Bryce Moore's Blog, page 154

Avoiding Fear

A few weeks ago, I read a Micheal Crichton novel about global warming: State of Fear. It came out in 2004, and it was based on the premise that global warming was basically a big hoax. That it wasn’t nearly as cut and dried as “everyone” wanted you to think.

It’s a tin foil hat book, basically. Though it did raise some interesting points and made me think about how research is presented and consumed. (But seriously, the book came out in 2004. Here we are 13 years later, and the arguments it makes don’t really hold up so well over time.)

However, one part of the book that appealed to me and which I still think about is how it argued that politicians and leaders prefer a populace that’s afraid. Fear is a big unifier, and if there isn’t something to be afraid of, people will manufacture it in order to gain leverage. I believe this is true, and I’ve tried to stop falling for the technique when I can.

I have one great example from my life where I let fear rule me. It was during the auditions for district band in high school. I was playing bassoon, and I was terrified of that audition. I went in, and I did horrendously. My fingers were shaking uncontrollably, I couldn’t breathe, and I flubbed pretty much every part of that audition. When we got the results back, I was so low. Low enough that my score would have been dead last in pretty much any instrument in comparison, no matter how many people tried out. The other three bassoonists who auditioned had scores over 100. I think mine was an 8.

It was bad.

But I still got in. Why? Two reasons, I think. First, they needed 4 bassoonists, and only 4 tried out. But I also believe my music teacher pulled some strings. He knew my skill level, regardless of how poorly I played. I have to think he reassured the other judges that I was much better than those few minutes of audition would lead them to believe.

Fear makes us perform poorly. It gets in the way of our thinking. It makes us doubt our abilities. It can skew your viewpoint. It’s one of the worst motivations to do something I can think of. And yet it’s also one of the most effective motivators, and it’s used all the time.

It’s used in religion, to frighten people out of sin. It’s used in the workplace to keep employees in line. It’s used in politics on both sides of the aisle. Trump wanted (and continues to want) Americans to be afraid of the future and the present. Others want us to be afraid of Trump. But fear, while an effective motivator, is also one with the shortest duration. Remove the active fear, and you remove the motivation.

On Sunday, President Uchtdorf, second counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gave a great talk about the evils of fear, and that made me think more about the subject. It’s a great talk (and not just because he officially endorses falling asleep in church), and I encourage you to give it a listen.

I took away three things from the talk:

I should not let myself be motivated by fear in any sphere of my life. I should try to do my best to be working for something, not against something. In other words, pick the things I love in life. The goals I want to achieve. Strive to achieve them. Strive to make the world, my family, and myself better by improving the things I love instead of trying to extinguish the things I fear.
I should avoid using fear as a motivator for others. I’m not sure how often I do this, but I’m going to try to pay attention to times when I seem to be making threats instead of promises. I know I do it as a parent from time to time. It’s hard not to. But I certainly don’t want my kids to be scared of me, though sometimes that seems like the only way to get through to them. I think it’s the easier way, but not the better way.
I can control those two points. How fear motivates me and how I use fear to motivate others. Beyond that, I can speak out against using fear, but I have to recognize how other people are motivated is out of my control, as well as how they choose to motivate others. I can speak out against fear, but ultimately it’s up to other people to decide how they want to use it in their life.

To me, the opposite of fear in these situations is love. To do things because you want a particular outcome, not because you’re afraid of its opposite. Perhaps one solution, when you feel you might be letting yourself be governed by fear, is to take a step back and look at what that fear is driving you towards. Sure, you’re fleeing something scary, but if it’s taking you in the direction of something you also don’t like, what good is that doing you? And if it’s taking you in a direction you want to be going, why not choose to strive to reach that place, instead of just trying to get away from the place you fear?

The best way to get someplace is to know where you’re going, not to know where you don’t want to end up. That seems like a statement that should be self evident, but I think it’s easy to forget when you’re in the trenches. I believe politicians love fear because it gets people moving. Moving away from their opponents, and never mind where they’re ending up instead. And when you believe passionately in a cause, and other people don’t share that feeling, it can be very tempting to try and resort to fear to get them to agree with you. But unless that fear is constantly present and immediate, it’s too easy to forget.

Anyway. I’m out of time for today. To sum up, I’m going to try to pay attention the next while to see when fear is being used against me or against people around me, and I encourage you to do the same. (Seriously. I’ve heard if you don’t, then you’re going to get torn apart by rabid wolves.)

On Feeding the Hungry

I just had a fairly serious post yesterday, and I’m following it up now with something even more broody. Apologies in advance. I’ll try to return to fluff pieces and movie reviews next week, but this blog is fairly stream-of-consciousness, and this is where my stream is flowing right now. It all comes down to two articles I read the past few days. The first is a fantastic piece in Bloomberg, focusing on how somehow Utah is keeping the American Dream alive when it’s faltering in other states. It talks about how the Mormon church plays a big role in that equation, and it’s fantastic reading for everyone. It felt like a high note for my religion. We Mormons can and do have plenty of problems, but we also do some things right, and it was very nice to be reminded of that by an unbiased source.

But then I came across this bit of news the next day: video of a town meeting in Draper, Utah to discuss the possibility of a homeless shelter being built there. The crowd was very upset, booing a homeless man who had come to speak in favor of the project, yelling at the mayor who had volunteered the town to be considered, and from the video, things got pretty ugly. From reading the article, it appears that they weren’t simply angry that a homeless shelter might be built in their city, but rather that they were also upset the mayor might have potentially had ulterior motives for it. Still quotes like “Another resident proposed buying for homeless residents one-way tickets to another city” don’t really give you warm fuzzies.

It’s important to note as well that the Draper meeting wasn’t just for Mormons or anything like that. Yet as the Bloomberg piece points out, it’s very hard in Utah to remove the Mormon element from any part of Utah life. It’s everywhere, for good and bad.

So which is it? Are Mormons doing a great job helping their neighbor out, or are they reluctant to actually hear the plight of the homeless? My gut says, “Both.”

I have a hard time finding fault with the people in the Draper meeting. (Well, let me rephrase that. The way they responded was totally out of line and unproductive. There’s certainly plenty of fault to be found in any group resorting to the kind of mob mentality shown in that video.) What I mean is that I’ve been to the downtown Salt Lake homeless shelter. By accident, as I was trying to find my way to public transportation, I walked through the area, and honestly it was one of the scarier areas of any city I’ve ever walked through. It was the middle of the day, and people were literally shooting up drugs right there on the sidewalk. From the looks I got and the attitude in the area, I didn’t feel safe at all. (Granted, I was also walking through in a suit jacket. Because I was lost, and I also didn’t think Salt Lake had any areas to be worried about downtown. So some of the feeling is on me. But still.)

If my town was wanting to bring in a homeless shelter, and I knew the result of a homeless shelter might be anything like that area in downtown Salt Lake I walked through, I’d be totally against the idea. I’d be concerned for the safety of my children and my neighborhood. Flat out. End of story. (Though I’d still like to think I wouldn’t start booing the homeless advocates who are just trying to solve a very real problem.)

So what is the answer? In some ways, the problem has been caused by the solution. From conversations I’ve had with residents and community workers in Salt Lake, my understanding is that word of Salt Lake’s success with helping the homeless got out, and more and more homeless were attracted to the area. This overwhelmed the success they’d had, causing the system to spiral out of control, resulting in the area of Salt Lake I walked through. I’d like to think the answer is to dig down and keep trying to do what was working before. That it will eventually all even out in the end. But I’m not in the area anymore, and I realize having outsiders point out solutions is often not very helpful at all.

A friend posted the following quote from The Book of Mormon, which certainly seems to apply: Mosiah 4: 16-22

16 And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.

17 Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—

18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.

19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?

20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.

21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.

22 And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.

Words like that really hit home with me, and not in a “So glad I already do that” sort of way. More in a “do I need to change my ways” vein. I don’t pay panhandlers money, as a rule. I am personally skeptical that they really need the help. I’ve personally seen panhandlers willfully deceive, and so I decided not to give to them, choosing instead to donate money and food to organizations that are set up to help people in need.

As I think about it, some of it comes down to what constitutes a real petition? A sign on the sidewalk and an unwashed face? I’m not sure, especially when we live in a country that has support systems in place. Perhaps my “no panhandlers” policy is misguided. I still need to come to grips with it in my head, and I’d welcome input on it.

But let’s extend it farther. Because there are people in this world who need help, who have not helped themselves. I’m talking on a local, personal level. I might see someone in a jam that is almost 100% of their own making. And my typical response to this is to not pitch in and help unless it’s absolutely necessary, emergency-level stuff. “Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part” is a quote I often think to myself to justify my actions.

Am I wrong?

Sometimes, almost definitely yes. Sometimes, almost definitely no. There are certainly people who need to learn the consequences of their choices. There are certainly people who need to be protected from them. The quote from The Book of Mormon reminds me that I am often in bad circumstances, spiritually, through no one’s fault but my own. Sometimes, God lets me suffer through the consequences. Sometimes, it feels like He steps in and shields me. But He’s always there for me, to offer me comfort and support.

Perhaps that’s what I need to focus on. Being there for people when they need help. Not with a checkbook all the time, but with a listening ear and a willingness to help people help themselves out of the jams they’re in. And maybe that’s why I felt so proud of the first article (Look! My religion! Helping others!) and so disappointed with the second, where the people were basically not willing to listen at all. (Though fear will do that to you, I know.)

In any case, this is an issue that I know I need to work on. As Easter approaches, it feels like now’s as good a time as any to think about how we approach these situations and how we can become better at it in the future. And that’s all I have to say about that.

On Parenting

Since the beginning of the year, Denisa and I have been attending a weekly parenting class offered by our church. (Well, most weeks. Some weeks it was just me, some weeks it was just her, and we had to miss entirely once or twice, because life.) It’s been an interesting experience, as much of the learning was done through sharing different experiences between the parents who were in the class.

My biggest takeaway was that each family is very different, and the things that work for one household won’t necessarily work for another.

This is frustrating in some ways, because I like to think there is a Good Way to do things, and that if you talk to enough people, you can figure out what that way is and make it work for you. But with so many approaches out there, that throws a wrench in that plan. You might follow someone else’s advice perfectly, only to find that it totally didn’t work for you.

The other takeaway is that parenting isn’t a thing that you learn once and then master. It changes from child to child, and from age to age. What worked for one child perfectly might stop working as they get older, and it might not work for the child’s sibling either.

As if that weren’t enough, it seems to me that no parent can really truly prepare for what’s going to hit them as soon as they get a baby. I remember the old “What to Expect When You’re Expecting Book.” It made it all seem so straightforward. And it kind of is, for those first few years. As a parent, you have a fair bit of control over what your child does, who they play with, what they eat. You name it. You have a lot of control.

But as they get older, it’s your job to cede that control over to them bit by bit, so that by the time they’re heading to college or a career, they’re fully ready to tackle the challenges life might throw at them.

Parenting it tough stuff, and I think my biggest frustration with it is how much of the time it feels like I’m flying blind. I’m on a rollercoaster with no brakes, no rails, and no real guarantee that the thing is going to turn out okay in the end. Denisa and I have come to points where neither one of us really has a clue what we’re supposed to do, and the advice we solicit from friends and family doesn’t seem to help too much either. (Because of that whole “what works for one might not work for all” thing I noted earlier.)

So what do we do? Honestly, we pray for guidance a lot, and that’s gotten us as far as we are now. I have to hope it’ll continue to help.

In the end, I think I’d sum up my parenting style (so far) as follows: I like to treat my kids as full fledged members of the family. I want them to know that their voice is heard and their input is important. When we make rules, we make them with them, not simply “for” them. Communication is a huge part of it for me. The most frustrating times have been the ones where my kids just don’t want to talk about what’s upsetting them, and I enjoyed the pieces of the class that went over different approaches to talk to kids.

For me, family comes before friends. I’m much more concerned that all members of the family are getting along and spending time with each other than I am that my kids are having great friendships outside the home. This doesn’t mean I don’t want them to have friends, but if something comes up that conflicts with a family activity, family wins out. I still talk to some of my high school friends and a few college friends, and there are a couple of middle school friends I have contact with now and then, but they play such a small role in my life. On the other hand, I’m still with my family. Those ties are strong. I want that for my kids.

I wonder how many times over the years I’ve said things (on the blog or in person) that have shocked other people. Things I take for granted that most sensible people believe, which actually many people don’t. I assume it must be fairly frequently. At least a few times a month. Maybe even a few times a week, since I blog so publicly. I base that assumption off the fact that in the bit of interaction I have with friends, they still manage to surprise me now and then by what they let their children do or don’t let their children do. There are things parents allow (or don’t allow) that just don’t compute with me, so logic says there must be things I do or don’t let my children do that seem like terrible decisions to others.

This is another one of those blog posts that doesn’t really have a conclusion. There’s no big “aha” moment that brings it all together. Just a general observation that parenting is difficult, and if I (or you) think someone is clearly doing it wrong because it’s different from how I (or you) would do it, it’s perfectly fine for me (or you) to take notes about how I (or you) won’t make those same decisions, but as for speaking up and telling you (or me) how that’s wrong for you (or me)? Maybe it’s better to bite my/your tongue and realize we might both be right (or wrong.)

How’s that for a sum up?

When Characters Get Erased: Memory Thief Chapter One

Welcome to the first chapter commentary for THE MEMORY THIEF. I’m going to be doing these periodically over the next while as we gear up for the sequel (coming summer 2018!). I’ve done these for my books in the past (VODNIK has a series of them, as does CAVERN OF BABEL). Basically, I take a look at each book chapter by chapter, talking about changes I made to the novel or how characters came to be. Sometimes there will be some deleted scenes. Sometimes I’ll use a point to talk about writing in general. Whatever takes my fancy. Why? Because I like doing it.

Anyway. Here we go:

In some ways, a fair bit changed in this first chapter when you compare it to the first draft. Most of that is on a macro-level, though. The actual events of the chapter didn’t change too much at all. The book opens with Benji’s parents fighting. He and his sister sneak upstairs. They get in an argument with school bullies. Their parents find them and yell at them, and Benji takes off. He goes around the fair, finds the Memory Artist’s tent, and goes inside. The end.

But in the first draft, Kelly is seven years old. Five years younger than Benji, and very much not his twin. When I first wrote the novel, it was designed with my son in mind. Bits and pieces of this are throughout the book. At the time, Tomas had just gotten a Swiss Army Knife for Christmas, and he loved that thing. So Benji has one too, and it plays a key role in the book. Tomas was also best friends with a kid at school. They did everything together, and they’d practically grown up together. In the novel, Benji has a best friend named Chris. They were also inseparable.

Until one fateful day in the editing process, when Chris was completely erased from the novel, and Kelly was magically made into Benji’s twin. Sorry Chris.

Why did I do this? Mainly because I wanted to cut down on the number of characters. The novel had a number of supporting characters, but most of them were fairly weak to the plot. When you find yourself in that situation, often the solution is to combine characters together. That lets the remaining ones play a bigger role. (In the first stages of plotting for the book, there wasn’t just one Memory Artist in the tent. There were about seven of them. A whole troupe. In fact, the original idea was to have the book play out in sort of a Time Bandits tribute. It was called The Memory Thieves. This lasted for all of three seconds. Long enough for my agents to hear the plan, smile graciously, and say no. Definitely the right call.)

So Chris was swallowed up by Kelly.

Why didn’t I have it the other way around? Because family was an important part of the book. Strengthening that focus by making Chris part of the family helped draw that out some more. If Chris were in trouble. why should Benji’s parents really care? They’d worry about him a bit, but they’d have other things to focus on. If it’s their own daughter, on the other hand, the expectations are very different. Why have Benji’s twin be a girl and not a boy, though? Why not make it so that Chris is adopted into the family and Kelly’s killed off?

Because I try to make an effort in my novels to include as wide a range of character ages and genders (boy/girl, at least) as I can. Simply so I can have readers be able to relate to different characters over the course of the novel. This actually goes back to the first creative writing class I took from David Farland. He had a lesson on this, and it’s stuck with me. When I have the choice of making a character a boy or a girl, old or young, I try to mix things up if possible. That’s probably why in VODNIK, Katka is a girl, as well.

A few notes on names. Benji is named after my best friend in first grade. I can’t remember his last name, sadly. But I know we did a lot together, until I moved. Chris was named after another close friend I had at the same time. Sorry you got cut, Chris.

The bullies (who weren’t really bullies in the first draft, but rather rambunctious kids) were named after the Deacons Class I was teaching at the time. (12 and 13 year old boys at church.) (I switched up their first and last names, to protect the innocent.) Of course, when they were in the first draft and weren’t actually mean people, this was fine. As the book went on, they became real bullies, but I left the names because lazy. In hindsight, I feel a bit bad about that. I don’t like to name mean people after real people. If it’s any consolation, guys, you weren’t really bad to begin with. You just got turned to the dark side somehow in the editing process.

Finally, the other real change to this first chapter came by making those bullies actually chase Benji. In the first draft, Benji storms off from his parents . . . and then wanders around the fair on his own, just kind of chilling and eating cotton candy. This didn’t do much in the way of adding tension, so I upped the ante by having him trying to escape a beating.

I like having the book start out with Benji’s family, as I feel like that’s the emotional core of the novel. It ends with his family as well, if you think about it. A big part of the novel is focused on Benji wanting to “fix” his family, and (SPOILERS!) it concludes with him realizing it can’t be fixed with a magic wand. They have to fix themselves, and it’s going to take hard work and effort and cooperation to do that.

Go figure.

3D Movies at Home

I love my home theater. That’s well established. And while I still need to get furniture for the room, the theater system itself was mostly finished. I had the screen, the projector, the sound, and the doodads to play stuff on (forgive me if I’m being too technical). But I’d really wanted to give 3D a shot, because gadgets! Technology! Cool!

After looking into it, I realized I was almost there. Most high definition projectors will handle 3D all on their lonesome. You don’t need to do anything to them to enable it. All I really needed to do was buy the right kind of 3D glasses for my projector (there are a number of competing technologies, and you have to make sure you’re using the right one) and buy a few 3D movies.

I picked up the glasses for around $20 each. (My projector uses DLP-link, so I got those.) 3D movies are, naturally, a bit more. But in the name of science, I bought a few of those too. (Guardians of the Galaxy, Dr. Strange, and Avatar.) Having now watched Guardians of the Galaxy in 3D at home, I’m here to let you know if you should be doing the same thing.

First, a note about me and 3D. I typically don’t watch it in the theaters. I always felt it made the movie too dark, and that it wasn’t worth the extra bother. I like 3D. It doesn’t give me headaches or anything. But it wasn’t cool enough for me to want to spend more money on it. Wearing the glasses in public just made me feel goofy, and I didn’t like feeling cut off from the rest of the crowd. I watch movies in theaters often for the audience experience. The glasses made it much less social.

With that out of the way: watching 3D at home? Totally awesome. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m using a different tech than the theaters (I doubt it), but the picture seemed sharp. Not quite as bright as I’d like still, but I’m thinking that might be because I have my projector’s brightness dialed down to conserve on bulb life. It was bright enough for me to be fine watching it, though there’s no way I’d watch it during the day, or with the lights on. I’d want the room to be all dark. (That also helps with not seeing any reflections in the glasses as I’m watching, which was another irritant of watching in the theater.

Honestly, the experience was so good, for the first time I felt like it was just as good as watching a movie in the theaters. I’ve always gone to the movies to see some films because I wanted that cinema experience. I wanted the huge screen. I still might see some now and then, but this felt like all I really need. (The ability to pause, add subtitles, adjust the volume, etc. is a really nice perk, people. And the popcorn is much cheaper.)

I do see some down sides. First, if I had a smaller screen, I don’t think I’d enjoy this much at all. 3D needs to be big to have an impact. On a 50 inch screen (or even a 70 inch), I’m not sure it would be the same. Also, if I want to have friends over to watch with me, I’ll need to buy more glasses. Not a huge fan of that. They have to be charged, and spending $20 for every friend is prohibitive. I think I might just keep it at a “just for family or small groups” experience.

The next problem is cost. 3D movies are often more expensive. I looked into getting them through Netflix, but they don’t offer them. (Not even through discs). There are some online companies that let you rent them, but they’re expensive. ($18/month?!?) I can stream some in theory, but my internet isn’t fast enough for me to feel good about that. So it looks like I’ll have to pay to play. Then again, since I won’t be paying for the fam to go to the movies as much, perhaps that’s about a wash.

Overall, I’m very happy with my purchase, and I’m eyeing all sorts of movies in 3D on Amazon now. Denisa’s trying to talk me down from buying all of them. I think she’ll be successful, but getting one now and then as a treat? Why not.

If you have any questions, I’m happy to answer them as best as I can.

In Which I Discover I Hate Cola

I don’t drink much soda these days. Every now and then I’ll have a root beer, but if I’m going to blow calories and sugar on something, it’s not likely to be something I’m just drinking. I’d much rather enjoy a brownie or a piece of cake or a cookie.

Still, I never really thought I had anything against soda in general. I’ve drank it off and on my whole life. I remember having chugging competitions back when I worked at McDonald’s. We’d all grab a supersize cup, fill them up with the soda of our choice, and see who could down theirs first. (Makes me wonder how much money fast food chains lose each year due to the fact that a significant portion of their workforce is made of high school students with only a vague understanding of ethics and a much bigger understanding of being hungry or thirsty. Remind me to tell you of the McNugget drawer sometime.)

But I digress. When we were down at Disney World, the kids brought back a bunch of bagged candy. (We had to use up our snack credits somehow.) And perhaps as a sign of how little sweets our family really eats, they’re still making their way through that candy, four months later. (Or is it a sign of how much candy we brought back?)

Yesterday, they broke out the Haribo Cola gummies, and I discovered with one horrified whiff that I don’t just dislike cola. I loathe it. It makes me physically nauseous just to smell it, even in gummy form.

This was surprising, since I haven’t had Coke in a long while. When had this aversion come on me? And then I figured it out.

I get migraines every so often. About once a year, or once every other year. I used to get them much more frequently. Every month or so. I went to a neurologist, and they asked if I drank much caffeine. Nope. What about aspartame? What was that, I wanted to know. Artificial sweetener in soda.

At the time, that’s about all I drank. Diet soda was very popular in my house growing up.

So the doc said to avoid aspartame and caffeinated sodas, and to see if the migraines went away. I did, and they did. But I’ve also been told that caffeine can make migraines go away. My migraines are awful. They last for hours, I’m completely wiped out by them, and then can leave me wrecked for a day or two afterward. They are so incredibly painful, I would do just about anything to make one stop once it’s started. (Thankfully I’ve discovered a cure: Advil Migraine. If I take those right when the migraine starts and then head to bed immediately and go to sleep, I can skip out on the whole thing. But I didn’t always know that.)

When people told me to try drinking caffeine when I started getting a migraine, I did it. Every time. In fact, that was the only time I drank Coke. And apparently I did it enough over a long enough time that now the smell of Coke makes me feel nauseous, just like I’m getting a migraine.

Coke=Migraines

I suppose if I were really dedicated to dieting, I’d start eating brownies every time I had a migraine coming on. For now, I’ll just remember not to let my kids get Cola Gummies next time we’re in Disney. Or at least not eat them around me.

Are there any foods out there that make you sick just to smell?

Giving Multivitamins a Try

I continue to try to improve my health in ways that aren’t too hard. (How’s that for a goal?) Meaning I’m not exactly running marathons here or going to the gym. I’m eating less, reducing my sweets, jogging in place at lunch, lifting a few weights while I watch Netflix. I’m sneaking healthy stuff into my life to make it have as low of an impact as possible.

Why? Because so far this has been the only approach that seems to work with me. I’ve tried becoming a person who Goes to a Gym. In the process, I’ve discovered I’m actually one of the people who Goes to a Gym for a Week, and then gives up on the goal. It’s just too much to add it into my schedule. (Translation: I don’t value it enough to make time for it.) I’ve tried getting exercise equipment for home. I don’t use it. (I only seem to make time for exercise if it’s time I’m using to do something else anyway. Like watching Netflix.)

But I’ve been feeling healthier, and I think it’s helping me each day, so I continue to look for other ways I can do simple things to be a healthier me.

Next up? Multivitamins.

I’ve tried multivitamins in the past. (Maybe 10 years ago?) They didn’t seem to do much for me back then. I took them daily, and didn’t feel like I noticed much of a difference. (At the time, I felt rotten. I hoped they’d help with that. They didn’t, but I was also about 50 pounds overweight, had a horrible sleep schedule, never exercised, and ate brownies like they were the fifth food group. So I’m saying it might not have been the multivitamin’s fault.)

But the other day, I was reading a study that said getting enough vitamin D reduces colds and flus by 50% in people who were vitamin D deficient. It noted that most people get enough vitamin D through enriched milk and sunshine. Well, I don’t get a whole lot of sunshine. I’m a librarian author. Neither one of those activities does too well in the outdoors. So I’m pretty sure I’m not getting D’d up with sunshine. When it comes to milk, we get ours from a local farm. I don’t believe it’s fortified. So it wasn’t a huge stretch to think maybe I wasn’t getting enough vitamin D.

This made me think: might there be other vitamins I’m not getting enough of? Denisa often points out to me how limited my diet is. (I’m a creature of habit. I eat plain oatmeal with a few raisins and milk in the morning, a banana at 11, a peanut butter sandwich at noon, and something different for dinner each day. Not a whole ton of veggies, though I try to have some.) Again, it wouldn’t take a genius to see that I ought to be branching out. I’ve known that for quite some time, but old habits are hard to break.

So I decided I wouldn’t just take a vitamin D supplement. I’d hedge my bets and take a multivitamin. It was $6 for like 100 of the things. What could it hurt?

Two weeks in, I’m feeling pretty good about the decision. I take one each day after breakfast. I’ve felt like I’ve had more energy and been more alert each day. There’s been some sickness running through the family, and I haven’t caught it (yet). This is enough of a result for me to want to keep taking the multivitamin.

Could it be the placebo effect? Yup. But studies also indicate the placebo effect can work, even when you know what you’re taking is a placebo. Go figure.

For me, it breaks down to taking a pill each morning and spending about $20/year. Even if that only makes me feel 1% better than I feel without taking it, that seems  like a complete no brainer. (After all, by that math, I’d feel 100% better by spending just $2,000/year!) The only way I’d stop taking it is if it made me feel worse. No sign of that yet, so my lazy approach to a healthy lifestyle continues . . .

Heavy Meta #8: Dealing with Fake News

In today’s podcast, Kelly and I discuss the history of fake news and what you can do to protect yourself from it. Basically, think of it as a librarian’s take on fake news. And then I name my top 10 movies/tv shows that are news-related. Fun times. (Partly inspired by my blog post a while ago on the same topic.)

Right click to download audio file.

MEMORY THIEF Movie Deal and Sequel Announcement!

Boy oh boy. I’ve been sitting on this one for months, and I’m so happy to finally be able to share it with the world. Talks of a sequel started all the way back in November, and the movie deal has been rumbling along for the last month or two. It’s one thing to know that something is happening, but it never feels real until you can actually tell other people about it.

So. Some specifics. We’re shooting to have the sequel out next summer. It’s the book that I’ve been writing that’s been going under the codename TOP SECRET, and I’m 44,000 words into it so far. I imagine it will end up being around 60,000-70,000 words long. I’m shooting to have a final draft ready by August. (And I’ll say this: this is the first time I’ve written a book under contract, and it’s definitely more stressful. I think about my progress more often, and I worry if I feel like I’m falling behind. Writing and stress don’t go along too well.)

Nothing in the way of a description for you just yet. I want to make sure things are good with my publisher’s opinion before I start spreading that. At the moment, it takes place about 4 months after the events of the first book. Still focused on Benji, of course. I have a title, but for now we’ll just go with the oh-so-original working title of MEMORY THIEF 2.

On the movie side of things, there’s not a whole lot I have to offer beyond what’s been reported in Deadline and Variety. (Though can I just say that, as a movie buff who’s read plenty of news in those two publications, it was incredibly thrilling to read my own name there? A real “I’ve made it” moment, even though I know it in no way means I actually have. More on that in a second.) First off, it’s important to keep in mind that this simply means the book has been optioned. That means they’ve bought the right to make a movie, if they decide to make a movie. Actually making a movie is complex, and it can take a lot of time to get everything in order. So producers option the rights to a book so they can be guaranteed no one else will cut them off and adapt it before they get to it. There are plenty of examples of adaptations being started and then abandoned. That said, signs do look good in this case. I’d say the odds are better for this one than for the average one, but I’m keeping my expectations in check. (Always a good idea in this business.)

I doubt I will personally have too much to do with the movie. It’s not in my contract that I get to have any influence whatsoever, so there’s a fair chance the whole thing could be made without me getting to say one word about it. Of course, I’d be happy to contribute, and if the film actually does get made, I’m really hoping I’d be able to visit the set, go to the premiere, and be involved however I could be. But if you’ve got great ideas about who should star or how it should be adapted, I sadly won’t be able to really do much about them.

Some people have asked if I’m worried about them messing up the book. I’m not. Not even a little. My book is my book. A movie can’t ruin it. It can only bring more attention to it. If they do make a movie, there’s no guarantee I’ll like it, but having studied adaptation for my English Masters at BYU, I think I’ll enjoy picking it apart, no matter how good or bad it is. (Though I’ll say this: the people producing this movie have a really good track record. I loved Stranger Things, and I really want to see The Arrival. This isn’t some Mom and Pop show just looking to make a quick buck. They’ve got some serious street cred.)

Others have asked if this means I can quit my library job. My answer? Ha! No. I would have to start making some serious money, year to year, before I’d ever consider walking away from my library job. First of all, I love my job and love doing the work I do with the students here. I feel like I’m contributing to society and making the world a better place and getting paid to do it. That’s what we call a Good Deal. But beyond that, I can’t imagine how it would be if I were writing with the knowledge that the only thing keeping my family fed was the success of what I was writing. It’s been stressful enough just writing with a deadline. Making it even worse isn’t high on my To Do list. Also, abandoning steady health care at this point in time seems like a bad idea. Just saying.

We’ll see what happens with the movie. For now, I’m grateful for all the well wishes and for the attention the film deal is giving the book. (Available now everywhere books are sold!) I’m focused on the sequel and making sure it comes together well. It’s the first sequel I’ve ever written, so wish me luck.

I’ll keep you all up to date on the news as I am allowed to pass it on. In the meantime, I’m planning to post some behind-the-scenes info on THE MEMORY THIEF. Like I’ve done with books in the past, I’m going to try to write up some chapter annotations and include some deleted scenes. So keep an eye peeled for those.

If you have any questions about things I haven’t covered, feel free to ask. I’m happy to answer. Thanks again!

Memory Thief Available Everywhere Books are Sold!

Hard to believe it’s been six months since The Memory Thief went on sale at Barnes & Nobles across the country. If you’ll recall, the book was exclusive to that chain for the first six months. And if you’re good at math, you’ll see that we’ve passed that time frame. Lo and behold, the book is available on Amazon even as we speak.

However, if you’d like a signed copy (or would like to support a local business), might I direct your attention to my local independent bookstore: Devaney Doak and Garrett? As we did with Vodnik, I’m happy to walk over to them, sign a copy (along with any personalization you’d like), and they’ll ship it to you, wherever you might be. (In fact, you could still do that with Vodnik, if you missed out on that the first time.)

As a reminder, here’s the Kirkus Review for The Memory Thief:

Memories are slippery things.

Twelve-year-olds Benjamin and his fraternal twin, Kelly, look forward to the Adams County fair every year. There isn’t much to do in their corner of Maine besides listen to their parents bicker. This year a new tent appears on the fairgrounds: the Memory Emporium, where a wizened man says he can take and share memories. Narrator Ben hopes that he can help his parents forget their anger. But when he returns to the tent, a young tattooed woman has taken the old man’s place. She promises to help the white preteens with their problem if she can have a few memories in return. Her solution seems to harm more than help, though, as the memories of the fairgoers are disappearing, including Kelly’s and their parents’. It’s up to Ben to figure out how to restore the minds of his family and town before he is forgotten as well. Moore crafts a compelling premise and a plot that delivers more than might be expected. Ben initially believes that a memory is an objective moment in time, but the quest to restore memories brings him to a deeper understanding of how they affect a life. Memories are not separate—they are integral to who we are.

With interesting twists, captivating action, and a down-to-earth lead, this adventure is sure to become a new favorite. (Fantasy. 8-12)

It’s got a 4.46 on Goodreads at the moment, but no reviews at all on Amazon. If any of you out there have read the book, I’m always appreciative of reviews, and it would be fantastic to get some up on Amazon quick.

In any case, thanks for reading, and keep your eyes peeled for some additional news from yours truly. Maybe today. Hopefully this week at the latest . . .