Writers vs…

Posted on by January 30, 2025

Readers, and ‘others’…

Y’all can read a LOT faster than we can write, which is a given. A lot of folks will read a 90,000 word novel in 3-6 hours.

However, writers work at different ‘speeds’ if you will. I am happy to get 4-6000 words a week when I can write (not on pain meds), or doing a convention (another week/con). I know other folks that will do that in a day! They can pump out a novel a month.

I can’t do that, because it would be garbage, and I’m not going to even try. I have to do research…and I want to put out as good a novel as I can…sigh

And it’s worse when you write in more than one genre or series. I have to go back and reread the previous books to ‘reset’ the characters in my head, so that takes a week or so. At let’s say an average of 6000 words/week, assuming 90,000 word novel, that’s 15 weeks or 4 months.

Then I send it out to my alpha readers, get feedback, fix the errors they catch, so another 3 weeks. Lather, rinse, repeat for the beta readers. And then it goes to the editor (roughly 2 weeks to a month).

I’m also sending the rough to my cover artists, so they are working on a cover while all this is going on. So (doing math), 6 months IF everything comes together. As an Indie author, the next thing is putting it up on Amazon, which usually takes about a week. If I were trad pub, that novel would probably not be released for a year, AFTER I did all the work and submitted a finished product.

I know I haven’t put out a full novel in over a year, but I’ve been dealing with physical issues, sorry.

The other thing that interrupts is when you get invited to submit for an anthology- Those are mostly 8000 words, so I can usually knock them out in a little over a week, if I push it. Another interrupter is reading other people’s work as either an alpha, beta, or rough editor. Those can eat a few days, too. And Ghod forbid we take a vacation…LOL

The other problem is writing in more than one genre, I ‘try’ to alternate genres with my releases. I’m stuck on the next Bell Chronicles right now, but the Rimworld novel is going great guns. Of course you readers ‘want’ to get ‘your’ series book…yesterday…

Soooo, yes I’m whining here. But I also want y’all to ‘understand’ that I’m not blowing y’all off, it’s just that I’m slow. 🙂

Oh yeah, and I was asked why I put up snippets (by someone that WILL NOT read snippets). I do that because YOU are my customers. And I value your feedback and comments, I do listen, and I do make changes based on your comments.

Thank you for your time this morning. And yes, I’m writing today (and try to every day).

 

Book promo…

Posted on by January 29, 2025

First up, Cedar Sanderson has just published her long awaited 2nd book in the Tanager series- Tanager’s Flight  

As always, click on the cover for the Amazon link!

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The blurb-

Captain Jem Raznick of the Tanager dreams of nothing more than sailing the stars with his crew—a family forged in the vacuum of space. When a mysterious pirate threat looms, what seems like a routine trading run spirals into a cosmic adventure!

Family isn’t just blood—it’s the bond that holds the galaxy together.

Every time the enigmatic Jade Star enters their orbit, routine turns upside down. Jem must outwit the treachery that lurks in the shadows of space to keep his crew alive. Prepare for a journey between planets where loyalty, betrayal, and survival are the only constants. Join Captain Raznick as he navigates through danger, deceit, and the deep, dark unknown!

Next up is Raconteur Press with another anthology-

The blurb-

Drinks! Since humanity first began, we have been experimenting with beverages beyond simple water. Fermenting fruit, milk from various mammals, mashing berries…and later experimenting with getting desired effects by mixing things together in different ways; potions concocted to evoke certain feelings, heal an ailment, erase memories, or inspire strong emotions. Across many cultures & oceans we find different myths of fountains of youth, elixirs of life, amrita, blessed mead, holy ale, love potions, sanctified wines, & potent poisons.

Come! Drink from a cup of stories varied! Dare to follow these epic quests, potions with unintended consequences, ales holy, wine deadly, and toast…to adventure!

Tell me, friend, will you drink?

And last and least…LOL One of my readers, TOS, reminded me we’d done an anthology about California exiting the USA. Well, guess what’s in the MSM right now? Yep, California talking about seceding… So, a flashback to 2017- Calexit, the anthology

Rather than the blurb, I’d offer the review from fellow author Joseph F. Collins

We’ve all heard of “Brexit” where Great Britain voted to leave the EU. That stirred up some debate in California about them possibly seceding from the Union. The recent events in Catalonia attempting to do the same from Spain with the resulting brutal government crackdown makes this book even more timely when I purchased it and rapidly read through it. (You might have not heard anything about Catalonia in the MSM but need to look for your news in other places!) My own personal interest comes from studying the “Basque Conflict” terrorism which started in 1959.

What would happen if California left the USA so they could follow their own agenda which in many cases is completely different from the rest of us? Based on the stories in this book it wouldn’t be very pretty of which I agree. California as a state is already on the brink of financial collapse for a number of reasons which aren’t relevant here. For me it might be a nice place to visit (certain sections) but not a place where I would live for as they say “All the tea in China.” Sorry I’ll put up with sometimes brutal Midwestern winters and often changing weather to stay out of a state where I would be taxed almost to death to support policies which make no sense to me at all.

Of interest the stories could also postulate a horrific future for us as a country and we had continued upon some of our past paths. Except there would probably be an armed civil war as a result tearing the country completely apart.

So let’s say California left the Union? There are a lot of military bases in the state. What would happen to them? There are also a number of people like police, fire and EMS who regularly put their lives on the line for strangers. What would a state look like if they left? How about the malcontents who make living interesting wherever you go? What would they do? Those questions and many thought provoking others are answered in this book.

The beginning is approached from several different angles and the end is interesting but still leaving a lot of room to explore in hopefully future volumes.

I sensed the deft guiding hand of the editor in many of the stories without the heaviness of someone who edits for a living. The stories are interesting and told from perspectives that informed me of things I really didn’t know before like how to fix the brakes on a 737 without a massive information dump often seen as written by inexperienced writers.

Of the dozen books I’ve read this week, this one was the most thought provoking and interesting often taking me away from my own writing as I eagerly read each story to the end.

Highly recommended!

I can recommend all of them highly! 🙂

A little humor…

Posted on by January 27, 2025

For the week… Laws and their impact(s)…

Law of Mechanical Repair – After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you’ll have to pee.

Law of Gravity – Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible place in the universe.

Law of Probability – The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.

Law of Random Numbers – If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal; someone always answers.

Variation Law – If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now.

Law of the Bath – When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone will ring.

Law of Close Encounters – The probability of meeting someone you know INCREASES dramatically when you are with someone you don’t want to be seen with.

Law of the Result – When you try to prove to someone that a machine won’t work, IT WILL!!!

Law of Biomechanics – The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

Law of the Theater & Hockey Arena – At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle, always arrive last. They are the ones who will leave their seats several times to go for food, beer, or the toilet and who leave early before the end of the performance or the game is over. The folks in the aisle seats come early, never move once, have long gangly legs or big bellies and stay to the bitter end of the performance. The aisle people also are very surly folk.

The Coffee Law – As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

Murphy’s Law of Lockers – If there are only 2 people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.

Law of Physical Surfaces –

The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich landing face down on a floor are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet or rug.

Law of Logical Argument – Anything is possible IF you don’t know what you are talking about.

Law of Physical Appearance – If the clothes fit, they’re ugly.

Law of Public Speaking — A CLOSED MOUTH GATHERS NO FEET!

Law of Commercial Marketing Strategy– As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it OR the store will stop selling it!

Another own goal…

Posted on by January 26, 2025

By Newsome…

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration shut down a highly trained, all-volunteer team of certified firefighters in early 2024—a move that rendered the California National Guard incapable of sending a complete firefighting force to Los Angeles until 10 days after the deadly fires broke out in the city, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Launched in 2020, Team Blaze was an on-call strike force staffed entirely with certified firefighters of the California State Guard, a volunteer militia force that reports directly to Gov. Gavin Newsom. Former State Guard commanding general Jay Coggan said its members attended regular trainings at their own expense, and an outside charity procured much of the team’s firefighting equipment at no cost to the state. California was obligated to pay Team Blaze only when the unit was activated to fight a wildfire, and by 2023 Coggan had plans to expand its ranks to 1,000 certified volunteer firefighters on standby all across the state.

But in January 2024, the Newsom administration disbanded Team Blaze after barring its charitable benefactor from providing free firefighting equipment to its volunteers.

Full article, HERE from the Washington Free Beacon.

This one truly makes NO sense to me. They were given free equipment, did training on their own time, and fulfilled their Guard duties. What was not to like???

They were a trained quick response team that could be on scene in literally 24 hours anywhere in CA, and were probably loaned out to other states if requested.

This one sounds like another penny wise pound foolish move, but I can’t help but wonder ‘what’ prompted this, unless the benefactor was a ‘threat’ to Newsome in some way.

Sigh… I feel for those folks, and those who have lost lives, homes, and belongings to what seems to be an avalanche of bad decisions that rolled from Sacramento all the way down to LAFD.

Grrrr…

Posted on by January 25, 2025

Apparently Xiden et al did it again…

When Griner was traded, they left Paul Whelen in Russia, HERE.

In the final hours of his term, President Joe Biden negotiated a prisoner exchange with the Taliban that released U.S. citizens Ryan Corbett and William Wallace McKenty from Taliban custody. 

Not included in the deal, however, were U.S. citizens George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi.

On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X that he was “just hearing” of the detentions of additional Americans by the Taliban. 

Full article, HERE from Fox News.

WTH???

Who’s Post Toasties did Glezmann and Habibi piss in to get left out?

And why were they left out of the deal? It really makes me wonder who was running this negotiation, and what really happened behind closed doors?

Is it time for the Marines to go get them? I’m beginning to think so. Let the Marines go, break things and kill people until they get ALL the hostages out of Iran, Gaza, and anywhere else they’re being held.

It used to be that the US took any measures required to get our people back, but this previous administration didn’t seem to be bothered to move on anything unless there was enough media pressure OR the right cards got played…

Frankly, I’m glad to hear that Rubio is serious about getting them back. Next up will be those Americans still held by Hamas, who ‘should’ have already been released. And kudos to him for putting a pause on foreign aid until it is reviewed. LONG overdue, and I hope a lot of the so called ‘foreign aid’ gets cut, because it’s nothing more than bribes  or stolen by the leaders in power in most cases.

Grrrr…

Soooo,,,

Posted on by January 24, 2025

Elements of the USAF is apparently disobeying the President…

When President Trump rolled out his earth-shattering executive order that forbade DEI throughout the federal government (Culling the Herd: Thanks to Trump’s EO, DEI Departments Are Shuttered, Employees Placed on Leave), he anticipated that the forces of the “resistance” would work behind the scenes to avoid obeying. He knew they would rename organizations and hide the DEI commandos in other positions so the whole hideous mess could be reassembled, like Frankenstein’s monster, at a future date. That is why the Office of Personnel Management required all agency heads to send this memo to every employee

<snip>

There is evidence of efforts by some USAF units to ignore the executive order. This is an example from Minot (North Dakota) Air Force Base. Here, you have a memo that laughs at the executive order and clearly states they have renamed the office.

Full article, HERE from Red State.

We knew when Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr. too over as CJCS, he was 100% on board with DEI, and I can’t help but wonder if those who are refusing to follow the president’s direction think Gen Brown is going to either ‘cover’ for them, or bail them out.

Personally, I think it’s going to take a couple of years to actually root out the entrenched bureaucracy who support it. BATF has done the same thing with their DEI position, simply renaming the woman to a ‘senior executive’ without a job description.

From the outside looking in, I cannot say I’ve seen anything ‘good’ with DEI, as it takes away the rationale for merit promotions if you’re the wrong ethnicity, it has, to me, lowered the work standards, and made organizations and the military, LEOs, Medics, et al less safe.

I’m just glad I’m no longer in the workforce, or managing any personnel today…

What say you???

Well, well, well…

Posted on by January 23, 2025

Maybe now we’ll finally get the details on JFK, MLK, and Robert Kennedy’s shootings…

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to declassify files on the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. 

Trump had promised to release the previously classified documents during his 2024 campaign after decades of speculation and conspiracy theories about the killings. 

“Everything will be revealed,” Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office of the White House.

Full article, HERE from Fox News.

For years, and yes I go back that far, the assassination theorists have begged, sued, and attempted to ‘steal’ the documentation that .gov supposedly holds on all three of these.

I predict that there will be cries of ‘coverup’ on all three of them, and a lot of the files will be redacted to hell and gone.

There have been people making a ‘good’ living off their theories, books, and ‘investigations’, so maybe we’ll find out who was actually doing what, when, and where…

Do I expect definitive answers? Nope, not after the Warren Report. It was skewed to present ‘one’ view back in the day, and honestly, I don’t see the documents revealing much new, but I’m still going to look at them just out of curiosity.

Wow…

Posted on by January 22, 2025

The ‘weird’ weather along the Gulf got interesting yesterday! Funny how this didn’t even get to be a ‘named’ storm, like all the ones that go through the Midwest!

The Gulf Coast was probably the biggest surprise, especially Florida. Most people head down to the Sunshine State in January to get away from snow and freezing temperatures, but cities from Pensacola to Jacksonville got hammered with the white stuff. The Pensacola area seems to have been hit the hardest. According to AccuWeather, the panhandle city recorded an official 7.6 inches, while the Pensacola News Journal reports that some other local areas potentially saw up to nine or more. The record for the city, which is from 1895, was a whopping three inches. 

Full article, HERE from PJ Media.

Soooo, this storm dumped record levels of snow on New Orleans, Pensacola, and probably a lot of other places along the Gulf Coast, breaking some records that go back over 100 years.

Now I just want somebody to ‘splain to me how this is ‘globull warming’!

I know you folks up north are laughing at us, but the South is NOT set up for these temps or the snow. Probably the only snowblowers belong to the snowbirds that ‘forgot’ to take them out of their household good shipment…

And De Santis closed I-10 due to snow and ice, to keep folks from getting killed trying to drive in that mess. I-75 was also having issues in GA and North Florida as of last night.

But those folks will get through it, just like they do the hurricanes and tornadoes that are more ‘regular’ visitors. Although, with the new administration, they might actually get some help from the government if they ask for it!

Weather…

Posted on by January 21, 2025

Yesterday we had a real ‘oddity’…

David Jackson / FOX 26 Houston

Snow down on the Gulf coast from Texas to Florida.

Photos and videos from beaches along the Gulf Coast showed a rare and stunning sight Tuesday: snow. 

In Galveston, video from Galveston.com showed snow blanketing the beach, concealing the sand underneath. Waves crashed in the distance, with dark, gloomy skies behind them. 

States from Texas to the Carolinas are experiencing a once-in-a-generation snowstorm this week. It has already resulted in a Blizzard Warning being issued in Louisiana for the first time ever.

More visuals from Galveston showed the snow-covered beach, a sharp contrast to the usually green, sunny landscape. Reports from the National Weather Service indicate the area has received about 1-3 inches of snow. 

Article and video HERE from Fox News.

This is what happens when the Jet Stream really dips deep into the south! You get extreme cold mixing with warm moist air over the Gulf…

Ironically, we had blue skies, and COLD temps (for us), it was 10 degrees yesterday morning, but no moisture at all. It finally got to freezing late yesterday afternoon, with a high of 32.

Today it’s supposed to be in the 50s and 60s by the weekend!

It’s winter, what can you say???

I know a lot of y’all are laughing at us, and that’s fine, but I don’t envy those of you that are in the negative numbers, and all I can say is STAY WARM!

Schedule change…

Posted on by January 19, 2025

If you’re one of our 570+ subscribers to my YouTube channel- https://www.youtube.com/@OldNFO

Ian’s schedule changed, so we’re changing our hours for broadcasting too!

Cedar, Ian, and I will do Tuesday at 1600 CST for our Bored Yet broadcast.

Ian, and I will do Thursday at 1200 CST for our Bored Yet broadcast.

So the days stay the same, just the hours are changing… And we still don’t have any rails… Feel free to drop by and join the chat!

And a meme for y’all…