Busy and not busy. No time and all time. Curious and curiouser.
I would say things have been hectic but I have a different definition of hectic than most people. To those, my life has just been video games and horror movies between bouts of sleeping and going to work. To me, it’s been a careful construct of time to wring the most from the various Halloween-themed happenings in my various video games while juggling the Netflix return queue so I never keep a movie more than a day and still finding time to keep updating my messy tumblr and less-messy-but-still-kind-of-a-wreck livejournal and on top of that hammer out a sprawling apocalyptic fantasy trilogy plot that apparently wants five parallel plots because Daniel can’t write anything simple.
It looks like this, by the way.
29 pages of it so far. Yeah, my handwriting is pretty terrible. I know, thanks.
I’ll admit, I was never a real big plotter guy before–I’m still really not. My tendency is towards character and description, with plot a sort of backdrop (which explains my partiality to long quest-type epics, because the plot is so easy). To keep from inciting long rambling opinions of mine, I’ll say I still believe character trumps plot easily–well-fleshed characters doing nothing is way more exciting than a terrific plot acted by cardboard–but after writing Noise and struggling with all manner of plots, I said hey, maybe you should do that thing people have been doing forever and try writing down things you want to happen before you start a draft?
Man, it’s like I’m learning things or something.
Anyways, here are some other tidbits I’ve picked up to wish you a merry Goth Christmas.
A merry animation of “The Tell-Tale Heart”
“Reticence may be an elderly doctrine to preach, yet from the artistic point of view, I am sure it is a sound one. Reticence conduces to effect, blatancy ruins it, and there is much blatancy in a lot of recent stories. They drag in sex too, which is a fatal mistake; sex is tiresome enough in the novels; in a ghost story, or as the backbone of a ghost story, I have no patience with it. At the same time don’t let us be mild and drab. Malevolence and terror, the glare of evil faces, ‘the stony grin of unearthly malice’, pursuing forms in darkness, and ‘long-drawn, distant screams’, are all in place, and so is a modicum of blood, shed with deliberation and carefully husbanded; the weltering and wallowing that I too often encounter merely recall the methods of M.G. Lewis.” A quote from M. R. James, an oft-forgotten horror writer credited with the creation of the “antiquarian ghost story” and greatly influencing such others as H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, and Ramsey Campbell. Project Gutenberg’s got his collection “Ghost Stories of an Antiquary” for perusing.
And I’m shoehorning this in here as well: the haunting melodies of Caspian:
Just as I was curing my Oblivion addiction I fell into Minecraft (literally fell, like down a mineshaft) and it’s been one big retro-Lego crazy construction time over here. For those who don’t know, Minecraft is the brainchild of Markus Persson and is described as “placing blocks while running from skeletons.” Or as the community might call it “a Lego time machine that turns hours into minutes.” At the risk of taking a bazillion pictures of half-finished projects, I’ll just leave it at this:
For real, less-blocky news, it was mah birfday a couple of Saturdays ago and my friends threw a very decidedly steampunk party. Actually, they were throwing the party anyways but when they realized it coincided with my birthday they promised to bake me a cake. I’m being really bad with taking pictures, I know, which is a real shame because their house is absolutely breathtaking. All manner of curious contraptions and dusty typewriters and twine-bound books stack up along the walls and the whole place just snuggles down into the very quaintest nooks of your heart.
My query letters still return zilch, of the two that have actually found their way back to my inbox, and I’m prepping a second round to some others in the time that isn’t spend mining for more iron or researching castle battlements to make more period-correct curtain walls around my house.
Also, I’m making up a language for my possible zombie epic: Qa ynt rkthgaqer mr rankk mthrqa mrthqqrehqrur ra gthaygqqryq kthexa gthymthrqgnkk urrkyqrr
Don’t worry, it’s supposed to look like madness.
P.S. I think everyone should hear/watch this. Basically an obsession of mine right now.
Time machine! It’s 2006 and I’m completely obsessed with Oblivion. Next week, some reflections in the Winter Olympics in Italy (I hear Canada has a bid for 2010, but I don’t think that will pan out) and Pluto’s no longer a planet. Yes, that really happened way back in 2006. Sometimes I forget how far in the future I live. Probably because I don’t have a flying car. Or a jetpack. Really, I’d settle for either.
But seriously, I’ve been playing Oblivion like nobody’s business and while some of you might like to hear about how much I hate Grummite Deathdealers because apparently they have 1.21 kajillion hitpoints and hide behind their shield all freaking day, I shall restrain myself. Here are actual exciting things and not just things I think (wrongly) are exciting.
My sister recently signed a contract on her new house, so obviously the best housewarming present is to tear down her walls. “Operation Jericho,” as so aptly titled, was supposed to be a simple removal of some wall paneling and old disgusting carpet to make way for fresh paint and wood flooring, but one thing led to another (specifically, the wood paneling led to four layers of wallpaper, which led to crumbling plaster and drywall, which led to uninsulated lath and shoddy wiring), and the next thing you know I’ve signed on for a guest spot on This Old House.
Is it really that big of a surprise that I adore Dresden Codak? Giant robots in epic landscapes, Dungeons and Discourse, quantum physics, transhumanism and singularity…ah, where was I? Anyways, not too long ago he put out a new Excessively Authentic sketchbook, so I snapped up a copy. I think it’s always interesting to see these behind-the-scenes secrets, with all their forgotten plotlines and character reworkings. It’s part of the reason why I keep all my old notes and drafts–because they mark a progression from idea and conception through the process. And by looking back on it, you can get a better understanding of how you work and perhaps even why.
Plus, if you’re ever hard-up for cash, just bind it all together and bam! Instant windfall.
In the free time between closing Oblivion Gates (it’s like a second job, man), I’ve been working on that most delightful of writery tasks–rewriting. Specifically, the rewriting where you go through and make sure all the words you made up are hyphenated correctly and get rid of all the excessive passive voices that have slipped in. Whee. But soon I’ll be ready to send out some queries, which always freaks me out in a most exciting way.
Hey, does anyone remember when we had normal summers? When I could enjoy a warm day without fear of spontaneous combustion, or a nice rainstorm without first building a boat to stay above the flood? Or I could sleep without getting woken up at 5 in the morning by a friggin’ earthquake? Hey, West Coast! You keep your earthquakes to yourself and I won’t come over there and dump four feet of snow on you in November. Sheesh.
Anyways, here’s what I’ve been up to. Or at least was up to when I had my camera on hand.
At the Black Cat for the Rasputina concert. I think I like sitting down for concerts immeasurably more than standing. Bands, take note. Unless you are easy to dance to or easy to jump around and thrash to, say something early in your set to the tune of ‘hey, it’s all right if you all sit down, we’re all friends here” and I will love you forever.
You all are reading Coilhouse, right? The only excuses not to are a.) you’re blind, b.) you’re dead, or c.) you’re The Blind Dead. My copy of Issue 05 finally made its way to my doorstop and it is just fantastic and gorgeous and guh. I am so excited. SO EXCITED. Very much so.
And almost as exciting but in a not-at-all-similar vein.
Blueberry bread! Not just any blueberry bread, though. Local so amazingly ripe blueberries hacked into a recipe originally for strawberry bread (who makes strawberry bread, anyways?) style blueberry bread. This is actually the second loaf I made because I kinda ate the first one in about two days. I knew there was a reason I put up with your ridiculous heat, summer.
Round one! A visit to my lovely sister with culinary adventures aplenty! And when I say adventures I mean she’s only got one hot plate, a toaster oven, and some camping pots. And before you say anything, yes that’s different from me because I have two hotplates. Spare no expense, I say. And even with our appliance handicap look what we pulled off:
Round two! How many books can you carry by yourself? I’m talking pile sky-high, big nerd wearing glasses staggering out of the library and begging for some jock to slap them out of your hands, so tall you can’t see where you’re going and run into some main love interest in the hallway before fleeing in embarrassment how many books?
Frankly, I don’t know. There’s 36 books there, but I had a bag so it’s not an accurate estimate. At least I know I have the upper body strength for 36 books, at least. What brought this on, you ask? A visit to The Book Thing where they give away books. Give away. As in free.
Round three! You have an old dried up Christmas tree that is lurking under your porch. What is the best way to get rid of it?
I’m sorry, the correct answer was “Shoot a bottle rocket at it from ten paces so it explodes into a towering inferno of destruction.” This is welcome to summer, goodbye stodgy old winter Wheatley style. We call it a tradition even though we’ve only been doing it for five years or so, just because it’s so much fun to nearly light the sky on fire every May.
soft hat talk, the king muffled with a brim held between our faces as if the polish out on the streets reads lips and counts them together, like one atom added between a string of others until what emerges is soft and silvery, crackling and kissed radioactive, with the secretive plans acid on the surface and the unspoken destruction locked within, the kind m […]
WHO ARE YOU ANYWAYS
Equal parts cyberpunk geek rogue, time-traveling zombie hunter, and mischievous poet. This is the chronicle of Daniel Wheatley's quest to live brilliantly, tell rather exciting stories, make awesome things, and find a cup of truly terrible coffee.
