This LiveJournal is here mainly so I can comment on other LiveJournal entries. I have my "official" journal at my main Web site at michaeljasper.net. If you want to keep up with my entries over there but still use your LiveJournal Friends list to do so, please add my syndicated feed to your Friends list. Also, if you wanna get an email of my latest journal entries, sign up for my "FeedBurner Email Subscription."

Thanks for reading!

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I've been feeling a bit tired of having so many various Web sites and places to post my blatherings, so I've decided to simplify. I won't be using this LJ anymore -- I'd delete it outright, but I wanted to keep it to comment on other LiveJournal entries -- and I'll use my "official" journal at my main Web site at michaeljasper.net.

If you want to keep up with my entries over there but still use your LiveJournal Friends list to do so, please add my syndicated feed to your Friends list.

Also, if you wanna get an email of my latest journal entries, sign up for my "FeedBurner Email Subscription."

And lastly, I'm dismantling my Friends list, just because I'm not even reading half of the entries. It's just one more thing to keep up with, and I find myself not enjoying it much. I have a group of journals I like to read, and I prefer reading them in a non-syndicated, non-Friends-list-y way. It's also nice seeing the sites the way people designed them.

What can I say -- I'm a sucky LJ blogger. ;)

And now -- I'm thinking about getting rid of Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and all that other distracting shit.

I'm always interested in journals that discuss the writing process, and when it's a writer I know and respect, I'm hooked. Prolific author and storyteller Dean Wesley Smith has been blogging for a couple years now, and I love reading his journal. I've been to two workshops led by either him or his wife, Kris Rusch, and he seems to be as fascinated with the writing process as I am.

(Kris also keeps a great journal as well, and she's been writing about writing lately too. And when Dean and Kris talk, I tend to listen -- they've been writing fiction full-time for a few decades now.)

Recently, in preparation for the new year, Dean has been writing about setting goals. Some of the stuff he covers in his entries are geared more toward new writers or people who wanna be writers, but I'm finding a lot of it relevant. I highly recommend his journal, and Dean's goal entries (three of 'em so far) are a great place to start:

• Goals. How to Even Think About Them


• Goals. Making Them Real


• A Personal Example of How to Set Goals

I can really relate to that last entry, when Dean is talking about tackling huge jobs. Seems like lately, I've got a lot of long-term projects on my plate, whether it's writing a novel, trying to lose weight, or trying to pay off credit-card debt. All three of these things are very slow processes that stretch out for years, really, and it's hard to see the end. Nothing like having THREE elephants to eat (read his entries and you'll know what I'm talking about).

Meanwhile, I finally finished up pesky chapter 12 on my magic novel this morning, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out (even if my word count is going DOWN instead of up - it's a temporary thing). I'm still having a lot of fun with this book, and finding lots more places to add bits and pieces to set up my characters for the ending, and hopefully for books 2 and 3. Whoo!

The word-o-meter sez:

Yeah, I'm still around, just getting caught up on stuff here and there. Trying to keep up with journals and all that.

Here's a new journal entry over at my main site: Getting it Right

And just wanted to give a quick update about my book A Gathering of Doorways. It's still not out yet. Still doesn't have a cover, but it's being worked on. I'm hoping for the end of the year. We're verrry close. Fingers crossed! Later...

Read all about it here. Fellow author Kelly Gay really seemed to get what I was shooting for in this book.

This was my favorite line from her review: " The reality of the Anderson's life -- their current struggles and haunting past -- blends and bleeds perfectly into Jasper's strange paranormal landscape."

Thanks for reading and posting, Kelly! Looking forward to YOUR book coming out next year!

Here are some recent entries I've been too brain-fried to copy over here to this ol' journalable:

Paul Jessup Weighs in on A Gathering of Doorways

Sort of Like Where's Waldo

Hey Look, Blurbage!

Enjoy! And let's bring on the weekend already, eh?

New post over at my main journal: "One year, already!"

Obama adds symbolic NC victory to White House win.

Awesome! My Election Day wishes all came true! Who needs Christmas? Obama won the state by a 13,000-vote margin. I'm glad I did my Get Out the Vote gig on Tuesday.

It's nice living in a Blue state.

I'm burning a Personal Day at the day job tomorrow so I can volunteer in Wake Forest and help people vote. Not sure what I'll be doing yet, but it should be quite awesome. North Carolina has become a swing state, so I want to do all I can tomorrow so I don't feel like I didn't do my part in getting the right people elected... Wish I'd done the same in 2000. And 2004... But I digress.

Not sure where to go? Start at Get Out the Vote!

Or for Obama fans: Vote for Change. :)

What to watch for while you're in line:



Edited to ADD -- now with actual links!

Some more nice news just rolled in today -- my interview at the Fangs, Fur, & Fey Web site is now live! Fellow author Devon Monk asked some great questions about my new book, and I tried to give some pithy-sounding answers.

I sorta like this description of how I look at the revising process:

I like seeing the months or years of work start to come together, like the last few months of work on a skyscraper, as all the windows and glass are put in place and the steel infrastructure disappears, leaving you with a gleaming tower full of secret rooms and amazing views in a place that used to be empty space.

Read more here!

After reading over this interview, along with my nifty Booklist review recently, I'm starting to really get excited about seeing A Gathering of Doorways in print now. The release got pushed back a couple weeks due to issues with the cover, but I'm hoping by mid-November you'll be able to snag yourself a copy of my "(dis)comfort reading" novel...

I'm still getting up early and plugging away at the novel, though today I was sorely tempted to sleep in. And so far so good -- it's 6:15 and the boys are still asleep!

Meanwhile, I made some great progress today on a flashback/dream sequence between my main character Kait and her grandfather. Grampa told a story about a fellow tunnel rat in Nam, then he got ready to give her something. Then Kait woke up...

Snippet:

He saw a city built on sand, he called it, thousands of boxy little dwellings on stilts, made of green wood, houses that swayed with the tides of a dark blue ocean. As he stared, a red and orange fish the size of a small whale leaped out of the ocean to snatch a bird that looked like a cross between a pelican and a pink flamingo from the sky, swallowing it whole.

Words, words, words:

Back to the morning...

Four posts today over on my regular journal. Again, I'm too lazy to copy n paste.

Did I mention I have a LJ syndicated feed for my main site that you can subscribe to? Cuz I'm not sure how much longer I'll be keeping up this back and forth thingie...

Anyhoo, check it out: http://michaeljasper.wordpress.com/journal/

Well, as my recharging-the-batteries portion of writing this novel has come to an end (at some point I ended up taking a two-week break, for various and sundry reasons), I wanted to point folks to my main website, where I have some fun stuff for you to check out. Plus I'm too lazy to cross-post 'em.

More actual content coming soon, including some or maybe all of a review from Booklist for A GATHERING OF DOORWAYS that pretty much kicks ass (and calls me a "rising star"! Woo!).

But for now, clicky clicky, eh?

Cornstalk Gypsies: The Iowa Flood Relief Anthology is available for purchase! 100% of the proceeds from this anthology will go towards relief of individuals, businesses, cities, and schools affected by the 2008 summer floods in Iowa. More info at the Relief Anthology site.

The list of authors: Sarah Prineas (hey SarahP!), Michael Jasper, Carrie Jones, Dr. Catherine Schaff-Stump (hullo!), Joya Mannan (Hi Joya!), Ann M. Nguyen, Tyson Chaney and Shalanna Collin.

Cornstalk Gypsies is a 230 page science-fiction/fantasy anthology. It is available through lulu.com in perfect bound A5 format ($13.00 USD + Shipping) or digital download, .pdf format (4.95 USD).

Science-fiction for a cause.

Thanks to How Not To Write, I've joined up!

Oh boy. I guess I have no choice but to finish my book now...



(NaNoWriMo is the nickname for National Novel Writing Month, which is November, which is when I hope to write the rest of my Maps and Legends novel.)

That as of yesterday morning, our four-year-old Drew has renamed his younger brother Mitch (almost 1 year old!) to the following: Mitchie Misghetti Meatball.

Please update your contact lists accordingly.

That is all.

The plan for October:

1. Write fast.
2. Write for two hours a day.
3. Throw down 2,000 words in those two hours.
4. Write fast. Don't stop and think too much about it. Just write.
5. 2,000 words equals eight double-spaced pages a day.
6. Write fast. Worry about putting it all together and having it make sense later.
7. 31 days at 2,000 words a day = 62,000 words or about 250 pages. Not. Too. Shabby.
8. Plan out what I want to write about each day. Set that goal and meet it. Then write a little bit extra to make the next day's writing easier.
9. Write fast. Turn off the Google Email Notifiers and stay off the Net! Crank the music and write while everyone else is asleep. This is fun, remember?
10. Get the story down on paper first, then worry about editing and revising. You can't edit nor revise thin air.

And then, after the Halloween candy has been gathered and the last of the goblins and spooks have tumbled off to bed, I'd be really, really happy to have a rough first draft of my Maps and Legends novel. Is that too much to ask?

I think not.

In an attempt to cut down on my goofing-off time online, I've made the move. I deactivated my FaceBook page, which I wasn't enjoying anyway, because every time I was there, checking various people's updates and status message, I felt like I should've been doing something else. Something more productive. Like reading DailyKos or something... ;)

I'm trying to whittle down the distractions to a bare minimum, so I almost got rid of my Twitter account, but darn, I do kinda enjoy those little mini-blog entries as the day progresses. So Twitter escaped my deactivation wrath. For now.

Basically, I'm cutting down my online surfing to the following sites:

• My Gmail account, just because I live for email


• My LiveJournal Friends list, which is still the best way to read a bunch of journals I enjoy, quickly (I did get rid of some journals recently, and I hope nobody I cut out took offense!)


• DailyKos, because I'm totally addicted to the presidential race right now (I'm sure I'll slack off after Election Day)


• My Yahoo home page, for news and stuff


• My Google Calendar, because I have to plan out everything

And that's about it. No more social networking for me! I'm a free, un-networked entity. Woo hoo!