Work in Progress, Progress

Today marks exactly one month since I decided to start maintaining a consistent daily word count.  That is the longest I have ever gone without at least taking a day off. I have been tempted several times, but so far so good.

I started with a very modest 250 words per day goal. Sometimes writers sabotage themselves by tackling a goal that causes them to burn out quickly. I thought that 250 words was easily do-able for a couple of weeks, which is what I have heard is the length of time required to build a habit. After that, I began increasing my daily word count by 125 words per week. Ultimately, I hope to hit at least 2000 words per day.

Many people write far more than that. Some produce 5000, 10,000, and more. If I can manage more, great. I want to take it one step at a time though. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Or, as a man I once knew often said, “Aim for one percent better per day.”

I might be jinxing myself for posting the progress on my horror novel, but here is the meter so far.

Father's Day

My Father's Day presents. Happy day to my fellow fathers out there!

Star Trek and Candyman Autographs

I stumbled across these today in my files and thought I would share. I met several of the Star Trek cast in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Chase Masterson is one of the nicest people I have ever met, celebrity or otherwise. Star Trek fans will probably remember her as Leeta from Deep Space Nine.

I did not get to talk much with John de Lancie ("Q"). He was nice but quiet.

Tony Todd is very cool. As seen here, he is Candyman, but he was also Worf's brother Kurn from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. When I met him, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen had just premiered. (He was the voice of The Fallen.) I did not want to bother him and be all star struck, so I got my autograph and proceeded to move on. He stopped me, shook my hand, and asked me whether I had seen Transformers. I told him my wife and I had seen it just the previous night. He asked what we thought about the movie, and he continued to talk with me for several minutes. I hear so many stories about celebrities being rude.  Tony Todd is 100% class.

The Writer Who Sketches

          Back in March, my mother-in-law got word of an art contest, hosted by a local merchant. She encouraged me to sign up. Actually, she told my wife, “Sam needs to enter this.” It was more ultimatum than encouragement. Bless her heart.

          Well, I am by no means a professional artist. I like fiddling with art supplies. Once, I even considered a career as an illustrator after my boss at the Native American casino where I was marketing director let me design a few advertisements. But I found that I enjoyed writing fiction more.

          Besides, I had not entered an art contest since I was six years old.  (Although that entry did win me a Happy Meal.)

          The only rules were that it had to be a sketch (no Photoshop) and it had to be of ‘nature’.  My entry is below. I always liked bridges and those gnarly oaks that look like tortured souls. It is graphite on rough tooth sketching paper. I used four pencils: 4HB, HB, 2B, and 4B.

          And . . . well, . . . my sketch won.  Or at least it ranked as one of the winners. The sticky note that came back with it said, ‘Adult Winner #2.’

          This time the prize was $20, which made me seriously consider enduring the sidelong glances when a 43-year-old man ordered a Happy Meal and nothing else.

          “Is that To Go, sir?”

          “Nope!” Then, I would hold up my sketch and shout, “Booyah!”