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Life as I Know It

Almost two weeks ago, I started my new job. Basically, I’m a cloud solutions and printer/copier salesman. I go business to business selling means through which companies can streamline their practices and save money.

I love it. This job is the best of both worlds (tech-head and customer service) and keeps me very happy. This job is everything I could have possibly hoped for, without any of the usual micromanaging that I was forced to put up with working as the Des Moines Nook guy.

And that’s all that I’m going to say about the new job, it’s great and I love it. If you have any more specific questions, send me an email or something, but I feel exposed discussing it in such a public forum.

In other news, I’m excited more and more about mine and Ren’s wedding day in slightly more than five months. Ren and I are still ironing out the wedding details, but it’s going to be awesome.

I’m halfway through the edits of the edits that I received from Bob on Stranger Books, so far so good, and I’m expecting only another month or two before that book is available for purchase, so stay tuned. I’m also a quarter of the way through the write up for The Trials of Obed Marsh (as I explained in a previous entry, the outline is all done, I only need to sit down and actually write it). I had an interesting reaction the other day to trying to explain my writings, and I wouldn’t have even taken notice except it was the same kind of reaction from completely different people. I explained Random Stranger and that series, but then I turned and mentioned the horror story and I got an “Oh, really?” and immediate disinterest. They just flipped channels and we were talking about something else, something new. It was odd to see such a switch flip when the scary stories were mentioned. From my understanding, scary stories are the big thing, and have been for a while (Of course, not as big as romance or thriller, but still…). Scary stories are what made Stephen King famous (although he has mentioned being slightly annoyed for being known only as the horror writer) and there is a big market for scary stories, so I find it odd that such a reaction could have been found so many times in such a short span of time. Maybe scary is on the way out? I hope not, I was about to start work on another horror story just today. It starts in an asylum…

Oh hey! Dropbox has shared folders now (or always had, and I’m lame). This is great news for me, and screw the rest of you. No, I kid of course. Anyway, this is great because there are so many times in which Bob and I send the same files back and forth for edits and collaborations that now we can (and have) create a folder labeled “Matty and Bobbo” in which we just drop our works in there on our computers and BAM BANG BOOM, they transfer to the matching folder on the other computer. One such collaboration,  an untitled zombie works, has already made its way in there, as has what I currently have on Trials of Obed Marsh, in case Bob gets bored and wants to edit more.

Ren and I have attacked the garden scene lately. With Tim’s help we’ve gotten a pile of veggies and flowers out, and are watering fools. Ren even picked up some hanging Strawberry plants, which I didn’t know even existed. Yesterday, I put down lawn feed and weed killer so the lawn will start growing thicker, which would be nice: I have this beautiful old school lawnmower and such a small place to use it. I also need to pull out my hob-cobbled weed eater and do some trimming.  I’ll post pictures soon.

Anyway, I think that’s it. I’m loving my new job, I’m hopelessly in love with Ren, and the writings and gardening are coming along.

–Matty McHappy

 

Surprise coupon!

Lulu is having an anniversary and you can get a surprise discount on your purchases! So, rock on and buy my book!

 

Here’s the link to my book!

Click to go to the website

Price: $14.99

 

Random Stranger is an Abstract, an idea made flesh, and an unknown adversary is out to kill him and his friends. Have you ever had car trouble and received aid from a random stranger? Or awakened after a particularly hard night of drinking to ask yourself who that random stranger is next to you? Wonder no longer, for this is the story of Randy Stranger, who’s always around to add an unpredictable element to each of your personal stories. Whenever the unexpected happens, there’s Randy, whether he wants to be or not. Randy and his crew have been formed from ideas that had collected and been shared across the human consciousness. Together with hi s best friend, Lucky Bastard, and his ex, the shotgun toting Karma, they find themselves suddenly the target of a long planned assassination. What could be worse than being the one in the crosshairs? How about learning that the would-be killer might be someone close to you; that they might be an Abstract as well?

 

 

 

　

Bubbled: Short Story.

I wrote this in about an hour, just off the top of my head. I wanted something kind of gory but kind of explained. I don’t know what I was going for here or how I feel about it. Got to exercise my fingers at least. I hope you blogifiles enjoy.

I call it Bubbled.

RaMBLIng All oVer the PlaCE

Mmm, late morning. I love late mornings. Forget what they tell you about wasting days, because I’ll tell you straight up that sometimes all you need is a late morning. Not always of course, but once in a while its better than the Ambrosia off of Mt. Olympus. Screw that, it probably is the Ambrosia off of Mt. Olympus!. I’ll bet that whenever the gods said “Mmmm, that’s some sweet ambrosia,” they were talking about late mornings.

I’ll bet Hades was really getting up before 7am. Frickin’ Devil… I tell ya…

Ren and I went and saw Cabin in the Woods, the new/old* Joss Whedon movie, last week. (*new because it just came out, old because its been on the table waiting to go to theaters for two years) It was pretty damned awesome. I was expecting campy, and the humor was definitely Whedon-esque, but it was far from campy. It was clever, and in pure Whedon fashion, the twist at the end doesn’t even have to show itself to show its grandeur. Pretty freakin’ sweet.

Yesterday, I was a regular handyman around the house. I fixed the kitchen sink, which didn’t have pipes to drain for about a week, I fixed the door, which needed a faceplate for the lock, and I planted and weeded all of our gardens (front and back of the house). It was a busy day. On top of that I went to work.

I also went to work yesterday. It looks like that in two weeks I’ll be going up to Chicago for a week of my training, that’ll be fun. I’ll take my linux laptop with my new work laptop so I can play games and fiddle faddle around in the hotel room. This is my first trip without Ren since July last year, its going to be weird leaving my better half back in Des Moines for a week, but I guess that’s why I bought the iPods with cameras. In other news, love my new job so far.

I think I’m going to write a short story today. I have the want and none of the motivation, so…we’ll see what happens.

I’ve been reading the Titus Crow series of books, old news, but new news as well. I’ve been reading them because they are a kind of continuation of the H. P. Lovecraft Cthulhu mythos that is generally accepted by most of the world as a kind of loose canon. I have a hard time with it and I can’t figure out why. Book 1 was amazing, lots of monster killing and running around and being horrified and then killing more monsters. Book 2 was pretty damned good in that it had a lot of crossing the universe and robots and aliens and then it ended kind of weird. Instead of fighting monsters, it moved slowly towards working with monsters. Then in book three it turned into a kind of hard to an adventure story in the dream lands, and the monsters that everyone is still fighting move to the background, as great puppeteers and instead its a scene by scene kind of early 20th century adventure story with a man just constantly saving this girl, which would be alright (loved Princess of Mars) but she’s a descendant of the Elder Gods (or the Eld as they are called in this) and she should have some sort of self defense skills. Instead it just gives her a perfect complexion, somewhat impressive breasts, and really freaked up ears. I tell you what, If I’d learned I was descended of creepy super monsters that had convinced countless civilizations that they were gods, I’d be asking for training in super powered stuff. Instead her dude has to keep coming to save her, which is very off putting from the main story, which isn’t the actual main story of Kill the Monsters. Instead, the main story is to stop great Cthulhu from creating nightmares in the dreams of man. Oh, and then there’s the odd hypocrisies that they keep throwing out there: for two books Nyarlathotep was only the name given to telepathy, but now they need a big bad to be afraid of so instead of giving us the monster we’ve been hoping for a showdown with for three books, they undo the telepathy and explain that in the dream world Nyarlathotep is actually realized as a monster, but only in the dream land. Now, I’m getting bitter and complainy. I do like these books, I’m just annoyed with the turn they’ve taken. I want something more in line with monsters peaking into our world and us beating back the darkness, instead these books started there and are quickly turning towards humanity peaking into the world of monsters and us trying to beat them back on their own turf. They are ancient beings of incredible power, it shouldn’t be that easy for us. It should be hard, really hard, to the point where we never really win, but we manage to keep back the darkness. Sigh…maybe my short story should be a Lovecraft thing, like what I’m talking about. Some sort of X-files group that specifically exists to help push back the Elder Gods and protect humanity. A think line of defense against the darkness, constantly on the verge of failing.

Now I’m just rambling. I need a grill. You know, for BBQ.

I’m in a reading void, and that’s why my return to these Titus Crow books. I’ve somewhere between having way too much that I’ve been meaning to read and having no books that I’ve actually been waiting to read. The next book to come out that’ll be a drop everything and read kind of book is either going to be the new X-wing book by Aaron Allston or the next Dresden Files book. Or heck, at the speed these friggers are taking to actually hit the market, it’ll most likely be the next Kate Griffin book, more than a year from now. Le Sigh.

This is all dramatic, I’m sure there’s something I’m dying to read that’s totally escaped my mind. I need more coffee.

With that, I think I’ll dive into BasKet and try to come up with a short story, maybe I’ll post it when its done.

Maybe not.

–Matty McCool

Hey, if you visit this page often, as my stats show that you don’t…then you’ll notice that I changed things around a bit. I added a Goodreads shelf (woot! love goodreads) that’ll show you the books that I’ve recently read, and will most likely talk about, and I’ve added a kind of 2 side layout. The posts will now flow down the middle and then the little extra stuff, such as “Buy my book” and “Like my Page” are on the left and right of the post.

The real reason that I’m writing a blog post though, is to keep you up to date on your favorite writer’s writing progress…

When I say favorite writer, I mean me.

Anyway, I’ve recently discovered a great program for organizing my story notes, timelines, outlines, and general research that I do before writing out the actual story. It’s called BasKet Notes for Linux. From what I understand there is a similar program for windows called OneNote and then another one for Mac, I don’t know that one’s name. (Looked up the links for BasKet and OneNote and I’ve got to applaud Linux once more for offering free software when Windows charges $80 for their equal product) Normally, I have journals, lots of them, and if you live with me (wave at Ren) then I apologize for how many journals I have. I hand write everything, from outlines to timelines to random ideas that pop up and I try to keep them organized, but the journals quickly turn into scraps of paper wedged into what I hope are the right pages and sooner or later I have a thick wad of mess. That isn’t going to stop. To be fair, that lack of organization is imperative to my writing process, but, BasKet allows me to take those notes and organize them into a coherent “basket” or collection on my computer that I can quick reference with a search function or just by glancing through it. Plus it adds another step (the adding it from handwritten note to computer note) that allows me a chance to edit what I’ve written and reevaluate where I want things to go.

Plus it allows me to put it into a nice neat HTML packet if I want to send it to someone. Its very impressive and I’m quite a fan.

That being said, where am I in writing?

Well, the Trials of Obed Marsh book I’m working on is all outlined except for the last chapter and I’m about a chapter and half into writing it out. That one is coming along quite nicely. I did see a small setback when I reread Shadows Over Innsmouth and had to go back and change up the outline a bit to include some more of Zardok’s ramblings (damned drunk), but am otherwise nonplussed.

I also started the timeline for a story based on my short story “Black Friday”, which you can find in my e-book (hopefully it’ll be a physical book soon) Collapsible Concepts: Pocketed for Distribution. It’s based on the idea that the Government would start taking corporate bids for government projects (ie: NASA with its shuttle program) and it soon gets out of control. Then 100 years from now the words Government and Corporate Entity are synonymous and entire planets are dedicated to mass consumerism. It’s kind of deep and kind of simple all at the same time. The story is going to follow an 18 year old boy who trades his indentured servitude to leave the war ravaged planet Earth to work on the planet Mall (the galaxy’s largest shopping center).

Anywho, computer is being kind of dumb this morning, so I’m going to start cleaning house. First, to the Salvation Army to pick up a weedeater me thinks, and then I’ll take care of the lawn and then the house (with a small pause in between for lunch with my beautiful lady). So, hopefully an entire day of sweating my ass off (which is long overdue).

–Matty McCool

Adios BN!

Last second interviews, training in the wait, life a hustle when in the bustle state.

I just quit B&N. I got a great job opportunity with another employer (as I’ve learned in the past, don’t mention employers or anything about them in blog posts). I’ll only say that it’s a job opportunity right up my alley, and woo-boy am I happy to be moving on from Barnes and Noble.

On my last day, I did purchase a nook tablet 8g, but not for me. I really wanted a simple touch, and Ren had one of them, so I purchased a tablet from B&N to give to her and took the simple touch and made it my own. Woot! I’m excited.

In other news, Ren and I spent last weekend at the lake house. That was awesome. It was beautiful, yet rainy. I got a ton of writing done, which is to say that I’ve mostly finished the outline for The Trials of Obed Marsh and am going to start writing the actual novel today. I’m still waiting on the edits on Stranger Books, but I hear they are coming along nicely.

I’ve just finished reading a pile of Star Wars books. After reading Kate Griffin’s The Minority Council, I jumped right into Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse. When I’d finished, I couldn’t think of anything that I’d promised myself to read or had been looking forward to (plus all that kickass Jedi on Sith action got my blood geared towards more) so I looked up the Star Wars books that I’d let fall through the cracks. I’d recently read (in an interview with Star Wars: Scourge writer Jeff Grubb) there are three types of Star Wars books: Scoundrel books, Jedi books, and Military books. Personally, I think there is also a fourth kind of book, the books that are written from video game canon. Sadly, I’ve been avoiding this last version because I assumed that it was contradictory to the actual expanded universe canon. Sadly, some group of writers went out there and made the bridges that brought them into canon, so while I’ve been avoided certain Star Wars books for the last 2 or 3 years (honestly, only hurting myself) I’ve found that I now have a nice collection of suddenly canon books to read.

After I read Star Wars: Apocalypse, I jumped right into Jedi Twilight, a kind of gritty story from the years between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. This one I had only avoided because it had nothing to do with Luke Skywalker, but that was another mistake on my part as the book was very good. I’ll go back and read the rest of the series here soon. Instead, I finished that book and jumped into the first video game based book I’d ever read, Crosscurrent. This book follows the hero from the game Jedi Academy, Jaden Korr as he finds a ship that had a broken hyperdrive. The broken hyperdrive forced this ship to travel near the speed of light instead of actually in hyperspace, so it traveled from 5000 years in the past filled with a pile of Sith and Massassi. It was a pretty cool book. I’m now in book 2, Riptide. After this, I might just back to some other books I’ve been meaning to read, such as Blood Oath, or some of the Further Adventures of Sherlock that I’ve got sitting on my nook.

Ok, and now little rant time. Only a little one, I promise.

I’m in love with the Urban Magic books by Kate Griffin (aka Catherine Webb). This is the Matthew Swift series starting with Madness of Angels or the Resurrection of Matthew Swift. My rant comes from the availability. Every time that these books come out, they come out in a nifty funny shaped hardcover book for about a year and then a paperback. I buy the hardcovers, I loan them to friends and I go back and reread them. I don’t necessarily read them in hardcover the first time, so much as I collect them and might read them on my nook first instead. But I always buy the hardcover and have a kickass collection of them. The first three to be specific. The fourth just came out and, much to my chagrin, the book went straight to paperback in America (maybe everywhere, I don’t know). This upsets and aggravates me. I still love the books, and the author is all sorts of English Geek that leads me to read her blog as if it were an important news blog, but dammit! My American consumerism requires a hardcover version of this book!

That’s my small rant. I just want the book in hardcover.

Oh, new job gives me normal weekends now. Woot! Maybe a more coherent and predictable schedule will allow me a chance to be more frequent with blog posts. Maybe.

–Matty McLovecraftToday