Book update

Ok, so I’ve passed the 50% completion mark on the new kids novel I’m writing.  The characters in my book are both 12 years old, so my daughter was here this week and I decided to see if she would like it.  Now, as I write, I do have a test reader, but she is an adult, and while, thankfully, she loves it so far, she isn’t the target market I am looking for.  But, now enter my daughter.  She started it yesterday and couldn’t put it down.  She finished up what I have completed this morning and she came downstairs and said.  “I love your book.  I really love your book.  I want to read more.”  Of course I was very happy.  I also had to do the:  “Do you like it because I want you to like it or do you really like it?”  Speech.  She said she genuinely loves it, so I’m happy.  I’m off to Vegas this next week, so I’m hoping to be able to put some serious time into completing the first rough draft.  Crossing my fingers I’ll finish soon and then start the fun process of shopping it around.  I’ve received some great feedback and advice on self publishing lately, so that is an avenue I intend to explore as well.

Softball Rumble, seriously??

Ok, so I play on a church softball league.  Bunch of scrub players.  Before our season started, I don’t think I’ve played softball in almost 20 years.  Anyhoo, yesterday we had our end of the season softball tournament.  8, supposedly, christian teams all out to have a good time. 

Obviously most people can be competitive and competition, on average, is usually pretty good, but lets outline a lovely incident in yesterday’s game.  Actually, I’ll need to go back a couple of weeks to set the stage.

Ok, so you’re imagining yourself several weeks in the past, our church has 3 teams, I happen to be on the yellow.  Is that relevant to the story?  Probably not, but you get the picture.  Anyhoo, we’re playing the orange team, a New Life church or something like that, I’m on first base as a runner, batter behind me gets a hit and I run.  (I know, principle of the game, so bear with me)  Batter hit right towards second, I’m charging at whatever speed I can muster, probably a nice and fast 3 miles an hour, the throw is made to the plate, I hit the plate at the same time as the ball, well the ball is obviously in the hands of the dude on 2nd.  Long story short, I try checking up, but not quite fast enough, I hit him.  He goes flying and the ball is out of his hands, they call me safe.  Dude loses it.  He’s yelling, blah, blah, blah…whatever, nothing else happens.

Now, flash forward to yesterday, uhh hello, you have to move forward now or you won’t hear the rest of the story.  What happened in the previous game is irrelevent after setting up the incident.  So, we’re to yesterday.  Joy of joys we make it to the third round to play, guess what color???  If you’ve been paying attention there are only two choices I’ve given so far.  Yellow, that’s us, and Orange, the other guys.  For those who don’t pay close attention, please pick Orange. 

So, we’re towards the end of the game.  My friend, alright, I don’t like the guy, he’s a jerk and has a horrible attitude, sorry, digressing a moment there, jerk dude is playing short.  I’m on first again.  You guessed it, I’m now running to second.  This time the batter, who just so happened to be my lovely wife, hits a grounder right to the short stop.  He makes the throw to second and beats me.  I step around second and start heading off, being very careful to not make contact with the second baseman, er…basewoman.  Two weeks later this idiot turns to second base and says, this guy runs people.  As a clarification, I’ve ran ONE guy in my whole life, up to this point (you should really keep reading, cuz there will be two in a moment.) and I’m like let it go already.  I didn’t even get close to her on second.  This was all internal, by the way.

Alright, the very next inning I hit a double, so I get to second.  Now I’m eyeing third.  (Still part of the game, I might add, I am a quick learner.)  Remember, my wife is the next batter, so I’m prepared to wait or go depending on the shot.  Well, the jerk in this story (no, it’s not me, really) deliberately steps into my runners lane.  He knows its me.  I’m like, alright, I see him, whatever.  Ball is hit, a beauty, I’m off, see previous statement of my incredible speed burst potential, short stop is still in my lane, ball is nowhere near there, so he is supposed to move, well, he did move.  I stepped a bit to my left to go around him and he turns his backside into my path.  So, I gave him what he wanted.  I dropped my shoulder and planted it solidly in the middle of his back, sending him flying, and continue on to third.  I should point out that although that was only my second hit in softball, I do pretend to play ice hockey and can take and give a hit as needed, so I knew what I was doing, but he did ask for it. 

You can imagine what happened next.  He’s swearing at me and threatening to kick my arse.  Oh whatever.  I’m not quite sure how I feel about this.  I was really hoping he would try to start something, but I was keeping my mouth shut and trying to do the right thing.  Remember it is a church softball league.  ??  Technically, per the rules I was able to go through him as he is supposed to get out of my way, unless making a play.  (Which as stated above, the ball was between first and second)  Was I right?  Probably not,  I could’ve taken the out by leaving my lane, but he kept throwing me attitude and frankly, I wasn’t about to take it any more from idiots like that.  There are enough dillweeds playing hockey that I don’t need to put up with it on a softball diamond.

I guess I feel bad that something like this happened at a church function.  We were supposed to be representatives of our respective churches and…even though I didn’t pursue what I wanted to, I don’t feel great about the outcome.  My blood still boils by the way, in case you were wondering. 

There is a moral here, I’m just not sure I want to take it.  A day later, I’m wishing he would’ve thrown down, but also glad that he didn’t.  What does that say about me?  I wish I knew.

Goodbye Dallas Drake

Dallas Drake has officially retired.  He was a nice addition to the Red Wings for the last season and a half.  He finished his career with the same team that he started with and went out with a cup to boot.  Not a big offensive player, he played his role as a checker extremely well.  He’d throw his body around all game with huge, bone crunching hits.  After 15 seasons, his body had had enough.  He will be missed, but what better way then to go out winning the coveted Stanley Cup.

Congrats Dallas.  You will be missed, but enjoy the next stage of your life and career.

Internet is amazing.

Ok, most of you knew that already.  Most of you have heard how with the invention of the internet, people have connected with long lost loved ones or friends, etc…  Like most people I’d listen to the tales and be like, cool.  Now I have a different take on it.  Now, I’m one of the found.  Through Myspace, I was recently, and by recently I mean this morning when I checked my page, contacted by an aunt I haven’t seen in over 20 years who found me and was able to send me an e-mail saying hello, remember me.  How cool is that?  See, you’re sitting there saying cool, like I’ve always done.  Anywho, I really am amazed by who you can reach out and touch in the world today, through nothing but your keyboard.  Granted there are a lot of idiots and creeps out there who use it for evil, but overall, I think there are more good people using it to advance themselves and others through the avenue known as the internet.

Ok, just had to put that out there.  Sorry, I’m almost a decade late, but…whatever. 

Book progress

Well the new book is moving along.  About 20% complete.  Writing a kids/young adult book is definitely a different concept for me and I’m constantly having to put myself back into my 12 year old mindset.  You won’t hear me say body, because that would be just scary.  Anyway I digress.  The story is developing well and the characters seem to be moving in the right direction.  At least they are still doing what they are told and not talking back.  I’m assuming it’s only a matter of time though before they start to. 

The more I write the more I just want to do this for a living.  The toughest part is breaking into the business and getting noticed.  You’ve heard the saying:  It’s not what you know, but who you know.  Unfortunately that is oh so true.  I think location plays a part of it as well, although with more and more agents/publishers taking the electronic route, I believe it will get easier and easier to write from a far in the future.  But, still being in NY or LA would be a benefit at first.  Not going to happen from my part, but…what do you do?  Muddle through and hope you are one of the few who makes it, I guess.

Happy Fourth of July!!

The Fourth has turned into a weird holiday for me.  Growing up I always remember looking forward to the Fourth.  I couldn’t wait for the parades, bar-b-ques and the end of the evening firework spectacular.  As life has progressed, it seems to have lost its meaning.  So, to try and bring the focus back on what the Fourth really means, I’ve been trying to define it a bit more for myself. 

So, what does it mean?  It means our freedom.  It means we live in a country that each and everyone of us is allowed to voice our opinion and not be persecuted for agreeing or not agreeing with our government.  Soldiers died to purchase us our freedome and to this day, they are still dying to maintain that same freedom.  We need to remember that if our soliders did not fight for us, we would live in a country that our opinions wouldn’t be tolerated.  Meaning, we could be put to death for disagreeing with whoever is in charge of our country.

So, in closing, remember that freedom is never free and tonight if you are watching fireworks light up the night sky, don’t forget that you are able to do that because of the sacrifice of others.  For those who spit at our soldiers and condemn their actions, remember this:  They died to give you the right to spit.  Please honor them.

Happy Fourth!

Getting a book published

One of the most frustrating aspects of writing a novel has to be finding an agent.  You would think that after spending the time to dream up a great story with a strong plot line, great characters and a good ending (some authors just can’t seem to write an ending very well) that finding an agent and getting published would be the easy part.  WRONG!!  First off you have to find an agent who has an appetite for the genre you are writing about.  Fine, once that is done and you’ve compiled your list, you then have to find out how to get your material to them.  Here is where it gets fun.  Not literally, please hear the sarcastic inflection in my writing.  Some agents want you to send a query letter.  Trying to pare your novel down to a paragraph or two and expecting someone to really be able to judge your work from a query.  I don’t get it.  Pretty much don’t like the query letter process, but you have to play by the rules in the system that you are bound by.  So, you write a query letter.  Hi, my name is Blake…blah, blah, blah.  If you are a newer author, you know what I’m talking about.  Now you have to get it to the agent you are targeting.  Some like e-mail (my personal favorite) some like snail mail (not so much my favorite) which you have to include a SASE to get their response.  Now that the query has gone out, the waiting game begins.  The e-mail route usually gets the quickest response.  The frustrating part here is when you get a response saying, sorry, we’re not looking for this genre right now, even though their website says, hey, we’re looking for this genre.  So, I guess a pet peeve of mine is, I’m not looking to waste their time and I don’t want my time wasted either.  I wish they would update their info.  Let me clarify here a bit.  I only had three agents give me this response, not a ton, but still, that was wasted effort for me and frankly for them as well. 

Anyhoo, the point is, an agent may or may not see what you have to offer.  They may not be in the best mood when they receive your request or they have some minimum wage worker reading the mail and passing on what they like to their agent.  I’m here to make the agent money as well as myself.  I just want to get my book to the masses, since I don’t have the resources to put it out there.  So, if any of you know of a good agent, who is looking for an author who plans to write a minimum of two books a year in two separate genres (More releases, more money), please send them my way.

My primary genre is Science Fiction/Fantasy.  I’ve completed the first book in a trilogy and am dying to get this beauty published.  The current working title (not sure I’m 100% in love with it, by the way) is:  Dargon Rising.  I also have an epic fantasy series that I’m planning on writing as well, so here are at least six books ready to make an agent, plus myself, money over the next few years.

My second genre is Children’s/Young Adult.  Having two publishers allows you to have two books in print in a year.  For an author, that’s how you are going to survive and be able to pay the bills.  I’m currently working on my first book in a series for this genre.  The title is:  The Magic Helmet.  When I was in elementary school I started writing a story with this same title.  Reading that imaginative work has inspired me to dust the idea off and re-tool it for a more modern twist.  Put it this way, in that original book, the video games being discussed, were the stand up big boys, like Star Wars and Pac Man.  Now with PS3 and other platforms out there, plus the advances in technology, my characters are living large.

Alright, that’s enough for now.  I’ll be writing more later.  I appreciate any comments and feedback.  I’d love to hear the frustrations that you have gone through on a similar journey and what the end result was for you.

 

Thanks,

Blake

Good news for Red Wings fans

After an incredible 2007-2008 season ending with the Wing’s hoisting the cup, it now looks like they are the favorite to repeat for the 2008-2009 season.  Their main core is intact and the recent signings of Ty Conklin and Marian Hossa have added some more depth to this, already, great team.  First off in regards to Conklin, I like this signing.  I think he will be a really good fit in the Detroit organization and I would really like to see him succeed and quiet his detractors.  So, I’m excited to see how this season goes for him. 

The free agent prize of prizes is the signing of Marian Hossa.  He has left millions on the table to come and play for a championship contender.  I wish more atheletes would jump on this band wagon, instead of jumping for the next highest paycheck.  Yes, we all like to make money and get ahead, but I feel there is too much money thrown around for a maybe.  There is never any guarantee that that player will succeed in the “greener” pastures they keep flocking too and each year, more and more teams break apart and they are forced to try, once again, to rebuild their chemistry.   

I’m excited to see what the future holds for the Red Wings fans.  I’m hoping they feel the support from me, all the way from Idaho as they make another cup run next year.  Cudos to Ken Holland as a GM.  This man is brilliant at what he does.