Blogging about Writing---mine and others'

My Biggest Fantasy May Be Finishing My Fantasy Series

6/23/2019

As has become habit, a quick note on the personal stuff: Our wedding anniversary was the 19th...and the birthday of our second child. And the 21st was my parents' wedding anniversary. When my father died in 1990, they'd been married forty-five years. The boss and I have been married for forty-three years so we just might pass the folks. But Mom and Dad were much older than we were when they got married. Dad was thirty-eight and Mom was almost thirty-one. We were twenty-five and twenty-one.
Due to the demand by my employer to work five ten-hour days a week, plus the continued lack of mobility for the boss, I only get to exercise two days a week, and don't get to write really, ever. This blog entry is the only thing I've written in two weeks.
However, it is not all bad. Although I'm getting nothing down "on paper," I'm getting plenty of ideas. I've developed a clearer picture of Tara's background and I've expanded her personality. That will force me to go back to what I've already written and add details, but that's what writing is all about.
I've also developed a clear though undetailed picture of the climax of the story...it will involve a surprise that has been hinted at already in what I've written. And even as I go through my days I realize more details and more characters. Also, the motivation and character of the primary villain has revealed itself to me. He/she/it (still undetermined) is, of course, psychotic. This character's psychosis is likely to be a version of the psychosis of a past or present world leader of some country. In the past, think Stalin, Hitler, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Genghis Khan.
In the present, think...well, you all can use your imaginations and/or research news reports. However, here's a link to one candidate: https://www.quora.com/Who-is-the-worst-leader-in-the-world-right-now-and-why
As for fantasy, I want to recommend my favorite author, Robert Heinlein. Heinlein is known as one of the best, if not the best, science fiction author of the twentieth century. He won four Hugo awards and lots of others. When the Science Fiction Writers of America decided to create a Grand Master Award, he was their first choice.
But Heinlein also wrote fantasy, both novel length and shorter. His most obvious fantasy work is the novella, Magic, Inc. This is usually available in book form paired with Waldo. And, though Waldo is presented as science fiction, it is a fitting introduction to the fantasy world of Magic, Inc. Other shorter stories of his that fall more into the genre of fantasy than science fiction can be found currently in the collection, The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein. An older collection, 6 X H, has some of the same stories. The larger current issue has "Waldo" and "Magic, Inc." as well as the six in the older collection.
I borrowed a few details from "Magic, Inc." when I wrote Witchery.
A full-length fantasy novel of his is Glory Road. The fantasy aspect sort of sneaks up on you as you read it. It has inter-dimensional travel, ray guns, modern surgery, astronauts, the war in Southeast Asia, and the Irish Sweepstakes.
But it also has dragons, non-earthly creatures of many forms, six-legged horses, and a very well-described sword duel. I may have borrowed from Glory Road for either Witchery or Prophecy of Honor, but not consciously. I did borrow quite a bit from Heinlein's The Cat who Walks Through Walls when I wrote Prophecy of Honor, though someone who read both might not see any resemblance.
In case I've never mentioned it, Daily Science Fiction is a free source of science fiction and fantasy. If you sign up for it, they'll send a story to your email address every weekday. Well worth the non-monetary investment. I haven't managed to sell them anything yet, despite three or four attempts, but I'll be trying again soon...when I have time to write.
And that's it for this time. Thanks for reading. Now that you've read this, please read something else. Preferably one of my books or short stories (here's a link to my writing in the Page and Spine archives: https://www.pagespineficshowcase.com/fw-stories.html ) or something else, but something you'll enjoy.

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Personal Stuff Overwhelms Public Stuff

6/1/2019

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June first. If my father was still alive, he'd be 112 years old today.
The boss has returned home. She was medically released, so we had to get her out of the hospital. The surgery does not seem to have done much good...or it may just take a longer time than anticipated for results to show. She is showing increased strength, so that's something. Neither one of us has said it, but we both have admitted to ourselves the possibility that her condition might be permanent.
On less depressing news...I got my lawn mowed! It had been three weeks. The lawn mower quit on me three weeks ago. With only being able to get it into repair on Thursday or Friday, it took a week to get it to the shop and another week for them to fix it. But it cost less than half their initial estimate, so that was good.
My reading time may take a hit. I've been in the habit of getting into work about 6:25 and have 25 minutes or so to read before clocking into work. But now I have to start work at 6, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I may have to finish The Talisman at home. I picked up Tony Wedgeworth's Altered Creatures book, The Hunted, today. This is another story about Santorray, the Blothrud. I think (I hope)that Tony is working on organizing a Writers' Open Forum for this summer. We had one in the City Hall in 2017. We didn't have one last year, but I know Tony hoped to have it in the new available space in the library. I had a presentation researched and planned, and I hope to do that this year. Its title: Pornography, Erotica, and Blocking a Scene.
I'm not going to go into any details about those subjects here and now. I'll hope you can attend, if and when. I'll give details after.
I'm going to offer up a plug for an excellent poet, N.K. Wagner: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A50ae09ce-4221-48c2-800a-59dd29986eab
The link will take you to a free promotional presentation of her published poems. You'll see is a talented photographer as well. And, she is the editor/publisher of Page and Spine Fiction Showcase. It is an excellent publication to submit your writing efforts. They will offer feedback even if they do not accept your submission for publication. That is very unusual. So, if you wish to try, you've got four months to prepare your best effort. They do not accept submissions between June 1 and October 1.
One more recommendation—one I've mentioned before. Anne R. Allen and Ruth Harris have a great blog. If you have any interest in writing, you should subscribe to it (it's free) and read it.
And that is it for this time. I'm sorry it's so short, but there's just been too much personal stuff going on to keep writing at the top of my to-do list.
Until next time, please read.

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Writing A Blog Can be Tough...or at least Semi-Tough

5/12/2019

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Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers (even though this is getting posted when the day is almost over).
I feel obligated to add a new post to this blog...yet, I've got little to contribute.
My wife's health difficulties are still undetermined, but getting worse, mostly. Her stay in a care facility with at least fifty minutes of physical or occupational therapy six days a week produced almost nothing.
She's home now, but keeping me pretty busy doing what the CNAs in the facility did...except I can't be down the hall and ignore her light for a half hour or so.
On the reading front, I'm now reading The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub. This is horror, and the macabre, and more fantasy featuring an alternate world. Except for the main character, Jack Sawyer, age twelve, the few heroes are understated and their influence is vital, but mostly brief...except for the werewolf.
But the villains are given much more coverage. And there are so many! And they are "twinners." They are bad people that exist in our world, and their "twins" that exist in the other world—The Territories. It seems almost all people have such a twin. But in some cases—Jack's, for instance, his twinner in The Territories died at a young age.
I first read The Talisman at least ten years ago, maybe many more. I could remember almost none of the story. Later, King and Straub co-wrote a sequel titled Black House. Most of the sequel is a new adventure for the now adult Jack Sawyer.
Black House takes place north of LaCrosse, Wisconsin.
It isn't often that a person can go to the real location that's the setting of a fantasy novel, so of course we did, as close as a map would get us. No black house, of course. But there was a yard sale.
I remember very little about Black House, so I suppose I'll take that up next. But I don't own a copy, so I'll have to depend on the library. Or, I suppose, I could buy a copy.
But The Talisman will be on hold for a week. I'm on vacation, mostly to take care of the boss, and the book is still at work. If I'd brought it home I'd be reading it now instead of writing this...which is why I leave it at work.
For a little change, allow me to recommend some reading that is not of this century, and not speculative fiction:
Dan Jenkins was a contributor to Sports Illustrated for many years. But he also wrote some excellent sports fiction. I highly recommend Semi-Tough. They made a movie from it starring Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh, Kris Kristofferson, Robert Preston, and, with such a good cast, it was a piece of crap movie. It bore very little resemblance to the book, which is great.
Jenkins wrote a sequel to Semi-Tough titled Life Its Own Self, and that is also good, though not quite as good as the original, since the original was centered around the Super Bowl, and the sequel is about Billy Clyde's life after football and his romance with Barbara Jane Bookman.
Jenkins also wrote a golf novel titled Dead Solid Perfect. It has the same style that makes his two football books entertaining. If you like golf, either to watch or play, you'll like that one.
But, if none of those strike your fancy, I still urge you to read...my books, the ones mentioned here, or something else. But please read!

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"Believe half of what you see, Son, and none of what you hear."...Marvin Gaye

4/23/2019

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My very sincerest apologies for not contributing anything to this blog for over a month. I hadn't even realized it had been that long.
My wife's health continued to decline and pretty much every minute not at work (five ten-hour days per week) or taking care of the necessaries—sleep, eat, meal prep, cleaning, etc.—has been involved with my wife's health one way or another.
She finally gave up and admitted that she needed to be someplace other than home where she could get care and help all day as well as therapy to try to improve.
She hates not being home, and she knew she would, but gave in to necessity. Now we just have to hope and pray that she can improve.
Sorry about the personal note. I wouldn't mention near that much, but by way of explanation for my absence from this page.
I'm going to try to walk a fine line here and discuss communication rather than just writing. After all, writing is only one form of communication, and it is futile unless someone reads the writing. It is futile to talk, no matter how wise and valuable your words, unless someone hears them.
Art, music, drama, sign language—either the formal signing the deaf use or the more informal signs we all recognize, pantomime, all are means of communication. And all need to be "received" to do any good.
As I've mentioned, the fantasy series I've undertaken to write is titled Lying Swords. Not only do the swords lie, but characters lie. Some lie all the time, some lie seldom. Even the heroes lie, though seldom and never to each other.
Lying in politics is something most of us take for granted, but the frequency and boldness of lies has been raised to a new level since early in 2016.
I suppose everyone is familiar with the Mueller Investigation and to some degree with the findings.
Among other things, we know that the President's Press Secretary baldly and boldly lied to the American people, the press, television news, everyone, apparently simply to offer some kind of justification for her boss's actions. She confessed that.
But the bigger lies were those committed by representatives of our country's greatest national enemy—Russia. There is absolutely no doubt that the Trump campaign benefitted from the lies Russian agents presented on social media and other internet platforms.
The Russkis did their jobs well. I recall one brief exchange on Facebook with a young woman who was convinced Hillary Clinton was a killer—that she was guilty in some way of homicide. When I asked her what was her source for that belief, she scoffed. How could I expect her to remember which source out of so many produced those "facts."
I managed not to cry. But as a former teacher, I am appalled that people would simply believe the most ridiculous accusations without even caring if there was any evidence.
As Paul Simon wrote, "A man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest."
And Robert Heinlein observed this: "The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility. And vice versa."
Please remember that when you are reading almost anything on line, especially on social media, from conservatives, liberals, or anyone in between, just because it is presented as fact does not mean that it is. It might be a lie. I urge you all to fact check everything...especially the stuff sent to you specifically.
Before there was an internet and the USSR still existed behind it's "Iron Curtain" (a label credited to Winston Churchill) there was Radio Free Europe, where the western nations of democracy, including the United States, did their best to get the truth to the citizens behind that curtain.
And in Russia, the State was the only source of "facts" and news. The Communist Party-run newspaper was Pravda. It is still the primary newspaper and news dispensary in Russia, despite satellite communication and the internet. "Pravda" means "truth." The people of Russian and the other members of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were subjected to strict censorship. They only heard or read what the State wanted them to know, and that source of "truth" also constantly insisted that it was the only truth, and that any other source was lying for their own purposes.
Today, every citizen in this country has the opportunity to get their news from multiple sources. They can get two or three different—sometimes opposite—points of view and fact check them all to decide what is truth.
Sadly, many millions of people are too damn lazy to do that.
In the movie Hero, Dustin Hoffman's character says to his son, near the end of the movie, "All there is is bullshit, pardon my vulgarity here. Layers of it. One layer of bullshit on top of another. And what you do in life like when you get older is, you pick the layer of bullshit that you prefer and that's your bullshit, so to speak."
Sadly, that is pretty much true.
People who watch only one news channel, or read or listen to only one point of view, be it only conservative or only liberal, are voluntarily submitting themselves to the same kind of censorship the Russian people had forced upon them for decades.
Please, do the country and yourself a favor. Stop censoring your own source of the facts.
Thank you for reading, please communicate any reaction, if you wish, through the comments offer available here or the contact page, and read. Ditch the radio, ditch the television, even if only for an hour or so, and read.

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Success Stories

3/17/2019

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Happy St. Patrick's Day. I don't have a lot to write about, but there is some.
On the personal front, my wife has developed some kind of a nerve disorder. So far there's no specific diagnosis, and the folks at physical therapy did not want to try anything because they don't know what to treat or how.
If it's not one thing, it's two things.
On a better note, we discovered that our first great grandchild will be a girl, expected around the end of July. (We already knew the rough due date, but the gender was revealed yesterday.)
Last entry I mentioned that I had submitted a short story to Page and Spine. "The Limp" was accepted and published on March 8, which is not news to any of you that drop in on my FB page or FB author's page. If you don't know, go The Reading Lamp tab at Page and Spine and scroll down. They published a new entry yesterday.
But wait! There's more!
There's a brand shiny new online magazine called Trouble Among the Stars (https://troubleamongthestars.com/issue1/) They publish, as the title implies, science fiction. Like Page and Spine, and Daily Science Fiction, they pay their authors but the issues are free to read.
I submitted a story, "Guidelines," that really fits the theme. It has been declined (I like that word better than "rejected") many times. Sometimes the rejections were a personal note and sometimes it was a form letter.
I'm reminded of another story of mine—sort of a cross between science fiction and fantasy—that was rejected—I mean declined—many times. After each setback I reread the story and tweaked it here and there. The changes were never to the story, but how the story was told. Perhaps add a sentence of description, or an appropriate simile; or take out an unnecessary phrase.
I'd always admitted that the story was inspired by Ray Bradbury's short story, "Chrysalis." In 2013 Whortleberry Press set out to publish an anthology of Bradbury-inspired short stories to mark the first anniversary of Bradbury's death. My story, "Transition," was a good fit and they accepted it. It is still available in the paperback anthology, Dandelions of Mars, for sale through Goodreads or Amazon.
It is also available in Quickfic Anthology Two by Digital Fiction Publishing. The Quickfic anthologies present only reprints. I got paid more for the reprint than the original.
This story, "Guidelines," has benefitted from a similar situation. The story fit the theme and the editor. "Guidelines" has been accepted for publication in Trouble Among the Stars' second anthology. I'll let everyone know, here and on Face Book when it is actually published.
This story has undergone a lot of changes, including the title, the opening two paragraphs, and various rewordings throughout. That's what a writer does. It isn't necessary to change the whole story, and certainly not to abandon it after one or two rejections. Instead, just keep working on it, trying to improve it, and keep submitting. There are a few other stories of mine that I should be submitting more often. They, too, have undergone plenty of rewrites.
How about you? Do you write? Do you get the urge now and then to put something out there that's a little more complicated than a tweet or an Instagram message or a Face Book comment? Maybe something someone might pay you for? If so, please let me know if you think I can be of any help or offer any advice. Plus, I can offer suggestions about where else you can get even better help.
Thanks again for your attention. Stay well, and stay well-read.

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Wrestling with the fictional past.

3/3/2019

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Writer's Block. I've claimed in the past I don't suffer from it because I always have something to write. That's true. I just finished submitting a short story to Page and Spine. It's actually a portion of the Just Lucky story that was cut from the final draft. But I shaped it, edited it, tried to make sure it could stand on its own, and submitted it.
I've tried this kind of thing twice before, without success. Maybe third time will indeed be the charm.
So, though I am not suffering from writer's block, I do find myself stymied in my construction of Lying Swords, Volume One.
The story going forward is not a problem. The backstory, however, is giving me a lot of grief. Not so much what happened, but when it happened and the order of events. I've written some back story already, but I need another portion of the characters' history, and nothing is coming to me. I find this very frustrating.
When I wrote Prophecy of Honor, and Witchery, the back stories came easily and naturally. Not this time. I suspect part if not all of the reason is that those two stories were fully developed in my mind before I sat down to actually write them. And with Just Lucky, I told that pretty much in chronological order. All flashbacks were early in the narrative—like the one I just submitted as a short story—and eventually got cut anyway. The flashbacks in Saving Atlantis are also limited in scope and occur very early.
But I do not have the whole story of the Lying Swords in my mind yet. I discover more almost every day as I think about it, but the flashbacks here involve more people and more interaction than those of my previous efforts.
I have a page of notes I call "Saving Atlantis Prep." It's my notes on characters and plot points, mostly. I added a section called "World Timeline" with the intention of writing down the chronology of events before the "present" of the story.
I got nothin'.
I am sure I'm going to have to go back and wipe out at least a little of what I've already written and rewrite some more so that the timeline I finally decide on—the one that makes the most sense to support the current story—will be smooth and sensible.
At the end of last year I'd written about 14,000 words. I've added less than 5,000 words so far this year. Some of that is due to the week off for vacation, and the time spent shoveling snow, but a lot is simply the difficulty I've been having with the story. And this is only the first draft. (groan) This project will take longer than expected.
On the reading front, I'm still working on volume Seven of King's Dark Tower series. Since I only work four days a week, I only get two hours of reading time per week for this book, so it is taking a long time.
Meanwhile, the books at home are some of Piers Anthony's Xanth novels. These novels involve unlimited amounts and types of magic and an unlimited amount of puns. For example, a Nightmare is a black horse that brings bad dreams from the hypno-gourd, where the dreams are created. There is a drink called boot rear, because when you drink some you get the feeling of being booted in the butt. The world outside of Xanth (which is shaped like Florida, complete with the Kiss Me River and Ogre-Fen-Ogre swamp) is called Mundania.
So, the two types of fantasy fiction literature are about as far apart in tone and structure as is possible.
That may be one reason why I like fantasy. I haven't thought of that before right now. Romance literature, Westerns and Mysteries all have fairly restricted forms and plots. But fantasy and, to a slightly lesser extent science fiction, have limitless possibilities. I mentioned a couple of entries ago some of the fantasy series I'd recommend reading, and I'm sure there are many more. And if you read them you'll discover they are all very different in almost every category—plot, characters, tone, and the fantasy elements. Shucks, my two fantasy novels, though similar in style, employ a different tone, totally different attitudes and properties of magic, and even though the themes are similar, the plots are different.
Thank you for reading, and please continue to do so—whether my words or someone else's.

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Vacation and Murphy

2/14/2019

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Happy Valentine's Day. May all your hearts be welcomed.
I'll regale you with tales of the personal journey first. Journey is the word. My wife and I journeyed by airplane from Madison to southeastern Florida for a week-long stay that included a two-night cruise to the Bahamas.
We started out on Sunday, January 27. Frontier airlines had a pretty good price...but we had a two-hour delay of takeoff for maintenance.
Our trip was a promotional deal that included a rental car with unlimited miles and two days and two nights at a Ramada Inn in Orlando that included a 4-hour hard sell presentation to buy a time-share. We didn't, but the hard sell and the duration drove the boss back to smoking. I hope we can get her back to not doing that.
After those two days we drove south to West Palm Beach for the cruise. It would leave on the 29th, do a round trip to the Bahamas, and return on the 31st. Then we had that night plus the day-night of the 1st and fly back on the 2nd.
The best laid plans, etc.
We needed an original birth certificate or a passport for the cruise. Did you know that "an original birth certificate" is not really an original birth certificate? We do now. The birth certificate issued by the hospital in 1950 is not acceptable. It must be a state-issued certificate. Hospital-issued certificates are now considered to be good as souvenirs only.
I have no objection to this...but I'm pretty pissed that no one told us. In hindsight, we should have applied for passports. Then we would have found out the truth before it was too late and corrected the situation. But passports would have been $60 each, and we felt that we didn't need to spend money for that since a birth certificate was acceptable.
I was not allowed to board the ship.
Shucks and other, stronger exclamations.
So, the two nights and lots of meals we'd already paid for had to be paid for again for the time we weren't on the boat. We did go to the beach and take a leisurely drive back to Orlando. But those two nights and six meals mounted up, cost-wise.
And, no, we will not get any kind of refund. The cruise line's standing is that we didn't bring the proper documentation, so it was our fault.
But wait! Murphy's Law was not done with us yet. Our flight Saturday morning was leaving at 7 am. I wanted to be at the airport by 5:30, to return the car, go through security, and make the flight.
We didn't leave the hotel until 5:30. We checked in our bag, TSA hurried us through as much as possible and still do their jobs, and we arrived at the gate ten minutes too late. Nobody's fault but our own.
We were able to book the same flight with the same seats for the next day. Meanwhile, our checked bag made the plane.
So I got on the phone and found a hotel with shuttle service to the airport and not too expensive, made the reservation, and didn't have to wait too long for the shuttle. I will say that the Country Inn and Suites we stayed at that night was distinctly superior to the room we had at the Ramada. But that was another about $130 we had not planned on spending. The best thing about the trip was that we missed the week of the coldest temperatures and a fair amount of snow.
Our flight back to Madison was uneventful. Fog was very thick the entire two-plus hour drive back to PDC,
But there is something sort of spooky to include. We had to wait about an hour to get our bag that made the trip the day before, so when we finally got on our way we were pretty hungry. We hadn't eaten in about six hours. So we found a Perkins, had breakfast, and then the boss wanted to order two of their special offers—burger, fries, and piece of pie for ten bucks.
While I waited near the counter for the take-out, a guy about my age came in to pick up his phone order. He met an old friend and they spoke for just a minute. The arrival urged his buddy to google him and bragged that he was "the second-most googled Irv." As he left I asked him who was the first, but he didn't know he said he just knew he was the second.
I thought, the minute I heard him, that the most googled Irv was probably Irv Brown. Many (most?) of you won't recognize the name. Irv Brown was a very successful college baseball coach in Colorado, and a highly respected college basketball referee. But perhaps his bigger claim to fame was a sports talk radio show that he hosted for years in Denver on two or three different stations. That's how I knew who he was, and I even met him once when he was doing his show from The National Western Stock Show.
I've been in Wisconsin for over twenty years now, and haven't thought about Irv for many years. But I did that Sunday.
The spooky part? Monday morning, while reading the internet newspaper, I discovered that Irv Brown had died Sunday, another cancer victim. He was 83. If you want to know more about Irv, just google him.
Only one writing note this time. I have often mentioned, and recommended, the online magazine Page and Spine https://www.pagespineficshowcase.com. The chief editor and publisher of P&S is Nancy Wagner, an author and poetess extraordinaire herself. She now features her own web page, https://nkwagnerwriter.com/ The class and general impression of her web page match, in my opinion, the lady herself. And one really outstanding thing: her blog includes a link to my web page! Thank you, Nancy!
And that's it for this round. Keep telling yourself that winter can't last forever.
Stay well, and well-read.

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My Biggest Fantasy May Be Finishing My Fantasy Series

Personal Stuff Overwhelms Public Stuff

Writing A Blog Can be Tough...or at least Semi-Tough

"Believe half of what you see, Son, and none of what you hear."...Marvin Gaye

Success Stories

Wrestling with the fictional past.

Vacation and Murphy

Author

I'm a former teacher and current warehouse grunt that loves writing.

Archive

Categories

My Biggest Fantasy May Be Finishing My Fantasy Series

Personal Stuff Overwhelms Public Stuff

Writing A Blog Can be Tough...or at least Semi-Tough

"Believe half of what you see, Son, and none of what you hear."...Marvin Gaye

Success Stories

Wrestling with the fictional past.

Vacation and Murphy

AuthorI'm a former teacher and current warehouse grunt that loves writing.

Archive

Categories

Author

I'm a former teacher and current warehouse grunt that loves writing.