Should take my own advice

I recently guest blogged at Free Book Dude, basically telling aspiring authors everywhere that there comes a time when you’re done writing, so get on with it. So, guess what I’ve been doing for the past four weeks or so? Yep, rewriting an already completed novel, The Ship to Look for God.

Well, it was more of an edit than a rewrite. The story was written and rewritten to a satisfactory polish about a year ago. But, there’s always a tweak or two, ain’t there? And, as I was tweaking, I was doing things like adding a character or changing one just a bit and, that’s a trap. Because, you can always keep doing that. And keep doing that.

Just. Walk. Away!

So, I did. This morning. This baby’s now ready, all 98,000 words of it.

Look out, world.

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The Adventures of Gracie the Wander Cat: When a Stranger Calls

So, I’m relaxing in the house the other evening when there’s a knock at the door. I answer:

and I can’t believe it. It’s Russell:

Russell!

What. The. Hell?

So I give him the fish eye:

He gives me the fish eye back:

Okay, that’s the way you want it? Time for the heavy artillery.

Devil eye!

He retaliates:

But you can see who got the better of this contest:

Just stay out there, loser:

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Tomb Stories: Pioneers and Hard Scrabble

In Waythehelloutthere Virginia, there’s this little church:

Timber Ridge Primitive Baptist, with this little cemetery:

where some of the first settlers in the Shenandoah Valley were laid to rest, such as the Coe’s, Revolutionary War veterans and pioneers:

The unfortunately named Craven Coe, who “would not live always.”

Tough living up here in the ridges, as the Phillips show:

 

Mother Phillips lost her infant daughter, then her child, then her husband, and spent thirty-four years alone, before joining them.

Like the Hollidays. Elizabeth, who lost her Harry:

And Myrtle, who lost her Jack:

 

and then her boys:

Larry Brannon awaits his Ruella:

while he plays with children well before him:

  

In a quiet place to do so.

 

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A bit of respite from the ice and snow

Just this past November, a beautiful, mild day in Ft. Valley, near Strasburg, Virginia:

Okay, back to winter…

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What the…

I either (a) lost a bet or (b) won a short story contest. To find out which, go here: http://bksp.org/

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The Adventures of Gracie the Wander Cat: Winter of our Discontent

Brr. That’s all I can say.

I mean, just a couple of weeks ago, it was like this:

I was loving it:

But now:

Russell and the wild’uns have been pointing out to me that, before I got this D. Krauss gig, I, as a Wander Cat, had no trouble with winter. Find a place to burrow under the deck or between the bushes, chase down some of the field mice, good to go. So, yeah, okay,

I gave it a shot:

   

For. Get. It.

I’ve got better places to spend the winter:

Russell and the wild’uns can go pound sand.

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Goin’ Nuclear

A story of mine made it into a new anthology:

Check it out: http://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-Town-USA-Adam-Millard/dp/1494346893/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386431575&sr=1-1&keywords=nuclear+town+usa

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Dachau

The trains arrived here and offloaded:

You were marched through here:

because Arbeit Macht Frei, as it still says on the ironworks.

Here you were separated:

If you were sent to the right, you got a bunk:

and a communal bathroom:

in one of the barracks, of which only the foundations are left:

If you were sent to the left, then you marched down this pleasant, linden-lined boulevard:

to this building:

where you were stripped naked preparatory to a shower:

of Cyklon B:

They stacked your body here:

Burned it here:

and disposed of your ashes here:

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Another reason to live in Ulm

In Ulm, you don’t go to the bar, the bar comes to you.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kkwdnb7wl1nam0w/2013-10-05%2008.52.12.avi

 

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I want to live here

Ulm.

The Blue, from a shop window located next to it:

The tallest steeple in the world:

I thought Ulm was on the Danube, but my sister said it was on the Donau. Or Doner. Or something like that:

One tipsy step, and the Blue is sweeping you into the Danube. Or Donau. Doner. Whatever:

Man.

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