C.S. Boyack's Blog

I’ve been busy doing other things, so updating here isn’t like it was a few years ago.

This week I managed two trips to town. I couldn’t wrangle it any other way, so I did what I had to. The pharmacy puts the pills back on the shelf if you don’t pick them up in their timeframe.

I took a big call from my daughter, and enjoyed that.

Somewhere among everything else, I managed a short writing day. The word count didn’t come out huge, but I didn’t have a whole day to dedicate to it either. I’m taking it as a win.

Then I kind of checked out for the weekend, as I was reminded when I visited blogs today. They have a way of getting ahead of me.

I also turned another year older, talked to a bunch of family, and enjoyed a favorite home cooked meal, so there is that. The alternative to getting older isn’t a good choice.

I’ve been watching a Halloween movie every night, but if you know me, I like the dumb ones. Watched Repossessed last night with Leslie Nielsen and Linda Blair. Can’t have Halloween without Linda Blair.

Halloween films are a nice break from the constant outrage cycle of the news. I’ve built my won emotional roller coaster. News, Beetlejuice, news, Zombieland, etc.

Hope all of you are enjoying yourselves out there.

I had things going on all week, but earmarked Friday as my writing day. I was excited to open my project and make some headway. I have a short goal to accomplish then want to jump back to Lizzie and the hat.

This is part of my habit of always having two manuscripts happening at a time. I find it keeps my brain fresh and helps.

I got up early, made coffee, turned on the news. I watched until my outrage meter was topped off, then made the house silent.

I am halfway through chapter 16, so I wound back to chapter 15 and started reading. This is how I start my writing days every time.

No sooner did I crack the project open, did my daughter call. This always takes hours, and honestly, I will never cut her off. Those family connections are much more important than my imaginary friends are.

For what it’s worth, I enjoyed our conversation, but my writing week is now over.

This seems to happen more and more. If I want to finish anything I am going to have to become more regimented. I’m even struggling with the idea of doing that. It isn’t quite how I imagined retirement to be. Still, that is probably what I need to do.

I hope all of you had great weeks, and got to look at your projects if that’s what you wanted to do.

I had errands this week, and that generally eats up a day. Nothing is close to anything else, so it’s all traffic and construction to get between stores that are all twenty miles from each other. That’s life in my area. I’ve gotten better at scheduling it all for one day and taking care of things in bulk.

Asian pears are ready, and I have been stuffing my face with them. The refrigerator has half a dozen or more, and the tree is still full. I’m trying my best so they don’t start falling on the ground. I thinned heavily this spring, so they are much larger this fall. They are one of my favorite fruits so I’ll enjoy them while I can.

I managed two days of writing this week. I’d like to finish this chapter, with a cliffhanger if I’m lucky, then switch back to Lizzie and the hat. I enjoy writing, and intend to keep it that way. I’m not going to turn it into my full time job, but probably should pick up the pace a bit.

Aside from that, we are watching the weather change. There are red tree tops around the neighborhood now, and the temperatures dropped overnight. I doubt I’ll get to eat the three tiny squash on my vines.

My brother-in-law said he really enjoyed “Lanterns” on HBO. When it ended, he called to let me know all episodes have dropped now. I finished a K-drama with a Halloween theme that was pretty good, then started watching Lanterns. I’m enjoying it, but episode three felt like it belonged on the editing room floor. I will watch through to the end.

Modern Hollywood seems to be stuck on merging dual timeline into a giant backstory dump of some kind. That is what episode three was. Other than that, it was pretty good. There have been whole writing tutorials written about starting your tale in the right spot, or even as close to the end as possible. I kind of hope Hollywood gets over this quickly.

As examples, Bilbo was 50 when his tale started and Frodo was 33 for his. We didn’t need chapters of parents telling them to clean their plates or pick up after themselves. Somehow it all still made for a good story.

Hope everyone is healthy and well out there.

I’m over at Teri’s place today to participate in her annual event. This is always tons of fun, so stop over and follow along. There is a different author presented every day and you’re sure to make some fun contacts and find some great seasonal stories. I’ll be answering comments over there, so leave me some.

#BadMoonRising Article V. by C.S. Boyack #thriller #suspense

I failed to update last weekend, because nothing that cool happened.

This week, my new iPhone arrived. I don’t know why but transferring data to a new phone is always hair raising for me. It starts, demands the freshest update, then you start over. Not all of your apps work.

I have to say they’ve made it much easier over the years. I still had my blood pressure spike, because we had a two hour power failure right in the middle of my transferral. Everything eventually worked out fine.

We haven’t had a power outage in years. Small bumps, sure, but nothing where you have to reset the clocks and sprinklers. Some contractor dug something up at a nearby construction site.

My daughter came through and sent me some canned bread.

The can itself along with my church key and my old P38. (Because all of our can openers from Target suck.)

Top removed, hole in the bottom. Blow on the hole and you get this.

This isn’t exactly what I imagined. I had planned for poached eggs on toast, but this stuff is more like a muffin. I had to regroup.

I went with basic toast. It is very much like a whole grain muffin. It has a grainy sweetness and a very slight bitter back taste. It’s pretty good, but now I need to figure out what to do with the rest.

My daughter said they also make a raisin bread version, and now it makes sense.

I just think it’s cool that there is some old school type of canned bread out there. As a westerner, I’ve never even heard of such a thing. Now I have, and this was kind of fun.

***

I did manage one good writing day during this stretch. I’d spent some time creating some offbeat characters that are kind of lovable in their own ways. This week I brutally killed them in a public display of force, as one does when you’re an author.

This became a real epiphany for one of my main characters, and I need to move some puzzle pieces around to make sure her story comes out logically.

I hope all of you are doing fun things. Open to suggestions as to what might work with muffin bread. Something sticky so I can add nuts and crazins on top?

It was only one day, but I made some good headway on my space opera. It felt good for a change. I was also going to write on Friday, but that was the day my daughter called.

She lives on the outskirts of Boston, in New Hampshire. She was talking about everyone loving baked beans with canned bread.

I’ve had baked beans before, and my wife makes really good ones. We live out west, and have never even heard of canned bread before. While we were chatting, she looked it up for me, then sent me some images.

Apparently, it is cooked in the can before it is sealed. I half-expected a dough that I would have to bake, but any live yeast would break the can eventually.

She confessed to having never tried it before. She can be a picky eater, but I am intrigued. I love all this regional stuff, and it is just so foreign to me. Because it is round it might make fun little breakfast sandwiches or something.

I fully expect her to send me some, so I will be patient. If not, I might have to venture to Amazon so I can check this out myself.

In reverse, I doubt they could find Basque chorizo anywhere east of the Mississippi.

I also played games, dabbled in my garden, and all the standard things. I watched the new movie “Mayday,” and really enjoyed it. Still doing weekly check ins on Reacher and Stuart Fails to Save the Universe.

Loving this cooler weather for a change. The AC doesn’t want to come on until 3:00 or so, and some days not at all. Feels really good after the hottest summer on record. I’m sure it will spike again. We have been known to have summer temperatures until October around here, but it is a nice reprieve.

Looking forward to next week, because what I really want to do is write.

I hope everyone is enjoying themselves and finding a bit of time for the things you love.

I’m so excited to see this one come up today. I’ve known that Teri was reading it for quite a while. Jump over to her site and check it out.

Article V by C.S. Boyack #politicalthriller #suspense

I woke up to the sound of balloons again today.

I about fell on my head trying to shoot straight up, because I wanted the balloonist and the moon in the same shot. I waited in hopes that he would drift closer, but the wind wasn’t on my side.

My cucumbers and the cherry tomato seem to have developed some kind of rust on the leaves. Seems weird for any fungus to put out the effort as hot and dry as it is. This late in the season I’m not going to worry about it. They’re all still flowering and setting fruit. Beats trying to spray with something then worrying about eating it later.

I also plucked two of my Asian pears. I haven’t tried them yet, but September is about right for them. Maybe do the taste test this afternoon.

Ran an errand for my wife this week which should have been simple enough. I got pulled over and given a warning because I failed to signal for a lane change. He’s right. I didn’t, but I was the only car for a mile. No idea who I was supposed to signal for. In either case, he was technically correct and he can sleep well knowing he protected the world from lane changers. Maybe he should haunt some of the gravel roads, bet he could catch a lot of dangerous drivers there. At least he didn’t ticket me, just wasted my time.

I am perfectly capable of wasting my own time, thank you very much. I didn’t actually do any writing this week. Old What’s Her Face is off for three days, so I’m not doing any then either. I’ll try to hit it when she goes back to work.

I’ve been wasting a lot of time making AI art, then sharing it on an obscure Reddit room. So much of the stuff I see is low effort, but I really try to be creative with it. Mine come out more like Far Side panels. There is a certain creativity to it all, a bit of thought about how to tell a story with just a caption and one image. It also provides rapid gratification compared to writing a novel for a year, then waiting to see that first review. I keep telling myself I am learning a new skill. Maybe?

That’s it from me this week. I’ll try to get at least one good writing day in next week, and maybe I’ll have something more productive for my next update.

There isn’t really a lot to report on lately. I usually have a few errands during the week. They don’t amount to much but get me out for some fresh air and human contact.

I take my walks but usually those are in the dark now. Heard the screech owls calling the other morning. They used to line up on my fence and make their strange noises, but left my area a couple years ago. I assume some old trees fell or were removed and disrupted where they hang out. Nice to know they’re still around.

I watched the lunar eclipse and that was pretty cool. My area had some high clouds to I had to be patient for it to peek out. I snapped a photo, but an iPhone gets confused about bright spot on a black background. My old 35mm camera could have done it, but my photos aren’t worth sharing. Even got a look at a pretty shooting star while I was out.

I managed a couple of writing days so I can at least claim some minor progress on that front.​

Frankie got another new toy. She is the one who eats everything if we don’t watch her, but there are a whole sequence of woven toys that are great for her. This one is made from flat nylon straps and is woven to look like a carrot. She is a very happy girl this week, and it is safe for her.​

I got my next Story Empire post scheduled for September. It is probably better suited to October because it is about writing horror. That was the idea I had so I did it anyway.​

That’s about it from Idaho. Just ticking along and doing whatever appeals to me in the moment.

I had three different appointments this week. Two were medical and one involved lunch with an old friend.

Medical earned me a new permanent medicine that doesn’t thrill me. I guess we all start building those up eventually. It involved a new test the doctor said they give everyone every visit. I suspect my work insurance would not cover it, but my retired insurance does. Here we are. This is the first time they’ve ever conducted this test on me in ten years of seeing the specialist.

I also elected to try the injection for my trigger finger. $45 for my part vs a surgery. This thing made the pain go away almost immediately. The locking joint is more of a sticky joint now, but I still can’t close that finger completely. I was also told that it could take up to six weeks to see the full effect.

I can type without pain. My hand is not perfect, but is functional again. I’m thrilled so far.

Weeks like this don’t provide a ton of extra time. Everything in the Treasure Valley is twenty miles from here and we live in unprecedented levels of traffic and permanent construction cycles. I try to be early for everything, because I can’t predict when I am going to get caught in these obstacles.

Having said all that, I did manage to write new words two different times this week. Neither session provided a lot, but it feels like an accomplishment. These are the first new words all summer. I have hopes to do more in the coming week.

I admitted back when Mom showed up for her visit that I was not going to finish the next Hat story by Halloween. I’m not going to pressure myself over it now. This is how I came to add words to my long suffering Space Opera. They get done when they get done, and that is where the Muse pointed me.

Looking forward to a week without appointments and possibly some new words.

How are all of you doing?