Tag Archives: let no man put asunder

March 27, 2026 · 4:23 pm

Victory through air power! Or in this case, low-fat dog food

It appears Plush Dudley’s diarrhea drama is over.

Certainly it’s much reduced. He’s stopped pooping on the bed in the night and the accidents he did have this week were small before they dried up completely. It appears the root cause was pancreatitis reacting to too much fat in his diet — so from now on, it’s low fat diet for Plush Dudley. Cheerio, veggies, low fat kibble, low fat soft food (we’d already bought some for Trixie for similar reasons). And rice mixed in with soft food to help firm up his stool. Fortunately Plushie’s perfectly happy to eat Cheerios and vegetable chunks (and rice) so we don’t have to deny him treats.

On the plus side, he’s been so lively this week, it’s been amazing. Even before the problem went away, he was bounding around, wrestling with Trixie, walking with a bounce in his step. Possibly he’s feeling better than he has in a while. Also possibly, losing around four pounds has made him lighter and his joints less strained — lord knows I’d have a lot less bulk to move if I lost 20 percent of my body mass.

Dealing with diarrhea the first couple of days was demanding, especially as TYG had some stuff of her on she needed to get done. While I miss the weekly payments from The Local Reporter I would have gotten nothing of my own stuff done this week if I’d been covering Carrboro. I applied for a couple of telecommuting reporting gigs I found online, no answer yet. I’ll keep applying. Much as I like writing fiction, I also like bringing in money.

As to my own work, I got another 8,000 words on the second draft of Let No Man Put Asunder. So far it’s proceeding smoothly and I like my output. I also started two new stories when I wasn’t quite ready to do more on Asunder. Good Morning Starshine is a rewrite of a novel I wrote the first draft of years ago, then never got back to. Recently I’ve been trying without success, due to being unable to figure out the protagonist’s character. I’m not sure I’ve figured it out yet, but he does have a character and I’m forging forward with the strange story of a hippy heading to San Francisco for the Summer of Love, then finding she’s in 1987. Labyrinth of Books involves a disgruntled grad student stumbling into a strange bookstore with an even stranger salesclerk. I have no idea where this goes from there, though I did get past the part I’d plotted out in my head.

I also tackled the usual range of chores including taking the car in for a tire replacement and paying our vehicle registration online. Over at Atomic Junkshop I looked at what Marvel Comics publishes in the Marvel Universe—

— and at that mainstay of Silver Age Superman, the “imaginary” story.

I do hope the IRL demands on me and TYG ease up a little in April. Still, this wasn’t a bad week of writing given what I had to overcome.

Oh, and one cool thing: with Project Hail Mary in theaters, that Christian Science Monitor article quoting me about aliens is now live. I’m only one of the experts quoted — given how long the interview ran, I’m surprised Stephen Humphries didn’t use more (I guess when you work for a major newspaper, you can take the time). Still, that’s way cool.

Covers by Jack Kirby (top) and Carmine Infantino (bottom), all rights remain with current holders.

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March 20, 2026 · 4:33 pm

One of my goals for 2026 was to have a cool, fun birthday

I think that one goes in the “unachieved” pile.

Last weekend we trimmed Plushie’s fur, getting rid of all the mats and tangles. Given his bum leg, it seemed safer than taking him to a groomer where he’d end up standing a lot longer. We did it in the backyard, leaving lots of fur behind. Maybe that stressed him out which stressed out his digestive system. Sunday night, Plushie’s diarrhea returned. I realized this when he climbed off the bed and tried to run downstairs; I got dressed, not in time, and took him out after he’d done his business on the carpet. Again, later.

(Dudley’s before photo)

Monday night I couldn’t sleep; the conviction I’d have to wake up and clean up the mess alongside TYG got into my head and I couldn’t get rid of it. It turned out nothing happened; however during the first half of the week we did keep having to clean up small leakages. And then clean whatever sheets or towels he’d been sitting on. This takes time. So not a smooth week.

On my birthday eve, I slept like a log and woke up the next morning refreshed. Still, it wasn’t practical to go out and do anything other than necessary errands during the day. I wound up doing a little bit of writing, a little bit of reading, kind of an odd mishmash. However I did accomplish something that pleased me: my passport expires next month and I finally got a digital photo that passed muster, courtesy of the local FedEx office. Completed the online paperwork, now it’s done.

(the After photo)

In the evening we went to Cheesecake Factory which proved indulgently satisfactory. I got a couple of good gifts too, which I’ll mention when I get around to reading them. Overall a decent day but not a birthday for the ages. Next year!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, we took Plushie to the vet Thursday. They gave us some fresh drugs that seem to have stopped him up. He’s much happier and brighter, which is good.

Despite the demands of the Plush One, and being nearly exhausted for a couple of days, the writing went well. 11,000 words on Let No Man Put Asunder. As it seems to be going well, I’m going to continue working with it and finish this draft possibly by May, then ask for beta readers in my writers’ group (with food in return for reading, as is our standard practice). That was all the writing I got done, but I’m pleased with it. I do see a problem developing, which I’ll discuss sometime soon; as I’m seeing it, I imagine I can deal with it.

On the down side, The Local Reporter is dropping back to monthly publication, one or maybe two stories per reporter per month. Financially that’s a hit; I’ll need to start looking for other gigs immediately. Not that we’re in any peril of running out of cash but I take pride in contributing to the family finances. I’m pessimistic this will work — shrinking coverage isn’t usually going to draw more readers — but I choose to hope they know better.

As for Atomic Junkshop, I discuss unresolved plotlines, Stan Lee’s propensity for mythmaking and what comic books were like in the DCU after the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Cover by George Perez. All rights to images remain with current holders.

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March 13, 2026 · 5:21 am

Do you remember Morris, the finicky cat?

Morris was the star of a long-running series of commercials for 9 Lives catfood, emphasizing he was finicky about his food — but he loved 9 Lives! Which I was thinking of this week because Plushie seems to be in a “Morris — hold my beer!” mood.

We have to give both dogs lots of drugs for their various ailments. Trixie will eat hers on soft food; Plushie’s finicky and unpredictable. Depending on the day he may eat gabapentin on either soft food, chicken-broth concentrate or Delectable cat treats. I have no way to know which the chosen substrate will be. This adds several minutes to the process and sometimes waste the drugs. It’s frustrating. Sometimes he’ll turn the gunk down on the plate but eat it off my hand. Currently we’re randomly switching day to day — that seems to help but he still sometimes gets picky. And no, we can’t force it into his mouth the way we do Trixie when we have to. Plush Dudley’s more likely to bite and too stubborn to force easily.

So far we’ve managed to keep him doped enough for his own wellbeing. Hopefully we can keep it up.

(Plushie rolling in snow, from earlier this year)

On the plus side, no dog health disasters this week, so that’s a win. And we took care of one house problem, some foundation work that needed doing. Nothing urgent but it’s good to have it taken care of.

Now, as to writing, this was a good week. I was disorganized after spending last weekend at Ret-Con. Even so I was productive. I completed my March writing goals on Let No Man Put Asunder and on Savage Adventures, covering Doc’s adventures up through The Red Skull. I also rewrote, and I think finished my short story “Mage’s Masquerade.” I realized a while back that some of the key supporting characters weren’t developed enough for readers to tell them apart (a complaint made about a much earlier draft). I think I’ve got it fixed. I also much improved “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” by chopping about 1300 words off the end. I’ll look at both stories the last week of the month and see if I still think they’re done (the first story, maybe, the second almost certainly not).

There’s still no Local Reporter work — hopefully we’ll be back next week. However over at Atomic Junk Shop I blogged about the comic-books of Earth-One. The cover above suggests they looked exactly like the ones in our world; as I detail at the link, probably not. I also post about Doctor Doom’s short-lived run as a co-star with Ka-Zar in Astonishing Tales.

Doom’s racism in that scene does not work for me.

Things will get crazier next week when I have some IRL tasks to take care of. Still, I budgeted the time for that, so hopefully it’ll still be another good week.

Art by James Bama (t), Carmine Infantino and Gene Colan (b).

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February 6, 2026 · 4:28 pm

Not much writing done this week, but I anticipated that

Thursday I only worked a half-day because the housekeepers were here. Sitting in the spare bedroom with all the pets to keep them out of the way (and make sure Snowdrop and Wisp don’t run out) does not inspire creative work. For the first time in a few months, they showed up late enough I could have made a full work day out of it; by the time I realized that I’d turned my brain off.

And Tuesday I took one of my days off to devote to TYG and my “death document” — instructions about our finances, ordering dog drugs, when to give dog drugs, plans for our bodies. Because contrary to this Nick Cardy cover, death can come at any time. We’d like to be as much help to each other as we can.

I’ve been slack about updating the stuff I know but it turns out not much has changed since the last time I checked — Trixie has one added med, little things like that. Still it’s good to keep everything current and good to know that it is.

With Friday devoted to stuff like blogging and catching up on email, that left two days. I got another chunk of Savage Adventures rewritten, though not as much as I’d like. Then I had my work for The Local Reporter: a story on the snowfall and how local towns dealt with it (not up yet), one on how Carrboro is scoring its performance and one on what the former Chapel Hill Weekly was reporting when it started publishing in 1923 (“On the whole, Chapel Hill is ultra-conservative in the matter of hats.”).

As I mentioned a while back, they recently lost one of their government reporters so I’m doing more work. Which is good — more money — but it’s frustrating how much work I have to do to find enough stuff to write about (it consumes a surprising amount of time). The reporting and writing is relatively simple. But such is life.

I anticipate being way more productive next week.

One thing that did surprise me about this week — this blog has racked up 1,500 views the past two days. While there are times I can explain a rush in traffic, like my posts about Taylor Swift a couple of years back, I have no idea what triggered it. None of my specific posts have received a huge hit either. I’m not complaining of course and if any of y’all are reading this, thanks for visiting.

All rights to cover image remain with current holder.

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January 30, 2026 · 4:02 pm

On the plus side, we didn’t lose power.

Which was something we worried about during last weekend’s freeze. The predictions were for heavy ice — literally enough weight to snap power lines — along with snow so we charged up our generator and our small chargers, kept the heat up high so it would take longer to freeze inside if the power died.

It didn’t die, like I said. There was some ice but mostly snow.

That big square near the steps is a tarp TYG laid down so the dogs would have an ice-free spot to walk on. It worked, though Plushie insisted on walking on slippery places as much as possible. With four legs he and Trixie did fine; we had to be a little more cautious.

While the storm itself wasn’t a catastrophe, a week of sub-zero temperatures means the ice still hasn’t thawed. It was off the roads by Wednesday so I was able to get to a dental appointment yesterday and physical rehab today, but we still have to exercise caution when going outside, going to the mailbox, etc. And this weekend we’re anticipating another storm — all snow, probably, so we hopefully won’t lose power. But that means no going anywhere this weekend (I got my shopping done today), nor for the first couple of days after. Frustrating.

As we wrap up the first month of 2026, I feel pleased. I didn’t accomplish all the writing goals I wanted — I didn’t have time this week to finish Oh the Places You’ll Go —but I got most of them. I caught up on saving my Local Reporter stories to my computer and saving my blog posts (I see no reason my blog should suddenly vanish but just in case…). I made slightly over my word count for Impossible Takes a Little Longer and Let No Man Put Asunder. I’m 2/3 through with this draft of Savage Adventures. Because of my one colleague at the Local Reporter leaving, I earned slightly more money this month than usual.

On the downside I let the side down (as the phrase goes) on the dog’s daily exercises. Not completely but with Plushie on longer confined by his cage it’s a lot harder to keep him in one place for particular workouts. Yesterday I was using treats to tempt him into an obstacle course; he decided he’d get up on the couch and sleep instead. As the time for caring for them continually increases, I’ve no idea how I’ll work it out once the snow’s gone and Trixie’s back to full morning walks.

I also blew my GOTV effort for the second month in a row, getting half of the 40 cards I’d agreed to write out. I have to get better next month. I did do a good job with the various household/contractor/vet appointment tasks I dealt with.

As for the week itself, in addition to fiction I got in three Local Reporter stories, one on Chapel Hill changing its land-use ordinance, one on a local volunteer rescue service (not up yet) and a companion story about the technical rescue team (they handle water and missing person rescues). At Atomic Junk Shop I pondered whether too many comics are out of continuity, and Earth-Two comics in the post-WW II years.

And yes, the exercises the PT pro recommended did indeed help with my bursitis. Hope for continued improvement next month. And my dentist said my teeth look great, actually improved over last visit. A pleasant surprise, given that I had to delay this appointment two months (no time during the Watching Jekyll and Hyde finishing marathon) — usually that long without getting my teeth and gums cleaned causes (small and fixable) problems. Yay teeth1

Now, another cold weekend. Still, snow is pretty.

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January 16, 2026 · 4:37 pm

No matter the odds, I struggle on to victory!

Which is to say, another hectic but productive week. We’ll talk the hectic first.

We spent the first half of the week dealing with Trixie still caged for her leg surgery. Yesterday we took down the cage. We still want to discourage her from jumping and she still wears the cone of shame for another week, but she can get up and snuggle with me on the couch now, so she’s much happier.

Plush Dudley got the thumbs up from his physical rehab doctor (that’s him in their waiting room above) that he can gradually assume normal activity. We were supposed to get a confirmation from his leg surgeon but they had a schedule conflict so TYG will have to take Dudley in next week (and to the surgeon’s Raleigh office — had it happened on schedule it would have been around the corner at our regular vet’s). Still, we’re comfortable letting him go up and down the outside steps without being carried, which is a load off TYG’s back. (I’m still carrying Trixie but I’ve learned to minimize the strain on my bursitis elbow).

Tuesday we had in an electrician to check out two problem lights in the kitchen. Easy fix (pricey, but preferable to doing it ourselves) but it did take time out of my morning to interact with him.

Thursday I finally had the physical rehab session that got canceled Jan. 2, when I’d scheduled it so I’d be off work. Fortunately it’s quite close, and the session was productive. My therapist mapped out some exercises to do daily, gave me some other advice (don’t rest my shoulder on my pillow, support my elbow better when I’m writing) and sent me home. The exercises feel like they’re working, though obviously one morning isn’t a significant sample.

Less fortunately I’ll have two more sessions this month and two in early February, adding to my already busy schedule. But if it makes the bursitis go away, I’m all for it.

Once again, the writing flourished despite the obstacles. Having gotten around 12,000 words rewritten on Impossible Takes a Little Longer I did the same with Let No Man Put Asunder this week. These are the earlier, more polished chapters so it’s not that astonishing an accomplishment — except unlike last year around this time, I feel there’s significant improvement going on, not just minor tinkering. Let’s hope that continues.

I completed my rewrite of Savage Adventures up through 1940, which is to say I’m 2/3 done. Woot! And I got the latest cover design from Sam, though I haven’t had a chance to think about it yet.

Writing for The Local Reporter was very busy. I had multiple different interviews through the week which isn’t the way I like to roll — it’s much better to have them all squeezed into a small block of time. Still, I got three stories in: a profile of Carrboro’s firefighter of the year; a look at the Carrboro Southern film festival; and an interview with one of the documentarians showing a film there. At Atomic Junk Shop, I posted about one particularly groovy comics ad from 1971.

I also started looking for markets for some of my short fiction only to realize with Bleeding Blue now out I have almost nothing new and unpublished to submit. Perhaps that will change this year.

End result, the week was hectic, exhausting, but productive. And without the dread January sense of trying to super-achieve I get so often — my goals for this month are realistic and manageable, whether or not I achieve them.

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January 2, 2026 · 4:30 pm

I know I wrote stuff in 2025, but it doesn’t feel like it.

Earlier this week I told myself, hey, at least I’ll have finished Jekyll and Hyde by the end of New Year’s Eve … sigh.

The manuscript went off today, thank goodness, but even so … sigh. A bigger sigh because I didn’t get anything else finished this year. And because the worn shoes I usually walk the dogs in — good, supportive sneakers, though ragged — got a disastrous amount of shit on them Wednesday after Plushie took a gooey poo in the dark. So they’re toast. Then today when I was supposed to start PT for my bursitis, the rehab place called to say my therapist was sick, can I reschedule for two weeks. I’d really hoped to start on a day I wouldn’t be putting in a full day’s work.

Getting back to writing …Southern Discomfort didn’t come out. I didn’t finish Savage Adventures. Didn’t get the next draft of Let No Man Put Asunder or Impossible Takes a Little Longer done. I have a couple of short stories that need just a little tinkering … which they didn’t get. I sold some books (thank you, all my readers! I appreciate you!) but I ended up the year with slightly less money in the bank than I started out. Not Christmas presents, just a bunch of extra, and necessary expenses at the end of the year.

Part of the problem is that writing for the Local Reporter kept eating up my time — long meetings, a bunch of interviews in one week. Theoretically that should have meant less work the following week as I got ahead. Somehow it never did. I like the work but I’ll have to manage it better in 2026.

Part of it was that working on Jekyll and Hyde took up a lot of time and, of course, more of it as I moved to the finish. I should have anticipated that — movie books are fun but they always take more time than I expect.

Plus the perennial challenge of increasing pet demands. Dealing with two cats in the morning, albeit ones I love, is somehow more than twice as distracting.

Part of it … I don’t know. I made progress on all my projects but I didn’t finish anything. That’s the perennial risk of writing, particularly when 90 percent of my deadlines are self-imposed: I can write and rewrite until the cows come home and then decide to rewrite some more. If anything, that’s a weakness that gets worse over time. As Lawrence Block said, I can see more ways a story can go than I could when I was younger. That can produce better stories; it can also lead to lots of second guessing and deciding to do it over or telling myself it could be perfect if I just rewrite … like they say, the perfect is the enemy of the good.

For 2026 I have ambitious goals on my 68 for 68 list. Not ones that should exceed my grasp. Two drafts of both novels. Finish Savage Adventures. Publish Southern Discomfort. Make more money. Submit more stuff (I’d gotten out of the habit this year). Plus, of course, enjoy my life (not a stated goal on my list but still). Despite the frustration with my writing, I had a good year in most other ways. I’d like to have another one in 2026.

To end on an up note, we took the Christmas tree down yesterday. Because it’s in the living room this year (easier than rearranging the two cat litterboxes where we normally put the tree) I realized I could take it out through the French doors (visible behind it) and across the deck and not have to deal with a trail of needles all the way through the house to the front door. It worked! Much less physical strain too. I’ll take it as a good omen.

And frustrating as missing my deadline was, when I got Jekyll and Hyde off this morning, it felt sooooo damn good. I went to celebrate at a local coffee shop … which was closed until tomorrow.

It still felt good to finish.

Happy New Year and best wishes to all y’all.

All rights to images remain with current holders. Comics cover by Jack Kirby with Ditko inking.

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July 2, 2025 · 5:15 am

Sherlock Holmes: incidental vs. vital (again)

It’s been more than a year since I used a Sherlock Holmes quote as the basis for a blog post about writing. And while it’s a different topic this time, I’m using the same quote, from The Reigate Squires: “It is of the highest importance to the art of detection to be able to determine, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital.”

The post last year was about figuring out the essential core of your story. This time out I’m thinking of historical fantasy, which is what I mostly write, and the details of historical settings. How much detail do readers need and which details?

In my first draft of Let No Man Put Asunder, for instance, I have Mandy making multiple movie references as she’s a film buff: to Notorious, North by Northwest, With Six You Get Eggroll, Viva Las Vegas, The Way We Were, Last Year at Marienbad, and that’s just the first two chapters. The unanimous conclusion was to dial it back and make sure everyone of them had some context, and to remember not everyone is going to know all these films. It was good advice. I eliminated the incidentail films in that list leaving me with North by Northwest —

— and Notorious, and highlighted that Mandy’s a huge fan of both Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant. The essential detail is that movies (and, unfortunately, smoking) are her escape from the stress of her daily life, but just saying that without some specifics wouldn’t work for me.

Paul is a mystery fan, movies and books both. In the first draft he mentions picking up books by Richard Prather, Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr at the used book store that morning, again without me explaining who they are (though I doubt anyone didn’t know who Christie is). In the second draft (still under way) I get more specific (e.g., “three locked-room mysteries by John Dickson Carr.”). I thought that detail was incidental — isn’t “mystery novels” enough? — but I was wrong.

Obviously it’s easy to go too far with this. In one of my Atoms for Peace stories, I have my protagonist Steve in a bar where the patrons are watching Zane Grey Theater on the bar TV. I could have explained what that was but why take the time? It’s an incidental detail, it doesn’t affect the plot or characters, so even if readers haven’t heard of Western author Zane Grey, I don’t think it’ll bug them too much.

In Southern Discomfort there’s constant reference to the politics of the day: The FBI’s recently uncovered history of harassing the civil rights movement, Watergate, the Kent State shooting, terrorism, anti-war activism. It’s incidental in that most of it doesn’t affect the plot but it does ground the story in its specific time, May of 1973. Most of it gets the minimum explanation possible because it’s all current events to my characters. Have I judged the level of detail right or left it too confusing?

Guess we’ll find out when I finally put it into some readers’ hands.

Cover by Zacharia Nada, all rights to images remain with current holders.

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May 27, 2025 · 5:10 am

Lessons learned from a writer’s work day

Last Saturday, the writing group had one of its weekend work days. Unusually, our host brought in a couple of agents who live in our area. They gave a little presentation on what we look for and then gave feedback on the first pages of several books our group was working on. I got randomly picked as one of the contributors.

(Yep, I’m illustrating this post with random pet photos again)

As I’ve zero interest in putting in more work on Southern Discomfort I had them read the first page of Let No Man Put Asunder, even though it’s a rough draft. The response to Paul’s opening scene was that while his situation is interesting, it needed a little more detail (how old is Paul, for instance), and that it gave no hint this was a fantasy novel. Which is true: the magic doesn’t start until he and Mandy meet. Their suggestion: make it clearer up front where this falls in genre.

It then occurred to me the same is true of Southern Discomfort. Originally I opened with Aubric McAlister’s murder, which makes it clear what the fantasy element is: elves in Georgia in 1973. Some of the feedback I got said it didn’t have enough tension so I shifted to Maria’s point of view, then flashback to the murder. Maria’s got tension — she’s on the run from the law — and it also positions her as the central character, which is useful in an ensemble novel. However it also means there’s no overt magic in the first section, just her vague intuition something is wrong. She’s sensing magic but neither she nor we know that yet.

That may be one reason I’m self-publishing: the opening’s not genre enough to hook an editor/agent (yes, I tried). I think (and hope) it’s less of a problem for readers. Presumably if they read the first page they’ll have seen the cover, the description and the back-cover blurb, all of which will tell them it’s magic, even if it’s not immediately apparent. Possibly I’m wrong, but it’s a moot point: there’s no way to get the magic in sooner.

I’m not sure there is in Asunder, either, but I’ll think about it. And possibly Mandy’s intro, which has more conflict, would make a better first segment.

2)Aside from the agent presentation, there was a lot of time to write. Danged if it didn’t go well (rewriting the introduction to Jekyll and Hyde). Much better than I usually manage at home. Is it the lack of constant distractions? Sitting at a table instead of on a couch? Just that being in front of my peers, I felt an obligation to focus and produce, even though they couldn’t see what I was doing? I must think about this because that stretch of time felt really good.

3)As I’ve largely written off getting my books trad-published or agented, I didn’t take having an agent there seriously. I talked to them and I think the conversation went fine but if one of them had asked me for an elevator pitch I’d have been caught flat-footed. While I still figure self-publishing is the way to go, I will be better prepared next time. Just in case.

4)While they were discussing the importance of a good first page, I opened up Southern Discomfort on my computer to assess it — and discovered I didn’t have the finished draft I completed last year. Only the ones from before my last round of editing. I spent half an hour trying to figure out if I was wrong … nope.

Fortunately I back up to an external hard drive regularly. When I got home, I hooked up my computer and sure enough, there was the draft in the last backup. Lessons learned: always back up your shit, and if you have multiple drafts, identify the most recent so there’s no confusion which ones to delete.

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May 9, 2025 · 4:00 pm

Beware the eyes that paralyze!

No, not these eyes —

Nor this one on the Bob Brown cover —

— but our very own Plush Dudley.

Wednesday night he started squinting in the right eye. Not consistently, but as that’s his bad glaucoma eye, TYG got worried and took him in to the emergency vet while I stayed home with Trixie. TYG will do anything to take care of our dogs, and when she sees a problem, she’s usually right.

The vet found higher than usual pressure, nothing more. This left us both tired Thursday, and I took him in to our regular vet for a second look. By the time that was done, I was off my game and couldn’t accomplish anything beyond research reading the rest of the day. The good news is, his pressure was back to normal (it’s not the first time we’ve gotten a false positive) and he’s not squinting. So perhaps it was some dirt or grit that got into his eye and got washed out at some point.

The rest of the week, though, was productive. Monday I made the edits Stonecoast Literary Review requested on Bleeding Blue, then worked on Savage Adventures.

Tuesday I got a couple of films watched for Jekyll and Hyde, plus I rewrote several pieces and began rethinking the structure. As I learn more about the variety of films, my original chapter breakdown doesn’t look adequate but I’m not sure how to rearrange it yet.

Wednesday was the day for The Local Reporter — a three-hour council meeting to watch, then writing a story on the ever-controversial plans for a paved walkway along Bolin Creek, and one on next year’s budget.

As today is my day for blogging and such, that was it for work. I’d hoped to work on some fiction yesterday but I didn’t have the focus.

I also have two posts up at Atomic Junk Shop, one on comic books slow transition to the Bronze Age, one on a wildly ridiculous Superman story. The Curt Swan cover doesn’t capture how nutty it is.

Overall, a good week of work. And Plushie’s eye meds aren’t failing him yet, which is cool too.

All rights to image remain with current holders.

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