Upcoming Projects

Anita, our campground host, liked Yesterday' Secrets, Tomorrow's Promises, my romance novel, but thought I should write a Christian romance instead and gave me one as an example. There are a few problems with that, one being that I am an agnostic and another that I don't ordinarily write romances.  I wrote this one back in the 1980's as a money making venture. While it never sold, I got rejection letters from editors who encouraged me to re-write the thing and submit even more. I never did that.

Which brings me to the third problem: I seldom repeat anything. I hand stitched a quilt once, a thing of beauty, but I've never had the least inclination to make another. I once knit a mitten but found knitting so boring I never finished the other. So one romance novel is all I had in me and once I self-published that, I was done. I don't even read romances! So I will return Anita's book unread.

People often have suggestions as to what I should write so I've finally printed out a sheet to hand out with my ongoing projects to show them I am far too busy to undertake anything new.  This is what I have scheduled:

October, 2013 --  Black Coffee Fiction, Volume 2 with Wade Peterson and Bettyann Moore. I've already written the stories so Wade is finishing up the work on that.

January, 2014 Going Down from Gairloch, fiction based on my adventures in Scotland and England. Not a romance, a true novel, it's about decisions that change our lives. I am on the third draft of that, and plan to have the book done by the end of November with final editing through December. 

Spring, 2014 Jake Dog and the Four Cats, non-fiction about my beloved Australian Shepherd. I have a a few of the stories written but there's still a lot to be done.

October, 2014 Another Black Coffee Fiction collection, so I have about eight more short stories to write. I still have to pick out the subject. This year's section is about a small Midwestern town where people are always dying, sometimes in grisly ways.  

January 2015 A collection of seriously depressing Christmas stories for people who don't like the holidays, again, taken from the Black Coffee Fiction blog. I have around eight done but will need another dozen. They are very funny, believe it or not. I may not publish them until November of that year to sell for the Christmas season. 

Spring, 2015, a novel based on the stories of my great aunt Mabel about homesteading in North Dakota. Very serious stuff about tuberculosis, death, rape at the beginning of the 20th century.

And somewhere in the future, my memoirs, mostly about travel around the world. I might do a collection of columns from Storytelling Trails and Tales, too. And of course, the yearly Black Coffee Fiction collection. Add to that a storytelling tour here and there and camping in the summer, possibly working as a campground host. 

So sorry, Anita, no Christian romance.  

Beds

Because Gary was back in Wisconsin picking up a new bed for me, I had to sleep in his bedroom here in the camper.

I should point out for the curious that Gary and I have had separate bedrooms for years because we both snore ... loudly. It used to be that the first person to get to sleep had a sound night's rest and the other was awake through the roar from nasal passages. Separate bedrooms seemed a better idea.  So Gary has a bedroom with a double bed on one end of the camper while I have a bedroom/office with a single bed on the other end.

The problem with my twin bed was that it was made up of a thin mattress topped by a pair of couch cushions topped by a foam pad. The theory was that all of these layers would be comfortable, but instead, the whole thing sagged in the middle and flopped over on one side making it seem like I was falling out of bed. I dealt with this by positioning my hip in the crack in the center and putting an extra pillow on the side to keep me from sliding out on the floor. I never complained (much) about it because I was used to sleeping on the ground in a tent. Camping is camping, I figured.

Then Gary took a nap on my bed and asked how I could stand it.  He immediately ordered a mattress from Walmart and had it delivered in DePere since there is no Walmart near here, nor, for that matter, anyone that sold mattresses.

He packed up my old sleeping gear to stow in one of his storage units. Throw it away? He never throws anything away. He drove away with it and for that night I slept in his bed. That was when I discovered bliss. His bed held a superb mattress topped with memory foam. He had not one but two soft quilts.When I closed the door to the room, I stayed warm the entire night in spite of temperatures near freezing. My office/bedroom is in a slide that means cold on three walls, ceiling and floor. It is lighter, too, in the mornings, so after 6:00 am I cannot sleep at all.

I slept wonderfully on his double bed. When Gary returned with my replacement mattress, I suggested the new one was so nice he should sleep on that. I would bite the bullet and continue to sleep on his bed.

Before the afternoon was over, he said he had to take a nap and went into his bedroom for two hours, thereby marking his territory. I am thus relegated to my old room.

If I find that no longer suits me, I will join him in his bed and drive him out with some loud zzzzzzzzzzzz. 

Brrrrrr!

Gary went to Seymour early this morning to run various errands including picking up a mattress that he had ordered through Walmart  for the camper's little office bed. When he got there he was shown a large box, but he said it sure didn't seem to be the right size for the mattress. The clerks checked and what he had been sent was a trampoline. Even if it fit in the camper it wouldn't be much good to sleep on.

He complained loudly as only Gary can. He pointed out he had driven 150 miles to get that mattress. In the end, he got a Serta mattress the store was now stocking plus a gift certificate. I'll have very good sleeping when he returns to Lake Ottawa tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the temperature here is plummeting. I can expect frost tonight but I should be fine. There is a heater in the camper but neither of us feel it is safe to have it on all night.  I will fire it up for a couple of hours before I go to bed then figure on getting up in the middle of the night to do it again.

All the campers have left now except for me. All 500 acres of lake are mine and the loons. They are still hanging on. Campground host Anita is in her trailer so I thought I had better go check on her. She is 82. She reports the heater in her little camper works fine but shouldn't I stay for tea and a game of Scrabble?  I thought that a fine idea so we played.  I managed to win by a whisker but she does know a powerful lot of words.If she hadn't had so many vowels I would never have had a chance.

It reminded me of playing with my mother who usually won. Once when she was in the hospital for heart surgery, I thought, "Here's my chance."  I took the Scrabble board to her hospital room and we played a game. It is humiliating to report that even in Critical Care, my mother gave me a "whupping".

I think I had better start practicing if I am to stay ahead of Anita. She wants a rematch tomorrow. 

What to Do on a Slow Day

We had nowhere to go and nothing much to do at Lake Ottawa today.
Gary packed up his van because he's on his way south tomorrow for a couple of days leaving me here alone. Only one other campsite is filled and that is way on the other side of the campground.

I took a long walk around the campground and found myself at the fishing pier. It juts out into this 500 acre lake giving me a good view. There was one boat on the north side and that was it. At this time of year, the lake belongs to Anita (campground host), Gary and me. I sat in the sun on one of the pier benches, far away from the gulls who were enjoying the sun on the other side. We've reach a nice accommodation with the critters. We don't bother them, they don't bother us.

A flock of twelve common mergansers came floating by. It seems it would be impossible for one merganser momma to lay that many eggs, but Gary looked it up on line and found out there could be as many as thirty in a brood. They also have been known to dump eggs on each other. It also could be a creche situation, bird-sitting shared. Who knows what happened here? It could be that they are flocking in preparation for the journey south. Another of nature's mysteries.

As usual, I had no camera with me.

The wind came up this afternoon with sprinkles of rain. I sat inside the camper listening to the howling wind and thought of winter's blizzards. It isn't so far away.

I read a David Sedaris collection and laughed but also cursed out crossword puzzle I'm working on. The "sinister" collection of sudoku puzzles is no picnic either. Am I getting smarter by doing them? It certainly doesn't seem like it.

I'm waiting for a call from Kiwi Travel in Appleton.  Kay is planning my Hawaii trip for me. Come February, another place, another beach.

Skyping

Last year, Wade and I had weekly meetings as we prepared to put a collection of our Black Coffee Fiction short stories together. It took a while but being able to work together on his home computer helped move things along. But then he lived in Darboy, Wisconsin.

Now as we move toward a second collection, things have gotten complicated. Wade moved to Arkansas and we added another writer, Bettyann Moore, who lives in Colorado. We do our work separately,each publish our stories on our blog at    http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com

It has worked out well, but now we have decisions to make as we work on our second collection.This requires more collaboration. The solution is to get together on Skype.

Wade and I have been chatting on Skype quite often since he moved but this summer has been a real problem.  This little notebook computer does not have a microphone, so though I can hear him, he can't hear me. We've solved that by Skyping whenever I happen to be in Seymour, usually ever other week. I haven't Skyped with Betty at all except for one Christmas party.

With the book coming along, we thought we could connect using Gary's laptop but our wi fi reception at national forest campgrounds allows us to e-mail but is not good enough to listen to things on Netflix, watch the Daily Show or Colbert Nation, or ... Skype.

We tried using  Gary's laptop at the food court at Angeli's supermarket in Iron River. The reception is fine there, but there is so much light, my face on the screen was washed out and we picked up all the noise of other diners.

With the book publication approaching, Gary finally asked if I could Skype at the Iron River Public Library. Not really, because they want patrons to be quiet, librarian Betsy said.  Gary explained that I was a writer trying to work with other writers to get a book out.  That's different! she said.  She arranged for me to use the library board room, a quiet place with adjustable light that will be perfect.

Once again, librarians came through when they knew writers needed help. After all, what would a library be without us? For certain, our new book will find a place in the Iron River Public Library.

At 1:00 pm on Thursday, I will Skype with Wade.  At 1:30 pm I will have a chance to do the same with Betty. We haven't figured out how to conference yet, but give us time. We hope to have an e-book ready in a couple of weeks.

Watch here for more particulars. 

Book Review

When I left Lake Ottawa last week, I left a copy of my romance novel with Anita, our camp host.  She said she read Danielle Steel novel's so I figured she wouldn't be too offended by the sex scenes in Yesterday's Secrets, Tomorrow's Promises.

Today I was only back at the campground an hour when Anita drove up in her pickup.  I went out to meet her.  She said she was afraid to come up to the door because Gary and I might be in bed.  Oh, I said, it's too late for a nap, but that wasn't what she meant.  She was here to review the book.

"I learned a few new moves," she said.

"Oh," I said.  "I see."

"Now exactly where was that place on the neck?"  she asked.

She meant that hot spot that men nibble on to get women excited.  She rubbed her neck to see if she had it figured out.

She said she read the book to the end and enjoyed it.

That was the best book review I've ever had but now she wants to know when my next book is coming out. No sex in that one, it's mostly murders.  Well, maybe she'll like that, too.  We'll see.

Oh, have I mentioned that Anita is 82?  But as I said to her, we all remember what it's all about.. She had five children so must have been plenty frisky.

I tell Gary that now we have to live up to my reputation.  He rolls his eyes.

The Next Book

The next Black Coffee Fiction collection of short stories will be divided into three sections, each quite different.  Wade's stories will be about Michael and Corncob, two misfit guys who happen to have extraordinary powers of often less than useful types. We're talking science fantasy here.

Betty's writes about about Porpoise McAllister, another misfit, with stories that range from his childhood to young adulthood. This past year we've learned about his odd family and how it affects him and now the stories will be in the book.

My section of the book will be about a misfit city of Glen Valley where nobody seems to be happy and people have a tendency to die in odd ways. That is what I worked on today. While all eight of the stories were in the the Black Coffee Fiction blog http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com  I had the original documents in various places: on this computer, on the notebook computer,and on CDs and flash drives. I had to locate all of them, revise and edit, and get each story to Wade who is putting the book together.

This was complicated by my having a new word processing system and by Gary "improving" things on the computer. He installed not one, but two anti virus programs and unfortunately, they worked at cross purposes. None of the stories I tried to send to Wade as attachments would go through.

Luckily, I have my own personal "techie", my son Chris.  He, Tisha and Evan came over to take me to lunch and afterwards, Chris corrected everything in a matter of minutes. It took me only four hours to finish up my section of the book and send it to Wade.

Now we have to iron out things like the cover, the format, and whose stories go first.  Wade will do our e-book first.  I expect that will be done in two weeks.  It is my hope that we have the paperback version done and in hand by October 12 when I have a book signing in Florence, Wisconsin, to be followed by another at Manawa on October 16.

This will be my fourth book in a year. I hope to have yet another in January, 2014.