Doc Coleman's Blog, page 20

I’m doing WHAT at Balticon 46?

Oh, wait, I think that is supposed to be “What I’m doing at Balticon 46!” No, on second thought, I think I may have gotten it right the first time. Bit by bit, my schedule for Balticon 46 has come together, and now I am finally ready to share it in all of its titanic [...]

The Wayback Machine: The Shrinking Man Project: Episode 18 – On the Plateau

Today we have another trip on the Wayback Machine! We’re going back just a little over a year from now, to April 20th, 2011. This was right when I first hit the plateau that I’m still struggling with. It also happens to be right before I discovered that I had a blood clot in my [...]

The Wayback Machine: Galley Table Episode Thirty-Two: Tromping Tropes!

Once again the Wayback Machine has sputtered to life, taking us on a trip into podcasting past. Today’s adventure down memory lane takes us to April 16, 2011, where we will bear witness to the release of Episode 32 of Galley Table! In this episode we’re talking with Paulette Jaxton about her book The Empress Sword, and [...]

Another week speeds past

And, in what seems like a blink of an eye, another week is gone. But it has been productive. Northern Mist went through editing in what seems like a blink of an eye. I must admit that the editing process was vaguely disappointing. I was expecting more feedback. For once I’m experiencing the desire to continue [...]

Free Will (and other compulsions), Book 2 of the Antithesis Progression

Before I get into the review, I have a confession to make. This review is way, way, WAY over due. Last summer I had written a few reviews of books that I had read and enjoyed immensely. This led to my being approached by several people and asked to do reviews on their books. I [...]

“Northern Mist” Revealed! Part 1

For those of you, yes, both of you, who have wondered about the mysterious project code-named “Northern Mist” that I’ve been working on, I can now reveal a little more about it. I’ve kept quiet pending word from the author who invited me to write in his world that I can begin talking about the [...]

Where has the time gone?

I can't believe I've let a whole week go by without posting anything here. The odd thing is that it has been an eventful week, but now looking back on it, it is a bit difficult to point back at what actually got done. I'm sure everyone has weeks like that. But there are a few things I can definitely point to as accomplishments…

"Northern Mist" is finished now. It has a proper title, I've done a first round of edits and cleaned a few things up, and submitted it for consideration. No word back yet about how the story was received, so I'm proceeding under the impression that it hasn't been read yet. After all, it is an anthology and other people are submitting stories. There is plenty to keep the editor occupied. So, until I get the official word that the story has been accepted and can be talked about, I'm going to have to keep the story's title and setting a secret. I'm expecting some back and forth editing of the story, but that process hasn't really begun.

The surprising thing about wrapping up "Mist" is how short my last writing session was. Last Friday I sat down to add 250 words to the story so that I could say I wrote something, and by the time I got done with that, I realized that I was done. The writing session prior to that I had stopped because I was so very tired, and it hadn't registered how close to the end I was. I did a first editing pass over the weekend and caught a few mistakes and polished up a few rough edges. Rather than batter at it to make it "perfect" I went ahead and submitted it. If I'm going to make changes, I'd rather they be changes that get the story accepted. The first draft is around 7000 words, so it is a healthy sized short story. We will see if it stays that long, or if I have to cut it back down towards 5000 words.

In the wake of finishing "Mist" I've found it hard to get back to writing. Part of me seems to want to wait for word to come back on "Mist". The reality is that I need to get back to working on Perils and get that finished off. If I'm going to podcast Perils this fall, I have to get it edited and line up voice talent. Just a ton of work there.

Last week also saw the release of a new Shrinking Man Project episode. That was an interesting episode, in that I recorded it while I took a 2-mile walk around my block. I've got some positive feedback from it, in the form of people who like the honesty of hearing me exercise while I'm talking about exercise. I've had at least one request to do more shows like that one. And it got Nathan Lowell to subscribe to the podcast!

I think I've also had it with grocery delivery services. I placed an order with Giant's Peapod delivery service for delivery last Tuesday. Peapod only gives a limited selection of what is available in the stores, but the lure of it is that they pull the groceries and deliver them to your door at a specified time. Right. My delivery was supposed to arrive between 5 and 7 PM on Tuesday evening. A little after 4 PM, they called to say that they were going to be late, but they'd deliver between 7:15 and 7:45 PM. Irritating, but not horrific.

When 8 PM rolled around, I called Peapod customer service to ask if they were planning to make the delivery at all, since they were now 3 hours past the original delivery window. The truck finally showed up at 8:20. And then it turned out that they forgot two of the items I ordered, and they crushed my loaf of bread.

Obviously, this did NOT make me a happy camper.

The whole point of services like this is that they'll save you time. But my experience is that having the groceries delivered TOOK me more time. In the time I spent waiting for the truck to show up, I could have gone to the grocery, shopped, brought my groceries home, put them away, AND cooked dinner. This would have required me to carry my own groceries, but I wouldn't have had a limited selection of foods, and I'd have all the things on my list.

I believe I've had it with Peapod. It just isn't worth the aggravation.

PayPal Breaks!

An interesting thing happened yesterday.

Last week, I got together with the Galley Table crew and we recorded an episode of the Galley Table talking about PayPal's latest shenanigans in trying to censor online content by threatening to withdraw their services to online booksellers like Smashwords. PayPal's take on things was that a) they didn't want their service to be associated with morally questionable content, and b) they were being pressured into it by the credit card companies that they do business with. We called bullshit. The products that PayPal wanted to censor (and worse!) are sold every day in brick and mortar stores using those credit cards. Nobody bats an eye. For that matter, much worse things are sold on e-Bay, PayPal's parent company, and paid for via PayPal. If PayPal wants to censor content, why not start with e-Bay?

So last week we recorded, and Episode 61 of Galley Table went live yesterday. And do you know what happened?

PayPal recanted.

They are no longer going to threaten the livelihood of legal booksellers doing legal business, even if some of that business is in the erotica market. They are reducing the objectionable content from broad classes of literature to specific books. This is interesting because it shifts the burden of proof from the bookseller, trying to prove that a class of work is legal and should be allowed, over to PayPal, who now needs to prove that a specific work is objectionable and violates the law.

I know there are some out there who will laud PayPal's actions as an attempt to stand up for morality. I certainly cannot fault anyone for clearly stating the morals that they believe in and choosing to absent themselves from activity that they deem to be morally ambiguous. But I cannot abide the hypocrisy of interfering with legal commerce between two other parties, while continuing to participate in the same questionable type of business deals yourself. In the end, that hypocrisy is what made this a freedom of speech issue, instead of a moral argument.

There will always be some content in the world that someone will find morally objectionable. We can't help that. Personally, I'd rather that people explore such themes in fiction, and not in real life.

Springtime Sickness

It is past time I put out some kind of writing update. Well past time, in fact, since I've done a fair amount of writing since the last update, although I haven't gotten much written lately. The last time I had checked in here about my writing progress, was back on February 26th, over two weeks ago, and at that time I'd written about 1000 words on "Mist", bringing it up to about 1800 or so words. I followed this up by stealing some time on the ride in to work by writing during the carpool into work for about 300 words a pop. This got "Mist" up to about 2500 words. Not really great progress.

Then on March 4th, I sat down to do some serious writing, and managed to plow through the vast majority of the story, adding another 3500 words and bringing "Mist" up to 6000 words. I'd added a seventh scene in the middle of the story, I really needed the transition, and had everything written but the last scene. Nice progress for a day of writing.

I spent the rest of last week trying to get some other priority items off my table. This included something for my day job, scheduling items for Balticon 46, and another episode of my podcast so I can release a promo before the 16th. But after clearing those things out, I still needed to finish up "Mist".

Last Friday night I tried to get back to it and finish off the story. I started the last scene, but after about 800 words I gave up. It was too late, and I was just too exhausted. It also proved to be the pre-cursor to me getting sick. The darned weather changes in the DC area have gotten to me again. Freezing temperatures in the morning and 60+ degrees in the afternoon have thrown my system out of whack and given me a very unpleasant sinus infection. I've spent the last two days sick in bed and feeling rather puny.

Today, I am back to work, but I expect that my production is going to take a downturn for a bit, until I can fight my way back to health. Unfortunately, I've got too many deadlines to day to take much time off this week. Gotta get things done.

The Wayback Machine: The Shrinking Man Project: Episode 17 – Take Your Time

Starting the week of right this week with another trip via the Wayback Machine! Today we're visiting April 13, 2011 and a return of Philosophy to The Shrinking Man Project. This episode discusses the way most people set unrealistic deadlines for themselves. This sabotages your progress, and can lead to permanent damage. Even if you heard this one the first time around, you'll probably want to give it another listen.

This episode also marks the beginning of my blood clot issues. Hasn't been diagnosed yet, but I do talk about the issues I encountered because of the clot.

Enjoy the show.

Show notes included below.

Show Notes:

Welcome!


Philosophy


Off to the scales…


Promo – Geek Out! with Mainframe


Weigh in


Week in review

Computer nightmares.


Exercises done!


Medical issues.
Another week on plan.
Love my Audio Editor!
Lessons learned. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Moving forward. Keep an eye on your health.


Feedback!


Sign off

Leave comments on the blog at http://theshrinkingmanproject.com
E-mail at Doc@theshrinkingmanproject.com
Voice mail at (240) 745-5022
Join the Fans of the Shrinking Man Project on Facebook
If you have a podcast, send me your promos!
Leave a review on iTunes or Podcast Alley.
Tell your friends about the podcast.
Have a good week! Keep losing that weight.


End credits

Mentioned on the show:

Geek Out! with Mainframe
Crash Plan – Nifty Tech Blog Review of Crash Plan
Balticon 45
Team Wench
MS Fantasy Ball
Fans of The Shrinking Man Project