The Get to Know Me Tag (Writer's Edition)

In the year that my blog has been around, I've done four tags. Today seems like a good day for a fifth. Christine tagged me about a month ago, and it looks like a really fun one! I'm excited to do it, so let's not wait a moment more. (And I'm not all that great at intros, either.)

As with all tags, there is protocol to follow. I must:

• Link back to the person who created the tag (Savannah).
• Thank the person who tagged you. Thanks, Christine, for sharing this with me!
• Share the tag graphic (which is optional, but I did it anyway because why not?).
• Tag eleven bloggers.

Now for the fun stuff!

Vital Stats and Appearance

Name: Billy Bob Jimmy Joe the Hillbilly Hobo (c'mon, don't tell me you guys thought that Josiah Dyck was my actual name)

Nicknames: Joe is a common one for me. People also call me Josh on a regular basis, even though I've never been one. They probably don't catch the ia there. When I was younger, Chloe called me Siah because she couldn't say my name properly. When I worked as a pump attendant, a number of my coworkers took to calling me Josie. One of the cashiers (probably the sweetest of the bunch) gave me the nickname J-dog. (Unless she meant dawg . . . I never asked for a specification.) Then I've got my various online aliases: Brickman, Fuzzy Boy, SwiftScarabAvenger, Dreadwisp, Morbus, Papyrus . . . you get the idea. (Feel free to call me virtually any of these, if you feel so led.)

Birthday: "December 16th, 1991." Gotta love the Civil War reference, am I right? Especially since my birthday is actually December 1st. The year shall remain a secret for now.

Hair Color and Length: My hair is dirty blonde, as disgusting as that may sound. It's darkened over time, according to my mom. And the length is . . . short, but not like a buzzcut. It's long enough to be cool and stylish, but short enough that it's generally not a hassle.

Eye Color: Gray-blue--which, in my mind, is a cool shade. Maybe I'm biased.

Braces/Piercings/Tattoos: My teeth are straight, so there's no need for braces. And I'm not the kind of guy who wants either piercings or tattoos, so this category is a big, fat "no" all-around.

Righty or Lefty: I'm right-handed, because that's only right.

Ethnicity: Not really sure, to be honest. I asked my parents about this one, and they guessed we have some ancestors who came from Holland, but other than that, I really have no idea. Maybe my family line came from outer space.

Firsts

First Novel Written: That would be the unnamed first installment in The Portal Chronicles trilogy. You know, the one I mock once a month? As I'm sure you all know, it's pretty awful. One might even venture to say it was absolutely terrible. I certainly wouldn't disagree. But considering that it was over 150 pages, and about 20-odd chapters . . . that's really not a bad start. You also have to factor in that I used to hate most writing prior to this. Seeing Tracey write inspired me, and this was what came out of that inspiration. Looking back, I've come a long way. But I will never say writing that novel was a waste of time. It was my humble beginning.

First Novel Completed: The award for that goes to The Attack on Gotham, a Marvel/DC crossover that was slightly better than the above story. I wrote it on the LEGO Message Boards, back when it was around. I'd only been on the MBs for about a month when I decided to, out of the blue, start writing something. I got a few readers and continued the story. It ended up being 50 (short) chapters over the span of 69 pages (33k words). Technically, this would be a novella, not a novel, but it felt like a novel to me back when I wrote it. I'd hoped to make it a trilogy, with me starting to work on the sequel, The Metropolis Siege. I eventually lost interest and never continued.

Award for Writing: I've gotten two of these. The first was when I won second place in a local Christmas story writing contest for the newspaper. I wrote about soldiers in WWII, and it was both the first and last time I entered the contest. I think I won $75 dollars for it or something.

The second was the Write Like a Ninja contest that was held by LEGO and Scholastic. There would be two grand prize winners and eight runners-up; the top two would be published in a book along with an official Ninjago story. The limit was 4,000 characters, which was very small. You could enter as many times as you wanted, so I wrote four stories. Out of close to a thousand entries, one of mine was chosen to be a runner-up. I was interviewed on the MBs and won a prize worth about $67 USD. It was one copy of the book, another book, and a Ninjago set (Ronin R.E.X., for anyone who's interested). In my mind, this was not only the better contest, but the better prize.

source

First Publication: When I won the Christmas story contest, my entry was published in the newspaper. That's basically the only time I've been published.

Conference: Well, I'd been hoping to go to Realm Makers this year, but due to my car loan, it was financially wiser to stay home. So no, I haven't been to one. Maybe next year? *crosses fingers*

Query/Pitch: Nope. Haven't done that yet. But something funny to do would be to take a baseball glove and throw your story at an agent. That way, you're literally pitching it.

Favorites

Novel (that you wrote): Let me ask you something. Would you ask a parent which child was their favorite? No, you wouldn't, because they can't properly answer that. Likewise, I don't have a favorite novel that I've written. I haven't even written that many novels. Most of the my stories are either incomplete or are too short to be considered novels. I love each and every one of my brainchildren in different ways, so I have no real answer for this.

Genre: Probably fantasy, or stories with fantastical elements. I mean, the first two series and the one standalone book I want to publish first are all fantasy. Well, the standalone is a pirate story, but it's got stuff that makes it kinda fantasy-ish. Seeing as it's my favorite genre to read, it makes sense.

Author: One does simply choose one favorite author. I have many, like Bryan Davis, Andrew Klavan, Anne Elisabeth Stengl, John Flanagan, and Eoin Colfer. I'd probably even add some of my friends to that list, such as Preston, Megan, John, Tracey, Christine . . . Yeah, I'd better stop now.

Writing Music: This isn't even a question. Anyone who knows me knows I love soundtracks more than any kind other type of music. Doesn't matter if it's for a movie, game, or TV show; heck, it could even just be an indie album! For example, I love a lot of Hans Zimmer's work, especially for Pirates of the Caribbean and The Dark Knight trilogy. Kirby games always have stellar music, especially the newer installments. Almost every Zelda game has phenomenal music; the same goes for the Mario & Luigi series (in case you didn't know, Yoko Shimomura, who composed the music for all the Kingdom Hearts games, created the score for every M&L title). Blake Neely has excelled at his Arrowverse soundtracks. Again, I have to stop before I get too carried away.

Time to Write: Hard to say. I haven't done it in so long . . . *coughs in embarrassment* I remember saying at one point that the evening was my favorite time to write. I don't really know if I have a favorite now. Just give me my soundtrack and a walk outside to contemplate my stories/daydream, and I can probably write at any time. I've also found that cool, cloudy, or rainy/snowy weather really gets me in the writing mood.

Writing Snack/Drink: A cup of ice-cold water is really all I need. Maybe a candy every now and then for brain food. Other than that, I'm good most of the time.

Movie: Again, I don't know how anyone can have one favorite movie. That's just not possible for me. I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, all three LEGO movies, The Flash TV show (I watch it on DVD, so I'm counting it as a movie), the Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu show, the Maze Runner trilogy, almost every Pixar film, etc. You ain't gonna make me pick one.

Writing Memory: You're kidding, right? I've been writing for about eight years now, and I'm supposed to pick one? Aw, heck, no! Some of my favorite memories are being one of the runners-up for the Write Like a Ninja contest; sharing my stories on the MBs and getting instant feedback on them; reading my fairy tale retellings out loud on a voice chat with Preston and Megan; and just that feeling when you're filled with determination inspiration and a strong desire to write for hours.

One of my most distinct memories that instantly comes to mind is when I was taking a walk on a cool, overcast day a few years ago. I was brainstorming Darkened Slumber, my Sleeping Beauty retelling, and I suddenly had the idea that a certain character should be killed by another certain character. I knew it would be one of the most emotional scenes in the story, and I wasn't wrong. But I kept it, because it's fun to toy with readers like that sometimes. I had other reasons too, of course. I'm not crazy, what're you talking about?

Childhood Book: There were a few, and I know I've mentioned this elsewhere, but I think one of my top favorites was I'd Choose You by John Trent. Spoke to me then, speaks to me now. I sometimes struggle with feeling valuable and important, and the whole message of the book was that there's always someone who would choose you.

Currently

Reading: Slaves of Socorro by John Flanagan, which is taking me far longer to read than it should. I usually fly through his books.

Writing: I'm currently working on my Ninjago fanfiction called The Tournament of Elements. I'm rereading it so I refresh my memory--while also making corrections along the way--and then I'll finish it. As a fun side project that's basically just for when I'm out and about, I'm writing a novelization of Undertale, which I'm calling Beneath the Surface, on my phone.

Listening To: I've got my entire soundtrack library on shuffle right now, but the current song is "Back in Venice" from the Assassin's Creed II soundtrack by Jesper Kyd. I love this album's use of acoustic guitars!

Watching: Just watched an episode of The Flash and Masters of Spinjitzu today. I'm about halfway through S1 of The Flash, which is definitely picking up the pace in the plot and reminding me why I love the show so much. As for Ninjago, I've got two episodes left in the Possession season; then it's on to Skybound, which I've only watched once, and it was a long time ago.

Learning: If I actually want to be an author, I need to take my writing seriously. That means putting more time and effort into it every week. It may be hard at first, especially when I'm juggling everything that I both want and have to do. Scratch that--it's going to be hard a lot of the time, no doubt. But some of the best things in life take work, and I'd rather fail having tried then to have never made an attempt.

Future

Want to be Published: Yes, yes, yes! I cannot say yes enough times. I've got stories to share with the world, and I truly believe it's what God wants me to do. So getting published is on the agenda.

Indie or Traditional: Most likely traditional. Maybe when I have enough followers, finances, and resources (which includes knowing the right people), I could try published independently. Until then, I think I'll need some help in the writing world.

Wildest Goal: I want to publish many books, go on world tours, meet a lot of people, get to see movies and games made from my novels, and so forth. It sounds crazy, I know. but God says He "can do so many awe-inspiring, immeasurable things, things greater than we ever could ask or imagine through the power at work in us . . ." (Ephesians 3:20, The Voice). So I'll keep dreaming big.

And now it's time to tag other people! Which I'm always horrible at, because I don't want to tag someone who has already done this. So I shall tag . . .

Brianna Stacyn @ No End of Books
Plus ten other bloggers who want to do this

Did you have as much fun reading this as I did writing this? Did you learn stuff about me, or even stuff about yourself through me (which would be pretty darn awesome)? Any tips you could give on how to stay dedicated to writing?