This is my favorite one so far.
Journal Entry: February 23, 2007
I wrote a new song.
I wanted to share it with you guys, but there’s something very important for you to understand, first. You see, a song is a literary work. It’s just like a story — it can be true, while still being a fabricated thing. There is a narrator in a story, and there can be a narrator in a song.
We’re all used to hearing Garth Brooks sing about how sad his life is, y’know? I mean, just because a story is told in the first person, doesn’t make you think that story happened to the writer. But it’s harder to remember that sometime with songs. So just because the song is in the first person, I don’t want you to think it’s about me — that I’m coming here and posting something embarrassing or strange about the working of my own inner mind. God forbid, no. It’s just a song.
If you promise to keep that in mind, then you’re allowed to keep scrolling, and read the song I wrote.
Here goes:
Anna, A-N-N-A
-belle, B-E-L-L-E
Annabelle, Annabelle,
That is me! (Cheering, as appropriate)
(And, yes, there’s a second verse)
Grace, G-R-A-C-E
Is my middle name
Annabelle Grace is
My full name!
The Love Story in King Jason’s War
Jason immersed himself wholly in his quest for Miriam’s attention. He devoted even more of his time to studying, learning the topics that interested her and reading anything he hadn’t already seen. He attended every class offered at the Academy, and did everything he could to engage in the conversation whenever she was there, to draw her into it as well.
One day, when they were both reading in the Cathedral’s sprawling library, Jason looked up from his book and asked Robert, “How does a boy land a girl, here at court?”
“Piles of gold usually does the job,” Robert said. He shrugged, “But sometimes the just use gemstones.” Jason glared at him for several long moments before Robert noticed. When he did, he laughed. “To be honest, I’ve never paid close attention, but the tradition where I come from is for the father of the boy and the father of the girl to have a polite discussion in a stuffy sitting room, and two years later everyone’s married. Something to that effect.”
Jason sat back, and sighed. “So that leaves me where?”
“That leaves you chasing after a girl whose father has already had a polite discussion with one of the most powerful men in the kingdom, even without land. She’s promised to David.” He grinned. “It’s not unheard of for promised girls to go sneaking off with young men in the last years of their freedom, though. You could hope for some of that.”
Jason shook his head. “Could I meet with her father? She once said that he likes me. Maybe if I could convince him I’m something special–“
“Oh, you are that,” Robert said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. “You go get that girl.” He set his book down, one finger marking his place. “As a matter of fact,” he said, “I hear her father is in town for a Council meeting. Perhaps you could arrange a meeting.”
Jason did, and only two days later he found himself waiting in the stuffy sitting room in a rich manor off High Street. He’d arrived early, and was beginning to regret it as he waited, his stomach dancing with nervousness. Servants bustled past in the halls, the noise of life filling the halls, but Jason sat quietly in a side room and waited for his appointment.
And then there came a smell of roses and violets, light on the air, and he raised his head to see Miriam standing in the doorway, considering him with a small smile on her face. He met her eyes, and still she stood there for a moment or two, then she stepped into the room, and drew the doors closed behind her.
“What’s this foolishness, then?” she said, her voice light and teasing.
Jason rose from his chair and nodded to her, then sank back down. “I’ve come to speak with your father, while he is at Court. I hear we may have some opinions in common, and, umm, some similar concerns. I thought it might be fun to–“
She shook her head. “You’re going about this all wrong,” she said. “For one, you should have worn your red shirt. He likes color, and all the black, no matter how fine, won’t really impress him.” Jason only stared, and after a moment she blushed, but her voice held the same confidence. “And the red shirt is quite flattering.”
He smiled, “Thank you,” he said.
“More to the point,” she said, coming around in front of him, “it’s all a waste of time, really. Unless you really do want his opinion on affairs of state.”
Jason sat back. He met her eyes. “What exactly are you….”
She shook her head. “I thought you were a southern boy.” She moved directly in front of him, and sank down onto the footrest in front of his chair. “You should know better.”
Jason laughed. “I was seven when I left, and my childhood wasn’t the sort that left a lot of room for cultural niceties.”
She smiled. “I like it when you use phrases like that.” She shook her head again, a smile on her lips. “Okay,” she said, “Here’s how it works. The Lords of the Ardain are a jaded bunch, and they’ve all heard the stories of forbidden love one too many times to put up with it anymore. These days, they always let their sons choose their first wives. Promises don’t really take effect until the first marriage falls apart. So you’re wasting your time with Daddy.”
Jason considered her. “You really are a little too smart for me,” he said. “You’re dangerous.”
She shrugged. “A girl’s only got so many defenses.”
“So,” Jason said, “you’re saying that David gets to choose his own–“
She stopped him with a narrow finger on his lips. “Stop drawing conclusions,” she said. “No, I’m not talking about David at all. Daddy hasn’t got a son, and he’s never let it bother him. I’m his legally adopted heir, and he treats me like one.” She sat back. “I’ll choose my own first marriage.”
“Ah,” Jason said. He tried for a charming smile, and she laughed.
“You could be fun,” she said. “I’ll consider you.” Her eyes narrowed, and her voice grew serious. “You could be a great man, Jason. I can already see that in you. You already have one of the most amazing stories I’ve ever heard, and I fully believe there’s more in store for you.”
Jason thought for a moment. He said, “I want you to be a part of my story. It will be a happier story, with you in it.”
She smiled. “You’re still reading too much Anton.” She sat forward, elbows on her knees, her face inches from his, and said, “Will you make the world a better place, Jason?”
“I will,” he said. “With every opportunity I am given.”
She said, “I’ll hold you to that.”
He moved forward, mere inches, and kissed her lightly, once, on the lips. “Choose me,” he said, as she gasped in surprise. “I’ll show you things you’ve never seen.”
She rose, fighting her smile, and looked down on him. “I shall consider it,” she said. As she crossed toward the door, there was a light knock on it, and she turned back, smiling now. “That’ll be someone to announce Daddy’s ready. Have fun discussing politics.”
Jason smiled. “I’ll try.”
It needs another 500 words or so, but that’s the root of it. Who needs long drawn-out romance plots in a book about war?
Journal Entry: January 22, 2007
I probably ought to do a post on the birthing class that we’re taking, but I don’t feel up to it at the moment. I’m in a good mood, is why.
It’s not an unpleasant class…it’s just not much fun to spend nine hours at work, come home for an hour, and then spend three hours at a class. That pretty much counts as a day-not-had. Know what I mean? It’s certainly been a useful class — I’ve learned a lot, and I’m a lot less scared of the big day — but I wish it came in pill form, is what I’m trying to say. I guess.
Anyway, no, I’m going to do another snow-day movies post. Because we had another weekend like the last, except a lot more dramatic. In fact, it barely snowed at all. It rained, but it didn’t much snow. Even so, the weathermen had been predicting catastrophic levels of snow, and I don’t like to embarrass them, so I decided to stay locked up in my house all weekend anyway, and pretend.
So, once again, a lot of WoW and a lot of movies. Here’s your review:
Coneheads is pretty good. I’ve seen SNL movies before, but never one with this scale of participation. It seemed like they had three generations of the SNL cast (the whole cast) in that movie. Good stuff.
Employee of the Month is very good. That’s the Dane Cook movie. I’m a Dane Cook fan, but the movie was still better than I expected. Not amazing, not art — in fact, not anything new — but they did a good job with the genre.
John Tucker Must Die is very good. Same as above, but without Dane Cook. It’s basically Mean Girls and 10 Things I Hate About You. But they did a good job of it, and the sleezy guy is one of the most interesting variations on the sleezy guy character I’ve seen in one of these types.
Nanny McPhee is good. Trish told me I would like it, and I believed her. Still, ugly chick. It was an interesting Cinderella with a Series of Unfortunate Events feel. Maybe that was just the British kids, though.
Night Shift is awful. Don’t see it. 80s Michael Keaton movie (feat. the Fonz as well) about…umm…pimps working out of a morgue. Really not very good.
That Thing You Do is pretty good. Really the only non-Meg Ryan movie that I like Tom Hanks in. Fun, uplifting, and that was back when whatsername was cute.
The Devil Wears Prada is pretty okay. I kinda hated her boyfriend, and he’s supposed to be the touchstone of goodness in the movie, so whatcha gonna do?
The Dukes of Hazzard is okay. Meh. I never watched the show. The movie was fun, but it was 2 AM and I’d had half a cup of vodka, so I’m not really recommending.
Jarhead does a good job of what it’s trying to do. Don’t watch it. As a piece of art, it was impressively realized, but I can’t think of anyone I like who I would recommend this movie to.
Say It Isn’t So is not good. Heather Graham’s pretty hot, but not really worth watching the movie for. I probably should have known that from the synopsis, but it seemed like it could be funny.
Mallrats is pretty good. Watched it in high school, and missed a lot of the storyline. It was fun watching it again after seeing Clerks, so I had a better idea what to expect. Better than I remembered.
Journal Entry: January 17, 2007
Did I talk about Christmas? I really didn’t. I don’t really need to. Christmas this year was everything it’s supposed to be, and nothing it’s not. Which is, you must agree, pretty dang good.
New Year’s Eve was fun. We went to the Austins’, and watched old movies, and snacked and drank. And got a promise of a visit from the Gordons, which made everyone present smile and, to a real extent, cheer. Actually cheer. I will not speak of further developments on that topic.
Since then, we’ve had a snow day. Well, not quite. I mean, I didn’t get to miss any work for free, because the Friday was my Regular Day Off, and the Monday was a federal holiday. So, shucks. But we were trapped in the house for a four-day weekend, so that’s the sort of thing that leads to blog posts.
Well, yes, of course you’re wondering why it didn’t lead to a blog post during my prolonged confinement, but the answer to that is simple: I had an XBox available. Played a lot of WoW, and a lot of Madden ’07, and watched a lot of movies.
Let me review, in brief (and in chronological order, if I remember correctly):
Reality Bites is very good. I would have loved it ten years ago. Also: people smoked a lot ten years ago.
Down Periscope is very good. I can’t believe I’ve only watched it twice. Stupid, yes. Funny, yes.
The Longest Yard (2005) is pretty good. As Kris says, too serious a subject matter to make a comedy out of it. But they did their best.
Dave Barry’s Complete Guide to Guys is okay. It’s not great. I like Dave Barry as a writer, but his deadpan works better on paper than film.
Domino is okay. It wasn’t awful to watch, but I’ll never watch it again.
Boondock Saints is fantastic. I recommend it to everyone who likes movies. Gory action flick. Awesome.
Idiocracy is not very good. It’s got it’s moments, but…meh. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
Wedding Crashers is raunchy but hilarious. Take that analysis seriously. I enjoyed it for a second time.
Accepted is pretty good. It’s not as raunchy as I expected, and it’s actually a pretty good story. It’s an old plot (Revenge of the Nerds, Animal House, PCU and probably countless others), but they did a good job with it.
I know I watched at least one more (and possibly as many as four), but I can’t remember it at the moment. If I do, I’ll post a review.
That was the weekend. Then they made me go in to work on Tuesday, in spite of it being the release date for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade — the much anticipated WoW expansion. My darling wife went and waited in line at Best Buy for me, though, so I was able to install the game over lunch, and play it last night. Awesome. So awesome. The best thing about it, is that everyone is so excited about it. Everyone you encounter in-game, and everyone you know who plays it, is just running around like a kid in a candy store. That’s brings a lot of joy to the experience.
Also, and this deserves a whole post rather than being a passing comment at the end, but I submitted three novels to Tor last week. Tor is one of the leading publishers in the Fantasy industry, and I sent them Taming Fire, King Jason’s War, and Sleeping Kings (to their mainstream editor). Of course, I’ll keep you posted if I hear anything. It’ll be six to eight months. Meanwhile, keep that in your prayers, if you would. It’s…unbelievably important to me.
I hope everyone’s well. Find something to smile about. I’m heading home to play some WoW.
Journal Entry: December 5, 2006
I’m starting on the Bible again. Wish me luck.
I’m starting on my Meaning of Life book again. Wish me luck.
I’m starting on Sleeping Kings again. Wish me luck.
I’m starting on the SK website again. Wish me luck.
I’m starting on Neverwinter Nights module development again (after a five year break). Wish me luck.
I’m starting on the Remnant game again (part of that last one). Wish me luck.
Also, I’m thinking about picking up King Jason’s War again, y’know, to fill some of my spare time. Oh yeah, and I’m about to have a baby.
…
Wish me luck.
Journal Entry: November 27, 2006
Thanksgiving come and gone.
It was a really good one. Honestly, Thanksgiving doesn’t really stand out to me as the sort of holiday I think about any time other than late November. Mostly just Thanksgiving week. It’s not high on my list of priorities, is what I’m getting at. I usually enjoy a pretty good meal, and do my best to watch a Cowboys game in spite of family, and then it’s over and done.
This year — and I don’t really know why — this year, Thanksgiving was awesome. Now, I said the same last Christmas (when it was my family’s turn for Christmas), and that was for a very particular reason. We had a LAN party Christmas. We all got together in Little Rock to quest in Azeroth. Wahoo! But, no, I’m not just repeating that.
We did play some WoW, which was fun. We spent Friday afternoon in Blackrock Depths, and it was Mom’s first successful trip there. We’d dragged her along several times when she was still too low level to be there, but now she was actually ready, and I think we all had a really good time with that.
But that was really only Friday afternoon. Dad and I played some Saturday night, but other than that, there wasn’t really any dedicated WoW time. We all ate a lot (a lot), and I watched even more football than usual. Oh, and all of my teams won. With one exception (founded solely on petty hatred), every football game I cared about at all this weekend went exactly as I would have wanted it to. Dallas tore up. OU managed to win (and we weren’t sure they would until the last second), and thanks to Texas’ loss, that means OU is going to the Big 12 Championship, which is quite awesome. And the Giants lost in an amazing sort of way, which puts Cowboys at the top of the NFC East.
Okay, I don’t know how much you care about football, but the point is that, in an amazing confluence of good luck, everyone I wanted to win, won. And everyone I wanted to lose, lost. Those commas probably shouldn’t be there, but just consider them rhetorical.
The big thing, though, that really kind of surprised me, was the extra family we had around. Heather and Graham were there, and reminded me how great it was to have them back from far Maine, so they can at least make holidays. But my Dad’s family was there, too — his brother Perry, sister-in-law Debby, and my cousins Sam and Katie. These are the ones who lived in Scotland and France, before moving back to Houston last summer. And here I was complaining about Maine.
Anyway, Perry and Debby and Sam and Katie, and I got to spend time with all of them and they are all four really cool people. That was fun. It’s always nice to learn you’re related to good people.
Also got calls from Bruce and Josh, both of which were exciting. And then found time Sunday night, after a long drive home, to have dinner with the Austins, and watch another of the Cowboys’ rivals lose a football game. It was a busy weekend, and my computer was broken, and that drive is just ridiculously long…but it was probably one of the best Thanksgivings I’ve ever had. Yay for that!
I hope yours was good, too.
My Daughter
Okay, so we’re focus-grouping a couple names for our upcoming production: Daughter. That is, our actual daughter. We’re looking for popular input, so…well, this being voting week or whatever, I’m going with the theme. Step right up and fulfill your democratic duty, or whatever.
These are the current choices:
Annabelle Grace (R)
Diana Grace (D)
Please make your pick. Write-in votes are probably acceptable, too, but they stand about the same chance of passing as the real-world equivalents.
Journal Entry: November 2, 2006
Some of you will have heard all this already. These topics have been very much on my mind over the last few days….
There are a lot of people who turn to literature (or art or entertainment in general) as a form of escapism. Especially the fantasy genre. There are many, many artists who create art as a form of escapism. Again, especially in fantasy. I guess the basic idea is, “This world sucks, so I’ll go spend some mind-time in a world over which I have complete control.” The two sets don’t necessarily overlap. A lot of time you’ll find artists using their escapism, asserting their control, to create a world that is very not escapist. The really dark and unpleasant and depressing stuff can be completely relaxing to its creator. Better to give than to receive, and all that.
Anyway, I think writing-as-escapism is, for the most part, just assumed. I know I always did. Sometimes it would confuse me, but it just made sense that the reason I’d dream up all these stories was to get away from the real world.
It’s really not true, though. Not for me. I’ve come to recognize that fact more and more over the last couple weeks.
A lot of writers turn to their fantasy worlds when their real life gets too real. I’m the opposite. I really cannot write, cannot invest myself in my fiction, unless my real world is in good order. All of my history of writing supports that, and…I dunno. It makes sense to me. It fits with who I am.
I have a family history of susceptibility to addictive behavior. My parents made sure I was well aware of that, growing up, and it’s a big part of my self-awareness. I keep an eye out for that. I drink, and some evenings I drink a lot, but I am constantly watching myself, paying attention, wondering if maybe it’s become an addiction.
It’s not. It could be, and I can see how easily it could be, but alcohol isn’t really my weakness. Not drugs, either. Maybe food, sometimes, but even that…not really. Video games, probably. Not writing, though.
In high school I had a counselor suggest that I make up my stories to hide from the real world. I think, at different times, both of my parents sat me down and talked with me about that, too. And I’m sure I could have gone that way, but I didn’t. You see, I’ve always taken my writing very seriously. Parable of the Talents, and all. I think of my storytelling as a way to impact the world, to make it better.
I can’t do that if I’m hiding from the world. So I don’t. If the world is challenging me — if I’m truly stressed out — then I can’t find my way to my fantasy world. Back in high school, I wrote The Poet Alexander as a sort of catharsis, describing my whole relationship with Trish (by whom I’d been dumped, at the time) in the characters of noble and brilliant Alex, so stricken by the cruelties of the woman who had spurned him.
I dunno. Catharsis has just never really been my game. I couldn’t finish the book, as much as I wanted to. Trish and I got back together in our junior year, though, and I finished the book all in a rush. A hundred and twenty pages in a week, over half of that in a single night. (It was a crazy night.) I didn’t really change the story, but it had hope. The ending was still sad, in its way, and Trish never appreciated that, but it took that…peace, I think, in my real world, to let me write at all.
Taming Fire was the same way. I wrote it during my happiest time at college. Two years later, I decided to give it a full rewrite, and I was blazing along on that, doing an awesome job (and making good time), until the second semester of my senior year hit, and suddenly I realized I had no job prospects. I had no idea what I was going to do, and I had a family to feed. Ugh. I spent most of that semester in panic, and I barely wrote a word. I think I got a C in Creative Writing that semester.
Yeah.
Got the job at Lowrance, which paid way better than I’d expected. Then we got Trish through with school, and she got a job, and everything settled down and was looking good (this was before I realized I hated that job), and I tore up on the rest of that rewrite. It was really some of the most productive writing I’d ever done. I even got some major work on King Jason’s War done before work started to wear at me, and then I stopped. And work got worse and worse, and for two years I didn’t write a thing.
I’ve been thinking about these things, as month after month goes by without us getting a rent check on the Tulsa house, and Sleeping Kings goes unfinished, and I open up Word to write, and find I have nothing to say. I can’t get into the story, I can’t go there, because there’s too much unfinished here….
And I always thought maybe I’d be a writer now, if things had been different. Maybe if I hadn’t married Trish, I would have tried the starving artist thing. I don’t think so, though. I dunno, maybe it would be different if I didn’t have a family to feed. Maybe I’d be willing to give in to the escapism, to sacrifice the real world for my imaginary one, but I really don’t think so. I think my parents raised me with too great a sense of responsibility, in that regard at least.
I need stability, I need comfort, I need peace, before I can go to that place where the U. S. is falling apart and golden ages burn, where civilization itself threatens to crumble. It’s a pretty strange situation.
I think I’m proud of myself for that, though. But, yeah, I hope things get better soon. I would really like to get to the part where everything blows up, y’know?
Rhetorical Question
Here’s a rhetorical question:
Who wants chili burgers?
…
Ack! Okay, now, see, if you said, “I do,” then that shows you’re pretty smart, because you want chili burgers. But, at the same time, it shows you’re pretty dumb, because you answered a rhetorical question.
On the other hand, if you thought “I do,” then good for you. Gold star.
I’m gonna go get a chili burger.