Periodically.org

The following is a post for one particular reader who was asking me about baby rearing. I'm far far FAR from an actual expert, but thought I'd use my blog for a bit of an info dump of what I do know (or what I think I know). Disclaimer: The following rules are in no particular order, and only seem mostly true to me over the past six months. Also keep in mind that my wife does about 99% of the real work, while I hover on the perimeter, picking up things, fetching items, like a modern day Igor. Rule Number 1 Anything can and will strangle your baby in a deathless grip if you let it. Strings, toys, fluffy blankets, pillows, a well intentioned greeting. Babies seem intent on some suicidal pact to off themselves with any available item. Therefore you should try and keep items away from baby, unless you are watching them like a hawk. A hawk on ritalin. A hawk on ritalin with a keen ambition to join the NSA. Rule Number 2 Babies suck at conversation. So they cry when they need help. T...

It's one thing to write. To just pump out those words everyday. It's quite another to have to read the atrocious swill you churn out and try and make it presentable. I know at least one beta reader is waiting for her copy (Hi Grace!) but it looks like the editing is going about as fast as the writing went. Well, slower, actually. Around 2000ish words a day, every other day or so. It's a bit of a shock to get to some scenes and find they need almost a complete rewrite. Sure, it's a pleasure to get to a scene that just flows, but those are few and far between. To add insult to injury, all of these scenes have already been edited at least once. Ugh! Oh yeah, I got my article all printed up nice and purdy on the department news letter. That was exciting. Very very first article printed. Evar! I'm also working on some short stories. That's a tough go. Hard to trim down a story to be interesting as well as have suitable pace for 2-15,000 words. Uhm, sorry about no ent...

I'm not sure how many of you are interesting writing, either as a hobby (as it is with me), or as a casual observer (much as say, I take interest in someone who might collect the odd 1960's era Brazilian Pogs issued by the Oscar Myer Corporation), or quite possibly as a pie in the sky hope of one day doing it for a living (also me). To have more blather, I thought I'd talk about my process. As an unpublished fiction writer. I realize that this is like a carpenter who has never been paid for his work, discussing his woodworking technique. While theoretically it may be correct, its most likely is complete rubbish. But that's not going to stop me. So right now I'm going through my final edit (I hope) of my first book. The entire book has gone through at least one revision/edit. Parts have gone through as many as four. The thing about revising and editing is that it's a completely different beast than writing. At least it is for me. When you're writing, the old ...