Coherent Much?

It’s 5:55 a.m. at the start of this entry and I’ve been awake for a little over an hour… guh. I feel tired and I have tried a few times to go back to sleep but I just keep tossing and turning. Meh…

So I entered my short story Somewhere Between Life and Death (can be read here) into a contest earlier this summer on RomanceJunkies. I really don’t consider the story to be a ‘romance’ but one of the authors running the contest convinced me I should enter. Well it of course failed. The main thing is that it was a contest where the readers decide the best story each week out of three submissions. Then after 18 or so weeks, those top 18 submissions get another round of voting by the readers with the top 3 going to an editor at TOR Publishing who then picks the grand prize. I really didn’t think I’d do well in this contest cause it’s a deep short story going up against steamy romance stories (my least favorite genre) in which the winners are picked by people who actually like steamy romance stories. I’m glad it didn’t win because that at least means I can submit it to One Story once submissions are open again on September 1st.

Anyways, Saturday went well with Kayla meeting the family. I didn’t realize all five of my siblings were gonna be there so she got to meet Dalene and Danetta, as well as Donnie and Dorthy (remember, she’d already met Darrin). It went pretty good, though since it was a dinner she didn’t really get to know them very well, she still seemed to enjoy it and like them. Sunday her and I went and saw the musical play 1776, which if you’ve never seen or heard of you should stop reading, hop in the car, and find the nearest movie rental place and pick up a copy of the theatrical version. After the play, Kay and I had a nice date back and my place.

I seem to be doing a lot of computer work lately, both at work and on my friend’s computers. I have nowhere near the prowess my roommate does in these matters but when it comes to just installing programs or trouble shooting some problems I’m adequate enough. I recently finished working on Charity’s computer and next Monday will be moving memory sticks from Chelsea’s old laptop to her new one.

Tom has found the time to do a couple of sketches for the webcomic. I don’t remember if I said this before but I am writing ‘what I know’ so the main cast of characters will revolve around my friends and I. The first story the comic will run centers on only four characters – Tom, Kayla, Pat and I. If the webcomic goes well I hope to expand and add in more of my friends. Anyways the two sketches that follow are concept sketches that Tom drew of himself and Kayla. They’re both pretty good.





Still suffering from a mad case of writers block. There’s one project right now that I seem to be able to do some sparse writing on here and there but that’s actually a present for someone so there’s a good chance that none of you will ever get to see it. Luckily I have a good book to occupy myself with right now, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, so hopefully once I’m finished with it I’ll be my usual writing self (I didn’t write much over the summer except for my polishing of Somewhere Between Life and Death).

Also I rearranged my room again and I really like the new layout. The desk is in a position now that has allowed me to sit and look out my window. While I’ve been typing this I’ve watched the deep black sky of night smolder and burn with shades of pink and orange as the sunrise set the clouds on fire before leaving behind the light grayish blue ash that is the early morning sky.

That’s all for now… good night… or good morning… blah…

A Little Bit Late...

K, so I am a little bit late updating this week. Where to begin…

Well it looks like my blog will be spread out between GaiaOnline, Facebook, and DevianArt. All three of those will be short blurbs linking back here to the main entry on Blogger. Also, all my stories and poems will be posted on both DeviantArt and Fiction Press. When the webcomic starts it’ll probably go up on DeviantArt, though I need to find out if Tom wants it on just his account or if we’ll host it on both our accounts… I’m pretty sure he has one too.

Speaking of the webcomic, I’ve done a lot of brainstorming lately. I think I have a fairly decent plot worked out for now though it still requires some fine tunning in areas. I will tell you that it’s mainly gonna be fantasy with a bit of sci-fi thrown in. It’ll have both funny and serious moments like any good story. Tom hasn’t had much time to draw any concepts yet but he did manage to get a pretty decent sketch of one of the characters done the other night –



I won’t tell you why there are two different versions. This is the first art work done for the comic and it shows promise. I look forward to seeing the finished results once Tom has had more time to do more sketches and refine his work.

Kayla moved back on Sunday, we went to Wasabi with Brit then Kay and I watched some Justice League. This weekend will be fun too, I talked to my sister Dorothy about bringing Kayla down to meet some of the family on Saturday but they are going to be busy most of the day, but apparently my oldest brother Donnie and his wife Sherry are coming down to Joplin Saturday night. Dorothy said it would be fine if I brought Kayla to supper with them in Joplin. That’ll just leave two other siblings to meet – Danetta and Janet (Dalenne), Kay’s already met Darrin. Also we’re going to Joplin Little Theatre on Sunday afternoon to see the musical play 1776 which for those of you who don’t know is an awesome play!

One last week left of summer and personally I am ready for it to be over. I’ve wanted classes to start back up since the middle of last month. It’ll be nice having everyone back in town and to meet some new people this semester.

Charity, Chelsea, and Nicole made a surprise visit by the apartment while Bussman and I were chillin. They stayed for a while and we had a pretty good time just talking and being our hyper selves.

Well that’s all for now. Other than brainstorming on Tom and I’s webcomic I’ve had some writers block lately. Once I get passed that I have some older poems I would like to work on and an idea for a children’s story/fairy tale I’d like to write. But I promise I’ll have some more writings up here soon!

Back to Regular Updates...

Well now that the semester is getting ready to start, I am going to go back to updating this once a week - specifically on Tuesday/Wednesday. I will also have a nice new little treat in store for the blog but more on that later.

K, so I posted “Somewhere Between Life and Death” earlier this summer. I spent about a month after that polishing it and weeding it until I had a really nice and clean copy. At the beginning of July, I submitted it to the RomanceJunkies Story Contest after being pointed that way by an Editor and Author I had been talking to. The contest is run by RomanceJunkies, but their readers are the people who decide who goes on. Currently they are no longer accepting submissions. Every week they post three of the submissions and the readers vote on the favorite. Once all the stories have been voted on they will take the winners from each week and post them up at once for another round of voting. The top three from that will go on to an Editor at TOR Publishing who will decide the Grand Prize winner. The Grand Prize is a netbook, which would be interesting. Other than that, I have heard a few things here and there that maybe the winner might get published too. Who knows?

The Summer had it’s Up and Downs but for once I am happy it’s over and that classes will be starting soon. Mainly though I am looking forward to having Kayla back as well as all my close friends. I am still constantly trying to talk Pat into dropping everything in Monett and coming back here but as always he is waiting till it’s a sure thing. Dubya and Hev have a possibility of coming down this way if one of the businesses here higher him. Lizzard is off doing who knows what. All in all though I am mainly looking forward to most of my friends coming back, especially Kayla.

Originally the plan was I would go down and get Kayla this weekend and help her move her stuff back here. Though it looks like the plan now is that she and Brit are going to bring as much as they can next Sunday and then sometime next week Kayla and I will go get the rest. I’m just ecstatic to have her back.

Looks like Charity is having the same computer issues I had awhile back, so when she gets back I am gonna head over and help her with that. Also Chelsea and I are planning to start working out and exercising regularly this semester in the new Gym like center they have constructed. I’m thinking about having a look at it next week (I think it opens up on Monday).

Also and this is the treat I mentioned earlier. Soon this blog will start hosting my first Webcomic. It will be written by me and drawn by my friend Tom, so we’ll see how that goes. It’ll take awhile before it shows up. I only have a louse idea on what it’s to be about and I don’t know how often Tom will be able to draw on it. Still though, it’s exciting!

Anyways that’s all for now! Laters!