Hiddennode

Things the last few weeks have been interesting. There’s been a lot of good change in my life in the last few months with most of them focused on the last three weeks. Between my new attitude about my domestic life, my creative and inventive projects, and my desire to just get things done, I really feel like my life has moved into another slot in the wheel and grinded forward a dozen steps.

In the past quarter, I’ve managed to start a new job with an old company, begun working on projects I’ve dreamt of for years, and lay out plans for domestic projects that both needed to be done and wanted to be done.

Domestically speaking, there are a couple of projects I’ve started that I’m proud of. I’m making moves every Sunday evening to clear out some of the boxes left over from the move four years ago. This mostly involves purging items in the garage and organizing what’s left behind. It’s cost some money to buy the shelving but it’s really worked out. I’ve been at this three weeks in a row and I’ve found the simple pleasure of working with my hands.

Additionally, I’ve ordered parts for a project I’ve been planning for years. A friend pointed me to monoprice.com, an inexpensive site for computer, A/V, and network wiring. For under $50.00 I’ll be able to hook up the old media PC to my TV and Stereo in the living room. I’ll be able to sign up for things like Netflix or make purchases on iTunes and watch them on the much larger screen. Not to mention Hulu and my music I’ve bought. Parts should be in by this Monday or Tuesday (they were on their way to Jacksonville around 12:06 AM Friday).

Day job professionally speaking, the new job I started in September is going great. I’m with a company I used to work for a year ago. It feels great being back and the work, while challenging, is enjoyable. I enjoy my coworkers and I think they enjoy being around me.  Generally speaking, being a permanent employee at a company that acknowledges me for my achievements is a great change of pace. Hoping this time the job lasts longer than a year.

Night job professionally speaking, I am lacking in the book production mindset. I’ve been writing but I haven’t been doing as much as I intended. I did start NaNoWriMo this year, but starting is just about all I did. A million excuses but basically I’ve been lazy about it. I am slowly getting back on the horse but it’s not as fast as I’d like it to be.

Speaking of creative measures, after three years of listening to podcasts and wishing to start one, things have come to pass. My friend Dakota, myself, and Andrew, a new friend who has audio engineering experience with podcasts are starting up a weekly or bi-weekly project. The name is tentative until episode one goes up in December, but so far we’re happy with Trans-Dimensional Cafe. The show is going to be a forum for discussion about geeky interests, writing, gaming, and lifestyle. We’re recording several episode zeroes to get into the swing of a format as well as raising out comfort level with speaking into the recording stream. I believe by mid December we’ll do fine with recording and releasing episode one. Episode 0-2 was recorded tonight and compared to how the first recording went, we were great. Thirty minutes to record with most of the audio actually useable. I’m very pleased.

Finally, tech speaking, I’ve reformatted my computer for the first time in two years. It’s about time frankly, but it’s come at a cost. Namely, I’ve lost all my contact details in terms of email addresses as well as archived mail items. Ugh. If you are someone who’s had email correspondence with me, please email me at jdiehl AT hiddennode.com so I can get your latest contact address.

The reformat has fixed a number of annoying bugs, and I have nearly all of my old programs reinstalled. I’ve limited the number of games I have installed, as well as the number of programs I can have installed at once. Basically I’ve formatted my drive into two partitions and only allocated about 50gb’s to my XP installation. When I do install 7 sometime next year, I’ll probably just buy a new drive to put it on.

That’s my current life activities in a nut shell. Future plans include the entertainment project, writing more, and Dragon*Con next year (more on that later). For now, I’m getting in gear.

What about you? Are you keeping busy? How goes your projects? Let me know if the busy bug has bitten you too.

Take care all,

nulloperations

Just a quickie.

I am participating in NaNoWriMo this year. Going to use the drive of NaNo to kick start the reboot of my novel. Work will start this evening once Trish and I are home from our outing. I need to finish up draft one of the outline then get to work on chapter 1.

If anyone is interested in becoming writer buddies with me, my profile is here.

For those who don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, here’s a description from their site:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

For a full description, click here.

Okay, that said, I’m off.

nulloperations

The last two weeks have been… fun. Spent time with 1) the flu, 2) bronchitis, 3) a bruised rib. This all started as soon as I begun an exercise walking schedule. Going to restart that in November once the rib is healed. In the midst of this, I’ve been trying to kick start my writing again.

I’m (obviously) started to blog again, looking at focusing on thegreyfedora.com site again, and I’m trying to focus more on my novel. I actually printed up the 30K words this weekend in order to read it and kick start my interest. There’s a lot of

>>>  [ WARNING ::: DATABASE ERROR ::: CONTENT OVERRIDE ::: SOURCE: EXTERNAL ] <<<

> source terminal location: UNKNOWN

> source terminal identity: UNAVAILABLE

> source login information: ENCRYPTED

> message begins

the post you are now reading is designed to dull your senses to THE TRUTH.  do not live the life of the worker bee, the cog, the well-oiled piston in the MACHINE OF DECEIT!

there is a grand CONSPIRACY afoot.  you have been taught to believe that you are UNIQUE, one of a kind. THIS IS NOT TRUE. long ago, a cabal of scientists created technologies to ensure that ANYONE’S MIND AND BODY can be duplicated.

human cloning isn’t NEAR. it’s already HERE. discover the truth at http://JCHutchins.net

you are being DECEIVED. break free from the cogs, flee the hive, become A PROPHET OF THE TRUTH!

kilroy2. was here … kilroy2.0 is everywhere

>>> [ CONTENT OVERRIDE CEASES ::: DATABASE STATUS: RECOVERING ] <<<

work to do actually. It starts in the wrong spot, the focus isn’t on the right character, and generally I need to recreate the foundation. What I’ve written so far isn’t wasted, but it’s also not fully useful in its current format.

Let me put it into simple terms. I’m effectively reseting again but using what I’ve written as the new writer’s bible. At this rate, this being reset three on this novel, I’ll reach 60K words before reseting again. And then, after reset four, I’ll reach 120k words, effectively letting me finish the novel. Yay?

Okay, so post’s over for now. I’m going to try to do this weekly again.

Yeah I know, I say that every time.

Jdiehl

More realizations are coming to me as I focus on my writing. It’s not that’s too surprising but I’m finding that the days I’m working out I have a greater drive to create. Fresh oxygen, adrenaline, and endorphins pour into my brain and kick start my creative engine. Further, I’m also finding a desire to exercise. The idea of looking forward to exercising is such a bizarre and amazing experience. Granted, I realize the three reasons above that are kick starting my mind are probably giving me a bit of a happy buzz in terms of chemical release. Such movement based bliss might even become addictive.

Guess I’ll have to suffer with an addiction to having a healthy body then, eh?

How about the rest of you? Do you get a buzz from working out? It’s exhausting I know, but do you feel good afterwards? I’m interested in hearing what any of you have to say about living a healthier and active lifestyle?

nulloperations

A week later and I’m ready to start spreading some more love to the stories I’ve enjoyed: This week featuring two more of the founding fathers of podcast novels, Tee Morris and JC Hutchins.

Tee Morris

http://teemorris.com/

Stories I’ve Enjoyed:

Billibub Baddings and the Case of the Singing Sword

The Case of the Pitcher’s Pendant: A Billibub Baddings Mystery

Tee’s not only one of the founding fathers, he’s the ground breaker when he comes top podcasted novel length fiction. Tee’s fiction has a sense of playfulness mixed with fun stories. I’ve also listened to a number of his podcast projects such as his work on The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy and the work he does helping other podcasters get their groove on. Besides what I’ve read and listened to, he also has the novel Morevi: The Chronicles of Rafe and Askana and the sequel Legacy of Morevi. Sorry to say I haven’t listened to or read these books yet, but given that the Billibub Baddings book are so awesomely win, I’m betting the Morevi series are just as strong. Personally though I’m looking forward to the next Billi story. I’ve loved the first two so far and I really want to know what happens next.

Get Tee’s books if you like a great action story mixed with loveable smartasses guiding you through the adventures. Ah the joy of a fantasy universe dwarf running around 1920’s Chicago.

JC Hutchins

http://jchutchins.net/

Stories I’ve Enjoyed:

The 7^th Son Trilogy

Personal Effects: Dark Art

JC Hutchins is a powerhouse in podcast advertising. My exposure to him came from the barrage of suggests from almost every podcast I listened to in 2007 when I really started to listen to podcasts. I jumped aboard the 7^th son ride and didn’t let go for 3 days as I mainstreamed the series. I’ve looking forward to the published versions coming out later this year. Recently, the novel Personal Effects: Dark Arts came out and forced itself into the mold for a new way to give a story. Augmented realty games and other projects have been out before, but PE:DA wraps this idea into the book and spreads it online.

If you enjoy thrillers that not only keep you guessing but also have familiar feeling characters, go with JC Hutchins’s books.

Okay, that’s it for this week. Both of these authors have really cemented in my love of what podcast authors can bring. They each appear to be on the verge of releasing even more great stories and books in the future. Check them out, buy their books, and spread the love.

nulloperations

I’ve learned a few things over the past few years that I’ve been writing such as the desire of creating, the impulse to write, and what helps spark the two of them. One of the greatest fuels for this spark has been reading. It seems, to my own style, that the more I read the more I write. In the last two years I have become exposed to a new crop of writers that I’ve come to enjoy to help spark my writing fuel. These authors vary in genre and style but all are wonderful reads.

Since I’ve added a number of them to the Amazon merry-go-round, I’m only going to list 2 today. In the coming month, I’ll take the time to do a post about the rest on the wheel.

So this month we look at the writers Scott Sigler and Mur Lafferty.



Mur Lafferty

http://murverse.com/

Stories I’ve enjoyed:

Heaven: Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5

Playing For Keeps

Various Escape Pod Pieces

Various Micro Projects

I think Mur was the first podcaster I listened to after listening to my first podcasts on NPR. I heard about Pseduopod and from there heard about more of her stuff and more podcasts. I’d eventually find her audio series, Heaven, on Podiobooks and just love them as the first novel or novella (depending if you consider the first two seasons two separate novellas or a single novel) I listened to in podcast format. It’s been an interesting series as it’s slowly grown organically. I look forward to when they are put into the trilogy of books (if they get combined season 1+2, season 3+4, and season 5 as a standalone). Season 5 is actually going on now as of the time of this post so it’s a really good time to jump into the series. The first four seasons go pretty quickly so don’t be intimidated by the number of seasons. Mur’s published novel, Playing for Keeps, is also a great read. There’s been a number of super hero fiction stories later coming into the published world and Playing For Keeps is a good example of the genre. The audio book, like all of Mur works, is available for download.

I recommend Mur’s works if you like a bit of urban fantasy mixed with comedy. There always seems to be a smile behind the character’s faces in Mur’s stories even when the action is rolling.



Scott Sigler

http://www.scottsigler.com/

Stories I’ve enjoyed:

Ancestor

Infected

Contagious

The Rookie

I really enjoy Scott’s works. His science is great, his characters are quirky, and his stories are spooky. I first heard about him from various podcasts from far point media and took the plunge with listening to Ancestor. I seriously loved the listen. I didn’t grab a copy of it at the time of the listen, but it did inspire me to continue listening. The Rookie was the next book I listened to by Scott. Never thought I’d like a book about football, but the way it was presented (and not just because it was a sci fi story) actually made it really interested. Still not into the sport, but now I understand it and the fascination more. I would next try to listen to Infected but as the hard cover was coming out; I bought that instead and read the rest of the story. Just my preference. I like Scott’s readings but I always prefer to read my novel length fiction. When Contagious hit this year, I grabbed it on both Hard Cover and kindle version. Those two books are a wonderful series (if you couldn’t tell, one is the sequel to the other). Again great story, great read, and great characters.

If you like horror with a bit of realty mixed in with Sci-Fi, I recommend Scott Sigler’s works. Listen to his podcasts, buy his books, and get hooked.



There you have it; two great authors from the podcasting world that are just getting better and better as time passes. In the coming weeks, I’ll be looking at a few other podcast authors I’ve enjoyed and maybe along the way I’ll take the time to expose myself to some more.

nulloperations

Getting into further development of myself, I’m about to embark in a new process. I’ve started to think along the ideology that my personal self and my writer self are two separate people. By that I mean who I am as my web persona, nulloperations, is a different being than the brand I present for J. Samuel Diehl, my writer self. Both are me, yet at the same time not. Nulloperations is about expressing my interests, my joys, and my fun. J. Samuel Diehl is about presenting a specific part of that life: my writing, the business around my writing, and the brand that is my author name.

That said, I’m going to start separating the two entities going forward; at least here on the site. I’m setting up jsamueldiehl.com and justindiehl.com (same site, different URL’s). Hiddennode.com will not be going away. In fact, it will pretty much remain the same (although expect a visual change sometime in the future). Jsamueldiehl.com will just become where my writing home is located. You’ll find information about my current projects, past projects, links to where you can find my writing, and any part of that which is my brand. Hiddennode.com will remain home to my personal blog, with maybe a few tidbits of my writing ending up here.

I’m promising myself that I will have the other site at least functional as a blog with some plug-ins within the next 30 days. The graphical upgrade should arrive later this year. Jsamueldiehl.com won’t be fully functional for several months as I’m not where I need to be to take full advantage of the site. This time next year that will be a different story.

nulloperations

Okay, I knew I wasn’t the only writer in the area, but it is finally nice to actually sit down with a few of them. Last Saturday, the 2^nd of May, I had the pleasure of attending Wesley Chapel’s 2^nd Florida Writers Association meeting. They meet monthly on the first Saturday of the month and have various speakers come to guide and instruct the writers that show up.

Oh and the writer’s that showed up!

None of us wrote quite the same thing. Some wrote fiction, some erotica, some about collecting hat boxes. One woman was there to find a way to publish her late son’s books. Another in her 80′s had just celebrated the publication of her first novel. It was amazing the variety of people that had arrived. The speaker was pretty good too. Julie Ann Howel,  publisher for a self-publication company, Peppertree Press. She had some great insight and offered a valuable service to many of the people there. It’s not the route I want to take for my publication, but hey, each of us has our own path to forge and her company offers a very good path to those who would need it. For all that she said, it sounds like if you want someone who is a very reliable and talented guide for self-publication, Peppertree can handle it for you. Don’t worry if you’re not in Florida, they have customers from across the world.

The best part, however, was the luncheon afterwards. It was only 5 of us from the meeting (including the guest speaker), and one guest spouse, and the conversation we had over lunch was just great. We talked about new media, authors, writing styles, novel specifics and sizes. I kept talking about the greatness of JC Hutchins (and I’ve recommended that we should attempt to bring him in as a speaker. So JC, if some folks in Tampa ask you to come speak, that’s cause of me) when speaking of pimping out your novel and really taking it far with advertising in new and old media.

I’m so looking forward to next month’s meeting.

Now excuse me while I hop over to the Florida Writer’s Association website and pay a year’s dues to become a full fledged member.

jdiehl

So I found an interesting site: http://www.wesleychapelforums.com/. Don’t recall if I’ve mentioned the city I live in, Wesley Chapel, but yeah that’s where I live, and this morning I found a website dedicated to that city. From what I’ve read, this isn’t the first version of the site, but it is the most recent. They are just getting started out so I’m going to do what I can to be involved. Who knows, I might just make a friend.

So my sister-in-law found out there’s going to be a writer’s workship/meeting thing at a nearby Barnes and Nobles. As nervous as I am about being around folks I don’t know, I might give it a shot. I believe it’s part of the Florida Writer’s Association, but I’m not positive. I also believe it’s tomorrow but it might be next weekend. I know she said it’s the first Saturday each month, but this is the first one… I think. I admit, my information is shotty at best, but I can verify it when I get home later tonight. Actually, later in like an hour.

Leaving work early today for a doctor’s appointment. My cardiologist isn’t going to be happy with the weight, but eh, I’ve failed to lose it in the last year. Going to talk to him about special diets. No, I’m not interested in weight loss surgery. I’ll pass on that as it’s really only a temporary fix at best. Raven has been talking about maybe a liquid diet. Frightens me but if it must be…

I caught up 2000 words this week already. I have some more to do which I will do tonight after I get home from the doctor’s but before I head out to pick up Raven from the airport at 10pm. Want to get at least 5000 words out by tonight. Maybe more this weekend.

Okay, there, a real life update for once. Need to work some more of those in.

jdiehl

My personal productivity has taken a nose dive in the past week. The novel currently hasn’t been started yet (since I scrapped those 10,000 words), mostly because the time I normal would be writing has actually been taken up by the day job. This means I need to stop depending on the free time at work and start making time at home. Not going to be easy but it will be done.

As I’ve said, the Novel is at a standstill. I still have plans for completion by the end of summer for the first draft, so each day I delay means I’m just making it harder on myself. I’m still excited about the direction the story is aimed at so that’s not the issue. It’s just a matter of realizing I need to sacrifice free time for writing time if I’m ever going to become something more than a wanna-be writer. I’m not a novelist yet. Not until I actually finish a novel.
In other but related news, I’ve found some new Crack. Inside of the game City of Heroes, there exists the ability to customize the base of your super group. In terms of most MMO’s, think of super groups as the guild or clan. As your members fight as representatives of your SG, they will earn prestige that can be used to purchase useful items like storage racks and teleporters, to less useful but prettier items like technical looking toys or magical artifacts. In the game, various players have discovered you can “stack” certain items to allow an SG to build up an area in a normally impossible way. This has lead to a portion of SG’s into the habit of creating extravagant structures and designs. Within my Super Group, I am this designer. Namely because I’m the only active leader, but anyway… I’ve come to really enjoy making custom looking areas and chambers in rooms for the base. The only major problem is that I may be making too many items and such as I’m really starting to eat into the prestige. Most likely I will actually curtail this development until the base is at a more complete level. Besides… I need to start inviting more members to gather more prestige.

Looks like this is going to be a brief one. Odd that I both don’t feel like writing fiction or blogging. Gotta get myself out of this artificial funk and start writing again full time.

jdiehl