Blogging about Writing---mine and others'

Happy National Nude Day!

7/14/2024

July 14 is National Nude Day. Technically, this is more for Naturists—nudists that prefer nudity for non-sexual reasons. But celebrate if you can, and choose to. Despite the post title, I’m not writing anything about nudity.
I’m sorry I have ignored this for two months. I’m still struggling to write anything, and part of the reason is my typing continues to be really bad. It’s hard to get into the process when almost every line needs to be reread and corrected. For example, the previous sentence had three typos I had to correct.
But I am doing some. I’m slowly making progress on Lying Swords, Book 2. I’ve also been doing some editing on old stories that hadn’t sold and submitting them to new markets. One of those stories is “A Veterinarian Visits the Gods.”
At the end of May I attended a writers’ conference called Narrativity in Pontiac, Minnesota. It was great! Almost four days of hearing about and talking about writing, especially writing science fiction and fantasy. Nice people, too. I think I was the oldest, but there might have been one or two senior. Two or three looked older anyway.
The first day of the event was a writers’ workshop. Those of us who took part submitted the first ten pages of a finished manuscript or work-in-progress (WIP) for critiquing. We submitted one copy to the leader of the workshop, plus one each to two other members, and received those two members’ submissions to critique.
I submitted that story mentioned above and received some very useful suggestions and criticisms. It was great. I like to think I also offered some helpful commentary in return. Everybody had to submit their project by May 3 so the critiques could all be done by May 30.
After I got home I took out the three different critiques and applied what I felt applicable to the story. A lot of that was additional info, so the story went from about 4880 words to about 5190. Then I had a chance to submit that story, but it had a max of 5,000 words, so I had to cut about 200. Done and submitted. It could be up to two more months before I get a response.
Hey, I did get a sale! $5 is better than nothing, but the real good thing is getting published. Stupefying Stories wanted flash fiction—stories under 1,000 words. The title is “Then Beggars Would Ride.” This is the second half of an old saying, “If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride.” The story is about wishing and riding, and it can be seen here: “Then Beggars Would Ride” • by Fred Waiss ~ Stupefying Stories Magazine. Please read!
I’m still reading regularly. At Narrativity some of the authors brought books, theirs or just books, to be available to everybody, so I grabbed something titled Sit, Stay, Kill by Kate Dane, one of the attendees that might be senior to me. It’s a paranormal romance—romance with werewolves. Not my preferred reading material, but not too bad. If anyone wants it, let me know and I’ll get it to you.
I read a couple more Dean Koonz novels and now I’ve started Dave & Leigh Eddings’ The Dreamers series. After I got only a few pages into book one, I realized I’ve read it before. But it’s been a long time ago so that even though I recognize what I’m reading, I have no idea what’s coming.
I’m not optimistic about Prophecy of Honor being published by Water Dragon Press. I’ve sent three letters asking about progress, and had no replies. I’m going to try again tomorrow and see what happens. I’ll keep you posted.
Harking back to the last post, SWAK means Sealed With A Kiss.
I’m skipping commentary on the Trump shooting for now. I’m planning on getting pretty political in the next few months, so I’ll just wait till then.
Try to stay just cool enough, and thanks for reading.

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April Foolishness

4/3/2024

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Shame on me! Two of the things I said I’d cover in my last post, I didn’t do. I just gave myself a slap on the wrist. So let’s get to those first.
Notah Begay was a Native American professional golfer. He is now a television commentator covering PGA events out on the course. He’s still Native American.
As for the song, here’s the link again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN9bcuIK70s
I’ll emphasize this is my opinion, and it doesn’t quite match those of others whose opinions can be found on the ‘net. Please keep in mind that not every word or even every line can necessarily apply to the interpretation.
First, “Master Jack” is a South African term for a shift boss in the mines, so it can serve here as a generic term for any boss. In this song, I think it applies to the national government of South Africa. The words, “take a colored ribbon from out of the sky” might reference the S.A. flag, and then the government has taught her to use it tie up all their problems and make them look neat—South Africa’s problem of Apartheid is “sold” as a good thing to the populace—the people in the street.
She could see how Master Jack was presenting to her the propaganda of Apartheid so that she would become an advocate, but instead she’s going to leave that idea before he can change her mind.
“You taught me all the things the way you’d like them to be” is the same thing. The proponents of Apartheid have represented it as a good thing because that’s how they want it to be, but she’d like to see if other people—the populace of other countries—agree with that sentiment.
And the chorus: “It’s a strange, strange world we live, Master Jack.” At this point the blacks had about 80% of the population, and the whites at 20% or less, yet all political and legal matters were decided by the whites. That is certainly pretty strange.
On the writing front, I’m making very slow but steady progress on Book 2 of Lying Swords. I think about it every day, establish what I want to write next, then do that for a half hour or more till I’ve put down what I had in mind, then get back to thinking. As I’ve said before, this is new to me. The other books all sort of wrote themselves.
I’ve decided to write a new beginning for Saving Atlantis to see if that gets a better response from agents and publishers.
I was allowed to reduce my hours at work from ten hours on Saturdays to 6 hours. My hip/leg pain has not improved much. Some mornings it’s not as bad as it was, but as the day goes on, the pain grows on. Ten hours on Saturday was just too painful.
Regarding my reading: I finished The Belgariad and then read Belgarath the Sorcerer. I’m now about half-way through Polgara the Sorceress. That will do it for the writing of David and Leigh Eddings for a while. Not sure where I’m going for reading after that. The library, probably. I’ll probably see if they have any Dean Koontz books I haven’t read yet. Or, I’ll finish The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien.
This month’s trivia: An easy one: What do the letters SWAK mean?

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Still workin'

2/20/2024

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Been a while, now, since my last entry. I have been writing other things. I’ve been doing slow but steady work on volume 2 (still unnamed) of Lying Swords. I’ve also found a publisher (Bothered Stories) that is seeking authors to write erotica—and they’ll pay! I’ve submitted a story to them and am now waiting for a response. I’ve also submitted another story to an anthology that accepts reprints. That story was first published as “Salvation,” but I changed the title to “The Bunker” because the theme of the anthology was about a place.
Back in January I registered (and paid the fee) to attend a writers’ conference in Minnesota called Narrativity. It’s a four-day event, Thursday morning to Sunday evening, and I plan to attend the whole thing. Unfortunately, my granddaughter’s high school graduation is that same weekend, which I didn’t know until after I’d paid the fee and reserved a room in the hotel. ☹
Thankfully, my brother is now here to take care of our dog, Rusty. It was Verlene’s idea to get this critter, so he was our dog. When Verlene passed away he became my dog. Now my brother is here and Rusty is again our dog. My brother has been feeding him almost every morning, so he’s stealing the devotion and loyalty. It used to be that when I came downstairs in the morning I was greeted with enthusiasm. Now, the creature doesn’t even get up. He just lies on the floor on his side and looks at me and motions his front leg to give him a tummy rub.
I have not worked this year at all. Back in December I developed, for no known reason, a disability in my left hip and upper leg. I was still able to do my regular job, though it was painful. But then on two different days the bosses needed extra people to do order filling. That calls for a person to be walking or standing all day, except for breaks. Both days I had to go home because it just hurt too much.
I’m calling this an ARI: Age-Related Infirmity.
So I saw my doctor, had X-rays done first on the hip and then later on the back, but nothing abnormal was shown. I’ve also been going to physical therapy; four sessions so far, plus PT exercises every day. It’s been helping, but not nearly fast enough or well enough to suit me.
I saw the doctor again. He gave me a cortisone injection and it seems to have helped a lot, but it’s only been three days since so I’m not yet celebrating, but Sunday (2/18) had the least amount of pain I’ve had in over two months.
Because I’m now not able to do everything I would ordinarily be able to do, the company won’t let me work until I can. This is why my brother has been feeding Rusty.
When I was working, I fed Rusty at 4:30 every morning. I sleep upstairs, where Rusty declines to go. My brother sleeps downstairs, in the same room Rusty has his bed (which was Verlene’s room) so about 4:30 every morning Rusty wakes him up to be fed. On the three days I didn’t work, Rusty just had to wait until I got up, sometimes as late as 8:00. But now he has another human to annoy into feeding him.
Important news: Prophecy of Honor is now scheduled for publication in late summer on 2024. Water Dragon Publishing had expected to publish at the end of 2023, but they ran into production problems. Also, I suspect that they got busier than they expected (which is not a bad thing) and just couldn’t meet that first estimate. I’ll include more news about this in future postings as I get it.
I’m half-way through Enchanter’s Endgame, which is the last book in the fantasy series The Belgariad by David Eddings. Curiously, this is the first of two series involving these characters and plot, and I’ve already read the second series, The Mallorean. Our library here has the second series, but not the first, so I’ve been ordering those one at a time.
One more thing: for those of you that have not been following this since 2015, or even those who have, I’d like to encourage you to read the “Mascot Serial” on my web page. To read from the beginning, you’ll have to go to the list on the right side of the page, click on the earliest date, which has only the introduction to the story. Then move up one date on the list (Sept., 2015), click that, read the entries from the bottom up, and so on. This series went on for over two years. It is sort of light-hearted and sort of serious.
Thank you again for reading.

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January 04th, 2024

1/4/2024

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Well, here comes another blog that is likely (certain?) to piss off a bunch of people…assuming any of those people read my blog. I’m going to write about one man.
Remember the lyrics from the song, “You’re a Grand Old Flag”? It’s actually the second verse that I, and probably most people, are familiar with, and the words “where there’s never a boast or brag.”
This man does little except boast and brag. It seems like everything that comes out of his mouth is a brag about his accomplishments—usually his imagined accomplishments—or insults and lies about people that didn’t lick his boots to his satisfaction.
This man lost the popular vote for President in 2016, but won the Electoral College vote, due largely to poor campaign strategy by his opponent.
He refused to divest himself of any connection to his business interests. This means that the very second that he said, “I do,” to his oath of office he was in violation of that oath due to the Emoluments Clause of The Constitution. And he made many thousands or possibly millions of dollars from foreign visitors and dignitaries staying at his hotels and golf clubs. Who knows how much information he exchanged for those millions?
During his four years in office, fact checkers counted his lies, half-truths, and misleading claims to be 30,573. This does not include the lies and broken promises he uttered during his campaign before the 2016 campaign. Example: “I’ll be too busy to play golf.” He had 298 day visits to golf courses with evidence that he played at least 150 times and cost the U.S. taxpayers about $144 million. He promised to reduce the national debt, but actually raised it about 7.8 TRILLION DOLLARS! Much of this was due to lowering taxes, especially for the rich.
Before he was elected he promoted himself (bragging) as a wonderful businessman. Yet, he put six businesses into bankruptcy.
His aides have said that he would not listen to or read his daily briefings.
So, after the 30,000 lies and the 298 visits to golf courses and the additional $7 trillion added to the national debt and the impeachment, and the violation of his oath of office and the over 400,000 American deaths due to Covid-19 on his watch, this man felt he should be re-elected.
Next up is something I want to emphasize.
After the 2020 election, a minimum of 100 people, Republicans, Democrats, and any other party affiliates that were the governors and supervisors of elections in all fifty states all agreed that the election was the fairest and most accurate and most secure ever. EVER!
And then one man—the loser—and a very few of his assistants—declared that the election was not secure and not fair and not accurate, and the noise they made led millions of others to insist that the election was not secure—that there was wide-ranging fraud. Speaking of fraud, this man personally called the Supervisor of Elections in two states—Georgia and Arizona—and asked them to “find” enough votes to allow him to win the Electoral College votes for that state. In the case of Georgia, his voice is on tape.
Over the course of the next almost two years, this man and his supporters continued to insist the election was “stolen.” This became known as “The Big Lie.” It was repeated over and over again by the loser’s own words, by social media posts from him and many others.
They did vote recounts in every state the loser or his sycophants claimed there was election fraud. The only very minor voter fraud examples they found were as often in the favor of the loser as the other way, and in every case the irregularities were not nearly enough to have affected the outcome of the election.
There was found absolutely no evidence that the election was stolen. Evidence supported the declarations of those 100 people the day after the election that it was fair, secure, and correct.
On January 6, 2021, when the Legislature and the Vice President met to certify the election, this man spoke publicly a few blocks away from the U.S. Capital Building and urged his audience to walk down to the Capital and fight for their rights to a fair election.
He accused the Vice President of doing the wrong thing when, in fact, the VP was following exactly the rules of The Constitution. At least two courts in two different states have ruled that this man incited or supported an insurrection.
Also, this man has been found guilty of sexual harassment and libel, and has been charged with over 91 felonies connected with his business practices and his actions during and after his time in office, including willful mishandling of federal documents.
All that was pretty bad. But what is even worse is that this same man—this crooked lying loser—is once again running for election to the Presidency.
Judging from polls and social media, millions of self-described Americans are supporting this man to be President again.
Please think about all that and keep it in mind next November. I’ll repost this about that time.
Thank you for reading.
As far as that trivia subject: George Zaharias was a professional wrestler and actor who met Mildred “Babe” Didrikson at the Los Angeles open in 1938 and they were married that December. He became her manager. Babe Zaharias was co-founder and long time president of the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
Till next time…

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Opinionated

12/4/2023

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Hello. It’s December now, we’ve had some snow, cold weather, day-long overcast, and I’m satisfied. Thank you. Can we have Spring now? No? Oh, well. As they say in Tralfamadore, “So it goes.” Look up that name if you don’t know it. Or not if you don’t care. But that bit of research will lead you to one of the best science fiction authors of the last century.
I want to repeat, Prophecy of Honor is due to be published about the end of the year.
I have two major subjects to present, so this is longer than just about anything else I've posted. I hope you followed the link to “Master Jack” and enjoyed it. It hit #3 on the hit parade in 1968.
Master Jack was the title of a shift boss in the mines of South Africa. The song is about the Apartheid in South Africa and the efforts to dismantle it and include the native Blacks and Indians in the democracy. The metaphors are good, and subject to some interpretation. “A colored ribbon from out of the sky” could refer to the South African flag of the time—orange, white, and blue. There are plenty of other meanings to be seen in the lyrics, and my interpretation doesn’t quite match what the writer of the song, David Marks, put forth, except that it is about the struggle against apartheid.
The second thing is a controversial subject of politics that should not even be political at all.
Some of you may agree with what I’m about to present. If so, and you think I raise valid points, please feel free to share them. Some of you may hate what I present, and curse me, or just disagree. But that’s understandable—no, it’s not. I don’t understand how anyone could disagree with me, on anything.
This rant (if you wish to label it that) was inspired by Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville, who has been using the single senator veto to block all normally routine promotions in the military since February because he objects to the military paying for transportation of service members, if necessary, to a state where it’s legal to get an abortion. He has said that what they are doing is immoral.
Wrong. What he is doing—what he believes—is immoral. The efforts to ban abortions is immoral on at least four different levels.
One: Since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade, several states that had restrictions on abortion rights have held votes on the question of abortion rights. These were “red” states—staunchly conservative states like Missouri, Kansas, and Ohio. In all cases the votes to maintain rights to an abortion have been overwhelmingly in the majority—about 60% in favor. Other “red” states like Tuberville’s Alabama have learned not to put the question to the general populace because they know that the vote will be to preserve the right to an abortion. Tuberville, in fact, is working against the wishes of the majority. That is immorality against democracy.
Two: This country has more than enough people—actually the planet has more than enough, but I’ll keep this to the U.S. This country does not need more unwanted children. The majority of unwanted children end up in foster care. Here’s some numbers: There are well over 300,000 children in the foster care system. To feed, care, and educate those children comes from tax dollars.
BTW, the same people who insist that women give birth if pregnant are now the same ones that want to reduce or eliminate the money the government gives them to help them care for those kids. I’m not ordinarily given to blatant unequivocal judgments, but I’ll give one here. Any person who sincerely believes that women should be forced to give birth to a child they don’t want by force of government, and also wants to reduce or eliminate the amount of government help given to those women to raise that child, is evil. If there is a hell, those folks deserve to experience it.
Back to number two: The number of legal abortions in this country is over 600,000 every year. If all abortions were actually eliminated, as many of these people claim to want, over 600,000 new children would be born every year. Imagine that. 600,000 children into foster care; next year another 600,000 and the year after that, another 600,000 and so on and so on. Who’s going to pay for the foster care and the additional educational requirements for 600,000 new children every year? This choice is therefore, immoral in regards to the country as a whole and the taxpayers specifically.
Three: Like it or not, research shows, and common sense should confirm, that children raised in foster care, on average, are at a disadvantage academically and emotionally. They do not experience the love, caring, and support that children do that are raised by loving parents. Again, it is an immoral stand that adversely affects the potential child.
Four: This will take a little longer. It is immoral to take away the woman’s God-given and legal right of body autonomy. In case you’re not really familiar with the idea of body autonomy, I’ll get into the details. We’ll use you, the reader, as an example. You have body autonomy. That means that no one under any circumstances has the right to use any part of your body without your permission. Say you are the only viable match as an organ donor to save someone’s life. If a child of the President of the United States needs a small piece of your liver to save his life, if you refuse to donate, that child will die if there is no other donor. You have that right even if you’re dead. No one has the right to your organs unless you’ve signed an organ donor card, or if your family agrees to donate the organ. I want to emphasize that any living person that needs to use your organ in any way just to survive has no right to do so if you are not willing to allow it.
There have been several movies and television shows with this theme as the primary conflict.
So, if the law forces a woman to allow her organs to be used to keep alive a fetus against her will, it has given the fetus more rights than a breathing, conscious person, and they have granted the pregnant woman less rights than a corpse. That’s immoral.
Additionally, about every twelve hours in this country, a woman dies from complications associated with pregnancy or child birth. So the denial of the right to have an abortion puts a woman at risk to die.
How cannot that not be immoral?
To get back briefly to last time, Notah Begay is a Native American former professional golfer, and now part of the broadcast team for many televised golf tournaments…and a friend of Tiger Woods.
And a new trivia question and opportunity to add to your knowledge: What connection did Goerge Zaharias have with professional golf?
Thank you for reading this long post. I hope you found it worthwhile.

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Happy National Nude Day!

April Foolishness

Still workin'

January 04th, 2024

Opinionated

Author

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

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Categories

Happy National Nude Day!

April Foolishness

Still workin'

January 04th, 2024

Opinionated

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.