Blog Archives

A few small updates.

The Computer

For those following along, the home PC is doing well. Yes, I did a backup of my writing (I do weekly regardless as should you!). I’m still amazed that the CMOS battery (a $2 part) caused my machine to go belly up. I’d like to think, being that we live in the future now, that this wouldn’t be as critical of a failure.

The Puppy

Gracie (we haven’t renamed her again, previously she was Abby) is doing wonderful. She still won’t go in or out of the doggie door on her own. The sound of it closing scares her. Heck, any noise scares her. We need to walk her later in the evening when there isn’t as much sound about. Still getting her used to the neighbor.

The Mrs did a great job of leash training in 2 days. She doesn’t like to be pulled and will stop often for no apparent reason, but at least she won’t freeze when on the leash and refuse to move at all. That took some time and effort (and little chicken treats). She will, on occasion, lay down as if to say “I’m done.” It’s cute.

The Book Sale

If you haven’t read Paradise Palms yet, it’s still on sale. Reformatted and updated the print book contents (the print edition isn’t on sale at this time).

A Kickstarter

Finally, J. Daniel Sawyer is a close, personal friend of mine. You’d do well to seek out one or two of his many books. He’s currently running a KickStarter campaign for his latest, non-fiction book where he delves into the Young Adult books of Robert Heinlein. Dan is witty, funny, well-written, and smarter than I am. I’ve already ordered my copy and, if you’re nervous about this campaign succeeding, it’s already funded (on the first day). There are some great rewards.

The Secrets of the Heinlein Juveniles

Until Next Time!

Stay Awesome!

Paradise Palms: Free through Sunday!

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Do you like a good murder mystery? Do you like Time Travel? Do you like Trailer parks? Well, get ’em all here!

Paradise Palms: A Murder Mystery in a Time-Traveling Trailer Park is free NOW through Sunday!

If you have a kindle, get a copy!

If you have an ipad, get a copy (and use the kindle app to read it)!

If you have a smart phone, get a copy (and use the kindle app to read it)!

If you have a tablet, get a copy (and use the kindle app to read it)!

If you have a computer, get a copy (and use the kindle app to read it)!

You don’t have to have a kindle device to get this free ebook! Run out and grab a copy NOW NOW NOW!

Whew. Ok, I’ll turn off the yell and sell. I hope you pick up a copy, enjoy it, and let me know what you thought! Thank you for all your support!

Until Next Time!

WOO WOO!

[Cover Reveal] Paradise Palms

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Very soon I will be releasing a book unlike any other I’ve released in podcast form or in print. My Supernatural Learning series is a Middle-Grade series and is great for the younger set. This book is not.

Paradise Palms: A Murder-Mystery in a Time-Traveling Trailer Park is something for the older crowd. I would tell you more about it, but for now, just enjoy the cover created by Starla Hutchon. She does GREAT covers. Check out some of her other work.

I will hopefully have this book ready to go in the next couple of weeks along with Billy Barbarian. I will be blogging the contents of the book so it you can’t afford a copy, it’ll be here for you to read one chapter every other day or so.

Until Next Time!

WOO WOO!

Weekly Update: Where has Jay been?

Wow! It’s been a while since I’ve been in here. I’ve got so much housework to do. I need to add a new book, get another prepared to go in here (two actually) and I need to give you an update as to what I’ve been doing. I’ve been lax as of late and I apologize for being absent. I’ve got reasons!

First off, I was having fun posting my dreams. I haven’t stopped having them, I just haven’t had the opportunity to sit and write them. For example, last night I was fishing in this wide fishing boat, alone. For some reason I was still tied to the dock. A HUGE fish, bigger than my boat, jumped out of the water and landed on the dock. It rocked my boat something fierce. The fish died as soon as it landed on the dock. I looked at it and had no idea what to do.

Then I woke up. Then I fell back asleep and had another dream that was…odd. I’ll leave it at that.

I will resume posting my dreams when things settle down.

So, My Teacher is a Vampire is live all over where books can be found. I’ll post links and cover art and all that just as soon as I’m able. I love the cover Dan Dan the Art Man did for this one. I’ll be pestering him again soon for My Teacher is a Witch. I hope to release that one come July.

Paradise Palms: A Murder Mystery in a Time-Traveling Trailer Park has been delayed. I’m getting more editing done on that one. I’m a bad, bad writer. Well, maybe not, but that one needed lots of cleaning and it’s being scoured. It may need a little re-writing in spots, but it will be coming this month.

Also this month I hope to drop Billy Barbarian: Sethopolis. This is a fun book and I can’t wait to get it out into the wild. This one was done as a podcast and before you ask, yes, I’m planning a sequel.

Next Month will see Of Gnomes and Dwarves: Chance Encounters. This is the first book I ever wrote and has been completely re-written. I’m super happy with the way this one came out. I added a lot, I took out a lot, I changed things around. Overall I made the book the best I could. I’m anxious to write the sequel for this one.

My giant robot story has stalled on me. I’m going to put it aside. After trashing 25,000 words and starting over I got 10,000 words in and I’m struggling with it at this point. I do plan on finishing it, but I’m not as excited as I was the first time through. I need to work on something else to find my writing mojo once more. I only knocked out 10,000 words last month and I don’t like that. Yes I was crazy busy with editing, work, helping friends with their webpages, and everything else life throws at me, but that’s no excuse for such a poor word count. I need to get back on track and I know just the book to do that for me. 🙂

Speaking of life throwing things at me, I found myself at Metal Jam over the weekend. This is a charity even for autism and I’d heard about it before, but my brain never made the connection. Turns out it’s founded by my high-school buddy that I haven’t seen in about 20 years. Yes, we’ve talked on the phone many times, but I haven’t been up to see him in a LONG time. He only lives two hours away, so what was my excuse? Life.

So I went up so see him. I had to. He has a son that’s 20 years old and severely autistic. Jeff started this event to raise money to help kids with autism and all the proceeds go to help the fight. The best moment of the day was when Jeff brought his son on stage and played Into the Void by Black Sabbath. For some reason his son really responds to this song. It was hard not to cry as you saw Jake on stage with his dad rocking out. It was a beautiful thing.

I also met Derek Riggs there. Derek is the artist responsible for all the Iron Maiden artwork over the years (well, a vast majority of it). He’s such a great guy and donated his time so sign anything people brought by. He also donated the artwork for the t-shirts (and hoodies and prints). I got much swag. I was astounded by just how much was donated. I mean, holy cow! There was so much that they had a hard time getting rid of it all.

What Metal Jam is, other than a fund raiser, is a place where musicians gather to jam together. Over 100 musicians showed up to play 25 songs. On the site there’s a posted song list and artists can sign up for one or many songs. The talent ranges from pros (The Iron Maidens, Electric Funeral, Dias, Just Like Priest) to people that sit in their room and jam on their guitar and know a few songs. This was a chance for those people to mix, mingle, and have a great time for a great cause. Me? I was just a spectator, but I so wanted to have a base in my hands and jam with them. Who knows, maybe I’ll start playing bass again so I can join in next year for a song or two.

This weekend I’ll be back in Long Beach for a volleyball tournament. Might meet up with Jeff and his girlfriend again for dinner. Then when we get back on Saturday I hope to head out to the Gaslamp Gathering and meet Jay Lake. Unless things change, this will be my only opportunity to meet him. That saddens me and I need to get out there to say ‘hello’.

So things won’t slow down any time soon, but hey, that’s life. I can do all this and write as well.

Speaking of writing, I’d better get doing something.

Until Next Time!

WOO WOO!

Weekly Update: Update o’rama!

The biggest news of the week: Sputtery Truck isn’t so Sputtery anymore.

For those that were playing along at home, I have a Dodge Ram 1500 (yes, I drive a big truck) and I’ve had a check engine light for a couple years. Every time I’ve fixed one thing, something else has set it off. This last round I was getting a misfire on cylinder 7. The Millican assisted me in replacing all the plugs and coils (save one). This cured the misfire issue and the check engine light.

The I got the Check Engine Light once more. Yeah, I wasn’t surprised at this point. The code was no longer a misfire (which we both thought because of the one plug we couldn’t get out. Oh, no. Why would it be that simple? Oh, hell no! Let’s be a TOTALLY different code this time that I’ve never seen. Let’s make Jay work for this one.

fuel system too lean bank 2

What? Really? Too lean? That means it’s getting too much air. So The Millican and I went back through the manifold we needed to take off to get to the plugs and coils and double checked that everything was tight and secure and we couldn’t hear any leaks. Color me confused.

The Check Engine light that has become the bane of my existence would go on, turn off after a couple days, go on and laugh in my face, turn off after a couple days. Well, being that I needed to get Sputtery Truck smogged, I took the opportunity to get it smogged during one of the Check Engine Light of doom’s down periods. The men were happy to see me as no one else was in the shop. The engine was running smooth. I was hopeful.

Hah, silly me. I new something was wrong the moment the guy came back in and said something to the effect of: “Wow! I’ve never seen anyone fail so high before. 8%! You must be getting terrible gas mileage. I have to save this one.”

Yeah, thank you for pass or free retest.

The failure at the smog place showed that I was running way too rich, not way too lean. So I bit the bullet and took Sputtery Truck to get looked at. Again. I explained to the mechanics what I’d done already (an entire history in three part harmony and a bunch of pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what it was). They were impressed with all I’d done to keep Sputtery Truck running. I felt proud. Why? I don’t know. Third base!

So they spent about 30 minutes poking and prodding around and finally determined that my O2 sensor on the passenger side before the catalytic convertor was bad. That made sense. It was reading too lean, the engine pumped in more gas to compensate, making it partially flood the engine and causing it to sputtery.

HOORAY! An O2 sensor, an oil change and some fuel injector service and Sputery Truck was back on the road happier than ever. SO! It’s been a few days and still running smoothly and no Check Engine Light of Doom! I’m going to run it for another few days to make sure it doesn’t come on, get it smogged, pay my registration, and we’ll be good once more.

My Favorite Daughter has no tournaments for the month of February. Yeah! Just lots and lots of practice. She’s busy doing her best.

Books! My Teacher is a Zombie and My Teacher is a Werewolf might, just might, find a home in the library. I’m not sure what’ll happen, but one of my favorite daughter’s friend’s mom works at the library and knows the acquisition librarian for the district. She’s going to show her my books and we’ll see what happens. They’re middle grade books and she was excited to see not just the covers, but the titles. I guess middle-school kids are big into the Zombies. WOO WOO!

I put the finishing touches on Golden West Season 1 last night. I’ll be doing some recording and I have the final two episodes written. I know I’m slacking off on that. I’m sorry! Life has been full of life type things that have prevented me from sitting in front of a mike in a quiet room.

Now that I’ve gotten that one out of the way, I’m off to finish V&A Shipping II as well as get the edits done on Paradise Palms and Billy Barbarian (My next two books to release). THEN I’ll be working on My Teacher is a Vampire which will see Stanley and the gang during summer school before the get to High School. I then plan on writing 3 books for each grade in the Supernatural Learning series. Each story is stand alone, but will build on a bigger picture. So if someone were to read them all, they’d be able to follow all the threads, but could pick up any to read.

So I might be adding more books to my publication schedule than I thought.

Oh! And just a heads up for any who really care. I’ll be using the pen name R.J. Durmock for books like Paradise Palms, Life of Lists, and other thriller type books. These will have more of an adult theme and being that V&A Shipping, Billy Barbarian, and the Supernatural Learning books are better for an all ages type of read, I don’t want a kid to pick up My Teacher is a Zombie and then Paradise Palms and go WHOA! Didn’t see that coming.

Ok, I’m off to go make some words happen, get some words recorded, get a podcast produced, and find somewhere in there to take a nap.

Until Next Week!

WOO WOO!