Category Archives: Daily Update
Daily Update: Progress is progressing
WOO! I have updates today.
1) I have music for my piece of the Action Pack podcast. It’s not what I was looking for. It’s BETTER!
2) I have a cover going for Of Gnomes and Dwarves. It’s looking great! Freaking love it also
This means I really need to get my rear in gear and this week I need to have the first short ready to go for the end of this month. I’ll get on that tonight/tomorrow and start assembly so I’ll have everything ready to go for this weekend. The story will go up on Smashwords.com and be free for the frist 30 days where I’ll post it up on the kindle and nook for .99 and change the smashwords price to .99 as well. At the same time I’ll be releasing the second story up for free 🙂
That’s also the same time that the first Action Pack Podcast will drop. A whole lot of excitement going on around here. I LOVE it. All of this going on has me really excited. I mean, I mean, I mean…
Sputtery truck will go into the shop this week. After much deliberation and discussion the wife and I came to the conclusion that it’s better to fix it and hope for the best rather than drop back ten and punt (buy a new vehicle). It’ll cost. It’ll hurt. But in the long run will be better. Just means we’ll be eating top ramen for a couple of weeks.
My favorite daughter has another volleyball tournament this weekend (Saturday this time) and we’ll be heading back up to L.A. The night before it’s a late practice. 7pm-9pm so we’re torn over heading up late or driving up early. We still don’t have a time for when they’ll start play. My assumption is that it’ll be 8am like the last one, but I’ve been known to be wrong from time to time.
Even though I was up early today, I still feel better. I got a lot of rest over the weekend. The house is clean. I knocked out a few thousand words on To Fall From the Sky. This week is going to be a GREAT week. It’s only Monday and already great things are happening. I’m off to go make sure it stays awesome.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: A weekend alone
So I spent a moajority of the weekend alone. The wife and my favorite daughter took the mother-in-law and one of the sister-in-laws up to Lemoore for the weekend. No, not because of the farmland smell, but because one of the nieces is up there with some of the great-grand kids. They had a wonderful time and I got some much needed rest.
I had great plans for lots of writing mixed in with some laundry and cleaning. I got lots of cleaning and laundry done. I got a little bit of writing done. The odd thing, I clean better alone. I write better when the wife and my favorite daughter are around. I have a tendency to goof off, watch TV, and not do what I intend to do. Still I was about to write a few thousands words over the weekdn so I was proud of that.
I also intened to write this post this morning. Perhaps walk. It did rain much of the weekend which has two effects on me and my head. One is I get really stuffed up to the point of pain. Two is I get drowsy. Compiled with the stress of last week with getting up earlier than normal for work and Sputter truck becoming dying truck, I spelt almost 12 hours each night. I am SO refreshed and my brain is back on track.
I need to do some editing during the week on both Jack Kane, My Action Pack story, and my Of Gnomes and Dwarves story. I have a lot of projects all in the works and I need to make sure they all stay on track. Dan Absolonson said that he’ll have the cover art to me soon. That means I need to get the contents of the book compiled.
I’ve got a couple of stories out in the wild as well as a few books. All I can say is waiting really sucks. I know it’s part of the business and I need to keep pressing forward, but waiting to hear word about a story or book that’ out there is painful.
Speaking of painful. The pain in my shins is subsiding. Walking over the weekend, and by walking I mean around the house, hurt less and less. I’ll start wandering around the neighborhood again on Monday. I’ll slow my pace back down and work up slowly this time. I got a little excited about running that I did what I didn’t want to do and that’s hurt myself.
I also intend to blog on a more positive note. Yes, I’ve been down, but I don’t want to have this blog be depressing. So If I’ve gotten you down, sorry about that. Look for happier posts next week.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Yeah, I’ve been whiny the past couple of days.
I’m kind of over that at the moment. The whining I mean. Posting on this blog is a way to clear my head. Get the cobwebs out. Get my motor running. Get my fingers typing. Get my brain in the writing mode. To get all that bad stuff put aside and just get words flowing.
Sorry if I’ve dumped on you the past couple of days. It’s been a bad week. Yesterday I so wanted to take a nap and stay up late writing. Today I so wanted to get up early and start writing.
The best laid plans…
At any rate, the day is still young. I’m rested, refreshed, ready to rock and roll. I cranked out an episode of Unorthodox Writing Tips for Mike Plested to use on Get published. I had several okay ideas, and all fell flat and I deleted them all about half way through. When it comes to ideas, I can be like that. It either got to resonate with me, or it’s out. I threw out several because they were either weak, or sounded authoritative and mean.
I did say the say was still young, right? It is. As soon as I have dinner here in a few minutes I’ll be back into To Fall From the Sky. I had it end at a certain point, and having slept on it, I’ve decided that point was dumb and I’ll be deleting the last few hundred words or so until I get it back on track. I had a guy show up with a gun at the wrong moment and it was also the wrong guy. I need to put him in the right spot then it’ll have impact. Where I put it, it’s just confusing and really makes no sense. I think I was tired.
I hear the oven screaming my name telling me my food is ready. I better head down there before it burns. I’m excited. I have all night. WOO WOO!
Until Tomorrow!
DOUBLE WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Almost missed it.
I’m super tired. This week was stressful both at work and with the home life. Stress happens. I got a great amount of writing done, and it was all painful and difficult. I wrote my way through it. I didn’t get as much walking in as I wanted to, but that’s due to physical pain. I still did some workouts with my weights though. I didn’t allow anything to actually stop me.
Then came today. I just ran out of energy. I took a little nap thinking I’d wake up and have a little dinner, a shower, and jump into some writing. Well, I took my little nap now I’m more tired than I was before the nap. I’m thinking I’ll be down for the night and try again in the moring.
It’s been a long week. I wanted to do a longer post, but tired brain just isn’t up to it right now. I’ll do better tomorrow.
Daily Update: Plowing through.
With the news of having a blown head gasket on sputtering truck and the expense of having to get it repaired coupled with the amount of money I’ve already put into the truck just to keep it going was a one-two I wasn’t prepared for. I let it get the better of me, but I let go long enough last night to knock out about 1500 words. It was difficult with everything gnawing away on my brain, but I wrote. I feel good about what I did write and I’m thinking I need to make some modifications. Not quite sure just yet.
To go along with sputter truck, I have pain in my legs I had through I was past. It took a few days, but shin splints are what I have now. What I had experienced before wasn’t like this. that pain was muscle pain from not working my legs in some time. The pain I have now is deep intense pain in the bone. It hurts to go up and down the stairs and I need to take a break from my walking until this pain subsides. I’ll also stop jogging until I get my legs in better shape to handle the stress. This was a case of too fast too soon. This is a little frustrating as I was so excited about jogging. Everything else about it felt good and I enjoyed getting out there. But for now, it’s resting my lower legs until the pain subsides.
I do still have my free weights so I’ll be doing something about my overall fitness. I also plan on starting 100 push-up and 200 sit-ups once again. I know I can’t just sit still anymore and expect my body to be alright.
Plotting for the Jack Kane sequel has begun. My writing partner, Mike Plested, and I plotted not only one, but three subsequent novels to take place in the Jack Kane universe. We could probably plan out a dozen, so for now 3 and 4 are just notations whereas we began delving deeper into what book 2 will be about. I can tell you this, I think 2 will be even more fun than 1. Speaking of book 1, I have it assembled in Scriviner for Windows. Hopefully this makes editing easier.
Mike and I also net with Scott Roche so I could give the two of them a hard time about not having their Action Pack works ready for next month. Of course they still have a lot of time, I just feel the need to give them crap about not being further along. Artwork and music are being prepared. The website is live, but in dire need of modifications. Hopefully in the next week or two that will happen. Excitement levels are still high for all of us, so look for good things.
Speaking of good things, I’d better get back at it.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: In a Funk
I haven’t posted anything about sputtery truck lately so I’ll try to be brief.
Life happens. People die, events happen, vehicles break down. This is just the way life goes.
Currently I’m looking at my truck. It struggles to turn over (usually doesn’t the first few times but then will) and once it does I get a gout of white smoke. I don’t mean a little bit, I mean HOLY SMOKE SCREEN BATMAN! white smoke. This is a bad thing. Very very bad thing.
There are two potential issues. One would be I have a blown head gasket. The other would be warped or cracked heads. I thought, yeah, okay, so it’s a gasket. How hard can that be to replace? So I got a hold of my friend who groaned and said “Maybe it’s time to trade in the truck” and laughed. I knew I was in trouble.
So I started looking online last night at how difficult it is to replace a head gasket. It looks like it’s a royal pain in the guzunkus. No, really. It’s not a one day type of job. It’s a two, three, eight day job. Though the cost isn’t that much, the amount of labor is horrific and complicated. Now I’m not afraid of a challenge, but I don’t think I’m up for this and my friend didn’t seem like it was something we’d want to tackle in his front yard.
So I’m currently looking for a shop that can replace the head(s) and gasket(s). I’m not 100% sure if it’s one head or two being that I have an 8 cylinder engine. I’ve looked at the costs online and it ranges from $700-$1500 which includes the cost of the parts.
After a great call with Mike Plested and Scott Roche on different projects I was on a high and hit a terrible low. I really don’t have money like that to throw into a repair and without doing the repair, I’m without a vehicle. I would drive it, but from what I can tell, coolant is seeping into the engine until it runs out of coolant to dump into the engine and then it runs hot. I’m guessing that the issue with it starting is due to coolant in the cylinder(s) gumming up the works and getting into the oil.
So today I’ll be calling and getting estimates. I’m not looking forward to the answers, but I’ll have to bite the bullet and take care of business.
Writing didn’t happen yesterday, but walking did. I’ll post more on that tomorrow. I don’t mean to be a downer today, but life does have a way of happening to you whether you want it to or not. I’ll be happier tomorrow. Promise 🙂
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO?
Daily Update: Oh, I might as well.
Yesterday I wasn’t going to walk/jog. Yesterday I wasn’t going to blog or write. I wasn’t going to blog today either, but I am. Why?
Persistence.
I had my fastest time on my circuit yesterday. I jogged more than I walked. It hurt a little, but overall it felt great to get out there. I can tell my fitness level is improving because I’m moving quicker. It’s easier to go up and down the stairs (the first few days of walking were torture). My legs don’t stay sore as long after walking either. Overall it’s making me happier.
So yesterday I wasn’t going to blog either. Again I’m glad I did. I had a ghost story that I shared from my Navy days it even though it’s a ‘told’ story, it was still fun to write it down. It made me remember a lot about those days in the Navy when I did security duty. I had a lot of “I wonder what happened to so-and-so” moments.
I’ll give you a behind the scenes to the ghost story. Even though I cannot tell you what passed over the Blazer, I can tell you this. There was a fire, and it was put out. Long after I’d left the base I found out that one of the people I worked with had been setting fires all over the base. Usually small fires. Even though he’d been accounted for, it was over radio. He’d left the base when it was his 6 hours off and had walked out into the field in question and set the fire. He was the shadow I saw running around the fire. He was lucky to put it out in time before we got there. After the incident he had to take a few days off due to illness that I later found out was smoke inhalation. He was eventually caught and court-marshaled when he burned down a building that contained many of the base’s shipping and receiving records.
So even though the whole incident still gives me the creeps, I do know most of what happened that night. He was able to get part of the fire out, the rest burned into on open area with no fuel to keep it going. I only know this because we did talk many years after. Once he got out of jail that is. But that’s a story for another day.
At any rate, I’m glad I wrote yesterday. Why? It was one of the busiest days on the blog. I had a lot of people stop by to read the story and that made me really happy. How happy? Happy enough that I got up off my duff, got a haircut and went for my walk. When I finished I had intend to write, but dinner appeared, I wanted a TV show, got interrupted many times, but finally got about 100o words cranked out.
Despite it all, I had a productive day. I hope to have a repeat performance this evening.
Until next time!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Early to bed…
It was a long weekend. This week will be a long week. Unfortunately I need to be online for work at 6AM for conference calls. Not a big deal. I’m usually up at that time anyway. Just means I won’t be able to hit the snooze button is all. I can deal with that.
We did a little shopping yesterday, had some great food at the Cheesecake Factory. I’m a sucker for a good shepherd’s pie and they do make a good shepherd’s pie. I love me meat, potatoes, and veggies all rolled into one. Oh yes I do. I even have leftovers for this morning that I’ll have with an egg on top. Just sounds good. Of course we also had cheesecake to bring home (too full to heat it there.)
So last night we got home pretty early. I had intended to sit and write for a couple of hours. After cheering for my favorite daughter, driving, shopping, eating, eating some more, well, needless to say my brain just wasn’t about to get into gear. Didn’t matter what I did, creativity eluded me. It was one of those night’s I should have followed my own rules, but hey, life happens from time to time.
I will get writing done today. I will get work done today first which includes some training courses I need to take. But tonight words will fly! Or so I hope 🙂
Yesterday I mentioned I had some stories from the base I used to work on. I’ll have fun posting those. Here’s the first.
Rumors abounded that the base had 1) been built on old Native America territory and 2) multiple sightings had been made over the years the base had been in operation of ghosts, strange lights, odd fires, and unexplained events. There were many stories and I, being a skeptic, ignored them all and usually had fun playing pranks on people. This wasn’t a prank.
Fire on the base:
Working at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station I did the night shift. My schedule changed from time to time, but it was mostly from 6PM to 6AM with 6 hours on post and 6 hours off. Some nights it would be gate watch where I could sit and write or read being that I was rarely bothered. Mostly it was on patrol in a small Chevy truck. The supervisors had larger four wheel drive Chevy Blazers because the little trucks would get stuck from time to time on patrol and we had some areas that were inaccessible.
On one particular night on patrol I got a call. My supervisor was on his way to meet me. Someone had called in from outside the base that there was a fire in the middle of one of the fields. Being that it was in the middle of the field I couldn’t drive my little truck out there, I needed 4W drive.
He drove out and met me behind one of the bunkers. I stood up on the side where I could get a good view of the fire. It looked more like a large bonfire and sure enough, it was in the middle of the field where I couldn’t get to it. It could have been a trick of light or it could have been people, but I saw, and reported people around the fire.
It wasn’t uncommon for people to break onto the base. “I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at this facility.” That was standard mantra even though security guards were well aware of when nukes were on the base and somehow the public would find out as well and often lay across the entrances to the base in protest until the police arrived to escort them away for interfering with base operations.
Eventually my supervisor arrived in his Blazer with a few fire extinguishers. By this time we had reports from multiple people outside the base about this fire. We had alerted the police and fire departments that the fire was in an unused portion of the base, not easily accessible and currently posed no threat to personnel. There was no need for them to come and assist until we had assessed the size of the fire and if we’d be able to put it out on our own. Even so, the fire department had been called by civilians living across the street from the base and firetruck sat on the other side of the face much too far away to do anything about the fire.
My supervisor and I drove around the bunker, slowly due to there being no road and the field being filled with large dips and rises and tall grasses. The entire time we kept in contact with the main base keeping them appraised of the situation.
Now this is where things got weird. We stopped to try and determine where we were in the field with relation to the fire. The grass was tall and driving through it difficult. I had opened my door and stood looking over the top of the Blazer. I heard something that sounded much like an earthquake. Living in Southern California you hear many before you feel them. I told my supervisor that I thought an earthquake was coming, but the sound changed. He turned out the lights to help us get a better bearing on the fire. I could smell smoke. I could see the glow. I could hear the nearing rumble.
I can neither confirm no deny that a horse jumped over the hood of the Blazer as I stood there. I can neither confirm no deny that the horse had a rider that looked very much like a Native America brandishing a spear.
What I can confirm is this. 1) The glow of the fire disappeared. 2) The rumble stopped. 3) The fire department called our base to congratulate us on putting the fire out. Both my supervisor and I were given letters of accommodation by the captain of the base for our diligence in handling the situation.
In the dark of the field, we emptied the fire extinguishers and our bladders. In the dark of the field we both confirmed and denied what we saw. In the dark of that field, my skepticism found it first true challenge with something I could not explain.
I had the watch for the rest of the night and I had the heebie-jeebies for the rest of that watch. As the sun started to come up, I made my way back to the fence-line on the edge of the field. I stood on top of my truck and I saw the scorched area where the fire had burned. No other vehicles had been in the area as all vehicles were accounted for as well as all personnel during the situation. The firetruck would have been at least two hundred yards away. I couldn’t make out any path or tracks through the field that led to the scorched area. I never spoke of that fire again.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Believe what you want, I know what I experienced. I’ll have more for you in the coming days.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Long Day.
Last night we drove up to L.A. (Anehiem) for my favorite daughter’s first travel team’s volleyball tournament. To make a long story short, many mistakes were made by all the girls and it was a painful first outing. This was not the same team I’ve been watching practice since early December.
Enough about that. I could go on and on, but I won’t. It was a learning experience for the girls and they still had a great time. Our next one is in two weeks and we’ll be better prepared.
I was going to write a blog post on the road, but we got up early and got moving quickly. There was much discussion between the parents in between matches. Basically there was little time to do anything so I didn’t post until now. Suffice to say, today was a day off from walking. It’s far too cold right now and I’m already pooped. Yesterday was almost a day off from writing, but I did manage to get a blog post out as well as an Unorthodox Writing Tips. Tonight we’re back home and I’ll be sitting down and writing soon.
I have many things in the works. I feel good about all that I have going on. As things happen I’ll make sure you know about them as quickly as they happen. At the end of this month both my home life and my writing life will be going full speed ahead and I’m excited to see if happen. I need to spend as much time sitting and writing as I can. I need to increase my word output dramatically. A thousand a day just won’t cut it. I was happy when I noticed that I was a little ahead, but I’d like to be much further ahead. Look for numbers to start jumping.
Speaking of writing, I think that’s enough for now. Tomorrow I’ll have a story about the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station where I did a couple years of security duty while in the Navy. Obviously I can’t tell anything about the people or operations of the base, but I have some interesting anecdotes as well as a couple of ghost stories. Being that we drove by the weapons station on our way to and from the volleyball tournament, all these memories came rushing back. I had fun sharing them with the wife and my favorite daughter.
I’m off to go make words happen
Until Next Time!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: A New Kind of Pain
A few days ago when I started walking I mentioned that I recognized a pain usually labeled “No pain, no gain” and a pain that said “SOMETHING IS WRONG”. Today I suffer from the former.The past two days I jogged a little during my run and greatly increased the pace at which I complete my nearly three mile circuit. I also said I run on my toes, not heel-toe as many people do. So yesterday I was a little stiff in the calf muscles, today I’m a lot stiff. I have been stretching and will continue stretching.
On the plus side, the shin splints I suffered from seem to have mostly been alleviated. That makes Jay a very happy boy. The only pain I get in my shins is during the walking portion of my walk if I extend my stride too much and I know continued walking will eventually make that pain subside as well.
Do I feel fit yet? Heavens no. Not really even close. Even though I’m jogging, I’m not running. It’ll take time to get there. How much weight have I lost? No idea. I honestly don’t even have a starting point. My goal is to get into better shape. Not lose weight. One will follow the other naturally. I’m not going to stress if I’m a pound or two overweight. I will stress if I stop working out.
Good habits are difficult to form and easy to break. Bad habits are easy to form and difficult to break.
My favorite daughter didn’t have practice last night. I had intended to write a lot. That didn’t happen. I did find time from 9-9:30 to crank out 800 words for a story (written in interview form) for the Mad Scientist Handbook Anthology. I also did a little editing on Kance Encounter, the short story I’ll be releasing at the end of this month.
On the Action Pack news front: I’ve procured a friend to do some music for each segment in the podcast. I’ll have to find some transition music/sounds for each scene transition inside of one of the works. Just thinking out loud here. You can ignore me if you like.
On the workplace front: Today I hit 15 years with AT&T. Although I’ve had some complaints over the years I have to say that the choices I’ve made in my career have helped me a lot and made for a fulfilling time. I started out as a member of the CWA (Union) and quickly moved on to management. I am NOT a supervisor, but instead I am an independent contributor. For those that don’t know me, I develop internal web applications for AT&T. I freakin love my job.
Speaking of loving my job, time I got at it.
Until Tomorrow.
WOO WOO!
J.R. Murdock 