2021

When I was a kid I used to wonder what it would be like in the year 2000. Now it's 2021. I thought 2000 was scewed up, but 2020 proved to me that the system we live under is about as monstrous as it gets. These days I figure things will only get worse because the way it's geared it can't get better (there's no process for improvement).

Last time I posted here I figured I'd be logging in at the old blog more often. In fact, I was here less. Every day that I thought about sitting at the desk to post something, the time I spend here seemed unimportant, and so I stayed away. In fact, aside from writing, I almost never turn on the desktop. It sits quiet and cold and ignored most days. I'll work on a novel for an hour or two, then turn it off.

So it goes.

Since our trip to Kentucky things have been hectic. We had the whole holiday thang to go through. Unlike most cynics I actually adore the time from Halloween through New Year's Day. And even though I'm not religious at all, I'm with Andy Williams on Christmas. For me, both currently and nostalgically, it is the most wonderful time of the year. I was reminded of the reaction I got from a former friend when I told him that. He was horrified. Last I knew of that twisted loon, he had become both a Christian and a Hitler-loving neo-Nazi. (You can't make this shit up. If it was fiction, readers would think it was too outrageous.)

The Casita needs some work done on the water pump, so I haven't taken it camping since our return from Kentucky. I have an appointment to take it in for that, plus some other issues that need attention (windows resealed, new stabilizer jacks on the back, 'porch' light, etc). That's why I haven't been on any cold-weather trips in the travel trailer. When I get it back later this month I'll hit some parks in glamping style.

My son, Andy, landed a good job. Making the legendary "living wage". The job is a bit of a haul from where he lives and he needed a new vehicle for that so I bought him one. These days I'm economically able to do that kind of thing...so I do it. It's what parents do, I reckon. At least this parent.

With any luck, January will be the beginning of a much more active time for me compared to the last two months. Carole and I were planning vacations, but then the covid reemerged so now we don't know what's going to happen with that. We had planned a winter trip to Key West and a camping trip out to Dry Tortugas National Park, but that's off. Later in the year we wanted to go camping in Pennsylvania, but they have a 10-day quarantine regime set up for out-of-state visitors! If you cross the border to stay you have to quarantine yourself. That would essentially eat up the entire vacation. (Or get a covid-19 test. If it comes up negative and you can present the paperwork you're good to go. Only I'm not taking a virus test to go camping and sightseeing. Therefore, PA as a vacation destination is right out.)

As I said, 2020 was a messed up year, and not a lot is going to change soon for 2021.

 

 

Just after we got the tree put up and got the lights on. Carole and I both think this is probably the prettiest tree we've ever had. We got lucky.

 

Tree up and decorated, no presents yet.

 

Presents accumulating over the days leading up to Christmas.

 

Christmas morning.

 

 The last photo of the tree. It comes down today (January 2, 2021).

I bought this 2017 Santa Fe from my sister for Andy to get to and from his new job.

Yeah, I know. I'm a heathen, but I love the holiday season. I adore it when it's happening and I gravely miss it when it's over. I suppose I'm that rare person who looks forward to it every year. My two favorite Christmas songs are Andy Williams classics.

Neglected!

Alas, I've been neglecting the old blog of late. It was not intentional. 

For a few years it was my intention to post here as often as I could as a way to spur me to work on my fiction writing every day. It worked in that way for a few years when I needed it as a crutch for that kind of thing. Then, after I left the Postal Service I got out of the habit of posting on the blog very much and went to other online access points to keep in touch with other people.

For the past couple of years, especially, I tended to steer clear of my blogging activities. When I was working the low-level management job I was often too busy or too stressed to come to the old desktop and create an announcement or essay to post here. Over the past couple of decades I had seen blogs that I once frequented vanish completely as the creators of them went mainly to Facebook to stay in touch with other creators or their fans. Facebook seems to have taken quite a toll on blogging.

At any rate, here I am.

Since November of 2019 I have been busy getting my back-list of novels into print. That has been foremost in my creative efforts. Plus I decided to self-publish my latest novel which has been somewhat of a chore. I have never been---to put it mildly---a fan of self-publishing. In fact, I did everything to steer clear of it since Amazon made it oh-so easy for anyone and everyone to go that route. But...I find myself walking that road.

Getting my next back-list novel out has been foremost in my efforts. That one is WORKING CLASS HERO: The Autobiography of a Super-Hero. I renegotiated the audiobook contract with Beacon Audiobooks, so that has been taken care of. But I haven't landed cover art that satisfies me for getting the novel back into print. Add to this the fact that a traditional publisher has expressed some interest in the project and I find myself in something of a holding pattern. If the situation is right, I may send that book to a new publisher and not do it myself. Handling everything---cover art, editing, layouts, formatting, publishing, advertising, promotions---is frankly a pain in the ass. I'd rather just be a writer. I have never been a salesman and frankly that job does not interest me the way it does some people.

In between working on the books, I have been taking advantage of being retired to go hiking and to take trips with Carole to go camping and sightseeing here and there.

So. Life in retirement is proving to be a lot of fun, but also almost as busy as my life as a working stiff punching clocks five days a week.

I'm sitting in my office now trying to decide which of my back-list novels to release next. Should I go forward with WORKING CLASS HERO? Get THE CRAG back to the light of day? Will WITHERING make the cut first? Or maybe THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH? Or something else?

It's a conundrum. In the meantime, here are pretty pictures of places I've been and things I've seen in the past few weeks.

Oh, yeah! Before I forget! Buy my new audiobook of FOUR FROM MANGROVE! Narrated by the extremely talented Bruce Berlow! High fantasy as good as it gets!

FOUR FROM MANGROVE.

Amicalola Falls.

The shoe tree outside of Wasali-Yi Inn where Appalachian Trail backpackers toss their worn-out boots.

Yours truly with a huge poplar tree at Amicalola Falls.

Lower portion of Helton Creek Falls.

View from the top of Blood Mountain.

The Blood Mountain Shelter.

Upper Helton Creek Falls.

Carole at our campsite at Vogel State Park.

We two at Helton Creek Falls.

I had the summit all to myself at Blood Mountain! Unheard of!

Lottery contraption. They used these when they stole the Cherokee Nation lands from the indigenous people and gave it all away to white folk.

The real deal. Not a fake.

Gold coins minted at the old Dahlonega Mint (closed at the start of the War Between the States).

Time Out!

I'm going to take some time off from active blogging for a little while. I have to finish THE REZ so that my agent can start shopping it around. To that end, I need to stop devoting so much of my energy to the blog and reserve it for my now-precious writing time.

I'll still post some things here--maybe even on a daily basis. But they will be very brief. Perhaps limited to a photo or two.

But not so many outdoors reports or essays.

This cover amazed me when I was a kid. First time I saw it I realized that photos were involved but I couldn't quite figure out how Jack Kirby had done it. As with all such things art-related, I went to my mom for answers. And she explained to me how collages were created. Kirby went through a period during which he did a lot of collage work in his stories. He made this kid stop and think. Always.