Diamond Hour and other fun stuff

Diamond Hour September show. -

Saturday, September 8 2012 1:00 PM Pacific Daylight Savings time (4:00 PM Eastern)
http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/77111
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My life is so busy right now that it is hard to do the Diamond Hour show as often as I'd like, but my producer, David Roel, nudges and bugs me until I give in, darn him. So...tomorrow I'll be doing the September show. There are a number of subjects I've been asked to deal with:

1) Anxiety and fear

2) ADD (I'm not an expert. Just a concerned observer with a son on the low end of the spectrum, and a certain level of expertise on yoga, meditation, and advanced stress-coping strategies.)

3) Spiritual vampirism--especially the "false guru" phenomenon. The short lesson: you don't need gurus, beyond an initial bit of direction. The rest is up to you, and never let anyone tell you otherwise. You have two questions to answer: "who am I?" and "what is true?" No one can do this work for you, any more than a coach can run your laps or do your pushups.

4) The "Goal x Faith x Action x Attitude" equation

5) Writer's Block

6) Advanced meditation techniques

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I'm going over the galleys for the sequel to DEVIL'S WAKE, titled DOMINO FALLS. The story is our first little step deepening the world of DW, and we reveal a few secrets and give you a grasp of what this story actually is. I love secrets!

What this re-write is about is tweaking, comparing the communication styles of my different characters, and feel the flow of the language. This is the fun part. I use a method of watching television while reading simultaneously, using what one of my teachers called "second attention." Oh, I can turn the television off if there is something complex to be handled, but it is interesting that if I split my attention a bit, I can work all day long, never get bored, and get a huge amount of work done--all while watching Netflix out of the corner of my eye.

In fact, I have to look for just the right kind of movie. Rarely dialog-driven, usually a light action film, or comedy. Something entertaining enough to keep about 1/2 of my brain busy, while the other part gets the work done.

I think that most projects reach a place where this kind of "split attention" can be useful, fooling yourself into thinking that something that might be potentially dull as dishwater into a fun day.

A James Bond marathon (getting ready for SKYFALL!) while doing work is pretty close to heaven.

Live your dream!

Steve

www.diamondhour.com