Alex Laybourne's Blog, page 77
August 20, 2012
How To Read Short Stories
This may sound like an odd post, and to be honest, the title is more of a test run to see what effect certain phrases have on search terms etc, but that is a post for later.
As bizarre as it may sound however, I do actually have a post that relates to the title.
Just yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine, a colleague no less, who I had convinced to try some Stephen King. One of the books that I convinced her to buy was Skeleton Crew, a collection of short stories that are some of my favorite King shorts;
The Mist
Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut
The Raft
Survivor Type (Possibly one of the most disturbing and stomach churning pieces of fiction I have ever read).
The Ballard of the Flexible Bullet
While talking to said colleague just yesterday, I asked her if she had started to read of the books she had bought. She said yes, but then, as the conversation developed she said that she not only was not reading the stories in order, but she wasn’t even reading the whole collection before moving on to something else.
Maybe this is just me, but I fell ill at ease the rest of the conversation. It just didn’t sit right with me that someone can read a collection of short stories out-of-order. I can cope with the reading other things around it, because I have done that on occasion myself. However, to read them out-of-order just seems and feel utterly wrong to me. It was like someone raking their fingers down a chalkboard.
I read the last story first, then the first story in the middle… argh, make it stop!!!
I did however, manage to pull myself out of my terminal velocity plunge into insanity and ponder the question … ‘is she alone?’
I would never dream about reading a book out-of-order, but what about you?
I mean sure, there is no rule that says you cannot read short stories in any order you wish, but … I don’t know. Maybe I’m just a bit odd.
This also led me to ponder the different types of short story collections, the single author variety, and the multiple author anthologies. Is there a different approach that needs to be considered when reading these, can they be held apart from each other in reading rules?
Tell me, pleasure, am I just nuts, or does it seem wrong to read a book in an order that is not that with which is was produced?
The Week Ahead
Well, I cannot believe how quick the last week went.
First things first, how did I do last week?
My goal was 500 words a day on my novel, and to get the hand written edits on my short story collection finished.
The result: I kicked ass. I got all of the edits out-of-the-way early Friday evening, and hit over 750 words almost every day last week on my novel. I was so far ahead, that I took the weekend off to relax and just hang with the kids.
A new week has now begun however, and with the comes new goals. First and foremost is to get the edits typed up for the short story collection. Secondly, I would like to hit 500 words a day on my novel.
Today sadly will be a near whitewash. I got nothing written this morning. Well, I hit my 500 words, more in fact, but it was a blog post… does that still count? I guess so, in a way. I have tonight still, but never seen to get as much done in the evening as I do late at night or early in the morning.
Still, I am looking at the week as a whole. I want to crack on and get at least 75% of my corrections typed up. I think it is doable, providing I don’t keep faffing around and forgetting to send myself the files I need so I can write while at work.
I also need to approach my brother-in-law for the cover art. I have the image in my head, but have just never been too good at designing things on my own.
I’m keeping the goals basic this week, as I know I don’t have unlimited time, and really want to get this editing done and dusted. That way I can recruit some victims beta readers to review the collection and let me know what they think.
What are your plans for the week ahead? I would love to hear them.
On a final note, during my Facebook wanderings this morning I came across a very talented artist. I have been looking at his stuff all day. Check him out and let me know if you think he is as good as I do. His name is Ben Baldwin, and he just could be designing your next cover.
August 19, 2012
Dreaming About Work – Don’t You Just Hate That…
most of the time…
The Enormity of the Task Ahead
I realize that I am rehashing over old stuff here, but I slept badly last night, due in large part to restless children, and this was bouncing around my mind in the darkness. I’m sure some of it was merely a case of the dark amplifying the shadows that normally haunt a writer and twisting them into something far uglier… rather, I hope.
Have you ever stopped, put your keyboard to one side and taken a moment to think about the enormity of the task at hand. I’ll be honest, I don’t like my job, and I don’t want to be working there until I can retire, forty years from now. I want to be able to write full-time.
I see a lot of my friends online powering ahead through their careers and some of them even write full-time. By that I mean, they have left the day job behind.
This is where my ‘experience’ came from last night. With 4 kids at home to support, and with the expensive way of life in Holland, I don’t think I will ever be in a position to stop (office) working and write full-time. Not unless I achieve full on global success. Sure that is the ultimate goal, let’s face it, that is a completely different level of success than many indie authors achieve.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, but then my mind continued to percolate and got me thinking about my writing. I am now finalizing a short story collection, but … is it good enough, can I afford to put something out there that won’t make it? Will it bite me in the ass and end up hurting me. Or rather, am I publishing these short stories in an anthology because they are good, or because I want to have something out there, something being sold and (hopefully) earning me money?
The, the final and most frightening moment of the whole course of events was about my real job. I put in my eight hours and go home. The job irritates me, and offers me no satisfaction, but, it is a job, and it pays the bills, so I cannot complain. However, should I be doing more? It isn’t a career, there aren’t any promotion pathways and the like, but maybe, just maybe, I should be spending more time focused on that. Maybe I am going about things the wrong way. Writing is the hobby, it is the thing that may pay my bills, one day, if I am lucky. The job is what does pay the bills, and like it or not, it’s the only thing around.
I can even take it in a broader context, because if I moved jobs, I know I would feel just the same after 6 months, because office work like that bores me. So any sort of job like that I turn up on time, leave on time and get pissed if anything keeps me there over my scheduled 40 hours.
While this may sound more like a pity party, I can assure you it is not. It was just the way my mind worked in the midnight hours. It was always about the writing, the plans, and the Mount Everest (squared) climb that not only I, but all writers face.
It makes me thankful that the writing community is so close-knit and willing to help each other out, because, in all seriousness, can you even imagine what it would be like if we were all just out for ourselves?
We Are Never Happy.
Living in a country where the climate can move through all four seasons before lunch has made us Europeans, especially the British and the Dutch has made us a bunch of impossible to please wingers.
All May, June and July, we sat around complaining about how crap the summer had been, how we hadn’t been able to do anything because the summer just didn’t arrive.
Jump forward to August 17th, the temperatures have soared to a sudden 30+ degrees. It had been predicted but still, we stood in the street aghast when we say cloudless blue sky above out heads first thing in the morning.
By lunch time, people were hot and sweating, but mid afternoon they were half melted and complaining about hot it is, and how the summers are getting warmer. Night comes, the bed covers fall to the floor, and the entire South Holland population toss and turn in a near unison until the sun comes along and spoils us with another idyllic day. Blue sky, singing birds, searing temperatures, and an occasional cooling breeze. Thirty degrees centigrade comes and is left in the dust as the mercury powers up the chart.
It is a strange phenomenon to hear an entire country moan in unison. Yet, visit Holland on any given warm day, and at some point you will bear witness to such an event.
What baffles me is not that fact that his is a nationwide problem, but rather the question of why? What makes us complain so much. Why are we never happy with the weather.
It’s too hot,
It’s too cold,
It never stops raining,
We need some rain,
It’s good for the garden,
All this rain is destroying the crops.
Are we really all that exasperated with the weather, or is it just an easy target. Something we can all relate to.
I have noticed that in many walks of life, people love to complain, but when given the chance to change something, or given the full controls, they flounder. They curl up or turn their back and walk away. We are happy to complain.
Therefore, to complain about the weather is… safe?
I mean, let’s face it, what will change. We can bitch and complain, rant and rave all night long, but there is nothing we can do about the weather. It is what it is, and that makes it above all other things, an easy target.
August 17, 2012
First Dates are a Bitch & Filmmaker Blair Richardson Shows us Why!!
Reblogged from AnythingHorror Central:
Blair Richardson is a 21-year-old from Jacksonville, Florida who only makes horror films. She wrote, produced, and directed the short, FIRST DATE, earlier this year and is already in pre-production for her next project. FIRST DATE was shot in two days and the entire cast and crew are all local Floridians. FIRST DATE is written and directed by Blair Richardson and stars Ashton Nicole and Jason Roy Jones.
A very enjoyable Horror short from a young director who is all about the horror.
August 16, 2012
Wade Davis’ Incredible Home Office & Overhead Library
Wade Davis is a modern day Indiana Jones. He has one of the most coveted jobs in America – Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society.
What does that exactly mean – His profession is a cross between professor, world traveler, anthropologist, ethnobotanist (the scientific study of the relationships that exist between people and plants), photographer and writer.
When Davis is home in Washington DC, he escapes to his…
I had to reblog this for two reasons.
1) This guy's job is just freaking awesome, and
2) Look at that office. I want it, I want it, I WANT IT! *Stamps out of the room*
August 15, 2012
Horror Actresses of the 1930′s
I wanted to do something a little different today, and so I am harking back to the days of yesteryear to take a look at horror actresses through the decades. I plan on running a post for each decade. Why? Just for fun, and because sometimes, I can’t thinking of anything to post, or not something that can be written within my time frame.
So, let’s kick things off with the 1930′s, a decade that provided us with some of the finest Horror movies ever made. Movies that are still just as scary today as they were back then.
1. Fay Wray
Undoubtedly, the face of a decade, Fay Wray was the first real Scream Queen – even if the rumors of her famous scream actually being the work of another actress are true) Besides King Kong, Fay appeared in no less than 4 horror movies during the 1930′s more than many other actresses. Her career included a total of over 100 movies and left a lasting legacy on the movie world.
2. Helen Chandler
Famous for playing Mina Harper opposite Bella Lugosi’s famous Count, Helen Chandler ended life as a recluse. An actress with a glittering stage reputation, she never managed to have the same impact on the big screen. An addiction to sleeping pills and alcohol led to a stint in a sanitarium, and in the 1950, she inadvertently started a fire that caused severe disfigurement. A tragic life story of an actress who never truly achieved her full potential.
3. Gloria Stewart
Before she boarded the Titanic, Gloria Stewart wowed cinema goers in such horror movies as the 1931 classic The Old Dark House, which not only launched an entire sub genre, also marked the first ever credited role for a certain Boris Karloff, and also the iconic Invisible Man directed by James Whale.
4. Leila Hyams
Undoubtedly the leading Horror Lady of 1932, Leila Hyams starred in both Freaks and The Island of Lost Souls. Despite having a career that lasted but a single decade, Leila has left a lasting imprint on the Horror genre.
5. Lucille Lund
As seems to be the case with a lot of actresses in this era, Lucille Lund did not enjoy the longest of careers, and is perhaps only really known for one film. Good thing it was the unforgettable horror movie The Black Cat.
August 13, 2012
The Week Ahead
I have decided, after seeing my good friend Armand Rosamilia do this every week, to write a post every Monday, outlining my plans for the week; my writing plans. I hope that way, I will find myself pushed even further in order to get things done.
Let me start the post by saying, I hate editing. Now, that loathing is coming back to haunt me.
I have about 120,000 words of short stories, which I plan to spread over 3 ebooks that need to be edited.
I think, I am going to make this the primary focus of my week.
I edit in hardcopy first, with a red pen… yes, a real red pen. Then I go through and type up the changes.
I have 60 pages left to red pen edit in the first collection. Now, with three writing sessions a day, equating to about 2 maybe 2 and a half hours, I should be able to get a good load done.
My goal is to write in the mornings before work. My brain is often at its most creative in the early hours of the day. I will then edit during my lunch break at work, and then in the evenings. I figure if I really knuckle down, I should get the 60 pages done by the end of the week, and then next week have them typed up. I lower my standard 750 a day target on the novel to 500 and if need be I’ll set my alarm fifteen minutes earlier for the second half of the week.
Of course, this all depends on my kids sleeping and not waking up at 04.30 with my alarm. Although, if they wake earlier, then I am downstairs earlier, and can write even more… oh the double edged sword of parenting.
I hope you all have a great week of writing, and I would love to hear what goals you have set for yourself.
