Tolerable productivity

It was another good day, but doesn’t compare to yesterday. Yesterday was one of the rare ones.

My goal was to work on edits to the Serang story. After I got off the phone with my parents, I didn’t feel like it. I accomplished a lot of procrastination today. Editing is one of my least favorite things.

I caved and added to the nameless project. It isn’t as much as yesterday, but it was a good day. It came to about a half chapter, maybe a bit more.

This section involved rescuing our heroes by using Gina’s backup plan. This top secret spirit of vengeance made a mess of the zombies, and that was before the bad guys pissed him off.

Hint: this one includes a lot of my previous characters. This one seemed to be a fan favorite at one time. Hint #2: the voodoo ritual took place beside a lake.

These guys are heroes, but against 75 to a hundred slobbering smelly zombies they needed a bit of help. Plus Lisa is out of commission.

Lizzie and the hat rushed the crane that manipulates the electro-magnet. It was operated by a type-one zombie. These are more Voodoo centric and aren’t the same thing Walking Dead fans might be thinking about.

They reached him about the time the “spirit of vengeance” arrived on the scene. This required some ducking for cover. Eventually, they got to the crane and we had adventures in operating the most complicated piece of equipment in existence. Typical Lizzie and the hat banter accompanied this scene, but their friends didn’t get crushed by an old Impala. A few zombies did.

Lisa is still out of it, but the extinguishing of the magnet will allow her to start on the road back. (She’s going to be so pissed at me when she gets back to work.)

Gupta got shot during the firefight, and Lizzie and the hat popped him to their secret cabin for some first aid. I’m now debating what kind of archaic old weaponry Lizzie’s ancestors might have stored there. This really is for a humorous scene involving Lisa (Still out of it), but I don’t know whether to include it or not.

We looked at my open browser windows a week ago, and that was kind of fun. Here’s what’s open right now:

• Entertaining Stories. (Naturally)
• Two different pages for that online convention. I did sign up for it, but have no idea what I’m doing.
• Oils in Witchcraft and Hoodoo.
• Hoodoo candle magic.
• The Gutenberg Bible.
• Psalms and Verses in Hoodoo.
• Grumman F2F airplane. (Oops, another hint.)
• Stinger missiles.

• Photographs of crane interiors.
• Coban medical wrap.
• Injection vials.

This could only be one of my stories, right? I was particularly happy with my Voodoo/Hoodoo ritual. The secret to these is to do some research, then make it all up anyway – but based upon that research.

I did move on to the Serang edits. I worked through two of three critiques. These need to be done, but I also needed some whiny time. I could have moved the team-up story further down the line. I could have dealt with the last Serang critique. A little of both isn’t bad, but I’m left with that feeling of not getting something off my list.

No idea what I’ll do tomorrow. The same projects are still on my list. It might be smart to slow down the team-up story. It’s at around 35,000 words right now. I don’t want to bring it in under 50K.

There will be some words dedicated to the wrap-up. Gina promised the participants rewards, plus we need to see the positive result of their effort. Quarantines need to be ended even if it’s just a blurb on the television. Gina and Gupta aren’t “contractors” in this tale. They don’t get rewards.

I’m thinking about doing a self imposed quarantine at the mansion for all the characters. This means they’re going to get exposed to one of the viruses.

Lisa and Jason Fogg seem to be immune to everything, and the dog gets a free pass. Would a brief section of being too close for comfort and bickering be hard for readers to digest? I haven’t seen this done at the end of the story before. It’s usually a getting acquainted section at the beginning. I could trickle in knowledge that their efforts paid off. What do you guys think? You’re all readers.

There is a risk in dragging this part out. I have a lot of characters, and only the main ones will get focus in this part of the story. I’ll probably limit this to Lizzie and the hat, Lisa Burton, and briefly Clovis.

For this reason, maybe my best bet is to shift over to Serang tomorrow.

Some days I hate to stop

Today was a writing day. When I have the place to myself, dogs excepted, it’s usually a decent writing day. Today was no exception.

I decided to work on my nameless team-up adventure. It feels like about 4000 words today, and I hate to stop. Old What’s Her Face will be home soon, and that stops it anyway, so it’s time to blog.

My characters did some spying with a drone, discovered that the bad guys raised the stakes with what amounts to a biological weapon, then identified a likely place to investigate further.

The new site is swarming with zombies, and the team was beaten back. A couple of the girls commented on Jason’s bare butt as he tried to help them avoid getting killed.

Lisa Burton was taken out of action by a huge electro-magnet. Computers and magnets don’t get along too well.

Gina decided it was time to fight fire (undead) with fire (undead). This led to a fun Voodoo ritual, and the game changed directions for a bit. That’s right at the point where I stopped, and there is a lot more to this part.

Clovis had to face a small bit of his past, in the form of zombies that he’d already made dead once before. He isn’t phased by much, so I doubt it will slow him down. I probably need to beef this part up a little.

Like I said, sometimes I hate to stop. It makes for a good place to pick it back up again.

Sundays I call my parents, so a lot of my quality time goes into that. This makes late morning a great time to address some of those Serang edits I need to get to. I’ve decided to do this in two parts. First, fix all the grammatical things, then go back to paragraph one and edit for content. To do this, I’m going to identify the key points, do word count between them, then assess if the between parts get beefed up or cut back.

Serang has been a little tougher to write, but it’s a great experience. It’s kind of a fictional biography, and there are some things from Lanternfish that cannot be changed. I’m enjoying the challenge of this one, but they are different challenges than the other story.

I’m off Monday too, so I’ll probably leap the team-up story ahead some more. At least that’s my goal.

I started my day with some sourdough toast, and it was great. I’m having a meatloaf sandwich now, and it’s great too. All in all, it’s been a great day. Hope yours is too.

More vacation stuff, plus research

Vacation posts are kind of hit and miss in my experience. Since it's all I have right now, I'm going to go for it.

We went on the walking voodoo tour last night. Turns out this was a very PC kind of presentation. They drew the obvious connections to Catholicism, and discussed the ways it came from Africa and evolved after it arrived. Everyone worships the same god, and while the Catholics have saints, voodoo has other names for lesser deities that will sometimes intercede on our behalf.

All the shops seem to have two active altars, and shoppers are forbidden from photographing them. However; those on the tour are invited to photograph them. I have no idea about the difference, but I have a theory money is involved. I wanted to explain that, because of the sign in my photograph. I'm not one of those tourists who fails to follow the rules.

This altar is for a goddess who is also in charge of inspiration. Think of her like a Muse among her other responsibilities. She's also fond of very high quality things. Notice the champaign offerings.

Of course, everything is very benign even good. Questions from the crowd about voodoo dolls and zombies were casually poo pooed. Some dumb ass had to ask the difference between voodoo and hoodoo. (It was me.) They distanced themselves from hoodoo, explaining it isn't a religion but more of a practice. Then they explained all the things Hollywood comes up with make better fiction. (Kind of a please ask questions, but not you buddy response. I'm sure John Howell could make a ten things list about this.)

They noted that John Paul II held mass here, and met with a group of voodoo priests. Once he understood the similarities, he declared voodoo a companion religion to Catholicism. At least that's what our guide Daphne said. (My wife didn't like all my Scooby Doo jokes after learning the guide's name, so I'll keep them to myself.)

On the better fiction point we are in agreement. Voodoo, or hoodoo, are better when they're fantastic and dangerous. I will continue to step up my fictional game on this basis. In fact, Lorelei my Muse visited me and gave me an outstanding character. He is a supporting character in my mind, but I already have about six vignette ideas for him. I just need to find a hero and a plot to go with him. This is much more difficult than when the plot comes first. In fact, I'm already struggling with an old concept of how to keep magic from being the cure for everything. Any paranormal or fantasy authors will know what I mean.

We've eaten a ton, and that doesn't seem likely to stop. Last night we went to Acme Oyster Bar. (I expected Wile E. Coyote to make an appearance, but he didn't.) We did the old people thing and shared a couple of dishes. The charbroiled oysters were fantastic, and so were the red beans and rice, rounded out by fried stone crab claws and fried crawfish tails. (In Idaho we call them crawdads, but since we're here…)

Today we're being lazy. We had room service breakfast, with beignets (And praline sauce). Then Old What's Her Face booked a pedicure. I think I'll just hang here until she's ready to go out. I'm kind of tired, and we walked about a thousand miles in the last few days. New Orleans makes me glad I never rented a car.

Drivers here are aggressive and impatient. I've heard more car horns in a long weekend than in a year in Boise. Boise drivers are crazy too, but they don't ride on their horn like they do here.

This is a town for walkers, at least this part of town. The humidity and heat make this difficult, but we did it anyway. Since we were walking so much, I decided to play Pokemon Go while doing so. I missed the first one of these I saw, but the second one is mine.

This guy is regional, and does not appear in Idaho. I'm sure not everyone is into this game, but it's kind of fun to find something you just can't get everywhere.

It's a long ways, but I'd like to go to Jean Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop today. It's a bar, and Lafitte is a genuine part of NOLA history, as well as American History. Again, we have no agenda and we may, or may not get there. Old What's Her Face refuses to try the bicycle rickshaw taxi things, and it's a long way to walk.

Tomorrow we fly out early, and it looks like we have three legs to get home. (The joys of flying on standby, but you can't argue with the price.)

Let’s saddle up and chase some demons

I may have mentioned that I'm doing a bunch of October promotions. Some are in groups, some are solo efforts, and some involve host blogs. This one is all on me, but it might benefit you. My book, Panama, is going to be free all this week. There are always some quirks with Amazon, and international date lines, but it should be free by the time this posts.

This is actually my most reliable selling book. It only spiked once and that was a long time ago. It regularly sells a copy here and there, and folks seem to like it.

The dawning of the twentieth century was a strange time. There were unexplored areas of the world. There were wild Indians, places an outlaw could escape, and radar couldn't find ships at sea.

Steam power ruled the day, and the industrial revolution was in full swing. Europe was mostly ruled by monarchs, before World War One changed all of that.

The French wanted to build a canal across the isthmus of Panama in what was then Colombia. This was no light undertaking, and workers died in the thousands from diseases, and more than a few industrial accidents.

I put a lot of research into this one, and it's where I learned that a dose of reality helps sell the fantastic. There are period appropriate celebrity cameos, and with the exception of one, they were where the book represents when they appear in the story.

Ethan and Coop are old friends. They both served in different cavalry troops, because Coop is black. The black cavalry were called Buffalo Soldiers by the Indians. They wound up on San Juan Hill together in the Spanish American War. Both of them have experience with paranormal goings on, and that's why President Roosevelt approached them. There is something unspeakable going on at the canal construction zone.

I spent a considerable amount of time dealing with the prejudices of the era too. Coop's life and viewpoint are different than Ethan's.

Most of the construction workers were chasing fortune and glory. They came from all over the world in pursuit of high wages. I went out of my way to make my construction zone an international community.

The boys run into plenty of magical issues when they get there, and I tried to make that international too. You'll find a bit of witchcraft, some shamanism, and even some hoodoo along the way. The problem is all caused by a demon, but there is a power behind him that must be dealt with. Right in the middle of their project, the Panamanians decided to try for independence. This brings the Americans, the Panamanians, and the Colombians into some tense situations.

To make matters worse, there is a Carlist rebel who is trying to gain the former Spanish colonies back for his want-to-be king. The Carlist movement involved someone who arguably could have been king of Spain. This is called a pretender to the throne, and they still exist to this day. I know some of you get into this stuff, and you might appreciate the Wikipedia brief.

I stumbled across this post the other day, and saved the link for you. They are extracting an entire steam train from underneath Lake Gatun. This lake was created as part of the workings of the canal. The post I had went down last night, so I Googled another one for you. Check out French trains.

So there you have it; a strange mixture of the old world and the new. A strange mixture of cultures, and magic. If you're up to the task, grab your straw hat, holster your six shooter, and saddle up. This week the books are on me, and I hope you enjoy Panama.

 

Come play in The Playground

I just now got approval from Amazon to start selling The Playground. I set it up as a pre-order once again. This worked really well for The Experimental Notebook, so I did it again.

The Playground involves a sequence of dolls and plush toys that contain a social network for children. The marketing involves soft animals, fashion dolls, dinosaurs, and super soldiers to guarantee appeal to any kid. The network is promoted to allow kids to make friends all over the world, get help with homework, and other things that sound great to parents.

The whole thing is the scheme of a ruthless businessman to brainwash our kids. He's the impatient type, and turned to the occult to speed things along. He summoned a demon to place into the system, but the software to finalize this plan went missing.

The story is told from the perspective of three different characters. Their stories can even be read individually, I know, I did it. When you read the novel, the stories intertwine to tell an even bigger story.

There are moody poltergeists, a member of the fae, an angel of death, a big goofy dog, sinister dolls, parasites, hot cars, Hoodoo, and even camera drones. I think it makes for a pretty good story.

This one is for more mature readers. There is some language, violence, and with children as the potential victims, I want you to know ahead of time.

The purchase link is embedded in the photo in the sidebar, but here it is too, for your convenience http://a-fwd.com/asin=B01D6EF6RI

My personal challenge this time was to weave multiple stories together in a cohesive greater story. Think of it like my tribute to Tarantino.

I've already seen one post go up at Planetary Defense Command, and there will be more throughout the week. I need to custom write some at the request of a few fellow bloggers, so I'm going to be busy. Then there is the about me page to update, my book club to notify, Goodreads, and on, and on…

Sean Harrington did the cover for this one. He is the Lisa Burton artist, and did the cover for Wild Concept. I think he did a fabulous job, and I want that car.

Kicked to the curb!

Tonight, The Walking Dead returns. Will I be watching that? Nooooo. Old What's Her Face* is uber excited about the Grammys. I will probably read more of your blogs, and look up once as AC/DC performs. My wife also has the red carpet show on ahead of time. I see Lady Gaga is still under Tony Bennett's enthralment. Oh, and Nicki Ménage brought her boobs to the show. (Even if you aren't interested, they just suck you in.)

I washed and filled all my fountain pens today. I am ready for any note taking that strikes my brain. Three different inks, Noodler's Walnut (dark brown), Noodler's Army Air Corp (blue black), and Noodler's Bad Black Moccasin (black).

My work in progress has to change to accommodate a new supporting character. I think it will really add something to the story, and I'm about to return to writing it. It's caused me to to do some deep research again, but the story will now involve an amputated finger and some NOLA Hoodoo. (Yay!)

My Muse, Lorelei, has been after me about some short stories. I managed a micro fiction instead. I'd post it on my blog, but I'm toying with a book of short stories broken up by a page of micro fiction. I really don't want to work on short stories until I finish the first draft of my novel. Maybe this will help Lorelei focus on my novel for another month or so.

I also built some guest posts to publish on Tuesday and Thursday. I think you guys are going to like these, because they come with a lesson or two.

Next weekend, I may dedicate some time to getting Will O' the Wisp ready for prime time. This is the book I need to release in two versions, because of copyright permission over some song lyrics. It's time now, then I can check in with all the ARC readers. I targeted somewhere around the time Winter changes into Spring, and Winter is half over now. I need to keep my eye on the prize here.

My video recorder is set for The Walking Dead. I can catch up later. I have a growler full of good Porter to keep me company while my wife watches her show. I hope you guys all had a great weekend that was either fun or productive. (Hopefully a bit of both.)

So let's hear it. Are you into the Grammy's or The Walking Dead? Did you work on promotions, or write something new? Did you read something new, or practice your Hoodoo? How was your weekend?

* Not the name on my wife's birth certificate.

Saddle up! Time for Panama’s free day

Tuesday, all day, my paranormal adventure, Panama, will be free. I have a theory some people are waiting for this one. It’s been pulling in some wonderful reviews.

Panama is the story of two former military men. The President knows they have unusual skills, and brings them together to investigate a mystery at the construction site of The Panama Canal.

This is a self serious story of the paranormal. It involves an international construction crew, and the magic represented is international in scope as well. A demon is spiriting construction workers away and turning them into an invading army. They are (barely) under the control of a Spanish Carlist rebel with designs on re-establishing Spain’s lost colonies.

Listen to what the reviewers are saying:

“The story takes several surreal twists and turns as it navigates its way through the unlikely pair’s adventures. It’s clear they don’t have a clue about what they’re doing, which is what makes them so endearing, and which leads them into many a scrape, but they muddle along, making enemies, friends and allies as they go.”

“The writing is funny and sad, cynical and naive, plausible and incredible, and quirky as hell – and it all works and makes you feel like you’re right in there with the characters who all leap out at you.”

“Boyack has created a great story, with the result being a fascinating, enjoyable book that is very well written. His character development and descriptions of the scenes are extremely well done. It is an easy read and captures your attention almost immediately.”

“The characters at times say completely unexpected things or act in ways that will make you laugh out loud. You will never be quite sure how the story will end.”

***

Okay, I’m about to blush. Those are some wonderful things to say about my story.

I grew up around actual Cowboys, Basque people, and gold miners. The dialog between Ethan and Coop is authentic. I hope you’ll grab a copy of Panama on its free day.

PS: It would be really cool if someone from Panama would pick up a copy of Panama.