Jerry W Stewart

It’s been a while, but I’m back. I’ve had a lot of new things going on my life that are both exciting and equally exhausting.  A few things (like this blog) have suffered some neglect to make way for all my new endeavors, but I’m struggling to find a balance between the old and new. For starters, I’m going to make an attempt to guide this blog out of the wastelands of neglect and back to the fertile plains of creativity and useless information about myself.

I’m not sure exactly what I had going on in the past. Most of my attempts to create anything reoccurring where half-hearted at best, so I’m not going to make any promises to revive those. If I look back and find something worth reviving I may do so, but for now, I don’t have any plans to. All the changes and fresh starts in my life has inspired my to give this blog a (mostly) fresh start, as well.

I’m sure you are all dying to know what changes I’m talking about, and I promise I will tell you all about them in the coming posts. For now, I’m out of time, so check back tomorrow to see what changes I’ve made. Until then, I would love to hear about the exciting things that have happened to you in your life, so post them in the comments.

~~ Jerry W. Stewart

Another year has come and gone. I’m older and not much wiser. But, at least I know that I have friends and family that care enough about me to take time out of their busy schedules to remind me of it all and celebrate the passing of another year of my life.

All joking aside, I really do thank everyone for the Birthday wishes. It has truly been a reminder to me just how blessed and how loved I am. I’ve gotten well-wishes from family, friends, co-workers, and even one of my favorite authors (Rachel Caine) via Twitter. (By the way, Rachel and I share the same birthday. How cool is that?)

My daughters called me this morning from their mother’s house to sing the Happy Birthday Song to me over the phone, and they called a local radio station to wish me a happy birthday over the radio waves. My Facebook page is piling up with “Happy Birthdays”, and my phone hasn’t stopped dinging all morning. Holly, my beautiful wife, got me 3 books by Noah Lukeman. They are all excellent books about the writing process. If you’re interested check them out at Amazon:

• The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile
• A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation
• The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life

I can’t wait to get them in the mail either today or tomorrow, but enough about books…at least in this post. This post is for everyone who has helped me celebrate the last Birthday of my twenties.  The next one will ring in another decade, and I’m not sure how I feel about that, yet, so let’s make this one count.

My Nanny Linda and Alexis, my youngest daughter, have planned a birthday lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Fuji’s Japanese Steak. In about an hour I’m going to be sitting down with family and eating some sushi, house fried rice with loads of Yum Yum sauce, and filet mignon. My stomach’s growling just thinking about it.

I’ve also received cards (you know what can usually be found in those cards $$$), from family and friends, too. I don’t want to leave you out when sending my thanks. Some of us are separated by distance, and I hope to see you all soon. Thank you for remembering me, today, and thank you for my gifts.

Thanks again to everyone who has helped make this a birthday to remember

~~ Jerry W. Stewart

Good morning. It’s Monday, and I am in an unusually chipper mood this morning. I”m not sure why, but then again I don’t suppose it really matters why. I had a great weekend, because I managed to very little. I spent most of my time tinker with my current manuscript and spending time with my beautiful wife.

We did manage to get out of the house Saturday morning for a Santa errand and to watch my daughters participate in a small town Christmas parade. They were supposed to be riding in the Fire Truck that is behind us in the picture, but it didn’t work out that way.

They didn’t really care. They had a great time, and that’s all that really matters to me. I love to see them smile, and they were doing plenty of that on Saturday morning. I’m glad I could be a part of it.

Tonight Brianna, my oldest, is singing in her school’s Christmas program, so you can guess where I’ll be tonight. I’m looking forward to it almost as much as she is. She’s excited to be involved which makes me excited for her.

All this Christmasy goodness, is stirring the embers of Christmas spirit in me, and I’m finally starting to look forward to it. What have you done so far this Christmas season? Has it been all shopping and chaos or carols and Christmas trees? I hope it’s been treating you as well as it’s been treating me.

Merry Christmas from me and mine,

Jerry Stewart

It’s been a while since my last post. Life has kept me more busy than usual, but I’m making an effort to blog more regularly again. In this post I just want to fill everyone in on what I’ve been up to during my absence. I got my iPhone, and I’ve sent off for replacement. It quit charging the battery, so I went without a phone while I waited for the repair or replacement. It must have been beyond repair, because the replacement I got back didn’t have a small scratch on the screen. Overall I’ve been pleased with my phone. I just hope that this one lasts longer than a month. There is a new firmware coming out September 25th to allow MMS support on iPhone 3G and 3Gs. I’m looking forward to the added feature, so I will be updating my phone then.

I’ve also been busy teaching my oldest daughter to read and spell words. She’s in first grade this year, and it is crucial for her to learn to read. I feel like the rest of her education hinges on this year and her ability to read by the end of it. This has taken up tons of time, not due to a lack of effort on her part, but rather the words she is required to spell. She gets 16 words a week that range from 4 to 5 letters long. Every Friday she has a spelling test on the words for that week. The words so far have focused on the combination sound of a consonant + r construction (br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, and tr). She has some difficulties with some of the combinations, but she is willing and ready to learn. We work hard on her words, and she is making some major improvements. It’s still an everyday thing when I have her.

When I do find time to pursue my own interests, I usually spend it trying to fill my manuscript with words. It might sound easy, but there is a lot involved in writing a novel. It takes some serious determination and an adamant refusal to throw in the towel. I will admit that I’ve been tempted to just give it up and say it wasn’t for me. I can’t do it, though. First of all, I love doing it way too much, and second of all, I want to know if my efforts will ever be good enough to find a publisher. So I’m sorry that my writing time has been spent writing fiction and not blogging. I hope to find a balance in the future.

I saw a tweet on twitter about the Jung personality test. My curiosity got the best of me, so I had to check it out and see what my results were. I want to archive the results, because I think a lot of them are spot on, so I thought what better place than my blog. Without further adieu, I give you the results.

Jung Typology Test Results

Your Type is: INTJ

Qualitative analysis of your type formula:

• moderately expressed introvert
• distinctively expressed intuitive personality
• moderately expressed thinking personality
• slightly expressed judging personality

Links:

• INTJ type description by D.Keirsey
• INTJ Identify Your Career with Jung Career Indicator™
• INTJ type description by J. Butt and M.M. Heiss
• Maximizing Your Study Environment from Keirsey
• The above links describe my personality type in greater depth and provide some interesting tidbits. I’m going to share with you some of the ones that stuck out most to me.

• Here’s an Excerpt of Keirsey’s Analysis of a Mastermind:

• “Masterminds are rare, comprising no more than, say, one percent of the population, and they are rarely encountered outside their office, factory, school, or laboratory. Although they are highly capable leaders, Masterminds are not at all eager to take command, preferring to stay in the background until others demonstrate their inability to lead. Once they take charge, however, they are thoroughgoing pragmatists. Masterminds are certain that efficiency is indispensable in a well-run organization, and if they encounter inefficiency-any waste of human and material resources-they are quick to realign operations and reassign personnel. Masterminds do not feel bound by established rules and procedures, and traditional authority does not impress them, nor do slogans or catchwords. Only ideas that make sense to them are adopted; those that don’t, aren’t, no matter who thought of them. Remember, their aim is always maximum efficiency.”

An Excerpt From Keirsey’s Suggestions on Maximizing My Study Area:

“Masterminds (INTJ) care a bit more about their environment than Architects do, but once they are deep in a project, they can be even more concentrated and focused. The main thing a Mastermind wants is lots of uninterrupted time. They will skip meals, classes, even dates as they pursue the completion of a project.”

An Excerpt From Keirsey’s Finding Your Passion:

“The Mastermind (INTJ) is very focused as well, but more on an internal vision. They are good at solving problems and like to work on tough intellectual puzzles. They are often led into technical positions such as scientific researcher, design engineer, environmental planner. The developing field of genetics benefits from their intensity as does the field of medicine. In education they are most often found at the college and university level. In the professions, they may be a lawyer, a business analyst, or strategic planner. Some have a strong artistic/creative bent and may become an artist, inventor, or designer. Whatever they do, they do it with intensity. Says Kim, “I am constantly teaching myself something new in order to solve the problems that I encounter. My husband leaves me alone when he sees that I am caught in what he calls my “Thinking Time.” I’m unwinding knots even in my sleep.”

My decent into narcissism is drawing to a close. I hope you’ve enjoyed my results. I’m interested in yours. Go take the test here and post your results in the comments.

–Jerry W. Stewart