Summertime and I'm living easy

I've been off the blog for a while now.

Lot of reasons: Family Wedding, Mother's Knee Surgery, general summer slackness, xbox360, etc.

However I'm back. Mostly. I suspect some would question just how present I ever really was.

Some updates on my world:

The writing group has been a great way to study people, not so much in the writing area. I'm ambitious, and still hopeful, so it's not fully dead, but in dire need of revivification.

My computer hasn't locked up recently, principally because I'm using a new (actually used/old) laptop with a decent install of linux(xubuntu) on it. Of course this has it own set of challenges, principally in data migration.

It's frigging hot here. Not much in the way of story ideas are being generated by the heat, but it's great for reading. I'm dancing through the Dunes and pushing upstream in Riverworld.
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Writing Advice (From an Agent!)

Nathan Bransford is one of the many agents who blog, and he's one of the better ones out there. I follow a lot of blogs and long before I started following his I was reading his work. That's because what he writes gets picked up and redistributed throughout the 'Blogosphere'.

And now it's my turn to push his stuff.
Today he has put up a pretty complete index» of his advice articles on writing.
Go now, check it out, bookmark it and follow his blog.
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Nutrition vs Taste: The Vampire Dilemma

So I was talking with my new friend Chris» yesterday and I found myself trying to explain Nutrition vs Taste.

Lets back up a little. Chris is one of the creators of P-brane: The Green Man, a graphic novel I intend to talk more about at a future point. Suffice to say Chris and I have mutual interests in Science Fiction and Fantasy (Or Speculative Fiction ;).

One thing we talked about yesterday which wasn't writing related was my health. I'm a sick guy even though I look generally healthy. That's because one of the main symptoms of my disease is weight loss; I don't get full nutrition from eating. So, unlike my schoolmates, as I slip past thirty I'm still the same slender frame I was 10 years ago, no pot belly. This is part of what I explained briefly to Chris about my disease. The other part is that eating food aggravates my disease and makes me feel, in a word, poorly.

I have to eat food to live, so food is good, but I get sick when I eat, so food is bad.

It's actually something I don't think much about after having had this condition for so many years. However, when I was explaining this to Chris, whilst pouring the unhealthily fatty but tasty cream in my coffee, I was struck by the catch 22.

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How is it that I, with my health, still eat anything except the most nutritious, easy to digest foods? Why would I put cream in my coffee, or even drink coffee? Both of which are less desirable options for my health.

I do it because they are the tasty options.

Food is a common experience for humanity. We all enjoy ice cream and chocolate. Okay maybe not all of us, but we do share a common understanding of the enjoyment of food. Just as my body needs the supplements and liquid meals that are easy to digest; another part of me, my soul perhaps, needs doughnuts and cream in my coffee in order to fully share in the human experience.

There is a recurring character from fiction that faces a similar conundrum: The Vampire.

In fact in Mario Acevedo's 2006 vampire detective novel The Nymphos Of Rocky Flats (my review here) the main character struggles with this very problem. He refuses to drink human blood and attempts to subsist on a near normal food diet. This is one of the ways that he clings to his humanity. He fears that if he drinks human blood he will become like other vampires, indiscriminate, uncaring killers. Ultimately however this leads to problems for him, because by not eating the nutrition (human blood) that he required he was weakened by his disease (vampirism).

For Mario Acevedo's Vampire food has become a focal point for his struggle with what he has become. And like the main character in Nymphos Of Rocky Flats food is also a focal point in my struggle with my health.

For both of us peace comes with the realization that accepting the limits and requirements of our diseases doesn't mean we have to give up our humanity.

*I'm not a madman, mostly I use skim milk in my coffee, the cream was a treat yesterday.





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Coming up with Short Story Ideas: Redux

Or: What's with the 'Story Ideas»' tag?

In the original short story ideas post» I talked about my writing group and eventually shared some links I use to find inspiration. Oddly enough it's one of my most popular posts.

A number of the visitors to And The Chain have gone to google and searched for "Story Ideas". I know their story, and I feel for them because it's my story too. They sit in front of the computer, waiting for their muse to appear, awakening the little god within that can create worlds, characters and stories. And all that while still keeping his weekends free.

But eventually comes a day when the muse doesn't appear, and then their fingers tap out 'Story Ideas' into the search box. Perhaps in despair, or frustration, or perhaps just to see what happens.

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Many of them read that post on my writing group and short stoy ideas, and maybe it has value for them, but few ever go on to explore this blog. That original post on coming up with Short Story Ideas was the first one to receive the Story Ideas» Tag. But now it shows up all over the place on this blog. Once the tag existed, it seems I couldn't stop using it. And I want people to use it as well. In fact I'm adding a link to the original article specifically to encourage people to use it.

When I throw the tag on an article it's because I see an idea there, maybe for me, maybe for someone else. It may not be highlighted with arrows, but it's there for those that are looking.

This blog is about ideas, finding them, developing them, and sharing them. So use the Story Ideas Tag and if anything inspires you, let me know.



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