Category Archives: Southern Discomfort

September 4, 2026 · 4:14 pm

God said ha. I said “ha!” back

The old saying is that if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. I planned to get a lot done this week; God said “ha!” meaning there were a ton of obstacles. Despite which, to my pleasant surprise, I did get a lot done.

First the obstacles. We were still dealing with Plushie’s ulcer (diagnosed last week) but as of his Thursday appointment, it’s cured. Once again our dog has beaten a health problem despite his nearly 16 years of age! That’s always nice. He’s still on an antibiotic for the ulcer but that’s more a precaution than a necessity. We’re taking it though.

Trixie didn’t do so well. Last week she was becoming weirdly picky about food and reluctant to eat her meds. She also felt … off, in a way I can sense but couldn’t define. Sunday she began not eating at all so we took her into the vet Monday, followed by the emergency vet (they could do a couple of tests Park Vet couldn’t). At first the news was horrifying: anemic, blood count up, white blood cells up, which could indicate an infection, or possibly internal bleeding. At the end of the day, by virtue of eliminating the alternatives, they settled on probably some bleeding in the GI tract (I will skip the technical details).

We came home with directions to switch some of her meds and to have her drink a protective slurry an hour before her meals. It’s working: we took her in for a recheck Wednesday and all her signs have improved, though not by a lot (but the vet said that’s expected). She’s livelier, though also sleepier — she’s on Gabapentin now and it knocks her out. But she’s clearly happier and more interested in eating so this is a definite win. A demanding one — the need to time the slurry and her food and some of her meds makes our schedules that much more complicated.

Oh, and I also had to take our car in for an oil change and checkup. That took up a couple of hours too.

Despite which, work went well. I got two articles in for The Local Reporter, both out next week. Might get a third one done but I think that’s where the dog drama will leave me too wiped. I also got three posts up at Atomic Junk Shop, one about iron-on shirt decals in the 1970s, one on a really weird 1971 cover (above, by Murphy Anderson) and one about the path to (IMHO) the definitive Phantom Stranger run by Jim Aparo and Len Wein which kicked off with the cover at left by Aparo.

I also got a nice review of Southern Discomfort from one of my fellow bloggers. Thanks, Greg!

I worked through another year of Doc Savage’s history for Savage Adventures, and polished the bibliography. And then, on Let No Man Put Asunder, I really got some good stuff done. First I went through the writing guide Writing the Breakout Novel, taking notes on stuff that might be useful to think about (give your villains goals. Your supporting characters too). Maybe not — while I’ve read the book a lot, I’m not sure I use it’s techniques not. But I think I’m using it early enough in the rewrite process that might be different.

Then I started rereading, taking notes along the way. Insights or phrases someone offers more than once (“making the beast with two backs” is not going to appear more than once). Thin characterization or motivation. Implausible plotting. Places where it needs more tension. I got a third of the way through the book; that’s pretty good.

I also received by McFarland second-half-of-the-year royalty check. Small, but my books are still selling, which is cool; if you bought one of them, thanks!

And I now have three stories in the “made the first cut” category. No guarantee any of them will sell — I’m quite used to “This was a really tough decision, but …” emails — but they’re all possibilities. More disappointingly, I won’t get an author table to sell my books at Retcon next year. It was quite lucrative this year because it’s set up so all the con-goers go past the sale area frequently, probably why table requests have quadrupled. I’m on the waiting list so fingers crossed.

Fingers crossed too for more weeks like this.

Below, a typical Len Wein opening to a Phantom Stranger story. Aparo art.

All rights to images remain with current holders.

Leave a comment

Filed under Doc Savage, Nonfiction, Southern Discomfort, The Dog Ate My Homework, Time management and goals, Writing

Tagged as , , ,

September 2, 2026 · 5:18 am

When do the good times start?

When I watched The Exorcist a couple of years back, I was struck by how slowly the story opens, showing us the details of everyday life. It was a carefully calculated decision to ground the film in the “real” world before the spookery gets going.

I think the source novel, William Peter Blatty’s THE EXORCIST, does the same thing, but less successfully. It’s a hundred pages of mundane detail about Chris and Regan’s lives (and some about the priests) before anything happens; sure, there’s some odd noises in the attic, but that’s as creepy as it gets. Even after the supernatural happens, the resistance to accepting it gets comical: sure, someone fell down the steps with his head completely twisted around on his neck but that could certainly happen naturally! No, not it couldn’t.

I presume this reflects that Blatty was writing in an era when mainstream horror novels weren’t a thing — this was three years before Stephen King broke in with Carrie. So perhaps grounding it in reality was necessary — and the book’s blockbuster success clearly shows it didn’t hurt. Nevertheless I couldn’t get into it; Blatty’s oddly jerky prose style didn’t help. I do think a little more tension in the everyday stuff would have been a good idea — if you’re going to spend more than a quarter of the book in the mundane world, find some way to make it interesting.

This is, of course, a challenge lots of speculative fiction writers face when they’re setting stories in our world. Some plunge right in: the opening page of Storm Front informs us that Harry Dresden is a wizard helping people out with supernatural problems. My short story “The Savage Year” (in 19-Infinity) opens with mage Artemis West getting ready to perform magic on a job for the Secret Service. “The Glory That Was” in the same book has a robot minotaur break in on a political luncheon.

Other stories take time to build. Southern Discomfort, as I’ve mentioned before, starts with little overt magic. We have Maria’s sense of something wrong, hints that Pharisee Georgia is, shall we see, eccentric (no stop signs allowed — traffic circles instead), freakish rainstorms. Until the ravens attack as Maria’s getting off the bus, there’s nothing that seems strongly supernatural. However Chapter Two spells out that this is a town run by elves, and the person who murdered Aubric McAlister is not of mortal clay. Not a long wait.

That puts me in mind of Orson Scott Card’s old rule that the opening and ending of your story should mirror each other. Mine starts out with Maria in a bad place: on the run from the cops, emotionally closed, desperate. The final scene is all about resolving that. Likewise Let No Man Put Asunder starts with Mandy and Paul waiting for their life to begin, and ends accordingly. Maybe that’s what bugged me about The Exorcist: it starts with Chris but it’s not really a character-centered story where her personal arc is resolved at the end. Instead it switches to horror midway through and stays there.

Then again we have the priest supporting character who does indeed get a character arc. Unlike the movie, he’s not quite interesting enough to be the spine of the story, at least for me — like I said, the success of Blatty’s book certainly speaks for itself. But like I said, I didn’t find it terribly compelling, and I think I’ve identified why.

All rights to images remain with current holders. Covers top to bottom by Lee Macleod, Kemp Ward and Sam Collins.

Leave a comment

Filed under Reading, Short Stories, Southern Discomfort, Writing

August 21, 2026 · 4:30 pm

One big accomplishment, several little ones

The big one being that I finished the second draft of Let No Man Put Asunder. Last week I got past a major sticking point but I still had some doubts about the ending; last weekend I figured it out (having TYG off work last week so we were both more relaxed was a big help, I think). Monday and Tuesday I got it done. Several months later than I’d hoped, but even so, yay!

I’d hoped it would be in good enough shape to offer for a beta reading, but no, not quite. It needs at least one more draft which even assuming it goes really well means it would be finished shortly before holiday season. So no feedback session until next year. Less speedy than I’d like — on the other hand, it’s faster than I was beginning to fear it would be.

(There’s no pet news other than “they’re adorable” but I figured I’d throw in a couple of photos anyway).

The little stuff? I got a lot of work done on the Local Reporter stories for next month’s issue. Submitted some pet insurance forms, mostly for their regular drugs. Resolved an IRS issue — happily it’s in our favor. And worked on Savage Adventures. This made the days kind of scattershot, which isn’t good; I always work better when I have one thing to focus on a day. But things like taxes need to be done.

I was, however, somewhat bummed by money. There was a columnist gig I think I’d have been good for but they wanted pitches — suggestions for the kinds of things I’d write for them — and the job got snapped up before I could figure out the kind of specific things they’d like. I discovered I’d missed another opportunity that might have been lucrative. And of course, not knowing I could bill our pet insurance for drugs means several years of lost reimbursements (I’ve recovered quite a bit of that but my records don’t go back for enough for all of it). This doesn’t leave us in desperate straits but more money is nice. Particularly earning more money.

Over at Atomic Junk Shop I blogged about the Bronze Age love of reprints — a very big deal in an era long before TPBs and omnibuses were available everywhere. And about one of the Bronze Age’s problems being how often creative teams turned over.

Plus over the past two months I’ve sold around eight copies of Southern Discomfort. Not a lot of money but it is very pleasing enough people were interested to try my book. I’m also pleased that promoting it more than I think I did Questionable Minds paid off, at least a little. Something to think about for when my next book comes out. To everyone who bought it, thanks!

And if you’re eager to learn more about me — and who isn’t, really? — you can check out my interview with Michael Parks.

Cover by Samantha Collins. Rights are mine.

Leave a comment

Filed under Nonfiction, Southern Discomfort, Story Problems, Time management and goals, Writing

Tagged as , , ,

August 7, 2026 · 4:30 pm

At last, a productive week, though I didn’t produce the things I most wanted to

That is to say, I spent another week without getting any fiction written. I don’t like that, but at least I didn’t just flap and flounder around without accomplishing anything.

I’d intended to spend Wednesday working on short stories. Instead I wound up spending two or three hours checking on which stories had been rejected (in the “if you don’t hear from us, we didn’t take it” mode), then checking out potential markets and resubmitting them. “Mage’s Masquerade” went to Abyss and Apex; “Oh the Places You’ll Go” went to More Distant Shores. I also read a couple of stories from Tuesday’s writing group that I hadn’t been able to listen to (schedule conflicts).

(We went to Costco last weekend. They’re ready for Halloween).

Thursday I’d planned to work on Let No Man Put Asunder. However Trixie got up early again and the lack of any personal space in the early morning does seem to affect my focus. Creativity dissipated and I settled for working The Savage Adventures. I put in two days on that book this week and got my analysis of two years of Doc Savage magazine proofed. If I can work a year a day, I can have the text of the book done this year. Still have to find a cover artist, though my cover concept is simple enough I may try using software to do it myself. If not, I’ll look.

(More Costco Halloween fun. This one actually moves).

I got two articles in at The Local Reporter, one on the ongoing drought here in the Triangle (improved, but not gone), the other on a land-development dispute in Chapel Hill. That one took longer than it should; for some reason I couldn’t seem to shape it in my head. But it’s done, and pay will be forthcoming.

Over at Atomic Junk Shop, I reposted an old post from this blog about Childhood’s End, the book and the miniseries, and some horrendous acts by the US government in the last century. The cover above I believe is by Richard Powers.

Plus I took Plushie in for his regular eye checkup. Everything looks good, which is pleasantly surprising; dogs with glaucoma usually lose the eye within a year and he’s still in good shape after two-plus years. Robust, as our vet says.

Next week, though, I really have to get some fiction done!

Speaking of fiction, if you’re interested in a discount on the sequel to the Ceaseless Way anthology, Become the Sky, the QR code below should take you to a discount offer. No obligation to buy.

The “abrupt embrace of ethics” line is from my short story “Obolos,” a brand new one alongside a reprint of “Backstage With the Hypothetical Dead.” And lots of good stories from other contributors. The cover is by fellow contributor Sonya Lano.

Leave a comment

Filed under Nonfiction, Short Stories, Southern Discomfort, The Dog Ate My Homework, Time management and goals, Writing

Tagged as , , , , ,

July 31, 2026 · 4:25 pm

Bring back my focus to me!

Another week where I had a hard time concentrating on anything. And without even the excuse of contractors working or multiple appointments. I keep trying to find my focus but somehow I just keep wandering through a maze of distraction (hence my choice of this Jack Kirby cover for an illustration. Steve Ditko inked).

Part of it is undoubtedly that TYG’s slammed schedule has kept me doing lots of extra dog care. That’s not a criticism — she’s the big breadwinner so if she needs me to watch the dogs so she can concentrate, that’s fair — but it does erode my sense of personal space over time and I know from experience that affects my concentration. Plus the cats have been downstairs a lot during the day this week. Even if they’re not asking for anything, I’m conscious of them and that adds to the distraction.

Is it anything beyond that? Maybe, but I don’t know what. Not exhaustion — the dogs woke me up a couple of times this week but I slept great the rest of the time.

The end result? No fiction this week, or this month. I hate that! I did get work done but it proceeded at a snail’s pace compared to what I’d have managed were I in the zone.

The biggest thing was that I answered all those questions McFarland sent me about my Watching Jekyll and Hyde manuscript. Now I just have to wait for them to send me the galleys for the final proofing.

I also edited my friend Kat Traylor’s story for Become the Sky, the follow-up anthology to The Ceaseless Way. “Surviving Dr. Bloodflask” is a really fun story about a supervillain’s son getting dragged back into his family’s schemes. Kat’s improved it considerably since we critiqued the first draft so all I had to do was copy editing.

I submitted an updated story on the Triangle area’s ongoing drought. Rain this month has eased the stress but not eliminated it. The story will be out next week.

Over at Atomic Junk Shop I looked at how Doctor Doom in 1971 starts showing hints of decency. Also how horror began spilling into romance, war books and superhero comics.

And that’s about it. I have no major commitments next week, though, so let’s hope I can return to productivity.

Ceaseless Way cover by GetCovers, based on design idea by Arden Brooks. Doom by Gene Colan. All rights to images remain with current holders.

Leave a comment

Filed under Nonfiction, Personal, Southern Discomfort, The Dog Ate My Homework, Time management and goals, Writing

Tagged as , ,

July 24, 2026 · 4:30 pm

Cats and cons, bathrooms and battle plans

A week ago, I drove to Greensboro for ConGregate 2026. Up until this year, the con’s been held in Winston-Salem, but they had issues with the hotel and had to relocate. This worked out well for me as Greensboro is only an hour away.

The worst thing about the hotel is that it’s on the airport, several miles from anywhere else to eat. Not for the first time, I relied on the breakfast buffet to feed me for the entire day. And the collapsible kettle TYG bought me took care of my tea needs. The best thing is that the author alley, where I set up my table above, runs right outside the meeting spaces so everyone has to pass us by.

Did that boost sales? Not massively. However attendance seemed smaller than ConGregate 2025 — I can’t swear to it — but I made roughly as much money. That’s cool. And all the panels and readings had audiences that outnnumbered the panelists. That doesn’t always happen.

The patterns in sales always fascinate me. No sales on Atoms for Peace or Sex for Dinner, Death for Breakfast (that’s usually a consistent seller), one or two of most of my other books, seven of Questionable Minds. Which as it’s the one I most want to sell right now, suited me fine. One seller bought purely because of the cover, which is cool (thanks Sam Collins!).

Finally home, where I cooked a Thank You meal for TYG for having to care for all the pets while I was gone. Happily we’ve introduced Plush Dudley to canned chicken and for the moment he’s willing to scarf down his drugs if they’re mashed up into it. Fingers crossed that lasts until after TYG does some traveling in a couple of weeks, leaving me alone.

As I’ve been saying lately, no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. Last week I took into account that we’d be having contractors trooping in and out to work on the master bathroom. This week we had that to deal with — finished today, at last! — plus we had to take Wisp in to have a couple of problem teeth removed.

This was a challenge. Catching and caging Wisp is always a challenge. Happily for once we got good news: when the dental vet took an X-ray look at the teeth, it doesn’t require removal. No surgery, check back in six months. We’re happy she doesn’t have to be cut on, particularly as removing bottom teeth can have bad effects on the jaw.

And on Wednesday, my physical therapist said my knee has improved enough I don’t have to book another appointment unless/until I need one. She did great, but I’m happy not to take the time. Especially as I screwed up the time and had to go, come home, go back, return.

Somewhat less happily, my glasses broke today — the right-hand screw holding the frame around that lens just snapped. I tried taping it up; didn’t work. Fortunately I have a backup pair and my eyesight hasn’t changed enough for them to be a problem. I will look for a repair place. Annoying but not catastrophiic.

Now, as to writing, my original battle plan had been to focus on Savage Adventures, like I did last week. It’s at the proofing stage and that adapts better than fiction to constant interruptions. Monday that went well. I rewrote some of the text, trimming quite a bit of it, and corrected some errors that had crept in. After Monday, though, things got nuts.

One thing I’ve started doing is taking little tasks and errands — submitting pet bills to the insurer, for instance — first thing in the morning. Gets them out of the way and I don’t have to worry about when to fit them in later in the day. However it’s very easy for them to expand and take up too much time. I’ll have to be careful going forward. This week, I was not.

Plus I had an unexpected experience with The Local Reporter. When I contact someone for an interview I don’t always get a prompt response, or any response (I suspect that’s partly because we’re not the paper of record for Chapel Hill/Carrboro the way the Destin Log was for Destin). I’m working on an article about the effect of the ongoing drought and this time everyone I contacted called me back. I spent much of Wednesday doing interviews.

Thursday I worked on proofing stories for Become the Sky, the sequel anthology to Ceaseless Way. As it’s a collaborative project we all have stories to proof. I have three: Maggie Maxwell’s “The Survivalist’s Guide to Faeryland,” Ada Milenkovic Brown’s “The Nixie of Alken Bog” and Kat Traylor’s “Surviving Dr. Bloodflask.” I got the first two finished Thursday.

So it’s actually a productive week, just not the stuff I planned to produce. Which isn’t the worst way for the battle plan to go off the rails.

Oh, and my editors at McFarland contacted me with some detailed editing questions about various passages in Watching Jekyll and Hyde. That’s pleasing — it shows they’re paying attention to the details. Not that I’d expect less, but it’s still good to see.

Over at Atomic Junk Shop I looked at Flash #209 as a harbinger of the Bronze Age. It had Cary Bates take over as Flash’s writer, a gig he’d hold all the way until the Crisis on Infinite Earths killed Barry off. It also showed that after a couple of years of avoiding super-villains, DC was bringing them back. I was delighted.

All rights to cover images remain with current holders. Southern Discomfort cover by Sam Collins, Ceaseless Way by GetCovers based on design by Arden Brooks, Flash cover by Dick Giordanoo.

1 Comment

Filed under Nonfiction, Personal, Short Stories, Southern Discomfort, Time management and goals, Writing

Tagged as , , , , ,

July 11, 2026 · 4:39 am

Behold the book! Southern Discomfort lives!

Yep, no movie reviews today, either. That’s because after soooo fricking long, Southern Discomfort is finally available for sale. Print book here, ebook on various sites here. Amazon ebook here. I’ve added it to my list of self-published books from the Behold the Book imprint here.

Here’s the cover synopsis: “It’s May 1973 and Maria Esposito has spent three years as a wanted fugitive. Constantly on the run, she never lets anyone get close.
Now torrential floods have trapped her in Pharisee Georgia, in the middle of an FBI investigation. Maria needs to keep a low profile; too bad the murder victim’s widow insists she can help solve the case. The county sheriff makes it clear saying no is not an option.
The FBI soon becomes the least of Maria’s problems. There’s the hostile ravens. The homicidal horse. The living shadow warning her to leave town or die. Maria has no choice but to run, even though something monstrous is threatening Pharisee. Something only she can stop.
Maria tells herself she doesn’t give a damn. She can’t afford to give a damn.
She has a grim feeling she’s not going to listen …”

Here’s the cover, courtesy of the amazing Sam Collins.

It has been such a long road, it’s hard to believe it’s done. For anyone who’s curious, I’ve been looking back at the novel s creation and development in a series on this blog. Today, though, I thought I’d discuss something different: what are all those people/things doing on the cover of the book?

I feel pretty damn pleased with myself for this book.

The woman: Maria Esposito, Army nurse in ‘nam turned anti-war activist, now a federal fugitive. She doesn’t want to be the hero; she may not have a choice.

The cloaked figure: Gwalchmai, my antagonist. He’s on a 300-year-old mission of revenge that won’t stop until Olwen McAlister is dead. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone else but when push comes to shove, he will.

The cat: Gwalchmai gained powers from a ritual, the taghairm, that involves roasting live cats on a spit for four days straight; one cat dies, he roasts a new one. The cats of Pharisee can smell his crimes against their kin and they want revenge.

The freaky-looking hand: the hand of glory, a mystic talisman that puts people to sleep and unlocks doors. To make it you cut off the hand of a hanged man and cover it with corpse fat. Georgia’s not currently hanging anyone so Gwalchmai hanged someone himself.

The clouds and lightning: After 300 years, Aubric and Olwen McAlister were the secret monarchs of Pharisee County. They and the land were one. With Aubric already murdered, nature is running wild. The county is coping with a rainstorm like it’s never seen before.

The creepy house: there’s a couple of ’em.

I feel really pleased I wrote this. Hopefully lots of readers will be too.

Leave a comment

Filed under Southern Discomfort, Writing

Tagged as

July 10, 2026 · 4:30 pm

So where did I misplace my mojo this week?

I’m honestly not sure, but whenever I sat down to work, my creative juices were not flowing.

Stuff which didn’t require creativity went fine. I finished the draft of Savage Adventures, which is not a small thing. One more draft should do it, a combined line edit with fact-checking (did I get the names of all the characters right, for instance). However I wanted to make progress on fiction as well and my mind just balked.

Short stories? No idea how to progress.

Rewrite of Let No Man Put Asunder? Ditto.

I did take the beginnings of two new untitled stories I worked on last week and share them with the writing group. The feedback satisfied me they’re worth working on and some of the suggestions were interesting (could they be part of the same novel? Probably not but if I could think of a way …). That was it, though.

I also didn’t do as well as usual with our dogs’ home PT care, or my own exercise regimen for that matter.

I did find that if I concentrate my various non-writing tasks — errands, bills, submissions to our pet insurance, Trupanion — in the first hour of work this gets them taken care of and lets me concentrate better the rest of the day. That helped with Savage Adventures at least.

Part of it may be that I’m still sleep-deprived — a couple of bad nights, no nights quite good enough to catch up. Plush Dudley being extremely restless is a big part of it. Sometimes I think he just likes to sleep on my side of the bed and he knows if he makes enough trouble, I’ll have to move and try to sleep in the spare bedroom. Wicked boy.

He’s so stinking cute, though.

Part of the problem may be that I haven’t had much break from our various pets the past month and a half, except when I’m out running errands. Over time it erodes my personal space and that does get draining.

I did get to attend my Genre Book Club, as I discussed over at Atomic Junk Shop. That was fun. And I had lunch with one of my writing friends, the first time I’ve managed that in a while.

Tune in next week for (hopefully) a better result! Cover by James Bama, all rights to image remain with current holder.

Leave a comment

Filed under Doc Savage, Nonfiction, Personal, Short Stories, Southern Discomfort, Story Problems, The Dog Ate My Homework, Time management and goals, Writing

Tagged as ,

July 7, 2026 · 5:03 am

Southern Discomfort: the widow and a county in Georgia

This Saturday, Southern Discomfort goes live, though the Kindle version won’t publish until the 18th (I don’t know why). This will be the last post about the supporting cast, focusing on my grieving daoine sidhe, Olwen McAlister and the community she and the late Aubric founded, Pharisee County Georgia. Spoilers ahead, though nothing that I think ruins the book (one reason I’m not blogging about my villain, Gwalchmai — I think I’d have to give away too much).

As y’all eventually learn, Olwen and Aubric McAlister were daoine sidhe — elves — who like most of their kind spent centuries flitting between England and their otherworldly realm, the Hither Country. When the Puritans came to power after the English Civil War, however, they saw the fae as demons and sought to drive them out. Ringing the church bells, for instance; in themselves, they’re harmless but rung with malice towards elvenkind, they create agony. The sidhe closed the gates to their realm and fled into a further plane, the Thither Country. From there, they can never return.

Aubric and Olwen were different. They liked life in the mortal realm so they fled to Ireland, outside the Puritan reach. There they lived outside a small mortal town where people respected the old ways. All was well … until Cromwell’s forces invaded and crushed the Irish. Olwen and Aubric fled again, across the sea to the New World, taking with them the townsfolk in a magical boat. They arrived and wound up settling in Georgia before it was even a colony.

As Katharine Briggs’ Encyclopedia of Fairies makes clear, the fae of British folklore are not pleasant people. I developed Olwen and Aubric — whom Gwalchmai has murdered before the book begins — with that in mind. They’re immortal; from their perspective any pain they inflict on mortals will be over in an eyeblink; who cares about the suffering of mayflies? Their own suffering, by contrast, is a long-lasting thing. They hold grudges and they take revenge when they’re crossed, and it’s easier than you’d think to cross them.

By the time the book starts, Olwen has been watching over the people of Pharisee for three centuries and it’s mellowed her. She might be disdainful of outsiders’ lives but Pharisee folk? They’re hers. She will protect them, as she’s always done. She’s as close as I’ve ever come to a “morally gray” character, as so many book ads put it. The good stuff she does is noble and compassionate, the bad stuff is very bad. I think I’ve done a good job acknowledging both.

Then there’s Pharisee itself. I made the right call in casting Maria, an outsider, as my protagonist. She doesn’t know what’s going on, she’s primarily concerned with herself rather than Pharisee; I thought at one point about turning Joan Slattery into the protagonist. I realized if I did that, the exposition would get awkward: Joan already knows everything about Pharisee. Sharing information with the reader would take either me providing info-dumps or Joan having “as you know” conversations. An outsider slowly learning the truth, works much better.

However the more I worked on the book, the more I realized Maria wasn’t enough. Even adding Rachel, Liz and Joan wasn’t enough. Because this wasn’t just the story of the individual residents, it’s the story of the entire county (primarily the town of Pharisee). What it’s been like for them flourishing under the guidance of Olwen and Aubric. How they’ve adapted as outsiders have become residents, buying up property and turning it into a bedroom community for Atlanta commuters. What happens when Aubric, one of their rocks for 300 years, lies dead.

So my POV cast is quite large. Sheriff Slattery. Father Michael, the senior Catholic priest. His brother Harry, the head of the county commission. Military attorney Captain Jeff Carpenter. Dr. Aaron Moreno, one of the new physicians in town. His daughter Susan. Some of them know the truth; some don’t. Together they make up the mosaic of Pharisee. Which Gwalchmai is on the brink of smashing to pieces.

I’ll be announcing the book release Saturday, with links.

My cover is by Samantha Collins, the other artist is unknown to me. All rights to images remain with current holders.

Leave a comment

Filed under Southern Discomfort, Writing

Tagged as

July 3, 2026 · 5:15 pm

Cats, borders, knees, writing, blood! My week in review

First the blood: Saturday I made my regular donation to the Red Cross. They’ve remodeled their facility and I was the first “power red” (double dose of red blood cells) donor there. I wrapped up just a little too soon for someone from the regional HQ to photograph me, darn it. That would have been kind of cool.

Tuesday, it was cat day: time to take Snowdrop in for his wellness exam and shots. He’s way harder to cage for the trip than Wisp; she’ll let us pick her up which gives us a chance to shove her in. Snow’s less trusting. However I got a dose of gabapentin — painkiller that also makes ’em sleepy — into him with a small morning meal. That left him just groggy enough to load into a cat carrier. He’s mostly in good shape, however he does have a heart murmur. Those can be bad in cats so we’re waiting to see what the labwork says.

Minor bonus, they applied his topical heartworm/flea med so we don’t have to do that again for two months.

Borders: as I type this, the theme I use for this blog has suddenly dropped the illustration on the vertical borders so there’s nothing but the image at the top. Maybe it’s a temporary thing and it’s gone by now. Maybe I’ll have to change themes because the brown border looks dreadful. I haven’t had a chance to do anything about it yet.

Knees: Tuesday, after TYG brought Snowdrop home, I went to physical therapy. Nothing major but my left knee gives me twinges in certain positions. I’d like it to stop. The therapist gave me a set of exercises which I’ve been working on. Too soon for any miracle cures, though. I also got a sleep apnea kit in the mail — my doctor thought that might relate to my recurrent insomnia — and I spent three nights with a testing kit on, making me feel like a cyborg. My grimace below is because I also felt like Hannibal Lector in his muzzle in Silence of the Lambs.

I slept better than I expected with that thing on. However it was choppy, which contributed to my tiredness for some of the week. Plus the pets were needier than usual. Still I got some good stuff done. Articles for The Local Reporter on Carrboro’s 2027 budget and the drought’s impact on Carrboro (not up yet). That took up Monday and Tuesday.

Wednesday I tackled the next chapter of Let No Man Put Asunder. Didn’t go well. The changes I’m making are good but they’re the kind that require further changes — if the sinister Community of All simply puts everyone in Bluestone in a stoned trance, Mandy doesn’t have the conflict of fighting innocent mind-controlled people. It still works better and fits the Community’s strange goals; however I have no idea what comes next. And Wednesday I was most tired.

Thursday I worked on “Die and Let Live.” It’s steadily improving but ends up way too talky as Colin and Deadbeat explain what’s been happening and everyone debates ethics. Either I shift some of that material earlier in the story, I come up with a more dramatic ending or both (ideally both).

I also got the first scene of a new story. My mind generated several new details: one character, Claire, comes from the town of Riddle Grove where her family lives at Enigma Towers. And their last name, Maistery, sounds a lot like “Mystery” if you say it aloud. Her estranged best friend notes the pattern and decides they’ll make a joke about it later. I have no idea what it means but it isn’t anything funny. So my mind’s clearly engaged — not enough to figure out what comes next yet.

Today was, as usual, devoted to next week’s blog posts, planning what to write, and emptying my in-box. Plus we took Trixie and Plushie in for some shots and, as Plushie’s been walking wobbly recently, asked the vet about it. She says he might have some back pain and recommended upping his gabapentin dose for now. Makes sense as we lowered it a couple of months back. We’ll see if it helps.

What made the visit memorable is that Plushie expressed his displeasure by pooping on the exam room floor. And then several alarmingly runny poops after that. Hopefully it’s just a momentary lapse and not the return of his dread diarrhea. We’ll see.

And now for something completely cool, author’s copies of Southern Discomfort arrived this week.

Cover by Samantha Collins. All rights are mine.

Leave a comment

Filed under Personal, Short Stories, Southern Discomfort, Story Problems, The Dog Ate My Homework, Time management and goals

Tagged as , ,