Todd Keisling's Blog

Spent the weekend snowed in, so I thought it would be a good time to catch up on a few things, writing-wise. Worked on the second edition of ALT yesterday, and tonight I spent a couple of hours reconstructing the first chapter of TLM.

I've been experimenting with Dark Room these last couple of weeks. So far it seems to be paying off. I recommend it. I also recommend the following music. It doesn't really fit the mood of the story, but it's soothing and helps to clear my head:

That's all for...

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I hate the holiday season.  Not because of the festivities or the meanings behind them, but the rush-rush-rush mentality inherent in everyone.  It seems like once Thanksgiving is comfortably behind everyone, there grows within each of us a sudden urge to do as many things as possible before December 25th.  I hate it.  I, too, have fallen prey to this urge, and in doing so my writing goals have been shattered one after another.

So, in keeping with the spirit of the season, I've drafted a...

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Well, I'm back in some capacity.  Erica and I drove to Kentucky for the extended weekend to visit family and eat our share of unhealthy food.  We went, we saw, and we gorged.  We drove home on Monday.  The drive consists of many highways, gas stops, pee breaks, and a race to see long we can go without stopping anywhere in West Virginia.  As is the way of things, we woke on Monday morning quite sick.  I managed to overcome it by Tuesday, but as of this writing, Erica's still afflicted with...

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If you are one of my American readers, you're probably as busy as I am preparing for the oncoming holiday.  If you're reading this from another country, take joy in knowing you don't have to put up with this sort of crap.  You can watch from the sidelines and live vicariously if you so choose.

Right.  Thanksgiving.  Erica and I are traveling this year, visiting my family in Kentucky for four days before embarking on a 12-hour journey back to Pennsylvania Land.  She's toting her laptop, so...

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A little something from the book tonight:

There was a name for this place.  Most called it the Monochrome, and the only way for someone to get there was to saturate themselves with so much mediocrity that they eventually "Flickered" over from one side to the other.  The last time Donovan experienced the Flickering was on that subway platform a year ago, and it was there he'd made the exchange with Dullington.  It was there that he'd received his final warning.

He did not have time to ponder...

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An article I wrote about self-publishing, "DIY," is now up at PANK magazine.  Go check it out.

TK

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I went to my very first writing group during the fall semester of 2002.  I was a sophomore in college, my first novel had just placed in the university's writing contest that previous semester, and I'd spent the summer writing short stories.  There were three of them, and damn, was I proud of them.  When my course advisor recommended this writing group to me, I was thrilled.  Finally, a forum of strangers to whom I could unveil my genius.  I ventured down to the campus library that evening...

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That is all.

TK

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A quick note:

I'm half way through chapter five. At the rate I'm going, it should be finished by the end of the week provided nothing comes up. Cross your fingers. There may be some periods of silence in the coming weeks as I'm going to dive into the book as much as possible.

In the meantime, here's a song that partially inspired most of the ALT lexicon.

TK

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My wife is one of the most resourceful people I know.  The ingenuity she possesses never ceases to astound me.  A couple of years ago the driver seat in our car was unable to roll back.  This presented a rather big problem.  Being a tall guy, I have to have the seat moved as far back as it can go; Erica, on the other hand, is almost a full foot shorter than I am, and has to have the seat up farther.  I can't drive with my knees in the way, so we put a lot of wear on the car seat, moving...

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