Author: Ian

June 2021 Novel Update: I Stepped Away From Writing, But That’s OK

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Yep, I jinxed myself.

I’m not going to lie—June was a busy month for me.  In addition to polishing up MFA Thesis Novel in preparation for my developmental edit, a lot of my attention has been focused on a Secret Change that I’m not quite ready to talk about yet (but will be soon!).

The problem with this Secret Change is that it turned out to be a MUCH bigger undertaking than I expected.  It also required a LOT of email checking and sending, since information was constantly changing and I needed to stay on the ball.  The Secret Change also involved a lot of stress, which affected my sleeping patterns and kept me up one night until two am to make a deadline, which threw off my sleep schedule for the entire week Continue reading »

MFA Thesis Novel is Off to the Editor!

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Welp, I finished a big project last week.

As many of you know, last year I signed a contract with Vine Leaves Press to publish MFA Thesis Novel, my comic novel about grad school life in the Midwest.  After that, I did a lot of waiting.

That’s because prepping a novel for publication takes a LONG time—most presses schedule their release dates 1-2 years (or more!) in advance, and MFA Thesis Novel is slated for publication in April 2022.

There’s a lot of things to be done before next April: designing the cover (VLP editor Jessica Bell’s bringing her expertise to that!), proofreading the manuscript, formatting the pages, obtaining permissions, and a bunch of other stuff.  And one of those things is a developmental edit. Continue reading »

What Do You Compromise On When You’re Busy?

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I didn’t post last week (d’oh!) because I had a lot going on and needed to catch up on some things.  Fortunately I caught back up (yay!) and things look to be more chill this week, but the experience made me think about what I cut back on when I’m busy, and how I prioritize my time.

Here’s a quick list of things I’m likely to stop doing if I’m busy so I can focus on what’s more important.  The ones at the top are less important (and thus more likely to get dropped!) while the ones farther down down are things I’ll cut out more reluctantly.

Making this list has helped me understand some of the prioritizing I’ve been doing naturally, and I’m planning on keeping it as a reference to guide me through future busy weeks.  As such, it might be worth making your own list of compromises for your own benefit—if you can spare the time of course ;-) Continue reading »

May Novel Progress: Slow and Steady…

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During my last novel update in March I talked about how I was setting the small, reasonable goal of working for 2-3 hours a week drafting my new novel.  This involved a lot of planning with my creative time in that I’d set aside one 2-3 session (usually after work, but sometimes on the weekend) a few days ahead of time, then treat it like a regular appointment and not schedule anything else during that time.

This has been going really well—I literally haven’t missed a week since New Year’s, and that’s equaled out to a LOT of novel progress.

The disadvantage to this system, of course, is that it’s SLOW Continue reading »

Companies Treat Their Employees Like Garbage Kind of Often – A Pattern Explored

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A while ago I was talking to a friend who was having trouble at his job.  His company had gone through a merger with another company and was in the middle of a major consolidation/reorganization.  As part of this consolidation/reorganization, some higher-up got on a video call (this happened during COVID) to announce that they were instigating major layoffs, then immediately signed off and declined to comment because he was too cowardly to face the repercussions of what the company was doing.

Man, what a douchebag!

Anyway, my friend was fortunate enough not to be affected by said layoffs, but when the smoke cleared he found that his department was badly understaffed and everyone was overworked.  As a result, he started working a lot of (thankfully paid) overtime and having an overall rough time at work.  My friend had also been promised a raise several months previous, but Continue reading »

How is a Career Different Than a Job?

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I talk about Jobs a lot on this blog—as in, Day Jobs vs. Real Jobs, a Day Job as separate from a job you’re passionate about, a job as a way to establish your credibility, and so on.

What I don’t talk as much about, though, is the idea of a Career, which is something I’ve been overlooking both in my own life and in my philosophy about work in general.

I imagine a Career as a way of defining all the work you’ve done in a way you can be proud of.  A Career is something you’d openly tell others about when introducing yourself at a cocktail party, or something you’d write below your name on a business card.  A career is a way of defining yourself, and it establishes a kind of identity for you as a working person. Continue reading »

I Checked My Email in the Morning and It Threw Off My Whole Day

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Yep, that’s what happened.

I’ve gone through a variety of email checking routines over the past few years, ever since I first realized in 2017 that I was checking email too frequently and it was causing me to get distracted during the day.  Even worse was that for me, email (also: texting, social media, Google News feed, etc.) was causing me to feel dependent, so that during the day I’d reach for my phone when I was feeling bored or down hoping for a quick pick-me-up.

Long story short, that way of using my phone sucks, and I really don’t like it.

Recently I also I wrote about my new text-message-free morning routine, where I physically close my eyes when I shut off my phone alarm in the morning to avoid seeing text notifications that could throw off my entire day Continue reading »

Sick Days Are Super-Important, and Don’t You Forget It!

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The title of this post says it all.

Last weekend I came down with a cold—not a super terrible one, but one that had me coughing with a sore throat and made my body ache for a few days.  When I realized what was wrong, I put some unnecessary projects on hold and took it easy for a few hours.  Then, when it was clear that I really feeling well, I called in to work and took a few sick days to recover.

Since I already wrote an entire post about how the national Japanese health care system makes it super-easy to go to the doctor, instead I want to emphasize that because my job as a teacher on the JET program gives me as many sick days as I need, I felt really comfortable calling in and staying home. This is because: Continue reading »

Shoe Leather Hustling: An Interview with Writer Sean Doolittle

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Sean Doolittle is a crime, suspense, and horror novelist and the author of seven books: Dirt (UglyTown, 2001), Burn (UglyTown, Bantam Dell, 2003), Rain Dogs (Bantam Dell, 2005), The Cleanup (Bantam Dell, 2006), Safer (Bantam Dell, 2009), Lake Country (Bantam Dell, 2012), and most recently Kill Monster (Audible Originals, Severn House, 2019).  Originally from southeast Nebraska, his books have won the ITW Thriller Award, the Barry Award, and many others.  He’s also worked full-time throughout his writing career.

I first met Sean in 2014 when he taught a graduate-level fiction writing workshop at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he gave me some instrumental feedback on my first novel and wasn’t afraid to make pop-culture references in class.  We kept in touch, and earlier this year sat down over Zoom to talk about getting his work out there, his mid-career slump, and finding time to write when you have a day job. Continue reading »

March Novel Progress – Knee-Deep in the Excitement of Drafting

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I promised you all updates on my new novel a few weeks back, so here’s how it’s going…

I’m a decent way into drafting Act I, and a lot of the scenes are starting to come together in a way that feels really natural.  It’s like the more I work on the novel, the more I’m able to mentally fill in information about the characters, their backstories, and the plot, so that areas that once felt like a confusing void feel clearer.  Now, when I’m at my Day Job, in the shower, or working on something else, I feel ready and excited to sit down and write.

Simply put, the more I work on this novel, the easier the process becomes, and the more I want to work on it. Continue reading »

Check Out the Winter 2021 TRAM Issue I Worked On!

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As many of you know, here in Toyama, Japan I co-edit a cool indie zine called the TRAM—a.k.a. Toyama’s Random-Ass Magazine.  It’s a cool project that features writing and art from around the Toyama JET community and beyond, and we just released a new issue last Friday that you check out for free here.

(Fortunately because we put it out on March 19th, it’s still technically the Winter issue ;-)

This latest issue features a TON of cool art, a beginner’s guide to Japanese sake (which I found incredibly informative!), real-life misadventures from the Japanese dating scene, some Michelin-star restaurant recommendations from around Japan, and original prose and poetry.  Two pieces I was particularly proud to feature from outside the Toyama JET community were a photo set inspired by the movie Amelie by Japanese photographer Maplens and model Amy Davis, and an article about Naomi Osaka and mixed-race Japanese athletes we reprinted through a collaboration with AJET Connect magazine, which covers all of Japan.  Both required some networking on my part, and served as a cool way of flexing my editor muscles ;-) Continue reading »

There’s No Magical Line Between Famous People and Regular People

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When I was a kid I thought famous people lived in a different world than regular people.  I figured that after Arnold Schwarzenegger made the first Terminator movie they issued him a special “I’m a Famous Person!” card that let him eat at special restaurants and fly out of private airports so he wouldn’t be mobbed by crazed fans on a daily basis.

I thought that fame, and the card that went along with it, made famous people like Arnold Schwarzenegger different than regular people—like he’d crossed a magical dividing line.

While elementary-school Ian was correct in that class stratification ensures that famous people (plus anyone with money) can live entirely different lives than the rest of us, the line between being Famous and being Not Famous isn’t that cut and dry.  (For starters, I’m pretty sure there’s no “I’m a Famous Person!” card…) Continue reading »