Month: March 2016

Workbook 6 | March: Ramping Up

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Hello, Spring. You’ve been missed. And I’ve been busy. Sorta. Been a while since I’ve done one of these so let’s get right to it. Current Project: Comeback The past month or so has been devoted to making a comeback in a couple of different ways. A kind of rebirth. Emerging from the dark cold winter with a better outlook on what it is I’m supposed to be doing with whatever talents I may have as a writer and musician. I’m addressing the writer aspect first. First and foremost, I had to upgrade my primary computing and writing device with a new laptop. That was done about a month ago. Updated hardware and software, crucial tools for working smarter, not harder. Current Project: Ruckerpedia Creating a self-publishing venue for my writing – that’s currently underway as I put together the all-new Ruckerpedia: The Magazine & Archive of yours truly, which will house all of my fiction, poetry and lyrics – old and forthcoming. In the process of the just mentioned, this particular blog became rebranded …

Lifebook 3 | Indecision & Creative Inertia

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Months on end now, since the waning days of last summer, I had been battling what can only be described as typical Libran indecisiveness, which in turn leads to stasis and creative inertia. Write that much coveted all-American novel? Write short stories? Earnestly try to finally break into writing comics and graphic novels – which believe it or not is harder to than getting a novel published these days. Or simply say goodbye to fiction for a while and simply focus on journalism and blogging, which have become so much easier to do. Needless to say it was a very low point for me in terms of my muse and actual productive writing, but also just before my musical activities had ramped up. As Autumn had begun to transition into Winter, I’d convinced myself that it was probably best if I go on indefinite writing hiatus and focus all of my creative energies into my band and other musical projects in the works. At the time I had also come to realize that quite simply …

The Evening Muse 4 | Tick-Tock

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As we entered Daylight Savings Time this past week and gave up an hour of our lives to Spring forward, I was reminded that I have a strange – or more specifically, strained – relationship with time. I have often felt an unending urge to beat time, somehow, someway. There has always been this ticking clock in the back of my mind, pushing me forward with an incessant urgency to get certain things done, as if I am acutely aware that life is terribly fleeting, that our life force is an elusive, unmanageable thing. It’s not like we can ever truly master or control time. We cannot reverse time to put hours, days, weeks, years back on the clock. The day we’re born is the day we start dying. We don’t get do-overs, we can’t time-travel (yet!) and we do not have the power of pause. Temporal stasis is a science-fiction theory at best (for now). This is why Father Time is a cagey mad bastard who remains undefeated. Tick-tock-tick-tock-tick-tock!

New Book: Lost Storm Rider | A Novel by Jennifer Macaire

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Jenny Mac is back! In April, the sequel to Riders of the Lightning Storm will be out! Get ready to continue the adventure! And here (drumroll….) is the new cover! “…featuring an intimately detailed plot, Horse Passages is very highly recommended as action/adventure science fiction novel and an altogether entertaining read.” — Midwest Book Review  You can get Book 1 of this YA digital novel series directly from the publisher Evernight Teen or via your Kindle at Amazon. Source: New Cover!

Lifebook 2 | Sugar Detox

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It wasn’t that long ago, that fateful day. The day I was diagnosed as diabetic – onset of the disease diabetes mellitus. 6.1.13. The day I went to the ER with severe lethargy, dry mouth, unquenchable thirst and a frequent urination schedule. Actually I was quite beyond just the mere onset of the disease, I was into what’s called ketoacidosis – my blood sugar was 615. So, yeah, essentially I was one step away from a very imminent stroke, and maybe another step or two from death. I had no clue. Since that near-death-event, there have been some ups and downs, the likely kind that comes with a tricky, almost now you see now you don’t kind of disease. After onset it’s known to present 1 to 2 “honeymoon periods” where it seems to go into a kind of temporary remission. I’ve had 2, maybe 3 of those periods. Initially I was diagnosed in the ER as Type 1, I suspect mainly because of how high my blood sugar was and what it took – …

The Morning Muse 8 | Madness

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I’m convinced that the madness of the artist is a real and true thing, indeed.  It’s probably nothing short of an affliction, a psychosis kind of disease that’s devoid of a cure.  The symptoms of said disease are not overtly noticeable.  They are internal, within the mind.  An artist suffering from it can smile perfectly and laugh while in the company of others, but inside tells another story.  What are the symptoms?  I’ll tell you mine.  One moment I can be high as a kite on how I feel about my writing or music making.  The next moment I’m awash with negative thoughts of being a fraud with no right to call myself a writer or musician. The psychosis and plight of the writer is: he most wants to write during times when he is most not able to do so, say like while at work or on the road traveling from destination to destination. It’s madness. And it’s a madness.

Lifebook 1 | Belated New Year’s Brief

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Hello! And, um, Happy New Year!?!? Yeah, I know, I’m really late. I guess it’s been a long minute since I’ve posted a proper update. A New Year has come and gotten well underway since the last time I discussed my life activities, or confessed in stark detail my ongoing creative struggles – or what I like to call the Writer’s Plight. The latter I will get into more this coming week, and the former I will touch on in this quick rundown of notable events this year so far: January 3rd – New Guitar Started the new year off with a instrumental acquisition: a 2015 Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro electric guitar with silverburst finish, special humbucker pickups with coil-tapping feature, a thin neck and decent string action on a rosewood fingerboard with medium-jumbo frets. This beauty — I named her Silvestra — made her debut in the next event . . . January 16th – NTA’s Debut My band Neglect the Alarm made its live debut on the Punk Rock Night stage at the historic Melody Inn in …

Quote: Jennifer Macaire on Patience + Writing

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Today must be the day of Jenny M. because she makes yet another appearance on this here blog with more timely words that I’ve aimed at my own psyche. To wit: So if I’m so impatient, how did I ever finish the book? I wonder myself. I tend to start things  – and finish them. I just did an interview where one question was: “How can I become a writer?” I answered, “Write, write, write and read, read, read”, but I could have said “Write and finish what you start.” It never gets easier. It never goes faster. Sometimes you write yourself into a dead end. Then you have to unravel the story – sort of like knitting, and start again. Sometimes you forget what the story was supposed to be about, and you have to spend hours cutting out what doesn’t matter – like pruning dead wood off a tree. It’s never a smooth journey.  It’s often frustrating. And when the book is done and published – you’ll always find the odd typo or mistake …

Guest Blog: Jennifer Macaire’s Fabulous Life as a Writer

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by Jennifer Macaire Taken from her own eponymous blog. Remind me why I started writing? Oh yeah, I was stuck on the pampa in Argentina for 4 months, with 2 yr old twins and lots of free time. Susannah took care of the housework and cooking, so all I had to do was watch the twins splash about in the pool while my husband was away days at a time to look for horses. I had a couple notebooks, some pens, and an idea for a book. So I sat on the porch and wrote my first novel longhand on yellow paper. It never got published – I never rewrote it on the computer. By then we were travelling again, the twins were growing and I had no time to spare. Then my daughter was born, and once again I was sitting at home watching a newborn sleep. We had just gotten a new computer so I started a short story about Alexander the Great. It turned into a seven book series, was published in …