Behind the Scenes

I’m moving!

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That’s right!  Not that the blog is moving, but I am moving, out in the real world!  The physical world.  The world outside the internet.

I’m not moving far – just across town – but most of my stuff is currently stored away in boxes.  I’ve got approximately 48 hours to move the contents of a two bedroom apartment, packed into the space of a one bedroom apartment, into a different apartment.

I feel like I’ve been saying the word apartment too much.  Apartment. A part mint.  Like an entire building – but only part of it.

You might be able to tell that my thoughts are a little scattered at the moment. Continue reading →

Happy Freedom Day!

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That’s right, it’s the Fourth of July!

In celebration of freedom, I’m giving myself a FREE PASS from writing a blog post today.  So, if you’re reading this… sorry!

Posts will resume on Wednesday.

New appearance, new features!

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Check it out!  Missing Brains, the blog, now has a new and updated look!

We’ve moved over to WordPress, and there will be more features hopefully coming up over the next few days to weeks.  Soon, you may see more Twitter integration, a linked Patreon page where you can support your favorite blog author, more tags, and other new advances I haven’t fully thought of yet.

The address should stay the same, although many of the links may be changed and may be broken; I’ll be working to repair those.

Stay tuned!

Missing Brains: 2016 Edition

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New Year’s Goals

That’s right, it’s the new year!  2016, baby!  And there’s going to be some changes around Missing Brains (here).

Schedule

First off, scheduling.  Missing Brains, the blog, is sticking with a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule.  Three posts a week!

However, since I beat the 52 book challenge last year, I’m going to be doing something different with the Monday posts.  Instead of providing a book summary each week along with my thoughts, I’ll be keeping to the following schedule:

Monday: I’m going to be telling a serial story, called The Amateur’s Guide to the Apocalypse, in segments.  I’ll post a new segment, about a thousand words per update, every Monday.  Hopefully, the story will end at exactly 52,000 words.

Wednesday: Wednesday will be a short story, with a theme focusing on real life.

Friday: Friday will also have a short story update, but Friday’s theme will focus on the fantastic, science fiction or fantasy themed.

Other improvements

Twitter: Missing Brains is going to have a twitter handle!  Of course, it won’t be @MissingBrains, since that’s my personal handle – but maybe I’ll make @MissingBrainsBlog into a channel.  I’ll hopefully attract a larger audience through Twitter.

RSS: I don’t really know how RSS works, but I’m going to try and use it.

New Website Design: In the works, probably not coming for a while.

Patreon: This is a new thing – when I’m not writing, I’m a graduate student.  Notably, neither graduate students nor writers make much money.  That’s why I’m going to see about setting up a Patreon, so that readers (you) can fund writers (me!), to help me afford to keep on writing!  I’ve never set one of these up before, so we’ll see how it works out.

The future

Can I keep this up?  Will my well of inspiration run dry?  We’ll find out – together!

Planning: An Amateur’s Guide to the Apocalypse [AGttA]

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Author’s note: I’m not yet done with my current novel (Apocalypse Before Coffee, coming soon!), but I’m already plotting out my next story.  I’m starting with a working title:

An Amateur’s Guide to the Apocalypse

The book is going to be divided up into several chapters, each one built around a different “survival tip” for the Apocalypse, the Biblical end of the world!  The main story, however, will follow a single character, a young man, as he attempts to journal his continued existence as the world comes crumbling down around him.

Ten essential steps to surviving the Apocalypse:

  1. Remain calm.  Take stock of your surroundings.
  2. Gather supplies.
  3. Search for other survivors.
  4. Keep clear and open communications.
  5. Learn as much as possible.
  6. Formulate a long-term plan.
  7. Remain positive.
  8. Adapt to setbacks.
  9. Don’t lose hope.
  10. Find what makes you happy.
The book will be split into ten smaller sections, each one based around one of these ten steps.  The rest of the story will be in the form of a journal, kept by the main character, Quinn, as he attempts to stick to his ten ‘easy steps’ – or, at least, survive!

Unfortunately for Quinn, surviving the Apocalypse isn’t quite as easy as the ten-step survival guide makes it sound…

I plan on writing many of these chapters as blog posts, so stay tuned for more information – coming soon!

NaNoWriMo winner, 2015 edition!

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Another National Novel Writing Month challenge bites the dust!

That’s right, I just passed 50,000 words on my latest novel!  And all of it done in under 30 days, with an average of approximately 2,300 words per day.  Not bad at all!

Of course, the novel’s not done yet.  50,000 words is a good start, but I’ve probably got 10k more to go before the story’s wrapped up.

And then comes editing, and cover design, and compiling, and rewriting…

Still, I’m pretty proud!

"Danni California" is now available as an ebook!

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“The girl’s eyes widened – just as I pulled the trigger…”
It’s the end of the nineteenth century in a growing nation, and unrest is close at hand. Jasper might wear the high collar of a priest, but he’s a trained killer, highly paid to assassinate anyone troubling the shadowy Organization. He’s just received his latest target: a young female redhead robbing banks from Mississippi to Illinois. 
But as Jasper hunts his flame-haired mark, he finds himself growing closer to her. Danni is smart, sassy, and sensual—even when Jasper’s looking down the barrel of her Colt. 
As fate pulls the robber and the assassin closer together, they find comfort in each other’s arms. But can these two outlaws hope to stand together as the nation’s forces rally against them?

That’s right!  The story I’ve been telling on here for 25+ posts is now its own ebook, available for purchase on Amazon.com!  And it’s less than a dollar!
So, want to support your local, organic, GMO-free, whole grain blogger?  Pick up a copy by clicking the link above!

Angels planning post (behind the scenes, novel 1)

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One of my goals for 2015: Write 3 novels.

One of these novels will be in November for NaNoWriMo.

Given as how I will be totally burned out by December, however, the other two will have to come out earlier.  Fortunately, since November is the eleventh month, this still gives me five months per novel,, as long as I also spend a bit of time fleshing out the outline for NNWM.

Novel 1?  I’ve always wanted to publish all of my stories about angels; selfishly, I believe that these stories include some of my better writing, as well as a few rare moments when my humor actually seems to work.

I even have a cover in mind (not that I’m sharing that yet!).

The issue, however, is that most of these stories are quite disconnected.  Here are the stories that I have so far, in reverse order:

  1. Tough Love – a man on a blind date instead meets his guardian angel, who turns out to be a bit of an asshole.
  2. Do Computers Speak to Angels? – an angel tries to bring a computer into a coffee shop.  It doesn’t work.
  3. D’oops’day – the Apocalypse was supposed to be yesterday.  Fortunately, no one remembered.
  4. Hell’s IT (2 posts) – turns out devils aren’t so good with technology either.
  5. Lucifer’s Gift (3 posts) – a dream in which the devil appears to hand out the apple of sin.  It doesn’t end up going quite as planned.
  6. Welcome to Heaven!  Now What (unfinished) – Heaven turns out to be rather dull.
  7. Blake Meets Ophiel (Ophiel series) – short excerpt of a human meeting an angel.
  8. Blake and Lucifer Have Dinner – segment where human (from #7, above) has dinner with Lucifer.
  9. Guarding the Borders of Heaven – Angels are vigilant border guards.
  10. The Vault Theft – chapter 1 of an earlier attempt at this novel that I abandoned.
  11. Ambition (2 posts) – a devil steals a man’s ambition, and dares an angel to figure out what’s missing.
  12. Azrael & Mephistopheles (2 posts) – the yearly meeting of an archangel and devil.
  13. In A Perfect World… – a guardian angel explains why the “perfect world” didn’t work.
  14. Cold Blooded Humans? – a guardian angel (#13) points out that cold-blooded humans were an early experiment.
  15. The Angel On the Train (2 posts) – everyone has bad days – even angels.
  16. Barista To The Angels (2 posts) – a coffee shop begins getting unexpected visitors.
  17. Heavenly Grounds – initial write, narrator interjecting with history, of #16.
  18. The Angel at the Press Conference – Fear not!  God exists, he’s just off somewhere on vacation!  Probably.
  19. Mis-Filing Has Serious Consequences… (2 posts, unconcluded) – an angel and a devil chase after a stolen tablet.
  20. Calcifer on Karma (2 posts) – Calcifer explains how karma works.
  21. The Roman Army Upgrade – Calcifer tries to teach the Romans to ride a bike.
  22. Calcifer’s Intrusion (2 posts) – Calcifer’s favorite coffee shop is invaded by an angel!  This is his space!
  23. Calcifer’s Haunt (2 posts) – Calcifer proves that he’s a devil to coffee shop girl.
  24. Soul Harvesting Difficulties – a reaper demon pops up in a supermarket, determined to gather souls.  The visitors are determined to mow him down with carts to get to their deals.
  25. Lucern’s Little Whoopsie (2 posts) – Lucern misses one teeny, tiny little asteroid.  No big deal.
  26. The Coffee Shop of Vice and Iniquity – the post that started it all!  Is a soul worth a grande latte?
26 posts, with lots of raw material.  Now, to organize it into some semblance of a story.  That’s the challenge…

On lateness, and the end of the year

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Okay, okay, settle down.  Let’s have a nice, easy press conference, okay?  God, my head is still killing me.  That’s off the record.  Don’t write that down.

Okay, you.  Go.

“Sir, where was the post scheduled for Monday?”

Right.  I’ll be honest with you, here.  I’m on vacation for the end of the year, so I left it off until Sunday or so.  I was going to write a post on Sunday evening – even had the idea all planned out – and then I felt a queasiness starting in my gut.

Long story short, let’s just say that I should probably lay off the homemade Hollandaise sauce for a while.  You get me?

Salmonella.  Nausea, vomiting, spewing liquid out of both ends at once.  Really not a pleasant time.  Nothing like sitting on the john, pants around your ankles, clutching a garbage can to your chest as you try and catch all of the-

-well, it was pretty bad.  I’ll leave it at that.  Next question.

“If this is Wednesday’s post, isn’t this a bit of a cop-out?”

Yeah, I suppose so, but hey, I just had food poisoning.  Suck it.

Besides, there will probably be one up for Friday.  Maybe.  Aren’t you lot supposed to be off visiting friends and family, enjoying yourselves, instead of harping on a blog?

“What’s in store for next year, sir?  And I love your work, by the way!”

Thank you!  Those are some kind words, imaginary reporter I’m voicing.

This next year will hold a few changes for Missing Brains!  I’m looking to do the following:

1. Complete the 52 book challenge – that is, read 52 books a year!  That comes down to one a week.  And to keep myself motivated on that, Monday’s post will often be a short review of one of the recently completed books.

2. Not only do I want to write more Angels posts, but I’m going to be shaping them together into a collection!  Expect to see more stories, including some with a unifying arc that connects the different stories together.  Coming soon to Amazon!

3. Plenty of posts about science fiction!

So stay tuned, as this blog enters its SECOND FULL YEAR of existence, providing mostly regular updates, assuming I don’t get poisoned again!