Undeterred

Well, my submission to the NYC Midnight 100-word story competition was not in the top 5 for my group, so I will not be advancing in this challenge.  

I was tasked with writing a Historical Fiction story that included "sunbathing" and the word "edge."  You can read it here: The Summer of 41

Although I did not advance, I did receive some AMAZING feedback from three judges (mostly suggestions on improving the last line).  Anyway, I am very happy I participated and will definitely try again next time.  

Next up is round two of the 1000-word challenge later in July. 

Travel Update

I have a very busy July on the travel front. First, I'm heading to Portugal (Lisbon) for a few days, and then on to Spain (Madrid and San Sebastion) for ten days. Once back, I plan to head back to our cabin in Massachusetts for a few days and then on to Toronto for a week of bridge (NABC tournament) with a college friend. 

Roadside Picnic

I am halfway through the book and quite enjoying it. My read-along group will be meeting this weekend to discuss...  It is not too late to join us if you are keen. Just shoot me an email at wardeng@gmail.com and I can add you to the group meetings going forward.

Otherwise, no coding updates and no longer fiction updates, but each is still progressing slowly.   Given above travel, my output is likely going to be low for a few more weeks.

stay cool if you can. (IT IS SO HOT).

peace,

greg

Suspense

I should hear about that first NYC Midnight 100-word story TOMORROW.  The suspense is killing me. 

In celebration, I whipped up my first 100-word Suspense story. 

Dentist Dreams

Submitted!

 

Yippee!

Again, I won't be able to share the story until it has been officially judged. 

48 hours and 1000 words is pretty interesting.  I got the prompt (genre, location, object) at midnight (friday night/saturday AM).  noodled it for maybe 20 minutes--nothing felt good--and went to sleep, hoping my background brain would get to work.  Saturday morning I fussed around with a few ideas in my head, but still mostly hemming and hawing.  As I was on the clock, I forced myself to think through a basic plot and characters, expecting to hate it.  But I knew that until I wrote the first story I would not be able to write the second, hopefully proper, one.  And so I labored through a story for a few hours, trying not to re-write too much along the way.  I then handed it off to my three beta readers, only one of whom knew it was coming.  I set it down, grabbed some dinner, thought about making some edits but was really pretty drained.  So, I loaded up brain with all the things I did not like about the first story, and the few things I did like.  I then went to bed.

I got some feedback back from my first reader, and from my background brain, and did a major revision. I started with a clean sheet of paper and basically wrote the same story again, but cutting out the parts I did not like from before, and adding more detail to the bits I liked.

Sent it back out.  And too my surprise I got mixed results!  One person liked the first story much better, and someone else the second one.  Oh dear.

But this was a blessing, actually. Each version had a good part, and a bad part.  I was able then to make a third version of the story, now much more focused on the bits that were working for my early readers.

I then showed it to my daughter (she had been out all day), and she liked it. She also pointed out one last sentence that was a little odd.  Fixed that up, and submitted it.

I highly recommend people doing these challenges; they are fun and make you stretch your brain.

Reading update:

We have picked Roadside Picnic as the first SciFi read along for the summer.  Aiming to have a zoom chat around June 22 to discuss the first 100 pages.  Hit me up if you want the link.

peace, Greg

 

1000 words & books!

Ok, I am registered for NYC Midnight/1K word challenge, which starts on May 31.  So good heavens, I better start writing again.

Fortunately, I am heading up to our cabin (see picture upper right on blog) this weekend and should have some quiet time and, hopefully, inspiration. I have started two different stories this past week, but I am still stuck in the gate with both of them. Neil Gaiman says you have to finish things.  Fingers crossed.

I am also committing to reading more. I am currently half-way through Huck Finn, which is obviously amazing. I just picked up four books printed on actual paper, which I hope to tackle this summer:  Siddhartha, Roadside Picnic, Children of Time, and A Fire Upon the Deep. I also ordered Consider Phlebas, which should arrive tomorrow. Based on my reading speed, this will be very ambitious, and maybe a more realistic EOY goal.

If anyone wants to do a read along on any of these, let me know!

On the game dev front I have been experimenting in Unity (as opposed to following a course), and trying out a number of packages from the asset store.  I am gaining confidence and despair at the same time. Everything is easy and hard at the same time.  And I am not artistic!  (though I do have a very skilled daughter I will deploy once her school year wraps up :-))

peace, greg

Back to coding

Today I finished getting the new MBP set up, including re-installing Unity, Visual Studio Code, and Sourcetree.  I also figured out how to remap some of my keys on the Ducky keyboard thanks to this video from KeebNews. 

With that done, I then spent a few hours working through the first half of the Simple Driving game course, which is part two of the Unity Mobile C# Developer course I had started a while ago.   

Not done yet, but progress!

It feels good to be making stuff again.

Ebbing

As timestamps clearly show I have not blogged in a few weeks, and this accurately represents my activity on the creative front. I have been away from the keyboard.  I have not even added anything new to #vss365.

It's hard to explain why, actually?  Yes, I did spend time popping down to Washington, DC, to help my son wrap up his first year of college and move back to NJ for the summer.  And allergies have been a bugger.  And I have dealt with several car issues, and it's hockey playoffs, and my wife's birthday... but really I think it's just been a dip in my energy and confidence.  I started building a plot timeline for my larger story idea and then narrowed in on a scene in the story and tried to write it.  And that produced all sorts of issues. My descriptions were stilted, and I was unsure it's all that interesting. So I paused and then the pause gained momentum. Grrr!

But I also think this is normal.  I need to push through and just keep writing.  I already have new ideas because of the struggles. And I will only learn to write good descriptions through practice -- and reading more Mark Twain and Michael Chabon.

So ebbs and flows. 

My daughter says, "just get back to it."

indeed. 

A New Beginning

Hello!  I had an excellent trip to Pittsburg with my Son.  We visited the Pitt campus and took in two Red Sox games at PNC Park.  It was a little chilly-- but such a lovely stadium. And excellent food (looking at you pirogies). 

More importantly, I submitted my NYC Midnight/100 story.  I was tasked with the following:

• Genre: Historical Fiction
• Word to be included: Edge
• Action to happen somewhere in story: Sunbathing

Good thing I practiced my historical fiction earlier in the week.  :-)

Unfortunately I am not able to share the story until after it has been judged, but then, I will surely post it here. 

In the meantime, to help hold you over, I offer you a 100-word SciFi story: A New Beginning

Now I need to start working on some 1000 word fiction, and get back to writing that mobile game.

peace, greg