Category: Life

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A man, a plan, a…blanket

Since The Wife has been working remotely at home for over a year, at times she has had to allow Carla to hang out in her home office with her as she works. Carla does have a crate, as does Cane, but we don’t like to crate Carla for long periods of time. (Retired racing greyhounds are used to their crates and even like them.)

The Wife has a particular soft blanket that she likes to use as a wrap for those cold times in her office, but Carla has, in the grand tradition of our domesticated pets, decided that this blanket is hers, and she loves sleeping on it. So much so that the few attempts I made to have Carla hang out in my library while I read or write on weekends met with failure.

After thinking on this a bit, I wondered: maybe I needed a soft blanket of my own! Maybe that would be what I needed to convince Carla to become my Faithful Library Companion dog! Maybe, just maybe!

The Family thought this was jealousy on my part, but I deny this. I will only note that…today I am writing this post from my library, whilst Carla sleeps on her–no, my new soft yellow blanket. No jealousy or manipulation here! Just a sleeping doggo on a rainy Saturday as I write.

As the gods intended!

Carla sleeps. I write.
Carla sleeps. I write.

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The 716 from the Ridge

Here are two photos of the Buffalo Niagara region, taken from atop Chestnut Ridge! The first is clearer, but the second is obviously a wider shot, in which can be seen in the distance the skyline of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. (Note that Niagara Falls, NY has no visible skyline from this distance, which is a statement in itself.)

A fall morning overlooking Buffalo, NY
A fall morning overlooking Buffalo, NY

Here’s the wider shot! I took both of these with my still-new-enough-to-me-to-call-it-new new phone. I have to say, I really love that waiting three or four years to get a new phone allows enough improvements to make me say, “Holy crap, my phone can do that?!”

Wider view of Buffalo and Niagara Falls, ON from Chestnut Ridge
Wider view of Buffalo and Niagara Falls, ON from Chestnut Ridge

If you’re wondering where Niagara Falls, NY is, see the Seneca One tower there? It’s the reddish building that’s the tallest in Buffalo. Go along the horizon to the left until you see a faint boxy-looking building. That’s the Seneca Niagara Resort and Casino, the only building in that city tall enough to have a horizon-topping presence from this distance. This angle also makes it look like it’s a much farther distance separating the two Niagara Falls cities; the Seneca Casino on the American side actually lies at the far end of the city, well away from the Falls and the gorge themselves. The American side, at least right up to the river, falls, and gorge, emphasizes nature parks and the like; the Canadians have built their side’s touristy stuff and giant resort skyscrapers almost right up to the brink of the gorge itself.

Anyway, on a fall morning, that’s what a big chunk of the 716 looks like!

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Recent Adventures in Overalls Nation!!!

Bib tag from Washington Dee Cee overalls
Bib tag from Washington Dee Cee overalls

No doubt all of you* have been asking, “Look, dude, all this music writing and book stuff and all is great, but what’s new with your bib overalls collection?!” And I am always one to give the public what it wants**, so here’s something new!

You may remember*** last year, when I acquired a pair of vintage Hickory-striped overalls in the Washington Dee Cee label. I was searching for these for quite a while, because they employ different styling in the bib pocket than most other overalls in my collection.

Bib detail, Washington Dee Cee overalls
Bib detail, Washington Dee Cee overalls

Well, naturally, if you buy a pair of striped overalls in a new label and style, you’ll be happy…for a while. But then the nagging voice will start whispering in your ear, late at night, when you’re trying to decide which overalls-and-shirt pairing you’re going to wear tomorrow****:

“Sure, the striped pair is great, but you know, you really really REALLY need a pair of the same overalls in the classic blue denim. You NEED them. It’s science!”*****

So, off to eBay I went, whereupon I created a new Saved Search for Washington Dee Cee overalls. There are almost always a few pairs available, because Dee Cee was a popular and common brand back in the “glory days” of bib overalls, but as they are always vintage by definition, they tend to be expensive. But…persistence pays off! I finally scored a pair for a price that wasn’t enough to make you look at me like I’m insane.******

Washington Dee Cee overalls, front
Washington Dee Cee overalls, front
Washington Dee Cee overalls, rear
Washington Dee Cee overalls, rear

I actually acquired these in July, which is the time of year when I don’t wear overalls much at all, because it’s just too warm. Aside from trying them on when they arrived, I have really only worn them one day, and that was on our annual Ithaca trip a couple of weeks ago. I paired them with another new acquisition, a “Renfest” style shirt. I realize that wearing a shirt like this may put me a bit too close to “Jerry Seinfeld in the pirate shirt” territory, but I figure that now that I’m fifty, I’ve long since reached the point of being able to wear what the hell I want and give zero f*cks about it.

Washington Dee Cee overalls, with blue
Washington Dee Cee overalls, with blue “renfest” shirt
Same, just...sitting down
Same, just…sitting down

I have to admit, I genuinely like this look. It’s my version of the “cottagecore” thing that’s been popular of late. There’s something, well, me about a Renfest shirt worn under a pair of nicely-worn vintage denim overalls, isn’t there?

Anyway, if it ever gets reliably and seasonably cool around here (as I write this we’re entering a several-day stretch of possible record highs for mid-October, which is not ideal), I look forward to pairing these overalls with some of the new flannel shirts I have around…and I can’t rule out ordering another of these Renfest shirts, maybe in white this time.

And of course, the highest praise has already come. Carla approves of these overalls!

Sleepy doggo!
Sleepy doggo!

* None of you have been asking this.

** Yeah, this is just a lie.

*** You do not remember this. I do not hold this against you. (OK, I do. A little.)

**** Not kidding! I really do put thought into this. I don’t just roll out of bed, grab a shirt and some overalls, and go about my day. Come on, folks. I’m weird, but I’m not some heathen.

***** Why am I dragging poor science into this? Science has nothing to do with overalls. Sheesh!

****** “Har har, we already look at you like–” Yeah, yeah, I know. You don’t have to say it.

 

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The 20s are upon us!!!

It’s 2020, and that means that the Twenties are now upon us. I wrote some thoughts and collected some links to writings from the last ten years that I particularly like over on Byzantium’s Shores, and I provide the links here. Enjoy, and stay tuned for more stuff! A major goal of mine in 2020 is figuring out just how I want to use this particular space more effectively.

But for now, linkage:

2010-2019: A Decade in Words

Thoughts, Videos, and Photos from the Decade Ending

My annual Year’s End Quiz, 2019 Edition

Thanks and Happy New Year, readers!

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My first Con is in the books!

The Author poses with his various and sundry Books.

So last weekend was Nickel City Con, which is Western New York’s biggest annual pop culture-related gathering. This particular con only started a few years ago, and there have been hiccups along the way (this year saw an unfortunate rash of cancellations by the booked celebrity guests), but I’ve had a great time at each event.

HOWEVER! The last couple of times I’ve attended as a paying attendee, while this year I was able to attend on an “official” basis as part of The Geekiverse‘s entourage. And even better than that, I was able to set up a stand and sell my books for several hours. Thus I set up my little stand, as pictured above, and proceeded to hawk my wares!

Well, OK. I sold one book the entire afternoon. But hey! The day was not remotely a loss, not by a longshot. It was a wonderfully fun time, hanging out with my fellow geeks and talking about geeky things and seeing the cosplayers wandering by and actually talking about my work with a few con attendees. Even if I didn’t move more than a single book, this was still the kind of event that I found affirming as a writer. (And I award myself bonus points for not yelling at the nice guy who dropped by to chat Star Wars and then proceeded to badmouth Attack of the Clones. See! I can behave!)

I’m already thinking about how next year is going to work: larger and better visual sales aids in addition to the books themselves, plus I hope/plan to have more than just the first three Forgotten Stars books there. The sky is, as ever, the limit…and the sky, when you think about it, is limitless. Onward and upward! Zap! Pow!!

[By way of a parenthetical aside, let me note as I always do after one of these cons that it’s high time for Buffalo to make a bid to host an upcoming World Science Fiction Convention. There is absolutely zero reason why this city can’t make this happen. It would be a fantastic event that would bring several thousand visitors from outside the region, and Buffalo is more than big enough. Remember, WorldCon just a couple of years ago happened in Spokane, WA–a lovely town that’s about half the size of Buffalo. Bring Worldcon to Buffalo! We can even call if BuffCon!]

[Oh, and one more parenthetical note: since this was an event to celebrate geekiness, I figured I couldn’t go wrong with a Groot t-shirt under my trademark overalls. The press pass obscured Groot a bit in the photo above, so here’s how that looked:

I am Groot!

So, my first Con as an author is now behind me. What’s next? Let’s find out! See you around the Galaxy, folks!

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Checking In….

Hello, Y’all!

It’s been another month and here we are, right in the middle of NaNoWriMo. How’s it going for me? Pretty well. I’m well over halfway to 50,000 words, which is the target for NaNo–but not for the book in question.

And what is my project? I’m returning at last to Orion’s Huntress, the space opera novel set in the Forgotten Stars universe but in no way narratively related to that series. It is, in truth, my way of writing another space opera without having to build a galaxy from scratch. And hey, galaxies are big, so they can contain a lot of stories. I got about 80,000 words of this book done two years ago before I stalled out with no real notion of where to go with the story. This time I’ve put a lot more thought into things and I am hoping to actually finish the draft. So that’s where things are with that.

What else is going on? Well, over on The Geekiverse, I have a column up extolling the virtues of Die Hard, whose thirtieth anniversary is this year. (Thirty years of Detective John McClane? Wow….) Check that out!

I have other items on the way, including a cover reveal and the first chapter for The Chilling Killing Wind. Those items will likely run sometime the week after Thanksgiving, as I plan to actually issue the book in December! Huzzah!

So that’s what’s been going on. More to come in the next few days, I hope…including a tribute to a couple of storytellers who left this world last week after long, wonderful lives of some of the best storytelling ever. More to come on those.

As one of those storytellers liked to say, “Excelsior!”

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[taps microphone] Is this thing on?

Greetings, Programs!

Welp, I haven’t been very good about posting here lately, have I? Three months is…bad. But I’m still around, and still hoping to add more content to this space (as well as others…but nothing I can really discuss yet)!

So, what’s been going on of late?

First, I’m still working on The Savior Worlds: The Song of Forgotten Stars, Book IV. This one has been proceeding in fits and starts. I got off to a great start, and then I faltered as I ran into story problems, then I ironed those problems out and got going again, only to run into more problems and have to stop again. After averaging 1000 words a day through May and half of June, I stalled out completely for two weeks while I tried to figure out where things were going.

I’ve got it mostly figured out, though. Since July 1, I’m back to averaging 1000 words a day, and I hope to get this draft done no later than the 15th of September.

I’ll have more to say about this book as it evolves, but one difficult thing has been the nature of this series and the direction I’m taking. Each book has been markedly different from its predecessors in terms of scope and structure, and that is no different this time out. The overall tale of the saga gets bigger and bigger as it goes, and that’s hard to manage and still keep the focus on the characters. As I noted, though, I have a pretty good handle on the rest of this one.

Second, I’m starting the formatting process for The Chilling Killing Wind, which I intend to release into the wild sometime in September. More announcements will definitely be forthcoming about that, so stay tuned! I’m excited to get this one out and finally start diversifying my output beyond manuscripts in various states of polish on my hard drive.

Third, you may have noticed that I’ve changed up the appearance here, in keeping with my intent to post more regularly. I have a list of posts I want to write, which will help. This site will still be about my books and my writing, but I’m going to broaden the focus just a tad to basically focus on my thoughts on various aspects of storytelling as a whole. I’m excited to be doing this. There will also be additional tweaks on the way as I update the individual pages so that each series or set of books will have its own page.

More to come, so stick around! My immediate goal is to update this site on Thursdays each week, starting today. So tune back in and follow me on the social mediae!

See you ’round the galaxy!

 

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2018: You may fire when ready.

Hey all! 2017 is over, and 2018 is here. A bit of looking back and forward is in order.

2017

At first glance 2017 felt like a mixed bag to me, but when I really look harder, I got quite a bit done, even though a lot of it was work that isn’t likely to bear fruit for some time. I posted on this site a lot less than I intended, and I do hope to rectify that in 2018. But, to sum up:

:: I published Amongst the Stars! It’s out now! The first act of the grand adventure that is The Song of Forgotten Stars is complete!

:: I finished a couple of rounds of edits on The Chilling Killing Wind, which I intend to publish sometime in the first half of 2018. I plan to make one more pass through the book soon just to make sure that I’ve got it all the way I want it.

:: I wrote probably one-half of a new science fiction novel tentatively titled Orion’s Huntress, which is set in the same universe as Forgotten Stars but which has nothing at all to do with that story. I ended up back-burnering that story when I realized that a few aspects of it were problematic in various ways that require additional thought. But I started it!

:: I started the first draft of Forgotten Stars IV, whose title is The Savior Worlds. This is my current WIP.

:: I also wrote a nice amount on Byzantium’s Shores, my personal blog. I summed up my favorite pieces from 2017 here, so check that out! There’s also the usual balloon juice on my Tumblr and if you look me up on Goodreads you can see all the stuff I read last year.

2018

So what’s up for the new year? Well!

:: Finishing the first draft of The Savior Worlds. I’m not sure how long I expect this to take, but I’m hoping to be done with it by May.

:: Releasing The Chilling Killing Wind into the world. This will launch a new series for me, about which I’m kind of excited. (OK, a lot excited!)

:: Returning to Orion’s Huntress, once I have a better idea of how it fits together.

:: And finally returning to Lighthouse Boy, the two-part fantasy novel whose first part is already drafted. I’m going to edit the first volume (lightly) and then proceed to drafting the second, before I then go back at some point (almost certainly not until the latter half of 2019) and edit the entire thing.

So that’s where the various writing projects stand for right now. There are also a couple of completed drafts in existence that I need to put through a round of edits (a sequel to Chilling Killing Wind, and a stand-alone supernatural thriller involving a kayaking expedition on a mystical river) which has no real title at this time, but we’re in no hurry.

I’m also doing some experimenting with my writing processes this year. Tinkering with process is something that a lot of writers enjoy (at least until they “make it”, or so it seems–successful writers never seem to be as fascinated with process as the aspiring writers are), and I’m trying some new things in an effort to cut down the time I spend in front of a glowing screen. I’ll report more on that as things develop.

As always, I hope to post more frequently in this space, but I’m not going to promise anything. Until then, see you around the galaxy!

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Sunshine Blogger Award!!!

Oh wow, it’s actually been an entire month since I posted here last, hasn’t it? That’s terrible. Anyway, I’ll have a proper report up on how June went in terms of writing (short version: mixed bag) early next week, but for now, check this out: A fellow writer, Rebecca Chase, nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award! Huzzah!!

The rules are as follows:

The Sunshine Blogger Award is a “get to know the writer better” type of blogging exercise, with a couple of rules attached:

1. Answer all 11 questions asked by the blogger who nominated you.

2. Nominate eleven bloggers in return and write eleven (possibly fiendish) questions for them to answer.

You know, it’s funny — over on Byzantium’s Shores (my personal blog, for those who only know me through here), I’ve been blogging for so long that I remember when these types of blog-quiz awards were quite common. They’ve really fallen by the wayside with the rise of Facebook and Twitter and the like, but they’re still fun, so I’ll go ahead and answer these, pose my own, and nominate. Here we go!

1. What is your favourite song? Do you have a significant memory attached to a time you listened to it?

Oh heavens, it’s this question. Don’t you just hate when you ask someone this question and they get all dewy-eyed and say something like “Gosh, I just love music so much that I couldn’t possibly pick a favorite song!”

Well, guess what? Gosh, I just love music so much that I couldn’t possibly pick a favorite song! Although…I can pick a favorite song, just so long as we acknowledge that there are hundreds of others. For now, I’ll note the song “Last Dance” by Donna Summer. Here’s what I wrote on my personal blog about that song on the occasion of Donna Summer’s passing.

2. Where do you love to blog/write the most?

Upstairs, in my library, surrounded by my books.

But I do love writing elsewhere. I can write in cafes and in public libraries perfectly well, and I like to do so once a week, if possible, for the change of pace. I also want to try writing in a public park or something like that, but as of this writing my laptop’s battery is too old to live up to a sustained writing session without a cord. Luckily, though, also as of this writing, I’ve ordered a new battery! I don’t want to buy a new computer for at least another year if I can help it.

3. If you could make up a fear of something what would it be of and what would it be called?

Huh. Interesting. How about Pronunciphobia, which is the fear that you badly mangle a word in spoken conversation because you’ve only ever read it and therefore you don’t know how it’s said? Or Scrabble Expectations Syndrome. This is when people assume that you’re a great word-game player because you’re a writer.

And as a pie-in-the-face fan, I admit to barbasolaphobia. This is an unreasoning hatred of shaving cream. That stuff is terrible, folks!

4. Italian or French? (in whatever context you decide)

French! (We’re going with opera here. I love me some French composers. Hector Berlioz is my favorite composer of all time, and he wrote three wonderful operas. Then you have Bizet, composer of Carmen. Not that the Italians are any slouches, though. Verdi and Puccini are enough to ensure the Italian star in the operatic heavens.)

Oh, and salad dressing? Italian all the way. I’ve never been a big fan of French dressing.

5. What do you think killed the dinosaurs? (can be as creative an answer as you like)

Nothing. There never were any dinosaurs. Their bones were artificially created and seeded around the world by the aliens who put us here. Why? Because they’re jerks.

6. What is the strangest thing you’ve ever had to research for your writing/blogging?

Huh. I’m not really sure! I recently looked up how boiler explosions happen, because my current WIP features someone who died in one.

7. What can you hear right now? What would you prefer to be listening to?

Right now? Crickets and birds; the wind in the trees; traffic on the big highway that’s a quarter-mile thataway; the clackety-clack of the dog’s feet as he wanders about trying to signal us that he wants to go out for his walk!

8. What do you do when you feel you should be writing but are lacking in inspiration?

I usually grit my teeth and force myself to write. I’m a “Get the job done” kind of person. I don’t have a great deal of use for waiting for The Muse to show up.

9. What is your greatest achievement?

Raising the Daughter; staying married (no, we never came close to breaking, but we did have some pretty serious tests about ten years ago); finishing a book; learning how to use Scrivener (yes, this counts); learning how to format e-books in various formats!

10. If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life what would it be?

As long as I can change the toppings in any way I want? Pizza. Or waffles. Or sandwiches, with as broad a definition as possible! I also can’t rule out nachos or burritos. Damn, this question is hard!

11. Who is your favourite author and why?

My favorite living author is Guy Gavriel Kay, whose historical fantasies are deeply emotional and filled with characters who are incredibly real. My favorite nonliving author is JRR Tolkien, because The Lord of the Rings is quite frankly a miracle of a book.

OK, time to tag a few people! And my eleven questions follow. Wheeeee!

Roger
Calvin
SamuraiFrog
Lynn
Briana
Brianna
Sara
AB Keuser
Rae
Faith

 

Questions:

1. What do you value more in a story: dialog or plot?
2. Describe the home planet of Lin-Manuel Miranda. (Come on, that dude ain’t human.)
3. If you enjoy watching any sports at all, which ones would you at least like to try just once?
4. Describe the most recent book to which you gave (or would have given) five stars.
5. Do you finish bad books? Why or why not?
6. How vexed are you when movies don’t match the books?
7. Describe your perfect hot beverage. In detail. I’m talking roast of bean or variety of leaves, additives like spices or squirts of citrus, vessel from which the drink is sipped, where you are sitting as you sip it, who is next to you, what music is playing.
8. Do you watch cooking shows? If so, describe your favorite.
9. Name a place you’ve visited that you thought you’d hate but you didn’t.
10. You know that hobby you had as a younger person that you miss dearly but you know you’ll never do it again? Describe it!
11. On January 20, 2017, the newly inaugurated President of the United States signs a law requiring all Americans to display a coffee-table book prominently in their home. Which one do you put out?

And thanks again, Rebecca, for the award!

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Stuff!!!

No updates in a few weeks! But it’s been a really busy month. Here are some notes on recent antics in my world:

  1. Remember, THE WISDOMFOLD PATH is out! I haven’t finished the Nook formatting yet, but I hope to have that done in the next few days. Got you copy yet? No? GET WITH IT, PEOPLE!!!
  2. I redesigned Byzantium’s Shores, my personal blog. The old template was looking increasingly clunky in my eyes, so I finally cleaned it up a bit. Also, now that NaNoWriMo is over and the book is launched and whatnot, I should be able to post more reliably there.
  3. We took a vacation in New York City! That pretty much killed my writing time for six days, but I figured that would happen, so I accounted for it. I did get some work done on the trip, enough so as to not completely lose momentum. I’ve been posting photos of the trip to Flickr, with blog posts over on Byzantium’s Shores annotating the journey. Follow along!
  4. Regarding NaNoWriMo: I am now 2-2 in my NaNo participation: two wins each of the first two years, and two losses the last couple of years. Ouch! I expected this year to be tough, but I was pretty much on target right up until the last day or two before we embarked for NYC, so I feel pretty good that I would have made 50000 words with no problem had that trip not happened. And NaNoWriMo, as much as I love you and look forward to you each year, I love travel with my family more! (And besides, the whole point isn’t to beat yourself up about making 50K anyway. The point is to show prospective writers how the whole “goal-setting” thing works.)
  5. What’s up now? Well, this month there’s Christmas and the new Star Wars movie (which I continue to believe should have been released next May, because Star Wars movies should always come out in May), and it’s time to start revising Forgotten Stars III, which I can already safely say is going to be a lot harder than reworking the first two books. The first draft isn’t exactly a mess, but I’ve had time to think a lot about certain aspects of that book since I finished the draft, and…well, there’s a ton of heavy lifting ahead, so much so that I’m a little worried about making next November’s hopeful release date.

That’s about all for right this second. More stuff to come, though! I actually have some posts already written and awaiting their loading here. Stay tuned, Stardancers!

Excelsior!

 

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