I missed Sunday's post for this round. And I should feel bad about it. In fact this past week has been nearly a wash for the goals that I've been working on. I should feel sorry about that too. But I have to be honest. I don't.
Last Thursday I went to a writing symposium here in Utah called "Life, the Universe, and Everything." Or LTUE. It was a feast of marvelous ideas concerning writing. Opportunities to enjoy networking among professionals in the field. And most of all it was a complete overload of information in too little time. I am still decompressing from it. But while I was there I met a gentleman by the name of David Powers King who persuaded me to start something new. A writing blog. Now I have to tell you this scared me at first, but I figured that it would be the best way to develop an audience. But I didn't really know what I was going to say. That subject matter came up on Saturday.
Culture as I know it has been a concept in a lot of science fiction and fantasy for years. We have our elves, orcs, goblins, humans, and dwarves. Yet where are the black folks, the asians, the indians of both the Americas and India, or any of the other myriads of races that we have in the world. All of the characters in traditional fantasy tend to be caucasian. And few things I think are more wrong than this. I believe that drama is the mirror of man and that if we are to make certain that that mirror is an accurate image we must do the work to make certain that image is correct. But we don't do that in the fantasy worlds that we create. Instead we use stereotypes to build the worlds which only serves to create worlds of stereotypes and teach our children that the world is a much more shallow place than it really is. I posted a few weeks ago about what I would need to do to be black enough. I realize now that what I need to do is define blackhood and the possible cultures that I can choose from in such a way that students have the opportunity to choose for themselves what and who they want to be.
And here the goals I choose for this week of ROW:
1. Finishing a Scene of "Crimes of the Umbramancer" each day.
Last week I got through my writing early in the week, but during and after the symposium I haven't been able to finish anything. I am hoping that while I am home today, that I am able to begin the process of catching up.
2. Comment on ten blogs in ROW80:
I got through most of the blogs I wanted to post on. I posted on a lot of different blogs, not all of them ROW80, and there seemed to be good interaction. I'll catch up on my blogs during this week as things continue to slow down.
3. No more than twelve hours of video games per week.
Last week I didn't play any Zelda, but I played a little recently. I'm hoping for a little more this week, but well controlled.
4. Bedtime between 11PM and Midnight each day so I can be up at six or seven to take advantage of the early hours to write.
Of seven days I got none. No early nights and no early mornings... And even tonight I'm up late. I'll be change that with the remainder of the week.
5. Walking at least a mile five times a week.
Again no progress in this goal. Just been too busy.
6. Finding a new job in the upcoming month.
Killed a job interview and I'm expect to hear back from them by Friday. So that is on the upside!
7. Building a new blog for my diversity issue.
This is the goal I can say that was achieved over the weekend. And I look forward to moving forward with it!
I have a long journey ahead of myself. But it is okay! I know that as I make my way along the road to becoming the writer I want to be, I'll have challenges that are going to knock me off track and back sometimes, but I have to remember I'm on this journey because it feels right and I'm making progress even when I feel like I'm standing still.
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