Dylan Charles's Blog, page 26

Limitations

As a great man once said, you got to know your limitations.

I can't write pulp. I lack two fundamental skills that are necessary for the craft.

I can't write quickly. A pulp writer has to be able to churn out words faster than a typewriter in a hurricane and I just can't do it. I can write, maybe, a thousand words a day tops. And I can't even sustain that speed for very long. It'll take me a month to write a 10,000 to 20,000 word story. To be able to do that on a regular basis? Impossible.

My...

The First Pitch

Baseball season starts in two days and I'm pretty excited.

I've watched some Spring Training games. I've watched a few games from last year. I've watched (basically) a highlight reel from the 2004 World Series. I've read baseball books, baseball articles, baseball magazines. I've watched press clippings from Valentine and interviews with the players.

I've basically done everything I can to get ready for this season and now it's almost here.

Pretty soon, they're going to set everything in...

App Review: Angry Birds Space

I used to play a lot of Angry Birds, just like every other human being on the planet. After a while, though, it got tiring. There's only so many times you can hurl a bird into a pig and remain satisfied. They tried to mix things up with themed levels (birthday parties and Halloween, frinstance) and the (very) occasional new bird (orange bird), but nothing that really added much to the core fundamentals of the game.

But Rovio is back with a brand spanking new sequel called Angry Birds Space...

Relearning the Craft

Last time, I announced yet another new project. Unlike all my other projects, I'm still working on this one. But I'm having a lot of trouble.  I need to basically learn a whole new set of skills to get this one done. And I need to learn a whole new style.

It's an interesting process for me, because I haven't really stretched myself as a writer in a long time. I've been working on the same stuff for more than a year now, and it involves a very set style and language. It's very formal, very...

The Grand Plan

I have a grand plan for making it big in the writing world. It's going to take a lot of work, but I think I can pull it off.

This ain't no quick-rich scheme, no sir. It's going to take months and months of writing, planning and even some marketing, because I ain't trusting word of mouth with this bad boy.

I'm going to release a weekly, mini-novella via Kindle Direct Publishing. They're going to be in the vein of the old style pulp horror magazines: chock full of monsters, blood and mayhem...

Mreh-day

My birthday is coming up. I always turn birthdays into, "What didn't I do this year? What didn't I accomplish?" It doesn't make for a very happy day and I generally spend it in bed hiding from it until it goes away and I can ignore it for another year.

So I'm going to try and head that off this year, basically by reiterating my earlier New Year blog post. I need to convince myself that I didn't just waste another year.

I published a book.

I started a second book (which I'm still sort of working ...

Restaurant Review: Hungry Mother

Emily and I have gone to a few restaurants in the area now and I think we have a good bead on what's good in Boston/Cambridge.

For us, the best restaurant we've gone to, either here or elsewhere, is Hungry Mother. We've only been there twice, because that's as often as we can afford to go there, but both times we've been there, it's been great every step of the way.

The food is always excellent and they make use of locally grown produce whenever possible. Since they advertise as a Southern...

The Motion

I got caught up watching a soccer game while I was buying my nightly 24 case of beer and immediately felt at home. After watching the World Cup, I became very familiar with how a soccer game moves. It's a tidal movement. The players flow from one end of the field, then recede to the other end of the field as the ball changes hands. Or…feet, I guess.

As the game moves from one end to the other, emotions build. There's the tension as they get closer to the goal. And then it either dwindles...

Zombies, Run!: Conclusion

This will be the last Zombies, Run! entry for a long, long while. Promise.

After completing the first three missions and starting the third, I think I'm ready to bring in my final verdict on Zombies, Run!

There are a couple of things that I wish they'd add:

-I'd really like to know how much I've run in terms of miles, rather than in the vague and ambiguous steps. Some of us aren't blessed with iPhones or iPods equipped with a GPS.

-In line with the previous, I'd really like to be pursued by...

Flashback to Go Forward

For the first time ever, I'm watching a Red Sox game. Granted, it's a Red Sox game from April 1st, 2011, but it's still an actual, for really real, major league baseball game.

After months of reading and watching clips of past games, this is extremely refreshing. I'm finally able to put my (still somewhat limited) knowledge to use. I understand what most of the stats mean. I understand why Pedroia attempted to bunt while Ellsbury was on first with no outs. And I even understand why George W...