Let's Start Blogging

Heh. Let's start blogging!

It seems that I haven't posted a blog in a few months - since early October, I guess - and I was trying to figure out why. I guess the biggest reason is Twitter. Most of what I've been doing - which hasn't been a lot, I admit - I've posted over on Twitter - http://twitter.com/ScottFalkner

There's also been a lot of nonwriting things happening in my life - which didn't seem to make sense to post on TDC, but there have also been a lot of pertinent things going on, which I just didn't get around to posting on TDC.

At any rate, I apologize for my absence here, and will do my best to get back on track.

To that end, what's going on?

Writing-wise, I'm working on the third and final Delving book, "Delving: Culminations." As some of you may remember, I wrote the book last year but wasn't thrilled with the result. Deadlines and personal obstacles (moving) interfered to result in a book that I felt wasn't up to snuff, so to speak. That said, I fully intended to revise it and bring it up to the high standard set in place by the first two books, when my computer crashed. Guess what? You really, really, really should back up your files. Especially when you've got a couple of novels on your hard drive. Anyway, the crying and moping is done over those lost stories, and we move on. So. I'm writing the third volume of Delving which will be available from Stone Garden Books in 2010. If you haven't checked out the first two books, "Delving: Obligations" and "Delving: Assassins" - I strongly suggest you ask for them for Christmas as they would make wonderful holiday reads. Find out where to get them online at http://www.scottfalkner.com/ or ask for them at your favorite independent book store.

Speaking of http://www.scottfalkner.com/, Ren and I have been bouncing around ideas for a site redo to kick off the new year with. We're thinking something simpler and sleeker. Something that won't require you to dig for info on what you want to know about. I've really liked the design we've had for the last three or four years, but I think something more relavent to the style of stories I've been writing would be good.

What else?

Ah, here's something. Last month my wife and I were able to go over to St. Paul to see Stephen King at the Fitzgerald Theater. He was interviewed for the Minnesota Public Radio series, "Talking Volumes."

Wow.

What an experience. With a humor and wisdom you'd expect, he spoke about writing, (duh) focusing primarily on "Under the Dome," his latest opus. My wife and I scored second row seats, so we were up close for the entire show, (THANKS HELLNOTES - http://www.hellnotes.com/ - for the heads-up on the appearance). I decided to play the part of "Fan" instead of "Author" for the event, and smiled ear to ear as one of the best writers of our age answered questions a mere twenty feet away. I was even enough of a fanboy to yell out "Thank you, Steven!" as he was walking off stage after the event, and Mr. King looked right at me, pointed, and smiled. To top it off, I won a theater lottery to get one of 200 signed copies of "Under the Dome." Bonus!

Fanboy? Maybe Fangirl is more like it. Who cares? I had a BLAST. Thanks Steven for coming to the Midwest.

You can find youtube video of practically the entire event. Here's an addy to get you started: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agGuYCmJIIw&videos=2X-NNkmhpl4&playnext_from=TL&playnext=1

All right, I think that's about it. I've been writing and reading lots, (especially enjoyed the aforementioned "Under the Dome," Tim Lebbon's "Bar None," - if you like beer and you like fantasy then you simply MUST read "Bar None" - and I'm currently LOVING "Journal of the Gun Years" by Richard Matheson. But, as always, there's always much, much more to read and write.

To that end...

Crash and Burn

Just realized that I haven't posted in the cave in well over a month, and to be frank, I'm not that surprised. Something's been happening over the last several weeks, the least of which is that my hard drive completely crashed and I lost an awful lot of stories, one novella, and two half-finished novels. We also lost some pictures of the kids (which was the largest tragedy) and some other miscellaneous data. (As an aside, before you all gang up to tell me what to do to recover the lost info, let me say "thanks" and "we've already tried that." Of the six recovery procedures/programs I tried, none worked.) At any rate, the computer is up and running again.

What's odd is that when I reinstalled XP and started mounting programs back into the system, I was a bit relieved at how... "blank" it all was. It was a clean slate. It was... new, for lack of a better word, and it seemed like something that had needed to be done. I'm a big believer in the universe pointing you in the direction that you need to go if you're only smart enough to listen, and perhaps the crash was something that needed to happen.

A lack of a computer for several days, however, wasn't the reason that I hadn't posted a blog in over a month, however. Life gets in the way, and all that is an easy excuse, but to tell you the truth, I'm not in the mood for excuses. As much as I'd like to keep you all updated on what I'm doing and what I'm about to be doing, "doing it" has to take precedence, and that's what I've been "doing" - if that makes sense.

But, I know you folks dig it when I tell you what's what, so here's a condensed version:

The sunflowers on the garage aren't finished, but they're a hell of a lot farther along than the last picture I posted on the blog. When I have TIME, I will post new pictures.

I've been enjoying building Blair Witch Totems with the kids that we are hanging all over the house and in the trees outside for Halloween.

My wife and I celebrate ten years of marriage next week. Hoo-rah! (I can't believe she's put up with me for so long!)

I get to see Metallica for the 16th time in a little over a week. Hoo-rah!

I'm going to be in Minneapolis in November to see a lecture with Stephen King and Audrey Niffenegger. Hoo-rah!

Since all of my work on the computer was wiped out (no jokes and/or admonishments about not backing up my work!) and "Delving: Culminations" was completely wiped out - I will now be working on that novel full time.

And that's about it. I'd like to get some more promotional things going on the website, and maybe do something special for the mailing list members over Halloween, but a lot of that has to do with Ren and his timeline. Finally, I feel free enough to let him deal with all the online hoopla and keep myself to the writing and the artwork.

So that's the way it goes! I hope you're all doing well, Troops, and we'll talk soon.

Mural Day Six

Finding more time to do the mural lately - this picture is actually from last week. More in progress pictures to come.

Mural Day Five

Was able to get some "edging" done today. After that, I'll do some detail in the sunflowers themselves, and then start on the cancerous flora at their feet in earnest.

Will be leaving tomorrow for Madison, so I don't know if I'll get much done on the mural, but will post if I do.

Mural Day Four

I took two days off because I had a bunch of other stuff going on - writing deadlines, child care, school shopping trip - so I was finally able to do a bit of work today. Some of the "filler" crap is starting to take shape...

Mural Day Three

Yeah, it's looking a bit like the wall of a pre-school, but I promise it'll get better...

Mural Day Two

Time got away from me yesterday and I didn't have a lot of time to work on the mural. Looks like rain today, and that's not so good - but I'm going to try and get "other" stuff done this morning so perhaps I can attack the wall more this after.

Mural Day One

Recently I noticed that our storage garage was looking rather... well, too garage-y. In order to spruce it up, I thought I'd take advantage of the long summer days and paint a mural on it.

Here's the progress after Day One. I'll post pics as I go so that you can see how I'm doing.