I Want This!

I loved Star Trek: The Animated Series as a kid. I mean, more Trek at a time when no one wanted to touch the franchise?

But these animated versions of the other Trek series are nostalgic and hysterical at the same time.I love them!

Lives Reduced to Piles of Paperwork

No movies this weekend. I wrote while DH and his sisters chipped away at the gargantuan pile of belongings in their parents' house. The stuff Nana and Papa valued were not things that can be sold or kept forever.

There were everyone's grade cards and pictures. DH's stats from when he played Little League Baseball fifty years ago. Heck, not even their pastor wanted the church accounting records from the '60's and '70's.

Piles of books, ranging from FIL's Korean War army manual to the romantic suspenses I purchased and had signed by the author for MIL. Journals. Boxes of personal memorabilia belonging to MIL's mother. Boxes of costume jewelry hidden in weird places.

DH and the siblings keep asking me what I think or would I like something. I've only laid claim to FIL's industrial-level paper shredder and his scanner for copies in case DH and I get audited by the IRS.

Because I'm not leaving a similar mess of disintegrating paper, dead bugs, and dust for GK when I croak.

Music I've Been Listening to Lately

Dammit, Ryan Reynolds! Now, I have this song stuck in my head!

Politics and the Artist

The Problem We All Live With, (c)1964, Norman Rockwell

A lot of folks are of the mind no artist can be political.

But we all have our own beliefs and ideas. And those beliefs and ideas are all politicized somehow, someway, in an effort to police thought and behavior.

I've had folks complain about my lead character being women. Or Black. Or how dare a paralegal go through a pregnancy by herself after her boyfriend broke up with her.

I don't think too many readers have realized Chief Justice Anthea is three-quarters Navajo. Or that a majority of the people of Issura are a mix of Celtic, Etruscan, and Chumash. Or that Luc is half Native American and half African.

There's a bunch of people who aren't going to like Queer Eye for the Super Guy because LGBT+ characters are going to take over the 888-555-HERO storyline.

Hell, I had people complain about Bloodlines even though all the major characters would be considered white by today's standards. In that series though, religion was the main driving point.

*ALL HAIL SAM, THE GODDESS OF DEATH*

The point I'm trying to make is we use art to express ourselves. In all ways. Whether other people like it or not. If you don't, the smart thing to do is walk away. Because none of you are going to dictate who and what I write about.

If you don't like my stories, write your own. There are people out there who think like you do. Share your stories with them. There's no reason to police the rest of the world's thought processes. And guess what? You won't succeed either.

Refilling the Well

A couple of weeks ago, I was writing Hero Ad Litem, and something broke inside of me. I love the characters of this series. I have a lot of fun writing them. And all of the sudden it wasn't fun.

It wasn't just the 888-555-HERO series. I switch between projects, and I was having the same problem with Soccer Moms of the Apocalypse. When I fiddled around with the Willowbrook Witches short story that was supposed to be April's free short story, I got really worried and took a step back from everything.

I talked over the issues with some friends. As one of them pointed out, I'd had a ton of life rolls this year alone. Never mind the pandemic and the ongoing coup of the U.S. government. Or everything else that's been happening in our family since 2013.

When I took a second step back, I realized it wasn't just the 2022 life rolls. I made a major writing mistake. I wasn't refilling my well.

For those of you who aren't professional storytellers, we need to be consumers as well as producers. We need to be reading new (to us) books, watching new (to us) movies and TV, and listening to new (to us) music. Not for imitation, but to produce something new with all the bits we take in. Think of it as making a smoothie. You throw in a bunch of different ingredients and make something new when you turn on the blender.

Because of the massive suck of the last couple of years, I've been consuming old favorites. Re-reading Kathryn Kurtz's Deryni series. Re-watching favorite sitcoms like Friends, Dharma & Greg, and The Big Bang Theory. Re-watching favorite movies like The Mummy, GalaxyQuest, and The Wedding Singer. For music, it's been '90's rock and metal.

Absolutely, none of this is new to me. I took comfort in old favorites to keep the fucking depression from coming back like it did in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I took a harder look at my consumption for 2022. I've read one and a half new books. TOTAL over the last six months. I normally read a couple of books a week. The only new series I've watch was Ghosts. The only new movies I've seen were The King's Man and Free Guy. That's pretty fucking sad for someone who has several hundred unread book on her tablet and has subscribed to nearly every major streaming service.

Also, I haven't been traveling because of the stupid pandemic either. I was just getting started again after my cancer surgery. I went to DH on a road trip to Denver, and I flew to Las Vegas for a writing workshop. And then BOOM!

Sure, I made a handful of road trips for family-related reasons during the pandemic, but it's not quite the same when you're constantly worried about exposing yourself and subsequently, vulnerable family members to the virus. But these trips weren't for our entertainment.

So, DH and I went to a movie in a theater last weekend. We are going to do some ghost-hunting next month, and I contacted an old friend about getting together.

Hopefully, this all helps my muse to refill my well. And I find writing fun again.

Monday Movie Mania Is Back!

That's right! DH and I went to a public theater yesterday!

Well, AMC is the only public movie theater in our town. They didn't even have all twelve of the individual theaters open. A good chunk of the folks working there were masked. Even the movie goers were voluntarily spacing themselves a healthy six feet part in the seats. And their behavior, like the movie itself, gave my tired, cynical heart a sliver of hope.

But my crowd observations are not why you're reading this.

We went because, quite simply, dinosaurs must be seen on the big screen.

* * *

SPOILERS

* * *

Jurassic World: Dominion is the final movie of the second trilogy based on Michael Crichton's best-selling novel, Jurassic Park.

PROS

1) Writers Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly and screenwriter Emily Carmichael manage to tie up a ton of loose ends from the other five films.

2) The studio brought back Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and Sam Neil, the stars of the first trilogy. Our favorite three geeks are older and a little wiser, except not so much when it comes to Ian Malcolm.

3) Blue is back. And our favorite velociraptor shows off her new offspring to Owen.

4) Campbell Scott does a superb job of wrapping several real-life tech CEOs into his performance as main villain, Lewis Dodgson.

5) Mamoudou Athle's Ramsey is the real hero of the story as he works to expose his boss.

6) Ian's unbuttoning and buttoning of his shirt in an attempt to seduce pilot Kayla Watts is a flash in the movie, but I died laughing.

7) Even the fake Barbasol can from the first movie makes a cameo as a foreshadow of Dodgson's final fate. 

8)There are so many Easter eggs! I need to rewatch the movie because know I missed some. But the criticism of Monsanto was my favorite part.

9) B.D. Wong's Dr. Henry Wu redeemed himself in this movie. (Wong is the only actor to appear in all six movies.)

10) Dinosaurs!

CONS

1) The writers crammed a little too much plot into a very limited time frame. I would have preferred a little more character development for the original trio of how they cam to be where they are after thirty years.

I'm working on refilling my well (more about that on Wednesday's post). A new story with some old friends definitely helped.

Overall, I give Jurassic World: Dominion 8 stars out of 10.

Music I've Been Listening to Lately

Like I said last, WIOT has been playing a LOT of The Offspring.

Just Another Friday

I'm taking a couple of classes through WMG Publishing, and I made sure my homework was done and turned prior to today. I'm trying to finish up the personal and business accounting matters by today. That leaves the weekend for writing, doing some house cleaning, and *drum roll please* going to the theater!

The last movie I watched in a public venue was Bird of Prey way back at the beginning of February in 2020. DH and I are heading to the theater this weekend to see Jurassic World: Dominion.

Why now? We're vaxxed and boosted and dinosaurs need to be viewed on the big screen. We've spent the last two weeks re-watching the series. And lastly, I think I'm ready to return to the world again after two and a half years of pandemic crap.

I don't like that a lot of my behavior is being ruled by anxiety instead of sensible precautions. I hope these next baby steps will conquer the irrationality.

Or maybe I want to see Jeff Goldblum shirtless. :)

Just Another Plagiarism Scandal

Authors can be a dumb bunch at times. All the things that make it easy to plagiarize in the 21st century also make it easy to detect.

And again, a reader is the one who caught the alleged perpetrator. S.M. McEachern's book Sunset Rising was allegedly (I may be an ex-lawyer, but I know the legal rules about libel) plagiarized by Frost Kay. In turn, Kay is blaming their ghostwriter.

1) You may think the publishing industry is quick, easy money. It can be. . .when you do some seriously shady shit. If you don't want to spend time improving your craft, why bother with it? There's easier ways to make money.

2) I have a passion for storytelling. I still do despite the stress of this year. But when that passion isn't there, it's like. . .well, it's like touching my father-in-law's corpse. Not trying to be gross, but the sensation is the same sad, empty feeling. Why subject yourself to that?

3) If you don't have a passion for storytelling, why the hell are you doing this publishing thing? If you love to write, you don't have to publish. If you hate writing, find something else that you love.

Life's too short to fuck around like this, folks. And today, with everybody in everybody else's business and spending their days performing for social media, the ugly truth is always just a slip away.

Just Another Manic Monday

I was trying to finish Hero Ad Litem the same weekend DH's sisters wanted to work on their parents' house. It was fortuitous that I had our house all to myself. Bella crashed on my lap and slept while I wrote, except when she needed a constitutional, which usually correlated to my need for more caffeine.

But something broke within me while I worked Saturday. I don't know if I hit the wall of burnout or what, but all of the sudden this story wasn't fun for me (even if it did get me out of cleaning the in-law's house). I admit I cut it a bit shorter than I originally intended and dropped the price correspondingly. So, unless something drastically changes, I think Queer Eye for the Super Guy will be the last book in the 888-555-HERO series.

Maybe what DH and I both is a vacation most of all. We haven't been on a real vacation since before GK was born. Next month, we're heading to Millersburg, Ohio, for a long weekend. It's research for me, but it'll be nice to get away from home for a little while. As a friend pointed out when she did a Tarot reading for me recently, there's been a lot of shit going on in my life over the last two that had nothing to do with the pandemic.

So, yes, a little ghost hunting in Ohio Amish country will be fun. Maybe I'll find my mojo in the process.

Music I've Been Listening to Lately

I don't know why, but the Toledo station has been playing a lot of The Offspring lately.

Just a Quick Note

...to say I am still alive. I'm trying to wrap up Hero Ad Litem since it needs to be uploaded this weekend to Amazon.

Publishing three novels in thirty days. What the hell was I thinking?

Except this was NOT the original plan. But life rolls happen.

So if you see large gaps in my release schedule for 2023, it's me trying to carve out some time for me. The last thing I want is to burn myself out and stop writing. None of us will be happy with that scenario.

Millersburg, Ohio - The True Story

Fifteen years ago, I had a meeting with an agent where I pitched Zombie Love. She immediately rejected the book because (a) she hated Los Angeles and (b) I'd never been there. She told me I could only write about what I knew and places I'd been.

Damn, I dodged a bullet there.

But at the time, I was pissed, and as a response, I wrote Amish, Vamps & Thieves.

I set the story in Millersburg, Ohio, which is the county seat of Holmes County. It's also the heart of the Ohio Amish community.

I grew up in a little town south of Millersburg. I went to college in another little town north of Millersburg. But I hadn't been there in thirty years. Things change, and I needed to learn about the 21st century version of the town I once knew.

I'd planned to visit when I started the Bloodlines spin-off series, Millerburg Magick Mysteries. But by the time I'd recovered from my cancer treatments and returned from a workshop in Las Vegas, the COVID-19 epidemic was blowing through the U.S.

So next month, DH and I are heading over to Millersburg to tour the town and do a little ghost hunting. I'll post pictures of the real life settings for the series. And hopefully, I'll have revisions for the first three books available soon.

Another Manic Monday

DH bribed me to get out of bed a little earlier today with breakfast from Starbucks. Princess Bella recognized the logo on the bag as well as the delightful smells and demanded her share of my sausage, cheddar and egg sandwich.

The egg, sausage, and bacon wraps are back, but they are no longer the huge burritos they once were. I'll have to get a report from DH on whether they taste the same. On the plus side, the Starbucks kiosk in Kroger now has online ordering. That will come in handy because the stand-alone store in town is having staffing problems. Again.

I've got a stack of Kickstarter reward packages I need to take to the post office, some books to return to the library, and a novel I need to finish writing.

Frankly, I focus on all this minutiae so I don't break down over a world gone mad. And I hope my stories bring someone else a little respite on the insanity.

During the '60's, I was a small child who believed my parents could do anything. Now, I'm a grandparent who feels utterly powerless to protect my loved ones. It sucks to watch the storms rolling in and feel so damn helpless.

I'll get my running around done, and then I'll focus on my little worlds where I do have some control. My heroes deserve a happily ever after, even if I can't give them to people in real life.

Music I've Been Listening to Lately

The last two years sucked, but Toderick kept us dancing to the music.

Paperbacks Arrived!

Yesterday, the UPS guy dropped off three cases of paperbacks. That's ninety copies. All of Pestilence in Pumpkin Spice. It's a little overwhelming since I've never sold ninety paperbacks in total over the last six years I've had paperbacks available.

The bubble envelopes for the Kickstarter folks who only wanted a copy of the first book already have the address labels on them, so tonight, I'll stuff envelopes while we watch TV.

I've also received some nice comment from folks about the quote magnet sets I've sent out already to the digital-only backers. I wanted to give something to the all backers that didn't cost an arm and a leg in shipping fees. (It's become rather ridiculous to even mail a package to my alter ego's cover designer who lives in Canada.)

Between stuffing envelopes, fixing A Measure of Knowledge, and finishing Hero Ad Litem, I've got a busy weekend ahead. I hope y'all get to enjoy the warm weather and sunshine!

The Beginning of Summer

As much as I'd like to purchase a chaise and lounge on the deck with a good book, there's far too much for me to accomplish.

Of course, top of the list is fixing A Measure of Knowledge. Then comes finishing Hero Ad Litem, Famine in French Vanilla, War in White Chocolate, and Death in Double Mocha. After which, I have a couple of stories to write in the Soccer Moms universe that are stretch goals for last March's Kickstarter camppaign.

I'm exploring some new ways to do audiobooks at a cost I can afford.

And lastly I'm toying with some ideas for an anniversary edition of A Question of Balance. Maybe even a guidebook similar to the Pern guidebooks in my extensive library. Heck, I'm even looking into designing a Tarot deck. These would be a lot of work, but I think they would be a lot of fun!

If anyone has any thoughts on the above, leave a comment or shoot me a message.