Powers Trace

Messing around on Easter Sunday

2010-04-04T09:18:00.001-04:00

What to do? Oh what to do? The book is gone and I need something to keep me out of trouble. I wandered around the house yesterday waiting for the Final Four basketball games, I rinsed the yellow pollen off the car, I took a three mile walk and still felt I should be doing something. So, last night I started another book. (The man is nuts)

Today I found a new gadget to improve this blog. Rather than tell everyone where they can find the Powers Trace books there is now a link to Amazon. Try it, if you buy I get a few coins to help with the publishing cost. If you’re not interested it will give you something to do to pass the time.

This post is just an entry to test this new toy. We’ll see if it’s worth anything.

The End is Near

2010-03-30T23:18:00.001-04:00

The writing of “Powers Trace III, The Live Oak Tree” is complete.

I was beginning to have my doubts whether I would ever get it on paper but it’s finished and I will send it off to the publisher on Friday. I’m taking the next two days to make sure the minor typing errors are fixed, at least the ones that I can find, and then turn it loose. I’ve never sent off a perfect manuscript and I’m sure this will not change that. I will have a chance to review the formatted gallies and approve them one last time before printing so maybe, just maybe I’ll have a book by the end of April. This is a larger book than the first two. 146,000 words which will make about 350 pages.

I ran out of copies of the first book, Powers Trace, a month ago so I ordered a few to have on hand if anyone wants one to begin from the beginning which I recommend. Not to make a sale but to understand the Town and the people which are covered in more detail in the first book. You get to know the place and the characters that live there. I didn’t carry that level of detail in the next two books because it added to the length of the books and became redundant.

Powers Trace II, The Ice Age is available.

Come back here for details on the publishing progress. I’ll try to keep y’all up to date. I’ve encountered problems with Xlibris during publication of the first two books, generally administrative screw ups, so let’s hope they handle this book better. I wanted to stay with them for all three books to make the books the same. This is the last one. I’ll find another publisher for future projects.

And the words keep comin’

2010-02-27T01:03:00.001-05:00

I’m within sight of the end. The new book will definitely go to the publisher within a couple of weeks, I’m on the final chapter now so the words are there. In the past it took about two weeks to edit and rewrite a book, going from Chapter 1 all the way through checking for, and correcting the goofs. I hate this part but it has to be done. I will receive the initial galley a week or so after submission for the final review and approval and then, if I’m lucky, they will have the book printed four weeks after that.

I do have a decision to make. This book begins five years after the second book ended and I probably need a prolog to get the readers up to speed. Since this is the last of the trilogy I will tie it all up with an epilog to close. Then I can get on with other projects.

I’ve really been lax on this one. There were times I just couldn’t sit down in front of the computer and make any sense of the story. I do need to get on with other ideas and leave my friends in Powers Trace alone to do their thing. They are my friends, I’ve lived with them for almost three years. You become attached and I sometimes confuse the characters with real life friends. I’ve been known to talk to them, in the car, alone trying to get the dialog right. It gets weird but I love it.

Who dat says it don’t snow in Georgia?

2010-02-12T17:40:00.001-05:00

We Southern folk generally don’t see snow in our yards once in any year. Today we experienced the second snowfall in 12 months.

The front yard and the “E’s” fake yellow mums.

The wind-blown Old Glory

The back yard, my writing place in the summer.

The “E’s” Gooses. Even they look cold.

As I write this the snow is still coming down. The weather man can’t get his act together and we are supposed to get either 1” or 4” inches before midnight. Needless to say all the nonbelievers are rushing to the supermarket for food, those who can’t drive in dry weather are out there skidding around the streets in town, and all schools will be closed for a week. Ah Georgia, I’d live nowhere else.

To catch up…

2010-02-05T20:58:00.001-05:00

Luey is gone. The vet said he had age problems that would not get better. The “E” took it hard but that’s to be expected, Luey was her best friend and her constant companion for almost 15 years. She planted an Azalea bush as a head stone and we buried him with his favorite toy, a rubber banana. It’s tough getting old but he had a great life.

Now we only have Cookie, the fastest Jack Russell in the neighborhood, just a step or two slower than the squirrels she chases around our yard. She has a personality all her own and will take up some of the slack getting all the attention a dog would ever need.

Luey. A one-of-a-kind best friend.

2010-02-01T02:28:00.001-05:00

Our house is about to become dreary, without the daily joy we have felt for the past decade plus four years, but we saw it coming the past several months. We will probably lose our Luey this week. It will be a great loss, especially for the “E”.

Luey is a miniature Schnauzer, grey and white, and could have been a show dog, he is that great looking. He always gets oohs and aahs from our neighbors, or strangers, while out walking, the groomers treat him like a star, and only the owner of the shop gives him his monthly cuts. She won’t allow another groomer to mess him up.

He is, without a doubt, Ethel’s dog. She picked him from a litter when he was a very young pup and from that day forward Luey was by her side, or walking along at her heels, bumping her leg with his nose. He spent much of his life on her lap being coddled, hugged, and brushed. He never complained, always laid quietly on his back, as he did with me above, totally content, knowing he was the best looking animal in our house.

We have always had at least one dog in our home. All of them were special, all were treated like our children, but Luey was extra special. He will be missed terribly. There will be a huge void in our home.

He was our Luey. We loved him greatly and he returned that love a hundred fold.

Sleep? Who sleeps?

2010-01-18T00:35:00.001-05:00

I’ve got a guilty conscience. Last year was not my best when it came to putting words on paper, or on the hard drive if you want to nit pick. It was like running a relay. I would burst into a run for a short distance, pass on to something new, sprint to catch up, get diverted, and I now find the book at the two thirds mark and the characters have taken the plot in a totally new direction. I guess they decided that if I wasn’t going to pay attention, and do my job, they would grab the reigns and get this sucker finished. The new direction is a surprise and is going to lead to a wild ending.

I’m shooting for 130,000 words and as of last night I’m at 90,000. With this being the last book of the trilogy I’m trying to bring it all to a healthy conclusion but, someone’s gonna die, said the gunslinger but who, that’s the question Yorick. It will depend on how much trouble they get themselves into at the end. I can probably follow their lead for a while yet, but soon I will have to take charge, and bring it back to a realistic finish. Maybe. Maybe not. The suspense is killing me.

Follow up to the previous weather alert.

2010-01-09T00:38:00.001-05:00

Just a quick note to update yesterdays storm preparations.

The night was cold again but the only precipitation was a light mist and a few rain drops. The front went through fast and the morning dawned clear and bright.

We spent the day in sunshine, watching cars on TV bang into each other on the icy streets in Atlanta. They can’t handle winter any better than we can, the difference is that in rush hour in the city they still try to drive 80 on the bypass. Pile-ups there are spectacular.

A new year. A new decade.

2010-01-08T02:04:00.001-05:00

We are now a week into all this new stuff and it feels the same as the old stuff, except colder. We get cold snaps here in Dixie every winter, frigid one day, warm weather comes back a day later, but the cold came with the new year and stayed. Not blustery snow and sleet cold, but the temperatures get down in the teens at night and forces the dogs to sleep under the covers, our covers. Kind of a furry bed warmer with attitude.

For the past few days the weather people on TV have been talking up a forecast of “Possible” snow for tonight. This caused a mass closing of schools for tomorrow, a run on the food stores for the basic food groups, mainly Vienna sausage for some reason, bottled water and fake fireplace logs. You can’t be too careful with snow storms coming.

The local emergency councils have been in meetings for two days making sure the people are protected. It was 50 degrees this afternoon, but to be prepared, the emergency management team sent the trucks out, spewing sand and salt around on the bridges because, as the signs say, “Bridge may freeze before the road does”.

I know. All you Yankees who live in snow for months during winter laugh at us Southern dip sticks, but we suffer through these periods of cold, in spite of our “Emergency Management” bosses. They don’t get much chance to put on their fancy uniforms, drive around in their four-wheelers, make decisions and stuff so we step aside and nod our heads when they take command of the sand trucks and warn us to let the faucet drip to prevent pipes from freezing. It’s just part of who we are, give or take a dip stick or two.

A Christmas card from Powers Trace.

2009-12-23T01:53:00.002-05:00

I received the following in the mail this afternoon. It was addressed to all of you who have spent a few hours with the folks in Powers Trace. I’ll let them say what I also feel at this time of the year.

“A few of us are gathered around the dispatch desk here in the station, thinking of you, our loyal friends. The town is glowing, all dressed up for the season. Sophie, Bev, Millie, and Tracy took charge of the towns decoration this year doing a super job hanging the big snowflakes from the lanterns along Main Street and stretching garland between the lamp posts in front of all of the stores. Vern set up the light show in front of Town Hall with the many changing colors and wired the lights on the big tree on the front lawn. Scotty had to bring in the big ladder truck so Rufe could put the huge Angel on top of the tall spruce. Rocky and Bull, the twins, spent the last three months building the manger for the nativity scene that Alf Bjorn filled with hay. Deke and Pete brought in a few goats,two mules, and some baby pigs while Mary Beth played Mary and Gil was Joseph. For some reason no one volunteered a live child to be baby Jesus. Partly Wright, Cory, and Stretch were the three wise men dressed in flowing robes donated by Mandy.

The Sisters served as hostesses for Brad, who was Santa Clause while Phil, being short, danced around as an elf. Ms. Penny kept passing around her flask to ward off the chill.

It’s two days before Christmas and the town is quiet. Tomorrow evening we will all gather again at the big tree on the lawn to sing carols, eat a feast provided by Fred, and share in the warmth of small town friendship. Each of us wish each of you the very best Christmas ever and a New Year full of fulfilled dreams.”

God bless you everyone.

Lew.

Gadget Man

2009-12-11T12:14:00.001-05:00

Sorry about the lag in getting back to you. I finally got fed up with the BlackBerry and went for the new iPhone. Why? I bought two different add-on programs, testing to get something that would clean up the headers in E-Mail, so that it could be read without slogging through garbage. Nothing seemed to work. I tried iPhone last week, and the e-mail on that one is clear, no addresses unless you want them, no line after line of forwarded names etc. Just the facts. Beautiful. Since I seem to have gathered a number of folks who don’t know much about mail, they tend to forward messages with every name that has had access to the topic back to the beginning of the internet, leaving line after line of stuff with no interest to me or anyone else, followed by a mail message of one picture or two lines of text.

It’s taken a few days to figure out how to work with iPhone so if you get something off-the-wall from me it’s because of my fumble fingered typing proficiency.

Everything I had on the MAC laptop transferred over with SYNC along with some I didn’t intend to move. 214 songs to music, 400 plus photos, half of which I didn’t want sent. Oh well, the little thing accepted it all and I still have mostly free space to work with.

Is the BlackBerry bad. No. I bought it before RIM caught up with Apple and added the touch screen system. I looked at the new BB but iPhone beat it, hands down, for what I wanted. Anyway, I’m happy now, spending way too much time thumbing around with all sorts of new things. Once a “Gadget Man” always a sucker for new gadgets.

For those who didn’t get the new phone number try this one.

(478) 396-2166

I carry the iPhone with me most of the time and calling this number will avoid getting busy signals on our home phone. The “E” likes to talk on the phone, and anywhere else someone will listen.

The result.

2009-12-04T16:33:00.001-05:00

Sidewicki works but I don’t know when or where I could use it. The little blurb I wrote earlier, previous post, went as advertised so I now have a new toy to confuse myself.

In the “I can’t win” category I submit the following.

I have turned into the Couch Potato that I’ve been dreading but it’s all my own fault. Background: I spent over three decades as a skinny person. As a youngster I was into all sports and stayed active as I aged. I played high school ball at 175 pounds and when I retired from the Air Force 25 years later I weighed 185 pounds. Last weekend I screwed up enough courage to waddle up to the scales after the Thanksgiving binge and looked down at 240 pounds. The most I have ever weighed. I accept my fate, months of starvation, denying myself the pint of Rocky Road, the pain and suffering of actually exercising the body.

Yesterday I hit the Super market and brought home apples, oranges, cauliflower something’s, watery tea, and a big twelve can carton of “Slim Fast” to curb the hunger. I ate nothing yesterday. Today I had a Slim Fast for breakfast, and another when I got hungry around noon. Now, the irony of my destiny.

As I was playing with the Sidewicki thingy the “E” comes in, sits down at her computer, and checks CNN for news. The first thing she sees is the 10,000 can recall of Slim Fast by Unilever because of a bacteria something or other. Their advice: “If you have it at home throw it out and call in for a rebate”. My first vision was of a slow, painful death from some alien organism. My second vision was of all that strawberry and cream gurgling down the drain. What do I have left? Starvation is near, cauliflower and apples by candle light? Life ain’t fair!

Sidewicki

2009-12-04T15:48:00.001-05:00

I use iGoogle as my home page and the Google folks just sent me this, SIDEWICKI.

OK. I clicked on the button and I'm adding something. I have no idea what it's all about or what I am actually accomplishing here. It says it's going to tattle on me and send this to my blog. I'll go there next and see.

in reference to: iGoogle (view on Google Sidewiki)

Time flies

2009-11-29T07:50:00.001-05:00

Novembers shot, December is rushing in reminding me that I’ve been a slacker. I had a routine going there for a few weeks until Thanksgiving arrived, and I took the day off to eat, and watch football games. Now I can’t get started again. The “E” opened up all of the closets in the house and began sorting, checking, fixing, and putting-up the Christmas stuff. A lot of Christmas stuff. This began the day BEFORE Thanksgiving and she was finished the day AFTER. She has it down to assembly-line precision and my job is to just stay out of the way. Works for me!

Last year I tried to get creative and bought a mile (it seemed) of outdoor blue lights to string in the Dogwood trees in front of the house. I soon discovered a mile won’t hack it. After climbing the ladder, swinging from limb to limb, I had what I thought was a lot of lights in the three trees, but when I finally turned them on that night it was obvious it presented a puny display.

This year I’ll use the blue lights to cover the small bushes near the big windows and forget the rest. I still have the three-foot snowman that the “E” refers to as Mr, Tacky to fill in gaps. Even with this meager display we have the brightest house in the neighborhood, otherwise know as “Dark Passage”. Once in awhile one or two make an attempt, as I do, but we would never win a ribbon for cheerfulness. Works for me!

Kid’s stuff and progress

2009-11-21T01:15:00.001-05:00

A few weeks back, I wrote in this blog about the new Winnie the Pooh book that was authorized, and written, 80 years after the release of A.A. Milne’s last one. I had to have it of course, and placed the order that included the collectors boxed set of the other four original Pooh books. I spent (or misspent) a week reading them which cleared my mind of all things current and opened new brain cells with a six year olds outlook on life. Refreshing, it was totally refreshing! I’ll have to do this more often. Has anyone seen my copy of Alice through the looking glass.

It all must have helped. I’ve knocked out four new chapters in the book, formed the characters to play mind games with a nasty old County Commissioner, with a bad comb-over, and had the Chief moved north to take over the Sheriff’s job. Things are getting interesting in Southwest Georgia. Now, all I have to do is keep things straight and find some way to pull it together for a big ending.

Stay tuned. The world is turning in mysterious ways and I’m about a hand-hold short of getting on the train. Faster man, faster.

I’m back

2009-11-04T23:47:00.001-05:00

It’s taken a few days but I finally got around to adding “Windows Live – Writer” to my network so I can update this blog on any of the Windows 7 machines. Live Writer is easier to use to update the Blog than Word, which requires the copy and paste routine, since it is all in one basic word processor and can eliminate the fumble-finger errors that I am prone to make.

I have all of the machines talking to each other now, with the exception of a few add-on programs for reports, which really means I can do the writing from the office or the sun room, depending on what’s on TV. It’s mainly a sports thing, I can watch a Braves game while messing around with the book but the baseball season is over now so I don’t have much excuse to use the wireless set up on the porch rather than the desk top in the computer room.

Everything is working like I want it to so, for now, I’m going to stay away from all of the distractions and diversions to concentrate on getting Powers Trace III, The Live Oak Tree finished. October is gone. That deadline crashed. Now, Maybe December.

Halloween Already?

2009-10-26T13:16:00.001-04:00

Seems like summer has just ended and daylight savings time will kick in this Sunday. The gloomy days of winter, when it gets dark before dinner hits the table, is upon us. Not even Halloween can help. The trees still have most of their leaves but they’re falling, and soon the yard will be covered. I gave up raking a few years back when I discovered they had a “Mulching Blade” for my mower. I can now do in a couple of hours what used to take all day, raking, gathering, and burning leaves.

Our Soldier son spent two weeks of leave from Afghanistan with us. He looks good, says he feels good, and is ready to complete the last 5 months of the tour. This is his second, after Iraq, and says he’s tired of the sand and brown landscape of South West Asia. He’s getting a few years on him and is ready to pack it in after 20 plus years in the Georgia Guard and Army reserve. He’s ready to get back to work for the college.

This weekend was wasted getting the computers up and running Windows 7. I started using computers before Bill Gates, running an IBM operating system called DOS. Gates took over that code and began the prelims to Windows. As with all of the Micro Soft upgrades, it was a mess. I run 3 PC’s and a MAC. One PC handles my personal data, Quicken, email, etc. Another works other programs, websites, and stuff, and the third is the “E’s” mail machine. I run a web site on the MAC. I could tell you all the gory details but I don’t have the temper, time, or the room here. What I will tell you, don’t believe all of the hype about 7. I thought that maybe this time it would all work smoothly. Not a chance. The first attempt was on my most up to date machine, with 64 bit processor. The three pack I bought from Micro Soft for the home package, lauding the network set up, had a 64 bit disk. BUT, I had a version that did not fit the “Upgrade” requirement, it was more program than the new 7, so it would load as an operating system but would NOT keep my data. I needed a backup, which I thought I had. You guessed it, The external hard drive which was set to backup weekly had nothing for the past month and a half. It’s one of those set ups that you assume is working. NEVER ASUME as I’ve learned over the years. I just didn’t take my own advice. Windows 7 loaded fine. I spent a full day working back and forth between the bank and Quicken to get my financials reconciled. It took another full day to get the other stuff working. The easiest machine of the three was the E’s. It had Vista Basic and the new 7 worked as advertised.

I could go on but I would rather forget it all and get on with the book. All of that work WAS backed up and Word marches on unaffected.

Memories. Very old memories

2009-10-02T02:12:00.001-04:00

The first book I read all the way through was “The House at Pooh Corner”. We were not poor but we did try to stretch a dollar from month to month so the purchase of a real “Book” was an event. I have no idea how old I was, the book was a Christmas present, but I do remember sitting at the kitchen table, reading until I was unceremoniously sent to bed each night. The next Christmas brought “When We Were Very Young”, another A. A. Milne book, and the reading took me through the cold winter, and into the spring. This was at the beginning of WWII. I remember some of the news, the rationing, and relatives hugging young men leaving on the train but, I didn’t really understand what was happening. I did understand Pooh. Christopher Robin was the smartest human on the planet, but Pooh, Owl, Eyeore, and Rabbit were my best friends.

The last time I saw my books was in 1962, when I went through the little farm town on my way to a training program in Texas. A bunch of books had been stored away in the loft of the barn, and mice, or other small animals with a taste for book binding glue, had turned them into mulch. I wanted the books to pass along to my sons who were very young at the time.

Why the sudden nostalgia? I received an E-mail alert for a new book being released this coming week, and I immediately went into total recall of Pooh and his friends. I don’t know how I feel about the introduction of a female to the cast of characters, but, I do know that I will scurry down to the book store, and spend a few nights with my old pals.

The following is the Note from B & N about the release:

When the first new authorized tale of Winnie-the-Pooh in more than 80 years is released on Monday, the book will introduce a new, female character to that bothersome bear’s mostly male entourage. The new character, called Lottie the Otter, will make her debut in “Return of the Hundred Acre Wood.” written by David Benedictus and illustrated by Mark Burgess, and approved by the Pooh Trustees. In a news release, the Dutton Children’s Books imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, which is releasing the book on Oct. 5, described Lottie as “a smart and elegant character” who is “always dressed in pearls,” and who “has her own ideas about how things should be done and believes that everyone should follow the correct etiquette.” In the course of “Return to the Hundred Acre Wood,” the publisher said, Lottie takes a swim in Christopher Robin’s bath, helps to set up a school for the denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood, and turns out to be great at cricket.

Penguin Young Readers Group said that it would unveil a new permanent mural in honor of the original stuffed animals that inspired A. A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh” and other books, and which are kept in the New York Public Library’s Children Center. That unveiling is to take place on Monday, also at the Children’s Center.

Lottie the Otter

I couldn’t resist.

2009-09-25T22:29:00.001-04:00

Setting around the house watching it rain for a couple of weeks put a damper (pun intended) on my attitude. In other words, I became a grouch. As everyone knows, a grouch is unable to think positively, all things are not equal, and the rains became my primary “Hate” point. I needed a change of venue but, an attitude change would suffice.

I had a preorder in with Amazon for the new Dan Brown novel, ‘The Lost Symbol’, and it arrived by UPS on the release date. I set it aside since I have a rule that I don’t read other authors while I’m writing a book myself. As everyone knows I’m weak, and will steal good plot points or a catchy phrase, making small changes, and sneak them in where I can’t come up with something on my own. The book was on my desk, watching me, daring me to pick it up. Well, maybe I’ll just read the the cover comments. Big mistake. Once I pick up a book, like a bag of peanuts, I have to finish it off. I began…

It’s a big book, a little over 500 pages, and as of today I’m about three quarters of the way through it. I’m hooked so will finish this weekend. For those of you who have an interest in a books style, or composition, old Dan has put a new twist on this one. As stated, the book is over 500 pages and has 133 chapters. Many chapters are only one or two pages. I guess this is the coming thing, but I don’t remember the Da Vinci Code with this style. A few current writers are writing with short chapters, changing to a new one with a change of the theme or thought as the story progresses.

Needless to say, between the rain and The Lost Symbol, I haven’t made much headway with the book. I still think it will go to the publisher in October. Late in October.

What a weekend !

2009-09-13T18:34:00.001-04:00

Friday evening I was not looking forward to football over the weekend. The Braves beat the Cardinals, the best team in the Central division, but they had two more to play, Saturday and Sunday, and you don’t beat the best two straight often. Saturday it looked like another loss when the Braves scored early but, the Cards started coming back. In the 8th inning our guys were ahead by one, and played like a little league loser, throwing the ball all over the park, making errors, allowing the bad guys two runs, and the lead. Top of the ninth, with two out, the Braves rallied for two runs, playing aggressive baseball, winning the game. I was exhausted.

Saturday, Georgia played South Carolina, the first SEC game of the year. It looked like a blow out with the Dawgs scoring touchdowns on long kick off returns, interceptions, they were moving the ball, and played good defense. That lasted for one quarter. The kicker, who only missed two field goals all of last year, missed two, and an extra point, in THIS game. Carolina kept coming back and the game went down to the last minute of the fourth quarter before I could breath again. Georgia wins with seconds to go on a tipped pass near the goal line.

Sunday, the Falcons take on Miami in the dome. I think we may have a contender this year, they played very well. The game was never in doubt and I could relax.

Sunday afternoon, the Braves stomped the Cardinals to finish the sweep. Three wins in three days against the best, amazing. They won five out the last six, and should have won the other one if not for a blown save by the “Closer”. The Braves are playing well now but I’m afraid it’s too late. I’ll stick with my prediction. No playoffs for Atlanta again this year.

Sports. Frustrating but never dull.

I told you so….

2009-09-12T00:15:00.001-04:00

Well, my bad karma did, in fact, keep our Little League team from the championship. I have been sneaking around town, hiding from people who know about hexes, spells, and things, trying to avoid confrontations from angry fans, and furious Mamas, until everything starts to return to normal. The team took the defeat in stride, as we knew they would. it hurts to lose but these youngsters have the character to congratulate the winner with a smile and a handshake. Class all the way.

The teams return home was great. The town came out to greet them at the little league ball field where it all began. They were treated like winners by everyone, and admired by the teenage girls, which the 12 year old boys had difficulty getting used to. They’ll learn. They are already looking forward to next year, when they really plan on winning it all. I wouldn’t bet against them.

Back to the book. Most of the summer diversions are over, the Atlanta Braves are falling apart, and the Georgia Bulldogs lost the opener of this season. I’m not a follower of a sport, I have to have a team to get me going. I need to be able to recognize a face, know all the names, have someone to pull for. Just to say I’m a Baseball fan won’t do. I am an Atlanta Baseball team fan. I live in Georgia so, of course, I am a Georgia Bulldog fan. I could follow Georgia Tech but, somehow, that doesn’t fit me. The “Dawgs” are down home, “Tech” is elite. That’s probably all wrong, but I go by how it feels. So that’s the way it is beginning the fall season. The weather will cool off, the humidity will generally be lower, The evenings will be free of baseball and the TV.

I will have no excuses now so I plan on finishing the book sometime in October, get it to the Publisher, and printed before Christmas. The story line is keeping to what I planned at the beginning. For now I know were it’s going but that can change. It usually does.

Warner Robins, GA Who knew?

2009-08-25T01:09:00.001-04:00

This will probably put the hex of the century on the kids but I can’t sit around without shouting about the unbelievable situation in the world of little league. Call it what you will, the local girls from Warner Robins, a small town in the middle of the South, ran roughshod over the competition and won the World title in softball. They went undefeated in the playoffs at each level. Today the under 14 year old boys came from behind to win their third game, sending them to the next level at Williamsport. It was National headlines two years ago when the boys from this small town won the title. Can you believe the story if they win this year making it a dual victory for the boys and the girls. What are the odds. I don’t know how many teams are involved world wide but it’s in the thousands for the girls and the boys. To have our kids win it all is mind blowing.

Keep your fingers crossed. Miracles do happen and these youngsters deserve to be recognized win or lose.

Preview of coming attractions

2009-08-13T00:43:00.001-04:00

My publisher has been bugging me for the past year to get involved with some of their marketing programs. They offer E-Mail blitzes, book fairs, and other stuff, all of them at a cost to me. The original E-Mail campaign was a bust, as I knew it would be. Most folks are like me and hit the delete button on all unsolicited offers from anyone. There are a few sales that show up in the charts monthly that are listed in a compiled gathering of commercial sales like Amazon, and other book sellers, but not in any useable detail. Since the books are not selling well the low numbers forced me to pay a few bucks to keep them listed in the stores and on-line.

Xlibris has a program called “Book Trailer” where a professional media team takes the book and puts together a “Teaser”, like movie trailers, or previews, that run for one to two minutes in a loop. I assume the loop is added to other trailers for other books and becomes part of a set.

Quote: Book trailers present a quick, compact synopsis of the book in flash format that makes for one entertaining view. Since these trailers are placed in sites like YouTube, MySpace, MetaCafe, Blip.tv and dailymotion, they can be accessed by a massive number of people online.

Since I have no other plans I have signed up for this Trailer program. With luck it will be out and viewable by November, listing both books, and the third book will be added after the first of the year. I am not a “Marketeer”. I can’t sell anything to anyone. If anyone actually sees these “Commercials” and buys a book or two I will be both surprised and grateful. We shall see…

Let’s raise the bar some.

2009-07-24T13:01:00.001-04:00

The past few entries here read like a soap opera. All is well, the semi-annual check up with the medics this week shows I am disgustingly healthy so we’ll forget the tick attack and other pleas for sympathy, I guess, and talk about the book.

The title will be Powers Trace III, a foregone conclusion, but I haven’t decided on the subtitle. As with the last book, I’ll probably wait to see what the major theme is before picking something to hint at the story line. Decisions, decisions. The title is a big deal. Kinda like naming your first born. Cute doesn’t impress people forty years down the road, it has to be right forever.

The writing is slow now. It seems to flow with the weather. The heat is one reason but that is to be expected here in the South. We had a very unusual week as July moved in. The temperature and the humidity dropped significantly, and it felt like September. Low 80’s during the day dropping into the 50’s at night. Sleeping with the windows open and no hum from the air conditioner was great. It wont last, the temps are rising again, the humidity is on the upswing and weather from the gulf is bringing rain, which we need.

Keep signing on here for general updates and check twitter for daily nonsense.

Tough little bugger!

2009-07-12T16:17:00.001-04:00

We have two dogs who own the backyard. Luey is a 14 year old Schnauzer and Cookie is a Jack Russell terrier, 8 years old (as far as we know). Both spend hours everyday roaming around their turf, Luey putting his nose to ever leaf in the yard, and Cookie chasing squirrels back up into their trees. For daily diversions they have toys. Three Frisbees, two soccer balls, and an undersized basketball, half flat, leaking air. The back part of the yard is a jungle with a lot of underbrush. The growth is controlled by weed-whacker once a year which was accomplished less that a month ago so the growth was minimal and revealed another ball that had been missing for some time. This is all background for the real story.

Luey was the first to spot the long-lost ball and was about to descend to inspect it. There is a pronounced slope, a drop-off maybe ten feet before you reach the fence, and I knew he had no way to retrieve his ball and carry it back up the hill. To the rescue. I slipped and slid to the ball, picked it up and tossed it back up into the yard. I was now Luey’s best friend again. While I scuffled through the weeds I apparently picked up a tick. At least that’s what I assumed it was later that night, in bed, when my arm brushed across it. I felt it, turned on the light and looked at it, then, not thinking, picked at it with a finger nail. I placed in on the night stand and saw the wiggling legs.

Back up a couple of hours. While watching TV I was feeling a bit off. Joints ached, stomach not feeling well. These are not unusual for us old folks but, now as I watched this small many-legged thing under the light, I knew something was amiss. I now had a fever, my head ached, and my hands were cold. I looked at them and could see swelling, enough that I could not make a fist. The stomach was getting “that feeling” and I headed for the bathroom. I waited, the tension was building, and I sat on the floor awaiting the inevitable. I sat. After about a half hour the body started to feel better. I waited another half hour before I got up and went back to bed. The headache had subsided some and the fever was going away. The hands were still puffy but not as swollen as before. As I lay there going over the symptoms it didn’t make much sense. It came on in a hurry but now seemed to be going away just as fast. The white blood cells must be beating back the attack. It was five o’clock in the morning when I finally ventured back for a couple of aspirins before finally falling a sleep.

When I awoke at 11:30 I felt fine. I wondered if it was all just a bad dream but I knew it really happened. I still had the bug on the night stand, still wiggling it’s legs, still alive I guess. I had tried to smash it after I found it but it was hard shelled so it did not squash. Suffer whatever you are. I’ll place it in a small, airless tube, and let it die a slow, agonizing death.

Moral of all this: Let the dogs retrieve their own toys.