J.A. Pitts

Proud of my daughter!

My daughter survived the private black belt test last night at our Tae Kwon Do school, Overlake True Martial Arts. This is for her provisional black belt. She has to have that a minimum of a year before she’s eligible to test for her first degree. She’s twelve. I’m so stoked for her. This is a significant effort for anyone to go through. Years of hard work and dedication, extra classes, outside work, stress, worry and joy. She’s really earned her shot at this and I could not be prouder.

My son has his first degree, and he’s nineteen. He started at a later age than my daughter did, so she’s ahead of the curve in our family. I’m proudly on my blue belt, though my two jobs are preventing me from attending class as regularly as I need to be. It’s a way of life, not something you can just toss off every now and again.

I’m looking forward to getting back into it in a couple weeks and begin the long slog back to ground zero, and then onward to advanced blue.

Meanwhile, tonight we celebrate the second, public, test. Will be fun to see those who survived last night’s private test, in with all the other ranked students who test.

Black belt tests only happen a couple times a year. Excitement is the order of the weekend.

OMG, so very cold

Went to my next camping class with Girl Scouts. Saturday from 10am to Sunday at noon. Learned a TON, and had a blast, but man, was it cold — at or below freezing. And if you’ve never slept on a bunk, in an open-air A-frame cabin, that was made for kids, you haven’t enjoyed the real life.

At about 4am, as I trudged across the field to the ranch house to use the bathroom (yes running water) I was reminded how Conan the Barbarian was always stripping to his birthday suit and scrubbing down with snow or something as crazed.

That’s rough living. Me, I was glad for my 5 layers, nice wool hat my wife had knitted for me, mittens and the super cool sleeping bag I had. Only got about 3 hours sleep Saturday night, but was worth it. Next time, I’ll be better prepared.

Up next, I’m taking Wilderness First Aid. Two night sleep out in March. Crazy living, but I’m having a grand time. Wish I’d done this when I was younger.

Publisher Weekly Reviews Black Blade Blues

With the launch date coming up fast, I’ve got my first ever Publishers Weekly review.

Great opening line. “Pitts brings Norse mythology into the modern world in this amusing debut.”

Here’s the link

I’m pleased. Money Shot, as my good buddy Jay Lake would call it, is: “…there’s enough entertainment and romantic tension to keep readers interested in the planned sequels.”

Not too shabby. Working on readings/signings and will post again as they become real. Stay tuned.

New boots, new blisters

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m training to become an outdoor specialist with the Girl Scouts. My next class is Outdoor 2, which consists of my first overnight camp out. It’s Feb 20th. I’m very excited about it. I went to REI and bought some new boots.

Couple problems so far. I have wide feet, so they are a bit tight. And, it takes about fifteen miles to break in a pair of boots. I thought I’d try and break them in before the camping trip. Sunday I went for a 2+ mile jaunt through the greenbelt. It was great. Very peaceful. Now, of course, my legs hurt, and I have a brand new blister — little toe, right foot — about the size of a dime.

So, bandaids for now, but I wore the boots to work. Not a ton of walking, but more than having them sitting under my desk at home.

I’ll take them to RADCON this weekend.

Sending ARCs across the globe

Sending ARCs out. Packaged six tonight. One to Australia and one to South Africa. The rest are more local in geography.

Feels good to start the process of getting them out there. April 27th is rushing along at a breakneck pace and I’m feeling like I won’t get enough done.

Of course, what I need to be doing is writing the next thing. I know this. I’ve had some pretty influencial people the likes of Jay Lake, Kris Rusch, Dean Wesley Smith, Cameron McClure (super agent)… and on and on… explain this concept to me. But part of my day job is project management, and it’s hard to let that go.

I’ll do some interviews (yeah!) and give some ARCs away at conventions. I’ll even send some more out to reviewers, but really. The book is going to do as well as the writing will allow. If folks like the story and the characters, I’ll do just fine. Deep breath time.

Free books from talented friends

If you love Halo, and who doesn’t, you need to rush over to Eric’s blog and sign up for a free copy contest he’s running.

Also Lisa Mantchev (and a surprise guest) has a contest over at her place

Who says you can’t get anything awesome for free.

Better hurry, timing is limited

Writing in the short form

Now that I’m worming my way out of the post-novel ennui, I’m back on a short story project. When I’m writing a novel, I can’t read anyone elses work. That’s something I’d like to fix, but for now, the world I’m writing in has to have precedence over anyone elses world.

So, when I finished book two in the Black Blade series, I read a couple of books, and turned my brain away from the world of novels and have begun thinking of shorts again. I’m hoping to knock out a couple before the first readers get back to me on the second book.

I have really needed the break between books, mainly do to the significant work load of my day jobbe, but now I’m craving words again. I’m dreaming story and want to purge some of this abundance into a viable form.

It took me ten years to really understand the short story and the novella. The fact it was a problem to have multiple POV characters and two or more plot threads in an 8K short, finally convinced me my strength lay in the long form. When I started writing novels, it was like someone had removed the plow I’d been pulling and allowed me to run free.

The act of writing a novel has been like breathing free for the first time. I love it. But now that I’ve written a few, I’m thinking about the short form again. I write fast, and if I know the story, I can knock out a short in a few hours. And they are typically good. Enough so that I’ve been able to join SFWA on my short story sales. So I delve back into that world, study the lean aspect of a form that vexes me as often as not.

It’s like when I did the poetry workshops in college. Short is hard. I envy those who are good poets. The expression of immense emotion and story in so few words is breathtaking.

My poet friends can’t understand the immense space allowed by a short story. It’s all perspective.

Soon, I’ll slip another little thing into the world and see how she does. But first I have to flesh out the wings and see how well she’ll fly

Back to the words for me.

Peace

The ball starts rolling. Mention of Black Blade Blues.

It’s strange when your friends email you links that involve you.

Last night my friend Keffy brought to my attention that John Scalzi mentioned my novel.

Then my friend Jay Lake pointed out this other blogger mentioning Black Blade Blues.

NOTE: um, okay. Had to go back and edit this post. While I know how awesome John Scalzi is from his blog, and from his ultimately cool friends like Mary Robinette Kowal. I didn’t know the second blogger.

He is Andrew Wheeler, a long time wheel in the publishing industry, including a stint as the editor of the Science Fiction Book Club. Not only does he comment, but he tracks down a copy of the cover art on his blog, that even Amazon hasn’t been able to do yet. I’m pretty amazed.

It’s strange for me, this self-promotion thing. Don’t get me wrong. I’m quite pleased that anyone is even considering reading the novel. But to see that title listed out there makes me a little light-headed.

It’s all very exciting. Fourteen weeks until publication of Black Blade Blues. I keep thinking about what it will be like to hold that book in my hand. To stand in a Barnes & Noble, Borders, or fine Indie bookstore and see a carbon based artifact on the shelf with my name on it, and a story that cooked in my own head available for the whole world.

Wonders never cease.

Harbinger by Jack Skillingstead

Read Harbinger last week. Needed a few days to think about it. It’s a powerful book, honestly. Lot of metaphysical concepts working around in my brain after the ride.

I’d heard Jack read the opening of the book at his signing at UW Bookstore a while back, and as I read the opening chapters, I could hear his calm, cool cadence in my head. Not everyone will have that particular experience, but it was very cool.

I found a lot to like in this book. The concepts of time and how it affects us is very interesting and I think Jack tackled it well.

There are moments where I dislike the main character, but that’s part of the ride. The writing is excellent, and the character changes in ways that he doesn’t always recognize, and that I recognized all too well.

As a person, I find Jack quiet with a strong undercurrent of wit and humor. All that comes through in this book. If you are a fan of his short work, you’ll be pleased with this volume.

I’d recommend you head over to Fairwood Press and order a copy. Or, visit Jack’s website to learn more.

Healthy Habits

We had our last Healthy Habits class tonight at the YMCA. It is a great class. One of the things I found over the ten months is how poorly I planned certained parts of my life. If you asked me about writing, I’m considerably more organized, and day jobbe is off the charts. But when it comes to diet, exercise, etc. I’m floundering around.

This class helped me understand the power of short-term goals. The skills needed to address very basic aspects of my personality and the need to handle things straight-forward, instead of passively aggressive.

And, don’t get me wrong, I’m not where I want to be with my writing, but it’s light years ahead of my diet and exercise. But it’s all changing.

Getting to the gym 2-3 times a week is doable. A year ago my answer was I didn’t have the time. But I’ve managed to write a novel, start going to the gym, work on my tae kwon do, and still have time for family and friends.

It’s all a matter of perspective. One of the nicest points in the class when Donna, a real spit-fire of a woman, told me she was going to kick my ass if I didn’t get better. She meant it, too. It was very sweet and delivered from a place of compassion, but not something I expected to hear from this retired woman.

Everyone in the class struggles with different aspects of the same things I’m dealing with, and it’s been good to be there for them, encourage them, and be encouraged by them.

We are going to sign up and take the class again. I just now feel like I understand what I was supposed to really be doing the last ten months. Now it’s time to implement what I’ve learned.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. Especially thanks to Kathy, Anne, Glad, Pam, Donna, Lois, Joe, Mary and all the visiting guests.