The Journal of Michael Merriam

Yesterday, Oldest Son turned 25 years old. I don't feel like I should be old enough to have a 25-year old son, but I do.

Last night I successfully defended my Rock, Paper, Scissors Championship at Walking Shadows' Game Night, defeating Sir Francis Bacon 3-1 to retain the title. No, seriously, Sir Frances Bacon. We also played a game called "Night of the Ill-Tempered Squirrel" which was about creating the worst monster movie possible. Cool title, meh game.

It appears my last post was too much for some of my more conservative flisties. I've been unfriended by a couple of them. Well, okay. I think it's a shame they decided not to stay and talk, but that's their choice. Normally I don't wax political on my blog, but I think this year's election is too important to be silent.

I finally figured out how "Steadfast" is going to end. Now I have to finish it. I'm guessing it will be about 6000 words once it's complete.

careswen and I are going to the Hopkins High School football homecoming game tonight, as has become our yearly tradition.

One Sunday, we will have lived in Minnesota for 9 years. Moving here is one of the best decisions we ever made.

2400 word short story finished in the first draft in one day. I am a machine.

careswen turned on her World of Warcraft account after having it off for the last couple of months. The current update download is 821MB, so 'tis a good thing she didn't want to play until tomorrow.

In other news, the Reverend Selena is Very Furry and Purry Indeed.

More work on the novella done around housework. I think I'm pretty much over my illness.

The D&D game I was running is over (No more DMing for me for awhile). Our next DM is planning to introduce us to D&D 4th Edition, but until he's ready to start, we are filling in the schedule by having board game night this week. So I'm off to enjoy the company of friends, a plethora of board game choices, and a potluck taco bar dinner.

Untitled Weird West Steampunk Novella

We had a great time this weekend up at Bay Lake, celebrating akillianna's birthday. We found a faster route up than just taking 169 from the Cities to Garrison. Friday night the group of us (akillianna, bedside_trauma, careswen, glass_eye_01, greykev, pezwitch, williamofoccam, and me) played an 8-hour round of Arkam Horror and ate a half-dozen pizzas we brought up for the occasion and the ice cream cake for akillianna's birthday. After dark we went out on the dock and enjoyed the big bright full moon and lonesome call of the local Loons.

Saturday we ate breakfast (muffins, pastries, and fruits) on the deck, and played games. After a light lunch of cold cut sandwiches, some of the group took the pontoon boat out, while others stayed in the cabin and relaxed. I wrote about 1000 words during this time.

That night we stuffed ourselves silly with fondue. Each family group brought one of the courses (a cheese and bread appetizer course, the main meat and vegetable course, and a chocolate and fruit dessert course). We went back out on the docks to listen to the Loons some more, and to watch the sunset and moon rise over the water. The cabin got a little warm that evening, but we soldiered through and there were cold drinks and games. careswen had a mild migraine, but lost it after taking her medicine and a short nap, allowing her to sit outside and watch the neighbors shoot illegal fireworks over the lake. I crashed a little early because the heat wore me out.

Sunday morning we got up late, had leftover muffins, pastries and fruit for breakfast. The gentlemen played a round of eXtreme Croquet while the ladies cheered. bedside_trauma won in dramatic fashion (yelling "THIS IS SPARTA!" and smashing his croquet ball from deep left field to bounce of williamofoccam's ball and set himself up to win in two easy shots). Afterward, careswen and greykev took the canoe out on the lake. Once they were back, there was lunch and a couple of rounds of Zombie Fluxx before everyone packed up and headed home.

All in all we had a great time and I hope we gave akillianna a fun and happy birthday!

Dark Water Blues

Good gaming session last night. No one's characters died, even by accident, and I worked the replacement characters into the game pretty smoothly.

I managed to work more on the novel. I've decreased the projected word count. I can see the end from here,including a climatic encounter on the Stone Arch Bridge. But first, a duel in the shadow of the Witch's Hat.

Dark Water Blues


Talked to darkwolf58 yesterday. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy her company. Dinner and Arkham Horror this evening with dlandon, matastas, and greykev. There will be grilled chicken breast marinated in mesquite, and an Elder God to defeat. Can it get any better?

Off to clean house now!

Another full and busy weekend planned, with theatre tonight, running the ongoing role-playing game tomorrow, and then cooking out and playing Arkham Horror on Sunday. Somewhere in there I need to set the patio back up, run the vacuum, wash a load of towels, and change the cat box, so don't expect me to be online much until Monday or Tuesday. And then Monday I have an interview and several call-backs to make.

Talked to my oldest son today, he is enrolled at OKCU, majoring in Nursing with an eye toward getting his Nurse Practitioners license.

In all of this, I have managed to get some writing in:

Dark Water Blues


All I can say about were I am with the novel at the moment is: Mwahahahahahahaha!!!

Despite becoming ill and still being that way, the weekend was full of fun.

( Details Behind the Cut )

We played in this puzzle game last night.

Sadly, I am not particularly any good at this sort of thing, so for me it involved a lot of being frustrated by my inability to work out the puzzles, followed by a lot of walking all over Uptown.

In the rain. For five hours.

Actually, it didn't rain for the whole five hours, but we did get to see some hail and lightning. Luckily we were in a coffee shop (not solving a puzzle and being frustrated) at that moment. That said, the organizers worked really hard and did a great job in general, and I shan't fault them or their game because I was unable to do anything useful. And congrats to the groups who solved the puzzles and had a good time. Not my cup of tea, I guess.

May Stats:
Submissions Made: 3
Sales: 0
Rejections: 2
Other: 2 (WotF Honorable Mention, and a rewrite request)
Publications: 1
Crits Given: 1
Approx Word Count: 19261
Stories Circulating: 11

And now, a word meter.

Dark Water Blues

The weekend was packed with stuff.

Saturday was all about the gaming, with some writing and housework thrown in. The gaming session went well, I thought, though another character bit the dust, again through nothing I did as a GM, but instead caught in "Friendly Fire" during a particularly nasty battle. That's the second character causality, and we're just now getting to the hard stuff.

On the negative side, I broke a glass at the host's home, and kept walking into people, things, walls, and otherwise stumbling over stuff like some gigantic club-footed blind cow. I know the why of it, but that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with.

The Twin Cities Speculative Fiction Network meeting was good as well. We talked about world building, and as you might guess with a room of over a dozen Spec Fic writers, things got a little weird. I won't talk too much about what we came up with, because I think some members of the group might want to try writing stories in the world we created as a group. More power to them.

My main contribution was, I think, the Giant Space Kraken lurking hidden somewhere in the dark matter of space, coming out in answer to the prayers of the aquatic life on the planet we created and destroying the human spaceships in orbit. Because really, I think most spacefaring science fiction and space opera stories could be improved with a god-like Giant Space Kraken lurking in the dark matter, waiting to pounce on hapless and unsuspecting starships.

Next month we are hosting Lois McMaster Bujold. I'm looking forward to the Q&A.

Sunday night I helped careswen a little bit with her paper for class by going through her textbooks and flagging pages she might need for citations.

I wrote a little bit this weekend, mostly while waiting for buses, though if I am to be completely honest, I wrote a little during the TCSFWN meeting as well.

I talked to my mother, who is much improved from her surgery.

I'm not going to Wiscon this year, not because I didn't enjoy it last year (I did!) but for purely financial reasons. I've picked up 4th Street Fantasy Convention instead, which is local and promises to be filled with coolness.

I applied for a full-time position with a major shipping company, because the pay and benefits were simply too good to ignore. It is unlikely I will even make the cut for an interview, but I have to try. And yes, I realize that I had trouble writing when I was working part-time and given that, working full-time might well stop me cold as a writer, but the siren song of the pay and benefits could not be ignored.

I also applied for a couple of part-time positions, and started writing a short (200-250 word) article on spec for a local news and media outlet that is considering posting short pieces of local Twin City interest on their website.

I feel pensive, sad, and worn. I wonder if I am not the most terribly tedious correspondent in the entire blogosphere. I suspect that I might be whining at this point. I suspect I need a decent nights sleep.

Dark Water Blues


ETA:I bought a French Press. It makes little individual cups of coffee heaven!

It was a good weekend filled with fun, friends, enjoyable outings, and lots of board games.

I'll post about it more fully later, after I've run errands, unless other interested parties post first, in which case I'll be lazy and link to their LJ's.