Go check out the new TobiSummers.com! It's a more static website that I feel will better showcase PACK MENTALITY, PACK SUPREMACY, and my future books. I'll continue to update this blog at this address, or you can view the most recent posts here.
Enjoy, and thanks for visiting!
I occasionally fall into long periods of introspection. I get so overwhelmed by everything that happens in the world and in my life that my brain turns off and I find myself unable to get motivated enough to write a birthday card, let alone a book. Like an attack of ennui, but less... depressed (because, I promise, I'm actually happy while this is going on, just sort of lazy).
That's at least partially to blame for my extended absence and complete lack of productivity over the last few months. As I mentioned in a previous post, I moved in April, which led to a downhill spiral of too much to do and not enough desire to do it all. Which led to five weeks spent vegging on my new couch (the comfiest couch in the history of couches, by the way) watching Buffy for the first time. Which led to two weeks of, "Why can't I write as well as Joss Whedon?" Which explains the half-unpacked boxes that are still cluttering my apartment four months later.
Plus, I got some more responsibility at work, which led to a few weeks of late nights trying to finish some projects.
But it's a new month, and I'm kicking my ass back into gear. Pack Mentality is so close to completion I can taste it. I pushed the release back a month, so it's expected publication is now October 8th. I plan to spend August finishing the edits, sending it out for a final proofread, and nailing down my cover, so the month of September will be devoted to promotion. I'm really excited about sharing it with all of you (and the rest of the world).
I hope everyone's had a good summer so far! Sorry I haven't been keeping up with blogs and book releases; I'll do better about that!
I finally caved and created a Facebook page. Come check me out at http://www.facebook.com/TobiSummers!
I made a lot of mistakes when I started blogging. Not big things--definitely not things that might haunt me for the rest of my life--but they say the devil's in the details, right? One of those mistakes was trying to be cute with my blog name. The original name of my blog was One DV Rebel's Guide to Writing. It was an homage to Stu Maschwitz's The DV Rebel's Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap. It was kind of an inside joke with friends, but at the time, I didn't think anyone would really be reading my blog.
So when I decided I wanted to start using my pen name and getting more involved in the writing community online, I changed the name to Chock Full of Words. I'm quite fond of this. But since I'd already started linking people to my blog, I never changed the URL from writingguide.blogspot.com. And for the last two months I've been thinking about that. Without the rest of the joke, "writing guide" seems pretentious. It's also only tangentially related to the actual blog now.
So this morning (which I swear was not deliberate because it's "R" day) I decided to set up a new URL, using my name, and redirect people from the old link. I expected this to take about ten minutes. It did not, especially since I made, like, 400x more work for myself by creating a new blog and trying to make it look like the old one, instead of just changing the URL of the old one and using the new one (with the old URL) as the redirect. If it sounds confusing now... yeah, it did then too.
The only thing I'm not sure of is whether you'll actually see these posts through your subscription reader. I think I did everything right. I set up a Feedburner account (you can see my feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/ChockFullOfWords). I added the URL to the Post Feed Redirect URL setting in the old URL. And now... I think you should see this. I guess we'll find out. (It might in your best interest to update your subscription to this feed instead of the old one. Also, if you know of something I'm doing wrong with the redirect thing, please help.)
So originally this post was going to be about Real Men, but the feminist side of my brain objected on the grounds that I wouldn't like it if a post like that was written about women. It was right. My views on Real Men are superficial and shallow and born from too many hours spent watching American Idol. So I'm not going to write that post.
Then I was going to write about religion and racism and a whole bunch of other controversial issues. But honestly, now that Blogger's beaten the will to type out of me, that seems like a lot of work. And I already have a post scheduled that will have to do with politics (because apparently I'm a glutton for punishment). So I'll put this one on the back burner for a little while.
So that was my morning. How was yours? Happy Friday!
P.S. Though I'm not going to post my whole rant, this is how Real Men should sound when they sing.
This one makes me cry every time.
*shiver*
Darius Rucker is both what a Real Man should sound and look like.
I mentioned some changes yesterday, and here they are. In a few months I'll begin querying agents for Rosetta (which will probably no longer be called that by then), and, in an effort to begin marketing myself better, I think it's time I start actually creating an online presence for myself. So I'm making the switch to using my pen name more online.
THEREFORE, the name of this blog has changed to "Chock Full of Words". Because "One DV Rebel's Guide to Writing" was a cute homage to a Stu Maschwitz's book, but "Tobi Summers' Guide to Writing" just seems condescending. The URL, however, will not change.
Also, I have a shiny new Twitter account, under the name TobiSummers. I started following some people from the blogosphere, but tell me your Twitter handle if I'm not already following you.
That's about it for now, I think. Now that I've finished procrastinating, I should probably go back to editing Rosetta.
