S.K.S. Perry's Blog, page 9
December 7, 2012
You have the power!
I'm trying to decide whether I should step up to the plate and blog more consistently or just chuck it all and quit blogging, so if you read this post please leave a quick comment to let me know you were here. If no one hardly anyone comments, I guess I'll have my answer.
And oh yeah, I almost forgot: HAPPY BIRTHDAY
stillnotbored
!!!!
And oh yeah, I almost forgot: HAPPY BIRTHDAY
stillnotbored
!!!!
December 6, 2012
If I were king of the forest...
The problem with politicians is that they're too preoccupied with politics and not enough with governing. They will vote against an opposing party's proposal even if their party proposed the very same thing the last time they were in power. Honestly, most of them are so wishy-washy about the issues. It's not like they actually stood for anything in the first place; their party platforms change with public opinion. And don't get me started on party loyalty. I've seen politicians switch parties mid-stream. (And how does that work in a democracy in the first place? "Hey, I know you all voted to make this riding liberal, but I've switched parties so this riding is Conservative now." WTF?)
Now, I'm not the kind of guy to bitch about something without offering a solution, so here's what I think we should do.
Every five years we should put every politician's name into a hat, and then assign them to a political party by random draw. First name out of the hat—Liberal; second name—Conservative; third name—NDP; fourth name—Green Party; repeat until all the names are drawn.
For you Americans it would be even easier as you only really have to worry about the Republican and Democratic parties—although it might be fun to add a third Independent-Lunatic-Fringe-That-Doesn't-Stand-A-Hope-In-Hell-Of-Winning party.
Politicians might not be so fast to veto a good idea just because it was another party's good idea, especially if odds are they might actually belong to that party in a few years.
Then maybe—just maybe—they would actually vote on policies based on the merits of the policy, and they could stop wasting time blaming the other guy for everything that went wrong and taking credit for everything that went right.
Maybe they would run on a platform based on results. "I voted to support this, this and this, and look how great that turned out. I voted against this and this, and we all know what a disaster they turned out to be."
Of course that presupposes that we as voters would actually vote in candidates based on their record, and not because they're cute.
Now, I'm not the kind of guy to bitch about something without offering a solution, so here's what I think we should do.
Every five years we should put every politician's name into a hat, and then assign them to a political party by random draw. First name out of the hat—Liberal; second name—Conservative; third name—NDP; fourth name—Green Party; repeat until all the names are drawn.
For you Americans it would be even easier as you only really have to worry about the Republican and Democratic parties—although it might be fun to add a third Independent-Lunatic-Fringe-That-Doesn't-Stand-A-Hope-In-Hell-Of-Winning party.
Politicians might not be so fast to veto a good idea just because it was another party's good idea, especially if odds are they might actually belong to that party in a few years.
Then maybe—just maybe—they would actually vote on policies based on the merits of the policy, and they could stop wasting time blaming the other guy for everything that went wrong and taking credit for everything that went right.
Maybe they would run on a platform based on results. "I voted to support this, this and this, and look how great that turned out. I voted against this and this, and we all know what a disaster they turned out to be."
Of course that presupposes that we as voters would actually vote in candidates based on their record, and not because they're cute.
December 4, 2012
My Brief* History as a Writer--So Far.
I have always been a writer.
When I was nine our teacher asked us to write a story "about anything we wanted" with just one caveat: it had to be at least 500 words. I handed in a twenty page action/adventure future dystopia about a couple trying to escape across the border into Canada because the wife was pregnant and wasn't licensed for children. I got an A+ on the homework, and from then on the teacher included a maximum word count on all of our assignments. And no, I have no idea where I came up with that idea at nine years old. (The counsellors they made me see asked the same question.)
My dad bought me one of those portable suitcase typewriters after that (although it wasn't until high school that I learned how to type—probably the most useful thing I ever learned in school) which made the teacher happy because from then on I turned in all my assignments type-written. I still had a problem with word count, however.
I wrote a lot of (relatively) short stories, most of which my mom wouldn't read because they were too violent and graphic. And this was before movies and video games had desensitized me to violence. (Mom finally read my DARKSIDE novels a couple of months ago. She liked them—and not just in a mom way, either.)
I started but never got past the first few chapters of several novels back then, but it wasn't until I was in my twenties that I began what would be my first completed novel. I started NAEJIN while I was a student in the military, learning basic electronics in Kingston, Ontario. I worked on it off and on over the years, but I didn't complete it until I was about 35. It probably still wouldn't be finished if it weren't for the Del Rey Online Writing Workshop and the people I met there. (Well, that and the invention of the home computer and Word Perfect.) NAEJIN won the Editor's Choice award there a couple of times, which seemed like a big deal to me then as it convinced me that I at least had some raw talent. I think it tricked some other folks into believing that, too.
Luckily I didn't know anything about the publishing business then. I didn't even try to find an agent, and only subbed it to a couple of publishers before giving up on it. (It took almost a year and a half just to hear back from those two publishers!) And I say luckily because while there's a lot of good stuff in NAEJIN, when I read it now parts of it make me cringe. Nothing a good rewrite wouldn't fix though.
It was those same folks I met at the OWW that tricked me into writing DARKSIDE. I'd joined a crit group with C.C. Finlay, Karin Lowachee, Jason Venter, Marsha Sisolak, Keri Arthur, Caroline Norrington (nee Heske), Steve Nagy and Lisa Deguchi called The Sock Monkey Parade. (James Allison and Cecilia Dart-Thornton—known as Lint—would drop in occasionally, too.)
In the meantime, DARKSIDE won another Editor's Choice, although the term "won" is relative—Terry Brooks (the guest editor) trashed it. Oh, and I got to swap crits with Jim Butcher before he became--you know--Jim Butcher.
Warner Aspect was running their First Novel Contest, and we all decided to goad each other on to finish our current WIPs and submit them. DARKSIDE made to the semi-finals, and Karin Lowachee won for WARCHILD. (Go Karin!)
I guess I kind of peaked there. I spent the next couple of years working on DARKSIDE: WAKING THE DEAD, only to find I couldn't sell the first book. Oddly enough, no one was interested in the sequel after that.
I decided to put it up on the web for free, and low and behold it developed somewhat of a fan base, mostly through word of mouth. Sure it was more of an underground fan base, but still.
Then came Amazon and the Kindle, which sort of, kind of, almost, in a way made self-publishing legitimate. Darkside was at least legitimate enough for someone to steal it, and the books developed enough of a following that it made the writing of the next novel in the series (hopefully) lucrative, or at least worthwhile from the POV that I know people want to read it.
In the meantime I wrote THE MOONLIGHT WAR. Odds are I'm going to self-publish it, too. As a matter of fact, the plan is that by this time next year I'll have published the third DARKSIDE NOVEL, THE MOONLIGHT WAR, a rewritten NAEJIN, and will behard at work working on a sequel or sequels to all three.
In fact, I have decided to become my own publishing empire! Okay, publishing village. Would you believe publishing corner store?
Anyway, that's the plan.
*still has a problem with word count
When I was nine our teacher asked us to write a story "about anything we wanted" with just one caveat: it had to be at least 500 words. I handed in a twenty page action/adventure future dystopia about a couple trying to escape across the border into Canada because the wife was pregnant and wasn't licensed for children. I got an A+ on the homework, and from then on the teacher included a maximum word count on all of our assignments. And no, I have no idea where I came up with that idea at nine years old. (The counsellors they made me see asked the same question.)
My dad bought me one of those portable suitcase typewriters after that (although it wasn't until high school that I learned how to type—probably the most useful thing I ever learned in school) which made the teacher happy because from then on I turned in all my assignments type-written. I still had a problem with word count, however.
I wrote a lot of (relatively) short stories, most of which my mom wouldn't read because they were too violent and graphic. And this was before movies and video games had desensitized me to violence. (Mom finally read my DARKSIDE novels a couple of months ago. She liked them—and not just in a mom way, either.)
I started but never got past the first few chapters of several novels back then, but it wasn't until I was in my twenties that I began what would be my first completed novel. I started NAEJIN while I was a student in the military, learning basic electronics in Kingston, Ontario. I worked on it off and on over the years, but I didn't complete it until I was about 35. It probably still wouldn't be finished if it weren't for the Del Rey Online Writing Workshop and the people I met there. (Well, that and the invention of the home computer and Word Perfect.) NAEJIN won the Editor's Choice award there a couple of times, which seemed like a big deal to me then as it convinced me that I at least had some raw talent. I think it tricked some other folks into believing that, too.
Luckily I didn't know anything about the publishing business then. I didn't even try to find an agent, and only subbed it to a couple of publishers before giving up on it. (It took almost a year and a half just to hear back from those two publishers!) And I say luckily because while there's a lot of good stuff in NAEJIN, when I read it now parts of it make me cringe. Nothing a good rewrite wouldn't fix though.
It was those same folks I met at the OWW that tricked me into writing DARKSIDE. I'd joined a crit group with C.C. Finlay, Karin Lowachee, Jason Venter, Marsha Sisolak, Keri Arthur, Caroline Norrington (nee Heske), Steve Nagy and Lisa Deguchi called The Sock Monkey Parade. (James Allison and Cecilia Dart-Thornton—known as Lint—would drop in occasionally, too.)
In the meantime, DARKSIDE won another Editor's Choice, although the term "won" is relative—Terry Brooks (the guest editor) trashed it. Oh, and I got to swap crits with Jim Butcher before he became--you know--Jim Butcher.
Warner Aspect was running their First Novel Contest, and we all decided to goad each other on to finish our current WIPs and submit them. DARKSIDE made to the semi-finals, and Karin Lowachee won for WARCHILD. (Go Karin!)
I guess I kind of peaked there. I spent the next couple of years working on DARKSIDE: WAKING THE DEAD, only to find I couldn't sell the first book. Oddly enough, no one was interested in the sequel after that.
I decided to put it up on the web for free, and low and behold it developed somewhat of a fan base, mostly through word of mouth. Sure it was more of an underground fan base, but still.
Then came Amazon and the Kindle, which sort of, kind of, almost, in a way made self-publishing legitimate. Darkside was at least legitimate enough for someone to steal it, and the books developed enough of a following that it made the writing of the next novel in the series (hopefully) lucrative, or at least worthwhile from the POV that I know people want to read it.
In the meantime I wrote THE MOONLIGHT WAR. Odds are I'm going to self-publish it, too. As a matter of fact, the plan is that by this time next year I'll have published the third DARKSIDE NOVEL, THE MOONLIGHT WAR, a rewritten NAEJIN, and will be
In fact, I have decided to become my own publishing empire! Okay, publishing village. Would you believe publishing corner store?
Anyway, that's the plan.
*still has a problem with word count
November 30, 2012
It's a dirty job--
I cleaned the microwave at work this morning. Think Stygian Stables.
It's looked like that ever since I came to work here in October. It was so bad that people would come to our office to heat their food, take one look at the microwave, and change their minds. You know it's pretty bad when someone would prefer to eat their burrito frozen rather than risk the microwave.
One of the guys said he'd attempted to clean it once, but gave up. I lived with it for as long as I could but I finally broke at 08:45 hours this morning. I witnessed one of the guys I work with hand another guy $20. Maybe it was unrelated, but I'm thinking they had a bet on to see how long I could hold out. Maybe it's because I'm the only military guy that works in our office.
It took me about an hour. I saw more money change hands when I finished—they probably didn't think I could do it. Lesson learned; never underestimate an ex-recruit instructor. (Before we make recruits clean floors and whatnot with a toothbrush, we have to demonstrate first.)
Istole acquired a scrub pad from the cleaner's cart using the same method I use to get extra soap and shampoos from the maids in the hotels. (And yes, I know they'll give them to you if you ask, but what's the fun in that?) One of the guys asked me where I got the scrub pad, but I declined to comment in order to afford him plausible deniability. After all, we have an ethics briefing later this morning.
Anyway, the microwave is now spotless. It should stop working any minute now.
It's looked like that ever since I came to work here in October. It was so bad that people would come to our office to heat their food, take one look at the microwave, and change their minds. You know it's pretty bad when someone would prefer to eat their burrito frozen rather than risk the microwave.
One of the guys said he'd attempted to clean it once, but gave up. I lived with it for as long as I could but I finally broke at 08:45 hours this morning. I witnessed one of the guys I work with hand another guy $20. Maybe it was unrelated, but I'm thinking they had a bet on to see how long I could hold out. Maybe it's because I'm the only military guy that works in our office.
It took me about an hour. I saw more money change hands when I finished—they probably didn't think I could do it. Lesson learned; never underestimate an ex-recruit instructor. (Before we make recruits clean floors and whatnot with a toothbrush, we have to demonstrate first.)
I
Anyway, the microwave is now spotless. It should stop working any minute now.
November 29, 2012
My Softer Side:
I wished one of my ex recruits happy birthday yesterday on Facebook. Here's how the conversation went:
Me: Happy Birthday!!!
Her: Thanks! Do you remember how we celebrated my birthday in basic?
Me: I can barely remember my name most days.
Her: We were on the rifle ranges all day, so you gave me 50 push-ups, and 2 extra magazines because it was my birthday.
Me: I bet no one else ever gave you ammo for your birthday.
Her: Noooo, just you.
Me: I spoiled you.
Me: Happy Birthday!!!
Her: Thanks! Do you remember how we celebrated my birthday in basic?
Me: I can barely remember my name most days.
Her: We were on the rifle ranges all day, so you gave me 50 push-ups, and 2 extra magazines because it was my birthday.
Me: I bet no one else ever gave you ammo for your birthday.
Her: Noooo, just you.
Me: I spoiled you.
November 28, 2012
Oh, the inhumanity!
My loving wife bought me a new iPad for Christmas. It came in the mail yesterday and she let me take it out of the box to make sure it's working, and so that I could set it up, because, in her words: "I don't want you opening it at my parent's place on Christmas morning and then cursing and swearing all day while you try to get it to work."
So I played with it all night, cursing and swearing as I finally got it properly connected to my Apple ID, email, facebook, etc, and downloaded some of the essential apps (Garage Band—OMFG!).
Then she took it away from me and wrapped it up.
I said she was loving; I never said she wasn't E-vil.
So I played with it all night, cursing and swearing as I finally got it properly connected to my Apple ID, email, facebook, etc, and downloaded some of the essential apps (Garage Band—OMFG!).
Then she took it away from me and wrapped it up.
I said she was loving; I never said she wasn't E-vil.
November 27, 2012
Dear Blu-ray disc manufacturers,
Please stop tweaking your format. Every time you do I have to go out and buy a new Blu-ray player because the old one can't handle the new "improvements, especially even with the software upgrades. As a matter of fact, I'm convinced the downloaded software updates simply ensure the machine won't work with the new format so that you're forced to buy a new player. Granted, you can buy a Blu-ray player now for less than you can buy an actual Blu-ray disk, but still.
So please, enough with the upgrades. After all, I really don't need to watch Escape From New York with—say—a new Café View overlay feature that shows me where all the Starbucks are as Snake Plisken tries to rescue the president.
So please, enough with the upgrades. After all, I really don't need to watch Escape From New York with—say—a new Café View overlay feature that shows me where all the Starbucks are as Snake Plisken tries to rescue the president.
November 26, 2012
This is why I'm getting an iPad.
What is it with laptop manufacturers anyway? I mean, what are they thinking? Why build a laptop with the latest greatest processor, give it 8 MB of RAM, and then saddle it with a crappy video card? Or they give it a great video card but no HDMI output and a bargain basement sound card? Or maybe it has lots of RAM, but it's the old stuff—DDR2 instead of DDR3? (Maybe they think guys will be distracted by the Double D designation.)
I fully expect that if I ever find a laptop with a great processor, lots of RAM, a high-end video and audio card, solid-state hard drive, and a motherboard that can handle all that, it'll probably have a hand-crank on the side to power it up.
And seriously, I won't mind if it actual weighs a couple of pounds either. Hey, I work out.
I fully expect that if I ever find a laptop with a great processor, lots of RAM, a high-end video and audio card, solid-state hard drive, and a motherboard that can handle all that, it'll probably have a hand-crank on the side to power it up.
And seriously, I won't mind if it actual weighs a couple of pounds either. Hey, I work out.
November 23, 2012
Dark Fantasy... with a sense of humour.
Hey all, I FINALLY have an offical author website. Check it out at http://sksperry.com/
November 22, 2012
The Next Big Meme
What is the working title of your next book?
Darkside: Damned If You Do
Where did the idea come from for the book?
The voices in my head. Why do they torment me so?
What genre does your book fall under?
Urban Fantasy.
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
James: no idea; Leanne: Chloe Bridges; Josh: Ryan Gosling; Sabrina: Kat Graham; Alex: Jessica Lucas; Drat and Charlie would no doubt be CGI?
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
All hell breaks loose as the Veil that separates Darkside from Summerland fails and the Other Realm folk are let loose on Vancouver Island.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Self-published
How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
So far? About 8 months. Almost done.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
The first two Darkside Novels, of course, and the Dresden Files.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
People keep bugging me for a sequel to the first two books. That, and they're fun to write.
What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
The humour, the action, and the different take on the genre.
Darkside: Damned If You Do
Where did the idea come from for the book?
The voices in my head. Why do they torment me so?
What genre does your book fall under?
Urban Fantasy.
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
James: no idea; Leanne: Chloe Bridges; Josh: Ryan Gosling; Sabrina: Kat Graham; Alex: Jessica Lucas; Drat and Charlie would no doubt be CGI?
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
All hell breaks loose as the Veil that separates Darkside from Summerland fails and the Other Realm folk are let loose on Vancouver Island.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Self-published
How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
So far? About 8 months. Almost done.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
The first two Darkside Novels, of course, and the Dresden Files.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
People keep bugging me for a sequel to the first two books. That, and they're fun to write.
What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
The humour, the action, and the different take on the genre.
