people come to me when seeking stimulation and porn star (blog)

Periodically I remember that Google Analytics exists and knows things about my blog that I don't. It also knows many things about you that I don't. Which can be fun.

For instance, the #1 search term that brings people to my blog is porn star. Now, I'm not letting that go to my head because I'm guessing that's the #1 search term for every single blog on the planet. But the #4 search is stimulation and the #10 search is porno stars. Coincidence? Trend? New career opportunity? You tell me. You're the one searching for those things.

Stormy Daniels, candidate

I do know something about you that Google Analytics does not, however. You are likely to arrive here flush with the excitement of the chase and the anticipation of titillation. But you are even more likely to click away disappointed.

Did you come here looking for Stormy Daniels? Or information about an actual corner kick? Bounce rate for "corner kick" is 100%. I am unsure of Stormy's bounce rate, but I would be willing to volunteer to measure it.

Speaking of that, I'm not sure what it means that stimulation has the lowest bounce rate. If you come here looking for stimulation, you apparently bounce less frequently. I will have to keep that in mind the next time I encounter someone seeking stimulation.

BOUNCE RATE (bounces per day?)

But most troubling is the fact that elbow shows up in three of the top ten searches leading to my blog. Maybe because 50% of my family have broken an elbow in the past five years, according to Google Analytics. And most amusing to me is that someone actually searched for the term bottom of boobs.

And ended up at my blog.

That tickles me. (Besides, "Bottom of Boobs" would be a great name for a band.)

PS: Big thanks to Joni for being my #1 referrer during the last [mumble] days! According to Google Analytics.

A discovery on my way to 40K #nanowrimo (blog)

Oh, I was such a naive young thing back in October of 2005, ready to step into NaNoWriMo for the second time. I had already proven to myself that I could write 50,000 words in 30 days. A few months later I proved to myself that I could complete the whole 65,000 page manuscript.

I didn't yet know how much I had to mature and how much better my writing would get over the next seven years.

I wrote three more NaNoWriMo novels, twice getting more than 60,000 words written during the month of November. Each novel got progressively better, and the fourth one was actually quite good. After a few years dabbling in short stories, I wrote Semper over the course of an entire year and spent another half year revising it. Forsada, the sequel to Semper which I will publish in January 2013, also took a little over a year to write.

This year I plunged back into the NaNo madness. So far: 20 days has yielded 40,000 words, plus one big lesson about my creative process.

As I'm writing this book, I'm making great word count. Some of the scenes are exquisite--tight, active, lucid, brilliant. Others wallow in stagnation. I find myself having characters recapping the action so far to other characters, as happens so often in HGTV shows or The Da Vinci Code. When I notice this, I force the characters to move, to go do something. The problem is, the story is stagnating because I don't exactly know what should come next.

You see, my modus operandi is to journal my story idea and character sketches, longhand, while commuting on the train to and from work. I'll journal the hell out of it until I feel like I've got realistic characters, a strong plot arc, good themes, and as few plot holes as I can manage. That's when I let myself start writing. I'll get maybe ten thousand words in and find I need to let the ideas simmer some more, let the next episodes take shape in my journal. Often I'll sit at a word count for a few weeks while I work out the next sections and any other big changes.

Ideas are like that. They get better the more you exercise them (unless you exercise them to death).

The problem with NaNo is that there is no time to stop and mull over this new secondary character that's inserted himself so dramatically, or to figure out just how the main character extracts himself from an inescapable chamber, or what the landscape looks like in this mythical place my characters are about to enter for the first time. No time to journal it. No time to let it simmer. Gotta turn up the heat and cook.

And that's okay. Pushing forward, torpedoes be damned, is a great way to get a first draft written. My first drafts of Semper and Forsada were very strong, very tight. Revisions still necessary, of course, but most of my revision was done in my journal before I ever wrote the manuscript.

This draft of this new NaNo novel will be a good story. But it will be loose, and the writing will need a lot more trimming and rework. The only difference is that I'll be doing that rework after writing the first draft rather than before it. For Semper and Forsada, I did previsions, then writing, then revisions. For this NaNo book, I'll write, then revise, and revise again.

Same destination, same amount of energy expended. Just a different route.



And that's not only okay, it's a revelation for me about my own creative process. I'm finding my strengths and learning to exploit them in different environments. And that, I think, is the essence of NaNoWriMo for me.

 And just because you read this far, a couple of kittens.

for Christmas all I want is fewer dead children

The holidays are approaching. Oh hell, they're here already.

This means relatives visiting, tight travel schedules, crowded supermarkets and honking horns at the mall, office parties, and end-of-year deadlines. It also means we're approaching the darkest day of the year. What does this all add up to?

Stress.

Every red light seems to last longer, doesn't it? Every dinnertime seems to bring more telemarketer calls. Every commute seems to have twice as many idiots in twice as many cars.

Am I right?

Yesterday, a child riding his bike to our middle school got hit by a car. The kid went to the hospital but will be all right, thank goodness. I wasn't there. I don't know what happened. But I do know from personal experience how distracted parents get this time of year and how impatient they are behind the wheel.

Your kid is slow to wake up, slow to get ready for school. He'll still be barely on time, but now you're five minutes late and that means you could miss the start of your 9 o'clock call. Or your yoga class. Or your coffee date. Or your housecleaner's arrival. And there are all these people driving slowly in front of the school and just freaking hurry your ass up you morons!

Or maybe you're approaching the school and you just found out Johnny left his all-important history presentation poster at home. What do you mean I have to go home and get it? I've got things to do!

A few years ago I volunteered as a crossing guard at our elementary school. You'd be shocked at how many people make illegal and ill-advised U turns during the busiest pick-up and drop-off times. And how many drive 35 or 40 miles an hour through a crosswalk when kids are standing at the curb. Normally sane and intelligent people suddenly decide traffic laws are more like suggestions and don't really apply when you're in a hurry anyway.

After all, 11 year old kids are so aware and responsible and careful. Right? What could go wrong?

Despite my fashionably reflective orange vest and the huge STOP sign I was holding and my very cautious nature, I was nearly hit four times as a crossing guard. Once, a huge SUV barreled through the crosswalk at about 30 miles per hour while I was standing on the double-yellows with the STOP sign out. The mom was looking behind into the back seat at her kids, yelling at them as she pulled from the curb and into traffic. Had there been a kid stepping off the curb at the same time he'd have been killed. Had I been two feet more to my left, I might have been killed.

Seriously, people. Slow down. Pay attention.

election and politics

This political season (in the US), my politics thoughts have gone mostly to Facebook or Twitter, not here. But it's been such a big part of 2012 that I have to post something.

Y'all probably already know I lean liberal and identify Democrat despite being a balding white male living in a wealthy suburb and working at a big bank. (Turns out these characteristics do not cause a spectacular explosion like mixing matter and anti-matter.) I am very happy Obama won and very sat Prop 8 has not yet been relegated to the political garbage heap of history. In case you were wondering.

Today I had a chance to listen in on a private analysis of the election by a non-partisan, independent and unbiased party. (Yes, really. It was not on the news. It was not over a beer. It was a real pollster from a real polling organization.) The analysis only scratched the surface, and the phrase "emerging wisdom" was used frequently (i.e. the wisdom from this election has not yet fully emerged despite what many tweeters and some cable TV people seem to think). Here are some of the things I took away from this discussion:

• Obama's approval rating was 52% running up to the election.
  This is quite high for an incumbent running for reelection. Since Richard Nixon's 56% approval rating 40 years ago, only Reagan and Clinton had higher ratings in their reelection years.
• This election was the most polarized since this organization started measuring this particular data point. Among Democrats, Obama had a 90% approval rating; among Republicans, only 8% (an 82 point gap). Even W had a higher opposition approval rating at 12%, resulting in an 80 point gap.
• The electorate is divided starkly along racial lines. Obama won over 75% of the vote of people who identify themselves as non-white. Among those identifying as white, Obama won such categories as people with post-graduate education, nonmarried women, and non-religious people.
• In general, national polls were correct throughout the campaign, within a 2-3 point margin of error. They all pretty much said it was too close to call, and it was.
• Historically, Republicans are much more likely to vote. The Obama campaign's Get Out The Vote efforts likely had a big effect on the outcome. (One of those pieces of emerging wisdom.)
• When asked, "Is it more important to stick to your beliefs or to reach compromises," 40% of conservatives said stick to beliefs even if it means nothing gets done, while 60%+ of moderates said compromise, as did 60%+ of liberals. Which, when you think about the meaning of the word "conservative," makes total sense.
• A majority of the population thinks government should do less, not more, to solve the country's problems. Also, a majority think that people rely too much on the federal government. (I have no idea what people mean by that in real terms. But it's interesting that Romney had that going for him in a significant way, yet he was unable to capitalize.)

There were quite a number of other interesting observations, but ultimately this call left me with the impression that our country is very starkly divided, with only a very small number of people truly in the middle. This is not a shocking conclusion to anyone who has paid attention over the past 12 years, but what I did not realize is how starkly divided we are along racial lines.

As the country's population darkens (and it is getting less white, which I think is a good thing), Republicans will have to deal with the problems facing those demographics if they want to continue to be elected. Circling the wagons around a right-wing, Christian, morals-based agenda and calling it a "big tent" is unlikely to win over the non-white votes they already don't have. (The linked FOX news article talks about "all slices" of the "big tent" Republican pie on display at this year's convention: fiscal conservatism, Ron Paul supporters, and right-to-life. Yup. HUGE tent there.) At some point, the Republicans will have to put forth candidates that can legitimately speak to and deal with the issues facing the non-whites in this country.

Even so, Obama's 2-point popular vote advantage illustrates how evenly divided this country is. Neither side can ever claim a "mandate" in any kind of a win. The only mandate the elected have is to make progress on solving this nation's problems. Unemployment, an education system in free fall, an aging Boomer population, dependence on foreign oil, the insane costs of health care, etc.

People can disagree on how to solve those problems, but obstructionist politics designed to wall off one side from the other will never solve any of them. Hopefully, all our elected politicians will refocus on progress.

We will see. I am glad Obama was reelected. Not because I want to "tax the rich and feed the poor until there are no rich no more" but because Obama's is a message of inclusion. Ensure every voice is heard and respected. Listen to opposing viewpoints and try to find solutions. The Republicans have hunkered down in the bunker of obstructionism for so long, I wonder if they will be able to participate, or if they will continue to kick and scream while our country falls apart around them.

And there, that's my political post for this presidential election cycle. We now return you to your regular programming.

NaNoWriMo Update
Another 1900 words today, which puts me over 20,000 and on pace for over 65,000 by month end. If I keep up my pace, which seems unlikely. Especially since I've gotten to that point in my story where I don't know exactly what happens next, and usually I have to let things simmer for a week or two before moving on. Not this time. This time, I have to turn up the heat to boil and keep rolling.

Oh boy, I'm glad I didn't quit

I got an email yesterday from someone I didn't know. It said, "I loved your book. Please let me know when you put out your next one." This person went out of her way to find my web site, find my email address, and call attention to her email with a subject line that would make sure I didn't mistake her email for spam. That's pretty cool, right? Totally made my day.

This afternoon I followed a link on Twitter to Rachelle Gardner's blog of November 7th, which presented a succinct collection of writerly roadblocks, along with a pithy collection of ways to avoid falling into despair when confronted by them. You should go read it.

An optimist by nature, I tend to look at life as a huge pile of opportunities, a pile so big I can only experience a tiny fraction of them during my lifetime. Despair is not something I experience often because I simply dump the un-fun activity and go do something more worth my limited time.

Writing a book takes tons of time, but it's also really fun. Navigating the cruel and merciless publishing industry? Not fun. Rejection is a "rite of passage," if you get any response at all. Acceptance is usually just another step on the path to a different type of rejection. And at the end, two years later if you're lucky, you get three months to prove that your book was worth that measly advance you got.

After I'd written Semper, I held my completed manuscript and stood between two options. On one side, the publishing industry. On the other, my huge pile of opportunities (like exercise, traveling, reading, time with my kids, etc.). I just about tossed the manuscript aside and dove into the pile. Why jump into a pit of despair when life could be full of fun things?

Even so, I did despair for a while. I didn't want to give up writing, or my life-long dream of publishing a novel. And here I stood, with what I thought was a pretty darned good one. On the verge of quitting writing altogether, I started discovering, on my own, the other truths that Ms. Gardner describes. I had options. I could take control. I could carry through my dream in a different way. So I published Semper myself.

Had I quit, I would never have written the sequel (due out in January 2013). If I hadn't written the sequel, I would never have gotten these notes from the friend of a beta reader who also read the draft:

I started reading the book Monday and couldn't stop reading. So, I finished reading tonite (Tuesday) at about 7:30pm. ... That book was gooddddd. I need him to get that 3rd book out. How in the heck did he get his ideas of this book on paper. What an imagination. WOW!

Now, is that the best review in the world? Naw, of course not. But it's a validation of my decision not to quit. It's a validation of everything Ms. Gardner says. Do not despair. Things might not work out the way you initially envisioned, but things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out. And there are more options for writers today than ever before. You may need to reexamine your goals as I reexamined mine. But never despair. If you truly love writing, there's no need for despair. Certainly, life is too short for it.

NaNoWriMo Update
As if I weren't busy enough, I've committed myself to a NaNoWriMo novel that is totally unrelated to Semper. It's a middle-grade fantasy novel. After six and a half days, I'm over 16,000 words into it and having even more fun than I expected. I am so glad I didn't quit. I spend half my day wishing I could find more time to work on it, and half the night trying not to think about it so I can get to sleep.

Are you doing NaNo? If so, leave a comment or drop by the nanowrimo site and friend me. On the NaNo site, I'm PJD.

what's longer than three inches?

Last week, my beloved California Golden Bears suffered a terrible embarrassment. They averaged only three inches a carry in their football game against our hated rivals across the Bay. Three inches. That's less than half the size of a Kindle Fire's screen. It took them two plays to go almost the length of the Kindle Fire screen.

Speaking of the Kindle, you can get one of my short stories for free today and tomorrow (October 25 and 26). People have called Distractions "funny," "charming," and "pretty twisted."

Today and tomorrow, they're also calling it "free." Go get it. Read it. Let me know if you like it.

Why I'm voting absentee, and busting elitist prejudice

(Playing along for the first time ever with Road Trip Wednesday at YA Highway)

I voted absentee four years ago because I expected to be traveling for work. This year, it's a different reason:

NaNoWriMo!

(cue gasp)

What, you are screaming to yourself right now, is a talented and experienced author like Peter doing slumming around with the amateur word-count hacks in NaNoland?

My friends, drop your academic literary elitist prejudice for a moment and join me on a journey. It's a journey of a young man who strayed from his passion, who followed the siren songs of family, prosperity, and homeownership. It's a story of despair and triumph. But most of all, it's my story.

Turn the Wayback Machine to 1987. Picture a college apartment with an Apple ][+ in the corner surrounded by spent packets of Top Ramen and empty Coke cans. Next to the 21-pin dot matrix printer sits the first 80 or so pages, on continuous-feed computer paper, of a 20-year-old young man's first novel manuscript. On top of that sits the young man's first rejection note, a form rejection from the fiction editor at Redbook magazine with "good work, please send more in the future" scribbled in black pen.

Set the dial two years ahead. The young man is flush from his first publication success, a dual contest win for short fiction and poetry in his Engineering school's annual literary publication. His mother, visiting for graduation, makes him pose with the check he won.

The young man graduated and took his engineering degree to Seattle for his first job. His sweetheart still had one year of college, so he spent his evenings at his electric typewriter, alone in a dim economy apartment kitchen, working on short stories and a new novel. (That first one he unceremoniously stowed away in a box somewhere.)

A year later, that new manuscript was left off after chapter four, and that sweetheart had become his wife. He moved back to Berkeley for a different job, a better job, with high hopes for his career. At 26 he and his bride bought a home. His career managing a technical publications department at a software company was exciting and dynamic. And he hadn't written any fiction in months.

Five years later, the demands of two children and a larger home and a bigger job kept him far from the joy of writing. He was important now, an up-and-comer, a father, a husband, a homeowner. What little extra time he had, he spent keeping children safe as a school crossing guard.

When he turned 35, he knew he had strayed from his dream. He had no regrets, but he wasn't sure how to get back on that path that he had loved so much. He dabbled with poetry again, bought a blank journal and filled it with a lame-ass story he would never show to anyone today in a million years. He started another novel, got to chapter three, and decided it was crap and not worth finishing.

By now, you've figured out that I, I was that young man. A sad story. The story of millions of people; the story of a single soul. It could have ended there.

But a magical thing happened. November came. November 2004, specifically.

I discovered a thing called National Novel Writing Month. A few thousand people were involved. I could do that, I thought. And I did. It was hard. I started with only a vague idea of character and setting, and the plot unfolded as I wrote. By December I had 50,000 words. By February I had a completed manuscript at 69,000 words. I had done it. It wasn't great, but it wasn't awful.

Most of all, I knew I could do it again. Better.

And I did. The next three years I completed novels in November, each one progressively more accomplished, more polished, more complete than the ones before. I learned to avoid plot holes, to study and refine character motivation, to wipe out -ly words. Like Batman, I had my daytime persona--husband, father, laborer, homeowner--but my secret identity as a writer began taking over my psyche bit by bit.

All told, I completed four NaNoWriMo manuscripts. I haven't published any of those, but I did go on to publish my fifth novel, Semper, which was not a NaNo book. Today, I'm on the verge of publishing its sequel.

Might that have happened without the magic of NaNo? There's no way to know for sure.

But this year I'll be jumping back into that frenzied rush of adrenaline and caffeine to start a new project. Because I've been to the mountaintop, I know what it takes to succeed. And I'll be prepared. Oh, I'll be prepared. Words will tumble out like Halloween candy from a bowl with a note on it saying "please take only one," and analogies will thicken the prose in the way that peanut butter sticks to the roof of a dog's mouth. And cliches will wallow like pigs and soar like eagles while metaphors mix like dead horses being beaten. And in the end, when all is said and done, when all is done and said... things will have been written.

This didn't have to be my story. It could be the story of any number of people. Six, for example. Or ninety-one. That doesn't really matter. What matters is that NaNoWriMo picked me up, dusted me off, and told me, "You can do this, mister. Never forget who you are and where you came from. Now get up, get back on that horse, and write."

And that's what I intend to do. Just as soon as I finish this game of Words With Friends and respond to this guy's political rant on Facebook.

The uniform comes off: @BoyScouts and @bsamdsc, you got this WRONG.

Sometimes an event happens that clarifies a difficult, murky situation. Such an event happened today. I got an email. That in itself is not unusual. This email came from our local Boy Scouts council leadership. That is a little unusual, but not terribly. But when I received this particular email, I swear I could actually hear that other shoe hitting the floor.

My last blog post was about BSA's national anti-gay policy. That post focused on the meaning of leadership. How can BSA profess to teach young men to become effective leaders when they're saying that roughly one in every ten boys (or one in every twenty-five, depending on which experts you believe) need to be excluded?

I think BSA's policy is morally wrong, ethically wrong, and also wrong-headed. It's ass backwards from a leadership perspective, from an American perspective, and from a management perspective. Why are gays excluded? Gay does not equal pedophile. Gay equals gay. Pedophile equals pedophile. BSA's history is littered with documented cases of covered-up child molestation. The anti-gay policy didn't do any good then in protecting the boys. Only in the past few years has BSA put in place strong policies to protect boys from predators, including background checks, biannual youth protection training, no solitary one-on-one contact, etc. Had those policies been in place, policies that protect against pedophiles, then maybe that abuse could have been prevented.

But that's not my point. My point is the email I got today. You may have read about that boy in a town nearby who is a shining example of all things Boy Scouts. Oh, wait, sorry. There's this one thing. He's openly gay. And for that, he was denied his Eagle rank, for which he accomplished all the requirements. The Scoutmaster of his troop refused to sign off on the boy's excellent Eagle project. And now, in this email I've received, the Council stands behind the Scoutmaster's decision.

I've heard this argument made before. We were just following orders. People might disagree about the policy, but there's nothing we can do. Our hands our tied. It was a "good faith" effort. (Which is an odd use of the phrase here since faith (in the religious sense) is typically correlated with gay discrimination (see: reasons Prop 8 passed).)

Anyway, this email hit my inbox hard. I'd imagined the policy to be a result of BSA being headquartered in Texas. Everyone in California knows that Texas is a wacko tea party Bible Belt kind of place, right? That could never actually happen in the Bay Area. (Ooh! Ironic prejudice alert!)

Well, it did. It happened here. In my own council. And they aren't standing up for the scout. They're backing the adult leader. Which is what has happened for decades. Too bad for the 17 year old boy who did everything right and trusted the adults around him. Too bad they are kicking him to the curb. But the adults, they made a good faith effort, you know?

No more for me. I cannot wear the uniform any longer. I cannot hold an official position in the BSA organization, no matter how puny and insignificant my role as Assistant Scoutmaster of a troop of 35 boys is. When a boy as courageous and upstanding and model as that boy is (according to what I've read... I do not know the family personally) is crushed just for being who he is, it's wrong. As an organization, we should be celebrating his leadership and accomplishments. As a society, we should be congratulating him for overcoming the bullying he's experienced.

In Michigan, an unpopular girl is made fun of by her peers, and she gets a huge rally of support from her community. This boy accomplishes all he has done, and the adults around him tsk-tsk and suppress him further, rallying around the poor Scoutmaster who was put "in a difficult position."

It's all so backwards and wrong. It makes me really sad. Shame on you, BSA. Shame on you, Mount Diablo Silverado Council. I know you will grow up and change one day. But today? Today's a bad day.

Still wearing the uniform... for now. #BSA blog #leadership

It's important to allow yourself some distance from an emotional event before deciding how you feel about it. Two months may not be enough for this one. I'm still deeply disappointed and hurt by Boy Scouts of America's decision in July to reaffirm its policies of bigotry and discrimination.

This is not a new struggle for me. I work with gay colleagues, party with gay friends, and socialize with gay neighbors. I would be honored to go hiking and camping with gay scouters.

I won't get into the stupid back and forth about "gay people are people too" (duh) or "I know more divorced straights than still-married straights" (true) or "being gay isn't a lifestyle choice" (duh, true), or "the US military is more tolerant than BSA is" (hoo boy). Those points have been made and apparently hold no water at BSA headquarters in Irving, Texas.

Instead, I want to say the following.

Dear BSA,

As a trained Scout leader who has been a den leader, pack committee member, troop committee member, and Assistant Scoutmaster for nearly a decade, I have recited the Scout Oath and Scout Law countless times. I have worn the uniform in public, have recruited families and boys into the organization, have taken responsibility for the safety of other people's children in the wilderness. I have celebrated with boys I've helped achieve the rank of Eagle.

I take very seriously my role in helping the boys develop into mature, responsible young men with an understanding of leadership and an ethic of accountability. The beauty of the scouting program is its emphasis on coaching the boys into becoming effective leaders. Every aspect of the program pushes the boys toward self-reliance, leadership, integrity, and cooperation.

Unfortunately, the national board of directors of BSA has forgotten what leadership really is. Leadership is far more than simply being in charge.

Leadership is courage. Leadership is the ability to put one's own prejudices and fears aside in the pursuit of getting the most of every member of the unit, thereby getting the most from the unit. Leadership is accepting every boy as he is, and believing that every boy can become a strong leader if given the right tools, coaching, and examples. Leadership is empowering others to be better than they think they can be.

Leadership is not fearful or boastful. Leadership is not arbitrarily exercising power over others. Leadership is not cliquish or exclusionary. Leadership is not punitive or petty. Leadership is not compromising values for revenue. Leadership is not telling someone they are less than they really can be.

While a bully can be in charge, a true leader is never a bully.

Today, I am signing a change.org petition asking our council to denounce BSA's policies of discrimination. Even if you are not in the Mt. Diablo Silverado area, please sign this petition.

I want to continue to be a scout leader. I know I am a positive influence for the scouts, and my own two boys get a tremendous amount out of my participation. I can lead without discriminating. I can teach the boys to be accepting of others and inclusive in their own leadership. I can show them courage.

But every time I look at that uniform hanging in my closet, I see bigotry, fear, and prejudice. I know when I put that shirt on, when I slip the neckerchief around my collar, I am painting myself in the colors of hate. Even if I believe in the values of scouting--and I do--this one policy so recently and unapologetically reaffirmed by BSA contaminates me. I, too, am victimized by this decision.

I have not yet decided to abandon the uniform because I feel an obligation to the boys and the families in my troop. I like them all very much, and the scouting activities we do together are a lot of fun. I see the boys maturing year by year, and know I am helping them in their growth.

I have not yet decided to abandon the uniform, but I can feel that day coming.

Free book sites definitely spike download numbers

My book Semper is free for Kindle download on September 11 and 12. (Don't have a Kindle? You don't need one; most devices have a free Kindle reader app available.)

I've enjoyed having Semper in Amazon's KDP Select program, and I've blogged before about the reasons. (Just click the SEMPER tag in the right sidebar to find those posts if you're interested.) One thing I've found, without a doubt, is that getting listed on the "free kindle books" blogs is critical for getting big download numbers.

I have yet to enjoy some of the numbers I've heard out there. My best free runs have been about a thousand downloads a day, though I've heard of 20,000 or more for books in other genres (typically romance and thriller). Young Adult books seem to have a harder time getting traction on free and discounted days.

There are a lot of free book listing sites out there; just google them. Today my book is listed on Free Kindle Books and Tips, and I hope that one will bring in some numbers. Semper has also been on Pixel of Ink and other sites. On free days when I don't do any promotion at all, the numbers are miniscule. But when the book is listed on one or more of these sites, the effect is dramatic.

If you're an author with free days coming up and want to get listed at FKBT, go see their page for authors.

My top five #strengths: #4, #Positivity (blog)

Some years ago, I did this thing called Strengths Finder 2.0.  I am slowly blogging about my top strengths and perhaps about the least strengthful parts of me. For the other posts, check out the Strengths tag on this blog.

Strength #4:  Positivity

People strong in Positivity have a contagious enthusiasm; they are upbeat and can get others excited about things.

source unknown

When people who know me want to think about happy, positive things, they seek out puppies, rainbows, cupcakes, and Peter. Well, okay, that's probably overstating it, but the point is that I tend to see the good side of nearly every situation, and that rubs off on people.

While clearly there are some things that are bad and others which make me sad, I generally believe that all things turn out well in the end. If things aren't good, then it's not the end.

I also believe that (in general) things work out best for those who make the best of things.

I've been "let go" from jobs three times in my 23 year career. The first time was the hardest because even though the job market was decent, being laid off after seven years at one company carried with it many unknowns. Within days, however, I had a contract with one of my former company's big clients, so not only was I getting a decent severance, I was also making out on the contract.

The second time I was let go, so was everyone else. Yup, they shut down the company. I will never forget the CEO coming into the meeting room and saying, "The good news is we can pay you through yesterday." Such is life in a startup. While some of us panicked, I looked at this as the opening of opportunity. And it was. Six weeks later I was at a new job making more than I ever had before.

After the third layoff (another startup), I landed another contract in two weeks. That contract turned into a full time position and has led to where I am today, ten years later. Despite what Thomas Edison said, you never really know what opportunity looks like until you've missed it or grabbed it.

And so it goes. Sometimes change happens to you. I know worriers who try to plan for every contingency. Inevitably, something happens they never anticipated and didn't plan for, and suddenly their world falls apart. If you're one of those people, find someone like me to be your stabilizing influence during the rough patches. We can't fix your problems, but the first step is remaining calm. The second step is finding the positives. The third step is building on those positives.

The flip side of positivity is that I tend to be a very poor planner. Sometimes I go somewhere without complete directions and have to wing it. Or I'll be in a meeting and be asked a question I should have researched beforehand. (I'm working on that.) My positivity tricks me into thinking that no matter what happens, it will all work out okay in the end.

So far, it always has.

Come to think of it, it always will. Because if it's not okay, then it is not yet the end.

rules of the blog - thank you for complying

Since my readership has gone up recently (according to the analytics, not the comments), and since this blog just turned 8 years old, I figured it was time to institute a few new rules. Please, readers, when you visit this blog, observe these rules and the other rules I've posted in the past.

Especially be aware that while I welcome trailers (particularly movie and book trailers), this blog does not have sufficient facilities to accommodate the larger ones.

Make sure to follow all instructions when operating heavy machinery while on the blog.

And perhaps most important of all, a rule that should be self-evident.

Five awesome YA #books cheap! Aug 21-22 only. http://smarturl.it/future

Hey all, check out these five awesome books for a wicked cheap price, August 21 and 22 only.

You can get all five from our special Amazon page, here: http://smarturl.it/future

Have you read SEMPER? What did you think? Let us all know in the comments here. And if you really liked it (like, 5-star liked it), go write an Amazon review. And a Goodreads review, too, while you're at it. Are you looking forward to the sequel? It will be out toward the end of this year.

I am worried about my blog traffic sources.

I looked at my analytics this morning by accident, and I stumbled upon my "traffic sources" stats. Check out the diversity of search terms that brought people to my blog recently:

• porn star
• cicolina italy
• pedophile map
• anatomy of the inner elbow
• april knight porn star
• cicciolina today
• cicolina italia
• died in nepal bus
• friday porn star
• rural nepal

I get the Nepal stuff. And the elbow. The others, however, especially taken as a whole, trouble me a little. Is my blog really coming up in searches on those terms? I wonder why.

But is that better or worse then the days, four years ago, when searches for "hayden christensen porn" and "hayden christensen hair" brought people to my site?

Speaking of four years ago, apparently August 19th was the eight-year anniversary of my very first ever blog post. This one will be my 880th post since I started. Happy birthday to Corner Kick!

Summer #reading contest results and $154.56 donation to the #library! (blog post)

Back at the beginning of the summer, I announced two contests and my intent to donate all my royalties from sales of Semper to my library's summer reading program. Well, here are the results of all that. First, let's start with the sales and donation.

I started with $20 to donate from the author reading I did back in May. Then, from June 9 through August 18 I kept track of sales in-person and through Amazon. I am not including free downloads (a few thousand) during that period since, well, they generate $0 in royalties. Thus, no donations.

Sales in June

Semper e-book sales (US)	19 copies	$32.64
Semper e-book sales (other)	0 copies	$0.00
Semper print sales	5 copies	$13.58
Total	24 copies	$46.22

Sales in July

Semper e-book sales (US)	24 copies	$46.98
Semper e-book sales (other)	1 copy	$1.33
Semper print sales	4 copies	$15.88
Total	29 copies	$64.19

Sales from August 1 through August 18

Semper e-book sales (US)	6 copies	$12.24
Semper e-book sales (other)	0 copies	$0.00
Semper print sales	3 copies	$11.91
Total	9 copies	$24.15

Thus, my total donation during the summer reading program period is $20 + $46.22 + $64.19 + 24.15 = $154.56. Frankly, that's more than I expected. Thanks to everyone who purchased a copy of Semper during that time. Our libraries can definitely use the extra money.

The Contests
My big lesson from these contests was that unless you have a lot of time and energy to invest in promoting a contest, they're useless. Pointless. People won't enter. And they didn't.

So, after much deliberation and analysis of the entries, I have determined that eager entrant Dana wins one of the two prize packages I offered. Dana, look for an email from me to the email address you provided. Congratulations!

For the record, the new back-cover copy for Semper that Dana wrote is this (verbatim, with some semi-spoilers that probably won't ruin the plot for new readers):

At the ripe age of sixteen fate seizes Dane Semper's Son, and thrusts him into an adventure that will shatter all the unquestioned simplicities of his childhood. In the lush forests of his home, myth collides with reality right in front Dane, forcing him to question everything he thinks he knows. On the raw cusp of early manhood, Dane must learn to think for himself as he faces his father's death, choosing a wife, and the usurpation of his birth right. In unplanned defiance of his ruthless uncle a bold choice sends Dane and his new wife into exile. Cast out from the people he was meant to lead they must fight to survive in the war-scorched wasteland of The Radiation. Wondering if he can ever return home again, will Dane dare to discover within himself if he has what it takes to make things right?

Thank you, Dana!


One final note: Semper is temporarily discounted to 99 cents at Amazon for the Kindle edition. Let people know now is the time to get it. This price will be up only about a week.

Okay, another final note: I'm still hoping to get the sequel out in late Q4 of this year. Stay tuned.

Discovering yourself through to-do lists - blog #amwriting

We all have favorite self-evaluation tools. Some people love the Myers Briggs MBTI type. Some tell me they're a "red" or I'm a "blue" or something. I don't really get that one. Then of course there are various Zodiac assessments. Personally, I enjoy the Gallup Strengths Finder program.

Many of us use these and other methods to determine who we'll date, what we'll eat, or what career path we'll follow.

Several years ago, I discovered a different way to focus my career path. I call it the To-Do List Method.™

Early in my career, I became a jack of all trades. I ran a tech pubs group, programmed, ran a tech support group. I found things to like and things to loathe about every job I had. But I was at an inflection point in my career--to progress for real, I'd need to turn myself in one direction and go for it. Marketing? Writing? Programming?

At the time, I happened to be director of marketing at a company that made embedded system software for routers. (Not everyone can successfully market embedded router software, you know. Check out my portfolio; you'll find some articles I authored for technical journals during that time.) But as with all startups, and with every job I've had since, my daily to-do list was longer than the available time. Every day I'd start with, say, 25 tasks, but I had time for only 20 of them. Some of course were mandatory, and those always got done.

Over a few months, I paid attention. Rather than chastise myself for not getting everything done, I studied those items and realized that nearly all those leftover tasks had a few things in common. Most of them involved the telephone. A lot of them involved salesy activity. Nearly none of them involved creative output--design, writing, or problem-solving. And other things.

I also found that this method highlighted my strengths. Communication, creativity, storytelling were among them. I always thought I was bad at those things because I hate hate HATE talking on the phone. With anyone. Ever. But that's just the phone. I was a whiz at tasks that used those skills in writing. Press releases? Mine were really good. Support collateral for the sales team? Awesome. Brand development? Check.

My career has developed in directions I never planned or predicted since then, but I've helped it along by knowing what tasks will fall off the list at the end of a busy day. I avoid jobs that have a lot of them because if you have 25 tasks you enjoy, doing 20 is easy. But if you have 25 tasks you hate, doing 20 will make you miserable.

This came up recently online when someone opined on whether writers are born or made. Someone said, "People who love writing will find time for it." NaNoWriMo winners often joke about leaving the laundry and dishes unwashed for weeks at a time to get the word count. So yeah, I agree. If you have talked about writing for five years and haven't actually done it, you might do a little to-do list analysis of your own. Stop being miserable about wanting to write and focus on the things you do love. And if it feels like 100% of your daily tasks are mandatory obligations for someone else, then you need to reprioritize your life, not just your tasks.

For me, writing is one of those things I find time for most days, most weeks. Even if I don't write, I'm thinking about my stories, spending my downtime in writing mode. And I'm a happier person when I can do that.

Look at your to-do lists for the last few months. What things do you consistently leave undone? Don't be afraid of or embarrassed by them. Treasure them, because they are the buoys that mark your safe channel. Thank them, because they tell you what jobs and activities to avoid in the future. And if you care to share, let me know what they are in the comments.

DC mini travelogue - with photos!

The first time we took my older son, Ethan, to Washington, DC, he was less than a year old and it was a week before Clinton's second inauguration. The weather was like ten degrees out. Kelvin. We saw a few monuments but not much.

The most recent time we took him was last week. He turned 16 while we were there, and the weather was like 102 degrees. Celsius.

No, seriously, it was hot. And humid. Hotter and more humid than the jungle in Nepal.

This time, though, we saw tons of stuff. Way more than we expected, and everything was awesome. And accessible by Metro.

We did the basics like the Capitol tour (disappointing; we saw only three rooms and didn't see either chamber of Congress, which I'd hoped to see) and the Air and Space Museum.

 That's the Capitol. I have better pictures, but I'm not authorized to show them because the person in them doesn't like the way she looks even though the rest of us think she looks beautiful.

It's actually shocking how few photos I have from the Air & Space Museum, given how totally freakin' awesome it is and how enthralled all us boys were the whole time.

We also saw a few unexpected gems, though. The US Postal Service Museum, for example. Free and shockingly interesting. Cool exhibit about the Pony Express, a very interesting look at the automation and logistics of this enormous organization, and a stuffed dog. No, really. A taxidermy-stuffed dog.

Another unexpected gem was Newseum. I'd never heard of this before, and it's not free like the Smithsonian museums, but I could have spent a week there. They have some awesome displays of original documents from the last three hundred years, a big section of the Berlin Wall, a neat video analysis of political campaign ads through the years, the most incredible gallery of Pulitzer Prize winning photographs, and a moving 9/11 exhibit, among other things. Well worth the time and money spent.

Plus, they have this awesome patio looking at the Capitol building. You can't tell it's 95 degrees, can you?

My favorite of the week, I think, was the Library of Congress. What a gorgeous building, and all devoted to books and history and learning and creativity and culture. It's a true monument to the pursuit of knowledge and understanding. We had a fun docent and got a great tour. I like this place so much I would consider moving to the Capitol Hill area of DC just to live in walking distance of the reading room.

The front of the Library of Congress.

Our tour guide, Robert, asking Sam some questions.

Me in a not so great picture with the archway behind me.

The Library from across the street as we left the Capitol building.

Since we were in Washington, DC on July 4th, we thought we should see the fireworks over the Mall. Although it was insanely muggy and kind of hot, we went anyway, and I'm glad we did. Fortunately, the fireworks were awesome and lasted more than fifteen seconds.

Where we almost stopped to watch them, but I don't think we'd have seen anything here.

Waiting patiently, with iPod Touch in hand.

Cool to see the fireworks with the Washington Monument in the background.

We also visited the National Institutes of Health where my brother cures cancer for a living. We saw his lab late at night when we wouldn't bother any of the workers. Security was impressive at the gate, but they let us in even when they learned he was my brother. Here's Dr. Dudley showing Sam how to use the microscope:

Fortunately, he keeps his lab cleaner than he kept our shared bedroom when we were growing up.

We also saw many other things, some of which we photographed and some we did not. For example, the Holocaust Museum was astonishing and gut-wrenching and beautiful. The International Spy Museum (privately run) was fun and interesting, but I might have preferred watching a marathon of History Channel specials on espionage and spies from WW II and the cold war. And some photos from other places we visited:

The Supreme Court. No oral arguments were being heard while we were there, but we got to see the courtroom, and the building and hallway exhibits are interesting in their own right. It was neat being there only a few days after the big Obamacare decision.

The Hirshhorn modern art museum was far more interesting than I expected. We only breezed through a small portion of it, but it was interesting and fun. I generally am bored by modern art, but this was well put together.

We walked through most of the monuments on our last full day, Monday, July 9th. The great thing about this was that the heat broke, so it was only about 90 degrees. It felt quite comfortable. This photo is from the Korean War monument. We also visited Lincoln, MLK, Vietnam War, and World War II (below).

I can't believe it took me 45 years to see these things. Even though the weather was terrible (if you ever go, try to go during the cherry blossom season even though I think it gets insanely crowded), every museum and monument we visited was beautiful and very well done. Be prepared to have water and food taken away (every museum had a security checkpoint), and be prepared to spend $15 a person on a meager lunch. But also be prepared to be amazed and inspired by the history on display and the grandeur of the experience. Simply amazing.

Donation report for June #ebook #contest blog with photos from camp!

You all might remember that I'm running two contests during the summer, and also that I'm donating all my royalties from all sales of SEMPER between June 9 and August 18.

By any measurement but mine, the response so far has been, well... Underwhelming. Disappointing. Pitiful. Lame. My measurement, however, indicates that things are going really well. Because, well, some people are reading my book, and there were two new unexpected 5-star reviews posted to Amazon recently. Plus, the effort I've put into promotion has been, well... Underwhelming. Disappointing. Pitiful. Lame.

You might see the cause and the effect there, if you look really hard.

Anyway, on to the Results So Far (excluding free downloads):

Semper e-book sales (US)	19 copies	$32.64
Semper e-book sales (other)	0 copies	$0.00
Semper print sales	5 copies	$13.58
Total	24 copies	$46.22

So, not a lot. The good news for all of you is that there are very few contest entries so far, and the contest runs another 6 weeks or so, so you've got plenty of time to win a $50 donation to a teacher, and a $10 gift card for yourself.

Oh, and I had the very, very great satisfaction of learning that the boy scout camp where my kids go one week every summer has a library. So of course I inscribed a copy and donated it to the library. I hope some of the kids read it.

Sequel Update

Going well but slowly. I'd hoped to have it out in November, but that's looking unlikely due to things like Day Job obligations and really awful stuff like spending quality time with my kids in the wilderness of the Sierras (last week) and the heart of our nation's capitol (next week).

Photos from camp!

The Program Office and flags

Lovely mountains surrounding this gorgeous valley on the Stanislaus River

Finally arriving at camp after 2+ miles hiking!

The boys getting ready to break down camp after a week.

My truck. Probably the only 1994 Toyota SUV in the country with
stickers for Obama, Glacier National Park, and NaNoWriMo.