Drawing to a Close…
Well, today’s my last day of freedom before I go back to the grind again tomorrow. I’m not exactly looking forward to it, but what can you do? This little break has been … interesting. I started it as a software developer with one novel under my belt, and I’m ending it as a published author with two finished novels under his belt. Well, I’m not technically published until next Spring, and the second “finished” novel is undergoing reviews, but you know what I mean.I’ve come a long way in two months. And I’ve learned one important thing about myself that I only assumed before I went on this little journey: I am a writer. This is me, for better or worse. I may not be the world’s best wrier, but this is the life I need to have.
So, there’s the question: how do I get there? And, to put a fine point on it, how do I get there using my own strengths and weaknesses? I mean, I’m terrible at multi-tasking careers, or else Shattered would’ve been written a while ago. Can I find it in myself to bring out the next book while I’m maintaining a day job?
Hell, on top of the day job, I’ll also be trying to do my own part to bolster the publisher’s marketing efforts on Like Glass. And I’m still not sure if I want to work on the same story line again for a little while. Rob’s got two stories finished now. Maybe it’s time to give him a bit of a break and see what else needs to be told.
Now I’ll get to try and develop another character. Rob was pretty easy to do — he’s a lot like me, as I’m sure I’ve said somewhere. That’ll be the real challenge: developing a new character who isn’t like me. Someone entirely different, with different goals and hopes and dreams and fears.
Kinda scary…. Exciting, but scary.
Anyways, as I said at the start, I’m not looking forward to giving up the lifestyle I’ve had for the past two months to go back to the rat race. It’s been extremely trying, but fun as hell — trying to set up marketing stuff, trying to write, trying to get published, so on and so forth. I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot, but I also still feel kinda like I failed — I’m going back to work, aren’t I?
Eh, never mind — I’m listening to a “slow” Slipknot song and getting all sentimental and crap. Never mind me
Site Design/Changes
November 27, 2008 · Posted in General · Comments Off
In case you hadn’t noticed, I changed things around here at Chocolate for Dogs a little bit. The most obvious change is the new site theme; this was just as much functional as it was aesthetic. I’ve been thinking about posting source code to the site for programming tutorials, and while I was able to find a plugin that allowed for decent syntax highlighting, it looked like crap on a black background.Aside from that, I’ve also cleaned out some of the pages around here — everything related to the writing side of my life, basically. I’m going to be putting those up at http://matthewcory.com/ over the next couple of days, so I didn’t want things duplicated here. It’s also part of my effort to do a little partitioning in my life — CFD’s going to be more focused on programming (maybe) and random crap, and I want the writing life to be over at the other site for now.
Anyways, just thought I’d post it as an FYI for anyone who may be wondering what the hell happened. Catch you on the flip side.
–Matt
New Site Section: In The Media
Just wanted to let everyone know that there’s a new section to the site, In The Media. I’ll be trying to keep it updated with all of my media appearances for those of you who are keeping score ;)Make sure you check it out though, and stop by the links offered in there — the blogs that were gracious enough to interview me or allow me to guest post have some great content, and they deserve a little love.
Choices, Choices, Choices… Part II
First off, I’d like to thank everyone who commented earlier; I don’t get a lot of comments here, so to get three lengthy comments on the same post means a lot to me — seriously, thank you for your support. I really appreciate it.I’ve come to a decision though. Well, kinda. Let me first assure you that I’m not going to give up on writing; that came out earlier, and it wasn’t quite what I meant. What I meant was that I’d be giving up on the business side of writing. That means that I’d still be writing when I got a chance, but I wouldn’t be trying to make money at it. Simply put, I’d have the “normal” day job/hobby arrangement that most people have, instead of wanting to make a day job out of my hobby, and do what I currently do as a day job for my hobby (that wasn’t very “simply put”, was it?).
Anyways, as I said, I’ve made a decision as to what I’m going to do. I’m going to keep at this whole marketing/writing-business thing for another week, till Tuesday, 11/25/2008. I have a few irons in the fires, and we’ll see what happens with those. If things don’t pan out — and trust me, I’ll let everyone know if they do, even people who don’t really give a rat’s ass — then on Wednesday, the 26th, I’m going to hang up the “pen” (well, keyboard) for a couple of weeks and just relax. I might write; most likely I’ll just play video games or something. Odds are though, if I do anything that has any redeeming social values, it’ll be programming related.
If things do, however, pan out as I’d like them to, well, we’ll see what happens then.
So, rest assured: for at least a week, you’ll still get plenty of “Matthew Cory just posted about blah; check it out…” status updates on Facebook, and plenty of spam from my groups (if you’re a member) asking for discussions on this or that. If I get bored I might even make more flair to send at you, or find some other Facebook application to use to spam you with ;)
Until next time,
–Matt
Win a Free Copy of Like Glass: Question of the Week
Alright, starting with the next podcast, I’m going to be giving away one free digital copy of Like Glass. Here’s how it works: out of the questions sent in to the mailbag, I’m going to pick one that’s the Question of the Week. This will be the question that I like the most — it could be one the most thought provoking, the most humorous, so on and so forth. The person who sent it in will receive a copy of Like Glass in their email later in the day, after I post the podcast, so make sure you listen in to see if you won.To make things easier, I’ve added a new contact form specifically for mailbag questions. You can use it to send your question in by going here. So, hurry up and send your question in for your chance to win!
Mailbag Open
The first podcast was quite a success — a big thank you to everyone who tuned in (if you missed it, you can catch it here). Based on a listener’s suggestion, I’m going to start a “mailbag” segment, where you get to send me a question and I’ll answer it “on the air”. Here’s the deal:Send me your questions via the contact page, and I’ll try to answer it in the next podcast. It can be anything at all — about the books, short stories, life in general, whatever. I’m not shy, and I pretty much have an opinion on everything (doesn’t everybody?). Just make sure you leave some kind of moniker for me to refer to you as, and you might want to give some kind of pronunciation if you think there’s a chance I’ll get it wrong.
I wish I could offer something in exchange, like “If I read your question in a podcast, you’ll get a free t-shirt”, but I’m afraid I can’t at the moment — we’ll have to see how it goes first. Maybe eventually I’ll give away free copies of LIke Glass (or Shattered, when it comes out), but at the moment you’ll get the joy of hearing your question “on the air” so to speak.
Anyways, got to warm up for another lap in the rat race.
First Podcast — I Am a Writer
We’re trying something a little new today to see how it works out. I’ve created the first official chocolatefordogs.com podcast. It contains an introduction, and a brief commentary on people’s exclusion of others from that elite clique of “writers”. Hope you enjoy.First Podcast: I Am a Writer (5:18)
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