What’s up?

I don’t know if anyone noticed, but I’ve been a lot less active online lately. I did my October tour and tried to cover those comments, but as far as new content here goes, I’ve been pretty lax.

There is a lot going on in my life right now. As only one example, my father had another collapse last week. They flew him to the Huntsman Cancer Center in Salt Lake.

This came as a surprise, because my parents see a lot of doctors throughout the year. To learn that he has masses from his bladder to his lungs seems kind of sudden. They won’t call them cancer until they do the biopsies on Monday.

I’ve been on the phone with family, or in contact via electronic means for a week now. There is some discussion about taking him home to await the inevitable.

Dad has been fading for years, and he’s in his late eighties, so this isn’t completely unexpected. Everyone goes eventually, from something. It’s just another in a long line of things to deal with this year.

I missed a day and a half of work, but am determined to work all next week. There is nothing I can do about any of this, and it takes a few days for that to settle in. The issue with my father is only about one in six different things I’m dealing with right now. I’m not posting about the rest of it.

I’m trying to dabble with promotional posts for Lanternfish, but not making much progress. I want to release it soon, but I’m also exhausted. I’ll pick away at promo posts, then consider doing a limited release tour when I’m finally ready.

I’m also dabbling with my side project, but word count is way down. If I get a page per session, I’m lucky. There’s just too damned much going on elsewhere to focus. 28K words in and I already killed a character. I’m going to keep it moving, but might have to back up and review once I’m in a different mindset.

Not really looking for sympathy here. I just want my readers to know that a forced slowdown is upon me. I’m still here, there will be a release of Lanternfish. There will be more stories. It’s just that I’m in lower gear right now.

I don’t think 2021 is going to be getting a positive review from me.

A bit of writing work today

Today wasn’t intended for new words. I had some writing messes to clean up, so that was my big goal.

First, I’ve had critique samples for Lunar Boogie for a week. While there weren’t any huge changes to make, there were a lot of small things. I find it too hard to focus on weeknights, so today I took up the challenge.

I also needed to get another submission ready for my group. I bounce back and forth, so this time they get to see Lanternfish. I worked on the next chapter for about an hour, including checking with an online editing program before sending it out. It’s out, so I’ll get to learn if my married cons still have what it takes to carry a chapter.

Only after taking care of all that, did I turn my attention back to Lunar Boogie. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know I had some issues with the ending of the story.

As a recap, I wanted to end this one on a down note which provided for a bit of character growth for Lizzie in the next book. I wound up ending it on a major bummer and wasn’t happy with it.

Last weekend, I added a scene and it kind of helped, but still wasn’t what I needed. Remember, these are partially comical in nature, so they really can’t end on sour note.

Today, I threw caution to the wind and added a bunch of material I was saving for the opening of Good Liniment, the next book in the series. It wound up requiring a chapter break which caused the last two chapters to be short ones.

This required me to research crystal therapy and come up with a name for a pot shop. All in a day’s work, right?

I hate to sacrifice some of the stuff from the next book, but think it probably works better here. Basically, Lizzie’s parents made an appearance earlier in the book via FaceTime. At the end, Lizzie goes to California to spend some time with them. Alone, without the hat.

As far as what I included, Lizzie spent this time with her mom, and she is a genuine C. S. Boyack character. I will have to come up with some additional material for Good Liniment, but I can handle that. I can also have Lizzie spend some time with her father who is running for State Senate.

What I enjoyed is how Lizzie is an amalgamation of her mother and father. I never planned this and it just happened. This is one of the fun things that keeps me going as a writer. Lizzie is hard working like her father, but lives paycheck to paycheck as a musician and hangs out with some strange characters. She isn’t quite as stoic and dedicated as her dad, but isn’t as batshit crazy as her mom either.

Lizzie’s mom helps add a laugh or two after the bummer moment. I think moving the material to Lunar Boogie was the right move.

I need to turn my attentions back to Lanternfish. I left James on the high seas the instant before the opening volley of a huge sea battle.

I hope all of you have power and water by now. That you’re warm and safe. Drop me a line and let me know what’s going on.

Different weekend

My parents came for a visit this weekend. I don’t think I’ve seen them face to face for about a year. I know they haven’t come since Covid showed up, and they generally don’t travel during the Winter.

Things were subdued for obvious reasons. Mom likes to shop, but that didn’t happen. We all like to go to dinner, but that didn’t happen either. We had some upscale takeout from one of the popular restaurants around here instead.

We did a lot of visiting and that was the important part.

My daughter found a good deal on a floor model washing machine. It was in Boise, so we all made a drive to pick it up. I brought it home and left it in my truck until she could make arrangements to transfer it to a different truck for the trip to Sun Valley. That was our big outing for the weekend.

I have my blog tour stops in place for the coming week, but need to get the volunteers lined up for the following week. I’ve already heard from a couple and will get some things mailed out before bedtime tonight. I’ll just have to catch up on the others later.

Honestly, I wouldn’t trade the family time for another blog post.

Old What’s Her Face and I rearranged part of the garage. Some old things are headed for the dump. I found a couple of other things my brother might make use of. We made space for a 5 cubic foot freezer. It’s small, but we think it’s awesome. I’ll probably test it out by frosting a couple of beer mugs tonight. If that works we have about half a pig coming soon. This thing has been boxed up in the garage for too long, and it was time to deploy it.

Still watching for the first review for The Ballad of Mrs. Molony. I hope a few more show up. It’s a fun story, respectful of readers’ time, and perfect for some Halloween fun.

How was your weekend? Hope you got to do something fun.

Well, it happened

WordPress updated their app to the new block editor. There was the old editor which worked extremely well. Then there was the new editor which everyone hated, causing them to dig deep and keep using the old editor. Then the new block editor came along AKA Gutenberg.

For the most part, everyone hates this one, too. I figured I’d have to adapt or die, so I used it earlier today. I’m using it right now. As far as text goes, it’s no big deal.

My first experience was assembling a promotion post for a friend. I prepared and scheduled it here, then opened the old editor to add links and graphics. That’s workable, but not as cool as being able to do it all here. I like to left justify book covers and author photos. I’m going to try an experiment right here. I want to add a left justified image to this block of text. – Nope. Didn’t work. It can go above or below this paragraph, but not left justified right here.

I started writing my next Story Empire post. This one is about The Herald character. There is a certain amount of research that goes into these, too. It’s part of my Character Archetypes series over there. If you missed out on The Ally, you can click the link in this paragraph.

I’m also dabbling at some promotion for Grinders. Once again, I’m trying something new. This time I prepared a list of topics. I’m emailing that list around to my hosts. Once they choose, I’ll write the post, then do a strike-through on that topic, and add the date it will post. This is an attempt to spread promo out, keep each post original, and avoid traffic when everyone posts at once. Might work well – might be a complete disaster, but I’m doing it this way.

After I sort out each one, I’ll forward the list to my next host and let them choose. Maybe this way I can keep it going for two weeks, and won’t have to reblog several posts in one day. I’m also staying open to suggestions, because maybe someone has a theme going on their specific blog, and I can custom write something for that.

Early sales and reviews matter for a book. If you might be interested in Grinders, the image in the sidebar is linked. I think people are going to like this one, but I always feel that way. Other things you can do are to add it on Goodreads, express interest in it on BookBub, and to share it on your social media.

I don’t see myself getting any new words down this weekend. I only get two days, and Sundays are always tougher. Maybe I can get more posts about Grinders prepared and have those ready.

Today is Mom’s birthday, so I called her. I’ll still call them tomorrow. I like to stay in touch, and if some small bit of time is what it costs, it’s worth it.

We’re going to work in a small date night tonight, and might rent a movie. I also need to pay the bills sometime this weekend. Mundane stuff, but it all matters.

Hope you guys are having a good weekend out there doing some fun things.

Small progress day

I woke up early and added a few more words to my WIP, Serang. It didn’t amount to much. When 8:00 rolled around, I talked to my parents for an hour.

Beyond that it was time for a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich, with a fresh cup of coffee. I added a few more words after that. All in all, it felt like a thousand new words.

Then I quit the new words idea. I needed to reread and make small corrections before sending it to my critique group. I like what’s there, but I’m always nervous about middle sections. Guess I’ll find out what they think later this week.

I should have broken it into two submissions. I didn’t really plan to get that much new stuff accomplished. My wife visiting out of state was spontaneous, so I made the best of it.

Last night I watched a dumpster fire of a ballgame instead of typing away. There’s one on now too, but it looks a bit better.

My wife made it back about an hour ago, and it looks like a wrap on my writing weekend. All in all, it was outstanding. It may be a year before I get this kind of opportunity again, so I made the best of it.

Right now, Serang and her master are camped at the mouth of a canyon and ready to enter the Temple of Wind. It’s probably good to stop here and dwell on it for a week. I need to kind of foreshadow something that is going to happen near the end of the story, and a bit of time might help me do a better job of it.

I also need to consider wind, sounds, echoes, temperatures, shadows, and more for the Temple of Wind. Time is my friend now.

Back to the real world tomorrow.

My castaway journal #1

Woke up yesterday and spent some time on social media.

Filled up my truck and headed for Nevada around 9:00. We had some snow and I wanted to give the high desert time to melt.

Roads clear. Snow blindness was more the order of the day.

I’m in Nevada at my parents’ house. They have WiFi, but cannot find the password. My iPad is a useless brick now.

Limited to my phone on the cell network. I can no longer pigtail my iPad in. ATT wants me to upgrade. This is a new situation.

Watching a stock market ticker tape on television. I have no idea why. Mom rescued me and found the Olympics. Olympics seem to be agreeable to the natives.

Missing all your blogs. Too hard to read and interact on my phone.

I must go. The natives are calling me.

Well, it was a weekend

I had company this weekend, so productivity was at a standstill. Mom needed a new car, and Boise is a better area to shop. That’s how it all started. My task was to take her and Dad shopping and help where I could.

Mom doesn’t shop like most people. Her goal was a purple SUV. According to the Internet, GM makes a few in that color. There just aren’t any in Idaho. We cruised the Chevrolet/GM/ whatever dealership, and there was an interesting vehicle. We elected to leave in favor of cruising the Toyota lot. My parents both know how I like Toyotas, and long term followers will remember helping Dad get a Toyota Tundra a couple of years ago. (Note for later: It has nice running boards.)

There were a better selection of Sequoias this time, but they don’t have anything in purple. I really liked a Champaign/gold one they had. The best deal was a loaner car they were selling. It was a red Lexus with 10,000 miles and a pretty good deal going with it.

Nope.

Back to the GM lot to check out the earlier vehicle. It isn’t purple, the color is called Black Current. About six hours later, we drove it back to my place. It’s a Chevrolet Traverse, and is a pretty nice SUV.

I deal with sales people every day. I was in sales for ten years. I also write articles, and make public presentations. In that world, you have to know your audience. Probably good advice for a fiction author too, but I am my first audience.

It was absurd watching two young salesmen trying to sell my mother a car. One at the Toyota dealership, and one at the GM dealership. I made the mistake of telling the Toyota kid I liked the new orange color on the trucks. He pulled a new orange Tundra around to take us driving around the lot.

Here’s the deal. I’m not the customer here. This truck didn’t have running boards, and I had a hard time getting in it. My 86 year old father was with us, and he uses a cane. He managed to crawl inside, but I still don’t know how. He drove around, including the back lot, and told us about all the different SUV models. Then in desperation, he offered to drive the lot a second time so Mom could find a different color she liked.

The Chevrolet salesman was just as bad. He talked about all the USB ports, the OnStar system, the wifi hotspot, and the magnetic phone charger built in. Mom doesn’t own a smartphone, and doesn’t want one. She certainly doesn’t have one that would use magnetic charging. She doesn’t even like Sirius radio. She doesn’t want a computer console at all, but is willing to accept there aren’t any vehicles without one.

She bought the Traverse despite the salesman’s best efforts. They treated her well because her old SUV had TV monitors in the back of the headrests. Mom sewed covers to hide them, because she heard people break in and steal them. I didn’t even know they were there. They’ve never been used… ever.

Know your audience. Don’t make an 86 year old, with a cane, crawl four feet off the ground into a gigantic pickup. Don’t try to sell an elderly woman on all the high tech features in the car. She didn’t want magnetic phone charging and wifi. She wanted purple. I even pulled the salesman aside and told him this about half-way through his pitch. It was that embarrassing. He was a nice kid, he just needs to learn some things.

The upgrades guy was a pain in the ass. He pushed the ten year extended warranty so hard that Mom wound up buying a six year warranty just to shut him up. I know he makes money on these, and doesn’t care that they probably won’t be driving at all in ten years. Finally when he mentioned how many hundred computerized components the car had, and that they were guaranteed to break down, I told him, “That doesn’t speak well for Chevrolet products if you’re guaranteeing they will break down.” I even suggested we might be better suited with a different manufacturer. That toned him down, but not much.

They got on the road early this morning, and called when they got home. I wasn’t very productive, but it was nice to help them out where I could.

Today, I managed to read one short story. Two smelly bulldogs got baths too. That’s about it around here. Hope you guys were more productive.

Next weekend isn’t looking good either. I have Thanksgiving company coming, and have to bake until the wee hours on Wednesday.

As predicted…

I didn’t get much done this weekend. It was fun hanging out with my parents, and I even got to finish up my beer tour at Old Chicago Pizza. I earned a really nice hooded sweatshirt.

Last night we ate at The Yardhouse, and there were plenty of good beers there. I ordered the Anderson Valley Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout. That’s one of my favorites, and I always have at least one when I go there. I was about beered out, so it was mostly to wash down supper. I was feeling adventurous and tried something called vampire tacos. These consist of a small flour tortilla that has been grilled somehow in a blanket of crispy cheese. I have to say they were awesome. If you live near a Yardhouse, you might want to check these out.

After Mom and Dad hit the road it looked as though I might find some reading time. It wasn’t meant to be, because I had a string of interruptions. I managed one chapter, and don’t know if my retention was all that good.

Ultimately, I decided to bag it. My son and I played Borderlands on the X-Box all afternoon. I feel like a slacker, but that’s how it went down.

In bits and pieces, I managed to get some blog things scheduled. I am a guest in a couple of places, and am hosting others here. I think I have a conflict one day, but I’ll deal with that after I figure it all out.

Back to work tomorrow for four ten-hour shifts.

I could have gotten more done. I could have gotten less done too, so I’ll take it and look forward to next weekend.

Squeezing a post in

It's Sunday, it started like every Sunday, with a call to my parents. We talked about family triumphs and struggles, the opening day of Major League Baseball, and other things.

My son and I went to see Ghost in the Shell today. Everyone seemed to be wondering what I thought, because the reviews weren't that good. I thought it was awesome to be honest. One of the things I wanted from it was visuals of the futuristic environment.

My next novel (possibly 2018) is going to be called Grinders. It's about bio-hackers, and I want to use setting similar to what I saw in the film previews. (Okay, I'm old enough that I was thinking Blade Runner, but you get the gist.) Ghost in the Shell delivered big time, in fact, I may have to step up my setting beyond the ideas I already have.

I thought the story was good too. It wasn't overly complicated, and it suited the genre well. I would have liked to see more familiar faces, but it could be that I wasn't looking at the faces. Scarlet Johansen tends to make me look many places at once.

Tomorrow kicks off the Story Empire Blog tour I already shared with you. This is going to keep me busy. I will have a guest here tomorrow, and at the same time, I will be a guest somewhere else. Never one to slack-off, I also have the regular post in the rotation at Story Empire. This means I have some serious comments to follow across the internet.

I will not be reblogging my own tour posts, because I won't step on my guest's toes during this event. If you want to win one of my prizes, you'll have to visit my host's sites. This is the tour schedule, and there are some fun prizes up for grabs, and some great deals on good books.

Then there is the social media support to go along with it all. There are occasionally comments there that I need to respond to, on top of the WordPress comments.

During all that, I want to move ahead with my reading responsibilities. I may try reading a few chapters, surfing all the sites and media, then reading a few more chapters.

Lisa Burton, my personal assistant thinks she can explain it better than I can.

Wish me luck. Have you seen Ghost in the Shell? What did you think? Do you have any tips for keeping up with all of my blogging responsibilities?

Sunday update

I was pretty worthless today. I have some regular events, like calling my parents, that I do every week. I accomplished that much.

The fact is, I didn't even try. Some days you just need to take a day off. I work a full time job, then I hit things hard on the weekends. I limited myself to a little bit of blog work, like assembling the next Lisa Burton Radio, and that's it. I also scheduled my next Story Empire post about Flipboard.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm recording The Walking Dead. In the interest of preserving my marriage, we are watching the Grammys. Which marketing genius on either side made sure both shows competed with each other?

In other news, Larissa Takahasi followed me again today. Maybe she'll actually say hi one day.

Things have gotten busy at the paycheck job lately. I have some presentions to make in the next few weeks, and one of them could be to over a hundred people. I'm ready for them, but I have to write the material for another one due in May. I suppose, just because I'm not writing fiction, doesn't mean I'm not writing.

Looking forward to completing the drafts of The Yak Guy Project, and The Enhanced League. They're both very close, but I'm not going to force either of them.

So it's back to the paycheck job for me. My floating day off is Wednesday, and those are usually pretty productive. I still might not finish anything, but I'll bet I get closer.