Getting Back on the Horse

Getting Back on the Horse

I've always been curious about the phrase "getting back on the horse" and how it is used to describe the act of trying something again. Have you ever fallen off of a horse? That's probably the worst part, followed by the fear of falling off of it again. The expression sums up continuing on despite the fear of failure and pain in the future...

So what kind of phrase should one use when it's just that you have a hard time forming the kinds of habits you ought to be forming? Things like going to bed at a decent hour, maintaining your writing space, or writing every day? Or, in this very specific case, keeping an active blog?

It might be easier if it were something that provided more to me than a soapbox - I don't really like being on a soapbox, or a stage, or any focal point of attention. It might be easier if I were being paid (but I don't think I'd like that either). But, they also say things about easy and doing well...

Who are they?

In any case, this is me chiding myself aloud about falling off this blogging horse and promising that I will try to be a more consistent writer; both here and on my creative projects, which I hope I can share a little about here as well.

On my list of to-do's, I want to go back and revisit the Story Board videos at Geek & Sundry, the way I did with the first one (on Urban Fantasy).

Six Sentence Sunday, at least as a large group activity, disbanded shortly after I participated for the first time  -- I may adopt the idea as a way to share my creative work without posting it in full here.

And all the other things I've already talked about last year and didn't manage to follow through on.

I'm also open to suggestions, either submitted in the comments or sent via email.

Geek & Sundry: Story Board Episode 1 Recommendations

Nothing original here, just a list of recommendations made during the course of the Geek & Sundry Story Board Episode "Urban Fantasy: Threat or Menace?" and a couple of links that I forgot to put into my last post. (Putting them here as I don't expect folks to go back through a previous post to find two itty bitty links.)

I mentioned two authors that I forgot to link:  David Boop and Delia Sherman. Both were mentioned in the context of Interesting Things that they've said about genre and things revolving around the notion.

On to the recommendations! (This list is from the Info section below the above-linked video.)

Diana Recommends:

Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne
Jane True series by Nicole Peeler
The Black Sun's Daughter series by M.L.N. Hanover

Emma Recommends:

Topper; Rain in the Doorway by Thorne Smith

Jim Recommends:
The Twenty Palaces series by Harry Connolly
Alex Verus novels by Benedict Jacka

Patrick Recommends:
Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Christopher Moore
The Odyssey by Homer
A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare

In addition to these listed recommendations made toward the end of the panel, I made note of a few other books mentioned in the course of the panel conversation. This is, by no means, an exhaustive list (it's not very long either).

Last Call by Tim Powers
American Gods by Neil Gaiman (I'm not 100% sure this was mentioned - it could be I was just thinking so hard about it when they were talking about Urban Fantasy & its cousins filling the need for fairy-tales/myths/folklore that I think it was mentioned)
The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams (will be released Sept 4, 2012)