Yeaaaah…

So I just had one of those royally embarrassing moments. I have a neighbor and for a better part of a year I said she’s cute talk to her.

Well the opportunity finally presented itself for a talk. I was walking to my car she was looking at her phone about to check her mail.

Now I’m a polite guy so for whatever reason I’m jus standing in the driveway just staring at her. Feeling like a creep mind you. I’m waiting for her attention to come from her phone to her mailbox she’s about to run into.

It felt lik an eternity as I attempted to think of something to say. Well i saw her with a dog once before. Hey we could talk about dogs, because why not. I’ve never owned one and the thought of owning one has never crossed my mind but we can talk about dog breeds I don’t know anything about.

She looked up and waved and I said the worst thing possible.

You’re the girl with the dog right?

WOW! I said that! Total stalker words. It was awkward. Is there any coming back from that? No.

She said yeah went back to her phone.

Embarrassing? Yeah. Will it happen again? Sure. Can I expect another one word conversation with her? Probably.

I need to stop being awkward.

Thanks for listening guys!

Art of War

Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.

– Sun Tzu

This is a tough one because I’m not too keen on manipulating people but it sounds like: give no clues to what you do and keep your opponent in the dark

Coming Out

Recently I’ve finally came out from under the bed (not closet) I’ve told my friends that I’m bipolar and battle bouts of depression. They’ve been dealing with it pretty wellbut I have several concerns.

People constantly ask if I’m doing alright and after i give the generic: I’m good, I’m ok. They ask again and I honestly respond with: I’m making it.

There’s no going around this but I’m tired of feeling this way. So up and down but never constant. I was at a wedding and now we’re at the year’s eve and I should be at my peek but I feel tone deaf. Around a bunch of friends and I’m just here.

Someone mentioned maybe visit a doctor for some perscription drugs. I’ve taken enough legal drugs in my life totally including my addiction to ibuprofen (4 doesn’t do anything). I don’t know what to do.

Retcon?

Not too long ago I got myself tagged onto a female fantasy wrestling league. Unfortunately I fell short of my goal of 20 shows and a break. 

It put a ton of pressure on me and working 2 angles creatively  (this wrestling show and a novel series). Right now I’m on a break from my novel due to waiting for my Beata readers to get back with me.

I’m an outline freak so for the past few days I’ve got storyline outlined but it will retcon my entire show. A story from the very beginning  with more character development that is now story structured.

So instead of asking you guys for your blessing or reassuance to do something I want I’ll just do it and skip out the middle man.

I hope you guys enjoy the show!

January Book # 2

Book #2 of January was Hammer of Angels.

 

This was similar to the previous book in G.T. Almasi’s The Shadowstorm series (I think its a trilogy), the first being Blades of Winter.

The book is an action/sci-fi that takes place a year after the first (early 80’s although it doesn’t mention it, more on that later), in an alternate timeline. A version where America hadn’t joined WWII and Germany ceased control of most of Europe and upper Africa.

The story follows Scarlet, a bad a** augmented (robot limbs) Level (secret agent) and her crew of Darwin (the Brains), Raj (the muscle) and a few surprise friends throughout. Their job is to infiltrate Germany help and free resistance Jewish slaves.

The book contains a ton of action (one guy is stabbed in his man region), buckets of blood, strong language (the lead swears on every page) and a lead character with a snarky sense of humor, all gave the recipe for a very fun book.

Hammer of Angels gets a 4 out of 5

January Book #1 Review

The first book I read in January was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

 

Also, adapted to a movie…

…And another movie.

The story is about a down on his luck magazine publisher (Mikael Blomkvist) who’s just lost a court case for liable and slander by a wealthy industrialist. Mikael is grief struck with concerns of losing his magazine due to his drop in public image.

Blomkvist is given a lifeline from Henry Vangar, rival industrialist to the man who convicted him. Vangar has evidence his rival to give to Blomkvist but first he must do a favor for him. Mikael must write a biography about the Vangar family and uncover a 30-year mystery of his missing niece.

Mikael accepts and Vangar invites to his estate to conduct the investigation. Vangar is under the belief that she was murdered by a member of his family.

After months of research, Blomkvist has a few leads and realized he’s bitten a bit more than he can chew. He asks for a research assistant and is given oddball Lisbeth Salander.

Plot-wise that’s all I’m giving up, but I felt the story picked up when Blomkvist and Salander began working together. Granted they have their own storyline before they collide, but for about 50 pages the story felt stale. Even though I had seen both films, the book felt similar with the story picking up whenever Salander was on the page.

Lisbeth Salander jumped off the pages throughout the book. She was mystery slowly getting unwrapped only to be covered up again. She is the pumping heart of author Stieg Larsson’s work. If she wasn’t well written, then his work wouldn’t have been published.

By the end of the book, I couldn’t put it down to the point I was hooked. I would read Book 2 in the Millennium series but I promised myself I’d read two other books first (btw I haven’t seen the second Swedish movie so it should be a total surprise).

The translation was better than what people say. There are at least two versions of the English translation but I recommend to selecting the (Yellow) version of the pic above (NOT THIS ONE)

WHY? Because it still has some Swedish or European terminology. (Sorry for being American)

Overall I give The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, a 7 out of 10 or better a 3 out of 5.

Awkward….

I just ran into a friend who inspired me to write a character about somewhat based upon her. It was a tad awkward but I don’t hold grudges so not too bad for a pair of socially awkward people.