This is Think Tech Hawaii. Community matters here. Oh, I'm so happy to be here. Community matters on a given Wednesday with Sharon Moriwaki. Are you still the co-chair of the Hawaii Energy Policy Forum? For a while, yes. We're still going with energy. Clean energy is still our... She's been dedicated to that for how many years? It's a long time already. She has seen and shepherded Hawaii's entry into renewable energy. And she's really an important person in that regard. But also, she ran for the primary. She is running for Senate District 12 in the Hawaii State Senate. And that's why she's here today. So we can examine her reasons for running and how it's been for her and what it's going to be like going forward. PS, she won the primary. This is the important thing. Thank you. Thank you. Nice to be here, Jay. I miss being on our usual Wednesday show for clean energy. So it's nice to be here under different circumstances, of course. We miss you intensely from that show. Thank you. Thank you. But your shadow is the long shadow. It was the shadow that designed that show in the first place. And it is with us all the time when we do that show. Thank you. Anyway, so why in the world would a nice person like your own self run for the State Senate? What made you do that? Well, you know, this is what I keep telling people. It really depends on what your cause is, what your mission is. And for me, it started five years ago in Kakaako, as you know, with all the high-rise development. A lot of the buildings were getting through variances, building too close, too high, too densely, not following the rules that were in place. And so the community got together and we did topple that board and we made changes to the law. But it still wasn't the same because we still had to be vigilant about the senator who was supposedly representing us. And it didn't change. And I was really afraid that it would not change and we couldn't stand another four years. So it was based on that cause that we the people need to speak and you've got to stand up for what you believe in. And I felt that it was a time to step forward on behalf, take it for the tea. It's a really perfect example of civic engagement. You know, it's somebody who feels that the neighborhood ought to talk to government, ought to get government to respond. Somebody who goes out and goners a group, a coalition, if you will, from the neighborhood and then runs for office with them supporting her. It's really what Mr. Smith goes to Washington is all about.  Well, it was a challenge. I didn't know what I was in for, the amount of work that's involved and what it takes and what it costs to do it. But I'm glad I did. I met a lot of very good people in the community. Smart people, committed people, wanted to be connected people, but have never had the opportunity. So it's exciting. It's very exciting.  You loved meeting people. There's a psychic benefit in that. I've campaigned that way, not on my own behalf. And I know what it means to knock on somebody's door and introduce yourself to walk the neighborhood that really is important. I've done it for so many people and it's different when you do it for yourself.  You're very vulnerable. I remember some of the doors I knocked on and you know, if he wasn't going, what are you selling? And you say, it's me. I'm selling me. I'm just ready for the sale. I'm just here personally introduce myself and they open the door and say, well, nobody came to talk to me before. And so you start a conversation, a relationship. So very interesting. I really, I did enjoy it.    And I think that's the psychic benefit of it. You're connecting with someone who you haven't connected with before who you probably wouldn't connect with except for the fact that... That's true. But there's a lot of people to talk to in this district. District 12 runs all the way from Kakaakura Waikiki and what, up into... Up into Makali. It's a huge district. And this is really the heart of the city. It is the urban core, basically. Yeah. And it's very diverse. There are basically three separate, like you mentioned, three separate neighborhoods, communities that are different, quite different. They're diverse. Yeah, so you have to reach people in all kinds of situations and there are different issues in the different neighborhoods. And you have to do a lot of walking.  That is walkable. So it's 70% condo dense. You can't get into condos now. So you've got to find different means of getting to the condo dweller. Who I think sometimes are too isolated. They don't know the issues because no one gives them information and they get a lot of junk mail. So they won't read it. So I think the real challenge is to let condo owners know that they're part of the community and they have a voice and they really should be much more aware of what's happening and get more engaged. Yeah, sure. We want people to be engaged and to vote. We had a 38% voting in this last election day. That's not enough. That raises a very interesting question because the state more and more is condos. Condos have security. Somebody walking the streets is not going to be able to get in and they're not going to hear what you have to say. That's right. How do we fix that? How do we make a connection between the people who live in the condos and beating the candidates? How do we do that? That's what the challenge was for me and what I've done is a couple of things. One, that's where all my expenses were, to send out the mailers. Hopefully people will read it. And my mailers were identifying issues that I heard in the district, flipping it over and giving them a possible solution so that there was something of substance that they would be receiving. I also met people through chats. I'm in the community once a month. I try to be in each of the neighborhoods. Neighborhood board meetings, sure. And neighborhood board meetings as well. And when I met people in various condos and if they had especially the transient accommodations and people being really concerned about rentals that are less than 180 days, I would take my treasurer, Jane Sugimura. I call her the condo queen. I would take her. And it would be terrific because she could answer every question that they had. And that's one way of educating condo dwellers because they had a lot of questions. And they had no place to go to ask. The condo animal is a very complex animal. So I think what I hope to do when I get elected is to be out there in the community, have these kinds of sessions if people are interested but I am planning to be in the community once a month and in fact I have places I found Margaritas in Cali, Ili, Ili Waikiki cheeseburger in Waikiki and Kakaako Social experience. You just sit there for an hour on a Saturday at a given time and people have concerns can just come and meet me. Gosh, that reminds me of Frank Fosse. That's what I'm going to do. Theo's back in the day back to the future. Yeah, they would come and talk to him and he would talk to them. What a wonderful idea that is, no kidding. Because I think people will come to my office. Who is going to go up to the Capitol and try to find parking? So in the community it's my community as well as their community that we have a chat. What a wonderful idea Sharon. That don't really be special. So what issues did you find they cared about? I know you covered a lot of issues. You took a lot of positions on many issues but what were the ones that surfaced? Number one is everywhere across the state housing that people can afford. Housing. It's housing. Even when you look at the homeless issue it's housing. I mean they're homeless because there's no housing. So that has to be the number one issue. And it's across the board. They may come in different forms in the three districts but whether it's not having to work or having to have some low cost loans I can fix up my home. It's all relates to housing. Affordable housing so people can keep their kids here. They're all going. We are the one state Sunbelt state that has lost population and that's unusual for any Sunbelt state to lose population. Terrible because the human capital is the most important capital we have. We train them and then they go and we lose all the benefit we might have from them. It's more than the brain drain. Dave Heenan wrote a book called Flight Capital and we're talking about capital and talking about human capital and Hawaii has that problem. And not only that the legislature said oh well they gave 200 million to build 1600 rentals 18,000 that's you know what I mean that it's got to be that amount every single year for the next 10, 11 years. And that it's not only rentals. I think we have to help people as Peter Savio says rent to build equity because if you have a rental your salary could go up but so does the rent and so you don't have that kind of discretionary income but if you rent your own then that mortgage that you're paying is your building equity and you have a more stable community so I really want to push that as a major, major issue that we have to solve. And Kakaako is a great laboratory for this it is the center of the city it is the new city if you will it is a laboratory it is a place where these issues can and should be tested because there will be other communities elsewhere we should learn all the lessons we can learn from Kakaako and apply them elsewhere so you're really in a perfect spot to invent to shape the new Honolulu from where you are it's really an important place so what happens from here now we're just going into September, there's September there's October and boop there's election day in November so the big challenge for me was the primary of course because I was up against a 10 year incumbent so of course that was very, very challenging incumbents always have an advantage they have a big advantage named recognition they've got all the connections to the money they have connections to a lot of resources and I was basically building the grass planning the grass roots at that level with people and relating to people as we discussed earlier but there's still two months left and I do have a Republican opponent so I'm not taking it for granted or I really need to continue not at that kind of intense pace that we had but certainly I'm continuing to campaign we will have a fundraiser so that we can continue to send our message out of hope, change and that we will be representing we the people and not those that are only those that are well connected so that message has to go out that I'm here to represent my district, all of them yeah well I was telling you before the show that's my perception why you are different than a lot of people who run for office and who hold office because you really do represent the people you don't represent special interest groups you represent the right and that's impressive and refreshing I might add that should be the model that all our legislative candidates follow and and when elected they follow in the legislature so this is really special I'm able to get that message across to people because it's a little sophisticated to say I'm different because I really represent you I see myself as your agent and there's a certain purity involved in that I mean I think people want to have hope that I mean a lot of people say I'm not voting because it doesn't really make a difference you know and others say you know when I vote for you and you get it are you still going to remember me others I mean the people are frustrated with government and government not representing them they get jaundiced about it frustrated about it so I really promise and pledge that I will represent the people and that is my pledge from day one to whenever they put me out because I'm not representing their interest anymore and they've moved on but I'm not I don't feel that I'm entitled to this position like I tell them we are working for the people because it's your tax dollars when I should get in that pay for me so you should be looking at what I do and my performance like any other employer and if you say Sharon hey you know you're not doing the job for we the people then boot me out I'm not paying yourself anymore I want to get some other employee I don't I really think that we've forgotten there's other way around it's not we have to go up to the capital and talk to the senator it's like they have to come talk to me lovely idea lovely idea that really resonates for me I know a lot of times you find you're represented by somebody you don't even know and you never get to see that person and you know it's high on a hill somewhere but not in your neighborhood really you're different and that's wonderful and I hope that other people find the same way to achieve that sort of proximity to the voters one other thing is so this year you changed your life I did you were in the university for a long time you were running the energy policy forum for a long time you were dealing with a fairly large group of people you know stakeholders in the energy community and all of a sudden stop you run for office and then you changed your life and then you ran successfully for this primary for the past six months it was really something to watch all that energy I saw happening in the energy policy forum was now happening you know in your candidacy okay so here we are it's you know the end of almost September and I have a question okay you've been through a lot you've had life altering you look great to me you look wonderful actually maybe you relaxed after the primary election but how have you changed you must be introspective have you changed? I don't think so it's the same me I think I think I'm the same me what I think has changed is my perspective because I talk to so many people just like you and me out in the community and you know when you're at the university it's not ivory tower so much because the kind of work we did was you know you're an outreach from day one but it was wonky people people in business in industry in the renewable energy sector you I've enjoyed that and it's policy development but these are people struggling with their life they're working two jobs but others like I met a doctor she wants to do more in the community this couple that I met my theme is let's care for each other how can we do more of that and they have some ideas and some programs I mean it's how do you make the connections of these people are such really energizing and real kinds of contributions that they want to make and they've never made that connection empowerment empowering the people so I want to work on that and see how that connection connect more of the dots between people and government to study in democracy which is very important in our time to fully appreciate how it works so I can visualize you there in your office not good wait wait kind of chickens but I can visualize you and I can visualize people coming to talk to you and you going out to talk to them and you have a thought and ideation about what it will be like what it would be like should you win the general what sort of senator would you be what sort of agenda would you have I know housing would be one of those things energy would definitely be one of those things the elderly okay talk about that will you well that's about 56% of my district are elderly 65 and older and many want to stay at home live at home but you know your health goes and we've got to find ways in which we can support that in a bigger way so that you can help them stay at home and live their life fully and their own homes and familiar surroundings so working on that I just talked to senator hihara today and he's you know he has this kupuna caucus and so talking with him about the possibilities of what kinds of things we can do to support the elderly more to be more vibrant in their older years their aging years and to make it much more fulfilling even if you you know you're in the the autumn of your life well that's such an important question the demographics are changing regrettably a lot of the young people are leaving leaving you know the kupuna to fend for themselves somebody has got to take care of them because the economy is tough on them you know things are more expensive housing is more expensive the dollar doesn't go as far and so forth and it's really important to create a state that will take care of them and so you know one more question along the same line what kind of a state would you like to see us have what kind of state well as I say in my motto it's caring for each other this is returning to other times earlier times when we did we cared for the least of us and how can we do that in a more equitable way in a way that we can still have a vibrant economy but that economy then takes forth and appropriates for those who are you know in need the homeless you know and we haven't quite gotten that equation right some people think we've lost that equation maybe you can help us regain that equation the other thing is infrastructure everything is aging not only people but you know like in kakaaka we feel we've got the drain system the sewers the storm drains are you know when it rains big issue in kakaaka and I think it's across my district it's the Makalimo Ili Ili Waikiki and the environment the shoreline and how we're over building on the shoreline so having to look at that and caring capacity and seeing what can be done one figure I know is $17 billion a year comes in from tourists Waikiki gets only $7 billion of that and they generate a lot of it so why can't we get more in to build up the infrastructure in this area this urban core it is so central to our generating a strong economy and why not invest in what is really precious the engine that drives our economy we should take care of it we should not marginalize it in any way one other thing it comes to mind you mentioned Senator Ihara and of course I know him too but I'm thinking that over the years especially the years you've spent in the energy policy forum and because of the legislative briefings you've done on an annual basis and sometimes more often you know the legislature you know the long standing members you know the Senate pretty well how does that help you in terms of doing what you want to do how do you see your social engagement among the existing members of the state senate well I don't know the internal workings of the senate yet I do know my relationships with senators as we had issues and I've been able to get along with most of them and able to get some of the bills that we thought were very important energy bills for example and so I think my position on and real value is looking at collaboration looking at how we can get along with everybody so everybody can't get everything they want but let's work together and I'm going to push that as my approach to getting things done to the senate there may be internal workings that I'm not aware of just yet but I'm hoping that everybody's there for the same reason we want to make Hawaii the best place that we can so I'm looking at mutual interest in getting the work of the people I really like to hear you say that because you know when you were with the energy policy forum you know that's what you were doing you were getting people together to collaborate in a neat way all friends here we all work together for years and years I mean it was really quite something it has been quite something and now you can do it again you can do it in the senate where it's very important but the other thing is that you just alluded to a minute ago is that you worked on energy bills for however many 15 or 20 years and you saw the bills being drafted you saw them being revised and amended however the case may be with testimony and all the data coming in so you know the legislative process of course it's energy but it's much more than that because you saw the process happening in so many ways that's got to help you being a senator to facilitate this collaboration and therefore the passage of good legislation I hope so I really do hope so I am hopeful that there will be that kind of dialogue among my colleagues that we all want the same thing and in different ways and different committees but that there is this mutual respect for serving the people of the state well I know you've been in the media a lot recently yes your success in the primary has been covered by many many media really a wonderful surprise a delight a new face a new entry into the senate campaign and I'm so delighted you came down here and talked to me so thank you Sharon wish you well in the two months to follow and I hope we can have another show soon soon yes thank you thanks for inviting me Jay it's always a pleasure


Welcome to church of the chair where we celebrate all the things we do while seated. I'm your host E and today We're doing 30 minute writing sprints starting now. I'm gonna jump right into it Allow people time to get in go ahead and chat ask any questions talk about whatever you want to Over there or down there. I'm not sure where it is for you. But anyways, we're gonna just started Morning Lee, how you doing need some coffee go get yourself some some bean juice So profit top of the morning to you. Hey, Derek. How you doing? Hey, Jay, right? One of my king. Oh cool. Are you going by Viking over there neon Viking? I'm gonna take my break here in about eight minutes and when I come back we'll chat If y'all would like to hang around and there's a seven minutes now But uh, once I get back, we'll talk about 15 minutes and then I'll get back to work I'm hoping to break 5,000 words on the new project today Been going really slow about 500 to a thousand words a day, but they are good words Good words. Just call me good word Move empty coffee cup. Hey, but at least you got time spent with your son, Craig I'm assuming that's why you didn't get any writing then These are both good things and I'm sure you agree. Don't get me wrong. How's Pam by the way? Sorry, my carpet tunnelers is working is acting up awesome I'm glad to hear that When I'm Brian, how you doing? Yeah, I'm doing fine. Just working. You know how we do Got about two minutes left and then I'm gonna go on break come back talk to y'all for about 15 minutes and then uh I Don't get back to work. Oh, I'm stiff today brother stiff today.  We will chit chat for 15 minutes or so and then we'll get back to work Take it sleazy Hello, blue yeti Bleb-bleb bleb-bleb-bleh blue yeti two people's in here Seven times 15 minutes y'all have my attention until then I'm going to read over what I wrote While y'all think of something to talk about oh As in spooky noodles, or your name just Nick There's another Nick that comes in by the name of spooky noodles Hello, Ty. Happy Trans day of visibility Look into my blood work and trying to figure out what it all means it can be confusing I might be able to help you out I don't know if you want to say it publicly but you can message me on discord or whatever I'm pretty well versed in all that nonsense also if I can't answer it my niece is a laboratory manager like traveling lab technician just kind of versed in all that stuff so if you have any questions I can get you answers if I don't have them ah okay so it was Nick how you doing Nick I wasn't sure if you were a different Nick or there's a lot of nicks in the world buddy Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick patty smack Nick Nick patty whack give oh Nick a bone oh yeah all the time Viking but uh if it's if it's needed I just shut the fuck up and right um you have to there's something to be said for being able to go to that place and being able to come back from it as long as you can come back from it that's the important thing just know that this is a temporary sojourn not a permanent destination you know what I mean just don't end up like Heath Ledger and so many other people who went dark and never never found the light again but yeah I do it all the time with stuff I write and it is hard to get out of but gotta do what you gotta do the good part about it if there is a silver lining is if you're upsetting yourself that's good because you're gonna upset other people in a good way I'll put in my blood work PDF and discord and tag you thank you thank you tie I will check it out on my next break get back to you as soon as possible you're welcome anytime I am so confused I so I can't find a a concrete answer on how to write an American word is telling me it's all one word with no hyphen and a lowercase a Google is telling me it's un hyphen capital a American yet Miriam Webster's I believe it was or maybe it was dictionary.com I can't remember one of the dictionary says it is UN capital a me you know American whatever without the hyphen I am so confused so I'm just going with word right now because I found if you send stuff to editors and word underlines it as an error they are more apt to fix it even if it doesn't mean fixing so I'm doing what makes word happy yeah I can't find a I can't find a single site that agrees with the other one I guess I've never had to type that yeah the line is as simple as he thinks there's nothing more un-American than censorship damn it Nick whether you meant that as like a dad joke or not that was it made me chuckle thanks for that now I'm hungry yeah yeah I want to read you something real quick I'm going over what we still got a couple minutes we got like six and a half minutes but I want to read you something that I wrote that I am highly disturbed by and it's not that it's like gory or disgusting in that note but it just came to me the the character that one of the characters that I'm writing dreams dreams all the time has very absurd dreams and the dreams are based on my own dreams so the other night I had this dream and this like abstract poem popped into my head but it's also upset it's it's sexually absurd and I wanted to read it to you guys let me catch up here and I'll do that okay so let me read you this idiocy okay he dreams of absurdities hey mr.  I'm a sister fister I'd fist your sister quicker than I'd kiss her mixer I'm a semen demon steam cleaning your being daydreaming and reaming been seen wrecking rectums and erectory munching in your refractory respectfully of course respectfully of course sensational if you get that reference we we're we're friends not that we're we aren't already friends but yeah respectfully of course sensational space milky way for blood evolution in my hand I'm gonna call away oh it is it is bill payday and I have 19 19 emails from all my bills and cards and everything else you paid it thank you for your pet things right there's a it feels good these days to be able to make payments it really really does I remember days where I had to choose between rent and food man that shit was no fun I had days when I didn't even know if I was gonna eat and didn't have roof over my head sure beats being homeless that's for damn sure but slow building slow building success has never come all in all at once for me I've been homeless twice I've lost everything I've owned multiple times thank you tie hi it's time to get back to work y'all see look at this y'all see this that's my cat you see the little teeth marks demon got very very aggressively loving and she was laying on my chest and petting my beard or this this puke thing I got growing on my face running her claws through but she does it all the time running her claws through just petting me as I pet her right so she goes in starts licking my forehead and I'm trying to I got the book over here and I'm trying to read and she's licking my forehead and then all of a sudden chomp just two teeth right here teeth teeth to to what we do for love what we do for love little bastard yeah she does it all the time though she's very aggressively loving she will headbutt you at heart like someone punches you that's why I call her demon not because I don't love her but because she acts like a fucking demon she's so violent yep violent love that is demon my cat was like that but as soon as I said how you immediately stop yeah demon does too I shall make biscuits on my chest or my belly meat or wherever she's laying and she'll but I'll say ow and she'll retract or if if I don't say anything I usually like pat her claws and she'll retract them but same here I mean the teeth were already in my forehead they were already locked in place before I said ow and then she came back I swear to God if anything ever happened to me and there was no one else around that cat would eat me have a meal for the next three months I swear she's like I love you let me devour you fat man that's what she calls me well that's what she calls me in my head anyways and I call her chonk rap supreme sometimes let me type that out because it's funny I also call her OB shitty because I call cat shitties so yes be my chonk rap supreme I'm her fat man she is my OB shitty I am her biscuit making table I love that damn cat I love that cat to death she's getting older and every day I'm like don't you dare don't you dare not leave me I will dig you up and go to a pet cemetery I swear to God I'll be Lewis Creed in this bitch my I'm from out of space I got Milky Way for blood evolution in my veins feel like that was my dog he's getting old yeah I mean you know it's eventually coming we do this shit to ourselves over and over and over again Haley just went through it we we pour all of our heart and soul and love and everything into these temporary things and it hurts but we move on and we grow and learn and we fall for another one because we're glutton's for punishment alright 30 minutes on the clock let's do another writing spring I'm not really sprinting I'm kind of more like lurching along at this point but I'm enjoying myself and that's all that matters leave me alone I'm also trying to show people that you can write multiple different ways you know you can be fast and speedy or you can be slow and steady it's see what was that noise like one of those slide whistles cats yes yes yeah that noise was an American speed doesn't matter just as long as you're doing it that can be used for a lot of things maybe the speed does matter for us anyways let's let's get back to writing you're fine time I'm gonna turn out this air that's I think that's a great line but Jesus Christ makes my eyes hurt and he staggers down the hall eyes chunky with sleep and it puts you right there you get the eye boogers and everything without saying I boogers it's it's great but I got the duck quack bottle back hey Alec how you doing it is going fantastically my friend how are you doing good that's good that's good fantastic I'm doing really good I had my blood drained they literally drained a liter of blood off of me a few days ago and I have felt exceptional ever since so supposedly my heart was working too hard because my blood was too thick my hematocrit was 56 percent and they said Howard the water bottle Howard the bottle anyways so they took off a bunch a whole liter I posted the pick up on discord they did that and it was so thick they couldn't even use it for donation so they just had to chuck it in the biohazard been but yeah ever since then I've been feeling like a whole new person oh new person now it's not bad enough for blood thinners but it is bad enough that they needed it they need to give me an oil change basically thanks Ty acupuncture yeah about a decade ago for my back in my stress level I had middling results yeah I'm gonna be they're gonna be draining a liter of blood from me every month until they figure out what's causing it I used to write for for about nine years I believe it was a little less than nine years I wrote longhand everything I read I wrote several novels short stories probably 30 40 short stories longhand probably about 10 novels longhand one of them ended up being 660 pages when it was published but yeah the very last thing I published under the old name was written longhand and after that I went back to doing I went back to working on the computer so for two reasons first so I could do these streams and another reason is just because I had less and less time so yeah I used to write nine years I did almost nine years yeah I do I do my notes on my work my not my word app my notes app on my phone longest thing ever in longhand my novella and 600 pages yeah it was something like 1300 pages I had these 75 page notebooks and I mean the stack of them was like this big when I got done but yeah so it's a pain in the ass to keep up with but yeah I do it I did it that's another reason why I started writing longhand again Viking is because I and it didn't get any better so you know that was a that was a waste but it also helped my word choice like I had to edit far less when I wrote longhand because I had to be methodical and think about my words because I'm also OCD and I hate wasting paper so if I wrote something the wrong way I would literally rip the page out and start all over again so that the page would look nice but I had I had to kick that because that was a wasteful ass having thank you to hand back his checks because they couldn't read them and my mother was like that but she was a nurse so she wrote in that doctor scratch I'm having a great day John thank you all right John wants to know do you ever feel that while you write a certain one of your books it will have more importance than others or do you see all equally yeah I mean I think it's normal to think while you're writing that this one is the one or that this one is better or more important or holds more weight than the other ones but also a thing to remember with me is I do job or work to so j o bb er and what I mean by that is like I'm not writing ghost writing and you know writing under pin names so I do I write a lot of stuff that I'm not putting my full heart into because it's not my work so yeah there's also that not everything I work on is going to be important to me but it might be important to someone else another thing that I find interesting is I never know what people are going to quote like there's a there's a line in one of the old books that says he smiled like a man getting a hand job from a shake weight enthusiast and that was the most quoted line on Goodreads from any of my works and I just thought it was a one-off sentence I thought it was funny of course that's why I left it in there but yeah anyways so definitely when I'm when I'm working I definitely have the feeling that something is you know this is better than my last one or this is the best book I've written in years or so on and so forth happens to me all the time if I write in cursive it looks significantly better I do a bastardized version of cursive and not cursive like I'll I'll still sweep my letters together so it's just easier I don't have to take my pen off it yeah it does make you more methodical it's why I write with pencils as opposed to pens I can't stand pencils man because I the erasing makes this ruins the page aesthetically for me I recently got an old fashioned fountain pen and I'm curious to see how it changes my word flow word choice workflow and word choice got you I hope if I become a famous author people will look at my bad handwriting as a treasure it might happen who knows to me witty analogies like your shake weight and job are way more impressive than five syllable words someone found from a thesaurus Stephen King said in a lot of other authors say this there's no reason to use a five dollar word when a 50 cent word will do no reason for it if you're all you're trying to do is convey a message and be clear with that message it's always about clarity and as long as your words invoke what you want them to evoke whatever um yeah grant eloquence is magnificent dammit viking hell the road to hell the road to hell is paid with adverbs yes but he uses them too so it's just you don't want to you don't want to have every single line have an adverb in it he looked at her lascivious Lee she looked back at him tentatively you know that just it's just bad writing and that's that's all that is but if you can really you can really drive home a point with one adverb instead of an entire sentence of you know of description do you have any examples where an author became well known for work of theirs they weren't particularly fond of Clyde Barker's pinhead I know more bands who are who are grateful of certain songs then I do authors that are regretful for certain books and my mom and I always joke about Stephen King's adverbs yeah do as I say not as I do but you have to use adverbs sometimes the none of these rules are 100% the important thing is and crutch words are even fine and what I mean by that is as long as there's a flow as long as you're dancing to a rhythm when you're writing use use whatever words you want as long as there's a rhythm to it but if you get into a thing with the rhythms always the same and the rhythms never changing then you're going to bore people to death like I like I just said you know he smiled at her lasciviously she looked back at him tentatively they drove down the road laboriously you know that's that that that is bad writing huh I full 65 I gotta get back to work y'all got eight minutes and then I can go on break and we can come back and fuck around I'm almost a five thousand words I mean I could stop anytime but anyways I already got my I already got I already have a thousand words down is what I'm getting it I'm not really shooting for word count don't get me wrong it's just a good day anytime I hit a thousand well that's a fucking lie okay normally I can write like four to five thousand words a day but I'm I'm specifically focused on the verbiage the word use the structure the syntax all that stuff in this book it is all about the pretty languages the pretty words so I'm taking my time with it anyone doing pitch contests on Twitter now I'm not I don't even have a Twitter anymore have you listened to piano riffs it's on another level cool cool they had a song yeah I know oh yeah I've heard it oh yeah I'm sure all of us have heard it in fact someone just sampled it with a song that goes something yeah I'm I have the best fucking night of my life yeah I'm good yeah I'm feeling alright I have the best fucking night of my life anyways I don't know who did it but someone just sampled it very very recently it's been all over the radio and of course they say freak I'm gonna have the best freaking night of my life oh that's cool I didn't know that hi John have fun get your words in definitely have a good day alright I'm gonna take my break when I come back we can chit chat for about 15 minutes I might write some more I might not I don't know I don't have any new books to show you so we can hang out if you want to I think I'm done for the day I only got 4500 words so far I wanted to get to 5000 but I don't want to push anything and I want to leave something for next time so yeah uh any who I'll be back in 10 y'all y'all chat a month something fell excuse me I don't know that I've ever shown these oh how's everyone today are we all worshiping the mighty chair you are you are you are so uh buddy of mine sends me books all the time um he's a big collector and he sends out his collection sends me just the most random stuff right so there's these picador picador whatever modern classics these things are itty bitty this is my hand it can the whole thing can fit in my hand but I have the hours by Michael Cunningham and I have housekeeping by Marilyn Robinson I have seen the movie the hours I think it has Nicole Kidman in it and I need to look if it was directed by I've not read the book but uh I am shocked that is based on a book by man oh it's about Virginia Woolf I had no idea director it was directed by a dude too screenplay by a dude what what he might have it might say so in here I'm not sure yet the Pulitzer prize winning novel from the author of by nightfall passionate profound and deeply moving the hours is the story of three women Clarissa Vaughn who one New York morning goes about planning a party in honor of a beloved friend Laura Brown who in a 1950s Los Angeles suburb slowly begins to feel the constraints of a perfect family and home and Virginia Woolf recuperating with her husband in a London suburb and beginning to write Mrs. Dalloway by the end of the novel the stories have intertwined and finally come together in an act of subtle and haunting grace demonstrating Michael Cunningham's deep empathy for his characters as well as the extraordinary resonance of his prose Publishers note for a quarter century Picador has been producing beautifully packaged literary fiction and nonfiction books from our offices in New York our modern classics line pairs iconic books with a bold elegant design that's both small enough to fit in your pocket and unique enough to stand out on your bookshelf this is what they look like on the bookshelf I don't think they stand out I think they're rather boring but hey to each their own correct them under correct them under what's up writer guy you can call me each head hope you're doing well I'm doing fine man how you doing I'm about to start your book next week I'm reading yours and Victor Laval's new one Loan Women I got you're sitting right here pride of place and this one I'm gonna read them both together because they are vastly different concepts what's up writer guy save a copy to this PC then email it to my son I know I know I know I know I gotta close it out before I can send it boom sent upon you my nostril meat itches anyway so all my friends are in West Virginia Williamsburg anyways they're all at author con to and I has the sadness in my heart Todd Keasling Darren Kapoff even Wayne Finland Jen Bernardini they're all there and I am here you're welcome to so just me and you Chad were the only Lord Laurel high tower all of them were the only ones were the only ones sad panda no I'm getting a waddle lost oh Lord don't do that author con to electric boogaloo yep I got lucky with the blood evolution in my veins never been doing to author con been to plenty of comic cons though hey Nick are you still here paging Nick spooky noodles are you in a are you in Williamsburg I hate finding talented people on YouTube or tiktok or whatever and them not checking their messages is like you you're missing opportunities if you don't check your messages like I understand why especially the person that I messaged yesterday I get it but you're missing out brother you're missing out so what you have to Chad that's probably fun Viking yeah bummer I think Chad's behind on the chat I can imagine yeah any of those cons like dragon con any fan con is it's just a good time all around as long as no one starts any drama Nathan Ballinger has a new novel out and I'm wondering if I need to pull the trigger on it it's called the strange it's a tribute to Bradbury's the Martian Chronicles along with the harder realities of frontier life akin to true grit sounds very cool case y'all are interesting this is interested this is the book I'm talking about just came out 10 days ago cover looks cool yeah I like the the planets and the diner and all that stuff kind of reminds me of the Chad's new book scooby-dooby bow dooby-dooby-dooby bow yeah I got it right here I also have an ARC in the house welcome back Lee it takes a while to get going but like the the opening 1012 I can't remember when it happens but there is a scene in there that is absolutely horrifying and terrifying to me Mediana Enriquez does a fantastic job at subtle quiet horror and this one is loaded with it the British cover of strangers by Dean Coons thank you for the link I'm surprised it showed the link oh yes it looks exactly like it holy shit this different just a different tonal quality but yeah problems can't stay long I'm about to go anyways Lee I don't have much to talk about and I'm done working for the day I might work a little bit later but yeah it won't be much if I do they have been saying this is just I am taking my time with this book it's taking me two weeks to write 4500 words because I'm so because I like the pretty languages I want to do something with pretty languages that's not a but it's pretty language in the style of SOH so Chad you're probably going to be interested in it when it comes out and I'll definitely send you a link when it when it drops but I should probably put my my collection of it novels somewhere around here you can't see my mouse but somewhere where you guys can actually see them right now it's over well over on that side slow progress is still progress and running laps around those standing still I tell myself that when I'm going slow exactly exactly you can't fix what doesn't exist and slow is as good as fast don't worry it takes me weeks to try to the 3000 words and that's completely fine Lee I'm not worried about it and I'm not worried about you you will get things done what what happened what how how is beaver cleaver's or cleaver beaver is going I'm not sure which one yours is called hey speaking speak of the devil it's Tony about to say Tony's right in one and you wrote one you're still editing your middle grade novel cool my progress is sometimes crazy fast and sometimes small snail slow yeah so slow progress is progress yeah spent the morning emailing Amazon with list of categories for the children's book ended up springing for publishers rocket okay okay and lazy home body was in here yesterday saying they couldn't believe that you wrote a children's book they she thought it was a joke cleaver beaver is marinating awesome I said guys if you write the beaver stories I will do an anthology I'll publish an anthology I'll pay for everything I'll take care of the formatting the covers everything that you need and then all proceeds will go to you guys you'll just split it I won't make a penny I forgot how long it took me to write my killer clown story 23k maybe a month or two I think it was like two months I'm trying to get it done just got a break from medical school look at you about to become a doctor a call it leave it to beaver you write one called leave it to beavers I'd love to do that well I'm the offer stands indefinitely whenever you guys decide that you want to turn it in we'll collect them all and we'll get it out there please oh I will Chad because I'm really proud of this one and I was proud of SOH too but yeah so my problem is starting not once I get started yeah what was it Stephen King said there's nothing scarier than a blank page I'll probably even have a Haley designed the cover who knows man we can talk that new dude into doing an animation of one of the one of the stories like one of the shorter ones James Dow he came in yesterday his animation is really really fucking cool if you guys missed it it's up in the discord somewhere is anybody care to beta read it not I I want to read the finished product I do not want to be the I don't do beta shit I'm just kidding no seriously I want to read the final product and that's the only one I want to read I know that's that's very that's very jerky of me but it's the truth oh Vikings down Viking is down down baby don't shit on my rainbow ready to let her go I've been singing that song wrong for ever since it came out and I love my version so much I'm trying to decide I I've been reading so slow lately but something is pulling me to reread Stephen King's entire catalog again and I don't know why I've read every single book that he has ever written at least twice yeah Vikings on the discord he just joined today as a matter of fact my brother used to play that song constantly it was on the radio nonstop when it first came out and yeah come to find out Nelly likes young girls like is there any decent musician that doesn't have a deviant attraction to young people I don't know oh yeah revival your top ten it's in my top three it goes it pet cemetery and revival and then the wastelands and then the last one is a tie I don't know probably Dolores Claiborne and Leasey story I love them both equally Viking I will hear no slander about revival I need to turn my ear on I had my heater on this morning just your opinion that's what I got to say to that yeah then the ending of the book in my opinion I got to pump myself up first is the best part of the book because it just shows it just so so well the entire book is about the fleeting nature of life like how quick life goes by but that ending really really nails it like if you're talking about you know how quickly life goes by Wade against like mass you know what happens it just fits perfectly just the whole fucking world at that point goddammit charlie the hell is wrong with you I do love how these last the ring light looks like an eyeball in my in my glasses these are my reading glasses because the pages be too bright yo maybe I need to read it again yeah just well I mean don't just read the ending again I would say read the book again and keep in mind that the reason why the book is so short and why it jumps through time so much is because King was trying to do he was purposefully doing that to show the fleeting nature of life how quickly it goes by how certain moments define us or how we let certain moments define us I've only read one King novel in the past 10 years so you've missed like 15 books and one of my prized possessions is this Bible version of revival spicy it's a spicy meatball that that no that's a that's a HP lovecraft anyways in one way at least our lives really are like movies the main cast consists of your family and friends the supporting cast is made up of neighbors co-workers teachers and daily acquaintances there are also bit players the supermarket checkout girl with the pretty smile the friendly bartender at the local watering hole the guys you work out with at the gym three days a week and there are thousands of extras those people who flow through every life like water through a sieve seen once and never again the teenager browsing graphic novels at Barnes and Noble the one you had to slip past murmuring excuse me in order to get to the magazines the woman in the next lane at a stoplight taking a moment to freshen her lipstick the mother wiping ice cream off her toddler's face and in a roadside restaurant where you stop for a quick bite the vendor who sold you a bag of peanuts at a baseball game but sometimes a person who fits none of these categories comes into your life this is the Joker who pops out of the deck at odd intervals over the years often during a moment of crisis in the movies this sort of character is known as the fifth business or the change agent when he turns up in a film you know he's there because the screenwriter put him there but who is screenwriting our lives fate or coincidence I want to believe it's the latter I want with all my heart and soul when I think of Charles Jacobs my fifth business my change agent my nemesis I can't bear to believe his presence in my life had anything to do with fate it would mean all these terrible things these horrors were meant to happen if that is so then there is no such thing as light and our belief in it is a foolish illusion if that is so we live in darkness like animals in a burrow or ants deep in their hill and not alone this is probably king's best cyclical narrative where it all comes back around yeah that's just it's a fucking exquisite book period over and on with hands down exquisite yeah in the time it took us to talk in this chat king had written ten more novels I searched my Goodread shelves I've read nine king books so far awesome that teenager was me at the manga section in high school speaking of manga I gotta read the newest Junji I've I haven't read anything past do you right stop with the pointy do you right there I have so many books by him I need to read no longer human sensor the liminal zone and I got another one sitting in the house so many I have to write I mean read trying to think about stuff that I can do with the background to kind of brighten it up I think I want to do lights maybe change the colors for the holidays like orange and purple for for Halloween and then or orange and green or orange green and purple then Christmas lights then who knows what maybe just white lights for every other occasion I don't know you could add fog I could but not until game night I promised myself that I would only do game night and the reason for that is for the safety and security of my books the way I have the fog machine placed it is right next to me now and it's blowing that way so and it causes of course condensation as vapor does and I don't want to ruin the books so we got to be very careful with that you could oh you could add fog smart ass damn it Viking any who I am a starving e I need food food food so I am going to go thank you all for joining me I'll probably be doing this tomorrow or I'll be now actually I needed to get back to streaming resume before but I'll do a resume before stream tomorrow and then on Sunday we'll do game night okay Viking okay you can have your fog then love you Viking god damn it okay so bye Alec bye Ty bye Chad bye Tony bye Lee bye Brian and everyone else who might be lurking love your faces oh hell the chair I ain't got a milky way for blood evolution in my I ain't got a milky way for blood evolution in my