It was pleasure to be featured on Between the Pages, and I hope you get a moment to check out the interview.
On a personal note, it feels good, even though I am always nervous about video interviews, to be well enough to be involved in the wider author community again.
2022 is memory, 2023 is present, and I need to make changes if I am to have a healthy 2024.
My old resolutions are to be creative in my writing, help other authors be creative, and provide for my family.
My old health concern is my post concussive syndrome. I see what happens to professional athletes who have frequent concussions, and I understand first hand the long term effects they will face. My fist concussion occurred as a child, when my family was in a car accident, I said it was an old health concern. My most severe concussion happened when I was 20. I was hit so hard in the head that I flew in the air, and landed on my back a few feet away from where I was hit. All curvature in my spine was knocked straight by the impact. Every “mild” concussion since is accompanied by severe concussion symptoms, and it has taken me as long as fifteen years after a major concussion to have a full week without any symptoms. My most frequent symptoms are headaches, migraines, nausea, and brain fog.
My new approach is to limit screen time as much as possible, and limit physical activity to only those days that I do not have headaches. That means I am scaling on creative writing on a computer. I will still be creating new content, but the original drafts have been and will continue to be written on pen and paper, and the transcribing onto my word processor will take longer, and limited to only those days when I am feeling well.
Part of limiting my screen time will be only releasing a Newsletter once a quarter rather than monthly.
I will still be available to schedule blog post author interviews and blog post book spotlights, but if you have a specific date in mind for your interview, please give me at least 2 weeks notice. If you have any questions, please contact me at jqm.serv@jqmserv
I understand my new approach will slow down my productivity, and will limit my creative time, but I am hoping that as I follow the advise of my doctors, I will be back to my old self (before the 2020 concussion) sooner.
My Goodness, February just started and it feels like it is already half over. I can’t believe it.
I have been distracted for a couple reasons this month, the biggest reason is because I am attempting to craft a short story for Burning Ember’s upcoming dystopian anthology. I have a killer idea, and the best BETA readers and editors in the Indie community, so I think it will work for the anthology. Submission deadlines are March 31st, so we’ll see.
Other than that, not much has been going on with me.
The February theme for the Burning Embers blog is a Fireside chat, so that basically means I can say whatever I want as long as it is relevant to writing. And this month I want to chat about time management.
I constantly fail at time management, multi-tasking, and creating enough time in my schedule for things I want to accomplish. So if any of you have any tricks you use to better utilize your time, I am all ears.
What I wanted to say was that every day only has 24 hours. And if you are like me, then 9 of those hours (Monday-Friday at least) are set aside for work – that includes traveling to work and the amount of time I spend at the warehouse. Then I take an hour or so for exercise or stretching, 8 or so hours for sleeping or attempting to sleep as the case sometimes is. Somewhere in there I need to find time to do household chores and spend time with my wife and children and puppy. That does not leave me much time or energy for writing. Hence why I have been pondering so much on time management and how I can better utilize my writing time.
I have no solution, every time management schedule I have attempted has failed me in the past. This is an ongoing trial for me. But one solution I have created that seems to work for me is this, creating a spreadsheet of different writing projects, and prioritizing them in order of deadlines. That has helped me focus my attentions when writing. But I am open to any other ideas that may have been useful to you.
“If it is always ‘Mornin’ the day can always get better”
So you see, when I say Mornin, I am not wishing you a Good Morning, or even referring to Morning time. I am simply greeting you in the kindest way I know how.
So, again, I say Mornin`!
We are already at Dec 8th, that is a good week and a half into the Christmas season by my reckoning, and I still have yet to do 2 very important Christmas Season traditions to me, first is listen to Patrick Stewart’s telling of “A Christmas Carol” and second is listening to Micheal McLean’s audio book, “The Forgotten Carols”
But, I have already watched the DVD recording of the play “Forgotten Carols” and I have already watched “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” (at least four times), “Muppet’s Christmas Carol,” “A Christmas Carol” staring Patrick Stewart, and listened to Bing Crosby sing “White Christmas,” “Little Drummer Boy,” and the rest of the Christmas album of his that is in my possession. And probably most importantly all my Christmas shopping is done.
So while I have done a lot of my personal traditions done this year, I still have a few things to check off my list, which is probably why I am not feeling the Christmas spirit as fully as usual. So I will be sure to get those last two traditions done and taken care of sooner rather than later.
Between the busyness of December, “Perfectly Evil, The Realm of the Light Book 3” releasing on Dec 22nd, being a father of 5, and the increased work schedule in the warehouse, keeping up on my personal posts here and working on any new projects have dramatically dropped off.
However, I am still committed to my goal of having 20 published titles by the end of 2022. It is going to be a tough goal for me to hit, but challenging goals are often worth the effort.
I’ll try and check in again later in the month, but no promises.
I hope you enjoy the lineup of book spotlights and author interviews I have scheduled for December.
And so, I repeat myself from earlier, “Mornin’!”
Oh, and in case you missed it, here is the cover for Perfectly Evil, The Realm of the Light Book 3. Let me know what you think
The United was originally inspired by a grade school Halloween themed creative writing assignment. Therefore, this special Halloween day, meaning Halloween 2020 (anything 2020 is special now in my book even 20/20 vision), I want to celebrate by posting The United, The Realm of the Light Book 1 on sale as an ebook for $0.99 on Amazon.
And for those of you who prefer paperback copies to ebooks, I am selling autographed paperback copies of The United & Denizens Among Us for $10 each or $20 for both (the price includes free shipping) to individuals with US Mailing addresses.
So, today I don’t really know what to post, but I do have a random thought concerning my fantasy universe, the Rai Saga.
I personally do not believe that the existence of our souls ends after death. Nor do I believe that we all become shifters after we die (for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Rai Saga, after you die in the Dominion of Rai you are reborn as a Creature of Rai, an immortal being who can shift from calling form – animal form- to natural form – human form). However, I do believe that after we die, our souls continue to exist, and we have a purpose.
I tried to fictionalize that belief through my Clans of Rai.
Why am I thinking about this right now? Well, there are a few personal things happening in my life, and in the life of my family, that has guided me to think about my own personal mortality and the mortality of my loved ones.
I do not fear death, I embrace it as the next stage of existence. And while I do not know what exactly lies beyond the grave, I choose to believe that there is something, some purpose, for me to serve. And while I truly wish that I will have the ability to shift into a volkrog in the afterlife, I believe that such wishes are best left in the realm of literature.
TJ has three unique physical traits. All three of the traits are based on my personal experiences.
1st, his sensistivity to bright lights. You may recall from the book that whenever he was exposed to bright lights, he got a headache. Tgerefore he always wore sunglasses. I have that same problem. When i step outside on a bright day without my sunglasses, i sneeze, and on occassion get a headache. I have a couple friends and a couple brothers who also sneeze in sunlight which i have learned after doing a quick google search is fairly common, effecting approximately 25% of the human population.
Second is TJ’s stutter and omission and odd phrasing of words. This trait to him is naturally occuring, but for me it is the result of a concussion caused by a traumatic blow to my head that litterally knocked my head on straight. No seriously, all the curvature in my neck was straightened out. The consequences of that blow extended beyond the stutter to other cognitive issues, such as a constant dull headache that lasted over ten years.
The third physical trait TJ suffered from was hydrophobia.
I am a natural born hydrophobe.
The only time in my mother’s life she was afraid of water was while she was pregnant with me. While in open water, or thinking about being in open water, or dreaming about open water my breath gets short, i get light headed, i clench my fists, i am told my skin turns pale, and I am afraid.
The one good thing i have learned from dealing with hydrophobia is to not allow my fears to control my actions.
As a child, my favorite thing to do was watch TV and play video games. We had a brand new Super Nintendo, and my siblings and I played it all the time. I had a friend up the street from me who had a Sega gaming system, and we played football and basketball games all the time on that.
It was not until I was a senior in high school, and was assigned to read A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens that I really started to love to read.
I love to read, and I love to discuss literature. My favorite genre to read and write is fantasy.
I was born in the InterMountain West of the United States. I consider my home town to be Mendon, Ut; however, I spent my childhood years in Hinesville, Ga, and multiple communities in Northern Utah.
I graduated from Mountain Crest High School in Hyrum, Utah, and graduated from Utah State University with a degree in Anthropology, emphasis in Archaeology, with minors in Russian and Geology.
I started writing in grade school, and after many years and multiple attempts, I finally published my first book The United.
I presently live in Southeast Idaho with my family, my wife, three sons, and two daughters.
And not I am at 9 published titles with 1 on the way at the end of July. My goal is to have 20 published titles (short stories, anthologies, novels, novellas, I’m not picky) by the end of 2022, and I have nearly half-way there. I am excited about that.
Is there anything you would like to know about me?
I am a HUGE fan of the Star Wars franchise, not so much in the games, but the films and I am reading through a lot of the books. My favorite animal is the volkrog, and when I am not writing, I am either at work, sleeping, or eating. I try to add in some family time as well.
James Quinlan Meservy - Author 