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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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November 11th, 2020

11/11/2020

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Well, darn it, I didn't get back to this before the election. I hope you all voted the intelligent choices. I saw a funny picture on Twitter. It was a photo of Trump and his daughter. The double- caption is: "Daddy, are we going to jail?" "No. You and your brothers are. I'm going to Russia." I suppose your judgment as to the humor in that might depend on your political preferences.
I just saw something regarding the President's desperate attempt to stay in office by challenging the legitimacy of the election. He's filing suits in several states, claiming ballot should not be counted, and Republican office holders are generally backing him. This gentleman from Harvard pointed out that many of those same ballots voted for Republican Senators or Congressmen. So if Trump somehow wins and gets those votes for Biden thrown out, then those votes for those Republicans will also be thrown out.
My three 400-word shorts to Fractured Lit got the thumbs down. Rats. If you read my FB page regularly, you know that my short story "The Weatherman" was accepted by Page and Spine Fiction Showcase. I was surprised; the story is about 1300 words longer than their normal limit, though on occasion they'll accept longer and split it into two parts. "The Weatherman" did not lend itself to that treatment. However, sadly, Saving Atlantis garnered another rejection. Darn.
I submitted a previously published very short story (506 words) to Sequestrum's reprint anthology. Sequestrum does that once a year or so. The entry fee is less than $7.00, which is pretty good.
I pay any writing contest fees through PayPal. I also get paid for any submissions the same way. And if you want, PayPal credit has certain advantages. The interest rate is high (at least for me—about 23%) but each purchase is interest-free for six months. And then if you carry a balance it tells you how much to pay to avoid the interest charge.
I finished the Black Veins horror anthology. I pulled out an Isaac Asimov anthology I hadn't read in decades--The Bicentennial Man and other stories, which features that short story and some others. If you haven't seen the movie, The Bicentennial Man, starring Robin Williams, I recommend it. The movie follows the story very well, and Williams does his usual very good job. I hadn't got to that story yet when we happened to go to LaCrosse and I stopped in the Goodwill Store. I bought another James Patterson book--Kill Alex Cross—and another Dean Koontz novel--Velocity. I'm reading those two before I get back to the Asimov anthology.
The Patterson novel, like the previous one, is a fast read. It's easy to see why he sells so many. A real fan reads one, and is ready for another after just a few days. If the reader is voracious and has plenty of time, a Patterson novel can be polished off in one day, a day and a half, maybe.
The Koontz novel has not yet earned my praises. It does have one really good feature: he gives his protagonist choices to make, the man makes the choice, and that leads him to being required to make another, tougher choice. And then another, still tougher choice. And I keep thinking that his first choice was wrong, his second choice might never have been been necessary if he'd chose better, and the last choice (so far) was easy, but he missed it. The protagonist, Billy, is not a particularly bright guy. He believes he analyzes his choices, but in fact he lets his emotions (and not even strong ones) make his decisions. So, yeah, the book is keeping me involved, but I don't like the story. And his writing is not quite as colorful as the other books of his I've read so far.
No writer hits a homer every time (unless he's writing about The Simpsons). Steven King has had a few that are generally regarded as inferior to other works of his. But again, this is very subjective. I found Dolores Claiborne and Dreamcatcher to be mediocre (for King) but they both became movies. On the other hand, many readers felt Rose Madder wasn't very good. King himself has said that with that one, he was "trying too hard." I thought it was pretty good. I stole one little feature from it and put into my horror story "Switch."
I think that's it for now. I'm hoping that I will soon be able  announce that Just Lucky, Book 1: Friends and Enemies has been successfully self-published and is available, at least for Kindle. I think the paperback version will go quicker once I have the process down better. Hope so! I could probably have it done by now but my writing drive is to continue with Lying Swords. I'm beginning to appreciate the advantage of writing a series. I had just wrapped up a long sub-story and was ready to get on to one of the other things going, and I got this idea for a nifty (like that word? First known use: 1865) continuation. If I was writing a novel I'd have to skip it, but now I have plenty of room for a little more controlled violence. I just haven't decided which one of two ways to introduce it. The joys of writing—of creating.
Everybody! Read! Read a dozen or so comic strips in the morning on line. Read the newspapers, or the sports pages, again, on line if a paper edition isn't available.
And maybe read the obituaries to make sure you're still alive. Here's a link to some hilarity involving death (I posted this on my FB page, too): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83yyMAdbrpE&fbclid=IwAR3W4Q1ktn1K3kAKXW1niughPDkmSLr9e6rVlJsqgVGEkuJul6LOxzTfmUc
And live the best you can, treat others like you'd want them to treat you, and pet a dog or a cat to make you both happy.
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Changes Now, and More Coming

10/5/2020

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I'm going to pick up right where I left off: politics. But I won't dwell on it much. I've been having some interesting (if that's the right word) discussions on Facebook. It's mostly just me vs three or four that feel the opposite. I'm not sure I should say which side I'm on, though if you know me you probably know where I stand. But I will offer this: The most profane, obscene, and moronic of my opposition really outdid himself the other day. I often cite the fact checking sites I mentioned last time, and usually those fact checkers show him to be in error. So he struck back by announcing that he didn't need to check the facts. He knew the truth!
No good news on the writing front. I had three more rejections: "No Means No" from Madville Publishing and "The Weatherman" by Craft Elements Publishing for their anthology theme on conflict and also Sequestrum. Shucks.
I suppose the big news, both personal and on writing, is that I went to working just part-time. If work was just forty hours a week, I'd have stayed full time. But we were working fifty hours every week, and sixty hours was on the horizon. I'm getting too old for that sh—that stuff. So I will have more time to devote to writing, both on Lying Swords and the self-publishing of Just Lucky. The income reduction will not be welcome, but it may benefit us at tax time.
On the reading front, I’m still working on Black Veins, but I've only got one or two stories to go. As I wrote before, I'm not a big fan of horror fiction. Salem's Lot by King was the first real horror novel I ever read...and...not scary. No nightmares or any kind of psychic holdover. Most of the time, horror is a sub-genre of fantasy and I prefer different brands of fantasy.
If you like a good fantasy series, I'd recommend David Eddings' The Belgariad series. I've blatantly stolen an idea from that series, rebranded it slightly, and I'm using it in Lying Swords. In Eddings' work, it's called "the will and the word." I call my version something else, and it's not nearly as powerful, but the principle is close to the same.
Before I forget, I've posted an excerpt from Just Lucky, Book 1: Friends and Enemies on my Facebook author's page (F.G.Waiss, Author).
Besides The Belgariad (a five-book series), Eddings wrote other fantasy series: The Malloreon (another five-book effort), and then three more series.
Some other fantasy series include the Shanara series of series. It started with The Sword of Shannara and is followed by two more. Then, later, author Terry Brooks (On a personal and professional note, I knew a young lady named Terry Brooks in college, though it's likely she spelled her first name differently. She was a freshman when I was a senior in the same campus area. About two years later when I went back to college for graduate work, she happened to be living in the same apartment building. It's very possible that Teyla in Witchery looks like her. Very possible.) added another few Shannara series of books.
Another fantasy series perhaps less well-known is The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series by Stephen R. Donaldson. I've read the first trilogy, but not the following seven books. It's a different kind of fantasy series. The hero, Thomas Covenant, suffers from leprosy.
I'm having an unexpected delay writing this blog. We have a puppy. He's a little over three months old (we've had him for two) and he's a little bigger than a full-grown beagle. He likes to come into the office and put his front legs on my arm or the desk and look (and sniff) at what's going on. As my wife's support dog (and, hopefully, service dog eventually) we took him with us on the week we spent in Rochester where the boss had a five-day course of physical and occupational therapy. The treatment worked. We put the pup on the leash and kept it short and he trotted right along the right side of the wheelchair while I pushed. Then during her sessions he'd lie down and play with his chew toy or go to sleep.
He's a very pretty dog and very fluffy and of course being a puppy he loves everybody. We had many people—mostly women patients—that wanted to pet him and take his picture and thanked us for bringing him. Mostly ladies that missed their own dog. My worry was how would he deal with living in a motel room? He's completely housebroken here, but he has a doggy door, so he doesn't need to alert us when he needs to go outside.
He was great. He let us know every time...even when it was four in the morning, and held it until we got him outside. His only serious flaw, being a large puppy with a mouthful of needles, is that he regards the whole world as his chew toy and the hands that feed him are not exempt. Once he gets past that stage, he should be a real good big dog.
And that's all for this time.
As usual, I urge you all to read, either my books or someone else's.
And, in case I don't get to another of these before 11/3, please vote.
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So Much to Do, So Little Time

9/5/2020

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I hate working fifty hour weeks. And the weeks I didn't work fifty hours, it was because I took time off to take the boss to the doctor. The week of vacation was good—I needed the rest—but also frustrating. I began the process of self-publishing Just Lucky, Book 1 for KDP—Kindle Digital Publishing on Amazon.
I've been running Windows 7 for years. Windows 7 isn't okay for self-publishing. I had to upgrade to Windows 10. I don't like it. But I got most of the way done, saved as a draft, and I wanted to take another look at the manuscript I submitted to Gnome on Pig for the digital version. I have it in my email folders. Unfortunately, when I set up my email after the upgrade, it's a different set-up. And all my email folders, over a hundred of them (I just counted—I didn't think I had near that many.)disappeared. I knew they were in there somewhere, but where?
I called Microsoft and after talking to two tech helpers and getting passed from one to the other, the third guy found them for me. Windows live Mail. Then he gave me the bad news. Windows Live Mail eventually dies. So I'm using the new set-up, but I need to use time to figure out how to move some of those folder entries to my other email. Apparently the only way to do that will be to forward each entry to myself. Which means literally hours of examining and deciding. Don't have that much time. So I'm starting new folders to keep what I need that's new and hoping the old folders will stay where they are, and be accessible even if incoming and outgoing mail stop working.
In the last month my submission "Weatherman" was declined by Craft. Shucks. I've submitted Saving Atlantis to The Story Plant publishing house. Also, Fractured Lit has a contest for short stories of 400 words or less. The fee is $20 and covers the submission of up to three stories. I submitted three: "The Best Laid Plans"(a recent historical fiction that is 97% dialog), "Disguise"(a rural legend/fantasy), and "Grandma"(a humor piece originally part of the Just Lucky books, but cut before submission for publication). None of these stories were 400 words when I selected them. The closest was "The Best Laid Plans," which was 600+. "Grandma" was over 1,000 words.
All three took multiple cuts to get under the 400-word limit. That's the way to do it if you're trying to cut a longer work to a specific length. The first cuts should be obvious. The second will be tougher. Sometimes you'll have to reword a sentence or several sentences. For example, that previous sentence could read "Sentences may have to be re-worded." That cut four words. From there you might go to "Re-word sentences." Four more cut, so a ten-word sentence has been cut to two, and those two words might be incorporated into another sentence that can lose a few words. It's a process, not a once-through.
On the reading front, after I finished King's On Writing I read James Patterson's I, Alex Cross. I recommend it. There are a few more books about Alex Cross and I'll get one if I happen on the opportunity. It is a quick read, an a good one. He does one thing a little unusual—something most writing texts will advise against, especially for beginning writers. Most of the book is in first person, but there are multiple chapters in third person. He tells us what's happening that's out of sight of Alex Cross, at the same time giving us Cross's reactions and thoughts. He's elected to have a personal crisis going on for Cross at the same time and that part is clearly more effective told in first person.
I'm currently reading an anthology of horror stories, Black Veins, by The Great Void publishing. Although I've read horror stories before, I'm not a big fan. I'm a fan of Stephen King, but not necessarily horror in general. I'm reading this anthology because my horror story, "Switch" is in it.
It's my one and only horror story, but this is the second time it's been published. The first time was in the anthology Dark Light 3, which has been available on Amazon for a few years. This anthology looks to have a slightly higher production value. There are twenty-one total stories. Won't say mine's the best...but I won't say it isn't, either. Those of you who like this genre should buy it and decide for yourself. I haven't finished it yet, I'm only about half-way through, so there might be some real shockers in there.

One last thing: The election is approaching. I urge you all, for the good of the future of America, do not take for granted what one side says about the other. Don't believe what Biden or the Dems say about Trump, see what Trump says and what his family and friends say about Trump. And for God's sake, don't believe what Trump and the Republicans say about Biden. See what Biden and his family and friends say about Biden. Look at their actual records. Try to employ logic and critical thinking. Read the online information from Politifact, FactCheck, Snopes, or a few others. Those three are the top and most respected. Politifact has won a  Pulitzer Prize for reporting. Here's the link to a website that gives links to fact checking websites: https://beebom.com/best-fact-checking-websites/
Please vote with your brain and your conscience for the long-term good of the country rather than for the short-term result that will feel good for you.
Thank you, and keep reading.
 
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