The Mind of Bryan Lee Peterson

So this blog was hacked for a couple days. Don’t hackers have better things to do than mess with a personal blog? Sorry about that. I know wordpress isn’t the most secure platform, but what is?

Anyway, there’s new scenes up for Inside and The Hidden and I’ll be working on getting more out quickly on these.I won’t post those updates here, but I’ll post links to them.

I’m getting out some short stories as well, but I’m more interested in submitting these to magazines at the moment. We’ll see if that changes. Currently, there’s one called “A Crash in the Night” and one called “It Comes in Waves.”

We also have a lot of news at The End of the World Times. Two new writers, Brett Rabolt and Ed Collins. We’re all gearing up for a lot more writing to happen at that site, and I’m going to design some merch to see if we can build up more money behind it. My current strategy is to start working up some advertising for podcasts and other blog. I am looking for a zombie author.

Speaking of podcasts, there’s some indication The Compulsive Writer’s Support Group will be making a return. I will keep you posted.

Most important though, is I need a little funding for a project. This is my main project right now, and one that will pay for my life and free me to pursue my creative goals. A few dollars is all I’m asking to help us out. We’re shooting for only $2000 to help us get going. Here is our project on indiegogo.

Lastly, May is where I’m going to start gearing up to find an agent and sell some of these books. I’ll give reports on the status of this as I go, and I’m definitely open to suggestions.

New year, new decade, a lot of new happening. I built some foundations in the past year and a half, and my direction hasn’t changed, but my pace is accelerating. Let me get you caught up, since I’ve been away for a bit.

My day job is retail, and so December is, well, December, you basically don’t have a life. I’ll either be making a move laterally or up soon, that would justify it more, or I’ll be moving on soon because my books will sell and I’ll be able to retire a wealthy author before my next birthday, right?

The big news is during November through early January, I managed to finish the first draft of a screenplay called “Walter”. It’s not something I can put up here yet, by any means, but it is done and in the hands of my co-writer.

I’m mostly settled into the Haunted Schoolhouse, and finally have a workshop that I can retreat to and create in. It’s started to turn a little money and a few more sales I’ll be out of the red from the materials investment. Several friends are beginning to come over, which should increase the rate of production, expansion and create an actual shop. I’ve been working on steampunk and industrial styled things in wood, resin, leather and other materials, and I’ll be getting into some jewelry, fabric, metal and sculpture soon. You can see what I make at http://hauntedschoolhouse.etsy.com. Not much up there yet, but I’ll be in larger production soon.

With the screenplay out of the way, it is back to working on other writing projects. I’m going to be giving “The Hidden: Urban Decay” a slow polish while catching up on End of the World Times and continuing “Inside.” It more than killed me to put those down briefly, but I don’t see any reason why I’d stall out on those now. I think this is the year, and possibly even the quarter that I begin to find an agent. That’s also a huge step to take and I have to get all of my little projects in line before I start. I’m going to be putting Inside up at Tumbler, so that I can get some good photos to accompany it, get a little more instant exposure, and spread a bit more on the web. It is also my goal to get something up just about every day as soon as I get caught up. There will likely be days where I get several blog posts up, and few where there are none. It’s going to get fast a fun here in a little bit.

I’ve also begun early work on some recording material, but I wouldn’t expect much out of that until the summer. I write music slowly, far slower than prose, so I won’t be able to overclock myself on music like I can with other mediums anytime soon.

The bottom line is, I’m in a very good and creative headspace on many fronts, and almost feeling….happy. There’s a definite truth to my life that I’m only happy when I’m creating, and the act of creation on the level I’m used to has been prevented for some time. I’m nearing that level of creative work again, so I’m beginning to feel the energy of flow again, and that’s a very powerful force. Without the creative momentum I’ve got going, I get miserable, and I’ve been miserable in just this way for a few years now.

I’ll be picking up on podcasting again slowly, still have a big issue with finding quiet time to record that I can’t control. I’ll be trying to pick up on writing again about my general musings on the creative spirit and on writing as well. Those will be posted here and on The Compulsive Writer’s Support Group. I’m also considering opening up a couple of projects to some partnerships. I’ve been burned on collaborations of this sort before, so I’m a bit leery, but I have one project in mind to get out there in this manner and the person in mind. I hope he is up for it.

For those of you in the area, I’m looking to put together a creative’s night on a regular basis. I may meet at the Panera across the highway from my house, which is a little north of Barrington IL. I’ll post details here and create a meetup group for it when I get it moving, likely in February after Capricon.

That’s it for now. Keep writing, keep dreaming.

Was going to do an entry which went very dark, and I probably will get some of that one up but I’m going to just give you a quick update on the current projects and goals.

I have the Walter script back in my hands. My goal is to finish it by the end of the year, though that is pretty ambitious, considering. I put all of the scenes into a timeline program to have an easier time envisioning it, and an easier way to move scenes around for consideration. We’ve got in idea on a major structural change, and I am going back and forth on the changes. The idea itself in terms of setting the atmosphere of the story is very good and effective, certainly better for telling the story, but structurally it isn’t necessarily better. There’s some visual themes that don’t get properly established if I change the structure. I could possibly add the scenes and make it more effective, but it is adding scenes, and I think my narrative is pretty tight. The writing will convince me of one over the other, I’m sure.

I’ll also be catching up on endoftheworldtimes.com. I really like the story I have envisioned there, and really like the project.

On The Hidden: Urban Decay, I’ve made a decision to get back to the podcast in a catch as can fashion, but upload the books to the blogs on a schedule. The book is at least done. Kirin’s inability to get out to church on Sunday means I have no time to record, and so I just need to move forward as best I can. I’m going to load the book in its entirety up here, and schedule the releases to be automatic on a weekly basis. Hope you enjoy reading it.

That means “Inside” is postponed until after Walter, and there’s a couple projects hinting at making progress in the mean time. I’ll be setting up a mini-site for it in January.

I have been able to get the wood shop going, and I’ll be able to show you some handiwork soon. I also have set up an etsy shop, and will have a couple others in short order, so I’ll be able to make a little extra money, I hope.

So that’s the update. I’ll go dark later, but I’m very focused on accomplishing these goals. God help anyone who gets in my way.

Photos of the Haunted Schoolhouse when we get the inside picked up a bit and some artwork hung.

So we had our first art/workshop day, and we’re thankful to those who came out. With it being a con weekend, we weren’t expecting a huge crowd, which is good. We kind of needed to ease into things. I have a plan of attack on this, and I think we’ll be able to get some useful artistic gadgets done in a week or two. My first proof of concept idea is going to be doing some iPod covers. These are small enough to do in a short time, and I’ll have some pictures up here soon.

I keep meaning to get some pictures of this house up, for those of you that aren’t around the area to see the haunted schoolhouse, but it was being painted, and I haven’t been able to get out during the day yet. There’s a little bit of me remembering to do it when it isn’t dark out, too.

Writing is beginning to crawl back into my life, slowly but surely. I have a couple of updates at End of the World Times, and a lot of writing and work for Gearsecure going on.

I’m mostly picking up “Walter”, hoping to get it done by the end of the year right now as far as a large, fairly independent project. I’ll do a few scenes of Inside here and there, and update a few more up here. I’m also planning on setting up a mini-site for Inside which will be at mindofbryan.com/inside.

I’ve found a new tool for writing, Aeon Timeline, and I’m going to put all of my Inside timeline and plot chart in it, which will set me back a few, but will also make writing much faster in the long run. It looks like a program I’ve been wanting for ages. This makes me think maybe I should do an essay about the tools I’ve used and how I’ve used them and what I think of them. That might be good for writers. It’s about the most mechanical thing of writing, but if you have a better understanding of your tools, you can certainly make your writing more solid.

As far as podcasts are concerned, I’ll be getting back to them as soon as Kirin starts getting back to the Unitarian Sunday church. That seems to be the only time I have where the house is quiet and I can record and edit. I am thinking this will be in the next couple of weeks.