Things I’m Bad At

I struggle with patience.  It’s worse than watching me eat in public or paint a room in my house.  When I was in college, I’d always take a date to the messiest food place I could think of, restaurants that served bar-b-que or spaghetti,  just to see if they could stand watching me make a mess of myself like a one-year-old with ice cream and cake.  Painting?  Ugh.  Somehow I manage to get more paint on me, and under the tarp, than on the walls.  Painting in my house also means new carpet.  I don’t mind doing it, but you would think the room was painted by a tornado.  Nope.  I’m not good at painting, eating in public, or patience.

My patience for finishing the sequel to Angst is running out; it’s enough to turn my hair grey.  (Oh…wait)  The book is coming along well and I’m enjoying the story, but would life please get out of the way so I can get a little bit of work done!?  Do you ever have that dream where you are running in place, naked in front of everyone you know, with rainbows and dolphins and skittles… okay, me neither.  Running in place, yes.  Writing in place?  Definitely.  Quick, everyone into the cryogenic chamber for a brief nap while I finish writing the book “by tomorrow”.

Insecurity is also something I’m bad at.  I tend to be a little cocky (no, really) so insecurity drives me crazy.  This week I’m meeting with the alpha team to discuss the sequel: Buried in Angst.  The feedback I got last time was awesome, and I’m excited, but also a little nervous.  It’s not like they are a bunch of brutal, harsh Nordruauts, but they will tell me the truth.  I really like the first book, and I want Angst 2 to be better.  I’m taking my time with the second book so it is good.  I hope they like it, and I hope you like it too!

While ranting, I need to share that I’m not good at Twitter either.  Almost 5,000 people, bots, marketing professionals, and Lord Voldemorts have been kind enough to follow me.  While Twitter is a great way to touch base with amazing people, it’s also harder to wield than Chryslaenor.  I find it near-impossible to squish my brain into 140 characters.  In between my daily 4-5 mentions of my first fantasy novel, Angst, I try to find interesting tidbits of news to share.  While I would love to spend more time actually talking to the people I like on Twitter, I think they would actually prefer that I finish the second book.

My latest attempt to be a betterer Twitterer has been Triberr.  Triberr is a community of bloggers who share my posts with their Twitter followers, and in turn I share their posts with everyone who follows me on Twitter.  It’s a great concept, and I’m connected with some great people, but I have to wonder if it’s great content to share or simply too distracting.  Their blogs are better than mine, and I’m happy to continue tweeting their posts, but I also tend to think if my Twitter followers really wanted to see their posts they would follow that writer.  What do you think?  If you follow me on Twitter, is it too much?  Do you like what you see or does it get lost in the stream?

This is going to require a follow-up post of the things I am actually good at before I completely discard my ego.  Let’s see, things like flirting (I’m sure my wife doesn’t read my blog), drinking, video games, procrastination, and secrets.  Actually, I am pretty good at keeping secrets, and I’m biting my tongue right now because I have some fun stuff planned over the next couple of months that I can’t wait to share.  (See first paragraph on patience.)  I’m hoping, fingers crossed, that I can share the first bit of fun next week.  Be sure to come back and find out!