End of summer blues

Summer is over and with it the fun of writing a scifi novel with my writing partner, Cyd. We still have a few rewrites to do, but without the intensity of writing long distance every day for months. We used GoToMyPC.com and telephones. It was great. Feedback and critiques from our readers has been mostly positive, so that's encouraging.

On the homefront, all is well. Not much to report. Just waiting for winter.

New Book in the works

Some years ago, my writing partner, Cyd, and I wrote a screenplay called Reality Check. It got to the quarter-finals at Austin twice, and a couple of prodcos showed some interest, but nobody bought it. So it sat.

It's a good story. We always like it. Post-apocalyptic science fiction action/adventure. No aliens or space ships, just future technology in a devastated world.

So we decided to rewrite as a novel. We've been working for over a month now and today we'll finish the first draft. And we like it. We hope to have it done before the end of the year and cross your fingers for us that we find a publisher. Lulu is a last resort for this one.

Book published, painting done etc.

Driftwood is done and published. It's on amazon, like At The Lake is, but all four of my books are on lulu.com. Check them out.

I did my first oil painting a few weeks ago. It's positively awful. Like a five year old did a paint by numbers blindfolded. But I learned a lot about mixing colors and brush techniques and stuff, so the next one might not be so embarrassing.

Betsy has reached a plateau in her recovery. No better or worse than before. But still a happy girl.

The next book is percolating.

Two weeks with a horrible head cold and I've gotten absolutely nothing creative done. Aargh. Sick sucks.

Spring. I need it to be spring soon. Sunshine. Flowers. Blue skies. Spring.

Still crazy...

And still not done with the latest book, the one with the short stories and poems. I've changed the title to Driftwood, Afloat On An Ocean Of Eclectica. I found some old stories I had written, typed way back before computers. I need to scan them, rewrite them and get them into the book. Then I'll be done.

In the meantime, Betsy is nearly recovered. As well as she's going to be anyway. She clumps around and is pretty clumsy, but she's happy as hell to be able to walk and run. We're happy too.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

From the left, my Bob, my cousin Beth, her husband Fred, and me. And in the foreground, Molly and Betsy. Christmas dinner, 2006. It was quite a year. We finally moved into our house. We got our two dogs. Bob had a couple of good gigs on the east coast. I published my books and am nearly done with the next one, the book of short stories.

And, sadly, I lost my Dad this year. He was the sweetest, nicest guy on the planet and his sudden passing was devastating. It was back in April and I still miss him so much.

I'm really looking forward to '07. I still have much I want to write, and now I'm getting back into sketching and painting. I like impressionism so I might try my hand at that, particularly with those gorgeous mountains right outside our back door.

I wish all of you a wonderful 2007, too.