Happy New Year!

As I'll probably be too busy to post later tonight, to all reading this ... Happy New Year!

Everything I know about writing I learned from baseball

Yes, one of my goofier posts.

Roy Campanella: "You gotta be a man to play baseball for a living, but you gotta have a lot of little boy in you, too."

Phil Linz: "Baseball is a fun game. It beats working for a living."

Art Hill: "With those who don't give a damn about baseball, I can only sympathize. I do not resent them. I am even willing to concede that many of them are physically clean, good to their mothers and in favor of world peace. But while the game is on, I can't think of anything to say to them."

Robert Frost: "Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things."

Bill Veeck: "This is a game to be savored, not gulped."

Tallulah Bankhead: "There have been only two geniuses in the world. Willie Mays and Willie Shakespeare."

Philip Wrigley: "Baseball is too much of a sport to be called a business, and too much of a business to be called a sport."

Ty Cobb: "The crowd makes the ballgame."

Because he deserves his own slot ... Yogi Berra quotes

"All pitchers are liars or crybabies."

"Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical."

"How can a you hit and think at the same time?"

"In baseball, you don't know nothing."

"The game's isn't over until it's over."

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

"I never blame myself when I'm not hitting. I just blame the bat, and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn't my fault that I'm not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?"

From the movie "For Love of the Game"

Billy Chapel: "Clear the mechanism."

Billy Chapel: "The game doesn't stink, Mr. Wheeler. It's a great game."

Billy Chapel: "I ain't carryin' no books. Where's the pillows?"

Billy Chapel: "Don't help them make a joke out of you."

Billy Chapel: "God, I always said I would never bother you about baseball, lord knows you have bigger things to worry about. But if you could make this pain in my shoulder stop for ten minutes, I would really appreciate it."

Billy Chapel: "I used to believe, I still do, that if you give something your all it doesn't matter if you win or lose, as long as you've risked everything, put everything out there."

From the movie "Bull Durham"

Crash Davis: "Think classy, you'll be classy."

Crash Davis: "Let's have some fun out here! This game's fun, OK? Fun goddamnit."

Crash Davis: "Don't think; it can only hurt the ball club."

Crash Davis: "If you believe you're playing well because you're getting laid, or because you're not getting laid, or because you wear women's underwear, then you ARE!"

Crash Davis: "We gotta play it one day at a time."
Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: "Got to play... it's pretty boring."
Crash Davis: "Course it's boring, that's the point. Write it down."

Skip: "You lollygag the ball around the infield. You lollygag your way down to first. You lollygag in and out of the dugout. You know what that makes you? Larry!"
Larry: "Lollygaggers!"

Anthology Builder -- the wave of the future?

I'm not going to go on and on how spiffy an idea I think Anthology Builder could be, because plenty of other people have already blogged about it. I will add, however, that you need to check out their blog too, and not just the main Web site. Why? Because not only does Anthology Builder sound like a decent idea as it is, but they've got big plans for the future.

Check it out!

Reading habits for 2007

Looking back on the year, for the most part I would say my reading habits have been scattered, though there have been some trends.

For example, I read quite a bit more pulp fiction this year than normal, this being due to the fact I moved to a town with good used book stores that offer the old books at cheap prices.

Also, I noticed I did not read a ton of horror this year, nor non-fiction.

I did, however, return to a few favorite authors, such as Dumas and Offutt. On the flip side, I also discovered plenty of authors new to me this year, most of this being because of my reviewing of books.

Unfortunately, while I read a lot of good books this year (and a handful of crappy ones), I didn't read any great books this year, though Ayn Rand came closest probably. And I'm not counting "I Am Legend" since I had read it before.

The never-ending struggle continues.

Seasonal greeting

Before I forget, and before I get busier with the holidays, I just wanted to say to everyone reading this, "Merry Christmas!" And may all your writing dreams come true in the new year!

Cover art for "The Return of the Sword"

Here's the cover art for the upcoming Flashing Swords anthology, "The Return of the Sword," which will include my Belgad short story "Deep in the Land of the Ice and Snow."

I love this cover. It's fantastic! Thanks to Howard VonDarkmoor for letting me know about this and artist Johnny Perkins for his fine work.

You never know where a story will take you

I had been having a lot of problems with my John Dee short story, "Where the Baptized Drown." My main difficulty was the beginning. I had two problems. One, I couldn't figure out who should be the main character for the story. Two, I couldn't figure out the best place to start the story. I knew the plot and characters, but just couldn't get things right.

So, after many fits and starts with the story, I was pacing the floors one night trying to force myself into working out my difficulties with this tale.

And ... walah!

No, I didn't fix the problems with "Where the Baptized Drown."

Instead, I came up with a whole other John Dee story. And this one is practically writing itself.

It takes place in Milan, Italy, in 1892. John, again, is not known as John. And this story is told in the first person, from John's perspective (something I never considered before now).

What took me down this path wasn't some spark of a new idea, or any feeling of giving up on the original story. I'm keeping "Where the Baptized Drown" on the backburner for now, but I'm not giving up on it. What lead me to this new story was going through the thought process of what was wrong with the original story, and what needs to be implemented to make a John Dee story.

My Dee stories have certain "rules" to them, ones I'll keep to myself. Certain little things have to be pointed out about the character, mainly because they are hints to his past. I also have certain "rules" about the speculative elements in my Dee stories.

I don't have a title for the new tale yet, but the Dee titles also have certain "rules" or themes and I'm hoping to keep with that.

Who knows? Maybe I'll even get one of these things published someday.