Jay Royston's Blog

The Evolution of My Blog or Where do I go Next?

 

I've had this blog for about 10 years now. I don't know how many people actually read it so at times it's part journal, part essay, part stories. With my focus switching to a new five year plan, I've made a move of sorts over to Substack, which allows for a new audience of fans who will also 'support' my writing via a subscription service. 

It gives you an option to pay to have special features sent directly to your Inbox or simply maintain subscribing for free to get notices of when I have posted some type of entertaining substance. 

It also allows me to see how many subscribers I have. 

You can see and/or subscribe to my substack here. 

Like every social media, I need to learn the rules to drive the algorithm. As this is to be more of a writer marketing site, there will be little personal entries there. Perhaps I may make this more of my journal. 

However, there is always the risk that one day this will all disappear into the Cyber-Nether. 

In other news, I found a CD of Word back-up files from pre 2005, so that's been fun. I will be posting contents from that stage of my life mostly on substack so if you want to read of a world pre-USA politics, You can see and/or subscribe to my substack here. 

Soon it's back to school time, I find out if I have successfully transferred to a new school closer to where my youngest is going. Change is good, right? 

You can answer that here; You can see and/or subscribe to my substack here. 

New Year, New Plan for World Domination Day 31.

 

This year, in honour of the kids being older, options becoming more limited, I'm throwing money behind myself and my writing by hiring a marketing person. She's an old friend, gregarious and smart. 

I have 2 books in the chamber but we are getting my 'ducks in a row' which unfortunately also requires me working a trades job 40 hours a week while trying to carve out some time around my goals. 

I have also learned over the last month that while I'm trying to adopt a 'me-first' attitude, my family will always comes first. So that has meant camping and driving a lot. My writing took a back seat which is not a bad thing, when I recognize the love I get in return. On those days, I feel like a good dad and I pity the boy who will replace me one day in my daughter's life. He's got some big shoes to fill. 

I digress. This was only meant to be a quick update to mention I am trying to merge my writing life over to Substack, as that is the weapon of choice for Jasper Fforde, a writer I admire. 

I also have to write up an options contract for Unlimited Media, who are purchasing the film rights to Enter A Fistful of Marijuana (World Domination, baby!) 

I also have my 12 year old's birthday party today. My wife's high school bff is visiting for the weekend so there is a possibility I'm undergoing a husband review from a 3rd party. 

Here's a picture of my ducks in a row. 

  

 

New Year, new cover.

 

After all the excitement of the 4 Nations hockey tournament and the continuing mention (by Canadian hockey announcers) of Drew Doughty recovering from injury in time to lead the back end on the Canadian blue line, it made me think of 10 years ago and my hilarious (to me) blog around the 2014 Sochi Olympics, which I hope I can link in it's original blog form here. 

I decided to convert it into a hard copy booklet form because, you know, practice and vanity and perhaps the off chance Drew himself would read it and I would get some bankroll/booksales from him (or one of the many other Team Canada/NHL players who may have read it).

I didn't and honestly, reading it 10 years later, it's not as good as I remembered, likely as there were no pictures. 

But that didn't stop me from making a new cover, which looks a bit less like a 16 year old with a class in graphic arts did it.

If you've read this far and don't have this little booklet, you can buy it digitally or in book form here. Personally, I'd go with the book form as I made some edits in order to keep up with how my writing taste has changed over the last 10 years.

Retro Files

From the Retro Files; Feb 15, 2015, back when FB had a blog-like option. 

Random too long TV rant for a status update.
Reasons why I hate TV #26



On those rare occassions I have access to cable (like right now at work), it's even more rare that I find something worth watching. But when I do, it's like tonight's Catch-22. On one channel is and episode of Parks and Recreation called Time Capsule and it's about a man named Kelly who wants to add Twilight to the town's yet-to-be buried Time Capsule. On another channel is an episode of South Park called Lice Capades; a story of a village of lice that are wiped out due to lice shampoo. That story also features a lice named Kelly.

It's so hard to decide I keep having to flip between the two, thereby only catching 1/2 of each story. They are both great stories and great examples of a genre i just was informed of "Absurdist Fiction". So help make that a thing.

Plus, in an odd coincidence they both mention Angelina Jolie. I couldn't take the remote possibility of having to decide between two excellent shows happening again so I had to shut it down for the rest of the night. Also, Global was showing the Premiere episode of Saturday Night Live back in 1975 but was calling it a repeat but as usual, there were too many commercials so I saw none of it.

On my other semi-secret project. I am hitting .333. I was surprised at how much i am enjoying it.
oh well, off to work and write and kill zombies (not in that order).
[image error]
Kelly trying to save her baby

[image error]Kelly trying to save Twilight

On my mark(eting), get set, GO

 

Random afternoon thoughts in no particular order as they come to me...

I've received my 10th rejection for Flies, I think that's enough. I'll just self-publish. I don't think 10 or 100 copies will make much of a difference in the big picture; I will still need to work another job. The movie deal will have to wait, I guess. 

In the meantime, I've also rewritten Karmageddon, which despite my best attempts, actually increased by 500 words. I've changed some names which have always bothered me, added some finer details which I didn't think I'd be d
oing. Basic editing, I guess. 

I just finished putting a call-out on my loyal FB fan page, asking if anyone is interested in reading an advance copy for review. 

What writers don't think of is the turn-around involved in books; I read a post where the author states it's a 12 month turnaround time. Crazy! But, on the other side, also not. 

I've looked into substack, booktok, hosting a wix site, wattpad, medium, patreon. They all have their benefits, all require a lot of time and dedication, which I don't have. So I guess I will just keep chipping away. I've joined Blue Sky, which I guess is like Twitter but less 'bot'-y. 

I'm still stuck on my #U2? dystopian sci-fi legal thriller's 3rd act, the book itself is clocking in at WAY too many words (155,000) at last count. I think I could break it down into 3 novellas but again, need the time. Once I push out Karmageddon and Flies, I'll punish myself by taking another go at that.  

I've also found many of my hand-written short stories. I'd like to put those down on hard-drive somewhere for posterity. Again, time and dedication is my weakness. Did I mention finances? Those are also my weakness.  

What about new writing? I ask myself. 

Thank you for taking an interest, I reply. 

I keep having random philosophical thoughts that I'd like to explore but they're big picture thoughts that are hard to write into little sentences. I have one line about depression that is sticking with me; Depression is like always feeling you are two sentences away from crying. I feel like that a lot, which is why the line is sticking with me.  

I have an idea about a book that's a fun read but too high-brow (for me) so I want to dumb it down a bit. I also want to rewrite my wrestling epic, Duff Ragwell and His Amazing Channel Changer, someday. Retitle it 1994 (no relation), perhaps.

Anyways, that's all I got for now. Thanks for reading, future me.  

 

Done! (Again)ng

Nobody really to brag to about this-especially as nobody is really waiting for it. But it took me another six months of sporadic editing, delayed by summer to trim Flies down about 2800 words. Sure it's tighter, and I've changed some names but will it shoot me up the best-seller list? Nope. 

And I see that there is another SPA in my neighbourhood; more chick-lit. I'm torn because I'm happy for them of course. They're completing what they love doing. Sorry, they have completed what they love doing...20 books so far. Crazy! Congrats to her for doing what she does. But back to me. 

So yeah, I've finished Flies...again. Should I resubmit, wait another 6 months? I still have no idea how to sell this. 'it's a murder mystery told from three different points of view, told in three different points of view." 

That's actually pretty good. I should add sex in there somewhere. It would be fun if i could make it subtle, like ItS EXciting to read or ... I'll have to think about it. 

Anyways, but the writing gets me on my old stuff that I would like to put out there before I die. That would be nice. I'm never going to be a KV jr or Doug Copeland but I do enjoy their stuff. If only there were no bills in my life, what could have happened?

At least my secret blog is still there until that website goes the way of MySpace and LiveJournal. It has lasted through a lot of temptations from other sites; wordpress, wattpad... a few others I already forget. The newest one is this linktr.ee which I'm going to study up on now. Perhaps with my operation laying me up for a week, I'll get organized.

Until then, I'll ponder what to do with Flies. 

Here's a start of a spur of the moment query letter.

I'm submitting an 84000 word murder mystery told from three different points of view, told in three different points of view. The victims are teen sex offenders, plucked out of a residential treatment program meant to correct these young individuals' sexual predator instincts before they are released back into society, their minority age allowing them to avoid being registered as sex offenders. 

The three 'protagonists' are Detective Doug Bennett, a shunned detective whose marriage is breaking up after his son was found guilty of sexual molestation and is in the program the victims are from. Reed Fontaine, whose sister is missing in Thailand as he stays at home, caring for his aging, abusive father while working in a local group home that provides shelter for boys attending the treatment program. Johnny Taylor provides a foster home to kids in the program. His wife has left him over arguments about his job caring for sex offenders and their inability to have a baby. 

Their stories intertwine throughout the week as their paths cross, tensions mount, and accusations are made. Flies of Our Fathers looks at the damage caused by generational trauma from a male perspective and some of the problems and solutions needed to help sons and fathers be the best humans they can be.  

Something like that. I added a fresher version on my facebook page. Anyways, time for bed. 

September already?

 Yep. Whoop-ee-dee-doo.

I spent exactly 2 hours editing Flies since the end of June. And both those hours were yesterday. A busy fucking summer of renovating our bathroom. I think I spent about 4 days not in there working on some part of it, excluding the days going family camping. From experience I didn't even take my computer to work on it, knowing the chances of that happening were fucking slim to none. And i even forgot to write Father's Day letters to the kids this year, which admittedly was in June but ya fucked up.  

But now I'm editing the Thursdays, so only 6 more chapters to go; I've trimmed 2500 words, changed one suspect's name from Thomas Flowers to Cosmos St. Thomas, as I had some weird segue in there from Holly bushes and I couldn't clarify on the Internet if Holygyn (the old English name for Holly) meant prick. I also got rid of Johnny's drinking problem and re-worked his arguement with his ex-wife, who I think is named... Missy? Maddy? Hold up, i gotta check...Ashley. Her name is Ashley now, an Easter Egg from Evil Dead, if that is such a thing. 

Anyways, just an update that nobody cares about but future me. 

Hi bro - how far did you get in binging Always Sunny? You're on S3 now so don't say that hasn't helped distract you from the writing. Sacrifices, buddy. Sacrifices. And finish that fucking dolphin book. 

Where did the time go? How did this get to be May alread...

 Where did the time go? 

How did this get to be May already? My last round of query letters have now gone the full 6 months with no replies. That sucks. I've been becoming increasingly cynical of all the FB/Reddit groups I'm in; there seem to be only 3 or 4 subjects; How do I write my memoir? Who will publish my memoir? I'm so happy I published my memoir, how do i self-publish (or some variation of).

I feel ashamed that I'm part of these groups and more recently have been wanting to express my self-loathing on being on these sites, wanting the same thing all these people want; to be read. 

And I'm sitting with a novel ready to go, sitting in Kindle for the last 2 months, waiting for me to pull the fucking trigger and just press publish. Why am i so hesitant to just put it out there? Probably because I'm over 50 now and I don't want to be considered a 'senior' writer? I don't know. 

Plus, who really reads this shit anyways. I saw a therapist 5x at the start of this year. He ended it, not me. I wound up crying every time I saw him. Typical suicidal thoughts. 1st time, I told him I wouldn't call him if I decided to do it- I think that's when he realized I was really in trouble. 2nd time, he wound up crying. 3rd time, he tried to get me to find my happy place, i couldn't and he literally said 'oh oh' as I started bawling. We had a 10 day break after that. 4th time, he told me the next time would be the last time and on that 5th and last time, I barely cried which I guess we/he considered good enough.

So here I am. I'm still working on the dolphin rapist thing. It's pretty big; 180,000 words (est) so I'm trying to cut it down and I cut out this huge chunk but I'm reconsidering as of course, it ties to the end. I'm also confused as to if it's funny or not. People have been raped by dolphins. That's not funny. But it is. But it isn't. 

Anyways, here's a picture of an evil dolphin for the likes. 

 

 

Yes, I am still not famous.

 
On query letters, podcasts and fatherhood

I've been spending some time listening to a podcast on writing, where three women critique query letters by hopeful writers. I've liked and hated it; the letters are basically all follow the same format; here's my genre, my word count, what the story is about and who the comparables are (meaning similar books). Blah blah blah about the arc of the story, a little bit about me to humanize me and the first 5 pages of a manuscript are critiqued. 

I'm in a love/hate mood with it. First I don't love that of the 10 critiques I've listened to, every query letter has been by women. Second, I don't love that (spoiler) I sent out 5 intro letters to my top five specific agents a three weeks ago and not a word. I hesitate to call them query letters as they weren't for one book specifically, but a pitch for all of them. I also don't love that none of those intro letters were like what these ladies would want. 

I do love most of the advice; clock in around 400 words; careful of comparing yourself to 'famous' authors, which is a bit difficult because I like to read the more tried and true. I'm no Kurt Vonnegut but I sure am influenced by him. Grab the reader at the start, show character arcs in your summary.

Anyways, the podcast has given me some ambition to look at my marketing again. The only one I feel is a slam-dunk of a one-liner is my current manuscript but the way it's going, it won't be for another year at least. 

Which brings me to a short topic about prioritizing and fatherhood. 

I annually hate myself when my birthday roles around, reminding me of pledge I made when I was 40 to get published. It's 12 years later and I still haven't achieved that goal. I totally get that a lot of it is on me; nobody is rushing to find someone who isn't making it easy to find. But a small epiphany- part of this delay in life goals is, yes, fear of success but it is also the responsibility of parenting. 

I spent an hour today teaching my 10 year old how to play Risk, 30 minutes of him explaining a detailed map he drew. We made Kraft Dinner together. Last night, my 14 year old asked me to sit with her on the couch and we watched TV (9-9!) for a couple of hours. I've spent hours this summer ripping up weeds and replanting my lawn as it gave me a sense of completion and honestly, will make our home look better as my wife and I grow older here. Nobody else was going to do it. I've also spent many hours not with the kids, doing other things to avoid writing, which is such a cliche but it's true. It's so easy not to write and I hate myself when I don't, when I listen to podcasts of others who are that much closer than I am, Some were mothers and I wonder how their support system is; where their kids are. I read Danielle Steele has nine kids and has written 94 books. That sounds impossible on both counts. Nine kids? Where does she find the time to be a mother. Then I think, she likely doesn't. Now I've never read any of her books and likely never will but I'm envious of her output.  That's a dedication to the art I simply don't have in me.   

Yes, I could have used all those hours to write, not write, promote myself, draft query letters, get closer to my dream. Instead, I CHOSE (and I have to remember this) to be a good father, dad, husband. They come first, usually always come first and that is nothing to be ashamed of. No matter how litle I write in a day or week.

Families are what we make them.    

My Next WoP/Passion Project

 

Everyone has some type of passion project. For me, my passion is not finishing my passion project. But I am working on it. 

We all need dreams. I've rekindled mine of sorts, been spending a few hours a day over the last two weeks trying to print out this mess of a dystopian legal thriller novel which I envisioned over a year and a half ago. I know this because, thanks to Google Docs, it keeps a version history of my works in progress. 

I think I found the original seed of this epic novel; it's from Jan 7, 2022. Over a year and a half ago. Crazy. 

It is a meeting of potential sexual assault victims to create consensus of filing a lawsuit against a dolphin and the company that manages it. A lot of the original guts is there; five victims, an official rep from the company, at the time called Playa De Blanca; it's now a global vacation conglomerate called Great Holidays. 

Two nights ago I night-dreamed of finding out the names of the agents of my top 10 favourite contemporary authors and sending off a query letter for representation. I had a good start in my head to the letter; giving two examples of roads to success, the one told to Michael J. Fox by his father when he wanted to become an actor and the one told to Kermit the Frog by Gonzo in the original Muppet Movie when he wanted to do the same thing. 

I'm basically the Great Gonzo of writing. 

It was a good letter in my head. Here's hoping I will follow up on it. But first, edit and print one more chapter, which was really the first chapter i ever wrote and is now tentatively Chapter 18 of many...