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Posting about this is something that will make me laugh. Not sure it is a good thing, but I will still write about it.

It is about my preparations to write… and it’s not a real method.

So, the terms “Planner” and “Pantser” were coined a while ago. Planner is… you guessed it! An individual who must plan out the course of the story through various prewriting methods. Outlines, index cards, notes, etc. are used for stretching out various plot lines… blah blah blah.

I’m even getting bored writing this…

I just write.

I have a notebook like Guillermo del Toro, like a “bible” of sorts to keep names and mythos straight… blah blah blah.

I’m trying to make this interesting, but it’s not.

French fries. It’s hard to find a make-at-home brand or style of cooking that comes close to what you get served in pubs. There is this restaurant in Wilcox, Arizona.

It’s in a train cart.

Amazing fries. Beer-batter fries. I also get chicken-fried steak sandwiches at that place.

And then there is another train-cart restaurant in El Paso. Track One. (I had to call my cousin Mark to remember the stupid name.) (The name isn’t stupid.) (I am.)

I like them more, but as honest as I can be, it is a local staple.

Great fries too.

Not sure if they are beer-battered.

Vikings!

I ordered ceremonial drinking horns the other night. I am so pumped. They come in on Wednesday and I can’t freakin’ wait! There is a black and ivory one. Not real ivory. Just the color.

Cows. Not elephants. But I’m sure they are just replicas. Not really cow horn.

I finished Vikings and The Last Kingdom and now I am in a showhole.

The Last Kingdom was in my Netflix queue for over two years.

It’s great.

87% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Geez! I should re-watch The Leftovers. Powerful show.

That one boasts 91% with a season that was 99%. Crazy.

American Gods season two! Almost here.

And then I realize, Mr. Wednesday is so cool, (Ian McShane is one of my heroes) and I want to create a character like him.

Word associate: Collected, unhinged, powerful, meek, genius, pompous. And I’m off to the races, running through type keys and paper, spilling onto the page.

So that’s my writer’s process. Chaos. Chaining thought to thought to thought until one pulls me out with enough weight to captivate my mind.

And I write. Sorry about that.

I am a pantser, no doubt, because I like experiencing the adventure with my people. I don’t know what they will do until I let them, (write it) and that is my best motivation.

Until next week, Everyone! Have fun with The Time of Tears!

As I was playing Destiny 2 this evening, I got a hateful text from Tiarra.

“Where is the blog I need to edit?”

My stomach dropped and, yes, we did lose the match because I was trying to think of a lie to tell her about how I had skipped blogging for a moment to play The Crucible… (The player versus player mode in Destiny 2)

I had nothing.

So, I fessed up.

I said I have plenty of content.

Tiarra said she didn’t give a frak.

So I told her I was busy. Do you wonderful folks know how she threatened me? She typed, and I quote, “do I need to call Haley?”

So I am here typing a blog post at 12:15a, or else I’ll have an angry Viking woman on my ass about a missed blog post. NO one wants that.

And in case you can’t already tell, I chose to let you good people know the current show I am watching. You guessed it. I am halfway through season two of Battlestar Galactica. The 2004 version. I watched this already, back in 2010, but I had an appropriate draw to it, seeing as how my novel starts very similarly to how this story does. Also, it is very character driven and hits me in the soul every time I watch it.

This evening, I called my mom, because I am a momma’s boy, and we caught up a little. At the end of our conversation, I told her to tell my dad that I missed him. I am also a daddy’s boy. And I think I missed him a lot because Commander Adama, (later admiral, I am aware) has had three of those very heartfelt moments with Lee, his son, at the end of the world and it always makes me REALLY miss my father.

In my eyes, the Admiral, played exquisitely by Edward James Olmos, reminds me a lot of my dad. Strong, confident, with a soft side that everyone feels but may not know it, he is the best example I can share with you about my dad. He is a leader and has been for decades. One of the best examples of my dad is how deeply he cares for everyone, and how he would throw himself on the “train tracks” for anyone. It was around this time I realized, “Hey! That’s where I get that from!” As anyone who reads this or has had the ability (curse) to know me personally, that is one of my better qualities, and it is very funny how we see traits about ourselves in things like old Sci-Fi channel TV shows. But it happens.

So, if you have seen this show at all, my dad is Admiral Adama.

Enough said.

And I am also binging the first season of True Detective, and Stargate SG-1, and

Jackie and I need to start Skin Wars: Fresh Paint because I have a strange affinity for RuPaul for some reason.

I’m still a nerd, and a weird one at that.

Good afternoon everyone, I have a treat. Guest blogger and fellow author, Matthew Blackmoore agreed, (after consistent prodding and a good night of steaks and beer as payment) to share. I am excited to share his thoughts with you.

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” 
– Frank Herbert, Dune

When I read Jonathan’s book it reminds me of the olden days when there was a deeper meaning and purpose to writing. Where quotable lines are sprinkled throughout the story, and memorable moments abound. From the breathtaking moments where the characters take the deep plunge into the dark and aphotic abyss; however dark, it still somehow manages to be profoundly tender, and hopeful. We both share a love of writing. I’m writing my own book series as well, however, I have to say, Jonathan taking the deep dive with such good work has given me the confidence needed to not only finish mine, but do it with a renewed sense of purpose. Jon and I both have a love for books that span from H.P Lovecraft to JRR Tolkien to Neil Gaiman. I think we both share a deep, intimate romance with the deeper intrinsic nature of storytelling, where more focused character development attempts to break tropes, but also tries to reinvent why tropes bother us in the first place or better yet, just try to create something original to begin with that engages, catches the reader’s attention, and asks deeper questions about love, life, death, and purpose. Sometimes, as readers and writers we all feel like things that have been written that are wildly successful (I’m guilty of this too) tend to corner a market for a long while if not for too long, such as Tolkien’s seeming monopoly on the fantasy genre. But as time would prove to us, with a deep well of imagination that consists of darkness, old gods, zombies, and numerous religious allegories; Game of Thrones came for that throne, and instead of destroying Tolkien’s legacy, it instead at least from my angle, made people appreciate a different type of fantasy all together. Proving to me at least, that there is no such thing as not original, and I rail against the phrase “We’re just scrambling ideas at this point for fiction to appear original” -Random detractor. That’s the realm of Hollywood, and not writers of novella. Instead, I argue quite the opposite. Like the trend setters of yore, I find that my friend Jonathan, and I, seek to create something original, emotionally evocative, heart beat inducing, and a tale that hopefully with enough glitter from the fairies’, will stand the test of time as some of our great forefathers’ work has done. I hope you will take a gander and appreciate the deep story as I have.

Take a journey with relatable characters as they struggle through trial, tribulation, and watch in suspense as they navigate through the wasteland of America, in a post-apocalyptic fantasy land; it will make you whisper quietly to yourself while reading, “Is this possible?” As your heart flutters in suspense.

Matthew Blackmore

*Unlocks phone

*Checks the “all-knowing” Haley’s blog prompts file

*Realizes it was accidentally deleted and has to search through ALL the media in their text thread, laughing at every Mean Girls and The Office gifs to find it

*Resaves the prompts

Good day.

Its night for me right now.

I edit much better in the morning, which leaves the world to be subjected to the creativity that I can only summon when the sky is black.

I promise you, I wish it were different.

But for now, I will edit the greeting.

Good evening.

And it’s at this time in the writing of this post I found the prompt that sounds good.

And let it be mentioned, Haley is new to the entire writing world, (her degree is in marketing) but Tiarra and I are well versed, however, Haley has incredible insight and she amazes me every day. Anyway…

The beautiful wife and I watched the film, The Man Who Invented Christmas, and that is what gravitated me to this particular post. In that film, Charles Dickens wrestles with the tight schedule of producing one the best pieces of fiction ever, A Christmas Carol. Dan Stevens expertly plays Dickens and gives an amazing performance displaying exactly what I do when I “find” my characters.

He (Stevens) walks London as Dickens did, meeting people, and incorporating their personalities and stories told to him about those acquaintances, forms these real people, birthed from real people, into a real world he (Dickens) creates. It’s not enough to form a person, but you need to breathe life into them by meeting real people. As a writer, you can only write what you know, or your readers will see it, laugh at you, and ignore your claims. Characters need to be real people, so you need to meet lots and lots of real people to understand their habits, personalities, and sometimes, put yourself on the train tracks of their reactions to conflict. That is how you can make real characters in my opinion.

In closing, I’ll quote (or paraphrase poorly) one of my friends from college. One night, on a chaotic cruise to Rancho Cucamonga, (don’t ask me why we went to hang out there, but we did, and enjoyed it) he yelled at me, “Jon! You can’t just put people in glass jars and stare at them! It’s not right!”

Fair.

But understanding the Human Condition is something every writer reflects on and wrestles with, formulating a real, breathing character that is completely different from the inspiration that formed them in the creator’s mind. I am not my characters. Any of them. But a little of me, and everyone I meet, is in every one of them.

So, I have been waiting on those two gals to jump in but seeing as how I’m still waiting while I write this one, I will continue with my ranting.

Separating from my prescriptions (idea prompts from Haley), I spent the evening talking with my real inspiration, Jackie. She’s my wife of four years and not my number one fan. I need to earn that title from her. 🙂 If you have ever met my wife, she is a tough sell on just about everything. She makes me write, tells me to get off of Destiny and put time into something that matters. Jackie is the queen, to be sure. But I am eternally distracted talking about my wonderful wife.

We talked about my type of genre. We had a good conversation about what I want to see from myself. It got me thinking about what I like about writers who held true to their dream, despite their classifications. Humans do have this need to sort everything, hence the countless mythologies I draw inspirations from. I will always remember my prized fighter of a hero, one of my, if not the most, favorite author: Ray Bradbury.

This year, I was reading some essays by him and he talked about how he was being forced into the Fantasy genre because of The Martian Chronicles. In his AMAZING collection, Mars has atmosphere, culture, and tragedy unique to its own inhabitants. So, because Mars had an atmosphere, Bradbury was classified as a Fantasy author for a moment, and he was irritated, to say the least.

Anyone who has read his work knows he is a unique Science Fiction writer. Again, because I quote one of my history professors as I say this again, many countless times, he was a breathtaking writer, who chose that genre as his medium. Ray Bradbury writes about the human condition and our shortcomings, our needs, our relationships and our ability. He just happened, purposefully, to use the emerging genre as his transportation.

That is how I want my writing to be.

I want my fiction to be about the need we have for each other, the reality of our actions, and the outcomes emerging from our choices. Good and bad. I want everyone who pays me the honor of reading my work to experience the same emotions of my characters.

I just chose to use the Post-Apocalyptic-Fantasy Sub-Genre as my vehicle.

I have, and will always continue, to wish more for my characters, and mostly, my readers.

And maybe, just maybe, Tiarra and Haley will grace us with their presence.