News Update

Writers from all over the Utah area and others that came in from out of state all congregated at the Sheraton Hotel and Convention Center in Salt Lake City this Weekend. I, of course, was among them. The conference itself has been a really fun event for me to look forward to for four or five years now.
Most exciting for me personally was the chance to pitch my manuscript to an agent this year. I've had to bust my tail to get the book finished in time for the conference, and I just managed. Getting the pitch ready was, well, nerve-racking. But, all that is done with now and I can kick back and relax, sort of.
The agent I pitched to requested a full manuscript! Now to touch it up and send it in. I'll be burning the midnight oil this week and getting it ready to send off. All other projects are going to be put on a back-burner and it's "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" on this book.
I do have a few other projects in mind for after that, but until then I have to focus. That deserves all of my attention for the moment, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Some Good News, Some Bad News

Ok, first the good news. I just found out that I am going to be a dad again. I can't even begin describe how excited I am about this announcement. This will be child number two and I couldn't be happier.
Lucky for me, the good news far outweighs the bad. I got an email from the editors of the Monsters and Mormons project telling me that they decided not to take my story that I submitted to them. Oh well. Worse things have happened, I think I'm going to be ok here. On the bright side, they did send me an email and included specifics as to why they opted not to publish my piece, and that was very helpful. So, not all bad.
I'm still working on the second draft of Dead in the Water. It's coming along well, and I think that I've got the problems I was having with the ending just about fixed. More to come on this project as I complete it.

As for what I'm reading and watching, here goes: I am about halfway through Monster Hunter International. I'm surprised about how much I'm enjoying this book. It's basically what the title says, it's about a bunch people who train an insane amount with an insane arsenal of weaponry, all in order to go hunting monsters for an insane amount of money.

To be honest, I haven't had as much fun reading a book like this except for the Dresden Files. It's not really on the same level, at least not from a literary standpoint, but then, that's not really the point. What it is is a good, entertaining read that will be good for anyone who enjoys B-horror films like I do.
I'm cruising through the seasons of Dexter, entering season three tonight. Good show, overall, but the mature content almost kills it and in some episodes, does. No, believe it or not, I'm not referring to violence and gore, despite the show being about a serial killer who kills killers. No, the mature content I'm referring to is the bizarre sexual content that the show flaunts unnecessarily. The overall story is good, but if anything it has made me realize what a great job Dan Wells did with his John Cleaver series. In it he tackled essentially the same topics, and put them together in a way that creeps you out way more than Dexter does, while at the same time steering clear of the more mature content.

I'm also looking forward to reading Brandon Mull's new book, Beyonders: A World Without Heroes. Fablehaven was such a good series that I have high hopes for this one.
Well, that's all for now. Time to get back to work on the book.

Taking Your Craft Seriously

I spent a busy day today cleaning my house and getting ready for the coming week. I used that time to get caught up on my favorite podcast, Writing Excuses. If you're not familiar with this cast, I strongly recommend that you look it up, particularly if you, like me, are endeavoring to become a published author. Even if your interests don't lie in that direction, these guys are seriously funny to listen to.
One of the episodes that I caught up on today was about authors taking their job seriously. Kevin J. Anderson was a guest on the show, and I tell you what, that man works hard at being a writer.
And that's coming from me. Someone who logs 60-80 hours per week at the restaurant I work at.
And I think he works hard. That should tell you something.
Anyway, it hit me. Writing is what I want to do. But have I really acted as though it were as important as I purported it to be?
It got me thinking. I work a lot. I have a lot of reasons to justify not getting my writing done. After 13+ hours on my feet it's easy to just kick back and watch TV when I get home. It's even easy to say that I really am working on my writing, because there are some very good movies and shows that I can learn a lot from as a writer.
And maybe if I listen to audio books while I sleep I will learn through osmosis.
Yeah, so I realized that I'm fairly easily distracted. One of the traps that I fall into is that when I think of getting to work writing I imagine that I need at least a couple of hours of uninterrupted time to really dig in. So if everything is not perfect, it's all too easy for me just to blow it off and wait for another time when conditions will be better.
The problem is, of course, that conditions are rarely if ever better.
So, asking myself, how seriously do I take my craft? I thought that I was taking it seriously, but when I've gone back over the past weeks and mapped how many hours I actually spent writing I saw that the answer wasn't what I wanted it to be.
However, I still want to take it seriously. So now the hard part. Putting my money where my mouth is. I can give myself incentives and set goals all that I want, but without results it doesn't mean a thing.
That doesn't mean that I can't still have fun with it. I mean, that's the beauty of it all. It's work, true, but it's work that I love doing.
So, that's it. I've got work to do. Best be getting to it. Meanwhile, here's a picture I drew last night.

Sorry, that was random, but I had to work him in here somewhere. Now, time for sleep.

Just A Couple Of Things That Made Me Smile....

There were a couple of things I saw this morning that made me smile so here they are. The first is a picture I came across while surfing the web:


The print is a little hard to read. It says:
Harry Potter: I am the greatest wizard in the whole world!
Harry Dresden: Whatever, kid.
HP: Shall we duel?
HD: Your funeral, kid.
HP: Todificus!
HP: It didn't work!
HD: My turn kid!
HD: Eat Hellfire!

Sorry, not to knock Harry Potter, I loved the books, but Dresden is my main man. This was shooting the milk from my cheerios out my nose over breakfast funny.
The other thing I saw was a t-shirt. It said, simply: "Screw Team Edward Cullen. Go Team Thomas Wraith."
Again, another reference to the Dresden Files that you probably won't understand unless you've read the series. But then, if you haven't read the series, then what are you doing here? Shame on you. Go and read it now.
And now, I'm off to work for the day.

Hammer Down

All right. I admit it. The past two weeks have been less than productive, and this coming off of the holiday season during which my effort has been sub-par at best.
But all of that is about to change.

I have a project that I'm working on called Dead in the Water. I've been working on it off and on for over a year. At one point the project was, pardon the pun, dead in the water.
Since then, I pulled out my notes and took another stab at it during nanowrimo. I fixed a lot of the things that were bothering me about it and really got excited about it. I finished the first draft for nano and now I'm working on the rewrite.
The problem is that I wrote it very fast during nano, and to be able to do so, I had to leave out several characters and their subplots. I'm now going through the process of putting them in, making sure that I have a consistency throughout, and all the while correcting any oversights that I find along the way.
I've been poking at this, but to be honest, it's time to just get this project over with. I have ideas for several new projects that I'd like to work on, and I'm really bothered that this one isn't done yet.
I have all I need in place. Time to just do it.
So over the next couple of weeks I'll be doing just that. It will be a mini nanowrimo for me, except that when I'm done I'll have the second draft of my book ready to send out to beta readers and there will be much rejoicing. Until then, however, it will be late nights and guarana capsules and Pepsi. I've procrastinated long enough. Time to finish.
Wish me luck, and if anybody would like to volunteer to read the manuscript for me and tell me what they think, email me at portertrepanier@hotmail.com. The goal is to be done by Superbowl Sunday.
Not wanting to leave you on such a serious and melodramatic note, here's something to laugh at today:

We all know that January is the month to set goals in the area of physical excellence. February is the month to break them. No, just kidding, but if you are trying to get in shape this year, I hope you have better success than these people. I just started a running routine, and it's helped me get a handle on my schedule. A lot.
Just forcing myself to be disciplined for running is forcing me to become more structured in other areas of my life, too. And it feels great.
So, again, wish me luck. Thanks for following my blog and I hope to have good news the next time I post. Until then, Adeu!

10 Movies That Made me Want to be an Author

I've wanted to be a writer for a long time. In elementary school I wrote stories for fun. I loved the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine and the Hardy Boys. Subsequently, I wrote a couple of cheap knock-offs of those series, so carried away was I with my infatuation with them.
Since then, I've come a long way, and, thankfully, I no longer am limited to writing Goosebumps fanfic. I'm working on my second book, and have half a dozen respectable short stories that I'm working on getting published.
Through the years, I've maintained a strong love for the written word. But one of the things that has continued to excite me about writing fiction is seeing on the silver screen. The following is the list of my top ten movies that made me want to either become a writer or continue working hard to become one.

• Casablanca This is probably my favorite movie, tops. It's a timeless classic, with plenty of romance, intrigue, and action. True, it's not something that would thrill special-effects fanatics today, but the writing, the story, is awesome.
• Gone With The Wind I first saw this movie when I was about 5 years old. I love the way it is written, for the clever way it tells the audience about an entire time period and what it was like, all the while telling a great story. History is fun, at least for me, as is fiction. Combine them effectively and you've got cinematic and literary gold.
• Million-Dollar Baby I saw this movie shortly after getting home off of my mission for the LDS church. It literally knocked my socks off. This was probably the first time I got really excited about writing, at least as far as thinking of it as a career.
• Gran Torino Between this and Million-Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood really outdid himself. I loved the themes that were prevalent throughout this show, and the ending, much like the one in Million-Dollar Baby, was fantastic.
• Secret Window From the King of Creepy comes this story about an author accused of plagiarism. When he is hounded by this stranger, things quickly get out of control. Johnny Depp did a great job, but again, the reason I'm including it is because the story is written really well.
• Pirates of the Caribbean The whole franchise. Do I really have to explain why this movie made me want to write awesome fiction?
• The Hunt for Red October Classic cold-war suspense involving awesome submarine technology and Scottish and Russian accents. Regardless the story is really good and one that helped shape me as an author.
• Alien vs Predator Hey, this is my list, not AMC's, so I'll put this one on it if I want. And just the first one, not the load of tripe that they put out in the second one. The first movie did a great job of combining two of my favorite franchises while at the same time making a great story out of it. Score one for fanfic, I guess.
• Misery Another one from Stephen King, this one is a good story, though, based on the content, I'm not sure that it made me want to be a published author. Ever. But it's a good story and one of my favorites nonetheless.
• The Shawshank Redemption I know that King's work is more than amply covered already, but that is not a bias, more a tribute to just how good his work is. And one of the crowning achievements that made it to film was The Shawshank Redemption. Strong story, good characters, and compelling themes throughout. Also, if you've seen the movie and enjoyed as much as I did, you might like this following little clip:

Anyway, these are some of the films that helped shape me as an author. What about you? What are some movies that you feel have influenced your writing positively?

Birthday Shout-Out

On this day in 1892 J.R.R. Tolkien was born. Ironically, the Father of the Fantasy Genre's birthday comes just one day after Isaac Asimov, who if not the Father of Sci-Fi, at least his work has been key to the development of that genre.

Anyway, I've enjoyed both of these authors for years. They're classics in their own right. I just wanted to take a chance and thank both of these men for there contributions to the world of fiction. Happy Birthday.