Got enough toilet paper? Enough cleaning product and alcohol wipes? Enough ammo? Yep, ammo. Ammunition is selling like people are expecting to repel rioters and looters. And maybe they are. Or else they want to protect their hoard of t.p.
Speaking of hoarding t.p., here's an editorial cartoon that might provide a chuckle: https://www.gocomics.com/chipbok/2020/03/20
I have a real hope—though not an expectation—that the precautions most of the country is taking, along with the research on either a vaccine or a cure—will actually get this damn virus pretty much non-disruptive by the end of May. Please, all of you stay safe, stay healthy, follow the guidelines, and be kind to each other.
On the writing front, I've finished the new ending of Saving Atlantis. I'm going against accepted form just a little; I have two epilogs. We'll see if that proves acceptable.
I'm now going over it one final time, reading it and applying a few tweaks. Perhaps I'll add or subtract a word here or a whole sentence there, but that's about it. Then I'll begin submitting.
On the reading front, I finished From the Corner of His Eye. I still think he over-wrote, but I must give him credit—he can really build tension. And after he brought everyone together, I would have to say that most of the characters were necessary, though if three or four had never been included and the story written accordingly it would not have been a weaker story. And a few deaths of good innocent people might have been avoided. And the final disposal of the bad guy was a surprise and while not anti-climactic it did seem to be over too quickly, but that's just my subjective view.
The story has a major theme, which is that every action or even every decision a person makes can have effects on people and places they never imagined. Everything is connected.
But he brings in a second minor theme: quantum mechanics. This involves some of the gifts the children in the story have, but it's obvious he was influenced by the research while writing this. Quantum mechanics tells us, among other things, that effect might happen before cause, or there may not be a cause, and that on the sub-atomic level two separate things, miles apart, can actually be two parts of the same thing and what happens to one happens to both simultaneously.
Sorry, I read the article years ago and only read it once, so I don't recall it all as accurately as I'd like.
As part of this speculation, he spends a little time on the theory that every major decision a person makes creates a different world, where, from that point on they made the opposite decision. As you can see, this provides for a real infinity of worlds, yet most (all?) of us are in just the one, and cannot access any of the billions or trillions of others.
Maybe that accounts for all the "empty" space in the universe. It isn't really empty, it's needed to accommodate all the other realities. That's my own spur-of-the-moment idea, by the way.
I did donate the book to the library. The public library is closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 concerns, but I dropped the book in the book return slot.
I've now started on another Koontz book, Odd Thomas. I'll keep you posted. This one is much shorter.
I haven't mentioned these in a while, so I think I should again. Three sources of free reading are Page and Spine, Daily Science Fiction, and Trouble Among the Stars. P&S publishes a new issue every Friday, with short stories, poetry, essays on writing, and a running serial titled Coffee House Chatter. Plus, their archives hold most of the writing I've published with them.
Daily Science Fiction can be sent to your email M-F, free. The stories are as often fantasy as science fiction, but they're usually pretty good. Unfortunately they've declined the four or five submissions I've sent them. But I'll keep trying.
Trouble Among the Stars, sadly, is closing after six issues. The deadline for submissions for the final issue is April 6, 2020. My story, "Guidelines," appears in Issue #2.
And that is it for this post. Thank you again for reading, and please continue to read whatever you can. And stay well.
Speaking of hoarding t.p., here's an editorial cartoon that might provide a chuckle: https://www.gocomics.com/chipbok/2020/03/20
I have a real hope—though not an expectation—that the precautions most of the country is taking, along with the research on either a vaccine or a cure—will actually get this damn virus pretty much non-disruptive by the end of May. Please, all of you stay safe, stay healthy, follow the guidelines, and be kind to each other.
On the writing front, I've finished the new ending of Saving Atlantis. I'm going against accepted form just a little; I have two epilogs. We'll see if that proves acceptable.
I'm now going over it one final time, reading it and applying a few tweaks. Perhaps I'll add or subtract a word here or a whole sentence there, but that's about it. Then I'll begin submitting.
On the reading front, I finished From the Corner of His Eye. I still think he over-wrote, but I must give him credit—he can really build tension. And after he brought everyone together, I would have to say that most of the characters were necessary, though if three or four had never been included and the story written accordingly it would not have been a weaker story. And a few deaths of good innocent people might have been avoided. And the final disposal of the bad guy was a surprise and while not anti-climactic it did seem to be over too quickly, but that's just my subjective view.
The story has a major theme, which is that every action or even every decision a person makes can have effects on people and places they never imagined. Everything is connected.
But he brings in a second minor theme: quantum mechanics. This involves some of the gifts the children in the story have, but it's obvious he was influenced by the research while writing this. Quantum mechanics tells us, among other things, that effect might happen before cause, or there may not be a cause, and that on the sub-atomic level two separate things, miles apart, can actually be two parts of the same thing and what happens to one happens to both simultaneously.
Sorry, I read the article years ago and only read it once, so I don't recall it all as accurately as I'd like.
As part of this speculation, he spends a little time on the theory that every major decision a person makes creates a different world, where, from that point on they made the opposite decision. As you can see, this provides for a real infinity of worlds, yet most (all?) of us are in just the one, and cannot access any of the billions or trillions of others.
Maybe that accounts for all the "empty" space in the universe. It isn't really empty, it's needed to accommodate all the other realities. That's my own spur-of-the-moment idea, by the way.
I did donate the book to the library. The public library is closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 concerns, but I dropped the book in the book return slot.
I've now started on another Koontz book, Odd Thomas. I'll keep you posted. This one is much shorter.
I haven't mentioned these in a while, so I think I should again. Three sources of free reading are Page and Spine, Daily Science Fiction, and Trouble Among the Stars. P&S publishes a new issue every Friday, with short stories, poetry, essays on writing, and a running serial titled Coffee House Chatter. Plus, their archives hold most of the writing I've published with them.
Daily Science Fiction can be sent to your email M-F, free. The stories are as often fantasy as science fiction, but they're usually pretty good. Unfortunately they've declined the four or five submissions I've sent them. But I'll keep trying.
Trouble Among the Stars, sadly, is closing after six issues. The deadline for submissions for the final issue is April 6, 2020. My story, "Guidelines," appears in Issue #2.
And that is it for this post. Thank you again for reading, and please continue to read whatever you can. And stay well.
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