A 3/4 good weekend

Heck, I’ll take it. I made a task list friday night, and worked through 3/4 of it on Saturday. We got in a decent date night too.

After dinner at Old Chicago, my son and I stayed up late playing Borderlands. He also talked me into buying a solo game called Skyrim, and we set that all up. These are probably ancient news to you gamers, but I’ve never owned a game system until this year. They’re all new to me.

Sports wise, Boise State lost in OT, the Diamondbacks lost. Today the Steelers won, and the Diamondbacks also won. Can’t gripe about that result. This time of year is strange for me, because both sports overlap for a month or two. I’m not as big a football fan as I used to be, but I enjoy it. Baseball is my sport of choice. I was able to watch the Steelers game, and one Diamondbacks game. The others were sporadic iPhone score checks.

I got up relatively early this morning, and my parents are still in Alaska. That means no Sunday morning telephone call. I kind of thought I could add new words to my WIP, but that wasn’t to be. My wife got up about twenty minutes after I did, and that doesn’t allow me to write. It’s probably a personality quirk, but I need quiet solitude when I write.

I wound up working ahead a bit on promos and blog projects. It wasn’t what I wanted to do, but it was productive. I now have some promotional posts for Quantum Wanderlust when it releases. All I need for my posts is a purchase link. Honestly, it feels good to be prepared.

I exchanged some texts with my daughter for something I want to add to The Hat. A dress size can be a reasonable part of description. This is coming late in the story, but I also used it to show a bit of character. Lizzie went up a couple of dress sizes, but only admits to one. Let’s face it, she isn’t seventeen anymore.

I have to make a field trip with my paycheck job this week. I’ll be around, and check in when I can. I’m sure I won’t be scarce, but I may be more sporadic than normal. Hope you all enjoyed your weekends.

In other news, the USA always has one active volcano in Hawaii, today we have a devastating hurricane going on, and Idaho had a small earthquake on the eastern side of the state. Add that to all the ongoing wild fires, and the US is a mess. Honestly, it’s a big country. It’s hot and beautiful in Boise this evening. Keep your eyes open if you’re at the northern edge of the USA, you might see the Northern Lights tonight.

Camping with Internet service

We're in Arco tonight. The campground is closed in Craters of the Moon, or we'd be there instead. Most campgrounds have wifi these days, and this one is no exception. Campground wifi is always spotty, and again this fills the bill. I'm actually posting this by pig-tailing my iPad into my cell phone instead.

Today was all about getting here, so that's why I'm writing. Tomorrow we'll go through the park and get some photos. I'll try to give you a tiny bit of history, then invite you all to speculate with me.

The pre-sale for The Experimental Notebook of C. S. Boyack II is going okay, but it's not blowing my doors off. I drifted into the top 100 short story/anthology collections about three times, but it never lasts. This has to do with the way Amazon's algorithm works. Sell six books in one day and the meter won't budge. Sell those same six books, and only those six books in the same hour, the meter spikes.

This book is only 99¢ and early sales really help me out. One of the fun side effects is my other titles started moving. Particularly the first Experimental Notebook. Some of the novels have sold copies too though, and that's a good thing.

Question of the day: Is this because Summer is winding down, or because I'm actually promoting again?

I wrote two guest posts tonight, based upon the requests I received. I have ten more to go, and should have them done in plenty of time for the September blog tour.

This campground has the most amazing barbecue, ribs and a smoked baked potato. We love cooking, but today was a travel day, and we were tired. Now we're going to clean up a bit and walk to the office. They also have craft beer on tap, and who am I not to sample the local favorites?

More tomorrow.

The Idea Mill #6

Regular readers know that I save cool articles and make posts about them on occasion. These articles are to get your creative juices flowing. Some of them are just cool story elements, some of them might become the basis of an entire story. Let’s jump right to it…

Once upon a time, scientists experimented with creating genetically modified humans. This actually happened, but they are few in number. This article informs us that this small handful of people are going to graduate high school soon.

These people actually have one father and two mothers. We really have no idea what this means for them, or their future offspring. Remember that modern man crossbred with Neanderthals at some time, and most of us carry small snippets of Neanderthal DNA. These people will reproduce someday, and the result could change humanity as we know it.

This could be the basis of an entire story. One of these folks would make a great main character. It could involve living with a secret, torturing herself about what her pregnancy will reveal, or even an X-Men style story.

The next one is about a smoking mountain in Alaska. They say it isn’t a volcano or fire related.

This could become a great dragon story, or maybe you’re more into Mole Men. It reminds me of the gas in Cheri Priest’s Boneshaker. I suppose it would fit in well with a shamanistic story too.

This one is a list of lost treasures. I like it because it involves Maguffin style items that aren’t all made of gold.

Maybe your plucky heroine needs to go on a treasure hunt to find a lost patent. She has a higher purpose, but is up against glory and money seekers. Can she invent the whatchamacallit that saves whatever, or will the bad guys defeat her, plunging the world into darkness?

This one is just a story element. Have any of you ever heard of cat circles?

Apparently cats are attracted to circles. They get inside them and stay inside them. This works really well for a witchcraft story, because circles are important, and cats are prevalent.

It isn’t limited to witchcraft though. I wonder if Indiana Jones could use his whip to make a circle before the temple tiger eats him?

Have fun with these. If you use any of them, stop back and tell me what you came up with. Let me know if you experiment on your cats too. I know you will.

A small vacation update

We checked into our hotel in Bend, Oregon. Then it was straight to the Old Mill District and Old Downtown. My wife bought a shirt, but lots of it was like a trip to the mall. We found three or four breweries and I got to try some new things.

Today was all about Sisters, Oregon. (So far) We’ve been both places before, and Sisters is really cool. It’s a tourist town, but it’s fun anyway. It’s all wooded and sets amid several picturesque volcanos. (Named after the Three Sisters volcanos.)

One of the side streets

The main drag is really pretty, but it’s wall to wall motor homes and trailers. My pictures didn’t turn out too well so you get to see one of the side streets.

We stopped in every rubber tomahawk shop and stinky candle store in Sisters. My wife had me carrying her stinky candles around for her. We stopped by Bronco Billy’s for lunch. This place looks like an episode of Maverik inside. I wasn’t real hungry so I ordered a hot dog. This sucker was two feet long. Who ever heard of a two foot hot dog. Mom raised me to eat everything on my plate, so I did.

Craig Boyack, member of the clean plate club.

My wife helped me with the fries, but it was wonderful. She said her French Dip sandwich was awesome too. It was all much better than the undercooked seafood we got in Bend last night.

I bought myself a bottle of rum. I’m a sucker for a cool beer label, or a cool bottle. I’m the same way with book covers. The picture isn’t great, but it’s a shrunken head. It will look cool in my tiny tiki bar. (I should share that with you one day.)

The rum is no longer gone

Sisters is full of incredible artists. This is the kind of town where a guy could write a novel. If he didn’t have to report for work next week. I took a lot of pictures, but this one is the most interesting.

This guy is an awesome metal artist

We found out there is a brewing a distilling event downtown today. It’s all about aging in oak barrels, and there’s food, music, and drink. I expect some nice bourbon barrel aged stout or porter. That’s why I decided to blog right now. If I wait until later, it might be entertaining, but unprofessional. I’m so glad I married a tea totaller with a sense of humor. I always have a designated driver who isn’t snooty about my hobbies.