I know what you mean, DIrk. I've started little vignettes in Word with file titles like "Visit to the Doc" or "Surprise Samurai Attack", but haven't reached sufficient motivation to string them together with more text. I'm in the Summer doldrums, I guess.
Bill
I have to apologize for my long absence from TNBW. First, it was a trip to Colorado for three weeks to cat-sit while my duaghter went to Ireland (and all I got was a Titanic tee shirt). Then when I came home, I find my best friend for almost 50 years, who has been living in our basement for the last 21 years (loooong story), and who has fallen multiple times in the last six months is now hospitalized and has brain bleeders. We are in the process of moving him out and into a care facility.
I have multiple stories from multiple fellow authors backed up in my "to do" email basket numbering 27 now. I will get to them, it just might take me a while.
I have also found I've lost my way writing. The muse has left the building (and possibly the planet). I tried many times to sit down and write again, but simply couldn't get it working. I really want to work on both Wanderlust and the sequel to The Long Trek Home, which I am titling "From a House to a Home" in keeping with the "Home" theme. No luck there either. I get started and find myself being interrupted to take care of one more detail of my friend's move.
Sorry, I didn't mean to unload here, but it did help.
Bill
Hilarious! I see some of my early mistakes there.
Bill
I've posted a few funny short stories. At least I think they're funny. Try "Adventurous" Or, if you're into puns, some of the others are punny.
Bill
Nobody called their male friends "dude". The use of "man" came about with the advent of Elvis Presley movies. "Don't mess with me, man."
Women would rather have been boiled in oil than call another woman "Bitch".
Bill
For example, here's an Eagle. Hover your mouse over the picture and it should show you the URL used. If that doesn't work, try "Open picture in another tab". The Address Bar should show you my URL of Intellisigsys.net.
Bill
Hi, Rachel. You have to host your picture on a posting site, then use the URL in your site post using the Image icon. You can't host pictures on your own computer. It has to be a web site. I use my own web site, so I don't know any online hosting services. Google might give you a few free hosting sites.
Bill
Well done, Randy.
Bill
The secret is: I have two daughters. One in Boulder (where I am currently cat-sitting while she is in Ireland) and another south of Ft. Worth, who has had lots of tornado activity lately.
Bill
Thanks, Ann. My daughter lives just south of Fort Worth and they've had some close calls as well. This set of twisters was just a little close to home for my liking. The Mall is about four blocks east of us and it was closed for the last four days without power and water service. It just opened up this morning.
I'll head home in about 12 more days or so. Hope the weather holds. It's been beautiful here in the Front Range.
Bill
Hi, JP. You got to WPAFB just the same time we arrived in Beavercreek for me to take a job. How about that?
The rain/hail/rain sequence was here in Boulder. The last couple of weeks has seem some really out-of-normal weather almost everywhere. I'm here to cat-sit for my daugthter while she's visiting Ireland for two weeks.
Bill
Thanks, MJ. Cats are my favorite animal. One of the ones I'm sitting likes to jump on the kitchen counter. I'm trying to dissuade him, but he's an old cat and you can't change attitudes at that age. The weather here is strange as well. I'm in Boulder, CO at our other house. Yesterday, we went from bright sunshine, to cloudy, to a burst of rain, to marble-sized hail, to thunderstorm, to drizzle, to bright sunshine in about an hour. Crazy for sure.
Bill
Wife was without power for quite some time. My UPS kept routers, etc up for a while, then I told her to power it down until electricity came back on.
Bill
Thanks, Bobbie. Much appreciated.
Bill
For those of you who might have heard of the EF3 tornado that hit Dayton, Ohio last night: I am fine. The house looks windblown and lots of tree damage, but nothing drastic. Across town (half mile away) several roofs were torn off and power lines were downed, roads blocked, and stuff like that. Celina, Ohio is where the other one struck. Ours hit mostly west part of Dayton -- we live in the east near Wright Patterson AFB.
At the moment, I am in Boulder, Colorado cat sitting for my daughter who is away on a trip.
Bill
Speaking as a veteran of 57 years of married life, it isn't over, man. It's just started. Cherish what you have and never let go. Congratulations.
Bill
Things are slowly getting back to normal. Mhy wife's knee is healing and the stength is coming back with physical training. It is slow though, mostly because of her previous two hips replacements. Not as spry as she used to be. Me neither, for that matter. Still have some tension in my own state of health, but coping with it better now. I even tried to do a little writing yesterday and today. Didn't get far, but farther than I had been.
Thanks for the responses.
Bill
Outstanding, Randy! Way to go.
Bill
How about "chortle"? You could add Dirk's "Demonic" to the mix.
Bill
. . . . And no, I'm not that old, but my mom talked about him all the time.]
JP
That's what we all say. ;-)
Bill
If you've ever seen/heard Vincent Price and his wonderfully evil laughter, then this is the term you need. I tried to come up with a suitable phrase but failed. Is this what you mean?
Bill
Outstanding, Rachel. Well done!
Bill
Temple is right on one count: I am an obsessive reader. I read ALL the time. I'm never without a book of some kind. Short stories do have an appeal. I have a stable of them on my computer waiting to be finished. Some are nothing but a paragraph with a basic plot. Could be a time away from the demands of strategic thinking on a huge plot would be beneficial. I have a short (three week) vacation in Boulder coming up. I'll be cat-sitting in a house with no TV other than DVDs. Perfect situation for time alone.
Bill
Hi, Christine. Since I posted this, I've been doing some deep self-analysis. I've come to the conclusion I'm not happy with the direction all my major works are going. The framework for the second in the trilogy is virtual bare bones and I've nothing to fill it with. Wanderlust is stuck in a rut and I don't know how to get out of it. I've two other things I want to develop, but until I get the two major ones out of the way I don't want to tackle a third or a fourth. It's a vicious circle: either work on one I'm not happy with, or try to expand something even more tenuous. I'll eventually get it sorted out. I hope.
Bill
@Vern: How true. Life has a way of getting in your face and pushing hard to be noticed. I find excuses easily to not write and let them sway me. My first novel was a study in procrastination--and spread out much the same as you. It took over ten years to go from a short story to a novel. The desire is still there, but the inclination just isn't making it over the hill and down the other side.
@Si-Mack: Oddly enough, I have purchased a few books lately on the ins and outs of writing. They do help, and I get enthused for a little while (days, usually) but then the old lethargy sets in and I stop writing again. Maybe I should whack away at some short stories and put them out here for comment. That might help.
@Max Boyce: Great hearing from you again, Max. I wondered if you were still around. Doctors are investigating something happing to me right now that has me worried. Cancer got my first kidney seven years ago, and now they've found "something" on my other kidney, but "don't want me to worry" even though their investigation is taking months. Needless to say, this in itself worries me. At those times, writing is not something I can do for relaxation.
@Bobbie.R.Byrd: I am a voracious reade, Bobbie. I have a whole roomfull of authors. I tend to collect whole series of novel from a single author. I have all Clancy's books, as well as W. E. B. Griffin, Grisham, Woods, CHild, and a host of tohers. It is rare to find me somewhere not carrying or reading a book. I take one wherever I go "just in case" I have a free moment. It could be the constant reading gives me an excuse not to write my own books.
Yesterday, I mowed my grass and worked in the Iris beds for the first time. I'm hoping that when things begin growing in earnest, I'll relax enough to begin writing again. When I'm tense or worried it simply isn't conducive to deep thought processes. Spring is a time for outdoors, summer, when it's hot, is a swell time to be indoors--and writing.
Bill
