Trying to run with the distractions

I've come to expect a certain . . . pattern when it comes to my creative endeavors. Over the years, I've never quite learned how best to avoid this pattern; I've just learned to expect it to rear its ugly distracting head when I feel like I've got a groove going on one or two projects already.

I get distracted with other potential projects.

I've been lucky with Mail Order Zombie. I've been able to keep producing the podcast on a weekly basis for over two years, and even if I have been hit with other project ideas, there's still always a new MOZ every week. There are other podcast ideas that have come and gone since I first dipped my toes in the podosphere, and I even put out one singular episode of something I called Mixtape of the Macabre (which will sadly end up being one of those podcasts that never makes it past the first episode, methinks); I spun MOZ Presents: The Munchies off from Mail Order Zombie, and this has let me branch out a little bit, but new Munchies episodes have been few and far between.

Normally what happens is this: I make some headway on some sort of creative project (more often than not, it's a piece of writing), and then something else will pop up. Eventually, I end up with three, four, five different projects going at once, and I burn out before anything's actually completed. I used to tell myself that it was a good thing that I was "so creative" (yes, I realize how that sounds!), but after a while, I end up finding more frustration that completion. I suppose it's a matter of discipline.

And it worries me that it's happening again.

I've been listening to a lot of audio drama podcasts lately, and damn if I haven't been thinking about what it might be like to produce one of my own. How in the hell is THAT supposed to fit into my 2010 goals? How do I make the time to do something like this where there are still nights when I stay up WAY past my bedtime producing Mail Order Zombie? (Thankfully not as many, but still . . . )

I've got a few ideas, and I think within the next few weeks, I'll be revisiting my 2010 goals and maybe rewriting them. Hey, editing is part of the writing process, right?

Progress Check

I haven't updated here as much as I would have liked, but I HAVE been making progress on the various writing projects I mentioned in the last entry here at House Improbabilia.

• Goal One - My Paperback Reader is still rolling, and it's still fun!
• Goal Two - I'm a little behind whatever schedule I was hoping for, but it's still coming, and it's still coming along strong.

Again, a bit vague, right? Trust me, I think y'all would rather I spend more time writing my actual writing projects than a blog post, right?

I like that, Heather - goals, not resolutions

A good friend of mine - Heather over at Out of the Green - posted earlier this year that she's not making any New Year's resolutions. Rather, she's setting goals, and her reasoning made a lot of sense to me, so I'm following suit, and setting goals for 2010.

Some of my goals are personal (dealing with health and finances, for example), and some of them (the ones I'm sharing here) are more writer-ly.

• Goal One - Maintain my bi-monthly column at Paperback Reader. This should be easy and a no-brainer; my "Papercut" column is part editorial, part critique, and I've got plenty of thoughts about the horror genre that I can put to virtual paper.
  
• Goal Two - Non-fiction book project Number One. Yeah, yeah, I'm being purposefully vague here, and I will disclose more as I get closer to seeing this one completed . . . which, if I can keep my head down and nose to the grindstone (and that's the very last time that I, as a writer, will use that clichéd phrase), I can see being completed in three months time.
  
• Goal Three - 2010 Novel Number One. I'm working through an old National Novel Writing Month novel I completed in 2006, expanding the text, changing the perspective and fleshing out the characters a bit more. I've started work on this already, and would like to see a finished draft by summer.
  
• Goal Four - 2010 Novel Number Two. This novel features a character that will appear in my contribution to the upcoming anthology Dark, scheduled to be released later this year. I'm as excited about this one as I am about 2010 Novel Number One, and look forward to learning a bit more about this great city in which I live(-ish - technically I don't live in Portland, OR, proper) as I hope to tie some of this novel into the history and geography of the Portland, OR, area. The goal for this is to see a first draft completed by the end of 2010.
  
• Goal Five - Non-fiction book project Number Two. This is a big one, with a lot of work to do and headway to make. I'm looking forward to tackling this as it's been bubbling around in my brain for at least a year now, and it's about damned time I throw those words down. More details as this project becomes more concrete.
  
• Goal Six - As much short fiction writing as I can. There are some markets that have asked to see some of my work, and I can't let them down! Besides, I can always go back to a short story to keep the writing gears turning if any of my novel or non-fiction projects give me any grief.
  
• Goal Seven - Not quite a fiction or non-fiction project, but there's still some writing involved, so there you go. I meant to complete this project in 2009, and I need to touch base with the collaborator with whom I was working, but I think this will be a fun project to get off the ground and shop around.
  

Wow. That seems like a lot, huh? I should probably got off of this blog and get to work . . .

What I read this year

Because I started tracking how many I watched in a year, I started doing the same with the books I read. From this list, I can find a lesson or two.

I need to read more outside of the horror genre.

I need to read more non-fiction.

I just need to read more.

(This list does not include short stories, stories read online, magazines, comics, graphic novels, etc. * indicates that I've not completed the book yet, but that I started reading it in 2009.)

All the Rage by F. Paul Wilson
Black Train, The by Edward Lee *
Blood and Thunder: The Art and Life of Robert E. Howard by Mark Finn
Blood Blade (Skinners, Book 1) by Marcus Pelegrimas
Blood Will Have Its Season by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.
Complete Making of Indiana Jones, The: The Definitive Story Behind All Four Films by J. W. Rinzler *
Conspiracies by F. Paul Wilson
Creature From The Black Lagoon: Time's Black Lagoon by Paul Di Filippo
Dawn of the Dead by George A. Romero, Susanna Sparrow
Dead Walk, The by Andy Black, Steve Earles
Homemade Hollywood: Fans Behind the Camera by Clive Young
Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard, The by Robert E. Howard
Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead by Steve Perry
Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi by Rob MacGregor
Indiana Jones and the Seven Veils by Rob MacGregor
Infinite, The by Douglas Clegg
Isis by Douglas Clegg
Mall of Cthulhu, The by Seamus Cooper
Memories of Hammer by Gary Svehla, Susan Svehla *
Poe Must Die by Marc Olden
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! by Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith
Profoundly Disturbing: The Shocking Movies that Changed History by Joe Bob Briggs
Razored Saddles edited Pat Lobrutto
Shatnerquake by Jeff Burk
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks *
Zombie Apocalypse: How the Living Dead Devoured Pop Culture by David Flint

What I watched this year

I haven't done this every year; I only started keeping real track of my movie-watching since launching Mail Order Zombie. Not surprisingly, this list is zombie-movie-heavy. Would I have watched as many zombie movies if I wasn't producing Mail Order Zombie? Probably not . . . not that I'm complaining! (I haven't seen Avatar as of the time of this posting, but I will be seeing it before midnight tonight, so it still counts!)

I don't know if there's a lesson to be learned by looking at this list. Maybe I don't watch enough documentaries? Not enough non-genre films? Foreign films? Meh . . . I don't know.

2012 (theater)
Against the Dark (video)
Alien Raiders (video)
Alien Trespass (theater)
Alphabet Killer, The (video)
American Scary (video)
Autumn (video)
Avatar (theater)
Bela Lugosi, The Fallen Vampire (video)
Beneath the Surface (video)
Beyond the Dunwich Horror (theater)
Big Man Japan (video)
Black Demons (video)
Black Scorpion, The (1957) (video)
Black Swarm (video)
Blood of the Zombie (aka The Dead One) (video)
Bonnie & Clyde vs. Dracula (video)
Brass Ring, The (video)
Business of Being Born, The (video)
Charles Beaumont: Short Life of Twilight Zone's Magic Man (theater)
Children, The (video)
Choking Hazard (video)
Church, The (video)
Creature from the Black Lagoon (3D) (theater)
Curse of the Cannibal Confederates (video)
Dark New World (video)
Dawn of the Dead (1978) (Blu-ray)
Dawn of the Dead (2004) (Blu-ray)
Dead & Buried (video)
Dead & Rotting (video)
Dead Air (video)
Dead Men Walking (video)
Dead Moon Rising (video)
Dead Noon (video)
Dead Snow (video)
Dead Summer (video)
Deadgirl (video)
Deadlands 2: Trapped (video)
Deadly Harvest (video)
Demon Resurrection (video)
Demon Warriors (video)
Demonic (video)
Destined to be Ingested (video)
Die-ner (Get It?) (video)
District 9 (theater)
Doomed (video)
Doomed to Consume (video)
Drag Me to Hell (theater)
Dungeon of Harrow (video)
Eaters, The/Eat Me! (video)
Eden Park (video)
Edges of Darkness (video)
Eegah! (video)
Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (video)
Evilution (video)
Fast Zombies With Guns (video)
Flesh Freaks (video)
Food, Inc. (video)
Friday the 13th (2009) (theater)
Gate, The (video)
Ghost Galleon, The (video)
Gothkill (video)
Grace (video)
Grave Mistake (video)
Grave Mistakes (video)
Graveyard (video)
Graveyard Alive (video)
Grey Knight (video)
Guardpost, The (video)
Hamlet 2 (video)
Hangover, The (video)
Hell of the Living Dead (video)
Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (video)
Hills Run Red, The (2009) (video)
Hillybilly Bob Zombie (video)
I Walked with a Zombie (video)
Indyfans and the Quest for Fortune and Glory (video)
Italian Zombie Movie, The - Part 1 (video)
Jaws: The Sharksploitation Edit (video)
Jesus Camp (video)
Johnny Sunshine Maximum Violence (video)
King Corn (video)
Livelihood (video)
Mad Max (video)
Mad Monster Party (video)
Mad, The (video)
Melvin (video)
My Bloody Valentine 3D (theater)
My Kid Could Paint That (video)
Night of the Creeps (video)
Night of the Seagulls (video)
Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film
(video)
Ninjas vs. Zombies (video)
Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (video)
O. C. Babes and the Slasher of Zombietown (video)
Of the Living Dead (video)
Orgy of the Dead (video)
Otto; Or, Up With Dead People (video)
Paranormal Activity (theater)
Pathogen (video)
Penance (video)
Phantasm (video)
Phantasm II (video)
Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (video)
Phantasm IV: Oblivion (video)
Pickman's Muse (theater)
Plague of the Zombies, The (video)
Plaguetown (theater)
Plan 9 From Outer Space: RiffTrax Live (theater)
Platoon of the Dead (theater)
Pontypool (video)
Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (video)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Drive-In)
[REC] (video)
Red Mist (video)
Relic of Cthulhu (theater)
Religulious (video)
Rendition (video)
Resident Evil (Blu-ray)
Resident Evil: Extinction (Blu-ray)
RetarDEAD (video)
Return of the Evil Dead (video)
Revenant, The (theater)
Rise of the Dead (video)
Ritual (video)
Road to Oblivion (video)
Road Warrior, The (video)
Road, The (theater)
Rock 'N' Roll Frankenstein (video)
Schlock! The Secret History of American Movies (video)
Seventh Moon (video)
Sick and the Dead (video)
Silent Night, Deadly Night (theater)
Stash (video)
State of Play (theater)
Super Hell (video)
Superman Redeemed (Fanedit) (video)
Swamp Zombies!!! (video)
Timecrimes (video)
Tombs of the Blind Dead (video)
Trick 'r Treat (video)
Uncle Sam (video)
Up (Blu-ray)
Versus (video)
video Dead, The (video)
Virginia Creepers (video)
War of the Dead (video)
Watchmen (theater)
What Would Jesus Buy? (video)
Yesterday (video)
ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction (theater)
Zombeak (video)
Zombeatles: All You Need is Brains (video)
Zombi 2 (video)
Zombi 3 (video)
Zombie (theater)
Zombie 4: After Death (video)
Zombie 5: Killing Birds (video)
Zombie Campout (video)
Zombie Cheerleading Camp (video)
Zombie Girl: The Movie (video)
Zombie Town (video)
Zombie Town (video)
Zombiegeddon (video)
Zombieland (theater)

Looking back on the old . . .

I don't know if it's a fault or not, but I constantly find myself looking back on my older stories, especially the ones that haven't found a home. Sometimes this gets in the way of my working on new stuff, sure, but there's a part of me that feels somehow held back by a piece of writing that never quite got to where I thought it should go while I was writing it.

So while I'm gearing up for my current novel, I find myself looking back at Memories of Home, my National Novel Writing Month novel from a few years ago. At the time, the NaNoWriMo folks had a deal with Lulu.com, and I was able to have one copy of my novel published for myself, and I went ahead and left Memories of Home available online for others to download and even purchase if they wanted to. A few websites reviewed the book, and I moved on.

But it's always stuck in my head. And I always asked myself the big what if? questions. What if Memories of Home can be expanded beyond the 50,000-ish words I threw down during NaNoWriMo? What if I could turn it into a full-length novel and even shop it around?

I think I might give it a go. Of course, I hope it doesn't get in the way of the current novel and non-fiction project . . .

Catching my breath . . .

Most of you know I was fortunate enough to attend HorrorHound Weekend Cincinnati last weekend. It wasn't something I would normally would have been able to do, but Brenda scrubbed the internet, found one or two travel websites and shook them until they gave her a really good deal on airfare, and as an early birthday present, she sent me to HHW.

I had a great time meeting old friends and making new ones. The horror celebrities were incredibly friendly, and the hotel was extremely accommodating (although I would have loved to heard the conversations between hotel employees the day after we left - horror geeks, horror drunks, a wedding, celebrities, a random hula hoop session at 2:00am in one of the lobbies, lots of booze, folks dressed as zombies and monsters, women dressed in varying . . . degrees . . . it was definitely an interesting mix of occasionally loud folks!). And I mention in my HHW coverage in Mail Order Zombie #96, the coffee the hotel restaurant served was surprisingly good! (If you listen to the episode, or follow me on Twitter, you'll also find out how I almost didn't make it back on the plane to get home!)

I'll be posting my pics from the event in a few days. I've been running fairly nonstop since flying in Monday night and just haven't had a chance to fully catch my breath. Back to work on Monday, unpacking, catching up on laundry, getting ready for Thanksgiving, getting the guest room for Brenda's sister, producing MOZ #96, etc., etc., etc. . . . at least I got to sleep in today!

I'm off from work tomorrow as well, and I think I'll be spending that day programming the rest of this year's episodes of Mail Order Zombie, organizing the computer mess I've let build up over the past few months, and maybe even throw some words down.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!