Squeezing a post in

It's Sunday, it started like every Sunday, with a call to my parents. We talked about family triumphs and struggles, the opening day of Major League Baseball, and other things.

My son and I went to see Ghost in the Shell today. Everyone seemed to be wondering what I thought, because the reviews weren't that good. I thought it was awesome to be honest. One of the things I wanted from it was visuals of the futuristic environment.

My next novel (possibly 2018) is going to be called Grinders. It's about bio-hackers, and I want to use setting similar to what I saw in the film previews. (Okay, I'm old enough that I was thinking Blade Runner, but you get the gist.) Ghost in the Shell delivered big time, in fact, I may have to step up my setting beyond the ideas I already have.

I thought the story was good too. It wasn't overly complicated, and it suited the genre well. I would have liked to see more familiar faces, but it could be that I wasn't looking at the faces. Scarlet Johansen tends to make me look many places at once.

Tomorrow kicks off the Story Empire Blog tour I already shared with you. This is going to keep me busy. I will have a guest here tomorrow, and at the same time, I will be a guest somewhere else. Never one to slack-off, I also have the regular post in the rotation at Story Empire. This means I have some serious comments to follow across the internet.

I will not be reblogging my own tour posts, because I won't step on my guest's toes during this event. If you want to win one of my prizes, you'll have to visit my host's sites. This is the tour schedule, and there are some fun prizes up for grabs, and some great deals on good books.

Then there is the social media support to go along with it all. There are occasionally comments there that I need to respond to, on top of the WordPress comments.

During all that, I want to move ahead with my reading responsibilities. I may try reading a few chapters, surfing all the sites and media, then reading a few more chapters.

Lisa Burton, my personal assistant thinks she can explain it better than I can.

Wish me luck. Have you seen Ghost in the Shell? What did you think? Do you have any tips for keeping up with all of my blogging responsibilities?

Saturday Out

I went through my critiques and made some good changes to Will ‘O the Wisp this morning. There was pretty universal agreement among the group about where I could improve things.

I had a pretty common thing happen to me regarding the story this week. One of the cool things I came up with for the story occurred in a television show I saw this week. This happens to me all the time. I write something months ago, and it winds up in a show or movie before I can publish. I’ve heard I’m not the only one, and not to change a thing. My story is different, and it will have to be what it is.

We’re a couple weeks behind around here. We wanted to see the new Captain America movie weeks ago, but wound up with other commitments. Today was our day.

I thought it was a really good movie. In a series type story, the one where the good guys fall is regularly the best one. The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite of the Star Wars movies. The story here was my favorite part. That and Scarlet Johansen.

I like a good action movie, but that was the worst part of this film. The camera was in constant motion during the action scenes. Quarter second point of view angles, lots of blurs and shaking cameras. I had to look away, because it made my head hurt.

I know this is the cool new thing, but I hate it. It distracts me from the story. I don’t know if I can make a comparison to writing. All I know is pulling someone out of the story is bad.

I wound up drowning my sorrows at Old Chicago Pizza. I finished my Mexican beer tour and got my tee shirt. The beers were all very similar, and all pretty good. They aren’t my style, and if you’ve ever had a Corona you’ve got the flavor down. I’ve been drinking craft beer for quite awhile. Compared to good craft beer, they’re kind of like making love in a canoe. (Think about it for a second.)

I still have some editing and publishing type work to do, but it isn’t nearly as much fun as writing a new manuscript. I tend to hit it pretty hard, and never feel weak when I step away for a bit. I may work on a few things tomorrow, and I may not. The next two weeks at work is going to be hectic. If I have to use the weekends to just wind down, so be it.