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Keystone Lake

Posted: May 1st, 2010, 9:07 pm
by Flack
With about 2/3 of the work done on my second book, I found myself hitting a brick wall. I was really busy at work, and in 2008 I had a two-year-old and a six-year-old, so writing at home was difficult too. I really felt like if I could just get away for a couple of days, I could finish the book up. So that's what I did, at Keystone Lake.

Keystone Lake is about two hours northeast of here, just outside of Tulsa. They have reasonable cabins, so I rented one for the weekend. The kids and wife stayed home, while I headed out with my laptop in tow.

I always enjoyed the Chevy Chase movie Funny Farm. I like the idea of a writer "getting away" for a while to write a manuscript. Of course in this day and age with jobs and bills and writing being more of a hobby of mine than any real form of income, taking a month or even a week off from work to write a book was out of the question. Most of my writing took place on nights and weekends, but just like Chevy Chase's character, I thought if I could hole myself up somewhere I could produce a great book. I don't know if the book was great or not, but it was a neat experience.

Most of the writing took place at the dinner table, looking out a large window at the lake. During the day, I took the laptop outside to the picnic table that sat just outside the cabin's front door and did some writing there. That idea sounded better than it was. It was hot that weekend, there were bugs, and picnic tables aren't particularly comfortable for long periods of time. Still, laptops give us that luxury, and I enjoyed moving around a bit.

As you get older, getting away from work and family (especially kids) gets harder and harder. One of the reasons I have so many unfinished writing projects at the moment is because I just don't have the free time available I once did. As I find myself spinning my wheels and not making any progress on my current projects, I'm starting to think another weekend at Keystone Lake may be in order soon.

Re: Keystone Lake

Posted: May 6th, 2010, 11:28 am
by dilbert
I admire your commitment to writing and computers. I want to write also. My kids are now,like you,raising their families so I now have time.

dilbert

Re: Keystone Lake

Posted: May 6th, 2010, 11:36 am
by Flack
See my new post, "On Writing".

Re: Keystone Lake

Posted: June 2nd, 2010, 9:53 pm
by Flack
Here is a picture of myself, writing Invading Spaces at Keystone Lake.

[img]http://www.robohara.com/pix/blog/cabin_write.jpg[/img]

I have to admit, this picture was semi-staged. Since I was at the lake alone, I had to balance my camera on something, set the timer, then run around and sit back down quickly and act like I was writing. But, this is what it looked like. I did more writing inside than outside. The idea of writing a book outside sounds romantic, but there are a lot of bugs (insects, not software problems!), it's hot (I prefer A/C), and screen glare is a bitch.

Re: Keystone Lake

Posted: June 4th, 2010, 5:29 pm
by ubikuberalles
Looking forward to another trip to Keystone lake? Got another book lined up? It's been two years. Your fans are waiting!

Re: Keystone Lake

Posted: June 4th, 2010, 7:58 pm
by Earl Green
I used to take my handheld PC out on the deck a lot, until the novelty wore off. We have a lot of wood bees around this house, and I very quickly find myself wishing that the wood bees wouldn't be.

Re: Keystone Lake

Posted: June 11th, 2010, 10:03 am
by Flack
ubikuberalles wrote:Looking forward to another trip to Keystone lake? Got another book lined up? It's been two years. Your fans are waiting!

That is very kind of you to say.

After talking with Ice Cream Jonesy earlier this week, I think I have three projects that are starting to come together: the C64 game review book, the "Hacker on the Run" fictional novel, and the band "based on a true story" book. Each have their ups and downs:

C64 Game Reviews
Pro: Fun to write (and read)
Con: ePub only, almost no financial market.

"Hacker on the Run"
Pro: First attempt at a fiction novel.
Con: First attempt at a fiction novel ...

Band Book
Pro: Funny, easy to write.
Con: Outside my "core audience"

I have decided that this weekend I will decide which of these to pursue more seriously. Commodork came out in 2006, and Invading Spaces came out in 2008. I'm due to put something out this year. :)

Re: Keystone Lake

Posted: June 11th, 2010, 10:03 pm
by triverse
The comment about your "core audience" caught my eye. You never really know just how big your core audience is till you try (who knows, Stephen King probably is really good at comedies or plays and such, but he sticks to horror for the most part).

Just don't be too scared to try. You never know, bigger success may be right around the corner.

Re: Keystone Lake

Posted: June 11th, 2010, 11:07 pm
by Earl Green
Flack wrote:I'm due to put something out this year.

Yeah, we've all been sitting here eagerly, waiting for you to put out this year!

Um... scratch that.

Re: Keystone Lake

Posted: July 25th, 2010, 1:13 pm
by Flack
OVGE takes place in October, right? I don't know if I'll have something ready by then or not. I'm going to try.

Re: Keystone Lake

Posted: July 30th, 2010, 1:55 am
by triverse
Since I started my PR firm, I have been really itching to start attending shows more (and since, well, expenses can be written off now as a business expense, why not?). Any more details on OVGE?

Re: Keystone Lake

Posted: July 30th, 2010, 9:41 am
by Flack
October 23, 2010.

http://ovge.com/

Re: Keystone Lake

Posted: July 31st, 2010, 12:57 pm
by triverse
Definitely going to shoot for CGE this year. Thanks for the link

Re: Keystone Lake

Posted: July 31st, 2010, 7:36 pm
by ubikuberalles
You mean OVGE and not CGE, right? 'Cos CGE is happening right now (in fact I'm here at the CGE auction posting this).

Re: Keystone Lake

Posted: August 2nd, 2010, 11:43 pm
by triverse
Yeah, I meant OVGE. Thanks for catching that Ubi. Been rough lately running my company and all (not much sleep and running around like a chicken with their head cutoff).