The Catholic Geek: Valentine's Day with Ava Armstrong 02/14 by We Built That Network | Culture Podcasts: Host Declan Finn will be covering the joys of Valentine's Day with romance author Ava Armstrong...whether he likes it or not. We will also be covering her latest novel.
This blog tracks the epic of kick-starting a whole writing career, with spies and thrillers, now saints and vampires. I cover the creative process, stuff that blows up, history, philosophy, and theology. If you like any or all of the above, you'll like this one. We talk about comic books, movies, music, and writing. Usually, all at the same time. [Note: All Amazon links here are associate links. Which means nothing to you, but it means Declan Finn gets a few pennies for the sale. Thank you.]
Showing posts with label valentine's day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label valentine's day. Show all posts
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Month in review, February, 2012. Thank God it's over.
Another month shot to Hell.
So far, this is possibly the most stressful, and the worst month in my recent memory. It's also involved the most politics, so my bet is that there's a connection there.
My first blog of the month was the review of last month, but the first real article was on making a villain. It's simpler than one might think... and far more complicated.
There looked like there was going to be a problem with my writing .... and I'd like to thank Karina, among others, for their support .... but I managed to struggle through.
I started with a little filler -- a Catholic news roundup in the middle of the month, mainly because there was so much stupidity floating around. Remember what I said about too much politics? This was it.
I did an anatomy of a breakup, using one of my own collapsing friendships to illustrate the point. I thought it was appropriate for Valentine's day. First the initial incident, then the emotional fallout, and then wondering what to do about all the promises made and debts unfulfilled.
Then I went into hiding.
Thankfully, I still had even more articles to summarize, in The War On God.
Music blogs.
This was the month of Lindsey Stirling, really. She did a beautiful version of Lord of the Rings, and followed it up with one of her own works. It's quite lovely all around, really.
Self Defense
There were almost no Self Defense posts this month, but they talked me into it.
The How-To Columns of self defense.
There is a local law enforcement seminar, if anyone in New York is interested
And, there's something on how to punch someone.
That's it. Be well everyone. By next Monday, I hope to have some good news. Because in 11 hours and 55 minutes, I'm going to be sending another book off to a publisher. Here's hoping.
So far, this is possibly the most stressful, and the worst month in my recent memory. It's also involved the most politics, so my bet is that there's a connection there.
My first blog of the month was the review of last month, but the first real article was on making a villain. It's simpler than one might think... and far more complicated.
There looked like there was going to be a problem with my writing .... and I'd like to thank Karina, among others, for their support .... but I managed to struggle through.
I started with a little filler -- a Catholic news roundup in the middle of the month, mainly because there was so much stupidity floating around. Remember what I said about too much politics? This was it.
Then I went into hiding.
Thankfully, I still had even more articles to summarize, in The War On God.
Music blogs.
This was the month of Lindsey Stirling, really. She did a beautiful version of Lord of the Rings, and followed it up with one of her own works. It's quite lovely all around, really.
Self Defense
There were almost no Self Defense posts this month, but they talked me into it.
The How-To Columns of self defense.
There is a local law enforcement seminar, if anyone in New York is interested
And, there's something on how to punch someone.
That's it. Be well everyone. By next Monday, I hope to have some good news. Because in 11 hours and 55 minutes, I'm going to be sending another book off to a publisher. Here's hoping.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Anatomy of a Breakup, 2: Emotional Fall out, and (Bruce) Banner moments
Happy Valentine's day. If you are having a good Valentine's day, with a great date all planned (or already done, if you're smart and did it on the weekend), then you might want to read today's earlier article, and this one, so you can be happy you're not me. Trust me, if you want to appreciate what you have, it's good to know what happens when you lose it.
Now, the earlier article was all about an example of a relationship / friendship falling to pieces. In this cases, it fell apart over the course of months with one party not even being aware of it.
That ignorant buffoon I speak of is, of course, myself.
So, how should a character react to having a relationship suddenly and expectantly go south on him? Well, in A Pius Man, when relationships go south, guns are pulled out. Earlier, I mentioned CS Lewis' book On Grief, and my reaction was much the same as the traditional stages of grief ... well, partially.
Denial: I didn't cry, mainly because my body has forgotten how to cry in full-out sobbing format. There were tears, but not all that much. I was quite, quite numb. I don't know if it counts as denial, but I couldn't think very clearly. This woman was my best friend for years. She brought out every good instinct in me. My friends could see it, I could see it. I was a better person because she was in my life. She defined all of my best qualities, and made me want her good qualities. There had to be a mistake here. Just because she didn't "love" love me, didn't mean the friendship was over, did it? That didn't make sense. Could it? I had to be wrong. I had to have misread it. I had to have been illiterate. This was my best friend. I told her everything. And I mean everything. She would have told me to my face if she believed what I read -- at least on the phone.
Bargaining: My next thought was to make certain I understood everything involved, included that this was the end of the friendship as well. I asked her if I should cancel my ticket to California -- a plan we had been working on for 8 months now -- and she said yes. Not only was she not in love with me -- which I could live with -- but she didn't even want to hang out. She couldn't care about me as a friend. That nail gun sound is sealing the coffin on our friendship.
Anger: Oh, I have that part down. As I write this (the week of the 5th), I am quite a powder keg. I have had to de-friend people on Facebook whom I normally tolerate because I am ready to tear them a few new orifices. I am generally not a "nice" person, though I shoot for merely "good". This week, I want to hurt something. On the bright side, my cardio class and punching bag routines went over like a dream. Lift weights? No problem. Roll out the punching bags and beat them across the floor? Hell yes.
The strange thing is that I'm not angry at anyone in particular. Everything, yes, but no one person. I'm not even angry at the one who initiated this. Could I do things to hurt her, even though she's 3,000 miles away? Sure, that's easy. I could write to her father to tell him about the whole relationship from start to finish, and he's a bastard, and no mistake; there is Facebook, and the internet, and all the various and sundry ways you can hurt someone that way -- it's not rocket science, any internet troll can do that.
Would I do anything to hurt her, though? No. That has no interest for me, and it makes me physically ill to even contemplate doing it.
It's possible that I took my confusion to be anger -- it's possible, since I'm quite confused. This came out of nowhere, even though she said she'd been writing the letter for months. Her telling me to redeem my ticket implies that she was jerking me around about the California trip as recently as three weeks before the letter. So, was she lying to me the whole time? Did something happen since then?
There is a lot of adrenaline flowing in me. I have redhead genes (redheads do have surges of adrenaline, more than the average person), but my heart will sometimes race, and I feel all the fear and excitement of a particularly dangerous roller coaster ride, only without any of the enjoyment such a ride should entail. It is the fear and excitement more akin to my being strangled in Krav Maga, back to when I had no idea what I was doing, and the training partner was really trying to kill me. Only this time, there is no endorphin chaser once the choke is broken, but my body feels like it's constantly under attack.
[More below the break.]
Now, the earlier article was all about an example of a relationship / friendship falling to pieces. In this cases, it fell apart over the course of months with one party not even being aware of it.
That ignorant buffoon I speak of is, of course, myself.
So, how should a character react to having a relationship suddenly and expectantly go south on him? Well, in A Pius Man, when relationships go south, guns are pulled out. Earlier, I mentioned CS Lewis' book On Grief, and my reaction was much the same as the traditional stages of grief ... well, partially.
Denial: I didn't cry, mainly because my body has forgotten how to cry in full-out sobbing format. There were tears, but not all that much. I was quite, quite numb. I don't know if it counts as denial, but I couldn't think very clearly. This woman was my best friend for years. She brought out every good instinct in me. My friends could see it, I could see it. I was a better person because she was in my life. She defined all of my best qualities, and made me want her good qualities. There had to be a mistake here. Just because she didn't "love" love me, didn't mean the friendship was over, did it? That didn't make sense. Could it? I had to be wrong. I had to have misread it. I had to have been illiterate. This was my best friend. I told her everything. And I mean everything. She would have told me to my face if she believed what I read -- at least on the phone.
Bargaining: My next thought was to make certain I understood everything involved, included that this was the end of the friendship as well. I asked her if I should cancel my ticket to California -- a plan we had been working on for 8 months now -- and she said yes. Not only was she not in love with me -- which I could live with -- but she didn't even want to hang out. She couldn't care about me as a friend. That nail gun sound is sealing the coffin on our friendship.
Anger: Oh, I have that part down. As I write this (the week of the 5th), I am quite a powder keg. I have had to de-friend people on Facebook whom I normally tolerate because I am ready to tear them a few new orifices. I am generally not a "nice" person, though I shoot for merely "good". This week, I want to hurt something. On the bright side, my cardio class and punching bag routines went over like a dream. Lift weights? No problem. Roll out the punching bags and beat them across the floor? Hell yes.
The strange thing is that I'm not angry at anyone in particular. Everything, yes, but no one person. I'm not even angry at the one who initiated this. Could I do things to hurt her, even though she's 3,000 miles away? Sure, that's easy. I could write to her father to tell him about the whole relationship from start to finish, and he's a bastard, and no mistake; there is Facebook, and the internet, and all the various and sundry ways you can hurt someone that way -- it's not rocket science, any internet troll can do that.
Would I do anything to hurt her, though? No. That has no interest for me, and it makes me physically ill to even contemplate doing it.
It's possible that I took my confusion to be anger -- it's possible, since I'm quite confused. This came out of nowhere, even though she said she'd been writing the letter for months. Her telling me to redeem my ticket implies that she was jerking me around about the California trip as recently as three weeks before the letter. So, was she lying to me the whole time? Did something happen since then?
There is a lot of adrenaline flowing in me. I have redhead genes (redheads do have surges of adrenaline, more than the average person), but my heart will sometimes race, and I feel all the fear and excitement of a particularly dangerous roller coaster ride, only without any of the enjoyment such a ride should entail. It is the fear and excitement more akin to my being strangled in Krav Maga, back to when I had no idea what I was doing, and the training partner was really trying to kill me. Only this time, there is no endorphin chaser once the choke is broken, but my body feels like it's constantly under attack.
[More below the break.]
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