PINBALL (100% DONE) and BEING PUBLISHED!!

 So, I was going to go through it 3x before sending it off, but I didn't need to. I went through it (mostly) as I was writing it. I'm finding now, that when I write I pay a bit more attention to the grammar bars, the little blue bars under the wrong word(s), and the red bars, telling me I flat misspelled something. I keep my eyes peeled for certain patterns. What I didn't do, and I probably should, is go through the book to see how many times I said "a bit" because I know it's going to be a bit too...well, you know, too much. I say it too often. I also say "so as" quite a lot as well.

    When I write, I do so as if I'm talking to you face-to-face. I don't watch my grammar, I don't know if I'm spelling every word correctly or not. I don't watch where I break my paragraphs, and that's something I need to watch more when I write as well. I don't like to have a lot of words bunched together. I like paragraphs on a page. They just look nice. Maybe that's just me. I don't know.

    "Pinball" sounds like a super fun, light-hearted title, so to be sure and get my point across, I used an ominous cover with darker tones and a mesmerizing shaky image; it's not supposed to be fun....it's supposed to be suspenseful. I hope I managed to do that. I find myself not going into enough detail, but I need to. I need to add 1000 adjectives but I think I did OK. I'll find out soon enough. I'm going to read the book in its entirety tomorrow, and Sunday. I'll look for issues I can change and when they send it back to me to proof, I will have already proofed it, so I can send it right back to be uploaded and published. 

    I know I should have waited until I did that, but there are so many things that will be happening this weekend I didn't know if I would have the chance to read it or not. After I sent it up, I realized I would have had the time; there you go. I'm OK with it. I can either fix it or let it slide. What do you want to bet I choose to fix it? I know me. I'll fix it. I can't fix it too much because the cover is made for a book with 395 pages and the book has 398. It's literally right on the money. Tight, but not bad. 

    This is the first of several sequels. I wanted to be sure and have at least these two out by now, and I'll write two more before Christmas. I'm starting "1211" on Monday, and hope to have it submitted by 10/22. I'll get it published by Halloween probably. Then, I'll write "Stollen", probably starting it around 11/2 or so, and finishing by Thanksgiving. It will be loaded and ready to go for the Christmas holidays. That way, if people want to buy all four books for their loved ones, well, there you go! Feel no obligation, but yeah, that would be really great.

    I began writing "Pinball" on July 22, but I stopped writing it on July 24, so I could write another book, a romance novel titled "Edinburgh".  I picked Pinball back up on September 19 and finished it today. So, in keeping with the timing, or the time it takes to write a 395-page book with about 86,000 words; we'll say it's about 12 days and then you wait about that long before Ingram Sparks gets around to publishing it. Longer...much longer for "Edinburgh", and I have no idea why. I'm still waiting on it.

    "1211"  will be a fun more quirky type of murder book. Someone died, but he died a very long time ago. This one is a relaxing fun giggling sort of mystery book I'm putting together to showcase a time in my life when I was old enough to move out of my parents' house, but I had no idea what to do when life hit me in the face. I lived in a really old apartment building close to downtown, OKC. It had 8 individual flats inside of it; and all of them, including mine, were occupied with the strangest group of tenants you can imagine...fun times. 

    Catch you on the other side to let you know how that goes. 

Photo Credit: ME!

PINBALL (86% written) Woo Hoo!! So Close.

     I really could have finished writing the book today, but I am doing other things in my life that warrant me being present, so I decided to finish the book tomorrow. I'll wait until Saturday (the next day) to write to say how it went and what I'm doing next to complete it. Just finishing the writing doesn't mean the book is ready; oh no. It's got to be gone over, fluffed, stuffed, and formatted. Then, and only then, can it be DONE.

    I'm 86% done now, meaning, I've written 74000 words of the expected 86000 words. I'll do the rest tomorrow, and then I'll start the really fun part. First, I go through the book for spacing, font, and size issues. If anything is out of place, not the right size, or the right font, I fix it. I justify the sides of all the text and I make sure the indentions are in place, the quotes are where they need to be, and all quotes are in italics. That's the first step. 

    I go through to make sure there are no spelling or grammar issues. I can't catch them all, but I do my best, I promise. I do this before I fluff and stuff, and I sort of fluff and stuff at the same time (to be honest) so that I'm working the entire book at the same time. I'm reading it, adding to it, going over it, and just making sure it all makes sense.

    Then, after I get all the points added from the notes I took along the way, I go back over it ONE MORE TIME to be sure it makes sense, that I said what I wanted to say, and I take out things that may be too hard to read. I can read tougher things than some. I can't watch it, but I can read it and I can write it. I'm not sure why that is. I get grossed out if I see it. I couldn't watch the movie about my books probably, just saying.

    Then...I format the book! YEA. When I do that I check the margins, and make it look like I want it to look. I add the pages, and I add the headers. I wish I could figure out how to start the pages at chapter one, but I can't, I've tried. I've watched the videos, it's not that big of a deal, really, but yeah, something I wish I could do. At least I know how to add cool fonts and all that - - woot.

    When I format it, and it all looks good, I save it as a PDF and I prepare the cover in Canva. HOWEVER, this time around the cover is already made. I did it already, and I'm pretty stoked about that fact. I'll format the book, make sure it looks great and probably by Monday or Tuesday I'll upload both the PDF interior and the cover, and then it's a waiting game. I'm still waiting for "Edinburgh" to be published. I sent it off on September 7, and I've not gotten it back so I can approve it yet. That is so not right. Oh well, we'll hope they can get their act together soon. I hate waiting.

    I'll keep you posted. YEA!!

Photo Credit: Unknown

PINBALL (The Book...75% DONE) Chapter 24.

     I was pretty excited today to see that the book cover that I had created for the book "Pinball" was in fact ready to go. I had taken the time maybe two months ago, to make the book cover and save it. I had to assume (as I do) that there would be about 380 pages in the book and there actually will be. I'm writing the book in the same type of style as I did "Murder Book", as this book is the sequel.

        I've just finished Chapter 24, and there will be 30 or 31 chapters. I have outlined them, and I'm being really picky now about what I add and what I write. I only have about 20,000 more words to write, which if I have 2500 words per chapter is 8 chapters, so it's going to be something like that. We'll see. Chapter 24 has about 2200 whereas other chapters in the book are rocking in the 3000-3500 words; so it's never a gimme. I don't know exactly what I'll end up saying until I start writing.

    Today, I needed a nudge so I watched a couple of Perry Mason episodes. I don't take the words from the show, as much as the nuance. Perry walks across the floor, crossing in front of Paul. He lights his cigarette, stopping in the middle of the action showing concern on his face for something. OK, I can use that. I mimic it and put it into my own words, choosing which characters to cross over, which to light a cigar, pop open a can, or something; then, in the middle of the action the pause to show that a thought has hit them between the eyes.

    This method opens up another route for my characters to act, play off each other, talk, carry on or start a conversation. It's never one-sided; they choose to banter. They collectively communicate. Even the bad guys open their mouths and let things out so the reader knows what to expect. Right now I've hidden a man, he's about to die, or maybe he's already died and the killer will describe the pleasure he obtained in the process of taking the man's life. He's a psycho, the killer that is, not the other guy. He's really quite innocent. 

    I'm going to start adding my nouns and adjectives to many of the paragraphs this weekend. I think I'll fluff and stuff starting Saturday. This is Wednesday night, so I have about two more full days of writing, and by that I mean I can take all the time I want to, but I'll probably end up writing for two days. I'll fluff and stuff and then on Sunday I'll format the book before going over it ONE MORE TIME to be sure I've fixed all the boo-boos. I won't save it as a PDF until I feel I've made as many corrections as I need to.

    I really don't want to have to go back over the book after it's sent to the publisher. Edinburgh just about killed me. I sent the wrong file!! I sent the file that wasn't corrected and now I'm still waiting for them to release it so I can resubmit my last corrected file. DING AND DANG...this is a process. We all learn differently, and apparently, I need to freely flub up any number of times before I get it down to a science. I'm not there yet. It'll happen. By the time I write my 20th book, I think I'll have the secrets in place.

    The good news? "Pinball" is almost done.  This will allow me to start writing the more comical sequel to the Nick Posh Thrillers; "1211". It is pronounced Twelve-Eleven.  That's the address of the murder house; the one Nick almost rents for himself but realizes it's only a one-bedroom flat and he'll need two. It doesn't stop him from checking out the basement when asked to accompany a local surgeon who finds crime fascinating. There was an old rumor about the house his grandmother lives in; it can't be true, but he wants Nick to help him check it out. Oh my...it's true. There is a pile of rotten bones in the basement of 1211 N. Garvey. 

    Well, can't write that one until I finish this one. Two days....and then I guess I can start on the next one. Fun times!! I love my keyboard.

75% done - - two days. Yep. Two days.

Photo Credit: Dreamstime.com

We Were Kids! That's What We Did.

     I was talking to a Scottish friend of mine, he's a bit younger than I am, and we were playing the game TRADES.  When you play Trade or Trades, you say something or different about your life and then they say something different or strange about their life. It's fun. So, he's going on about when he was a kid, mind you, he's about 43 and I'm almost 62, he used to hang upside down on the limbs of the tree and try to catch another tree branch without falling to the ground. His friends and he would try to go as far as they could go without falling or touching the ground. I told him I absolutely understood. The ground is lava, after all. 

        When I told him I swallowed tadpoles on a dare, he wasn't sure what a tadpole was. I guess they have frogs in Scotland, but I don't think they call the baby wanna-be frogs "tadpoles". When I explained it to him he stared at me with both eyes as wide as they could be, and his mouth was gaping open much like you'd see on a trout fish...you know what I mean. He was dumbfounded. When I went a bit further and explained that we kids would walk barefoot for miles on the hot ground, popping tar bubbles on the way to the creek he again, had no idea what a tar bubble was. Really? Tar bubbles are the bubbles that form when the sun is beating down on the road that's just been given maintenance once over by the city crew team to fill in cracks. The tar gets hot, it bubbles up, and you pop the bubbles with your fingernails. Apparently, it doesn't get that hot in Scotland.

    After a few more exchanges I explained to him that our slides didn't have soft covers, and they emptied out onto the concrete playground, maybe onto pebbles, but never onto grass or something made of rubber that would have been beneficial. I told him the swings were mounted (sometimes) on the concrete too, and when you got dared to jump out of one you did it hoping to land on your feet because skinning your knees really hurt....really hurt. Again, with the popping eyes. 

    We drank out of the water hoses that were connected to our houses. We drank out of water hoses that were connected to other people's houses too. We jumped over fences that stood in the way of where we were going, and if someone (a neighbor) invited you into their house for dinner you called your mom to see if it was OK. You said Grace, you ate whatever was being served.  We didn't choose what we ate, we were kids. We didn't argue about it either, we were kids. We never cussed until we were old enough to do so, and if our parents popped us in the mouth for it, we understood. What a difference 18 years made; and a few thousand miles. He said he would have been mortified if his parents had slapped him across the face. Really? I guess I just thought that's what we deserved. They never did it if we were good. I know that much.

    We collected bottles from trashcans and from under things so we could haul them up to the grocery store and get a nickel for each one of them. If they were broken or cracked we didn't get the nickel. We took care of those bottles! We ate candy shaped like cigarettes and bubble gum that looked like pink, yellow, and green cigars. We popped open a bottle of root beer, which isn't beer at all, and we poured it over our ice cream. We still do that. We'd eat the bubble gum cigars and candy cigarettes if we could find them. 

    When I think about what I survived; all the dodgeball games, tag, Red-Rover, and that silly game called knuckles that boys always tried to get us to play, I think we may very well have a reason to stand up and refuse to do some of the stupid things our government and others who haven't been woken up at dawn by a lunatic mother singing "Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory!" That woman was pure bonkers! She redeemed herself a few minutes later every morning by cooking us a mess of bacon, eggs, biscuits, and chocolate gravy! God, let me be a kid again - - I don't want to party like it's 1999, I want to play, sleep, eat, and communicate like it's 1969 again. Please? 

    Give me that old-time religion. Give me the days when your grandmother said it wouldn't rain and it didn't matter one lick what the weatherman said, he didn't know as much as she did anyway. Give me the days when dogs ran the streets with or without collars and everyone knew which one belonged to you, your neighbor, or maybe someone on another block, but stray dogs were taken into houses and given a name. They weren't overbred to the point that millions of them had to be put down. Give me the times when a preacher was moral, and you could trust that what they preached was true. Give me the parents who aren't afraid to use a belt properly, then sit a kid down to explain what just happened and why it shouldn't happen again. Give me libraries where a kid at age 5 can walk in and "read" books by herself and not worry about anyone stealing her; and if she didn't wear her shoes into the place no one really talked about her or her family. 

    We were kids. We didn't know we were poor. We were kids. We had no idea what color someone else may have been or why they weren't the same color we were. We were kids. We knew when the street light came on, we were to go straight home...or call Mom to let her know where we were and when to expect us. I miss that. I suppose I'm blessed to be able to TRADE my stories with others. I like hearing about their lives as well. Maybe if we all played our cards right, we could go back to those better days, but something tells me we'll have to wait until Jesus turns HIS porch light on, but when He does....I'm going straight home! That much I know.

Photo Credit: Unknown (Twitter)

DISTRACTIONS!! (I have them)

     It is really very difficult to get into the writing process when the dog won't shut up. He's got this thing about wanting to mutilate the Amazon driver, the mailperson, and anyone who walks across the lawn, and yes, that includes every bird.  He's a mess, but I do love the guy. My daughter and I were just hanging out one day when I heard her oohing and awwwing from her room. She does that. She's an oooher. Anyway, so she's over there dying about something, and then she bounces into my room demanding that I drive her about 20 miles so she can pick up her new dog. What? What new dog? Do we really need another one? I mean, we had two.

    Hugo was about 8 weeks old or so, and he'd been dumped. People who dump dogs have a very very special place in Hell as far as I'm concerned. I'm not Jesus, but I think He may agree. Anyway, Hugo was an unnamed mutt but he had very specific traits and features that told the world his parents were predominantly large, black and tan, and most likely of the German Shepherd and Rottweiler sort. He's adorable. He only has one ear, and that may be why he was dumped. Who knows. We took him home with us; the foster parents were happy.

    Now, when I sit to write he decides to sound off. He's either pestering one or the other of the dogs we have, or he's messing around chasing one of the cats. He's up in the window bellowing, and now at 6 months old, he has the voice of his commanding parents. He's loud, he's strong, he's forceful. He's not alone in his means of keeping my mind from writing. There are other daily distractions as well. I can't fully sit down to write out three or four chapters when I know I have laundry to do. I can't just pop the clothes in the washer and be done with it, I have to carry them a good distance to the laundry room in our complex. I then wait 40 minutes, setting the timer, and I return to put the clothes in the dryer for 45 minutes. It's such a first-world issue, but it's still a bother.

    Today, I'm about to study the ins and outs of psychosis and bipolar disorders and compare them with schizophrenia because one of my characters has a dual diagnosis. Since the book takes place in 1930 I can't use the more modern terms or treatments. I have to do my due diligence and find out what he would have endured as a patient if he was ever caught and subjected to treatment. He may not be caught, he may just discuss it with his clinician and his behavior and outbursts then become a part of the brackish fabric of whatever he considers to be his life.

        That's my life today. I'm studying, reading, thinking, writing, working, cleaning, pounding on the dog a few times, and rescuing a cat or two. In other words, today is a very normal and typical day. I look forward to getting started on the three chapters I've planned to write, but to be honest, I can't do anything until I get the bad grape juice and soured yogurt out of the frig, and retrieve my laundry. I can't fold it right away, as I have dogs. They like to lay on it first, to be sure it doesn't attack me I suppose. Such good dogs.

PINBALL (54% Done) Woot!

 When I think about it, and you know I do, being more than 50% finished with a book means I'm on the back end. I'm leaving the forest rather than running into it. I'll still deal with the various trees, creeks, animals, and whatnot, but I am wrapping it up even as I'm making things make sense to the reader. 

    I love introducing new characters. A lot of the characters I write about will only be seen or heard in the chapter in which they are first discussed. You may never see or hear from them again, but they needed to be there when they were made public. You can't magically have something happen; people make the world go around and you need to connect an event with a person, not just have something happen.  Readers let you know fast if they are unhappy with your characters. My characters tend to have feelings, emotions, and backstories. I'll go back into the chapters and develop them even further during the fluff and stuff stage.

    Right now, I'm sitting at 54% finished if I am aiming for an 86,000-word book. I have just under 47,000 and things are heating up!! People are dying, people are being caught, people are running away, and others are simply taking their tea by the shores of the Great Lake, Lake Michigan. They have no idea what's going on right behind them. These are blissful moments to be cherished. 

    I wrote four chapters today and only hinted at a little lovemaking. There hasn't been any real sex in this book except when the bad guy does the self-loathing thing and I won't discuss that here; you'll have to read the book. I'm not happy about needing to write it, but it is a symptom of one of the manic disorders that the guy has; so yeah, it was needed. There will be sex though. I'm going to write it tomorrow actually. This will be as you may have suspected, between Nick and his fiance, or the woman he considers to be his wife, Elaine. They're really very much in love. I like them a great deal. They have a child together; he's adorable.

    I'm on Chapter 18 now, so I've got about 12 more to go. I keep my books around 30-32 chapters; I think Murder Book has 35, but this one will probably end up with about 30; unless I have to add something that makes it all make sense. I do that too. I'll throw in a chapter for the purpose of tidying up a few loose ends. Before I write the book entirely I write out what I think the chapters will have and I try really hard to keep the book on track - - not saying it always works. I need to go back over my Murder Book notes and see if I need to add things to this book that I forgot to include in the other. I do that too.

    Right now, I'm closing in on one of the killers. I think one will get away and live to tell about his exploits in another book - - maybe two....maybe three. I'll introduce other bad guys, more good guys, women and children, clerks, and doctors. I'll add police, librarians, and maybe even a Thanksgiving Dinner. You just may have to read a bit more to find out.  Someone in my neighborhood today asked me if I saw the OU game yesterday, and I have to admit, I'm a fan, but I don't spend time watching games anymore. I write. I don't watch television, I write. I could think of something to do other than write, but that doesn't make me anywhere near as happy as writing does, so I like to write. 

    I'm hoping to be hired this week by either an insurance firm where I can be an investigative claims analyst, or with an attorney where I'll do the same. I kind of hope it's the insurance company as the attorney is an individual guy and you never know what can happen if he dies -- I'd be out of work. I need more security than that, but I do like the guy. I like both of my would-be potential bosses. I even wrote one of them into the book - - I told him I would. He's a bad guy - - he loves it.   OK, well that's it, and I'll catch you later after I've tucked Nick and Elaine into their bed for a romp or two; maybe they'll bring little Alistair a kid sister or a little brother. He may like that.

Photo Credit: Adobe Stock www.adobestock.com 

PINBALL (Chapter 9 Finished) Carry On!

         Whenever I write a book I ask my friends and family to contribute to the work by giving me a few words to use; I offer them a thank you in the book for having done so. This time, boy oh boy, the words have been pouring in, and let me just say, if you read the book you'll have fun learning new words!!

     One of my friends suggested three really cool words and I thought long and hard about them in that they really sounded out there; where did she come up with these? I wanted to know. Turns out she found a really cool creative editorial about the game pinball and in the article, there were some gloriously wonderful words. I won't spoil it by telling you which ones she suggested, but it's really awesome that she took the time to go look up an article about what she thought the subject of the book was about!! LOL, jokes on her!! The reference to pinball the game, is used metaphorically because the mind is pinged and tossed around the brain at times in the psyche of two of the noted characters who are both murderers and both flat nutcases. 

    I've decided to talk about the game Pinball as well, but the thing is, the name Pinball without a hyphen (pin-ball) didn't come around until 1931, which may or may not be of any significance, but my book takes place in 1930. LOL...just one year before the game's name was given. Oh well, it's a novel, right? I can say pin-ball and be OK. I've decided to do that, but not change the title's punctuation. It will remain PINBALL. So there! I can do that. I have my creative license, and I am not afraid to use it.

    I've written nine chapters so far, and am about 28% finished if I have my goals set the same as I did with Murder Book and Of Kilted Pleasure. I think 86000 words is a good amount. I think it's a good goal to set. I have held and read both books, one being a 6x9 and the other being a 5x8. I like the shorter thicker book. I'm not just saying that. I do. I think the longer book is good, it's nice, but it's not as bookish to me. Maybe the "new" size is just too new. I prefer a Kindle, and I can buy the books soon for my Kindle, but until I get all of my books in Ebook format, they are going to be perfect bound paperbacks. All of the romances are 6x9 and all of the murder thrillers are 5x8. That's my own doing; no one is responsible, just me.

    Chapters 8 and 9 deal with the court cases of the Fiona Brown murder case as well as the cases brought to move the court on behalf of the People of Culloden who are being represented by an American. Chapter 7 reintroduces Posh's mother Ama and her love for her native land of Oklahoma. She and her friend Wilma discuss another very time-sensitive matter, the foreshadowing of the era of the Dust Bowl. While it didn't take place until about 1933-34, they saw signs of it in the earlier years, and Ama discusses this with her friend over tea. 

    Each chapter is laid out and planned before I write it, but I have to be honest, I will write out what I think is going to happen and then something takes place and my mind shoots off and I don't have much control over what comes out of my keyboard. Nope, not gonna lie. I could have 10 points to put into a chapter and hit only 2. When that happens I try to regroup for another chapter, but it's not likely to be the next chapter as I rarely write things in exact chronological order. I do skip around. I go from one country to the next, I go from one person to the next. I even change times, dates, and memories, you just never know. I regroup. That's the best I can do.

    Wayne Stringfellow (my dad) makes an appearance in this book, much like he did in the last. It's not really my dad, it's my dad's name. My dad was born in 1932, and he was born in Arkansas. The Wayne Stringfellow in the book is a lot like my dad, but he's in Scotland. They both worked/work for Western Union, but that's because I can do things like that. I like doing things like that in fact. If you know me, you'll see quite a few "hello" moments in my books. I like to give a nudge and I like to give a wink when it's possible.

    I will give you a spoiler alert now...there is sex in the book. I've already written one nasty ugly horrible scene that isn't fit to be printed. I know that sounds funny coming from the author, but it was a terrible decision that needed to be made. It's a scene where one of the murderers fights within his own mind, and he deals with the hatred he has for the other ego in a very physical way. Sorry, it's nasty. I could put a disclaimer in the front of the book saying it's for mature audiences. I may have to do that. I did research the material to be sure I wasn't way off in my writing. I'm not. I am in fact tame compared to some journalistic material I found. I ran across some testimony from the court(s) and they have to transcribe the words verbatim. I didn't do that. 

    Well, that's about all I have for you today. I'll write three more chapters tomorrow, two or three each day over the weekend. I think I'll be 50% done by Sunday. Pretty sure about that. I'm at 28% now. I think I'll have the book finished by October 2 or 3rd, and I'll take the 4th and 5th to review it before uploading it. I'll approve it around the 10th of October and start on the next novel in the series. LET ME TELL YOU...the next novel is the cat's meow! Wait, that's a spoiler. LOL. I can't wait to write it.

Photo Credit: Etsy.com

    

    

PINBALL (Chapter 5) Disorders

     Pinball is a psychosis-type killer thriller. There will be murder, there will be innuendo, there will be chase, and there will be loss of apprehension. Someone gets away with it; others do not. There will be times when the book explains mental illness and I have to tell the audience in a disclaimer that I am NOT a medical doctor. All of the information I'm writing about is gained and gathered from the internet. I will not blame anyone for any mishaps that may happen in terms of me not getting it 100% correct. It's a novel, folks. It's not meant to be taken as reality. You'd be surprised how often an author of fiction has to remind people of that fact.

    Chapter 5 already. Geez. I just got started. The first four chapters were literally catching people up who may not have read "Murder Book", as "Pinball" is the sequel. There will be more, and no doubt probably a lot more. I think I've got 9 planned so far in my head, but this is just Tuesday. I'm sure that will change by Friday. I'll be writing Nick Posh books for a while. I'm going to write other books in between them too. I have the "Of Kilted" sequels to write. There are two more books in that series. I seem to have started a romance series as well, which is interesting because the characters in one do not necessarily interact with the characters in the others. This is another series altogether. The first in that series is "Edinburgh".  

    I may have to write "Tulsa" and "Indy", maybe even "Spokane".  I love me some Spokane, Washington!!  Who knows, I may just end up liking all this romance writing, but I think I like the murder books best. I like studying about the ins and outs of murder, crime, the reasoning, and if you can get to it; the motive. People who kill are just flat-crazy; I admit that. There is still some sort of reason and with reason comes motive. They are not always the same.  The reason one may kill is insanity, but the motive is jealousy or envy. (in some cases, not all)

    Chapter 5 of my current book will see John Reid discussing his own mental dilemma with himself. He is also Walter Sanders. John Reid is a go-to name, not the one he was born with, but the one he gave to the other man living inside his brain. The thing is, John Reid won't even acknowledge Walter, but it's Walter who created Reid and allows him to live inside the same body and brain as himself. See the problem? Well, Sanders sees it, but Reid refuses to see it; and Sanders may decide to kill Reid to prove his point, but that won't happen until much later in the book - - oops...spoiler. (or is it?)

    I'll discuss what the doctors were doing to and with mental patients in 1930 both in the UK and the United States. I'll discuss the differences between hallucinations and daydreaming because there is a difference. I'll go over the nuances of delusional disorders which are not accompanied by hallucinations or thought disorders; Reid may have delusional disorders, but Walter certainly has a psychosis disorder which will need to be managed if they can catch him. He's killed before both as Reid and as Sanders. Do they need to hang the man twice? It is discussed.

    In 1930 the very idea of ridding someone of these problems was in the infancy stages, but there were dramatic and drastic steps being taken in the name of medicine that were shocking; literally. This too, will be discussed. The book is about two very separate and individual men, both with disorders, both with manic depression, and both with killer instincts, but they are not the same man - - one has a personality disorder where he knows another person's psyche lives within his head and the other man knows he is alone in his actions.  His diagnosis is more aligned with narcissistic behavior and grandiose delusional disorder in that he truly believes he is untouchable. Their worlds collide in the book.

    There will be fireworks. I can promise that.

I Am On The VERGE of TikTok!

     I am one of the LAST people I know who are on TikTok, and I'm not technically really on it yet, but I will be. I guess, since I have uploaded one video to my account, I am actually ON it, but I don't consider myself on it yet. I'll be on it when I learn how to do it correctly. I'm a little behind times; just...you know, a little.

    So, I had a very famous dog, and my daughter decided to give Faith a TikTok account by using my email address. Turns out, I have decided to use TikTok to promote my books, and I guess that means I need my own account. I don't want to do my book promotions under my dog's account. They are mutually exclusive. I do have a book that I wrote about my dog, and I'll certainly promote it on both the dog account and my book account, but there are other books I want to promote that have NOTHING to do with Faith. 

    Anyway, I'm new, and you'll certainly be able to tell that I'm new once the videos go up on the thing, but for now I'm just learning how to do it. I need to be cool, fun, and all that. I don't want to look too ignorant. I mean, a little ignorant is OK, but I don't want to really set off any buttons or whistles that indicate that I'm an absolute loser; you understand.

    Wouldn't it be really cool if my books took off to the degree and level I hope they do? I mean, that would really be something!! I could stay at home all day and write, promote, and just do it all over again. I could be so creative, and so into it  -- I want this. I do. I don't know if TikTok is the way to go, but you can't know until you do it. I have seen my friends YouTube subs going way up because they also do Reels and TikTok. It's going to be something to learn and work; hopefully I'll become pretty good at it. I have a good tutor. I should be OK.

    I'd say wish me luck, but we don't do luck - - we pray.

Photo Credit: ME

Seven Minutes a Day (Well, 10, but whose counting?)

     The Seven-Minute workout challenge is all over TikTok, it's all over the internet, and I decided to try it. Mind you, when I go to the gym I work out for about 20 minutes or so before I get exhausted, so the seven-minute challenge wasn't hard for me. Well, I was wrong. it is. It's hard because it's a particular routine, and you do seven things for 1 minute at a time with only 10 seconds in between sets so the whole thing takes about eight minutes when you do it correctly.

    Because I wanted to do it correctly, I bought myself a one-minute egg-timer that I could turn over during the 10-second intervals to be sure I was doing the exercise for a full minute. There are two exercises I really don't mind doing more than a full minute, but there are two when I hope the timer sands pour a little faster! Here's what I do.

    I do cheat and I stretch first. I think you should do a warm-up before you get started. It's just a good idea. If you need to consult your physician do that too; and always use protective gear for your joints if you need that. I don't want people saying I was irresponsible and telling them to do something. I am NOT telling you what to do, I am telling you what I am doing. There is a huge difference.

    I warm up by walking around the complex and rolling my arms, my shoulders, and my head. Then I come back to the apartment and I walk up and down the stairs 2x before going into the apartment to do stretches such as forward-doggie, and a few other bendy types to get the lower back prepared before doing the seven 1-minute exercises at full force. If you don't do them at full force you may not feel the burn, but it's still good for you. Start slower and build up; that's the ticket for me.

• Jumping Jax....right out of the shoot. Do those first, get them over with. 
• High Knee Step ... sounds easy, but really high, really fast, and a full minute.
• Wall push-ups...this one is really easy for me, so I try to make it more difficult.
• Sliders (with 5-pound weights in each hand) and I do them to each side of the center.
• Lifting 15 or 20-pound bar - just lifting and curling nothing fancy
• Lifting a 15 or 20-pound bar - over my head and behind my head onto my shoulders
• Sit-ups with my legs over the couch so I can have a goal for the process.

    Then, because I can, I do the whole lift of the hips and waist turns after that. I do a cool down. I go back down the stairs a couple of times, and sometimes I even jump rope. I didn't do the rope jumping today because it's still really hot outside. I have to jump rope outside because I live upstairs and the neighbors below me don't need to think the ceiling is caving in on them. I go outside to do the battle ropes too, but seriously, not until the weather is a lot cooler than it is right now. 

    This evening I'll go walking with my buddy, and we'll clock 2.5 to 3 miles around the lake area. We love it. We thought about smoking a couple of cigars afterward, which I KNOW is not good for me, but I'm not a smoker, so it's not as bad as it sounds. It's just two ladies having a good time at the lake; we can do that, right?

    Supposedly, and I have ZERO concrete evidence of this, you're supposed to lose an additional 3-4 pounds a month by doing this seven-minute workout. We'll see. I have no way of knowing whether it works because I'm not really keeping that close of tabs on it. I'll eat well, drink my 100 ounces of lemon water, and I'll do the exercises. If I die I die, and if I get thinner and feel stronger, there's that. I just like feeling as if I've done something to make myself look and feel better. I have too many issues to try to make it to perfection. I can try for best as I can! Goals!

Photo Credit: FactsCrush.com

Focus!!

     I've been unwilling to admit it, but I do finally need to wear reading glasses and that fact really bothers me. I'm going to be 62 in November, which in and of itself amazes me. I didn't know 62 even existed when I was younger. I thought you died before that time; for sure only really really old people were over 60. Well, turns out that I was wrong. I'm still very young, and I don't mean "young at heart"; screw that, I'm young. I don't feel old, I don't do old-people things, I don't complain about my body aches...and now, damn it, I need glasses to read. 

    I don't need glasses to see, I see fine, but when I read I need them. I can see things in the distance, it's the close-up things that I can't really focus on, so what do I think I can do about it? Well, turns out there are some pretty interesting exercises you can do to improve your eyes and the muscles and/or veins, or whatever it is back there in your brain, that can help you see better. It's working, so I'm going to keep doing it. I don't care if people laugh at me. I'm having fun.

    Here is what I do now. I sit up straight because somehow sitting up straight helps you no matter what it is that you're doing. Without moving my head, I look forward at something pretty far away, and then I look at something really close, maybe my thumb or something. Then, I do it again and again and again. Next, I keep my head immobile, but I look as far as I can to the right, then the left, then the right, then the left for about 10 sets. 

    After the left/right thing, I do it again looking upward and downward, not moving my head. I do this about 10x and then I close my eyes. I rub my eyes lightly, and I heat up my palms by rubbing them; then placing my palms over my closed eyes. I repeated the exercise a couple of times. The whole thing takes maybe 5 minutes and I can feel it in my eyes for sure. I think it's working. I know I still have to use the glasses to read the fine print, but it does feel better than it did two weeks ago when I put them on all the time. I'm using them less and less now.

    Anyway, that's what I have, and that's what I'm doing. You don't have to do it, and you may think it's crazy, but let me just say, I don't know if it's fail-proof because we do get older, and things do fall apart, but why not try and make things better if we can? We stretch, we move around, we keep our bodies moving, why not do the same for our eyes. You can do the same thing with your chin too, your teeth and jaw, you open, close, go to the right, the left, etc. You can stretch your jaw, and you can feel better about yourself; it really does make you feel more in tune with your own body.

    Hey, it's your body.  You may as well like what you have to the point of doing all that you can to make it the best body you can have.  Just sayin'...do it if you want, I do, and I love it. Maybe in a few weeks, I'll report how it's working. I'm also trying to focus on what goes into my body and how I exercise. I've been in an ongoing battle for years with this one; I am so normal when it comes to being normal. Maybe I'll find a way to be successful instead!!

Photo Credit: EyeDrawingTips.com 

Why Must it be a HASSLE (Because it's my life)

     I came so close to having an average and normal day once - - but that was so long ago, that now, the normal is so far from average. I woke up this morning feeling bloated and I had no idea why. The lemon-lime water I've been drinking for three days is definitely doing its job; let me just say that. I think I've pooped 10 times in the past three days and yes, I can say I'll keep drinking this stuff. If it's cleaning me out this good, I don't want that to stop anytime soon. Bloat gone! All is good.

    I decided to make breakfast for myself. I do that from time to time. I grabbed the flour, the butter, the baking powder, and the milk, and I made myself biscuits, only to find out afterward that we were out of all the jams and jellies because my kid cleaned out the fridge and she threw them all away...she does that. Notice would have been GREAT. OK, no worries, I'll use the honey - nope. She took that to work. People, I had to eat my biscuits without gravy since I didn't make sausage or bacon. I used maple syrup....First World Problems. 

    Then, just because I live here, and it is the way that it is, the communal washing machines decided to both quit at the same time. Now, I know it's a major First World Problem, but we have to be honest about it; they were old. They needed to be replaced years ago. For both of them to quit at the same time seems really suspicious to me, and I'm going to put the blame on my crazy neighbors because I know I didn't do it. There's a 3rd washer that we use if we have to, and I had to. It took 1 hour and 43 minutes to do the one load. Tell me you live in an old complex, without telling me you live in an old complex.

    The clock hadn't struck 8:30 a.m. yet, and there was a fraud alert sent to me on my debit card by my bank. I love my bank. They take such good care. The problem was that another hacker decided to take $99.00 from my account when I purchased something online. CRAZY how that works, because the company I bought something from had ZERO clue that they were being used as a mule; it happens. I hate it, but it happens. It's happened to me about four times now. The bank closes my card, and issues me a new one, then I have to write or call the places that take money out on a monthly basis to let them know I have a new card number. GEEZ. 

    While I was blaming a neighbor; another neighbor came out of his apartment to tell me that one of our other neighbors had been in a really bad car wreck. She's a Lyft driver, so I thought maybe she had passengers too. She did not, so that was good; but she's not expected to live, and that's really sad. I truly hate to hear these types of things.  

    Before lunch, my publisher wrote to me to let me know that the book I tried to release (Faith Walks) has a spine width that is .511 and it should be .481; they want me to redo the cover. WHAT? The book was in production at another publisher and printed for Amazon sales for 12 years, but suddenly it's the wrong size? And did you see the difference? Literally .03 inches!! NO.  Just use it the way it is! I don't know if they will but I asked them to. Then, I redid the thing when I didn't get a response from them, but the thing is, I had to edit the PDF the original publisher sent to me, and I couldn't open it to make that change. I had to redo it through CANVA and when I did, I had to adjust things and it didn't turn out the way I wanted.

    Not only did it change a few things; but I made a mistake on the back and I already uploaded it!! I have to wait for them to reject it before I can upload the corrected one. If they don't reject it, I'll have to resubmit it, and that takes another 2 or 3 days. I can't imagine them even thinking it's OK to say it's .03 inches off in the spine so we're going to not print it, even though it's been printed over 50,000 times, and yes...it has been printed over 50,000 times, so yeah, there is NO REASON to change it. 

    I went to the store to get the cat litter, cat food, and dog food, and there was only one cashier with about four of us in line. Again, First World Problem; so I waited. I said to myself, it's OK, you'll survive this. I was doing really well until the lady buying whatever she was buying was looking for her cash, she didn't have enough, so she went for a card, but it was declined. I thought about my card, so I kept patiently waiting...for another five full minutes. C'mon, call another cashier at this point. I didn't say anything, but my mind was squawking!

    The man in front of me asked her if she could call someone and she said they had all quit or just not showed up today. There wasn't even a full moon, so I don't understand. I was finally checked out, but you guessed it, her drawer wouldn't shut so she couldn't ring up my purchases. We had to wait another several minutes for someone to come up to the front from the back; someone with more authority than the first lady had.  BREATHE....so I did.

    I picked the kid up from work, we went home, we got to our front door, and found that the managers had taken off the number plates of all the doors, and had taped off everything. I guess they're going to paint. Notice would have been great...another First World Problem. I began counting my blessings and saying them out loud. It always helps me when I do that. I have a home, I have food, I have water, I have a car, I have gas, and money to pay my bills. I have three great kids, 2 grandkids, and a few animals. I have written 9 books, I have an education, I have friends who know me and they still love me. I am a very very blessed woman...but you know what, more than all that, I have Jesus in my soul. That makes all the difference in this world and every other world to come.

    We're gonna have issues. We're gonna have problems. We're gonna face nasty situations, bad people, and just stuff....but we don't have to face it alone, and that is the best news I can give you. On the flip side, Michael's had candles on sale 2/$7 and they all smell like Autumn....this week, next week I'm sure they'll have their Christmas candles out, but for now, it's Flannel and Football, baby!! 

    

See if you can find the mistake. I did correct it already, but I put this up so you can feel my pain.

FAITH WALKS (The Book) Is Re-Released

 Back in the day, I released a book titled "Faith Walks, A Memoir of a Beautiful Life". It was about 2011 I think, not too long after I had moved to Indiana. Faith was alive then, and she was the star of so many shows. She had already become world-famous, and she was just about to retire. We knew she was getting to the point where she wanted to rest up a bit more than she had in the past. Though in 2011 she was only nine years old, she had just about started to think about slowing down. We did a few expos that year and the next, but by December 2012, she had decided to keep things more local. We canceled only one or two shows, and since we hadn't been paid for them, I didn't feel too badly about it. I knew they could either Skype with us, or they could use film from another show; I always allowed teachers and others to use her story in their lesson plans.

    Faith was just such an amazing animal and an amazing friend. She showed the world that you don't have to look a certain way to be wonderfully created. You can be who you are, and do what you need to do. She was never, and I do mean NEVER in a mood where she didn't want to see people. There were times when she was less energetic perhaps, but that smile was still there, and that hard-hitting tail of hers would be swinging! You had to watch out for that tail, let me tell you. She could do some damage with it.

    Well, I wrote the book FAITH WALKS and released it. It got mixed reviews, but I didn't have the money to promote it like it needed to be, so I was unable to really do more than just write to folks and say I'm human, there's gonna be some misspelled words and no, the grammar is not going to be up to par. Yes, I'm still a professor of English, and when I write for a grade, or when my students write for a grade, I will consider grammar, but not when I'm writing a book for fun and entertainment. Now, if the book had been a book about writing a book or using proper grammar, sure. The book is a good book. It's not fancy. It's not wonderful. I did actually pay for editing, but as you may see if you buy it, the folks that edited it are as normal as the rest of us. It happens. I'm not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

    I did pull the book from iUniverse who didn't promote it, didn't edit it correctly, and they didn't do squat for me when I had a team of folks wanting to do more with it. I decided to pull the book from them, and upload it myself with Ingram Sparks, and that way I have a bit more control over it for the future. I think the book will be made into a movie, and I don't want or need a middle-man-type publisher thinking they have any rights to it. It is MY book, MY story, and I'll make all the decisions about it. (Can you tell where the dog got her courage to stand up on her own? She had a bit of it herself, but I did force her to give it her best.)

    When I was a teacher I'd tell my students that if I can make a dog walk upright I can expect them to do their homework. Faith, just like my students, pushed the envelope as often as she could...but...when the doors of the house opened, she was the first one flying out of them to get into the car to go somewhere. She didn't really even care where she went. I will say this, if she saw me pull out her Army jacket she was more than excited...she knew what that meant. SOLDIERS!!

    Well, the book will be available again on Amazon with a new dedication. Mike Maguire is the man I decided to dedicate the book to, and there is NO ONE who deserves it more than him. He did so much for us...Mike, I love you, buddy. I wish I had dedicated it to you in 2011. My bad. You are the best!  It has a new ISBN number, so the one that is for sale now on Amazon is the old one. They have some copies they need to sell first. The new ISBN is 978-1-0882-9063-7 and you can look for it that way. The cover is the SAME.

Mike Maguire and Faith:  Photo Credit: Carol Guzy 

Faith Walks, the book. 

Edinburgh (The Book) is RELEASED to the PUBLISHER!!!

     Woot!!  It is there, and I am happy.   It ended up being right at 83,000 words, and 338 pages in a 5x8 book. I didn't want to make it a 6x9 because it would have been 240 pages and that's just not a good-sized book for charging what they charge. I only get to pretend I have some control over it.  When you write a book and upload it to the publisher they basically give you options as to what they are going to charge for the printing of it, and that's based on the page count. This book will cost them, the publisher about $5.62 for each book they print. They have to charge that, plus the postage if I want to buy my own copies, but they do add a bit for their trouble. I could, if I had the capital to do so, buy 10,000 books, and become an instant "Best Selling Author" but I don't think that's the right or fair thing to go. I don't have the $60,000 some odd to spare, so it's not going to happen.

    That being said, I wrote a really nasty, hard-hitting, former-husband-bashing book that did actually sell more than 10,000 copies, so when they send me the proof of that, I will start adding the tag "Best Selling Author" on all of my books and advertising. Sad that it took a nasty poop book to make that happen, but it did, and that's just how the cookies crumble, folks.  I took the book out of print about two years ago; it was just not worth the emails going back and forth trying to explain myself to readers who had a particular dislike for some of the things I said. It didn't matter that it was MY experience, and I said so very clearly, that they wanted to argue. I took the book out of print. It was just about done anyway.

    EDINBURGH is done!!  I'm not going to say that it's the end all of books, not by a long shot. It was just a lot of fun to write. It took me 11 days to write it. That's a record I don't think I'll try to outdo. I like that I did it so fast, but it didn't leave a lot of room for creativity. I had to think on the fly, and I did a pretty good job, I think. It was certainly enjoyable to do; otherwise, I would not have put myself through it. I had to redo the cover from a 6x9 to a 5x8 today. That takes a minute. I use Canva in case you're wondering.

    I just think it's soooo cool that you can write a book, edit said book, format it, and upload it to be published for NOTHING. FREE...it's 100% free when you know what you're doing. I could still make it better by adding more fancy designs. I'm really going to have to look into that. Each chapter heading could be really awesome. You can play around with page numbers and all sorts of things that make books really neat. I don't know how to do the front pages yet. I won't go back and change the ones I've done, but I'll look into the others in the future. I don't use the whole Roman numeral thing in the front; I could. I may. You just never know.  I set the price at $16.00 but I know they'll end up charging $18.00 probably.

    PINBALL is next. I've written about six chapters of it so far. I don't know why I didn't just crank that one out, but Edinburgh was in my head banging on my brain asking to be written...so I wrote it. Fun times!!  If you really know me, you'll recognize a lot of my own personality and storyline in the main character. Elyenor Leigh Fletcher could very well be me, but she wasn't married, didn't have kids, and she lived in Texas...boo!!  I thought I would give it a shake-up, and I did. I added my three good friends with their permission, and they seem to think living in Texas isn't so bad; not when you're only a fictional character. 

    Hope you LOVE IT.  It will be on sale next Monday the 11th. I will go over the galley when they send it to me on Thursday, to be sure it doesn't need to be changed. I know there will be a mistake or two. I'm not going to worry about it. It may end up being my signature now that I know Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did it, and Erle Stanley Gardner did it too. Woot!! Great writers.

    

Health Kick Restart. Here we go!

     Now, because I have the book behind me for the most part, and I'm about to be employed by someone, I've decided to get back on the health kick bandwagon to see if I can lose a few pounds, shape up, and feel better. Here we go.

    I sort of started last week with the copious water drinking again, and the walking. Then the index decided to go back into the 105 range; making it too hard to walk even in the evenings.  I had to wait until 10 p.m. to do any good walking and then you can only do a mile or so. I could have woken up at 5:00 a.m. too, but that sort of thing is rare for me....my body refuses to listen to my brain at that hour.

    Today, however, because I can, I decided to eat only good things. I do this to myself from time to time. I don't 100% go crazy with it; it's not safe to do that. I did that once and lost a gallbladder. Not kidding. Gonny no dae that again. Today, I cracked open an acorn squash, dug out the seeds, and set them to the side. I added butter and spices to the squash and I baked it. It will be ready in a few minutes. I took the seeds, added half an apple, some pineapple juice, two slices of pineapple, some vitamins, milk, and protein...and then blended it. Done. Breakfast in a cup.

    I have a 10-minute workout session that I do, and I'll do that. Then I'll lift weights for 5 minutes and box for 10 minutes later on. I may walk if I can find the best time to do it. It's 90 out there right now, and with the sun bearing down on me it's uncomfortable. I have to wait until about 8:00 to see it settling. I can wait. I'm good at that.  

    Dinner will be chicken and rice. I also have...you guessed it....copious amounts of water with lemon and lime. When I go back to the store today I'll pick up some natural ginger root and add it to the water. I could do the drops I guess. I may do that. I want the fat to be burned away as well as the hydration. A good dose of lemon, lime, ginger, and mint can make a good belly fat reducer. I threw out my mint, it was nasty. I had it hidden in the fridge for too long. Can't do that in the future. 

    The day will be spent reading through the novel "Edinburgh" to make sure all the spacing is good, and that I don't have a bunch of misspellings. Then, again, because I can, I'll do the 10-minute workout. I do doga every day -  you know, yoga with dogs. It's only to stretch my back really, but Ginger likes it. She feels like she's helped me with all my daily routines. Right now, you can see it, but she's sitting in my lap while I type. She is just so useful. Very very useful.

Photo Credit: Me.   Ginger dog.

Edinburgh (The Book) DONE!! (Except)

 It's OVER for the most part.  I always do that, I write that it's over when it's just ended. There is such a huge difference. It has ended in that I am no longer writing the book It is done, but it is not FINISHED because I now have to go through it to add this or that. When you add this or that, you also have to consider removing this or that. You find mistakes, you overlook mistakes, and you set it all aside for a day or so before going back over the pages to see if there are those mistakes you were looking for.

    I am not going to add another chapter. I am going to only check to be sure that the ones I've written are complete. I'll run through them quickly for spacing, then begin editing them using the best-case scenarios I can. I don't care about grammar because when I write a book, especially a novel, there will be a license for not using proper grammar. Some of the characters speak like me...yeah, not all that proper.

    So, the book is done in that I've just finished. I won't give away anything, but I will need to go back and add a couple of descriptions of clothing, or hats, something to make the chapter pop. That's what the next tweak is. I go back over it, find room for descriptive words and I fluff it, stuff it, brand it, make it pretty, make it lively, and change the word count all at the same time.  I'll end up with 82,000 words I'm sure. I typically try to get 86,000, but we're good.

    I won't format the book until I'm dang sure that it's about finished. I have a cover already made, so I'll need to see if it's crafted to the right size. If I need another 2000 words you can bet I'd rather write them than go back and change the cover! It's a mess trying to do that over and over again. I can dang well better come up with words than try and manipulate a book spine. Nope. Not fighting that dog. 

    Tonight I'll go through it for spacing. Tomorrow, Sunday, I'll go over it for misspelled words, any words that I need to add to the dictionary or words that could be spelled one way or another. I'll try to add a few quirks to Arran's accent. He's Scottish, I haven't been paying much attention to his voice. I need to go back over everything he says and add a bit of brogue to it. That'll be fun. I won't go all Gaelic on anyone, but I will use colloquial terms such as using "no goin' there" for "not going to go there" and that sort of thing. Elyn describes a garbage disposal to Arran at one point, and his eyebrows lift to think of what could happen if he made a mistake in the kitchen after drinking a bit.  

Good times.  I'll catch you in a couple of days after I've gone over it. The book took less time to write than any other full-sized book I've ever written. I started it around 1:00 p.m. on 8/22/2023 and finished it around 2:00 p.m. on 9/2/2023 so that's what, 11 days and an hour? Not bad. I don't think I'll do that again -- it was just something I was doing between jobs. 

Tying the Knot!!  (Guess where that idiom came from, folks.)

Photo Credit: TheKnot.com