And Now Back To the Novel Previously in Progress…

Let me turn this blog away from the Great American Road Trip and Star Trek back to its original purpose – talking about my novel(s).

It’s now been a full two weeks since we returned from our trip and life has settled back into the usual rhythms of school and work. For at least the previous five months before the trip, I was working a great deal of overtime in my day job and had no time or energy for writing. I channeled my little time for writing on our trip to blogging the experience. But things have opened up now and I’ve had time to write…and found it hard to get anything out. I’m not sure what the resistance is, but I find myself trying to do anything else but sit down and write. Last week, I had two whole evenings free to write and all I got out of it was two paragraphs. My wife was away  today and the weather was supposed to be crappy, so I tried to focus on writing. And I kept finding things to do to avoid it until I finally put my head down and just wrote. I managed to get nearly two pages written. I’m not sure what’s up with my sudden reluctance to write now that I actually have time to do it. It’s not writer’s block in the sense that I can’t think of anything to write – there’s just a reluctance to get going on it.  I’ll keep working at it; hopefully I’ll get this resolved before my writing retreat.

Yes, I’m going on a home made writing retreat in less than two weeks. For Father’s Day, my lovely (and understanding) wife “gave” me a writing retreat. In two weeks, I’m going to a KOA camp that we visited last year. I have a cabin in the woods from Friday through Sunday and I’m going to write. I’m sure I’ll do a couple of other things, but the focus of that weekend is to write and kick some butt on this book. Perhaps I’m subconsciously waiting for the writing retreat to open the creative faucets. Personally, I’d like to get myself back on track so that I’m writing more freely when the retreat starts.

And speaking of writing, I have been listening to Julia Roy’s podcast How We Work Now, available here or on iTunes. In her podcasts, she interviews writers and editors mostly in the business or non fiction genre (but also includes a few fiction authors and even a poet).  I’ve been listening to this on the way to work every day and it’s really got me thinking about my own writing in ways I never considered. Even in episodes that I think won’t pertain to me at all, I usually find some nugget of information. I went into the episode where she interviewed the poet (let’s cut a long story short and say that I don’t care for poetry much at all) thinking I would hate it and I think it’s my favorite episode to date! If you’re interested at all in writing, I highly recommend it!

And finally, I’m happy announce that I will be participating in the Indie Author Day Event at the Sherburne Public Library on October 8 from 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM. I’m still working on the details, but the event culminates in a 2:00 PM Webcast with writers, agents, and the industry leaders. I’ll send an update out once I have more details.

That’s all for now; I need to get back to writing….

Happy journeys!

Mike

 

Read More

Happy 50th Birthday Star Trek!

Anyone who has read my blog (or knows me) knows about my unabashed love for all things Star Trek. If you followed our adventures cross country, you know that even though it was about looking at schools for my son, I somehow turned it into a trip all about Star Trek.

Star Trek and I are only a month and a half apart in age, so obviously, I never saw the first run episodes. I did, however, see them in syndication when I was very young. I seem to remember that they were always on late Sunday afternoon and I watched them with my dad who also liked science fiction. And I was hooked. For Christmas and birthdays, I received a phaser that was really an overgrown flashlight that projected various ships from covers that you put on the end and a set of Star Trek communicators (i.e., walkie talkies).  I remember going with my dad to see Star Trek The Motion Picture and watching the rollout and flight (on the back of an airplane) of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.

Alas, Star Trek faded from my TV watching in my youth, although through high school, I did see the subsequent movies. In college, I renewed my love of Star Trek when I would join my roommates to watch it on WPIX at 11:30 (after The Honeymooners) and we would try to name the episode during the first scene before the credits. Since then, I’ve seen all of the movies and all of Star Trek in it’s various incarnations. In fact, Star Trek helped me come up with the idea for my novel The Reluctant Captain.

But why do I love Star Trek so much?

The answer to that question has changed throughout my life. I think when I was young, it was the idea of going to outer space. The Apollo missions were still going and I remember watching some of the coverage. The thought of a future where we were roaming the stars inspired me to want to be an astronaut – until I realized that my eyesight would never let me be a pilot (at the time, a necessary stepping stone to becoming an astronaut).

Later in my life, my love of Star Trek became more about how engineers and knowledge of technology were valued. In high school, I received a ton of crap for being a “brain”. I often felt that because I was smart that I was inherently socially unacceptable. In Star Trek, people who were well versed in science and engineering were actually heroes. They were valued members of the crew and friends.  Scotty became my role model because of his Scottish heritage (my maternal grandmother was a Robertson), his approach to almost never giving up on a problem, and his jovial nature. I have tried to model my professional life as a computer engineer on his work ethic. Channeling my inner Scotty has held me in good stead in my work as I try to solve problems; something that I will say, I’m pretty good at doing.

The themes of Star Trek have always resonated with me. Star Trek has always examined the human condition; showing the best of humanity in its heroes and worst of humanity in its villains. Its vision that we as a planet would move past our national differences to all work for the betterment of mankind while maintaining ones cultural identity is a vision I wish was true. At its best, Star Trek explores both the outer reaches of outer space and the inner space of the mind and what it means to be human.

Despite the overacting, the styrofoam boulders and other cheap scenery, here’s to Star Trek. May its vision of the future of mankind come true!

Live long and prosper,

Mike

Read More

Day Twenty Two: There and Back Again

We are finally home!

We left Erie, PA fairly early this morning and drove to Little Falls to see the Viking Ship Draken Harald Hårfarge. The ship has sailed from Norway, down the St. Lawrence, through the Great Lakes, and is now parked in Little Falls on the canal on its way to New York City.

We wanted to go aboard, but the line was very long and after all of the travel, we really wanted to get home.  So we took our pictures, bought a t-shirt and headed home.

So here are the Top 10 Things  I Learned Now That I’ve Been There and Back Again:

1. Driving at 80 miles per hour legally is fun.
2. Driving in Chicago and Ohio is decidedly NOT fun.
3. I have a real appreciation for exactly how big this country really is.
4. I’m kind of envious of the opportunities available in college that weren’t necessarily there when I went.
5. I’m awed at the beauty of our nation; be it in the rough beauty of the Badlands, to the grandeur of Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse, to the beauty of the mountains.
6. Time and distance makes problems seem very small and insignificant.
7. Hotel wifi is incredibly inconsistent.
8. Most of the country seems to be covered in corn and soy beans.
9. Home is where the heart is.
10. There really is no place like home.

Now, I’m going to relax in my own house and sleep in my own bed tonight!  I’m not sure when I’ll blog again, but it will be soon…maybe after I go back and face work after leaving for three weeks.

Happy journeys!

Mike

Read More

Day Twenty One: Homeward Bound

Today,we said good bye to Cincinnati and headed northwest to our last hotel of our trip in Erie, PA.

I have to say, I couldn’t be happier to see this sign:

Because it meant: I DIDN’T HAVE TO DRIVE IN OHIO ANYMORE!

<begin rant>

Driving in Ohio has been an adventure that I do not want to do again for a while. I thought at first that it was because we were near Cincinnati – a city with its share of traffic issues. People would pass on either side of you and if there enough room to put a sheet of paper between your front bumper and their rear bumper, they had no qualms about cutting in front of you. They also seem to assume that you have to yield for them when they are cutting in front of you.

Like I said, I thought it was city related. But as we drove further and further away from Cincinnati, the driving didn’t change at all.  Twice I had people cut in front of me such that I had put on my brakes because I would have hit them.

I know that I’m used to driving in the country, but I’ve now driven across the country and back. I’ve driven in Boston and all the way to Florida. I have to say I hated driving in Ohio more than anyplace else (except maybe Montreal, but that’s a different story).

And what’s with driving right up to my rear bumper so that all I can see is your grill when you can clearly see that I can’t move over or speed up?  It’s not like I can go anywhere so doing that is only going to piss me off!

</end rant>

After we completed the “Escape From Ohio”, we found our hotel and ate at Quaker State and Lube.

My son and I had wings which where awesome!  Tonight, we adjourned to a Barnes & Noble because the wifi in the hotel was sketchy at best…one of the hazards of traveling.

Tomorrow, we arrive home after taking a slight detour to Little Falls to see a Viking longboat that has sailed all the way from Norway, down the Saint Lawrence, through the Great Lakes and across New York State using the canal system. Gives a new definition to “Viking River Cruise”.

Happy journeys!

Mike

Read More

Day Twenty: Under the Sea

Today, we went to the Newport Aquarium, across the river from Cincinnati.  Here;s the view of downtown Cincinnati from Newport:

The aquarium was really great and we saw many things I’ve never seen before like a shark ray:

And weedy sea dragons:

And jelly fish:

And many other things like sharks:

Sea turtles:

Lion fish:

Dory:

Sea horses:

Chameleon:

“Mighty Mike” – the alligator:

And penguins:

As we finished touring the aquarium, we had to cross the Shark Bridge – a rope bridge above a tank filled with sharks with freakin’ laser beams on their head…OK, no, laser beams, but it was an enclosed rope bridge over a tank of sharks. Here’s the view from inside the bridge of the sharks below:

Here’s the view of the top bridge from inside the bridge:

It did make me feel like James Bond…okay, maybe Austin Powers…

After we finished the tour, we came back towards the hotel and stopped for Graeter’s Ice Cream (a Cincinnati favorite).  We later went out to Montgomery Inn – home of my favorite ribs and barbecue sauce with other friends. We eat and talked for a long time.

Tomorrow, it’s on to Erie, PA – we’re almost home!

Happy journeys!

Mike

Read More

Day Nineteen: An International Lazy Day

After what feels like a week in the car, today we had no place we had to be until later in the day, so we did…almost nothing.  We had a very late start and went to Panera for a late breakfast.  From there we went to Jungle Jim’s, a grocery store with almost every kind of food you can imagine. It had food from almost every country you can imagine.  As a result, we were kind of in heaven!

My son, who likes to try all sorts of food, bought the following haul of snacks from Finland, England, Germany, Netherlands, and Japan:

And I purchased this:  kvass, a drink popular in Russia made from rye bread. I mentioned it in The Reluctant Captain when Malcolm and Joan are talking about food.

It has a sour taste when it starts and a toffee after taste. I’m glad I tried it, but I don’t think I’ll be trying it again anytime soon.

Tonight we went out with friends to the Iron Chef Grill, a hibachi restaurant to cap off our international day.

Tomorrow, we’re thinking of popping over the river to Kentucky to Newport Aquarium and dinner with more friends.

Happy journeys!

Mike

 

Read More

Day Eighteen: Hoosiers

Today, we toured Indiana University. Here was the view from the Admissions Parking Lot:

We took the shuttle bus up to the Admissions Building. After a presentation, we started the tour of the campus:

One of the cool things was next to the Chapel on campus is the family cemetery of the Dunn family (who donated much of the land where the campus is located):

After the Campus tour (which was very hot – it was over 90 degrees with humidity to match), we toured one of the resident halls and ended up eating at the dining area:

We left late in the afternoon and travelled out of Indiana to Ohio:

We survived the traffic and arrived in Cincinnati, hot and tired. Although now that we’ve had dinner, everyone is much happier!

Tomorrow, there isn’t much on the docket – our plans right now consist of going to dinner with friends.

Happy journeys!

Mike

Read More