Breathe.
I need to breathe.
Since taking a break to finish Red Trouble… I find myself more busy than before.
Gazoodles of things have happened, except the one thing I wanted to finish: Red Trouble.
Grrr….
I’m still writing, but I feel like a little spider trying to build a web on a blustery day. The anchor points are waaaaay too far apart and people keep walking through my web doing crazy dance moves slapping themselves and screaming, breaking my concentration.
I am still doing living history. My next event is the end of January… commemorating the Battle of the Bulge. Which I found out the lead character from Red Trouble experienced. My grandfather almost went through that battle, but was sent home three days before it began.
According to my blog posts I haven’t posted since July.
I can’t believe it has been that long.
Lets see…
August
I took a break to finish Red Trouble. And visit some museums. I was in Philadelphia visiting the Penn Museum, then Philadelphia Free Library on a exhibit dealing with the history of detective fiction. It went from Poe to the modern police procedurals, with a large section devoted to the 1930s detective fiction I love so much.
October
I skipped town for a weekend and ended up at Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Now, the Jersey Shore may not be the most exciting place to visit, but Sandy Hook has been a military base since the mid 1800s. The lighthouse on the island is the oldest still operating in the nation. Also, nearby about forty-five minutes south is the Info-Age Museum. It’s built on the site of one of Marconi’s first radio towers.
Guglielmo Marconi, fun piece of radio history, was the man who popularized radio and really made the technology of radio available to the people… paving the way for 1920s and 1930s radio entertainment. Some of his technology is even used in cell phones.
AKA for me and my enthusiasm… Bunker Beach.
A few of the bunkers on the tame side of Sandy Hook. The side with the Atlantic Ocean is right out of the original Planet of the Apes. I was seriously doing some Indiana Jones adventuring through the beachside holly forests.
The seaside holly forest. The beach and the Atlantic Ocean are less than a football field away from this location.
A collapsed bunker on the Atlantic side of the island.
InfoAge Museum – Please Visit!!!! So freakin’ awesome! – I had limited amount of time, so I didn’t take many photographs. I do want to return, so if you’re into military history or retro-tech… Its a three and a half hour drive from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I have a jeep and if you buy gasoline… we’ll visit again. I’m visiting there again anyway… regardless of who comes with me. One of the perks of being an only child is that you learn to have fun solo.
November
I finally got Red Trouble done. On Veterans Day. Which is just awesome… considering that the main characters are veterans. And whenever I publish a book, you can bet that some of those copies make it overseas to the troops through Operation Paperback. I know at least one navy ship has a copy of my short story collection, Goldlust. Squee! Yay! Hope those who’ve read it are enjoying it! (Reviews on amazon are helpful too! – Shameless plugging – Yep. That’s the independent author life.)
Operation Paperback – Learn More Here!!!
And onto Red Trouble….
The first two chapters are up on Wattpad. To read them, follow the link here.
December
I started the editing process… again… for the third?… fifth…?… seventeen hundredth…. time. Ugh. Its exhausting. My editor, my mother, who needs to be sainted because she is the bestower of proper English and translator of my semi-convoluted and bungled English punctuation. (I know what I’m saying… I’m sorry you don’t…. what do you mean…? …Did I forget to add that? What do you mean that piece of military history isn’t common knowledge? What? People don’t know that?)
I also have yet to find a free editing software which attacks comma placement. It would make editing soooooooooooo much easier.
Along with that I discovered that I have actually written two or three novels into one book called Red Trouble. Currently, I’m taking apart the two or three stories and putting them back together is…. Interesting. And frustrating.
However befuddled my brain may be… and caffeine isn’t helping… I am still working. I still have goals. I am still a writer.
I’m hoping to have Red Trouble done in January.
In the meantime, I’m on Wattpad. Its a free social media platform for readers and authors. I’ve got four stories up – including an Indiana Jones fan fiction – The Sidenstrasse Tapestry.
Yeah. For those of you who insist it… Someday I’ll grow up. But this is not that year.
Don’t hold your breath for next year either.
Sources and Links
Becoming the Detective information page: https://libwww.freelibrary.org/programs/detectives/exhibitions#parkway
Sandy Hook: https://www.nps.gov/gate/learn/historyculture/hancock.htm
InfoAge Museum: http://infoage.org
Goldlust: https://www.amazon.com/Goldlust-Short-Collection-R-Mitchell/dp/1533318417
Operation Paperback: http://www.operationpaperback.org
Wattpad Link to Red Trouble: https://www.wattpad.com/story/123196199-red-trouble (You may have to sign in, or create an account but they don’t send too many notifications or constantly fill your inbox with emails. Its also free. Unfortunately, a lot of the works have questionable content, so consumer be aware.)
Wattpad Link to The Sidenstrasse Tapestry: https://www.wattpad.com/story/97616838-the-sidenstrasse-tapestry-an-indiana-jones-fan (You may have to sign in, or create an account but they don’t send too many notifications or constantly fill your inbox with emails. Its also free. Unfortunately, a lot of the works have questionable content, so consumer be aware.)
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