Tag: writing

Reading Challenge Update

Ryan1 Comment

Well, I’m rather late getting this up, aren’t I? This honestly slipped my mind the first week of the month, and then I was busy for nearly another week. It’s really dispiriting how fast October has gone by. I had some hot cider for the first time, which was nice, but I haven’t stomped through a pumpkin patch yet or even fought a ghost yet.

Anyway, it’s the final stretch of 2020, and with that I’ve got less than three months to make good on my reading challenges for the year. Let’s see how I’m doing, shall we?Read More »

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Reading Challenge Update

Ryan4 Comments

Would you look at that, 2020 is already half over.  It doesn’t feel like it was all that long ago that I wrote my last challenge update, yet here we are. I’m more serious about finishing my reading challenges this year, so I still want to use quarterly updates to keep track of where I’m at. I had a lot of catching up to do in the last post, so let’s get some data together and see how I’m doing.Read More »

Reading Challenge Update

Ryan1 Comment

The first quarter of 2020 has come and gone already, and three months hasn’t felt so long in a very long time. A lot has changed, but at least the books haven’t gone anywhere. Since I’m trying to more seriously approach completing my challenges this year, I thought I’d give a little update about where I’m at with all that.Read More »

My First Accepted Submission!

Ryan8 Comments

In my last writing report I mentioned that a story submission of mine had been accepted months ago and I was waiting for it to be produced before I officially announced anything. I’m excited to finally talk about it now.

The story in question is my short horror story “Shower Thoughts” which you can hear wonderfully produced for audio on Season 13 Episode 10 of the NoSleep Podcast (my story starts at 00:24:30). They did a stellar job with it and I was thrilled to finally listen to it.

So, you may be wondering “Why the Slowpoke?” in the featured image (a creature known for its slow wits and reaction time). Well, as it turns out I’ve needlessly waited.

I was asked to not talk about my submission being accepted until it was ready to be heard, which I was happy to oblige.

At the end of last week I noticed someone had been linked to my blog through a NoSleep page. From there, I learned that the episode had already been released back on August 25th.

My notification for its use either got lost in the aether, or more likely, I misunderstood the importance of the date I was paid (which coincided with the release). Regardless, I feel like I’ve got an entire hard-boiled egg on my face for not noticing until now.

That all being said, I’m thrilled to share it with you now. Better late than never. I hope you all enjoy giving the episode a listen, and thank you for reading 🙂

The Warden Returns

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Over a year ago I submitted this story to a flash fiction writing contest that asked entrants to imagine the relationship between nature and cities in the year 2099. I did not make it far in the competition, but there were thousands of stories entered that I’m sure were much more deserving and I’m honestly just happy that it marked a more official start to my journey into writing fiction.

This story was written to the contest’s specific parameters so I don’t really see myself trying to get it published elsewhere, but I wanted to put it up somewhere for people to read it. It has not been revised in any way from how it was when I submitted it. I hope you enjoy it.Read More »

Five Year Anniversary

Ryan4 Comments

This is a little awkward because April 4th doesn’t actually hold any significance for this blog, but life got in the way of things a tad so here we are. That being said, the anniversary for this blog/site is a little muddy anyway. I first registered it on March 27th, 2014, but I did not put up my first post until April 1st. I didn’t really feel great about having this tied to April Fool’s Day anyway.

Five years is a significant milestone and it honestly feels a little uncanny that I’ve had this going for that long now. I look back on my first few years posting with a lot of mixed feelings. There are some posts I continue to be quite happy with, but I kept too rigidly to a limited schedule and was far too all over the place in terms of what content I posted or what I wrote about. Not great for grabbing a reading audience’s attention and keeping it, but I’m pleased I cemented a writing habit all the same.

I’ve become a lot more focused since then, both on how often I write and being more consistent on what I write about. I’m pretty regularly happy with the posts that I write, while maintaining that oh-so important mindset that I could always improve. In keeping with the immortal words of Bob Ross (whom I often have playing in the background while I write):

“I hope you’re plagued with dissatisfaction your whole life, that way you’ll always strive to do better.”

Readership has been on the rise the last couple of years since my shift in how I post, and while the numbers are still quite modest I’m endlessly grateful to everyone who has come here to check out my writing. Ultimately, that’s what this is all about. I’m happy I’ve been able to make it this far and I wanted to put out a thank you to anyone and everyone who reads this blog, whether you randomly stumble upon it once, check in every now and again, or read on the regular. I will always be grateful to you.

Here’s to even more years to come.

Year in Review 2018

Ryan2 Comments

December has been a dearth of posts, regrettably, though I think that has a lot to do with the year just winding down and my desire to just chill out a bit more until the New Year, as far as reading goes and then writing about it goes. I even missed WWW Wednesday yesterday, though that had much more to do with how busy I was over the holidays. I just couldn’t find the time to put one together. I should have done it ahead of time, but I usually write it the morning of and that was a tough habit to break. Nevertheless, with 2018 coming to a close in less than a week I wanted to take some time to reflect upon my year of reading and writing a bit.Read More »

New Books & Novel Discoveries (August 2018)

Ryan1 Comment

I meant for August to be a much more conservative month in terms of spending money on books. I’m going to Fan Expo in Toronto tomorrow, so I meant to hold back on buying things since the purpose of that expo is essentially shopping for me. Despite my intentions I happened across too many thrifty opportunities to pass up, so I ended up bringing in a fair few books after all.

Normally I’d say September is going to be heavy with new books, since I’m going to Fan Expo, but lately I’ve been a lot less motivated to buy physical comic book volumes. Considering I’ve no desire to read most of them as they come out, I’ve found it’s much cheaper to buy digital volumes, especially since they frequently go on sale. I’m sure there’s a few I will pick up anyway, but I’m mostly on the hunt for art and artifacts, which is a fancy way of saying merchandise and stuff from Artist Alley.

Anyway, onto the books!Read More »

Writing Report #5

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Well, this certainly isn’t August 1st. I seem to be having a bit of trouble keeping to my own deadlines. That’s not to say I don’t work on the writing I want to be working on, but my pace is much slower than I’d like. That may change once I start actively moving on to other stories, but only time will tell. I was initially going to write one of these closer to the 1st regardless of my progress, but I decided I’d be better off waiting until things were in a finished state before putting out another one of these.Read More »

New Books & Novel Discoveries (July 2018)

Ryan4 Comments

July has been fairly light once again, though with some surprises. My reading has picked up somewhat, which I’m happy about, though I’m beginning to suspect that I’ve fallen too far behind to catch up to where Goodreads thinks I should be. I’m probably not going to hit my mark this year, but for now I will leave my challenge at 75 books.

Would it betray the spirit of the challenge to decrease the mark I want to hit? In the past I’ve increased it because I ended up reading more than I thought I would, but I wonder if anyone would consider decreasing to spoil things a little. I’m sure most people don’t care that much, but the thought does make me apprehensive about doing it all the same.

Anyway, onto the books!Read More »