Waiting on Life to Happen.

 The title is a bit misleading, I don't wait for life. I usually go out and get it. This time, I've done all I can do, and now I have to wait. I am not sitting still and waiting, I'm moving around, exercising, working out, walking, praying, eating, and reading, but I can't do more to make the various companies I've applied to do more than what they are doing. I want one in particular to call me today and say they'll hire me next week. That's what I want, but that doesn't happen these days. You have to jump through a few ridiculous hoops first; even after they tell you you're chosen.

    I won't say who they are, but there is a MAJOR claims company that is interviewing me, and we've gone past the 2nd interview stage. They had a writing sample requirement, and I did that yesterday. They sent me the information, the estimate, the photos, and the mock inspection. I had to fill in two portions of the written document. I had to give a general synopsis and then write up what I think happened using the photos and information given. There's really no wrong answer, but they want to see how you write, what you think is pertinent, and so forth.

    I really think I did a good job; I reread what I wrote before sending it. I did make one small error and I was upset about it, but then today they wrote to me and said they couldn't open their own Google Doc and wanted to know if I could send it back to them using Word. OK!!! I made the change of course, but I did tell them I made the change. You know, it could have been a test to see if I can change Google Docs into Word attachments. I wanted them to know I do know how to do that, and I made a change.  I meant to say "detach" and I said "detect", but you know, if you are capable of detecting a toilet it's a good thing!!

    Now, all I can do is wait. I'm the only person (they said) in the state of Oklahoma who will do what I do for their company. That's a lot of responsibility, but I love it. I am up for the challenges and the rewards. I don't have to be pushed, I'll push myself. I always do. I am the motivator in my life. I can't imagine not being able to kick my own butt when I need to. I have friends and acquaintances who just simply can't get up off their own ass to save themselves. They watch life pass them, I can't do that. I have never been able to do that. I make things happen.

    So, while I wait, I also apply for other jobs. You can't expect one to work out and then wait too long hoping. I put six weeks into waiting on a great claims company who swore they wanted me; but hey, if you want me...hire me. Six weeks and just yesterday they wrote to say they don't have any openings. Well, good thing I didn't put all my hopes in them; I applied at 11 other companies. I've interviewed with two. I am not going to wait for people to fulfill my needs. I have God for that. Prayer is real, and it does work.

    The same thing goes with my publisher. I have eight books with them, and still can't get the last two processed. It's always one thing after another. One mistake on each book was my fault, I admit that, but neither mistake could have or should have taken four weeks to process. THEY, the publisher, had my books (both of them) page count as -1.  NO WAY I'm writing that my book has -1 pages. One has 361 and the other has 398. The one that is 361 had to be an even number, and THEY didn't tell me that. It sat there in their waiting queue for four stupid weeks because they couldn't do their job and write to me to say it needed to be changed, but I couldn't change it. They have to release it so I can. THEY screwed up. I did need to upload the interior of my book again, but I can't do that until they release the process, and it took four weeks. 

    By the time they got one finished, I had another book waiting to be published. They did the same thing with that book, and I  nailed them. I wrote to them every single day until something happened. I wasn't willing to wait for them to get back to me. I flooded their supervisor's email until he/she wrote to me and said they would take care of it. You can't wait on people; people will let you wait. MAKE life happen. Get in there and nudge them if they need nudging. We have too many face-to-phone younger generational people working in the job market who are too busy keeping up with their social media to do their jobs. FORCE IT when you need to. Wake someone up and help them do their job if you need them to. Let them hang someone else's time, but not yours.

    I know that attitude isn't always popular, but I'm a leader, and I get in there with my people. I don't expect them to do anything I wouldn't do. The waiting game is something I can't control, but I can be productive during it.

Photo Credit: The Conversation

    

Times Are Changing!!

 It's a crazy and mixed-up world we live in currently. Not only are there wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes in various places, and everyone running to and fro, but we have Russia, Turkey, Iran, and literally EVERY other nation mentioned (by name) going against Israel and/or protesting the situation. The nations mentioned in the Bible, of course, use their old ancient names, but they are in fact, the same nations that are now doing exactly what God said they would do.  Can you even imagine the odds on that one?  

    Recently, someone in California (supposedly) won the biggest lottery in the history of the game. It was, they tell us, someone who literally only bought one $2 ticket. What again, are the odds? Well, to be perfectly honest with you, it's more likely that you or I would win three or four of these types of lotteries all in a row, than for the Bible to be wrong.  Let me explain. 

    When God inspired men/women to write the books of the Bible about 2/3 of it was prophecy. That's one out of every 3 verses if you want to think of it that way. LITERALLY, every last one of these prophecies that have come to pass, that was written, canonized, published, printed, and purchased, have been 100% on the nose correct with zero room for negotiation. Try that in any other religious or so-called holy script.  ONLY the Bible has been 100% correct. If it has been 100% correct thus far, what do you think the chances of it being 100% correct about Damascus being utterly destroyed to the point that no man lives in it; nor will they ever again. Listen, Damascus is still there today...but it will be blown off the face of the Earth; destroyed. How do I know? God said so, through the prophet Isaiah in Chapter 17 verse 1. You don't have to believe it, but I do.

    There are other prophecies that will happen soon as well; those pertaining to end times and those pertaining to the rapture of the Church. ISRAEL is not the Church. The Catholic Church is not the Church. Let's be 100% clear on that point. Those who love and desire Christ as their Savior, they are the Church. We are the Church. We are not all church-goers. We are not people who don't sin. QUITE the opposite. Let it be known to all that we all sin, every last one of us, but HE, Jesus died for us, and forgave us of those sins. His blood covers them. There is NO MORE need for blood sacrifices. You can't get better than the blood of Jesus. It is FINISHED, His words.

    We are not in the Ezekiel 38 war yet. For that to happen America will need to be gutted, taken out, destroyed, or otherwise captive. We are still here, as of today. When the RAPTURE of the Church comes, a lot (sadly, not all) of the Americans, will be taken. We will not be alone. Many around the world, of course, are Christians. When the Christians are gone, it will be so much easier for corruption to take place. I'm over generalizing of course, but America is currently divided. Think of the one side that will be taken, those who are conservative, love God, still think He is King, and have an obligation to uphold His word.  

    If that side is taken, and about 49% of the nation is left, think also that 100% of the children under the age of accountability are being taken. Now, that leaves America with about 27% of its people. Let's take it further and say there are 15% of those who lean to the right who are not Christian, and about 15% of the people who lean left are Christian, they wash out. Now, how about those with special needs who are unable to make decisions about wrong and right...guess what, they go up too.  America then will be left with about 24% of its people....some will be in the military, but a great deal of the military will be gone.

    It's easy now to see that America is no longer a strong power. Let's say at the SAME TIME of the Rapture there is an explosion and Yellowstone is taken out, or there's a massive EMP, something caused by Russians, or maybe ALIENS!!!  However you want to think about it, America must be depleted before the Ezekiel 38 war can take place. We're in the end times, yes, but not Ezekiel 38, not yet. HOWEVER, we are seeing the beginnings of it, and the setup of it, so we know we're that much closer, and if we're that much closer - - then the RAPTURE is that much closer too. (I know, it's quite profound, but it had to be said.)

    WHAT TO DO?  Oh, well, that's easy. Get your "house" in order and accept Jesus as your Savior. If He wrote the book through 66 men/women who didn't know each other and they still got it all correct - - you can bet He's telling the truth and He will keep His word. For all, all, all, everyone, who accepts Him, and truly repents of their sin, will be taken in the Rapture dead or alive...dead first. It's a thing...another promise. (although it really is only a matter of a split-second difference)

WHAT TO DO TO BE SAVED:

A = Acknowledge who you are; a sinner. YOU sin. Know that. You can't be perfect and come to God, we are not perfect. All of us have sin.

B = Believe that He is the risen Son of the Living God. There is no other god; no Allah, Buddha, Raj, or any other. ONLY Yashua (spelling may vary)  HE is Lord. 

C = Confess your sin. You know them. If you don't know them but know you have sinned, confess that. You don't need to go to church to do it.  You tell Jesus! You speak to Him just like you're talking to your friend. Ask Him into your life, into your heart. You don't have to close your eyes, you don't have to be on your knees. TALK to Him. He's waiting.

Jesus said, "Except a man be born again, he will not see the Kingdom of God". What He meant was, to be born of the Spirit, through your confession and your belief. You don't even have to be baptized. Know you are a sinner, know you can't get to Heaven without Him, accept Him. That simple. He promised He would come into your heart and clean up your soul, then keep it. He promised!! He can't lie. 

    

Photo Credit: WELS.com

The Last Hour of Life

 Today we had an Emergency Alert Service test happen at 1:20 p.m. Central. I turned my phone off just in case it was more than what the Government was telling us. I didn't want to hear the loud alert, and I didn't want my phone to be pinged or subjected to anything; I just turned it off.  Leading up to the alert there were literally millions of folks with different thoughts about it. I had my opinions too. I'm sure that my thoughts will differ from those of others, and I promise to be respectful of their thoughts. I hope they are respectful of me.

    I think it was a way for the Federal Government to take a bit of control and do something that yes, alerts us, but did they really need to test it? Some say it's a requirement every three years; this was the 2nd time in 2 1/2 years, so I guess that's within reason. I think they do it to see who will comply, who will dissent, who will panic, and who pay attention; so many reasons. 

    What about those who do not know about it? They're driving down the road and get surprised. They could cause an accident. They could literally kill themselves or others just to see if the test is going to work or not. I'm not sure how much warning was given, but that's another test, isn't it? We have over 300,000,000 people in the country, and likely as many if not more phones! Some people have two or even three phones. I've heard that people have one for domestic violence purposes, but I know there are those who have them for "business" and pleasure as well.

    If 300,000,000 phones sound off at the same time, there's going to be a problem no matter how much warning is given. I liked how the Government flatly stated that they would be searching for or being alerted to "hidden phones" through the test. What data is needed for that? Why would the Government need or care about someone's 2nd or 3rd phone? Terrorists? No... an invasion of privacy. Control. Anyway, I have two phones because I paid for one and bought another one; a better one. I don't have them both activated, but I could. I could use one for my social media and one for privacy. 

    Other thoughts? It was daunting how so many people threw out conspiracy theories about 5G and such. Me included. I think it could have been a way to launch it, it is available in some areas, but not all. Perhaps they did that. I don't know, the Starlink and other satellites were saying that they'd run better after today. Makes me think this "test" had something to do with that. It can't just be a test. Nope, they'll use it for something else; they should...it's a vulnerable time, and they would be foolish to think people won't know what's really happening. 

    If I were the bad guy, I would have attacked Yellowstone at that time. I would have caused an EMP. I would have made sure that everyone was off their phones and internet for the time it took to drop the bomb or whatever.  If I think that way, you know others do too. I'm just a fiction writer. Others have done so much worse than what I think - - they make plans. What if this EAS, the Emergency Alert Service was the last thing we knew before the bomb, the EMP, the eruption, the purge? Well, then we need to know what our exit plan is. I know mine. 

    Americans survived the alert, but think about it. If older people didn't know it was happening they could have accidents and/or heart attacks. If there was a short-circuiting event, anyone with a pacemaker should have been given more warning, or a different one. Then there's the whole nano-bot microchip theory; whether it's true or not; we'll not know. We will never know the real truth no matter who believes we will. One side will always say this, and one side will always say that. When you try to look up anything at all, the actual information has been taken down.

    Until Jesus comes back we will not know the TRUTH. He is the TRUTH. He is the way, the light, the life, and our King. That much we do know. There will be those, sometimes including myself, who will believe that what we are being shown or told is not the truth. Pray. Pray about it, let God have it, and move forward. In a nutshell, that's really all we can do anyway. Not one of us is really in a position to take on the entire world. This world is not my home - - I'm just passing through.

    Photo Credit: Wikipedia.com

Let God Sort it Out

     I'm really angry right now. I think recognizing that is important. I'm not happy, and we don't always have to have that particular emotion to survive or even to thrive. I'm really angry. I have a right to be so, and it's OK if I am. Again, I believe having the withal to know this is good.  I was employed from Feb. to Apr. of this year, and I won't add it to my resume because the man I worked for is unethical, he's a liar, a cad, and he doesn't deserve to even be able to say he was my employer. He's perhaps the worst, or at least one of the worst, employers I've ever had.  We had a hearing today, a Tribunal Appeal really; he had failed to show up for the first hearing, and they gave him a 2nd opportunity. He used that opportunity to lie about me. I hate that.

    After the hearing, I wanted to punch him so hard in the balls. I really did. I had to refocus, rethink, meditate, and get back on track. I was the one-off track at that point. I was the one who needed to be realigned. He doesn't belong to me. His spirit doesn't belong to me. I am responsible for myself, not that man. I have two choices at this point; I can let that man hurt me further, or I can pray and get back in with what I know to be right. I will pray not only for myself, but for my former employer, who calls himself a Christian, but obviously falls so far from the mark, he needs God's help. I won't limit God on how that happens anymore than I would tell God how to fix my problems. I let them go! I place them (and that former employer) at God's feet.

    I didn't want to be kind. I didn't want to be nice. I didn't want to remotely seem cordial, but I am not my own. I was bought with a price; the blood of Christ. I am not in charge. I am not the one who decides. What I do matters; because others will see God in me or they won't. I want them to see God in me. I want them to come to Him because they trust what they saw in me. It's not how my human nature wants to respond; but thank you Jesus, I am not alone. I have the Holy Spirit in me literally restraining me from the evil I could do if left on my own.

    When God says to trust Him with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding, that is what He's talking about. We aren't to do what we want to do, what we think is best, what we could do that would cause as much damage; we are to let go of the hurt, the pain, and the damage that was done to us. Let God do His miracles without our interruptions. We really don't know what is best; we just want to do what we want to do. NO. We must not let that happen; it never turns out for the best. NEVER.

    The rest of that verse says He will set the path straight. I need that. That's what I need. I need a good straight path right now. The good news is I'm not in charge; ice cream helps too. God made it; it's good. This is me....letting go.

Photo Credit: ThermoWorks.com

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.

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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.

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