Life update

Posted byBennett NorthPosted inLife UpdatesTags:

My buddy Aimee Ogden received the Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award at the International Space Development Conference yesterday in San Juan, Puerto Rico for her amazing short story “Dear Ammi.” Aimee has been letting me read her still unpublished stuff in the guise of critiquing it, as if it even needs it, and let me tell you, this lady is talented. She’s going to be famous soon, mark my words. I can’t imagine a world in which she isn’t. Go and check her out.

Screen Shot 2016-05-20 at 8.23.23 PM
I’d post a picture of me and Aimee, but the only one I have is of us stuffing our faces with crawdads, so instead have this unflattering photo of me in a third person camera rig.

As for me, I’ve been doing my day job (which currently involves many, many hours of building a FileMaker database, and occasionally fixing printers) and getting some writing in. Aimee’s been churning out short stories like a short-story-writing machine, so it’s been guilting me into being more productive. I have a few things I’m exciting about. Oddly enough, this title generator has been the most helpful thing for my productivity. If you’re having any trouble coming up with ideas, just generate a few random titles and then try to think of what sort of story would fit that title. It’s remarkably effective.

IMG_3504.JPG
The cat, meanwhile, has been sapping that productivity away.

I’ve started exercising again, and to keep myself motivated, I’ve been trying to catch up on all those classic movies and tv shows that I’ve never seen. So far I’ve seen The Princess Bride, Grease, and Pulp Fiction. Soon to come are Jaws and Alien. I know just about everything that happens in those movies, since they’re so much a part of popular culture, but I never got around to actually watching them, so now is the time. What else should I watch? Labyrinth? The Godfather? Casablanca?

Screen Shot 2016-05-20 at 8.23.04 PM
Also I’ve been baking.

Oh, and I’ve been making music. Or rather, I’ve been playing around with Garageband, which used to be an obsession of mine about ten or eleven years ago. I like playing around with the free loops the app provides and making songs out of them. I set up a Soundcloud account with the songs I made, all under a creative commons license. So use them, if you like! Or at least listen to them. Or not. Whatever.

What else? I’ve been reading the Welcome to Night Vale novel. I’m a fan of the podcast and I bought the book a while ago, but only recently started reading it. At first it seemed a tad…hmm, I dunno, weird for the sake of being weird? But it’s growing on me. And if you enjoy that, check out the Alice Isn’t Dead podcast. It’s a very good story and I’ve had a crush on the narrator, Jasika Nicole, since she was Astrid Farnsworth on Fringe. Oh my gosh her voice is amazing.

aimeeme.jpg
Just kidding! Here’s that picture of me and Aimee eating crawdads. My hair was very red at the time.

So that has been the state of me. What about you? Have you been up to anything interesting recently?

9 thoughts on “Life update”

  1. Per the generator’s suggestion, my next fantasy novel might be titled (wait for it): ULTIMATE DRAPES.

    Alternative title: LONG JOHN SILVER, THE CELL DOCTOR

    I suspect hours of my life might get sucked into this website.

    Congrats to your friend on the award! That’s fantastic, and I hope she celebrated appropriately. :)

    Definitely watch The Godfather. *Pets them.*

    Watching stuff while you exercise is a smart idea. I’ll have to give that a go myself, see if I can keep up my motivation.

    Can’t wait to hear more about your new short stories!

    Nothing new here, except we’re about to pack up and move again. Not back to Providence, unfortunately (I miss it so much, you have no idea), but we’ll be in a fairly large and pretty downtown area that I’m looking forward to exploring. :)

    Like

    1. I can’t say I’ll end up using the titles they suggest, but the ideas they give me are great. That said, Long John Silver, The Cell Doctor sounds like a book I’d read.

      The trick I use to motivate myself to exercise is to only let myself watch Netflix if I’m on the treadmill. I should do that with YouTube too, but I don’t.

      Are you still in Texas, or are you changing states?

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Yeah, it’s coming up with some really neat things. Thanks for posting it!

        That’s smart, but holy crap how do you do it? We’ll see if I can muster your self-discipline. (I’m not holding my breath.)

        Still in Texas! We’ll be in bustling downtown San Antonio–so I can once again enjoy walking to almost everything I need, like in Providence. So excited. :D

        Like

      4. Did I ever tell you that the random title generator once gave me the title “The Hitler of the North”? No thank you please.

        Like

  2. I look REALLY pensive about the contents of that bucket. also: omg stahp, Ms. Published Story In F&SF. If anything, we will rule the world of SF&F side by side, as cruel (but fabulous) Imperatrices.

    And also, those doughnuts need to get in my face stat.

    Like

    1. Cruel but fabulous is my aesthetic.

      I think you were pensive because the bucket was empty and there were no more sea insects to crack open and eat.

      Like

Comments are closed.