NaNo Results

Okay, it’s been over a month since I’ve posted (I swear, I’ll eventually start posting regularly again), and now it’s past November, so it’s time to look at how well I did cramming a novel into the month of November.

My final word count, as of December 1st, 12:01 AM, was…

6719. Sounds like a shit year, right? Well, that’s because it is. I could make excuses, but the fact remains that a whole lot of people that were a whole lot busier than me finished theirs, so I have no excuse. There’s always next year, I suppose. I think I’m going to start prepping for next year a whole lot sooner to add to my chances of success. Until then, I’ve got my other writing projects, including THREE writing courses next semester. The most I’ve ever had at once was one per semester…needless to say, this will be interesting.

Here in a few days, I’ll probably post the unfinished novel (though I may cut some of it out; it got rather racey at one point ^^; ), but until then, I’m out.

Rise from your Grave!

Okay, so it’s been over three months since I’ve posted here. Marvelous job I’ve been doing about keeping up with a blog that’s supposed to be something like an online portfolio, eh? However, I’ve decided not to delete everything and start fresh. That would be inherently dishonest (and also stupid for deleting that which I have not saved). Instead, I shall simply press on with my renewed desire to keep this damn thing up to date.

As my first post in a long time, and a post on a writer’s blog with All Saint’s Day looming just over the horizon, obviously I have to make a post about National Novel Writing Month. If you don’t know what this is, go Here and all your questions will be answered by the header. Basically, a whole lot of crazy people get together online, offline, and everywhere in-between to write 50,000 words of prose (or not, but it’s supposed to be prose) in 30 days. You start at 12:00 AM on November 1st, and you have until 11:59 on November 30th in whatever timezone you live to finish.

Some people consider this to be an outrageously unreasonable goal. Others write not just 50k, not just 100k, but 1000k (or, to put it a less stupid way, a million). A million words in 30 days. That’s an average of 33,333.33333333333… words per DAY. That’s six times as many words as I’ve managed for NaNo in my entire attempts the past two years. Me, I think I’m going to stick to the 50k goal, given my schoolwork and other writing endeavors. However, I’ll have to make a note to think about Script Frenzy this spring (especially since I’m taking Screenwriting next semester).

Anyway, because this is a writing blog and because I feel bad about the supreme lack of content lately, I leave you now with a couplet poem I wrote for my Intro to Poetry class this semester. Enjoy!

Fate and Kate Plus Eight

Of Gosselin, famous father dear,
You left paternal instincts here.
But where you lack a father’s sense,
No other form takes residence.
Your wife took care of eight plus you
For years before she found you through.
On top of all you had to be
To meet the needs of TLC,
You flaunted what they’d given you
And proved unable to stay true.
They paid you gobs and gobs of cash
To film you taking out the trash,
When it was them that should have seen
The profit dumping you would glean.
They realized in the nick of time,
How best to shift your paradigm.
There won’t be long before you’re done
With your fifteen beneath the sun,
And though you’ll flee from shame long past,
The memory’s taint will always last.
Now seek to sate your avarice,
But you’ll find naught but prejudice,
For all of us will see your fate
And side with trust, and Kate plus eight.

Townies 2

NOTE: This is a continuation of my first fiction post, “Townies,” which means you get more hormonal teenagers in this scene. Note that I’m going to start posting shorter chunks at a time, and that’s for several reasons. The main one is that people have shorter attention spans online (not an insult, just a fact), with “reading computer screens hurts your eyes more” and “it’s a less daunting task for me to write” following closely behind.

If you do not like allusions to sex or mental discussions of what horny teenagers see as sexy, do not read this. Also, I’m going to warn you now, things will get more explicit as we go. Don’t forget that this is a romance, and if the characters are going to break down and bump uglies, it’s because it’s an important part of the story, and I’m not going to skip it. You just have to trust me. For those that don’t like that, that’s why I’ve got this warning, and the actual story behind a cut.

Okay, enough bold text. Everyone that’s still here wants to read part two of “Townies,” so away we go!

Before you go, though, for those that have forgotten the premise and opening post (be warned, it’s a long’un), here’s the post with the first part: http://kajifireson.wordpress.com/2009/06/14/first-piece/

Okay, NOW you can go.

Inactivity 3, with bonus scene!

So I haven’t posted anything in a while…I suppose I should explain why. After all, I showed such promise, updating frequently, posting nearly 5000 words of fiction for everyone to enjoy…and then nothing.

First of all, this past Monday, I began work at a call center. I have no idea whether or not I’m allowed to say which one or who they call for, not being at all familiar with the legal issues involved, but I will say that it is a cold-calling center that raises funds and awareness for several charities, one of which grants wishes for terminally ill children. (Note that it is NOT the Make a Wish Foundation, though that still doesn’t give away which I call for, since apparently, there are hordes of these charities in existence.) I’ve been hit-or-miss with my numbers, but I won’t bore you with my stats.

Second of all, a lot of my energy goes into something called e-wrestling, and I’m probably going to need to do a post devoted to this game/sport all by its lonesome. Trying to explain the intricacies of this game is like trying to walk someone through brain surgery. What I can tell you for sure is that it involves creating a character that is a professional wrestler, signing him up to an e-fed that emulates or imitates the function of a “real” wrestling federation, and trying to win matches by writing better roleplays than your opponent.

As I said, a lot of my energy for writing goes into this, but I’ve been struggling as of late, which has demoralized me as far as e-wrestling goes. I’m still a writer, through and through, but I’ve begun to wonder lately whether it’s time to step back from competing and stick either to writing matches for those that still do, or pouring all of my energy into writing “traditional” fiction and charging forward to attempt a professional writing career. I am open for feedback, regardless of whether it is from those that are e-wrestling savvy (lookin’ at you, Hollywood) or those that aren’t, such as Girl of Words (unless, of course, she’s gotten a crash course from said  Hollywood).

As for stories themselves, I feel guilty for not providing you guys with any reading material lately, but I don’t have anything new to post. What I will do instead is post a fight scene I wrote a long time ago (read: four years), and in the next few days, I’ll write a new one with similar (but not identical) characters to see how far I’ve come. It’ll be an interesting thing for me to see, and hopefully, it’ll be interesting for you to read.

DISCLAIMER: The following piece of fiction contains a character I created myself fighting one created by someone else. The person that eventually wins this fight was created by a man by the name of Alan Solivan, known better to the internet as Mr. OMA. Yes, that means this is fan fiction; remember, four years ago, I was still in high school. Besides, not all fan fiction is bad. It can certainly be well-written, and hopefully this counts.

Also, in case you don’t like it…beware! Gratuitous energy attacks ahead!

END DISCLAIMER

Finally, before the scene, I want to link people to everyone I mentioned in this blog, ’cause they’re all worth reading.

http://www.girlofwords.com

http://tylerhollywood.wordpress.com/

http://bignasty4life.deviantart.com (Also, http://www.fetchquest.com but he isn’t the writer; just the artist)

Now then, on with the show!

Inactivity 2, or How I Nearly Fell into a Trap

No fiction today, either; just real life.

First, the money issue is more or less resolved. We’re not out of hot water yet, but it’s gotten significantly more lukewarm than it was before. For one, I got a credit card that bailed us out of a pinch, and I’m also going to start work on Monday. That said, if you want to help, you’re welcome to donate to my PayPal account (KajiFireson@gmail.com) or buy a commission for a story or other such piece. </shameless promotion>

Second, a story of real life drama. While I was looking around for work, one of the listings on Craigslist was for a secret shopper, and since I’m in a fairly large city, I didn’t really think anything of it. Even after I got an e-mail back that was in all bold text and written in srange diction, I still didn’t have any alarms going off in my head. (Mainly because my typical diction isn’t exactly ordinary.) However, when I got a package in the mail that had two money orders made out for WAY more money than I should have gotten for my job, and my e-mail instructions included “send the excess to Ghana,” I knew it was a scam. Sadly, I had to shred up what would have been a generous sum if it hadn’t been counterfeit.

Ugh…so that’s my day yesterday. I’ll try to write something this weekend before I go into work on Monday. Until then…

Inactivity

I haven’t posted anything in a few days, and I’m sorry for that. My goal is to try to post a short work of fiction at least twice a week, but preferably once every other day. I’ve not been very active in writing lately. I won’t go into too much detail about it, but suffice to say that the economy is kicking my ass, and I’ve been preoccupied with money issues and left with little to no motivation to write.

I won’t lie to you guys; I intend to eventually start asking people who like my work to donate to my PayPal account to keep a starving artist alive. However, I don’t expect people to accurately judge whether they like me based on one measly story (especially when it’s not a complete story), and I also don’t expect them to donate out of the goodness of their hearts expecting nothing in return. I am tossing around a couple of ideas for donation incentives right now; as I mentioned on Jacque Jo’s website, http://www.girlofwords.com (you can also find her in my blogroll), I could do short little extras about a certain character we all love to hate over there. I could also write custom-made poems or flash fiction pieces for each donation. I could offer them a cameo in a future work if they donate above a certain threshold if they so choose.

There are myriad ways that I could go, and if anyone has suggestions that I didn’t already cover, please feel free to post a comment and suggest it. With any luck, I should have something written by this weekend. If not, I’ll pop in and possibly lecture explore the genre of “e-wrestling” with everyone that doesn’t know what that is.

First piece

Alrighty, my first post that has some fiction in it. This is probably going to be the first in a series of posts. I hesitate to call this a short story, because this is only part of an idea that my fiancee suggested to me. However, I hope you will enjoy it nonetheless. It’s tentative title is “Townies,” but as I progress through the rest of the idea, I might come up with a better, all-encompassing title.

NOTE: There is no sex, but there is plenty of hormonal, teenage lust and sexual tension near the end. I don’t think that’s too bad, but be warned; there will be plenty of dirty thoughts in the next segment of this story resulting from information disclosed in this one, and some might even occur in the reader, so if descriptions of attractive, hormonal high school seniors is enough to offend you, do not read any further.

EDIT: This post was MASSIVE before, so I’m going to edit it. Now, whenever I post stories or segments, I’m going to insert a cut and put the story after the cut. This can also give peoplethat might not care for more mature themes a chance to turn back, and it’l l make me more comfortable with leaning just a bit further towards the graphic side. I don’t want to make this into a porno blog, but I also don’t want to shy away from sexual themes when the situation calls for them.

END EDIT

Without further ado, the first segment of “Townies.”

Update Post

Hi. This is just a post to say that I am still alive. I’m currently juggling my time between a promo (I’d have to devote a whole post to explaining that genre of writing, and I probably will at some point, but not right now) and what I want to use as the first story for the blog. I hope to have both done sometime today, or very early tomorrow, so sit tight, and don’t worry about me; I’m still alive.

Introductory Post

Hello WordPress. My name is Jacob Rowe, and I’m a creative writer studying at the Univeristy of Evansville, and the purpose of this blog is simple: I’m going to share my writing with the world. I am a writer that is a fan of several genres of writing and literature; medieval fiction, of both the historical and high fantasy varieties; professional wrestling, both in the ring and behind the scenes; action-adventure; romance; and some combination thereof are all genres that I can dip into and probably will throughout the course of this blog’s life time. If you like any of those, you will probably enjoy my work, and if you don’t, you’re welcome to suggest something else for me to try my hand at, as I am certainly not against broadening my horizons as an author. I already have a few things in mind for short stories, and I also have plans to post excerpts and/or chapters of a novel I have in mind, but if you have any ideas, feel free to comment on this post or e-mail me at KajiFireson@gmail.com.

EDIT: For some, it would be obvious from the listing of “professional wrestling” and “romance” in my list of genres, but I want to point out that some of the works posted here will contain material that could be considered mature. Any and all such stories or posts will be clearly labeled as such and have a warning before the actual writing to keep younger readers from reading things that might not be for them. I’ll be trying not to be overtly pornographic or gratuitously violent, but there will be allusions to sex in some stories, and there will be violence in some stories. Once more, any post with the potential to offend will be clearly labeled and tagged to prevent people who don’t want to read that from reading it.