Five Things on a Friday: Mid-Hiatus Update

The last couple of weeks have been a real roller coaster ride.  Amazing highs, crappy lows...  That's life.  It's a contact sport, and sometimes I feel like I ought to wear a helmet.

When I left off last week, it was on a decided down-note.  A few of my regular readers dropped some pretty nice thoughts in the comments, and I wanted you guys to know that I appreciated it.  A really terrific weekend followed last week's tough couple of days, and this past week has been rejuvenating as well for a variety of reasons.  Life will always have its ups and downs, and that's okay.  Things have been great this week in particular, so more than anything, this update is about letting you guys know what's going on--and saying thank you for your well wishes.

Hiatus

This has been a monumentally shitty week for a variety of reasons, none of which do I feel like sharing.  I gave it some thought and decided that my first, best response is just to throw myself into my book, finish it, and then consider my next move.  That doesn't have a lot to do with you, of course, but the fact is that I just don't have time for you right now, and that's just the way it's got to be.

So.  I'm putting the blog on hiatus at least until I finish my book and maybe forever.  I don't know.  Let me finish the draft and see how I feel.

In any event, please don't take this the wrong way.  I just need to focus on other stuff right now, and that stuff doesn't include blogging.

I'm leaving you a couple of things to read in the meantime.  The first is the script to a 5-episode webcomic that I wrote with my friend Steve about some of the side-characters (villains) that appeared in a few of the later episodes of Awesome Storm Justice 41.  In fact, if you want to read something, start there.  I wrote a good 1/3 of that, and it's probably about as commercially approachable as my work ever gets.  But ASJ-41 is not what I'm leaving you.  I'm leaving you The Freelancers, the unproduced sequel to ASJ-41, and...

Well, here's betting you won't read it, but if you do, I'd love to hear what you think.

Link to The Freelancers script (via Google Docs).

If you make it all the way through The Freelancers, then you can read my first novel if you really, really want to.  It's called The Ballad of Lu-Tze, and it's about Modor and Belle from "The Tower of Al-Kafiri".  Kind of a historical fantasy, set in a Tolkeinesque version of 15th century China.

The Ballad of Lu-Tze (also via Google Docs).

If you make it through both of those, let me know, and I'll send you a Certificate of Completion or something.  You'll definitely have earned it.

***

Thanks for stopping by.  I'll be around, so if you have a question, drop it in the comments, and I'll try to get back to you.

See you later.

Very brief update

It's been a couple of days.  Sorry if you've missed me.

I got sick on Friday night and pretty much collapsed in place.  Slept through 'til Saturday, pulled myself together long enough to make it to Founder's Day Saturday night, and then slept most of the day again Sunday.  And that was the day that Sally got sick.

Anyway, Founder's Day was fun, but now I'm back at work, and life keeps on keeping on.

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I came here today intent on sharing that sample out of "The Crown of Pluto" that I mentioned last week, but after going through it, I don't think there's any way to put it out there without redacting it beyond recognition.  Sorry about that.  "Pluto" is the third part of a trilogy of short stories--about half of my book, overall--and it's just not an independent piece.  So, bottom line, even the introductory parts of the bit I was going to share would spoil significant stuff that happens in "The Priest of Loki", and I don't want that to happen.

Sorry about that.

Anybody got anything for me?

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Emma and I started watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  This is the trailer for Season 6, but we started with the first season, and I think it's fair to say that we've both been enjoying it a great deal.

Five Things on a Friday: Turtles First Look!

1.  These are some giant, monster-looking turtles.

Not sure what else there is to say about it besides noting that there’s a definite Amazing Spider-Man (the movie) vibe to this trailer that I don’t think necessarily adds to the mystery.

Rest Week Writing

As I have written here many times, I usually do my triathlon training on a four-week cycle, with three working weeks followed by a rest week. This week has been the Rest Week, and what's interesting about that is that as I've rested, my writing mojo has come roaring back. I've written at least something every single day this week, and yesterday, I even managed to put down a full thousand words!

X-Men: Days of Future Past and other comic movie news

This came out yesterday, and I'd have dropped it on the blog then, but I'd already planned to run my training log.  So here it is today, even though you may very well have already seen it.

Tri Training Log: 3/17 to 3/24

It’s taken me a long time to get into the groove this season, but for once, I actually felt like a triathlete this week.  I swam twice, I rode several times, and I ran twice, and I would’ve done more of all of those things, but I decided to try to cap my point total for the week at about 120.  That way I won’t take on too much too soon and either exhaust myself or make myself sick.  

I usually work on a four-week cycle, taking three working weeks followed by a rest week.  But since the season has started so slowly, this past week was a fourth working week, meaning that I’m overdue for a rest.  That’s fine, but it does mean that I’d be foolish to push it too hard right here at the beginning of the training season.

$15 on Clearance

Can I get a "Hell yeah!"?

Man of Steel Revisited

Sally and I watched the Man of Steel again last night with our daughter Hannah, and we both agreed with that it was a much better film upon second viewing.  I still think Superman comes across as an arrogant asshat at the end of the movie when he throws the predator drone at the general out in the middle of the California desert, but the movie's first half is really, really good, and perhaps more importantly, some of the things that I initially thought were holes in the plot made more sense this second time around.  For example, when Superman is in the Kryptonian scout ship during Act I, he finds a super-suit in there.  What the Hell is that thing doing in a ship that's supposed to have been buried in the ice for 20,000 years?

Man of Steel was a better movie on second viewing.

The first time I saw the movie, I thought this was just one of those cheap writer's tricks that you're simply not supposed to think about.  This time, though, I realized that it's there because Clark used his father's code-key to reprogram the ship; that the ship contains an entire colony-factory, including a birthing chamber for future Kryptonian settlers.  It also (presumably) contains minor manufactory facilities--to help support the future colony--so that when Jor-El's ghost takes control using the key, it's a trivial matter for him to then custom-manufacture a super-suit designed for the scion of the House of El.  Granted, a throw-away line of dialogue to explain this might've helped make it a bit clearer, but it really annoyed me the first time around.  This time, I just thought, "Wow, those guys have terrific memory sticks."

Heard on Twitter

Here's what caught my eye this morning:

It would be honest for the West to tell Ukraine that it is on its own http://t.co/zwOW5GIBEm via @nytopinion
— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 22, 2014

I couldn't agree more.

Five Things on a Friday: Wake Me When Winter Ends

1.  It’s Spring!

I don’t know that I’d necessarily say that it’s warm, but Spring officially started yesterday, and this morning I needed neither my face mask nor my balaklava s on the ride to the train station.  Moreover, it’s probably going to be forty degrees by the time I get into the City.

I’m prepared to call that progress.

2014 Race Calendar

This calendar is still very much a work in progress.  I'm definitely going to do the Y-Tri, but beyond that, I'd like to do some races with some people, and that sort of depends on what kind of feedback I get from the various teams I'm on.