Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Work in Progress Live on Wattpad

You can now read a serialized portion of one of my novels-in-progress on Wattpad. Wattpad users can also vote and comment. The more views and votes I receive, the more exposure and the more I'm able to build a reader base.

Synopsis:

1,692 years after "The Great Death" nearly forced humanity into extinction, culture and society has returned to North America. A tenuous union of four semi-autonomous kingdoms is celebrating its 300th anniversary but a surprise victory by the least likely (and least desired) candidate for supreme chancellor threatens to break the realm apart into war.

Fans of Game of Thrones or The First Law series will enjoy many familiar elements in this broad, multiple point-of-view epic, but don't expect a copy cat. The distinctly North American setting coupled with several other unique features makes The Razed Ruins a fresh and original twist on a familiar genre.

Click here or on the image below to start reading!



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All writing is the original work of Brian Wright and may not be copied, distributed, re-printed or used any form without express written consent of the author. Find out here how to CONTACT me with publishing and/or use questions


Sunday, November 19, 2017

The 50th Blog Post

Me with two of my favorite things: a book and
a latte
Blog. No blog. Almost any how-to for author platform-building touts the necessity of the almighty blog. It's a chance to build an audience and prove to the world your voice is worth hearing. Some agents and publishers won't even consider you without one.

Thus, it was with some reluctance that I toed my way into the blogosphere last January. I needed to knock a few boards into the foundation of my virtually non-existent author platform. At the same time, however, I was daunted by the commitment blogging entailed. Time is a commodity and blogging siphons away precious hours that might be spent polishing drafts or hammering out queries. 

Ten months and 50 blog posts later, I still have mixed feelings about the whole endeavor. Nevertheless, my blog and I have come along way since the inceptive post all those months ago. Productive or not for marketability, blogging has without question steered my brain down all sorts of interesting pathways, forgotten thoroughfares and, yes, even a few rancid quagmires. 

If nothing else, this creative space has proved a useful tool. A variation of Tyrion Lannister's famous quote, "A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone," could say something similar about writers and writing projects. One cannot hope to improve without practice. The more words I stitch together the more vibrant the cloth. And shoving my writing in front of crowd has proven invaluable for the insight gained on creating engaging, solid work that can capture an audience and draw them through to the final words.

I look back on the many words I've hammered onto these virtual pages and feel a sense of modest pride. While not always 100% polished, if nothing else this blog has been an interesting journey. So in honor of this post and its forty-nine predecessors, I've decided to look back at some of the highlights from this long, strange trip. 

Popularity Contest

A blog post's popularity sometimes baffles me. Posts I thought were sure to be a hit fell on their faces while others that felt rather hurried or half-cocked have gone viral (viral is, of course, relative). Regardless of what it means, here are my five most popular blog posts:

This post has stolen the show for most pageviews by a good margin. An examination of the components of the age-old narrative structure known as the Hero's Journey and an interrogation of its relevance to storytelling today.

In 2016 I visited a sacrificial cave of the ancient Maya near the Belize/Guatemala border. Seeing the busted bones of infants, children and adults that'd been lying in place for a thousand years was a powerful and moving experience. Apparently a few of my readers found it interesting as well.

A photographic look at ten of the most beautiful places I've ever visited. A post more visual than wordy, it is the most recent post on this list and I suspect a day might come when it scales its way to the top.

No matter how aged or weighed down you are by your ailments, you will always feel young if you visit this Fountain of Youth....

A writer is shaped by his influences. Not that I want to emulate any of them exactly, but standing on the shoulders of the titans of sci-fi and fantasy is what allows me to see, well, anything at all.

Laugh Award

Every now and then, I take it upon myself to brave the dangerous waters of comedy. It's for you, dear reader, to determine if I'm worthy of even a modest chuckle. Of these occasional posts that represent my attempts at humor, here are two I personally enjoyed writing.

In the last two years my wife, dog and I have made a science of moving. Uprooting your world just to plant it somewhere else is mostly just a royal stitch in the back, but occasional sources of humor (like fifteen-year-old heartbreak letters, my first novel and a moldy whatever that is) can be found at the bottom of those mess-heaped closets.

My dog, Otis, is happier than any human I've ever met. Perhaps we all need to wiggle on our backs in the grass, plunge into icy glacial rivers, and tear into our food with sloppy abandon.

Pedantry

Every writer is full of advice, especially about writing. So if you want a bit of possibly pedantic and certainly dubious writing advice, I have been known to dish a few sentences on the subject. A couple favorite "how to" posts:

My first blog post, so of course it had to land on this "highlight reel" somewhere. A few scribbles on one of my favorite components of the novel writing process: forging the idea.

A motivational piece, and a bit of self-justification, but captures an important notion every writer has to believe, true or not: we are important!

Honorable Mention

I'm trying to keep my blog posts shorter these days. Not only is it less work, but in these days of massive entertainment saturation, readers are more likely to pull through to the end if I practice brevity. So instead of listing all 50 of my blog posts and yacking on and on about each of them, here is one final mention, a random post that didn't seem to fit in any of the above categories:

This fun piece was an early post and popular at the time. I liked it, so here it is.

Well, there it is, a trip down blogger memory lane. Represented here are ten of the 50 posts I have scribbled out since the inception of my blog. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you readers, especially the ones that for some odd reason let me borrow your ear on a regular basis. Your time is important and I hope you never feel you've wasted it with me. 
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For those still interested in seeing more of work, I have an archive page that lists almost all of my blog posts by category. This journey isn't over. I'm sure more book reviews, awkward attempts at humor, bits of pedantic writing advice, and other nonsense is bound to spill from my brain. I encourage any who want to hop on this ship for its bumpy, sometimes terrifying journey through the strange land that is my mind to sign up for my mailing list. You will get once-a-week email updates on new posts as well as announcements such as release dates for upcoming books (eventually) and nothing else. Until then....

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All writing is the original work of Brian Wright and may not be copied, distributed, re-printed or used any form without express written consent of the author. Find out here how to CONTACT me with publishing and/or use questions


Sunday, November 12, 2017

Tempting Fate in Rocky Mountain National Park

Five-hundred feet up a slick rock face with a storm moving in and I was about to die….

McGregor Mountain looms of the Fall River entrance
of Rocky Mountain National Park
At least that’s how it seemed as I clung desperately to the blank slab of granite, legs gyrating in fear, with crackles of thunder drawing closer. I’d forgotten how fast blue skies could turn to slate-gray in Rocky Mountain National Park in July above treeline. But frightening as it was being exposed to lightning, the impending storm was the last thing on my mind. I needed focus. Somewhere on the supposedly easy three-pitch 5.5 rock climb on McGregor Mountain, my wife, Ella, and I had gotten lost. Off-route and fifty feet above the last marginal piece of protection that might arrest a potential fall, I was stuck.

Best case scenario a drop now would entail one-hundred feet of sliding, scraping and tumbling down the mountain. With plenty of ledges and sporadic trees to smash into, the consequences of such a fall were too terrible to imagination. The less I tried to think about them, however, the more readily the images come to mind: broken limbs, snapped vertebrae. I doubt even my helmet would do much good.

Above, the rock steepened. The terrain was closer to 5.9 than 5.5 and slippery with the loam of disuse. Great cracks where I could install gear to catch a fall were tantalizingly close on both sides, but getting to them looked nearly impossible. How could this have happened? The whole situation, the very real possibility of disaster on what should have been a fun, mild afternoon outing, was starting to seem surreal, like one of those bad dreams from which you shake yourself awake and laugh. 

Panic nearly choked me. With Ella somewhere out of sight far below me and well beyond earshot, I was quite alone. How much longer could my quaking legs hold on before they shook me off the rock and sent me caroming down to face my doom? Climbing any direction was dangerous, but I could only hold on for so long. That one-hundred-foot tumbling whipper was drawing closer. 

An ill-timed crack of thunder, the closest yet, echoed off the tall, rugged peaks. The storm would soon be upon us.

*
In 2012 the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, an organization of all-volunteer responders who specialize in rescues on mountainous terrain in Boulder County, published a report with analysis of all incidents in Boulder County involving rock climbing and hiking over a 14-year period. Although RMRG does not cover Rocky Mountain National Park, the group services nearby Boulder Canon, Eldorado Canyon and the Flatirons, some of the most popular climbing areas in the state. This large sample size provides a unique cross section of climbing-related injuries and fatalities.

Although the potential of falling while lead climbing is a predominant fear in the mind of most rock climbers, as it turns out it is not nearly the most common cause of injury or death. While RMRG was called to assist 428 rock climbing accidents in this period, only 5 were fatal incidents involving roped lead climbing. A much higher ratio (12%) were involved in belayer-error incidents and an even higher number (as much as 45%) involved rappelling and/or getting lost on the descent. 

Although the inglorious “whipper,” as a roped lead fall is often called, tends to dominate the Youtube videos and rock climbing tales of woe, it seems the things often taken for granted (i.e. your belay partner or your ability to get safely off the mountain) more often than not prove to be more treacherous. Knowing the relative safety of lead climbing, however, does little to calm quaking nerves when faced with the possibility of a dangerous fall on a difficult rock climb.

*
Time was up. I could delay no longer. Action had to be taken before I simply peeled off the mountain in exhaustion. 

Belaying Ella up the first ptich
I was tempted again by the safe crack system some twenty feet to my left. Getting there, however, involved crossing a strip of impossibly blank rock, no hand or foot holds in sight. A ridiculous part of my mind considered just lunging for it. Going right looked steeper and even more dangerous. Downclimbing was an option, but leading with your feet was always considerably more difficult than with your hands, so I quickly ruled it out.

The only real choice that remained was to go up. Although every bit I climbed would increase the length and danger of a fall, it seemed that in order to find safety I would have to swim through the belly of the beast.

The smooth shield of granite above was broken only by a thin seam. Though it was not deep enough to sink in spring-loaded cams capable of catching a fall, it provided just enough texture for my fingers and toes to scale upward. I pulled higher and higher, increasing the fall potential with every move. I climbed ten feet. Twenty feet. I was so far above my protection now it was almost comical. My life depended on the grip of my fingers, and the friction between my rubber shoes on the slick granite. The slightest slip or broken rock and my worst nightmare would rush upward to meet me. Would it hurt to take a fall like that? Or would it happen so fast the lights would simply go out in a blink?

I was eighty feet above my last cam. Then one-hundred. It had to end eventually. This rock couldn’t go on forever.

Then abruptly, almost magically, a crack appeared in front of my eyes. I was so focused I nearly climbed past it. Shocked I had made it, I plugged in a cam and clipped in my rope with disbelief. I was safe. I installed a second cam just to be sure. The earthquake in my legs slowed. I wasn’t going to die today.

Not long after, the angle of the wall flattened and I found myself standing on the top. The storm I had thought was building had swung far to the north. I constructed an anchor and began to belay Ella up to join me. 

Already my fear from just a few minutes before was beginning to fade. Surely, I had not been in nearly as much danger as I’d thought. Here I was, not injured or lost or stranded. In every sense of the word the climb was a complete success. I stood atop a mountain with a sea of beautiful ridges and notched spines all around. Blue sky broke through the clouds.

It was a perfect day.

NOTE: This article originally appeared in the August 2017 issue of Our Backyard, a regional publication focused on outdoor stories of intrigue and woe
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If you enjoyed this post, consider signing up for my mailing list. When not recollecting near-death mountaineering experiences, I blog about all sorts of bizarre, educational, entertaining, and occasionally funny topics from what makes an effective first paragraph to giant redwoodsmedieval sailboats, the ancient Mayans and more. If you do sign up, you will get a once-a-week update on my posts and NOTHING ELSE! No spam, no selling your email to third parties. Okay, if I ever get around to publishing one of these works in progress that are constantly haunting me, I might send out an email letting you know. In the meantime thanks for reading!

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All writing is the original work of Brian Wright and may not be copied, distributed, re-printed or used any form without express written consent of the author. Find out here how to CONTACT me with publishing and/or use questions 


Sunday, November 5, 2017

Me in Twelve Pictures

Can a series of images provide a working avatar for a human life? Could I distill myself like an herb into some piquant essence? 

This might seem a little vain. I don't mean it to be. Rather it is an experiment in photo storytelling. The first iteration of this post included blurbs explaining each photo but I quickly realized that was counter to the premise. Instead I decided to allow imagery alone to weave my story. 

You could also view this as an invitation to get to know me. I want to know you too.

A tired adage posits that a picture is worth a thousand words. Perhaps my life warrants more than 12,000 of them. Or maybe most people would lose interest after a few hundred.

Here is a chapter book of images to articulate my life story and life philosophy.

Chapter 1: Pick a Dance Partner More Graceful Than You


Chapter 2: Surrender to Silly Faces



Chapter 3: Grow Competing Beards (and Happily Lose)



Chapter 4: Cool Off with Panache



Chapter 5: Let Some Air Under Your Hems



Chapter 6: Best Every Summit



Chapter 7: Whet Your Mind (And Never Pass Up a Good Cup of Coffee)



Chapter 8: Harmonize the Room



Chapter 9: Reap What You Sow



Chapter 10: Nap Appropriately



Chapter 11: Quench Parched Spirits



Chapter 12: Embrace the Storms


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This is a cop-out blog post. What writer abandons words for a few measly pictures? Not all of my posts are like this, I promise. Usually, I blog about all sorts of crazy, educational, entertaining, and occasionally funny topics from what makes an effective first paragraph to giant redwoodsmedieval sailboats, the ancient Mayans and more. If you do sign up, you will get a once-a-week update on my posts and NOTHING ELSE! No spam, no selling your email to third parties. Okay, if I ever get around to publishing one of these works in progress that are constantly haunting me, I might send out an email letting you know. In the meantime thanks for reading!

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All writing is the original work of Brian Wright and may not be copied, distributed, re-printed or used any form without express written consent of the author. Find out here how to CONTACT me with publishing and/or use questions