The Fun That Can Be Had By Candlelight With a Random Name Generator

Thanatos Horiuchi.

Thanatos Horiuchi.

Let that one bang around in your head for a second.

Thanatos.

Horiuchi.

Last night, at my usual write night, my writing buddy introduced me to the random name generator on Scrivener. Even after the power went out, we giggled for probably an hour at least at the things it threw at us. He denies it but I'm pretty sure he unknowingly had his on some sort of Retarded Polish preset or something because every first name was unpronouncable and the last names all ended with "-sky." But there were also names like Modest Murphy (he was the most humble of Irishmen....) and Farewell Copper ("You'll never take me alive, copper!")

But mine threw out my favorite, the one that made my imagination go nuts.

Thanatos Horiuchi.

I immediately began conjuring reasons any sane person would give a child a name like that, what incredibly bizarre, interracial circumstances would lead anyone to name their obviously Japanese child after the Greek incarnation of Death. And what sort of person he would be.

Right now, all I can come up with is this:

Thanatos Horiuchi: Death Rides a Pale Suburu.

Stayed tuned for developments. :)

Also, was challenged to write a ghost story featuring a chicken, a New York cabbie, ABC gum, and fifty feet of rope (with a bonus cookie for including a Girl Scout, pun intended!) . Might work on that too. :)

A Letter to My Goalie

Dear Lou,

I know that, even among Canucks' fans, it's kinda popular to hate you. But I don't. I love you. Always have. I haven't forgotten that there were times that everyone was convinced that you were the only thing giving the 'Nucks any wins. And that people thought that for a damned good reason. You've got me in your corner. Or... your trapezoid.... or... whatever, I'm on your side man.

That said... regarding the shootout last night against the Kings? .... the fuck?!

Look at all that space between you and the net! JUST LOOK AT IT, LOU. What were you thinking?!

You are brilliant at what you do. You really are. But you have never been good at being a forward goalie. Stay in the net. You cannot MIND THE NET (as per being a NETMINDER) if you are not IN THE FUCKING NET.

This is where you live.

Not here.

Here.

Now I'm not a hockey player. I know it's always a judgement call. Maybe you knew something about that Kings' forward that I don't know. Maybe you know that if the opposing goalie comes out and meets him MOTHERFUCKING HALFWAY that he irrationally freaks out and runs in the opposite direction like an elephant confronted with a mouse. But he didn't, did he? No. No he didn't. He scored on you, putting the puck in the wide open net. Hell, Lou, he couldn't NOT score. You came forward and left the whole expanse of a FUCKING ARCTIC TUNDRA behind you.

But I still love you. I do. Just... stay in the net okay? That's where you're best.

Love,

Me

Tea...

So, healthwise, the last week has been... less than lovely. And I was planning on writing a whole blog about it, giving the horrible details of what I've been through, with a special emphasis on Friday and Saturday, throughout which I felt like there was a rabid wolverine trying to tear my lungs out through my throat.

But I'm not. I'm not going to do it. I have made a vow to be more uplifting. I'm not planning on becoming some sort of middle-aged Pollyanna or something (because, boy, is THAT not in my nature) but when something negative happens I'm trying not to spew it all over the world. And nowadays, with the internet and Facebook and this blog and Twitter, it is SOOOOOOOOO easy to spew negativity all over the place like doleful vomit.

So instead, I dedicate this blog to... tea. Yes, you read that right, tea. My love of coffee is well known and documented, I suspect. Less well known is my love of tea.

There is a... simplicity to tea that I appreciate. It has an effortlessness to it that says, "I'm delicious without a lot of effort; it's just how I am." Tea never tries too hard; it's very zen. It just is. It's like the easy embrace of an old friend, or a warm bowl of soup on a cold day, or my own bed after a long time away: comforting in a way that is almost impossible to put into words but reaches directly into my heart and mind to soothe the very thing that is eating at me. If nothing is eating at me, it is a perfect companion for a good couple of hours of sitting and reading.

I prefer the dark breakfast teas. English is good, but a little weak for me. I like a tea that holds up well to sugar or honey and some milk. I like the flavor those things give to tea, but I still want to actually taste the tea. My favorites are Irish and Scottish Breakfast, with an emphasis on the Scottish. I love that oaky, woody flavor that it has, but it's difficult to find in loose leaf.

And when I'm sick? Oh my. You can't tear me away from a cup of tea. I still get my coffee in the morning, but quickly switch to tea. Hell, I'm drinking tea right now. Finishing up a cup and have the kettle on already to brew another in its place.

So in short, while it's been a bit of rough week of coughing and cancelled plans, there is always a light in the darkness, sunlight filtered through a cup of brown joy...

THE PLAN (bum bum BUMMMMMMMMM!)

1. Edit a few things that I have already completed.
2. Send a few things that I have already completed to beta readers.
3. Send a couple things out into the world to start gathering rejection letters and, possibly, infamy.
4. Decide on a couple of things to put up on Amazon that probably only my friends will buy, but you just never know.
5. Put rejected items on Amazon.
6. Edit full novels I have completed and start getting those ready to be shopped around or possibly published on Amazon.
7. ??????
8. Profit!

Excluding the smartass additions of steps 7 and 8, that's pretty much my plan for beginning my writing career. I mean, I do hope there's profit eventually, but I'm certainly hoping there's more than just a bunch of question marks as to how it happened.

Well... I did it.

Sounds ominous, right? WELL IT'S NOT. It's fucking awesome, is what it is! Well, for me anyway; it might be the downfall of civilization once it's unleashed upon an unsuspecting public but for now... oh, you want me to tell you what I'm talking about? Yeah, probably not a bad idea.

MY FUCKING NOVEL, that's what! I finally finished it, and though it needs a ton more work, that's a huge step. The novel has a beginning, a middle, and an end and while that probably seems like pretty standard stuff, it's a big thing for me.

See, I'm never short on ideas. Writer's block? Don't even believe it exists (editor's block is a different story, but that's beside the point; I have a secret weapon against that too). I have dictionaries, thesauri, and brilliant friends to tap for inspiration if I get stuck on something. I don't lack for resources, in short. What I do lack is staying power. I'm a little ADHD when it comes to writing. I'll get an awesome idea, write on it for a while, then think of something else and write on it for a while... meanwhile, nothing ever gets finished. My "stories in progress" file is enormous, while the "completed" file is... well, less enormous. In fact it's not enormous at all. My "in progress file" is to my "completed" file as a T-Rex is to a mosquito. But now the mosquito has gorged on the blood of the T-Rex and is one project fatter! Now to encase it in amber for future generations and.... I think I need a better analogy....

So, anyway it's something I've been working on. It was my goal for NaNoWriMo to actually finish not only the 50k, but the whole story as well, which I did. And now, many sleep deprived nights later, I've finished another novel I was working on. And quite frankly, it feels awesome. More than awesome. It feels unbelievable. I cannot even express how proud of myself I am, and how pleased I am to have seen this one to the end. It's probably too early to tell but there just might be hope for me after all.

New Year, new blog

This is something I've been meaning to do for a while, and I decided that since it's a new year, this would be a good time to get cracking on it. I've had a Livejournal account for many many years, but the design of it just bothers me nowadays. I haven't posted there in months. Maybe longer. So I decided that since I already had an account here for other things, I'd give this a try.

So far 2012 has been quite satisfactory. 2011 ended quite badly in some ways though (had to say goodbye to an awesome coffee shop that I had just discovered and was run by an old school friend, and also learned that a friend is very sick) and some of that is bound to spill over into 2012, but I am trying very hard not to let the fear of that get in the way of the rest of the exciting things I have planned for the rest of the year (hopefully Comic Con, Disneyland, Norwescon, FaerieCon West, and with luck a writing workshop). I've had a rough couple of years leading up to now (although 2011 wasn't too bad) and so I'm trying to take things as they come and not make it worse by dreading things that might not even happen. I like to think of myself as a realist with optimistic tendencies. :)

So though I did nothing to literally ring in the new year at midnight, I spent the whole day today drinking beer and eating pizza in the company of most excellent friends. So cautiously, I'm feeling good.

Welcome to the world 2012, and may we all be alive this time next year.