Wow... So apparently, it's been several months since I've posted anything on the Table. As many of you know, my full-time job has been keeping me pretty busy, and to top it all off, I'm midway through the first draft of my first novel (Chapter 12 in progress!!!). So at least a valid excuse for stepping away from the table, even if it's been an extended leave of absence on my part.
All in all, things are going pretty well, and I feel like my creative side is starting to pick up the pace and finally become more productive again (hence this post). Every moment I can spare has been spent to either plugging away at my novel... which intermittently feels like it's going either great or terrible, though the end result is probably somewhere in between... or exploring some other part of creative outlet.
I've recently developed an interest in voice acting so I've been actively reading a book about that for the past couple weeks. This may surprise some of you... since it's not something I typically show off (in fact, only a handful of people outside of my family are aware of it), but I have long had a fascination with voices. Maybe that explains my fascination with animation (Family Guy, South Park, Robot Chicken, etc.). Anyway, I'm known to often bust out a movie or TV quote in character, and I considered it basically a useless skill good only to amuse others (and myself). But it's been great fun thus far to learn a little more about it.
In addition, I've been writing - albeit sporadically - for popular science fiction website AirlockAlpha.com, contributing movie and soundtrack reviews on a regular basis. Starting next week, I will also be posting weekly episodes reviews for the second season of Dollhouse, the new show from Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If you haven't checked it out yet, you're missing out.
However, while I've been busy exploring other endeavors (and outlining the novella I'm going to write in November for NaNoWriMo - more on that later), my creative focus has remained locked on to the novel. I'm detemined to finish my initial 20 3,000-word chapters by the end of October, and because I know several of you are also working on novels or assorted other projects, I'm considering re-introducing the concept of The Crooked Table meetings. I'd like to get at least 5 of us to commit to at least monthly meetings so that we can discuss any issues we're having with our stories, our processes, etc... and also exchange some of our work for constructive critiques (yes, me too...).
So let me know if that's something you'd be interested in being a part of and what your schedule looks like. Ideally, we could arrange something for something in October so that we can discuss our goals for NaNoWriMo (or National Novel Writing Month for the uninitiated). Either comment here or shoot me a message at robertyaniz1983@gmail.com.
Oh, and one more thing: I'm planning on making more regular contributions to the Table and hopefully get its new home at www.thecrookedtable.com up and running in the next few months. In fact, I'm currently taking a daylong HTML course to help me develop my web design skills, like right this very minute!
So stay tuned (and stay patient), the Table is far from dead, my friends...
Happy writing,
Rob
