Difficult to Concentrate During the Christmas Season

 

I find it more difficult to fully concentrate during the Christmas season on my writing with all the holiday festivities and commotion.

First, comes Thanksgiving with a spread fit for a king, queen, and a couple of court jesters. Of course, a minute beyond midnight after Thanksgiving Day, the full-blown Christmas season begins to weigh heavy on our wallets and pocketbooks. This phenomenon known as, “Black Friday” not only pilfers cash, but can be dangerous if you jump into the middle of a fray for the year’s most popular toy.  This yearly quest also begins the, ‘my Christmas tree is bigger than your Christmas tree,’ which leads to, “I have more stuff in my yard than you do.”

I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I love Christmas decorations. In fact, my wife dresses our house to the ‘nines.’  She gets it honestly; her parents at one time could light up southwest Virginia. They started with their Christmas light show over the summer, having it ready to illuminate the skies the first of December. People would travel from miles around to view the spectacle, which I will admit, was a sight to behold.

I’ll leave it there until next week, giving me a chance to recover from “Black Friday” even though I did not participate, not even to buy a gift online.

I hope you have the best week you’ve ever had, and remember we’re celebrating the gift of the Christ child who would save the world with his precious blood!

I Truly Enjoy Being an Author

I know I have said it many times, but here goes again. I truly enjoy being an author. My main stay is developing characters; the more outrageous the better.  New worlds come into play, and being that I write science fiction, the sky is the limit.

Many novels that I pen begin with every day, mundane, objects or settings. You wouldn’t believe the story one can concoct making a mud puddle center stage.

Creatures can range from avians, with organic jet propulsion, to eighty-foot-tall, twelve-legged arachnids. These critters reside in an acidic fluid that would dissolve any matter, organic or otherwise, upon contact. Beings occasionally appear as an upright shadow, with nothing to cast the silhouette. These anomalies, at first glance, appear harmless, until a hand as black as night enacts its destruction.

The only limits to writing are the ones you place on yourself.

Have a fantastic week and remember Jesus, the Savior, for which we are thankful!

 

As an Author, I Can’t Help But Dabble in the Art of a Wordsmith

As an author, I can’t help but dabble in the art of a wordsmith. At the very least, from the pure nature of the work, I will increase my vocabulary; at most, I can use the “add to dictionary” function to manufacture words at my own discretion.

Of course, words are necessary if one desires to write, which throws us headlong into another conundrum. If you are born and bred in the United States of America, you have no trouble stating and comprehending American style English. If you hale from outside this great country, then Katie-bar-the-door, “cause you in a world of hurt.”

Problematic becomes the word of the day as a nasty little term known as an idiom comes into play. Everything from “go jump in a lake,” to “don’t beat around the bush,” is used to make a totally unrelated point. “Cut me some slack,” and “pull a rabbit out of a hat,” are two more favorites. Now, we mustn’t forget the idiom of idioms, “By the skin of your teeth.” That one will leave a crinkle in the ole’ brain box.

All in all, we find a way to communicate. I recall sitting in the Las Vegas airport talking with a man from France. Our conversation was unique, to say the least, as neither one of us spoke the other’s language.

Another example of our wonderful creator’s sense of humor.

Have a fantastic week and don’t forget to smile . . . you may change someone’s day for the better.

 

As an Author I Hold the Fate of Many Worlds

Being an author is something that gives me a great deal of enjoyment. As an author, I hold the fate of many worlds and even more, character’s, in my hands. I can allow them to live or sentence them to die. I’ve always found it amazing that such emotion can be felt for a character that exists only in the mind of the reader; however, it is my duty to bring that emotion to the surface, so that I pull the reader into the story. In this way, the reader is vested in the story line and if I do my job, participates throughout the entire novel.

Talk about a non-sequitur segue, I believe this takes the cake, pie, cookie and anything else you can imagine, but here goes.

NASA has big plans to farm in outer space. I think my reasoning for jumping to this subject is my love for science fiction. After all, it is the main genre in which I write, though now it appears raising crops in zero gravity is no longer fiction. I guess my question is why spend time piddling with a small amount of vegetation for food in space when we have such a desperate need for food that can be grown now on the earth’s surface?

Don’t misunderstand my comments as I am a huge fan of space exploration, and I am sure space farming will be a viable option someday; however, let’s not put the cart before the horse as we often do.

Have a great week and may God richly bless you and yours!

Science Fiction is a Great Fit for me, as an Author

Science fiction is a great fit for me as an author. I also write fantasy, not the type with kings, queens, ogres, and unicorns (I have a hard time with unicorns) and when I want a nice respite from my usual, I dabble in action adventure.

The genres I choose to pen come from a multitude of sources; however, I believe the passions of my childhood play a large part in my writing preferences.

I was a bit of an odd kid in as far as my choice of favorite animals. Oh, I liked dogs and cats okay, but reptiles claimed my greatest love. In the second grade, at the ripe old age of seven, Wilbur, the alligator, became part of our household. Since alligators were protected at that time, I expect Wilbur was probably a Caiman; however, I will always remember him fondly as Wilbur, the alligator.

Hmmm, protecting alligators as a species, boy, didn’t that work well? Once considered endangered, now there’s one in every swimming pool and dining table; that’s what I call a success.

Of course, like everyone else, I owned the little green turtles whose claim to fame was salmonella.

I grew up in a rural area, where a plethora of reptiles and amphibians call home. Box turtles, a variety of snakes, (which I caught being careful to avoid the ones boasting fangs with nasty toxin to boot) toads, bullfrogs (yum! and they don’t taste like chicken) and the crème de la crème, the glass-tailed lizard. These blue-tailed beauties are so cool to watch. If anything approaches them, including me, in what they perceived as a predatory manner, the lizard would lose half its tail. The broken appendage wiggled about keeping the predator interested while the blue-tail’s host made a hasty get away.

Isn’t it amazing how God’s creation works? But, the best part –  he created this world for us to enjoy.

Have one great week and take time to enjoy one of God’s great gifts!

I Love to Fish and Have Been Doing so Most of My Life

As I sit here working on a new novel, two of the main characters find themselves floundering in a life-and-death, watery situation. The water, having nothing to do with their deadly conundrum, revolved around a fish. Now, the fact that this large disgusting fish was something they were actually attempting to catch set my mind working. You see, I love to fish and have been doing so most of my life. As a kid, and I mean a kid of 14, possibly 15, I found myself standing in the Chickahominy river from April until October.

The river was a short walk of probably three quarters of a mile from my back door til I could get a line wet. This in turn, lent itself to an amazing amount of fodder I could use in writing sessions, especially short stories.

Many smaller backwater tributaries flowed from the main river. I frequented these when I wanted to fish by walking down the middle of one of these canals casting to each side. In this way, I missed nothing due to brush along the bank. The down side came one day after I caught a Pike (Chain Pickerel). I ran this string with a sharpened metal end through the fish’s gills and out its mouth, pushing it through a ring attached to the other end of the stringer.

With the fish secured, I tied it to my belt loop and continued my angling adventure. Several minutes later, I felt a subtle bump on my rear end. I paid no attention until this continued with more repetitions. Turning to see what had the audacity to interfere with my concentrated attempt to procure my quarry; boy, did I see it. The one who dare mess with me while fishing, was the fish I had just caught. I figuratively jumped out of my skin, afraid I was being attacked by something new to this world.

There is one other scenario worth mentioning. I was standing ankle deep in a similar scenario, working my way to deeper water. A small head breaking the surface, flicked a forked tongue at me, waylaying my journey. I fled to the bank, happy I was not chest deep and noticed the serpent followed me to the bank. Upset with this creature interrupting my angling, I found a tree limb; brought it down across his head numerous times until at last my hunting knife removed his slippery head. This in turned allowed me to resume my trip into the river and complete my day of fishing. As you have probably noticed, neither man, beast, or serpent interrupts the time I allot to fishing.

So goes my antics as a young lad. I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed sharing.

Take good care of yourself. May God bless you; keep you in his grace and may his countenance shine down upon you! Have a great week!

Every Now and Then a Word Comes Along that is Used Repeatedly

Every now and then, a word comes along that is used repeatedly. Eventually that word will hit the airwaves and begin to grind against my sense of right and wrong. The latest utterance to have this effect on me is “application,” which has been conveniently condensed to ‘app.’ The abbreviation app, in and of itself is not a problem; however, when delving into technology as most of us are likely to do, everything we encounter likely requires an app.

Apps allow us to navigate without having to go to the internet each time we want to access a particular program. An app for this and an app for that, here an app, there an app, everywhere an app, app is pretty much how I perceive the world of applications.

The next saying that has come up on the world of most everything in one form or the other is ‘game-changer.’ Everywhere in the world of television commercials, these two words are sure to pop up. I first heard this phrase uttered concerning a hand-ailment known as Dupuytren’s contracture. From then on the phrase game-changer has been used to describe everything from vitamins to athletic socks and prostate treatments to copper underwear. Some things tend to be over used and I guess that’s just me rambling on . . .  then again maybe not.

Perhaps, this is one of those times, I should stay in my writer’s room not concerning myself with superfluous things or at least keep them to myself.

Have a great week and may God richly bless you and yours.

I Make it a Point to Write Every Day Except Sunday

I make it a point to write every day except Sunday. Even though I’ve said it before, I’m still fascinated by the way a reader will embrace a character that is contrived by little more than a thought. I will have to admit that bringing emotions out of one who reads my work is extremely satisfying. It confirms that I am doing my job as an author.

Writing YA and NA I feel it necessary to avoid bad language and sexual situations; however, when one is destroying vile entities and the like, violence is unavoidable.

Most of my plots travel along the lines of science fiction, fantasy, and action adventure. I have the pleasure of creating new domains, a plethora of good and bad creatures, and story lines that travel through primitive and advanced worlds. These realms occasionally delve into time travel, bringing me a great deal of gratification, as I write.

I enjoy pleasant endings; however, it’s not always possible to conclude each novel in such a fashion. In fact, I find myself ending books in the negative to make them more believable or even more conducive to a sequel.   

In short, I love every aspect of creating a story from conception to completion. I guess, I chose the optimum career path as I have heard, “If you find a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Now, I can confirm this quote is about as accurate as a quote can get. Since it is attributed to Confucius, Marc Anthony, and Mark Twain, it truly takes time, distance, and geography into consideration.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the ravings of an author and allow the love of God to penetrate your heart. Please be in pray for the children, teachers, law enforcement, families, and friends involved in the Uvalde School shooting.

I Do Believe the Past Two Weeks Have Been Slow…Not

I do believe it seems the past two weeks have been slow as far as writing, rewriting, editing or further changing the present story line in my latest novel are concerned. Of course, I know that’s not true for I have enough work to keep me busy for quite a while. Maybe, I feel as though the thoughts I wish to convey to the readers of my blog are too important to pass by . . . yeah, that’s the ticket. That’s the pretense I’ll use to publish this post on useless information . . . and they’ll be none the wiser.

Do you realize that the fruit enjoyed by nearly everyone come summertime is not the fruit we all think it to be? Attempting to pass itself off as cantaloupe, the muskmelon worked its way into our hearts via the taste bud.

Allow me several seconds to sneeze . . . . . . Thanks, as you well know, no one can sneeze just once. It’s those multiple sneezes that get me, knowing my heart stops with each swoosh of air . . . or not. Once again, we are led down a road of deception. Contrary to popular belief, the heart continues to pump blood through our circulatory system when sneezing.

Guess what other ploys of deceit have been thrust down the paths we trod? You do know that a frog will jump from a boiling pot of water, but a frog placed in tepid water and slowly brought to 212° will cook to death in his own stupid.?Slow down a moment, even the tiny-brained, web-footed, amphibian has more sense than that. C’mon, give a guy a little credit. (This was so important; it held ground in an earlier blog.)

 Last but not least, the iconic Hollywood sign is something we have all seen. Whether from a movie theater, the television screen, or an airplane window, the verbiage making up the image at one time read, “Hollywoodland.”

Thank you, for allowing me several minutes of your day. I do so hope you were able to glean a bit of information or enjoyment from my humorous brain blast. As always, have the best week you’ve had in your time on this Earth, and may God bless you and yours richly!

 

As I Sit in Front of My Computer Screen, Hashing Out My Next Novel, Occasionally My Mind Will Wonder

As I sit in front of my computer screen, hashing out my next novel, occasionally my mind will wonder. One topic that seems to be my go-to (brought about by the ability to write on an electric screen) concerns the way people accomplished tasks not so many years ago, as opposed to today.

I remember watching someone type. The die would physically strike a piece of paper through a ribbon infused with ink transferring the letter. By pressing any number of keys labeled with the alphabet, numbers, and a plethora of various symbols  printing process actively delivered letter to paper. These older keyboards are not unlike today’s computer keyboards save where the years between the two would dictate that necessity.

 Heaven help you if the misfortune of making a mistake ever crossed one of your hard fought words. You had two options: discard the page and totally retype or use an archaic small piece of white paper. This you held over the offending letter, struck the paper and letter a second time to transfer the white substance that, in theory, covered the mistake and gave you a clean surface to retype the correct letter . . . Good luck.

The fun part of a day’s work with one of these machines was maintenance, such as changing a ribbon. If by fortune you inherited this task in the morning, you could spend the remaining hours of your day covered in a non-removable black ink.

As an author thinking, about using one of these ancient devices to pen a novel makes me want to pick up pencil and paper.

Well, how about that trip down memory lane. It’ll make you think next time you complain about your modern-day typing device.

Have a great week, and may God bless you and yours!