I’m in a phase where I need to get Lanternfish ready to publish. If everything goes according to plan, that will be in November. I’m also pushing Good Liniment for sometime this winter.
In the mean time, I need to write about nine blog posts. I have two of them. I also need a good topic for Story Empire. I feel like I’m getting close to an idea, but it needs more work.
Reading and writing have to go out the window this weekend. As soon as I finish all that, I need to be thinking about some way of promoting Lanternfish and how that’s going to look.
November seems like a long ways away, but it will be here before I know it.
Old What’s Her Face and I had date night early this evening. We went to the fair and ate food that’s bad for us. It isn’t as hot as most years, but involves a lot of walking to even get out of the parking lot. I took a few photos and can share those.

Pumpkins seem like they’re off a couple of hundred pounds this year. I still like to see them. I’m an Autumn kind of guy and it makes me look forward to the season.

This one is a different variety. They’re flatter and have deeper grooves in them. I really need to look up the name. This is because I have a character who has something like this for a head in a future story. Not a main character, but it’s nice to be accurate whenever possible.

This one is also a pumpkin. I have no reason to share it other than it’s weird enough that some of you might be interested. Looks like it’s covered with peanut shells.

Lots of cute floppy bunnies.

Many varieties of chickens.

And one golden pheasant.
Basically we each grabbed a prickly pear lemonade to walk around with, scoped out the food vendors, then walked through the exhibits. We didn’t even look for the pigs and such this year.
I ate a(n) gyro as big as my head, and we split a bag of churros. That’s about it. The concerts are lousy this year, and we aren’t carnival age any more.
Gyro poses an interesting question. Since it’s pronounced eero, I prefer to put “an” before it. Since it’s spelled with a consonant, it looks like it should be an “a.” It’s a blog post, so who cares. I’ll be careful not to put them in any of my fiction.
I’ve never seen a pumpkin like that third one. And that Golden Pheasant is gorgeous. It’s been a while since I’ve been to the fair. Sounds like you had a good time.
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It was fun, but we didn’t stay long. We’ve both been to a lot of fairs in our day. The pheasant is beautiful and active. He walked right up to me for his pictures.
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Sounds like a fun date. HH and I like to go to the Van Wert Fair in Ohio because they have horse races and lots of fair food. I’m looking forward to Lanternfish! he pumpkins make me think of the Halloween pumpkin carving contests on Food Network. I’m always amazed what they can come up with with pumpkins.
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We usually have some whopper pumpkins at the fair. Everything seems like a shadow of itself right now. At least we were able to go.
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The pumpkins are so cool! I guess your characters can always eat grilled cheese.:-)
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True, or the churros we had.
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Always thought the ‘g’ in gyro was said instead of silent. Starting to think the word has regional versions. Can only imagine how hard it is to eat one as big as your head. I make enough of a mess with the small ones. Also, my suburban butt is confused by you saying the pumpkins are a couple hundred pounds being off under a picture of a 320 pounder. How big did they used to get?
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We almost always have a 500 pounder there. Other places have them over 1000. Seems to me New York has one of the bigger pumpkin contests, but I could be off a state.
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New York could have a big one. Probably Central or Upstate.
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Loved the photos, Craig. Thanks for sharing them.
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Something better than staying home in my own head. Saw other humans and everything.
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There may be hope after all. 😁
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Good to get out for a while Craig, but what the hell is a gyro?
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Greek pita with a lamb/beef mixture and a unique sauce called Tziki.
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Now that does sound tasty!
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Hey hey, a fair! I am also an Autumn kind of person, and have been sloooowly bringing out the fall decorations in the house (much to Bo’s shagrin). Say, would you want to do an interview post sometime on my site? Then you could repost it on your site, and that’d be one of your 9 blog posts covered…just sayin’…. 😉
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Let’s chat about it. My email address is coldhand.boyack@gmail.com
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Awesome, Sir! I’ll be in touch. 🙂
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Congrats on your writing progress, Craig. And thanks for sharing your trip to the fair. When I was a college administrator, a local homeowner in CT raised monster pumpkins for competition. Unfortunately, a few drunk students found his patch — and then I was called in to “fix it”. That’s an experience I won’t forget. 🙄
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People are just so rude. I don’t think it’s a modern issue either. Social media just allows more focus upon it. That poor farmer simply had something he enjoyed, and the frat boys had to ruin it.
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I should check out when our Interstate Fair is. I like to look at the floral competition.
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I think I enjoy it more than my wife. I like all the competitions. There have been some amazing photographs and artwork over the years.
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What fun! I love the different pumpkin hybrids. Very interesting. And your comment about the Gyro had me chuckling. 🙂 Talk about a conundrum!
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I kind of want to grow one of those flat gnarly ones. I might try a potted one next summer.
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Nice fair pics. We didn’t go this year but always enjoy the displays. Have a great weekend.
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I noticed we didn’t stay long this year. Some worries about crowds of people, and we’ve seen plenty of fairs in our day. Still, it was nice to do something normal.
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Sounds like you’re getting a decent amount done. I know what you mean though… The year is slipping away quickly. We’re heading in to my favourite months of the year: I’m a big fan of Halloween, my birthday is in November, and between Christmas and the chance of snow I’m a big fan of Winter.
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I like all of that more than Summer.
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It’s been years since I’ve been to a fair, but oh, how I love them! The same with carnivals and amusement parks. I don’t think I’ll ever outgrow my love of the atmosphere.
Those pumpkins are awesome, and I loved the animal and bird photos. It sounds like you had a wonderful time.
Interesting observation about gyro. It has me wondering what the correct answer is.
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It was fun, even if we limited our time out. I kind of like to wander around a bit more, but we just headed for our favorite things, then left. It’s a decent place to people watch, but we didn’t take a lot of time for that either.
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It does look like it’s covered in peanut shells. The third one is strange, too. Sounds like a fun day, Craig. I had a booth at a local Old Home Day fair this weekend, but we love regular fairs, too. I think mid-September kicks off fair season around here.
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They’re just fun. We didn’t stay longer than a date night, but we knew where everything we wanted to see was. I though of you when I saw some guinea pigs the kids were raising.
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Awww, my little babies are cruising around my office. Too much cuteness for one person to handle. LOL
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I’ve never seen pumpkins of that variety or that big! And of course you have a character who has something like one of them for a head.
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He probably isn’t the one you’re thinking of. More of a controlled creature to do bad things. Fun though… I hope.
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Really great pumpkins!
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That’s one stylish chicken 😂
I hope you enjoyed the date.
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It was great. Always love the fair.
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