Messing around on Easter Sunday

What to do? Oh what to do?  The book is gone and I need something to keep me out of trouble. I wandered around the house yesterday waiting for the Final Four basketball games, I rinsed the yellow pollen off the car, I took a three mile walk and still felt I should be doing something. So, last night I started another book. (The man is nuts)

Today I found a new gadget to improve this blog. Rather than tell everyone where they can find the Powers Trace books there is now a link to Amazon. Try it, if you buy I get a few coins to help with the publishing cost. If you’re not interested it will give you something to do to pass the time.

This post is just an entry to test this new toy. We’ll see if it’s worth anything.

The End is Near

The writing of “Powers Trace III, The Live Oak Tree” is complete.

I was beginning to have my doubts whether I would ever get it on paper but it’s finished and I will send it off to the publisher on Friday. I’m taking the next two days to make sure the minor typing errors are fixed, at least the ones that I can find, and then turn it loose. I’ve never sent off a perfect manuscript and I’m sure this will not change that. I will have a chance to review the formatted gallies and approve them one last time before printing so maybe, just maybe I’ll have a book by the end of April. This is a larger book than the first two. 146,000 words which will make about 350 pages.

I ran out of copies of the first book, Powers Trace, a month ago so I ordered a few to have on hand if anyone wants one to begin from the beginning which I  recommend. Not to make a sale but to understand the Town and the people which are covered in more detail in the first book. You get to know the place and the characters that live there. I didn’t carry that level of detail in the next two books because it added to the length of the books and became redundant. 

Powers Trace II, The Ice Age is available.

Come back here for details on the publishing progress. I’ll try to keep y’all up to date. I’ve encountered problems with Xlibris during publication of the first two books, generally administrative screw ups, so let’s hope they handle this book better. I wanted to stay with them for all three books to make the books the same. This is the last one. I’ll find another publisher for future projects. 

And the words keep comin’

I’m within sight of the end. The new book will definitely go to the publisher within a couple of weeks, I’m on the final chapter now so the words are there. In the past it took about two weeks to edit and rewrite a book, going from Chapter 1 all the way through checking for, and correcting the goofs. I hate this part but it has to be done. I will receive the initial galley a week or so after submission for the  final review and approval and then, if I’m lucky, they will have the book printed four weeks after that.

I do have a decision to make. This book begins five years after the second book ended and I probably need a prolog to get the readers up to speed. Since this is the last of the trilogy I will tie it all up with an epilog to close. Then I can get on with other projects.

I’ve really been lax on this one. There were times I just couldn’t sit down in front of the computer and make any sense of the story. I do need to get on with other ideas and leave my friends in Powers Trace alone to do their thing. They are my friends, I’ve lived with them for almost three years. You become attached and I sometimes confuse the characters with real life friends. I’ve been known to talk to them, in the car, alone trying to get the dialog right. It gets weird but I love it.  

Who dat says it don’t snow in Georgia?

We Southern folk generally don’t see snow in our yards once in any year. Today we experienced the second snowfall in 12 months.

The front yard and the “E’s” fake yellow mums.

The wind-blown Old  Glory

The back yard, my writing place in the summer.

The “E’s” Gooses. Even they look cold.

As I write this the snow is still coming down. The weather man can’t get his act together and we are supposed to get either 1” or 4” inches before midnight. Needless to say all the nonbelievers are rushing to the supermarket for food, those who can’t drive in dry weather are out there skidding around the streets in town, and all schools will be closed for a week. Ah Georgia, I’d live nowhere else.

To catch up…

Luey is gone. The vet said he had age problems that would not get better. The “E” took it hard but that’s to be expected, Luey was her best friend and her constant companion for almost 15 years. She planted an Azalea bush as a head stone and we buried him with his favorite toy, a rubber banana. It’s tough getting old but he had a great life.

Now we only have Cookie, the fastest Jack Russell in the neighborhood, just a step or two slower than the squirrels she chases around our yard. She has a personality all her own and will take up some of the slack getting all the attention a dog would ever need.

Luey. A one-of-a-kind best friend.

Our house is about to become dreary, without the daily joy we have felt for the past decade plus four years, but we saw it coming the past several months. We will probably lose our Luey this week. It will be a great loss, especially for the “E”.

Luey is a miniature Schnauzer, grey and white, and could have been a show dog, he is that great looking. He always gets oohs and aahs from our neighbors, or strangers, while out walking, the groomers treat him like a star, and only the owner of the shop gives him his monthly cuts. She won’t allow another groomer to mess him up.     

He is, without a doubt, Ethel’s dog. She picked him from a litter when he was a very young pup and from that day forward Luey was by her side, or walking along at her heels, bumping her leg with his nose. He spent much of his life on her lap being coddled, hugged, and brushed. He never complained, always laid quietly on his back, as he did with me above, totally content, knowing he was the best looking animal in our house.

We have always had at least one dog in our home. All of them were special, all were treated like our children, but Luey was extra special. He will be missed terribly. There will be a huge void in our home.

He was our Luey. We loved him greatly and he returned that love a hundred fold.   

Sleep? Who sleeps?

I’ve got a guilty conscience. Last year was not my best when it came to putting words on paper, or on the hard drive if you want to nit pick. It was like running a relay. I would burst into a run for a short distance, pass on to something new, sprint to catch up, get diverted, and I now find the book at the two thirds mark and the characters have taken the plot in a totally new direction. I guess they decided that if I wasn’t going to pay attention, and do my job, they would grab the reigns and get this sucker finished. The new direction is a surprise and is going to lead to a wild ending.

I’m shooting for 130,000 words and as of last night I’m at 90,000. With this being the last book of the trilogy I’m trying to bring it all to a healthy conclusion but, someone’s gonna die, said the gunslinger but who, that’s the question Yorick. It will depend on how much trouble they get themselves into at the end. I can probably follow their lead for a while yet, but soon I will have to take charge, and bring it back to a realistic finish. Maybe. Maybe not. The suspense is killing me.

Follow up to the previous weather alert.

Just a quick note to update yesterdays storm preparations.

The night was cold again but the only precipitation was a light mist and a few rain drops. The front went through fast and the morning dawned clear and bright.

We spent the day in sunshine, watching cars on TV bang into each other on the icy streets in Atlanta. They can’t handle winter any better than we can, the difference is that in rush hour in the city they still try to drive 80 on the bypass. Pile-ups there are spectacular.   

A new year. A new decade.

We are now a week into all this new stuff and it feels the same as the old stuff, except colder. We get cold snaps here in Dixie every  winter, frigid one day, warm weather comes back a day later, but the cold came with the new year and stayed. Not blustery snow and sleet cold, but the temperatures get down in the teens at night and forces the dogs to sleep under the covers, our covers. Kind of a furry bed warmer with attitude.

For the past few days the weather people on TV have been talking up a forecast of “Possible” snow for tonight. This caused a mass closing of schools for tomorrow, a run on the food stores for the basic food groups, mainly Vienna sausage for some reason, bottled water and fake fireplace logs. You can’t be too careful with snow storms coming.

The local emergency councils have been in meetings for two days making sure the people are protected. It was 50 degrees this afternoon, but to be prepared, the emergency management team sent the trucks out, spewing sand and salt around on the bridges because, as the signs say, “Bridge may freeze before the road does”.

I know. All you Yankees who live in snow for months during winter laugh at us Southern dip sticks, but we suffer through these periods of cold, in spite of our “Emergency Management” bosses. They don’t get much chance to put on their fancy uniforms, drive around in their four-wheelers, make decisions and stuff so we step aside and nod our heads when they take command of the sand trucks and warn us to let the faucet drip to prevent pipes from freezing. It’s just part of who we are, give or take a dip stick or two.