Writer's Whirled

In Spring of 1998, I began writing 'The Great American SciFi Novel'.

In early January 2007, almost 9 years later, I finished.

Not that I was writing for 9 years constantly, mind you. Heavens no. I mean, the first novel does go on a bit (clocking in currently at 350 + pages) but if I'd been writing for 9 years solid... well, my fingers would probably have fallen off. You'd be talking about some serious long-term damage to your joints and tendons.

No, apparently I just have this tendency to get distracted. If life were a video game and I was an enemy and you were looking at my 'Weaknesses' column in a strategy guide, it might read something like this: Bright shiny objects, loud noises, video games, new fads, side projects, world politics, quantum physics, prime-time television, cats, existential angst, and bright shiny objects.

So, following the completion of the first draft of the first book and the realization that I may just do this again and again, my literary agent has suggested that I attempt to document the process in some permanent and fan-base-generating manner. To this end, I am crafting this wonderful blog to describe, often in painful detail, the adventures I experience in-and-out of my fantasy worlds, and the journey my novels are taking from point a (a bad idea which appeals to me and lives inside my head) to point b (a bad idea which suddenly appeals to everyone else and lives in a word processing document).

Contained within, henceforth and forthwith, I promise to badger my reading audience ample doses of trivia and personal opinions on software, hardware, writing styles, spell checkers, why I'm right and the spell-checker is wrong, and how I can't learn to stop worrying and love the bomb. Sprinkled across this landscape will be wry social commentary, the occasional cheap shot at pop culture, the occasional expensive shot at pop culture, wit, wisdom, and puns.

Oh, yes, there will be puns.

Welcome to Writer's Whirled.