Hey Folks, To the few of you who might have known him, Cololnel Robert “Bob” McCartan, USAF Retired, signed off on his last tour of duty last night in Tucson, Arizona. I first met the colonel several years ago at either the SSA Wrangling with Writing Conference in Tucson or at one of the several writing seminars I taught. It was my great honor and pleasure to call him Friend. After undergoing successful knee replacement surgery … Read more
Hi Folks, This is gonna sound WAY oversimplified, especially given the nineteen PAGES of comma rules in the HarBrace College Handbook. But it’s true. If you use these five rules, you can’t go wrong: 1. Never put a comma between a subject and its verb or between a verb and its object. Also you must realize that a subject may be compound, as in “John and Ray went to the store and bought a television and … Read more
Hey Folks, Wow. That has to have been the best super bowl ever. And I saw only two blatant penalties that could have been called on NE and weren’t (and one on Atlanta), so no asterisks by this game. Topic: Allowing Myself to Change My Mind Slow start this morning, which means… I was slow to decide which novel to open. As I wrote here yesterday, in public, I planned to cycle through The Claim, beginning … Read more
Hey Folks, I received my first reader’s notes on The Claim this morning. This time, too, I asked him to read it at least twice, once for pleasure and once critically, not only for typos etc. but for content. I just had a feeling about this one. He did his job in the same excellent fashion as always, pointing out typos and so on. I agreed with most of those and repaired them within a few … Read more
Hey Folks, Ugh. Allergies on overdrive this morning. Topic: Fixing Things (with the Subconscious) The novel has ground to a temporary halt. But I know why, so it really is only a temporary halt. All books (stories) are different, and they can all write differently, even from the same writer. I suppose that’s part and parcel of writing into the dark too. The last few days, even as I typed, a nagging little voice was telling … Read more
Hey Folks, I almost made this a topic, but it’s mostly rambling so I didn’t. Dean often says “Check in with yourself.” And I often do. I’ve checked back over a lot of my Journal entries (that’s what it’s for on this end), and I’m seeing what I suspected. I tend to do my fastest and cleanest writing in that limited few hours from around noonish to 4. (But not today.) This doesn’t mean I’m going … Read more
Hey Folks, Very short post today. For the past several early mornings, I’ve noticed a planet high in the sky. I kept wondering what it is, assumed either Jupiter or maybe Saturn. This morning, finally, I got my camera out and zoomed in on it. Just Venus. That was annoying. I’ve had several shots of Venus and was hoping for something new. Cold this morning, but at least the wind’s laid down for now. Without the … Read more
Hey Folks, For those who wonder (and thanks for your comments), my grandson Bryan is doing well. He’s working into a routine, spending about 4 hours per day reading and doing some self-study toward his GED. Yesterday he also started looking around and applying for jobs online. That is primarily to take up some of his current spare time vs. playing an online game he’s fond of. He recognizes his own weaknesses and limitations and is … Read more
Hey Folks, Yay! The last day of Janumary! Beginning tomorrow, the Total Fiction Words for the Year will actually be larger than the Total Fiction Words for the Month! Fingers crossed. (grin) It’s like sending up a rocket and watching as the booster falls away. Now I’m hoping for huge ignition on Stage 2. (grin) I have the daily word count goal in place to help me achieve it, and I have a great cast of … Read more
Hi Folks, Sometimes we begin a new project with the best of intentions and then we set it aside for one reason or another. Maybe a life event rears its ugly head (death in the family or some other unforeseen event). Or maybe, in the case of my own recent restart, another story intervenes. As I noted below, I started The Marshal of Agua Perlado (the sequel to the Wes Crowley trilogy I originally wrote) back … Read more