Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Finished Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Basically, everyone should grab a pan galactic gargle blaster and read this book. It's not because it's earth-shattering. Oh, wait, it actually is. It's not because having everyone on earth read this book is highly improbable. Well, that's actually false as well, but if it happened you might be able to get a lift. It's not even to explore strange new worlds! But you do. I'll stop. Read this book.

Extending NaNo 2013: December 17

I admit I've been avoiding writing for a while. I had a couple days of writing a little here and there, but it hasn't amounted to much. I wrote about 1,500 words today, though. The trouble is, the story seems to be getting bogged down trying to get to the climax, which is just around the corner.

Anyway, I'm just shy of 59,000 words today, which if you read the previous post is where I thought I would be at the end of the story. No such luck. Apparently some things needed a little time to develop. One such thing was a pretty big deal when I thought of it. I was walking from Staples back to the office when I realized a little detail that has to come out. The trouble is, getting that detail out is taking a long time.

I'm trying to get one of my characters to find a way to get a certain thing from another character. This would then get handed off and ultimately explained to the reader. She went about it poorly and now has to find a new strategy. She doesn't know it, yet, but the window of opportunity won't be open much longer.

After that's settled, then the rest of the events that are waiting in the wings can play out. Honestly I'm still not sure about the specifics of them, either, but historically I've been better about getting through that kind of block than I have been about getting through what's bogging me down now.

I was really hoping to have been done with the story almost two weeks ago, too.

Extending NaNo 2013: December 2

Yes, I know the event ended two days ago, but I'm still going. I got another 1,200 or so words in on A Sky of Stars today adding one scene and tweaking another. Two scenes to go! (And maybe an epilogue.) All told, I probably have another 4,500 words to go, which would put me at 59,000 for this first draft. I'm still trying to finish the story before Friday.

Following the First Star (the book to which A Sky of Stars is the sequel) has about 55,000 words, but it really glosses over the details at the end. There's a lot of room to expand it. I'm not entirely sure where the expansion will happen with the sequel. I'll have to let that digest a while. I may not have the break point between book one and two exactly right, too. It remains to be seen! (No pun intended.)

NaNoWriMo 2013 - The End?

I won NaNoWriMo again this year. That makes six for six. However, what I did not do was finish the story I was writing. I crossed 50,000 words on November 30th, ending at 53,213 (Scrivener says 53,275), but I still have three scenes to write and one to rewrite from the ground up.

I had a vague outline that got me through several chapters, but it didn't get me through the whole story. A lot of talking with a good friend of mine helped to set what I needed to write for the story to make more sense. This was not just once, but several times throughout the month. It did make for a better story, and when I finish the scenes I mentioned above, it should be nicely set up for another sequel. I have no idea when I'm going to write that one, though. Maybe next NaNo, maybe sooner than that. I suppose it's possible I sit on it for a few years as I did with the 2010 story that led to this one, though I would rather not.

In years past, I kept much of the writing I did even though it didn't fit with the story. The earliest instance of this was in 2008 when I had a scene of the BBG robbing a liquor store, shown on TV. I never did anything with it and should have cut it, but it's still there. This year I would replace and edit as I went along. The most extreme case of this was where I had one character, and then rewrote the chapter to have two characters together. That cost me quite a few words, but it was worth it for the story.

Here's my word graph for the month:

The graph shows I was behind from the start, caught up on day 5 and then didn't write for two days. Believe it or not, day 8 has more words than day 7, though only by 178. I caught up again on day 13 and held it until day 22, though I wrote below the 1,666 words-per-day pace from the 21st until the 27th. During that time there was much discussion and outline revision. In my favor, I wrote on every day of the month except for the two days I took off (the 7th and 8th).

I wrote a strong 3,626 words on the 28th, only 609 on Thanksgiving Day, which was a busy day for me, and then 5,529 and 4,364 on the 29th and 30th respectively, winning on the last day.

The 2010 book suffered from a lack of focus on point of view (POV), and I could tell this one is going to have some of the same issues, though it is better.

I tried not to use adverbs, instead finding another way to say what I was trying to say. I think I failed in this, because I still used 165 different adverbs, and they counted for 514 of my words (almost 1%). I also tried not to use "was" or "is" too much, but it still appeared 768 times for "was" ("it was"+"he was"+"she was" = 259 of them) and 192 for "is."

I also tried not to use "thought" words. This is from writing advice from Chuck Palahniuk. The specific ones mentioned are thinks (30), knows (109), understands (18), realizes (6), believes (19), wants (59), remembers (6), imagines (2), desires (0). This is obviously not an all-inclusive list. The numbers after each are how many times I used that one, for a total of 249 times, though many of those were in dialogue.

My intention now is to write or rewrite the other scenes by December 5th, when the CreateSpace offer is supposed to appear, then to print a draft of the book as I usually do. It still needs a cover. I also want to buy Scrivener, which is half price for NaNo winners, as soon as I can work it into my budget.

Eaters of the Dead - reading

In the midst of NaNoWriMo, I was able to finish Eaters of the Dead. That sounds remarkable except that it took me a long time to read this book. That wasn't because the book was bad, but it wasn't entirely compelling to finish.

Ultimately I thought it was good. It's based on Beowulf more than anything else, though there are references and footnotes throughout, and the list of sources at the end includes Lovecraft's Necronomicon. Pretty authentic!

NaNoWriMo 2013 Day 18

I ended day 16 with 30,037 words, saying I had some revisions to make. I finished the revisions and ended up at 31,543 words, a gain of 1,506 words over two days in a section that's about 6,500 words long. That's not many words, given how long I've sat here staring at the story, but getting the revisions done was critical for moving this part of the story forward.

After writing some new content, I ended the day at 32,290 words, for 1,289 words for the day.

I also filled my whiteboard with notes, then organized them into my outline, then filled it again with more notes, which then also got incorporated. The outline is pretty happily fleshed out right now, except for the last entry which says, "HOW DOES ANY OF THIS RESOLVE?"

NaNoWriMo 2013 day 16

I caught up to par on day 12 with a 4,501-word day, and have stayed ahead since then. I ended the day today with 30,037 words, which is just above where I should be on day 18.

I am working on chapter 5 and am well into the second part of the setup. The first part spanned chapters 1-4. I've introduced a fair number of characters, and gotten some feedback on the story so far, which actually led to a complete restructuring of chapter 5. Ultimately, though, it will make for a better story. I just need to finish the restructure, add the new pieces to it, and from there I can move on to the next setup part.

THEN new things can happen!

NaNoWriMo 2013 - first 10 days

So much for catching up! I'm currently about 6,000 words behind. The good news is that I know I have enough material to pass 50,000 words. It might even be a good story. I just need to make it happen by the end of the month.

In looking at my progress thus far, I looked at how well I had done with keeping on-pace in years past. The result? The first three NaNos I did were pretty well paced. I made steady progress and crossed the 50k mark toward the end of the month. The following two? Fits and spurts. I still made 50k, but each one was a slow start and hard finish. Here are the graphs:

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

For 2009 and 2010 I also went well past the 50k mark. I'm hoping this year will bring many more words, since it's the sequel to the 2010 book, which topped 60k.

NaNoWriMo 2013 Day 5

I caught up!

I spent the evening using the word sprints available in the http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#r-nanowrimo chat room. While I didn't exactly compete with the others in the room, it was good to be able to focus on writing for a pretty good stretch of time. My total for the day was 4,096 words (not intentionally a power of 2, but I'll take it) and my total count is 8,840 words now.

In the story, I had two characters that I knew I wanted to get together see each other, but one of them turned and bolted. I wasn't exactly expecting that reaction. Back to the drawing board on getting them in the same place at the same time.

And now to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

NaNoWriMo 2013 days 1-4

I got a slow start this year, and it hasn't picked up any. Today is day five and while I haven't started writing for the day yet, I'm sitting at 4,744 words so far when I should be at 6,666 minimum, and 8,333 by the end of the day. I'm still working on chapter one and am feeling uninspired thus far by the writing. I'm not uninspired by the story outline - there's some cool stuff to come, and my sounding board friend has been really helpful.

I'm reintroducing some characters from the first book - characters that didn't end up doing much of anything. For example, the First Commander's daughter who appeared in chapter one of Following the First Star and was then (spoiler alert - ha!) irrelevant is back for chapter one of this book.

I should have plenty of time to write tonight. I'm hoping to get back on track. I know I can do it - I've had plenty of days writing thousands of words, and I only need 3,589 to catch up. But so far I haven't been following the NaNoWriMo mantra of just getting words down. I've been too careful. I've been editing in place. I've been revising bits and pieces here and there. I won't keep the pace if I keep this up.

NaNoWriMo 2013 Starting

I'm off to a slow start this year. I'm writing the sequel to Following the First Star, and have quite a few notes on the current state of the world, but I still don't have a clear idea of where I'm going from here. After re-reading it, I skimmed it again up to a scene in the second part of the book, then read more closely after that. It was funny that I had plans for a certain character only to find that character died in the first book! Whoops.

I went to the kickoff on Halloween night, where we got to hang around and mingle, then start writing all at once at midnight. It was pretty cool to transition from a party-like atmosphere to a bunch of people quietly typing away on keyboards, and one jerk listening to music on headphones loud enough that all around could hear it. I only got a few hundred words that first night because I hadn't gotten enough sleep all week due to work. Today is day two, and I am about to start writing for the day now (4 PM).

Here goes!

Following the First Star - reading

Finished "Following the First Star" by yours truly. This was a necessary re-reading because I had forgotten many of the details of the story, and I wanted to be able to talk with someone about them. I noticed that the longer the story went on, the skimpier I was on details, something that I definitely need to rectify.

The Divine Matrix - reading

Finished "The Divine Matrix" by Gregg Braden.

I went into the book half skeptical and half open-minded. The introduction tipped that balance in favor of skeptic when it said, "...there are places where I've chosen to focus more on the radical and unexpected results of the quantum experiments, rather than getting bogged down with too many technical details of the experiments themselves." This sentence alone seems to imply mutual exclusivity to these two things, but I don't see a connection. Further, the first half that focuses on radical and unexpected results goes against my belief in what science is. At least for the second half the author promises references to the experiments themselves. I may have to look those up.

After referencing experiments, page 58 goes on to state, "Although we may not be able to prove scientifically why these things happen, we all know that they do." The author tries to inoculate against claims of pseudoscience, yet I am left to believe that is what it is.

Thus far it hasn't gone into the ethics of trying to make changes in ones world. Note also: prosperity preaching.... Okay, page 119 mentions getting permission, and that healing should be in a noninvasive and compassionate way.

When a group mediated for peace, it worked. When they stopped, violence came back worse than before. Is this some sort of evidence that violence is intelligent and patient? Also, the sample size here is very small, as many are in this book.

Page 154 talks about some universal feeling of abandonment demonstrated in the Lord's Prayer, then goes on to offer an alternate translation for the same that removes the abandonment sense in it. What's the point?

The third universal fear of surrender and trust - the author invokes the evening news, but doesn't mention the fact that the evening news skews the information about dangers in the world. This is almost sensationalism to make a point.

In the chapter about mirrors I am amused that the author shared a story about a cat and anthropomorphized the cat, which in itself is a kind of mirror. He considered the behavior of the cat as a mirror for other things going on in his life, but seemed to miss that ascribing human motivations to a cat is a kind of mirror, too.

All in all, I don't put much weight in the author's work here. Even with what I have seen first hand in my life, put me firmly in the "skeptic" column.

Wave - reading

Finished "Wave" by Sonali Deraniyagala. This book is about a Sri Lankan woman who lost her family - her husband, her two young sons, and her parents - in the tsunami of December 26, 2004. In a single, random act of self-preservation as she floated along with the current flowing out to sea, she grabbed onto the branches of a tree and survived. Then she fell apart into drinking and self-destructive behavior. 

Then she started listening to The Smiths.

There is no happy ending here. There's just the coping with loss and eventually coming to terms with the fact that everyone was dead to the point that she could say it and know it was true. And knowing it was true did not stop her memories from triggering at little things that reminded her of her former existence.

Prince of Chaos - reading

Finished "Prince of Chaos" by Roger Zelazny. This is the last of the Amber series which ties up several of the story lines. I am amused that Frakir is a loose end (snicker) that was left hanging (snicker), as I would like to have known more of her fate.

Merlin is a character who probably has problems sleeping at night: when you have to worry about assassins from relatives and enemies, but also the "universe?" That could leave a mark.

It was a good end to a good series. I still think the first five books (about Corwin) are better overall than the second five (about Merlin), and that the end of the series could have spread into one more book.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - reading

Finished "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. Who hasn't heard about this picture? But the specifics - the events - they went beyond what I expected. Also, when I started, I didn't realize it was such a bromance!

I can't say I really got into the writing style. People didn't have conversations, they endured soliloquies! Superficialities abounded, but that at least made sense in the context of the story. And the ending was pretty abrupt. Still an interesting read, though.

The Signal and the Noise - reading

Finished "The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't" by Nate Silver. "Stop and smell the data." If this book were turned into a textbook for a statistics or forecasting course I would have loved that course. As it was, though, I'm not a huge math geek, and there were interesting points and dull points. Like baseball? Investing? Weather? Gambling? Chess? These things are covered pretty nicely, and it often boils down to Bayesian analysis.

Knight of Shadows - reading

Finished "Knight of Shadows" by Roger Zelazny. It's nice to see the author tweaking the rules of his world to make things interesting! There are a lot of places where there is a wall of explanation disguised as the main character thinking back on what has happened to him, and there are a lot of characters to keep track of, but things seem to be coalescing now. Good thing, too - one book left!

Sign of Chaos - reading

Finished "Sign of Chaos" by Roger Zelazny. This one took us from the White Rabbit and other acid-induced sights to the Keep of the Four Worlds. Of all the books, this seems the least complete. Interesting things happened, yes, but mostly seemed to be transitioning the story to move forward.

Life has been pretty busy lately, and reading has fallen away a bit. It should pick back up again soon.

Reality is Broken - reading

Finished "Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World" by Jane McGonigal. I was torn between a 3-star and 4-star rating (out of five) for this one, but decided ultimately to go with 4 stars because the parts I didn't like about it were still very well done and deeply researched. The reason I didn't like those parts was mostly that they were beyond the scope of games or impacts that I was thinking about going into this book. The other reason is that I liked how it started off talking about theory, and then devolved into a bunch of examples that didn't resonate with me. What will I remember? Tombstone Hold'em!

Blood of Amber - reading

Finished "Blood of Amber" by Roger Zelazny. We get to learn more, but at the same time I don't want to go into details. Read the series. It's well worth it.

Interestingly enough, though, the Mad Hatter and the hookah-smoking caterpillar made an appearance in this one, and I just coincidentally finished reading, for the first time, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I picked up on the parallel immediately as a result. Pretty funny!

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - reading

Finished "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll. It was my first time reading it. What a strange little book! Enjoyable, though. I thought I knew the story from popular culture and the movies, but I guess either they're off or my memory is, because much of it was new to me.

More to come in the next post, though.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - reading

Finished "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The version I read included a total of twelve adventures. The earlier ones were quite compelling, and it was an altogether fun read.

The Language God Talks - reading

Finished "The Language God Talks: On Science and Religion" by Herman Wouk. To quote from the book: "You are as ignorant of religion as I am of calculus." I wouldn't say I'm exceedingly well versed in either. I think I know more about religion than I do about calculus. It's funny, though, because every time the story edged toward religion, specifically Judaism, I felt like I did not identify with it. When the author wrote about himself, I really did not identify with him. But when the author wrote about Richard Feynman or about the science or calculus, I was hooked and wanted more. The same was true when he told stories about others that he encountered along the way. Then it would veer back to him and his other writings, and I just wanted to skip ahead. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Trumps of Doom - reading

Finished "Trumps of Doom" by Roger Zelazny. What I liked immediately about this one is that in my perception, Zelazny writes with a different voice for Merlin than he did for Corwin, enough that it doesn't at all seem like the same story (which is a trap some authors can fall into when beginning a new series - I'm looking at you, David Eddings). The story itself seems to have evolved pretty independently but conforms to the same universe from the first series. Sadly, like father like son, Merlin finds himself subject to a very similar, imprisoned fate. Finally, is Ghostwheel the original Skynet?

Infidel - reading

Finished "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and rated it 5 stars. This is the story of a woman raised Muslim in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya, and the influences in her life that ultimately led her to flee from an arranged marriage to seek asylum in the Netherlands and become politically active. It brings to light the cruelty of the life of Muslim women and women in war-torn Africa, the issues she had with the Prophet Muhammad (whom she calls a "pervert and a pedophile" for his marriage to a six-year-old which was consummated when the girl was nine), and the trials she underwent in her transition to a European country. It was well-written and memorable. I recommend it with the warning that some of it is tough to get through.

The Courts of Chaos - reading

Finished "The Courts of Chaos" by Roger Zelazny. While this is essentially the denouement of Corwin's story, it is an interesting and fitting end that wraps things up nicely at the edge of chaos.

A Hologram for the King - reading

Finished "A Hologram for the King" by David Eggers. Spoiler alert: nothing happens. Seriously. The main character, Alan Clay, doesn't learn or grow. If anything he shrinks, having gone from a manufacturer/designer who cares about what he did to being a schlock salesman who seems happy to leave the work to his one-dimensional coworkers. The entire time I found myself not liking the character and not caring one way or the other what happened to him (which as I said above is nothing anyway).

The "plot" is about a team of salespeople who go into King Abdullah Economic City ("KAEC", pronounced like "cake") to sell their wondrous hologram technology. They arrive, set up, wait around, get bored and find other things to do. Alan finds himself making the same mundane mistakes of his entire mundane existence. Even when something could have happened, nothing happens. Plus: he's impotent, so even when you think something might happen with the naked woman right next to him, nothing happens. I really don't understand how this could have an average of 3+ stars on GoodReads.com.

tl;dr: Don't waste your time.

D-Day: The Battle for Normandy - reading

Finished "D-Day: The Battle for Normandy" by Antony Beevor. Loaded with facts and perspectives from both the Germans and the Allies, this was an interesting overview of the period running up to D-Day all the way to the liberation of Paris. Spoiler: Hitler doesn't die in this one. (That's the year after.) I learned what a Bangalore Torpedo was. YouTube video of Bangalore Torpedo

The Hand of Oberon - reading

Finished "The Hand of Oberon" by Roger Zelazny. (Again, this is my second time walking the Pattern.) I love this book for the simple fact that there is a world of Zelazny's construction, and unique aspects of that world play into the tension inherent in several of the scenes. This one is hard to put down!

American on Purpose - reading

Finished "American on Purpose" by Craig Ferguson. This is one of those times when I really like the audiobook version of a book, as this one was read by the author. While there was a point in the book that dragged a bit, the rest of it is top notch. Craig is honest and transparent, funny and entertaining, irreverent and occasionally appropriate. Is that what alcoholism looks like?

2012 Top Ten Books

This time last year I was finishing up Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. This year I'm in the middle of the Amber series. This is my second time walking the Pattern, and I'm loving it.

I participated in the reading challenge on Goodreads.com and pledged 30 books. I reached my goal, but only barely. I abandoned "One Perfect Word", but I gave my own book "Tunder's Year" a read-through in April, making 30 finished. 13 of 30 were non-fiction, and amazingly 8 of those 13 appear on my top 10 list for the year! Nine of 30 were printed books (as opposed to audiobooks that I listen to on my commute), which seems like a low number. That's the trouble with a long commute. Four were about a celebrity: Michael J. Fox, Betty White, Carrie Fisher and George Carlin. One was a novel draft written by a friend, and one was a novel co-written by an online friend.

Without further ado, here's Brett's Top 10 of 2012:

10. Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazies and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre
9. Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science by Lawrence M. Krauss
8. Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History But Never Learned by Kenneth C. Davis
7. The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan
6. Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII by David Starkey
5. 1776 by David McCullough
4. No Ordinary Joes: The Extraordinary True Story of Four Submariners in War and Love and Life by Larry Colton
3. The Reapers Are The Angels by Alden Bell
2. The Guns of Avalon (Amber #2) by Roger Zelazny
1. The Good Soldiers by David Finkel

Even though I'm listing one third of all entries here, my own book Tunder's Year does not appear in this list. It's not good enough (yet).

As to worst book of the year, I can either count "One Perfect Word: One Word Can Make All the Difference" by Debbie Macomber because I couldn't make it all the way through, or "You Lost Me There" by Rosecrans Baldwin because I made it through and rated it lowest.

Happy New Year!