The Writings and Musings of B.A. Matthews

Merry X-Mas and Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays Everyone.  I’m certain with the holidays approaching all of you are just as busy as I am.  Still, I had to take my time to say hello to all of you out there in between all the holiday hustle and bustle.  I know most of you celebrate Christmas and that you’ve yet to have your holiday so I’ll send out a ‘Merry Christmas’ to all of you first.  As for myself, I’m Pagan and so I am also going to have to wish everyone out there a Blessed Yule.  And this year definitely was a blessed Yule.  The morning of the Winter Solstice we had an event happen that hasn’t happened in the last 496 years.  Our Winter Solstice was accompanied on high by a once in the last 5 centuries event… a full Lunar Eclipse.  This is one of the few solar events so rare that there aren’t any myths of it happening… at least certainly not of it happening on the day of Solstice.  Anyways, needless to say, I was ecstatic.  I get excited when there is a full moon on Solstice, let alone a rare event like a Full Lunar Eclipse.  My ritual on Solstice was beautiful by the way… I hope that whatever you celebrate this season, it brings you the same sense of peace that my ritual brought me.

My birthday was earlier this week as well.  Yep, your resident Writer is now officially feeling old at the age of 31.  Which was all right.  I’ve always said that Silver hair means that you’ve been blessed by the Moon.  My party was pretty good as well.  Me and a few of my friends all went out to dinner at a local pub and then we went to go and see Tron: Legacy.  It was pretty good, but I’ll do a full discussion on the movie another time.  My prize gift this year came from my Father.  He got me Dan Well’s, Mr. Monster!  The second book in the “I am Not a Serial Killer” series, I have been waiting eagerly to read it since it came out.  However, I was asked by family not to buy myself gifts within two months of Christmas so I haven’t been able to pick it up.

I got a few other gifts as well, but the fact that almost everyone was able to make it was the real awesome gift.  I have always said that I require Presence, not Presents.  The rest of this week will be a little less busy for me.   It’s a lot of visiting with family, since they all celebrate Christmas and I must admit, it will be good to see my nieces and nephew again.

What’s that?  What about my writing?

Oh, that’s right… most of you come here to hear what I’ve been thinking about while I learn my way through the writing process.  I don’t suppose mentioning pretty bunnies behind you will help, will it?

**sigh**

I’ve been distracted lately, so while I’ve been writing almost every day, I haven’t worked on my novel at all lately.  I’ve had a couple of fun ideas (who wants a full novel written about “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus” novelette done in a more dark fantasy/no holds barred way), but mostly I’ve just been procrastinating and trying to get caught up on writing that I was behind on (like my letter to my cousin… It’s on the way, I promise!).

I do promise that I will have more coming your way in the New Year… Perhaps even a podcast of some of my writings, although I think my blog posts are way too short to try and podcast them.  I will be doing more of my writing and working towards finishing my Nano novel starting the 27th.  I have a post planned on New Year’s Resolutions and a couple of short stories that I think I may write in the meantime.  Basically keep updated and checking the site/checking your RSS feeds for new stuff.  I’m not taking a hiatus this year… although I certainly hope that all of you will be enjoying your well earned rest.

I would like to hear how all of you have been and what holiday you celebrate.  Have you been writing?  Did you get anything awesome this year?

On a final note, I will leave you with this link to one of my favourite Yule songs of all time.  It’s called “Santa Clause is Pagan Too” and it’s sung by Emerald Rose.  Enjoy.

Merry Christmas, Blessed Yule and Happy Holidays!

Posted in Blogs, Pagan on December 25th, 2010 by B.A. Matthews | | 2 Comments »

Sorry for the delay… We’ll now return you to your regularily scheduled program…

Today’s blog is running a bit behind so expect it to be a bit brief.  I’ll make certain that I have a new blog post up Saturday for you guys.  I got a bit sick a few weeks ago.  The sucky weather Calgary has been having got into my hand, and my Tendonitis was so bad that I couldn’t close my hand into a fist or re-open it when I managed to.  While this did curtail my writing, rest assured, I have gotten some done… Although, instead of using my computer, I have the scene written up in paper copy right now and working on it while taking the bus to and from work.  The scene is turning out really well and I’ll be using a certain program of mine to add it to the computer.

That’s right, it’s time to talk a bit more about my Dragon!  I’ve been using it more frequently of late, and now I can give a better opinion on it.  My over all opinion is pretty good of it, though it’s near useless for using online.  The commands activate whether you want them to or not, which means that trying to write text into a forum chat box or updated any social media site is out of the question (it works much better in actual messenger programs, like MSN Messenger).

This experience really reminded me why I got that program, even if sometimes I do worry that it’s more trouble than it’s worth (if I have a stuffed up nose it can’t understand me at all).

Using it has been teaching me to think more about what I write before I say/type it.  I still have to delete things every once in a while, but it happens much less often now that I’ve been training myself not to screw it up.  I do suggest that everyone give it a try though, since I am actually coming to enjoy using it.  While I’m not using it to write this blog post (more for brevity reasons than anything else), it is on the computer and I have been training it to understand me.  I am going to be training it to understand me, by using it at least 2 days out of every week to do all my writing… Something I hope to continue during Nanowrimo as well. (Remember to add me as a Buddy if you want to follow my counts during Nano!)

I’ll keep you all updated on that front.

Other than using Dragon and resting my hand, I have been keeping myself mostly out of trouble.  I am still reading Brandon Sanderson’s “The Way of Kings”.  I am 66% finished it and I’d like to say that it’s pretty damn awesome.  It’s definitely an epic fantasy, told from a few different viewpoints.  The only question I currently have is about the character Kaladin.  While he is a wonderful character, Brandon Sanderson has been writing his chapters in a Present/Past sort of set up where we get one chapter of where he is now, and then we’ll get a chapter that led him to this point.  While its really interesting, I am wondering why he choose to write it that way.  I assume I will have discovered the answer in the next three-hundred and fifty pages.

I have also finally gotten notice that my long awaited copy of “The High King of Montival” is finally shipping.  I should have that next week, or the first week of October at the latest.  It will be next on my reading list after “The Way of Kings”.  I also picked up Aprilynne Pike’s debut YA novel, “Wings”.  While I don’t often read YA paranormal romance books anymore (Damn you Twilight), I heard about this one on Writing Excuses and decided to give it a try.  I am also listening to “www: Watch”, a book by Robert J. Sawyer.  If you haven’t heard of this series yet (beginning with “www: Wake”) pick them up.  This set of novels is definitely worth your time and interest, although I give fair warning… Mr. Sawyer has a thing for ‘soft’ endings… They answer all the questions but do seem to leave you wondering why you’re vaguely unsatisfied.  Perhaps it’s a problem with a super long dénouement feeling, instead of the hopeful awed feeling he was going for.  I’ll keep you updated on all of the books I’m reading, as usual.

Oh, I’m going to try to write a review of Dan Wells “I am Not a Serial Killer” and post it up here prior to Nanowrimo as well… Expect new site changes in the next few weeks as well!

What are you reading?  And will you be participating in Nanowrimo this year?  Are there any great podcasts dealing with Nanowrimo that you’ve been listening to?  Let me know, and keep those comments coming!

Oh, one final comment for all of you out there… Less than a month until my conference!  I am soooo excited.

Posted in Blogs on September 23rd, 2010 by B.A. Matthews | | 5 Comments »

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