M.A. Myers's Blog

Hey everyone! It’s been a while since I have posted anything on here, been pretty busy with this, that and life in general. So let’s get started shall we?

I know that some of you out there know how hard it can be to work on a story that you’d like to get published, while at the same time raising a child. It can be pretty difficult at times. For me, like it says on my on Twitter account, being a Dad is a full time job. My son comes before all else.

But what about when he’s asleep?

Well… I have free time then to do what ever I want. But when it comes to writing, times seems to just fly by when I delve into one of my stories and next thing I know it’s in the wee hours of the morning. Going to bed to sleep with an active mind does not induce sleep at all, let me tell you.

So I’ve been thinking on how I can continue writing while at the same time, being there for my son. And the answer I have come up with is to put my writing stand by as it were, until such time that I can focus on my writing like I want and not neglect my duties as a Father. I will still continue to come up and work on the outlines for my various stories I have planned, so when the time comes, I can more easily get them done and out to you, the readers.

I am thankful for those of you who enjoyed my writing so far. Paulie, for me was at the time it was published, a test run, to see how the indie writing game worked. I walked into this blind at the time of uploading Paulie to Amazon, but quickly picked up on some things. As copies started to sell, I got hyped up about that, and in turn, forgot about it being a test run. Which is why I published a short story and not a full length novel. Better to see what people out there thought of my story telling, via a short story than to spend a longer amount of time working on a full length novel only to find out that everyone hated it.

Anyhow, with that being said, I will still be on the social sites, checking in every once in a while to see how things are going. And as for Paulie 2, have no fears. It will come. Until then, I will continue working on my ideas and outlines, and will update you all when I start again into my writing fully.

Till next time

M.A.

Man I tell ya, being an independent writer is a challenge. Not only do you have to write the stories that you want to sell. You also (in some cases) have to edit the work after it’s finished, then get it out there. Seems simple enough right? Wrong. Cause once your work is out there, that’s where the real work begins. You have to get out there and promote your work.

How you go about doing that is up to you, but keep this in mind, If you go about promoting your work in a sociable manner right off the bat and stick with it for a while, don’t defer from that. Because by that point people will be used to your friendly attitude and might even tell others about you.

Now, if you promote your work in a friendly manner, and handle the costumer service aspects of it with a smile, for some time then suddenly change your approach and basically say “Fuck it” and go off on a tangent/vent session, well guess what? Not many people will like this sudden 180, and more than likely the feedback from such an outburst will probably hurt you and your ability to get your name out there.

“Are you speaking from experience?” You may ask.

No. Despite being tempted to do so about certain subjects that have caught my eye in the past, I have not done so, nor will I. This is basically me observing and keeping a watchful eye on what others do.

But keep that in mind when you’re promoting your work. Not only are you selling your work to people, you are also selling yourself. How you go about that, is completely up to you. Just keep in mind that when you’re selling yourself as Dr. Jekyll, don’t be surprised when people shy away, or completely disregard Mr. Hyde.

I was invited by Felicity Brandon (http://fbrandonfiction.wix.com/felicity-brandon-) to participate in a blog hop interview. Thanks Felicity for the invite!

 All I have to do is answer the following interview questions and then tag three other authors who are asked to answer the same questions on their blogs next Monday, 23rd September. Those authors will then each tag three more authors, etc.

 So without further ado, let’s begin.

 Question 1: What are you working on right now?

 I am currently working on my second story, Paulie 2, a full length Sci-Fi/Horror novel that will immediately follow the events taken place in my short story, Paulie. 

 Question 2: How does it differ from other works in its genre?

 Honestly? I’m not sure as I don’t normally read stories in the Horror genre, but I will say this; it’ll be a dark, gritty, fast paced story that’ll follow both new, and old characters from Paulie, as they struggle to survive the horror taking place around them.

 Question 3: Why do you write what you do?

 Because I enjoy doing it. Because when I can fully sink into my work, I feel like I’m in the world I’m creating. In a way, it’s like taking a vacation. If I want a break from the real world, I just think about what needs to be done for an up coming story, or a current work in progress and drift away to far away land, or a deserted beach, or a pitched battle in space. The choices are endless, and that’s why write what I do. I can go anywhere I want at any time.

 Question 4: How does your writing process work?

 Depends on what you mean. If you are asking on how I go about writing my stories, it varies. Sometimes I write out an outline first, and then follow that all the way till the end. Other times, I’ll have an idea as to how I want the story to go, but for the life of me can’t write an outline down, and just wing it.

But if are you asking how I come up with my ideas… Well then, that can come from anything. Maybe I’ll get an idea from a movie I watched, or a video game I once played, or from a simple noise I heard. The list goes on.

 Author’s I’m tagging…

 Kylie Addison Sabra

S.L. Gonzalez

Christoph Fischer

 Thanks and have an awesome week!

M.A.

Man, it’s been a while since I have posted anything on here. So let’s get to it shall we?

I remember reading a post from a writer on Twitter asking for help, because the main character in their story liked a beverage that they couldn’t stand, and they wanted input from people that did as to what they did like about it. Now I’m not dissing them for doing this, but I did think it odd that they (the writer) couldn’t simply have his/her character prefer a drink that they themselves liked. Why put yourself in a tight spot like that? Make it easier on yourself. For instance, don’t like orange juice? Describe how much the character likes apple juice then. Don’t like tea? Then use coffee.

This same viewpoint can be used on many other scenarios. Writing a sci-fi story but aren’t good in describing how the ship works? Well if you’re character isn’t the pilot or engineer, why should he/she care how it works? Now I’m not saying “Write like this! DO IT!” No far from it. All I’m saying is if you’re having a hard time getting past a certain scene in your story, there are ways around it.

Like the title says, write what you know. Unless the story calls for the main character to be some genius engineer, or computer whiz, there is no harm in tweaking them to fit into a role that is more comfortable for you, the writer, to write. For instance, I did some work as an HVAC tech for several years, and during that time picked up some of the lingo used on the jobs I was on. In my story Paulie, I used that to my advantage to make a character in it, sound like he knew what he was talking about.

Don’t be afraid to use what you know or picked up over the years and put it in your story. That way two things will happen.

1: You’ll flesh out the story a bit more, putting more detail into it and making the reader enjoy it all the more, as you’ll sound like you know what you’re talking about.

2: By putting your knowledge of certain topics, items etc, into your work, you are putting yourself into the story.

Now if you’re character uses a weapon or item that you have no knowledge on what so ever, then do some research. And before you say “Research? Pfff I’ll just wing it.” Do yourself a favor, don’t. Unless of course you want to get torn apart by some reader who takes their time reading through your story looking for the tiniest mistake?

Research will help you a lot. Even if it’s briefly, it’ll help.

Ugh… Anyone else tired of going to the doctors? Between regular check ups for myself taking my son to the doctors for possible ear infections and booster shots, I’m pretty damn tired of going there.

And don’t get me wrong, it’s not dealing with the doctors that I’m tired of, (course that depends on the doctor) It’s the waiting! No scratch that, it’s the making sure to get there on time, then waiting that bugs me.

Think about it. You make an appointment. You get there a little early or on time, check in, and hope maybe, maybe you’ll be seen soon. But do you? Nope. You end up waiting in the waiting room in some cheap uncomfortable chair for about half an hour or more until some bored nurse calls your name. I’ve waited so long at times, that when the nurse did call my name, I felt like “YES! FINALLY!” Only for them to check your weight, blood pressure, ask why you’re there wasting their time before leading you to the exam room. To wait. And wait. And wait some more.

The funniest part about this whole thing is when the nurse leads you into the room, then tells you “Dr. (fill in the blank) will see you shortly”

Shortly to me is several minutes. But most times, turns into possibly half an hour or more, giving you nothing to do but stare at all the used needles in the plastic bin or laughing at the sign that reads “Please turn off your cell phone” while you’re surfing the web. (Yes I do that)

And why not? The nurses are walking around on their cell phones all day. I know someone who is a nurse and this is very true.

Anyway got off track there. Continuing on!

So after waiting and waiting and waiting some more, the doctor finally comes in to see what you have come to be seen about. Only for the actual visit from the doctor to last around ten minutes time (If that. Sometimes feels shorter) Before walking out.

So let’s see, in total you have waiting about close to an hour or more to be seen by the doctor, only for said doctor to talk to you for about several minutes before running out the door.

And the kicker? The funniest thing about it all? Is if you’re so many minutes late (in the practice I go to its ten minutes) they will charge you a fee and cancel your appointment. Really?! I fought traffic to get here, got caught at every light, only to finally arrive and be told that you are going to bill me? But all I was going to do was waste my time waiting with everyone else.

So yeah… Fun stuff. Anyway like the title says, this was a rant. Despite me complaining about the long waits, I do respect people who work in the medical field, cause I sure as hell couldn’t. Nope. But that’s for another post.

Sitting in front of your computer, you stare blankly at the screen as you battle your inability to come up with anything to start your story. You can clearly picture what you want to describe, but for the life of you, you can not form the events transpiring into a paragraph, a sentence, a single word. As your frustration mounts, you close your eyes, running your fingers over your scalp as you let out an irritated growl of displeasure. Taking a deep breath, you let it out slowly through your nose, opening your eyes to focus your energy into making some sort of progress on your latest project when you hear a creak as of wood being strained from a large weight. The sound only fazes you for a moment, shrugging it off as the house settling on its foundation you place your fingers upon the keyboard. Deciding to pour your emotion into your writing you find yourself smiling as your fingers start heeding your command, typing out a slew of words, describing what you see in your mind flawlessly when another creak sounds. Your fingers pause on the key board as you listen, your thoughts stirring, wondering what that was. You listen for several heart beats, ears straining to pick up anything misplaced. But only silence reigns in your home. Blaming it on your over active imagination, you begin work on your story once more, fingers now flying over the keys.

Grooooan.

The sound of wood shifting, bending painfully is clearly heard, causing you to get up from you computer chair and take a quick glimpse out into the unlit hall outside your door, the only light coming from your monitor. Your eyes see nothing as they rove around, trying to penetrate the darkness before you. Your ears strain to pick up even the slightest of sounds out of place within your home.

Nothing.

Again, silence reigns. Shaking your head at your own foolishness you turn to go back to your computer when the sound of a heavy foot fall echoes down the hall, stopping you cold.

Thud.

Your eyes turn as far as they can to the side, your body refusing to move as fear of the unknown grips you.

Thud.

Your head slowly begins to turn to allow your eyes to see what is slowly coming towards you.

Thud.

You slowly turn around as the presence of something slowly coming closer from the darkened hallway edges closer, fear tingling up and down your spine.

Thud.

Darkness greets your vision as you look back down the hall, but you can tell something is there, hiding in the blackness.

Thud.

The very edge of light shining out from your monitor is disturbed by what looks like a patch of darkness. Your eyes widen as a rumbling growl emanates from the shadows. Terror grips you as you know something is there, staring at you, studying you, devouring you with its gaze. Your mind screams at your body to move, but it doesn’t. It can’t. Fear has frozen it in place. Suddenly a bone jarring roar shatters the terrifying silence, causing you to jump as the horror charges towards you.

Thud, THud, THUd, THUD! Rumble its feet.

Screaming you turn and slam the door shut just before it reaches you, stumbling back fearfully waiting for the terror to come crashing through. Several moments pass and nothing happens. Your body, as tense and taught as a drawn bow string, shakes from the horror gripping your heart. Taking several shuddering breathes, you start telling yourself that this is just a dream, it’s all just a dream when you hear a slow exhale behind you, feel the hot humid breath on the back of your neck. A small whimper of terror manages to break free from your trembling lips before a thunderous roar deafens you, sending your ears ringing.

Screaming you wake up, flinging yourself upright in bed. Your chest heaves, your eyes quickly scanning your room looking for any signs of danger. Finding none you close your eyes a moment later, taking a deep calming breath when a thick powerful hand grips the back of your head. Your eyes fling open in mind numbing horror as the thing shoves its face in yours and roars.

Pain. Loss. Emptiness.

To some those are just words. Words easily uttered by those who do not know the significance or meaning of them. To others, these words when spoken or thought of, bring back painful memories, and through that pain, understanding of their true meaning comes to light.

When I started this blog and Twitter, I made one simple rule about what I would not post. That being my day to day life and goings on with my family. But shortly after certain events of last week, I mentioned that I would write a blog concerning what had happened. Not to ask for pity or for simple words such as “sorry for your loss” and other such sayings. I’ve been told that before already, and frankly I’m tired of hearing it. No. But so I can bring closure to what happened in my own way, to help get over this pain that even now is gnawing to break out of the cage I locked it in.

If any of you who read this follow me on Twitter, you may or may not remember that I made a post several weeks back that my wife and I were expecting another little one to come. Well, despite me still wishing that this is a fucked up nightmare that I’ll wake up to at any moment, that is no longer going to happen.

Upon hearing that are little one, our gummy bear as we called him/her, no longer had a heart beat, my world shattered. First thought that came to my mind was that this was a mistake! Whomever checking for vital signs for our gummy bear fucked up. The second thought was that this was a horrible dream, and that at any moment I’d wake up in a cold sweat before fighting to go back to sleep. But despite wishing fervently, and praying just as hard for this not to be so, it was. My son/daughter, OUR son/daughter died. Our gummy bear died. To say that I wanted to scream would be the biggest understatement I have ever heard.

Pain. Loss. Emptiness. For those of you who think know the meaning of these words, but have never gone through the loss of a child or a loved one, you don’t. Nor will you until you see a picture your wife texts you of your eight week old little one, as beautiful as ever, and are told that they are healthy and have a strong heart beat, only to find that they had died two weeks later. That picture of them sleeping, growing seared into your mind, making you, no, wanting you to believe that what you had just heard was a lie. A sick prank. If you don’t know the true meaning of these words, I’m sorry for you. For those of you that do. I am truly sorry.

Despite this pain, this feeling of emptiness that has manifested inside of me, I am surprisingly still able to function. The most I am able to do is simply block the pain with nonsense and gibberish from what ever I can do to distract myself from it. And I’m hoping that expressing my pain on here, to you, the reader, also helps me.

With that said, I’ll wrap this up. Again, I am not looking for you to tell me how sorry you are for my loss or anything like that. I am simply telling this to ease my pain, all that I ask is to read this and understand where I am coming from. You can do me one favor though. If you are lucky enough to a child or children of your own, and have not experienced this pain, tell them you love them, give them a hug or a kiss or tuck them in snugly at night. And never, ever, take them for granted.

Hey everyone!

Let’s just get right down to it shall we? In case you are wondering, I first published Paulie on Amazon back in March of this year, for $0.99. I walked into this, publishing, writing etc, blind. Didn’t know what to expect, and to be honest I’m still learning the ropes but am much better than I was when I first started.

Anyway, while I was signed up in Amazon’s KDP Select program, I decided that when the term ended, I would upload Paulie to Smashwords, which I have done several weeks ago. About a couple weeks ago, I decided to change the price of Paulie from $0.99 to Free so it would make it a bit more tempting for people to want to read my story. As I did this I was hoping that Amazon would price match it, as I have heard they do in some cases. (In case you are wondering, Amazon won’t let you post a story for free, the lowest you can go is $0.99) To help speed the process along I contacted them, and basically told on myself, telling them that I have also published my story on another site for free and would see if they could price match it. The reply I got was not to my liking, as they politely told me they alone control the price of a certain item. (Not bad mouthing Amazon, I understand they are running a business) The message continued stating that I can report a lower price if/when I come across one.

This is where you come in. And it will only take a minute or two if that.

Step 1: Copy this link ( https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/323782 ) it is the page on Smashwords where you can view or buy (for free) Paulie.

Step 2: Go here ( http://www.amazon.com/Paulie-ebook/dp/B00BQV2X7K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372823925&sr=8-1&keywords=horror+paulie ) This link will bring you to the page on Amazon where Paulie is being sold for $0.99. Once there, scroll down until you see the header Product Details. At the bottom of that section there will be a link in blue “tell us about a lower price?” Upon clicking on it, a small window will appear. Fill in the price as 0.00 and paste the link to Smashwords in the URL box and hit submit.

Please help me make Paulie free on Amazon. And if you want, feel free to read Paulie via Smashwords and let me know what you think of it if you haven’t already.

Thank you

Zombies. Who has not seen a zombie movie? Or at least know of someone who has seen a zombie movie? It’s a pretty popular genre. And one of the popular topics that arise from it is the dreaded zombie apocalypse! Course there are probably worse ways for the world to go out, but getting eaten alive by possible friends or family is pretty high on my list.

Now if you have ever discussed this topic with someone or a group of people, one question always pops up, “What would you do in a zombie apocalypse?” More times than not you will either hear, “I’m going to the nearest gun shop and cleaning that place out!” Or something pretty close to it. I myself said that every time someone would ask me that question, and I wouldn’t be surprised if YOU said it at least once…. (Don’t lie you know you have)

But a thought popped up one day while my wife and I were talking about the zombie apocalypse. “How busy would the said gun shop be?” Think about it, if everyone, or at the very least most people, think about running to the gun shop and cleaning it out, what makes you think going there and grabbing a gun would be easy? A couple things might happen if you were to take this course of action:

1: You make it to the gun shop, only to find that the owner has sealed his or herself in and is shooting anyone that tries to break in.

2: You make it to the gun shop and find that a huge crowed of people have thought of the same thing and are fighting over the guns, not paying attention to the zombies closing in to OM NOM NOM on everyone.

3: You make to the gun shop only to find the place ransacked, totally cleaned out.

Unless of course you already own a gun, then you’re pretty much screwed with that plan of action. Every time this topic comes up, most people will think “I need a gun!” Which is probably due to the slew of movies out there. What you need to do, instead of risk the gun shop, is run to your nearest hardware store. Plenty of useful tools to use as weapons there! An ordinary shovel could just as easily take out a zombie than a gun, and without the sound gun shot to possibly attract more zombies. Now granted, you have to get up close and personal, but at least in the beginning you won’t have to fight other people for a firearm.

So that should be your first step, find a good melee weapon. If you have something at home, even better. Next, plan out how to survive. Rather that is getting the hell out of dodge, or barricading yourself in your home is up to you. Some people have said they would hide up in the mountains, others that they would hijack an aircraft carrier and live out in the sea, (don’t ask me how to do that cause I have no idea, not my plan)

What is my plan? Well it begins with… Like I’d tell you -_-

Anyway back to it. If you are still itching to find a gun after steps one and two, be my guest. Majority of people should be either eaten or chased away from the major cities or towns at that point, making it much easier to find a gun.

After you do find a gun, well then it’s simple. Survive and hope that the zombie infection is spread by bites and not an airborne disease. Course if the zombies are the running kind then everyone is screwed. I don’t care if you can run for miles on end, eventually you’ll tire out and get OM NOM NOM’ed by some walking corpse and then rise to chase down the next unlucky bastard. Now myself, if zombies can run, I’m screwed. I freely admit I can’t run very far.Even if they shambled I doubt I’d make it, as I’d be laughing to hard if they made the OM NOM NOM sound while chowing down. What? Too disturbing? Pfff

But for anyone else that reads this, if you think you can make it in the zombie apocalypse, feel free to drop a comment and let me know.

Writers block. My arch nemesis. The very thought of you annoys me. Your presence drives me crazy, preventing me from putting my thoughts on paper, silently blocking any progress I’d love to make with my stories. You’re lucky that you are not a physically here, else I’d be grinning in pleasure while feeding your corpse to the pigs.

Okay, dark somewhat disturbing rant over. I’m pretty sure there are some writers out there who share similar thoughts about this annoying thing that is called writers block. I don’t know about you, but I hate it when during the time I’m away from my computer I come up with an idea that would progress my story nicely. I have the idea written down, know what I want to do, and how to go about it. But when I get to the computer, boot it up and start up Word, nothing. Absolutely nothing happens. I can imagine the scene I want to write down, but despite trying, I can transfer my thoughts to paper. Then the sense of defeat comes upon me.

I have found some ways to combat it though, and sometimes they work. Sometimes. Which is better than nothing I guess. One way I defeat that pain in the ass referred to as writers block, is listen to some good music. Depending on the scene I am writing at the time, music helps progress the story pretty well as well.

Another way I go about it, is to stop trying to work on my present story and jump to another that I have set on the back burner. Then while I am working on the other story I get inspiration and go back to work on the first one.

But sometimes that doesn’t even work. And most times it is best to just take a break instead of trying to keep pushing yourself to write. Let your mind relax. Play a game, watch some TV, surf the web etc etc. And if you’re anything like me when it comes to writing, you’ll be thinking about your story the entire time, figuring out a way to continue where you left off. Next thing you know, you’re back at it.

But sometimes, none of those work. And writers block chalks up another win. So that’s where you (the reader) comes in. What do you do to combat the dreaded writers block?