Author Archives: Adam

For Midgard! For Asgard! For Odin!

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Marvel comic has no shortage of upcoming movie adaptations. X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Nick Fury, Ant-Man and sequels to Iron Man and Spider-Man. The one I’m most hopeful for, though, is Thor. For one, it marks a departure from the current trend in Marvel movies in that it touches on the supernatural rather than genetic mutations or lab accidents. Presumably Doctor Strange will continue that by branching into the realm of magic.

Rumors over who will play the lead in Thor have been swirling. Some have speculated that Kevin McKidd would play the lead, but his possible role has been downplayed. Personally, I’m hoping for Paul Levesque, aka WWE wrestler Triple H.

Triple H as Thor?
He’s got the look; the hair, the physique, even his voice fits the part. Plus, he comes with his own hammer. I can’t think of a better choice to play Thor. He’s already worked with Marvel, on Blade: Trinity. As a professional wrestler and occasional guest star, he has some acting experience. It’s probably just wishful thinking on my part, but come on: that’s a Thor to strike fear into the heart of his enemies.

While will is strong, habits are formed

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I’ve been working on developing better writing habits lately. I haven’t been the most organized or consistent of writers. I wrote in bursts and often complained about the lack of time available. No more.

Developing a habit takes roughly three weeks. A habit, like brushing your teeth or combing your hair, is something done in such repetition that to do otherwise feels unnatural. It’s not something we fret about not having the time for; we just do it.

I spent a few hours building a spreadsheet to track my writing statistics. It keeps me accountable, knowing that at the end of the day I need to enter my word count and it lets me see how my productivity changes over time. I’m not much of a math geek but I do love my statistics.

I set a weekly goal of 3,000 words. Over time I expect to raise this but I want to start out with reasonable goals and move up from there. This week (Monday-Sunday), I wrote 3,253 words. I averaged 465 words/day, and my most productive day was Saturday, with 1,046 words written. I’ve written all but two days this month, and those at the beginning. The going is strong.

During the CSSF Workshop in the summer of 2007 I outlined a SF alternate history story involving Nicola Tesla. I have a fascination with Tesla and wanted to do something challenging with that. I started writing the story around the beginning of October (pre-spreadsheet) and finished it on Saturday. The handwritten first draft ended up around 6,300 words, just 100 words shy of my original estimate. I’m pretty pleased by how it’s shaping up. I’m going to sit on it for a few weeks before typing it up and beginning the revision process.

I started work on my story for the Footprints anthology. Nothing like waiting until the end of the submission deadline to get a story ready. The guidelines are fairly narrow and it took a while for an idea to develop. I’ll be spending the next few weeks getting this story up to snuff before the deadline on November 15th.

“Bring it on”, said the tortoise to the hare.

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I’ve been doing fairly well with my writing schedule. I’ve managed to write every day this week, and all but two days for the month. My pace is slower than I’d like, averaging just under 300 words/day but the key is consistency, not speed.

I’ve been mostly writing in bursts at the end of the day. I’m going to try splitting up my sessions throughout the day — morning, lunch, after work, and late evening. I seem to really hit my stride late in the day so I don’t know if this will be productive or not. One way to find out.

My Tesla story, “Man out of Time”, is at 3,500 words now and at the halfway point. I expect to wrap this up somewhere around 7,000 words, which will make it one of my longer story to date. I should have the first draft finished this week.

The Footprints anthology, edited by Jay Lake and Eric T. Reynolds is open for submissions until November 15th, 2008. The guidelines for this are a little restrictive, clarifying that the human race is gone and the explorers that find out footprints on the moon are not our descendants. This should make for an interesting mix of stories when it’s finished. I have a pretty solid plan for the story I want to write for this. I’ll be starting on this one shortly.

New artwork for the Byzarium Flash Fiction contest has been posted. The image is, as usual, beautiful. The deadline is November 16th. I’m noodling on a few ideas for this one. My last submission to the contest turned out to be a bigger idea than could fit in 500 words — one worth exploring in a longer draft down the road. I’ll probably put something together for this month’s image and see what sticks.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving

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One distinct advantage to a multinational relationship is duplicate holidays. We couldn’t make the trip back to spend the day with Andrea’s family, but we invited mine over and cooked up a small feast for the three of us.

Neither of us have ever cooked a whole turkey before so we opted for a turkey breast in a bag. It turned out to be the most delicious, most turkey I think I’ve ever had. My attempt at a Thanksgiving dinner last year wasn’t bad but pales in comparison to this. Hot apple cider, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, corn and dinner rolls, capped off with a homemade pumpkin caramel cheesecake. A great meal all around.

We couldn’t have asked for a nicer day. We opened up the windows and aired out the house. The leaves are turning and the temperatures are dropping gradually. It shouldn’t be long before the first deep frost and a bit of relief from the fall allergies.

I haven’t been paying much attention to football this year, but we turned on the Chicago Bears and watched what ended up being an exciting game, especially in the last quarter. I was sure they had the game wrapped up with a one point lead with eleven seconds left on the clock but Atlanta really pulled out all the stops and drove down the field for a field goal with one second on the clock.

A good weekend spent with loved ones.

The sky is falling and still we dance

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Via Futurismic and SpaceWeather.com:

INCOMING ASTEROID: A small, newly-discovered asteroid named 2008 TC3 is approaching Earth and chances are better than 99.8% that it will hit. Steve Chesley of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory estimates that atmospheric entry will occur on Oct 7th at 0246 UTC over northern Sudan to the Red Sea. Measuring only a few meters across, the space rock poses no threat to people or structures on the ground, but it should create a spectacular fireball, releasing about a kiloton of TNT in energy as it disintegrates and explodes in the atmosphere. Asteroids of this size hit Earth every few months, but this is the first time one has been discovered before it hit.

This is pretty spectacular. It doesn’t sound as if those of us in Northern America will be able to catch the show but hopefully someone out there will catch and film the event.

Back in the saddle; this leather is suprisingly comfortable.

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September was a difficult month. Fall allergies raged out of control. Legal wrangling related to the divorce and financial stress made sleep a challenge. T minus 30 days and counting.

I’ve been thinking about writing but not actually getting any done. September broke my 2008 streak of one new first draft per month. Sitting down with enough energy to concentrate and be creative wasn’t happening. I thought about writing. I read. I highly recommend The Savage Humanists, edited by Fiona Kelleghan.


“The Savage Humanists” (Red Deer Press)

I also, finally, read Watchmen. Yes, I admit it. I have never read it before now. I’ll probably have more to say about it another time. I’ll just acknowledge that I understand why so many people were moved by it. The movie is coming out in 2009 (pending the ongoing legal battle with Fox).


“Watchmen” (Alan Moore)

I am fairly disorganized and I have a difficult time being productive when my work environment is cluttered. Quite the oxymoron, I know. I write my first (and sometimes second) drafts longhand. I was doing it all in one notebook and flipping back and forth was getting both tedious and ultimately brain-melting. I picked up a couple new spiral notebooks and last night, for the first time in weeks, I got words out. Just shy of a thousand words on the Tesla alt. history story that’s been kicking around since last year’s workshop.

Things aren’t looking any easier in the foreseeable future. October is going to be a busy month. I’ll be attempting to blog on a more regular basis as well as catch up on my writing goals for the year. Final preparation for D-Day, which involves refinancing the house, is ongoing. Then, literally as soon as I’m done at court it’s off to New York City for a tradeshow. NaNoWriMo is also in November. I won’t be officially participating; instead I’ll be attempting to write 50,000 words worth of short story.

What does your name mean?

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Snagged from eeknight:


What Adam Means


You are usually the best at everything … you strive for perfection.

You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.

You have the classic “Type A” personality.

You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row.

You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace.

People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality.

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated.

You master any and all skills easily. You don’t have to work hard for what you want.

You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you’ll knock down anyone who gets in your way!
I don’t know about that hard work part. Some days it feels like all I do is work. I’m definitely not organized, although I wish I were!

Allergies

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Yesterday I had the first of four weekly tests to determine what I’m allergic to. This consists of getting five pieces of jagged plastic twisted into the sensitive pasty flesh of my forearm and waiting for the wounds to erupt.

I had mild reactions to cat and dog (bad for me, but manageable). I also reacted to household dust and molds. The worst, though, was histamine. My body is producing enough of the stuff to create a welt the size of a small volcano.

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