I think I’ve been struggling with the schedule changes of the past year. Rising at six to get the youngest on the bus was already a struggle, particularly since I was always still up to provide supper for my wife whenever she got home, which was seldom before one and often meant serving food closer to three; now the six o’clock alarm has been pushed back to five, as the houseguest son of the absented houseguest becomes my responsibility, and his bus is most of an hour earlier. Thus I am not only not good at mornings, I’m starting to lose afternoons.
I say that I take Saturday off; that’s not quite an accurate statement. I have church on Saturday mornings (Seventh Day Baptist, thank you), but I’m usually late, and later when I’m more tired. I made it in ample time to hear an excellent sermon this weekend, but it was a drag-yourself-out-of-bed effort to get there. Thus Sunday morning is the only day on which I am usually able to sleep in, and today I did so well into the afternoon. I then had disruptions dropped into my lap, and only now am preparing supper as the calendar is preparing to change. I’ve much to do, and do not relish being up late doing it. In my favor, though, there are no school buses in the morning.
I’m not going to complain about not accomplishing anything during my time off; it is, after all, time off. I stumbled upon the DVD copy of Sliding Doors, which has been missing since New Year’s Eve, but could not have been where I found it. I did a bit of Romans editing while waiting for a son who was browsing video games at Walmart, looking for a way to spend his money. I made a recording of one of the Collision songs, because I wanted one of the drummers to hear it, and because I think Brittany will have a better shot at learning the very difficult contrapuntal vocal instrumental duet if she has a good recording of it. I’m not saying this is a good recording, but it is at least an accurate rendering of what I expect of the song.
So I did a bit more than nothing, and I’m making a push at getting through the rest of today’s work tonight.
–M. J. Young
January 24th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Now I see why there’s been no new product in 6 years, no new game books in 7. What sort of progress does your company make on these? I find it odd because most game writers devote a few hours a day to writing new material if that is what they do for a living. Are there any other people in your company working on the next books that we should be aware of? It seems you are the head writer and you have stockholders, are they happy about this? Stockholders get involved in things hoping for growth, it doesn’t seem like there is any. Have there been attempts to remove you because if I was involved in a company that made films and nothing was being done because the biggest name actor we had signed to our studio was too busy managing bands with teenagers, being a chauffer, and preparing all-day meatloaves; he’d be ousted. Do your stockholders read this blog?
January 24th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Who are you?
I’ll certainly answer your questions to the degree that I can, but knowing who you are will make a difference.
Yes, I wear too many hats; unfortunately, there aren’t enough people willing and able to take the others–and since I’m not being paid enough in this job to justify it being the only iron in the fire, the other avenues I explore aren’t really the company’s concern. I’ve published two books since the last Valdron product was released; a lot of the hold-up on the next novel has little to do with me, and a lot of the hold up on product otherwise is related to the fact that there are a lot of different things people want finished and I’m the guy they want to finish them.
–M. J. Young
January 24th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
I ask because you come on here daily which seems like you are doing it to promote your product line, unless, you are simply goofing off.
I see books cranked out by companies where one guy is doing a bulk of the writing and I even have to assume he does other things, I am not sure why your company is not the same. I am guessing it should come down to whether the people on these forums want you to be successful and put out more books or they’d rather be selfish and run their games every day. My guess is they just don’t get it. The reality is this, this forums leave no legacy, nothing and will probably disappear with the site. On the other hand your books can last through many printings and can be timeless. Why are such valuble resources seemingly being wasted here? Get with the program, pal.
And don’t ask who I am, ask “who are they?”, the support group you surround yourself with, the ones who are soaking up valuable time and keeping your hands tied. That “Coming Soon: The Third Book of Worlds” at the end of the second book becomes more of a joke with each passing day. So where or to whom do I file a complaint?
January 25th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Point taken. Thanks, genuinely, for your concern.
–M. J. Young