I don't have time for writing, I'm writing (#IWSG April 2023)

I'm doing the A-to-Z Blog Challenge this month (what the frak is wrong with me???) so I don't have much time to write for IWSG. Which is actually too bad, because I like the question this month. Let me just say I haven't been doing much writing (towards any of my books) because all my writing as been going toward blog posts!

That said, if anyone is interested in the wild and wooly world of gaming miniatures, be sure to check out my A-to-Z Blog posts. Today's post is "D is for Drybrushing!" It's riveting, I know.

Screw it, here's a quick answer to the question of the month:

April 5 question - Do you remember writing your first book? What were your thoughts about a career path on writing? Where are you now and how is it working out for you? If you're at the start of the journey, what are your goals?

I wrote many "books" when I was in grade school and high school, ranging from illustrated kids books to comic books to novellas. My first full length "novel" I wrote when I was about 22 and it was... weird. I was going through an odd period of self-discovery and the book was a mixture of fantasy, autobiography, music, philosophy and stories about people I knew. I don't think it was bad, but it was a bit of mess. So was I, at the time, so I don't think it could have come out any other way. I've improved quite a bit as a writer since then, but I don't think I could write it now, as I'm a different person. 

This is not that book. This is one of the shitty books I wrote in high school.

It was rejected numerous times from publishers and agents, and in retrospect I certainly don't blame them. I have no idea what the market for it would be. I'm tempted to self-publish it now, just to see what would happen. Though what could happen, really? Besides me getting sued, I mean.

Anyway, go read about my tiny painted people, and I'll catch you next month.

Hugs & kisses,
-CDGK 

Characters You've Never Heard Of: WISCONSIN, PARALLAX

Our guitar-player is not so well off.  His name is Parallax Wisconsin, and his parents are the two nicest, sweetest, most normal people you could ever meet.  It’s amazing how he ended up as fucked up as he did.  He’s an alcoholic, mildly delusional, and extremely apathetic about life.  Even worse, he’s a skater, and that alone makes him scum.  He keeps blaming his parents for all of his problems, and they keep calling us asking where he is because apparently he never goes home.  We have this theory that maybe his parents aren’t so perfect, that they’re really involved with child slavery in South America and they keep Parallax locked up in a closet in the basement and beat him with a vacuum cleaner hose, so that’s why he never wants to go home.  Did I mention that he’s a kleptomaniac?  One of our favorite pastimes is to get him drunk and let him lose at Wal-Mart.  It might be cruel, and I always feel bad afterward, but there’s nothing funnier than watching our 5'2" drunken guitar-player try to sneak out of the sporting goods department with a canoe oar under his jacket.

- from the notes for the unpublished "Diary of a Failed Rock Star"

This is a weird one.

Many years ago, when I first set out to write a serious novel, I worked with an acquaintance (it would be a huge stretch to call him a friend) on a book about his life as a wannabe rock star. I don't talk about it much because he's been gone awhile and I don't know if I can ever share the story, but as I was going through old notes and manuscripts for A-to-Z, I found not only the book but the original notes he transcribed to me.

John was a strange guy. He probably still is, I haven't seen him in a long time. The characters in the book are all based on people he knew with their names changed. Parallax "Perry" Wisconsin is one of them. I knew some of the parties involved, but not Perry. He may not even be a real dude.

That's why it's so weird. I'm not sure which parts of the story are true and which parts are stuff John made up (or hallucinated). I know some of it is exaggerated but I was also there for some of it, so yeah. I don't know what to make of it. I only crammed it in here because I needed a "W."

As a bonus, here's the lyrics to one of their songs, which conveniently also starts with "W." I no longer have the CD and I can't find another copy of it anywhere. John probably has it, maybe I'll track him down one of these days.

WRONGED

Lyrics by Vlad Frederick Knight

I am guilty

Please forgive me

I have broken

Something sacred

I have taken

Love for granted

Now I’m falling

Will someone catch me?

I loved once but I loved not well

Fate had no hand I destroyed it myself

I wronged you but now you’ll never tell

I hide my face and crawl into my shell

You are a china doll I crush beneath my heel

White shards of glass are dead, can’t feel

You gave me your heart and cry your bloody tears

I’m the fucking bastard who broke the sworn deal

I am guilty

Please forgive me

I have broken

Something sacred

I have taken

Love for granted

Now I’m falling

Will someone catch me?

Our love was like fireflies mating

Burning angels falling from Heaven

You lifted me up but I let you down

Eventually we had to hit the ground

The eyes I use to see are not mine

Vision is learned we are all born blind

We see what we want we can’t fight Fate

First you have to love before you learn to hate

I am guilty

Please forgive me

I have broken

Something sacred

I have taken

Love for granted

Please forgive me

I will do it again

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