Everet Martins's Blog, page 6

Cover Reveal: A New Light – Book 5 of The Age of Dawn

A New Light – Book 5 of The Age of Dawn

I’m very excited to finally have a working title and cover ready…here they are! Please let me know what you think in the comments.

 

And here are the progression leading up to that cover.

 

 

 

 

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Laughter is Medicine

I’ve recently taken to including at least a few breaks during my day to watch things that make me laugh. I’ve found it’s a really awesome and easy way to reduce stress, put you in positive state, and hit the reset button if you’re feeling like you’re in an emotional slump. It’s really amazing how well it works, especially if you intentionally seek things that will make you laugh.

They say people who laugh more live longer. There are some really cool health benefits to laughing too. It improves blood flow, lowers blood sugar, and helps you sleep.

I like youtube videos because they tend to be between 2-5 minutes which is perfect for a quick break. Here are some of my favorite youtube channels to help get you going.

https://www.youtube.com/user/JStuStudios



https://www.youtube.com/user/LAHWF

https://www.youtube.com/user/BigDawsTv

Readers: What do you like to watch when you like to laugh? Please let me know by leaving a comment below.

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Why You Need Daily Habits

The TL;DR version: without intentional daily habits it’s hard to accomplish big goals.

We all have daily habits we follow to get us through our daily BS in the most efficient way possible. Get out of bed, pee, fart, make coffee, water the dog, etc. But do you have intentional habits that are driving you forward to make you better in whatever it is you want to get better at?

Having intentional habits is critical because they empower you to use your time to drive towards your goals. I personally have found that by allocating my intentional habits into time blocks it makes them much more achievable. For each habit I do, I set a timer while I do it. There is something about having a timer running that seems to apply some pressure on my mind to keep me focused from running off and chasing mental butterflies.

That small tip: using a timer in my daily habits, has made a huge difference in my productivity.

For example, after work I write 1500 words. When I do this, I do it in 33m blocks (I know 33m is a weird time, but it works for me). I also time my breaks for 5m. If I feel the urge while writing to do something else, or if some idea pops up, I’ll simply jot it down on a notepad file, then resume working. When my break hits, I will feed my ADD urges by watching a funny youtube video, get out of my chair, and maybe some exercises like pushups or squats to get my heart rate pumping a bit. Then the timer is started again in that cycle for as many cycles as I need to get my word counts.

Then I exercise (un-timed), do some mobility work (stretching, foam rolling, etc) for 10m, read for 33m, and meditate for 10m.

The really cool thing about structuring your day like this is that once you’ve completed your habits/daily rituals, any other stuff you get done during the day is just extra. You can go to bed knowing you had a productive day and are moving towards your goals.

Most people go through life without any structure or intention in their days. Without structure, intention, and focus on a particular goal, ten years from now you will be in the same position you’re in today.

What are you some your daily habits that you feel have really added to your life? Let me know in the comments below.

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Cover Progressions – Stormcaller, The Lord of Death and The Silver Tower

I thought it would be cool to show you the cover progressions for both Stormcaller, The Lord of Death, and The Silver Tower. You can find The Shadow Realm’s cover progression here I have uploaded them all as full sized images, so if you click on them you can see all of their glorious detail. I left the final images without the book’s text so you can really see all of the awesome artwork.

The artist who has created all of these for me works on fiverr.com. His name is Promit and you can hire him for work here.

Without further ado, here they are.

Stormcaller – Book 1 of The Age of Dawn

The Lord of Death – Book 2 of The Age of Dawn

The Silver Tower – Book 3 of The Age of Dawn

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Goals and why they matter

What are your goals for 2016? Did you write them down? Don’t worry, not going to get to all woo-woo self-helpy on you.

It sounds odd, but I’ve found writing down my goals seems to set some sort of strange magic in motion. I’m much more likely to achieve a goal I’ve written down vs. those nebulous goals which solely exist in the flesh between your skull.

It’s interesting to look at back at goals you’ve set in previous years. Often times I’m surprised to find goals I wrote down a long time ago had been achieved, though not in the year I initially sought out to achieve them.

There are a couple things I’ve found helpful to aid in hitting goals set for the year.

Make a quarterly check in reminder. (You could try monthly, but I think it’s so frequent that you’ll just never do it.)Find out if you’re on track to hit a particular goal and if not ask yourself what you need to do differently to get on the right path.
Rather than setting a new goal and forgetting it, I put conditions in place that start directing me towards success.

For example, I want to stop biting my nails. It’s something I’ve done forever. It makes me self-conscious because my nails look gross because they’re too short and it’s hard to properly clean the grit out of short nails without pain. Then there’s all the hygienic reasons. So, rather than just trying to use sheer willpower to stop, I bought some bitter nail polish (thankfully clear) that tastes horrible to break the pattern. The condition is the nail polish.

I want to have x$ in my bank account, so in order to do that I need to increase my savings by y$. The condition I put in place is that every month z$ will automatically get pulled into my savings account. It might even be a little painful.

For a writing goal this year, I’m trying to hit 1,500 words a day. Not always, but most of the time I won’t go to bed until I hit my word count. This may or may not be a great goal, but so far it’s been pushing me to write more than I typically would in a day.

What are your thoughts on goals and goal setting? What are your 2016 goals? Please let me know in the comments and what you do to help you hit your goals.

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2015 in Review: Books Read, Goals

Overall, I’m pretty happy with my 2015 writing performance, though there is a lot of room for improvement. I published three novels and made progress on my fifth novel, which stands at over 120,000 words… while holding down a full-time job in the technology sector (software development). I believe my writing has evolved quite a bit since I wrote my first book, Stormcaller and can only hope it continues to improve in the future.

I had a couple fitness goals and glad to say I hit one and came pretty damn close to hitting the other. The first was a 500lb deadlift and I managed to pull 505lb. The second was a 300lb bench press, but I couldn’t seem to get past 295lb. I have a great coach who designed a fantastic program for me to hit these goals. He was a former Strongman competitor and has 20+ years of experience weightlifting, so I have to give him a lot of credit for helping me achieve that. I’m going to take a break from serious weight lifting and go back to martial arts, starting with Brazilian jiu-jitsu specifically.

Another goal I had was to get Scuba diving certified and am quite pleased that my girlfriend and I got that. If you had any interest in learning how to Scuba dive, I highly suggest doing it. It’s an incredible world down there. I thought at one pointed I wanted to purchase a semi-automatic handgun, but now I’m not so sure. I had it as a goal, and sort of lost interest as the year progressed.

My Top 3 Books of 2015

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (Incerto) Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Hannibal and Me: What History’s Greatest Military Strategist Can Teach Us About Success and Failure Andreas Kluth
A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson

What were your favorite books from last year?

Books Read (in the order they were read): I had a goal of 100, but going to give it another shot next year.

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (Incerto) Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Magnesium Miracle (Revised and Updated) Carolyn Dean Md Nd
Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story Arnold Schwarzenegger
Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler
Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman
Mistborn: The Final Empire Brandon Sanderson
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr Ron Chernow
Creating Character: Bringing Your Story to Life (Red Sneaker Writers Book Series 2) William Bernhardt
Starting Strength Mark Rippetoe
50 Fitness Tips You Wish You Knew: The Best Quick and Easy Ways to Increase Motivation, Lose Weight, Get In Shape, and Stay Healthy Derek Doepker
Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find-and Keep-Love Amir Levine, Rachel Heller
Writing Fight Scenes (Writer’s Craft Book 1) Rayne Hall
Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos Donald J. Wheeler
The Hero with a Thousand Faces (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell) Joseph Campbell
The Artist’s Way Julia Cameron
Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men Leonard Sax
Gardens of the Moon: Book One of The Malazan Book of the Fallen Steven Erikson
Before They Are Hanged: The First Law: Book Two Joe Abercrombie
Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World H.H. Dalai Lama
The Bulletproof Diet: Lose up to a Pound a Day, Reclaim Energy and Focus, Upgrade Your Life Dave Asprey
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (Incerto) Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Last Argument of Kings (First Law: Book Three) Joe Abercrombie
A People’s History of the United States Howard Zinn
37 Quickfire Lesson In Trading Options: 10 Years of Trading Experience Compacted Into Easy to Digest Lessons Gavin McMaster
Calming Your Anxious Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You from Anxiety, Fear, and Panic Jeffrey Brantley MD DFAPA
Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales AD Lucilium Lucius Annaeus Seneca
The Evolution of God Robert Wright
Red Country Joe Abercrombie
The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone–Especially Ourselves Dan Ariely
The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More Chris Anderson
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking Susan Cain
The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement David Brooks
How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It Mark Cuban
The Post-American World Fareed Zakaria
The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance Josh Waitzkin
Best Served Cold Joe Abercrombie
Mitosis Brandon Sanderson
Managing Oneself Peter Drucker
As a Man Thinketh James Allen
Attack of the Theocrats! How the Religious Right Harms Us All- —and What We Can Do About It Sean Faircloth
101 Ways to Transform Your Life Wayne Dyer
Legion: Skin Deep Brandon Sanderson
Capital in the Twenty-First Century Thomas Piketty
On Being a Man David DeAngelo
Do the Work: Overcome Resistance and Get Out of Your Own Way Steven Pressfield
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) George R. R. Martin
The Narrow Road: A Brief Guide to the Getting of Money Felix Dennis
The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Getting Your Shit Together John Carlton
The Heroes Joe Abercrombie
Writing Naked Puts: The Best Option Strategies. Volume 1 Mark D Wolfinger
Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut
Hannibal and Me: What History’s Greatest Military Strategist Can Teach Us About Success and Failure Andreas Kluth
Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger, Expanded Third Edition Charles T. Munger
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character Paul Tough
How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming Mike Brown
Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises, Sixth Edition Charles P. Kindleberger
Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t Simon Sinek
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future Ashlee Vance
How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed Ray Kurzweil
Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell Brandon Sanderson
The Kick-Ass Writer: 1001 Ways to Write Great Fiction, Get Published, and Earn Your Audience Chuck Wendig
Revival Stephen King
Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success Shane Snow
The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help Amanda Palmer
The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King Rich Cohen
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon Brad Stone
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Walter Isaacson
Unnatural Creatures: Stories Selected by Neil Gaiman Neil Gaiman
The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic Dan Ariely
Warbreaker Brandon Sanderson
The Virgin Way: If It’s Not Fun, It’s Not Worth Doing Richard Branson
The Way of Zen Alan W. Watts
Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life Thich Nhat Hanh
Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?: And Other Reflections on Being Human Jesse Bering
Virtual Light William Gibson
Life 101: Everything We Wish We Had Learned about Life in School–But Didn’t (Life 101 Series) Peter McWilliams
A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson
Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person Shonda Rhimes
30 Days In The Word Mines Chuck Wendig
Alan Turing: The Enigma Andrew Hodges
The Girl With All the Gifts M. R. Carey

 

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Fun with Dietary Supplements

I use some supplements to improve my health and here my favorites that you might want to consider.

Vitamin D3/K2

A lack of appropriate levels of vitamin D can lead to problems with sleep, cancers, inflammation, bone strength, and cognitive health (depression, etc). It usually takes western medicine about 20 years to catch up with that the nutrition geeks/weight lifters/”biohackers” already know, and even doctors are on board with this one.

I highly suggest first getting a blood test to determine your current level before supplementing. Once you have a baseline, you can figure out how much you’ll need to take and how low it is. Take it for a few months then re-test your blood.

I use wellnessfx.com for blood testing. You can order blood tests through them without going through a doctor. You should aim for about 40 ng/ml – 50 ng/ml per https://www.vitamindcouncil.org/. I take about 5,000 IU/day to get to around 50 ng/ml.

The benefits of Vitamin D follow a U-shaped curve. Too little is bad, too much is also bad. The sweet spot is in the middle.

Vitamin D should be balanced with K2 (which the below product includes) to keep Calcium out of your soft tissues and put it where it belongs, in your bones.

It’s best to take it in the morning, as it can impede melatonin production in the evening, the hormone that makes you feel sleepy.

This is the product I use: Thorne Research – Vitamin D/K2 Liquid

 

Magnesium

Magnesium is a mineral that is involved in over 300 processes in the human body. If you’re not supplementing with it you’re probably deficient, unless you eat an incredibly clean diet. It’s implicated in improving cholesterol chemistry, improving insulin sensitivity, used in DNA repair, and helps your sympathetic nervous system relax. A lack of magnesium can cause muscle cramps, tachycardia, headaches, and migraines.  Magnesium and Vitamin D are my two supplements I would never give up.

According to the The Magnesium Miracle by Carolyn Dean  your blood levels should be tested and you want to shoot for about a 6.0 mg/dl

I take some in the morning, but most at night as it has a relaxing effect for me. Start slow with Magnesium as it can cause loose stool(!!!) if you’re not used to it yet. Slowly increase your dosage before taking a full dose. I spread my dose (900mg) through the day because if I take too much at once I get GI issues. You really can’t overdose on Magnesium either, because your body will simply stop absorbing it if you take too much.

This is the product I use: KAL – Magnesium Glycinate 400 

Vitamin C

This is one of cheapest and safest supplements you can take. It’s used in collagen formation, other connective tissues, and wound healing. It’s also used to produce glutathione in the body. Unless your eating a LOT of fruit and vegetables, it’s a challenge to get a good amount of vitamin C.  I take 1g / day.

I use: NOW Foods Vitamin C-1000 Sustained Release with Rose Hips

What supplements do you use that you couldn’t go without? Please let me know in the comments.

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Star Wars: The Force Awakens (SPOILERS)

THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS
THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS
THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS

Now, if you’re still here you have either seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens or you don’t care (if so, who are you and why are you here??) Just kidding, sort of.

The movie was incredible. It was what the prequels should’ve been. In short, the magic is back. BB-8 is friggin adorable, he’s like a dog you just want to hang out and do stuff with. I loved how when people shot, they shot to kill, rather than filling the air with 10,000 lasers. Super cool how Kylo used the force to stop a laser bolt mid-flight then re-directed it to use it as a weapon. Han was a dummy for thinking Kylo Ren wouldn’t kill him. It had some awesome throwbacks and the attention to detail was nothing short of staggering…but there are A LOT of questions.

1: How did Kylo Ren fall to the dark side?

2: Why does his lightsaber have a guard no one else ever thought to make one with a guard? Is his more advanced?

3: Did Han know Rey?

4: It seems like Finn might be able to use the force. Can he?

5: Why did Rey suddenly get to use the force?

6: How did she know she could inject her thoughts into the Stormtrooper’s to control his body to release her restraints?

7: Where did Vader’s helmet come from?

8: Why does Snokes look like Gollum?

9: Does he have the precious?

10: Why did the order build another Death Star with a ridiculous easy to exploit vulnerability?

11: Did Kylo Ren survive the planet’s melt down? I say likely for an antagonist, but how?

12: Maz needs to explain how she got Luke’s saber

13: How was Luke surviving on an island of rocks and moss? Force catching fish perhaps.

14: Speaking of the Force. Instead of Force choking, Force pushing and the like why no Force ball crushes? That would certainly end fights against men in a hurry.

15: Why did R2 suddenly wake?

16: Who’s the old guy who gives the map piece to Poe?

17: What’s the deal with the Stormtrooper wearing shiny plate armor? Does it stop lasers better? Does any Stromtrooper’s armor do anything but look stupid?

18: How is Rey: an expert in the staff, sword, mechanical engineer, and crack shot pilot?

19: So Luke was training Jedi, supposedly. Where the fuck are they all?

20: Are there other Yoda’s er Yoda people things?

A few critiques…

1: Not enough breathing room. I loved the action, but it left little time to recuperate and breathe. That was something I felt the first trilogy did really well. It was too much, too fast. It needed a little work with pacing. It would have been nice to get to know the characters a bit outside of surviving for their lives.

2: Sometimes there was a little bit too much telling vs showing like writers always talk about, but all in all they did a good job of it. There were just a few times where I cringed at the exposition, specifically one with a conversation between Leia and Han Solo.

 

And that’s all I’ve got. Do you have answers? Thoughts? Put ’em in the comments.

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Trading Stocks: Basic Technical Analysis

I’m a firm believer in the concept of having multiple streams of income. The idea is that you have multiple streams flowing together which form a river, making up the whole of your income. Each stream is a producer of income. One stream may be a book, another may be a rental property, another a dividend paying stock. If one stream dries up and goes away, you’re not shit out of luck. I learned this concept from the book Multiple Streams of Income by Robert Allen.The above image is a picture from the book, which I highly recommend reading if this interesting to you.

What I’m going to write about today falls into the aggressive pool. I like to trade stocks for fun and the way I mainly do that is through technical analysis. For a longer term view, I tend to use more fundamental analysis for stocks in my IRA/401k.

I learned a lot about this strategy from my friend Gavin Radzick at Thought Process Financial Education http://thoughtprocessfe.com/

Stocks are interesting. Stocks are awesome because sometimes it feels like all your doing is pushing a button and making money sprout to life out of thin air making you feel like a Greek fucking god. There is of course, the opposite side of the coin when you’re losing money, or about to lose money that can make you feel like an idiot, questioning and doubting if you have a clue what you’re doing. Ultimately, there is a lot of personal psychological management that has to be done. This involves assessing your risk tolerance and putting conditions in place that allow you to still go on with your day without obsessing about your portfolio. I suggest you read about position sizing also for risk management.

Technical analysis, to my understanding basically means using charts with overlying indicators to flatten out noise in the data and look for trends or signals that would incite one to take action. Fundamental analysis is looking at the underlying business fundamentals to determine if the co. is a good buy.

So, without further ado if there is a stock that piques my interest this is what I do. First I’ll go to Stockcharts.com (free!) and setup my chart like this:

I put green arrows to indicate where the 12 week exponential moving average (blue line) crosses UP over the 25 week moving average (red line), indicating a change in the trend of the stock’s movement to the upside (bullish indicator). If you want to buy this stock, a good time to do it would be at the point of the green arrows. A time to sell might be when the trend reverses and the 12 weeks EMA (exponential moving average) crosses down again (red arrow)

The most important thing when buying a stock is knowing your timeline for exiting the position. This may be 20 years in the sake of a 401k/IRA, so you may not even worry about technical analysis and just enjoy using DRiPs. In the context I’m discussing here, for a shorter term trade I’m going to use a chandelier exit for determining where my stop loss will be.

I adjusted my stockharts.com settings with the chandelier exit here:

The chandelier exit basically narrows or widens based off of the stock’s volatility. Volatility is a measure of the magnitude of change of a stock over time. I added the chandelier exit line to the chart below, the third green line tracing under the stock. As you can see it widens or narrows based on volatility.

It’s not foolproof and certainly not magic. If you got in say at the first green arrow I drew in May 2014 and got out in July 2015 (red arrow indicating chandelier exit point) you would have made a tidy profit.

However, if you got in at the second green arrow, August 2015 and got out at the next chandelier exit point, November 2015 you would have lost money. So, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

The key points is this: this method is very lumpy. When you’re right, you get a nice big return. When you’re wrong, you cut your losses quickly. It’s sort of like a death by a thousand cuts, but you get saved by really strong healing spell once in a while the boosts you up to level 100, or something…

I know this is a departure from what I normally write. Did you find this useful, interesting? Please let me know in the comments.

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How to Stay Focused on a Task

I’ve experimented with a lot of different ways to dial in my focus to get the most done in the shortest amount of time. Why? Because that leaves more room/time for other things, like FUN for example. The context of this is for writing, but could apply for anything you can do on a computer or sitting at a desk. I like lists.

1. Using a timer. I typically set a timer on my iPhone for 33m. I know, it’s a weird time. Setting a timer seems to have a very powerful affect on my psychology. Once the timer is going I am working against the clock. The timer forces me to stay away from silly bullshit like facebook, twitter, youtube, email, and the other endless distractions available, thanks to the internet. When a mental butterfly takes flight, instead of running off to email to send that message I forgot about, I’ll keep a notepad file open. In that file I’ll simply jot down the thing that came up and return back to writing or whatever it is I’m doing. The timer also gives you a way to quantify what you did. To make the timer even more powerful, I’ll note down how many words I wrote in that time sort of as a performance guideline.

2. Keep going even if you’re stuck. If I don’t know what to write, I’ll write: “I don’t know what to write next. so a guy does a thing then so and so dies.” There seems to be something powerful about physically doing the thing that needs to be done even it’s coming out like crap. Eventually the crap will turn into polished crap, then flowers emerge.

3. Taking timed breaks. I like 5 minutes. Keep jotting down those ADD urges and bottle them up because once that timer goes off you can allow your ADD internet addicted-self free. Purge those demons. Go watch a youtube video, mindlessly scroll through twitter and facebook. Then once the break timer goes off, reset it and dive back in. Why user a timer for breaks? Well, as we all know the internet is black pit and it’s easy to get lost in there. The timer is your trail blaze out.

4. Move. Do pushups, situps, air-squats, lunges, stretch. Move your body during your breaks. It’s good for you and your brain. It really adds up too! 20 squats a few times a day can easily add up to over a 100 with minimal feelings of exertion.

5. Drink water while you work. Most people don’t drink nearly enough. Your urine should be about the color of straw. If it’s darker than that, you likely need more water. It makes a huge difference in your energy level.

6. Eventually you’re going to hit a point of diminishing returns in your cycle of breaks and working. At some point you’re going to need a longer break. Take the break, do something else for a bit before coming back to work. I suggest walking outside. Grinding through can work sometimes, but in the long run I’ve found it doesn’t pay off.

I hope this stuff helps you with staying focused. Please let me know by leaving a comment if you found this useful and what you do to enhance your focus and productivity.

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