In Your Endo

So this blog has been on again and off again and on again and off again for a couple of years now. I wonder if that says anything about my state of mind? Probably, but nobody wants to see what the inside of my mind looks like. Or maybe you do… do you? Sometimes we all need to go on a rant where we just follow our mind wherever it takes us.

Today has been an absolute waste of a day. I got caught on a single thought and spent the rest of the day on Google just researching that thought. It’s annoying, I planned to do stuff today. But… well… you know… the internet does nothing but exacerbate any tendencies you may have towards procrastination. I’m surprised I have been able to write this much so far.

So am I going to make yet another recommitment to this blog? I don’t think so. I’ll post something when I feel like I have something worth posting about. Nicole and I have our new blog about our time in the USA which will probably take precedence, so if you are looking for my crazy thoughts you will definitely be able to find them there.

New Beginnings, Soon

So this is not a decision I have come to lightly, and it will probably not happen for a few months yet, but 2013 is likely to be my last year as a dedicated reviewer with obligations and stuff. For a number of reasons, one of them being time, one of them being the want to pursue some new interests, and one of them being that reviewing a subject just sucks the life and soul out of the subject for me.

I don’t read books the same way I used to, I don’t watch movies or TV the way I used to, and I dont listen to music the way I used to. Consuming media is less fun and more chore for me now, so the goal for me in 2013 will be to recapture the magic. It doesn’t mean that I will be giving up reviews completely, but it does mean that I will only be reviewing something if I am really excited about it and I have something of value I want to add to the discussion. I imagine I will also be open to special requests, but where I reviewed 50 books, a dozen movies and a handful of other thing this year, I expect that number to be greatly reduced next year.

I will not be severing ties with the communities I have become a part of over the past few years. First of all I have a number of commitments I need to honour and I fully intend on doing so. I have a very large list of books I still need to review, and I will tackling that list over the course of the year. I will still act as an administrator for Novastream and I will still be involved with adding editorial content to Fantasy Book Review. I will still have a presence, but it will be bounded.

I am incredibly thankful for the opportunities I have been given as a direct result of being a reviewer – I wouldn’t have met all these great people in the entertainment community and I almost certainly would not have had a short story published. But it’s definitely time for me to move on and start focussing more on writing.

 

Soooooooo Lazy

I’ll get back into the habit of writing blog posts soon. Honest. But first… Bed. G’night Y’all

The Short Term Memory Of The Internet Crusader

This post has been sitting in my drafts folder for almost eighteen months now, with me changing the title and rewriting the post every time there is a new controversy. It started life as “Bogan With An iPhone”, then “I Scream Kony”(my favourite for a long time), then “Like This Post If You Believe In Presumption Of Guilt”, then “Like This Post!”, then “Keyboard Warriors Untie”, until finally I had one of those fabled toilet seat epiphanies and settled “The Short Term Memory Of The Internet Crusader”.

“Uganda eat that?”

2012 has been the year of mobilising the internet mob enmasse. All you need is a strong opinion about some violation of common decency or basic human rights (for best effect, make sure if you do mention facts that you only use the ones that support your argument), a poor victim (for the best effect, make sure your victim has some sort of cancer), and a treacherous villain (for best effect, be sure to include a picture of them scowling or rolling around in the victim’s money).

The irony is that Mittens, the cat famous for climbing Mt Everest, used kitten slave labour to knit his famous red mittens. Even worse, the red dye was actually made from the blood of 1000 disabled kitten slaves.

So how many support groups, charities, controversies, etc.  have you commented about this year? How many times have you liked a status this year in support of something? How many of these do you remember, or have followed up on? Do you remember these few I have listed below? Do you care enough about the few I have listed below to go find out what is happening with them?

• Kyle Sandilands Unleashes On Journo
• Live Exports
• Kony 2012
• We Are The 99% / Occupy Wall Street
• Stop The Goodreads Bullies Stalking Book Reviewers
• Ali Jasmin Sentenced As An Adult
• Ryan Perez losing his job because of his sexist tweets against Felicia Day
• Todd Akin on “Legitimate Rape”
• Julian Assange Asylum In Ecuador Embassy
• Charlotte Dawson Twitter Abuse
• Alan Jones Inappropriate Comments

These issues just seem to fade into nothingness as people move on to championing the next cause, making you question whether people really cared at all. They were offended and shocked immediately, and then forgot about it immediately. It’s not about “the cause” for those who join the mob by clicking “like” on Facebook, it’s all about being part of the mob, being in the know, being part of the popular opinion. If this mob mentality was about “the cause” then there would not have been the Facebook groups set up about wanting to hang the man suspected of killing Jill Meagher and people would not be liking these pages – they would know that the spreading of this message far and wide has the potential to preclude the suspect from having a fair trial.

So do I have a point with post? Possibly. I guess the point I want to get across is that first, you should avoid being sucked in by the mob mentality. There are two sides to every story, and you should be doing research so that you can form a balanced and educated opinion.  Second, you should be following up on the causes you initially pledged your support for. These causes haven’t stopped being issues, and chances are they probably need more of your support. But in this instant gratification society that issue has had its moment and the mob is only prepared to support what is trending on Facebook and Twitter right now. The increasing poor standard of mainstream media probably contributes to this too, but that’s a rant for another post.

Hamish MacDonald – A journalist who doesn’t need to sensationalise his stories

There is one journalist in Australia right now who is doing their best to support the issues they care about. This guy is the type of person who educates themselves about an issue, forms a balanced argument about the issue, decides what they want to do about the issue, and then follows through with supporting the issue until it is resolved. Hamish MacDonald is a fantastic role model – be more like him! He reports for The Project, and you can find more about him here - 
https://twitter.com/hamishNews

Contributing To The World Around Me

It seems that when I’m not working at work, I’m working at home. Hobbies have taken over my life to the extent where I’m almost spending more time on them than I am at work. But it’s good right? No. It’s supposed to keep me active or something like that. I haven’t played a video game in nearly three weeks and that depresses me.

All these hobbies that have been piling up is the reason why I have been neglecting this blog. I could promise that I will post more often but I’m pretty sure I have made that promise quite a few times in the past. I am still contributing to the world around me, so I thought I would share with you the things I am doing:

Fading Light: An Anthology of the Monstrous

Publication date is approaching rather quickly on this, and thus the publication wagon has taken off. Here are a few notable links:

Synopsis - 
http://www.tmarquitz.com/fl.html

Excerpt from my short story - 
https://www.facebook.com/FadingLightAntho/posts/475833585760680

Multi-Author Interview With Lincoln Crisler Part 1 - 
http://lincolncrisler.info/?p=1435

Multi-Author Interview With Lincoln Crisler Part 2 - 
http://lincolncrisler.info/?p=1443

Multi-Author Interview With Lincoln Crisler Part 3 - 
http://lincolncrisler.info/?p=1451

Multi-Author Interview With The Nocturnal Library Part 1 - 
http://www.thenocturnallibrary.com/2012/08/tim-marquitz-presents-fading-light.html

Multi-Author Interview With The Nocturnal Library Part 2 - 
http://www.thenocturnallibrary.com/2012/08/tim-marquitz-presents-fading-light_15.html

There is more stuff to come at Bastard Books and on Fantasy Book Review leading up to the September 1st release.

Novastream

As part of the Novastream relaunch, I became the new administrator of Novastream Movies with Esther Savage where I have been doing a lot of posts and site clean-up over the past few weeks. I am also involved with all the technical site design for Novastream Movies and Novastream Games, and I am a regular guest on the Novastream Podcast.

FBR Blog

Finally, I am now an administrator of the FBR Blog with fellow FBR reviewer Joshua S. Hill. Josh has designed the site pretty much from scratch and we are hard at work securing people to write for our site. Josh and I also host the FBR Podcast which I am currently in the middle of getting transferred to a new host.

The Rest

I’ve also been reading a bunch of books in this time, and putting together some new short stories for some upcoming anthologies. I’ll give you more details on that as they come to hand.

Ok that’s it for now. I plan on doing more regular posts here in the near future, especially once I get our American Bucket List put together.

 

Ryan and Nicole’s USA Bucket List

I have really been neglecting my blog as of late. Everytime I go to write a post, something more important always seems to pop up. Well not this time… take that world.

So for those who don’t know, Nicole and I are packing up our stuff again and moving… to Daytona Beach, Florida! It’s a whole ‘nuther country, can’t get there by bus. Nicole and I have been thinking about all the things we would like to do while we are over there, things like:

• Spew on every ride at Disney World
• Spew on every ride at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
• Spew on every ride at Universal Studios
• Collect a tooth from an ice hockey game
• Catch a ‘gator in Louisiana
• Heckle some rednecks at the NASCAR Daytona 500
•  etc, etc, etc.

Then it hit us – how about we create a USA Bucket List based on all the comments by you the reader. That’s right, you tell us what we should be doing during our year abroad and we will write a blog post everytime we tick something off the list. Sound like a good plan? I love it when a plan comes together.

The Power of Procrastination

Yeah I know, I know – it’s been two weeks since I last posted. And you know what? I have no excuse (unless sickness counts). No reason why I couldn’t have written up at least one post about something going on in my world (please say sickness counts). But I guess that’s procrastination right? There are so many better offers that require much less thinking and provide so much entertainment.

Actually I might just blame my recent spate of procrastination on Reddit. It is like a procrastinators wet dream, so much linkage, so much news, so much controversy, so much WTF. If procrastination was an Olympic event, I would get the platinum medal (for those who dont know, in video games platinum is better than gold).

The quest for platinum is too much for some…

I found Reddit because a bunch of authors I like have been doing “Ask Me Anything” sessions over the past few months. It was such a simple concept, so using my epic leaping skillz I jumped right up on that bandwagon and have been riding it ever since.

I think the trick is finding a way to harness the power of procrastination, being able to take advantage of your epic internet search prowess. Use Twitter to become friends with people in your field. Use Reddit as a source of writing prompts, use blogs as a way to get all your thoughts out of your head and onto the page so that you can do something with them. I haven’t done any free writing this week, but I have played a lot of Mass Effect, and that works for me because it helps to develop my crazy sci-fi ideas… right??? (he says with an upward inflection)

So the challenge is simple, find something you procrastinate over and take advantage of it. And yes I like using the word procrastinate because it sounds dirty.

Free Writing – Give It A Try

Ok so for the past few weeks I have been trialling the concept of free writing. That wacky concept where you just write whatever is in your head with no filtering whatsoever and the only rule is that you cannot stop the pen from moving. Or in my case cannot stop the keys from clicking because using pens is for chumps. And you know what… I like it. It is a really handy tool for getting the creative juices flowing, for getting all of your thoughts down onto paper so you can sift through them for anything that may or may not work, and for just cleansing your mind.

I’ve heard of this technique before, but I only started looking at it seriously as a writing tool in the last few weeks after watching a video of Tim Schafer demonstrating how some of his best ideas have come from free writing. I would link the video but it is exclusive content for those who backed the new Double Fine game. If you want to see the video, you can become a slacker backer and register here: 
http://www.doublefine.com/dfa/

So how has the trial been going? Well this is an early morning thing for me. I set my timer for 30 minutes and I just start typing, usually starting with a few lines about how I’m feeling, what my sleep was like last night, how excited or unexcited I am for the rest of the day. I then think about a goal – where do I want to start steering my mind? Sometimes I think about one of my works in progress, sometimes I think about an assignment I have due, and sometimes I cant think of anything so I keep writing “blank, blank, blank” over and over until some weird thought enters my mind. The goal, if you are typing, is to keep your fingers moving, so for a 30 minute session you are going to aim for a target word count anywhere between 1500 – 1800 words, or 50-60 words per minute. If you are a slow typist then you should use this as an opportunity to improve. If you can type faster than 60 words per minute and wish to point that out well good for you, go collect your medal as the winner of everything.

I guess the most important thing to note is that it’s ok to ramble, it’s ok to keep repeating yourself, it’s ok to be rude, vulgar, illiterate, or childish. The only rule is don’t stop writing, not for a second. It gets easier as you do it. The words start coming quicker and quicker, your fingers struggle to keep up with how fast your brain is going, and you find that 30 minutes really isn’t enough time to get down all those crazy thoughts that have been pent up in your brain for months and months.  Below is a sample of my free writing from today, just to give you an idea of how my brain skips around:

I am writing a lot of words at the moment I mean look at this document, has it seen an improvement in my touch typing skills… well not this morning. Probably because of the lack of banana, water, and breakfast in general. The coffee was good but it is not enough to sustain the creative side of my brain. I need a muffin, a choc chip muffin, just something to keep me going at the moment. I’m thinking about writing some fiction that is not fantasy, maybe something based on my life, the problem is my life is not all that interesting, I don’t have a lot of conflict, everything seems to work out. Maybe I just need to introduce some drama into my life, maybe that way I can get some conflict, maybe I can tell a story about a guy who is running out of ideas to write about so he creates drama in his own life and it backfires big time. That might be a good thing to write about, that might be a great thing to write about, who knows?  I am just observant, people think its weird to stalk people on facebook and twitter, but no I don’t think so, maybe I could write a story about the facebook stalker, someone who gets off on finding a profile that has not been set to private, look at this girl, she is hot, and she is putting these pictures up of herself, wow, so it looks like she has done some part time modelling, she loves vampire books, werewolf books, supernatural books. From the looks of her 4square check ins she gets a coffee at the same place, almost the same time every day, im going to start going there and watching her, maybe I’ll get the chance to meet her, maybe we can go out some time, I could be interested in all the things she is interested in, I look at all the stuff she watches, she likes to watch all these TV shows on Get Glue, she likes to do a bunch of different things.

I find that it has helped to tighten up my typing skills and that it makes me far more productive at work and in my writing projects. So give it a try. You never know, you might find you like it.

Fifty Shades of Jealousy

Love them or hate them, the “Fifty Shades” books are bestsellers. Everyone is reading them and, of course, everyone has an opinion about them. And that’s fine, because of free speech and suchlike.

The thing is, people have long memories. There is a time and a place to voice your opinions, and when it comes to opinions about the industry you work in, you should probably think twice before you click that submit button. This is particularly important for genre authors because book publishing is a rather small and tight knit industry, and that comment you just submitted will be forever associated with your name.  That comment may stop you from ever getting a deal. The following is a quote from an author on what they think about Fifty Shades of Grey:

“Why did you buy this book? Your review isn’t anything we don’t already know about this book. It is crap, “Oh my, did I say Crap?”

I write much better than crap and I can’t get a soul to even blink at my novel, BUT every wanna-be reviewer has something to say about this turd.

I didn’t buy this book– here is my review. “It Sucks. Quit buying it.” “

Now I know this author, he is a nice guy and he can write quite well, but a comment like this shows an alarming about of jealousy and ignorance. This “turd” is the #1 bestseller in many countries around the world. It must be doing something right. And maybe, just maybe, it would be worth some effort figuring out what it is doing right and you might be able to apply it to your own writing.

How Time Flies – The Offspring

I was not a big music lover when I was young. I was happy with whatever I heard on the radio. Then came The Offspring with their most iconic song – Pretty Fly For a White Guy.

This song was awesome, amazing, and any number of complimentary superlatives. Americana was the first music album I ever bought, and it was all because of that song. That was fourteen years ago. To find their debut single, you have look back twenty three years to find I’ll Be Waiting, a track from their first album The Offspring which was originally produced on a vinyl record. Yeah, they have been making music since before CD’s.

And these guys are still making music, and it’s still awesome. Below is their latest single Cruising Californina, and dang it’s got a catchy tune / lyrics.

Time really does fly, like a white guy (oh yeah, I went there).