The Journal of Michael Merriam

Over at the lobo_luna community, I'm taking part in a question and answer session. I thought I'd start posting the questions and answers here as well. Though I'm answering the questions pretty quickly at lobo_luna, I plan to cross-post a question and answer here only on Sunday and Wednesday.

Question #2: What is your daily routine like?

( Answer to Question #2 )

Over at the lobo_luna community, I'm taking part in a question and answer session. I thought I'd start posting the questions and answers here as well. Though I'm answering the questions pretty quickly at lobo_luna, I plan to cross-post a question and answer here only on Sunday and Wednesday.

Question #1. Can you give us a bit of background on your work, why you chose it, and what your current projects are?

( Answer to Question #1 )

Over on the Twin Cities Speculative Fiction Writers Network message board, someone posed these questions.  I thought I'd post my answers here as well:

Where do you write? (Or write best?)

I work all over the house. We have a desktop and two laptops, so I work off of a thumb drive (backing up at the end of the day to the newest laptop's hard drive) and work wherever I feel like it. Many times I work in a notebook, composing long hand. I'm not very temperamental; I can work in the living room, at the kitchen table, in a coffee shop, on the patio.  I do have an actual room to work in, which has the nicest chair and the most ergonomic setup, but I only work in that room periodically.

Do you keep a particular schedule?

I try to keep a Monday-Friday, Noon to 5pm writing schedule. If I can't do that for some reason, then I make up the hours in the early morning, from about 4am to 6 am. When I was working part-time, I wrote for 6 hours a day on my days off and in the early mornings on the weekend.

What gets you going and keeps you going? What do you do to recharge yourself when the words won't come?

The fact I know if I really want to create a career, I need to treat it like real work. This is one of the reason I keep a set schedule. I also usually work on projects I feel strongly about, so I want to write and work on them at every opportunity. To help recharge, I read and take walks. Walking helps me think.

How do you keep the faith at times when you feel you're getting nowhere as a writer?

I look at all the other writers I know who have built careers, sold their novels, and had the good things happen because they persevered! I can also fall back on my own track record. Having 40 short fiction sales can bolster one's morale in difficult times.

Do you have writing rituals, e.g. a lucky place, a special kind of pen, a shot of absinthe before you begin?

Not really. I make sure I've eaten and that I have something to drink close to hand before I start. I do admit that if I'm working longhand, I use a particular fountain pen and notebook (A Waterman Phileas with a broad nib and a Moleskine notebook), but that's because they are good, comfortable tools. I've written with a cheap Bic on a napkin in McDonalds, so I don't need the fancy pen and notebook.


Okay, now it's your turn!  How would you answer these questions?

...that I am generally quiet and shy during public gatherings or parties amoung friends, but the moment you hand me a croquet mallet, I'm suddenly running amuck and making a nuisance of myself?

j_cheney hit me on the "ask me a question" post.

I think the idea of the ASR Chip is fascinating.

It sounds like the developers think it is three years out, which actually means more like five or six. After that, I would want to see how it really works in the field for a number of years before I would even consider such a thing. Then, once the chip seems reasonably safe and thoroughly field tested for commercial medical use, there would be the cost, which I suspect would be substantial.

Frankly, I'm not going to allow myself to get all that excited about it. At least, not at this stage in its development

That said, I won't rule anything out. If you're lucky enough to live in the future, there's no reason not to take advantage of the technology available.

musingaloud hit me with questions on the "ask me a question" post.

Here are your answers!

I do have some residual vision. I cannot see much of anything out of my right eye anymore, except light and shades of faded color with the occasional glimpses of real things. I only have 7 degrees of peripheral vision. It's a bit like looking through a toilet paper roll. If you are directly in front of me I can see you. Even better, it varies from day to day.

I don't use voice recognition software. I do touch type. I also use a screen reader program called JAWS for Windows for days when I'm having trouble seeing anything and set my monitor to high contrast for days when my vision is working as well as it works.

What happens is that you learn to pay more attention to your other senses. You learn how to actively use and interpret what you are hearing, smelling, and even air currents and temps in order to create a cognitive map of your surroundings.

wordswoman hit me with three questions on the "ask me a question post.

Here are your answers!

1. The simple answer is that we met at work, which is true. That said: I can't believe I haven't told you "The Rib Story!" Go here: http://careswen.livejournal.com/13343.html
This is the true and comical tale of how we got together.

2. I don't have a special place. I have a desk upstairs in the study, but for various reasons, it doesn't work well for me as writing space. We are working on correcting that. I typically work at either the kitchen table or stretched out on the living room floor. I also like working at a couple of the little coffee shops in Hopkins. Both have good coffee at a reasonable price. One has no wi-fi and the other has great atmosphere. Sometimes I work on my laptop, sometimes in my notebook.

3. Yes, it will. That's just the nature of the situation. I came to terms with it a long time ago.

So I got a few (three) takers on the "ask me a question post."

Here are your answers:

pameladean: I first started back in the 1980s. I got some nice, personal rejections from George Scithers and Ed Ferman amongst others. They both tried to encourage and coach me, but I stopped as my first marriage crumbled (remind me to tell you the story about my old Underwood #5 typewriter, if you haven't heard it). I took up mainstream fic and poetry in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I also wrote some non-fiction. Little of it survives today, but I did make a decent number of poetry sales, appearing in lit journals and such. I put it away again, mostly because I was working in a vacuum out in rural Oklahoma. I got serious about it after my vision faded to the point that I could no longer do the type of work I had in the past. This time I had a spouse who supported my crazy; encouraged it, even. I'm dedicated to it because I love it and its one of the few marketable skills I have.

pezwitch: Lighthouse Keeper. Which would drive careswen crazy, so it's a good thing I'm not.

hkneale: Allergies or other health concerns. And then I'd still try to find a way around it, because I'm stubborn like that.

If anyone else wants to play, you can still comment on the old post and I'll answer

A while back, I participated in a three-question thing . Over on mrissa's journal the five question game came up. She said to either ask her five question or allow her to ask you five. Since everyone kept asking her five questions, I thought I'd let her be the questioner instead of the questioned.

So, from mrissa, five questions.

Which is your favorite season?.

Autumn, at least since I've moved to Minnesota. I love the colors. I love the slight tang of impending cold weather in the air. I love sitting outside until the sun goes down, and then you wrap up under a blanket and snuggle up with someone you love and a cup of something warm while waiting to see if any of the night stars can overpower the city lights and shine down. In Oklahoma, I loved spring, because everything was cool, green, and lush. By autumn in Oklahoma everything is brown and burnt by the summer sun.

What's your favorite game to play?

I love Trivial Pursuit, but we are not allowed to start a game after dark because they can run so long. It is sometimes hard to get people to play Trivial Pursuit with me because I've developed this reputation for being a repository of obscure knowledge. I am not invincible by any stretch, but I do everything possible to make people think I am. In truth, careswen and I own a lot of games, from Chez Goth to Monopoly, and I love playing them all.

Are there any words or phrases you overuse in conversation? In your writing?

In writing I have used this, or a variation of it, in almost every story I have written: For just a moment he (or she) thought he (or she) saw something in her (or his) eyes, though he (or she) was not sure what. It is something I have to watch for.

In conversation I have a bad habit of saying Well, I think, and this just my opinion, and really, what do I know... which in retrospect is a stupid thing to say because I invalidate whatever I'm going to say before I say it. It is, sadly, my own weird insecurities showing through, but that's a whole LJ post all on its own. careswen has been calling me on it, so I'm starting, thankfully, to fall out of the habit.

What genre(s) do you consider "yours" for writing in? Would you consider writing outside those genres?

I consider myself a speculative fiction writer. If one were to break it down into sub-categories, while I really thought I would write high fantasy, instead I ended up primarily producing urban fantasy and magical realism. I have written the occasional piece of soft science fiction, a high fantasy story or two, and one dark fantasy. I've yet to do any true horror, but I might.

I fully plan to write outside of speculative fiction. I'm interested in writing historical fiction, espionage stories, and, if they ever come back, westerns. I'd like to write for the YA market, and for even younger children, as well as writing the adult fiction I write now. I doubt that I will ever write The Great American Novel, whatever that is, because I have no interest in writing mainstream fiction. I also don't expect to write any romance novels ever, though I'm perfectly happy and comfortable writing romance into my stories. You can also scratch mysteries (though like romance, I will happily incorporate a mystery into whatever I'm writing) and erotica from the list. I can admire both, but have no interest in writing them.

What's going to be the best thing about September?

I think there will be a lot of best things about September. careswen's family is coming up. the Twins are going to win the pennant. I'm going to finish rehab classes, so I'll finally have time to practice Bass Guitar again. The cool nights will encourage sipping hot chocolate and snuggling with my honey. The leaves will start to change colors, and autumn will sneak in like an old grey cat creeping down the hall, and the ducks will start hanging out in the yard again, and the fuzzy animal activity will increase, and...

I liked the questions that were asked of me so much, I decided to write a full LJ Post about them. So with out further ado, the questions and the answers

pezwitch asked:

1) If you could go back and change anything in your life that's already happened, what would you change?

2) If (for whatever bizarre reason) you weren't a writer, what other profession would you have wanted to follow?

3) What is the best memory you have from when you were a kid/young adult?

Answer to #1
This might sound a bit disingenuous, but the answer is nothing. Everything that has happen to me, every victory, every tragedy, every detail great and small, has made me the person I am right now. If I changed something I wouldn't be the current me, and I like the current me just fine. Could I have been a better or more successful person than I am right now? Maybe, at least in the ways that those outside my life measure such things, but I also could have (and very nearly did) turned out to be a much worse person. I like this me, flaws, faults and all. I am comfortable in my own skin and wouldn't change a thing.

Answer to #2
I can think of lots of things, some of which I have already tried, such as musician, actor, and disc jockey. I kind of wanted to try being a carnival barker, but wouldn't want to do it for a living. I think, if push came to shove, I would either strap on my Bass Guitar and return to music, or finish college (which I plan to return to in fall or next spring) and find a position teaching Mythology and/or Folklore. I'd also wouldn't mind being a para-normal investigator (Mulder, where are you?).

Answer to #3
When I was an early teenager my mum worked weekend nights at a restaurant owned by another family member. My job was to baby-sit my little sister. I loved being home with no adults around, and Sis was an easy child to watch out for. I really didn't resent being home at nights over the weekend. Really, what was there to do in a little rural Oklahoma town of about 200 people except get into trouble? I loved sitting up, drinking black coffee to stay awake until mum came home, and listening to the radio. In those days late night radio still had some interesting stuff: E.G. Marshall's Mystery Theater, Lights Out, The Oklahoma Opry, Texas Rangers Baseball, news from around the world on the NPR station out of the University of Oklahoma, some show who's name I can't remember that talked about space aliens and government conspiracies. Other odd shows that came to me over the AM airwaves by the glow of my dial. I learned my love of story from the radio. I loved sitting there being scared, informed, and entertained in turn. I really miss that sometimes.

careswen asked:

1) Who was "The one that got away"?

2) What time were you the most frightened you have ever been?

3) If you could have one super-power, which would you choose?

Answer to #1
Well, as you can tell by my answer to Pezwitch, I don't really want to change my life. But if I were to answer this question truthfully, well, this might surprise any family member reading this. My family would probably think it was a girl named Sheila Evans, who I dated shortly after my divorce. Sheila was a great gal who I probably could have been happy with, except it was too soon after my marriage ended and I wasn't ready for a serious relationship. But she is not the one that got away. Chrissy Eisenburg attended some of the same classes as me at Southwestern Oklahoma State University. She worked with me on the night shift for a little while at Raven Company, and she was a regular at the Jiffy Trip convenience store when I was night manager there. We were more than friends, but not exactly a couple. We read a lot of the same books, geeked out over the same stuff, and had a knack for cheering each other up when needed. We could both laugh at the wacky headlines in the trash mags like the National Enquirer and the Weekly World News, or we could spend an entire night sitting in Means Park drinking coffee from a thermos and talking about just about anything you could imagine. Then one day, without warning, she just disappeared on me. Her roommate told me she had dropped out of College and gone home to Cheyenne. When I drove out to Cheyenne her parents told me she had gone to stay with her sister in Oregon. They gave me an address. I wrote, but she never wrote back. I still don't know what happen. I wish I did.

Answer to #2
I don't think I've ever told this story before. I'm sure you will get amusement out of it. When I lived in Rhome, Texas, there was small cemetery between Rhome and Boyd. You had to drive down this old dirt road with all these overhanging trees to get to the cemetery. The cemetery itself was abandoned, none of the markers any newer that about 1930. I think it might have been a segregated cemetery, but I was never sure. But it was creepy. These ancient trees hung over the dirt road, which went around behind the cemetery then dead ended. It was the kind of place teenage boys took teenage girls on weekend nights under the theory of scare them enough and maybe they will climb up in your lap. But during the week it was a perfect place to be alone and think. And I needed a place to think badly, as my first marriage was careening toward its spectacular end. So one night I'm sitting out there in my car behind the cemetery, just pondering. Now, I believe in all kinds of ghosties, ghoulies and apparitions. Always have. So here I am. It was getting on toward midnight and I decided to go home. I turned the car key. Nothing. No anything from my car. Well, this is before cellphones, so I decided to just walk home, it's only about two miles, I'll be there in an hour or so. Then I decided to cut through the abandoned cemetery. This is where it turns into a horror movie. About halfway through the cemetery I heard this noise, like someone walking, behind me. I froze, crouched down (behind a headstone no less) and looked behind me. I saw (or think I saw) a shadowy shape walking among the stones, but then I blinked and its gone. I heard more noise, this time off to my right, but I couldn't see anything. So I'm getting more and more freaked out and finally I decided to run for it. I ran out of the cemetery, but now I'm on this creepy dirt road, so I just kept running. I stopped once to catch my breath and when I looked down the road toward the cemetery I could see a light coming up the road! No cars had passed me and no one else was parked near the cemetery, so there's no reason for a light to be coming up the DEAD END road. I dove off the road and ran home, across country, through the underbrush. The next morning my car started fine.

Answer to #3
I'd like to be invisible. I think that would be the neatest superpower, because you could (as long as you didn't end up covered in flour or something) pretty much go and do whatever you wanted. I admit to being a little bit of a sneak. I think it would be fun.