Welcome back!

It’s been a bit since I posted something to my blog, so I wanted to talk about my grand NaNoWriMo experiment from August-November of last year. Simply put, things did not go as expected.

As each month passed all sorts of personal events kept on intruding to the point where I couldn’t even think of writing much less get my head into completing my goals. I experienced a sort of meltdown in my personal life and this directly affected my writing more than I’d thought possible. Add to this the self-imposed stress of trying to get the draft done before December and you pretty much get a disaster.

But that was last year, and now in this new one, I decided to approach writing differently. Even though my personal and financial life is still in turmoil, I’ve forgiven myself for missing my own deadlines last year and set myself a more workable schedule. I try to write what I can daily, but not under the constraints of NaNoWriMo-type deadline. I think this will give me room to breathe and not paralyze me with stress.

It also gives me the ability to concentrate on stabilizing other parts of my life while keeping the story moving. I’m hopeful that once things work themselves out on one front it’ll make it easier for me to put more effort into writing.

Either way, I will try to post at least something each month about where I am and I hope I have better news to tell then.

As someone involved in IT for most of my life, it was very refreshing to see a writer who knew how things really worked. Who understood how networks, databases, and other pieces of infrastructure that runs our daily lives really functioned. Daniel Suarez, is the thriller writer I’ve been waiting for: Someone who actually has a clue what really is happening behind the computing curtain.

All to often, I’ve found that most writers who write science fiction and techno-thrillers have no experience whatsoever with technology and love to throw terms and ideas out in order to cover their ignorance. This was one of the first books of fiction I’ve read where I saw the writer knew exactly what he was talking about and wasn’t depending on a subscription to Wired for all of his technical information.

As a novel, I found it enjoyable and frightening at the same time. Since I know about the technology he talks about in his books, I can easily see some of the things that happened actually occur. As one reviewer on Amazon had said, “This isn’t a novel so much as it is an object lesson in what can happen.” What I found fascinating was looking at all the reviews, people who really didn’t understand the technology involved, or people who think they do (listening to CNET podcasts and what not does not count as “knowing about computers and the internet”) did not like this novel as much as people who really do know the way things work in the internet.

In some ways, Daniel has limited his audience to very technical people, but to be honest those in the later generations are more technical than the previous ones and it is very refreshing to read a book where they author isn’t dumbing down the novel in order to keep people who aren’t technically inclined happy. Its like the author is saying to his readers, “If you can understand, great take a seat and hold on to the pull bar for a wild ride. If you can’t, then STFU and find yourself a Grisham book”. I like that. I like it very much.

To sum things up, if you’re in IT or involved anyway in computer technology, you should read Daemon. If you really understand what Daniel is talking about, it should both excite and scare you. This is definitely a thriller for our generation, and I sure hope to see more like these popping up in the near future.

Well, last month was a disaster as far as writing. There were a lot of things going in my life as far as my work situation that prevented me from really putting in the time to write. I was hoping that November would be better, but it’s off to a rocky start.

However, even with the less than optimal start, I’m not gonna give up and keep going forward with it. So far I have about 2000 words done and I can only go up from there.

Well, it’s October 1st and today is the first day of my personal NanoWriMo. I had some missteps in September due to events out of my direct control, but I’m now back on track and ready to go. I’ll be posting my progress here as I delve deeper into my writing frenzy.

I had planned in September to try and blast through the first of three months of NanoWriMo-style draft creating goodness, however, within the first couple of days I was blindsided by a couple of events in my personal life.

It’s amazing how a couple of things can throw you off entirely. For a good chunk of the month, I felt as if most of my creative energy had been siphoned off to deal with the problems assaulting me. At the end of most days, my mind was too frazzled and exhausted to even think of my novels.

But, instead of beating myself up over it, I’ve decided to get up off the ground, dust off my clothes and keep going forward, beginning with the next month. I don’t view it as a postponement, but as a re-affirmation of the goal I had set. I will get my three months of writing done one way or another.