Procrastination

Hi

Note: please read that in Andrew Scott's voice if you know who he is.

Since we've discretely skipped over the introductions, we can get right down to it: for the past weeks, I've been procrastinating. Not with everything, mind you. In fact, in many ways, I've been quite productive. I paid the bills. I wrote that vbscript to modify a JSON file (if you aren't familiar with either of those words, let me translate by saying I spent three days writing and debugging 700 lines of code to add 10 lines to a simple text file). But everyone at work was happy I solved the crisis of the week so I can be happy too. Right?

I wish. 

See, I might work in some obscure branch of IT most people have never heard about but, when I'm not writing horrible scripts I truly and dearly hopes the world at large never sees, I write fiction. 

If you're like most other people I meet, the obvious question will now be: why does a guy in his mid-20s wear black nail polish? 

Okay, okay, I'm kidding. Most people don't notice the nail polish and go straight to: what do you write?

Hah. That's the easy one: sci-fi and fantasy. I've been writing since I was twelve and my first novel's coming out as an e-book in a few weeks.

Oh crap. Here comes the hard one because conversation tends to flow thus: Oh, that sounds cool. What's it about? 

Were this to be a real-life conversation, I'd flail around hopelessly, open my mouth once or twice, and genuinely look like an incompetent buffoon because I can't condense an entire novel into a simple sentence and convey the essence thereof in a split second. 

Thankfully this isn't real life but the first post on a blog called Another Flock - oh, if you're wondering about the name, I adore sheep and all the less obscure names on blogger are taken. But I digress. I'm trying to tell you about that book I wrote. So let's abuse this neat thing called copy/paste and...

In a city consumed by war, one soldier is determined bring his terrorist father to justice.

Germany, 2072. To the citizens of the United Earth Government, politics are a thing of the past, implants a part of daily life. Humanity has found peace at last, or so the Government claims. On Marh 25th, a terrorist plot turns millions of civilians into mindless puppets, willing to take up arms against their Government, willing to die for a cause they've never heard of.

To Samuel Lobreu, a Government soldier, the crisis is simply another mission. He doesn’t quite get the ‘coerced by implant’ line but knows his duty: eliminate the terrorists and their unwilling pawns. But, when Samuel learns his father is connected with the terrorists, he becomes obsessed with a single question: could the man who had raised him be the mastermind who corrupted millions of innocents? There's only one way for him to find out: confront his father and hear the truth for himself.

For those interested, release date's set for 10th of May and you'll be able to pick it up here or Amazon or wherever else it'll end up being available.
 
Of course I don't want to seem like I just made this post promote my own novel, even if that' what motivated me to start this blog. Actually, that's a miracle in itself because, like I said at the beginning, I've been procrastinating for weeks. There's all sorts of things I want to be doing: wash that growing pile of dishes in the hall, clean up the mess around the house, buy and play through Bioshock Infinite, download the School of Rock soundtrack, go clothes shopping, edit that fantasy novel which has been lying around since January and... okay, let's leave the list there because I'm starting to feel a wee bit guilty after that last one. 

Unfortunately, guilt isn't enough to get any of that stuff done. There's no deadlines in private life, no boss breathing down your neck, not even a friendly kick in the ass from time to time. On second thought, my friends do occasionally tickle me when I deftly avoid some event I promised I'd go to...

Anyways, it's almost depressing I haven't got over that adolescent mentality of "study five minutes before the exam" but that's the state of affairs. Thankfully, there's a shred of hope: I can take "start a blog and post about my upcoming novel" off the list. Even better, this gives me an excuse not to do anything else productive all weekend. 

Aww yeah! And I'm off to do just that.