So Summer was a thing hey...

Long time between posts. Where have I been? What have I been doing?

Firstly, where I have been, no where and lots of of places. Mainly work, a bit at home and up and down Onkaparinga gorge mainly. Where haven't I been... in front of the laptop writing.

Excuses, excuses, excuses. Summer work rush season and school holidays threw all my routines in the bin. Kids have been back at school for two weeks but the routines are still in the compost pile. Also fell back in love with cycling. I kinda overdid there for a while, and with bicycles being my day job and hobby when I overdid it I really overdid it. Two years of getting progressively less and less fit off the bike finally got to me though, and with the new trails at Onkaparinga Gorge and O'Halloran Hill as my excuse I got a new XC bike and have been trying to kill my Dad-bod one kilogram at a time since.

Have done a little writing, I submitted two Flash Fiction pieces, one for a competition that has never announced the winners and another to Deep Signal's January competition, looking at the credentials of who did win I guess I didn't stand a chance, but I learnt a lot in the process so intend to put myself through the sub-1500 word wringer again soon. I'll post both pieces up here after I make a Flash Fiction section (newest job on the to-do list).

On the novel front, I've barely made a dint recently. I know I just need to plough through and finish this draft so I can say that it is done, but I made the mistake of trying to edit it and am now paralysed due to the knowledge of just how bad it is...Got to make some big changes, shift in POV, a big shift in MCs character, incorporate my battles with chronic pain more into character motivations and experiences, shift the way technology is interacted with.

New thoughts and areas I want to explore; post-apocyptic footwear, global warming's effects on fungal blight on food crops, why don't more action heroes where hats?

Too long between posts makes updating my reading list a bit too daunting. Going to see if I can embed my GoodReads page. Stand-out for me this Summer was Nicky Drayden's “Prey of the Gods”, if you dug Black Panther's Afro-futurism aesthetic, smiled at all reading Gaiman's “American Gods” and have enjoyed anything by William Gibson you'll love this.

Best thing we've watched was Black Panther. I am definitely in the “liked but not loved” Star Wars the Last Jedi Camp. Strong Girl Bong-Soon is definitely the best thing on TV and Altered carbon had moments of brilliance marred by some really creeptastic male-gaze issues.

Thanks.

Back next week, blog-post day is Thursday from now on.

#amreading #amwriting #lifeandhowtoliveit