I haven’t blogged in a while. I’m sorry about that, but I have excuses. I doubt they are good excuses, but excuses none the less.
I finally got my iPhone a little while back, and like any other new gadget I get, I had to hack it and figure out how it all worked. It held my attention for about a week. During that time I didn’t written anything, which includes blogging. I’ve been pretty much glued to my phone. Thank God, my wife is very understanding and tolerant of my obsession with new toys. She is very patient with me during these times of distraction in my life. She let’s me know, occasionally, how bad I’m getting, but patient enough to give me the time to come back around to the real world. I’m finally back and ready to write and blog again. I have another smaller excuse to tell you about and then I’ll talk about my current writing.
My family just got back from a vacation in Branson, MO. The kids had a great time riding the rides at Silver Dollar City and so did I. I had to do the fatherly thing and accompany my youngest daughter, Alexis, on some of the rides that I wouldn’t have chose to ride by myself. But I did get to ride the biggest roller coaster they had just before we left for home. Wildfire was awesome—all 30 seconds of it. On the first drop I thought my stomach was going to push my eyeballs out of my head, and as soon as you recover from that you start the loops. I love roller coasters and that one was great. I wish we would have had more time for me to ride it over and over again, but we didn’t.
I talked my oldest daughter, Brianna, into riding Thunderation with me. That was her first adult roller coaster experience. She handled it well, but the look on her face was priceless. She was completely shell shocked while we were on the coaster, but assured me that she had fun when we got off the ride. I asked if she wanted to ride it again, and without any hesitation got a resounding NO in response. 
We also got to take the kids to the Dickerson Zoo in Springfield, MO. they had a blast feeding the carp, goats, and giraffes. I got a few videos of the excursion that you can find on my Facebook page and later, when I get around to it, on my Youtube channel. We also got to eat at my favorite restaurant, Joe’s Crab Shack. Brianna wanted to be just like me, so she had snow crab from the kids menu. I had Alaskan King Crab. Yum!
Now, a little about my writing. I’ve been working on a story for a little over a month, now. I spent almost six months with the story in my mind before I sat down to write anything. Even with all of that planning, I’ve been struggling to finish the first chapter. The hero is just too All-American for me; I think. I’ve had another idea floating around in my head for a few months that is more my style. I like the anti-heroes and unlikely heroes. The main character in this new idea is a mixture of both. The story is a little darker with some religious overtones. I’ve decided to abandon the first idea (for now), and work on the new one. I think the story will flow from me easier than the one I’ve been working on, and as a bonus, it is a more original idea. I’m looking forward to getting started writing out character notes and plot developments. Bring on the writing.
I want to leave you with two questions:
- How are your manuscripts coming along?
- Do you think it’s ok to abandon an idea if it’s not going anywhere? or Should you keep trudging through the story until you make it work?
–Jerry Stewart
Artist: Green DayAlbum: American Idiot
Song: Holiday
This is the worst news I’ve gotten in a while. I’ve been waiting to get an iPhone knowing that the new one was coming out in the summer. Then I had to wait until payday to be able to afford one, and now there aren’t any iPhones anywhere in Arkansas.
