Author Archives: Adam

The Supernova.

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Today I wrote a short story. I want to write to the outline for a book I have, but today I didn’t have time. Also, to the surprise of nobody who knows me, I procrastinated. I might have had enough time to make some progress, but it got lost to me fighting against writing. The best part, as all procrastinators know, is that I was mad at myself for fighting it even as I fought it. There’s a theme in there somewhere that I can hopefully pull up for some .

Anyhow, the story was written after reading a prompt from StoryADay.org. I have tons of writing prompts available to me, partially from being subscribed to this sites mailing lists for a little over a year now. This particular prompt can be found here. The character started out as a young girl, but I think that’s due to the book I should be working on because I got the feeling she was actually a young adult as I went through. If I were to add this work to a book or submit it to a publication I would re-work the introduction at the beginning a little to better reflect that. As it is I got rid of the very beginning, but could use it as a blurb if this were ever made a larger story. (That’s why it’s still kind of there.)

If you have any thoughts about the story, of any kind, please leave them below. I consider short fiction like this to be practice, so any feedback is actually welcome. I’ll interact with you and everything! You can even send it privately to me if you’d like. If you don’t have my email address just ask for it below.

The Prompt

On the day they saw the blue star swell to gigantic proportions, everyone went blind but Hardy. He was already blind, had been from birth,but he had lifted his head to the heavens because he felt a peculiar warmth.

Moments later the others were still blind, but he could see. All the colors of the spectrum. Even viewed by moonlight, the brightness of it all frightened and puzzled him.

The Supernova

Have you ever wanted to see a total solar eclipse? How about the Northern Lights? This was supposed to be better than both of those put together. I’ve seen both and I was more excited than most. You see, my dad discovered it. Yep, I’m that Andrea.

Hi. Andrea L. Pinkerton at your service. My friends call me Pinky and my family calls me Andi. That way I know who’s calling for me. You called me Andrea, so I’m guessing we haven’t met before. That happens a lot now. I guess it comes with being some kind of famous. That is why you called, right? You want to hear about how he found it?

Oh. Nobody’s ever asked me that before. They always want to know how he found it, what we were doing when he found it, did he dance and sing, what did we all do when we heard, things like that. Nobody asks what he was looking for, or why.

Of course he wasn’t looking for it, but then aren’t most big discoveries like that? He would tell you he was looking for patterns. That’s what he always said. “Astronomy isn’t about looking at the stars anymore, these days it’s about finding patterns in the data and looking at the data around the patterns.” I can’t count how many times I heard him say that. I think he was trying to steer me to a different life, one with more adventure and excitement. Kind of makes you laugh really. He was trying to steer me from a boring life one day and makes the most exciting announcement ever the next.

Oh, sorry. He was part of a team trying to figure out how to predict supernovas. More specifically, to find stars with planets in the habitable zone that could currently support life, but in which the stars were close to the end of their life. The idea was we didn’t want to try for those systems because by the time we got there the planets could be dead already. Is that what you were looking for?

No. The secondary objective was not a thing. That was all made up after the fact to fit what really happened. It’s amazing what people say when it can’t be verified one way or the other. I guess it’s a good story though.It makes it seem as if there was some bigger plan. I’ve read that we tend to make up patterns in random data even if none are there. Like seeing Jesus in toast you know? My bet is that’s where the secondary objective came from.

Do I think it’s true? No. In fact I fully believe it isn’t. The data looks the same for every single one. How could it possibly be true? There would have to be some kind of variance from one to the next, we see that with sets of data here. If it was true then we become the exception, which is about the only thing less likely than it being true.

Ok, I’ll give you that we technically aren’t an exception because our sun has a long life left. The thing is, there have been instances of the same data in some systems that we know could not have sustained life as we know it, systems with nothing in the habitable zone.

Now you want to know about the close one? I’m not sure what I can tell you that hasn’t been said before. It was still the same objective, find systems with habitable planets which won’t be habitable for long. As you know one was found that was close, very close in interstellar terms. We’ve watched them before. This one though, it was different. Because of the distance and the star’s composition it would visible to the naked eye when it happened. Well, I guess it happened years ago. When we got confirmation I guess.

No there wasn’t anything strange about the star’s composition. Did you do your own research before contacting me?

Sorry. I agree there’s a need to be thorough. It was supposed to be a beautiful show. It was too, I mean what we saw anyhow.

Right before it? I didn’t see anything else. My dad discovered it. We were guests of the President watching from Hawaii. Honestly looking back the media circus was almost more impressive, topped only by the confusion after.

Have I heard about what some people found in the data? Yes. He never looked. He blames himself for the world going black. I’m pretty sure if we could see him he’d look horrible. He sounds and feels pretty bad.

What if it’s true? I’ll tell you what I think, besides that it’s not true. If it is true than there is a race of beings out there traveling from one habitable system to the next, and some that aren’t, blowing up stars. That’s what I think. If it wasn’t the same race every time the signatures people are “seeing” would vary as all biological processes do. If it is the same race for all of them then we’re likely next. If that’s the case I’m glad we can’t see anything anymore.

Here we are, surrounded by snow.

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I did mean to post this update earlier this week, but stuff happens right? In our case what happens is the first year we skip flu vaccinations Gideon gets the Flu. Yes, diagnosed and verified by testing. So that made for a great end to the week for him. Add in the snow and we’ve all been more or less stuck inside not doing much for a couple of days. I did do the driveway twice and Heather went outside to play with each of the kids separately. Gideon wanted to get out so bad that we let him, he seems to be mostly recovered anyhow. He actually lasted longer than Cecilia did earlier in the day.

So, updates for me. After a vacation I finally am getting back into the freelancing classes. The available resources are impressive for the fee. ($25 a month) Anyone else interested in freelance writing would be well-served to sign up when they can. Let me know and I’ll get you some info.

I have finished an outline of a book that I didn’t expect to write. I’ll start the rough draft next week. Maybe when this one is out I’ll be able to start that fantasy epic, but I have a feeling this book will spawn a couple more before the characters let me take a break. That’s OK though, I should write the stories that are bursting to get out versus the ones I need to force out because I like them. I’ll start looking for beta readers as I’m cleaning up draft 1. The book is geared to the 4th grade crowd, give or take. It’s a general fictional story set in more or less today’s real world. If you’re interested let me know. My plan is to be done with the draft by the end of this month.

The job-hunt is hanging steady at 1-2 leads a week. That said, this last weeks leads felt a little stronger than most. Nothing really worth reporting yet, but perhaps at the coming weeks update there will be.

No, last weeks post wasn’t missed.

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It might seem as if last week was missed, but it wasn’t. We were on vacation and as these updates have been basically real-time I didn’t want to announce it to some of the random people that we don’t know.

As it was vacation I didn’t really work on anything for the job search. I did talk to a recruiter early in the week, but the position wasn’t going to be a fit.

I took the week off from the freelance writing idea as well. I am partway through a class on getting the right kinds of freelance clients and should complete it in the next two weeks. I plan to concentrate on niches related to the jobs I am trying to find so any work I do can be referenced in interviews, and possibly added to the resume. Along those lines my other blog, OurAgileJourney.com, should be seeing more updates and be the birthplace of a nonfiction book this summer depending on timing of everything.

I did get some work on the story done. Not much, but a couple of things took hold and my parents place has a nice little breakfast nook spot that felt good for writing. This week I plan to continue the rough outline. I hope to start an actual draft, or at least an expanded outline, next week. We’ll see if I feel ready to write or if I need to refine the story at that time.

Spring, Winter, Summer, Whatever.

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Yes, I did a title about the weather, but the post isn’t about the weather.

Another week another couple of positions put in for. No bites yet but there’s always a chance.

I’ve been researching the proper way to break into freelance writing and hope to get some actual traction there in the next couple weeks.

The last week was a little slow for story writing. I started my first pass at an outline. I’ve done a lot of research on process for writing stories and think I’m going the right direction. The outline in this case is done as more of a tentative guide than an actual outline. Moving from it to the actual story it isn’t followed the way an outline for a research paper leads to the final product. That said I think I know roughly what the first couple chapters will include.

That’s all for now. Yesterday was extremely long and the hosting server for the site was down earlier when I tried posting. Next week will have more I’m sure.

Missed Update

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Oops. In my defense, I did a post at OurAgileJourney.com on Thursday with the intention of this going up yesterday, but then the day didn’t go as nicely as planned.

The quick and dirty, It was a slow week for novel-writing. I did submit to my average 2 positions per week, so the job search is still slow but finding spots occasionally. I also started some research for freelance writing.

In reverse order, I am officially looking for freelance writing work. If you or anyone you know has opportunities I am going to give good discounts for the first few clients to help me establish a broader portfolio. My current work can be seen at OurAgileJourney.com as well as here. I am open to writing for any industry, but would be really interested in anything technology related. I will write website copy, white papers, blog posts, case studies, about pages, newsletter articles, magazine articles, and other items as requested. Whether there is a one-time need or a possibility for an ongoing relationship please reach out to me and we can work out details.

There’s not much to be more specific on for the job search. If I get into some second round interviews I’ll be sure to share that. Part of my job search plan for next week is to make progress on a book related to my job. That currently sits at 11 pages and has a long ways to go. That said, I bet I could make a lot of progress in a half day. Having a published book on the topic, which is niche enough I may even get some sales, will definitely help me stand out. When I have the whole thing at least roughed in, if not rough drafted, I’ll start working on a marketing plan for it.

For fiction writing I did a little more world building for the novella series that is simmering, just getting ready to be written. I also picked up some books from the library that have a similar target audience. The idea here is that I don’t want to write these stories the same way I write either of my blogs. I need to make sure my voice is focused on the right audience and my story has the right pacing for them. I plan to read through these books to help me know when I’m done with world-building and ready to hash out the basic story outlines. It’ll also help me know how to pace and structure the stories that do come out in outlining.

Now, off to finish getting ready for a little boy’s birthday party.

Finally, starting to feel better.

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I am not 100% yet. I’m still using cough drops at a decent pace, but I can speak without it hurting, most of the time. I also am getting tired out a little faster than I should be. Such is life, I’m sure it’ll be all better soon enough.

Scrum Master jobs aren’t exactly plentiful out here right now. Personally, I’m thinking the local economy might be slowing a little. My father-in-law has been seeking employment for longer than I want to think of and the plethora of jobs that I was applying to last summer just aren’t there anymore. I am putting in for the ones I find though, and have gotten through the initial phone screen a couple of times even. Unfortunately it hasn’t gone past that yet.

As for writing. I received an “experience” for my birthday to help me figure out how to move this forward. Basically, a team of writers opened up their process for coming up with an idea and writing a novel to people who were interested enough to purchase it. Originally it was a KickStarter project but now the archives are available for sale on their site. They put themselves on a very tight time limit, 1 month. They then recorded all of their story meetings, published all of their drafts and edits as they went, talked about the process as it unfolded, and basically just let everyone see how the “sausage” was made. I feel like I’m not a bad writer, so for me it was all about seeing the process they use. As I finish that journey I am going to take what I can learn from it and try finding my own process. In fact, I’ve already started.

I’m working on writing short fiction, up to the 100-word stories now, to help hone my writing. I’m learning what schedule best balances writing and job-searching for me. I’m building a world to write in, and it’s not the world I originally though. Finally, I’m also poking into what it would take to do freelance writing for income until I build enough fiction to make money. Does all this mean I’m hanging up the IT hat? No. I’m still looking hard for that job as a Scrum Master, Software Project Manager, or Software Development Manager. There just aren’t a lot of them now and I’m not ready to write code for another 5 years. (Good thing too since DRC was 90% VB.Net and most places are C# or Java.)

I had originally hoped that by now, assuming I hadn’t been hired, I would be working on a novella and have some actual short stories published to this blog. Being sick for the last month has really slowed that wagon down though. Instead of letting that get to me I am moving forward. By the end of this month I anticipate having short stories on this blog and making good progress on a novella/novel. There is one wrench I’m seeing right now though. Due to the competitive market for the jobs I’m hoping for I am going to split some of my fiction writing time off and work to complete the Agile basics book I had envisioned two years ago. That isn’t just talk either. I have 3,500 words (11 pages) down already. Granted this is largely the copy from previous blog posts, but it’s in the right place to become a book.

With that I’ll leave you the last few short fiction stories I’ve done in case you don’t see them on Facebook.

55 word:

3/1/2016
“It all fit!”
That was an exaggeration really. The drive would not be comfortable. “More like it barely fits.”
“So this is it. The big dream coming true.”
“Maybe. I still have a long way to go.”
“You’ll make it though. You always do.”
After a hug I got in the car and drove off.

BEEP BEEP BEEP!
Not again. It’s getting hard to function with these constant interruptions.
BEEP BEEP BEEP!
Three days? A week? I don’t even know anymore.
BEEP BEEP BEEP!
How did this happen anyhow? Why do I deserve this?
<Silence>
“Mr Cooper. The test is over. At the agreed $50 per hour you get $150.”

100 word:

3/7/2016

Sara was crying when she called. “Bridget? Are you busy?”
Of course I’m in the middle of an experiment, but I always have time to help a friend in need. “No, what’s up?”
“My grandma died last night. That’s why I wasn’t in school today.”
“The silly Grandma?”
“No. Grandma Hamilton. I, I didn’t know her as well.”
“Do you know what happened?”
“Dad said she was old and it was her time. We’re leaving tomorrow to see the rest of the family.”
“You can call me anytime you need to.”
“Thanks Bridget, I knew I could count on you.”

3/9/2016

Bridget burst into her shed clutching the package tight. She carefully cleared a space on the workbench before putting it down. She had been waiting for this since last time Grandpa took her to the science museum.
She opened the toolbox and got out the box cutter. She worked her way around the package, careful not to push the blade into the box. When she had all the tape cut she first put away the knife, then slowly opened the package.
There it was, her own soldering iron. This would bring her experiments to a whole new level, adding electricity.

Continued accountability.

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I am going to do my best to post here weekly as a way to force myself to make progress on both the job search and writing. For this week I am sick again. I believe this means I have been sick more than healthy since losing my job. Yay.

I am doing OK with 55 word stories. When I actually decide to write some they come out. Nobody has left feedback, but that’s fine. I have struggled with twitter stories. 140 characters is tough. My goal is novellas and novels, so I think I’m ok with that though. I bet many published authors would struggle with twitter stories.

I was planning to start 100 word stories this week, but I was also expecting to be healthy enough to write every day. I honestly barely got through a video yesterday during the day. It hasn’t been fun. I think the 100 word stories I will post to the blog, so twitter followers will see them.

I continue pursuing Scrum Master and Software Development Manager/Project Manager positions. Nothing new to report there though. When I get through the videos I think I’ll split my writing between a non-fiction Scrum book I have planned and fiction. I feel having a Scrum book published would be a big boost for the job search, especially if I can do it well.

That’s all for now. I need to go see if this is strep or just a random virus. Especially since this is round 2.

2 weeks in.

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Adam here again. When I left you a couple of weeks ago I was standing at a desk in our loft having recently been laid off. I was working a job search with a more strategic plan than before and splitting time to try out writing as well.

Shortly after that I had to take the desk down to sitting again. I found that while I can write and even read standing, I cannot do video’s very well at all. I have some video classes I am working through related to writing and it just wasn’t working. I think it was Wednesday I brought it to sitting, timing how long it took. (About 10 minutes from full standing to sitting with everything put away.)

It turned out to be very good that I set it to sitting as Thursday I came down with some sort of bug. I was basically out of it until this Thursday. I tried to get back into some semblance of order Tuesday, but it really just exhausted me mentally and emotionally with Wednesday really not being a good day. Even still today (Friday) I am coughing, have a sore throat, and am not fully recovered.

I am moving forward though. One of the writers I have looked to for some ideas on moving that part forward talks about doing really short writing to help hone skills. The idea is that short stories need to have a beginning, middle, and end just as novels do. To help get better at telling a full story in a short time she challenges people to try writing extremely short stories. I have started with twitter stories. These are tough, 140 characters is barely 3 sentences.

She also mentions doing Micro and Flash Fiction. 55 word stories and 100 word stories. I’ve started on the 55 word stories and am looking at doing twitter and 55 word stories for a few days before adding 100 word stories. Interestingly she suggests the 100 word stories are harder than the 55 word ones. Apparently the little extra freedom to flesh out a story is also enough to create a tension in keeping it short enough.

55 words each is to short for me to make posts here of those stories. I will post them to Facebook though. If you’ve read this far then please feel free to help out by providing feedback on stories I post to Facebook. Ultimately over the next few weeks I hope to build skill doing various random short fiction while going through some classes before I start my larger world-building.

The vision is that world-building will result in linked short stories, novellas, and actual novels. Most of that writing will stay behind closed doors as the collection builds. I don’t want to start releasing there until there are a decent number of short stories and at least three finished novella’s. I am getting ahead of myself though, it’ll probably be no earlier than April for any of that, and that’s assuming things don’t change around here.

Today I’ll close out with letting you know there are three new 55 word stories being posted to Facebook and I might get some Twitter ones done too.

TWB 73 – Wake up fast.

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Monday I had to sneak into Cecila’s room and kiss her goodbye before I left. Apparently I “always wake her up” so when she didn’t see me leave Friday it was a problem. The kids got to go outside for recess at school. Well, Gideon did. Cecilia didn’t have recess today. The whole half day K thing means she only gets it a few times a week. Last week they were stuck inside a few times and Gideon’s teacher said it was noticeable. I got home in time for the kids to start some free choice time, which meant they were both on their tablets. After dinner and some one on one time Gideon picked Ruff Ruff Tweet and Dave for a show.
I read Cecilia a story about the most fabulous doll in the world, or something along those lines. Gideon wanted to hear about Horton and his egg hatching abilities.

Tuesday Heather had her mom meeting in the evening. I got home in time to see Cecilia and Heather playing with Cecilia’s engineering set and Gideon get mad when his timer on the tablet ran out. We were finally able to calm everyone down for dinner and after nighttime routine was done we watched Mutt and Stuff or whatever that weird guy with the dogs show is. Well, the kids watched it. I didn’t. Gideon had brought Harold and the Purple Crayon home from the school library and Cecilia picked Gideon’s How To Train A Dragon 2 book. I suspect Gideon helped her out some.

Wednesday Heather and I had small group after dinner. Turns out we don’t need to leave as early as we did. Even trying to stretch it out the drive is barely 5 minutes. Heather’s parents came up to watch the kids while we were gone and everything seemed to go just fine. They were playing board games when we left but I’m sure they watched a show and had stories. They managed to both be asleep by the time we got there, but Cecilia was probably just barely asleep at that time.

Thursday was a fairly normal day, until there was an announcement over the loudspeaker during parent pick-up time of trick-or-treating at the High School that night. Suddenly the kids had a new activity they wanted to do. It resulted in the kids taking showers and eating with some haste so we could go to the High School for the trick or treating event. It took the place of a show and the kids enjoyed it. The High Schoolers seemed to enjoy putting it on as well. They both got two stories. I’m not sure what the stories were though.

Friday I forgot to bring my potluck contribution to work, and I got out of the house a little late. I got out of work late and there were three accidents on the route home. I also had to stop at Costco. It was a long day for me, but the kids had a fun day with Halloween parties at school and everything. We watched a little America’s Got Talent, the first results show, and then Amazing Race. Gideon had me read him Olivia goes to Venice while Cecilia had both of us read her Fancy Nancy and the Fabulous Fashion Boutique. I think Heather read Gideon Harold and the Purple Crayon.

Saturday started with some food prep. We had swimming lessons in the morning and took the kids to Home Depot’s Halloween event after. It was a tight schedule. Instead of church we did Trick or Treating, and Heather got to take the kids for essentially the first time. In this neighborhood a lot of people left their candy on the front step while taking their kids around. For us – I stayed home while they took the kids. When they got back Gideon and Cecilia spent some time handing out glow-sticks. Gideon also came in and asked me how to spell “just.” turns out he was making a sign for our bucket. They both played in the front yard handing out glow-sticks and throwing around the ones I accidentally activated trying to put the little bracelet connectors on them. Eventually we told them they had to either come in and start a show or keep playing and not get a show. We really didn’t mind either choice, but it was theirs to make. Gideon played a little longer but they both ended up watching the show. Cecilia picked Mutt and Stuff. No stories as it was quite late.

Sunday we went to church in the morning. It was a little rough getting out, even after the time change. This difficulty is part of why we generally do Saturday night. After church was a park, back for a meeting, and then the library. We finally got library cards at the local library. The kids stayed in the car for the next stop, a grocery store. No, not alone. I was with them. We got home and they wanted to play outside for a bit. As we were looking at likely the last 70’s Sunday for a while we let them. Dinner was not a bad experience and the kids started their show a little early. Gideon picked something. For stories Cecilia had me read her the Fancy Nancy she got from the local library while Heather read her the Strawberry Shortcake from the same. Gideon had me read him the Lego City book from there, but that was after a time of being very sad about the sponsor child he’s had moving out of the sponsorship program (Compassion International) due to a positive life change. It’s hard to explain that this is a good thing to an emotional 6 & 1/2 year old.

Real-time update.

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As many of the people who actually read this blog know I have recently been laid off. Something you may not know is that I did horrible at updates to the TWB posts during January and so far in February. I made posts for around 4 of them, but they are all blank. I will try to fill in some I think, but I won’t hold myself to too much. In the end I may just skip a bunch of them.

Home Standing Desk

All standing, all the time.

One of the things I did at my job was install a self-made stand-up desk. It was an arrangement that lent itself easily to sitting or standing with a quick change between the two available. I brought the materials home and have set it up here now. Unfortunately the easy to convert option was unavailable here. Changing it back and forth is not hard, but it’s a good 5 minute job as opposed to 30 seconds. 5 minutes might not sound like a lot, but in this case it is. Just as 1 minute is nothing, unless you’re planking with proper form for the first time.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sitting can be bad for a person, especially over time. Thing is, I’m getting tired of standing. The monitor on the left is tall enough that it creates a tenancy to tilt my head up a little resulting in a sore neck. Of course, that monitor needs replacement anyhow, but I digress. The mat I’m standing on is actually two anti-fatigue kitchen mats and an entryway carpet strip. I generally stand there barefoot, shifting and pacing away. At the end of the day, I need to stand the same way for any gaming or video watching I do as well. I figure in another week or two I’ll make it over “the hump” and not be bothered by the standing, but for now it’s getting old. (I’ve made the transition before, but always where I could take sitting breaks easily every few hours.)

Anyhow, back to the job loss. I am currently back in the search. I’m primarily looking for Scrum Master or Agile/IT/IS Project Manager positions. I’m also interested in managing/leading a software development or other IS/IT team. I am approaching the job hunt a little differently this time. I am leaning heavily on “Manage Your Job Search” by Johanna Rothman for the technical/procedural aspects. I’ll post a review of it over at OurAgileJourney.com later. From a more abstract standpoint I’m trying to approach it a little less fervently than I did before. The pace I attempted to maintain last summer was ultimately unsustainable and causing me much more stress than I should have allowed it to.

To help force this new approach I am also splitting my time with trying to ramp up my writing. I have a few classes/books I have been slowly looking at that I know have time to kick into high gear. I am going to approach it as a part-time job versus as a hobby during the search, with the search itself being my other part-time job. For now the fruits of this will be seen here, Facebook, and Twitter.

That’s all for now. I should be loading the kids up to go to the park and I still need a shower. On the bright side, Cecilia isn’t ready and looks like she wants to ruin the park trip altogether.