Happy New Year

As I learned in 2009 goals are good things and even if you don’t meet every single one it is the process that makes it worth while. So, rather than call them resolutions I will call them my 2010 goals:

• I will lose 40 lbs. (Gym bag is packed for Monday morning)
• I will finish my novel.
• I will finish 4 short stories.
• I will submit 1 story to something.
• I will spend better time with my family.
• I will get back on track with the podcast

Stop the presses

It might be noticed, by whom I am not too sure, but I have changed my current project. I have taken up a new short story: The Cage of Motley which will be part of the Kingdom Crisis world, though perhaps not part of the podcast here. I like the story a whole lot and if I can pull off keeping it under the 6k word count I might being willing to take a bit of a risk with it.

The plan is to knock out the first draft over the next week. I have been awful about my goals lately so who knows how this will work out.

On Snow

Snow. It is a seemingly innocent 4 letter word describing the crystalline formation of super cooled molecules of water. Each crystalline form, or flake, is largely unique, though popular culture likes to say that each flake is completely unique, whether or not that is true is irrelevant to my discussion.

What I find interesting is how people see snow. For example the Inuit language of the Eskimos is said to have many different words to describe snow, I would say that this hints at ones perception of thing influencing how a thing is defined.

I have recently seen differing and conflicting perceptions of snow illustrated within my own home. As context I am referring to this past weekend where through a combination of cold air and large amounts of water close to 2 feet of snow was dropped on my home. The dynamics of society reacted quickly when the local meteorologist declared that this weather event was on the verge of transpiring, people flocked to hardware stores to purchase shovels and sacks of ice melt, they also crowded the aisles of the local grocery stores stocking up on milk, bread and eggs. I have to admit that my family was also swept along in this pre-snow fall ritual.

Now we come to the interesting part. My son upon hearing about the snow became excited because he was going to go play in the pure and unspoiled aftermath, visions of snow balls, snowmen and snow angels dominated his mind. My wife on the other hand saw herself sitting on the couch looking out the window watching the snow falling from the dark sky into the eerie silence that seems to accompany night time snow storms. She was absorbed in the beauty and peacefulness. My daughter being only two just ran around the house saying “Snow, Snow, Snow” and looking out the windows.

I had a different view of the impending accumulation. A shiver ran down my spine as I felt the cold damp of socks that would grow wet as I stood in the knee high piles of snow, a steady ache in my lower back would grow more prominent seemingly aware that soon I would be hunched over armed with a shovel moving and clearing collections of the crystalline molecules of frozen water. To me snow means work. Two feet of snow equates to about 2 hours of physical labor.

Now something to keep in mind; I was born in Texas and spent my foundation years there only relocating to the North East when I was on the verge of adulthood. Even after 20 years snow is still foreign to me, I really don’t perceive the loveliness or the joy that my family does. I see work, thankless, unpleasant work.

It’s going to be a long winter.

Sshh, it’s a secret

New podcast content coming soon…

Alas poor schedule I knew you well…

Best laid plans and all those other cliche comments about keeping to schedules can be inserted here…

Solider and His Queen (which still needs a new title) will be delayed. I got the final rounds of edits in at the beginning of this week and due to a range of personal issues I was unable to work on any of the edits, let alone rereads and producing of the podcast episode.

I would like to say I will be ready with an episode next week and then back on track, but as the personal issues are not yet resolved I am unable to commit to that.  So — I do commit to one more episode before the month is over.

Thank you for stopping by and I will keep the blog updated if anything changes.

WM005 Kingdom Crisis: Thief’s Folly Part 3

Welcome to Episode 5! Kingdom Crisis: Thief’s Folly Part 3 is the conclusion of the story about two thieves pulling off their latest job and finding it not as straightforward as they had planed.

Promo: Metamor City by Chris Lester

Thanks for checking out my podcast.

Music by Barry Phillips you can find more of his music at magnatune.com

Funny Story

This past Tuesday, the new Star Trek movie was release on blu-ray. Normally this close to Christmas, I am not allowed, by my wife, to purchase things for myself; however, after a quick call to the wife the transaction was approved. So I checked around and noticed that a popular store (name withheld for CYA reasons) was advertising online that they had it for 19.99 which is a really good price for a blu-ray. This store has both brick-n-mortar and Internet storefronts; I figured that the price would be the same at both so Tuesday on the way to Physical Therapy I stopped and bought the movie.

Now I was in a rush and not paying too close attention, bad on me, but that night when I produced the movie from the bag I noticed that I was charged 23.99. I went back online and confirmed that the price was 19.99. At this point it was late Tuesday night and not worth the phone call, I would deal with it Wednesday.

Wednesday, I call the store and was told, after I explained that THEIR own website had the movie at $4 less, that they would not price match webstores. I pointed out that THEIR webstore allowed for instore pick up and was told that they did not match webstores.

So, at this point I really wanted to save that $4. I went onto the website, added the movie to the cart, confirmed the price of 19.99, selected pick up at store for the shipping option and completed the transaction. I get a wash of emails saying that my item was ready to be picked up and please bring the order number, etc, etc…

After work on Wednesday I stop again at the store and make my way over to Customer Service. I notice that the girl working the desk was very new and still in training, Holiday Help I assume. I waited in line and when finally called I stepped up and informed the girl that I had a return and a pickup. I handed over the reciept for the 23.99 movie and was given my money back… Now for the fun bit. I handed her the email order and off she went to the cage where the “pick-up” items were kept. She came back to me carrying the movie with a very confused look on her face.

She picked up the orginal movie and compared it to the web-bought one. After a moment of comparison she addressed me. “Sir, do you realize that these are the same movie.”

“Yep,” I replied.

“You just returned this one,” she said waving the 23.99 movie at me.

“Yep,” I replied.

“I don’t understand?” She turned to her trainer who was also becoming confused. With a smile on my face I explained.

“The difference is, the movie I returned was 23.99 and the movie I am picking up is 19.99.”

“But you bought the movie from us…” she started to saying something before she took up the receipts and showed them to her trainer.

The two custmer service employees looked at the receipts, verified that I was not up to any funny business and handed me my 19.99 and sent me on my way.

Let me tell you, that was way more complicated than it had to be. Aw well, I got my movie at 19.99.

– Brian

The Storm of Life and Other Distractions

Well as last indicated I have suffered a back injury it seems that was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to what life was going to throw at me.

Physical Therapy determined that I had several vertebrae rotated out of alignment, neck and middle of my back. So I have been going a few times a week for muscle work and adjustments and the pain is fading.

Now for the curve ball, my son last week contracted H1N1 at 5 years old and an asthmatic my wife and I were incredibly concerned and the struggles to get him to take his medicine resulted in some moments of panic for us. The good news is he has gotten through the worst of it and is back to his normal 5 year old self.

So with my own injury and my son’s illness I have been remiss in my writing schedule and my podcast schedule. As this storm clears I am trying to get things back to normal.

What does this mean?

It means that progress on Life Everlasting has fallen behind my self imposed schedule, which I suppose will not effect the podcast at the moment (we will see how things shake out in February). I am still on track for releasing part three of Thief’s Folly on November 22^nd.

The podcast schedule to follow:

December: Solider and His Queen

January: A Father’s Tears/The Wailing Stone

February: Conclusion of The Wailing Stone

A brief Announcement

Apparently having two children pouncing on your neck is hazardous to your health. I have learned this the hard way. Just over a week ago I was pounced on while being Daddy-Jungle-Gym and since then have been in a significant amount of pain.
After a week of “pain management” I am on the verge of starting physical therapy and praying that I don’t need more invasive procedures to make the pain stop.
So what does that mean for my writing and my podcasting? Well the writing is continuing, albeit at a slower pace my novella/novel Life Everlasting is moving forward and the prologue about halfway complete. The podcast is the one thing that is hitting a bit of a speed bump.
It pains me, no pun intended, it announce that the conclusion of Thief’s Folly will be delayed until November 22nd. This will give me three weeks to get my body back into working order and perhaps get ahead of the podcast schedule. The episode contains some extra editing/fx and recording that needs to be done and I cannot physically sit at the computer for the hours it takes me to prepare an episode… my newness shows here.
I will attempt to keep the blog updated with the latest happenings and should the date for episode 5 changes here will be the first place folks can read about it. I am praying that I am just being overly cautious and that I can release the episode before the 22nd, but we’ll see.
Thank you for understanding and thank you for listening to my podcast.

– Brian

WM004 Kingdom Crisis: Thief’s Folly Part 2

Welcome to Episode 4! Kingdom Crisis: Thief’s Folly Part 2 is the continuation of the story about two thieves pulling off their latest job and finding it not as straightforward as they had planed.

Promo: 7th Son Descent by J.C. Hutchins

Thanks for checking out my podcast.

Music by Barry Phillips you can find more of his music at magnatune.com