12 06 2023
I got most of milking scene done for Daughter of Shadows. It was funny, but not as funny as I intended Grace being a city girl has never had any kind of contact with livestock before. So she is understandably squeamish about handling the goat’s udder. I might go in and add some dialogue to increase the comedy aspect of it. She is further horrified to discover they will probably be eating some of the pheasant chicks when they’re grown. So is Tracy but that’s because she wants to make pets of them. Most of what I might use about preparing milk for human consumption were things that I remember my aunt Genevieve doing when we brought in milk from the goats. She would strain the milk through a cheese cloth into a large pot and heat it to a certain temperature to kill any bacteria. I probably need to do some research to find out what exactly the right temperature is as I recall she had a cooking thermometer she used you don’t want to cook the milk just heated enough to kill any bacteria the stuff that’s left on the cheese cloth can be turned into either butter or use it as heavy cream. I think it will be simpler, If I just have them use a small home pasteurizer this would be something that would be essential for people who are producing their own milk and cheese among other things, so I think I’ll go that route. And mention it as being standard issue for colonists on planets where they would be less dependent on our industrialized lifestyle.
12 04 2023
I’ve had a scene in Daughter nagging at me for two days, so I I’m using my usual practice of jumping around at the beginning of the book so that I can get all these little scenes in place. It makes kind of a choppy beginning, and I do have to go back in and smooth out the transitions, but it’s the way I work. For instance, I already jumped ahead and did Talent’s interview with the controller where she verifies that Grace and Tracy can’t be audited for two years since they just came off an Indentured Servant Contract. She’s not happy about it, which is probably why she took couple of wrong steps when she ran into them at the carnival.
finally sat down and wrote it. It’s just a little short thing about Grace finally discovering her mad at all the things that have been done to her. The family had gone to the monthly carnival to watch the Portal opening, and they’re confronted by Deputy Talent who threatens to report them to the Augers Office. On being told they knew she couldn’t have them audited for two years, She got angry, and reminded Grace that everyone knew she had been living with Baxter Trapp as his mistress. Grace finally gets angry enough to snap back at her and tell her what she thinks of the Indentured Servant law, poor police enforcement, and Talent’s character in particular.
The next chapter is going to be fun. This is the one where Tracy finds the snake in the in the chicken coop or the pheasant coop. I don’t like snakes anyway so it’s never fun when I have to write a scene with them in it, but it does make for a good writing because I can put real feeling into it. Before that, I have the scene where Grace and Tracy learned to milk a goat, which I intend to write as a comedy scene. We’ll see if readers agree with me that it’s funny.
2023 11 26
I did some work on Daughter of Shadows this weekend. Since I’m introducing a new set of bad guys and two new conspiracy groups as well as building up the one hinted at in Babylon Shattered, so I did quite a bit of research and I spent some time on their back story as it concerns Tracy. I also wrote two of the chapters about them; the first one is in the prologue where they kidnap Tracy and talk about the fate of the others. The second one is where they discover rumors of where the ‘weapons’ have been taken. They also talk a bit about rumors of what goes on in Laughing Mountain and what the PA thinks it knows about it. I haven’t dealt with that aspect since I wrote The Portal Lawman, so I needed to do a bit of back reading. Lots of fun.
2023 11 12
I’ve decided I need to re-read Babylon Shattered again when I’m writing Daughter of Shadows. Hopefully then I won’t need to keep looking up things I’ve already written to keep the two stories consistent. So far I’ve written the prologue and the first chapter. It’s going to be a little difficult to write as I’ve already given Tracy’s age in the first book. And I still need to come up with a male MC. Of course, I could still use Clemintine and Mason and also keep Tracy and the new male lead too. I’ve done it before. In fact I used that scenario for Heirs of Avalon. I need to give it some thought…
2023 11 11
Cloned Ambition will release on time on November 11. This is the first time in a while I’ve had one go out without having to postpone it release date. I’m already working on the next book daughter of Shadows. I’ve set it on Shangri-La and I’m using Tracy lucent who is a minor character in Babylon Shattered. Like Babylon this is going to be a cozy mystery. I’ve got the prologue done which I started with just a little brief story about Tracy‘s arrival for the first chapter. I’m going to skip ahead to the present day.
Since I intend this to be able to be read without having read Babylon, I need to include in the description of the planet society and the indentured servant program. I wish Tracy was a part and I still haven’t decided what I’m going to use for a male love interest. I also need to figure out what the group back on earth is trying to do about having their perspective operatives snatched away. I also need to come up with a really good reason why the group back on earth would try to recapture Tracy lots of potential there.
In the prologue, I included a little teaser about the toddlers and the babies adopted by the couple from Arcadia and from Saint Antoni. I may develop that later which would probably be two more books, one in the Saint Antoni series, and the other one on the colony of Arcadia. We’ll see.
2023 11 01
Today I have the After-book doldrums. Ambition is finished and I am in the throes of setting up my next book.( since I can’t decide whether I want to do city of deception or daughter shadows first I’ll probably end up setting up both and then writing them at the same time, which is always fun. The problem is I know where I want to go with both stories sort of, but I don’t have a jumping off place. Daughter has a nice premise. I swear I spit more time correcting this thing than I do dictating it. Oh yes Daughter well I have a Mysterious young woman with no idea where she came from or who she is before I can write the book and I have to figure out why she’s there and who she is and that’s a problem, because at the moment I don’t know. Terrible thing to admit I know, but there it is.
I also need to figure out the love interest for Tracy. I’m leaning toward making him work in an unpopular profession like maybe he’s an auger or something which everybody tries to cheat the system so that makes them automatically the enemy but how do I make him sympathetic maybe I can make him a Wilder one of the people who don’t join society but hide up in the hills, but how does Tracy meet him?
With Deception have a little different issue: I’m going to be regulating the four primary characters from the last book into secondary roles, so I have to come up with a really good personality, hook and stuff get the reader interested in the two new main characters which are going to be Judith‘s older sister and her boyfriend. Boyfriends lawyer, a criminal lawyer so he gets it he has a chance to get mixed up into a lot of shady cases, I haven’t figured out an occupation for Ava yet; she had to be recalled back to the city with her father got arrested in the last book, so it needs to be something to take her out of town. I am considering making her a traveling artist, or something along that those lines. we’ll see.
2023 10 27
Sitting the art show today it’s a beautiful show. This will be our last together before next year.
Ambition is finally an editing, thank you, Lord. Surprisingly, I’m not finding very many mistakes with it. I do see some rough spots that could do with some other with additional attention, so far, it reads, pretty smooth and coherent. And I do like the new cover, but I need to do some more work on some of the animals in Powderpuff gargle I just really don’t like what’s in there and I did find a puma that I can redo to make it to fit the description. I found a really cute a Chihuahua and I think I’ll use as a basis for the Powderpuff gargoyle . I tried out my marker pens that I got. OK but not as good as a paintbrush. So I guess I’m gonna have to try and use learn the paint brush using it with my disabilities. Going to be lots of fun.
I downloaded some weird westerns from Amazon They were fun, but I was about decided that my St. Antoni stuff just doesn’t quite fit in with that genre. One thing is there a little comicbooky and my stuff isn’t. Actually, a little closer to—well I don’t know what it’s close to.
I’ve also noticed the weird western genre seems to go for illustrated covers and I’m using real people on mine. I can convert them to drawing type stuff but I’m not sure I want to.
2023/10/08
Only two chapters to go on Ambition, and then I can send it to Editing. Yay! Waiting for the computer to load Photoshop. For some stupid reason it has decided that program has to be ‘verified’. I hate it when it decides to verify a program because it takes so long. Really annoying!
My earache still isn’t going away. Last night the entire right side of my jaw right under the ear was so sore I couldn’t chew anything because it hurt to work my jaw. I’ve used up all the antibiotics, so I’ll have to ask my doctor to refill it or proscribe something else. Not looking forward to that…
2023/10/07
I worked a little on the last recruitment chapter of ambition today. Nowhere near finished of course. I also did a new final (I hope 🤣) cover for it. The one here has been my working cover for the last year. I wasn’t happy with it even after tweaking it several times. I like the new one better. So, I’ll be able to start some cover reveals at the end of October. I originally intended to release this one at the end of this month, but I want to give myself time to do a good edit on it. Yes, that means the book won’t come out until Nov 30th. If I hadn’t run into heath issues, I probably could’ve made the original deadline. Unfortunately, having the use of only three fingers on each hand makes me a lot slower typist. I fear the days of 90 wpm are gone forever.
2023/10/01
Vernon has another procedure tomorrow to blast more kidney stones. He hates them and has been like a bear with a sore tooth all week. The surgery center still has pandemic protocols in place so I can’t go in and wait with him. Not that I could do more than they can, but I could provide support at least.
2023/09/26
Yesterday, I discovered Amazon has blocked updates for the Magi Storm paperback. Not sure why. I can see I need to do some investigating. I wanted to have the entire day when I mess with Amazon’s KDP.
However, I discovered the Word app for my iPad has a dictation feature, so I tried it out. It was interesting because some improvements have been made. There’s no spell/grammar check icon, but it does underline items it wants fixed, and it does have a learn+ feature That allows you to add new words.
Today I wrote part of a chapter on Scarlet’s recruiting techniques when she goes to her first rodeo. (They need people who know how to capture and train riding animals to catch the Porcina herds).
What are Porcina, you ask? Like all the colonies without an industrial base, Halcyon needs a self-sustaining form of transportation. Porcina are related to earth’s Suidae family. Unlike the ones found on Earth, these are herbivores, with exceptionally long legs to enable them to run fast. Like earthly elephants, the males (puecro) usually form separate herds and only get close to the females (puecra) with young (cobs) during mating season.
2023/09/23
Today is a book chore day, chore day for my books—the eBooks for the St. Antoni series have new covers, but I still need to make them for the paperback versions. Two of the books already have HB versions on Amazon, but I intend to put the other 4 on Ingram Spark. Unless that company’s formatting turns out to be more or as difficult as Amazon’s is, then I might re-think that thought. But I might use them anyways as they offer dust jackets for the books and Amazon doesn’t. I just think hardbacks look classier with a dust cover. The new style of hardbacks with the laminated covers looks a little tacky to me. I sure wish D2D did hardbacks…
2023 09 21
I made a book trailer today for Spell of the Magi. Of course, it took me nearly 2 hours to do it. and then another half hour to get it loaded onto YouTube, and then put it on my website! so now it has a new cover and book trailer!
Spell of the Magi
Book 1 The Magi of Rulari
““An intriguing mixture of Fantasy and Science Fiction.”
Nominated in the Sword & Sorcery Category in the 2019 EFFYs!
This book will take you on an unforgettable journey to a distant world where two powerful civilizations, Terrans and Sekhmet, have fled to the planet Rulari to escape a war-torn universe. although the laws of science still work here, more powerful forces govern Rulari: the power of Magic.
If you enjoyed the classic sci-fi and fantasy mashup of Steven Erikson’s Malazan, Book of the Fallen series, then you’ll love this book!
2023/09/19
October is fast approaching and with it comes spooky movies, shorter days and cooler weather. I’m looking forward to the cooler weather—spooky movies not so much. My wonder-working chiropractor has put me on maintenance, the constant headaches are gone (well except for the occasional migraine but that’s a per usual). I’m still getting around using one of Andrew’s walking sticks, and that will probably be the norm for me from now on. I don’t know how much painting I will be able to do as the last two fingers on both of my hands are pretty useless, which makes typing difficult as well. But to paraphrase that old Doris Day song. What will be, will be…
2023/09/12
I took a good look at Ambition today. I thought I was almost finished. However, I think I’m going to need to add at least three more chapters. I need to cover Scarlet’s recruiting in more detail. I also need to cover Eyja contacting the other Clone Familia members to get ready to escape to Halcyon if they need to. And then I also need to cover the first Porcina round up. Then the shepherds need find some hooting dog pups while they are looking for some unicorn goats—that should be fun. The following is a sample of the kind of research writers do to write a novel!
How To Tame A Goat
Many years ago, when we started to have a few too many kids and didn’t give them enough attention, we got a crash course in taming wild kids. We learned very quickly that you can’t just leave baby goats out in the pasture and expect them to be as friendly as the family dog.
Even friendly goats tend to run more when they’re in a big pasture, so start by putting an unfriendly goat in the smallest space you have in your barn. Our smallest stalls back then were 10 x 10, so I put two Does in there, and I started by simply going in there and just sitting with them.
Goats are curious creatures and will want to check you out at some point. You could just take your phone and check email or something like that. Just hangout for at least 15 minutes a couple of times a day.
After a couple of days, I go in there with a pan of grain or alfalfa pellets, although the grain might be more tempting to them. Set it on the ground about a foot in front of me. When they start eating it, reach out very slowly and pull it towards me very slowly.
Then over the course of a few days — or faster if they’ll go for it — pull the pan of grain into your lap. When they are willing to eat from the grain in your lap, after a day or two, put your hand on their shoulder while they’re eating, then start petting them. It may feel like you’re taking two steps forward and one step back every day.
Just remember that they’re prey animals, so the first thing on their mind is that you are going to eat them. They just have to get over that idea. The bottom line is that they don’t trust you.
If these are does that you’ll be breeding, the other thing to remember is that once they kid, they tend to get friendlier when the oxytocin is initially flowing right after birth. So, that’s a great time to spend more time with them and also start to handle their udder.
2023/09/07
Wow, I haven’t had a chance yet to go in and redo the other two magi and books at Ingram spark. I did manage to make it to the Clovis Art Guild board meeting last night. Got to meet our new newsletter editor. He seems like a nice guy, and I think he’s going to do well In that position. I am getting better I just have to take it one step at a time.
I got new covers designed for 4 of the St. Antoni series (the 4 that take place mostly on St. Antoni). Although I may see about adding more color to the Enforcers and Gaslight, because I think they look too similar. I left the two Dystopian books set on earth alone, because they look like they fit the Dystopian genre.
WOW! Who would ever have thought I would write dystopian books? I certainly didn’t. Most novels written for that genre seem to be full of angst, and typify what I consider the “gloom, despair, and agony on me” syndrome. Frankly, a little bit of that goes a lo-o-ng way with me. Yes, I do think there is room in that genre for stories with a more positive outlook. I’m a HEA writer (happily ever after). We’ll see. I’ve just started exploring that particular sub-genre of sci-fi, so it’s yet to be decided if readers agree with me. As of this moment, I actually have two books in this sub-genre published, and I’m working on a third.
2023/09/03
I’m considering moving any books I plan to issue in hardback over to IngramSpark.com because they offer something I’ve been wanting for a while—dust jacket covers for their hardbacks! They do charge a setup fee, but they also distribute wide—something Amazon doesn’t do… I’ve also heard their setup is easy, which Amazon’s isn’t.
Since Vernon is through playing with the electrical (we had to replace the bathroom light switch as it’s little on-off toggle lever simply broke off).
Since I can power the computer back up now, I may go ahead and get the other two magi books formatted for a hard cover…
Formatting them for hard cover turned out to be more of a chore than I anticipated. And I worked all morning. I haven’t even gotten to the corrections that need done back then I wasn’t doing both books separately I was trying to keep it all in one book and then make another copy. It’s so much easier just to do them both at once with the e-book and the paperback book right up there in front of me and making the corrections on both of them at the same time. This has been working out very well, (especially since they need to be formatted differently), but as I say, I’ve not had time to do that yet. I’m going to need to go in and adjust the margins a little too so there will be less pages. Before I removed the excerpt from Spell of the Magi, the book was almost up to 700 pages; I’m not sure if I’m remembering it right but I do believe they have a page limit on the print books.
DEFINING DYSTOPIAN & POST-APOCALYPTIC FICTION—A SUB GENRE OF SCIENCE FICTION
Dystopian/Utopian: utopia and its derivative, dystopia, are genres exploring social and political structures. Utopian fiction shows a setting agreeing with the author’s ideology (Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek) and has attributes of different reality to appeal to readers. Dystopian (or dystopic) fiction (sometimes combined with, but distinct from apocalyptic literature) is the opposite. It shows a setting that completely disagrees with the author’s ideology. Many novels combine both, often as a metaphor for the different directions’ humanity can take, depending on its choices. Both utopias and dystopias are commonly found in science fiction and other speculative fiction genres and arguably are a type of speculative fiction. Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic are two sub-genres of Science Fiction although you will often find them mixed into the same stories.
Dystopia is the opposite of Utopia. If Utopia is an ideal society, then dystopia is the opposite, or a flawed utopia depending on semantics. Of course, this depends on what the writer’s concept of the ideal society. I agree the description is vague. This is what makes the genre so much fun to write and read. As a genre, dystopian crosses a lot of other sub-science fiction genres as well. The Hunger Games (2008) brought the genre to THE fore again, but contrary to popular belief the genre has been around a long time.1
Dystopian novels often focus on societies and cultures that appear stable and well established. The post-apocalyptic genre with which it is often mixed, usually depicts an imbalanced or volatile cultures (Mad Max).
Common Themes in Dystopian Fiction: Poverty, Technology being abused, Oppressive social institutions, abuse of power by governments, etc.
Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction is a sub-genre of Dystopian Science Fiction covering the end of civilization, through nuclear war, plague, or some other general disaster. Post-apocalyptic stories are most often set in the aftermath of the collapse of civilization or society as we know it. Man’s attempt to regain control of his environment after an apocalypse is fertile ground for creating a totalitarian/dystopian society. Common themes in post-apocalyptic literature are loss of resources, global natural disasters including storms, earthquakes, rising oceans, pandemics, loss of technology, widespread radiation, etc.
This sub-genre has been around a long time as well. In 1826 Mary W. Shelley (Frankenstein’s Monster) wrote The Last Man (a plague kills off most of the population).
The time frame may be immediately after the catastrophe, focusing on the travails or psychology of survivors, or considerably later, often including the theme that the existence of pre-catastrophe civilization has been forgotten or mythologized. Post-apocalyptic stories often take place in an agrarian, non-technological future world, or a world where only scattered elements of technology remain. FYI there is a third genre associated with these two: An apocalyptic novel tells the story of the end of the world, which occurs during the timeline of the story.
2023/08/30
I had the blurbs re-written on some of my older books, (the Magi of Rulari series), along with some new cover designs for them. When I posted them on Draft2digital, to my surprise, I got back in an error code on one of them. When I asked for specifics, I got back to kind of gobbledygook answer, I usually get from Facebook when I ask for something specific answer whatever they squawked. to say the least, I was disappointed because D2D has always had fabulous customer service, and this wasn’t it. Instead of answering directly, the way they usually do, whoever answered this question sent back a lot of information about something I already knew how to do because I do it all the time and said they already explained what was wrong which they HAD NOT. I have concluded therefore that D2D must have picked up some of Facebook‘s nonexistent customer service reps. They really need to use so they really need to be retraining them, To be more responsive. Anyway, that’s my vent for the day. Thanks for listening.
2023/08/20
I got the e-book & paperback back covers up-dated with the new blurb information this morning. Then I came down with a migraine and slept the rest of the day
2023/08/18
I decided I needed to push myself more, so I’ve been steadily increasing my activity over the past week. Tuesday, I sat on the bed and helped Andrew sort our clean clothes. I was very tired afterwards, and my neck hurt, but I did manage. Thursday, I went with Andrew to do grocery shopping. Very tired then too, but it’s working.
- I did manage a little bit of work on my books. I just need to get the new descriptions into D2D and book funnel. One of Vernon’s buddies is taking us out to dinner at Cool Hand Luke’s tonight, and I’m looking forward to that.
2023/08/14
I need to get off my duff and get Vernon’s invoices made. If I want my life back, I need to push myself more. I’m beginning to think more was going on than just a few simple falls. The headaches have been constant. Dr. Radke manages to relieve the pain for a while, but it keeps coming back, and I’m too easily exhausted. I don’t like it.
2023/08/12
When My son, Andrew was a baby, he was very I’ll until his liver transplant at the age of two and a half, I remember a doctor telling us that we had to measure milestones in smaller increments instead of a foot do an inch. I used to take things like basic hygiene for granted. Well today, when I managed to take a shower and wash my own hair without someone hovering over me, make sure I didn’t fall in the shower or come out of it so exhausted, I had to sleep for an hour it felt like a major accomplishment.
I still hope to accomplish a little on my books today—I need to update the covers with the re-worked blurbs. I also have to put in there. I did update all the all the e-books with the corrections you know misspelled words or dropped quotation marks, things like that. I also intend to update the changes on the PDF books for the paperback books, but I have to wait on that because those revisions cost $25 apiece so that won’t happen until after the 15th of the month, I figure I can budget in for a PDF changes a month that’s 100 bucks, that’s what I get for being such a prolific writer. It won’t do all of them, but it will do some of them. I just have to decide which ones are going to get its first update.
2023/08/07
I’m quite happy with my recovery progress today—I actually managed to take a shower without becoming so totally exhausted I had to take a nap afterwards!
I also wrote a little more on Ambition, and I pushed the release dates for the rest of the series forward. Ambition will be the next release, and I pushed the release date to Halloween. Hopefully that will give me time to finish it and do the editing and any rewrites.
2023/08/06
Two of the authors I follow (Donna Andrew’s and Amanda M Lee) released new books yesterday, so I took a break from my own writing to read them. Sometimes you just need to recharge you own batteries. I do it by indulging in reading books by my favorite authors.
2023/08/05
I priced one of those auxiliary drives on Amazon yesterday. The least expensive one with sufficient storage is around $175.00. Ouch! 😖 but I don’t want to put it off too long, so I guess I’ll just bite the bullet and order one…
2023/08/05
I did a little more work on Ambition today. I filled out the chapter where they first go to Halcyon. I realized I hadn’t been clear about the first group leaving from Laughing Mountain instead of the Phoenix Spa, so I covered that. I had to account for Tash going with them too, since in the timeline Devon hadn’t hired her as an assistant yet.
I spent the morning yesterday on the chat line with Apple help trying to find out what had happened to my Notes folders on the desktop—they were still there on the i-Pad, so all isn’t lost. The tech did a recovery to try and get them back, but I haven’t checked them yet. 🐥
I do have one of those auxiliary drives somewhere. I need to do a backup on a lot of my files from both the desktop and the i-Pad.
2023/08/03
I’ve been working some on Ambition this week. Mostly chapters I skipped over because other chapters were screaming at me “write me!” I moved the release date to the end of September because with the multiple falls and doctor visits I fell behind on my timeline. I like to have at least a month after I finish a book to do multiple edits and stuff…
I’ve also discovered that the Notes app on the desktop isn’t including my folders now which makes searching for something incredibly difficult.
2023 08/01
I discovered Dragon Anywhere has a few flaws.
For one thing, it’s very difficult to get the documents over to my desktop MAC. I finally ended up copying it to my note’s app, and then emailing it to myself.
- Apparently, the program only works with Windows now as the app quit supporting Apple products. The desktop version also costs about $99.00 a month, and as I said, the program doesn’t support Apple products.
I did manage to get another chapter done on Ambition. What with the falls and medical tests, I’m way behind on my publishing deadline for Ambition. I had to push the release date to September 30th. That means the other sequels to the first books had to be moved as well.
2023 07 25
Spent most of the day with kindlepreneur’s free blurb A. I. Rewriting blurbs on my books, including the back list ones. It isn’t perfect—but the program will give you 4 different samples for the same book. What I do is take bits and pieces of each blurb and put them together to get the best one…
2023 07/22
I’ve been experimenting with dragon software for dictation and I’m I am actually quite pleased with lt. All the things that I have issues with regular dictation on the iPad. They seem to have may have made provisions for it. There is a learning curve, but as it as they do seem to cover all the things that I was worried about, I’m going to have and take steps to learn it.
Especially since my hands, don’t seem to be getting better. This morning when I woke up and took almost 5 minutes, my left hand, which was my good hand to un-numb. And I’ve noticed it’s got the shakes to so since it appears, I am going to be losing dexterity in my hands. If I want to keep writing , I need to learn it.
Update
I did use dragon and wrote several pages yesterday. It was OK. I did need to go in and put all of my characters in ambition in the special words part. It’s amazing how much stuff apparently my speaking is not as clear as I thought it was. Anyway, I have great hopes for it. But I do need find out how to put it on the main on the main computer too.
2023/07/18
I confess I’ve been trying out the dictation app on my iPad. What with the trouble I’ve been having with my hands, if I want to keep writing I might have to try something different from typing a story into word. So far, I haven’t been much impressed. The app is too helpful—it keeps attempting to second guess me and getting it wrong. When you factor in it not always hearing what I’m saying accurately, that makes for quite a few corrections that need made.
2023 06/10
3rd fall—although strictly speaking, it was more of a slide than an actual fall. I caught my house Slipper on the edge of a broken tile in the hall and then stepped on the other one trying to catch myself, bounced off the linen cupboard and slid down the bathroom door. We threw the slippers away and Vernon brought me home a pair of Sketchers Slip Ins.
It’s a real pain trying to type because the last two fingers on my right hand aren’t working well. Not sure what caused it.
2023/05/26
Well, I’m nowhere near as stiff and sore as I expected to be today, after my second fall in two weeks. Is it classified as a fall when you roll off the bed in the middle of the night? Banged the top of my head on the nightstand on the way down. I. Can’t recommend it as a way to wake up.
2023/05/25
What a fun way to wake up in the middle of the night. I rolled off the bed and landed on the floor. Since I’m still working on recovering from last week’s fall—landing in cat litter and banging my head against the DVD bookcases, another fall didn’t make me a happy camper.
2023/05/20
Well, I’m nowhere near as stiff and sore as I expected to be today, after my second fall in two weeks. Is it classified as a fall when you roll off the bed in the middle of the night? Banged the top of my head on the nightstand on the way down. I. Can’t recommend it as a way to wake up.
2023 05/05
In case you hadn’t heard, the klutz queen of Fresno (me) took another fall Saturday. On the way down I managed to break the glass in one of our DVD Bookcases…
2023 04 27
I didn’t get much writing done this month. I’ve picked up some type of chest inflammation (very painful to breathe). The doctor is running a bunch of tests. So far, they’ve ruled out cancer (thank you God!), heart failure, and apparently walking pneumonia. The cardiologist did say my blood pressure was out of sight, so he added two BP meds and doubled the one I’m on. Next step is the pulmonologist. Also, a handicap thingy to hang from the mirror of whatever vehicle I’m riding in. I had to borrow a wheelchair at the cardiologist’s office.
2023/04/10
5 books in my Outlawed Colonies series will be out by the end of April. I plan to write at least 3 books set on each colony. Book 5 is Arcadia II. I’m still working on book 6 Cloned Ambition. It was supposed to be no 5, but it’s difficult deciding how much to include in Ambition and how much to save for book II…
2023/04/08
Well, I finished the chapter in Cloned Ambition where Scarlet, Dagmar and the others first set foot on Halcyon. They also get their first site of a herd of Porcina, the animals they’ll be using for transportation and as draft animals. I ended the chapter with Hogun, Killian and Dagmar trying to learn how to rope.
2023 03 26
Up all night with another migraine. I wonder if it’s those new antibiotics they gave me for the bronchitis. I remember the Cipro did that to me. Well, I’ve finished them so hopefully it won’t reoccur. Still too droopy to write on Ambition though. My next chapter is on Napoleon’s relationship with Jason and his growing fascination with Scarlet. Going to shift the locale to Laughing Mountain because the next two chapters are where they discover Halcyon. Dagmar and the others are sent to explore it. Napoleon keeps Scarlet in Phoenix by saying her classes to teach the clones to blend into Normal society are too important to interrupt. The exploratory crew discover the Porcina herds and Dagmar, Hogun, Yael and Killian discuss adapting native animals for transportation and riding.
PORCINA are Herd animals found on Halcyon and domesticated for transportation and for uses horses and donkeys were used for on earth. There are three main varieties: All have large heads and short necks, with relatively small eyes and prominent ears. Their heads have a distinctive snout, ending in a disc-shaped nose. Porcina typically have a bristly coat, and a short tail ending in a tassel. Legs are long to allow for fast running. The body is typically thick and round. A Porcina Equine can run about 30 miles an hour for short stretches.
Porcina have a well-developed sense of hearing, and are vocal animals, communicating with a series of grunts, squeals, and similar sounds. They also have an acute sense of smell. Porcina are omnivorous, eating grass, leaves, roots, insects, worms, and even frogs or mice.
The canine teeth are enlarged to form tusks, used for rooting in moist earth or undergrowth, and in fighting.
Porcina are intelligent and adaptable animals. Adult females (sows) and their young travel in a group while adult males (boars) are either solitary, or travel in small bachelor groups. Males generally are not territorial and come into conflict only during the mating season.
Litter size varies between one and four, depending on the variety. The mother prepares a grass nest or similar den, which the young leave after about ten days. Porcina are weaned at around three months and become sexually mature at 18 months. In practice, however, male Porcina are unlikely to gain access to sows in the wild until they have reached their full physical size, at around four years of age. In all varieties, the male is significantly larger than the female, and possesses more prominent tusks.
PORCINA MAXIMUS – About the size of a Clydesdale. They are Used primarily as a draft animal for plowing and pulling large loads.
PORCINA EQUINE are about the size of a quarter horse. They are used Primarily as a riding or carriage animal.
PORCINA PALAWAN are primarily used as either children’s mounts or to pull small carts.
2023 03 25
Up all night with another migraine. I wonder if it’s those new antibiotics they gave me for the bronchitis. I remember the Cipro did that to me. Well, I’ve finished them so hopefully it won’t reoccur. Still too droopy to write on Ambition though. My next chapter is on Napoleon’s relationship with Jason and his growing fascination with Scarlet. Going to shift the locale to Laughing Mountain because the next two chapters are where they discover Halcyon. Dagmar and the others are sent to explore it. Napoleon keeps Scarlet in Phoenix by saying her classes to teach the clones to blend into Normal society are too important to interrupt. The exploratory crew discover the Porcina herds and Dagmar, Hogun, Yael and Killian discuss adapting native animals for transportation and riding.
2023/03/24
Here it is the 24th and I haven’t posted anything this month! Well, I do have some excuse; my guys shared their crud with me and naturally it turned into bronchitis. Vernon is working a Pool Association show this week, so Andrew and I are by ourselves. Unfortunately, Andrew still has it too…
Hopefully I’ll get more done on my blog this week. The Arcadian web is due to be released on April 30, and I think it’s ready (Knock on wood—as soon as I say that I’ll find more errors that need to be corrected…)
Anyway, if you are interested in doing a review of this book: The genre is science fiction mixed with a cozy mystery and a little romance. I’ve included a copy of the cover. Here is the link to download the book: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/k30czrr2ah
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123240684-the-arcadian-web
If you do a review, please notify me of where and when it will be posted.
Thank you for your consideration. I appreciate your time.
Gail Daley
2023/03/04
UPDATE: I’ve revised the release dates and sequence of my Outlawed Colonies series. Since I’m still struggling with Cloned Ambition, I’ve decided to release The Arcadian Web as book no 5, (Its already finished), and Cloned Ambition is now book 6.
2023/03/01
I lost my phone in my new purse today. Brand new purse with these lovely 3 deep pockets in front so naturally I chose one of them for carrying my phone. It’s about 12”. Well, when I tried to take the phone out to charge it, it wasn’t there, so I asked my son to call it. I could hear it ringing and it was coming from my purse! So, we unloaded the purse, and I could see the shape, but couldn’t reach it. It turns out that one of those lovely pockets has a hole in the bottom! The phone had slipped out the hole and was between the lining and the outer skin of the purse! You can be sure I checked the other pockets for holes!
2023/02/27
This goes to show that there is never anything new under the sun! I made up the Marabunta, and, lo and behold, there actually is an insect which looks like it! Much smaller of course. All it needs is a stinger and it could be one of the Marabunta in my latest Outlawed Colonies book The Arcadian Web. Of course, it would need to be a lot larger: about 18” tall and about 24” long…
Release date for the Arcadian Web is set for 4/30/23.
2023/02/22
I got another chapter done on Ambition today. It’s the one where Scarlet and the others arrive at Phoenix. Doing more development on how the clone society actually works, as well as more character building on Yael and Napoleon…
2023/02/20
I need to get started on the dishes, but I’m being lazy this morning. My new glass teapot arrived yesterday—I can just put it in the microwave, which will save getting two things dirty whenever I want a pot of tea in the evenings. It also came with 4 thimble sized cups. They’re cute but they don’t hold enough for more than a swallow or two of tea. Not sure what I’m going to do with them—like the pot they are glass so easily broken. Guess I’ll either give them away or find a place to store them. Vernon and I are attempting to declutter the house, so saving then really isn’t a good option…
I tried to do a little more work on Ambition yesterday, all I succeeded in doing was rearranging some of the chapters through once I realized I needed more development in some places. This book is going to end with the clones arriving on Halcyon and starting to colonize it. I think. For the story to move the way I envision, I’ll need to do something drastic to Napoleon so Yael can take over, which means more character development on him…
2023/02/19
Today was a less than productive morning: thanks to my lovely Apple desktop, I lost a bunch of work. My computer ate my excel spreadsheet I use to keep track of the promotions I do for my books, so I spent the morning partly restoring my list of links to them and to each individual book. The links for the entire Outlawed Colony series was gone. I retrieved the major ones from D2D, but I still need the others from BookBub, Book Funnel, Goodreads, and a slew of others. I’m considering adding a copy of the links to my book info sheets. At least that way I’ll have an extra copy of them. Thanks for listening to me rant. It does feel good to have a place to vent without someone thinking they need to “fix” things! 😂😂
2023/02/09
I haven’t done any writing today. One of my favorite authors (Amanda M Lee) released two new books in two of her series this week, so Instead of writing I’ve been binge reading them. E. M. Foner also had a new book out. Occasionally, it doesn’t hurt to relax and not work. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy writing my new books, but sometimes I do run out of plot and need to recharge my creativity battery.
2023/02/05
Finished another chapter on Ambition today. I’m about to start the chapter on the fight at Uncle Bobs house. The more I look at it the more I think I might be splitting the book up. I’m also considering killing Napoleon off so I can slot Yael in as the leader of the clones on earth…somehow this always happens. I write a killer outline and about halfway through the book it starts running away with the story.
2023/01/28
Well, I got the chapter about Scarlet’s time at the Clone Farm done. I had to pull out that chapter of Clone Initiative to refer to it since I didn’t want to make any mistakes in it. I suppose I could have copied and pasted it and just added in the new POV, but I didn’t want to do that as I think it would have been cheating. I think I did okay with it. The next chapters involve settling in at the Phoenix Spa, and helping Tally, Liam and company foil Hatchers attempt to recover the infant and toddler clones. I also need to add in Scarlet’s trip through the portal to speak to Dagmar about Napoleon’s attentions.
I got the proof copy of Arcadian Web yesterday. It’s way too rough to let it stand. Fortunately, I have a couple of months for expansion and rewriting before its release date in July.
2023 01/24
The internet is incredibly slow this morning. I have things I need to do, but I left the office before I got frustrated enough to take a blunt instrument to my desktop. This is probably because Apple just did another software upgrade. I wish they would quit trying to fix stuff that isn’t broken!
I’ve been working on Ambition in bits and pieces. I need to write the chapter where Dagmar and the others (and readers) are introduced to the Clone Familia Doctrine. I just had them meet a wounded Abraham (the clone who wrote it). He had been approaching the PGA clone farms and making contact through the fences with clones trapped inside to tell them about the doctrine. He was wounded because some of Napoleon’s raiders mistook him for a normal and shot him.
I also need to write the chapters covering Scarlet’s escape and the abortive raid on Liam’s house. I think it would also be a good time to cover how the Phoenix cult works from the inside.
Writer and Artist 