Tag Archives: continual

April 3, 2026 · 3:37 pm

March was a month that happened …

Despite Plushie’s fortnight of diarrhea, it was fairly productive. Of course, as I’ve mentioned before, that’s partly because of The Local Reporter switching to monthly so I didn’t have actual paying gigs distracting me. I’ll be back to work on it next week, prepping for the April issue.

I got close to 34,000 words rewritten on Let No Man Put Asunder, redrafted “Mage’s Masquerade” and “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” and proofed the first chunk of Savage Adventures. I applied for a couple of writing jobs (remote) and started checking various short fiction markets — no luck so far. And we made it through diarrhea and out the other side er, so to speak. And the multiple trips to tire places or our VW dealer.

Yes, it’s mostly Snowdrop photos today. I think he’s worth it.

This week was choppy, with enough errands Wednesday it was a struggle to get anything done. Still, overall satisfactory. I got another 3,500 words finished on Asunder (that was what I struggled to complete Wednesday). I reread “Oh the Places You’ll Go” and I think I’ve finally finished it. I’ll proof it later this month but I’m satisfied I’ve fixed everything I didn’t like (or my beta readers didn’t like). First story finished in a long while. I read “Mage’s Masquerade” to the writing group; the overall reaction was way favorable though with several slight changes. For example it comes off as if Sinclair is waaaay older than Cecily; while that’s not out of line for a Regency plot, it’s a sensitive enough subject I’m going to make it clear he’s maybe a decade her senior, nothing more.

Finding markets for two 7,000 word short stories will be a challenge. But I can always publish them in another collection of my work.

I got several thousand words of Savage Adventures proofed and polished and I started looking for a cover artist. No luck so far.

I also began editing my Hellboy Chronology. At first I was only going to update it to add one of the new Hellboy-verse TPBs. However I wound up converting it to blocks which threw the spacing and the whole look of the page out of whack. I’ve begun correcting for that, though I’m only up through the 1960s. Please be patient as I keep working. All the information is still good.

Over at Con-Tinual I talked about The Worlds of Andre Norton, Favorite Superhero Moments, the return of Superboy, now all available on FB at the links.

Week is almost over, as I’m stopping work early to cook something for TYG. Have a great weekend, y’all.

Cover by James Bama, all rights remain with current holder.

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May 17, 2024 · 3:45 pm

Disorder continues but the work gets done

Overall, much less disorder than last week. But for various reasons we’re having Plushie sleep downstairs this week. TYG sleeps down there with him so he doesn’t have to feel alone. I sleep upstairs with Trixie in the master bedroom.

The result? Instead of getting up for tea in the early morning I wait a couple of hours until TYG is awake. That throws me off schedule, even though I bring my computer up to the bedroom and work there early. I’m also sleeping much more than usual, which means I don’t wake up as early. This is a net win but again, it’s disruptive. I have no idea why; apparently our huge bed with one dog in it gives me the right amount of space for good sleep hygiene.

Despite the disruption, work got done. I finished this draft of Savage Adventures and met my May word-count for Let No Man Put Asunder. I completed a bunch of IRL tasks and bills that I’d left unresolved because of all the chaos last week. I worked on a couple of articles for The Local Reporter but one had to cancel an interview, one couldn’t give me definite answers yet.

Catching up on Con-Tinual, here’s a bunch of panels I’ve been on, on the Spectre, on Nexus, Agents of SHIELD, the Doom Patrol, comic-book couples, and magic in the comics. Over at Atomic Junk Shop I look at the beginning of the end for Batman’s New Look. The art below is by Irv Novick.

I did not meet my exercise goals. I thought breaking my efforts into five minute bursts throughout the day would work but our pets keep getting needy when they see I’ve put the computer down. Sigh.

Overall, though, an excellent week.

#SFWApro. All rights to images remain with current holders.

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December 29, 2023 · 2:56 pm

The year ends, not with a bang, but not really a whimper

Just kind of quiet. And a little unsatisfactory: I’d planned on a full four days of work but I think I blew about half of them. Come 2024 I need to stop falling short.

I did more work on Savage Adventures, a little bit of work for The Local Reporter (mostly laying groundwork for stuff to do in January) and met with my editor and some of the other reporters for coffee (well, tea in my case) earlier today. Did a lot of extra dog care as TYG had a lot of year-end work stuff to do.

And then there was Christmas. Last weekend was a little odd because, being a three-day Christmas weekend, I felt like not doing much. And it’s very rare for me to just lie around on the weekend. Like so many other people, serious leisure takes a conscious effort to completely chill, but I managed it.The day itself was lovely. My presents skewed unusually practical: a new enameled cast-iron pot (the one I’ve used for four decades no longer has a handle on the lid), socks, trousers, shorts. Plus food. I did get the third Epic collection of Dr. Strange from my brother and I used some of my gift money to get the second, which is out next month. As we’re closing out the year, why don’t I talk about my 2023 blogging stats (everyone else does). Just like a year ago, my Hellboy Chronology is still the top draw. It’s nice to know it’s appreciated.  My Sherlock Holmes post discussing the quote “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact” came in second, with two more Holmes-quote posts in the top ten. The Shirley Exception post came in at number three, down from two last year. Matt Walsh advocating for compulsory marriage and no divorce was fourth. Also in the top ten, a post about John Carter rights and one about my issues with League of Extraordinary Gentleman. A related post, about Moore’s use of the Golliwog, made #11. Most of that is close to last year’s patterns; the Matt Walsh post came in late December, too late to get on the list for 2022, but a 2021 Matt Walsh post made the cut.

The real surprise is my #9 post on the “Taylor Swift is George Soros’ puppet” bullcrap the right wing’s beens pouting. As it came out Dec. 14, I’d have expected any impact to be on next year’s list but nope. Apparently Swift’s name carries a lot of weight. Don’t worry, I’m not going to start inserting it into title gratuitously.Over at Atomic Junk Shop I reposted a blog I did some years about Christmas Carol adaptations, plus one about the badly written conspiracies in Kingsman and Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty.

At The Local Reporter, I have an article about Chapel Hill-based GoFundMe pleas. At Con-Tinual’s YouTube channel, I’m in a panel about time travel. It is, after all, an interest of mine.I wish everyone a Happy New Year and a happy 364 days after that.

#SFWApro. Comics covers by Frank Brunner (t), Matt Smith and Carmin Carnero, all rights to images remain with current holders.

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December 15, 2023 · 4:15 pm

This One Simple Trick did not boost my productivity

Last weekend we had our writers’ group Christmas party. TYG and I have hosted it for a decade, pandemic years exempted. Last year was smaller than the usual; this year we must have had around 30 people. Apparently Dec. 9 fell into everyone’s sweet spot for not conflicting with other events.

(Early morning photograph)

It was great fun but prep and cooking left me wiped, particularly after my trip to Florida. Rather than plan out the week in detail on Sunday, I just jotted down what I wanted to write on each day: Monday, stories for The Local Reporter; Tuesday, Let No Man Put Asunder and so on.

Turns out this doesn’t work for me. All the little tasks and chores I try to get done during the week went undone; I kept losing track of breathing exercises, voice exercises, dog exercises and — well, you get the idea. That I slept poorly (I’m not sure why) didn’t help.

There was also much dog drama. Last week Plushie began licking frantically at his left foot so TYG took him in while I was in Florida and got him an allergy shot. He wasn’t very happy afterwards.This past Monday, it got worse: he was limping and snapped at TYG when she tried for a closer look at his foot. Fortunately we were going in for his physical rehab check up so we asked the doctor to check out the foot as well. It took her and a vet tech but she managed to find a tiny seed buried in the fur between his pads. A couple of days later, Plushie was back to his old cheery self. Yay!

Still I got a fair amount done. First, an article for The Local Reporter and advance work on several articles to come. I learned when I was a full-time journalist that it goes much easier if you keep well ahead of deadline. I also got another 20,000 words done on Southern Discomfort edits. Plus I made it to the doctor this morning for a recheck. Blood pressure and weight are up, something to work on in the New Year. I know part of the reason for the weight gain is the party — lots of good food — but also that after Wisp damaged her leg at the end of June, I spent the next month barely sleeping (she liked beating her cast on the bed to see if it would come loose) and didn’t exercise at all. Which is to say, the condition should be fixable. Hope so.

While I don’t have my newspaper story to link to yet, you can check me out on Con-Tinual panels about comic-book BFFs and Captain America. I also wrote my father’s obit with input and editing from my siblings — truly a joint project. I also posted at Atomic Junk Shop, first another post about Marvel in 1967, and one discussing how the art was great even when the story was off. Below is an example, Jack Kirby showing that even as he became less enthused about his Marvel work, it was still dynamic action. If you’re puzzled, that’s Steve Rogers carrying a Captain America imposter.

On my own blog I hit 284 views on Tuesday which I think is a record; WordPress’ stats page seems to have changed since I last visited so I can’t confirm that I’m right. It’s still cool; if any of y’all are sticking around, welcome! Puzzling though as I don’t know why I’d get such a massive bump. Posting about Taylor Swift? Spider photographs? Just random chance? I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

And earlier today I drew up my schedule for next week. This time I went into detail. For me, it seems that works best.

#SFWApro. All rights to comics panel remain with current holder.

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December 8, 2023 · 2:11 pm

I guess I’m an orphan now

Another week without much accomplished, but I can’t blame myself. After learning a week ago that Dad was dying, I booked a flight and headed down Sunday. I came back yesterday.

It was an odd sort of farewell trip. Dad had most of his affairs wrapped up and for whatever reason he didn’t want a funeral or any equivalent ceremony. That meant a much lower key time than when Mom passed. My brother and I went with Tracy (Dad’s executor) to get some papers signed, mail off some packages. And we and several of Dad’s friends went out to dinner Tuesday. Otherwise it was mostly hanging around the house, chatting with each other, playing gin rummy, that sort of thing. And I did write an online obit for the website of the funeral home that cremated him. We also watched The Shermans, the compilation of old home movies my brother got digitized, then posted online.

One project my brother came up with was to duplicate an old photo of us as kids. Here’s the original—I think this would have been 1966 or 1967. That’s my sister Tracy, my brother Craig and then me, left to right. Here’s the sequel —It took a lot of posing and double-checking before Craig was satisfied with the second one, but it paid off.

I must admit, being with my family again felt better than Dad’s death hurt. I think that’s a good thing.

I did get one article finished for The Local Reporter, on local towns Carrboro and Chapel Hill and their commitment to LGBTQ+ rights. I got two posts up at Atomic Junk Shop, one about Marvel in 1967 and one on how L. Frank Baum created Oz.Con-Tinual posted a couple of panels to YouTube with me in them, one on comic-book villains and one on Magnus, Robot Fighter.And that’s about it. Hopefully nothing will derail me from work next week.

#SFWApro.  Cover by Russ Manning, all rights to images remain with current holders.

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November 17, 2023 · 3:30 pm

Feeling run down but at least I ran somewhere

Very, very tired today.

I haven’t slept badly this week, just a little bit short every night. Apparently it’s adding up. Today my brain feels like sludge. It didn’t help that my efforts to nap this morning were thwarted by one pet or another. Still, the week as a whole went well.

I published an article for The Local Reporter on a proposed Chapel Hill development.I finished the section of Savage Adventures I wanted done for this month, including double-checking details I wasn’t clear about in The Pharaoh’s Ghost.

I got a little bit further on Let No Man Put Asunder. It’s going slow now that Paul and Mandy are no longer running and have to fight back against the Community of All. This requires more than just flinging threats at them; as Doc Savage author Lester Dent put it, the action has to do more than merely move them across the setting. I’ll get there but it’s frustratingly slow.

On the plus side, I think I had a breakthrough on Oh the Places You’ll Go. I’ve been stymied because my redrafts have raised questions I had to leave hanging. This week I saw I can resolve them relatively easily and by shifting around who does what at the finish everything went smoother. I finally feel like I’ve got my finished draft.

I did not get much exercising or stretching done, alas. Cleaners and contractors to deal with on top of the usual pet distractions. Yesterday after the cleaners came, Wisp was sufficiently unnerved she insisted on spending all afternoon in my lap. I didn’t have the heart to get up and leave her.

I do appear in a Con-Tinual panel about Magnus, Robot Fighter (whom I’ve reviewed here). Over at Atomic Junk Shop I review the first issues of the current Wonder Woman and Power Girl series, plus a look back at Golden Age Black Canary. Did you know she has the magic power to summon flocks of black canaries to do her bidding?#SFWApro. Art by Modest Stein and Carmine Infantino, all rights remain with current holders.

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September 8, 2023 · 4:07 pm

Wisp the indoor cat? Time will tell

I’m not placing any bets but Wisp seems remarkably content staying indoors all the time, even . now that she’s mostly healed. She’s not trying to rush out past us when we open the door, even when Snowdrop’s on the deck. While we come in from walkies to see her sitting near the door, it seems more like she’s worried we’re not coming back. Cool if so: safer for her, safer for local wildlife. But if she’s determined to go out, we’ll let her.

Here’s a photo of her nuzzling Snowdrop right before we trapped him last week. This week was taken up with a lot of non-writing stuff. Day off for Labor Day. Wednesday afternoon off to give blood. Two trips to the vet with Plushie because of heavy vomiting (seems to have passed, no underlying problems detected, just one of those dog things). A couple of contractors. Even so I got stuff done.

The biggest was sitting and rereading Southern Discomfort, the first step toward self-publishing it next year. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it holds up — no major changes needed. However I changed it quite a bit when I rewrote it last year to shift Maria’s POV scenes to first person and a lot of the changed scenes need polishing or tightening. But the manuscript is, over all, sound, and this should be slightly less work than anticipated.

I also began work on an appendix to go with the book. This will go chapter by chapter, identifying the various 1970s references I’ve worked into the manuscript. Hopefully I’ve done it so well, and written such a good book, nobody will worry about looking stuff up until they’ve finished, but still, I like including the information.

That consumed much of my writing time, plus I edited a short story for the collaborative anthology, Ceaseless Way, that I’m participating in. And I got a new story in The Local Reporter, a business profile. Over at Atomic Junk Shop I discuss the limits of the Marvel app and the time Professor X woke up in bondage gear.I’m also in a Con-Tinual panel on time travel that just got posted to YouTube.

Oh, and someone checked a copy of 19-Infinity out on a digital library service. I got paid. Whoever you are out there, thanks for reading.

#SFWApro. X-Man page by John Romita Jr, 19-Infinity cover by Kemp Ward. All rights remain with current holders.

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August 18, 2023 · 4:30 pm

A fact so dread, he faintly said, extinguishes all hope

Okay, not all hope. But we’d been optimistic that Wednesday would be Wisp’s last day in her leg bandage and cone of shame (without it that bandage would be gone). Nope: another week in the bandage, though the vet’s optimistic that will be enough. But then come three weeks or so keeping her indoors for her leg to build strength while limiting excess activity.

It’s frustrating because we don’t want both of us out of the house at the same time if we can avoid it; Wisp has occasionally gotten around the cone of shame to the bandage and we don’t want to make an emergency visit to get it replaced. Maybe after it comes off we can do something; if not, date nights will remain in-house. But she’s our cat, we’re not going to abandon her. Here she is sitting with Trixie. Not as chummy as it might look, it’s just that I got up while they were both snuggling with me.On the plus side, Wisp is sleeping a lot longer at night which means I sleep longer. Not a full night’s sleep but enough I’m not such a zombie. As a result, I had the presence of mind to get creative work done this weel/

I finished a chapter of Let No Man Put Asunder and would have gotten more done except I have no idea what happens next. I gave Oh the Places You’ll Go another going over and it’s much improved, including the end. I’m not sure the ending is enough improved, but I can make this work, I know it now. I got some work done on Savage Adventures and started developing my promotional plans for Behold the Book. I have a page for the publishing imprint almost ready but I need to check the links first. I also reserved the domain name but haven’t set up the website at all yet.

I worked on a number of stories for The Local Reporter. I’m really surprised how few businesses call back; I know we’re not as big in relation to Chapel Hill as the Destin Log was to Destin but still, it’s not like we’re calling to ask about their criminal record or the rats in their kitchen. I did get one article done, on Crazy Alan’s Emporium, a gift and pen store. Way expensive pens like the $2,100 Emperor which comes in its own wooden box.Elsewhere online, I appeared on a Con-Tinual panel on the Green Lantern Corps. Another on time travel movies, a subject I know something about.

And one announcing 19-Infinity is live.Over at Atomic Junkshop I posted my thoughts on John Romita and Spider-Man. Much as I love the Lee/Ditko era of Spider-Man, I’m acquiring fresh respect for Romita in my Silver Age reread.I also blog about Green Lantern becoming an insurance adjuster and revisit those wacky musical adventurers the Maniaks.And now the week is done. Enjoy your weekend off, everyone. I will!

#SFWApro. 19-Infinity cover by Kemp Ward, comics by Romita (top) and Mike Sekowsky. All rights remain with current holders.

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December 2, 2022 · 4:14 pm

Metrics aren’t everything, but they help

So I wrapped up November with somewhere under 50 percent of my goals completed … I think.

One of the errors I keep making is that when things get hectic I stop tracking my progress. I don’t record how many hours I’ve spent on writing projects or whether I remembered to wipe the kitchen counters every day. So I don’t know if I achieved them or not. So I’m working to consistently report metrics at the end of the day, before walking the dog (afterwards I’m usually off the computer for too long). We’ll see how I do.

This week was uneven but overall productive. A large part of the unevenness is that my insomnia the past couple of months has been exceptionally consistent. Some of that may be the warm weather — even in a heated house, winter usually makes a difference — and some of it’s definitely psychological. When I wake up in the middle of the night, I psych myself out about “Well, if I try to get to sleep and don’t succeed I’ll have to take naps during the day so I should definitely get up and write because then I won’t need the time but then again I really need sleep …” That kind of chatter makes it impossible to get to sleep.So Wednesday became a waste. I was tired plus I had my second checkup of the year. Overall good, and a couple of things I was worried might be serious are just me getting older. My doctor is way more reliable than the Crime Surgeon on Bob Kane’s cover above.

Today was productive but choppy. I was sitting with the dogs most of the day and they were often barky, plus Wisp came in which meant having to keep three pets happy. I can write and pet Wisp in my lap but if Trixie gets on the couch too, she demands petting too and then I have no hands left to type. And yesterday I walked to a nearby dispensary to pick up Plushie’s meds. It’s close to a mile further away than I anticipated so that was more time lost. The exercise was good, however.

So what got done?

First, I finished a rewrite of Bleeding Blue on Monday. It’s much improved. This may be the next piece I read to my writers’ group as menstruation is important in the story and I need women’s feedback.

I reread Paying the Ferryman and I was dismayed how much the energy and tension drop once we move from New York to a fairy-tale setting. I spent most of my writing time today working to fix that but between naps and pets I didn’t get finished. It’s already improved, though, and shorter.

I wrote 4,000 words on Impossible Takes a Little Longer. The book’s definitely improving, though I still wonder about length.

And I started to think about what I want to do next year.

All totaled, I made my hours for the week.Over at Atomic Junkshop I looked at the time Iron Man deliberately killed his opponent, a drastic thing in the Silver Age. You can see in Gene Colan’s (under his Adam Austin synonym) panels above that Iron Man’s throwing the Black Knight (not the one from Eternals) off his flying horse to his death.

Over at ConTinual I participated in a panel on worldbuilding in small towns and one discussing my two new releases. They’re on FB but they’ll be on ConTinual’s YouTube channel soon.

And speaking of my new books, I sold some copies of Questionable Minds this week! That feels very cool.

And needless to say, our Christmas tree is up.#SFWApro. All rights to images remain with current holders.

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