May was a sad, difficult month. I picked up the flu and when I was beaten down, I ended up getting a wretched respiratory infection. That pretty much knocked me out for three weeks (and counting). On the mend, however, so I’ll ramp back up. My worst regret was missing out running the Calgary Marathon, but there was just no way that was going to happen.

Around Town: Made it to ‘A Taste of Calgary Authors’ at the Owl’s Nest last Thursday night (while hacking up a lung). Randy McCharles puts on great events and this was no exception. Nine fun Calgary authors and some fantastic live music. Bought more books 🙂

Coming Up: Heading to Lake Louise for a writing retreat. Some dedicated time to hunker down and get some writing done. In peace for a change.

Book of the Week: Tall Tales of the Weird West
The horse always gets it first they say. While there were no actual horses harmed in this wacky anthology, Axel Howerton has assembled some fine stories about all manner of supernatural goings on in the old west. Buy this!!

Recent Writing:

• Completed my Mars sci-fi story. Turned out pretty well. It was written for a speculative writing course that I was looking forward to, but ended up being cancelled. I’ll let this one sit for a bit and then try and find something to do with it.
• Completed a story for my friends entitled How it Ends. A dark and amusing future. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.
• Back and forth on my supernatural noir’ish story. Lots of fantastic suggestions, revisions, and tons of revamping. The current version is a magnitude better. I love how it turned out.
• Put down some notes for a couple of new stories that have popped into my head. Two great kernels.
• Always chipping away on the book. Currently building a more comprehensive character bible to keep track of everyone.

Cheers!

Rob
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Spring is in the air and the sun doesn’t set before I get home from work anymore. All is good. Calgary Expo is next week and I’m planning to hit all the book sellers and cart home everything I can get my hands on. I also have a few fun writing events on various evenings over the next couple of weeks. Now if work would just settle down.

I spent March 28th at the Alexandra Writers Centre’s Last Blast of Winter Write In, wrote 5000 words/two chapters in my book, and met some great folks. I’ll have to do that again soon.

Book of the Week: New Canadian Noir
Fun book. I loved most, if not all of the stories. Now I’m tracking down the authors to see what else they have written. Highly recommended!

Recent Writing

• Completed and posted Angelita, a creative non-fiction story about diving a unique cenote in Mexico.
• Completed and submitted a campy noir story for a local anthology. Loved writing this one.
• Completed and submitted a short story about the hazards of lost marbles for an anthology. Quickly rejected though. I guess it wasn’t what they were looking for.
• Almost four new chapters done on my novel so it’s moving along.

In Progress Fiction Writing

• Almost completed another noir story. This one is a lot harder.
• Started on a sci-fi story that came to me while running. It’s about… running. It is coming together.
• Still chipping away at an end of the world story. Should have that one done in a few weeks.
• And the novel…

On the Back Burner

• Shelving my clockwork story for a bit as it just wasn’t coming together the way I wanted it.
• Same with my Christmas horror story – I’ll finish it when I have an ending that works.
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I’m easily distracted of late. I have lots of huge projects piling up, but I keep having these fun little story ideas that need to be written, so I’ve been writing them. It’s all good, though, and it seems better to follow my muse than trying to force my way through the tough nuts on the days they can’t hold my attention.

In non-writing news I managed to survive a 50km ultra marathon February 16th. It was all on pavement so I ended up taking a pounding, but still fun. I have three months till the next one so I need to keep the training going.

Book of the Week: The Age of Earthquakes
I received an advance copy this book in a Goodreads giveaway promotion. I’ve always been a huge fan of Douglas Coupland and he, along with Hands Ulrich Obrist and Shumon Basar have put together neat little package that’s just a little bit random, a little bit targeted, and all around fun. They mix facts, poignant little points of interest, fun art and a directed message to emphasize changing technology, our brains and the planet. Definitely worth checking out.

Recent Writing
– Completed and posted ‘Fighting Words,’ a short story in my ‘Mostly True’ series about a party that takes a dark twist.

In Progress Fiction Writing
– Completed the noir-supernatural crime story I was working on. Now it’s just a lot of tuning and editing.
– Outlined and have 80% of a story written about a lost and mysterious toy for an Anthology submission.
– Outlined and have the 40% of my clockwork story written for an Anthology submission.
– Still plugging away on the dark Christmas story. I didn’t know what to do with it to start with, but I found a great way to turn it into something fun. It’s getting there.
– I’d been thinking about something an old friend had once told me when he was drunk and pessimistic about the future. It sparked a fun story so I’ve written most of it.

In Progress Creative Non-Fiction Writing
– Completed the first draft of ‘Angelita’. This is a story about diving a unique cenote in the Mexican Riviera.
– Still putting down notes about an ice climbing tale in Kananaskis Country in the Canadian Rockies.
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Happy Valentine’s Day, or as a lot of folks are calling it ‘Singles Awareness Day’. I’m happy to have a fantastic Valentine so I’ll stick with the former.

Work has been keeping me busy, but I’ve been finding time to get some writing done, usually at Starbucks when I take my girl to her dance class.

Book of the Week: The Sister’s Brothers
I enjoyed this book. It’s a historical western and the characters are a blast. Eli and Charlie Sister are a couple of gunmen hired to track down a kill an odd prospector. Their adventures along the way are always a bit ‘off’ from what you’d expect. It certainly didn’t end the way I thought it would.

Recent Writing
– Sadly my superhero origin story I submitted for the Tesseracts 19 anthology didn’t make the cut. It did made it through a few rounds and they liked it, but I have to admit the story was not your standard superhero tale. C’est la vie!

In Progress Fiction Writing
– Deep into a noir-supernatural crime type story that just popped into my head. A local group is putting together a Noir Anthology and I had this fun minor character from my book that needed a backstory. I love this one!
– Outlined and have quite a bit on my clockwork story for a Canadian Steampunk Anthology.
– Came up with a fun little story for a story about a special (to me at least) lost toy for a new Anthology out of Edmonton.
– Got a few hundred more words down on the dark Christmas story. Hard to write this one.
– First draft of another chapter in my novel. Need to make time to keep it moving.

In Progress Creative Non-Fiction Writing
– Started work on a little story called ‘Fighting Words’ about one strange night when I lived in a basement suite in Queen’s Park.
– Started work on a tale about scuba diving in a volcanic shaft called Angelita in Mexico.
– Continuing on the ice climbing tale in Kananaskis. It’s a good one but I got distracted.
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The weather in Calgary is fantastic for the end of January. Warm and balmy! It’s such a huge difference from the six months of winter we had last year. I’ve been ramping up my running in preparation of the Frozen Ass 50k in three weeks. Let the punishment fit the crime I always say, and the crime was sitting on my ass and eating/drinking a bit too much over Christmas.

My reading recommendation for the week is Silver Bullets by Laird Ryan States. He’s an Edmonton author but I’ll try not to hold that against him. The book is a weird western and a lot of fun.

Recent Writing
– Completed and submitted an Edgar Allan Poe (EAP) story and submitted it. It was challenging but fun to write in that sort of style with an EAP genre plot.
– Completed and submitted a superhero origin story for the Tesseracts 19 anthology. I loved this one enough that I’ve already started notes for a sequel.
– Completed and sent in a short flash piece for a contest with the theme ‘Flash Future’. It was a neat little piece about cycling technology. Not sure what to do with this one but I’ll find it a home somewhere.
– Completed and posted a Mostly True tale called ‘Loose Cannons’ about the time my friends and I built a cannon in high school and almost blew ourselves up. Fantastic memories.

In Progress Writing
– In the midst of putting down some thoughts about some dark, dark events that happened around Christmas. Insanity that you can’t even make up…
– Started writing a clockwork story for a Canadian Steampunk Anthology.
– Started writing a fast food zombie story. Brains…
– Refining my ‘A Hole’ dark/horror story. Must find a home for this one!
– Started working on another Mostly True tale about an ice climbing adventure that took a few wrong turns.
– Putting down notes for another Alexa/Oliver story called ‘Do what you want’
– Last, but not least, in writing Chapter 5 of my urban fantasy novel.

Cheers!
Rob
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Well, here we are again, at the start of a brand new year. Happy New Years everyone!

2014 Writing Recap
The last couple of months ended up being crazy busy with work, life and such, but still wrote as much as I could. Submitted some stories to contests and anthologies. Haven’t won or been excepted anywhere yet, but I’ll keep plugging away.

My statistics for the year:
– 90,000 words on creative fiction and creative non-fiction
– 11 creative non-fiction stories
– 11 creative fiction stories
– 10 chapters in various books
– 6 race reports
– Full outline for one book, partial outlines for a couple more

2015 Writing Goals
I have a lot of stories swirling around in my head and I’ll be tackling as many as I can. I need to finish two that I started in 2014 and get them submitted to various anthologies and magazines.

My goals for the year:
– 100,000 words
– 20 short stories
– First draft of a book
– Get at least one story accepted in some anthology or magazine
– Take at least one course on writing/editing
– Become part of a writing group

2014 Running Recap
I put in a fair amount of mileage in 2014 and managed to remain mostly injury free (aside from some minor issues with an achilles and a hamstring at various points).

My statistics for the year:
– 1800km run
– Lots of cycling and swimming (didn’t track this too closely though)
– 2 marathons
– 1 50km ultra-marathon
– 1 70.3 Ironman
– A few 10k and half marathon races

2015 Running Goals
This year will be about keeping it up and slowly ramping up the distance so I can manage a 50 miler in 2016. I’m going to dedicate part of my training to increasing my climbing ability with at least one hard hill/mountain run a week.

My goals for the year:
– 2000 km running
– 20,000 m elevation gain
– 4 50km ultra-marathons
– Whatever marathons, half marathons and 10k races that look fun
– Possibly an olympic distance (or two) triathlons for some cross-training

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I managed to take a short micro-vacation around Thanksgiving where I wandered out to Victoria to see the Robertsons. While I was out there I did some diving, ran the Victoria Marathon, drank lots of beer, and relaxed. I love visiting there!

At the same time there was a nasty fire downtown Calgary what knocked out the power to our office. Last week was a pretty big mess coping with disaster recovery and such. Never a dull moment.

On the writing front I have been plugging along with all of my projects. I was registered to take a fun one night writing course on ‘Forming Fictional Characters’ with Simon Rose, but sadly it seems to have been cancelled. I guess I’ll look for another one.

Recent Writing

• My sword and sorcery story ‘Old Bones’ is now up on QuarterReads.com
• Wrote a story called ‘Idiom’ for my wife for her birthday. It’s about a teacher and various literary devices.
• Wrote a flash story called ‘Christmas Past’ based on a prompt from my boy. I’m going to send it out with Christmas cards this year.
• Completed and posted a race report for the Lost Soul 2014 Ultra-Marathon.
• Completed and posted a race report for the Victoria Marathon 2014.

My Current Writing Works in Progress

• Wrote part of chapter 5 of my Frostbyte novel. The story is taking on a life of it’s own and needs a bit of rework to it’s structure. Need to think about this one a bit more.
• Completed a solid outline for the sci-fi/horror story called ‘Catacombs’ and started the first draft. Loving this one!
• Sketched some of the first draft of a ‘true tale’ about building a cannon. My kids seem a little too interested…

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I can’t believe it’s the last day of September already! I love the Fall colours and the crispness of the air. I’m just afraid that Winter is Coming soon.

I mentioned last post that I’d written a short story called ‘Red’. I thought I’d talk about ‘how’ I wrote that one. I didn’t have a kernel to work from so I decided to start with three ‘nuggets’.

I asked my friend three questions:

1. Who is your favourite author?
2. What is your favourite colour?
3. Where haven’t you been that you would love to visit?

The answers were:

1. Margaret Atwood
2. Red
3. Ireland

An interesting collection so I went for a run (something I love to do to get my brain working creatively) and put something together. My female character (based on my friend and who appears in some of my other stories) would be at a writing retreat in Cork where Margaret Atwood would be talking. She would keep having misadventures that would prevent her from actually meeting her idol, each one involving her notebook and something red. It was a lot of fun to write and I’m happy with the way it came out. I’ll have to try that type of story again soon.

Since then I’ve done lots of other writing work.

• I finished my dark humour/horror story and submitted it. Just a waiting game now!
• I completed a sword and sorcery tale called ‘Old Bones’ for QuarterReads.com and submitted that one. It’s part of a semi-connected serial but it can stand alone if needed.
• I finished chapter 4 of my Frostbyte novel. It’s moving along. I did a pile of outlining and plotting for the first half of the book. Just working through some character arc’s now.
• I wrote the initial draft of another sword and sorcery tale called ‘The Game’. It’s connected to ‘Old Bones’ and is part of my Stars and Stones world.
• I’m still working on a race report for the Lost Soul ultra-marathon.
• I wrote the first draft of my superhero story (for another submission). I like it but it’s going to need a TON of work to make it great.
• I wrote a really rough outline for a science fiction/horror story called ’Catacombs’ about space marines and archaeologists. It came to me in a dream. A very nasty dream…
• I have an outline for another ‘true tale’ from my sorry youth. This one is about model rocketry, smoke bombs, cannons and better living through chemistry.

Till next time! Take care.
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An action packed and busy vacation week. It was the final gasp of summer before the kids go back to school so we made the best of it by getting out for a couple of camping trips. Comfort camping is now a ‘thing’ so we tried that in Banff. A couple of days in a luxurious yurt/tent cabin on the shore of Two Jack Lake. Fantastic. Then I took one of my sons on our traditional annual tenting/fishing/camping trip. It was a great time punctuated with one mishap. A snagged fishing hook came loose unexpectedly and became embedded in my arm. Given it still had a bit of a barb, it was a challenge to extract. I ended up cutting it out with a jackknife and a multi-tool. Battlefield surgery! I’m sure some of this will make it into a story or two.

I found time for writing every day. After chatting with my Mom and Brother I got ‘The Lord of Corn-Town’ written up and posted. It has some fun memories.

The third chapter my Frostbyte novel had been sitting there nagging at me so I finished a rough draft. It just needs some time to age and I’ll get it cleaned up and up on the site.

A dark sort of horror/crazy/bizzaro horror anthology I like is accepting submissions. I had a tiny bud of a story idea that blossomed. It practically wrote itself in a few hours. I love it when that happens. It’s twisted.
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