by john | Apr 6, 2012 | Vegas, Writing
It’s taken all week, but I finally think I’m getting the hang of this new life. Last week was all about figuring out just how much other shit can eat into my day when I don’t have a day job. This week has been about actually getting shit done.
So far this week I’ve –
Finished and submitted a short story to a steampunk anthology
Finished the novella about the teenage assassin, Cindy Slaughter (now a nickname based on your preferences)
Gotten to within spitting distance of finishing the rough draft of Black Knight IV: Paint it Black. I’m well into Act III of the book at this point, and expect to be done with it before I fly to Vegas next Friday.
Written more words of fiction than I did in all of March. Not that my word count for April is impressive (about 22K so far), but March sucked out loud, what with travel and illness and all that jazz.
Finally gotten around to listing the Big Bad anthology with Duotrope. If you’re a writer and you’re submitting work to anthologies and magazines, Duotrope is the best resource in the world. And now that I’ve listed the anthology on there, I’ve gotten more submissions in 48 hours than I did in the first 12 weeks submissions were open.
Gotten back to reviewing submissions for Red Dirt Review. I’d gotten ahead, then gotten behind again. Now I’ll spend time this weekend catching up.
Registered for the NAB conference so that I can get this marketing business rolling.
Edited a revision of Genesis that I should have done before I put the book on sale. But I suck, so that didn’t happen.
Planned out bad guys for the next dozen or more Bubba stories, insuring that I have no BS writer’s block excuse to keep me from churning words with that character.
Started planting the seeds for a longer Bubba story, or at least a bigger arc that explains how he came to be a Monster Hunter, what makes him the way he is, and why he likes strippers so much. But really, there are pretty obvious reasons he likes strippers. They’re called boobs.
Next on the plate is dealing with COBRA, getting a crown on one tooth (yay!), dealing with cashing out my 401(k) (yes, I know the penalties, but I also know what I make and how long it will take for my income to catch up to my expenses, so cashing out the 401(k) is a big part of this career change plan, and getting on the artist’s calendar to get my phoenix tattoo finished up.
Then I go to Vegas next Friday. Lemme know if you’ll be there then, we should grab a drink.
by john | Dec 7, 2011 | Real Life, Travel, Vegas
And home for a while, this time. I got back from Vegas a few dollars lighter, but with some great times and great memories, as always. A bunch of my friends ran the marathon, and I went down to cheer them on. I drank a little, but less than on most trips. I lost some cash, but less than on a lot of trips. I spent a lot of time with Suzy just chilling out, and that was cool, especially since we coupled this trip with our 16th wedding anniversary. So for an anniversary gift I got her a pedicure and foot massage at the hotel spa, which she loved.
December’s looking like a good writing month – I’ve got a couple of short stories I want to work on, plus a couple of novels that I think I can make significant progress on if I focus. I don’t have much out of town travel planned, so I should have little or no trouble getting dialed in to those projects. In Atlanta next week, then home the rest of the month, and I’m taking the week between Christmas and New Year’s off to write, so that gives me plenty of time.
And play Skyrim, which is awesome! Definitely game of the year material. I knew a little better what I was getting into with this game than I did with Morrowind, so I’m having a lot more fun this time around. Still low level right now, but I can definitely see at least a hundred hours of gameplay in this one. I’ll catch up with you guys a little more thoroughly later, but for now it’s time for some lunch.
by john | Nov 30, 2011 | Poker, Real Life, Travel, Vegas
If you know where this picture comes from, then you’re either a degenerate gambler or you’ve done waaaayyyyy too many drugs. Or both. In any case, you might recognize the Chihuly sculpture that lives in the lobby of the Bellagio. Or maybe not. But if you’re looking for me for most of the next week, I’ll be closer to that sculpture than I will to any of my normal haunts. I’m heading to Vegas for my annual pilgrimage to the city of sin to hang with some of my best friends that I don’t see nearly often enough.
I started making this trek in December of 2005, and haven’t missed a year. Next year looks a little cloudy because of my impending self-employed status, but something tells me all the poop will miraculously form into a group at the right time and I’ll be there anyway. In those six years we’ve all laughed, cried, drank, overindulged, gambled and won, gambled and lost, married, divorced, lost and found loved ones and generally lived life, gotten older, not a damn bit wiser, and richer for the friendships we’ve made. This is a special group of people I’m privileged to be part of, and this weekend is just like Merlefest for me, only completely different. It’s going home. Only a different home.
Where Merlefest is a chill weekend punctuated by great music and great friends, this blogger gathering in Las Vegas is a frenetic maelstrom of drunken hijinks, crazy prop bets, gambling on anything that moves (or doesn’t) and great meals punctuated by the magical quiet moments among the storm where you connect with someone you don’t really know, but know you should. It’s less about the poker for me nowadays, and a lot more about hanging with my friends. And I can’t wait.
If you’re anywhere near Vegas, this would be the weekend to come out and hang. I’ll be at the Sherwood Forest Bar in the Excalibur tomorrow night starting around 8-9PM. Friday I’ll be at The Pub at Monte Carlo in the late afternoon/early evening drinking and munching with buds. Then Friday night we move to the Aria poker room for mixed game goodness. Saturday we have a private tournament at noon, then I’m wide open after that. Hopefully I’ll run a little better than I did last year, but I’m not holding my breath :). My poker is teh rusty. No real plans so far for Sunday, but I’ll be betting on some football and watching some games. Sunday night I have a bunch of friends running a half marathon, so I’ll be at the finish line cheering them on. Then Monday we come home, and Tuesday I detox. So you kids behave while I’m gone, and maybe I’ll even hook you up with a scheduled post or two.
by john | Apr 7, 2011 | Poker, Real Life, Vegas, Writing
Ok, not as young as I once was, but as the song goes, I’m as good once as I ever was. I leave tomorrow night for Vegas. I’m going out to attend the National Association of Broadcasters show for the day job, but since the show starts Monday I thought I’d take the weekend and play a bit. Then I found out that the Venetian is having their Deep Stacks Extravaganza poker tournament series this month, so I’ll definitely be playing that on Saturday. My friend Hoyazo went deep in one of those last year for a very nice score, and since I’ve cashed in the Venetian daily tournament several times I thought I’d give it a shot. I get in around 8PM Vegas time Friday, and hopefully I’ll catch a couple hours sleep on the plane so I can stay up for a while when I get there. I don’t really care if I do anything tomorrow night, but I want to be able to go to bed and sleep until at least 8AM Saturday, so my sleep schedule will get right quickly. It’s usually not an issue for me in Vegas.
So if you’re in Vegas, and want to get together, email me. I’ll be at the Venetian Saturday, and hopefully Sunday, and at the Convention Center during the day Monday thru Wednesday. I fly home on the redeye Wednesday night and am participating in a writer’s panel Thursday afternoon. That should be entertaining for everyone!
Book sales are soaring, for some reason I’ve jumped from averaging 3 books a day in February to 20 or so per day in April. Hard Day’s Knight keeps creeping up and up in the Amazon rankings, finally breaking through the 3,000 mark today. Lower is better on those rankings, and all three books had been living in the 20-30,000 level. Now HDK and Back in Black are pretty much living under 10,000, and The Chosen is hanging out around 20,000. I’m thrilled with the progress, and with some recent reviews. Obviously I hope it keeps up, I’ve got truck payments to make :).
Volume 3 of The Black Knight Chronicles is coming right along, I’m probably about 10% finished with the first draft. I hope I’ll be able to get some work done on it while in Vegas, but I’m not holding my breath. NAB is a tough show, with long hours and a huge attendance, so I’ll be working pretty much non-stop the whole time I’m there. That’s okay, I’ve got this weekend to play!
by john | Dec 15, 2010 | Poker, Travel, Vegas
This will be a multi-part trip report, spread out over several posts, over several days. Don’t get all impatient when I get sidetracked by – Oh look, squirrel! – and it might take me a while to get back to it, but all the stories I remember will be told eventually. Let’s start at the beginning.
My flight sucked.
Let’s be really clear, here. My flight suuuuccccckkkkkeeeedddddd. I t was crowded, hot, bouncy, and I was uncomfortable for most of the four and a half hours. It’s times like that when I’m supremely jealous of friends like Special K, who get upgraded all the time. Then I think about how much time they have to spend in airplanes to get said upgrades, and I get less jealous. So I got there, and headed to the MGM to crash for a couple of hours before I kicked it into high gear in the evening.
And kick it into high gear I did. The IP is where they’ll stick the hose if they ever give Las Vegas an enema, but for some reason we all congregate there at the Geisha Bar every year to drink like college kids. Since our visits typically coincide with the National Finals Rodeo, there are pretty good drink specials going on around town. So I end up taking extreme advantage of said drink specials, and doing myself grievous bodily harm. Last year I started a tradition, a particularly unhealthy tradition, of drinking cheap beer out of buckets until I pass the blood alcohol content of an Irishman at a Dropkick Murphys concert. So I did.
Then I made my mistake – I decided to play poker. Now I’ve played a lot of cards at the IP over the years, a lot of it with bloggers. But little if any was played when I was as obliterated as I was Thursday night. I bought in for the table minimum ($60) for the first orbit, and blew that away pretty quickly. Then I reloaded for $300, the table max, and tried to play reasonably while also trying to remain upright in my chair. Neither of these things proved easy. But I managed for a little while, and after I’d bled through around a hundred bucks, I decided to get up and join the 8PM tournament as a late entrant.
This is my new strategy for tournaments in Vegas – never play the first level of blinds. Every tourney allows registration for at least two levels after the event begins, and some allow it for up to four levels. And the only saying about not being able to win a tournament in the first level, but being able to lose it then is certainly true. As long as I can come in with a reasonable stack relative to the blinds in level two or three, I’m going to skip the first couple of levels every time. This strategy has proved solid for me a couple of times at the Venetian, and also paid off last Friday at Aria. It didn’t really help at the IP, because although I doubled up on the first hand (of which I recall zero details as I was on pitcher #4 of 7 at that point), I ran into aces with ATo at the final table and resumed my drinking.
Somehow a couple of hours later I found myself back at the IP poker room, seated at a table that included CaityCaity and some other folks that I recognized and am sure were more than happy to relieve me of my money but whom I don’t remember. Apparently at some point there were a lot of people warned and/or tossed from the poker room, but I missed all of that. I may have taken a nap or two between hands. Really, that was napping. I swear it. I left that table because I fear CaityCaity’s poker drunk or sober, and went to sit next to PokerGnome. This was not my best move, because even though I had position on him, the Gnome can also outplay me when I’m sober, much less biblically inebriated. But somehow I managed to triple up at that table, I think at the expense of the civilians to my left, because I’m a drunken out-of-position ninja. Or because I was too drunk to fold. One of those.
I did find myself playing second pair a lot stronger when drunk than I have been sober, which was something I specifically wanted to work on this trip. The playing second pair thing, not the drunk thing. The drunk thing was a given. I’ve been playing second pair like a nutless wonder, folding to obvious c-bets, but after pitcher #6, that didn’t happen. Of course, after pitcher #7, I have no idea what happened. But I did manage to cash out a small profit (if my recollection of only buying in for a hundy is correct), and staggered off to bed around 4:30 in the morning. I made it back to the MGM and did something I haven’t done since college – not puke, but I fell asleep with my contacts in, which led to all sorts of festivities on Friday morning and a huge pile of grateful to the fact that I always travel with a spare set of contacts.
End of Day 1 – down around $200 in poker, probably another $200 in food, booze and cabs.
Still to come – my annual donation in mixed games, tournament silliness, bounties galore, and Full Tilt Food!
by john | Nov 22, 2010 | Real Life, Travel, Vegas, Writing
It’s going to be a busy few weeks around the old Casa de Hartness (since the last few months haven’t been chock-full AT ALL). This week is obviously Thanksgiving, which we’ll be spending in South Carolina with mi familia. It’s either a note on how frugal I’ve become or what a cheap bastard I am that I’d really like to take a Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Cheesecake with us for dessert, but I’m balking at dropping the $50 on it. It’s not that $50 is a huge sum, but it’s a lot of money for one 10″ cheesecake, and I’ve gotten cheap about things like dessert recently.
Then Sunday I have a book signing at Park Road Books, which is one of only a couple of independent bookstores left in the Charlotte area. I’ll be signing anything anyone wants to buy, hopefully my restock order will be in by then (and hopefully I’ll need it!).
Next week I’ll be in Atlanta the first part of the week for work and then when I come back to Charlotte Suzy and I will be getting on a plane to go to New York for our 15th wedding anniversary. Sometimes it feels like just a few months ago that we were in college down at Winthrop together, and now we’re going off to the Big Apple to see the big tree at Rockefeller Center, check out America Idiot on Broadway, and go shopping at Mood fabrics in the Garment District (I’ll take a book, hopefully they have chairs for husbands). Suzy and my sister Bonnie are HUGE Project Runway fans, so this trip to Mood is a real highlight for her. Me, I could meh about the whole thing because I don’t know anything about fabric, but if it makes her happy it’s worth the trip.
And then I’m home for a couple days and then I turn around and head off to Las Vegas for the annual WPBT debauchery-thon. I’ve got a room at the MGM and would like to do a small book signing there for some folks if people let me know that they want copies of books. That will take some logistical figuring out between now and then.
And then there’s Christmas. We’re probably not doing much in the way of gift exchange, because there’s not much we want, and because we’re going to NYC a few weeks before Christmas. I think the whole family is pitching in together to get my parents a new TV (which I can blog about here because my parents are blissfully internet-free), so that will be a nice upgrade over their 20-year old Zenith console TV. We’ll have to get a stand, too, because despite my sister’s protestations, having a TV sitting on top of the old, busted TV is never acceptable.
Oh yeah, speaking of sister – she’ll be staying with us for the week after I get back from Vegas because of her second hip replacement. Yeah, her second hip replacement this year. Sucks to be her. Except that she came through the first one with flying colors and now is in a lot less pain, so I guess it sucks less to be her. But anyway, that’s neither here nor there, since Suzy is the one with the caretaker gene and my contribution to having her in my house for a week is mostly whining about sleeping in the guest bedroom.
So that’s life here lately. As you can see, I’m trying to make a more concerted effort to revive the blog. At least this week. I’ve started on the sequel to Hard Day’s Knight, so hopefully it will be ready to go sometime in the spring. And I got word from Rob that the ebook conversion for HDK should be finished this month, so it will come out on Kindle in time for Christmas, which is exciting. I have about enough story for five books with those characters right now, and I’m working on a couple of other things intermittently. I don’t see me becoming Hocking-level prolific anytime soon, but maybe in a few years I’ll generate some real revenue from this little side gig and be able to focus on it more full-time.
