Happy Birthday,Gary!

Gary had a birthday today.  I gave him blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup topped with whipped cream for breakfast.  I forgot the maraschino cherry on the top but still, it was a good start to his natal day.  I filled the house with birthday banners.  Beforehand, I let all his Facebook friends know about his special day and he was deluged with greetings all day.

I told him to do whatever he wanted to do for the day.  It turned out what he really, truly wanted to do was winterize the house by putting shrink wrap on the windows.  Go figure.

We stopped in to see Chris, Tisha and Evan to pick up some gadget Chris was repairing for Gary. It's nice I have a son who knows how to fix electronics.

We met Gary's sister and her boyfriend, his niece and her husband, and his nephew at an Appleton restaurant for more celebrating.  Gary had his favorite meal, liver and onions. Not my idea of a birthday feast but hey, it was his day and he could celebrate however he wanted.

And now it is over.  It was important that this birthday was celebrated properly.  It is his 70th. I will follow in March with my own 70th birthday. No longer can we claim to be middle aged.

Most years, I've never had a sense of all that time passing. I tell people I am 69 but it is usually because I am trying to understand and fully appreciate my advanced years. Yet both of us feel so good most of the time, 70 is only a number.

We shall see what the future brings for two folks like us. An 80th birthday, we hope.

More Writing News

I am writing more and more about writing projects these days, but then that is my life at the moment.

During National Novel Writing Month, I didn't start anything new but I am making an effort to finish two books I original wrote as rough drafts during NaNoWriMos in previous years.

I got The Glen Valley Compact proof copy today.  It is full of errors, most of them small, a couple of big ones. I expected that. The question is, can I repair them without ordering a second proof copy?    

If I can finish the job by Monday, I'll order a dozen books and start getting them out to venues.

I do like the cover.

I'm in the middle of the third re-write of Chapter 4 (of 16) of Going Down from Gairloch.  This is going much better than I expected though I know that there are some problems toward the end of the book.  Again, I want this done by the end of November.

I'm waiting for the author's copies of Black Coffee Fiction, Volume 2: Now With 33% More Caffeine. I expect them by Monday at the latest.  These, too, have to go to various venues.

As soon as all of the paperbacks are in place I have to get The Glen Valley Compact, Going Down from Gairloch, and Decades of Love and Other Disasters and perhaps Seriously Depressing Christmas Stories into e-mail format. I want to do these all at once so I don't have to re-learn the tricks over and over. Once I get the format for one down, the other three should follow quickly.

***
Meanwhile at our Black Coffee Fiction blog, Bettyann Moore has published her latest Porpoise McAllister story.....
http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com/2013/11/popper.html

and Wade Peterson is also using NaNoWriMo to write revisions for his novel.  He describes it in his own blog, It's a Long Way to the Top.

http://wadepeterson.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/happy-nanowrimo/

So we scriveners are busy scribbling.

Too Early Christmas

There are Christmas commercials on television. The discount stores already have their Christmas displays up. The Internet music channel I listen to is already interspersing my classical piano music with Christmas carols.

Even my Christmas cactus is blooming. 

 

I would say way, way too early, except that I have already written a Christmas story at Black Coffee Fiction

http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com  It will be followed by three more before Christmas and the reason is simple:  I am planning a Christmas e-book and I need a few more stories so I can publish in early December.  

I can't seem to stop writing these days. It's become an addiction.  

****

I am hearing some positive words about our latest Black Coffee Fiction collection, Black Coffee Fiction, Volume 2, Now With 33% More Caffeine.  One reader says she is telling all her friends about it.  

The lifeguards down at the aquatic center finally read "The Lifeguards".  Tony tells me I described CPR incorrectly and I shall have to change that, but when he said incorrect CPR could kill someone, I immediately thought how I could use that in my next mystery novel.  

So all my writing progresses.  

Technology

When I was a student at North Osborn Elementary School on French Road near Seymour, the teacher made out our tests using special pencils  Then she made copies on the hectograph by laying the master face down on a tray that contained gelatin for a minute or two so the ink transferred to the gelatin.  Then she could make copies by pressing blank papers on to the gelatin.  Of course, every time she made a copy, ink was removed and the copies got progressively lighter.

I thought this was high tech back then, though the process was invented around the time of the Civil War.

In high school, the big innovation was a punch card system.  Each student has seven cards, one for each class we wanted to take.  After the cards were punched the stacks and stacks of cards, probably a  couple thousand of them, were sent off to be processed. In the end we got a print out of our class schedules.  Really high tech.

It wasn't until I reached college that I saw a Xerox copy machine. Punch cards were still part of computer technology.  Personal computers were far in the future.

In college I had a portable typewriter.  Later, I got an electric typewriter, followed by a Selectric, which could change fonts. Wow, even higher tech!

I think I was in my 40s when I got my first computer, a Kaypro.  It took the first 5.25 floppy disks with not much memory.  The next computer took 3.5 inch diskettes with a bit more memory, but still, a single diskette only held a rough draft not a complete novel.

Next came the CD.  I could get an entire novel on one CD.  I still have boxes of these in storage though the floppy disks have long gone to the landfill.

These days, I use memory sticks the size of my thumb or memory cards the size of a quarter.   The 8G card I picked up today holds the entire third draft of my novel. I probably could get another couple of books in there, too. I can insert it into my little notebook computer and continue to revise anywhere I travel.  Come Hawaii in February, I can sit at the beach working on a non-fiction book I have in mind without carrying a heavy laptop and a stack of CDS.

Today Gary and I decided to spend part of November in the old farmhouse in Dixon, Illinois.  No matter, have technology, will write.

We've come a long way since the hectograph. 

Back in Shape

Gary and are setting ourselves a schedule.  On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we intend to go to the high school to  the fitness center to lift weights and use the recumbant bikes.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we'll go swimming at the Olympic sized pool at the aquatic center.

The Seymour School District has a special rate for old timers like us:  $35 a year for pool and fitness center privileges. We both have our cards, but because we've both been busy, we haven't taken much advantage of that this year. First Gary was with his aunt in Illinois. I was driving back and forth taking care of an aged cat here in Seymour and helping out on the Illinois farm.

After his aunt died, Gary returned here, but there was gardening, soon to be followed by camping. By then Rascal had taken his last trip to the veterinarian. It meant that I could stay for days at the campground without having to drive back and forth. And of course, there was my tour around Lake Superior.  When we finally were home at the beginning of October, I began to work on my mystery novel.  I hadn't been swimming since May.  Gary hadn't used any of the facilities since November 2012.

After days of sitting in front of this computer, I found myself with a weight gain.  Worse, I was losing muscle tone.  Gary said he was having the same trouble. Time to do something about that.

So yesterday, he went to the fitness center.  I had minor stomach problems so couldn't go.  Today I went swimming, but he was busy clearing the garage and didn't make it either.

Tomorrow, we will get back on track.  Really.

Works in Progress

The camera works, even after the memory stick was stuck in my chair cushion for almost two weeks. cushion. I used it to show the progression in my writing life.

At the top is Black Coffee Fiction, Volume 2: 33% More Caffeine, a book of short stories written by Wade Peterson, Bettyann Moore and me. This book is now in print and can be purchased at Amazon.com.   Wade has ordered ten copies for me which should arrive here in a week. When I get them I will take one copy to the Seymour public library and five copies to Sissy's in Seymour. 

Next is the sample cover of the mystery I've just completed, The Glen Valley Compact. The proof copy is being shipped to me and should be here by Friday.  I will take three days to do the final proofing, then order copies.  I hope to have them in hand by November 20th, at the latest. 

Finally, the loose leaf folder with Going Down to Gairloch, the novel I am working on now. I'm on the third and perhaps the final draft.  Today I reviewed the first chapter. I think it is in in fairly good shape, but I will look at it again tomorrow to make sure.  There are fourteen chapters and I intend to spend two days on each.  

Somewhere beyond that folder is the idea for another book.  

Cameras

I haven't been posting photos lately.  At the end of the camping season, my Canon camera stopped functioning. It was beyond repair. At least I could removed all the photos from my trip around Lake Superior and the summer's camping.

I switched to an older camera, a Nikon.  It actually took better photos than the Canon was was bulkier. I could toss the Canon into a jacket pocket and take off.  The Nikon required shoulder straps.  Still, I had a camera and was happy about that.

One night, I was sitting at this desk after putting uploading a couple of photos to this blog.  I removed the memory stick.  It slipped from my fingers and landed ... where?

I got up, looked at the floor around the chair. The memory stick was nowhere to be found. I felt around the cushion, but it was there.  It hadn't fallen on  any of my pants.

I called Gary into my office.  He looked for the memory stick on the floor, on my chair and my pants.  (I loved the pat down.)  We checked the waste and recycling baskets. Nothing.

Today, Chris, Tisha and Evan were here.  I told them about my problem.  Tisha and Evan crawled around on the floor with flashlights after I explained what had happened. They found nothing. Chris, who has a very logical mind looked at the chair and began to feel around the cushion.

"We tried that," I said. Then pushed down the center of the cushion, which pulled the edges in. And there the memory stick was, wedged between the arm of the chair and the cushion.  The memory stick had fallen in there but the minute I stood up, the cushion had plumped back out to the edge of the arm. Then I couldn't see the stick.  When I sat down, the area would open up but then, of course, I couldn't see it.

Mystery solved.

So once again, I have a camera.  I'm ready for the holidays and in February, Hawaii.

***
Evan is taking piano lessons and I am delighted.  He has extremely long fingers for a child and he is picking up the idea of the keyboard easily.  He has reached the point of playing with both hands. I think that soon I will be able to play duets with him.

***

The proof copy of The Glen Valley Compact has been sent to me. I should have it by next weekend.

Ghosts

When I travel in the southern states, I hear the best ghost tales, scary ones that make chills go up my spine, stories aimed at adult audiences.  

Here in Wisconsin, the assumption is that storytelling is only for children, so I never get to let go and tell the tales of horror that would give the tots nightmares.  Yet adults always want to hire me for those kid's parties. 

That is so frustrating to me. 

Tonight, I was hired for an adult Halloween party about an hour away from here, in Sherwood. The guests were dressed in costumes, but nothing that detracted from my work.  I told two stories, one I heard in Georgia about a mountain lion, and another from Kentucky about a father murdering the mother of his children. They are the kind of stories that rattle around brains long after the night is over. 

I held my audience mesmerized. Not a whisper, or a cough disturbed my story weaving. 

Afterwards, everyone thanked me, but I thanked them for an opportunity to have a good audience of adults who loved to be frightened.

***

This morning, I finished the book design, uploaded the finished interior and finally hit the "Submit" button at Create Space.  The Glen Valley Compact is being reviewed now.  I hope to have the proof copy in hand about a week from now. 

More Writing

Today I finished the first depressing Christmas story of the season and posted it at Black Coffee Fiction
http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com/2013/11/christmas-spirit.html

I write these stories to counteract the advertising on American television depicting the perfect family having the perfect Christmas, when we all know that not everyone has a traditional Christmas or even a satisfactory one.  So I write stories of people having terrible holidays. At this point I have nine stories. I figure on having a collection of these by the end of 2014.
.......

For a while there, we had our listing for our Black Coffee Fiction, Volume 2 paperback at amazon.com but it had an error so it is being run through the system again. It is still there as an e-book but it will be a day or two before that is settled.

I downloaded my new mystery at Create Space but there are four errors that the publisher discovered.  I also have to figure out how to get the cover photo cleared up. I hope to do that tomorrow.
......

Wade has posted at his blog about his writing career,It's a Long Way to the Top
 http://wadepeterson.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/happy-nanowrimo/
.....

Wade is almost done with his novel.  The month of November is National Novel Writing Month but neither Wade nor I intend to write new novels this year.  He will do the final editing on his novel and I will do the final re-write on Going Down from Gairloch.  

But right now I am about done with it all for a few days.  Two days of writing non-stop has wiped me out mentally and physically.  Gary and I are going to get back to the fitness center on Monday to get ourselves back in shape and I intend to spend a few days reading books.

But first, an evening telling ghost stories tomorrow night.  

Halloween Expertise

It rained all day here in Seymour.  Not optimum Halloween weather but I'm an expert at holidays.The trick is not to get started too early, no matter what the stores are selling no matter what's being advertised.

I decorate but don't go overboard.  I happen to have a nice collection of electric pumpkins. They serve as easy decoration, but they are also useful when I am doing ghost story. They set up a stage beautifully. They are on a timer and go on about dark.

If I'm working on Halloween, I have to be ready for trick or treaters  between the hours of 4:00 and  6:00 pm.  I checked back to see how many munchkins stopped by last year.  I keep a record on the calendar. There were sixty in 2012 and that was in cold but clear weather. With the rain, I figured there certainly would be no more that this year.

I always wait until past noon on Halloween because the candy is on sale, usually half price. I knew that ShopKo had my favorite fall candy, caramel apple pops, a delicious treat that won't be stocked again for another year. Sure enough, they were on sale. The bag promised 15 in each bag so I bought four.

At 4:00 pm I turned on the porch light. No porch light and the children are not supposed to knock on the door. Most of the kids came with their parents, who were holding umbrellas. The families got soaked anyhow. The rain came with wind.  The arrivals were sporadic, usually two or three children at a time. As it got darker, the tots gave up, leaving the ground to teenagers, who were really too old for trick or treating.

At 5:45, I was down to three caramel apples pops.  I looked down the street and saw about a dozen teenagers in a bunch heading my way.  Three treats, twelve teenagers.

The answer was simple, I turned off the porch light, unplugged my pumpkin lights, and left the house in darkness save for this office which is at the back of the house.  I sat here with only the computer for light, sucking on my once a year caramel apple pops.

I had to finish them before Gary came home from his Thursday night meeting. I am an expert, after all.