Tag: writing

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personal

2014’s barely begun

Already back to the grind

Found out that the woman that got injured in the last entry is back from the hospital. Gonna stop by her apartment building to ask the people there how’s she’s doing.

Evidently, she had her skull cracked open (!) so I don’t know if she’s going to need physical therapy or what.

That’s the thing about life, horrible things just suddenly happen while you’re minding your own business. It’s a scary thought that your life can change so quickly and so suddenly.

———–

Her: (pointing to my hand) What is that?
Me: It’s that gross Chai tea. I don’t want it to go to waste so I’m just gonna drink…
Her: (slapping teabag from my hand, lands on the floor)

This was our sixth New Year’s together.

Our first new year’s was a whole production with dinner out and such. This last one, we were in bed by 11 and watching the ball drop on the tube by our lonesome.

I suppose that’s how it is; after a while, just being comfortable with your favourite person beats everything else.

Finally wrapped up a set of client-related work so I decided to spend the new year downtime re-grouting, re-caulking, and re-painting our bathroom, assembling a headboard, and fixing up the blog – you like the new look?

And then those same clients called me back for a slate of new work.

So the past week has been insanely hectic. I’m covered in grout dust and paint while running into the office and/or in front of my laptop working on these huge projects, one of which is in the papers.

In between, I’m wrapping up a book I wrote called A Great First Date, which is all about how to go on a first date in this postmodern social media/texting/Tinder world.

It’s out on Valentine’s Day this year so I’ll let you know more about it when we get closer. Sign up for updates above in “Subscribe for Notifications” for more details

I’d tell you more, but I’m off to wrassle for my New Year’s resolution.

So many projects and so few lunch hours and coffee breaks in which to do them.

Location: at the end of a project, ready for another
Mood: crazy busy, yo
Music: Dying is easy It’s living that scares me to death
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That’s not what I call myself

Me: Have you seen my keys?
Her: (glancing up) They’re right there on the dresser.
Me: What would I do without you?
Her: (looking back down) Probably walk around in circles.

Hoping to catch the new Batman flick.

Was in the tail end of college when Batman: The Animated Series came out. Being the geek I am, still caught most episodes.

One episode stuck in my mind, which was recently alluded to in this article and part of that episode’s below.

What they don’t show you is at the very end of the story (or maybe another episode), Bruce Wayne is asked how he knew that he wasn’t going crazy.

He replies that the voices in his head kept calling him Bruce.

“That’s not what I call myself,” he said.

A man is as he believes. Since I’ve gotten married, what I believe of myself has changed slightly – expanded, mainly. But I still keep who I actually think I am to myself.

I will say, though, that in my head, I think I’m someone.

Just got into the Apple iTunes/iBook Store! So if you have an iPad, iPod, or iPhone, download a copy of The Men Made of Stone.
The Men Made of Stone - Logan Lo Also, another post rant on Friday.

Location: between fast asleep and wide awake
Mood: focused
Music: They call me Adam Yauch, but I’m MCA.
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personal

Hyper-Minimalist (wannabe)

The Pied Piper

Most of the images here are my copyright since it’s just a view of my little world.

But every so often, there’re things that I find so good that I wish it were part of my little world.

Here’re a buncha hyper-minimalistic posters that sum up classic children’s stories in a single frame. You can buy posters of them, and see others, from the original artist here.

Recently had an online “debate” about China versus the US and this fella wrote this long-winded explanation as to why China was so great. Told him that if it was great, why was he choosing to work, study, and live here?

That pretty much ended the convo.

Einstein once said that, If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

Guess that’s why I like these; cause the artist “gets it.”

In some ways, when I write, try to use the least amount of words possible to get my point across. Figure that you’ll catch my drift and fill in the blanks yourself. And whatever you fill in regarding my life is probably more interesting than the real thing.

Here’re more posters. May buy one as they fit into my art beneath the canopy glow.

———-

Had a disappointing day yesterday.

It’s hard, shaking off all of your little miniature disasters.

Hansel & Gretel
Alice in Wonderland

Location: work
Mood: disappointed
Music: is this the ceremony? I don’t know. Well, I don’t mind.
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personal

The hours drag but the years sprint away

Westin Hotel in Jersey City

Her: (after applying make-up) See the power of make-up?
Me: You always look good.
Her: Awww, you don’t have to say that.
Me: It’s not like I married you for your personality.

We took a trip out to Jersey for her grandmother’s 90th birthday (and other reasons) this past weekend and stayed over at the Westin in Jersey City. It’s nice to get away from city, even if it’s only across the river and for just a bit.

90 years. Find that pretty astounding, actually. I’ll be 90 in 2063, which seems like a lifetime away but it’s only 18,615 days away.

It’s a weird time in my life where the hours drag but the years sprint away.

While out there, we managed to grab a couplea episodes of the BBC show Sherlock, which puts Sherlock Holmes in the 20th Century. Truly somea the best writing on television. Do yourself a favour and try to catch it.

Speakinga writing, am hit with a massive case of writer’s block. No joy.

While out in Jersey, drove by the place that my ex used to live and s’funny when you look back on your life and remember the different versions of yourself like they were different people.

It’s always me but it is not I.

Cake at Fire and Oak, Jersey City
Coffee at Fire and Oak, Jersey City

Location: getting to the post office
Mood: rejuvenated
Music: all these places have their moments with lovers and friends I still can recall
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business

Thanks for downloading 1,636 copies of my book!

Bicycle in NYC

So I’ve just finished my first marketing campaign for my book and here’s what I’ve accomplished in 48 hours:

  • Amazon.com downloads: 1,567
  • Amazon.co.uk downloads: 40
  • Amazon.de downloads: 29
  • Amazon.fr downloads: 0

All-in-all, expected a total of 500-800 downloads and this totally blew away my estimates. And here’s what I’ve learned:

The French dislike my work
This is disappointing because I feel I support the French: I eat their fries and their bread, utilize a French press with regularity and support the French little coffee place down my street, and enjoy Pepe le Peu. How’s about some reciprocity?!

Social marketing really works
Put up some ads here and there which got me about 300 downloads – about what I guessed – however, people mentioning me on their FB page or via email forwards garnered me the vast majority of the downloads and this was completely unexpected.

Stuff y’put out online is powerful and stays forever. Note to self: redact mention of womanizing and rum intake in this blog.

Discovered I know five distinct groups of people

  • One group, without my asking, put up postings on FB and elsewhere; they took my undertaking and made it their own.
  • Another group, when asked, immediately started telling others.
  • A third group, when asked, declined.
  • A fourth group, when asked, completely ignored me.
  • A fifth group, was never asked and also never said a thing.

I’ve got to say that this was all a bit surprising. Some people I was sure would help did not and some people whom I never even thought to ask took it upon themselves to help. Eye-opening.

And speaking of reciprocity, two of the people that completely ignored me, I go out of my way to help all the time. Also eye-opening.

Again, think it’s that divergence of our very basic definitions of friendship.

It’s actually given me some clarity on things, so, while it was disappointing, it’s still beneficial cause it’s helped me figure out what to do with my time. And we all know Bicycle in NYC

Location: the basement of my brain, thinking of a sequel
Mood: grateful
Music: It’s not so bad And I want to thank you
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business personal

The Men Made of Stone / Writers write to be read

The Men Made of Stone ebook cover

So, about that project I was telling you about previously – it’s the manuscript I’ve been working on for the past decade or so.

Just finished it.

Well, more accurately, I finished it, an editor’s okay-ed it, a copy-editor’s read it and my wife thinks it’s good. It’s called The Men Made of Stone and I put it up on Amazon as a Kindle ebook a month ago just to test a few things out and now I think it’s ready for everyone.

It’s a crime drama, which I wrote in a radically different style than I have this blog or anything else for that matter. It’s the story of two ambitious men named C and Jack that climb up opposite sides of Chinatown organized crime – but nothing in that world is ever as it seems.

The cast of characters includes Danny the Priest – who never kills on a Sunday – and Trigger, Cloudy, and Slim Grey, who have no such qualms.

You can read a sample of it online by clicking here.

And here’s my fancy-shmancy Amazon Author’s Page.

Now, while you could buy a copy now, I’ve kept the price “high”- at $2.99 – so that I could get some marketing things in place and also potentially get some good reviews.

Note that if you’re an Amazon Prime reader, you can download it now for free.

However, if you’re not, I’m giving it away on the 20th and 21st and then dropping the price to $0.99 on the 24th because I believe – honestly – that for writers, the problem isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity.

Put another way, Writers write to be read.

Of course, you could buy it now to get started but really, we both know that I’d just blow that money on rum and chili. In that order.

It’s only available for the Kindle and Kindle app for now (sorry) but I’m going to be publishing it for Nook and the Apple store on April 21st. There are a whole buncha reasons why.

In any case, that’s all for now. I’ll drop you another reminder later on or so.

Location: about to run to see a client
Mood: accomplished
Music: its a winding road I’ve been walking for a long time
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personal

An artist or a nutcase with a notebook?

Cave painting; Photo copyright of French Ministry of Culture and Communication

Have a few days to myself this week so was planning on doing what I always do when the wife’s away, which is to stuff my piehole, just like I did in the last entry.

Unfortunately, the doc just told me that my cholesterol’s up, which I find shocking but it’s onea those things about getting old. It’s still better than the alternative.

The doc says I’m in fine health but it makes me think.

Been alive for 14,235 days and am guessing that I’ve got about 12,045 days left if I’m lucky. And the thing’s that my mind’s racing with all of the stuff I wanna get done. As a writer, there’re stories in my head that I need to get out before they drive me starkers or they just fade away.

There’s this news that cave paintings thought to have been painted 10,000 years ago were probably painted 35,000 years ago – or, put another way, 12,775,000 days ago.

Put yet another way, back when life was hard, brutally hard, and people were lucky to make it to 25 years of age, they somehow found a time and a way for art.

And art that survived their petty differences, their politics, their beliefs, their wars and even their good and evil; art that survived way beyond their moment on the planet.

That’s what’s been keeping me up at night. Alla my stories I think I need to tell before my expiration date.

Real artists ship. Until then, I’m just a nutcase with a notebook. Even a cave man found the time to ship.

So I get up, flip on my glowing box, and I write.


Just watch the first minute, see if you don’t watch the whole thing.

Location: about to run to the post office (again)
Mood: pensive
Music: I need another story something to get off my chest
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personal

For writers, the problem isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity

Dog tied to tree in NYC

I can’t believe that rat bastard left me tied up here. It’s freezing.

———-

Me: (staring at fallen mirror) I don’t get what happened.
Her: (exasperated) I don’t understand how you can fix really difficult things like legal problems and computers but can’t get simple things like why a mirror fell off a door.

Took three days off. Like completely off. There’s something to be said for not doing anything and letting your batteries recharge. Organized some files, caught up with Good Eats – which I just found out isn’t making any more episodes – and read.

Y’know that manuscript that I’ve been talking about all these years? Been thinking of letting you read it on 2012.01.02. Cause I was spending all of this time trying to make it perfect to publish it on paper via a big publisher when I realized that I don’t read paper if can avoid it.

This fella named Tim O’Reilly said that the enemy of the author is not piracy but obscurity. Think that’s true.

So, in addition to all of the work I’ve got going on, got two projects I’m working on.

  1. The first is a legal matter y’might find interesting and might wanna be a part of.
  2. The second is my manuscript.

Figure I should be launching the first one by the middle of next month and the second one by January 2, 2012. All depends on how much rum I’ve ingested.

Keep me honest and on schedule, ok?

Location: home
Mood: ambitious
Music: ich hab viel zu viel zu tun lass uns später weiter reden
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business personal

Being busy with actual life

Bar on the Lower East Side

A project I’ve been working on for a while now just came through. More details as it gets closer to actually happening.

In other news, been busy with actual life. Nothing terribly interesting for anyone that’s not me but I gotta stop saying I’m gonna finish something and just finish it.

Location: in front of a hot cuppa coffee
Mood: great, really
Music: Once upon a time, somebody ran.
YASYCTAI: Man, are y’ever gonna finish writing that manuscript? (years it seems/3 pts)
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personal

Everyone’s got an opinion on something

View of Bryant Park Grill, NYC

The thing about the wired everything’s that everyone’s got an opinion that they feel’s crucially important for people to hear. Won’t lie, I’ve got my own opinions about the world. But the thing is that I know my opinion’s merely my own; for the most part, this here blog’s for me and my own purposes.

I mean, who am I to tell people what to do?

But you have people like this nutcase in Norway who kill 92+ people (mostly unarmed kids) cause he’s a got a goddamned opinion that he thinks is more than just that, an opinion. He wants his opinion to rule over others.

The need to feel important, to matter, is an overwhelming one for someone that feels that they somehow are.

The people that’re certain they’re right, that only they hold the keys to the kingdom, are the ones that make me the most worried.

———-

It’s been hot here in the big city. 100 degrees in the shade hot. It’s hard to stay focused when all I wanna do’s lie down in some air conditioned room.

Been writing a lot. Forced myself to put down my manuscript to work on something else. This fella named Paul Valery once said that A poem is never finished, only abandoned. Think the same is true of any writing.

I was just thinking the other day that

 

Location: a dark room, trying to stay cool
Mood: productive
Music: you went back to what you knew
YASYCTAI: Try to get motivated in this weather. It’s not easy. (24 hours/1 pt)
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