An entry about writing

And finally, an entry without pictures...

While at MileHiCon last week, I moderated a panel about getting inside the minds of non-human characters. It was a great panel...one of the best I've ever done...and it gave me a lot of ideas for the novelization of my short story A Problem in Translation.

So, earlier this week, I started on the revisions. Right now I'm just making notes on the manuscript itself, but soon I'll be back at the keyboard, and hopefully it will be good enough to sell...to a major market...

Halloween

Last night was my first Halloween as a dad. I think what struck me more than anything is the surprising number of people that don't give out candy. I can remember being a kid and going around one or two blocks and coming home with the mother lode of candy. But last night we had to drive around a lot just to find streets where people were actually giving out candy.

The kids still did well, because let's face it, they really don't need too much candy. I was also struck by the amount of candy that we threw out. Rebecca and I were both very cautious and we threw out anything that looked even slightly suspicious.

This year, the girls went as a bride and a unicorn...even though the unicorn had wings, which struck me as odd. We finally decided it was a pegicorn.

MileHiCon pics

Obviously I'm trying to get caught up on blogging tonight...

Here are some pics from last weekend's MileHiCon.

The Getting into the Minds of Non-Humans Panel
(picture courtesy of Ian Brazee-Cannon)


The girls made masks...



Then they got to go to make costumes out of scrap...




Then all of the kids got to pose with a working R2 unit...

The neighborhood

From previous posts, you've probably gathered that we live in an area that's rich in wildlife, even though we're still in the city. The other night as we were coming home, we came across three very large raccoons, who didn't seem to be the least bit afraid of people...and the other day while I was on my way to a job interview, I heard a rustling sound coming from the dry canal that runs close to us. I walked over to investigate, and there was a very large coyote strolling through the canal. He looked up at me and started walking a little faster, but he didn't run from me.

Here are some pics I've taken over the last couple of months...

Why can't we be friends?

As many of you know when Rebecca and I moved in together, we each brought a cat. I brought Mosi, and she brought K.J. To say that the blending of this part of our family has not been very successful would be an understatement. K.J. has tried to make friends, but Mosi usually chases him or attacks him for no reason...although I'm sure she thinks there's a reason.

Still, sometimes they get along better than they want us to know. One day when Rebecca was taking a nap while I was working at my computer, I turned around and saw these...

I'm back from MileHiCon

I've survived another MileHiCon, and it was yet another great experience. This year's Con was a bit different for me because I brought the family with me. None of them had ever done anything like this...in fact, they didn't even know this kind of thing existed.

Rather than attending as many panels as I usually would, I did a lot of the kids track this year, and that was very fun and different for me.

As far as my programming, I started out Friday doing a panel on Dystopias/Utopias, which went pretty well. We batted around a lot of ideas, and had a lot of fun in the process.

On Saturday, I did a panel called Meet the Small Press. There was a lot of talk about e-books, which I really don't know much about, but I contributed on the topics that I could, and I plugged Nomadic Delirium Press and Sam's Dot Publishing as much as I could.

Sunday was a very full day for me. I started off with a signing, which actually went pretty well. I did a lot better than I thought I would. After that, I had a reading with Gary Jonas, but other than my family, there were only two other people in the audience, so it was a bit of a bust. My panels ended with a panel called Getting Inside the Head of Non-Human Characters. We had Tim Powers on the panel, and I imagine that, plus the interesting topic, left us with a standing room only audience. This was the first time I ever moderated a panel, and it went really well. We had some great discussions on the panel, plus some great questions from the audience towards the end of the panel.

And as always, I got to talk to a lot of people I've known for years, talk a lot about writing, and generally have a really good time.

The best thing about the Con was that the family really enjoyed it, and they want to go back for more...

Off to MileHiCon

I'm about to leave for the Con. If I have time, I'll post updates over the weekend, but it could be Monday before you hear anything more from me.

Hope you all have a great weekend?

I've done my part for democracy

I mailed in my ballot today, so I guess that means that I have every right to gripe about whatever the idiots in power do for the next several years.

In other news, the weather is definitely changing here. We're getting rain, thunder, lightning, wind, and steadily dropping temps. If this keeps up, we'll see a little snow by morning. Yay!!!

I have the best fiancee in the world

Normally I really hate my birthdays, but she made this one very special. She made a nice breakfast, a great dinner, and then an amazing cake with ice cream. On top of all of that, she got me tickets for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra show here in Denver this December.

TSO is my favorite band, and I've been wanting to see them for years, but something has always interfered...now I'm going to get to see them!!!!!!!!

Busy, busy, busy

Things have been pretty hectic around here lately. On Saturday, we took the girls to the Pumpkin Festival that's just across the field from us. It was the coldest day we've had so far this season, and none of the women of the house seem to enjoy the cold. They had pumpkin chunking, master carvers, a hay ride, and lots of other stuff. It was a lot of fun, although the walk home seemed a lot longer when I was carrying both of the girls' pumpkins.

On Sunday, we went to The Wildlife Experience to talk to them about possibly hosting our wedding. We're both really excited about it, but we're still trying to figure out how we're going to come up with the deposit. Money won't be an issue after the first of the year, but it's a major issue right now, and we're both afraid that we might have to postpone the wedding. After talking with the representative, they let us take the girls around the museum for free...and they loved it.

Other than that, I'm still trying to find a job that will work around my limited schedule, still trying to write and edit when I can, and trying to adjust to family life.

I should also note that today I am officially 365 days away from 40, and I'm not thrilled about it. Rebecca is walking around the apartment with a big grin on her face, and I've seen her with bags that I'm not allowed to access, so obviously she's planning something. I guess that means I can't sit around and mope like I usually do...

When Living is a Crime

My story, When Living is a Crime has sold to Tales of the Talisman. It's set to appear in the September 2009 issue.

I'll be sure to remind you when the issue comes out...

My MileHiCon 40 schedule

It looks like I'm going to be nice and busy at MileHiCon 40. I have three panels, a reading, and a signing.

For those of you planning on attending, here's where you can find me:

Friday 3:00-4:00 Dystopias/Utopias Grand Mesa B-C

Saturday 3:45-5:00 Meet the Small Press Mesa Verde B

Sunday 11:00-Noon Signing Dealers' Room

Sunday Noon-1:00 Reading Mesa Verde C

Sunday 1:00-2:00 Getting Inside the Head of Non-Human Characters Wind River B

Hope to see a lot of you there. I will have some books with me, but it's always a good idea to get copies before the Con...just in case. For ordering info, go to http://www.jalanerwine.com.

Internet Issues

Earlier this week I had some major problems with my ISP...as a result, they've been dropped, and I'm currently on dial-up.

I should be back up with high-speed by the middle of the week, but until then, you can probably expect to hear very little from me because dial-up is enough to drive anyone batty...

700 billion dollars of BS

Our economy needs a bail-out of some kind...there's no doubt about that, but the plan being pushed by the Bush administration is a joke. There's no help for the common joe like you and me, so who does benefit?

The CEOs of these companies are going to get massive pay-offs...for basically doing a crappy job. I always thought quality work was supposed to be rewarded.

Let's face it, the current parties and their asinine policies are what has brought us to this point. Do we really think it's a good idea to continue to let them try to fix it?

If you're interested in reading part of the proposal, click here. Please pay special attention to the statement...

"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

If you feel like me, that there has to be something better than this, please contact your Congresspeople...not that I feel it will really do any good...

Contact your Representative

Contact your Senator

Trying to get back on track

I've been out of the loop for a few days now. For the last two weeks, I've had a bad bronchial infection and the worst sinus infection I could ever imagine. For the last four or five days, I haven't done much more than watch (or more precisely, listen) to TV. Normally I don't use covers when I sleep until it cools way done, but I've been curled up under three blankets, with a fiancee on one side and a cat on the other.

TV is quite disappointing. I've never been a big fan of the idiot box, but being forced to endure it because I couldn't keep my eyes open because of my swollen sinuses made me realize just how bad TV is, and just why our society is the way it is.

Hopefully I will be healthy enough tomorrow to start something close to a regular schedule, because I am way behind on a lot of things.

I need to get back to work on the WIP, get a ton of editing done, send out some manuscripts...and I probably should find one of those job things...

Snow on the high peaks

I woke up this morning to look out at our wonderful view and was quite pleased to see that there was snow on the high peaks of the Rockies. This can only mean that it won't be much longer until there's snow here in Denver. I love snow, so I'm very excited about the prospect of it coming our way.

We're all still battling a bad case of the creeping cruds, so hopefully we'll all be feeling better soon...

Another WIP

Now that my novella that should have been a novel is making the rounds, I've decided to get back to work on another book that seems to have the same problem...not enough words.

This is an expansion of my short story "A Problem in Translation," that I've mentioned several times in the past. This book is most definitely a space opera with lots of aliens, but it has a lot of underlying moral questions. So, here is my wordage so far...

57,961 / 80,000 (72.5%)

If you've read the short story in the past, I'd love to hear if you have any ideas of what you'd like to learn about the Lemec, since they're the primary antagonists in the book...and if you haven't read the story, you can always order a copy of the illustrated version by clicking on the cover below...

Featured Author at Anthology Builder

This month I'm one of the featured authors at Anthology Builder. What this means is that if you build an anthology that contains one of my stories, you get a $1.00 off the normal price. Simply go to http://www.anthologybuilder.com/authordetails.php?byline=J%20Alan%20Erwine and you can start building your anthology today.

At the moment, I have ten stories on the site, so you should be able to find something that appeals to you...

Stories

Regular readers of this blog probably know that I have several stories listed with Anthology Builder. It seems that I'm actually starting to make some sales through the site...which is quite a pleasant surprise. So, if you're interested in reading some of my stories, and you might want to include them in an anthology with some other authors that you may, or may not know, please go to http://www.anthologybuilder.com/authordetails.php?byline=J%20Alan%20Erwine and check out what Anthology Builder has to offer.

If you're interested in picking up some of my previously published work as an e-file (PDF), you can visit http://www.jalanerwine.com/stories/index.htm.

An Ephemeris Update

As many of you may know, we'd hoped to have Ephemeris out by WorldCon, but we obviously missed that goal.

I've been busy with getting engaged, moving, and suddenly becoming a dad, so I haven't had the time I've needed to really work on the game like I should. My co-conspirator has also been busy...and maybe a little lazy...

I've made tremendous progress on the initial rules over the last couple of weeks, and we're now hoping for a release date sometime around MileHiCon. Granted, life often gets in the way, so it could still be early next year...but we're really shooting for late October.