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Professor-Graves

Professor Florian Graves

For a few years now I’ve had the idea for some detective stories floating around in my mind. I’ve always wanted to try to write murder mysteries. I finally began working on some and I plan to publish them here as I finish them. I know they are not great yet, but I want to share them all the same. I’ve created a page to house all of the stories on the website here Professor Graves Mysteries. The first story “Silence in the Library” is up now. I hope you enjoy and please provide feedback if you feel inclined. It will help me in my quest to improve as a writer.

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Professor-Graves

Silence in the Library

Photo by Patrick Robert Doyle on Unsplash The body lay in the middle of the floor, sprawled in exactly that sort of pose one comes to associate with the chalk outlines on prime-time police procedural dramas. Detective Fleming noticed his position right away and thought it odd. The campus security had escorted Fleming and his partner, Detective Maria Sandoval, to the body. “It’s funny, in a way, you don’t always see a body that’s positioned like it belongs on TV.” She looked at him and offered a non-committal “hmph.” They spiraled in as they approached, taking in the body and its immediate surroundings from as many angles as they could, looking for anything that stuck out or seemed out of place.

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Productivity

A Change of Scenery

Photo by Teanna Morgan on Unsplash Last weekend I was quite productive. I was more productive than I have been in a long time. Over the course of a five-day weekend I wrote and published a blog post, read a book I bought over a year ago, edited half of my own book, as well as rode around 50k on my brother-in-law’s borrowed bike.

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A New Commitment

Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash As I begin the process of restarting my blog I think it is useful for me to establish my purpose and goals in blogging. What is it that I hope to get out of blogging? I want to be a better writer. I want to grow and learn in the craft. To that end I think that posting on this blog will help me by keeping me accountable as I am forced to post on a schedule. Ideally, I will be able to get feedback from any readers I might be fortunate enough to acquire along the way as well.

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Musings

Fear and Loathing in a Text Editor

I’ve recently come to learn two things about myself. The first is that I enjoy writing. I really enjoy writing. When I get in the flow and the words just seem to come pouring out of my fingers. It is an incredibly rewarding feeling. Last year I wrote the first draft of a book in three months because I enjoyed doing it and didn’t want to stop writing each day.

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Life

Changes

Photo by Michal Balog on Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/@mikbutcher The past 9 months have been full of changes. I received a promotion, adopted a daughter, remodeled a bathroom and a kitchen and accepted a new position at another company. And there are more changes coming in the next couple of months, selling the house and moving across the country.

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Life Musings

Ideation

As I tried to come up with an idea for this month’s blog post I started thinking about ideas themselves. Where do they come from and how? In short, how does ideation happen? I want to think grand and lofty thoughts, so how do I do that? I think we are all familiar with the phenomenon of the spark of inspiration. It comes unexpectedly and often at the time when we are least prepared to accept it. For me it always seems to come with my hands are wet, so I can neither write nor type. We can help steer these ideas, I propose. We are not slave to their whims. While what I suggest may not guarantee the thoughts and ideas we want they will be more likely to arise.

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Review

The Squire by Baronfig

“The Pen Is a Mighty Sword” I will admit it, I am not the biggest fan of rollerball pens. There are a few that I like and only one or two that I love. That said, the Schmidt 8126 refill is a pretty solid refill. Sure, it’s not my favorite personally, but I like it pretty well. And even if I didn’t, the Squire takes Parker-style refills so I could experiment with one of the many options available.

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Musings

On Thought and Doing Things the Hard Way

It is a hallmark of mankind that we, like water, follow the path of least resistance. When we meet difficulty we push and fight against it. From this steady erosion of difficulty we have many of our greatest inventions. Ocean voyages are long and dangerous, so we have taught ourselves to fly. Waiting for news to arrive through the post takes too long, so we have created the telegraph, the telephone, the television, and finally, that culminating wonder, the internet. (And still we complain about our data speeds being too slow.) We have worn down the resistance we have met in the pursuit of our goals. But have we perhaps made things too easy?

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Life Literature Musings

On the “Benefit of the Doubt”

Photo by Andy Holmes on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/@andyjh07 Having four kids at home, I find myself having to constantly explain to them the concept of giving the benefit of the doubt. The result of which is that the idea has become very near and dear to me. I see so many conflicts that could have been avoided if those involved understood it.

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