I know, I know. Hardly a daily blog, amirite? Those who know me well know I never make excuses. This is no different. I have been working on the first draft of my first novel. I use a program called Scrivener to do my writing as it lets me keep notes, research, maps, character and location descriptions, and even note cards to help me keep track of my project. One feature of Scrivener is a Project Targets option where I can enter my goal word count (100,000 words) as well as a deadline and days each week when I will write. I currently have my schedule set so every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are writing days. As it stands, I have to write at least 2,639 words on each writing day to hit my deadline. That accounts for three days. Tuesday I have physical therapy for a knee injury. Tuesday is also my day to do photography, some of which you can see on this site. Thursdays are dedicated to job searching and sending out query letters to do articles. Being a writer is my dream, but I still need medical insurance and the lure of a steady paycheck is strong. Saturdays are my free days while Sundays are my website days. So, each day has a dedicated task, but the schedule is not restrictive; while Tuesday is photography day, I can still write on Tuesday. In addition to that, I am a stay-at-home dad responsible for driving my kiddo to and from school, running errands, occasional shopping, and occasional cooking. Finally, I’ve been having some major sleep issues and for the past month I have been barely awake.

So. That accounts for my time. Like I said, I’m not making an excuse. I’m not asking forgiveness. I’m simply stating my case. Okay? Okay. Moving on…

I found something in my email this morning, an article detailing eleven things about being a writer. It came from a group called NY Book Editors. They regularly post articles relevant to writing and publishing. Here’s a link if you want to read the article for yourself: 11 Things No One Tells You About Being a Writer. Being a novice at writing anything other than news stories, I enjoyed the list and I would agree with almost all of it.

So, are you a writer? Whether you are or not, do you agree with the list? Most of it? Let me know in the comments.

So, I’ve been getting more involved in photography. I’ve had a blast the past few weeks shooting street photography, and I thought I might share some of it with you. Sound good? Enjoy, and please comment.

Cheers!

Most everyone who knows me knows I love photography. As much as writing. Yes, it’s possible to have more than one love in your life. Most of what I’ve been shooting lately has been landscapes from our various excursions to Rocky Mountain National Park, Dinosaur Ridge, and the like. And I love getting out and taking pictures of nature, especially when nature is in conflict with humanity. (My favorite image of this is a forest with a clear-cut path to make way for high voltage power lines. They constantly have to cut back the trees that are trying to move back into that space.) Well, with knees like mine, who needs enemies? Hiking is, for the foreseeable future, a thing of the past. So today, with the help of my youngest, I’m going to play around with urban street photography. In Denver, there is a stretch of gorgeous old buildings. Some of these are more than one hundred years old and still being used as office buildings, storage spaces, and upscale apartments. These buildings are (almost) all protected as heritage sites. This includes Larimer Street, probably my favorite single block of downtown. So after pizza, I’m going to spend a little time wandering around there getting photos of the beautiful buildings and the crowds of shoppers & eaters. Oh, maybe lunch at Larimer Street Market?

Also, yesterday I wrapped up the Institute for Environmental Solutions (www.i4es.org) photo shoot. Hearken back to last Saturday, I was out shooting the Xcel Energy Day of Service with IES. 403 photos, whittled that down to 50, and I’ve been retouching those photos Monday and Tuesday. Well, they’re done and I’m very proud of this set. If I get the okay, I will share some of them here. The series fell into my “man vs. nature” interest, but in this case man is helping nature by fostering a cooperative relationship. Man lays down a strip of pavement for a bike and walk path, plants in the immediate area die. Man then comes in, plants native trees and flowers, shrubs and grasses. Man comes back regularly to ensure the plants are watered and tended to until they are hardy enough to withstand the onslaught of man. Plants thrive, local fauna thrive, and man has a nice place to take a walk. Win/Win!

I don’t remember where I was going with that so I just kept writing. I think what I was headed towards is that it is possible for nature and humanity to coexist, but it takes an understanding on humanity’s part that nature will ultimately win regardless of our efforts. So, we better learn to live with nature rather than in opposition to it. It makes me thin of a house Frank Lloyd Wright designed years ago. The house is in a densely wooded area, straddling a waterfall that Wright incorporated into the design. Man living with nature. Very cool stuff.

Okay, I need a shower. Cheers!

Hi! Remember me? Your friendly neighborhood wordsmith? Whew,I’ve really been putting on the miles these past few days. How, you ask? Well, have a seat, grab a coffee, sit back, and enjoy the tales of my most recent endeavors!

Since Tuesday or Wednesday, I’ve been dealing with a major cold. Still dealing with it, in fact. Conked out, drugged up, you name it. Miserable times. I slept, and when I wasn’t sleeping I was in a fog and coughing up my shoes. So, for the most part the week was a “let’s do nothing and feel miserable” kind of week.

Jump forward to Saturday. Patti works with a local nonprofit called Institute for Environmental Solutions (check them out at www.i4es.org). They partner up with the local power utility, Xcel Energy, for their Day of Service. Since I’m not too shabby behind a camera, I agreed weeks ago to shoot photos of the event for IES. Well, Friday night I was questionable. Saturday, as you probably guessed, I was out there with my camera, snapping happily away as volunteers worked to clean up a stretch of land where IES has planted trees and plants to help shore up and beautify the area as well as help educate children. 403 photos later, and I’m feeling pretty good. Get home, transfer photos to my computer, run out of hard drive space (!), buy an external, transfer more files, and finally go to bed as the transfers work their magic. Sunday, I spent the day taking it easy, editing photos and such.

Now, as many of you probably know, I have very bad knees. Two months ago I had surgery on my right knee, and I’ve had two surgeries on the left knee. So it’s no surprise that my knees were very mad at me for Saturday’s hours of shooting. I’m used to it, hence my plan to take it easy on Sunday. Also, you remember that cold I was dealing with all week? Yeah, I knew I wasn’t completely done with that as well. So, that’s Sunday.

Monday I’m doing various appointments in the morning, return home, and I’m not sure what exactly hit me but all of a sudden I’m half asleep. Not drowsy, not worn out, I mean eyes half closed, head lolling around, me forgetting what I’m doing. I’m out of it. I pull together somewhat and go about my evening. Tuesday morning rolls around like a steamroller on a fresh pile of asphalt. Except I’m the asphalt and head congestion is the steamroller. Not cool. I’ve managed to clear up somewhat by now, but that tickle of sinus pressure is starting to build and my eyes are starting to ache. (Sidebar here: How do eyes ache? I mean, it’s a hollow ball filled with jelly and lenses. Seriously, WTF?) So, looks liek another day devoted to photo editing. I’m disappointed as I had hoped to drive M to campus downtown, then park somewhere and do a little street photography. Maybe later this week.

Okay, time to go get doped up, or whatever NyQuil Daytime does to you. At least it’s minty and cool. Cheers!

I hope you all had a very pleasant Labor Day. For myself, I sent out query letters for articles and made a London Broil with buffalo ghee and roasted veggies for dinner. Delicious!

What could possibly be better? Realizing just a few minutes ago that I hit my 1,211 word minimum for the day, and then some. Not much more, but that's because I'm waiting for some "behind the scenes" details to help me flesh something out. So, yes. I'm still working on a book. I have a goal of finishing it by the end of November of this year. That means, I need to do 1,211 words every day to get the manuscript finished. Then, edits and revisions can truly start in earnest.

You know, I'm really excited about writing a book. It's a challenge to take specific policies and procedures, insert a character into them, and create a complete world off of it all. I mean, it's fiction, so technically I can just make stuff up. I'm making a real effort to be as accurate as I can to things outside my character's life while keeping the character's freedom to move and act within these restrictions. Maybe one day I'll explain, but for now you'll just have to guess.

It’s been a minute since I’ve done an update. So, let’s hop into the time machine and go back to Wednesday.

Anniversary day, I bought Patti a zero waste lunch kit. I pieced it together from items I bought at the Zero Market in Aurora (www.zeromarket.com). Patti got tickets to the Chef & Brew event where we had some amazing food and beer combinations. Then, insomnia kicked in and I didn’t sleep until noon Thursday. Maybe later. Thursday was a blur. Friday was a recovery day, errands and trying to balance my sleep schedule.

And that brings us to today, Saturday. Errand day; groceries, cleaning supplies, etc. That’s where I’m at today.

I should mention that I have an interesting kitchen challenge, cooking with buffalo ghee. I have ideas, but I’m trying to avoid the easy route and just doing Indian food. Still, whatever I do it will likely involve naan! So, any ideas?

It’s Tuesday evening. Tomorrow is my 22nd wedding anniversary and, of course I didn’t get a present until this afternoon. But it’s cool, I’ll Tell you what I gave and received tomorrow. 

In addition to waiting until the day before, I got an early present today. Over the past two weeks, I’ve been sending out query letters. These are letters pitching an idea for an article, and it’s the main way freelance writers get articles published before they have a solid list of publications. I got a response this evening. My first response to a query letter. I’m so excited to announce...

Sierra Magazine rejected my article!

Neat, huh?

i know, not exactly what you were hoping. Me neither. They didn’t reject it because it sucked, but that it didn’t fit the magazine’s editorial needs at this time. Magazines are weird. Like television, there’s a season for everything. Right now, Sierra magazine is not looking for articles on zero waste, so they had no need to ask for the article so they could read it. Rather, they chucked it. Magazine editors know there’s another writer who can do the article when it’s time for it. Or, they may reach out to me and ask for the article I pitched way back when. So, no worries. Plus, I sent the same story idea to another magazine. They might be looking for that topic for an upcoming issue.

This discussion reminds me, I need to send out more query letters to pitch story ideas. For me, this is always the hardest part, coming up with ideas. In fact, I hate it. However, when I put my mind to it I can come up with some good ones. It’s a habit I need to develop if I’m going to be successful. 

Okay, I’m off to find a good-sized notebook to write down ideas in. I actually have something like four blank notebooks, leather-bound, that can fit in my pocket. Which one to use...?

Cheers!

Stephen

Well, second off I can assure you that numbering each post will NOT happen.

If you've had a chance to look over my site, you surely came across my work samples. I hope you liked them! If you did, please let me know by commenting below. If you didn't, please let me know by commenting below. If possible, please tell me specific things you did or did not like.

Also, if you looked over my site you may have noticed how "stock photo"-ish the photos look. That's gotta change. Over the next few days or so, I plan on shooting my own photos to use on this site. Maybe a couple of "action" shots? Super-dramatic low-angle Dutch tilt shots? Straight on, "Big Brother" style reminiscent of the movie "1984"? Okay, maybe not that last one.

Seeing as this is only day two of stephenvenneman.com, I still have a lot of work to do. That said, I'm pretty pleased with where I'm at right now.

Cheers!

Stephen

And, well, this is the first post. After writing for 30+ years, professionally since 1999, I've finally decided to take this from side gig to the main stage.

• Am I nervous? Yes.
• Am I confident? Yes.
• Will I succeed? Yes.

Why? Because writing is my passion. Whether it's a novel, a press release, or an article, I want to write it. I need to write it. I ought to stop now before this turns into a cheesy '80s rock ballad.

Now. If you're on this page, most likely you know me. Hi! Do me a favor, tell your friends to check out some of my samples. Hell, tell them to check out ALL of my samples. Let them know that if they need writing, whether or a web page, a press release, or just a second set of eyes to fix mistakes we all overlook, reach out to me. I would be happy to help, and the rates on my "Services" page are negotiable for friends and friends of friends. (Those third degree people can pay full price!)

Okay, I'm off to go write something. Cheers!

Stephen