Saturday, February 10, 2024

Less talk and more chalk!

 OK. I'll admit it. It's been a challenge to push 'The Ballad of Bejus Fine' forward for the last few weeks. I had a week long stent in the hospital, suffering from a gall stone and its effect. Dark yellow jaundice skin and eyes and an infection in my 'common bile duct'. Yuck.

I'm doing OK now, but I have to get my gallbladder removed next week along with the removal of the stent they put in to dilate the tubes. Another yuck.

As I'm sure you know, especially if you're over 50, being in the hospital is both amazing and horrible. I didn't sleep for 8 days. Every 4 hours they had to draw blood to check my enzymes, etc. They ended up having to use the pediatric needles to draw sample from the back of hands! My veins rebelled after a while. Not fun.

I have nothing but praise and appreciation for the Nurses, Doctors and staff at the hospital. They had protocols to follow and tried their best to keep me comfortable and safe. The morphine helped a little... ;-)

So, I'm going to try to get past this bout as soon as possible and get back to my WIP, but I have a few more days of doctors, operations and stuff.

I've been keeping my thoughts about the story as an outline in the document so I haven't completely stalled.

Stay safe everyone. I'll be back to writing ASAP!

(credit Bill Watterson for summing up my status with a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon!)



Monday, October 30, 2023

 'The Ballad of Bejus Fine' is progressing well, if a little slower than I usually write.

I'm taking my time. Trying to add interesting content, atmosphere, and emotion into the story. The characters are much more complex than my usual fast paced SciFi stories. 

I find myself writing for a while, then stepping back and reading, writing, repeat. It is helping me 'understand' my characters more. I'm letting my imagination brew and percolate the story and the people living the story.

Lots more research on the 'Dust Bowl' era of the Panhandle of Texas. I was born and grew up in Levelland, Texas, about 30 miles west of Lubbock. Smack in the middle of that period where the lush prairies were devastated in a matter of a few years due to drought and poor soil conservation.

Families and animals starved. Whole towns were deserted. People had a truly 'hard scrabble' existence. Or they moved away to escape the dismals times. By some counts 2.5 million people moved away from the Plains states by 1940! It was the biggest mass exodus from an area in American history.

The dust storms would last for days, burying crops and homes and killing livestock. The skies were black with dust and debris. The Sun was blocked for days.




I can remember, in the early '60s', looking across the cotton field behind our house and seeing a brownish-black cloud on the horizon. And that was decades AFTER the Dust Bowl 'ended'! I remember eating baloney, mustard and onion sandwiches on white bread and getting a mouthful of grit from the dust that was EVERYWHERE after a storm. ;-)

I hope all my writer friends are busy working on their stories and enjoying life.

There is only now.



Monday, July 31, 2023

'The Ballad of Bejus Fine' is in progress

 After multiple medical interruptions, and just plain life issues that we all have to deal with, I'm back to my next WIP.

'The Ballad of Bejus Fine'.

It's not a SciFi or ghost story or paranormal romance. It's a plain ole literary fiction, based in the Panhandle of Texas where I was born and grew up.

I chose to write this one because I need to stretch a little and improve my 'world building' beyond space ships and evil, ugly, alien invaders. ;-) I need to write a story that has real human drama. I need to to show myself that I can. And, of course, to show you that I can. 

I love my books, all of them. The 'buddy' SciFi spoof series , 'Arlo and Jake', has been an absolute gas to write. My readers have been awesome with their reviews and comments. I'll be writing more in that series as my Muse releases more cool story ideas. But I need to add some depth to my writing. Some human depth.

So. What do you do when you need to 'switch gears' for awhile?

Do you switch genres? Take a sabbatical? Pour two fingers of White Horse and ponder the Universe?

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Be cool, everyone.