Jason Arnett's Blog, page 19

Renewed Vigor

Life in general has consumed a great deal of time and energy the last couple of months or so but that's subsiding a bit now which means that I'll be tapping away at the keys on lots of stuff:


A novel that's probably 25K words from being done. You can track that on the sidebar to the right. It's got my attention again for reasons that needn't concern anyone at this point. Hopefully I'll be able to explain this later on.

Several short stories that are in various stages of 'almost done'.

Another, unrelated, novel that I had previously written 40K words on. The cool thing about this is that it's actually going to be a page one rewrite with a new focus. The reason it stalled out was that I hadn't a clue what it was really about. Three years after starting it I finally know what needs to happen and why. Could be the beginning of a series of things.

And I've always got ideas going into notebooks from various scraps of paper. There are other projects that are stalled and I hope they'll be finished at some point but if not, at least I learned from them. The goal, as always, is to learn and move forward.

So I bought a copy of this book and I'll be reading it when it arrives. Plus I've got stacks and stacks of books that need reading. Let me remind you, too, that you don't have to buy online only from the big names in retail. It's not hard to find the book you want (or anything else) available elsewhere. Please support other retailers as often as you can. Especially the ones that are down the street from you. Anyway, until I can figure out how to read and move around at the same time without banging into stuff, I need to spend my time writing. (Yes, I know about audiobooks but I much prefer to read.)

Remember that energy I had when I came home from Planet Comicon? Yeah, I've found it again.

Hey, a reminder that you can buy my self-published short story Prospects  in every digital format you could desire at Smashwords for only 99 cents, same as at the high profile retailer. A new story, The Masking Job, is due to drop over the next couple of weeks.

It's Whisky Time

The Internal Debate

I read this quote early this morning:

“You have to surrender to your mediocrity, and just write. Because it’s hard, really hard, to write even a crappy book. But it’s better to write a book that kind of sucks rather than no book at all, as you wait around to magically become Faulkner. No one is going to write your book for you and you can’t write anybody’s book but your own.”
— Cheryl Strayed 

And now I'm conflicted. I'm tempted to drop all my current projects in favor of starting a new novel. I've been thinking and thinking and thinking about it over the last six weeks. In fact it's been in my head for a little over two years. An initial draft netted 40,000+ words but it's not great. I know how to make it better. Of course this goes against the central tenet of a writer: finish your shit.

I've begun combing through it for anything usable, which, unfortunately, isn't much except the ideas. The execution was --- well, it left a lot to be desired. However, I might have stumbled upon an opening. It comes from about halfway through the original draft. Here it is:

Stak acknowledged the signal. "Unfriendlies coming in from south and west,” Kafay said over the box. “Our options are disappearing. WaLah says they’re packing serious heat and they're definitely coming for us.”

Still needs work but it has potential. With all the things I've been working on the last few months off and on, this one's been burning up my extra thought cycles. I opened a new Scrivener document and began importing the things I like and transcribing the notes I've made over the last weeks.

I guess I know what I'm going to do. This book's really got my imagination and I really, really want to work on it. Dropping the novel, the novella, the short stories from the last few months to work on something new may just be an excuse to escape certain difficulties with those things. What do you think?

The Kingdom of the Skull

I like to think I'm generally a pretty smart guy. Sometimes I even have a little more on the ball than usual and those are great days.

I heard some audio of David Foster Wallace's commencement speech to Kenyon College from back in 2005 and it struck me: he's talking to me, too.

That's a damn good commencement speech, there.

One of the things he said, toward the end, was when he was talking about what people worship. He talks not just of religion but of power and money and all the things that make good movies. Here's the  bit that truly struck home:

Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful, it's that they're unconscious. They are default settings. 

(I need to say right here that you should read the entire speech or watch the video of it. It's absolutely worth your time.)

A lot of days I feel some kind of stupid because I made a mistake or because I sent an email I shouldn't have or  I said something that I didn't really mean to say out loud. Those little things, though, they aren't stupid. They're part of everyday life. Assuming I'm not the center of the universe (there isn't one), I may not even be the center of my world. Sure some stuff revolves around me but believe me when I tell you that the world goes on as it did before if I'm not here.

Each of us can become so wrapped up in ourselves that we lose sight of so many things. You've done it, I've done it, we all have.

And that's when we need Admiral Ackbar to tell us the obvious.

On those days when I feel like a true dumbass, it's because I worship intellect. I value being smart and look for intelligence in those people I surround myself with. That, in itself, is not bad. What's bad is realizing that smart people do really dumb things sometimes. A very good friend has said that about me and it's true. It's true of everyone I know even if I don't know what dumb things you think you've done.

So what if I did dumb things, so what if you did? It's not the end of the world. Really, it's not.

What matters is that we accept them as part of us, file them away and do our damnedest not to repeat them. Or make larger, more destructive mistakes.

The world keeps turning, our loved ones will go on and live their lives after we're gone as will the multitudes around the globe. We are not the center of the universe.

So I won't live in my head, my own little kingdom in my skull, but I will value intellect. I do value intellect. Discourse with other smart people is how I learn things and make myself better, smarter. I bet you do the same thing.

Going forward I will do my best not to get down on myself for not being smarter in a particular situation. I exhort you to do the same. Instead, learn from mistakes and don't fear them. That's where confidence comes from. And arrogance, too, but that's a different post.

Somewhere, every day, millions of times a day, Admiral Ackbar shouts, "It's a trap!"

5 Things About Hard Truths

I don't feel the need to elaborate on the items listed below. You can, if you like. That's what the comment section is for.
They're Not Mean-SpiritedSuck It Up and ListenDon't Believe Your Own HypeTreasure Those Brave Enough To Tell YouDon't Be Discouraged

Male Behavior

If you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem. Grow up.

That's all.

Dear Anonymous Commenters

Dear Anonymous Commenters,

Thanks for stopping by. No, really, I do appreciate the traffic.

However, I won't be visiting your website because your approach is all wrong. I won't tell you how to fix it, how to get me to visit your site because, well, you're a grown up and you can learn to market your crap all on your own.

I especially won't be visiting your website if you outright lie and say that my blog is 'rife' with misspellings. Obviously your robots don't know what kind of site they're looking at and let's be honest - if you're insulting me then the hell with you. You may have the product I want desperately but I'll never know if you come here and bag on my writing. Besides, that's beyond rude. And rudeness never encourages reciprocation.

So, while your stop is meaningful and I do appreciate the millisecond your robot took to deliver your standard message, you can fuck right off.

Signed,

Jason

Prospects Now Available at Smashwords

That's right, my first self-published short story is live on the Internet for worldwide consumption at Smashwords. It's only 99 cents American.

This is the slightly improved version of the story that debuted at Planet Comicon. It's got a different cover, too, as you can see. Here's the solicit:

Retirement is not an option.

Mrak is a man who must work. After more than two decades of service to the Yaiax ambassador, he won't take just any job.He lives on his severance until he is convinced to take an assignment he's been warned against.

This new job takes Mrak to a distant world where he must confront a spectre of the past and come to terms with the prospects of his future.

The story's about 4400 words long and was edited by my Confabulator cohort Sara Lundberg.

I had some trouble getting it on Amazon because - well, because I couldn't get my stuff together on the Word file to upload. Made some dumb mistakes. Regardless, if you prefer Amazon, it's live there, too. That said, you can download for your Kindle or iBooks or whatever reader you have through Smashwords and it doesn't cost you any more than it would at the bigger retailer.

Truth be told, I was seriously considering NOT going on Amazon for the simple reason that I make a little more on each book sold through Smashwords. But that would be cutting my nose off to spite my face. Amazon's the biggest retailer with the most reach. Still, it's tempting to not go there.

Deep breath.

Another story will drop in about three weeks. Now that I've learned a thing or two about a thing or two it won't be quite so traumatic on my end. Stay tuned.

Games In New Mexico

Doubt can be a good thing, especially in this day and age. Never hurts to look sidewise at an event and reports surround that event that seem to add more veracity with every new link.

Case in point: Zak Penn uncovering the E.T. The Extraterrestrial game cartridges in New Mexico. It may well be true, those cartridges may well be real.

But they may not be. It may be an elaborate hoax much larger in scale than a film he made with Werner Herzog called Incident at Loch Ness. I loved that film when I saw it because I'd heard it was Herzog actually pursuing the idea that Nessie was real.

Turns out that even though the film was real, the whole thing was a put on designed by Penn and Herzog. Here's where I think the New Mexico dig may be a put on:

...the "hoax" was on even before photography started as several media outlets announced the upcoming production as an actual film. Adding to the verisimilitude is the fact that everyone who appears on screen is a real person and most are in fact who they say they are. 

All I'm saying is that you should definitely cast a doubtful eye on any news reports you see about this. It's a fun hoax if it is a hoax and I hope the film will be entertaining. But you remember Joaquin Phoenix's supposed off the rails performances from a few years ago, right?

Don't be so willing to believe everything. It's possible Penn let the original news reporter in on the joke but it's also possible he didn't. As possible as this being completely real. If he hadn't been involved I might have gone along with it. Right now, I'm amused watching everyone lose their stuff over this. I'm imagining the nerd rage, too, if I'm right. That's also amusing.

News outlets have been taken in before and they smiled when Jimmy Kimmel did it. Will they be smiling if Penn's done it to them again?

How To Be a Kid

Some Tweets from this morning which include the excellent and wonderful @MigElLikeComics. Follow him and visit the site he writes at, Word of the Nerd.