Author Archives: Joe Hinojosa

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About Joe Hinojosa

Official account of a writer in potentia. Blogger, student, bibliophile and novice book reviewer.

Gone on strike

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I think my voices have gone on strike. Thanks a lot, fellas! Why would they do this to me? Was it something I said? Do you think they heard what I said about them on my previous post? If so, yikes!

Okay, they are still there, just not as loud as they usually are. Well, except for Doubt. He’s always loud and obnoxious, kind of like the drunk uncle at family gathering, only Doubt never slurs his words. He’s always crystal clear. Also, Negativity never takes a holiday. I think Negativity and Doubt have a wager on who breaks me first. Bastards!

But the other voices have gone silent for the time being. Not that I mind so much. I had the day off, and I took care of a practical matter. I bought the engine mounts for my truck. I also spent to much money this morning downloading music from Amazon.

One song in particular had been driving me nuts for weeks. I would hear the song at work, but I couldn’t make out the words, and the few I could hear I would forget before I had the chance to look it up. Finally, after more than six months of hearing the blasted song, I wrote the words I could understand. Turns out that the song driving me nuts is sung by Paramore, Still Into You.

With that leading me off, I created a new playlist, though it’s far some done. I’ll buy a few more songs with my next paycheck. I still have a few more bills to pay with this one. Ah, the joys of responsibilities!

Speaking of, I have a book to read and review by Monday. I’ll have to spend most of my weekend, while not at work, doing just that. I made a commitment, and I intend to keep it. After that, I hope my voices will be ready to get back to work. It’s a little lonely without them.

I miss them.

And for the hell of it, here’s the video of the song that has been driving me mad. Enjoy!

The voices in my head go round and round

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The voices never seem to stop chattering, or at least it feels that way most times. As a person who lives in his own head, it can get pretty loud up there. The conversations I have to and from work are brilliant and captivating. The conversations I have in real life, well…, aren’t.

I also play out scenes in my head. The characters usually are faceless, but I typically see them playing out like a Hollywood movie. There tends to be a lot of dialogue, and very little to no action, just a lot of talking from imaginary people who seem to be well-spoken. I, however, am not.

I can see and hear the scenes I want to write. I imagine them going on at the most inopportune times, when I am not near a computer. Everything seems to flow smoothly, with well-reasoned arguments, logical progressions, and a clear order. There’s a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Then I sit and try to write out the brilliant scenes that I imagined and it’s gone. There’s no spontaneity. The conversations seem stilted and dry, the arguments lack conviction, and I can’t seem to muddle my way through the labyrinth to find the end I had originally intended. It frustrates me, I’m not afraid to tell you.

When it happens, I begin the suspect that the brilliant conversation I’m having in my head isn’t really brilliant. Maybe it only seems that way hidden in my secret world. Maybe my fantasy is to be able to be a good speaker, to be concise and articulate, and I create a fiction where I can be, whether it’s me talking, or one of my characters.

In the real world, what I think is so articulate really isn’t. Then I begin to suspect my own intelligence. Perhaps I’m just too fearful or guarded with my thoughts and words that I’m unable to let them go. I wonder if other writers know what I’m talking about. I doubt I’m alone, or at least I hope I’m not.

This fear also defines who I am in life. The older I get, the more negative I become, in part due to the voices I hear. Too many things have gone wrong in my life that all I imagine for myself is one tragedy after another.

At the moment, a co-worker is pushing me to ask out a sales-rep who visits our store once a week. Though I find her attractive, and she seems friendly enough, but despite my co-workers assertions that she finds me attractive, all the scenarios I run in my head turn out badly.

Every single one.

Maybe that’s what I should write about, the tragedy I imagine for myself in life, love, and everything else. I’m sure the scenarios playing out in the deep recesses of my psyche are far-fetched and ridiculous. Too bad I have trouble writing out what I imagine and rarely do my thoughts justice.

You know what I think? I think my voices are jerks. I need new voices.

Book Review: Find My Baby

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Save My Baby © 2014 Mitch Lavender

Save My Baby © 2014 Mitch Lavender

Happy August my friends! I can’t believe another school year will soon be starting, not that it affects me directly. Still, the summer will be waning soon, and all that will be left is to settle in for another fun winter, but cold is still several months away.

In the meantime, I have another book I would like to share with you. Find My Baby is Mitch Lavender‘s debut novel. Find My Baby follows a computer hacker turned IT security professional Zachary Foxborne as he is given the most complex case of his life. A mysterious email that was delivered to every email address that seemed to come from nowhere. Untraceable, a ghost.

The H@x0r Hoax, as it is called, leaves security professionals scrambling, trying to decipher the intent behind the message. No one can find anything malicious in the message, no Trojans or viruses, just a seemingly innocuous mailing, but whose implications seem crystal clear to many. A test run from someone unknown, who could wreak havoc on an unsuspecting world.

Through his work, Zachary become known to Ratmir, a Ukrainian who had figured out how to beat the system, to become invisible online. He had planned on selling the code, until Zachary came along and thwarted his plan. Now he wanted revenge, and he found the opportunity.

Lucy, Zachary’s wife had been unable to carry a child to term, and had lately become unable to become pregnant. After much searching, she settled on adopting a child from a foreign orphanage, one from Ukraine.

Once this becomes known to Ratmir, he devices a plan to keep the child hostage. In order to proceed with the adoption, Zachary has to pay a ransom, deciphering a manuscript that Ratmir desperately wants. Can he do so in time, or will he and Lucy lose the child that had hoped to call their own?

At the beginning of the novel, I was intrigued by the level of detail the author put in. Computer terms and explanations into what they meant, helped create the setting, which turned out to be short-lived. It wouldn’t be until the end of the book that Zachary’s computer knowledge would once again come to the forefront.

What I liked about the story was that Mitch Lavender displays his knowledge of the IT sector. Write what you know, and he did. Where it fell apart was that for all the build up of suspense, the rising tension between our hero and his antagonist, there seemed to be no payoff, no moment conflict where our hero is in mortal peril.

The danger is resolved in such a way that it left me unsatisfied. I don’t mind a happy ending, but it has to be earned, and felt that neither Zachary nor Lucy earned it. Too much promise and for naught. I liked the premise and the build up, just not the climax and resolution.

For this reason, I feel I would be doing a disservice to rate it highly, but I feel comfortable giving it a 3 out of 5 stars. There is some merit to the novel, and I truly believe the author shows promise as a novelist, but this first showing left me wanting more.

List of Book Reviews
Next Review – Back From Chaos
Previous Review – The Ship

The towel has been thrown

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I concede defeat. I just don’t have it in me to finish this little project. Another failed Camp NaNoWriMo is under my belt. Now realistically, I have more than enough time to make it to the end. I showed a lot of promise at the beginning of the month, but now I’m limping towards an ending that should have happened about a thousand words ago. It ain’t gonna happen.

I’m alright with that, though I know I shouldn’t be. I’m all mojo’d out for some inexplicable reason. I hate losing my mojo. Maybe I lost my muse. I’ll check with Craigslist or Ebay and see if I can buy a new one. I’d settle with a gently used muse.

 

My Camp NaNo Update – Um..yeah

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Camp NaNoWriMo is down to its last three days? How have you fared? I’m in a full blown panic even though I set a very modest 10k word goal. I’m at 4100. Yeah, I suck. I never do well in the summer. I’m too easily distracted.

That’s no excuse, however, and I vow to win this by any means necessary! Well, I’ll just write until my fingers fly off. Seriously, only about 2k words a day. It’s totally doable. I just have to sit and write.

Well, after The Big Bang Theory goes off. I need my comedy fix to lift my spirits. My goal is to pass the 6k word mark before bed.