New Book Trailer

If It Was New York, Summer 2009 is getting closer to being complete. The pre-order will be up very soon. So here's your first look at the book trailer (kindly created by K.R. Smith). Let me know what you think!

#NaNoWriMo14: In the Thick of It

Let's just pause for a moment to recognize two things about this year's NaNoWriMo experience:

1. I have yet to quit due to time constraints, stress, a lack of creativity and all of those previous excuses I have used.

2. Aside from a small 1k-word shortage, I'm relatively on track for finishing by November 30.

This is an accomplishment in itself, whether I end up winning or not. I'm finally at the point in my life/career that I realize how plowing through writing on a daily basis works much better than waiting for that spark of creativity. I hate to admit all of those people who shovel out writing advice are right, but hey--someday someone will tell me that I'm right on some obscure subject, and we'll be even.

I must also address my Vine experiment. I've managed to put up a video everyday, but I realize how boring they are. The last two have been screenshots of my Nano stats page. I'll do better, I swear. I'm also forgoing the weekly YouTube video compilation hoping that I can get a much better 30-day compilation made in December. You know... one that actually includes words and stuff so the videos don't look like a jumble of random clips.

And a little early Christmas reminder for you: a book of haiku always makes a great gift, so pick up Unfolding Life today and check it off of your shopping list. ;-)

Week 1 Wrapup and On to Week 2

Here's the compilation video, as promised. It sucks. I had a music track for it, but after a computer update yesterday, Movie Maker went bizzaro and started making an awful screeching, popping noise instead of the track. The program has changed since I last used it a few years ago and is more frustrating than I remembered, so next week I think I'll be using Adobe Premiere Elements. 

Week 1 of NaNoWriMo has gone surprisingly well. In past years, I've usually fallen behind at this point. By the 15th, I'm out of the game completely. This was always due to a lot of things--lack of money, lack of work (we're smack in the middle of the freelance holiday dead zone), and the guilt that comes along with spending so much time and effort on something that may never make a dime for me. While the guilt has subsided this year, every other little problem that had held me back in the past is actually ten times worse. Either I'm getting too old to care about things or I'm being really, really stupid. I haven't decided yet.

As of right now, I'm still on track with my work count. The novel went from focusing on the narrator to focusing on the narrator's boss. I don't know how that happened, but it's making it easier to meet the word count. Eventually, I'll get back to the narrator's seemingly petty problems.

The Chronicles of My #Nanowrimo Adventure

If you follow me on Twitter or on Vine, then you may have noticed that I'm doing a Vine a day for NaNoWriMo this year. It's not much, but I wasn't sure about doing full videos just yet. Maybe next year this will turn into a full-on vlog (or a reality show? Come on producers, you know you want to *wink,wink*). But for now, you will be able to see snippets of the things that make nano great--and suck. Here's an example from Day 1:








Don't follow me yet on Twitter or Vine? I'll be putting up a weekly roundup of the videos on my YouTube channel, which I would be more than happy for you to subscribe to so you'll never miss a new video.

Okay. Back to writing...

Playing catch up

Guess what I did last night? I had the perfect opportunity to catch up on my articles. I could meet the goal of the day and also get some of the ones that I missed. But what did I do? Not articles. Instead, I happened over to YouTube and started watching some old clips of Woody Allen and Dick Cavett. First of all, Woody Allen playing clarinet was amazing and put me to shame for all the years I thought I could play. And second, well... I shouldn't even be writing this now if I want to get my 10 articles written today. Boogers. I gotta go.

Viddiction Videos

Okay, so I really like YouTube, but I have found a new video site that I think should be getting a lot more attention. It is called Viddiction Video and it is the best new video site on the web. And this website is all user created, so there are no corporations taking over all of the top rated video spots or featured video spots.

I was going to tell you all about my favorite video, but after watching about a dozen of them, I can’t decide! Honestly, I have found that videos here at Viddiction tend to be a little artsy and of a higher quality of content than most of the stuff on YouTube and other video sites. This means that I get to see the things I really want, instead of sitting through videos of blatant advertisement for major companies and corporations. It’s time that the users take back the internet, and Viddiction has found a way to do it.

Not only that, but Viddiction also has regular monthly competitions with real prizes. You can get cash for videos! No bad for a new site. The prizes can be anywhere from $50 to $500. There are always contests going on, so you should check that out as well. You can visit their contest page in order to learn more. Have fun when you are at Viddiction!

I must confess-- I've been indulging my wacky side. I've been watching the videos on the site Secret Fun Time. I first found the videos on YouTube. The videos just happened to show up when I searched for "really hot actor Eric Szmanda" ...or something to that effect. The videos were hilarious! Now, every week I swing by the website to catch up on these very funny videos. Why am i rambling about this? Because it's my blog, and I can... and I'm pretty sure no one has EVER read it. But no... if you do read this... check out the videos. I want someone else to snort like a pig at the computer screen... not that I do that or anything. Promise.