Paddy's Wanderings

Scribble like the Wind

On Friday, April 24th of 2009 I started blogging here and seven plus months and 185 posts later, I am still doing it. To be honest, I didn't think I would do it. Oh sure I talk too much, but to blog that much over that period of time? I didn't believe it would happen, or I was even capable of doing it. That first post was a rambling, disjointed foray onto the blog-o-sphere. This post should be a better explanation of why I started and why I continue and what it all means.. maybe.

I read blogs, some are good and I go back, others are okay and I don't go back, reading time is precious. Last March I was just scanning along, reading some stuff and I came across Wil Wheaton's blog. I bumped into it before, but this time I started reading in earnest and going back through archives. It is a very good blog, very entertaining and kinda sparked something. Being a 'net surfer, I started linking off his site to other sites, other blogs, and I got hooked. There are some fine blogs I visit on a regular basis, check out my links. Finally, after a month of debate, I said to myself, just blog, wing it if you have to, but just start blogging. So I did.

Those early posts are quite simply, horrible. I had no idea where I was going, or any clue what to do, but by golly, I was doing. I still don't what I am doing really. I am still just kinda winging it, maybe with a bit more style, but in the end? just winging it. I still have to find a voice and do all those things you should do in a daily blog, but baby steps, baby steps.

But it was a beginning, which leads me to my next point, writing. When I was thinking about starting a blog, I was in a deep block, as in the dreaded writer's block I get afflicted with so often. I can not explain how bad I get, but sometimes it is so depressing I freeze for months at a time. I have been like that since I started scribbling detective stories way back in elementary school. I loved The Hardy Boys and like all kids, I imagine, wrote my own little stories. Then I discovered music and poetry and girls and I could go on, but I changed a wee bit. I still wrote all along, but I had also discovered the block.

At the start of the Nineties, I started publishing poetry in the small press(I even did a chapbook) and did so for a few years and then one thing lead to another and I stopped. There is that freakin block again. Oh I have started a ton of short stories, a few novels, have slips of paper with half finished poems over the years. I have a tree's worth of half finished, barely started projects. Which in turn leads me back to blogging. I figured if I blogged, that would get the juices flowing again, help fight off the block.

So I read blogs, did some stories over at Ficly, got on Facebook and Twitter and really started writing constantly again. Heck, I even started collecting rejection slips again and had a bit of success as well. I have written a butt load of poetry, even collecting some of it for a book(maybe). I used to have a hang up about poetry. I love it, I love writing it, but I have always had this hang up about talking about it. I think I got over that this year(see Paddy's Poetry Corner).

And, I am back into the short story game as well. I love short stories and I have finished and started a bunch of those as well. We'll see if I can get a few published this year, I will give it a go. At worse, I'll have a few more rejection slips for the collection, but I have grown a pretty thick skin and that doesn't bother me anymore. No stopping now.

Then I did NaNoWriMo, because like all people who want to write and love stories, I want to finish and publish(that is important ya know) a novel. Sure, I have started many over the years, never finished one either. This time, I have not only started, but I am happily over halfway through the story and I keep writing in that story every day. Thanks to the blog, the juices are flowing. This is why I started, to write more and keep the demons at bay and get some stories finished, to brave the world with my poetry and my prose. It has worked so far for the novel, more then anything else.

And that, my fellow wanderers, is why I continue. Because with this outlet as one of my tools, if you'll pardon the expression, I can accomplish my goals of getting my stories out to the public. What does it all mean in the end? Well, I think you'll see plenty of blog pieces about a wide range of subjects. Hopefully, the entries will get better, entertain you the reader, and you'll stick around to read more. I have a list of goals in writing, one of which is to write a better blog and to keep the fingers tip tapping away. Who knows where I'll wander? The trip oughta be fun, so far so good.

Happy Wanderings!

A Bit of 2009

I read a lot of blogs. Most folks seem to be doing a year end review, some even a decade ending review. A lot of folks in all areas of news and entertainment do this, why not bloggers eh? So I have been thinking just where and what I might want to do with this whole year end thing. Are folks even interested in what I think of the past year, do I have anything to add to the mix? These are questions that I really don't have an answer too, so like always, I'll just wing it.

On the job front I am thankful for still having a job. Living in a county with 19% unemployment, a state at 15% and a nation with over 10% makes this hard indeed. Working in the transportation industry that is dependent on the auto industry and consumerism makes it even tougher. It looked bleak a year ago, seems a tad bit better now, but you never know. So many friends have left the area or are going back to school just to get a job. Kudos to them for slogging ahead, but that is a tough row to hoe. We have been lucky, better 1/2 and I, for keeping on keeping on.

The family has been pretty fortunate on the health front, we are all doing just fine, no major problems there this year. For that no small thing, we are grateful. We had a lot of fun, did some cool things and I can say we hope to do a lot more this coming year. We had a good year, no complaints there. The big brothers are out of high school and are into the next phase and that can be hard, but I think they'll do just fine. The tyke is running amok like always, got a year and half before he starts school and we get to do that whole crazy thing, again.

All in all, we had a good year. We didn't do everything we wanted as a family, but we did have fun. I think I can say we are all looking forward to next year and doing some cool stuff and achieving what we set out to do. Keeping the jobs, staying healthy and having some fun will be the goal. And I think we all want to do the stuff we are passionate about and have some personal success and fun there as well. We have good friends, good family and we had a good year. I think as we enter the next year, we will do just fine.

Happy Wanderings!

Novel-Tone News 12/29

BWnoveltonenews1, originally uploaded by paddy's wandering.

Welcome back to the..Project.

I have now been at this crazy novel writing project for two months. Time does indeed fly when you are having fun. I had no idea what I was getting into and where it would lead, but here I am.

My progress last week was only a few thousand words in advancing the story line, but I also did a bunch of adding/deleting of previous stuff. It still makes sense to me to continue along this path. I have so many notes it is scary. I keep thinking, less notes, more story writing. But I can lose my thread so easy that I just have to do it. So I did notes, did some more storyline and some more editing.

One of the things that December has shown me is I don't keep real close track of word count anymore. I am probably still in the 60k range with add and delete, I haven't checked. Is this bad, or good? I don't know. It is good to keep track of progress but I don't think word count does it for me anymore. Now it is all about how far along the story I have written out from the notes. Makes sense to me.

I almost believe that old adage, it will get done when it's done, almost. It still burns inside me pretty hot in the middle of the night. Strange half connected dreams and waking up and scribbling still happen. Some days it drives me to distraction, when what I really want to do is write some other stuff that is whispering for attention.

So I continue on. The flow is still there. I steal moments whenever and wherever I can to jot stuff down. I have even scribbled on my lunch break at work in front of other people while I jammed a sandwich down. They already think I am weird, so no harm there. Fear not my fellow intrepid wanders, we'll get there, when we get there.

The end is just the beginning..

A New Band

After twenty two Christmases, better 1/2 still surprises me. She saved and scrimped and was very secretive for the past couple months. I was totally oblivious(I am often accused of that, not so much not caring or the like, but as in unaware and absent minded). She surprised us all with Beatles Rockband on the big morning.

With the release of Beatles Rockband a few months ago, the kiddos have been, we should get it. Come on dad, you'll like it, it is the Beatles. Me being me, I was skeptical. I got commercials in my email, I got the whole, oh come see this, isn't it cool when ads were on TV. We like the Beatles, you love the Beatles and its RockBand dude. You tried the game over at The Tim's house and you liked it, come on dad. I was not budging one bit. They were relentless in their pursuit and I just shrugged it off. Better 1/2 said we should consider buying it, I said no, not interested, not really.

Don't get me wrong, I think it is cool that they did a version with the Beatles and I think it is a neat game, but that was where I stopped. See, I just don't get it, I sorta do now, but I really am showing my age by not getting with it. I think it is a cool video game and I am impressed with the technology used to create it and to play it. I'm kinda boring huh? But the idea of playing a video game, playing pretend I am in a rock band.. I don't get it. It's cool, but lacking I had thought.

When I was a teenager, I wanted to be in a rock band. I wanted to go out, get a guitar, play all the cool music I love and be a in a rock band. What I did, was go out and mow yards, shovel snow and scrimped and saved and finally got a bass. Then I got together with some friends and we played in basements and garages and the like. We played until our fingers bled, constantly saving to buy new strings, walking around with sore fingers. We actually played music, we learned, we practiced, we did all the crazy things teenagers do when it comes to being in a rock band.

I even played in a band in college. A little more professional maybe, a step up from the basement into a dive in front of drunken college students, but hey it was cool. I never did get anywhere with it, that is fine too. After all, it was being in a band, playing and having a good time. Heck, most of us did it to pick up girls and score free beer. It was a time of AM radio and pre-video when I started. Then there was videos and that whole thing and still, it was about going out and trying it, just doing it.

Then somewhere along the way I grew up a bit and haven't done that kinda thing since the Hazy Eighties, but that is just fine too. Then along comes Guitar Hero and RockBand and it seemed too much pretend for me. It's like the whole I walked to school twelve miles uphill, in snow, both ways when I was a kid, kinda thing. It seemed kinda lame to me, again my age showing through. Then along came those pesky Beatles..

So here I am last night, after playing the bass a bit and trying the guitar and drums, with a microphone in my hand. Tyke says you sing, I drum. Everyone says come on dad, sing some Beatles, you know you want too. I have a cold, my throat is feeling raw and I am tired, all kinds of excuses popped up in my head, even if that was all true, it was just an excuse. So what the hell, I gave it a go. It's not like I have stage fright or have never sang in front of people, how bad can it be right?

I am here to tell ya, I was trying to follow the screen and pitch my voice to the bar and I sounded horrible, flat and toneless and horrible. So I said lets do I Saw Her Standing There, I know this song pretty well. I stopped trying to follow the screen, just sang while watching the tyke drum and it sounded a whole lot better, still kinda squishy and eww, but better.

In the end, we all had fun, even Grammie played the drums and better 1/2 played guitar. The boyos played a bunch and we even got biggest boyo's girlfriend Melissa to play drums, and she was good. Our friend Chris was awesome at the drums as well. I guess I get it now. It was fun for everyone to just play and have a good time. Some days I am a pouty artist type jerk and forget that it's all about having fun.

Wanna guess what I'll be doing later? You got it, having fun with the fam, pretending to be a rock star. I guess I'll have to go buy a bus and paint some flowers on it, you just never know..

Happy Wanderings!

Novel-Tone News Update 12/22

BWnoveltonenews1, originally uploaded by paddy's wandering.

Greetings from the..Project!

Way back in October I had taken this pic and played around with photoshop to come up with this cool logo for doing Novel Posts. I finally got it up and here it is in all it's glory. Kinda neat I think.

Better late then never I guess. I figure I got time, this whole process has taken me a long time to get as far as I have. Which is to say that in the past week I have dabbled along in this novel project. No, I don't have any huge word counts, just a few thousand to tack on, plus some fiddling with earlier passages. The net being a better story, but not a whole lot longer, nor anywhere near finished.

I can live with that. I admit I have been playing with other stories and poems and such. I even dug around for the second project, just to keep things fresh ya know. I have a huge fear of that dreaded demon, the block, so whatever it takes to keep on keeping on, well I just do it. So other things I had put on the back burner have surfaced a bit and I just keep plugging away.

This is probably a bad idea, one should finish a project before starting another or working on other stuff I imagine. But hey, whatever. After years of fighting block and haphazard results on various writing projects, I am open to just about whatever it takes to keep writing, everyday.

So on this big project I am winging it pretty much on a daily basis. I do whatever the mood strikes and go from there. Some days, like this past week, I spent a small amount of time on it and wrote other stuff. Next week might be different, I just have no idea.

But I make progress all the time, and for that I am happy. Do I want it done now? Yeppers. Will it take awhile, like several months? Most likely. That is okay too. I just want this cool story that has brewed in my head forever to come out in a manner that I like. Then we'll see if anyone else likes it. Who knows?

So now there is a logo and oh my, a working title. I have been calling the novel After the Fall of Darkness, or at least in my mind when it pops in there, as AFD. So there it is, another week in the big project.

The end is just the beginning..

Boogity Stick

BoogityStick, originally uploaded by paddy's wandering.

In the world of Paddy's Heroes, this here totem is feared by all. My friend Gabe is the proud owner of this so called Oogity Boogity Stick. To illustrate just how strange we all are, I thought I would post up a picture and share. No, we don't take gaming seriously, but we do take the fun of gaming very seriously indeed. This is all about fun.

This totem, this stick of doom if you will, is shaken and pointed at the dice your opponent is rolling in an effort to curse them. Yep, you read that correctly, we curse each others dice, all in fun of course. If you really get into it, and we have been know to do that, you dance around and point it at the dice and shake it. Crazy as that sounds, we actually laugh when we do it.

So Gabe brought out the old stick to our gaming on Saturday where in Gabe and I played against our good friend Brian. Now Gabe has his dwarf army, I have the ponies, and we took on Brian and his rats in a big battle. Five thousand Skaven versus twenty five hundred each of Dwarfs and Bretonnians makes for a big WFB battle. We needed that stick and all the help we could get.

The long and the short of it is, Gabe and I won the game. I will say this though, Brian put up a good fight, the best our Dwarf/Bret alliance has ever faced, but in the end, we did get him and keep our perfect record. Although there was much shaking of the stick and general jocularity, both sides experienced a bit of bad luck that evened out.

Brian was hot and cold with the dice and for all our efforts, did not blow anything up. I however, rolled a dreaded miscast and then snake eyes. My poor damsel was sucked into the warp and the resulting explosion blew up a half dozen knights. We laughed and pointed at my misfortune, cause well, that is how we roll.

You see, we play to have fun. Winning at all cost and being a general jerk is not fun. Bemoaning your fate and cursing the rules is not fun. Fun is taking small models of plastic and pewter, assembling and painting them, then pushing them across a table in mock battle. Fun is hanging out with your buddies and playing a game and laughing.

Big Jeff was there to help out with some questions on rules and procedures(we do indeed follow the rules, we are just not stupid about it). Gabe's son Ethan used the oogity boogity stick for us and helped us have fun. And my little guy Simon came along to play with the ponies and be a gamer in training. He kept pointing at the Vermin Lord and saying blow him up! blow him up! He's a bad guy.

We had a lot of fun and in the end, that is what mattered. As to the stick? Well Gabe packed it away for another day and I have no doubt that we will see it again, because that is fun too. The Heroes are about fun and hanging out and having a good time while playing a kids game and well, being a kid.

That's how we roll.

Storytellers

I just read an interesting article where in the past ten years, J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer were Amazon's biggest sellers. Kudos to them, they earned it by hard work and writing stories that folks obviously love a great deal. I have tried both series and neither did it for me. Hey that is just me, what do I know? I think it is very cool that they wrote such good stories and that so many young folks really loved them. Like everything else, starting good habits early and often, lead to a lifetime of enjoyment, like reading a good book. So I am all for that, and again, they both get a big thumbs up for that.

Some days I think I am twenty four and other days that whole four four! hits home. Sometimes I think I am just out of the loop, like with both of those series. Ask millions of folks who their favorite author is and I would bet it would be Rowling or Meyer or both. Hey that's good. I am showing my age or eclectic taste or whatever, but most of my favorite authors, the folks I grew up with and read a bunch of their work, those folks? Yeah.. most of them have passed on.

Now don't get me wrong here folks, I have found some new writers, new stuff that I really like. Folks that may just be starting or only have a couple of novels under their belt. If you wander far enough, you'll find it, just like I did, or click a link or two on the right, that is some of the places I go to. Then be a good little wanderer and link from there. I guarantee you will find something you like, maybe lots of somethings, like I did. You don't have to drop a whole lot of money to get a good sampling, then when you do find some stuff you like, by all means, go purchase an eBook or order at Amazon or whatever. There is good stuff out there!

Back to the point I was trying to make though. The authors I grew up with, the folks I have read everything I could get my hands on over the years, those writers. Yeah I am feeling bummed because so many of them have passed on and I can't get anymore new stuff. I am talking Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Patrick O'Brien to name but a few. Of course there are others who passed long before I read any of their stuff, Hemingway, Steinbeck and Mark Twain, again to name but a few. Yeah that is depressing huh?

But there is hope on the horizon! As I said, there is plenty of new folks you can get access to through the 'net and there is a ton of emerging talent if you dig deep enough. That is exciting, and I am blazing forth to find all I can. Oh my current, favorite, living authors are Stephen King(thanks to better 1/2 who insisted I try a book way back in the hazy eighties) and William Gibson. A new book comes out and I am all over it. If I even get a hint of a new release I start to salivate and get all twitchy. That's who does it for me.

So read on my fellow wanderers. Explore! Find new authors and give stuff a go, it is worth it in the end. I am just gonna keep on keeping on and enjoying the hell out of reading. I have found some new folks, still have the old folks on the shelf, and loving every minute of it. So many stories, so little time..

Rambling in Black & White

Just some random thoughts for the day because, well, I am feeling kinda random.

I have been watching middle sheeple play Fallout 3 lately. I have not actually played the game, not much of a first person shooter type of gamer. But I will admit that I like the back ground story to the game and I even checked it out online. Post apocalyptic stories have always fascinated me. Mix in forties music, rampant commercialism, bad guys, mutants and 'duck and cover' ads and I am in. In my elementary school we had a fallout shelter in the basement and we watched the turtle in the duck and cover movies. If you see the flash, duck and cover.. yeah that will work. It is kinda of neat.

I have been reading stories online mostly as of late. There is some good stuff out there, bad stuff too. I have been trying to read all the outline mags I can, at some point I will send out a story to them, see how it goes. It is kinda like homework, you gotta check 'em out, see if what you do fits or not. There are a lot of places you can send a poem or story to, some are awesome, some are not. Some of the places I have gone to my stuff would just not fit in, so I'll pass on those. But hey, it is fun homework, I have read some stuff that was pretty good that I would never have found otherwise.

I have been listening to some podcasts of novels lately as well. When I am at the computer and fiddling around, doing this and that, I will download one and listen in. Some of them I stop what I am doing and get the full ten minutes or so of the story, some I just kinda have going, keeping an ear glued as I check email or whatever. Some are good, some are not so good. I am just wandering around checking it out.

The problem I think lies with me. I still remember after all of these years, being a kid and having people read to me, teachers, parents, librarians, etc. All I ever wanted was to be able to read the story for myself, so when I could, I did. I love being lost in a story and I have only got that a couple times listening to podcasts. I miss that when it is not there. After all, that is why I read. But some of the stuff is good, really good, and I do lose myself for ten or twenty minutes, so yeah I sorta get it. I do like to listen to poetry, that I can do, and most mornings I'll catch some. Like I said, must be me.

I have been watching with interest the ongoing escalation of eReaders and eBooks. I have to admit, to have a 'pad' with books on it, that I can take anywhere and read, seems so very cool. Most of my favorite books, the kind I drag around the house and into the bathroom(Hey I am a guy you know, gotta read something in there) are just too bulky to do that with ease. Case in point, I am reading IT by Stephen King for about the 4th time right now and in hardcover, it weighs a metric buttload. So yeah, at some point I am going to get one and start reading some stuff that way. Not all mind you. After all, I have the 'puter as well, and I like the heft of a good tome, the crinkle and smell of paper and well, I am a throwback some times.

I have a love/hate relationship with technology, the wretched technology if you will. But I do wander from place to place and topic to topic and that is why I do what I do. I spend my mornings scribbling and consuming online content that catches my eye. Will I ever do a podcast? Maybe someday, but I have a terrible voice, it might be better to just do silent movies. I do love black & white photography and movies.. might be a plan, do silent videos of poetry, wouldn't that be weird.

And that my fellow wanderers, is some of my rambling thoughts for the day.

Novel-Tone News Week VI

Good Day and welcome back to the..Project

It has been just over a week since the last post about the blasted book, er story. There is not much to tell really. For the past few days I have been playing in the poetry corner and have only tinkered with the book. That is not to say that I have given up, far from it. I have hit a roadblock and am stuck thinking where and how to continue.

I have also took this portion, about 60k worth, and have set it aside from the continuing story. I am now writing in two modes just to keep sane and moving along. I compromised. I really have an overwhelming desire to go back and re-work the beginning. The idea being not so much to change, but to enhance and improve. So that is what I am doing with that. I am also continuing onward in first draft mode for the rest of it, not over thinking, but just doing.

I feel at this point, since I really have nothing to lose, I may as well do whatever it takes to continue working along. That is how hard I am stuck at this point. Oh the story is there, the continuation of the trials and tribulations of the characters is still there, but I need to revise the beginning and expand on it, make it better. It bugs the living daylights out of me on a daily basis. So there it is.

One thing I have found out about this whole process is the deeper I go, I do better the first time around. Later passages are so much better then the early stages that it is driving me crazy. So I scribble more and more notes, outline some stuff and keep plugging along. I figure it can only get better.

Something is better then nothing I guess. I am making progress of sorts. I have avoided the dreaded block, more or less, by doing other things. So far, so good. This unknown territory I find myself in, without any clue what the hell I am doing, is fun, but taxing. I could sleep a week and not get enough energy back at this point, so I'll plod along, just doing.

The end is just the beginning..

A Call to Honour

In the realm of my gaming craziness, this was my response to an upcoming league that I am joining to play a wee bit of Warhammer. I just can not resist a good proclamation and fiddling with the middle ages and all of that fun stuff. Sure, I get a little weird about it, but its all in fun. Let me lay it down for ya..

Let it be known to all and sundry,
that on this day, the day we celebrate
the equinox in the depth of winter,
singing in hearth and home of
Our Lady of the Lake
and the blessings we all enjoy,

that within the song and dance
of our merriment, there arises
a call throughout our glorious Land
for the good men and Noble Knights
to take up arms in defense of our
most Sacred and Honored Home.

Where as our duty calls upon us,
and in the tradition of Honor
that has been bestowed upon our Land
from or grandfathers grandfathers day
to our own troubled time, we are
Hereby required and enjoined

to Gather our men and weapons of War
in the time of our Land's need,
to gently put aside our festive garb
and girth ourselves in the armour
of our Faith and Devotion to our most
Blessed Lady of the Lake.

We are hereby Called to Arms
my brethern, True and Brave,
and are Hereby Ordered this day
with Utmost Dispatch, to ride
across our Lands, gathering our men
as we March to Glory and Honour.

Go my friends, gather yourselves
and in parting, wave not with tears
but with the sure Knowledge of Duty
in the service of Our Lady
for we are Charged with solemn Duty
to vanquish our mortal enemies.

Let the Horns trumpet our gathering,
let the People of our Faire Land
sing the calls to Glory, entreating
an Honourable and Glorious Charge
and to you, my Trusted Brethern,
sing true as we Ride to War!

Festus
Herald of Essex
Court Bard to Lord Padraig