Back in 2008 I took a job that involved commuting an average of about 800 miles per week--that's five days of going 40 miles in each direction. Then I started Grad school, so I drove to work in the morning, the to school in the evening, and home afterwards. So you might say that I spent a lot of time in my car.
How did I survive? Podcasts. Nonfiction at first--EconTalk, by one of my professors at the time, and the Engadget podcast. But then I moved into the world of podcast novels. Even later, I found podcasts like Escape Pod or Dunesteef that actually provided new short stories on a weekly or near-weekly basis.
The long and short of it is that I have consumed a lot of fiction lately, most of it genre; that is, science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
I loved writing stories as a kid. While I have done a lot of writing as I've grown, most of it has ended up being nonfiction. Every so often I will get stricken by a bolt of inspiration, sit down, and write something right then and there. One summer I even sat down, planned out and actually wrote a novel. But these were the exception; while I had a handful of stuff I was fairly proud of, good writing comes from writing regularly.
That's where Amateur Hour comes in. Listening to all that fiction every week inspired me to give fiction writing another stab. Now that I have actually finished grad school I also have a little more time where I could work on it, as well. I'm not going to set any specific goals, other than more. More stories than last year, more stories than the last five years.
I assume that it will mostly be short stories, but I will also post longer works in progress as I complete parts of them.
Anyway, this promises to be very fun. I hope you'll take the time to look at some of what I've already done. Criticism is very welcome!
