I spent a big chunk of my day working on fiction. No new words, but things like covers, edits, and first passes over my work.
This was filled with frequent breaks, which I find helpful when making an editing pass. If I get into the tale, I tend to just read instead of taking care of business.
I used the breaks to write a couple of things for Story Empire. I scheduled one, and am holding on to the other. Since I only appear there monthly, there is no rush and I could decide to add a few things to the holdback.
Since yesterday was payday, and the bills all went through, Old What’s Her Face and I decided to go out. We went back to Sid’s Garage. We’d gone there once before, and remembered it was amazing.
This is a place with gourmet burgers that have a country flair. I started off with a huge milkshake made with cinnamon whiskey. My wife remembered the appetizers and ordered both the candied bacon and flash fried deviled eggs.
New feature here is a bit of flair. A skinny girl brought out the bacon that hung vertically from a small chain. She fired up a blowtorch at the table and worked the bacon over. Honestly, it was wonderful.
The eggs were wonderful, too. We each ordered a burger. Mine came with more candied bacon and onion rings on top, a bit of onion jelly to round things up with.
I never knew it, but my burger was one of the flair items. It appeared in the form of a small wooden trunk. The server asked if we wanted pictures before she opened it up. My wife did. When she opened the trunk, barbecue smoke went everywhere, and the bun had been branded with the Sid’s Garage logo.
We had a great time, but maybe should stay away for a few months. Otherwise, I could be remembered as the old guy that ate that gigantic hamburger.
We shared an order of garlic Parmesan fries, and those were awesome, too. In fact, Old What’s Her Face brought those home with us.
Tomorrow is all about checking in with Mom, other family things, and I might start reading a new book.
This one is Scotch, so I dropped the “e” as is traditional. I’ve neglected this spot during my vacation, but a lot of people were offline during this stretch.
I’ve been writing, and it’s gone really well. Once I got done with my Nevada trip, we spent a day recovering. After that, my time was my own. We actually went to a movie in a theater. Something we hadn’t done since before Covid.
I never bothered to count, but probably should have. My productivity is spread across manuscripts, but is somewhere near 40,000 words. I did a lot of reading back, so the editing won’t be completely awful.
It’s five-thirty here, we just finished supper. Honestly, I wrote all day and it flowed really well. Old What’s Her Face has had the Las Vegas marathon on all weekend. It is a great show, but I have kind of seen them all. Although, Vanessa Marcil has a certain ability to make me look up from time to time.
My brain told me to stop, but I may open my MS back up after this drink.
I’ve had a great time. I could easily do this full time if the income were there. We all know it isn’t, but a man can dream.
However, the real world calls, and I’ll be back in harness come Tuesday.
I’m sure tonight will be filled with fireworks and upset dogs. We’ll probably be up late whether we like it or not. When you think of it like that, I will probably finish my drink and dive back in.
I hope you all had a great 2023. I hope you have an even better 2024. I’ll work up my 2024 business plan and share it here after all the resolution posts clear out of WordPress.
Hi, all. Time for a bit more promo for Goodbye Old Paint. This time I want to talk about my duo of main characters. Let’s start off with Elizabeth “Lizzie” St. Laurent.
She’s a regular girl who struggles with the circumstances of everyday life. She’s from California and her parents are a pair to draw to. Daddy is a conservative attorney who was running for state senator when we last included him. Her mother is an old hippie. She loves California and has a fun vibe about her.
Lizzie falls somewhere in the middle. I try to have her stumbling and fumbling with something at all times. She has to use Daddy’s credit card more than once. She works odd jobs, waiting tables, landscaping, and even cut a deal with her apartment complex that covers her utilities in exchange for labor.
She has outstanding student loans, a well-used car, and sometimes struggles to cover the rent. I put her through a huge flood event, and occasionally leave her stuck in the snow somewhere. It’s a goal to have her face a lot of reality, because there are a few extraordinary events that make it into her stories.
This brings us to her partner, the hat. He’s a creature from another dimension who was summoned here by witchcraft, back in the days of the Greek City States. An old warrior was looking for an edge, and liked the idea of eyes in the back of his head. He paid the witch, and here we are.
The hat showed up with a few more tools at his disposal than opticals. He can transport his host to the last couple of places they transported from. He synthesizes with his host, so they can use his vision, be he can also manipulate the host’s body. He’s been used to mind control other people in a pinch, and a few other things.
He can change shapes, but must always be a hat. He’s bound to Lizzie’s bloodline for as long as it lasts. Surnames come and go, but bloodlines go on. This is how we got from Greece to Lizzie’s last name that sounds somewhat French.
Lizzie is the first woman he’s ever partnered up with. This leads to some misunderstandings along the way. Prior to Lizzie, he spent twenty years in a box. He missed nearly the entire technological revolution and this leads to a few foibles as well. No use partnering up with children, but once Lizzie came of age he found her.
When Lizzie wears the hat, there are some convenient things that happen. For one, by controlling her hands and fingers, the hat plays the upright bass. Lizzie is a good singer and they formed a small cover band, which is yet another of her odd jobs. She can sleep behind the wheel and the hat can drive her car.
On the other hand, the hat is a confirmed monster hunter, and he needs Lizzie to complete his goals. Things will get crazy from this point. The hat knows the family’s secret history, and has an extensive library of stories to share.
Technological differences, generational differences, male vs female points of view, and there is an opportunity for a few disagreements between the partners. They happen… frequently.
If all this sounds like fun to you, please check out The Hat Series. The newest volume is called Goodbye Old Paint.
Blurb: Lizzie and the hat haven’t been as careful as they think. When the FBI comes knocking, they know all about their nighttime pursuits.
Who even knew we had a Geospatial Intelligence Agency? This obscure part of the intelligence community has a problem that requires a special skillset. Lizzie and the hat are tasked with ridding the intelligence server farm of a gremlin infestation. They’re ill prepared for this one, because .357 magnum revolvers are designed to deal with larger and hairier problems.
The Feds aren’t giving Lizzie much chance to weasel out of the assignment, and they reluctantly accept the job. Lizzie faces some unique trials and has to make new friends to get through the assignment, and avoid a debilitating curse at the same time.
It’s been a hard road for Lizzie during this series, and she’s due for a couple of small upgrades. These are solo titles in a larger series, and you should be able to read any individual one without feeling lost. The series is dark humor at its base, but this one tends a little more toward the humor.
Mom and my brother left yesterday mid-morning. They made it home safely. Friday was a bit rough, because none of them were hungry. This left me with nothing to eat. Old What’s Her Face hadn’t gone shopping and had a grandchild event to attend. I wasn’t about to abandon family to go grab a hamburger or anything.
We split up on Saturday, my brother and I going one direction and the girls going the other. We got a lot of visiting in and that was great. As we headed home with a couple of whiskey treasures in tow, I couldn’t take any more. I pulled in to the vampire taco place and told my brother he could eat, or not, but I had to. It had been about 24 hours since my last bite and that was an Asian pear.
The food was wonderful, and I washed mine down with a pumpkin beer, but only one. I figured I was safe, since this place is only about two blocks from my house. I didn’t even have time to digest a beer before we were home.
We all went out to Texas Road house on Saturday. Not my most favorite place, and it was packed. Too loud for visiting much, but just spending time together was fine. Once we got home I got to spend more time chatting with Mom. My brother and I cracked open our treasures and enjoyed a drink while we visited.
Today, I tackled one of my manuscripts. I failed to count words, but it was a good day. Jenny is trying to assemble her news report, but the stalkers showed up again. This time it’s the youngsters they are harassing.
I might dabble with the story a little more, but I also have some reading to do. My brother told me there are a crap-ton of free audio books on YouTube. I never knew that, but will probably check them out eventually.
It was a good extended weekend, and I hope all of you did something fun, too.
Old What’s Her Face and I are both taking a vacation day today. My Christmas present from her was two tickets to see Larkin Poe live at The Knitting Factory in Boise.
We dragged our feet getting out of the house last night, but in the end it meant we didn’t have to stand in arctic temperatures in a long line. We had a reserved table, so fighting for a seat wasn’t part of the deal.
It’s a small venue, and we were incredibly close to the stage.
That’s the dance floor between me and the performers. The table area was slightly raised, so seeing over everyone’s heads was no problem.
This wound up being an incredible performance. The younger sister has huge stage presence and a wonderful voice. Her older sibling is a virtuoso on that slide guitar. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend seeing them. in an age of auto-tuners and synthetic background, it’s nice to see someone who does it the old-school way, and does it well.
At our ages, the hard plastic chairs became a little tiresome by the end, and we’re both expressing our aches and pains today. Thus, the reason for the day off.
If only we could get Kenny Wayne Shepherd or Samantha Fish to come here one day. They regularly tour together. I found out KWS is going to be in Bend, Oregon in May. We’d need someone to watch the bulldogs to pull that off.
As for me, I’ve vowed not to do a damned thing today. No editing, or other authorly gyrations. We’re watching The Last Witch Hunter on TV and the rest of the day will probably play out the same way.
I’m visiting with Colleen today in what’s become a Halloween tradition for us. Colleen is a prolific lady who runs the largest poetry blog I know of. She’s always been a big supporter of independent authors, and I’m proud to consider her a friend. While you’re over there, please check out all she has to offer and consider following her interesting blogs.
Hello everyone! Welcome to the Halloween edition of Colleen’s Coffee Klatch. Since at least 2016, C. S. Boyack has spent every Halloween with me on the blog. He usually has a new book to discuss, and this year is no different.
I’ve been wanting to check out our newest celestial body for a while now, but tonight was the night. If you hadn’t heard, we have a comet in the nighttime sky once more. (Technically, it’s there all the time. You can only see it at night.)
Comets are amazing, and we really only get to see one or two in a lifetime. There are more of them around, but seeing one with the naked eye is kind of rare.
It was visible in the pre-dawn, but I missed it then. Now that it’s on its way back to wherever it came from, it’s visible after dark.
I tried a couple of days ago, but during the longest days of the year, it wasn’t dark before I absolutely had to go to bed. I was scheduled to work in the office the next day.
Last night I had to stay up to 11:00 to see it. I’m in Mountain Daylight time if you need to adjust your timing. I think it’s awesome, but it’s no Kahoutek or Hale Bop. Those were impressive comets.
They say NEOWISE is brighter now than when Halley’s Comet made its most recent pass. I looked for that one, and never saw it. Kind of puts some of this into perspective for me.
NEOWISE is there, but you can barely see it. I almost had to spot it from my peripheral vision. I was looking right at it and couldn’t find it. After spotting it, there was no missing it. It’s so pale, I couldn’t get a photograph.
You can stack the deck if you want to see it. I had to deal with a bit of light pollution in my neighborhood. Drive out of town where it’s more dark and it will help. In fact, I might do that myself this weekend.
If I had used binoculars it probably would help, too. I have half a dozen pairs, but I kind of wanted to see it with the naked eye.
To give you a head start, it’s between the horizon and the Big Dipper, and a little to the left. It’s there, have faith. Drive into the country, spread a blanket on the ground, take a bottle of wine, could make a nice evening. If you have something more upscale than an iPhone you might even get a picture for your blog.
Even though it’s a weaker appearance, it’s still awe inspiring. These things were considered harbingers at one time. In a year of murder hornets, COVID, riots in the streets, political meltdown, economic disasters, and more, maybe we don’t need a harbinger for the next event.
My phone rang at about 7:00 this morning. “This is Lisa*. You have to do something about that stupid raven.”
“Doubt**. Why? What’s he done to piss you off so early?” I asked.
“It’s bad enough that he gets into Bunny’s food. I even took my pretty blue eye covers away from him and never complained. Today he has a new trick. He’s learned to open the freezer.”
“There isn’t really much in there anyway.”
“True, but he has the left side of your brain out and he’s pecking at it. Lefty’s going to be pissed when he thaws out.”
“Never mind Lefty. That’s my brain. I’m on my way.”
I pushed the gyro into the street and headed for the writing cabin, banked left at the Misty Mountains, and dropped down over the Plains of Trenzelor. I buzzed the runway to drive off the Beast of Bray Road and touched down. I used the elevator to get to the basement.
There was an old salmon net down here at one time. I rummaged through baskets of sapotes and star fruit, bagpipes and bellows. I found it tucked behind some spare parts from the Atlantic Robotics concept lab.
Lisa was yelling shoo as I tromped upstairs. “Where is he?” I asked.
“In the kitchen,” Lisa said. She had on one of her pinup outfits with tiny white polka dots on a field of blue. Her fingers were spread and waved her nails from side to side.
When I entered the kitchen, Doubt flew into the front office with a raucous Kaw.
The left side of my brain lay thawing on the counter. His ziplock Baggie torn and shredded. “Oh Lefty, I hope you’re going to be okay.” I turned to Lisa and said, “We really ought to get one of those seal a meal thingies.”
“I made a note; seal a meal thingie from Amazon. Just catch him and get him back to his perch.”
“Are you kidding, look at my brain. Get the shotgun.”
“You can’t shoot him. Lorelei*** will be pissed.”
We moved into the front office on cat’s feet. I started to ease the door shut to avoid chasing him from room to room. He saw through my plan and flew toward the closing door.
Lisa stepped in front of me and made a grab at him, but he banked and she came up with a few loose feathers. She snapped her attention to her nails and said, “Get the shotgun.”
Doubt circled the room squawking the entire time. I moved alongside his orbit and timed my swing. It was kind of like catching a giant butterfly. “Find a box or something to put him in.”
She went to the closet and brought back a white plastic bucket with a lid. She used her ruined nails to poke holes through the side.
I winced, thinking how strong she really is.
Doubt tore a chunk off the side of my hand, but I managed to shove him in the bucket. Lisa snapped the lid shut and ran for her desk.
I sat on top of the bucket and asked, “What are you going to do?”
She grabbed a Sharpie and a shipping label, and started writing. “I’m sending him away.”
“Good idea. Send him to Timbuktu.”
“I already wrote Florida.”
“Where in Florida?”
“Just Florida. Maybe the UPS people will keep him in the warehouse trying to figure it all out.” She looked up and smiled. “I’ll take him into town. Will you be alright without me for an hour or two?”
“Yeah. I’m looking forward to some Doubt free editing.”
* Lisa is the main character in Wild Concept. She’s a robot and works as my assistant these days.
**Doubt is a raven. He was a gift from my Muse, and was intended to help me somehow.
*** Lorelei is my Muse.
Important Footnote:
Doubt is going to appear over at S.K Nicholls’ blog mybrandofgenius. Please visit her blog and consider following her. She’s in the final stages of a new manuscript herself. Her book might be something you’re interested in
Entertaining Stories 