Tag Archives: writing

Three years strong

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Me back in 2011.

Late last month, I let a milestone pass unobserved, not because I meant to, but rather because I completely forgot until after the fact. Three years ago last month, my then wife chose to runaway to move in with some guy she had never met in person, a guy she met online and talked on the phone behind my back.

I almost posted about it the next day but chose to let the past stay in the past, and to stop dwelling on things that I should forget about. And I did, until yesterday, when I logged onto my WordPress site and saw a notification that it had been three years since I had signed up for this blog, although I wouldn’t post my first blog, an observation about trying to find myself after a break-up, until the next day.

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Me today, playing with my Kindle. I’m not so good with the smiling, but I’m actually in a good mood.

I never thought I would still be on here, let alone with my own domain name, three years on, but I’m still here. I’m not posting as often as I had been, and I’m no longer obsessed with my stats, as in I want more page views, but I’m still here. My focus no longer is on my poor, sorrowful self. Bygones are just that, and I’m focusing my energies elsewhere.

So, in honor of my three-year anniversary, I want to share a few good things to have come out of the debacle of 2011.

  1. I finally escaped a toxic relationship. I know I’m not the only one to have found themselves stuck in an unhealthy relationship/marriage. We had problems from the beginning, but I did my best to stick it out. Not once did I engage in extramarital affairs, not that I was a perfect husband. Still, I stuck it out until she ran off. Then I found the strength to file for divorce. Had I not, I’m sure she would have tried to come back, again.
  2. I started this blog. More importantly, I began to write. What started out as an outlet to express my disappointment and the bitter pain that consumed me, over time morphed into a desire to write something more. I began a journey to fulfill a dream to become a published author, and though I’m not there yet, I’m still on the journey. I will publish a book!
  3. I met new friends. Through writing, and in particular though NaNoWriMo, I met an awesome set of people who supported me that first year, and who still support me via Facebook. I couldn’t have made it this far without the North Texas Rough Writers. (Don’t tell them that. They might get a big head.)
  4. I graduated college. After more than a decade of wishing I could find a way, I went back to school last spring to finish up my remaining hours. In August 2013, thirteen years after I dropped out, I finally earned my Bachelor’s Degree. Now I want another one, but one I can ACTUALLY put to use.
  5. I’ve spent time reconnecting with my family. I did so reluctantly at first, but I’m spending time with my parents, brothers, and sister for the first time in any meaningful way, now that we are all adults. I’ve rebuilt a large part of my childhood home, watching my nieces and nephews grow up, and actually met a new addition to the Hinojosa clan, a new niece born last month.

Sure, I few bad things have happened as well, but that’s life. The biggest change is that I’m working to see the good instead of dwelling on what’s bad. I’m looking to the future, and working to make that dream a reality. I have not artificial deadlines anymore. I’m trying to be realistic with myself, pushing myself to met my goals without imposing too strict a time frame. Maybe this time next year, we’ll revisit this and see how I’m doing.

Maybe…

I’m just a-plugging away

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It’s been a strange transition from writing three posts weekly to not writing at all. At some point in the distant future, I’ll start to post regularly again, but not yet. Right now, I’m letting go of the reason I began writing the blog in the first place, and I don’t miss the oppressive weight one bit. So long and farewell!

But I’ll admit that I do kind of miss forcing myself to write something, anything, regardless of how silly the subject might be. Having an outlet to express myself was healing, and it helped me figure things out. It made me confront uncomfortable truths about myself. Who am I kidding? I just bitched and whined a lot!

So have I given up writing? Um…NO! I’m stilling plugging away at my stories, trying to find that one that I will be able to publish. Maybe I’m being too picky, but I’d rather take my time to write a good novel, with a compelling story, than to rush whatever drivel that I may have ready to go.

I working on a story now, one that I’m very excited about. I really wish I could tell you about it, but this time I plan to keep quiet about it. Well, maybe a few tantalizing hints couldn’t hurt.

The book follows the a magazine writer as he searches for a story to report. His expertise is travel and adventure, but the story he finds is not one of thrills and excitement but rather a focus on one man’s life as told through a popular blog. Who is the stranger writing about the exploits of a wild youth? What skeletons are hidden in the closet? Are the stories of his varied sexual exploits fact or fiction?

I’m still in the beginning stages of this book. My main character still remains unnamed, and I’m 20 pages in! I have a vague idea of where I’m going with the narrative, and for the rest, I’m learning as I go, discovering the twist and turns as I go along. That’s what I love the most about writing!

I make no promises to have this one completed in a certain time frame, or even that I will find it good enough to publish, but I remain optimistic that this could be the one. As for the others? I haven’t given up on them either, but I’m in no hurry to rush them out for public consumption. This is a luxury that is afforded to the unpublished, and I’ll enjoy it a little longer before relinquishing my hold on them.

It’s now late. It’s after midnight, if you want the truth. I’m going to sit and write some more on my book before I turn in for the night. I wonder what I will discover tonight about my characters. Maybe I’ll find out what his name is. That would be cool.

 

Just chillin’ n readin’

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I’m stuck at home on a Saturday night. Typical. It’s actually not a bad thing. I have a new book review coming out on Monday, for Daelynn Quinn’s book, Crimson Return, the second book of the Fall of Venus trilogy. I’m three-quarters of the way through with the book, and I plan to finish it before I go to bed tonight.

Work on my own book is progressing slowly. I’m not having any luck writing at home, so yesterday I left the nest and drove to Amarillo, set myself up at a coffee shop, and wrote for a couple of hours. It’s not nearly enough, but it’s a start.

Seriously, writing can be a chore sometimes, but all the worthwhile activities usually are. It’s those who acknowledge that fact, and persevere in spite of the grind that achieve their goals. I want to be one of those people, someone who can say I accomplished my goal.

Tonight, I will finish reading my book so that I can post my review as promised. I’m enjoying the book and I can’t wait to share my thoughts on it. If you haven’t already, check out my review to Fall of Venus, and come back on Monday!

I can’t sleep

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Insomnia’s a bitch, ain’t it? I’m here at four in the morning, desiring nothing more than to fall asleep, but instead I’m making use of this time to update my blog. It’s infuriating! Oh well, I need to type up a post because I haven’t done so in almost a week.

My book is going nowhere fast. It’s not for lack of ideas, it’s due to lack of taking the time to sit down and write it out. I’m to blame, well partly. I’ve been working late the past few weeks, getting off most days at midnight, then after the hour drive home, I’m not really in the mood to write.

Then there’s the fact that I’ve been talking to somebody. A human somebody. A female somebody. Yeah, I know I said I would never talk to a female somebody again, but I made myself a liar and proved everyone else right. Damn it! The new feeling won’t last, so I’ll get back to writings soon.

The female somebody, who made me promise never to write about her on my blog (sorry, but at least I’m not using your name) has given me a few ideas on my book. Gotta love creative people who can point out flaws in your logic. I think I’m on the right track as it relates to my plot, but I have to sit my butt down and actually write the freaking thing.

I’m working on creating my two main characters, who have not met yet. They have separate lives, one a priest, the other an escort, but whose lives will intersect at some point, and of course they will hit it off. I just need to make it seem real.

What holds me back is motivation. Why do they meet? Why does Giada seek Israel out? And why do they create and maintain a lasting relationship, one that threatens their lives, and his career in the church?

I have an idea to be sure, but it’s always difficult to translate the picture in my head into words that make sense. I’ll need to try, and then I’ll need to go back and edit it. What I need to do is set aside time to do it. Haven’t I made that observation before?

It’s probably due to exhaustion. It’s too early (late?) for me to be writing. I think I’ll shut my computer down and try to sleep. Fortunately for me, I go to work at three in the afternoon, so there’s no pressure to fall asleep right now, but I’ll try anyway. Maybe when I wake up, I’ll be able to write something that makes actual sense.

Writing Project: Giada

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It’s Saturday night, and once again I’m at home, twiddling my thumbs, wishing I had something to do. That’s not quite true. I have something to do, I’m just not doing it. What I mean to say is that I wish I had somewhere to go. No matter. I need to sit myself down to do some serious writing.

I’ve started another project, which in all honesty is an extension of another, my first and still unpublished book, Son of the Father. The new book is called Giada, after a character I’m pulling from my first book, and expanding upon.

As originally conceived, Giada worked as an escort, which really was a cheap shot at my ex. I wanted to get back at her, so I made her character a prostitute, and to make it even better, I killed her. Unfortunately for me, by the time I did so, I fell in love with my own creation. I have bad taste in women, even fictional one that I create.

The Giada character worked well, she was funny, mischievous, and a great foil for my main character, a priest by the name of Israel Mendoza. The problem was that she didn’t fit the story I was telling. I introduced her in a serious of flashbacks, using her to tell some of Israel’s back story. It took away from the story I wanted to tell, of a bishop finding out he has a grown up son, and having to deal with the fall out from the news, both emotionally and privately, and publicly, as the face of a U.S. Roman Catholic Diocese.

I had to cut her out, but I didn’t want to lose her, and I didn’t want to completely cut out her role in Israel’s life. Instead, I chose to write the back story as a separate piece, to set up the next novel, which will be a rewritten version of Son of the Father, with more emphasis on the son and not a dead prostitute.

Now that I decided to do that, I found that it’s not easy to tell an offshoot story, in this case a prequel, although if published, it will come as the first book of a series. It’s difficult to expand a role that only fit into three chapters of the original incarnation of the story. I’m having to create new characters, as well as creating a new expanded story line.

I’m only at 5000 words at the moment. I need to set a daily word goal, say 2K, and work to meet or exceed that goal. That’s an easy 14k a week goal. I have ample time to write, I just haven’t maximized my time. So that puts my at 45K words by the end of the month, which should put me about halfway through the book.

I need to be done by the end of February, when I will hopefully turn my attention back to the book I wanted to publish last September, Unseen Obsession. I need to come up with a better title than that. I hate that title. I hope to publish that by the summer. All I need is to edit, rewrite, edit some more, find someone to make me a book cover because I’m useless when it comes to visuals, and then edit some more. I’m not panicking. Okay, I am.

I know what needs to be done, I just need to do it. So good night. I have more writing to do tonight.