Episode #219: I Found A Little Music Walking Under An Eclipse

The locally famous plateau on Cedar Mountain, looking across the town towards New Britain CT.

I had a most enjoyable walk during the solar eclipse of 2024. It was a gorgeously sunny day with temps in the high 60's/lo 70's, and I came across a multitude of people that I hadn't seen since year one of the pandemic (the mountain was an extremely popular site to practice socialized distancing w/o feeling guilty).

Apparently, this plateau, plus an area in front of the Hartford Regional Center was deemed to be above average places to watch the solar event of the year. As I walked by, I wished everyone good luck and much success with their viewing and (hopefully) their photography.

As for me, the only effect that I got from the eclipse was becoming very cold while walking through the shadow of the eclipse. However, there was a small positive to be had during that very long walk: music.

I came across a recycling bin that was not picked up by the recyclers (odd that they would want to enforce their rules about what you can recycle. :/s), that had a bunch of DVDs and CDs left behind. Being the enterprise older lad that I was, I perused the remains and made a selection of almost one dozen c.d.s of various genres to take home with me.

I would like to point out that, as I've gotten older, I've been exposed to more genres of music than I ever was in my youth. In my youth it was 70's pop, 60's/70's country, 60's folk and 50's doowop/rock. As a teen, I completely missed what is now disgustingly called "classic rock" and instead concentrated on the aforementioned genres. I really didn't come out of my shell until I was introduced to the world of college radio in the mid 90's during my time as a state worker drone.

Humorous aside: I once made a request of an AOR station (album oriented rock) to hear an Eddie Rabbit song. I'm sure I was the butt of jokes for quite a while at the station.

So after bringing my haul home and having to dispose of four empty cases, I was left with seven very intriguing c.d.s to listen to at my leisure. Fortunately for me, I was hip deep in transcribing three chapters, so I really needed something to keep me occupied.

Ultimately, I managed to listen to four in their entirety. What follows is my opinion on those four, along with my observations on the other three. 

1. Fun.: They were a pop/rock band out of NYC from the very early 2010's. They produced two very well received c.d.'s, of which Aim And Fire is the one that came into my possession, before going on "hiatus" to do other projects. The c.d. had that power/pop vibe going for it, and I really found myself grooving to it.
2. David Guetta: Is a French producer/DJ who is very well known and successful on the club scene circuit. This particular c.d., called Listen, was very enjoyable to listen to, as it featured guest vocalists such as Sia, John Legend and Nicki Minaj.
3. Lindsay Stirling: An accomplished violinist, who apparently has fantastic stage shows featuring all kinds of dance, while playing. The music absolutely blew me away (being that I've had long time exposure to classical music, I can really appreciate the tonal quality of the instruments used) and for those who are fascinated by intriguing musical pairings, the title song, Shatter Me, features Lizzy Hale of Halestorm on vocals.
4. Of Monsters And Men: Icelandic folk/pop/rock band that theoretically burst onto the alternative scene with their c.d. My Head Is An Animal, which spawned two radio friendly hits, Mountain Sound and Little Talks, I was able to listen to about half of this c.d., which created a very good personal vibe for me. Tightly crafted and the lead singers have the kind of voices that never quite match up with the actual image of the singer as opposed to the image you've created while listening. Highly recommend.
5. Red Hot Chili Peppers: No real need to point out the obvious, but this particular c.d., Californication, in my personal opinion, is where the band really peaked creatively and commercially. Three monster radio hits, plus other assorted tracks that flew under the radar. It's a decent c.d. that is now...GASP!....25 years old.
6. Capital Cities: I have not listened to In A Tidal Wave Mystery yet. The best I can tell is that they're a pop duo that has released exactly two full c.d.s and two e.p.s since 2011. On a personal note, I have always been leery of listening to modern pop music, since to me, it basically sounds the same, no matter what kind of tweaks you make to the music. But, I am willing to keep an open mind about this (someday I will tell you about the absolute worst dollars spent on a c.d.).
7. Neon Trees: I haven't listened to Pop Psychology yet. The best I can tell is that they're a combo of new wave/synth pop/dance/rock. Like the previous entry, I will keep an open mind about this one as well.

In general, I think I made a good haul with these c.d.s., as I'm always on the look out to expand my musical horizons. I'm always of the mindset that buying used c.d.s is the best way to explore different genres, because honestly, I'm not a fan of buying a c.d. just for one song that I've heard on the radio somewhere. I have made exceptions to that rule over the years, and for the most part, I haven't been disappointed in my expensive ($15-$25) choices. There have been misses over the years, but have been few and far between.

Have a fantastic week everyone, and if you want to explore your musical horizons, check out college radio. You'll be happy that you did.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #218: Memories Of A {Mostly} Pleasant Library Serfdom

Flashback to when my work life had a bit more levity to it. I think I still got this bear stashed away somewhere in my basement.

A comment a semi-regular visitor to this blog made about early work life got me to thinking about how much had changed, technology-wise, for the 24+ years (1996-2020) of my state employment.

For starters, when I started working in 1996, if you can believe it, that was my first exposure to computers. Prior to that, I had no such exposure to using a computer, at least since my high school days (1979-83). I'm pretty sure I had a familiarity with Microsoft products in 1996 and zero familiarity with e-mail prior to working for the government.

So if you think about it, I was literally straddling the fence between blissfully living without technology and painfully living with it. So, in no particular order of importance, let me give you a tiny flashback to what my work life was like at the dawn (1998) of the Google empire.

1. Netscape was the top dog for search engines, at least prior to Google. There were quite a few others (Dogpile comes to mind) but they quickly disappeared.
2. My entire work life ran the M$ gamut starting with Win 6.0 and finishing with Win 10, and yes, the State skipped 8.0, 8.1 and Vista.
3. E-mail was Groupwise, for at least a decade. And ListServs were very, very popular in the academic world.
4. Voice mail was (and still is) a thing, along with other outdated technology like fax machines (current technology is that you can fax directly to your computer).
5. Because smartphones were waaaaaaay in the future, Mapquest was very much a thing, back in my early years. Nothing like printing out directions before going off on a work related trip to some college or public library to get you psyched up for the day. My daughter insists to this day that I had actually performed this task for her when she was a teen in the mid 2010's.
6. My first job with the state was at the CT State Library, helping to prepare newspapers for microfilm. Yes, before the concept of digitizing took off (my first job started digitizing in the mid-2000's) there was microfilm. I can absolutely guarantee that I can still rattle off enough minutia about microfilming that will make your brain yearn for speeches from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Yeah, I was JUST. THAT. GOOD.
7. Speaking of microfilming, I got to be very good in using bottles of powdered toner for one of the machines. Yes, you read correctly. Back then, one of the machines that we had you were able to make photocopies directly from a reel of microfilm. Note, microfilm will always be a thing, because nowadays, it's a great back up to digitized records and if you're a research library, it's more of a user friendly product than digitized records (at least IMO). Any who, I had to use two different types of toner, and yes, I did have a few accidents over the 8 years of working there.
8. And for #8, we actually do not have anything else. By the time I was involuntarily laid-off in 2003, I was firmly entrenched with such nascent technology as Google, Word and Excel (yes, my work life also predated those two programs), discovered the joys of Internet radio and the crap that was AM Radio (talk that is, with Dr. Laura and Rush Limbaugh being the predominant programs of the day) and the absolute joy that was/is college radio.

Thank you for taking the time to join me on my trip down memory lane. Oh and, one more terrifying thought for you: I was a sophomore/junior in high school when MTV premiered in 1981. Bonus points if you know what the very first video aired was.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #217: E-mail Humor of the {G}entler Rated Kind

Spring is very much trying to make itself known these days, and this daffodil is a prime example.

For those of you who may not know, I used to be a state government worker, from 1996-2020. And during that time spent at four different agencies (State Library, Attorney General, DoC and DCF), I had a good working relationship with a lot of my co-workers, which in turn netted me a plethora of ye olden e-mail of (mostly) office humor.

Now, to give you just a tiny glimpse on how far back these e-mails go, the following statements are considered to be true:

1. When I started working for the state in 1996, Windows 95 was a thing;
2. When I started working for the state in 1996, Groupwise was the premier e-mail system being used; and finally,
3. When I started working for the state in 1996, Google was still someone's brainchild two years away from being launched.

Suffice to say, I've seen quite a few technological thingys during my working lifetime. Any who, I used to get a lot of e-mail humor (all of it clean) forwarded to me, and I thought after probably a two year hiatus, I would share a few of them with you.

The first one is entitled "Hymn #365

A minister was completing a temperance sermon. With great emphasis, he declared, "If I had all the beer in the world, I'd take it and pour it into the river."

With greater emphasis, he declared, "And if I had all the wine in the world, I'd take it and pour it into the river."

And then finally, shaking his fist in the air, he declared, "And if I had all the whiskey in the world, I'd take it and pour it into the river."

Sermon complete, he sat down. The song leader stood very cautiously and announced with a smile, nearly laughing, "For our closing song, let us sing Hymn #3665, Shall We Gather At The River."

This was the kind of kid friendly e-mail that were sent to/forwarded by, everyone in our various work places. We weren't allowed to really send anything that could be considered to be "adult" {nudge, nudge, wink, wink} through the official e-mail channels.😏

Another fine example, that those who are readers or writers would definitely understand, had to deal with historical libraries of the late 18th century. Back then, the library was often one of the few places outside of the church that a person could visit to have contact with other members of the community.

This particular e-mail highlights a September 1796 meeting held in Ware, Massachusetts about the establishment of a "Librarian's Society" (aka public library).

In September 1796, a meeting at the Ware Center Schoolhouse voted to establish a "Librarian's Society", and each subscriber contributed $1.00 to buy books. That sum procured about 50 volumes, with sermons, histories, and essays predominating. Fiction was represented by "Pilgrim's Progress" and two other titles. To preserve the books, fines were imposed: "For every leaf that seems to have been turned down, 3 cents. For every drop of grease from a candle or lamp, 6 to 25 cents at the estimation of the Librarian or the committee of inspection. For effacing a book with dirty hands or any other way, from 8 to 25 cents. For tearing a leaf or injuring the cover, not less than five cents." The Society flourished for many years, but came to an end in 1822.

Just out of curiosity, I found an inflation calculator, and in today's dollar values, $1 in 1796 equals $23.51 in 2024. In regards to fines, the max level of $.25 in 1796 equals to about $5.88 in 2024. A lot of bang for your buck back then.

I sincerely hope you enjoyed the gentle humor of the former e-mail and the snapshot of New England history of the latter, and I wish you a very Spring-like Monday.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #216: When Nothing To Do Becomes A Prompt For...Writing?

My local Dollar Tree store has got all kinds of Spring/Summer season planting items, from potting soil to flower seeds, and everything else in between. Like tiny garden figurines such as what you see here. I have four of these little buggers scattered about my den, keeping watch over the various items that I possess, like myself.

Today's post is about when you hit that self-imposed rest area on your writing journey and suddenly you need a little something to occupy your time. In my particular case, I had just finished book #3 of my four volume low fantasy series with the blog tag called Hot Mess, and I wanted to take a mini-mental health break before diving back into the land of volume #4.

The first two weeks of my mental health break were spent putting all of the final pieces together for my new novella The Mortality Of Familial Love, of which creating A+ marketing content for the book was the absolute final piece (waiting for approval right now) of the publishing puzzle. 

After finishing that interesting piece of advertising (many thanks to KDP for providing step-by-step instructions), I found myself with absolutely nothing to do and all day to do it. This, my good reader, was not a good thing to undergo. I didn't want to get back into the grind of writing that fourth volume just yet, but I also didn't want to radically change my morning routine, which was spending approximately 1 1/2 hours writing prior to my morning walk. Thus, we decided to have a waltz with the ginormous animal that had been periodically, and with even temperament, persistently nagging me to write....GASP!...a proper outline for that final volume of my low fantasy series.

Now this is pretty much a foreign concept to me, as I thought that writing a story should come pretty naturally and one should use their memory and plan on the fly while writing (aka "pantsing" or "being a pantser"). This memory thing quickly went down the drainpipe as I realized that trying to keep track of multiple characters and plot points in my head was not feasible. So that'ss when I came up with the idea of printing out my chapters of my work as I progressed along, mostly to use for reference and editing notes.

I have been doing this for the better part of several years now, and it really has helped me maintain the sanity/stability that I need in order to properly function as a writer. But, it has now gotten to the point, at least with this series, where I really need to step up my game with a better tracking system for this series.

To whit: I currently have about 6 distinct plot lines going that I will need to make sure that they finish to a satisfactory conclusion, good or bad. I'm also dealing with the fact that there are eleven major character changes going into the fourth volume that I must properly work into the overall story, which includes four prominent deaths, five serious woundings and two defections.

Now, I have been able to negate some of the persistent nagging about a proper outline, in that I managed to create, 39 pages and counting, a chapter-by-chapter highlight guide (aka bullet points) of exactly where this story is heading. Still, it's an idea that is slowly wearing me down, only because I'm coming to the realization that with at least 6 distinct plot lines going, I really do need pull it all together so that it makes perfect sense at the end. I really can't afford to write a half dozen or so pages on a particular tangent only to belatedly realize that the tangent doesn't mesh with what was written previously.

So after talking it over with myself, especially when I decided to start on another short story to keep myself occupied (very, very wrong thing to do), I broke down and resigned myself to a fate worse than inspecting microfilm: writing a proper outline for the final volume. And suffice to say, after three handwritten pages in, which translates to about 1 1/4 pages typed, it's turning out to be something that I'll pretty much grow to loathe in the coming weeks/months.

But, as they say, you can't always go through life like a Luddite. Sometimes you just have to join the modern age of using the tools that you loathe the most that will help you perfectly achieve your goals.

Happy Monday to one and all, and remember, you are as old as you feel young!*

*quote from an old Popeye cartoon of the late 50's/early 60's. Made absolutely no sense then or now, but it always stuck in my memory like a bad video earworm.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #215: Writing Is Diagonal When You Want Linear

Caught a squirrel eating al dente during a moderately warm morning walk. Them acorns and brown grass blades are certainly good eats indeed.

I are, once again, back in the blogging saddle. Took a month and a half blogging hiatus to catch up on my writing before switching gears to release this new novella of mine. I should clarify that it wasn't so much as a hiatus, as it was creating a series of posts from one particular seed of an idea, which led to the hiatus.

So, during my blogging hiatus I experienced a few writing related annoyances that I would like to share with ya'll. Some ya'll may find amusing, others not so much. But all were things that I have experienced just so that you don't have to. In no particular order of importance, they are as follows:

1} US Copyright Office: Since I was coming out with a new published work (novella), it would make sense for me to go through the laborious prospect of recovering my account on that website, which I had last logged into back in 2021. After coming to a standstill by locking myself out trying to reset my password, I contacted their IT support, who surprisingly enough got back to me in one-tenth of the way through the maximum ten day deadline.

One of the petty annoyances that they reminded me of was that in order to get the most out of the website, a Win PC was "required", along with either Firefox or Edge for a browser. No other OS or browser would give you the "best experience ever". The other was their version of a password meme: sixteen characters, minimum; at least three UPPER and three lower case; at least three numbers; at least two special characters; you can't use the previous eleven passwords; and you must change every 30-60 days. Oh and, you can't use words that contain all three of the same letter (e.g. eerie). 

I had a ton o' fun performing that task. Reminded of the non-user friendly websites that my home state currently maintain.

2} Being forced to spend more money than I really wanted to on a cover: Okay, this sounds whiny, but hear me out. I actually wanted to bring out my upcoming novella in early January '24, and to achieve that goal, I contacted my go-to book designer to get the ball rolling in late November '23. Long story short, she basically went AWOL for what I'm guessing to be, three and a half months. From mid-November '23 to about late Jan/early Feb '24, she basically ghosted her own website. No reason was given for her disappearance, as far as I was able to tell. She did manage to update it to a degree, but lost me as a customer.

So this thrown lug wrench forced me to solicit writer friends in my FB writer's group for suggestions. Fortunately for me, I received some excellent recommendations and selected one that was the most economically viable for me: 100 Covers/Book Cover Design. I say economically viable, in that they offered three different price points based on what you need, plus ways to add more later, also based on what you need later as opposed to now.

Now even though I am thoroughly happy with my current graphic designer, I am annoyed that I was ghosted by my previous designer. I mean, the very least that she could do would've been to change her auto-reply to something that stated something along the line of going on hiatus and a short explanation for said hiatus. If she had done that, I could've saved myself about two months worth of aggravation, not only with the cover, but with everything else associated with the process.

3} Finish up book #3 of my four part series: When is a final chapter not a final chapter? Well, to quote the Fire Marshall Bill character from MadTV, "Let me show you something!" 

I spent the better part of three weeks of actually writing a four page synopsis of what characters I have and what plot points are associated with them, along with possible scenarios of how the book is going to end and who will be moving forward, among other things; then we switched gears and performed one final edit of all five binders (added another 10% in notes); then we spent that final week of mentally plotting out how to write that final chapter.

And as the old saying goes, the meticulously crafted outline consumed itself with a side of fava beans and a fine Chianti to wash it down.

By the time I finished writing the required lead up to the battle, I was struck smart by the revelation that I needed to add a "final" final chapter, because there was no way I was going to write a 40 +/- page chapter to finish out this book.

So......yah. Writing a final chapter is just as easy as putting your hand inside the garbage can to throw something away...and missing the garbage can. 😖

Have a Happy Monday, and remember, if you need to have a good laugh, just think about all the bad grammar being tossed around by people who aren't smarter than a fifth grader, but are 4 times older than a 5th grader.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #214{a}: The Mortality of Familial Love Is Now Live...Mostly

Soul collecting is both a dangerous and lucrative business, and no one knows better than the netherworld’s premier soul collector, Dmitri. Creating enemies is part of the job, but when a simple favor for a friend turns out to be a set-up, Dmitri finds himself in the crosshairs of a contract hit. Tangled in a web of sex, lies and violence, the collector must do whatever it takes to survive.

Survival is a brutal game, but Dmitri is playing for his life in this fast paced dark fantasy.

My latest novella, The Mortality Of Familial Love, is now available as an e-book from Amazon and Smashwords for the very reasonable price of $2.59. Get your copy today!

Details on the print version TBA at a later date (possibly the day of this post as I've submitted it for publication the day prior to this post), but will be available at Amazon and Books By G.B. Miller

But seriously though, my latest book was well over ten years in the making, going through at least one editor, a multitude of changes as we grew/matured into an slightly above average writer, and finally, a title that was at least four months in the making as well. I am very proud of this novella and I hope you feel the same way about it as I do.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #214: The Waiting Is Always The Hardest Part

So today's post, as suggested by ye olden music video of a song that originally came out when I was still in high school, is about waiting. Specifically, waiting to publish my upcoming novella, The Mortality Of Familial Love. Last week, while I was going through the very informative {no sarcasm here} KDP process of publishing my book, I encountered a small....snag. A snag that KDP/Amazon politely pointed out to me.

In a very professional way, they stated that I had six spelling errors that needed to be fixed before I could continue with the process. Two were words that I had made up/heard elsewhere while the other was a non-capitalized version of the word, so those were easily fixable by me choosing the "ignore" option.

The others I had to contact my lovely formatter, Go Published, and asked if they could correct the errors that somehow slipped by me at least six times {seriously, I used spell check that many times}. She said that it wouldn't be a problem, sent me the correction form, told me how much it would cost, which in this case it fell under under 5 errors {thus no out of pocket cost for me} and afterwards, told me that I should have all of the corrected files some time next {this} week.

So, here we stand, patiently waiting for my manuscripts to be fixed so I can continue with my uploading. In the meantime, I started working on the final chapter of book #3 of my Hot Mess series, and I'm happy to say that as of the day of this post, I have finished book #3, and even written a very short bullet point of what characters aren't going forward.

Also, I would like to mention that KDP/Amazon is now asking authors who use their platform how much, if any, AI was involved with the creation of your book. It looks like they're simply tracking, but considering they're now limiting people to uploading three books per day (or per week, I'm not exactly sure), perhaps this is part of that crackdown as well.

Oh and, for those who also use Smashwords as a platform, they started migrating everyone to Draft2Digital. They're moving all of the easy ones and leaving the complicated ones, like myself, for later.

A very happy Monday to all and I hope to have good news by this time next week.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #213: We Chillin' With Our Communication

An art piece that my lovely daughter created for my brother as a late Christmas present. I do not recall what type of material was used, but it took her many months to finish.

Going back, once again, to my four volume series colloquially titled Hot Mess, for this particular topic. In addition to creating unusual characters (mostly) based in the real world, I used all kinds of communication methods for the series as well.

Most obvious was the plethora of languages, both real and imaginary, that were used throughout the story. 

First and foremost, I applied the advice that a good editor friend, as well as examples used in various historical fiction novels, which was to state early on in a given conversation/scene/chapter what the actually language being used was. So at various points we had the following real (verbal) languages in use: English; Spanish; Portuguese; Greek (modern & ancient); Quechua (Incan); Nahuatl (Aztec) and just teeny-tiny bit of Biblical (e.g. thou, hast, etc) and Medieval/Renaissance English.

I also added in, because I believe in fantasy, the sky's the limit when it comes to communication, we also used the following real non-verbals, with great gusto and realism: Sign and Morse code. And we also used the following non-real types: Telepathy and Pod Planet.

Now the first paragraph is mostly self-explanatory, in that a person who spent, at the very least, centuries roaming the Big Blue Marble, would pick up the ability to communicate in a variety of languages, with varying degrees of efficiency. The second paragraph is where we'll have some fun explaining my thought process.

With Sign, this choice was a no-brainer, simply because I had created nine humanoids who had no real communication skills beyond telepathy, a very basic concept of grammar and no vocal cords, so I wanted them to use a language that could be considered a universal language. I originally used the moniker ASL until I found that there's another predominant version called BSL, thus the general moniker of "sign language" was employed. The one twist that I had decided to add, was to make it universal across different human species. That way, if telepathy wasn't available, various human species still had a rudimentary common language to use.

I chose Morse code simply because I love niche/obscure methods of communication, and what is more niche than Morse code? For at least a hundred years or so, it was the predominant mode of non-direct communication between people in the real world. In my series, I made it obsolete when I decided to treat telepathy as a real language that anyone could use, including animals. But I also made it a universal language that anyone or anything could use in a pinch, especially those who needed to keep their communications on the down low.

I turned Telepathy into basically a normal every day language that anyone or anything with a functioning brain cell could use reasonably well. So in my series, I have humans, sentient beings and animals using it with a very high degree of efficiency, and I gave humans the ability to put blocks in, so as to keep certain private convos private.

Now the last, Pod Planet, this was a bit tricky to implement. I wanted to give the denizens of the planet an official language that everyone was required to have a working knowledge of (speaking and listening), even if they don't use it, but I also wanted it to be the kind of language that people generally loath when they hear it or use it. So with that being said, the language itself consists of clicks, whistles and grunts. Which I believe, is just about the ugliest combination of sounds you can put together and call it a "language".

Overall, I really do enjoy employing different styles of communication in this particular series. It gives it a lot of real world flavor that would otherwise be missing if I kept everyone to speaking just American English. 

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #212: Housecleaning!

My late cat Holly, who was truly one of a kind, and has a place of honor in being my avatar for all things Google (blog, computer, YouTube, and Google Accounts for my Motorola smartie-phone).

And I bet you're wondering good old G.B. is posting twice in one week, and on Leap Day to boot. Well, as the title of this post blithely states, I have performed a bit of housecleaning.

Specifically, my book blog.

Since I have a new book coming out this spring, it would make sense to some much needed updating to the book blog, which hasn't been touched since 2021.

In short, we created new pages for most of the books that I have out, along with one simple blog post to greet all visitors. As things slowly progress with my writing, more pages will be added. 

So please let me know what you think about the new and improved book blog/store. I did keep the same blog theme, so the only changes made were: the nuking of all previous posts (aka reverting to draft) and the addition/subtraction of pages.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #211: How We Got Here From There {6th}

You would think that a town that preaches/teaches all of the properly "progressive" ideas about life would still have something like this hanging around the local elementary school. You would be incorrect in that assumption. It's now just a patch of....something...surrounded by a white picket fence.

Please find part the 1st here, who is desperately trying to fend off the attacks of the 2nd and his loyal peon the 3rd, who is dragging the rebel 4th kicking and screaming, while the 5th is mocking his cowardice.

~~~~~~

And now, I present to you the final post in this limited edition series. Enjoy.

~~~~~~

This particular letter "G", has been a bit trickier to deal with. On one hand, it kind of makes it nice to have one appear from time to time in my stories, but on the other hand, having one appear from time to time begs the question of how to tastefully and realistically write the character. Personally, I've been annoyed about the stereotypes that seem to populate most media these days, so I decided that if/when I would venture into the realm of that particular letter, I would do it realistically.

I have a male character called Silencioso, who one could call in the traditional sense of the word bisexual: likes both men and women. However, I decided to throw a few intriguing twists into the mix, in that I wanted to apply both modern and historical angles into the mix.

For starters, I decided not to make my character a traditional bisexual in the sense of the word, where he would decided which way to flow based on a variety of factors (yes, I am being general here, as I have not done any kind of delicate research into the mind of someone who is bisexual). Instead, I made it so that it would happen organically and it would be something that he would have no control over. His mind would decide that they wanted to go a particular way for a while, and they would drag him along for the ride.

As for both modern and historical aspects, it was, for me, a no-brainer. I wrote our Silencioso as a young man who worked in the palace livery stable, was in his mid-twenties, toned but not buff, like a typical stable hand. However, because the Pod Planet exists in a cultural and historical mish-mosh: modern tech yet has late medieval/early renaissance cultural mores, we've also hinted that he was very discrete with his encounters with the ruling class, which in turn made him a natural choice for this assignment. Because if you know anything about world history, discretion for anything out of the norm, no matter what class of people, was highly valued.

Now for my remaining female MCs, as it applies for this segment. One I haven't done much yet with, beyond having her be hetero, telepathic and the ability to create other beings such as animals. And maybe connect with the spirit world, but I haven't really decided on that yet. But for her daughter (yes, please enjoy this almighty swerve), I have made her to be quite the interesting individual.

For starters, I turned her into a genetically modified denizen of the Pod Planet, although that wasn't the original plan for her. About a dozen years ago, back when I had originally written this story, I gave my character a particular trait that was so far out of the realm of normalcy then (and now if applied in the way that is stated in the book) that I actually had second thoughts about continuing this extremely odd trait. In fact, I actually wrote a blog post about it to solicit my reader's opinion about it. Most had no problem.

Fast forward to now. Like I stated earlier, I made my character Nyx, a genetically modified denizen of the Pod Planet. The reason is pretty simple, in that our Ms Nyx is quite the buxom lady, and long story short, a decision was made to turn her into a feeder for the masses. I am quite confident that you can pretty much figure out what this very non-sexual trait is (I am being 100% legit serious here).

That is pretty much the entire back story I'm willing to put out here in this blog post for this particular character. I would also like to mention that she is the aforementioned host of the sentient siblings mentioned in an earlier blog post and that she also has a lover/slave under her nominal control as well.

I believe we have gone as far as I can comfortably go, exploring the complexities of what I decided to have for female characters, at least in this particular series. My male characters will always be the same mixture of toxic masculinity and Walter Mitty, with the occasional deviation whenever a particular scene/plot/story calls for it.

😎

I sincerely thank you for sticking around to the very end of this series exploring my world viewpoint and how it shapes my writing. So I sincerely wish you a Manic Monday, my Tuesday's Gone With The Wind, have a lovely conversation with Wednesday while pursuing a Throwback Thursday during a viewing of the original Freaky Friday.*

*we have a song from the 90's, a song from the 70's, a beloved cartoon/t.v character, a meme that everyone can enjoy and a Disney classic.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #210: How We Got Here From There {5th}

This photo was actually taken on December 28, 2023. Four aisles down on an endcap was/is a display for St. Patrick's Day. Feel free to either facepalm yourself to your knees or scrape the bottom of your jaw off the floor with a spatula. You're welcome.

Part the 1st is here, waiting for the 2nd, the 3rd and the 4th.

~~~~~

While for the most part, I have diligently worked on showing the (mostly) tolerant side of homosexuality, I still needed to have a balanced and more nuanced perspective showing how cruel the world can be to the gay community. 

Adeola, who is Jhon's ex-wife, is even more of a complex character than Myla. So let's get that T.L.;D.R. out of the way. Adeola is a lesbian with almost zero (physical) interest in men. Was forced to marry and divorce Jhon and yet still pines for him.

Obviously, there is a cargo ship more to unpack here, and I will do my best to move beyond the preceding 24 word T.L.;D.R.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I do like creating ruthless corporate entities out of historically corrupt entities, e.g. Hell and Purgatory, or in this particular case, the Aztec Empire. For the purpose of this story, I have turned the Aztec Empire into a criminal corporation on the scale of a well oiled drug cartel, in that they have their fingers in all kinds of illegalities. And yes, I have brought along their more unsavory practices into the mix.

Anyways, just like with most criminal organizations, the Aztecs have the strange standards when it comes to certain things, like homosexuality.

Note: I know that this isn't historically accurate. It's called "artistic license".

With the Aztecs, I have made their legal system based on the old nineties policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". In a nutshell, there were certain military rules and regulations on the books regarding homosexual behaviors, but so long as you didn't tell them, they didn't ask about it nor did they prosecute. But if someone does tell, they are legally bound to investigate. For an added bonus, I made it so that the person making the accusation suffered the exact same punishment as the guilty party.

Enter our mercurial heroine Adeola.

I decided from the beginning to make Adeola a truly unique individual, which was directly inspired by the original version of this story. So, I made Adeola a solidly strong lesbian. Now I know you're saying to yourself, "Whaaaaaaaat?", but there is a method to my madness.

To begin at the end, with the end being Adeola summoned out of her ex-husband's collar. Why was she there to begin with?

Well, here is how it unfolds, which is based on info that comes out in dribs and drabs throughout the series. As I'd mentioned a few paragraphs earlier, I created a judicial system that has an official "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. If you know anything about US history from the mid-90's, the military had a policy of not inquiring about a soldier's sexuality, nor did they expect you to tell them (please see the preceding paragraph for a longer explanation, then Google the above phrase for an in-depth explanation).

Unlike the real world policy, this fantasy version would investigate if someone made a complaint. Someone did and Adeola was convicted for being a lesbian. Her two-part sentence was carried out, think Middle East/Inquisition style punishment for the first part, with the second part being an arranged marriage to Jhon.

Another concept I decided to introduce was that the Aztecs don't believe in divorce, only forced annulments performed by the judicial system. This was done to her because Jhon fulfilled his onerous contract with the Aztecs, but she was able to negotiate a parole, in which she would still be able to keep in contact with Jhon, thus taking up residence in his dog collar.

I should also mention that in addition to being on parole, she's still deeply in love with her ex-husband, even though their marriage was more like a friends w/o the benefits of them being husband and wife.

So this is where we stand with Adeola: a woman who acknowledges her sexuality, but because she has chosen to play by the rules she truly abhors and has done so with grace, has been allowed a greater degree of freedom within that society that probably would not be allowed to someone else in a similar situation. A woman who still cares deeply for her ex-husband, but is also willing to tentatively and discreetly accept feelers of all kinds from the women that she is involved with within this rescue mission.

Exit ramp #6: So far we have covered the letter "B" and the letter "L". Now it's time to cover the letter "G".

Doing the bossa nova back to the highway.

Tune in next Monday some time in the early a.m. for the 6th and final post in this nifty little series. Here's to you having a Blue Plate Special Monday, a Taco Tuesday, followed by a Wayback Burger Wednesday, Tortellini Thursday and a Fried Plantain Friday.*  

😎

*note: local radio station in the 80's had a program called "Blue Plate Special", not sure what kind of music was played; we all know Taco Tuesday; Wayback Burger is a regional chain located mostly in New England and the East Coast; I like different kinds of pasta; and my daughter turned me onto plantain chips.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #209{a}: The Mortality Of Familial Love

Slowly the pieces of the puzzle have been properly assimilated. After 8+ years of work, from inception through multiple re-writes (like over a dozen), I now can show you the cover, which was expertly designed by 100 Covers/Book Cover Design, to this long gestated novella. I just sent this cover off to my formatter of choice, so I am looking to do a March 2024 release.

Blurbs

Revenge is a brutal game, but Dmitri is playing for keeps.

Soul collecting is both a dangerous and lucrative business, and no one knows better than the netherworld’s premier soul collector, Dmitri. Creating enemies is part of the job, but when a simple favor for a friend turns out to be a set-up, Dmitri finds himself in the crosshairs of a contract hit. Tangled in a web of sex, lies and violence, the collector must do whatever it takes to survive.

Survival is a brutal game, but Dmitri is playing for his life in this fast paced dark fantasy.

Thank you to one and all for hopping onto the freight train that is my writing, and I sincerely hope that this book will be the fast paced/adventure story that will leave you craving for more.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #209: How We Got Here From There {4th}

Your tax dollars hard at work feeding the elite.

Find part the 1st here, part the 2nd to the right of here and part the 3rd to the left of here.

~~~~~

Exit ramp #4: I really decided to up the ante and complexity with my other queen, Myla, by applying everything that I was able to wring from my observations of the real world and other various audio and verbal actions.

Thugging my way back to the highway.

So with another one of MCs, Myla Ventura (strangely enough she and her husband are the only ones with last names), we decided to infuse her with all kinds of personality traits and character flaws. The main reason she was made a "Queen" is a bit convoluted, but the T.L.;D.R. version is that she's a sister to the Pod Queen. Now while I did create her to be a smokin' hot beauty, she is very much the physically flawed smokin' hot beauty, with serious physical and psychological wounds.

Even though she is married, it's very much a complicated marriage, but while she does her husband wholeheartedly, there's quite the volatility to their marriage (think Walter Mitty except that his daydreams comes to life), as she found out that's not his first wife but his second. Obviously she was angry at first, but after hearing the (almost) complete story as to why, she became more accepting.

As time marches on, to use ye olden cliche, her friendship with wife #1 Adeola, deepens and gradually moves beyond the realm of besties into something possibly more fulfilling on a personal and spiritual level. there's now a higher level of intimacy with her words, her gestures and her feelings. While it's not quite reciprocated by Adeola, due to some legitimate concerns about family, it has moved on to that level of a pseudo-sibling relationship.

Myla does have an inkling that Adeola might care about her in the same way, but is very careful and very discreet about moving their relationship into a deeper co-existence, because she too is very concerned about familial ramifications.

Things do come to a head for her during one of her dream adventures, where she wakes up to find herself au natural, with two others "keeping her company", so to speak. After a bit of discussion with her minders, she surprisingly finds herself on trial for being a bisexual woman. She defends herself very well about the various accusations made, handles the delicate subject about coming out with aplomb, and has the charges ultimately dismissed. She then gradually comes back to the present, none the worse for wear, and continues on her incrementally slow process of exploring the other side of her life with her bestie Adeola and others.

Exit ramp #5: I decided early on to bring in some real world realities while exploring this sensitive topic. Things like one country's laws are not applicable in another country's, or in this case, planet's realm. For example, for the sake of open-mindedness, I made being homosexual completely legal and acceptable on Earth, while on another planet or even within a small private entity on Earth, may state otherwise (I'll elaborate on this point later).

Tip-toeing my way back onto the highway.

😎

Tune in next Monday for part the 5th of our series. I do hope you like Happy Mondays, listened to 'til Tuesday, rocked to Wednesday 13, slammed to Thursday and grooved to Fridayy.*

*every single day of the week is an actual music artist

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #208: How We Got Here From There {3rd}

Sadly, the Michelin Man's younger brother Frosty disappeared before the Christmas season ended. No puddles to be found, but perhaps he was taken away by the wind, for he was lighter than air.

Part the 1st can be found here, while part the 2nd can be not lost here.

And I apologize for the length of this upcoming post, as I got a little carried away with this particular part of my creative process.

~~~~~~

I have a lot of different relationships at play in my current project and each has their own separate complexities that are involved.

Let's start with siblings. I did start out with three sets of siblings, but somehow along the way, one set of siblings, sisters, got changed to cousins. Of the two remaining, one pair are sisters, with the other being brother and sister, and each has their own unique set of characteristics.

The brother and sister pair are sentient beings with a host (as I mentioned in the story, this is what happens when you make decisions while being highly intoxicated). They have that special connection that siblings often have, and they are analytical as well. And like their host, are one hundred percent hetero.

For the other set of siblings, while on the surface it seems to be very straight forward as it applies to that special sibling connection, everything else is heavily implied. While one of the sisters is hetero, she is very understanding and accepting of her sister, who is not. This is very heavily implied early on, based on the emotions and physicality that the sister shows to her artist friend until at one point it comes plainly stated by virtue of the actions performed by her sister.

As for the cousins, I haven't written them in a way that implies one way or the other. This is directly due to them not really becoming a force of any kind until very late in book #3 of the series. Presently I have them acting like bff's who have to depend on each other in order to live their lives to the best of their ability.

Moving on to three of the six remaining female MCs. These three have hair spirit/sentient beings, which each having a specially unique relationship with their host. Let's start with the character with the least amount of baggage with her hair spirit: she goes by the name Melissa, while her hair spirit goes by the name Emilia.

Emilia came to Melissa via judicial decree and has a week in which to convince Melissa to accept her wholeheartedly. Emilia is very much a newbie with her interactions with Melissa and is also very much an orphan, as per her background. So subsequent interactions with Melissa are more on the level of mentor to student than anything else.

Macha the Pod Queen is a complex case. Even though she's the actual catalyst for this entire series, she is quite the multi-faceted individual, with conflicting morals based on her job duties and privileged upbringing.

Exit ramp #3: Even though it has been determined from the very beginning that she is hetero, her relationship with hair spirit was one that I was able to explore more in depth with some degree of intimacy.

Muscling my way back onto the highway.

Like I stated in an earlier blog post, Macha is the latest in a long line of rulers in a strictly matriarchal hierarchy, albeit one that still has men calling some of the shots as members of the ruling class. As I also stated earlier, Macha often has to weaponize her natural attributes to the best of her ability (which is required by law) in order to get what she wants and needs for herself and her people.

Now her hair spirit is a sentient being that goes by the name of Eleanor, and she has quite the special relationship with their host. This is because Eleanor is actually the half-sister to Macha, and she became her hair spirit in a most peculiar and heartbreaking way. 

Early on Eleanor knew that Macha was destined for a life of privilege and power, even if Macha herself did realize it. So in their late teens an incident occurred in which Eleanor was forced to throw herself the proverbial bus in order to protect her half-sister. Eternally grateful, she made her half-sister a permanent part of her life.

So they remained sisters in all aspects of her life, which allowed them a deeper familial intimacy and tolerance that is rarely shown to the outside world. Comforting words and phrases that one would use with a partner. Very intimate gestures with intense displays of affection and tenderness. All of which are hallmarks of a warm sibling relationship, but in her case goes both ways, in that Eleanor has unfettered access to her sister's most personal memories, thus allowing her to return the gesture with a deeper level of familiarity and affection.

😎

Again, barring any pleasant surprises that might nudge this train to a temporary detour, tune in next week on this same day for part the 4th. Have a Fantastick Monday, a Tony! Toni! Tone'! Tuesday, with an R.J. Reynolds Wednesday, Thundercat Thursday and Felix the Cat Friday following close behind.*

*For those of you who are too young to remember, in successive order we have: a musical play/movie, a music group, a tobacco company, a mid 80's cartoon and a classic cartoon strip/cartoon short.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #207: How We Got Here From There {2nd}

Alas this flower is no more either. Bereft of life, it has joined the avian choir invisible. This is an ex-flower now residing in an herbal tea bag.

You can find part the 1st here.

~~~~~~

I started putting the process in motion when I had started writing, or rather, rewriting a few short stories. Nothing really hardcore, but did apply what I had learned previously and started trying to really flesh out one of the characters, with a concerted effort made towards female MC's as opposed to male MC's.

Exit ramp #1: Way early on, like at the very very beginning of my writing journey, I had developed strict guidelines for myself on how I should write both sexes. I would like to note that I have judiciously deviated from these rules from time to time, but overall I have stayed true to those guidelines.

Guideline #1: Males are to be written with both toxic masculinity traits as well as Walter Mitty-esque traits. 

Guideline #2: Females should be written always as strong independent woman (i.e. girl boss) with just a hint of vulnerability.

Reentering the highway.

Now what I mean by a concerted effort to make my female MC's more fully fleshed out is a bit convoluted, but I will try to explain the best I can.

I've always admired strong independent women, no matter the ethnicity, which for me translated to having better platonic work relationships with women, as opposed to men. So this has basically bled quite heavily into my stories, creating composite characters based on real world observations, etc. Because of this, I have been more comfortable in fleshing out my female characters.

Exit ramp #2: Way later in my writing life, I came to appreciate and understand certain aspects of the real world, so I decided to incorporate them into my storylines. You are forewarned.

Reentering the highway once again.

Now that comfort level of writing female MC's has spilled over into the way I write about relationships. Not so much M&F, which can be complex if the situation calls for it, but very much when it came to F&F, no matter where the pairing might be on the relationship spectrum.

Now truth be told is that over the preceding years, I have become quite accepting of what is common place behaviors or PDA among all segments of society (I'm 58 1/2, so it's taking me a bit of time to tweak my views), and because of this I have started to make a concentrated effort to work all of these emotional and physical complexities into my stories. While I have written some characters to have either lesbian or bisexual tendencies in my stories and novellas (one of my novellas has a gay secondary character that is featured throughout the story), it has become completely fleshed out in the four part series that I am currently working on.

Now that's not to say that every single character in the story leans that way, either blatantly or subtly. On the contrary, I used very normal and very intimate gestures and words to lend some ambiguity to the story, which also depends heavily on where and what the situation may be.

I can comfortably state with confidence that a little suggestive ambiguity can go a very long way towards implying how a certain scene should be interpreted. It has taken me quite a bit of time to learn how to show more by writing less. For years I thought sledgehammering to get a point across was the way to go. Turns out that using a hammer that is more suited for decorative or detailed work will often get the point across in ways that sledgehammering won't.

Now, I can use intimate gestures and words to get my point across about a particular character in ways that sledgehammering could never accomplish. And if I take those same words and enhance them with judiciously dropped background info, it can show these characters in a brand new light.

😎

Barring any pleasant surprises that may force a minor change in posting, you can tune in next Monday for part the 3rd of my series. Have a Spaceman Spiff Monday, a Transmogrification Tuesday, Dromedary Hump Wednesday, Turbo Tax Thursday and mourn the fact that TGIF has closed almost three dozen under-performing restaurants this month nationwide.*

*For those of you who might not get certain pop culture references, in successive order we have: A Calvin & Hobbes subplot x2, a type of camel, a tax software program and a restaurant chain that has taken the first step towards a possible chapter 11 bankruptcy.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #206: How We Got Here From There {1st}

To reminisce of days gone by. Sadly, this particular bucolic scene no longer exists, as the flowers were turned over when the pond was filled in, while the statue was moved over to a side garden to stare out to the mountain.

Note: This post kicks off a series that specifically focuses on the deceptively complex question of, "Why do you write your male and female characters the way you do?"

I was originally inspired by one upcoming event that will split off into two intertwined pathways, which in turn brought me face-to-face with the fact that to give this event my complete attention, I needed to make sure that the blog would be set for posts until mid February. The event in question, is of course, publishing my novella, with the two intertwined pathways being the cover and formatting the manuscript. After all, when you're dropping quality cash for a quality product, you best be paying attention to all aspects thereof.

So with that being said, onwards and upwards. One other thing I must mention, is that this series does delve rather deeply into issues that may be offensive to the eyes of some people. Reader discretion is strongly advised.

~~~~~~~

From time to time, I would often wonder how I had arrived at this particular junction in my writing life. I mean, back in the day, back when I still had remnants of hair follicles growing out of my scalp, when I had made the conscious decision to start writing, I always thought that my genre of choice would be romance, or something along those lines.

I mean, how difficult could it be, right? I mean, have two people meet up, have a series of misadventures, throw some intimacy in, some conflict, mix it all up and viola! A romance novel.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!

It took me about a year to reach that conclusion and about five more to extricate myself from that mindset. However, during that extrication process, I did try other kinds of themes/genres, in a genuine attempt at finding one that I felt very comfortable writing in.

As I searched, I obviously grew as a writer. I gradually figured out what I could and could not write if I wanted to stay within my own personal boundaries (strangely, one was writing a G-rated story). But we preserved and eventually found a consistent level of sorts on what direction I wanted to go and what kinds of themes I wanted to explore. 

I eventually got the hang of writing sex and violence that contained varying degrees of explicitness for each type, taking great care and finesse in not going "Hustler" on the former and gratuitously disgusting on the latter unless it was very germane to the plot/scene.

On the former, the only time we reached "Hustler" territory was with my one and only traditionally published novel Line 21/The Inner Sibling, which was directly due to the fact that the MC had to jump feet first into the waters of the adult entertainment industry. In regards to the latter, we have not crossed that line, but we have tip-toed right to it (my upcoming novella pretty much pulverizes that boundary in a barely non-gratuitous fashion).

Eventually we settled on exploring various relationships as an overall theme to apply and nurture my writing mindset. With one of my short story anthologies, What Is Life?, I was, to a certain degree, all over the relationship platform, which was due to the twin themes of the four seasons of the year and the four stages of life.

The relationships explored were pretty generic: Story #1 featured a mountain's relationship with the outside world, like a year in the life; Story #2 featured the relationship between man and nature; Story #3 featured the trials and tribulations between a writer, his work and his spouse; and Story #4 was a musician's relationship with their music and their manager.

With our other short story anthology entitled A Trilogy of Love, we started concentrating a bit deeper on human relationships. Story #1 featured a young man going through the heartache of being dumped by his girlfriend and being pursued by a secret admirer afterwards; Story #2 is about a strangely platonic relationship between two besties (M&F); Story #3 is also a story about two besties who do a "friends with benefits" scenario.

Story #3 is important to me, as it marked what I believe to be a very key turning point with my writing in multiple ways. First and foremost, because the scene unfolded between two female friends, I wanted to make sure that I didn't divebomb into an adult entertainment area of descriptive prose. Because to be perfectly honest, I didn't think at the time I had the ability to do that kind of deep exploration of a relationship in this particular story. So we kept it to a happy medium between softcore and hardcore.

After finishing that particular story, I went off on and odd exploration of relationships, in which we covered a few particular types: platonic with a deeper bond, besties on different levels and FWB on deeper levels too. And because I enjoy challenging myself, I throw in siblings as well.

Now sufficiently armed with a travel bag filled with endless possibilities for writing, we set off to have a little creativity in overdrive.

😎

So ends part the 1st of our multi-part series. Barring any pleasant surprises, stay tuned for part the 2nd on this must read blog series. Here's to your spiffy Monday, as well as your Tubular Tuesday, Hump Day Wednesday, Ticonderoga Thursday and Feline Friday.*

*four of the five day adjectives are self-explanatory, while the fifth, Ticonderoga, can be interpreted in a number of ways, from being a village in New York, to a Revolutionary War battle and military foot, to even a comedy bit for the Three Stooges and others from that era.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #205: I Done Cut The Cord 5 Years Ago

I are wishing for some snow in the Winter of '23/'24, but since the season is a randy beige, this lovely photo must do.

So, as the title implies for a refreshing change of pace, I cut the cord to my t.v. viewing. It really wasn't that hard to do, since by the Spring of 2019, the quality of programming had gone so far downhill, in my eyes, that the old days of watching candlepin bowling on the telly was really a step up to the glop being produced now.

Note: Seriously, back in the day, late 70's/early 80's, there used to be televised candlepin bowling from Massachusetts (channel was either WWLP 22 or WGGB 40). I think it came on either before or after "As Schools Match Wits", a high school quiz show, also from Massachusetts. Yes, I really am dating myself.

Anyways, the quality of programming was so unbelievably bad that I had stopped watching the two remaining reality shows that kept my interest, gator fishing in Louisiana and fishing in Alaska, stopped watching baseball (that required adding a channel that in my opinion, wasn't worth the money for the little time spent watching it), and just concentrated on watching two Showtime programs: Ray Donovan and Billions.

Ultimately, even those two shows failed to keep my interest: gave up on Ray Donovan next to the last season when he moved to New York, and gave up on Billions part way through season four. So by Easter, I was pretty much trying to figure how to occupy the enormous quantities of even more free time on my hands.

Note: I had to go wandering back to both my Google and my USB drives, as well as my book blog, to jog my tired 58 1/2 year old memory, in order to write this next part.

So I started working a little more on the second and third volume of my "Friendship Trilogy", but after getting the bad news on volume two from a very well respected editor friend, I couldn't stiffen my spaghetti spine to fix the problems associated with #2. Thus, I made the painful decision to shelf the rest of the trilogy until I could once again find the shiny spine to do what needed to be done. Some day I will go back to it. We hope.

In any event, as 2019 turned itself into 2020, we found ourselves lurching about with our writing, trying to find something that I could stick with long enough to make it interesting. I still stayed very far away from the brain drain video box, because in the intervening year, what the media companies were churning out for the generic "Must See TV", was for me, "Must Miss TV". 

I should note that my t.v. viewing didn't really poop the toilet in the Spring of 2019, but it was certainly heading there. In 2018, I was watching maybe a few reality shows and some baseball games, but the bulk of my t.v. viewing were the dozen and a half movie channels that were occupying my time. This was when Frontier was still doing the cable t.v. thing (presently, they have basically moved into fiber optics for the internet, and forcibly shoved all of their cable subscribers to this), so this was how I was passing the free time in during that time period.

The real catalyst to me cutting the cord, which is what my family did years later by switching to Netflix, Roku, maaaybe Hulu and that aforementioned link, was my mother switching to.....DirectTV. I won't bore you with the gory details or the Gothic horror stories, but suffice to say, we're still following the sane bit of advice given to us by not turning in the satellite dish, just in the very faint hope that we would want to switch again (installation would require multiple Benjamins to complete)

Anyways, back to this thing called writing. sometime in 2020, I don't remember precisely, I made the decision to rewrite a previously published short story trilogy called "Broken Promise". That was published back in '13, and while my writing was okay-ish back then, seven years later it was a very much improved product, so it was pretty much a no-brainer that it needed a major overhaul to bring up to my high standards: tighter stories, new formatting and a better cover. For those of you who are curious, here is the link to the current version of the book (which I republished in 2021), A Trilogy of Love, and here is a picture of what the old cover was.

At the time, I had a member of a now defunct FB writing group to do the cover for me free. I was very grateful and I learned a valuable lesson, which was to not be a "choosing beggar" when it came to free help. Haven't been one since.

So, I spent all of 2020 rewriting this bad boy. Eventually got it formatted, got a good cover from a graphic designer who has now seemed to have gone on hiatus without any explanation whatsoever, and by the Spring of 2021, had it republished. And during all of that time, my eyeballs were not polluted by watching any television whatsoever. Listen to it most definitely, since my den is underneath the living room and spent the latter part of 2021 in the dining room due to basement flooding, so I had no escape from the audio portion at all.

Speaking of flooded/water damaged basement, a funny thing happened to me while waiting out the entire repair process of the basement: I got motivated to work on some very old (like 7 to 10 years old) manuscripts, two completed and one roughly, in hindsight, about 7% completed. Short story long, re-wrote those two manuscripts, which you can find under the tags Average American Novel and Average American Novella, with the latter being the one that I've been talking about publishing this Spring.

Now both of those two manuscripts were a major pain in the buttocks to rewrite, simply because I had to find ways to tune out the dreck that the family was watching in the other room. I ultimately found a way by rediscovering my medium-to-high tolerance of classical music. 'Nuff said on that point. Eventually though, even a moderately intolerable situation must happily go away, and by the Spring of 2022, I was comfortably entombed back in my den, working on what has turned out to be, to use a very tired cliche, my magnum opus with the blog tag of Hot Mess. In all likelihood, this will probably be my very last novel series that I will write. I much prefer the novella and anthology formats, as I find them to be both less aggravating and wickedly fun to write.

And as always, we are still television free (the medium and not the group), and more often than not, what little television viewing I do partake in is done in five to fifteen second increments whenever I need to enter the living room. Sometimes, being blissfully ignorant of an entire medium can lead to unexpected fulfillment elsewhere.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved