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I recently turned 35, which is no big deal, but it did get me thinking. There’s a few things most people my age are expected to have – a job, a spouse, a kid or two. Lots of us don’t have all that, through choice or circumstance, but it is the expectation, the dream for many.

I have a very different life – no job, sailing the world on savings and writing stories. Lots of the people I meet also describe my life as living the dream, and, in many ways, I am. But unlike a dream, there’s more cooking, cleaning, sail repair and engine oil changes than glorious sailing into the sunset. And there’s more revision and rejection than the pure joy of telling a new story.

But those highlights still exist, as they do for all of us. There are the opportunities to swim with tropical fish and revelatory moments in my writing. They are what keep us doing those things we once only dreamed of. They are what lets us live up to or defy expectation. And in fiction, they are what makes things interesting.

Here’s to the highlights, and even the lowlights – the stuff of dreams and great stories.

The mountains of Quito, where I was distracting myself a few weeks ago

Back when I worked in an office, I imagined that once I moved away from land and on to the boat that I’d have tons of time for writing and other things that kept getting filed in the “I’ll do that later” pile. It turns out that distraction is everywhere, especially in those places I tend to go.

As I write this, I’m looking out at a beautiful beach with surf coming in to the grey sand shore. In some ways, it’s the most conducive environment for writing I’ve ever had, and in others it’s almost impossible to get anything done. It’s hard to sit down in a chair with a laptop when you could be out surfing, looking at ruins or otherwise hanging out with all the other merry-makers.

My point is not to spark envy among all of you freezing in offices, but rather to point out that there’s no such thing as the “right” environment to get things done. The only way anything ever happens is if you make it a high enough priority and just make the time for it.

In order to help get people to donate to the Haiti relief effort, Crossed Genres magazine is hosting a list of free short fiction online.  Check it out and read some stories, make a donation and/or post your own work.

I’ve been “on holiday” for a couple of weeks now, in Canada to see family and friends and get stuff done for the boat.  It’s been a lot more work than you’d imagine.

One of the jobs I’ve been doing is preparing for the launch of my new novel, Self Made this January.  I knew it would be a lot of work; I’ve done it before, but never with such a deadline.

However, I’m pleased to report that things are more or less on schedule, so January 10, 2010 expect to see the free audio and pdf podcast go live on the site.  You will also be able to buy the full unabridged novel in print, ebook and audiobook at that time.

I’m really proud of this story, and I hope you all like it, too.  Until then, it’s nose to the laptop time for me, and I hope you all have a great New Year.

See you 10.01.10!

Last night, after writing somewhere between 6000 and 8000 words over the course of the day, I finished the story.

Whew. Now I can get on to that short story idea I got on the interminable bus ride from Manta back to Bahia.

Yay!

* I hit 50000 words yesterday, but I still have about 5 chapters (maybe about 10000 words) to go. So it’s done, and not done.

This nano was strange.  I’ve done it under lots of different conditions: unemployed, fully employed, living on the boat and working, living on the boat and sailing.  This year we undertook our longest passage – it was 7 days and about 600 miles.  For the sailors, it was 6 days closehauled with a lumpy sea.  The first night out I wrote a big 0 words.  After that I got into a pattern of writing while on night watch until my laptop was done.

Once we made landfall I got more writing time, but there were a lot of distractions.  It was, and continues to be oddly difficult.

However, I’m loving the story and am very excited to get to the end of it, so I hope to keep my very good pace of 2000-3000 words a day until it’s done.

I had planned to write about 3000 words today, wanting to get nanowrimo off to a good start. Ha!

The watermaker sprung a leak and much worse, the solar power charger is completely dead.  That means no solar power, which means not a lot of power period.  We spent a lot of time fretting with these things before deciding that there’s nothing we can do right now.  We ran the engine awhile for power, but came ashore to charge the laptops.

It’s been a bummer of a day, but I’m over 1700 words and my laptop is charged, so I’ll probably top 2000.  Not bad, but not what I wanted. Sigh.

One of the joys of cruising is that you get a lot of time to read. One of the problems, though, is that there’s only so much space on board for books. This is often solved by the various and varied book exchanges one finds in the places where boats congregate. Sometimes it a well stocked and organized set of bookshelves, and sometimes it’s just the corner of a bar on which people dump their old books. Either way, it’s a great source for gems as well as those books you pick up because you’re desperate for something to read.

I’ve gotten a few that were worth a mention, from either end of the spectrum. The most recent one that sticks in my mind the the late 80s thriller “The Eighth Trumpet” by Jon Land. I’ve always liked thrillers as escapist fiction, so I’ve read many and think I have a pretty decent critical eye. This book was startling in its complete lack of anything that made any sense. It was one ridiculous escapade after another, with implausible plotlines and unbelievable motivations from start to finish. It has no less than two horror-film quality serial killers, three global secret societies and shootouts at Madame Tussaud’s, a cathedral in Malta and a military outpost in Antarctica. It also has a stolen, secret nuclear submarine. And I’m only scratching the surface of the insanity. It was admittedly a very fun read, but not one tiny iota of sense in it. I didn’t even know there were books this crazy getting published, even in the 80s.

On the other hand, I’ve been lucky enough to be able to trade for some real winners, including Octavia Butler’s “Lilith’s Brood”, an SF trilogy about a post apocalyptic Earth saved by aliens. I’ve caught up on a lot of the books on my “to read someday” list thanks to book exchanges, like “Beloved” by Toni Morrison, The Great Gatsby” and “Memoirs of a Geisha”.

Book exchanges are like libraries, only better in some ways because their selection is limited, so you end up with stuff you’d never ordinarily pick. It’s a great way to expand your reading list and just because that issue of Ellery Queen or Analog is four years old, that doesn’t mean the stories are stale.

I have been a user of GrandCentral (the telephony service that is now Google Voice) for a long while.  It’s ideal for a world traveler like me.  When Google acquired it, I knew it would change for the better, which it has.  Unfortunately, the main advantage was that it allowed me to make free calls to Canada.  When it became Google Voice, calls to Canada became merely cheap.

I waited until the last minute to upgrade my account in order to get as many free calls home as possible.  Eventually, though, I had to bite the bullet and switch.  I did, and immediately bought some calling credit.

After a couple fo calls I noticed that my credit balance wasn’t updating.  I poked around, and discovered that calls to Canada had become free.  Yippee!  Of course, I didn’t need that credit I bought anymore.  I figured that I’d just have to eat it, but decided to ask for a refund anyway.  It never hurts to try, right?

Well, lo and behold, I got my refund!  Well done, Google!  If only everyone had such great customer service.

I finally finished the first draft of a story I started in El Salvador. I have such trouble finishing things without a deadline, even a totally fake one. I have to start making them for myself.

Editing will go faster that writing, I hope. The only problem is I have two more story ideas that I want to get on to before I tire of them. I guess it’s fake deadline time!