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Squeaking by

/ Alex Whitehall / Leave a comment

January’s resolution of finishing Nano2011 may or may not happen, seeing as it’s just over 24 hours away from ending. I only have two scenes to do, but one is a love scene and the other is a club scene/gang initiation. I mostly just stare at the screen when I try to write them, but I do want to get it done so I can put it aside for a while and look at it with a fresh eye.

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One of the reasons it didn’t get done (or at least has me down to the wire) is that I was browsing through my old stories that were finished and I came across one that fits a submission in April. I reworked a large chunk of it, made it 7,000 words longer, and now have it sitting waiting for me to re-read and fix up for April. Going to need a beta again. It’s a fantasy short with some tattoo kink, if anyone is interested.
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Working full time and part time is keeping me hopping. It’s also keeping me from writing in some ways, but not enough to actually make me want to stop working both jobs. It’s kind of nice to have work I can always be doing, because it brings structure to my days. I love structure and having a task to complete.
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Okay, off to relax and try to figure out this damn club scene.

It’s 2012, you know what this means.

/ Alex Whitehall / 2 Comments

New year means new resolutions. Considering last year’s attempt lasted 5 or 6 months (maybe), I’m hoping this year will be better. I’m hoping vaguer will help.

1. Send a novel manuscript to a publisher. This mainly means taking the leap and reading what my beta3 has written and seeing what I can do to help the damned thing.
2. I’ve put on some weight since my accident and I need to get it off again. This is an on going challenge, since I was just starting to work out when my previously injured arm started hurting again, then I got a cold (which made doing more than lying there like a beached whale hard to do).
3. Prepare more short stories to be sent to a publisher. There are several special submissions I’m interested in writing something for, and I have some stories that are lying around wondering what I’ll do with them. Even if they get turned down, it’s better than them being lame ducks, right?
4. Be awesome at new part-time job.
[ETA: I’d also like to make monthly resolutions that may or may not be related to the yearly one. The idea that small goals are more achievable.]
What are your resolutions for the new year?

Finding love and lies

/ Alex Whitehall / 7 Comments

Love is an interesting thing. You fall in love, you fall out of love, you can be in love and you can just love. Friends, family, partners, foods, pets, and a good massage. Oh, and sleeping in on the weekend.

I read plenty about love. About lonely men finding love, men having their pick of lovers, and men in rocky relationships. Know what I love about romance novels? They almost always have a happy ending. Life sucks enough, I don’t need my novels to tear me up without slapping on a band-aid (with possibly a shot of morphine).
Know what I hate about romance novels? They almost always have a happy ending. The loser, the loner, the outcast, the misanthrope, and the jerk (if they are the lead character) will find love, whether it’s for now or forever. The other lead character is willing to push boundaries, figure out what’s going on inside the main character’s head and do whatever it takes to get that person to open up and flourish, and in the end love.
I’m pretty sure real life doesn’t go that way.
Most people, myself included, tend to be selfish. Not in a greedy way, but nature makes us tend to worry about ourselves and how A, B, Y, and Z relate to us. Self preservation. I’m honestly amazed people get together at all. I’m single, so I obviously haven’t figured it out yet, but lots of people do get together, fall in love, and have lots of sex (and sometimes babies).
So people, these selfish little beings that are worried about Me, somehow step outside of themselves to see another person. And while doing so, they fall in love, potentially creating more outside creatures that they will love, potentially more than themselves. True, they reap all sorts of benefits like being loved in return, sex, dual incomes, someone else to wash the dishes, and companionship.
Still, it’s pretty amazing. And I hope everyone who is in love treasures how great it is. And I’d love to hear how you fell in love with your significant other (or you can complain about being single, like me).
*I realize the beginning of this post doesn’t completely correlate to the end of this post, but I hope you’ll follow where my cold-infested brain was going.

On this, the Solstice

/ Alex Whitehall / Leave a comment

Every Solstice (the longest night of the year), I try to think back on the year and remember those who brought light into my life and how they did so. I know most of them don’t read this blog and I do try to show my appreciation to them in life, but this feels like a good tradition I’m building, even though some years I’m not in the mood to make a list. …so to speak.

My brother and sister-in-law for giving me 2 adorable nephews and 1 sweet niece. I’ll never be having kids, so it’s nice to know I can do my part to screw up influence the next generation. They worked hard to get and have those kids, and it’s kind of amazing every time I stop to think that they haven’t killed each other. It’s a lot of work to raise one, and they’re doing it with three. It’s amazing (and makes me feel like a bum ;).

Aleksandr Voinov for being someone to look up to and inspire. (He knows what he did 🙂

JMD for being a great friend who puts up with many random, stupid text messages through out the work day when I feel crappy or unfocused or just need to reach out and not feel so … alone. Thank you for being there, a string for me to grasp and not fall.

Rachel Haimowitz for inadvertantly getting me to go to an event I wouldn’t have gone to without some inspiration/motivation.

My parents, because even though you may drive me crazy sometimes, you’re always there if I need a car fixed, a ride, or the likes. I may not let you into most of my life, but I know you’re there for me. Just like I’m (begrudgingly) there for you.

There are many others who have done plenty of small things to make this year worth living, and I wish I could thank you all, but for fear that I may forget someone, I shant. Hopefully you know how much I appreciate what you’ve done for me and know that I’m thinking of you tonight.

New release!

/ Alex Whitehall / 1 Comment

Okay, honestly it’s my first release.

And I was so distracted by Nano that I forgot, right up until I remembered.
So, my short Christmas story, “A Gift of Mistletoe” is out in the wide world. I’m really not pushing it or anything, because I’m paranoid it’s terrible. I don’t think it’s my strongest work by far, but it’s one of the few Christmas stories I have (that isn’t terribly depressing).
So if you want to buy it (even after that, jeeze I’m a good salesperson): http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=2595
And I’m not pushing for compliments or for you to purchase it just to see how bad it is. I just felt like I should do some sort of PR on it.
Thanks for putting up with me 😉

Wake Me Up Next Week

/ Alex Whitehall / Leave a comment

It’s November 30, which means it’s the last day of Nanowrimo. So how did I do?

I won!
Which really just means I’ve reached 50,000 words. The story isn’t yet finished (although I’m not sure there will be too much more added to the end), so of course a writer friend commented, “Congrats! Now finish the book!”
Isn’t that just how it goes?
But for tonight I’m going to ride on the high of finishing 50,000 words in one month. It’s really not that hard if I cut out all the stuff I don’t really need to be doing. And if you’ll hear my confession: I procrastinated A LOT this year. Imagine if I didn’t get distracted by Angry Birds, stare blankly at Twitter for updates, and check my mail, Google Reader, Facebook, tumblr, and GoodReads every other click? I imagine I’d be just as productive, because I’d eventually get distracted by something else. (Like writing long, rambling blog entries.)
So in the month to come I hope to wrap up SWTV, write a Christmas story, and dive back into CL.
Final thought: Writers must be masochists.

Nano and pre-Nano

/ Alex Whitehall / Leave a comment
It’s halfway through November and I’m over halfway through my 50,000 words.
So far, so good.
In other good news, the short that I’d been working on before Nano decided it wanted to be finished today, so I spent some time giving it an ending. It’s only 5,800 and pretty much pure smut and probably has a fair amount of work that needs to be done to it, but we shall see.
That’s it. Tired of writing today 🙂

It’s that time of the year again

/ Alex Whitehall / 2 Comments

No, not Halloween.

Nope, not Thanksgiving either.
I’m talking about Nanowrimo, that time of the year where I become (more) antisocial, think about nothing outside of my characters and plotline, and worry myself sick over a few hundred more words.
Gotta love it!
This year’s story is tentatively called “Speak With Their Voices” (from the Poets of the Fall song “Roses”). I look forward to giving you updates on how that story progresses, and if anything shall come of it.
CL is currently with another beta who will give me feedback and, depending on what she says, I will go to a publisher or to the recycling plant (or the garbage heap!). I’m trying not to think about what she’ll say, because that just makes me worry and freak out, which does me no good!
Okay, so consider me on quiet mode for the next month, unless something exciting happens. You can find more current updates on my tumblr, which is for quick and dirty ones: http://www.tumblr.com/blog/alexwhitehall

Steve Jobs…

/ Alex Whitehall / Leave a comment

So, Steve Jobs just passed away and everyone is tweeting/writing/etc about it. I wasn’t going to do much of anything, because while I love my iPod and I work on a mac, I didn’t really feel connected to the whole thing. But then I saw a quote from him (on a “male beauty appreciation site” *coughcough*) that I wanted to share:

“…Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart…

“…Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary…”

~ Steve Jobs
(2005 Stanford Commencement Speech)

Cup o’ Ramble

/ Alex Whitehall / 4 Comments

For those of you who don’t know, I have a tumblr where I do more often updates on how my writing/editing is progressing, so I don’t clutter my blog with “I edited 2 pages this week. I suck.” And in case you care, I’m on page 127/191. I wrote 2,600 words today. Most of which might be crap, but we’ll see.

I saw a movie tonight called 29 & Gay (punning on road intersections), talking about a gay man who is 29 and unhappy with his life. Only a year behind him, it certainly hit close to home. Sure, I’m happier with my life overall than he was, but romantically, I could totally understand. So it was an interesting insight into the coupling scene. Not that I’m recommending the movie, it was overall mediocre. I’m not actually sure why I’m sharing this, only that after seeing that movie, I wrote 2,600 words. So maybe it was a good thing.
Also, you may have noticed my blog address changed from something vague and mysterious to my name. I have no idea what that does to you if you were following me. Sorry!

ETA: I just realized I forgot to mention that I sold a short story! I’m doing edits on it this week then sending it back to the publisher!