C.S. Daley's Blog, page 16

Rude People Suck

I like holding the door for people, women or men. It is a nice thing to do. I have surprised a few fast food workers over the years with my words of "thank yous" and "have a nice day." I am not perfect but I try to be polite when I am out in public. I think it comes from the fact I know I still have a little bit of rage bottled up inside me.

As a kid it was a big ball of rage but I have managed to shrink it down over the years. I try never to unleash it in public, although I have not always been successful with this. I have noticed that with each passing year polite in public is becoming a rarer creature.

This last week in New York was one of the worst I can remember. Let me stress I am not talking about New Yorkers. Without fail Sheri and I have always been treated very well by the locals. No, I am talking about the tourists. By the end of the week my little ball of rage was starting to have an overwhelming urge to punch a lot of people in the face.

Times Square was packed. We were squished in like sardines. This makes it more important you actually look at where you are going, not less. There is no such thing as automatic right of way. Pay attention and stop running into people. This might mean you have to get off the damn phone. Oh and you big groups of people that stopped in the middle of the block to have a conversation, next time take it to a side street.

When there is a line, find the end. Wherever you happen to end up is not your place in line. If someone is talking to a store worker wait your turn. Also, the store clerk is not your personal punching bag. Treat them with kindness and you might get what you are after.

The day it rained Sheri must have been nailed by a dozen umbrellas because people simply did not care to keep track of their place in space.

Then there was the woman who sat in front of us at The Book of Mormon. She clearly did not like the show. She was pissed from almost the beginning and her agitation just continued to grow. At one point I laughed really hard and she looked over her shoulder and stared at me. I was not aware of a laughing loudness limit. Having said that I know sometimes my laugh can be loud. I tried to muffle it a little on the off chance I was blasting into her ear.

This did not help anything. She kept turning and looking at me everythime I laughed. Then she started bitching to the guy sitting next to her. He basically told her to get stuffed. It was at this point I decided to not worry about my laugh (by the way this was a funny musical the theater was booming with people's laughter). At the end of the musical the woman stood up and stared at me. I just gave her a polite smile and left. Not sure why she went to see The Book of Mormon if the humor wasn't up her alley. It wasn't like they haven't been advertising it.

I won't even start on the people who sat behind us on the plane and kept kicking Sheri's chair. I know it isn't everyone but it would be nice if people took a few seconds to think about what their actions do to the world around them. I clearly need to get home and pet some kittens.

Musical Geek (New York 2011)

Sometimes you just get lucky. We booked our New York trip back in January. This included theater tickets. Buying theater tickets before some shows open is always a risky venture. You are basing it on a gut feeling. Maybe something someone wrote. Out of town tryouts or small snippets of the show they have released. This year we bought tickets for 5 shows. One of them closed before we got to New York (Wonderland) and one was cancelled because of the Harry Potter Premiere (How To Succeed in Business).

Luckily, for us both shows were cancelled early enough I could adjust and buy other tickets. In this case I bought much better tickets. How To Succeed was cancelled back in February. So I bought tickets for The Book of Mormon. There was already a buzz going but of course nothing like what was to come. In a couple of months those tickets would have been very hard to get.

Wonderland was cancelled several weeks before the Tony Awards. I did a quick search around and saw that Anything Goes had been extended several times. Even more importantly it had Sutton Foster in it. If I had seen this when I was first buying tickets I would have bought this show (although in my defense I don't think it was originally suppose to go into late summer). This was a lucky buy for us because Sutton Foster would win the Tony (as well as Anything Goes for best revival) and suddenly the show became a hot ticket. It has played to over capacity crowds since the Tony Awards.

Both the cancellations ended up being a giant trade up. The two shows we replaced them with became our favorite shows on this trip. Here are my very brief thoughts on each show we saw. I listed them in order of our favorite to least favorite (this is the first year traveling to New York where we completely agreed on the order).

The Book of Mormon

This show was wrong in so many ways I can't even begin to explain them all. Of course, it is from the creators of South Park so you wouldn't expect anything less. There is one scene where I think I cried all the way through it (I was laughing so hard). The musical was surprisingly sweet with a very clear message of kindness. We really loved it.

Anything Goes

This was a revival of the Cole Porter musical. It was a little hokey and a little corny and a lot of funny. Joel Grey was a lot of fun to watch (our first time seeing him) but the show was absolutely owned by Sutton Foster. The Book of Mormon was the better overall show but Sutton Foster had the standout performance of the week (and maybe ever for us. Definitely one of the top). She is a marvel. Singing, dancing, acting, and smoldering (not something she is well known for). I wished I could watch again immediately. I am going to go ahead and call it here right now in 2011. Twenty years from now Sutton Foster is going to play Gypsy and absolutely slay it.

Catch Me If You Can

This was a really fun musical. It wasn't spectacular. No song really stuck with you as you were leaving the theater. Norbert Leo Butz was great but I admit I had a hard time considering him the lead (which he won the Tony for). He really wasn't. Aaron Tevit was and he was also very charming and good. The show was missing that little extra something which often makes good musicals, great. Still it was worth it.

Mary Poppins

Sheri has wanted to see this for a long time. I am glad we did. We got really lucky because Ashley Brown (the original Broadway Mary Poppins) was in it. Our problem with the show is it was a little slow and sometimes felt uneven. It was still good but really didn't knock us out like we had hoped it would.

Cirque Du Soleil: Zarkana

We bought these tickets for two reasons. One it was playing in Radio City Music Hall, a venue we had always wanted to see a show in. Two we love Cirque shows. We were a little surprised it was our least favorite show. It really brought absolutely nothing new or interesting to the Cirque world. We liked it well enough but if I had to do it all over again I think I would have bought Sister Act or some other musical.

Incarnators Week 1 Redo

This week I learned a very valuable writing lesson. I am very dedicated to making my daily word count goal on my novels while on vacation. That is as long as the novel is already started. Apparently, if it is a brand new novel, not so much.

We spent a glorious week in New York and I wrote exactly nothing in Incarnators. I thought about it a whole lot. In the shower. On the subway. While we were walking. I am sure there were a few zone out moments while eating dinner (nothing too bad since Sheri never gave me the look. Unless of course I zoned out the look).

The days were just packed. Every night we got back to the hotel room and I would plan to sit down and start. Then I would go exercise. Take a shower. Lie down and not start. The week was a total loss when it comes to words on screen.

All is not lost though. I sit typing this blog from the Newark Airport. We are on our way to Orlando to visit Grandma. Orlando visits have a lot of down time. Grandma doesn't get around like she used to. So I will positively, absolutely be writing something this week. The goal to start is 1000 words a day which I hope to increase to 2000 a day after I get back from the San Diego Comic-con.

Next week when you check in I will have exciting new information about toying the last book of the Dark Lands Trilogy (by exciting I mean I am going to tease you and give a way nothing).

Geeking Out Part 11….

Sweet Tooth by Jeff Lemire

How did I miss this comic? It has been coming out for a few years. Published under the Vertigo imprint. An imprint which sells me a lot of comics. It is about an apocalypse. A subject matter I generally read. It is wacky and different. Brilliantly written and drawn by Jeff Lemire. Despite all this I haven't been reading it. I only picked it up now because there was a digital sale online and I decided to pick them up to read on the airplane. Now I wish I could get my hands on all the rest of the issues. Can't wait to see where it goes next. If you like your post apocalyptic stories served up with a nice heap of strange with a huge dash of kindness go check them out. The main character may be one of the most memorable in comics right now. When a writer leaves you in fear of what might happen next, you know you have a hook stuck in your cheek.

Barton Hollow  by The Civil Wars

What a wonderful CD. I guess it would be classified as folk but really it is all about the voices of John Paul White and Joy Williams. They sound great together. The music is soft and gentle. The music is acoustic. One of my favorite albums of the year so far.

Shangri-LA by YACHT

The exact oppoiste of The Civil Wars. Loud and bombastic electronic music. I am not sure which planet Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans have arrived here from but I am glad they brought their music with them. I am not a big fan of electronic music so for me to recommend this shows how much I love it. Can't wait to see them live.

Embassytown by China Miéville

China Mieville is the master of strange. Is it fantasy? Is it science fiction? Did I read that last line correctly? This book is not for the faint of heart. It took a lot of concentration to get through all the layers of plot and language. Not my favorite book by him but as usual Mr. Mieville is worth the read.

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The Hard Way by Lee Child

I had wandered away from the Jack Reacher series a few years ago. The books had started to run together without much new being brought to the table. Recently, I got the urge to see how my old pal Reacher was doing and I am glad I started reading again. This book was one of my favorites. It got me stoked for Reacher all over again. Be warned though. It is book ten. You can read it on its own but I don't think I would recommend it. If you want a good suspense series go back and start at the beginning but pace yourself so you don't burn out like I did.

Frakking Stomach

If you are a regular reader of my blog you know how much I have struggled with my weight. The main problem I have is I like to eat but have a body which has completely rebelled against me. Herniated discs in my back were the first problem. Now I have a constant fight with migraines when I exercise. When I exercise regularly and hard I am quite fit. I like exercising. It is good "me" time. I think about writing and work out the stress.

I have had a very hard time adjusting my eating to fit the amount of exercise I can do before my body kicks my ass. Over the last month I have found a nice comfort zone on exercise. I have started jogging and bike riding occasionally. I kick my elliptical's ass on a regular basis (I have been averaging about 600 calories burned a day on it). I have slowly started cutting the junk food out but it doesn't change how hard it is to eat less.

I like eating. I know part of the reason I like eating is it is the way I learned to cope with my stress as a child. I have done a lot better but the grind wears me out sometimes. I have fallen off the exercise bus a lot the last two years and still haven't reached the goal I set for myself. It has left me a little discouraged.

The biggest problem I am having right now is my waist line. I am incredibly fit. I have good stamina and exercise forever. My legs are rock solid right now. My arms look great. My frakking stomach is being totally uncooperative. It pisses me off. I have a lot of shirts I have been waiting to fit into and I am close. I just can't get over this last hump. I put one of the shirts on Saturday and felt like crying. There was the pooch staring back at me.

I am not obese. I am probably not even overweight right now (I refuse to get on a scale anymore. This is all about waist size). All I want to do is fit into the medium t-shirts sitting in my drawer missing me. I can put them on and if I suck it up they even fit. Walking around all day at Comic-Con trying to hold in my stomach will not work (Comic-Con was the deadline for my goal). I am trying to stay positive. Trying to eat better. Wishing it was a whole lot easier.

I am not going to lie and say part of this isn't about looking my best. I like when I look fit. It isn't the only thing it is about though. I need to be healthy. Men in my family have not lived as long as they should have. I do not wish to be part of that alarming trend. I have worked too hard to get where I am. I want to have a long enjoyable life with my wife, family, and friends. I guess the good news is I haven't missed a day of exercise in a while. I have found my comfort zone. Now I need to zap the damn stomach.

Incarnators Week 1

After a couple long weeks where the editing process on Whispers of the Dead dragged slowly, I kicked my ass into gear and finished it early this morning (when I say early I mean early. Sometime after 1 am). Now all that is left for Whispers is to get it formatted and published. I am looking at an August 1 publication date (which was the day I had always been shooting for. So deadline met!).

I really wanted to be done with Whispers before we left for New York. I wanted to have all the editing out-of-the-way so I could enjoy New York with a clear conscious. This doesn't mean I won't be writing. Starting tomorrow before we leave I will sit down in front of the computer and begin cranking out the last book of the Dark Lands Trilogy. Its working title right now is Incarnators but I don't expect this to hold. I will see if anything jumps out at me while writing (this is what happened twice with the second book).

I am really looking forward to writing this last book. The characters have been screaming at me for sometime to get their story finished. I will be introducing two new points of view in the next book. I am super excited about both of them. One of them is a minor character in Whispers of the Dead. One is a brand new character (for those of you who have read the first book I will throw you a bone. The new character resides in the Southlands).

Like with my other novels I will write about my writing process every Saturday. I won't post any previews of the writing because I don't want to give away any of the book cliffhangers. My plan is to have the final book written by the end of September. It will then go into heavy editing for a planned release of sometime in November or December. A lot will depend on how long the book turns out. I am guessing it will be the longest of the series.

Thank you to everyone who bought the first book and is waiting patiently for the next. Hold onto your seats because it is going to be a bumpy ride. I hope I can deliver a book you love. I feel like I am an infinitely better novelist than when I started this series. Now I just have to prove it.

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Go out and get the first book if you haven't already. This way you will be in th know. Plus, I will like you a lot (author pandering at its best).

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Best Albums This Year (So Far- 2011)

As we get ready to enter the second half of the year it is time for me to compile my favorite albums of the year so far. The only rule is it is a 2011 release. It's possible some of the albums were released last year outside of the U.S. but since the music industry is still backwards when it comes to distribution I only worry about what I can actually get my hands on.

It has been a great year of music so far. My music collection continues to grow at fantastic rates. I continue to do all my writing while listening to my favorite tunes. I hope you like the list and maybe find a gem or two you haven't listened to. As always I have limited the list to my ten favorite in no particular order.

The Kills – Blood Pressure

I have always been a big fan of The Kills and was worried I would not be getting an album from them because of Alison Mosshart's work with Dead Weather. I am glad they made this album. Probably my favorite by them. Stand out tracks include Pots and Pans and Heart is a Beating Drum.

Adele – 21

All I can really say is wow! A second album which is actually better than the first (which was a damn good album). Adele has ramped it up a notch here. Every song on the album is a gem and I can listen to it over and over. Stand out tracks include Rolling in the Deep and Rumour Has It.

The Rural Alberta Advantage – Departing

Continuing with the great second album theme. I loved this band's first record but they are kind of quirky and this sometimes leads to a disappointing second taste. Not the case here. I think I played this record non-stop the first few weeks after it came out. Nils Edenloff has a wonderfully,  unique voice. I am a sucker for unusual vocals. Stand out tracks include Stamp and Muscle Relaxants.

Mother Mother – EUREKA

Again sucker for beautiful different vocals. Mother Mother is a symphony of different. Multiple lead singers. Quirky lyrics and great rhythms. Not nearly enough people are listening to this band. Stand out tracks include Problems and Baby Don't Dance.

YACHT – Shangri-LA

I love this album so much. Not usually a real big fan of heavy electronics usage in music but this album won me over early. I love listening to Claire L. Evans sing. I can't wait to see them live because I hear they are spectacular. This album has a science fiction vibe which also appeals to the geek in me. Stand out tracks include Shangri-La and Dystopia (The Earth Is On Fire).

The Golden Dogs – Coat of Arms

This band is quickly turning into a buy everything they do because so far everything has been fantastic. This seems to be my year for interesting vocals and harmonies and The Golden Dogs fit right in. Not a throw away song on this album (a universal theme of this list). Stand out tracks include Dear Francis and Darkroom.

The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow

Joy Williams and John Paul White are an incredible duet. This album is blissful. Acoustic folk music has never sounded so good. An album made up of acoustics and voices. Nothing they do overpowers you except the urge to hit the repeat button when the album is done. I am not a giant fan of folk and this album has its share of country roots. So for me to love it as much as I do is a testament to how great it is. Stand out tracks include Dance Me to the End of Love and Barton Hollow.

Lindi Ortega – Little Red Boots

I think I may be sick because really this album is dangerously close to country also. Although, I think it is closer to alt-country then anything. It isn't that I don't like country but I am not a big fan of modern country music. A little too pop for me. This one strokes my alternative sensibilities. Stand out tracks include Little Lie and Little Red Boots.

Pascale Picard Band – A Letter To No One

I almost feel bad putting this album on the list. If you live in the U.S. you are getting screwed by stupid distribution rules because this album is not available here. In fact, their first album has still not been released here and I am telling you it is one of my favorite albums released in the last decade. You can buy it in Canada, but no love for the United States. Unless you do what I did which is import it. It is completely worth it. Stand out tracks include Hide and Seek and Five Minutes.

Garfunkel and Oates – All Over Your Face

I will go ahead and give a warning here. This album is wrong in so many ways. A comedy folk band, really. This album is inappropriate and clever. Chalk full of funny songs with lyrics which will often hit way too close to home. Stand out tracks include You, Me, and Steve, One Night Stand, and This Party Took a Turn for the Douche.

Apple Police State

I stumbled across an article a few weeks back that talked about an amazing new technology being developed by Apple. It seems they want to put out a commercial device that would disable the iPhone, iTouch, and iPad from recording sound, taking pictures, or video. Apparently, the thought process behind this is to allow musicians to stop fans from using their iPhones at concerts.

Now, I have some opinions on how smart that may or may not be for a musician but I don't really have a problem with a musician deciding they don't want to be recorded. They own the material it is their decision. I have a little more of a problem with venues deciding (something that many venues already do). I have always felt the venue should have to abide by the artist's wish. What does a venue care if you take pictures or record a concert.

All of this is really inconsequential to the thought which really frightened me. The article I read didn't say there was going to be any limitations to the device. Anyone could be a consumer. Buy the device, turn it on, and stop people from recording you. This sent a large big brother shiver up my spine.

What's to stop every police force in the United States (and beyond) from outfitting their officers with a device which disables recording devices. Trust me on this if Apple can disable their devices than all devices can be disabled. Once Apple figures it out someone will jump right on board with Android and every other device.

I am not anti-police. I like living in a world where we have police and have always found it a little silly that some people don't. However, I don't want to live in a world where police have no checks and balances. I think the ability to record police is a just such a thing. Like any profession there are bad seeds. I think most police officers do a great job but we have all seen the video of those few who don't. I think that video is important. I want to know when people are behaving badly. I want to see the evidence of the riots that go wrong. The traffic stops which go backwards.

I have no desire to live in a police state. Especially one aided by Apple or any other company. I know the military has probably already developed and deployed something like this. It's a thought which gives me no comfort. Every year it seems like more of my personal freedom is snatched away from me. It worries me. Next week I am flying (sadly on an airplane and not with my yet to be manifested flying powers)  to New York and I have to admit the full body scans piss me the hell off. Here's hoping this particular Apple invention gains no traction. I know big brother is watching but big brother needs to know we are watching right back.

Smashwords Pain

Technology is a wonderful thing, it really is. I am typing this blog on my iPad in a hotel room in San Francisco. I just set Sheri's iPad up so she could use her 3G chip this month while we are traveling around. In a few moments we are going to be heading towards downtown San Francisco and I will pull up the addresses of garages we can park at.

My current writing career is completely fueled by technology (this is using the word career loosely). Without e-books I would have been unable to unleash upon the world my particular brand of madness. I am actually very thankful for that. However, the last hoop I have to jump through in order to get my novel in the iBookstore has been a major pain in the ass.

Yes, I am talking about Smashwords. You see, I can't put my book on the iPad unless I want to buy an ISBN number. This is an expense I am not quite ready to make. The way around it is to submit to Smashwords and they will give you an ISBN and put you in the iBookstore (as well as Sony's e-bookstore).

The problem is Smashwords also submits to a bunch of other stores and formats. The way Smashwords handles this is by making you submit your book in Microsoft Word so that they can put it through their meat grinder e-book creator which spits out all the different versions. It is a ridiculous system. I only want to submit to a few stores and I have the knowledge to create my own ePub files. By making me use Word and their meat grinder I am at the mercy of Smashwords that everything will work.

Let me tell you it hasn't. Don't get me wrong it produced a readable book the first submission but it added all kinds of weird little errors. The only way to fix these errors was by trial and error. You make a few adjustments in Word and submit it again. You then cross your fingers and hope it works. I think I submitted both my books ten times.

Between my brother and I, we slowly have learned what mucks up the format. I am seriously thinking about starting up a formatting service for other authors. When I put my books on the Nook and Kindle I had nowhere near this problem because I could edit my own e-book file and the code in it. You don't get to touch Smashwords code. You get to play, "I wonder what will happen if I do this?" instead. It was way too frustrating, especially when I had a working epub file already out there on the Kindle and Nook. Just another learning expereince of being my own boss. It felt like a huge waste of time. Hopefully, we learned enough that the next book won't be such a chore.

The Shadow Men at Amazon

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The Shadow Men at Smashwords

The Shadow Men at Amazon UK

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Dark YA Fiction

I read an article in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks back which suggested young adult books are too dark today. It was a well written article and it had lots of valid points. I obviously don't agree. Since I am currently finishing up my Darkland trilogy I wrote for teenagers which are very dark. I tried to write my books with respect to the reader. There is a war going on. Children are in the middle of it. There isn't an easy way to sugar coat war and I don't try to do it.

My favorite set of books written over the last few years are The Hunger Games sequence by Suzanne Collins. They are also dark. They deal with death, violence, and war. Again the writer treated the subject with respect. She made her characters important. If something happens to one of them you care.

When I was writing The Shadow Men there was a couple of sequences I knew were likely to upset readers. One of them actually made me tear up a little when I was writing and editing it. I could have changed it but I didn't want to. Not because of some desire to push the limits or be edgy. It was part of the story. It made sense that bad things might happen to some of the main characters.

Growing up my favorite writers (Robert Cormier, S.E. Hinton, J.D. Salinger) didn't belittle me. They wrote honestly about tough subjects. Truthfully, there weren't many writers who did that and I found myself quickly moving into adult books. I think it is great the selection for young readers has grown so large.

I used books as a guide post growing up. They were my teachers. Much of who I am as an adult was formed out of the words writers gave me growing up. My students are the same way today. They are not stupid. They understand the difference between fiction and reality. They also understand that fiction sometimes mirrors the reality of the world they live in. They suck in the words and they form opinions. It's what is supposed to happen when you read books.

I think it is important for parents to stay in the mix when it comes to what their children are exposed to but I have always been a strong believer of letting children make their choices. Once they have, then you talk with them about it. You guide them to other books or other styles. The exploration of fiction is so personal, especially for children who are trying to figure out themselves and the world around them. Just like all the things throughout the last hundred years which were supposed to be too dark for children (comics, movies, TV, video games) I am sure the young people of the world will find their way through the darkness no worse for wear.

 

The Shadow Men at Amazon

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