On "what the hell have you been up to?" - An A to Z post

It's been - several - months since I've posted here. I always have these great plans about writing here, and then life finds a way to distract. So, as part recap of 2014, part what I'm looking forward to in 2015, part journal, part whatever I feel like calling it, I'm posting an A to Z list. We shall call it the What the Hell Have You Been Up To? Or WtHHYBUT? for short.

Arrow
I will be the first to admit that when I heard that Arrow was going to be on CW my first thought was "teeny bopper drama, NEXT." But something (I honestly don't remember what) got me to sit through a few episodes, which turned into binge-watching seasons 1 and 2 and watching season 3 now live.  This is good stuff. They made him a little Batman-ish, but that's not so bad.

Brandon Sanderson
I try to write sometimes. And then I read Brandon Sanderson and feel a complete and utter failure. Man, this guy is good. I was behind so I read both The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance this year (as well as his YA books). Just read his books. All of them. Any of them. But particularly the Starlight Archives books.

Cinemas
Quiet year for the movies for me.  Seen a good number. Just nothing I feel worth talking about too much. Good movies were generally the ones you'd expect from me. The Hobbit, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America. I suppose John Wick was an unexpected surprise of a good, fun movie.

Dungeons & Dragons
Nerd card admission time. This is the first time I've ever played D&D. Just never seemed like it would be my thing. A friend in town wanted to start a new game and asked if I'd like to join and I finally just said "why not?" So. Much. Fun. And an excuse to write. I think I've written around 30 pages of backstory for my character. Dwarf Fighter incase you were wondering. And yes, my first act was to go to the bar and get a drink.

Expanse
This gets two nods. 1) Cibola Burn came out (book... number...  four?). And it was one of the best of the series in my opinion. And 2) the TV show starts in 2015 on SyFy. Trailer is out now. Go look it up. Then sit and wait as impatiently as I am.

FOOTBALL!!!!
It needs to be said that way.  Got a few Ravens games on TV up here (I don't live in Baltimore). And they made it to the playoffs, only to lose to Evil Little Bill (as GRRM calls him) and the Pats. /grumble.

Game of Thrones
Continues to be on TV. I continue to watch it. And continue to wait while GRRM does everything but write the next book. I'm not buying that coffee table book. No way I'm supporting him stalling the next book even longer.  I'll think about it after Winds of Winter comes out though. I like big coffee table books.

Hunger Games
I was not a huge fan of the books. Just. Not. Thought the first one was ok. But from there, meh. Not that it was awful. Just wasn't for me. But the movie was good. And then the second movie was really good. I know the first part of the third movie (why do we keep splitting third movies into two?) is out, but I haven't seen it yet.  Looking forward to it though.

I should probably have used H to talk about The Hobbit. Oops.

Joe Abercrombie
Binge-read the First Law books. I don't know why I was so reluctant to read them. I had heard countless recommendations for him. Was already following him on Twitter. Just never felt the urge to pick up the books.  Did. Loved them. Third was my favorite, so worth sticking it out if you haven't read all of them.

Keep moving.

Lawrence, Mark
If I want to cheat and use last names for some and first names for others, I can. It's my blog. Bugger off. No, don't do that. I'm sorry.  Keep reading. (Deckard Cain voice) Stay awhile and listen. So, this was a year of Mark Lawrence. I was rather far behind with his books and read all four in 2014. Prince, King & Emperor of Thorns. Prince of Fools. All good stuff. Thorns if you like the bad guy anti-hero type. Fools if you like the humorous anti-hero type. And the next Fools book is out in 2015, so there's that to look forward to.  Pretty sure I reviewed the Thorns books on here. Not sure I did Fools. SO. FAR. BEHIND. on book reviewing.

Marvel
Yeah. Insert something Marvel did here.  Awesome.  Next.

Netflix
Binge watching TV shows? Check. Weird movies I'd never go to theaters to see? Check. Wasting huge chucks of time in front of the television? Why not? I watched Troll Hunter. Yeah. I don't think I can say anything else. I might be a TV addict. And it'll be worse in April with Daredevil (see M), Game of Thrones, ... ... ...

On to the next one.

Puppy
Got a puppy.  Forgot how much work they are. But he's cute. And he's definitely not a Schnoodle. He's a Giant Schnauzer mix. What's he mixed with? A Standard Poodle. So, a Schnoodle? No. Be quiet you. Maybe a Giant Schnoodle. Speaking of... time to walk said pooch.

Q-Bert
Just because.

Rothfuss, Patrick
While we wait for the third book of the Kingkiller Chronicles. And wait. And wait. And wait. *Looks at watch* Still waiting. Pat has released The Slow Regard of Silent Things. I'm not sure I need to mention this here. The book has been getting much praise. And for good reason. However, it's not for everyone. I just happen to like the playful language. Plot people shouldn't go for it.

Study
So, I am going to take my PMP (Project Management Professional) in 2015 (goal is for June, but we will see). How not bloggy for me to talk about work stuff.  This is supposed to be my escape.  Oh well. So, once I get studying for that you'll likely get some radio silence from me (again). But the bills must be paid, so...  yeah.

Twitter
Jumped on the Twitter thing. Don't use it too often. Follow / reply to people more than I post my own thoughts. Do put up some random comments or word counts or playing with the trending stuff. So, some activity. I use the Twitter under @DougCFisher. Think it might be time to remove the Szever name from this and just call it like it is.  Hi, I'm Doug. And I'm outta heeeeeere.  Maybe someone will get that.  Maybe Szever sticks around and the Doug name gets buried with this post.  We shall see.

U2
2014. The year that U2 clogged our iDevices. Listened to it once. Yup. That's it. I think they apologized for that afterwards.

VNV Nation
A new album out for VNV. Transnational. Typical VNV album. Two or three really strong songs...  Retaliate...  Awesome. Then the rest on the slower end. Not that slow = bad. But, I just love a nice strong beat.

Writing
Very, very, very slowly. Currently at 9,100 words though and the story has barely begun, so shaping up to be something big.

X-Men
Ok, so I saw the latest X-Men installment.  Meh. What I'm really looking forward to are X-Force and Deadpool. Thank you, Fox for FINALLY getting Deadpool going. Took long enough.

Yo Gabba Gabba
Kids are now 5 and 2 (almost 3). I think I've seen every episode of Yo Gabba Gabba 100 times over.  Been watching it since the older one was an infant.  Still going.

Z...  zebras? zoo? zodiac? zero... ZERO!  I got nothing for Z.

Now I know my A, B, C's...

One Word Wednesday - Kingkiller Chronicles

Decided to make a game (ok, possibly rip off a game from elsewhere, but that's neither here nor there) in order to help myself post a little more and to tackle topics that may not come up during the course of a book/movie review and/or genre rant.  Feel free to jump in.  

Rules:  

Every Wednesday one question will be asked.  You must answer this question in one word.  To further your point, your one word answer may be accompanied by one picture.  One question, one word, one picture.  We'll call it One Word Wednesday.  Easy.  You may explain your word in a sentence or two at the end of the post.  

One Word Wednesday:

It's hard not to use this to make another OHMYGODBENAFFLECKISBATMAN post.  Let's let that go for a while.  Instead, let's go back a little further to a tidbit of news that was released surrounding San Diego Comic Con that never got much follow-up.  It was announced that New Regency Productions and 20th Century Fox Television have optioned Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles to develop a drama series.  The only names currently attached are in the Executive Producer and Producer roles.

In one word, describe your reaction to the adaptation of Rothfuss' masterpiece.

DANGER!

I can't help but feel the transformation of Rothfuss' beautiful and complex world will never live up to the standards I'd expect with handling this masterpiece of modern literature.  Game of Thrones has set the bar high and I seriously hope the production team shows the Kingkiller Chronicles the respect it deserves.  

On A Game

Earlier (On Purpose) I proposed seven purposes to strive for during the year.  Those are long term goals that are in various stages of completion (some doomed to fail, but that's besides the point).  For this, I want to keep track of what is capturing my interest.  Consider it an advertisement (maybe an endorsement as that sounds less promoting and more publicizing) for the components of the daily grind that I find worthy of distinguished discussion.

Seven seals of approval (and some speculation):

Do you want to play a game?

Reading:

If you have been looking over this collection of thoughts/comments/reviews you will have seen by now that I am currently reading The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks.  This is book two of The Lightbringer series, and still not having finished the second book, I fully recommend picking these up.  Book one (The Black Prism) is the first book mentioned on this list of good fantasy books with horrible covers.  

13 Fantasy Novels That Are Good Despite Their Covers

As an aside, there are several other books on this list I would recommend:

The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch

The Warded Man - Peter V. Brett

The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss (cannot recommend this enough.  If you haven't read it, ignore everything else I've typed up to this point and pick this up)

Overview:

Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world.  He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace.  Yet Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live.

When Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he's willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.

Review:

That is a terrible representation of this book, which contains political and religious intrigue, a unique magic system (seriously, "Chromaturgy is going to blow your mind" - Brent Weeks (ok, so the author may be biased, but it is certainly the most interesting magic I have read)), and numerous twists and turns that will leave you both frustrated (in a good way) and exhilarated.  This is the best book I've read this year, and book two is keeping pace.  

Writing:

Other than work-related memos, you're reading the extent of my recreational writing.  Land & Sea may be dead in the water (no pun intended), at least for now.

Picture quasi-related

Watching:

Currently Mega Piranha is on TV - but I wouldn't recommend this to anyone but LE (she loves this giant sea creature stuff - Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus starring Deborah Gibson; sign her up!).  Instead, I will go backwards a few months and mention a show LE and I binge-watched.  Sherlock - the far superior BBC modern take on Sherlock Holmes compared to our Elementary.  

You may recognize the two stars at this point.  Benedict Cumberbatch (who plays Sherlock) is getting quite a few gigs now-a-days being in the currently in theaters Star Trek movie, and voicing Smaug in the coming Hobbit sequel.  Speaking of The Hobbit, Watson (played by Martin Freeman) is Bilbo Baggins in the new Hobbit trilogy.

Storyline:

In this modernized version of the Conan Doyle characters, using his detective plots, Sherlock Holmes lives in early 21st century London and acts more cocky towards Scotland Yard's detective inspector Lestrade because he's actually less confident.  Doctor Watson is now a fairly young veteran of the Afghan war, less adoring and more active.

Note: The each TV season is three two-hour episodes.  

Review:

Again, a terrible synopsis.  Who writes these things?  Sherlock is sharp, sarcastic, and fully averse and yet subject to ennui until cases worthy of his talents arise.  Picture young Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark as Sherlock Holmes.  No, not quite right.  Review:  Watch me.  

Drinking:

Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy.  

I first noticed this existed when dining at a chain restaurant (TGI Friday's, Chili's, Applebee's...  I honestly don't remember which).  I happened to be on a work lunch, and therefore couldn't indulge, but I kept the idea in the back of mind knowing that barbecue season was around the corner and there's nothing like a cold one with grilled meat.  After a rough week, LE requested an alcoholic escape from reality, so upon obliging and delivering a bottle of Kraken Rum for her, I picked up a six pack of this Lemonade Beer for myself.

Overview:

A Shandy is a beer brewed with a little something extra.  Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy is crisp wheat beer brewed with natural lemonade flavor which makes it a perfect summertime refresher for those sun-splashed summer days.

Review:

Not caring overly much for the bitterness of most beers, the mixture with lemonade makes this easy to drink for us "tasters" (something about tasters tend to be picky eaters/drinkers because tastes are stronger for them).  The company also makes a Lemon Berry Shandy - must remember to pick this up for a test drink.

Waiting:

Oh, Tom Petty, you know exactly what to say.  The Waiting is the hardest part.  

Here's my watch list:

Books:

Joyland - Stephen King (June 4th)

Abaddon's Gate - James S.A. Corey (June 4th)

The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman (June 18th)

Codex Born - Jim C. Hines (August 6th)

The Republic of Thieves - Scott Lynch (September 3rd)

Steelheart - Brandon Sanderson (September 24th)

The Winds of Winter - George R.R. Martin (hopefully before he dies)

The Doors of Stone - Patrick Rothfuss (not anytime soon)

Movies:

Iron Man 3 (Quiet, you!)

Star Trek: Into Darkness (Again, silence!)

Man of Steel (June 14th)

Monsters University (June 21st...  for Crabcakes, really)

Pacific Rim (July 12)

Wolverine (July 26)

Thor: The Dark World (November)

TV:

Game of Thrones (no episode for Memorial Day weekend)

Under the Dome (June 24th on CBS)

Sherlock season 3 (tbd)

Downton Abbey (tbd)

Music:

Tool (maybe before the end of 2013?)

Playing:

Running with Friends

Overview:

Running with Friends has you partaking in the famous Running of the Bulls and as you run away from the pack of charging bulls you'll also need to avoid other obstacles which include fruit carts, other players running for their lives, trains and more.  Along the way, there's your usual star and letter bonus pickups.  Your runs are graded both by distance and the number of stars you pick up, and completing words by picking up all of the letters earns you gems.  Combined, this will give you experience points to level up and gems which can be used to resurrect yourself or buy new avatars.  

Review:

Like Temple Run only touch-based instead of tilting.  A fun quick game if you have a few spare minutes to kill.  The downfall is that there is no single player mode.  You are limited to either challenging your Facebook friends (assuming any are playing) or picking up loads of random matches so that you have games available to play when you are looking to jump in.

Thinking:

It's nearly lunch time.

On a Version of Writer's Block

I read somewhere that writer's block doesn't exist (it does), and to a certain extent I agree (and it doesn't).  I think when most people think about writer's block they imagine sitting in front of a computer and just not knowing where to even begin.  But it's more than that.  It's perfectionism (face it, you are not going to get it right on the first try).  It's fear (not everyone is going to love what you have to say).  When you can get past these things, I think that version of writer's block is passable.  You fight through it one word at a time.  Words become sentences, become paragraphs, become chapters.  They needn't be perfect.  That's what editing is for (but no one wants to think beyond the first draft - I'm guilty of this myself). 

Yet as I am typing this now, I am writing at a time when I feel the pressure of that invisible block upon me (and maybe part of me is writing this as a distraction from doing the actual work of progressing things).  However, in this case, I know the problem and namely it's Naming. 

Someone said "names are important" and I firmly believe that (all bow to Patrick Rothfuss in acknowledgment of his awesome).  With some characters, all they have is their name.  So, even though I have 3,500 words (give or take) of a first chapter (for now it's a first chapter, but I've already taken a first chapter and bookmarked it for later on) written down, progress has come to a standstill.  Do I know where I want the story to go?  Yes (I have a general direction in mind anyway - sometimes not having everything figured out helps because the characters don't always want to listen to you...  but that's another story).  So, what's my problem?  I haven't named EVERYTHING yet, and I just can't bring myself to write something along the lines of "and the King of (Island Not Yet Named) turns to (Character Not Yet Named) and..." Sometimes you can get by naming something later (hell, this blog is titled Insert Title Here - was titled that...  we will see if the new title sticks), but with the bulk of the nouns you're dealing with unnamed it doesn't really work. 

I already know who the main POV characters are in title, in physical description.  I've started giving them personalities, traits, backgrounds (or have they been giving that information to me?).  They are becoming more than their clothes, profession, political titles (I seem to have a problem with the word "and" at the end of my lists).  Yet I can't figure out their names and without that, the story is behind the block - now picturing my story trapped under a giant children's block of wood carved with various letters (likely F and U are visible).  I've scanned baby-naming books, web sites, movies and novels.  Nothing feels right yet. 

On top of that, the scale of the story that is clawing it's way out of my head is grander than anything I have handled before.  Maybe that comes from all the George R R Martin I've been reading/watching lately (though I would never even begin to compare myself to such a master).  I'm an amateur and I know it.  I have a day job I am fond of (at least I tell myself that to help the days go by).  Regardless, I count at least six POV characters (only two of which have been named thus far), another 10 - 15 that require more in depth characterization (two or three names done), nine land names (one I am happy with), 12 or so ship names (three done), etc. 

Why is writing so hard when we've all been doing it since we were children?  It's work.  It takes time other than the time you spend actually typing (or hand-writing, as I had always been prone to do until not too long ago) the story to research names, customs, diction, etc. (throw an "etc." on and you don't need an "and" anymore!). 

So may this post exist as a reminder to (what the hell are you still doing typing here?! Get back to work!)