Jury Duty and Father's Day

Josh came up for Father's Day and we had a good lunch at Outback with Lana, then came home and did little other than talk and play some of my video game, Rage. Josh showed me some of the drawings from his architecture classes. Great stuff. He's working hard and enjoying himself. It was good to see him.

In the evening, after he headed home, I even got 1000 words done on Wraith of Talera. I've been averaging about a 1000 a day over the last few weeks and that is very good for me. This is the longest stretch I've ever kept up that pace, and several days I've done over 1500. I'm over 62,000 words total now and should be writing the last two scenes this week. Then it will be time to go back over the whole thing and put on the final touches. I'll probably put it up for a few days to get some editorial distance.

Unfortunately, starting to day I've been called for Jury Duty so I don't know how much I'm going to get done this week, and whether I'll do any blogging. Typically here, Jury Duty is a five day commitment, unless you're chosen for a trial and then it might be longer.

So, if you don't see me around the blogs, this is why.

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Blogging and Days of Beer

I used to post every day, then every other day, then about every third day. Now it seems lucky if I get a post in a week. It's not that I don't enjoy blogging, but so many things consume my interest these days and I've also been working quite a lot on fiction. When I'm writing nonfiction, it lends itself well to blogging, but fiction tends to take me away from it. Not sure why that is. Below is a little piece of nonfiction for you, a small snippet from Days of Beer, my memoir if you will. (It's edited slightly to fit with this post.)

One day, when my son, Joshua, was about seven or eight years old, I opened a bottle of St. Pauli Girl in his presence. St. Pauli Girl is a German beer of exquisite bitterness. Josh, who always wanted to drink whatever I was drinking, naturally asked for a sip. Where before I had always refused to let him drink any beer, I now encouraged him to take a swig, figuring one swig would be enough forever. Holding the bottle in both small hands, he lifted it to his mouth and took a swallow.

The minute that bitterness hit his tongue, Josh’s eyes squinched shut and his face screwed up with a look of shock and dismay. He immediately tried to “chew” the taste back out of his mouth, but St. Pauli Girl is not a lady to be forgotten so easily. I soon took pity on him and gave him a drink of milk to cleanse his palate. He never asked to taste my beer again.

Several months later, Josh and I were at a quick stop store and I saw they had Mountain Dew in the original green bottles, the one with the hillbilly on it holding a jug of moonshine, for which Mountain Dew is named. I bought a bottle for nostalgia sake and offered Josh a sip. At first, he refused. I encouraged him. I could see him looking at me with a speculative light in his eyes; no doubt he was remembering the last time he’d trusted his father’s offer of a drink. But he finally agreed to a tentative sip, and immediately his eyes lit up.
“I like that beer,” he said with a smile.

(BTW, Ty Johnston has a review of Micro Weird up on his blog (http://tyjohnston.blogspot.com/2013/04/books-read-in-2013-no-19-micro-weird.html), and Randy Johnson mentions it on his (http://randall120.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/new-in-the-house-112/), as well as having reviewed it on Amazon.  Thanks, guys!) 

Falling off the (book) Wagon

I’ve been good for as long as I could. I’ve got so many unread books around my house, literally a couple of thousand, that I’ve been trying not to buy many new books. Of course, I don’t count kindle books that I’ve been picking up from author friends (although some of those have been free). It hasn’t helped any that my reading pace so far this year has been pretty slow. Part of that was reading a few books in a row that I didn’t care that much for, and I’m not the kind of guy who can just put a book down easily once I’ve started it. Part of it, also, is just having been very busy with other work. And there’s a little bit of blame that goes to my new video game, the entire “DOOM” lineup.

Up until a couple of days ago, though, I was doing pretty well at resisting the urge to buy books. Then I saw a cheap copy of a book I’d read via ebook and thought, “why not?”  The dam burst after that. In the space of two days I ordered a new Doc Savage, two Star Trek graphic novels, three books in Taylor Anderson’s Destroyerman series, an old book by Max Brand, under the George Challis name, and some assorted other readables. I’m off the wagon, out on a binge. The gutter beckons. Will I be able to resist?  I guess you’ll have to stay tuned to find out.

In the meantime, I took a break from the binge yesterday to drive up to Lafayette, Louisiana to see my son, who is in architectural school there. He was recognized at their honors convocation so I enjoyed that!

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The Mouse that Got Even

When Josh was little he had quite a few stuffed animals and all of them had names and personalities. Josh generally gave them the names; I typically handled the personalities. We had “Tenny,” a rabbit who had a tennis racket sewn in his hands, “Pinky,” a fluffy pink rabbit, “Baby White Bear,” whose name is self-explanatory, “Bear,” who was a larger white bear, “Bro,” “Bear’s” twin, “Mittens,” a calico tabby, “Dallas,” a bear Josh’s mom picked up for him in Dallas, Texas, “Mickey,” a mouse we got at Disneyworld, and “Baby Yellow Mouse.”

Tenny and Pinky were bought from a Goodwill store and were partners in crime, always on the lookout for the cops. We never found out exactly what they’d done, but it was apparently pretty serious because whenever they were with us in the car they kept a constant eye out for policemen and would immediately hide if any were spotted. Bear and Bro were good companions to Josh, always making sure the other animals behaved and protecting Josh if there was any need of it. They slept on either side of him at night, and they were in charge of our annual Halloween Haunted house, which the stuffed animals put on each year in Josh’s room. Mickey was quite obnoxious, going around constantly saying things like “Everyone loves Mickey” in his high pitched voice. Most of us didn’t really love Mickey because of that.

Mittens, like most cats, simply existed to be petted. He was generally good natured, but we had to keep him and Baby Yellow Mouse separated because they did not like each other. We never traveled with both of them at the same time for fear of an…incident. Baby White Bear was something of an airhead. He could hardly remember anything and would frequently get off topic if you asked him a question. He was good natured, but gullible, and he sometimes fell under the sway of Baby Yellow Mouse, who I will sometimes refer to as BYM. BYM was just flat out a sociopath.

One year when we were going to Arkansas to see my mom and family, I asked Josh whether he wanted to take Mittens or Baby Yellow Mouse with him, and he decided to take Mittens. BYM was quite upset about this and threatened that we “hadn’t seen the last of him.” Josh and I just laughed. But it turned out the joke was on us. The day after we arrived in Arkansas, a small box arrived in the mail at my mom’s house addressed to Josh. Mystified, he tore open the box only to find Baby Yellow Mouse and a note inside. The note read: “You thought you would leave me behind but it didn’t work. You’ll never be able to leave me behind. I have my ways.”

By necessity, Baby Yellow Mouse joined us for that vacation, and on the way home that year, Mittens mysteriously disappeared. We suspect that he fell out at one of our stops and we didn’t see him, but I could never be sure of whether BYM had finally gotten even. He certainly looked smug enough, but that wasn’t proof of any wrongdoing. We bought Josh another stuffed cat, but this one never messed with BYM. I think the word had gone out.

For our trip to Arkansas the next year, we told BYM well in advance that he could not go with us and that we’d make sure of it. As the time for the trip neared, however, BYM suddenly disappeared from Josh’s room. We thought he had run away. We arrived in Arkansas all happy and as we got out of the car we heard a voice, sounding much like my voice except higher pitched, say, “Hey, don’t leave me in here.” A few moments of searching revealed that BYM had stowed away inside one of the hubcaps. Josh was quite impressed with his ingenuity, and from then on we never forbade Baby Yellow Mouse from accompanying us on trips. We were sure it wouldn’t do any good anyway.
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Father's Day

I didn’t have many Father’s Days with my dad. I remember wishing him happy Father’s Day a few times, but I can’t recall any gifts I gave him except for one. In grade school one year they brought in a wood burning kit and let us make designs on pieces of treated wood. I did a Father’s Day and a Mother’s Day piece. I have no idea where they are now. I can only vaguely remember them at all. I was probably 10 or 11. A couple of years later and my dad would be dead.

When my mom remarried many years later to a wonderful man named Ray, who was much like my father in many ways, I was already in my mid-twenties. I never knew quite how to refer to Ray. I didn’t think of him as my step-father, because I was already several years out of the house by then. I came to love and respect him, and I often actually called him on Father’s Day to wish him a good day. But I never really knew what to say. And, of course, many times on that day I was a little bit closed off inside because I missed my own father.

Then I had my son, Josh, and Father’s Day became a joyful time to me again. I still have many of the gifts he’s given me on prominent display in my office or around the house, some alien figurines, a porcelain skull, some of his sketches, a clock he made for me one year.

On Father’s Day this year my son will be coming up to see me. He’s 23, so I made it 10 years longer for him than my father was able to make it for me. I will be spending the day with him so I won’t be blogging. Tomorrow, I’m going to the grocery with Lana and we’re going to see if we can pick up some sushi grade tuna and salmon, and if we can then on Sunday Josh and I will steam that over the stove and eat it fresh and nearly raw over a bed of sticky rice and soy sauce. If not, I will go and get some sushi and bring it home. And we will have it with some cold Abita beer.

If I didn’t get to enjoy many Father’s Days from the side of being the son, I’m very thankful to have them from the side of being a father. These are precious days. I hope you all have a chance to enjoy them. With your father. With your son. With your daughter. With the memories you have of the past, and with new memories you will make on this day, in June of 2011.

New Orleans Comic Con

This past Sunday I attended my first “Comic Con.” This is the first big one they’ve ever had in New Orleans. It was put on by Wizard World, the same people associated with the bigger Comic Cons that everyone raves about. Apparently it was successful enough to bring them back next year and I’ll probably try to attend again. I liked it quite a lot, and my son seemed to like it as well. He’s 23 and I told him I was glad he wasn’t “too cool” to attend a comic con with his old man.

It was smaller than I expected it be, and there weren’t as many costumers as I thought there might be. The cost for a single day pass was 35 bucks, which I thought was a little high. I also wish there’d been more booths selling the “graphic novel” formats. There were quite a few selling individual collectable comics but only one that had a selection of graphic novels. Those are the less positive things.

On the positive side, I got to renew friendships with quite a few folks in local SF/Fantasy fandom. I got to talk to a number of comic book artists, although I’m not really enough into the comic book scene to know people’s names. I picked up a number of cool book or comic book items that I most likely would not have found elsewhere, and got much of it signed.

I met Walter Koenig and Adam West and thought that was kind of cool. I got “Chekov’s” autograph on a photo. There were also a number of other celebrities there that I recognized, although I don’t know their real names. There was “Xander” and “Spike” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the mom from No Ordinary Family. There were several actors from the Walking Dead series that I really enjoyed this past year on AMC. There was a lady named “Claudia” something from Babylon Five. I recognized her but can’t recall the last name. One of the “Monkees” was there. I have no idea which one. There was a woman who played a demon on Buffy, and there was Ernie Hudson from the Ghostbusters movie. Apparently Burt Ward (Robin) was also there but I didn’t see him. I met a “character” in a graphic novel that I recently read and did an article on. He was one of the folks featured in A.D.: New Orleans after the Deluge.

There were also quite a few very cool posters, including a zombie Clint Eastwood in one of his Spaghetti western poses. I almost bought that one, but with all of the paintings we already have up at home and the wall space taken up by bookshelves I don’t have any place to hang it. All in all, it was fun, and afterward my son and I ate at Mulates across the street and had frog legs and alligator with cold brews. That might have been the best.
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The Anthology

Almost everything is done on the anthology except a final read through. I'm calling it Bitter Steel.

I did a preface that is 700 words, although I’m gonna try to shave that down a bit. The preface focuses primarily on Robert E. Howard as the man who created the Sword & Sorcery genre. It doesn’t say too much about the stories in the collection, because I want them to stand on their own. I did mention that some of the stories have alternate endings to those that appeared in the original publications.

I set the Thal Kyrin stories up first in the collection, after an opening poem, and I put them into chronological order. That meant doing some revisions on a few of them, and I also used very short “end notes” behind a few stories to explain where gaps still exist. I made judicious use of “Author Notes” at the beginning of a couple of stories, primarily to let people know when they were going to get a humorous story as opposed to the more serious stuff that makes up the bulk of the collection. I also did a fair amount of tightening on the pieces throughout.

I’ve always kept a file labeled Story Notes, where I put information about when I wrote the stories and about any influences or other items that seem important to me. And I edited these notes heavily and included them at the end of the entire collection. I figure most readers will probably skip ‘em, but the writers might find those bits interesting.

Tomorrow I’m taking off because my son and his girlfriend are coming up for Christmas. I’m looking forward to seeing him. I’ve got the meal planned. Steak, corn on the cob, garlic bread with cheese, and ice cream for dessert.

Merry Christmas to everyone. I’ll be checking blogs again on Wednesday and then may take off for Christmas eve and Christmas.
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Updates and Other Things

Thanks to everyone for visiting and sending us good wishes. Josh got probation, which is what we were hoping for. It cost me over $1000 bucks, though. The fine was $150, but by the time you tacked on this fee and that fee and some other fee it was completely out of hand. The legal system's money grubbing knows no bounds.

Speaking of legal system money grubbing, I also got a red-light camera ticket. I was nearly hit by another car, sped up to avoid that crash, hit the stoplights under yellow, but they turned red while I was in the intersection. And now they say I owe the police $110 dollars. I wonder how these people sleep at night. I'm disgusted.

We're still in preregistration here and I gave one test yesterday and will give another on Friday. I have a deadline on a textbook review, two letters of recommendation to do, and have had three IRB proposals slapped on my desk in the last three days, including one request for a retroactive review, which is not possible. I'm still not going to get around to doing much blogging.

In the meantime, though, I finished reading The Ruins by Scott Smith. I give it a 3 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed it pretty well, although there was way too much telling and not enough showing in the book. I gave a full review at Goodreads. I also watched the opening episode of the new V and was not impressed. I thought the orginal was quite a bit better.

Also, if you haven't voted in Writtenwyrd's Halloween Cthulhu contest then please consider doing so. There are 21 flash fiction entries for people to select their favorite from. The posting and voting take place HERE.
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