Blogging about Writing---mine and others'

Better Late Than Never

4/15/2021

It seems every posting I must apologize for being so long between posts. But this time I have an excuse that might be at least semi-valid.
My computer suddenly developed an upset. I took it to the computer doctor, who was busy with seven or so folks ahead of me. Eventually they got back to me to confirm the death. I’d had to upgrade the thing to Windows 10 for self-publishing, but the hardware wasn’t built to sustain that. So, new computer, and then transfer data from new to old.
Then I discovered another problem. The new one had Libre Office installed. It may be a fine system for doing fancy stuff and stunning business presentations, but it’s not designed for writing fiction for publication. There was no way to turn off “smart quotes”. Yeah, what you see right there. The quotes slant in toward the text, and the apostrophe a few lines above slants. When I started submitting to publishers a few years ago (okay, nine years ago) a few said in their guidelines they didn’t want smart quotes.
There was also no way I could find to have an automatic indent for each new paragraph.
As you can see, the second problem is fixed. But the first is not. I have it set to not substitute smart quotes for regular quotes, yet, obviously it’s doing it. I’ll have to investigate this problem. Or, perhaps the disapproval of smart quotes is no longer “a thing” in the publishing biz.
But those things are why I haven’t posted as soon as I would have liked. There are other delays, too, involved with the new computer.
Have you noticed the number of music hits from the 60’s and early 70’s being used in television commercials? There’s been a bunch over the last two years or more. Right now “Build Me Up, Buttercup” is a favorite of Geico. I read an internet conversation with one person saying he hated his treasured music being used for commercials—thought it cheapened the music.
I disagree. I like it—I get a kick out of every time I can identify the music in a commercial. It doesn’t cheapen the music, it elevates the commercial.
I get the same feeling when, watching something new99movie or tv show—I see an actor that I recognize from a different show. Sometimes I’ll be compelled to go to the trusted internet—usually the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB)—to either confirm my belief or to help me find the connection.
On the reading front, I finished The Testament, then read Patterson’s Cross and now reading his Double Cross. Alex Cross sure gets more than his share of psycho murderers in Washington D.C. And he has to deal with idiots, power-hungry officials, crooks, and that’s not even including politicians.
I was just now watching The Adjustment Bureau starring Matt Damon. I’ll admit to being a Damon fan. He manages to combine earnest sincerity with a good-natured mocking humor. One movie he did which I’d never heard of is The Great Wall. It’s different from anything else he’s done. It has monsters and a primarily oriental cast. It is entertaining, with special effects, and a few spots of dry humor.
After this long lapse and I have no more to write. I could mutter imprecations about the wind, but I suppose you all have your own mutterings. Reading not only makes you more knowledgeable, it actually makes you smarter, as long as you read something that challenges you a little.
Thanks for reading.

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Accidents Do Happen

3/7/2021

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I've been clumsy all my life. Not pathologically clumsy, just a bit above normal clumsy, and it seems to run in streaks.
Ten days ago I climbed out of our Ford Taurus, which has always been a chore anyway, because it's so low, and tripped over my own feet. I fell pretty hard on the outside of my left leg. The following day, Friday, at the urging of the boss (home boss, not work boss), I saw the doctor. X-rays showed no fracture. He said, ice, heat, Tylenol, and walk on it to prevent blood clots.
I worked Sunday and it hurt, but tolerable. Monday it felt pretty good; Tuesday and Wednesday was painful, but not too much.
So I decided I'd do my usual Thursday treadmill walk, but slower and shorter than usual.
Mistake.
So now it's very painful, and not just at the injury. Most of the pain is lower, around the ankle, but in the front. The fluid drains down the leg and pushes against the bone and soft tissues. So I saw the doctor again and confessed my bad judgment. No blood clots, continue ice and heat, don't do that again—for at least a week. Judging how it's going, I'm thinking two. At my advanced years, it'll probably take much too long to get back to normal, if ever.
On the reading front, I just finished Dickson's Wolf and Iron.
He tells a good story, with a style I see as similar to mine. Very little in the way of picturesque similes and metaphors—less than I use, in fact.
The story is only technically speculative fiction. The protagonist, JeeBee (his initials are J. B.) was a statistics and social dynamics researcher who predicted the direction of the social and technological breakdown of the world and specifically the United States, and the way to recovery. He was working with a group in a small town in Illinois. The way the U.S. has gone, small villages and small areas of big cities became very anti-outsider...and JeeBee was an outsider. He barely got out alive.
Gasoline has been unavailable nation-wide for a long time, so most travel is by foot or horseback. JeeBee is on his way to Montana, where his very much older brother has a ranch. On the way he hitches up with a family of three—father, daughter, and family friend, that are honest and generous. Eventually they split. His destination is north, while theirs is south.
A very large portion of the story is akin to Jeremiah Johnson, or Man in the Wilderness. It's about JeeBee's life in the wilderness and what and how he survived and even thrived. Because of raided and burned out ranches and ranch buildings, destroyed and families killed by gangs of raiders, JeeBee is able to scavenge everything from angle irons and an anvil to dishes and a baby crib.
I've now started James Patterson's The Testament. Interesting beginning...
On the writing front, I've had two different ideas for short fantasy stories. I've started one and just played around mentally with the other.
On the Lying Swords front, as the story evolved, there's no reason to describe the action of that battle. The results speak clearly of the actions. I'm using post-battle conversation to "set the table" for a character and character interaction that will happen in the second volume. Since this entire series is primarily character-driven, spending words and time on the characters is always worth the effort. Even relatively minor characters warrant some expansion...especially now, early in the story so they will be more solid and relatable later on. Here's a brief example of how a minor (so far) character gets a personality:
"Fern?"
"On her bed. Wounded."
Mari handed her reins to Burl and hurried into the house.
And a bit later:
"Her wound is serious, but not fatal. I was able to remove this from her lung and repair most of the damage. Her body will have to repair the rest. It will be a long road."
"Was she able to say anything?"
Mari surrendered a small quirky smile. "Yes, Orris. Typical Fern. She apologized for getting shot, and for the trouble she was putting me to."
The three students, and even Shoji, gave up quick smiles of appreciation. That was their Fern, all right.
Coming up in a page or two will be another look into Fern's personality. There's a harder side to her.
I keep telling myself—and you—that I'll get these done more often. Then work and life and the other writing get in the way and I don't.
Is it the thought that counts? Or only deeds that matter?
I'll leave that question to you to ponder until next time.
Thank you for reading. Please stay safe and remember: reading is one of the safest things you can do...as long as you're not reading text and driving at the same time.

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Snow Days

2/4/2021

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Over the last three weeks or so the most of time I would ordinarily spend writing I am spending shoveling snow. L As I write this, it's snowing like a movie made in Alaska. The snow is coming down steadily, the wind is blowing, it's twenty-seven degrees outside, and just a few minutes ago our dog, Rusty, was outside rolling in the snow, running around, having a great time. He's a very thick-haired dog. He sheds all the time and often naps outside because it's cooler.
Many dogs shake a lot. Especially when they're wet they'll shake themselves to get the snow or water off. Not Rusty. He will shake himself now and then, but he doesn't seem to mind having snow and ice on his back. I think his hair is so thick that he doesn't even know when he's wet.
He also makes it clear when he wants attention. He's not especially long-legged, but he is long-bodied. So often I'm sitting at my desk writing and he'll come to either side and hoist his front legs onto my back or shoulder and push his forward like he's trying to read over my shoulder. Then he'll put his face into my face and say, with his eyes and posture, "Here I am. Give me attention, and I mean now."
Despite the snow, I am getting some writing done. In my last post I mentioned that I wasn't sure how I was going to handle the upcoming battle scene. I'm taking a different direction with this particular event. I have now described how it ended. After the immediate aftermath is dealt with, I will then describe the action. Bad guys died. It was inevitable. The training and preparedness of the good guys was much superior, and they were on their home turf.
I've written about 63,000 words so far, and the majority of those words are devoted to sub-stories I'd never even conceived when I got the idea for this series. And, some of the key things I did imagine haven't even had a chance to happen yet. These surprises and wanderings from the plotted path are some of the delights that writing provides. Sometimes I don't know what's going to happen until I get there—like the scene of struggle I mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Just a brief mention of politics: something I find both humorous and head-shaking ridiculous. Some high-ranked Republicans are belly-aching about how "big tech" has silenced them and they can't speak to the public anymore. They're making these complaints on national television shows!
The reading continues. I just today finished The Ocean of Night by Greg Benford. It was kinda good, but not great. It was written in 1972 and has some interesting views of space exploration in the future, but a grim view of the environment. It shows people getting sick and dying simply from living in the polluted atmosphere of Earth in 1997. On the other hand, he has our space program advanced enough to send a lone astronaut out to rendezvous with the asteroid Icarus (minor planet 1566—a real thing. Discovered 1949) after that rock suddenly shows signs of being different than what had been thought. From there we go back to Earth and the beginnings of a new religion, more exploration, an ancient alien artifact on the moon—a complicated and very large computerized artifact. And he finishes with Bigfoot—a whole tribe of them.
Here and there in the novel, but primarily at the end, in the Epilogue, he presents a style I found novel (pun intended) but a bit annoying. He would right several sentences of a paragraph, stop in mid-sentence, present a short bit of another part of the current story, then

I'm not sure what he had in mind, exactly, beyond perhaps experimentation. I think he was trying to show two things happening at once.

he'd pick up right in the middle of the sentence he'd interrupted.

Yes, just like that, but it was all much longer, both the interrupted paragraph and the inserted one. As I said, I found it annoying.

I'll be contributing those books to the PDC public library sometime this or next week.
Next up is Gordon R. Dickson's Wolf and Iron. Judging from the flap teaser this is a post apocalypse semi-fantasy story. It's a BIG book. Looks like it'll keep me busy for a while.
I have a confession: I enjoy reading slightly (very slightly) more than I enjoy writing. But writing gives me a feeling of accomplishment and discovery that reading does not quite manage.
I'll watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, but I'll be at this computer, writing, paying bills, reading emails, and maybe fixing and eating supper.
Please read, and don't believe anything you read just because someone put it in print. What you really need to watch out for is fiction or opinion labelled as fact. I write fiction labelled as fiction, and sometimes opinion labelled as opinion or fact labelled as fact. At least, I try.
I try to be honest. Many don't.
Good luck, and good month.

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Not Business As Usual

1/8/2021

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Dang! Didn't realize it's been that long since my last post. My apologies.
The writing is not going well right now. I've reached a literary fork in the road. The story has two lines of action and I haven't been sure for a couple of weeks which line to pursue first. Now I've decided which one to follow, but I'm not sure exactly how to handle the scene. Do young people die? If so, good guys, bad guys or both? If no one dies (my preference), how is that avoided given the set up?
Ah, some of you (one of you? Maybe a little kid in the back?) ask, why wouldn't you just write your preference?
As I write, I establish characters, settings, and situations. This fantasy series is primarily character driven rather than plot driven, so I must be true to the characters as I've established them. Now, the scene in question involves minor characters only, so snuffing one or more will not seriously impact the story as a whole. But what happens in this scene will help define those characters and will show up much later, in the final plot resolution. So...can the bad guys escape without deaths? Can the good guys? And can the bad guys (who outnumbered the good guys about three-to-one) win the battle? If they do, will their subsequent plans also bear fruit? Hopefully I'll get back to this situation very soon.
I picked up three new used books at Good Will in Rochester. This was tougher because unlike the Good Will store in La Crosse, they do not organize their fiction alphabetically by author.
The three books I chose were because the authors are known to me both as someone I've read before and because they are highly respected in the world of science fiction.
I just finished the first: A World Out of Time by Larry Niven. Niven is famous for his novel Ringworld. It's considered a science fiction classic. I've read it, but beside the wonderful concept of Ringworld, I had trouble following the details. So, no surprise that I had the same problem with this novel. He moves the characters around in his invented machines, but doesn't really explain it in such a way that the reader (or at least, this reader)can easily follow it. And the women that are important in the narrator's life have the same first initial and an unusual name. One even has a name that is long, hyphenated, and difficult to pronounce. This makes it hard on the reader. He could have easily chosen a name equally unusual, but shorter and less difficult. Also, having two characters with similar names is considered a no-no in fiction writing. In my two Just Lucky books, but especially the second one, I had a character named Jean and as first written one named Jennifer. Those two appeared together in more than one scene. Confusing. I changed "Jennifer" to "Melinda" to avoid that problem. I feel Niven should have done the same.
I've now started In the Ocean of Night by Gregory Benford. My familiarity with Benford is through excerpts from his Man-Kzin Wars books. I'm only a little way into this one, but I already find it more comfortable than Niven's work—following along is not the work it was with Niven.
Now, an opinion piece:
I must address the abomination of January 6, 2021. American terrorists were encouraged by Donald Trump to march to the Capitol Building, saying "we" not "you" would walk down to the Capitol. But he didn't, he returned to the White House. Before the crowd left to do just what Trump suggested, Rudy Giuliani told them, "Let's have trial by combat." Their purpose was to interrupt or even negate, or change, the Constitutionally required certification of the Electoral College ballots for the election of President.
I suppose those of you reading this know as much as I, or more, about what happened. Thugs, urged on by the current President of the United States, and his pet pooch Giuliani, stormed the Capitol, climbed the walls, broke windows, invaded the building, the rooms of debate, even the private offices of elected officials. One of them is photographed with a Confederate Flag!
If these (expletives deleted) had been citizens of another country, it might have been considered an act of war.
I posted on Face Book that they should all be arrested, and shot in the kneecap in the process. One woman was killed. Background on her shows she was not only a Trump supporter, but a follower of QAnon. Now we know that one of the policemen trying to do his job, trying to protect our seat of government, was beaten to death.
I am incensed. These people turned our country, temporarily, into one of those countries that have revolutions and violence in their capitols to decide who will rule.
In my opinion, Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani, and possibly Donald Trump, Jr., since he spoke to the crowd as well, should be charged with premeditated homicide. They incited a riot and violence that resulted in the deaths of two people. The Trump cult has finally acted on Trump's suggestion that if the election was "stolen" from him, there would be a civil war.
This is the darkest day in American history, domestically, perhaps ever, since the burning of the Capitol in 1814 was an act of war by the British.
However, the Constitution and American Democracy did finally win the day (or the night) and the clear choice of the American voters was upheld.
On the web site gocomics, which I read every morning, along with the regular comic strips are plenty of editorial cartoons too. By both liberal, conservative, and it would seem neutral artists and some of them had "commentary" about the abomination. One, by a conservative columnist, had a picture of a one dollar bill with Washington, shedding a tear.
Since 1814 we have had wars, terrorist attacks by foreign religious zealots, bombings by domestic terrorists, bombings and shootings by enemies foreign and domestic. This is the first time our nation's Capitol building was attacked—violated. And it was done in the name of and by the encouragement of a sitting President.
Like December 7th, 1941, this is a day that will live in infamy, and the sitting President, and his minions and his children that had a part in this will, I sincerely hope, be recorded in history with the same view as the Japanese that bombed Pearl Harbor or the Al Qada terrorists that took down the twin towers. Long prison terms for all of them will be, barely, sufficient justice for what they have done to our country.
I suppose none will face a firing squad. A pity...
As usual, all commentary, pro or con, is welcomed. The comments may be repeated or hi-lighted here, but the commentators' names will remain unrevealed unless they specifically request public recognition.
Also as usual, please read. Before you believe anything you see or hear on the internet, television, email, twitter, or any other media site, check, double check, and maybe triple check the facts. If straight fact-checking sites do not offer information, if you read Fox News, also read CNN. If you get info from the Washington Post, also get it from the Washington Times or the New York Post. If you read it from The Federalist, also read Huff Post. Then make up your own mind.
Lastly, many from one of the political sides boasts their "Christianity." Christ gave us two Commandments: Love God, and love your fellow man like you love yourself. Please examine the words and deeds of these "Christians" in the light of those two commandments, especially the second one, and decide for yourself how Christian they really are.
Thank you very much for your attention. We can all hope that 2021 is better than 2020. Shouldn't be difficult...

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Three Score and Ten

11/25/2020

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Simon and Garfunkel have a song titled "Old Friends" on their Bookends album. One line near the end is "How terribly strange to be seventy." For someone under forty, yes, it would seem strange to be that age. But when you come to it a minute at a time over all those years, it doesn't seem so strange. It seems inevitable. What is also inevitable is the loss of what you can do, at least physically. I find it very frustrating now of all the things I used to take for granted that now take effort, or that I can no longer do at all.
Of course, some of that is not so much age as it is wear and tear. As Indiana Jones said, "It's not the years; it's the mileage. Over use, misuse, and abuse. I should spend a couple of hours every day on physical therapy, but I don't have that much time, so I don't.
Here's my theory on how long a person lives: Neil Armstrong was right, but he was wrong. The first man on the moon was different from his peers in at least one respect. Most if not all of them were dedicated exercisers. He was not. His philosophy was that a person's heart has only so many beats, and he didn't want to waste any of them.
He was wrong because regular exercise, especially aerobic exercise, saves heartbeats. An example: Ignoring the time it takes to gain necessary fitness, thirty minutes a day, five days a week, achieving a heart rate of 160 beats per minute while the resting heart rate is seventy. That seems to "waste" 2700 heart beats five days a week—13,500 beats every week.
However, with that regular exercise, the resting heart rate will drop to sixty beats per minute (or less, or not quite that low, depending on age and physical condition) which will save ten beats per minute for the other twenty-three hours and thirty minutes every day, which equals 1410 minutes, which saves 14,100 beats every day. So, that regular exercise saves more beats per day than the extra beats used in a week. Let's go a step farther. That comes out to 5,146,500 heart beats every year. 36,792,000 heart beats per year at 70 beats per minute. 31,536,000 heart beats per year at 60 beats per minute, plus the 702,000 used for the exercise equals 32,238,000 per year. So that simple exercise can save you over 4 million 500 thousand beats every year.`
Yeah, I know the two savings numbers don't quite match. I figured from two different approaches. One reason is that in one of those examples I figured the exercise rates for seven days a week instead of five.
Obviously this does not take into account heart rates raised through work or additional aerobic exercise. But it's easy to see how steady aerobic exercise can help a person live longer.
One of the disadvantages of "the mileage" is that I can't do that anymore. My toes and my left hip flexors are too painful. Still, I do get in a two-mile walk on a treadmill at an average of 4.2 mph. Average walking speed for an adult human is between three and four mph. (Average walking speed for a horse is the same.) One reason to use a treadmill is that I can make sure I keep up the speed. If I just walk outside I tend to gradually and unintentionally slow down. Unfortunately, it's only once a week. I have three days a week I don't work, but I spend the other two on anaerobic exercise—weight-lifting, a plank, sit-ups, etc. Including warm-up, warm-down and stretching, I devote about an hour a day at that. These exercises, too, have become limited due to "the mileage."
Okay, wandered off on a tangent there. To continue my original point, I believe Armstrong was correct—each person's heart has only so many beats in it and a person can do nothing to increase that number. This is based mostly on anecdotal evidence. But it seems likely that genetics determines how many heart beats we have available. They can, however, maximize the number of days and years that predetermined number lasts, as the example above demonstrates.
On the other end, it is far too easy to reduce the number of heartbeats a heart manages. Smoking, alcoholism, high blood pressure, obesity, all can significantly reduce the heart's potential. There are also diseases like diabetes that can reduce the heart's life time. Diabetes, cancer and some other diseases are also linked to genetic affinity.
And still other things that reduce the heart's ability to perform to its ultimate potential: poison, Covid-19, and other diseases brought on by environmental factors. Trauma, too, can have an adverse effect. Being hit by a truck will definitely interfere with heart function.
This was certainly a different kind of blog than usual, but I felt like writing about some of the things on my mind as I finish my seventieth year.
Happy Givethanksing. If you happen to have The Decades Channel somewhere in your cable or satellite menu, Thanksgiving day will feature the Dan Martin Roasts. Some of those are really funny.
And don't forget to read!
Thanks for dropping by.

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Better Late Than Never

Accidents Do Happen

Snow Days

Not Business As Usual

Three Score and Ten

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

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Better Late Than Never

Accidents Do Happen

Snow Days

Not Business As Usual

Three Score and Ten

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.