Monday, October 30, 2006

I've started a novel set in Halifax: The Wyvern Street Irregulars

Woo Hoo! I have started a novel set in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

I didn't think I get started on one so soon, but it is coming together okay so far.

So far I have gone with a description-sparse style. The less descriptive detail the less there is for Hollywood to get wrong, right? ;) Thats as good an excuse as any, maybe? ;)

The genre is pretty standard "good witches and/or occultists versus nasty something(s)". As I read over the first chapter it sure seems pretty standard for the genre to me anyway, and I tell myself I have read quite a few examples of that genre. Possibly the biggest difference is that none of the characters have showed off any British Royalty titles yet, or even Knighthoods. ;) :)

Aaaaanyway, enough said. Go read the at least the first chapter at least. The working title is The Wyvern Street Irregulars.

-MarkM-

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Looking for work...

I attended some Halloween festivities of course: Samhain with the Unitarian/Universalist Sixth Source folk, Friendship Circle's Masquerade, and the Witches Ball.

I did manage a brief chat about a local publisher that specialises in novels set in Halifax. First step with them, apparently, would be to put together some sample chapters and an outline. I do not have already figured out in my mind any particular theme, let alone specific story, to base here. So while I think long and hard about what the heck kind of a novel I would base here, and whether it might be better to just go ahead and write some novel or other that does not happen to be based here, I have started yet another job search.

I have now spent literally years researching the concept of Making Money, with the result that I now have a much deeper and wider understanding of the whole concept of jobs. I can really see why so many people prefer simply working for others to trying to run a business themselves. When I say though that I am looking for work I am not closed to the idea of working in a "self employed" capacity. I am, after all, still Digitalis Data Services (25+ years in business! ;)) That is why the title of this post says looking for work instead of saying looking for a job. But being self-employed is a long way from "running a business". There is a limit to how much one person can do. For example trying to single-handedly run what would amount to a web-publishing business seems a little much for me to do alone. Any kind of business I tried to set up would be more than what i could handle alone. So I am back to looking for work I can do in a "self employed" capacity or even an actual "job". Whatever. I want to get back out to my country house, and to do that properly I really ought to get a vehicle. Vehicles are expensive. I simply have not been making enough money lately to afford one. If you check out my Make Money Knotwork site you will see that I have put a lot of research into the whole concept of Making Money. As I already mentioned, I have put years into that research. In particular I know a huge amount about making money on the web. I paid for my country house, cash down in full, no mortgage, all with money I made on the web. But that was years ago. Things happened, maybe you might have heard of "the dot-com bust". Since then I have been researching to find out what, if anything, I would apply capital toward next time I make capital investments. But meanwhile I have run out of capital, unless I sell the country-house, which I very much do NOT want to do. So I now have much knowledge but I do not have the capital myself to apply much of what I have learned. Thus the search for work. While still thinking of writing projects too, of course. :)

-MarkM- Proprietor, Digitalis Data Services (More than 25 years in business!)

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Interfacing with the dream world

I forgot to mention in my previous post that I seem to have been interfacing with my dreams a lot the last several months, maybe even the last year or few. I have been noticing it more the last few months as I keep seeming to wake up with memories of thoughts that seem to relate to some overarching theme that has apparently been concerning me, at least in the dreamworld, for quite some time.

A lot of it seems to have to do with language. Of course a lot of it seems clear as I awake then fades rapidly as I focus on the waking world, so I am not sure how clear it really is or was, but there seems to be quite a bit of consistency over time. That is what gives the impression that my sleeping mind is working on something. It seems to be coming back to much the same kind of stuff day after day, week after week, month after month. I have the impression that it is getting somewhere with it, not merely going round in circles.

I think it is partly because writing has been on my mind a lot. I want to write something that is worth writing, and much of the kinds of stuff I would like to write about is difficult to formulate clearly (if at all). I have been studying and practicing magick and mysticism most of my life and maybe it is getting toward time for all of that study to come together into something.

-MarkM-

Friday, October 27, 2006

Taking up Writing

Wow, it has been a long time since I have written to this blog. Sorry about that. I have had a lot of thinking and re-thinking to do. My career on the web started from a system administration and programming angle, but over the years the web has become more and more clearly a publishing medium and it has become more and more clear to me that trying to be a one-person publishing-company is sure to be a case of biting off more than I can chew.

Accordingly I have been thinking more and more about the writing - the authoring - part of it. For years now I have followed with interest various groups who have been taking a web-business approach, which has more and more become a matter of promoting and advertising. I have watched that with interest but truly my heart has never really been in the promoting/advertising side of things. So lately I have been thinking long and hard about sheer writing.

For a long time now i have ad the opportunity to write articles about almost anything I wished to, purely to make some money. I have not gone into that though because to me it has seemed to much like a kind of web-spam. Simply churning out "copy" does nto appeal to me. Sure there might be a bit of money in it but is it really so different from having a script churn out "copy" to attract search engines?

I recently discovered that some people whom I know here in Halifax are into writing and publishing. Real books, even poetry. Later today I hope to be seeing them and will inquire a little into that world. I am actually excited about the idea of getting back into writing, I have written before but not really for publication yet. One of the things I plan to do is review some of my earlier works and map out some options of what exactly to write about. i actually have an entire roleplaying world, D'ydii, with years and years of week by week calendars of the activities of various players' characters, and a whole world of maps. Most of that material is out at my country house in Sheet Harbour, but that jut gives me yet another incentive to get back in touch with that too-long neglected residence.
I hope to start putting together some web-pages about D'ydii soon, if only to get some of what I remember about its various nations and famous people written down. Although the material out at the country house would help a lot with that as I have a lot of written material about it out there.

I have been back into the Kingdoms mult-user text-mode roleplaying game ("Multi User Dungeon") quite a lot lately too, developing a few different characters exploring some of the "professions" they offer. In fact I have been spending too much time at that.

I have also recently read Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon" and "Quicksilver", which my father sent me. They are huge books but have been a good read. "Quicksilver" is just the first book of a trilogy, wow, huge. I shudder to think how much sheer writing goes into a project like that, let alone the research involved! I do not aspire to writing anything on the scale of those! The publishing folk that I hope to talk to like books based right here in Halifax so I have actually been toying with the idea of writing about a kind of local school of magic. Yes, I know, it is kind of an obvious attempt to capitalise on the popularity of the Harry Potter books. Another option of course is to finally get around to completing my most popular unfinished work, "The Faery Queen's Knickers"...

-MarkM-