Friday, October 18, 2013

Baby Blue

Yesterday morning, I contemplated not getting out of bed.  Oh, I would have had to eventually—I require food like everyone else—but it was rainy, and cold, and the sun was nowhere near ready to come out.  Finally, though, I had to do it.  Sometimes in life we delay the inevitable, and no one is better at procrastination than I am.  Laundry won’t do itself.  Someone had to vacuum.  Someone had to answer my emails, none of which are ever important.  At any rate, procrastination will never help me get another book written, though it does feel odd to be waiting for NaNoWriMo to start rather than writing on my own schedule.  That’s the biggest change.

Friday, October 11, 2013

Unwound

In my humble opinion, the best show on network television is Castle.  I can’t speak for cable or premium channels, but for me, Castle is it.  Oddly enough, in spite of my past viewings of Nathan Fillion on both Pasadena and Desperate Housewives, I might not have tuned into the show were it not for Susan Sullivan, who I love in, well, anything.  The soap star guest spots helped, too.  One problem I had was the time conflict with Hawaii Five-0 on CBS, and for a while I tried to watch both, which was hilarious.  I don’t have DVR or any of that voodoo TV stuff, and I don’t have the spare cash to buy DVD releases.  Thankfully I was given a reprieve—TNT put both shows into syndication and CBS moved H50 to Friday nights where it airs before another favorite, Blue Bloods.  But I’m getting off-track.  Thanks to the marathons I was able to catch up on Castle in a hurry.  It’s an interesting mix of crime, romance, drama, and humor.  I mean, I can’t think of many shows where you can genuinely laugh not five seconds after seeing a gruesome murder scene.  Either the show is funny, or I’m twisted.  Maybe both.  I’m also a sucker for the Castle-Beckett romance.  You can tell people have become impatient—four seasons of waiting for an admission of love, plus one more season before the next step toward commitment, nearly did a lot of fans in.  I think the romance has been nicely developed, and seeing them together is fun because the actors have a palpable chemistry when the show takes a romantic slant.  Television is more expensive than it used to be and shows have a shorter shelf-life.  I have ideas about how I would like Castle to progress, but I’m also eager to see how it all plays out.  It’s easily the best part of Monday.


Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Just Look at Me

Even though I’ve been slacking in the writing department lately, I decided to take the plunge and start my own Facebook fan page.  The link is at the top of the blog, but I’ll also include it here for anyone reading this individual post or perhaps viewing it in mobile.

http://www.facebook.com/tommieconradauthor

I find myself wondering about the importance of social networking, and whether or not it truly works when it comes to selling yourself as an artist, author, or performer.  I also understand, however, that I sold several books via my personal Facebook page that I might never have otherwise, and maybe I have done the same via this blog.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Bigger Man than Me

October’s arrival symbolizes different things for different people—and for the record, I’ve already put the pumpkins on display in my yard.  However, the symbolism is different for me—October marks the two-year anniversary of my last job interview.  It was October of 2011 when I last sat in an office and answered questions about myself, my skills, abilities, and viewpoints regarding librarianship.  It would be another long five months before I began to write my first novel, “Windswept”.  Approximately ten novels later find me at my present state.  I apply for jobs, and have consistently done over the years, but with no results.  Writing has been my salvation, though I will freely admit to doing nothing more strenuous than editing previous works over the past two months.  Perhaps I am doing things halfheartedly, but no one who knows me well can accuse me of doing nothing.  I can apply all of the career labels I want to myself, but I have neither the means nor the ability to make them stick.  That, faithful readers, will be left up to someone far more generous and considerate than I.