Animal Has a Unique Set of Eyes

I have four books, named for the first novel in the series, “Rising Tide.” In the third book, “Deadly Reign,” I introduce a four-footed character with fur named, Seeka. This animal has a unique set of eyes, can speak, possesses senses that allow him to track others, and in some cases move through different timelines or dimensional travel. Beneficial powers to own as you travel through questionable areas, wouldn’t you say?

Introducing Seeka is a good segue to modern day pets, and the like. Not long ago, I was what you might call an “animal lover.” Now, I’m more of an animal liker, and that’s “O.P’s” or other people’s animals. I do enjoy petting a friendly dog or rubbing a cat’s head, and recall owning a member of, ‘man’s best friend’ into early adulthood but now have no aspirations for anything that requires such extensive care.

When I was a preteen, I owned pets that were a bit more on the exotic scale, i.e. Boa constrictor, Iguanas, an alligator, although I believe it was actually a Caiman, and a ferret, named Floyd. Floyd was an adorable creature. Fun to watch, fun to play with, owning such a  sweet disposition rarely seen.

Animals are grand additions to this beautiful world where we live;  however, and I hope this offends no one, my love for animals leans more to the type served on a plate.

Have a great, wonderful, and fantastic week ahead, and remember God loves you dearly!

Lawn Mowing and Weed-Eating are Coming to a Halt

It’s getting to be that time of year in my part of the country, where the leaves change colors, falling off the trees, save for evergreens. Vegetable gardens cease producing items such as: tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers, melons, and numerous varieties of peppers unsuitable for anything other than warm weather. Lawn mowing and weed-eating are coming to a halt. Wild and man-cultivated vegetation become dormant.

One bounty we’re able to plunder is root vegetables: beets, carrots, radishes, sweet potatoes, turnips, and onions, along with a few hearty above ground vegetables (peas, kale, leeks, and collards.)

With a little work, we can keep home-grown produce coming in, pretty much all year long.

Unless you make your living in landscaping, isn’t it nice to know you have a seven or so month pardon from using a lawn mower or handling a weed-eater?

Of course, there’s always raking leaves or snow-blowing that will need doing . . . I guess there’s no end after all, but aren’t we blessed to have a yard to mow, walkways to shovel, and driveways to blow?

Take good care and enjoy God’s blessings. They’re everywhere!

Some Things are as Strange as Strange Can Be

When I’m working on a novel, there are times I find it necessary to make up a new word because none of the ones available are just right. Usually what I create fits the need as if the word has always existed. So, why didn’t it?

On other occasions, the words or phrases I question are commonly used; however, make no sense. For instance, take the word, “mess.” Why is a dining hall in the military called a “mess hall”? Mess comes from the French term “mes,” meaning “a portion of food.” Guess, that explains it.

Another way in which the same word is used, which at one time confounded me, was when people said they had “a mess of greens,” “a mess of fish,” and anything else you may want “a mess of.” It seems the meaning of the word “mess” is the same in both instances, “a portion of food.”

Another item of interest, concerns dead bodies. In real life, the victims are almost never outlined in chalk for fear of contaminating a crime scene; however, have you ever seen a crime scene on TV without a chalk outline?

And one more I’ve heard for years says a frog will sit in tepid water and cook to death if the temperature is slowly brought to the boiling point.  Not true. Will wonders never cease?

Just a few interesting tidbits to start your week. So have a great one, and may God bless!

I Find Myself at a Crossroads

I find myself at a crossroads. No, nothing like Robert Johnson meeting the Devil at the Crossroads to sell his soul for a career as a Blue’s phenom.

Mine, while important to me, is nothing as drastic as the succumbing of Robert Johnson.  My crossroads starts with a season. One that begins after Summer and ushers in Winter. Of course, I’m speaking of Fall. When asked to reveal their favorite season, many Americans, including me, claim Fall as number one.

And, why not? The overbearing heat and humidity of Summer subsides, and the colors God paints the various leaves is unequaled.  

So, why do I feel I am at a crossroads, being I find myself in the middle of my favorite time of year, you ask?

To be perfectly honest, it has to do with, and nothing else, but hot peppers.

Then, you ask, why my conundrum over two things that share nothing in common except the vast difference between the two?

Well, I’ll tell you. Autumn is the most comfortable and beautiful time of year, however; once Fall enters the picture, my hot pepper harvest is soon coming to an end. And, if you know me, I eat several cayenne peppers each day with various meals.  I also enjoy a couple tablespoons of hot sauce as an appetizer for breakfast and dinner.

Oh well, I’ll just have to substitute store-bought Jalapeno and Serrano peppers until next year’s crop of capsaicin-laden fruit are ready to pick.

As usual, have a great week but, this time, add a little heat in the form of an edible, botanical firecracker and may God bless you richly.

I Often Start my Posts with the Pretense of Being an Author

I often start my posts with the pretense of being an author. It allows me to segue to most any topic and keep the knowledge that I am a writer at the forefront of my blog since it is such a large part of my life.

Writing about science fiction, fantasy, and action/adventure characters provides a rich perspective from which to draw fodder in broadening the scope of certain blog posts.

For instance, in all of my novels the characters eat, but what they dine upon is up to me. Meaning, they can munch on anything from Cabot to mucus rat.

In this particular post, I’m going to scale it back to a meal familiar to us all–namely pizza. First, I must question the name. How do we get something that is spelled . . .  P-i-z-z-a; however in order to spell it phonetically, this word’s spelling should be more like Peetza? Nuff said.

What are your favorite ingredients to top this delicious, round of yeast-filled dough? Of course, you will have to answer this for yourself.

 My favorite toppings usually coincide with the restaurant’s version of a combo. I am always a minority when it comes to additional ingredients, unless I’m getting a pizza to myself, since I love anchovies and hot peppers.  I will order these salty little fish fillets and capsaicin filled jalapeno rings on the side and add them to my slices. I might add that my favorite pizza comes from a mom-and-pop pizza shop, normally owned by Italians and never from one of the conglomerates so prevalent in our society today.

I might add, on one of my pizza gathering excursions I ordered a small jalapeno and anchovy pizza for one. You can bet I had that little slice of heaven to myself.

Lastly, I will mention one delicious type of pizza and that being the Chicago style. I’ve been to the Windy City several times and, believe me, these pizzas are something to behold, or should I say, something to ingest. If you ever get a chance to dine on one of these Behemoth’s, then do so, you’ll be glad you did.

Have the best week you’ve ever had since the last best week you had, and may God bless!

When Writing, I’m in Control of Every Situation.

When writing, I’m in control of every situation. If I want someone to die, it is in my hands and my hands alone. If I want someone to live, it is in my hands and my hands alone. I have the final say in the smallest of instances.

When I leave the realm of the particular novel on which I’m working, all bets are off. It’s then I find how little control I have in the world around me.

The small amount of equipment, social media, or internet, that I am competent to use, pales to what is available.

Like most people, I have a smartphone, but in my case the vast majority of technology packed into that tiny package is wasted on its not-so-smart owner.

The computer I use most everyday will perform duties I’ll never manage and most likely never be aware of their existence.

I’m also the proud owner of a smart TV that is way and above smarter than me. I’ve even been unable to properly load Alexa. Sometimes she’ll talk to me and sometimes she won’t. I’m glad my wife is not as temperamental. Oh well, ‘Nuff said.

Have one great week and God bless!

One Thing I Love to do From My Days as a Child

One thing I love to do, from my days as a child and well into my adulthood, in fact, to this very point in time, is fish.

In my younger days, we lived in a rural area within a mile of the Chickahominy River. The walk was nothing compared to the thrill of reeling in a Pike. At least that’s what we called this wolf of the waterways, which is related to a Pike, though Chain Pickerel is its proper name. According to Discoverboating.com, the Chain Pickerel can reach lengths of three feet and weigh seven pounds, the world record being nine pounds and six ounces.

We would find smaller tributaries off the main river and walk the center of these canals, casting from side to side to catch fish.

One instance I hooked a Pickerel then placed it on a stringer that was tied to the back of my belt and continued to fish. After a short while, I began to receive taps on my lower back. Turning around, I jumped out of my clothes and skin, figuratively speaking as the fish’s head looked like a huge snake. Needless to say, this did not dissuade my pursuit of the fresh water Barracuda in this manner.

Ya know, this would make a great beast in a science fiction novel . . . just sayin’.

This is just a short trip down my memory lane, I wanted to share with you.

 Have a wonderful week and:

May the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

I Consider Writing a 9-5 Job – Five Days a Week Complete With Occasional Weekends

I consider writing a 9-5 job – five days a week complete with occasional weekends. The difference being that I have too much fun creating worlds, characters, and creepy crawlies to fill those worlds to think of it as work.

Mark Twain said, “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

Thankfully, I’m living that dream. It wasn’t always this way. I’ve plugged through the daily grind of a job that truly was a job.

This brings to mind a conundrum that I have trouble wrapping my brain around. I hear some say, “I’m trying to find myself.” In and of itself, a quote such as this in many aspects tells me this person would rather do nothing and hide behind Twain’s quote.

Perhaps there is a legitimate way to bring these words to life. You could always stand in front of a mirror and utter a statement such as, “There me are!”

On second thought, maybe a better idea would be to ‘reflect’ on the situation. You have to admit, reflecting on any unknown can bring the problem to light; or not. If you stand in front of the mirror we mentioned earlier, that would solidify your exact location in time and space. Still an unknown, would this be you standing in front of the looking glass, or you within the confines of the looking glass?

Before I delve into the concept of spatial and time relationships, I’ll defer and leave that little slice of nothing for someone else.

Make this week better than the great week you had last week, and don’t worry about finding yourself. If you ever begin to feel lost, stick a finger in each ear, then look down at your feet. This way you’ll know where you are from head to toe, and to reinforce this notion, just remember no matter where you go there you are.

Hang in there and relish God’s blessings, for they’re everywhere!

 

 

I Graduated High School Early to Commence my Vocation, Driving Nails as a House Framer . . . Some Move, Huh?

I spent a portion of my weekends during my teenage years, all of my twenties, and part of my thirties in the field of construction. I began my career at 14 learning how to side houses. Two years later, I graduated high school early to commence my vocation, driving nails as a house framer . . . some move, huh?

I stepped into the field of commercial construction and ran my first job at 23, as a superintendent.  Construction was good to me, but then I found something better. I began to work for a pharmaceutical company in their trade show division.

I’ve gone around my elbow to get to my thumb, the long way you might say, to talk a bit about fasteners.

I’ve attached one piece of material to another piece of material since there were pieces of material to be attached to other pieces of material.

I couldn’t begin to name the different substances I’ve used, some so hard it would dull several diamond tipped bits before the hole would reach the other side.

Fasteners come in every shape and size to connect just about anything to anything else.

The nuts and bolts include any material having a solid form such as: wood, metal, stone, plastic, glass, fabric, earth, and many more I either can’t remember or was ever aware.

Take the a fore mentioned list, mix it with a similar list and you can attach everything from your skivvies to the bumper of your grandma’s “78” Grand Marquis, from a weather worn tennis racket, to the underside of your downstairs half-bath.

And, there you have it. Positively everything you need to know about fastening one thing to another. Remember folks, you heard it here first. Have one great week! And, may God bless!

I Didn’t Realize What I Was in for When I Became an Author Not so Many Years Ago

I didn’t realize what I was in for when I became an author not so many years ago. I write Science-Fiction/Fantasy, and Action Adventure.

It still amazes me that completing a novel, then moving to the next, time and time again, never loses its sense of exhilaration.

Creating new worlds, and the creatures within the genre I write, leads to many interesting characters, human and otherwise.

Along with the bipeds, come a multitude of caustic critters just right for killing, all wrapped up in unique surroundings.

Writing can invoke passionate feelings within readers, even though the characters only exist as a concept in the recesses of someone’s mind.

Funny, this item, known as a book, that we delve into so deeply, causes readers to lose sleep in order to absorb one more chapter.

If you begin to nod at work maybe you should not have continued to read extra chapters. I don’t believe any of the characters in your present night-time read will come to your aid as you fight off sleep during the day.

I appreciate you taking time to read this post. Have a great week, and God bless.