How I Spent My Summer Vacation

The sun is slowly setting, forcing the snow-covered mountain into darkness. The rider hasn’t adequately prepared for the harsh conditions but does his best to pull his meager coat around him tight enough to block out a little wind. His horse underneath him lacks even a winter blanket and is already protesting against continuing through the foot of snow. It didn’t much matter though, the true quarry was supposed to be found in this area. It was like something out of legend, a brilliantly white Arabian horse out in the wild. The idea of it actually existing was lunacy, but he had it on good authority that it not only existed but was found grazing in the area. So he would stay, set up camp if he must, and wait for the damnable beast to appear.

Either that or die of frostbite.

***

We ventured to the beach this week. I’m lucky enough that my family seems to like hanging out with each other, and so we normally head to South Carolina or North Carolina to soak in some sun, sand, and hang out with each other just long enough without getting sick of one another.

This year, my 16-year-old nephew decided that he would bring his Xbox and I had the privilege of observing him play through portions of Red Dead Redemption 2. I’ve watched someone run horses off of cliffs, into trees, allow them to die of exposure, die to a cougar attack, and slide off the side of a mountain. I’ve watched him shoot a trio of strangers for mouthing off to him. And while I didn’t see the slaughter of many innocents in Blackwater, the results continued to follow him for days and weeks after.

Do you take the time and earn a proper living? No, the way of the gun dictates violence in so many things.

Image by Elisa from Pixabay

***

Weirdly, when I play most games, normally, I try to do the right thing when possible. I would never think of going full crazy within the structure provided as I don’t need to ruin what goals I’m trying to accomplish with such morally corrupt actions.

And yet…

And yet… there is something both liberating and disturbing about watching what can only be described as a comedy of errors resulting in a bloodbath. Sometimes it feels like I’m watching a B-level film where the protagonist (antagonist) isn’t entirely sure why he is doing what he’s doing. He’ll rob a man for a couple of dollars but then save another who has managed to get his leg caught in a bear trap.

But… I can’t stop thinking about the horses. All those horse limbs broken. All those horse souls freed from their digital bodies. Their only crime that they were ridden by a psychopath.

***

I’m not normally one to watch a ton of games online. Mostly because I’d rather spend that same time playing the games I have. But I must admit, watching someone else use chaos in one of these games. The randomness of so much of it.

I also have a copy of RDR2 sitting at the house, which means I’ll need to bust it out and decide whether chaos or order is the way to go.

***

John McGuire is the writer of the sci-fi novel: The Echo Effect.

He is also the creator/author of the steampunk comic The Gilded Age. If you would like to purchase a copy, go here!

Click here to join John’s mailing list and receive preview chapters of upcoming novels, behind the scenes looks at new comics, and free short stories.

His other prose appears in The Dark That Follows, Hollow Empire, Tales from Vigilante City, Beyond the Gate, and Machina Obscurum – A Collection of Small Shadows.

He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com

 

Burn Out

I was at work the other day feeling a bit stressed out. We have any number of project milestones upcoming and then, to top things off, a project I’d hoped was put away for good instead decided to play Zombie and rise up again to send my entire week out of whack. I walked back from the break room to get some water and started chuckling to myself.

Now, luckily, no one was around to hear me snap and go insane in that moment. No, it wasn’t sudden madness. It was a bit of clarity. I’ve noticed that when the days are approaching when vacation is actually on the horizon, but still a little bit too far away to properly begin a countdown. For me, it was about 2 weeks prior to the vacation I’m on as you read this post.

The beach. The pool. A good book (or two). Headphones.

Hopefully, this is all going to restore my sanity, just a little bit.

See you back in the real world next week.

***

John McGuire is the writer of the sci-fi novel: The Echo Effect.

He is also the creator/author of the steampunk comic The Gilded Age. If you would like to purchase a copy, go here!

Click here to join John’s mailing list and receive preview chapters of upcoming novels, behind the scenes looks at new comics, and free short stories.

His other prose appears in The Dark That Follows, Hollow Empire, Tales from Vigilante City, Beyond the Gate, and Machina Obscurum – A Collection of Small Shadows.

He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com

The Reboot

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Normally I take the week between Christmas and New Years’ off and use it to recharge/reboot for the coming year. I take the time to figure out what my goals, both in life and from a writing perspective should be. Formulate a plan and then see how much of it I end up accomplishing. Some years are better than others, to be sure.

However, as this is being published, I will be elsewhere, enjoying my last few moments at a beach. Trying to summon the willpower to leave an island paradise to return again to the real world. I’m hopeful that this retreat will allow me to also have a nice reset on the year and be able to start the next quarter of the year as we make it into summer. I already updated the whiteboard behind me with a list of things that need to be looked at. I have prepared my spreadsheets for what pieces I want to focus on.

I have big plans, but those plans require hard work.

But for now, I’ll rest a little while longer.

***

John McGuire is the writer of the sci-fi novel: The Echo Effect.

He is also the creator/author of the steampunk comic The Gilded Age. If you would like to purchase a copy, go here!

Click here to join John’s mailing list and receive preview chapters of upcoming novels, behind the scenes looks at new comics, and free short stories.

His other prose appears in The Dark That Follows, Hollow Empire, Tales from Vigilante City, Beyond the Gate, and Machina Obscurum – A Collection of Small Shadows.

He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com

Losing Power

Sometimes in the day to day portions of our lives we become too much of a slave to the things that need to be done. Job, family, friends, hobbies… the time can slip through without much notice. Praying for the weekend each and every week only to have that limited time seemingly gone before you can even really enjoy it.

Burning that candle at both ends and then wonder why we are exhausted. Why are we so frazzled by the world we have created for ourselves.

Beach at twilight

If we’re not careful months and years will pass by in those moments between the real moments we want to have. Those moments that we should be having.

Those words will no longer flow from our fingertips. Stale combinations of letters will introduce themselves into our manuscripts. What is normally a joy, a great distraction from the real, becomes this quagmire that sucks us under.

And while it can’t be play time always, those days long since passed us by as adulthood somehow took hold… it also means that we should take the time for our friends when they do something special. And if you have family, to really be in that moment and enjoy that time as well.

Because this is the time when the lasting memories are made, not just the fleeting images of Monday disappearing into Friday. Those days when if we are not careful the job becomes all consuming. When it threatens to dominate our very soul… you have to get away and recharge whatever batteries you may still have left. Sleep in, stay up late, watch terrible movies, discover the early morning hours with friends as your conversations range from and to anything, call a friend you haven’t heard from in a while

We don’t have to be this thing that we are. We can be so much more than that. We can still have time to pursue whatever that dream is. That deep secret we keep locked up inside… it doesn’t have to remain that way..

I find myself at the beach trying to do just that.

Recharge.

 

***

John McGuire

John McGuire is the author of the supernatural thriller The Dark That Follows, the steampunk comic The Gilded Age, and the novella There’s Something About Mac through the Amazon Kindle Worlds program.

His second novel, Hollow Empire, is now complete. The first episode is now FREE!

He also has a short story in the recently released anthology Beyond the Gate, which is free on most platforms!

He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com.

Clearwater Chronicle

Clearwater 2013 View from WindowI recently made the long drive to Clearwater, Fl.  And no, it doesn’t mean I love George Zimmerman.

I made this little journey with two goals in mind. The first: to see an old friend who’d arrived in the States from Denmark. The second: to carve a few days out of my routine life and recapture some mojo for writing. Both, I think, proved successful.

Beach at twilight

I wish the water looked just like this for far longer than three minutes each night…

While walking the beach each morning, day, and night, I tried to pay better attention than during previous vacations. I picked my gaze up out of the water (which was too cold for swimming anyhow) and observed my surroundings. And wow, the things I saw:

  • On the first day, after a grueling round of sand 2v2 volleyball, I watched as a British family near the water argued. Ah, the Brits. Their colorful language attracted the attention of everyone within a half-mile. But the real action started when the mother walked right up to her foul-mouthed daughter and punched (not slapped) her right in the chops! No one could believe what had happened. The daughter howled. The dad…laughed. The mom unleashed a stream of profanities I haven’t heard since the last time I watched Snatch. It…was…awesome… More importantly, I can’t get enough of the way the Brits drop the F bomb
  • That night, I saw The Counselor. Now, without getting too deep in spoilers, I’ll just say I love it when the bad guys win. It’s rare in movies, but utterly realistic. The monologues delivered by several characters were deeply philosophical. No one would ever talk like that in real life, but it didn’t matter. Truth is truth, especially grim, hard truth. Movie Review – A
  • On the first night in my hotel, I arrived in my room on the top floor. I had an ocean view, just as requested. The dark water was spread out beneath my window, roiling beneath the stars. I thought to myself, “This is perfect. I’ll get tons of writing done tonight.” But…just as I sat down by the window, the hotel’s elephantine AC system kicked on atop the roof, making my room shake as though a helicopter were landing three feet above my head. I’m all for white noise, but this was absurd. “My night’s ruined,” I feared. “And besides, the concierge is a dead man.” And yet, as it turned out, I was able to tune out the sound of my room shaking and write an entire chapter for Hollow Empire, my joint venture with John McGuire. Strange indeed
Dark Water

The ocean. At night. What else do you need?

Falling Star over ClearwaterOther random events I observed while walking the city:

  • A homeless guy pretending to be a broke tourist. I’d seen him try his little game the previous day, so when he walked up to a young woman and said, “My wife and I are in town for the weekend, but we lost our credit cards. Do you think you could spare me some cash? She really needs her coffee,” I laughed a little bit inside. Sorry, homeless guy, you need to work on your approach. Begging for coffee money isn’t going to cut it
  • A woman with a giant (I mean enormous) tramp stamp of a volleyball. I’ve seen bad tattoos, and then I saw this. It was huge, as in actual-size huge. Just…no…
  • A dude at a Halloween (Best non-holiday holiday ever, btw) party dressed as Christian Grey. His costume: 50 grey-shaded sample paint cards from Home Depot duct-taped to an otherwise unremarkable shirt. While he didn’t win the best costume prize, he won the admiration of every woman at the party
  • Jesus playing Sweet Home Alabama on guitar…with an actual crown of thorns worn over a head full of dreadlocks…drinking Fruit Loop flavored vodka. Yes, really

What does any of this have to do with regaining  mojo for writing? In a nutshell: people-watching. Observe the interesting things people do, listen to the crazy things they say, and add the experience to the card catalogue in your brain. Or, if people-watching doesn’t inspire you, try walking along the ocean at night. If that doesn’t bring you peace, you may want to try vicodin.

Next week I get serious, delivering an excerpt from Dark Moon Daughter, Book II in the Tyrants of the Dead trilogy.

Much love,

J Edward Neill