Tag Archives: news

196. TMTF Celebrates!

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My typewriter monkeys and I have worked on this blog for nearly two years. Well, that’s not quite true. I’ve worked on this blog for nearly two years. My monkeys worked whenever they felt like it, which was approximately twice.

This blog’s two hundredth post is approaching, and TMTF shall celebrate!

Well, this brings back... memories.

Well, this brings back… memories.

The next three posts will highlight aspects of this blog’s storied career: A Brief History of TMTF, The Art of TMTF and—of course—TMTF’s Top Ten TMTF Posts.

As for the all-important two hundredth post… well… I have some news. It’s not bad news exactly, but it’s… um… it’s definitely news.

You see, I lost a bet with my typewriter monkeys. I told them that if they worked steadily on TMTF for an entire week, making no mistakes and setting nothing on fire, I’d allow them to put together this blog’s two hundredth post. They would have complete freedom to do anything they wanted.

I was sure they’d lose the bet.

They didn’t.

I don’t know what they have planned, but they’ve informed me it will be incredibly epic and will also have something to do with ice cream.

I’m scared, guys.

After the two hundredth post, I’ll be taking a break from this blog… assuming it survives. TMTF shall return on August 9, 2013. I plan to spend my month off working on future posts and writing fiction.

My typewriter monkeys will spend their month-long vacation in Tijuana. I don’t know why they want to go to Tijuana, and I think it’s best for me not to ask. Some things are best left a mystery.

Join us, dear reader, as we spend a couple of weeks celebrating Typewriter Monkey Task Force: this absurd, messy collection of caffeine-fueled ramblings about faith, writing, video games, literature, life, the universe and everything!

175. Win a Free Copy of My Book!

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I wrote a book. And you can win a copy. A signed copy. For free!

I’m giving away three paperback copies of my novel, The Trials of Lance Eliot, as part of a contest. To enter this contest, you must do one or both of the following things.

First, follow me on Twitter!

Second, share a link to this blog on your own blog, Facebook profile, Twitter account, Tumblr page or website!

Having done either of these things, leave a comment on this blog post or use the Contact page or contact me in some other way telling me which you’ve done. For doing one of these things, I’ll put your name in a hat; if you do both things, your name will go in the hat twice. On April 19, I’ll pull three names at random from the hat. (For the record, the hat will be a fez.) Having selected the winners, I’ll contact them to ask for their mailing address and send each of them a signed copy of my novel!

This could be yours!

This could be yours!

If the same name is selected more than once, another name will be pulled from the hat—in other words, only one book per winner. Nevertheless, having your name submitted twice will improve your chances of winning!

The purpose of this contest is to build a platform—that is, to reach new readers—for my novel and this blog. If you take part in this contest, you’ll be giving my writing career a little boost—and you’ll be giving yourself the chance to win a brand-new, autographed copy of a novel readers have praised as “humorous,” “thought-provoking” and “a delight to read.”

To conclude: follow me on Twitter or share this blog, and then let me know which of these things you’ve done. And please spread the word!

In a week, I’ll select the winners!

172. Geeky Wednesdays

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Like Pokémon and Darwin’s finches, TMTF has evolved over time. It began as merely a blog about stuff. It has become… well, it’s still a blog about stuff, but I’m better at writing it.

Socrates! I choose you!

Typewriter monkey! I choose you!

Besides its regular posts, TMTF has featured quite a number of extras: a fantasy novella, a series of reflections on Christian living and some creative writing. Even ordinary posts have featured artwork, comics or poetry instead of my usual ramblings about faith, writing, video games, literature, life the universe and everything.

I like things that are different, and I’m thinking of adding something different to this blog.

Posts are published on TMTF every Monday and Friday. What about that midweek gap? Why are there no posts on Wednesdays? Fear not! My typewriter monkeys and I are considering a new feature on this blog we’ve decided to call Geeky Wednesdays.

You see, I’m sort of a geek. (You may have noticed.) I play video games, read biographies of J.R.R. Tolkien and sing songs about psychopathic, science-obsessed computers when I wash the dishes.

Geeky Wednesday posts would consist of something that amuses or interests me (a picture, literary excerpt, Bible verse or YouTube video, for example) and my brief commentary thereupon—anything from a single sentence to several paragraphs.

These Geeky Wednesday commentaries would be shorter and less formal than TMTF’s numbered posts. My observations would range from silly to serious to scholarly. One week I might reflect upon a verse from the Book of Job; the next I might decide which video game character has the best mustache.

At least one previous attempt to add extra features to this blog ended in failure because I was simply too busy. Upon giving the matter some thought, I’ve concluded I can probably handle Geeky Wednesdays without much difficulty. Brief commentaries on geeky things would be much quicker and easier to write than ordinary posts.

What are your thoughts? Would you enjoy impromptu ramblings about geeky things, or should TMTF remain uncluttered by extras?

One more quick question: Is anyone annoyed by links to previous posts? I’ve noticed how often I link to older posts, and I can’t help but wonder how many readers I’m irritating.

Too many Links?

Too many Links?

Should Geeky Wednesdays become a new feature on this blog? Would you prefer fewer links? We need to know! Let us know in the comments!

166. A Blog Post with Many Exclamation Points!

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Today is Be Nice to Someone on the Internet Day!

Go to someone’s Facebook profile, blog page, YouTube channel, deviantART page, Twitter profile or Tumblr account and leave a sincere, encouraging comment! Send someone an appreciative note, message or email! Find some other way to be nice to someone on the Internet!

Go quickly, before I run out of exclamation points! Let someone know he or she is appreciated! This is your mission!

That’s it, I’m out of exclamation points.

In seriousness, take a minute today to make the Internet awesome, and spread the word about Be Nice to Someone on the Internet Day.

In the meantime, I’ll order more exclamation points for this blog. I’m also short on the letters Q and K. I wonder why that is. I hardly ever use those letters. Oh, well.

Hey, here’s one last exclamation point. I’d better use it carefully.

Here goes: Go be nice to someone on the Internet!

155. Caution: Monkeys at Work

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Have you ever seen those signs that announce how many days have passed since the last workplace accident? TMTF has one of those signs, but but we go by minutes instead of days.

Even so, we hardly ever break double digits.

Yes, caution is necessary whenever my typewriter monkeys are at work. We’ve been working behind the scenes for a couple of days, and I’ve been very cautious. I’m alive and injuries have been minimal, so I think we’re doing well.

Besides reworking TMTF’s tags and tagging old posts, we’ve standardized formatting, replaced broken links, made revisions, fixed errors and generally done our best to make this blog beautiful.

TMTF now boasts a Tags feature! Tags classify posts more specifically than categories. Scroll to the bottom of TMTF’s homepage or any post and you’ll find a handy list of tags; clicking one will take you to the posts marked by that tag. It’s a convenient way to navigate this blog’s posts without plodding through the Archive.

We also held board meetings to discuss things like marketing, budgeting and future plans. Since I detest wearing formal clothes and sitting through tedious discussions, these meetings were pretty awful. (I can’t believe I had to dress nicely when my typewriter monkeys didn’t wear anything.) It took many hours and quite a lot of coffee, but we reached some important decisions.

Trying to cope

This photo, snapped during one of our board meetings, sums up my feelings about business stuff.

Last year, TMTF shared a crazy idea called Be Nice to Someone on the Internet Day. The idea was, well, to be nice to someone on the Internet: to leave a sincere, encouraging comment or compliment on someone’s Facebook profile, blog page, YouTube channel, deviantART account, Twitter profile or Tumblr account.

I think it was a great idea, but I was too hasty in springing it on my readers. I’d like to do it properly this year: spreading the word and getting other bloggers involved. Although last year’s Be Nice to Someone on the Internet Day took place in August, we’ve decided to celebrate it on March 4 this year.

Moving on: my younger bro, whose fantastic artwork has previously been featured on TMTF, now has a deviantART page! An online art community, deviantART exhibits work from millions of artists—including my bro, whose beautiful pencil-and-paper reproductions of art and photographs are now on display.

Check out his deviantART page and be amazed!

What are you waiting for? Go check out that deviantART page!

“What are you waiting for? Go check out that deviantART page!”

Well, I suppose I’d better get back to work… cautiously, of course. It’s been twenty-two minutes since our last accident, and I’m expecting another at any moment.

131. My Novel Is Now Available as a Paperback!

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My typewriter monkeys and I are excited to announce that The Trials of Lance Eliot, my debut novel, is now available as a paperback!

(Well, I’m excited. My typewriter monkeys really don’t care.)

When I was a child, I wanted to write a book—a tangible, ink-and-paper novel that could sit on a bookshelf with The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia and The Wind in the Willows. My novel was published a few months ago as an e-book for Nook and Kindle devices, but I really wanted to see it released as an old-fashioned book. Thanks to my publisher’s patience and expertise, The Trials of Lance Eliot has finally become a proper novel.

Many years ago, I decided to write a fantasy. I wanted the hero to be an average person who stumbled into another world, but I faced a perplexing challenge. How could the hero move from one world to another? I didn’t want him to blunder through a wardrobe or a looking-glass or something else that has already been done.

At last it occurred to me that magicians are always summoning things from one place to another. The Pevensie children are transported from their world into Narnia in C.S. Lewis’s Prince Caspian, and Aladdin invokes a couple of genies from who-knows-where in the Middle Eastern folk tale.

It made me wonder: What if the magician summoned the wrong person?

With that, more than six years ago, a story began that would grow into The Trials of Lance Eliot, the first chapter of The Eliot Papers.

In the novel, Lance Eliot, a timid college student, is snatched up by magic and thrown into another world by a mage who mistook him for Lancelot, the legendary knight of Camelot. Now stranded, Lance must embark upon journey to return home, meeting heroes and scoundrels (and possibly a dragon or two) along the way, and becoming—much to his own surprise—a hero.

For more than a quarter of my life, The Trials of Lance Eliot and The Eliot Papers have been my greatest passion as a writer. I’m extremely excited to share Lance’s story as an old-fashioned paperback, and I hope you’ll consider checking it out!

123. And Here We Go!

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Not long ago I posed a question to the reader (or readers; I’ll be optimistic) of this blog: What needs to change?

I suggested some changes and received quite a lot of encouraging, helpful feedback. This post will explain briefly what’s changing and what isn’t.

The Turnspike Emails are officially discontinued. I love the concept, but I’m afraid I’ve failed to do it justice. Besides, Turnspike Emails are deuced hard to write.

By popular demand, book reviews are here to stay. I guess that means I’ll have to stop rereading old favorites and pick up something new. I’ve been meaning to read Life of Pi and The Hunger Games, and Brave New World has been gathering dust on my bookshelf since I picked it up from a yard sale a few weeks ago.

My typewriter monkeys and I will choose the next book for review using the same process we use to make all major decisions about this blog: writing each option on a slip of paper, taping the slips to darts and throwing the darts at a picture of Friedrich Nietzsche. Our final decision is determined by which dart comes closest to striking the exact center of Nietzsche’s mustache.

This blog’s standard varieties of posts—About Writing lectures, That Time I _____ anecdotes, reflections upon the Christian faith, commentaries upon video games, totally biased flawlessly objective top ten lists and posts about random topics—will continue, and Why [Insert Author Name] Is Awesome posts will become a regular feature.

I’ll also post creative writing occasionally. Unlike usual posts, these creative pieces won’t be published according to any schedule. They’ll be posted occasionally on Wednesdays. My monkeys and I make no definite commitments.

When I moved into my apartment last month, I was relieved to find out that my typewriter monkeys are considered residents; I don’t have to pay a pet fee. They’ve taken up residence in the hall closet, which they have converted into a base of operations for nocturnal raids upon the refrigerator. I’m thinking of buying a lock for the fridge to keep out the monkeys, or possibly rigging a car battery to run electrical current through the refrigerator handle. The first option is more economical, but the second option is strangely appealing.

Now to be serious. It’s not too late to offer advice, criticisms and suggestions for this blog! TMTF will continue to grow and change over time. We’re always open to new ideas.

My sincere thanks to the folks whose feedback and encouragement have helped shape this blog.

And here we go!

120. TMTF’s Future Is Yours to Shape!

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Wait, which way to the future?

Stale is a nasty word. It makes me think of television shows or book series that have gone on too long, or even—oh, the horror!—packets of cheese crackers that have been opened and then forgotten in some obscure corner of the snack cupboard.

This blog has been up and running for more than a year, and I don’t want it ever to become stale. My typewriter monkeys and I are considering making some changes in direction for TMTF, and today’s post is to give you—yes, dear reader, you—an opportunity to shape this blog’s future!

I’m thinking of discontinuing the Turnspike Emails. These posts are TMTF’s version of The Screwtape Letters, a book by C.S. Lewis that explores Christian ideas from a demon’s perspective. I’ve used the Turnspike Emails to reflect upon (and sometimes to vent about) various spiritual issues. However, I’m not satisfied with the Turnspike Emails. I don’t feel like I’m doing C.S. Lewis’s excellent idea justice.

Shall I stop writing the Turnspike Emails?

I’m also considering discontinuing book reviews. While they’re fun to write, I haven’t been consistent enough in posting them to justify their existence as a regular feature of this blog.

Shall I keep the book reviews or stop writing them?

I intend to continue writing several categories of posts. The About Writing posts are here to stay, of course, as well as the That Time I _____ posts in which I share anecdotes of odd adventures I’ve had. (I’m running out of stories, but I still have a few up my sleeve.) I’ll definitely keep my reflections upon the Christian faith, my commentaries upon video games, my posts about random topics and, of course, TMTF’s ever-popular top ten lists.

Depending upon feedback, I may feature some of these categories of posts more or less often.

Which of these categories do you want to see featured more often? Which do you want to see featured less often?

I’m thinking of adding a new feature highlighting authors whom I appreciate. These posts would be titled Why [Insert Author Name] Is Awesome, and would introduce writers, explain what makes their writing significant and recommend one or two books with which a beginning reader can start.

Is this a good idea for a new feature?

I’d also like to feature more creative writing. While I probably won’t feature any more serials like The Infinity Manuscript for a long time, there are some short stories I’d like to share.

If I published creative writing on this blog, it would be on Wednesdays in order not to interrupt the usual Monday and Friday posts. In other words, creative writing pieces would be an addition to regular blog posts, not a replacement for them. Unlike blog posts, which are posted twice weekly, creative writing wouldn’t follow any kind of schedule. Rather, it would be posted only when I had something ready to post—probably once or twice a month.

What are your thoughts? Would the addition of stories make this blog better, or clutter it with unnecessary posts?

The stated purpose of this blog is “to impart hope or understanding or inspiration—or at the very least a healthy laugh—to someone who needs it.” I want this blog to make you think, or to make you smile.

This brings me to my final question.

What more do you want to see from this blog? How can my typewriter monkeys and I serve you?

My monkeys and I want to make this blog the best it can be. We want to brighten the lives of our readers, and we can’t do it alone.

Your suggestions, criticisms and advice are much, much appreciated. Please, comment away!

No Internet

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There was no new post on Monday, for which I apologize. My typewriter monkeys and I recently moved into a new apartment, and there have been unexpected delays in obtaining an Internet connection.

This blog will resume its usual posts on Monday… I hope. Thanks for your patience!

UPDATE:

A representative from an Internet company came to install Internet stuff in my apartment, but one of my monkeys bit him and now the company won’t send another representative. I’m trying to work things out, but I’m afraid this means there will be no new post on this blog on Monday, September 10.

Internet or no Internet, regular TMTF posts will resume on Friday. Adam has spoken, and so shall it be.

In the meantime, I suggest you go check out Just the Fiction, Ma’am immediately. It’s a blog about writing and faith, and it’s awesome.

113. Let’s Make the Internet Awesome

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Today is the day, ladies and gentlemen.

Please consider taking two minutes to brighten someone’s life today. And spread the word! Together, let’s make this the best Be Nice to Someone on the Internet Day the world has ever seen!

(Yes, today will have been the only Be Nice to Someone on the Internet Day the world has ever seen. That’s not the point. Stop being logical and go be nice to someone on the Internet!)