October 30, 2014

Family Movies Is My Dirty Little Secret

That's right boys and girls, my dirty little secret is that I like certain kinds of family movies, mostly of the PG & PG-13 variety. As a rule, I really detest most Disney movies (the amount of Disney movies that I have seen you can count on one hand, and the last one I saw was when my daughter was in the single digit age range), which harkens back to watching the Wonderful World of Disney and the Saturday afternoon town movie matinee as a kid.

While I'm willing to watch almost anything, the ones that I do enjoy watching are the ones that are story driven. While a few of those are of the R rated variety (21 Grams for example featuring Sean Penn. Say what you want about his politics, but he is willing to stretch it as an actor), the remaining ones are PG & PG-13. While this short list is by no means definitive as it applies to me, the ones on that make this short list are those that really resonate with me as a movie-goer.

So without further ado and in no particular order of importance, here are some of my favorite family oriented films, along with the appropriate link and maybe a factoid or two.

October 27, 2014

Please Keep Your Impure Thoughts To Yourself

As most of you know, I listen to a lot of college radio, which is due to the fact that it's the closest I can get to an eclectic mix of music w/o paying gobs of money (yes, I can be cheap sometimes). I also enjoy listening to talk radio, mostly on the drive home from work and when I'm running my nightly errands after work. What I don't enjoy is when people try to mix the two.

While I'm not ashamed to admit that I consider myself to be a moderate Republican, that doesn't mean I want to strictly listen to politics that lean extremely right. I consider myself to be a rather open minded individual, but not so open minded that I would tolerate politics that lean extremely left.

Now, I bet you're asking me, "What in the world does this have to do with music?"

Plenty.

October 23, 2014

Grammar Gone Wild!

I haven't done a writing update since nigh on three weeks ago yesterday, so I thought for today it would be nice gesture on my part to articulate precisely what it is that I have been doing with all of the nouns/verbs/adjectives/adverbs/superlatives/subjects/predicates/conjunctions/phrases/clauses that have been rattling around my brain stem for those past three weeks.

Smashwords
 
On the book front, specifically, the one you see just to the right of this paragraph, my latest is now at the formatters being prepared for a November release via CreateSpace, which I found surprisingly easy to set up and use.

On the writing front, after doing a lot of waffling (aka deep contemplation) for the past week or so, I switched gears and returned to the slushie shelf my monster rewriting project. The primary reason as to why it got returned was time. As in, precious little time to put in the required due diligence in order to create something worthy of me. I learned quite a while that to put a crappy product just to have something out can ultimately do a lot more damage than good.

So....I went to some seriously old files on my old XP computer and found roughly three short stories that I could have some fun with. Why? Because I already have one in the can (1st draft only) and I'm looking to create another thematic short story trilogy, just like I did with Broken Promises.

The first story I'm rewriting (seems like all I do is re-write these days), is called "Rain", and the most interesting thing about this is that I'm rewriting it the old fashioned way: my hands. It seems that my Dragon software was creating way more aggravation than creating words on paper, so I finally relegated it to the land where old programs go to be ignored: my C drive. And because I'm using Dragon at work (v. 12) the hand fatigue has dissipated to the point where I can do some relatively normal typing at home. Which means that I'm making steady and slow progress on the story, which features a couple of humanoids and good old fashioned sexual fun.

And finally, a little promo work for good blogger friend Kim Talon. Kim, who has a fantastic poetry/prose/photo blog called appropriately enough, Talon, has just released her debut mystery novel called Strings And Bones, published by Mundania Press and available in print and the major e-book formats.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

October 20, 2014

Expanding My Musical Horizons, Courtesy Of My Public Library

I love my public library.

At the library, I can indulge my reading fix of new and not-so-new fiction and non-fiction to my heart's content. I can also contribute financially to the "Friends Of The Library" by purchasing gently used c.d.'s for $1 & $2. I find that having the opportunity to purchase gently used c.d.'s at roughly a 98% discount basically allows me to explore genres/artists that I wouldn't give a 2nd glance to, and to explore a given artist's deep catalogue of work.

I've made roughly a half dozen purchases over this year totaling just under 2 dozen c.d.'s and costing me about $23, which if bought new, you would have to add a 0 and double the final total. All of these c.d. are from either artists I've heard of (listening to college radio has seriously expanded my musical horizons) or genres that I've made known I seriously hate (i.e. country pop).

My purchases are of the basic principle, As Is, and for the most part, what I bought is what I got. However, I did have one or two surprises with what I'd bought, so in no particular order of importance, here is what this almost 50 writer/blogger has acquired for used music, courtesy of his public library. By the way, because I've listened to almost everything under the sun, there is almost nothing that I don't like. Almost.

October 16, 2014

Structured Chaos The 2nd

Yesiree Bob, I's already switching gears with my blogging schedule. I tell yas, this has to be a first for me, 'cause normally I wait a while before I decide to switch gears and tweak a plan. Anywho, I'm publishing today 'cause I'm hip deep within the recesses of my own mind. Specifically, journeying through uncharted territory that is self-publishing.

Specifically specific, trying to determine what I exactly want my book to look like on the inside. I'm not used to having an semi-infinite amount of choices when it comes interior decorating, so I want to make doubly sure I don't SELECT ADJECTIVE this up (see, see, see, I can be G-rated when necessary!), which means that I'll be twisting myself into a tasty pretzel this week. Now, if you mix in the fact that my new schedule kicks in tomorrow, then you'll know why I'll feel blue without.....Laverne & Shirley.

On the far side of the hill we got momentarily sidetracked on YouTube for oh....35 minutes while doing some...er...some...research, yeah, that's the ticket.

Anywho, over on the dark side (heheheheheheh....), we done published our first post at Father Nature's Mountain. It's not much, but it's a start. I'm pretty sure you can comment on it (I hope) and I so far, I haven't figured out how each post has its own individual url, so until then, when you click on the main link, you'll brought to the main blog page, and if you want to comment there and don't want to through the aggravation of registering (that is, if the anon feature doesn't work), feel to comment here about over there.

And that, my friends, is what's going on so with me. Tune in next week when I'll have tales of brave Ulysses to share with you.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

October 13, 2014

Structured Chaos

Howdy do folks!

As promised previously, I would let everyone know exactly what is was that I had decided with my blogging/writing life. Well, today is that very day that we've all come to dread. To quote The Clash, Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Well, suffice to say, I am staying here. Kind of. That is to say, I'm still sticking with blogging, although there will be a few changes.

1} I'm cutting my blogging here to just twice a week, with the plan being Mondays and Fridays. This could change to different days due to an upcoming change at work which will be fully explained later in in the post.

2} I started a new blog over at the dark side, called Father Nature's Mountain (yes, I know, not very original). It will be mostly a photo blog, since that seems to be the easiest thing to post over there. No official link as of yet, because it will be a Wednesday only blog. Once that post goes up on 10/15, I'll provide the link to there here.

In other sordid news, I took the next step with The Inner Sibling and the goal is to have a print release in November. Factoid, I went through that manuscript for the 7th (and I hope final) time to find & fix any and all typos. Reality check, I'm figuring it will cost me a minimum of $235 per release of what  I already got in the can (two novellas and a short story). This is not due to paying someone to publish, but paying people to create book covers and to professionally format for e-book/print release.

Remember I mentioned later? This is later. Due to a key agency policy change, our unit was able to get a positive answer to the question of flex scheduling at work. For us, flex scheduling will be a bi-weekly schedule of four 10 hour days in the first week (payweek) and the normal five 8 hour days the second week. Due to the multiple payrolls (including a facility) that I'm responsible for, I chose a flex schedule, which takes effect on 10/17. Which means that going in early (7:30 start time) and going home late (6:00 end time) for half the work week will make G.B. a very grouchy person for the next month or so.

Welcome to my world. Be sure to stop by and visit our gift shop on your way out for your complimentary compliment that is guaranteed to be delivered with minimum effort and maximum panache.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

October 9, 2014

Bubbles!

Huh? What? Where am I? Oh...yeah. Now I remember.

Ola!

This is Bubbles along with her lovely owner Jenelle:


Bubbles is a very tiny ferret who can get into all kinds of mischief:






Which it turn exasperates her owner:


But, we like Bubbles, anyways, 'cause she just like getting into all kinds of trouble! Not like the 3 amigos, who just like relaxin'.


BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!



(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

October 6, 2014

Crossroads

It is often said that to start a journey, you have to take that first step in the direction you want to travel. But what if you come to an intersection on your journey where you're suddenly seized with indecision? What do you do then? Do you continue on the same path? Do you veer off to the left? Do you veer off to the right? Or do you pull up the proverbial chair, sit down, kick off your shoes, pull your hat down over your eyes and become lost within the nooks and crannies of your mind?

Roughly 6 1/2 years ago, I decided to start a blog. The blog was mostly about me and my adventures in writing. Through all the trials and tribulations, peaks and valleys, highways and byways, I basically poured my heart, soul and spirit into 1,448 posts spread out over 6 blogs.

This past weekend, I managed to wedge in some precious personal down time. It wasn't easy to do as I had all kinds of things (personal, professional, financial, etc.) vying for my immediate attention (like the cliché, they wanted it yesterday), but I found a way here and there to do it.

What I spent doing with my down time was thinking about my writing and my blogging. These days, both are vying for my attention whenever I decide to recharge my batteries. As of late, the pull of writing is stronger than the pull of blogging, which in some aspects is a good thing. In others, not so good.

October 3, 2014

Got Those Employment Blues

Got those old employment blues today. Employment blues are different than unemployment blues because basically, you're employed and you got the blues 'cause you ain't making enough dollars to pay the bills.

So.

I thought for today, I would share with everyone a few of my favorite unemployment/employment songs. Take each one for what it's worth, and have a happy Friday.







(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

October 1, 2014

ISWG Post Day 2!

IWSG
Welcome my friends to the blog that never ends, I am your most excellent host, G.B. Miller!

It's October 1st, and you know what that means? It means it's IWSG time!

The first Wednesday of the month is set aside for insecure writers across the blog-o-sphere to share all of our individual experiences, the gud, the baaaaaad and the plug ugly. You can either click on the link at the picture, or on the IWSG page located at the top of this blog.

Today's post is a mixture of good news and a reality check.

First, the good news. I created a new book blog at Tumblr. Called Books By G.B. Miller, it's basically a referral/linky to my main book blog here on Blogger. The are only two reasons as to why I decided to do this.

First, I wanted to take advantage, however small, of blogging's dark side, and for better or worse, Tumblr is blogging's dark side. Any thing that your twisted little heart desires you can basically find on Tumblr, so I figure since my writings are flavored with sex (twisted to a small degree), why not try to take advantage of all possible mediums.

Secondly, and most importantly, I created a 2nd book blog in order to bail myself out of Facebook jail. Hard to believe, but I'm in the first level of Facebook jail, which is having to supply the CAPTCHA to any book blog link (and only my book blog) that I post to Facebook. The only reason that I can think of as to why I'm being punished, is that I went a tad overboard back in late 2012/early 2013 post links to my new (at the time) debut novel.

Realistically, Facebook is a double edged sword, in that they want you to pimp yourself/your product all over the place, but if you do it too much, you get knocked down a couple of notches. I have friends who have been put into Facebook jail for something as simple as thanking people for accepting a friend request. So my friends, always keep it in the back of your head that Facebook will punish you for perceived transgressions of excessive verbiage.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.