The World As We Know It

What a time to be alive. A kids movie villain will soon be the American president. GMO's are banned in many countries around the world. A movie ticket costs as much as an entire trip to the movies 20 years before. There are so many Marvel movies that I'm getting tired of them.

I wrote a book.

It's not a great book, or even a good book. It's okay. My grammar, as evidenced by this atrocious blog, is sub par. That being said, it's a great story. A fun read if there ever was one. If you can get past the grammar. Which a lot of people can't.

You want it? You got it here, baby:

https://www.amazon.com/Rising-Sun-Michael-Shorten-ebook/dp/B01AQ2OUQQ

Life goes on but not much seems to change. I wrote a book but within a month, my life had become the exact same. I had the same crap job that pays crap and wastes my life. I have a massive amount of student debt and piling up credit card debt. Still no health insurance but now I have to pay to be to poor to afford it.

It's all a bit hopeless, no?

NO!

We can make a difference in this world. YOU can make a difference in this world.

Here's what you can do:

-click the above link and buy my book.
-convince 100 of your family and friends to also buy my book.
-have them convince 100 of their f&f's to buy my book.

So on and so forth.

Eventually, if everyone does this, I will be a millionaire. And boom. You have changed the world. You have made a poor man he didn't believe life would ever work out into a rich man who can relax.
Amazing what $2.99 can buy, right?

I guess in conclusion... Don't be a shit person. Don't just listen to politicians who tell you to hate. Don't listen to the voice inside that tells you to hate and distrust. And buy my book.

p.s. fuck proofreading, this puppy is going out RAW.

p.p.s. and now you see why my book has bad grammar.

Dont Act Like You Don't Know

Hey, blogosphere. Hows it hanging? Is tumblr's strangle hold really getting to ya? Hope not because I'm still here! And I hope you are. Probably not. Writing something and throwing it into the nothingness of the internet is very strange but strangely comforting.

Annnywayyy...

Been watching Bojack Horseman and one of the characters gives a motivational speech that blew my mind.

"Okay. Carolyn, you are the star of a movie. This is the part of the movie where you get your heart broken. Where the world tests you, and people treat you like shit. But it has to happen this way. Otherwise, the end of the movie, when you get everything you want, won't feel as rewarding. There are assholes out there, but in the end, they don't matter. Because this movie's not about them. It's never been about them. All this time, the movie's been about you.

So. This is all leading up to an awesome announcement. My book is coming out soon!

I Dont Know If I Wanna Believe

I wonder how many blogs have been started and abandoned. At least one for every mid 20's-30's adult in Americar, probably.

The blogspot graves must stretch on for infinity.

I'm not back to posting regularly. I just happened to be using my old computer and saw this tab and thought I'd say hi. So, hi.

Bye.

Oh, Hello. That's Too Much Tuna.

Hi. Hope the weather finds you well.

I'm really beginning to learn that life has no central narrative that will win out in the end. Just.. whatever you make of it. Liberating and terrifying at the same time, no?

It's raining here right now and it's making me wish I could be in Paris right now, eating in cafes, visiting museums, going to bars, seeing the sights. Ahhh... so nice.

In closing, never give up, never surrender.

Ballerina Dancin' Across The Sand

Hello.

It's been a while, how've you been? Did you get that promotion/job/cat/car/date/meal/house/etc you wanted? I hope so, you deserve it.

I've been busy working and worrying about work, you know how it goes.

Hold me closer tiny dancer.

I don't really remember where I left you all in regards to my writing "career" (pause for hearty laughter) but here's an update. I'm about 1/6-1/4 of the way through the first draft of the sequel to my first book Rising Sun. It's about the same as the first one; not that great, full of grammatical errors. A real first book if you catch my drift.

Lay me down in sheets of linen.

My music taste has changed again. I'm extremely into 70's folk-pop music. Honestly, I have no idea if it's from the '70s or if it's folk-pop. It's just the feeling I get from it.
Some examples:
-Jim Croce
-Cat Stevens
-Fleetwood Mac
-Simon & Garfunkel
-James Taylor
-Gordon Lightfoot
Yeah, I've become an old man.

Wish I was homeward bound.

Hope you're doing well. Say hello to your mother, tell her I love her.

Sincerely,
Mike

What It Is To Burn

Found out I have really high blood pressure. Not surprising. No more salt for me.

I'm excited for the challenge of learning to change my palet.

Holy Roller

I have started writing again. Ah, the subject of 90% of my posts on here. Honestly it probably won't stick but it feels soooooo good to say it will.

I have decided I need to... Oops. Can't really say this online where everyone can see. EDIT

Game of thrones is legit, son!

The new Panic at the Disco is pretty rad.

Ummm... what else be new in me life?

Started working out AGAIN. I say that probably as often as I say I started writing again.

Noteworthy podcasts I've recently started listening to:

-The Cracked podcast
-Risk!
-Get Up On This
-This American Life
-The Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project
-Never Not Funny

VIVA LA PODCASTS!

The Rain In Spain?

I wrote for the first time in over 1 month today. It was awesome. Hard initially but very rewarding once I got into it.

I realized today that I will most likely never be a successful author. And that's okay. I will continue writing and writing and self publishing and if a few family members and a handful of friends are the only ones who ever read my stuff, that's okay. I'm okay with that. I just have to keep writing.

My financial future, on the other hand, is in better shape. I have some plans that are years in the doing but will hopefully pay off handsomely.

Another huge realization I've made is that I don't want the biggest job. I don't want the most important position in the company. I just want to make a good living in a low stress job I enjoy and spend my emotional energy on things I love instead of things that make money.

Ideally I want to live somewhere that I produce most of my food myself with not very many possessions and lots of friends and spirits. That sounds glorious. And a way to write, of course.

Picture Tiny Shrimp Crawling All Over This Boat

I have a few irons in the fire right now. I'm working full time, writing a book, a novella, and now I'm trying to get some freelance writing work. Which is hard. It really makes me feel inferior, idiotic, and dumb. But I can't not do it. I've gotta keep going because it's what I want to do with my life. I feel the drive to do these things so therefore I MUST!

I MUST!

If you haven't seen It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, watch it. It's the best.

I have this thought on a daily basis. Just kidding! Hahahaha... ha... eh... ratssssssss

When You Believe

Ello. Oim Br'ish, oy am!

I've been writing Drabbles lately. What are Drabbles? A Drabble is 100 word story, popularized on the Drabblecast podcast.
Trying to do something creative when I can't bring myself to work on le novel.

Here's an example:

My heart pumped with fear. 

The tall, flamboyantly dressed figure standing in front of me had to be a hallucination, part of the schizophrenic past I thought all the pills had overcome. Behind the figure, Professor Jones droned on about 17th century European history. The class, listening in their typical bored way,  showed no sign of anything out of the ordinary.

“It’s not real,” I repeated over and over to myself. 

The figure just laughed and pulled a knife from its fur coat.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Jackson. I AM for real,” it said, and slashed the blade across my face.

Fun stuff eh?

A good quote:

“Sometimes I write drunk and revise sober, and sometimes I write sober and revise drunk. But you have to have both elements in creation — the Apollonian and the Dionysian, or spontaneity and restraint, emotion and discipline.” 
― Peter De Vries, Reuben, Reuben

Its Back?

I changed the addy of my blog back. I was under the impression that blogger would reroute everyone but thats not the case. So. I fixed it. Check id out man.

Coming Home, Moving On

I have changed the address of this blog. It was surprisingly easy. I will also start posting on my tumblr hpshakespeare.tumblr.com simultaneously.

Good times.

So I have to delete about 2 pages from my book. I started writing things and got stuck because I was trying to force something that didn't work. Blerg.

I have to rewrite HOW many pages?!

This Ones For The Lonely, The Ones That Seek And Find

Only to be let down, time after time.

Grr... I'm annoyed. Want to talk about it but can't.

So. I'm still writing on this blog. Surprise, surprise, right? I'm lazy as balls. Haven't gotten around to changing that address, still want to post. Whatevs.

I deleted about 500 words today. I had two characters hooking up and then realized WHAT THE HELL THAT DOESNT MAKE SENSE CHANGE IT NOW YOU IDIOT BEFORE YOU DESTROY YOUR BOOK

Thanks Buddha I fixed it.

I searched for "Buddha Monster" and this is what came up. haha

Born To Die

Heya, e'erone.

The future of this blog has become uncertain. I no longer want my name attached to it but it happens to be in the bloody URL.

I feel like this blog might be a deterrent for future employers who look me up online.

If I can figure out how to change the URL but keep everything else then I will keep the blog. If not, well I'll be deleting it and starting over with something much more anonymous.

So if anybody has any info, let me know.

In other news, I've started my second book, tentatively titled Rising Sun 2: Can't Think Of A Title.

Wrote over 900 words today which is 400 more than my daily goal. Hells yeah!

You Act So Different Around Me

Hmmm...

I, as always, am trying to figure out what to do with me life. A big thing I want to be my life's work is writing. Producing art. I want that to be my legacy. But it is so hard to make money in that so I am having to figure out other things to do.

The real thing I was wanting to think about was self publishing. This is the route I've decided to go.

Damn. I had a message I wanted to get across in the post but... I have no idea what it really was. I'm listening to a podcast, Geeks Guide to the Galaxy, and it's an interesting interview and I'm trying write at the same time and... it ain't working.

Alright so I'll do a list of some music I'm into lately.



-"Hail To The King" by Avenged Sevenfold.
This song just rocks off all the socks.

-"The End Of All Things" by Panic At The Disco.
Such a sad, wistful song. It makes me just stare into the middle distance and forget. Panic has a new album and it's really good. It also sounds a lot like...

-"The Phoenix" by Fall Out Boy.
I'm a huge FOB fan, have been since high school, and publicly a fan since 2007. This song has a good chorus.

-"Hold On We're Going Home" by Drake.
I know. What? Not my usual fare but it's catchy and stuck in my head.

In closing, don't give up on your dreams. You may not be the best or as good as you hoped but if you don't go for your dreams then you will always have that regret. That regret is not great.
Also learn to let go. It's hard but most DEFINITELY worth it.

Conflicting messages? I hope not.

HUBBIDA DUBBIDAH

I just finished mapping book two. It. Is. Awesome. Seriously. I can't wait for you guys to read it. It's going to be the best! It's even better than book one!!!! And brah's, book one was good.

On a related note, I can't stop saying brah. Variant of bro. Short for brother. Yeah, it's not great. But brah, it's the best.

I have applied and been accepted into school. Found out today. YAYA!

I am going to watch My Neighbor Totoro soon. Excited.

Can't think or write in correct. Sentences.

Blerg

workin' on my night cheese

Lessons Learned

I heard a Fall Out Boy song I've never heard before. I made me really happy.

Dreams are my curse and my (hopeful)redemption. 

I'm reading a book right now called EX-Heroes by Peter Cline. It's pretty good. Honestly, it started off a little slow and I was regretting buying it but then I forced myself to keep going, I have a hard time reading stuff that's not Harry Potter sometimes, and it's actually awesome. I'm almost finished and planning on buying the rest of the series.

On a related note I've decided to start buying books I like. I'm a writer and I'm hoping that people will buy my books. So I should support other authors. I'm going to start using a larger chunk of my income for books. Hell yeah!

Life is slowly teaching me the lesson that you can't make other people like you more than they are willing to. You can't make other people be better friends with you. You just have to accept the love others are willing to give and live with that. 

Grows Flowers In His Apartment

Editing of the Le Book should begin today. I am beyond excited. Once I publish it, I will post a link to it. You must all subsequently PURCHASE THE EFF OUT OF IT. Please.

I've been watching Louie. It's depressing/amazing.

I've also been watching Buffy. Which is my new favorite tv show.

this one book by this one blogger dude is AMAZING

Some of my favorite music includes:

• Panic at the Disco- Pretty Odd
• Coheed and Cambria- Year of the Black Rainbow
• AWOLNATION- Megalithic Symphony
• Mumford and Sons- Sigh No More

Cellos

I started another fuckin' job today. It's a lot better emotionally than the last one. It's a lot worse financially than the last one. It's not what I want to do. But it'll pay the bills.

My dream job was posted on craigslist. I'm going to apply for it tomorrow. It's probably not my real dream job but I think about it a lot.

I decided to just self publish my book. Because... FUCK THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY AND IT'S BULLSHIT!!!

What, you want me to send my books to a billion different people? And then 99.9% of them won't even read it. Of those that do, 99.99% of them won't get back to me. Of those 99.9% that do, 100% of them will be rejections.

But then randomly one of them actually finds it in a trash can covered it snot filled tissues and empty wine bottles, little red stains making much of the first few pages illegible. This person likes my book. He emails me back and wants to work with me.

This person is a literary agent. Not a publisher. An agent. NOT A PUBLISHER!!! He just wants to try and sell my book to some publishers.

Oh, by the by. This is NOT a guarantee of publishing. This is a "guarantee" of this person trying  to see if maybe some other ass hole thinks it's good enough to get sell some copies.

And then the process is repeated. Infinitum.

So. Fuck them. I'm going out on my own. And it probably won't work. But I just don't have the life energy to try this.

This has given my soul such freedom.

I'm ready to write the second book. Yeeha!

yeah kinda feels like this

I'm ALSO going to start writing music again. Hopefully.

Psycho

Oy
That job didn't work out.
I got a job in pest control at a different company.
Good golly.