War Post: 14th April's Mashup + Major Goal Revision

I have to apologize for the lateness of this post.  I wanted to get a little homework done this past week and but I've been on a Juice fast because of a movie I watched called "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead."  One of the things the folks who were on the fast talked about was the fact that they had so much more energy.  For me it has been exactly the opposite.  No energy to do anything outside of work has been terrible.  The only reason I've been able to finish as much as I have today is because I took a nap.  Naps are wonderful things that enable us to accomplish so much more with our time.  So I'm going to cover bunch of the links of the past week and then show you how my goals have changed recently.  Lets go!

Raylene opens us up today with some things to say when we are angry in: "What is your favorite non-swearing swear?"

Larry Correia's wife goes off like a rocket about the real choices of women in: "Guest post: Mrs.Correia on the War on Women."

Shila Iris shows us Adrinka symbols in: "Adinkra Symbols."

On ROW80 the linky is up!  Check it out at: "The Linky" or "A Round of Words in Eighty Days."

Todd Bessinger shares a few tips on how to build a great title in: " Whats in a Name: How to Develop Your Title."

Nathan Bransford shares some editing rules in: "Ten Commandments for Editing Someones Work."

Teri Harman goes hoarse in: " Blood to Ink: Your Voice May Hate You, But Your Writing Will Thank You."

Becky Wright of the Standard Examiner shows a local woman's passion for art in: "Ghetto Life Fuels Artist's Imagination."

Finding something funny this week was a challenge.

Clean funny video suggestions are welcome.

This past week has been super hard on my goals and I have had to do some serious reconstruction of them.  Because I've had my head in the clouds about what I can do realistically.  So I went back to the drawing board and made some hard decisions about what I want and what I can do.  

1. Finishing Draft Two of "Crimes of the Umbramancer" by the 30th of April.1. Finishing Chapter Two of "Crimes of the Umbramancer by next week.
Let's be honest.  I haven't really achieved any writing goals for a while.  I have no end of excuses.  We had a second teenager move into our house, we started a new diet, I started a new job, I'm tired, and on and on.  Really its a lot.  Then you consider that my progress ended as soon as I found out that I had a problem in the plot, its super sad.  I lost my momentum, but I still care about the story.  So I'm going to revise my entire method of working through the book.  If it takes me longer than another year to get through this, it is okay.  This book needs to be done right, not fast.

So I started doing research on both Japanese culture (thanks to Eden) and now because of one of our teenagers I'm learning about Hispanic culture also.  I want my brand of fantasy to be multicultural fantasy and I think if I invest the time into making a world that is a blend between what we already have and the fantastic it can be something not only that people can relate with.  That actually accounts for some of the most recent changes to the blog.  I want to focus here more on cultural and political ideas and allow my fiction to be where I play with the ideas I present here.  Hopefully I can accomplish that.
2. Write seven thousand words per week. (Between blog & fiction.)I need this because I haven't been writing nearly enough lately.  I'm going to need this for not only now, but once I begin in school again.  This will keep me honest about accomplishing writing.  I plan on returning to four blog posts a week, but one of those will be the Sunday Micropost in which I hope to just state progress in goals once again.  But this goal isn't just about writing 7000 words a week, but beginning a buffer for my blog.  I don't like being late, but I don't think it is crucial for all my Mashup pieces to be absolutely current.  Instead I want to introduce folks to wonderful blogs and wonderful topics that can help people become better writers or people.
3. Exercise five times a week & continuing the Juice Fast.This did not happen this week.  My wife and I started a Juice Fast, which has been awesome.  (After five days I've lost five pounds!)  But my energy levels to do things have been so low it is not even funny.  It is why I'm super late this week with my blogging.  There literally has not been enough energy to do much of anything.  It makes me a little sad, but I hope to make all that better in the next week.  And get back to exercising then too.
4. Finishing up my school work from my last semester in College.

     I got the query letter done that I needed to do, but I still have a lot of other work for this that I need to get done.  Saturday and Sunday are dedicated to getting through all of Pride and Prejudice.  I must do that.  Cause honestly that is the hardest thing ahead of me.  Everything else I can get done during Finals week.  My boss at work would tell me, use this week to get homework done, cause I've finished hiring for the Student Literary Journal I manage and I told everyone else to focus on their work.  I figure its only fair.

5. Get myself some stories ready to get published somewhere.
    I didn't get the story rewritten this past week, but it will happen this upcoming week.  I'm hoping that I can capture the elements that it was missing before.  And maybe it will be good enough to do something in the Writers of the Future contest.  Realistically I'm competing against so many better writers than me, so I doubt I'll make it.  But what I'm hoping for is that it sharpens my writing skills so that I can make progress toward my goal of publishing soon.

That's really all I have.  It has been a rough week for me exploring sites and getting new content due to my weariness.  Next Wednesday will be better.  (Mostly because of the Buffer.  I hope to have next Wednesday's post mostly ready by Monday.  I'll just be updating goals.)  Thanks for reading my blog and all.  I'm still Jayrod Garrett, the First OG.  Peace.

Check In: 19 Feb, 2012

One of the best things about doing A Round of Words has been he fact that it has forced me to work on growing as a writer in so many ways.  I've spent a lot of time building my blog into a more professional enterprise, started writing more regularly, and had the great blessing of getting integrated into various writing communities.

This past Friday my wife and I went out to take some pictures for my blog.  Unfortunately we got out a little late and they didn't turn out as well as we were hoping for, but these are some of the best ones.  These are made with the idea of urban fantasy in mind.

For some reason I see men in suits and fedoras with chainmail underneath their clothing.  And they would be toting both guns and swords, for different reasons.  Perhaps it is just my imagination running away from me, or I've read way too much of the Dresden Files.

The end of this week has been a great success especially considering the dry spell which preceded it.  Between the pictures and other great news I couldn't ask for things to be better.  Here's how the goals for the week went.

1. Finishing a Scene of "Crimes of the Umbramancer" each day.
     I have finished a scene a day since Wednesday and now I have actually hit the point in my story where it begins to take off.  But the ground work has been laid I believe to tell a very compelling story. I am either at the half way point or the one third point.  And all signs are looking towards finishing the draft at the end of April.
2. Comment on ten blogs in ROW80:
     Done!  Commented on way more than that, but I see no reason to up the goal.  I have enough other things going on in my life.  Weeks where I will only get through my ten are coming I feel it.
3. No more than twelve hours of video games per week.
     Earlier this week I said no more Zelda.  That was before I realized it was a long weekend.  So I put only a few more hours into it and now I have beaten Zelda: Skyward Sword.  Which means I have no more distractions.  I'll be able to make more progress on my fiction each week hopefully.
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.
     I'm scrapping this goal.  I fail at it repeatedly.  And I'm going to change my focus to writing at night when I am at my best.  Hopefully I'll find folks to do wordmongering with me then too.
5. Walking at least a mile five times a week.
     Still no progress.  However my wife and I purchased a new awesome blender this last night and will hopefully be living more healthy lives in the near future.
6. Finding a new job in the upcoming month.
    On Friday I was given two job offers instead of one!  My wife and I went out to dinner to celebrate.  It was a wonderful evening.
7. Building a new blog for my diversity issue.
   I've done work with at-risk children, served overseas in Iraq twice, lived in Hawaii for two years, been in the Utah Army National Guard for almost twelve years, and been in an interracial marriage for nearly five years.  I can't claim to have read a lot of multicultural novels in my day, but I know about diversity.  Which is why I'm reading The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms this month.  I know from experience what diversity is, and I want to be able to show you in literature how this is best executed.

I'm excited for this upcoming week.  I expect to keep my goals and finally get to a regular schedule at last, which will give me a better routine in which I can accomplish writing my fiction each day.  I'm even hoping that I can get my walking done.  Here's to a grand new week.

*As a reminder I wanted to mention that to share my gratitude with my readers for commenting on my blog, I am offering three lucky people a copy book I am currently reading: "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms" by N.K. Jemisin.  It is a great book that I'm really enjoying.  Think of it as my way of saying thank you for conversing with me.

My name is Jayrod Garrett and I'm the First OG.  Don't make him angry, he likes to stab folks.  Here's some other ROW80 folks who don't have swords.

*Oops sorry I forgot this earlier!  Thank goodness for wonderful wives who catch mistakes!  I love you, Jenny!

The Birth of the Diversity Blogs

This past weekend I spent at a writers symposium called, “Life, the Universe, and Everything.”  (Or LTUE for short.)  It is a wonderful program with many of the large names in Fantasy and Science Fiction who attend.  And each year that I attend I get so much out of it.  I learned about all sorts of subjects from “Plots, Subplots, and Foreshadowing,” to “Writing Humor.”  And I felt blessed for the opportunity to be there.  Only as I looked around I noticed something was missing.  I saw Tracy Hickman, L. E. Modesitt, Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dave Farland, and various other standards in the industry.  I met them and enjoyed their company and for some reason I felt like I didn’t belong.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to say I shouldn’t be writing, but I felt the same way I do when I go to church.  Like a speck of pepper in a sea of cream.  All of the big name authors there were white.  Most all of the folks I saw come to the symposium were white.  No hispanics, no asians, and no blacks were in attendance from what I saw.  Recognizing such a poor mixture of diversity in the group of people I aspire to join made me realize something.  This is part of the reason we see such a lack of diversity in the science fiction and fantasy markets.  It isn’t because the people are racist, or they are focused only on the tropes of elves, dwarves, and orcs, but because there isn’t enough diversity in the community.

Between this and a conversation with a man I met at the convention by the name of David Powers King (read his blog, its pretty solid), I realized that I need to start blogging not only how I feel about various things going on in our culture, but about diversity in the various cultures that we have in our world.  Talking about Gay Marriage, Being Black Enough, and what Freedom is are important aspects of the culture we live in and themes to approach in literature, but it isn’t enough.  I want to write about how the Native Americans known as the Inuit live from the perspective of one of their own, or about hispanic culture from those trying to get a college education who are living in it, and introduce people to the rich heritage of black spirituality.  We have so many opportunities to recognize the diversity around us, not only in terms of race, but sexuality, gender, morality, and religion.  And I want to be a voice for helping writers to begin to recognize that.

I heard back in high school that drama was the mirror of man.  Well writing fiction is a form of drama, and I want to see the diversity of the world that I live in reflected better.  Now I’ve been trying to build an audience of late, and I realize that my journey here to develop better fantasy and science fiction will not happen without a community effort of some sort.  I can write about these things all I want, but without you sharing your thoughts and feelings with me, this won’t ever really get started.  And offering you my opinion probably isn’t enough.  So I’ve started an excellent book called the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin.  She is a black fantasy author who plays against the traditional methods by telling the story in first person and having a black female protagonist.  At the end of this month I plan on putting each person who comments on my blog into a hat and sending three of them a copy of this book.  Think of it as my way of saying thank you for having a conversation with me.

So my question to you is?  What do you want to hear about?  I have plans of talking about the hypocrisy in religion, sharing my own conversion story to becoming LDS, and about what it really is like to be an eskimo.  But I know there are a lot of other ideas out there for cultural diversity and thematic writing and rather than search all of them out by myself, I want to hear from you.  Lets become a team and discover the miracle of the diversity of the world we live in together.

A New Start for ROW80

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.

Proposition Eight and Marriage

At the risk of sharing a bit too much of myself with my audience today I decided, instead of posting about the unjust story of Rumpelstiltskin, I would talk about a current issue.  That is gay rights.  First before anything else I would like you to know that I fully support gay rights.  I think that we as law abiding citizens should all share the same rights as other people.  There should be no discrimination between people in matters of employment, rearing a family, or privileges and rights offered by the government to a person.  However there is a place where I draw my line.  It is in religion.

As I mentioned in another post recently I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (in other words a Mormon).  And as many of you know in the Proposition Eight controversy many members of my church donated money to the cause of seeing Gay Marriage blocked in the state of California.  In 2010 it was overturned and then people appealed it.  And yesterday that decision was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California.  Which means it is finally truly legal for homosexuals to marry in California.  The entire issue of Proposition Eight has caused a great deal of challenges in the homes of many Mormons.  Even in my home.  My wife entirely believes that gays should have the right to marry.  I don't.

Most of the difficulty of the issue comes from the idea of whether or not marriage is a religious term or a legal term.  Because if it is meant to be a legal term then, of course gays need to have the right to marry and you cannot deny them that.  It would be a gross violation of civil rights.  And this is exactly where my wife and many people in the LGBT (or Lesbian-Gay-Bi-sexual-Transgendered) community are.  Because it is a legal term to deny them the right isn't only unconstitutional, but it sends us back to hundreds of years in our treatment of people in our nation.

I believe that marriage is supposed to be between a man and a woman who are joined in a holy union before God.  It is a religious ceremony and I would prefer it to remain that way.  However because of the nature of how our country was founded and has grown, it is no longer simply a religious ceremony as I would like.  It is so riddled with political and legal rules that it cannot ever be simply a religious ceremony of the union between a man and a woman again.

Do not misunderstand me, I do not mean to say if a church decides they desire to endorse a man and man or a woman and woman relationship that it is wrong.  I am saying that I personally don't believe in that.  There is a huge difference between those two concepts.

So now with all of this legal mumbo-jumbo concerning marriage and civil unions, I find myself wondering how in the world do we make this just?  How do we make this fair?  Gays can't get married in every state, and civil unions aren't accepted universally to my knowledge either.  And because I want the world to be a place where we can accept the diversity and uniqueness of everyone in the world, I need to have a solution to this current problem.

So I decided that we should abolish the legal function of marriage and instead institute civil unions throughout all those who are currently married.  This would do several things.  It would have all the companies who have their current laws set up to help only those who are married rewrite their rules and laws for their companies in such a way that it would have to include all those who are currently in civil unions.  It would also remove marriage which is a religious term from the vocabulary of politics.  It would return the power of declaring what marriage is and is not to the individual churches and religions themselves.

Personally I wouldn't mind what I am in being known as a civil union legally and a marriage religiously.  It wouldn't change how I feel about my wife.  It wouldn't change my rights or privileges.  It wouldn't make me any less of an Iraqi veteran.  It would enable people who love each other to have legal rights to their children with their partner, to change the way people see the LGBT community in their neighborhood, and perhaps most important teach us as a nation that each of us has an individual worth and value.  That we shouldn't hate each other so much, nor should we fight against each other so much, and instead we should seek to find how we can envelop the entire human family within the bounds of respect, truth, and love.  And I now stand by the overturn of Proposition Eight, grateful that the people of California spoke for what they wanted for themselves.

I chose this as my subject because during my writing today I was writing about a young female warrior who has PTSD (or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) in my story.  And it got me thinking about how sometimes people are so misunderstood and especially in that community.  Speaking of communities, perhaps I should share my goals now.

My ROW Goals for the week are now as follows:
1. Finishing a Scene of "Crimes of the Umbramancer" each day.
     I've been searching for a job lately and the same time that is dedicated to the job search is often shared with writing, so I'm behind.  I plan on catching up by this evening however though.  (For the record I got an interview coming up this Monday, which I'm super excited about.  Hopefully this will work out for the best.)
2. Comment on ten blogs in ROW80:
     I've been working hard on this goal.  I'm starting to retweet blogs of things I find important and also comment as much as possible.  I've commented on nobody's ROW80 posts for this week, but a lot of their regular blogs.  I'll take care of this tonight when I post however.
3. No more than twelve hours of video games per week.
     I haven't played anything this week at all.  I'm pretty proud of myself.
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 about four.  Much better than last week.  But I think I still can do a lot better than that.
5. Walking at least a mile five times a week.
     I've probably gotten to this honestly about three out of five days this week.  I'm kinda bummed about that.  Being so busy with various obligations has made it difficult to find the time.  But I'm hoping this upcoming week will be better.
6. Finding a new job in the upcoming month.
    This past weekend I had a conversation with an Amir Jackson, the Founder of a Nurture the Creative Mind and perhaps I might be able to work with his organization and bring some of my talents to helping the minds and talents of local youth grow.  And as recent as this afternoon I spoke with a woman at a local Junior High about being able to work in a program at their school to help them out.  So things may be looking up in terms of jobs.  I worry only because I need to find enough employment to support my wife and I.  I am ever hopeful though.

You might also notice that I recently changed the design of my blog slightly.  I am working on branding myself and I wanted colors that represented me as well as something I could have in my twitter profile also.  I chose the topic today, because part of who I am, is about being fair and just as best as I can see how.  I might be wrong, but part of taking a stand for what you believe in is taking the chance that you could be wrong.  And I would love to hear you tell me why I'm wrong, or why I'm right, or what you liked about this.  Please comment below and I'll make certain to get back to you as soon as I can.  I sincerely enjoy responding to everyone's comments.


Here's the links to other ROW80 blogs.  Hopefully you find interesting comments there too.  Happy reading!

The Versatile Blogger Award

I might have mentioned this before once or twice, but I'm a little new to the Blogosphere and so to get any sort of cool award for anything makes me happy.  I realize that it is more of a game and a means to get a person more involved in the Blogosphere I'm happy to be working with it. Asrai Devin-Mavin of Mischief gave me this award and I appreciate her kindness in sharing it with me.

The rules of the game are as follows: 

1. Thank the person who gave it to you
2. Include a link to their blog: Asrai Devin
3. Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you've recently discovered or follow regularly.
4. Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award
Here are several ROW80 bloggers, because most of them deserve this award: Here
And here are my nominees for Versatile blogger... who I know most have received this award before.
Piper Banard, Julie Glover, Amber Mae, Robin Oyeniyi, Rachel Peterson, and Natasha Guadalupe.  I'm new at this so I don't have a lot of people I follow as of yet.  Added to the list K.M. Weiland. 
5. Finally tell the person who nominated you seven things about yourself

List of Seven things about myself:
1- I am a Veteran.  Been to Iraq twice now.
2- I am studying English with an emphasis on Creative Writing in College.
3. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  You know that same one Mitt Romney belongs to.
4. I am an extrovert and I need social energy to fuel my writing.
5. Will Smith and Martin Luther King Junior are two of my role models.
6. I have talking hands (and am in need of a good ventriloquy teacher).
7. I am at work on my first novel called: Crimes of the Umbramancer.


Speaking of my novel my ROW80 Goals for this week:
1. Finishing a single scene of “Crimes of the Umbramancer” each day.
Almost caught up! Only a single scene to finish catching up today.
2. Comment on 10 different blogs in ROW80.
New week! New blogs to comment on!
3. Video games for only twelve hours for the week.
New week! Going to not play all week long. Have too much to get done this week (Okay I might play a little on Sunday before the Super Bowl.)
4. Bedtime between 11PM and Midnight to wake up at six or seven in the morning to take advantage of the early hours to get my writing all finished each day.
This goal went really well except for Sunday Morning. We'll be back on track on Monday Morning.
5. Walking at least a mile, five days a week.
I'm a scoutmaster and I wanted to help some of the boys who are a little less active reach for some goals. So I'm going to be doing a goal that gets me walking so I can keep him accountable cause I'm doing the same work I've asked of him. So far I walked Thursday, and I missed Friday and Saturday. I think I'll take a little walk Sunday morning!
6. Finding the perfect job within the next month.
Prospects are moving up. Hopefully will have a new job in the next two weeks!


Well if I nominated you, don't feel obligated to respond.  And as for if you want to know any more information about the above please feel free to leave it in the comments below.

Yesterday you said Tomorrow.

Late.  That is exactly what I am.  I’m late for my blogging this week.  I’m late on reaching my goals seeing as I am two days behind in my writing.  I’m late in finding work to be able to support my family.  I’m late in doing what I need to take care of my career in the military.  I’m getting to sleep late and getting to my part time job late. Everything boils down to this for me this week.  I am late.

And then I saw a nike sponsored quote that gave me a little bit of hope this week: Yesterday you said Tomorrow.  Now that might sound weird, because I really haven’t been keeping up with my goals to reach my dream, but it made me feel good because I realize I haven’t put off my dreams till tomorrow.  I am working on them today.

I have met too many people who are I would refer to as broken quills.  In the grand scheme of things they are not trying to live up to their potential, they stopped chasing after what they really want in life, or it just becomes too much work to chase what they really want.  Now these people entirely could still chase after their dreams, because they still have the ability just like a broken quill can still write, but they get caught up too much in their failings and how far they have drifted away from what they should be doing to make their life what they always wanted as a young adult.

Art and our dreams sometimes equates to sacrifice.  And that sacrifice sometimes hurts or scares us.  My sacrifices of late have been full time work and sleep.  If you didn’t know I recently came back from Iraq.  This completely scared me because I couldn’t jump back into school without having a semester that I would have failed.  I know my limits and immediately before and after a deployment my grades in school are terrible.  So to go back and receive my GI Bill would have not helped me in the long run, so I chose not to return to school as of yet.  However I still work up at school in my dream job.  I work for the Nontraditional Students Center as one of their Peer Advisors which means I help students who are coming to school with families figure out the crazy animal known as college.  It is tremendously fulfilling and I enjoy working with the students a great deal.  This job came with an opportunity to run a literary journal that is run by the center.  I love managing this literary journal because I’ve learned so much about writing, and become much more courageous in the things I’m willing to write and feel.  I don’t think I would be writing the story that I’m currently working on if I didn’t work there.

But here’s where the sacrifice comes in.  I need more hours at my work.  But they can’t afford to pay me more.  I’m capped out.  So I need to seek out a second job.  So far I’ve gotten a lot of rejections, which is par for the course for Americans.  However this is only because I’ve been trying to preserve the job that I currently possess.  If I went and looked for full time work I would be able to easily get a job and my life and the schedule I’m living on would stabilize immediately.  But I can’t give up a job that is helping me to get experience in my field of writing and also in the field of working with families.  I’m going to school to get a degree in working in both fields.  So do I give in or seek after my dream?

As for my writing I’ve been working on it so much that I’ve sacrificed sleep instead of organizing my days so that I can fit writing and my religious studies in at the beginning of my day.  And now I’ve just gotten to the point that I’m burning the candle at both ends and it requires that I change something because I can’t keep up this pace.  So tonight I called a family meeting and shared with everyone my concerns and set a reasonable bedtime for myself and now I’m going to be in bed between 11PM and Midnight.  This will enable me to get up early in the morning to get my writing done before everyone in my home is awake.  Mind you this is still a sacrifice because I personally am a night owl.  I function much better at night, but I need the quiet hours in our home to be able to accomplish the work that I love.

Folks become broken quills because they aren’t willing to make sacrifices to achieve the dreams they seek after.  But sometimes you have to do something to put food on the table and keep a roof overhead.   So we as people and artists are left with decisions that can possibly break our hearts and rend us at our heartstrings.  But that tells more about the caliber of people that we hope to be.  People who sacrifice achieve their dreams, and people who settle complain for a lifetime of missed opportunities.  This isn’t to say that either one is wrong, but to say as much as not providing for my family scares me I’m not ready yet to give up my dreams to support them.  I live by faith day to day, and I believe that I am where I am in my life right now because I’ve worked hard and through the providence of God.  So to support my family I have to stretch a bit further and seek out the right job more diligently this month.  To accomplish my writing I have to get up a lot earlier.  And to achieve my dreams I have to remember: Yesterday you said Tomorrow.

ROW80 Goals for this week:

1. Finishing a single scene of “Crimes of the Umbramancer” each day.
This week I've only finished a scene and a half. I still have Saturday and Sunday to catch up though so I am annoyed, but not unable.
2. Comment on 10 different blogs in ROW80.
I haven't been to any blogs this week. That will change tomorrow morning while I'm in my writing time! Visited ten blogs Friday Morning! And a few more Thursday night! Woo!
3. Video games for only twelve hours for the week.
I only played for nine hours this week. I am gaining better control and I don't intend on playing for a couple weeks at the moment. We'll see how this develops.
4. Bedtime between 11PM and Midnight to wake up at six or seven in the morning to take advantage of the early hours to get my writing all finished each day.
This goal will begin tomorrow morning and we'll see how it goes.
5. Walking at least a mile, five days a week.
 I'm a scoutmaster and I wanted to help some of the boys who are a little less active reach for some goals. So I'm going to be doing a goal that gets me walking so I can keep him accountable cause I'm doing the same work I've asked of him.
6. Finding the perfect job within the next month.
 This will be the journey I make to finding the work that will enable me to move into the next phase of my life. It will likely require some prayer and a lot of work, but I believe that there is a reason why I'm where I'm at right now. So we'll see what happens.

Please tell me about your dreams folks. Why you dream them and what you are willing to give up to achieve them? Or even why you didn't achieve your dreams. We all have some valuable experience to share with one another and I hope this blog is a place where you might find that. Happy dream hunting all! 

The Power of Promises

     So this morning I really don't want to get up.  I don't want to go home and return to my daily grind.  I'd love to just enjoy being with my wife's family for weeks more.  But none of us can afford that, so we return to our individual abodes full of memories.

    For me though that journey has one slight problem.  I'll have no internet along the way to update my goals and the past two days I haven't been able to really write anything because I've been so busy.  Thus that leaves me with a promise.  And because I have so much free time on the train headed home I figure it is worth going out big.  So here goes.  Between here and home I am going to actually write two full chapters for my story.

    I love promises, because there can be so much power in one.  One if I fulfill my promise to myself, I'll strengthen my ability to write, my trust in myself, and fulfill my goal obligations to ROW80.  All of these are important to me because I want to do the hard work to become fulfill what I was born to be.  An author.

     I read a post I didn't have time to comment on yesterday that stated we need to see ourselves as what we want to be, rather than state that we want to be there one day.  That makes me an author now.  That means that I do the hard work to write and finish novels like a professional today, not tomorrow.  That means I can make a promise to myself and my blogaudience to do something and I can trust myself.  It is kinda a large responsibility, but the point of such things is to become who we believe we are meant to be. I believe I am meant to be an author.  So really my promise has less to do with my writing this weekend and more to do with who I desire to be.

     By the time this posts I won't have internet for this weekend, so I hope that those of you who read my blog enjoy it.  I'm going to enjoy the opportunity to keep this promise to me, and establish myself further in the author that I've defined myself as being.