April 24, 2009

We left Richmond Wednesday and arrived in Maine today, the 24th of April. We took a slow, leisurely drive through Pennsylvania Dutch country, spending a night in Lancaster, and enjoying some of that great Amish food! The drive to Hartford, CT, where we spent the night last night, was beautiful and actually quite relaxing. This morning we awoke to a beautiful sunny day with climbing temperatures and little wind. The drive to Maine did not take anywhere nearly as long as I thought it would, which was nice. 

We stopped to have lunch in Ogunquit. It was sunny, in the 70s. People were at the beach as this past week was spring vacation in Maine for the school children. Lunch was a lobster roll, a drink, some cheddar cheese chips, completed with a carrot cake cupcake with real cream cheese frosting! Just what I needed to help me lose some weight... NOT! But, I threw caution to the wind and ate it anyway! 

We ate dinner at Jimmy's the Greeks in Old Orchard Beach. I had mushroom ravioli in a creamed spinach gorganzola sauce, and, for the sake of my diet, some sauteed vegetables. After a tour of the restaurant by our son, the chef, we departed and headed for Borders, where, unfortunately, I found even more books to buy... and did.

Tomorrow we head to Wiscasset for the day! It's supposed to be even warmer, and still sunny!

April 13, 2009

No word on book 1 yet. The lit agency in San Francisco should be receiving my ms today, so who knows when that will be responded to. Nothing on the other two as yet. Patience, I guess, is the watchword of the day.

Created another character for book II. His name is Alain Toussaint, an educated young man who is interested in becoming a writer and who dabbles in art, mostly pencil drawings. Have added several new things to two of the threads today. I want to have the story outlined by the end of May, with serious writing on it after that. I'd like to have the first draft completed by the time we leave for the west come August. Then I can spend the rest of the winter re-writing, and polishing, and have it ready for the publishers shortly after the first one comes out... God! How I wish! Oh, well, stranger things have happened. I did, after all, win a short story contest with the first story I sent out, so I don't think it's totally impossible to dream about having my book(s) published while I'm still living.

Am getting into the habit of working in the art arena again, which is good. Maybe I can sell a few between now and the end of the year. Anything to keep from having to go back to work at a, ugh!, regular job in a few years. I could always paint houses I guess, but it would have to be for people who are not around while I'm working, or who strongly believe in the freedom of speech including copious amounts of swear words, and different coloured plants and grass.

Here it's getting close to lunch and I just finished breakfast! Small lunch today! Or, maybe none.  

Open warfare with the pirates! Better late than never, I guess. I can't believe they honestly thought the world would accept them as "businessmen", unless they relate to being bankers or credit card companies. I do really wonder, though, if there was "imment" danger, or they just wanted to bring this to a close. The destroyer was towing the pirate's boat. They could have towed it far out to sea and threaten to set it loose... 

April 7, 2009

Well, today I put my baby in the mail and sent it to San Francisco. As a result of this, I will not b sending out any more query letters, or anything else on the book until I have a response from the literary agency I sent my book to at their request.

Instead, I will devote the next 'x' number of weeks to outlining book 2 in detail, and begin writing it as well. 

I have been subconsciously thinking of how do I go about defining Lily from book 1? In that book, at the beginning, she knew who she was. After discovering the truth revealed in book 1, Lily now needs to determine who she really is. I have a beginning to the third thread in book 2, and will work on that starting tomorrow. 

Along with the are thoughts of what's to follow. I have so many ideas for book three, but I need to answer questions like, should it be one that is related to the first two, or a standalone one, or from an idea I had several years ago, or a new idea, born recently? Actually, two ides born recently. 

I guess a lot depends on whether or not I can sell book 1. No sale on that for a few years and I may find myself back in the everyday work force doing something, just not sure what. Or, I could win the lottery...

April 4, 2009

BREAKING NEWS: Book kind! I just received a request for my entire manuscript from an agency in San Francisco that I queried a week ago, along with a synopsis and the first 10 pages! What's encouraging about this is, with what I sent them, they want to see more! Definitely encouraging, and I will be excited about this until further notice.  This request is in addition to the two agents that already requested more. However, once I send out the manuscript, I will have to wait 8 weeks, or until I receive a rejection from them, to send full ms out to other agents as this one wants exclusive reading rights. Now, back to the original blog report.

Well, we were supposed to go to the beach this weekend, but there was a change in plans. My wife's sister ended up in the hospital, once to have her knee replaced, and then again because of complications, but not with the knee. The day after she returned home, she couldn't breathe. Back to the hospital. They discovered she had a blood clot on her lung. They began giving her a blood thinner. Several days after that, as the time approached for her to leave once again, she began having pain in her other leg and abdomen. They found she was bleeding internally, so they lowered the dosage. Then they gave her a shot of morphine to ease her pain. Her blood pressure dropped to 70-40 and she turned white. She was immediately moved to ICU, where she is this morning several days later, and hopefully getting better.

Not only that, but after she was returned to the hospital, a partner in her regular doctor's practice was supposed to come in to see how she was doing. He never showed up. When he did several days later, he told her he forgot. I guess there just wasn't enough money in it for him.

 

For those of you out there who have the mistaken idea that the US is the best place for medical and health care, think again. The US ranks somewhere close to position 30 in the world. Many of the doctors that "practice" medicine in this country do it for the money, not because they have any affection, or give a damn, for their patients, or their practice. This is not all of them. There are still those who do care, but their number is dwindling. 

The other thing Americans need to wake up about is taking care of themselves. Too many are willing to run to the doctors and follow anything they tell them, taking medications by the truckload. Those people are not taking into consideration that pharmaceutical companies do not want people to be healthy. If they are, they make no money.

I once had a doctor order a prescription for me without even talking it over with me first. It was because my cholesterol was "too high" for him. It was 220. I refused the prescription, began eating better, started taking flax seed oil, and fish oil with omega-3, lowered it to 182, and changed doctors.

Prior to going to Denmark two years ago, my wife and I were popping one or two Zantac a day for indigestion. We have had one or two Zantac total since then, a period of a year and a half. Why? Because we discovered that by eating carrots, or having a small glass of pure carrot juice our indigestion went away. 

Not only that, but I have suffered for years with food allergies, usually ending in allergic bronchitis. I found while in Denmark that if I eat an apple a day, honest, I can now eat many of the things I was allergic to with no after affects.

My question to the medical profession is - why don't you tell us about these things instead of grabbing your pad and whipping out yet another prescription? 

Wake up America! The human body is an amazing machine! We need to stop teaching "Health" in schools, and start teaching "Appreciation for what the body is and how to take care of it". 

Bill Maher said it best... "We will not solve the health crisis in this country until we stop making ourselves sick!" 

Schools could help by not serving unhealthy crap for lunches. 

Okay, I'm off my soapbox... for now.

Book progress. 

Two more form rejections from agents have been received. No word yet from the two who I have sent additional material to. 

I have named another character for book two. Renee DuBois, 42, who is the leader of the Resistance group in the Book. Several of the traits he will develop in this book may lead to yet another one. He is developing into a very interesting character, and I've just begun!

One the agent front - This is the last month for soliciting agents. If no luck by then, I will wait until all the rejects or whatever to come in, and start lining up publishers to query starting no later than July 1. I may never have a book in print, but if I do not, it will not be for lack of trying. 

Went to the bookstore last night. I was able to restrain myself from buying too much. Did buy one book, though. Wanted another one about a Danish spy during WW II. He escaped the Germans and went to England. He got there by flying an old plane that required him to climb out on the wing with gas cans to refuel half way across to England. Several other times, he escaped by walking miles over partially frozen ice from Denmark to Sweden. Others with him did not make it, as the ice was not thick enough everywhere. At least one drowned, and the other froze to death. The writer spent ten years, I think, interviewing this man, who passed several years ago at the age of 89.

Well, that's all for today. Tune in next time when I once again climb atop my soapbox and rant about how stupid this manufactured recession has been in comparison to what could be happening.  

March 31, 2009

Today is the end of my ninth month of being retired! I find it hard to believe that it has been that long, but it has. It seems more like a couple of weeks. I guess it's true - time does fly when you're having fun!

Book front:

    My new character is named Gabriela Bernard. When I have to name a character, I go to the internet and look at first names and surnames, origin, and meaning, wanting to have the name of the character mirror the meaning of their name. Gabriela is is an aristocratic sixty year old widow whose husband was taken away when the Germans passed through their village, and was later found shot with several others from the village. They had taken residence at the farm when the war started, having lived in Paris up to that time, with some summer months spent on the farm. She is not very tall, thin, has steel gray eyes, white hair, newly formed calluses on her hands,  and does not mind getting them dirty working their farm.

    The next character I am working on is the leader of a resistance cell. I have not named him as yet, but will do so shortly. 

    I was watching the Military Channel this afternoon and heard a German soldier who fought against the Russians talking about the order that was given to them to immediately kill all Russians thought to be commissars in the villages they overrun. He said he was given one of them to shoot, but he told the unarmed Russian, "I am not a murderer!", and proceeded to let him go, telling him how to find his unit. This gives substantiation to a scene in the manuscript I wrote where basically the same thing happens, but with a different ending. Those who have read the manuscript know about what I am referring to. Hopefully, someday, many people will be able to read about it... or, better yet, want to read about it. 

    As for agents, no additional word from any of them as yet. So, for now, perhaps no news is goods, or will be, especially since I have yet to win the lottery.

    On the home front, my wife has been suffering through a bout of poison ivy, which is in its second week. Two trips to the doc, two prescriptions... and a LOT of scratching. 

    Time to name the next character!

March 29, 2009

    Been a few days. Not much to report on. Another "not interested" letter yesterday. Sent three more queries out last Friday. Two agents still reviewing, thinking about it. I will continue to persist. I have one month left to go through the agent list, and then two months of waiting and seeing on the queries, unless all rejects have been received by then, or an agent picks up the book and deems it worthy for publication. After that, starting in July, the direct search for a publisher will begin. 

    In the meantime, the plot of the sequel begins to take shape, with the new characters beginning to grow into "real" people. After this update, I will be writing up more scenarios for one or the threads, and hoeing around the garden of ideas for another of the characters. 

    I have made some progress into resolving one problem I was wrestling with with the driver of the story, so I am now free to move into the next set of "What happens now?" scenarios. 

On the art front, the show Friday went well. There were a large number of new persons stopping by the gallery. Several of them seemed to be into some of the paintings, and perhaps a few sales will result from that. I must say, they two paintings we have in the show looked really nice, with mine hung directly above my wife's. We were told that the judge took no realistic  scenes unless he felt they were very well done. So, in the eyes of at least one judge, we did okay.

    The new painting my wife did, a scene from Arles, France, is one I'd really like to bring home after the show and hang in our dining room. We recently redid everything, and have but one painting hanging in there. But, should she sell that one, that's even better! I will take photos of them and place them on Facebook so people can see them. 

    I am laying out a painting of Bayeux, France while still working on the two elderly gentlemen feeding the pigeons by the Eiffel Tower. I have decided to go with pastel for that one, watercolour for the Bayeux scene. 

    We leave next Friday morning for OBX, Manteo to be exact, where we will join our friend in his condo, kick back and relax, read, walk on the beach (hopefully it will be warm enough), eat fantastic quesadillas at the Magnolia Grill, wander through Manteo Booksellers inhaling the fragrance of printer's ink as it rests upon a printed page, and sit on the deck overlooking the world at the coffee shop across the street. With luck, Nags Head Pier will be open and we can pig out on fried shrimp, coleslaw, and fries while listening to the sounds of our arteries gleefully clogging up. 

Time to go! I need to get some writing done before heading out to the Avenues for our Sunday afternoon of slouching down in a comfortable chair, sipping a grande frap, and reading several books. Current reading list is "The Republic of Silence" (research for book 2) and "2666" a novel of sorts that I haven't quite figured out what it's supposed to be about yet, but one that is definitely big, > 850 pages. 

March 25, 2009

'Nuther day, 'nuther rejection. Found three more agents to submit query to. One via e-mail, already sent out, two via snail mail, will go out Friday. Other than that, just researching away. Learning interesting things. Retreating German troops would herd cows along with them, as well as a peasant family to milk the cows. Troops would drink the cream, throw out the milk. Go figure. Lots of dead cows from artillery and bombing raids. Hard to bury. Needed bulldozers. 

Time for at a place called "The Black Sheep"! Sounds interesting! God, I love being retired!

Will add more upon my return. 

After lunch - Lunch was excellent! We split a sandwich called the "Miss E". It was on Texas toast, grilled to a perfect thickness and crunch, filled with avacado, bacon, chedder, red onion, tomato, and horseradish! No one flavor overrode the others, very balanced, very, very good! I ordered the Swedish meatball "sub". Right! This thing was at least 22 - 24 inches long! We ate half, brought the rest home for lunch tomorrow! It had 7 good sized meatballs, some gravy, tomatoes, and cabbage, and may have had something else as well, but you can check the menu for that, if you want. It was made on a French Baguette. that was just right sized, and crispy. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it. It may not last until lunch tomorrow! 

The place is small, like maybe at one time the living room of someone's house. It has a wide variety of pictures, paintings, whatever, hanging from the walls, no of it related to anything in particular. Along one side there is an old church pew the length of the wall, three tables and a booth. And then, a booth turned at a 90 degree angle from that. Several tables in the middle, and more tables and booths along the other wall. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sometime in the near future, we will be heading into town to try their dinners. But not tonight. We're still full from lunch. 

While were were out, received an e-mail response to the query I sent out before we left. Reject! Oh, well, at least lunch was good. 

Tonight I am going to spend my time drawing and laying out another watercolour painting, half sheet size (15" x 22"). Tomorrow I will actually start painting it.