06 July 2025
Themes in the FLU SEASON Saga
29 June 2025
All About THE GRANDSONS
Funny story: It was late and I thought to do a last-minute check of the details in all the spaces and pages of the publication process only to come up to the final button. I mistook that button for the "save" button and, having pressed it, the book was launched. But, not to worry, for it was finished, polished, and ready to go. I simply wished to make July 1 the publication date. Seeing the next day that it had actually been launched, I scrambled to check the details of the print edition, then went ahead and launched the paperback, too. Now both are "live" and available to you.
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Finally settling with one of the scientists from the facility in an abandoned house outside a long-destroyed city, they think they are alone and can just live their lives - only to be caught in battles between religious fanatics and foreign soldiers. A wandering wiseman convinces Bart there's no need to go further west: nothing there. Then a devastating tragedy compels them to return east, where they hope to meet up with the other sisters and live a normal life.
File created: May 21, 2024
Draft finished: February 17, 2025
(Approximately 1 year between launch of Book 4: THE BOOK OF DAD and THE GRANDSONS, with Book 5: THE GRANDDAUGHTER between them.)
Final revision completed (not counting extra tweaks/edits): April 27, 2025
Well, folks.... Before THE GRANDSONS was even half-way done with revisions, I started another book, set 200+ years after the end of THE GRANDSONS, to be titled THE WARRIORS BAUMANN, which follows two ancestors of the family in Book 6 as the world further descends into chaos and a plain medieval society becomes the norm in Missouri. It is written as a comedy, a farce, if you will, yet with a warm-hearted finish that connects with my earlier novel EPIC FANTASY *WITH DRAGONS, which is set 8000 years in the future.
14 June 2025
Writing Motivations: An Exercise in Self Therapy
My first completed novel was back in 1981 (remains unpublished). I was not exploring my own issues in that. It took another novel (1983; published in 2020) for me to see something in it that reflected my own condition. In my youth, I often would explore a situation as if I were only an example, a test subject, even though - had I been pressed - I might have realized I was figuring out something about myself.
So I cheat. But at least it's my own life I draw from. There's a lot to draw from, although it's never been my intention to simply write a memoir. I did try that a couple of times. It got boring fast. My advice for new writers, however, would be to try to write your own life. See what is true and see what isn't but may sound true enough to be included. Then you can fictionalize it. A good exercise.
26 May 2025
With a whimper....
It is also easier for me to write about a 'lesser' setting, which I can handle well, than a technological overwhelming new world. In fact, I still have not upgraded my computer or its apps for years now and those corporations have threatened to cut me off.
26 April 2025
Legacy Media and the time of death
23 March 2025
Novel vs Short Story?
This is my one and only TEDTalk. Thank you for coming!
15 February 2025
The Usual February Blues
A crowd gathers to see who this figure might be,
as none have come from the east for years – none worth addressing, at the
least. Stragglers with tales of flameless fire and putrid illness. A wave of
death. Fleeing criminals hoping for a break. The rare lost tax man or some
ignorant seeker of opportunity, random scalawags and bold outlaws. A gunslinger
or two. A foolish family hoping to survive.
Dark in road-rough garb, the figure glares from
beneath the rim of the felt hat at the townsfolk gathered: passersby, the
curious, morning shoppers, businessmen going to offices. Another cow town, the
stranger seems to acknowledge with a disappointed shift of chin. They’re
harmless, and unarmed, the dark figure notes.
The figure, looking more to be a woman in man’s
clothing as the people examine, lays her hand upon the grip of one of two pistols
set upon her hips, ready to use it.
“Skinner Canyon?” asks the stranger in mild
tone.
“Yes, ma’am,” says an older man, wiping his moist
brow, beady eyes set in a permanent squint. “This’s the place.” He gives her a long
look, not approving. “What’s yer bidness in town?”
Townsfolk can see the two pieces of cargo lain
in the cart. There is a crudely constructed wooden box, looking like pine,
large enough and in the shape to hold a laid-out man. The wood is well-smudged
with dirt, grimy like it was dragged up from the earth. A coffin, they presume,
nailed tightly shut. Who could be inside?
29 January 2025
Welcome to 2025
29 December 2024
End of 2024 Review
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