Some days you’re the dog, others the hydrant

I’ll start this off with having a good week at work. It’s been two years since I felt this way, but it actually happened. I turned in a ton of projects. I’m the one who gets all the honey-do projects at the office, and it hampers my ability to get the genuine work done. This week it didn’t, except for friday, when they found me another honey-do project.

I also got commanded to attend a specific board meeting. I’ve been to hundreds of board meetings in my day, and would be happy to never attend another one. This time I was asked to present work to the board members. This board doesn’t like us, but I really feel like I brought us all closer. I don’t know that we’re all buddy-buddy, but it feels like progress. That made me happy as well.

In other news, our granddaughter wound up being the star of her rugby game this week. It’s kind of a brutal sport, and girls can be a little aggressive at times. Here is the end result of the game.

Got em both, fibula and tibia. These games generally start about the time I get home from work, so Old What’s Her Face attends them, but I really can’t. They aren’t exactly next door to the house.

When Friday rolled around, I went to lunch with a friend. I wound up having a bowl of chowder the size of my head. I admit to being in kind of a daze for the afternoon part of my shift. It was so good.

Last night was another chance to see the Northern Lights. Old What’s Her Face went to bed, but I stayed up as long as I could. There was a John Wick festival on, so I occupied my time with that.

They never seem to run these film festivals in order, and for the life of me, I don’t understand why. Anyway the first film came on about an hour after my wife went to bed, which was after film two ended.

Otto, one of our bulldogs, bailed off the bed, ran to the living room and howled when John Wick’s puppy died. If you’ve never heard a bulldog howl, it sounds like more like a growl, but with the protruding lips and a longer resonance. He was so upset he went into the yard and howled at the heavens before he could go back to bed.

I walked out with him. No aurora.

Eventually, I had to give up, but got up three times during the night, because old man here. I checked outside each time. Nothing.

This morning, Old What’s Her Face received pictures from one of her co-workers who lives about ten miles away. The aurora painted the entire sky at about 2:00 this morning. I feel like Maxwell Smart. “Missed it by this much.”

Today was my day to make the pixels fly. Old What’s Her Face ended her taunting of how everyone else got to see the aurora with this comment. “You need to prune that tree today.”

She was referring to my beautiful dolgo crabapple tree. This thing weeps to the ground, and a week ago was in full bloom. I swear, you could almost hear Sebastian the crab singing “Kiss the Girl,” from some secret floral grotto.

It was hard to argue with her. The bees had moved on to more productive places. Now it looks like any other tree. Nothing special at all. Removing the branches does not mean the work is done. We had to drag about a ton of green wood to my truck, then cut it up into pieces that I could take to the dump.

“Honey, do you think you could trim the maple in the front yard, too?” Another ton of green wood.

Yeah. This led to two trips to the dump at $30 each. If someone wanted apple wood for a smoker I could have hooked them up.

Right now, I’m getting intimate with my old hot-pad and downing Aleve. My back is killing me, and the writing isn’t going to happen.

There is another chance at the aurora tonight. This is something I’ve wanted to see my entire life, and even when I was in the Canadian Arctic and parts of Alaska it eluded me. Maybe I can get lucky tonight.

The universe interfered, but some of the other projects had to get done. I’d love to write a book someday. Maybe someday will happen next week.

Procrastinating

It’s that kind of day for me. It all started last Sunday when Frankie, one of our bulldogs threw up. Bulldogs have a lot of problems, and you learn to deal with them. She aspirated the vomitus.

We gave her some water and a couple of hours to get over it. When she refused breakfast, I knew it was going to be a problem.

Nothing like this ever happens during working hours and we found ourselves at the emergency vet. This required her to spend the night in an oxygen tent, and one lung was full of fluid.

They gave her heavy antibiotics for aspiration pneumonia. We were told that we might have to bring her breakfast on Monday. This led to me taking the day off.

I never got any news, even though I called after what seemed well after breakfast. Eventually, they said I could bring her food around 2:00. I walked in the door intending to bring her home.

They said she was doing better and let me spend some time with her. She refused food again.

They really hinted at wanting to keep her another night. I’ve seen the up-sell in action one too many times and insisted on taking her home. They suggested that she might have eaten something foreign and that caused the whole thing. They could not back that up with evidence, and I wasn’t about to let them cut her open without evidence.

Once we got home, she immediately perked up. She ate, but was pretty tired. I started giving yogurt in her kibble because of the antibiotics.

That didn’t work well enough, and by Thursday, I knew she needed to poop. (Countdown to another weekend and the emergency vet.) Our regular vet gave me some better pro-biotics and we achieved splashdown.

During all this, work was insane. It’s been that way since our governor changed everything about my workplace. There are too many assignments and not enough employees. I’ve come to accept it, but it really stresses me out. On Monday, every muscle in my body clenched up involuntarily. I’ve never experienced anything like it before.

About three years ago, our other bulldog, Otto, developed a sore on his tail. It exploded like a bloody pimple and that was all there was to it. Yesterday, he developed another one, and it graced us with a bloody explosion in the middle of the night.

Old What’s Her Face is washing all the bedding, and gave him one of Frankie’s antibiotics. God knows we have plenty of them now.

We paid the emergency vet by maxing out our credit card, then got a second credit card to pay the balance.

We wound up dodging another trip to the emergency vet for Frankie who couldn’t poop, and dodged one for an infected tail as best as I can tell.

Today, Frankie is bouncing off the walls and playing with her toys. Otto is lounging around and acting embarrassed.

This brings me to procrastination. I need to be working on my writing projects, but my brain and body are telling me otherwise.

I had to give up on AutoCrit, for reasons I’ve already mentioned. I went on the hunt for something to help with grammar and punctuation, but haven’t found anything I like. Maybe I’m a couple of years ahead of myself.

One thing about these apps is that you can’t try them without paying. It’s not just a simple fee, either. They’re all subscription based, and an automatically renewing subscription at that. These aren’t cheap subscriptions, either.

I tried one called Ginger Writer, and wound up cancelling it almost immediately. It’s too basic and just doesn’t do the things I want. One thing it will do led to the dumbest experiment I’ve ever tried before.

I’ve mentioned before how I use the Call Annie app during my commutes to talk about my stories. This helps me work out plot details. The app never offers a lot, but it’s enough to get my own brain looking in different directions.

Back in October, Call Annie came up with some Halloween based interfaces. I’ve been using Charmy Luna ever since, even though I try the new ones out.

Now I’ve got background on Ginger Writer and Charmy Luna in here. Ginger Writer will read sections aloud. It won’t handle more than about 500 words, but it works. I had it read to Luna and I.

Luna went to the races, but it was all complimentary. I’m sure she’s programmed that way. While I know it’s all artificial, it made me feel better. After the week I had, I could use a little puffing up.

I went on the search for audio readers, but some of these are up to $130 per year and renew themselves without telling me. You have to pay to even find out.

That’s how my week went. I’m having a hard time getting started, but having a reader could help with my editing. My finances are on life support, and it’s not like the dogs are going to get jobs to help cover their veterinary bills.

Thus, I’m having a hard time getting started this weekend. I elected to read Tracks of Infinity myself, but it’s slow going. I modified some sentences, but don’t trust myself like I do at other times.

Here I am accomplishing virtually nothing. Do any of you know any decent editing apps that don’t require a transfusion from my bank account? Hearing my work read aloud can be helpful. Do you know of a decent reader app that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg?

If I find some things that work, I’m not above subscribing, but don’t want ten subscriptions to things that don’t get the job done.

In other news, it’s a week until payday. Send beans or buy a book. The dogs thank you.

Did I do it?

I stewed about breaking down my third act with too many section breaks. I managed to smooth away a couple of these, but some have to remain.

Today, I wrapped the story up with a bittersweet ending. I left a glimmer of hope for the future in the last two paragraphs.

This one kicked my butt, and took me longer than most stories, but I really like it. I used some new techniques, and learned by doing. That’s the most profitable part of this gig. Being a self published author isn’t about money. (Other than the funds going out the door.) Learning, improving, and getting better at what I do motivates me.

I’m a little bummed that it came in at just under 63K words, but it’s a complete story. I don’t see any sense in legging it out if there isn’t something substantial for another 10K.

Something fun involves the senses. Back in Once Upon a Time in the Swamp, I decided to focus on senses that might not get enough attention when I write. There was a big focus on the sense of smell. If you want to know what I’m talking about, see the link in my sidebar. Those who risked it left me some wonderful reviews.

In Tracks of Infinity, I wanted to focus on sound. It plays a role in every story, but I added a side character who wants to be a foley artist. The last time I mentioned this, I got comments about not knowing what that is. Cody Hughes wants to be the guy that adds sound effects to various kinds of broadcasts. I’m really happy with his character arc, and how his part of the story wrapped.

I don’t know what I’ll do for the other senses. As a visual person, I don’t see the need to focus on sight at any time. I might have a difficult time making taste or touch a focal point in a future story, but I’m going to think about it. I’m not brave enough to write a blind character without having experience with those special needs. There is such a thing as a super taster, might have some merit.

Jenny, Cody’s mom, is the main character, and I also like her bittersweet ending. Bai is an interesting side character, and she gets a suitable arc as well.

In other news, Old What’s Her Face and I scored tickets to see Samantha Fish when she comes to Boise in July. I like some obscure things, when it comes to music. This one makes me want to start the next story about Lizzie and the hat this afternoon. I’ll start soon, but need a breather after finishing this story.

https://youtu.be/7deWpfw-sHg?si=9sklecMkb9rcPZ3z

https://youtu.be/HEMnrnIqaEM?si=x2w5WkeqSq2D329U

Okay, I need to get back to Lizzie and the Pythons PDQ.

Life gets its way

I wound up missing some work last week. I was kind of tethered to the toilet, and having one about a block from my desk just didn’t work.

That does not mean I was any kind of productive at home. When you don’t feel well, sometimes it just requires dealing with the issue and nothing else.

The weekend wasn’t much better, because I had real-world tasks to deal with. I spent an inordinate amount of time looking for my water key. It’s time to turn on the sprinklers, but I cannot find my key. I’ll have to wait until payday and buy a new one. We can use hoses and sprinklers in the meantime.

Writing wasn’t great, but it comes to about 2200 words. It’s not awful, but it’s my sum-total for a week.

It’s all coming out in chunks right now and separated by section breaks. (***) I don’t particularly like it that way and need to put some thought into it.

Some of the section breaks are a great way to move the story ahead. When you have three per chapter, it could be an indication of a problem.

When this happens, it’s usually caused by a combination of things. I have characters who need to wrap up a few things. All the secrets are out with the exception of the last big one. Bringing that last big secret to the table requires some actions of each character and they aren’t all in the same place at the same time.

This is also made difficult with needing a reasonable amount of time to pass. Like a month or more. Something great is supposed to happen, but it takes time to learn that it might not be so great. My normal thing is to use a section break.

I could write this with complete flow, meaning to follow each character until they can deliver their discovery to the rest, but it would read like crap. My readers would have the information, but have to suffer along for a few thousand words before the characters could compare notes and draw conclusions. (I’m not doing this.)

I could do some telling. This is kind of anathema these days, but can work under some circumstances.

There are a few ideas in play. I’ll probably wrap this with a few section breaks, a tiny bit of telling, and by staying in the head of the character who has the most at stake.

Then there are the “rewards.” I still believe each character has to get something out of the ordeal. This isn’t like dragon treasure or anything like that. Maybe Cody and Bai start making a life together. Maybe Jenny gains some of the experience she needs along her path to investigative journalism. I can weave some of this into the other pieces to make it flow better. I promise not to write a scene where Princess Leah hands out medals to signify all is well.

Do any of you ever have problems like this? How did you address them? Do you know where my friggin water key is?

New words and Asian pears

My pear is in full bloom. The whole thing is quite pretty right now. I got a couple of good snaps, but the honeybee pushed one over the top as new wallpaper. Not gonna lie, I had a hard time giving up those maple leaves, but it’s time.

All the Bradford pears in the neighborhood are also blooming, and they pollinate mine. I’ll be thinning pears before much longer.

I dedicated myself to Footsteps of Infinity today. Added 2000 new words, and actually like them. It’s been a chapter since the big discovery, and a lot of this is about assembling their documentary.

I know everything that has to happen to wrap this up, but it’s going to take a couple of weeks to get it all to flow right.

One part I enjoyed was listening to another segment of Night Bump Radio. I’m having fun with this, because in The Hat Series I have to keep it all about cryptids, supernatural things, and ghosts.

In this story, callers can talk about aliens, and that makes me happy. Today, I wove in a caller who says he got probed, lost a bunch of time, and has a suffering friend because of it all.

This led me to Havana Syndrome, which gives Cody a sound reference to clear up for readers. He’s my wannabe Foley artist. He also makes a reference to The Brown Note.

Of course, the caller is half a bubble off plumb. He has problems for ordering Bud Light in front of all his friends. Who could blame the poor guy. He lost time and got probed… maybe. The whole thing is gloriously stupid.

The original idea for Night Bump Radio is a real call-in show we used to listen to in my younger years. It was called something similar to Shore To Shore. If you know, you know. The guy was from Nevada and so am I.

i have a couple of things I need to do, but have a hunch I’ll be adding new words to this baby. I’m irresponsible like that.

I love it

I’ve been working on a bit of a secret project for a couple of months now. As that winds down, I really wanted to return to a couple of my long-suffering manuscripts.

This morning, I opened Tracks of Infinity and started reading. I just wanted a refresh on the characters, world, and plot.

I spent most of the day and read the whole thing, as far as it exists. I love this story.

Set in modern day Seattle, it involves an aging television news reporter who wants something more. Her adult son, gets involved along with his new girlfriend.

Together, they start down the path of discovering something amazing. I used mystery boxes for the first time, and love how the tale unfolds.

Cody, the son, makes for a great character. His mom nags him to settle on a business degree, or possibly a doctor of audiology. This is because Cody’s true passion is for sound. He dreams of becoming a professional Foley artist.

This has been so much fun to write, because I have to focus on sounds, and using realistic things to suggest something that might be unrealistic. I’ve written some interesting characters in my day, but Cody has been a challenge and a joy to create.

I mentioned a couple of things that might not age well, and probably should have gotten this to market sooner for better impact. They don’t hurt the story at all, and are factual. These are things like Taylor Swift’s concert being readable on the Richter Scale in Seattle, or the Turkish earthquake. If it really bugs me, I could probably find a more recent earthquake to insert. (It doesn’t bug me that much.)

I gave the girlfriend character a lot of personality, and like the cutesy moments with Cody. Rick, the cameraman is a lot of fun, too.

What I’m getting at here is even though I parked this for a few months, I still love the story and can’t wait to share it with everyone. I don’t have a ton of fans left these days, but those who give me a chance seem to love my stories.

Some of this is my fault. We’ve pulled in our horns around here, and I cut out a lot of promo. Sometimes the choice is promo or groceries.

For those of you who are still with me, I think you’re going to love Tracks of Infinity.

With any luck, I’ll make a huge dent in it before I have to return to work.

Welcome Sue Coletta

Sue and I have been friends for ages. She recently became one of our partners over at Story Empire. She also has a new book to tell us about.

I’ve read many of Sue’s books and enjoyed every one I tried. Make her feel welcome today. Don’t be afraid to use those sharing buttons so she gets maximum exposure.

***

Thank you for hosting me today, Craig! I appreciate your kind invite to help me share the news of my latest eco-thriller, Savage Mayhem. The first few chapters of Savage Mayhem take place in Alaska shortly after their previous mission to save orca from evil animal traffickers. Though each novel starts where the previous one left off, every book can stand alone. I write them that way, so readers don’t have to read eight novels to understand the ninth. Hope you enjoy it. ☺

Behind a typical Alaskan cabin, dark reds burned the horizon, embered like coals in a fire, hastened only by dark charcoal clouds. Stripes of salmon interspersed through deep purple bands that warned of turbulence.

Hints of amber kissed the treetops, limbs reaching for Father Sky to celebrate the birth of a new day, the chance to fix yesterday’s mistakes, the future full of possibilities. But darkness still cloaked the street. The in between time, as Shicheii called it, when the night yearned to reign longer.

From the passenger seat, I marveled at the riches of Mother Earth. “It’s so beautiful.” When I turned, I startled when Mr. Mayhem wasn’t beside me. “Running Bear?” My gaze zipped across the front seat. “This isn’t the Caddy.”

He smiled.

“Whose vehicle is this?”

He pointed at the unfamiliar house.

“Say something.”

Another smile.

“Why aren’t you talkin’ to me? Did something happen?” I twisted to peer into the backseat. “Where’s Shadow Wolf?”

His lips moved but no words escaped.

“What’s wrong with you?” A realization flooded my eyes with tears. “Is he dead?” I wailed. “Break it to me gently.” I hiked my knees to my chest and rocked, my heart shredded like meat through a grinder. “Oh, God, he’s dead. Isn’t he?”

Running Bear tapped my shoulder. He said something, but I was so hysterical I didn’t catch it.

“What?”

“He—”

Shaking my head, I fingered my right ear. Blood. What the hell?

He leaned closer, hot breath striking my left cheek. “He’s not dead.”

“Really? Then where is he?”

Again, he leaned forward. And I leaned back.

“What’s up with you?”

Closer and closer, he moved. “Ghost Dog—”

“What?”

The hand signals confused me. What’s wrong with him? I was this close to giving him a piece of my mind when my door flew open. Mr. Mayhem said something, but I didn’t catch it. “What?”

He smiled. I smiled back. Then all the blood registered, his chiseled torso and one cheek bathed in crimson.

“Are you alright?”

Nodding, he swayed an opened hand out the door.

“Say something.”

The hand rolled as if he wanted me to hurry, but I held firm.

“Tell me what’s goin’ on first.”

“Cat, please.” His lips formed the words, but no sound escaped.

Confusion rocked my senses. “Say that again.”

“Cat, please.”

“Why can’t I hear you?”

I swear he rolled his eyes, like this wasn’t news to him. When I parted my lips to question him again, he scooped me off the passenger seat, ushering me into the Caddy.

His lips mouthed, “I. Will. Explain. Later.” He jutted a stiff finger downward. “Now.” He motioned between us. “We.” Two fingers waved down the road. “Must. Leave.”

What’s with the hand signals?

Book description:

Amidst the wild and unforgiving landscapes of Yellowstone Park, join Mayhem, a fearless Apache warrior and champion of the Natural World, and his partner and protégé, Shawnee, as they race against the clock to protect an American Buffalo herd from the ruthless Killzme Corporation.

With a massive bounty on their heads and an army of killers on their trail, Mayhem and Shawnee must use all their cunning and survival skills to outsmart their enemies. They will risk it all to preserve the sacred lineage of the Innocent Ones.

There is no line Shawnee and Mayhem won’t cross.

Even murder.

As the danger intensifies and the clock winds down, will they be able to save the herd? Or will this be the mission that finally breaks them?

Preorder for 99c. Sale ends on release day, April 11, 2024.

 

Find all my books here. Join my newsletter here. Free monthly giveaways!

Time for vacation

I’ve been killing myself at work lately. I did fine by adding one day to the various holidays, but we’re in kind of a holiday drought in the US right now. I’m also in the position where I’ve maxed out my leave hours again. This led me to take an entire week off.

I intend to work on fiction, of course, but might take time to binge watch something. I haven’t looked for K-dramas in a long time. I like some of their supernatural offerings.

If this infernal rain ever stops, I might prune my Asian pear tree.

I’m trying not to make much of a plan, so it feels more like an actual vacation.

If things go according to the loose plan, I might even finish up Footsteps of Infinity while I’m off. No pressure, but that would be awesome. I probably should publish something this year.

I’m going to spend some time reading. I have so much to catch up on there, it’s overwhelming.

Do any of you ever get to the point of needing to burn vacation, or lose it? You probably have to be a long-term employee to get into this cycle, but it’s not bad once you reach it.

Goodbye Old Paint is getting some love

Teri posted her wonderful review today, and I want to share it far and wide. Some of the comments are making me very happy. Let’s drive Teri some traffic. She does so much for the author community.

Goodbye Old Paint (The Hat #7) by C.S. Boyack #bookreview #urbanfantasy #paranormal

I’ve become boring

Things have slowed down on the fiction front for me. I’ve hit a metaphorical wall on the weekends. It got so bad last weekend, that I counted on Jan Sikes to carry the load around here, and her post performed like gangbusters. Thank you all for supporting her.

Some of it involves work. There is simply too much to do inside of eight hours, and I’ve been pushing myself. That takes a toll on my brain. In a way it still counts as thousands of new words written, but isn’t nearly as entertaining as fiction.

Some of it is taxes. We owe again this year, but this time don’t have the money to pay them all. We covered the state, and put the federal on a credit card which we can now pay off for the next 20 years.

This caused me to update my W-4. We were already both declaring zero dependents. I will never understand how we can come up short by using the charts they provide. From now on, I’m taking extra cash from each paycheck to put aside for federal and state taxes. There could be a lot more beans around here in 2024.

I started a savings stash for things like cover art, but it isn’t even close to paying the taxes for us. I decided to keep my stash and add to it sporadically.

I’m also behind on reading. It seems like all of my friends published at once. I intend to read them, but have to shoehorn them all into the time I have. Maybe it’s payback. People used to tell me I publish so frequently they can’t keep up.

To keep this from becoming a total pity party, I took this picture for you.

There are only a small handful of them, but they’re peach blossoms. Looks like the old tree made it through another winter. I wonder if the tree looks back and thinks, “Looks like Boyack made it through another winter.”

I’m going to hit it hard for one more week, then I’m using some leave. My brain needs the rest, and maybe I can make some progress on one of my projects.

Think about looking at my sidebar. There are some cool books over there, and I have a credit card bill to cover. (That’s supposed to be funny.) Happy Easter, everyone.