Matthew Alan Thyer's Blog, page 13

Checking In

After yesterday’s angry tirade (which I have since taken down) I had a conversation with my wife. Specifically, we talked about my writing and we did this because I’ve been feeling like an utter failure of late.

During the spring and summer of this year, I submitted a stack of short stories to a bunch of different markets. About 300 times, absolutely all of them came back negative. With not even a nibble I began to suspect that I might be doing something wrong.

This summer and fall, between t...

Thank You Tom Petty

Your words saw me through some tough times of my own. I’m sorry to see you go, sorry to see time caught up to you.

Square One

Had to find some higher ground
Had some feat to get around
You can’t say what you don’t know
Later on won’t work no more
Last time through I hid my tracks
So well I could not get back
Yeah my way was hard to find
Can’t sell your soul for peace of mind

Square one, my slate is clear
Rest your head on me my dear
It took a world of trouble, it took a world of tears
It took...

Then Vote

And for fuck’s sake stop coddling anyone who self-identifies as any sort of “Conservative.”

There! It’s right at the beginning of the post. The question has been answered. I’ve provided the solution to all our problems. Vote for people that tell you they’ll take care of your problems. Find people who are willing and able to address problems like gun violence, climate change, traffic congestion, air pollution and health care. If they’re not willing to even address these problems don’t compromi...

Morning Thought

Welcome to the future where running socks have a cult of personality.

Story Mode

[image error]I can’t take a picture of my new writing rig because it’s also my camera. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been making use of my Nexus 6P combined with Google Docs and a cheapo Bluetooth keyboard to get my words down.

As long as everything stays charged the combination works well enough. Editing in this mode is far more difficult and considerably slower. Also, BT response times sometimes cause minor issues, but I am turning out stories once again so there’s that to be thankful for.

I’m curre...

The Perfect Dream

I’m going to break the Primary Unspoken Rule of Writing right now. Why? Because I had this dream last night that woke me up. Instead of it being one of those cold sweat, terror induced exercises in heart stopping I was in fact awoken by self-induced paroxysms of joy. Seriously!

Retro Futuristic City by HTECORE

The dream, as best as I can recall, centered around the idea that I had started a gym. People would come to my gym to swing around like Tarzan or Spiderman. Sort of a city sized exercis...

Fire Weather

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This is the view from the upper deck of my house, across the East Passage looking toward Mount Rainier right now. It’s cleared up considerably, can’t you tell?

In good weather, we’re usually able to look out over the rail and see the volcano some 40-ish miles away. Often, we can even see the Cascade Crest, situated well beyond the volcano, in the blue distance. So, when the air quality is this bad you know something is up.

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What is up is a complex of fires burning in British Columbia. The wh...

A Kludge, Fully

Fast and furious followed by complete silence. The kind of silence you’d only find at the bottom of a dark and deep cave. Yeah, that’s how things have been around these parts since I’ve had to turn my laptop, a highly portable writing utility, into a desk potato.

The top row of keys on my laptop’s keyboard (the one built into the computer) stopped working. I tried troubleshooting using a shop and their solution was to replace the whole upper deck of my computer (late 2013). Not just the keybo...

Goodnight

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She’s really happy for you too

Back On the Rails

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Derailing

So, if I’m honest with myself, I derailed last January. ConFusion 2017 was a great big ball of fun, and I came home inspired by all the excellent people I got to hang out with for three whole days of Sci-Fi enriched shenanigans, but I also came home with a raging case of pneumonia. By early February it had consolidated in my right lung to such an extent that the doctor I ended up seeing seriously tried to get me to go to a hospital.

I didn’t go to the hospital. Instead, I completed...