Shenanigan Report - Another Random Tuesday

"Perfect is the enemy of good. Good is the enemy of finished." - Gallowglas

"No matter where you go, there you are." - Buckaroo Bonzai

Greetings, story lovers!

Upcoming schedule:

June 23: Write Right Now Livestream - Twitch
June 26 - Final Friday R&R - Zoom
June 27 - Reading as a Contact Sport - Zoom
June 30 - Write Right Now livestream, Finale - Twitch
July 3 - Book launch - Tears of Rage 5 & Dragon Bone Flute 3
July 9-12 - Summer Writing Retreat - Roseville, CA & Zoom.
July 19 - Poetry Unleashed - Sacramento, CA
July 24 - 28 Comic Con International - San Diego, CA
July 31 - Final Friday R&R - Zoom

As you can see, we've got lots of stuff going on. I hope you'll join us for some of it, especially the virtual events like Reading as a Contact Sport and the Final Friday R&R. The first will help you be better writers and more intentional readers. The second is just for us to get together, chat, hang out, and maybe make some new friends. I'm really working on rebuilding a sense of community and connection with the Gallowglas Army.

If you're planning on attending the Summer Writing Retreat and want to have us workshop one of your pieces, you need to register by June 30th. Come and jumpstart your creativity!

https://mtoddgallowglas.com/schedule/

Life of a Literary Underdog

Here's a brief, behind-the-scenes update on where things are going with my creative life.

I'm hard at work with The Sharpened Edge of Fate, Legend of the Dragon Bone Flute, and The Wyrd Frontier. These are consuming my waking hours as we head toward the release date for two of them, and I keep plugging away at pages in Perchance to Dream. I have to tell you, I'm really jazzed about The Wyrd Frontier and all the stories that I'm going to explore in that setting. Hopefully, y'all will enjoy this crazy journey of the characters who find themselves in the wild, post-apocalyptic, magically surreal landscape of life after Armegodden Day. (That's not a typo. To learn more about the world after Armegodden day, check out Perchance to Dream, which you get to read just for having signed up for The Shenanigan Report.

I have two passion projects on the side: Musings of a Non-Practicing Taoist & StoryMind. They may turn into something bigger someday, but for now, I'm just fiddling with them and jotting ideas down. Here's what I've got this week.

Musings of a Non-Practicing Taoist - I am a product of all my past moments. I am steadily moving toward my future. This present is my existence. If I don't like my present, what choices must I make to change my existence without damaging my future? That's the trick... figuring out what choices will make this present better, without upsetting the fragility of the future. All while trusting I'm doing my best, and sometimes I'm going to screw up. That's a lot of heavy lifting for a Tuesday morning.

StoryMind - Thinking about stagnation. That is, not getting to the things in life that need getting to but are easily set aside or put off for another time. Procrastination and avoidance are two things that keep people from living the fullness of their story. These range from the big projects that intimidate us to all those little chores we would rather not do. I've been considering how to reframe diving into these rather than putting them off for later. In terms of story language, everything that comes before us is an inciting incident or a call to adventure. It's up to us to answer or refuse the call. This has been a core narrative milestone since humanity has been telling stories. Since reframing the things that I need to get done as a call to adventure, I've been far more productive in all areas of my life. Heck, my desk and work station are almost entirely straightened out.

Media Consumption

Reading:

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett for Reading as a Contact Sport - I'm enjoying the story. The prose isn't grabbing me, but then I'm a demanding reader. Looking forward to the discussion on this one.
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff - revisiting this to work on not practicing Taoism.
Dibs: In Search of Self - Recommended by a dear friend. The story is fascinating. The sentence-level writing is so clunky, it keeps kicking me out of the experience.
A bunch of non-fiction books about the HMS Wager in research for a book project. The more I read, the more my story is taking shape in the back of my mind.
Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi, listening to the audiobook narrated by Will Wheaton - So far, this is a solid-decent story. I enjoy Scalzi's Old Man's War books more than his standalone titles. (Except Zoe's Tale. I couldn't get past the first couple of chapters of that one.)
Dad Jokes for Late in the Patriarchy by Amorak Huey - I pulled this poetry book off the shelf Sunday, and I'm remembering fondly how much I love this one.

Watching:
WWE, it's my thing.
The Legend of Vox Machina - Man... the feels in season 4. Oh man! It keeps punching hard.
Justified - I finished this one. Unlike so many TV shows, Justified had a wholly satisfying ending. Now, I'm looking for another show to semi-binge. Anyone have any suggestions?

Storytime

Each Shenanigan Report will wrap up with a bit of writing. First, you'll get a flash fiction or a poem. Then, I'll give you an installment of an episodic story. Still not this time. Working on coming up with a story that both excites me and that I can break down into easily digestible chunks. Keeping with the theme of both Patreon and the Shenanigan Report, it'll be something from the Wyrd Frontier. Did I mention that I'm really digging this new world I'm creating?

Made Up Words

Felicia doesn’t have a last name. Or at least her mother won’t tell her her last name. If they’re ever in a camp or shelter with another Felicia, Mama tells her to use Felicia Curls because of her extra curly red hair and her sweeping, thick eyelashes. A lot of people say it’s hard to be homeless in this city. Felicia wouldn’t know the difference. It’s the only thing she’s known.

The best days for Felicia are the day after her mom gets drugs or booze. Mom always overindulges, and the next day, she’s in the tent trying to sleep it off. In those days, Felicia could sneak away and go to her favorite places: parks, the Contemporary Art Museum because it's free, and Klapp’s bookstore. She can’t read, but that doesn’t matter. Felicia watches people read in parks and on the other side of windows and coffee shops. Just the idea that so many people can find so many stories in so many different kinds of books fills Felicia with such a sense of magic that even being around books fills her mind and heart with all the magic of a billion big bangs erupting in her center and expanding outward. In some moments, that magic is enough to make Felicia forget she was homeless. Sitting in the children’s alcove at Klapp’s bookstore, Felicia uses the magic to make up stories to go with all the picture books.

Felicia’s internal clock on these days has never failed her. She has a perfect sense of her mother’s sleeping patterns and arrives back at the tent long before Mom wakes up.

Today, on the way home, going through JM Barry Park, Felicia sees a backpack all by itself under the huge rose bush Felicia loves so much. The scent of all those blooming petals tickles her nose. For once, the park is completely empty. Felicia knows that if she takes the backpack, someone will come looking for it. But nothing keeps her from looking inside. Books, notebooks, and pens. Felicia takes one pen and the notebook with the least amount of writing in it. She runs back to the tent.

When Felicia’s mother crawls out of the tent, Felicia is sitting cross-legged with a journal in her lap, and she's marking up one of the pages.

“What are you doing?” Mother asks.

“Writing a story about a princess,” Felicia says.

“But you don’t know how to write,” Mother says.
Felicia looks at her mother blankly, and explains, “I’m making up my own words.”