This time of year again

On June 21, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Photography3 Comments

In which you receive orders

On June 21, 2014June 21, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Geek3 Comments

So here’s the thing. I’m working on a post right now, which is requiring quite a bit more thinking than my blog posts usually need– like, a couple of days’ worth so far. And it’s going to require a bit more writing time than my posts usually need, too, so you probably won’t see it until next week sometime.

As part of this post, I’ve reminded myself what an outstanding goddamn comic book NEXTWAVE: AGENTS OF H.A.T.E. was, and as a result I am demanding that every single one of you order a collected edition from Amazon or download it or (even better) find a local comic shop and buy whatever copies of the series they have available to you.

Right now. Because Warren Ellis is a goddamned mad genius and one day I will hunt him down and eat his brain so I can steal his magical writing powers except that I’m pretty sure he’s also much tougher and cooler and eviller than I am so he would probably end up eating my brain instead and not getting much of use out of it.

Point is, sooner or later one of us is gonna have both our brains. Other point is, you should be reading this comic book because you’ve never heard of it and it’s bloody goddamn brilliant. It’s a weekend, you ain’t got nothin’ to do. Go shopping. Now.

(Speaking of Warren Ellis, and receiving orders, I have just read instructions in my email to tell everyone I know that the first issue of his current project, TREES, is available as a free digital download from Image Comics for the next couple of days. So you should check that out also. Immediately.)

Brief WordPress query

On June 20, 2014June 20, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Blogwanking9 Comments

Anybody else who has comment Likes turned on– do you have any idea how to stop WP from emailing you every time someone clicks Like on a comment? I swear I’ve looked through all the settings twice and I can’t find anything.

(EDIT: Solved. NotAPunkRocker points out that there are two places where settings are stored– and this particular one isn’t in the Dashboard, which is where I was looking.)

In which I bore everyone’s pants off

On June 20, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Blogwanking, Writing8 Comments

…which, now that I think about it, might not be the worst idea: NO PANTS PARTY, EVERYBODY!

(Googles “no pants party;” doesn’t regret it as immediately as he’d thought.)

Here’s the thing: This post– this exact post which I’m about to write right now– is probably going to be boring. The reason is that I haven’t actually done anything today or this week and I haven’t even really seen anything on the Interwebs that I’ve found worth talking about. However, getting a blog post up by noon is absolutely required by my brain nowadays, which means that I’m gonna have to be boring, because the couple of interesting posts I have in mind at the moment are all going to be complicated to write and I need to get my work work done first.

Point is, I’ve pretty much done exactly what I was supposed to do this week, which is plant my ass in a chair and either write or, uh, “curate my social media branding,” or something, which means spending all my goddamn time on Twitter. On the one hand, I’ve added over a hundred followers this week, which is kinda bananas considering that that’s fifty percent more followers than I had at the beginning of the week. On the other hand, jesus internet go away that’s enough for now.

I feel like that .gif needs to be about a second longer. But I love it so it has to stay.

Anyway, I think I’ve settled on a goal of about 10,000 words a week, one way or another. I’m shooting for a 75000 word first draft on BA 8, which means that the first draft is done in seven and a half weeks if I stick to the schedule– which feels about right.

Right now I’m ahead of that mark and building a cushion for next week when this invariably gets harder, and I’m going to spend the afternoon working on the Baen contest entry, which is now completely different from the story I first started working because the first story just flat-out refused to be fantasy adventure. I think this next one is going to be fantasy adventure, at least right now, but I might need a couple of quick beta readers when I finish it to see if your idea of the genre matches mine at all. In the meantime, lots of curation and cleaning the house, since we’re going to have some people over tonight. Also, soccer, which starts in forty minutes– enough time, I hope, to get the daily word count on Benevolence Archives 8 completed.

Oh, and I gotta make guacamole. Mmmm, guacamole.

I swear I will try to be interesting later today.

Friday Youtube break

On June 20, 2014June 19, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Uncategorized2 Comments

Yesterday was kinda stressful. Let’s fix that.

Daily Prompt: An Ounce of Home

On June 19, 2014June 19, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Uncategorized13 Comments

(Doing the Daily Post today. Why? Because a part of my Writing Process that I didn’t talk about a couple of days ago is that occasionally I get blocked out of my damn mind and spend four hours staring at a computer screen like a jackass. Which is what I’ve been doing this morning in between half-assed attempts to figure out a way to market my book/blog/Twitter feed/entire life. Screw it; YOU tell ME what to write about.

Of course, now that I’ve typed that, I gotta go wander around my house until I can figure out what the answer is. BAH.)

You’re embarking on a yearlong round-the-world adventure, and can take only one small object with you to remind you of home. What do you bring along for the trip?

(Seriously, walks around the house for ten minutes.)

…

Wait.

Going about this shit all wrong. Small object? Cool, I’m bringing a cell phone. Loaded to the gills with pictures and videos and oh, wait, you can call people with that too? Awesome.

Oh, that’s cheating? Okay.

(There’s no rules! It’s not cheating! Shut up!)

Fine. This:

That? Is my thinkin’ rock, and chances are I should have gone and gotten it out of my desk before now, because my brain’s all screwed up and useless today and I kinda need it. It’s a rock, with a depression in it to rub your thumb on. It is a singularly useless object.

Except.

Here’s what you’re really doing when you’re bringing something to “remind you of home.” You’re bringing something with you to stimulate thinking. The thinkin’ rock (I swear WordPress you correct thinkin’ to thinking’ one more time and I’ll kill you) is surprisingly calming, actually, for something that literally only exists to provide you a surface to rub your thumb on. You’d think you could rub your thumb on just about anything, provided it wasn’t, like, sharp or something: no! The thinkin’ rock is literally specifically designed for thumb-rubbing. It’s better!

(It’s also not as… wet?… as it looks in the picture, which makes it look kinda creepy.)

Thinkin’ rock reminds me to think. Thinking, in this case, is the same as reminiscing, which a good way to kick back and think about your family.

Better, mind you, to bring them with you. Or at least the damn phone. But I’ll take the rock too. I got big pockets.

How I wanted this morning to go

On June 19, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy2 Comments

…struggling with customer service at PayPal, of course. That’s how I want every morning to go!

Another strong review for THE BENEVOLENCE ARCHIVES

On June 18, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Reviews, WritingLeave a comment

This one made me really, really happy; while it’s a four-star review and not a five-star review, it made me feel like it was a five-star for some reasons. If you’re still on the fence about the book, or if you’re just curious, be sure to check it out.