Posts to Come

Forgive me Bloggers, for I have procrastinated. It has been 44 days since my last blog post.

Life seems to happen and I follow along, trying to catch a breath now and then. I'm sneaking in a quick post today before I run out with my son and wife to my son's Kindermusic class. My son, Christopher, will be turning three years old on Thursday. He's very excited. I think he's more excited about the play set/swing set that his Dad built for him in the back yard. Luckily I had help from a carpenter fried, or it never would have been finished before his birthday. As it was I spent twelve hours straight outside in the sun on Memorial Day working on it. And that was only one of the days we worked on it.

We are also fast approaching the arrival of my daughter. I don't believe I mentioned before that my wife and I are expecting a girl. Her name is Nanami Elizabeth. Nanami is Japanese for, "seven seas". It's a very pretty Japanese name, which grabbed our attention. But it is also a rarer name in Japan, which my wife likes. Her name, Rihoko, is another uncommon name used in Japan. Should Nanami cooperate we will be meeting her on Tuesday, July 31. We are very excited as this is the first granddaughter, second grandchild, on both sides of the family.

I want to inform everyone of some upcoming posts. Yes, I've taken the advice of people more experienced and blog-wise than I, and have planned out a few of my posts ahead of time. I am actually pulling from some college material. I will be sharing with you a four-chapter paper I wrote on J.R.R. Tolkien. This is a paper that I wrote in the Spring of 1997, yes 1997. I know that's ten years ago. And yes, I believe there's still good information in what I wrote back then. I have to, of course, acknowledge the fact that there have been so many wonderful developments in all things Tolkien during the last decade. Not the least of which was a little movie project you may have heard of. I am hoping to write another essay on the movie and its subsequent impact on the world of fantasy, particularly in its relationship with Hollywood.

The papers that I will be sharing with you are as follows:

Chapter One - Fantasy and Tolkien
Chapter Two - The Man That Was Tolkien
Chapter Three - The Choice Of The Ring
Chapter Four - Tolkien's Legacy

It was a lot of fun for me to brush the dust off of these papers and do a little editing to bring the style and voice more in sync with mine today. No, I did not alter them greatly. I realized that back in college, when I took the time to write, I produced some good material. That was great incentive for me to "make" more time in my life today so that I can re hone my skills and bring myself back to the level I know I can achieve.

I'll leave you with a quote I used in Chapter Three, by W.H. Auden.

"Man is a history-making creature for whom the future is always open."

Be well, you'll hear from me soon.

The Mark of Mur

I thought I’d better go the extra mile since my last post was mostly about me. I wanted to bring to your attention a young woman whose writing and presence in the podcasting world I have enjoyed greatly. Mur Lafferty (who is also the first hit to be found when googling her name) is a writer and podcaster who has had a major impact on the podcasting world. She co-wrote “Tricks of the Podcasting Masters” with Rob Walch, host of podCast411. She is the host of the podcasts Geek Fu Action Grip and I Should Be Writing. I am an avid listener of I Should Be Writing and anxiously await each new episode. I have also recently subscribed to Geek Fu Action Grip, and have greatly enjoyed these podcasts as well.

My first encounter with Mur Lafferty was through the Escape Pod podcast, hosted by editor and producer Steve Eley. We’ll talk about the wonder that is Escape Pod at another time. I listened to a story by Mur Lafferty titled “I Look Forward To Remembering You”. The beauty and creativity of this story had me in awe. I had listened to a lot of really good stories on Escape Pod by that time, but this one literally had me in awe. It’s one of those instances where you feel really good for that writer because of how well they did. And then you feel really jealous of that writer because they thought of the idea before you did. If you enjoy a really good story I suggest you review the archives at Escape Pod and download “I Look Forward To Remembering You”, published on June 6, 2006. While you’re there, I would also suggest subscribing to Escape Pod. With the quality of work that they publish you will not be disappointed. I’ll include some links at the end of this post.

Alright, I’m taking longer than I thought I would, and I want to ensure I do the rest of Mur Lafferty’s work justice. I recently listened to “Heaven Season One” and “Heaven Season Two: Hell”, both of which are available at Podiobooks.com. Heaven is where two friends have died and gone to…well, heaven. While they are there they manage to procure passports to explore other afterlives rife with other gods. It was great fun to explore the possibilities of afterlives with the two main characters. I especially enjoyed exploring the characters from Norse mythology, as these stories and tales are partially to blame for my addiction to the fantasy genre. I don’t know if it is the author’s intent to continue this into another season, but I know I would be tracking it down as soon as it was available, if so.

Friends, I have a very early morning tomorrow and I’m afraid that I have to bring this to a close. There is more material that can be covered when discussing Mur Lafferty, so I think we’ll have to revisit her work in the future. In the meantime I hope that you check her out at the links below. Also, please check out Escape Pod and Podiobooks.com for some more great fiction and audiobooks. Links are included below.

I’ll leave you with a quote from another author whom I enjoy greatly, Tracy Hickman. “May you always publish peace.”

Mur Lafferty Links:
Mur Lafferty Home Page
I Should Be Writing
Geek Fu Action Grip
Mur Lafferty’s story on Escape Pod

Other links mentioned:
Escape Pod
Podiobooks.com
podCast411

Yes, It's an Ego Trip

Don’t think me conceited but I googled my name tonight. I was actually surprised by the result. You see I live in a town with another Michael Colwill. Actually, I’ve never met this “doppelganger” of mine. We did share the same pediatrician and the same dentist. In fact, I think both of our names were on the same registry at a number of places. In fact, he purchased a car from the same dealer as I only a few weeks before me. Well, this other Michael Colwill was always the person that came up when I googled my name. He is a police officer in our city, you see, and was mentioned in numerous online articles due to events around our city. Tonight it was different.

When I searched for “Michael Colwill” tonight the number one entry with Google was this blog. Maybe I’m letting it get to my head a little, but I thought that was pretty cool. Especially since my name isn’t extremely obscure. No, there aren’t hundreds of thousands Michael Colwills running around out there, either. Being high on Google’s list of hits for me is one step closer to having my recognized in the blogosphere and podcast communities out there. That in turn, is a step closer to getting my writing out there where people can read, enjoy, critique, or just experience it. I think that’s pretty cool.

I missed once a month

Everything begins with good intentions. I had planned to update this blog at least once a week, if not more frequently. Of course, I've mad plans in the past to block out a consistent writing time for myself. This becomes more and more challenging the further along my wife is in her pregnancy. Add to the mix a 34-month old boy with a daily release of energy somewhat comparable to Chernobyl and good intentions tend to walk out the door.

No, I am not blaming my family or the life we have for my failure to produce the kind of writing that I am longing to create. Especially this past month. I have had so much going on that all I can think of is the next opportunity I'll have to relax. There hasn't been much of that going on lately. I won't go into the details now, but in the last month I've unexpectedly ended up trading in my Saturn Vue for a Pontiac Vibe (a wonderful vehicle), sang with a 118 voice choir, and threw a large surprise birthday party for my wife with less than two weeks of planning time. Needless to say I've been deepening the perpetual circles under my eyes over the last several weeks. I'll have to go into detail on some of the events I mentioned at a later time. The vehicle exchange and the surprise party are especially good stories that need to be told.

For now I'm going to bring up something I discovered in a podcast I was listening to at work today. First, let me explain my still-evolving podcast habits. My friend Jason Heath, of Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog, and the Contrabass Conversations podcast, introduced me to pod casting last summer. By the end of summer I had purchased my first mp3 player, a Creative Zen 8 GB Micro Photo. I have greatly enjoyed this mp3 player, and am glad that I chose this over an iPod. This is mainly because most non-iPod mp3s coming out these days have their own built in FM receiver. I appreciate being able to use the same device to listen to the radio, my music, and my pod casts.

I started downloading pod casts, using iTunes, before I even owned the mp3 player. Mostly I tracked down online fiction pod casting magazines. I have the opportunity to listen to my headphones at work so I've been a fan of audio books on CD for a long time. Some of the first sites that Jason introduced me to were Escape Pod, the science fiction and fantasy online podcast magazine, and Podiobooks.com, a provider of free audio books in podcast format (Although you will always find the opportunity to donate to a podcast or free provider of audio books).

When I downloaded a podcast I'd usually retrieve as many of the older pod casts as were available. For example, when I subscribed to Escape Pod, I ended up downloading about a dozen stories all at once. I would then listen to all of those stories before moving to one of the other pod casts I subscribe to. Once I've caught up with a podcast I will then listen to each episode as it becomes available.

Well, because of this (here's where I get to the point) I was listening to the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Podcast posted 01/25/07. Sci-Fi and Fantasy Podcast discusses movies of those genres. The movie being discussed that week was The Dark Crystal, the Jim Henson and Frank Oz movie from 1982 During their discussion they announced that there is going to be a newly released Dark Crystal movie. They were not sure if it will be sequel or re-make. IMDB.com does not have much information on this subject. I am hoping to do some research in the near future here to determine exactly what is going into this film, and what kind of script they will be using. If anyone out there has information on this film, please feel free to leave a comment.

Well, it is getting late on me, and 5 am creeping closer and closer. I will close this post with the hope that I will be posting again for you in far less than a month. Be well.

The first post for Kanteker's Craft

This is my first attempt at managing a blog. I read several of them and have a number of friends who are very active with their own blogs. I decided this would be an excellent opportunity for me to meet people with similar interests who are trying to accomplish similar things in their lives. I believe that we must always share the knowledge that we have in an attempt to help each other. Likewise, we must always listen to others more than we speak so that we may add others' wisdom to our own.
I am an aspiring writer who never seems to find the time to really write. I am married with a toddler who is not yet three years old. We are also expecting our second child at the end of July this year. When I add to this a full time job and an active role in my church I find myself with very little remaining. However, despite my lack of time I have not tossed my aspirations aside. I try to spend some of my free time reading, both for fun and to learn. Most often this time is found at work during my lunch break. Many of the books that I have read, or am planning to read are books on the craft of writing. I also read a number of helpful blogs and listen to several excellent podcasts on the craft. I will list some of these for you in a future post.
Back to my family. I met my wife while I was teaching English as a Second Language at Ohito High School. Ohito is a small town in Japan which actually no longer exists. It has been joined with some of its neighbors and is now called Izu City. At any rate, Ohito was located in Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan. This is a prefecture along the coast line to the southwest of Tokyo. If you look at Mt. Fuji on a map and then draw a line to the south east you'll find the peninsula where I lived.
Shizuoka is a beautiful prefecture known for its strawberries and the quality of its green tea. I lived on the Izu peninsula which is a resort area in Japan, renowned for its hot springs. It also has some beautiful white sand beaches near the southern tip. I lived on the side of a mountain facing into a valley which ran down the middle of the peninsula. This actually saved me from feeling the brunt of some fairly strong typhoons.
I met my wife early on, she was a teacher at the school where I was placed. Being the first person from my new home I was able to meet, we became good friends. We maintained this friendship until the second year I was living in Japan, at which time we both realized that our friendship had grown much stronger than either of us had realized, or even anticipated. It didn't take long for us to become engaged and we ended up getting married...three times. Yes, three times. We had a wedding ceremony while we were both still in Japan. Then we had a legal ceremony after returning to America. This was to expedite my wife's immigration paperwork. A few weeks later we had another big wedding ceremony so that our American friends and family could celebrate with us.
My son, Christopher, was born in the summer of 2004. Fatherhood has been a grand adventure...well, maybe not all of it has been grand. I don't think diaper duty would fall under the category of grand. But it has been a wonderful experience overall. I will now proceed to brag about my son. Christopher seems to be a very fast learner as he is gaining vocabulary from both English and Japanese. He is just beginning to see some of the differences in those two languages, but I don't expect full comprehension for a little while yet. He is also one of the few toddlers that I know who has flown internationally three times before turning three years old, including his first flight at four-months.
I hadn't planned on taking so much time on my first entry here. I think I will leave you with a pair of simple poems I wrote in college. Unfortunately, that is the time period where most of my finished work was done. Everything else is "in the works", so to speak. We were asked to write a Shakespearean Sonnet for one of our writing classes. At the time I was knee-deep in one of the fantasy novels I enjoy so much and couldn't get that out of my head. Thus, this first little piece was born. The second piece is a musing on love poems. I'll warn you first, I enjoy writing fiction a lot more than I do poetry. I think you'll agree that the style of my prose is of higher quality than my poetic muse. Even so, I hope you enjoy Creation and A Love Poem.


Creation

Inside my mind there lies a soul to be born.
It lurks and hides within a swirling void
Until it must arise, prepare to be shorn.
With scythe and pen this spirit I've employed.

As white through crystal prism, Spirit does transform,
And takes the shapes of legends from mystic homes.
Of elves, and trolls, and wyrms in caverns kept warm
by magic long forgotten in wizard's tomes.

A knight will rise, a king will fall to his foe.
The hell-bound scream for mercy before the fire.
And light defeats the demons lurking below.
An epic sung by bards with their dulcet lyres.

My myth at last draws near to finished tale.
'Tis now worth hearing as one drinks his ale.

Copyright by Michael I. Colwill

A Love Poem

What is a love poem?
A man writes of the unfailing beauty of his true love.
He fails to mention her unfailing ego.
Words are spilled about nights of fiery passion.
Kept jarred are the words that lack conversation.
The pen describes the gifts and sacrifices in the name of love.
No ink paints the picture of selfish secrets and adulterous lovers.
Is poetry of love merely a lie then? No.

There is hope yet to place one's heart on simple parchment,
Writing of a rainbow that has brought color to one's life,
Spilling out words of a smile bringing forth a smile,
My pen telling of efforts simply to bring a piece of happiness.
The poetry of my heart is love.

Copyright by Michael I. Colwill