Write On

Wow. I got back into my short stories and it is just flowing. I went over a finished story and to my surprise there were few to no corrections to be made, grammar wise or in sentence structure. And this story had been sitting for a few months.

Meaning? I am past the terrible twos, as those on “A Way with Words” have described, where you are just spastic in all your writing.

I guess that unless you are an outright English major your brain must relive all those traumatic classes in grammar, those sentence diagrams and burning eyed English teachers that made one’s life so miserable in grade school and high school.

Now that my brain has sorted it all out, things look all the more brighter.

I had set a preliminary target this year of going to the “Killer Nashville” writer’s conference. Circumstance did not allow me to arrange the trip but my determination is set, the resources available and the prospect of having piles of work complete for next year have all looking good.

I have mentioned this goal before; attending a writer’s conference. It is an opportunity to learn, to strategize, to network and possible snag an agent or publisher. I have realized a goodly amount of completed work will allow one to make the most out of such conferences, so I am not beating myself up too bad that I could not swing it this year.

Muncie Indiana, Louisville, Nashville, New York and Las Vegas are all cities holding events that may interest me next year. The nearer, centrally located conferences hold the greatest draw as they will give me a chance to visit my older brother.

Thank you for reading. Sorry for the lateness of my post. The garden, and the benefits the recent heat provided to it, kept me occupied. I am getting a bumper load of eggplant right now and just realized that the picture on my seed package and the actual eggplant in hand are not of the same variety.

The trials and tribulations of life.

I Love My Work, but more Star Trek?

I love writing, but have not done any writing on my upcoming books since my last post. I finished some major projects on the house and the garden kept me busy.

Most of all I was engaged in another form of work that I truly love. Not digging trenches, something I enjoy immensely, but drafting and design. Yes, some professional endeavors came my way and I grabbed them. I hope the opportunities keep flooding in but for now I am back to my novels.

Just as I organized my office to its highest degree of efficiency since forever, my wife decided to clean out the back closet. Now, I am not showing you here all the boxes and untold containers filling my office, the mess my wife created. What you see just a bit of that. I would never put my wife on the spot. I am simply showing you all the free space in my office in which I was able to work.

Actually, I jumped in to help my wife and everything was clean and organized in no time.

But then there is “Star Trek”.

I was following “Salvation” via Amazon Prime. Good science fiction is hard to come by, though this show is hardly top rate. It had some interesting perspectives, some highly flawed, and concepts that kept my interest.

So I go to watch the latest installment, available about five days after broadcast, and it was no longer free from that episode on. Well I had no chance of seeing it for free via broadcast because that show’s airing had passed and there was no warning of the change.

A gimmick, a cheap trick (not the band). Does CBS really think people will pay to see their shows when so much else is available for free?

Which Brings us to the latest Star Trek; “Star Trek Discovery”. It will be available only through their subscription site as I understand it.

So… let me see. Another Star Trek. Have you noticed how each remake/addition to the saga repeats the same stories?

The klingons on the war path. So original. Will there be Tribbles. You know the Klingons hate Tribbles.

They come across a world that duplicates some moment in earth’s history. Always, though the how’s have been changed to protect the innocent viewer.

A supernatural being judges the federation, the starship and its crew, against another violent species.

Time travel. We cannot forget time travel because it makes everything all better.

A member or members of the crew are caught in a phase variance and no one can see them. Or the old standby, duplicates of an existing prominent crew member. Alternate universes can never be overlooked, they pop up when you least desire them.

There will be a world that is not what it appears, a delusion, whether holographic or telepathic. And someone will be marooned somewhere. Red shirts beware; you are unlikely to survive.

Of course you will have the PC sexual undertones, moral dilemmas, good and evil, the potential of war ever present. Still, the ideal of the Federation expands across the galaxy, able to bring peace and unity where no one else has done before, …because they no longer have currency, legal tender, money, no more green.

Ughhh! I don not think so.

I really am settling down to write. No rehashed gibberish from my pen.

Thanks for reading.

Big Foot

It has become a busy Summer. I have missed my mid-month blog post deadline but hope to make up for that here.

Big Foot. Real or not the subject provides an unending investigation into the reactions of people when they encounter the fringes of existence.

How do people react to such experiences such as seeing Big Foot, the Yeti or some form of animated snow creature? Many believe such topics such as Big Foot taboo. They are afraid of being considered crazy if they tell anyone that they had seen any unknown creature. Big Foot believers claim there are countless experiences among the general public that people are too afraid to speak out about.

Then there are those people who claim long standing experiences with Big Foot that they would not tell people about at the time, for more altruistic reason.

Here again YouTube is an excellent source for the Big Foot experience. Several movies, documentaries, have been made centering around communities that claimed long standing encounters with the beast.

There is a YouTuber from up Ladysmith way, an area I am familiar with, that documents many testimonies and photographs.

I told my dad about this particular YouTuber from the north woods. It is not too far from the area where my dad grew up. I gave him a general description of the target beast. He simply said, mockingly, “We used to call those Swedes.”

While clearing a piece of hunting land I own up there, in the woods there, I have heard the typical wood knocks associated with Big Foot. I was there with my wife when she was hit with a powerful and repulsive smell, another experience associated with Big Foot. When I walked over the smell was gone. Our dog began acting very strangely, staying close at hand.

There is a small hunting shack across the rutted road (pictured on the cover of my first book) from my land. I was speaking with one of the owners when he suddenly changed the topic to ‘break ins’ of their cabin.

“Really?” I questioned, “Did they take anything?”

“No.” he answered, “Things were just messed up a bit.” Then he stood there looking at me as if he wanted to say more. Neither of us spoke for some time.

Then there are the unbelievers. They make many claims such as, “Why’ isn’t there trail cam footage?” There is. “Why don’t people find Big Foot turds?” They have.

You will find answers to all the doubters questions on YouTube if you search long enough.

Yet the majority of the population refuses to even consider the possibility that Big Foot exists. An interesting phenomena to understand.

“There are not enough deer to feed a viable population.” one millennial tried to convince her YouTube audience. Well… deer hunting has been bad in the North woods for some time now. And we have had typically cooler Summers and warmer Winters in the last decades. (large animals find it more difficult to keep cool than warm) I mean, I haven’t seen twenty below, nor common 100 degree Summer days, in like forever, unlike when I was young and such severe temperatures were more common.

Depending on your genre, taking in these types of observations of people and the public (and how the weather may relate), can only improve your writing. This is particularly true in science fiction where a world, a public is being created, or a people’s view of the universe is being challenged. (implications on religious beliefs requires a great deal of research also)

How real can you make your story?

And yes, there are aliens under the South Pole don’t you know. YouTube tells me so, and didn’t you see that TV show “Star Gate.”

Thanks for reading. The stories are progressing.

Multi-Tasking Blues

Get out of your multi-tasking blues. Do not do it. Leave it behind. Even Dr. Axe speaks out against it, in the name of focus. Contemplation and indecision rule when multiple tasks are set before you. Particularly if you are on your own, with no support structure to tie into. Sometimes it gets so bad I just go outside and start pulling weeds.

The garden is a work in progress. I may end up a farmer.

So I completely clear my desk, then lay out a single project to work on for the day. Whether it be my notebooks and computer for writing, or some trace paper for designing, the two processes will never again share the same space or partition of daylight.

The weekend retail sales business I feel holds both my wife and I back, but we need the money. It breaks my flow of thought.

It is actually easier for me to post here mid-month. The first of the month holds its own pressures and I have to just let it go.

I am working to illustrate the back cover myself for the print addition of the original Chuck Hammer. After that is out, nothing but new work; a volume of short stories to quickly follow.

Farming doesn’t sound so bad.

Thanks for reading.

Still

Sorry for the lateness of my post. The eyewear still isn’t right. I went back in today and the adjustment seemed to have helped but only time will tell. I have a lawyer waiting in the wings to put out Letters of Demand if I should need to get the lenses corrected yet again. Not having the proper prescription slows my writing endeavors tremendously, not having the proper reading vision in the case of my old pair of glasses. The progressive lenses are good when looking from note book to the computer screen, but I may get a second pair of no line bifocals, something more appropriate for sporting activities, something with those collapsible hinges.

But from life we can create original stories. (it took two months to get the eyewear I have now, see previous post)

A man, after dealing with millenials for six months (or a year), not being able to get a proper prescription for his glasses goes underground. He remakes himself, gets a job at the lab that kept screwing him and showers his fellow employees, all millenials, with praises over their ineptitude, driving the company to discord and failure.

Then on to the next target, and when his devious kindness drives someone to suicide he just cannot stop. Business to business, any company that has ever slighted him in the least, he goes. An investigator, put onto the case of a suicide by a family member, finds a few more deaths and links them to the man of the hour.

Eventually the man is in custody. Accused of killing through suicide by destroying people’s careers, the man responds, “All I did was tell them how great they were until they realized that they weren’t great at all. Is that a crime?”

He escapes and you have a fugitive storyline. Yes I am talking about a series. Part “The Fugitive” part “Dexter” part “Perry Mason” (because we have to find the real criminal. Let us say one of those suicides turns out to be murder and the man of the hour didn’t do it) and part “The Pretender”.

Then the investigator, digging deeper, finds many young millenials praising the man of the hour for waking them up and making them better human beings. Now we have part “The Incredible Hulk”, the series. The man wanders, having to face his own demons as with no place to rest, forced to wander, he cannot hide the torments of his mind in routine and familiarity.

$20,000 if any of you broadcast types want to use the storyline, and I will consult on and provide input for the storyline for the first season. If it is a success we will negotiate my fee for the following seasons.

Or you can keep making movies into television series. That will show them you are truly creative. I can do some of the writing also for an extra fee, but I am working on several stories much closer to my heart right now.

I have to try people.

So you can draw creativity from your daily life. Making old storylines (because they have all been told somehow before) original, creative and inspiring by putting your life’s twist into it and making it contemporary to the times. If it is really done well it becomes an eternal classic, when you connect with that universal experience we all share.

Thank you for reading.