of writing and books

In all honesty there are always instances when something happens or I see something or feel or touch something and I knew it was worth writing about in this here blog ... but something else comes up and I get side-tracked and lose the moment. When I finally get the time to open Blogger, log-in, and hit "New Post", what I wanted to write about earlier doesn't feel exciting anymore.

I do not want writing, especially my personal and creative writing, to be a chore.

I want to write because I want to and desire to and have the enthusiasm for it but not to write because I know I have to. Because then writing becomes a chore and everyone I believe at one point or another in their lifetime has surely hated chores (I know do, until now :P). It becomes work and I am doing a lot of that already at the Desk on almost a daily basis, thank you.

I envy those who can write anytime or anywhere, who have the ability to mentally shut off all things and people around them and just write.

J.K. Rowling wrote parts of the first book of what would soon be the phenomenal Harry Potter series in a coffee shop. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about elves, dwarves, men, and orcs, and their stories in the midst of war serving as a soldier during World War I. L. Ron Hubbard was under financial stress and pressure when churned out story after story early in his writing career. Locally, Dean Alfar finds time to write down spec-fic while juggling his many roles as a businessman, boss, franchisee, and editor while bi-focal problems have not stopped the irrepressible Charles Tan from writing his daily spec-fic blog. Sir Butch Dalisay still make sense in his regular column pieces and comes up with creatively-driven commercial writing despite the apparent distractions of techno-gadgets, old typewriters, eBay, travels every now and then, a continued stint as a professor in Peyups, and, oh yes, his now famous collection of fountain pens.

I still have a long way to go to be able to do what they do and what they can do. But I know I am not getting any younger. I need to start doing that now.

Looking back on the course of my 30 odd years, I honestly think my creativity strikes right after the midnight bell tolls. Just when the aswangs and the multos have supposedly began their hauntings, that is when I believe I am at my most creative. In my younger years, I was creative -- churning out personally-published comics (drawn on bond paper, inked using a Pilot black ballpen), wrote songs, came up with love letters fit for an episode of "Young Love, Sweet Love" or MMK, developed fantasy lands for envisioned SF&F books and games.

These creative pursuits were stilled in college with a need to devote more time to studies, term papers, girls, and the rock band. The time for creatives eventually went from stilled to nil when I entered the workforce as a bright-eyed, still wet-in-the-ears new graduate.

But then I entered marketing and creativity took a bit of a new meaning for me and I found out I was rather good with that type of creativity.

I, however, still yearn for that old creativity -- the one that did not come with a 15-30 pay check or the 9-6 work hours.

I always yarn and yak in this blog about finding the time to write but I think, after getting hit in the eye a gazillion times by all those articles I have read on the subject, it is actually not finding the time that matters really but managing the time to write.

And I am guilty of using up time (and many instances, wasting it as well) better used for developing and honing my craft. Rather than double-clicking the Burger Rush game icon or happily scrolling away looking at how my Facebook friends are doing, I could have been writing down 500 words or so. I think the word discipline also comes into mind when you talk about managing the time to write.

Distractions too play a role. I think it was Jay Lake who mentioned never having had watched TV for quite some time now and not having pressed a gaming button for eons and those simple yet earth-changing decisions have merited him success in the spec-fic scene. While I have yet to let go of TV and video games, I will need to draw the line somewhere if I am ever to finish that book someday.

* * * *

Speaking of books, I have just finished James A. Owen's Here There Be Dragons, the first book in his The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica series. I have to say I have loved it! This makes Mr. Owen probably the third YA writer I like after the enduring Brian Jacques whose Redwall series never failed to charm and Mr. Rockstar himself, Neil Gaiman, for his magnificent work, The Graveyard Book (a book I hope my daughters will one day read as well -- when they are able).

I have piled up on books actually in preparation for the Christmas break, which with four days of mandatory leaves and a looming paternity leave will mean a two-week vacation for me starting on 21st.

Yes, I still have many left-over books on the to-be-read pile but just to be on the safe side, I have piled on a few more books including an anthology featuring retellings of Jules Vernes' stories and two prequel Dune books. I will be hitting the bookstores soon enough so before the year is out I will surely be piling more and more books on that to-read list.

Dang, I just remembered I needed a bookcase!

surf's up -- a list of sites frequently visited

In the daily course of your internet life, whether you're sneaking personal surfing during office hours or leisurely abusing your unlimited internet connection at home, there are some sure sites you're bound to visit regularly. Obviously, the website lists on the right side of this blog indicates mine but let me go deeper as to why they're there as my top sites to visit. Please note, that this listing is in no particular order, weight or preference although I will state most likely what sites I devotedly visit.

Inquirer.net (www.inquirer.net)
Inquirer.net is the number one Filipino website when it comes to news and it remains to this day that. So, it's only normal that this becomes a daily habit with me. It's much more comprehensive than the print version (thanks largely because the press and photo releases don't get published anymore) but like its mundane form, is cluttered with ads. However, like the printed form, you can choose to ignore the ads (hopefully they're not intrusive like those new rich media types offered nowadays).

Yahoo Sports (http://sports.yahoo.com/)
It has become a habit for me to check the latest sports news via Yahoo's sports pages (normally NFL, NBA, boxing (if Manny Pacquiao is fighting), and tennis; and on occasion F1 and horse racing as well) since I first worked for a sports betting company way back in 2005. That was the first time work required me to online for all the ten hours I was at the office and part of the work required that I routinely check what's happening in sports-dom. That habit has stuck until now.

Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org)
The true encyclopedia online, I wouldn't be surprised if this website was single-handle reason for why many roving encyclopedia salesmen lost their jobs. While there are still questions and critics regarding Wikipedia's open-to-all writing and editing policies, it has fast become a popular (albeit not always reliable or credible) source of information. I first encountered Wikipedia during my first online marketing work and it since then become an indispensable go-to site for quick information. For me, it's also a great way to pass the time as you learn a lot and you just find yourself browsing topic after topic. You start off looking and reading one topic and then some eons later, you find yourself a zillion topics hence.

Facebook (www.facebook.com)
There's no doubt that Facebook nowadays occupy a big chunk of my internet time. There's just so many things to do on that social networking site that I've virtually abandoned my Friendster account already and devoted whatever online time I have to FB. Chat, email, play games, send virtual gifts, join causes, connect with long-lost friends -- the list of things that can be done on FB is outstanding that in my opinion, it easily outruns MySpace in terms of activity. My fave things to do on FB currently? Farm Town, FarmVille, and Mafia Wars.

Penmanila (www.penmanila.net)
If you simply admire writers and authors who can write eloquent English but who can still be so Filipino then Penmanila might be worth your while (it is for me). Penmanila is the website and blog of Jose "Butch" Dalisay, one of today's more prolific Filipino writers and academician and in it, you can read about things and issues that are close to Sir Butch (yes, he was a professor of mine back in college for one CW subject) including literature, the English language, travel, politics, writing, the academe (and teaching), fiction and his love of fountain pens. Updated weekly so this doesn't qualify (technically) under my daily web surf but it has become so much of a habit that it deserves to be put in here.

Komikero Journal (http://gerry.alanguilan.com/)
Accessible via Komikero.com, this is the blog of comic book writer and artist (and video-blogger and podcaster) Gerry Alanguilan whose credits include Wasted, Timawa, and more recently, Elmer. He is also well-known in the comic-dom for his work with DC and Marvel titles including Superman, Batman, New X-Men and Wolverine. Through his blog, find out how he lives his life as a comic book artist making ends meet, his chronicling of Philippine komiks, and his advocacy of uplifting the local comic book industry. His latest adventure has taken him taking a stance that Carlo J. Caparas is not qualified as a National Artist for Visual Arts (find out more through his blog posts and you'll be enlightened!).

Notes from the Peanuts Gallery (www.deanalfar.blogspot.com)
As a budding writer for the fantastic, it's only natural that I try and find out as much as I can about the local science-fiction and fantasy scene here in the Philippines. Stumbling upon the blog of businessman and writer Dean Francis Alfar instead introduced me to Filipino speculative fiction. Dean is one of the more stalwart advocates of Filipino spec-fic and has championed its cause by winning numerous awards for his spec-fic works. His (and his wife Nikki Alfar's) annual anthology of speculative fiction by Filipino writers is a much-awaited release. Unfortunately, Dean hasn't been active of late with his blogs as his other interests (I think) are demanding more of his time.

Twitter (www.twitter.com)
Do you tweet? I do. So, it's only natural that I visit Twitter daily to tweet. And I've linked my Twitter and FB accounts so that whatever I tweet also gets pasted as my shout-out on FB. They call Twitter micro-blogging and indeed it is. It's a fast way of updating your readers and followers on what you're doing, what's occupying your time, and whatever (mis)adventures you're undertaking. Blog posts like this one takes time so Twitter is a life-saver. And I think we Filipinos will have no probs with using Twitter because it's exactly like texting -- your message in just 160 characters. If you want to follow me, just hit the "Follow Me on Twitter" on the upper right corner of this blog-site.

Bibliophile Stalker (http://charles-tan.blogspot.com/)
Another daily source for anything spec-fic, fantastic or science-fiction(istic), writer Charles Tan's website directs you to lots of links related to subject, and also contains interviews, book and magazine reviews, and his personal thoughts on relevant matters. It's a daily, Monday to Friday, compilation of the latest news, views and issues related to the speculative fiction realm and has been cited by even American author and editor Jeff VanderMeer to be a daily resource of his as well.

Other sites that I frequent although not on a regular (as in day-to-day) basis include:

Jeff VanderMeer's Ecstatic Days
For the entrepreneur-to-be-in-me: Entrepreneur
Adobo Magazine Online -- the local ad industry's magazine
BoardGame Geek - all about playing games unplugged
Gamespot - counterpart of BGG, this one is all about video games
Concept Ships - for fantastic drawings and designs of airplanes, spaceships and just about anything that can fly or has a rocket engine
Mental Floss - for the knowledge junkie in you and me
DC Comics - always been a DC fan so out of nostalgia I chance upon this site every now and then

I also am a regular visitor to online bookstores like Fully Booked, Powerbooks, and National Bookstore as well as international bookstore site Borders (which is incidentally also a fan page of mine on FB). I also frequent PC retail sites especially when I was still agonizing whether to upgrade my busted desktop or buy a laptop (and before I bought my latest rig) like PC Corner, PC Express, and TipidPC to check out prevailing prices. And oh yes, I also frequent CDR-King's website as well.

Ikaw, what sites are your regular haunts?

goodbye david

Got the news over from Bibliophile Stalker that one of the greatest influences of my liking for stories of the fantastic and the spectacular, David Eddings, died last Tuesday of natural causes. He was 77.

The Nevada Appeal had a good story on the fantasy writer who started his career after discovering that JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings was already in its 73rd printing.

Eddings, who along with his wife Leigh, produced over 25 books of epic fantasy starting with The Belgariad and its sequel series of books, The Mallorean and moved on to another fantasy world with The Elenium and The Tamuli. His last epic series was The Dreamers.

Oft criticized for his writing style, Eddings believed himself to be a storyteller and not someone out there to win a Nobel Prize for Literature. While his initial aim at writing epic fantasy was to find a way to pay the bills, he had always wanted to be a writer since his high school days. He aimed at creating fantasy that was fun to read and not lead readers astray with "thees" and "thous" that was the norm those days with fantasy writers following Tolkien's influence.

Eddings is credited with bringing the genre of fantasy fiction to the mainstream and his commercial success with his books opened doors for other fantasists to write fiction that was easy to read and fun.

According to the report, Eddings was still working on a manuscript that was unlike others he and his wife have written but still very much fantasy.

On a more personal note, he was a great influence to my own journey towards fantasy and to an extent, science fiction. He opened new doors for me and made me dream that one day I will, like him, write a book that people would love to read. His books were constant companions during summer and I hunted and tried to complete and of course, cherished.

I still lack a couple of books from his last series but no doubt, I will complete them one of these days.

He and his writings will be missed.

Photo courtesy of Nevada Appeal and in turn courtesy of Reed College

thursday tidbits: hunt for precious, turin book, w3888, write stuff, free coffee

hobbit appetizer: hunt for gollum
Excitement over the forthcoming "Hobbit" is starting to gain momentum and if you can't contain your excitement, head on over to the Hunt for Gollum website for some appetizer.

The site is a movie site "made by fans for fans" and the idea behind the site is a creation of a movie (for online release only) that will last about 45 minutes. The movie will revolve around that chapter in Tolkien's Middle-Earth between "The Hobbit" and the "Lord of the Rings" storyline, specifically Aragorn's search for the creature Gollum. Low-budget yet quite interesting, this should be a good enough filler until the Guillermo del Toro-helmed Tolkien flick comes to town next year.

The site has got a full trailer and a couple of teasers online so head on over there.


sleeping with turin turambar
Before taking 40 winks for the past few nights alongside my cute but uberly kulit daughter (her mama has been on graveyard duties the past couple of weeks), I've had a chance to re-do a habit of mine -- reading to sleep. Although the problem is that instead of being lulled to sleep, my mind and imagination is awakened with the book I am reading -- The Children of Hurin.

The book, a hardcover US edition, is a personal gift of my sister, Rochelle, and was part of the balikbayan package she sent last month (along with a couple of cook books for diabetics). For non-Tolkien fanatics, the books is not your Lord of the Rings type -- it's more likened to reading Homer's Iliad or Odyssey (or critics likened it to Finnish folklore legend/hero Sigmund) so it's not that easy a read. Think of it along the lines of our own Filipino legends -- Ibong Adarna or Florante at Laura -- but in the case of The Children of Hurin, it's a tragedy (like Oedipus Rex). Unlike Ibong Adarna or Florante at Laura, the book ends in sadness.

The book harkens back to the earlier Ages of Middle-Earth, some 6,000 years before the events of the Lord of the Rings, back when Men were just newly-awakened and the Elves were the dominant race. Sauron was just a henchman of the original Lord of Darkness Melkor aka Morgoth.

If you've read The Silmarillion and liked the book, then you'll like The Children of Hurin. If you didn't like it, maybe wait for the movie version because I've heard and read that there are plans of turning it into a movie as well one of these years.


w388
I've switched phones.

But don't get me wrong -- I remain loyal and very much attached to my Nokia 6680 and in all likelihood I will return to using that phone as soon as my "trial" period with this Motorola W388 is over.

Rather than let it rot in the corner of my drawer, I'm temporarily using this Motorola W388 unit which I won from the company Christmas Party last December. And after more than a month in repair (it had an LCD problem), I finally got it back late February and have been using it as my main phone for about two weeks now. Incidentally, my 6680 is the one currently rotting in the aforementioned drawer.

After sporting the gadget for the said period, I am now ready to assess it -- I'm sticking with my ole trusty Nokia but keep this one as a back-up.

The only good mark on the W388 on my personal benchmark is its music -- it is after all, a music phone. Great speakers and an FM radio are the plus marks it gets. But then again, I want more out of my phone than an FM radio. I miss the Bluetooth capability, there's no video or voice recording on this one, no notes, and the camera sucks at a dismal 640x320 pixels and that's already high!

Texting is also another matter because the response time of the phone is slower and erratic. Hitting the key twice to generate the needed letter or punctuation is not guarantee you'll get the correct one. This makes texting on the W388 twice as long.

But this one will serve well as a back-up and can be used as an entertainment device when doing my "walk"-xercise. Who needs an MP3 player or an iPod when I have this on hand? And anyway, it's quite norm nowadays to carry at least two phones (to compliment your netbook, iPod, PDA, and nifty lazer gun).


writing venues
Thanks to Bibliophile Stalker and Philippine Genre Stories, new writing venues have been discovered:

Crossed Genres - now accepting Western-themed SF; but with a March 31st deadline it looks like I'm going to miss this one especially since I've learned about it only today. If you think you can beat the deadline, read the guidelines here.

Here's one with a longer deadline:

Catastrophia, a planned anthology - open call for submissions (started September 9th last year) for catastrophe and disaster short stories. Think War of the Worlds, The Day After Tomorrow, Deep Impact, Jericho (TV Series), and now condense them into at most 8,000 words. Deadline is on May 31. Rules can be found here.

Plus, be reminded of other calls for submissions -- Farthest Shore on April 15 (to get some out-of-this-world spec fic done during the Holy Week alongside religious obligations, of course), and Destination: Future on June 30 for SF writers out there.


free starbucks
Ever had a free Starbucks beverage before?

I had one last December and another due soon just as soon as I step inside a Starbucks outlet.

And all it takes is just a series of clicks, and, oh yes, internet connection.

Starbucks it seems is still doing a global customer satisfaction survey and if you’re a lucky SB addict, the receipt you get from your latest purchase of a frap or hot coffee might be one that asks you to take their online survey over at www.MyStarbucksVisit-ph.com. If you complete the survey, you get a Beverage ID and you use this ID (along with the complete receipt, of course) to claim a free drink!

Here’s a screenshot I took of the complimentary beverage ID I received just about after I completed the survey. Just so nobody claims my free SB, I blotted out the actual ID number :P.

New Tolkien Book Released!

JRR Tolkien fans will be rushing to the bookstores over at London a few hours from now to get their hands on a copy of the latest Tolkien book – The Children of Hurin – which was slated for a Tuesday release according to Yahoo! (read the news here).

A couple of minutes after reading the Yahoo report, I went over to the Fully Booked and Powerbooks sites to see if both bookstores have it forthcoming – nil. I don’t think the book will be available here in P.I. until probably several more months.

Of course, this book by the Father of Modern Fantasy, is being published posthumously as John Ronald Reuel Tolkien has been dead for 34 years. The Children of Hurin is being published under the graces of the Tolkien Estate and the book itself wasn’t really published by JRR but by his son, Christopher Tolkien, who had spent almost his entire life making sense of the scraps and pieces of fiction left by his father and churning them out to something resembling readable books.

In this latest Tolkien fiction, Christopher constructed the book from manuscripts written by his father “without any editorial invention.” Meaning, the son made sure he didn’t put in his own imaginings on the book and worked only to make sense of the manuscripts his father left.

The Children of Hurin is not your Hobbit or Lord of the Rings. It’s darker and grimmer and tells the tragedy of Turin and Nienor, the children of one of Men’s greatest heroes of the second age – Hurin. The story has appeared in a condensed narrative in The Silmarillion and if it’s any indicator, this new book is sure to fire-up the imagination of the millions of Tolkien fanatics all over the world as we will be introduced once again to the magic of JRR Tolkien.

Expect to learn more about Middle-Earth circa Second Age as we will probably get a more in-depth look into Beleriand, the lands of Middle-Earth west of the setting of Lord of Rings which was destroyed in the earlier Age.

We will also get to know more about Beleg Strongbow as well as get introduced more to Thingol, the Elven lord of Doriath and his Maian wife, Melian as well as to the host of other Elven and Mannish characters.

Geesh … my Tolkien-geeekeness is starting to exude! Can’t wait for this book to arrive in the P.I.!