Introducing.... Fiction!

It's time for me to do something writers will probably consider blasphemy: give some away for free. My plan is to periodically publish on the blog some pieces of original fiction, be that ficitionalized real life accounts of something, scenes that could be from a short story or a novel, or maybe entire short stories themselves.

So why, you may ask, would I give it away for free?

My long-term goal in life is to write fiction, to make a living off of people enjoying my fiction, and not to have to get up before 9am. I have found that given my busy schedule it's problematic to actually set aside some time to write fiction, so my writing is what I consider "raw." Basically, I need practice - my writing isn't refined enough for me to even submit it for publication, at least in my mind.

And that's part of the experiment here too - it won't work without you, dear readers (all three of you). When I publish a piece at the end of it I plan on explaining the thinking that went into the piece and what my future plans could be for it (a scene, short story, whatever). I will then invite critique - you don't get better unless you get that input. I encourage all kinds of input - what was good, what was bad, alternative suggestions - as long as its constructive. If you hate it, fine - just tell me what didn't work. If you love it, well, I want to hear that too - all writers love to have their egos stroked.

I'm going to offer a word of warning here too: there will be swearing. Sometimes a lot, if the story dictates it. Of course, I've done that in spots on this blog before, but one thing I will always remember from my UOregon Creative Writing class was this drop of knowledge from the teacher: "You take a risk when you swear in your writing, because you will immediately lose some readers. And you won't get them back."

That's a good piece of advice. I've tucked that nugget into the back of my mind, knowing full well the style of writing I both predominantly enjoy to read and write have plenty of cursing...and decided I don't fucking care. So, this is your warning. There will be swearing. Not always, not overdone...but it will be there when scenes or characters demand it.

So this is part experiment - will people participate, will they hate it or love it? - and part simple outlet for me. The only way I can get to the point where people will pay me to write is to write. And me, being me, I hate to see stuff go to waste - I don't see myself as one of those writers who writes a story or novel and just lets it sit in a drawer (or, probably more accurately, gather "dust" on my hard drive) - I'm going to share it.

Again, this is something a lot of writers, especially aspiring ones, are going to cringe about because of the what-if factor - what if they get huge and and some publisher wants everything they have ever written, even the stuff as crappy as 2Pac's posthumous albums?

Maybe I'll regret it someday, who knows. What I do know is I'll regret never starting in the first place.

And besides, now that I've put this out on the internet like this, I have no excuse but do it, right?

So join me in my journey, and please, weigh in with comments early and often. I've got a ton of ideas already...now to just find that time...

Writer's Manifesto

I'm adding this just to head off any potential problems. Plus, I always wanted to have a manifesto. I man, who wouldn't?

1 - All writing on this site, unless otherwise noted or quoted, is mine alone. I created it, I own. So don't take it - that's rude. Link to it, or even email me and ask if you can use it for something, but don't just take it. I'll know. I always know.

2 - Any resemblance to real life events in publications of fiction isn't necessarily intentional, so don't take it that way. We are all products of our own experiences, be it from personal or anecdotal experience. My point is, if you know me and you did something, and I write a character that does the same thing or something similar and you think it's you and don't like how it's portrayed, trust me when I say it's circumstantial. So please, don't come to me whining about something I have written - fiction is fiction, and I don't write to judge. Well, usually don't.

I will revise and add to this Manifesto as I see fit, because what is life without rules?

Introducing Our Kids

Everyone loves to show off pictures of their kids, and Wifey and I are no different. Of course, what we call our "kids" most people would just call pets. Whatever. This is as close as we are getting to being parents.

We'd like to think we are good parents. They get to eat when they are hungry, but not too much. The dog gets to go outside and go to the bathroom. The cats get their litterboxes cleaned (although they are messy little ones). You know, all the basic minimum stuff.

And in return they do such cute stuff they fill up our hard drives with .jpgs. Seems like a fair exchange to me. When you throw in "keep us warm when we sit on the couch and watch TV" and "stalk each other like lions on the savannah" into the mix, plus "wake us up in the middle of the night with the most amazing yowls you will ever hear" - wait, scratch that last one - it makes it so much better.

On to the pictures!

First up is our dog, Ruby. We got her from a breeder in Los Angeles. How exactly did that happen? It's a long story, but we found her on the internet. You'll get the full story at a later date.

Ruby is an Akita. Did you know there are different kinds of Akitas? The Japanese ones - the originals - are smaller, docile (used as police dogs in Japan), and have more delicate features. The American ones are bigger and bulkier. Ruby is an Akita mutt - Mom was Japanese and Dad was American. Most American breeders will tell you there is only one kind of Akita, but they would be wrong. Put a Japanese one and an American side by side and the differences are obvious. Here is a link to Ruby's parents - scroll down past all the puppy pictures. Mom is of Japanese stock and on the left; Dad is of American stock and on the right.

This picture just cracks me up every time I see it. It reminds me of a surveillance photo, like it was taken at night across a parking lot right after she bought crack from her dealer. Maybe she just sold nuclear secets to the Russians. Or something like that. Not that she would do that, buying crack. We taught her better than that. I think. And if she sold secrets to the Russians, she better have gotten a lot of money so she can share and I don't have to get up at 5:30 in the morning for work anymore. I won't tell, promise. Perhaps we should give her more exercise.

Next, the cats - all three of them are Bengals. And what are those? The short answer is they are the result of many years of breeding various domestic cats with wild Asian Leopard Cats. The result is basically the coolest cat ever. These guys think they are wild animals, sometimes act like wild animals, and will kick a domestic cat's ass. Well, actually they won't because they are pretty laid back. But they could - that's how cool they are.

First up is Lilo.

Lilo was actually a stray brought to our attention by a co-worker. She had been caught in a yard by a couple dogs and ended up spending some time at the Dove Lewis Animal Hospital before being allowed to go home. As a result whenever someone is collecting money for Dove Lewis we are suckers for it. After all, without them we probably wouldn't have this tiny ball of crazy. And yes, I just used crazy as a noun rather than an adjective. In our house, with this menagerie, crazy is a palpable thing you can see - and most definitely experience.

You might think she looks tiny - and she is - sitting here on top of a dry fountain in the early fall sun. Lilo is about six pounds, which is actually about twice as big as she was when we adopted her. We think she's so small because of all the time on the street, since all the other Bengals we know are monsters - like her adopted brother and sister.

The last two are twins - brother and sister we got from the same breeder - SnoPride in Roseburg, OR - Moochie (boy) and Sera (girl - short for Serendipity).

Here's Moochie.

Mooch is a ham - I have never seen a cat make love to a camera like he does. Trust me - if a human acted this way you'd think he did porn for a living.

He also has the largest claws I have ever seen on a domestic cat. Of course, at 19 pounds and lithe - not overweight at all - the use of the word domestic applied to him is debatable. As you can tell from the picture above he's about as tall as I am - and you think I'm kidding but I'm not. The other thing you need to know about Moochie is he apparently speaks about 75 dialects of cat. Seriously, he makes sounds you have never heard before - and he comes up with new ones all the time. Half the time his sisters look at him with a face that says "What the hell did you just say? That's not any language I know!" That in and of itself is damn funny.

Sera isn't as much of a camera lover, but she has her moments.

You know how some cats think of themselves as royalty and everyone else is just the help? If Sera was human she would literally be the Queen of Sheba (I honestly have no idea if that was a real person, but you get the point). Sera believes all pedestals were made for her queenliness and if she deems your lap worthy of her attentions you damn well better appreciate it.

She also is very, very, very proud of her claws and keeps them sharpened like razor blades. Literally. Those things slice through flesh so fast you don't know you have been cut until a few minutes later when you notice blood all over the place. And then it starts to hurt. Just look at that picture. Ten minutes before the Nikon snapped that tennis ball was brand new.

So why introduce the world to our kids? Well, besides the fact they are just as cute as can be and make us laugh with their crazy on a regular basis, it's setting up some future writing. Trust me, it'll be good. I'm thinking about looking into the souls of these fine animals to see what they can tell us about life. Literally, tell us - that's your hint. Not literally looking into their souls - that would be rude, and probably disgusting.

Does that not make any sense? No? Good, it will keep you interested. And you'll see in the coming weeks what I'm planning.

Some Minor Blog Changes

Wanted to point a few things here, really quick. First, I added two new link groupings on the left side of the screen.

Below the Blog Archive, the first new one is called Key Topics. This is a list of links based on labelsI have used in the blog, some of my favorite things to talk about and the ones I write about most often. You can see what I like by how I ranked those - hmm...maybe football should be higher?

The third group of links is called Food by Location. I probably shouldn't have to explain this, but I have added labels to all my food-related blog posts with info on where the place is. This grouping of links is based on those labels. It's handy if you want to look up a specific part of the city or another town altogether.

The third change is the blog is now on Twitter, so you can follow to your heart's content.

Wait, you are saying, wasn't that Twitter posts box always there? Yes it was, but I decided to do something odd and open a second Twitter account. Why? Well, the first one I opened for professional reasons, as a means of connecting with readers of my other writing from all over, to talk about hoops. The vast majority of those are not in Portland, nor did they follow me to hear where I ate for lunch and whether or not it's good. I get that.

That's half the reason I opened the new Twitter account, where I can talk about the things this blog discusses to my heart's content. It's a great way to interact with some of the restaurants, food carts, and other NW-related people and places that are celebrated in the blog. I will also tweet blog posts, which was something I was loathe to do on the other account.

It's all online and people wanting to relate the two could do so it if they wanted/cared/had nothing better to do, but it's an attempt to keep the professional life and the slightly more personal life separate. Will it work? Who knows. We shall see.

Anyway, that's all the changes for now. Chances are you won't even notice. Comments and suggestions are always appreciated.

It's Been a Long Time...

...shouldn't have left you/without a dope beat to step to...

Whoops, sorry, music in my head - channeling Timbaland.

It's been over two weeks since I posted, and with good reason: Wifey and I were on vacation.

For us, this year, vacation was a quiet affair filled with day trips and visiting roughly every restaurant in Portland (only a slight exaggeration - you'll see). We had tons of fun, taking trips to Newport, Seattle, and Crater Lake, eating our way through downtown and the east side, reading and watching movies, taking in the start of the NFL season... And, of course, college football.

I took notes on it all so I wouldn't forget any wheres or whats, plus I'm going to attempt to post pictures from Crater Lake. I had never been there before; it's simply amazing/breathtaking/indescribable - but I'll attempt to do it justice. Let's just say if you live in Oregon and haven't been to the remnants of Mt. Mazama, the fact that it's 4.5 hours from Portland is no excuse. Literally, no excuse. Don't even try with me.

After taking some time to think a bit, to ponder what I was posting, I'm taking a step back and re-working this a bit. I don't want this simply to be food reviews - I'm not a qualified reviewer nor do I think it's all that interesting. And above all, I want this to be interesting. I'm still going to be doing food stuff, but it'll be a little different.

Plus, I noticed just about everything I posted was food related, which makes me out to be a pig who can't cook. The former may be somewhat true but the latter is not, though I will admit to occasional bouts of laziness in the kitchen. That's what food carts are for!

So there will be more of a melting pot of pieces from here on out. Some more hikes, more destination type things, and I will be adding some occasional college football stuff. I'm an Oregon Duck, Wifey is an Oregon State Beaver, but we get along on Saturdays - that's why we have the big screen. Again, you'll see what I do - but it will be geared around Saturdays sitting on the coach. I love sitting on the couch.

I'm going to introduce some mildly personal elements too. Nothing too personal, since this is the internet (nothing too helpful for those crazy people out there), but issues that to me are personal. For an example, I'm trying to lose a few more pounds, so there will be some talk around that.

I also have to get over a little writing thing for me. When I sit down and write something, I want it to be deep and complete, and with me that usually means 1,000 words or something like that. Which, of course, isn't necessary always. Or, sometimes it is but I don't want to spend that kind of time... I think there may be more, smaller posts in my future here.

And yes, I will discuss the vacation. I'll break it down into a bunch of pieces - but I won't leave much out. It was a general good time.

Of course, I get back to work today and after filtering through the 350 emails of worthless bits of information, I literally didn't miss much at all in two weeks. Shows how important I am in the grand scheme of things...

Stay tuned...I promise high quality stuff.

My First Post

I feel like I should introduce myself, or explain my purpose here - which is kind of silly, since I'm really doing this for my own enjoyment and have no idea if anyone will read it, nor do I really care.

Eh, whatever - it's my blog and I'll do what I want.

I'm hoping to keep this a little focused, to talk about my own experiences at places all over the northwest, with an emphasis on things like food and restaurants and drinks and hiking and the outdoors, local travel, things like that. I also plan to stray a bit into books I read, movies I watch, random things that might piss me off, and whatever else pops into my head.

My only rule here will be no basketball - I get way more than enough of that the rest of the day, and besides, if you want to read that stuff you can go where I do that.

So, besides that, basically whatever I want. It will be an attempt to chronicle my own experiences and enjoyments, my discoveries and disappointments, in this great Northwest of ours. This place surprises me every day with all sorts of goodness and spectacularity (see, it's my blog, I can make up words too).

I keep finding so much, and I keep looking for more, but I don't want to forget all the places I have been, so this is my log, my life, but nothing personal. Unless you cut me off in traffic - then it's personal.

So there you go - let's eat!