Tag Archives: Local Reporter

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.

Leave a comment

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

Tagged as , , , ,

December 19, 2025 · 4:06 pm

“Half-a-million boots slogging through hell” — wait, pushing to finish a book isn’t that bad

A good, productive week, even if I feel quite wiped out.

Last weekend was our annual writer’s group Christmas Party. Smaller than usual, still fun, and we’re still pigging out on leftovers. However it’s an exhausting day setting up for it, from cleaning to cooking (chili, cornbread, beer bread, fruit compote). Next year we’re going to plan better and do some of the cleaning earlier in the month (stuff can be moved out of the way).

Of course, I had to move my computer up to my office and out of the way. Turns out someone knew the password.

One of my goals for next year is cleaning up my room. Quite aside from my guest (a doll from my mother’s play therapy practice) it’s disorganized enough even I can’t stand it.

Anyway, that left TYG and me wiped out Sunday, though we managed to put the house back into shape. Fortunately I’ve been sleeping well lately — every so often I’ll go through a no-insomnia stretch and this is apparently one of them. As I mentioned last week, waking up “late” throws me off my game but this time I seem to be coping.

I got two stories in for The Local Reporter, one on local first responders winning an award and one on local GoFundMe projects. And I’m feeling more confident I can finish the book. I rewrote about 40 percent of the text, wrote more on the Hulk chapter and put some more thought into the title. The rewriting showed me it’s in better shape than I realized. Yay me.

Very little else got done. I have several tasks I want to complete but I’m confining myself to the absolute necessities right now. I may be writing this weekend — I’ll probably put in at least one day — but it won’t be as exhausting as the party. Not that I mind — we don’t entertain much so it’s nice to have one big event every year.

Plushie had his recheck Monday. The review is mixed: he’s improving, though not as fast as they’d like. Surgery might still be necessary but maybe not. So we continue what we’re doing (exercise, walks, PT) and have another checkup in January. Fingers crossed. He also got his eye exam and despite his glaucoma, his peepers are still holding up. The vet was quite astonished he’s almost sixteen. That pleases us.

And I sold one copy of Sex for Dinner, Death for Breakfast last month. Thank you, unknown buyer, for giving my book a shot.

Bonus photo, here’s Snowdrop under the Christmas tree. So far neither cat has attempted to climb it.

Leave a comment

Filed under Nonfiction, Sex for Dinner, Death for Breakfast, The Dog Ate My Homework, Writing

Tagged as , , ,

December 12, 2025 · 4:20 pm

Contrary to Clifford Simak, time is not the simplest thing

As I wrote in 2017 if I lived in isolation it would be much easier to manage my time. I’d be more efficient but, of course, more miserable. You can trust me on this; I was single and pet-free for most of my life and married with pets is better.

This year I got even less isolated due to making Snowdrop an inside cat back in January. After the first week or so, it worked out well; Wisp slept downstairs with Snowdrop at night so I could wake up and do a half-hour of exercise and stretching without the cats deciding my body language was an invitation to snuggle. After a long stretch of doing that stuff irregularly (ever since we took Wisp in two-plus years ago) the improvement in how my body feels is marked (plus improvements in things like balance).

But the nature of living in a house with four pets and another person is that there’s never a permanent time-management solution. First we have Dudley’s injuries requiring added PT time. Then the past couple of months we’ve been going to bed later — not the occasional thing where I have a Zoom writers’ meeting or TYG has to work late but just shifting “normal” by a half-hour to an hour. No big, except that it means I get up later (assuming I’m sleeping well, and lately I have been) which throws off my schedule. I wind up skipping exercise or skipping the half-hour of tea and reading that follows it up, or I do both and start writing a lot later. Which is not good because with the PT and various other stuff, I don’t have any wriggle room to make it up later in the day. And in the evening, I’m not up for it.

(Plushie escaped recently when we neglected to lock his cage. Fortunately he didn’t do anything to harm his leg, just climbed up on the couch).

Another is that TYG’s been doing more work in the early morning before bringing Plushie down. That results in dog PT, walkies and my morning ablutions not getting done until around 9:30, about 90 minutes later than “normal.” Logically I should have 90 minutes extra before she comes down but frequently it doesn’t work that way. Perhaps because Trixie insists on coming down earlier and I spend extra time petting her? It doesn’t seem like that can be the whole thing, but …

This week part of the problem has been Dudley suddenly resisting eating his meds, no matter what tasty treats we wrap them in. He’ll eat them eventually but it can add a good ten minutes to the morning routine.

And part of it is that I bought us a Jacquie Lawson digital advent calendar, having had so much fun with one a friend got us last year. Checking out the day’s offerings in the morning eats time, but pleasantly. A couple of days ago, the game for the day was decorating a snowman. We went, perhaps, a little overboard.

I will muddle through this month and launch some sort of adjusted schedule with the New Year.

As for writing, I have a profile of John Fussa, Carrboro’s new planning director, up at The Local Reporter, as well as one about the Carrboro Garden Club’s Town Hall wreath. And then there’s Jekyll and Hyde.

This week I accomplished one of the nuts-and-bolts of writing this book, going over the cast and behind the scenes credits for each entry and fleshing them out. Also rearranging some of the entries to make sure the chapters are even length; figuring out which chapters a couple of movies should go in (they don’t quite fit any of the chapter topics); and checking for movies I’d forgotten to enter in the book at all (there were a couple). I think I’m on track for an end of the year finish.

On a lighter note, I’ve been attending a Genre Book Club this year, an event sponsored by the Durham Library where the organizer picks a genre each month and we all read a book of our choice fitting the theme. At this week’s meeting, Elle, the moderator, gave regular attendees Christmas ornaments reflecting our choice of books through the year.

Very cool.

Simak cover by Richard Powers. All rights to images remain with current holders.

1 Comment

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

Tagged as , ,

December 5, 2025 · 4:30 pm

Nothing says Christmas like the vulture on the tree

Last weekend we bought our Christmas tree.

We had to change things up from last year because the cats’ litter boxes sit where we normally put the tree. With a little rearranging of the living room, sticking it near the French doors worked out well.

TYG bought a lot of bird ornaments for the tree, some of which are visible in the photo. I think the weirdest one is the vulture.

Snowdrop was not at all happy with this big thing we brought into the house. He went and hid upstairs in the master bedroom.

This was a productive week. My brain is in high gear working on Jekyll and Hyde, the kind of intense state where I have a hard time getting up from the computer to exercise, stretch, etc. Which I regret after a few hours but I need that intensity to finish the book. I got a lot of polishing done this week, as well as some research reading and watching the 1982 and 1996 Incredible Hulk cartoons.

Over at The Local Reporter I wrote about Carrboro’s downtown plan, profiled outgoing council member Randee Haven-O’Donnell and a Saturday event marking the day the Thirteenth Amendment ended legal slavery (though as the article notes, some people found a workaround). At Atomic Junkshop I looked back at the mystery of why, after 18 months without buying comics, I suddenly picked up Teen Titans #32 (cover by Nick Cardy).

I also looked at how the sword-and-sorcery genre in Bronze Age comics did not begin with DC’s Nightmaster.

If Denny O’Neil’s writing were as cool as that Joe Kubert cover, perhaps it would have.

That’s my week. As usual these posts are less memorable when things are going well. I’m okay with that.

Leave a comment

Filed under Nonfiction, Time management and goals, Writing

Tagged as , ,

November 21, 2025 · 4:06 pm

A frustrated sigh

Another week where Jekyll and Hyde work did not go as smoothly as I’d hoped. Still doable to make end of year deadline to finish, but I feel a little more stressed than I did Nov. 1.

Once again we had a swarm of contractors, errands and dog stuff, plus the added time for added PT — not a lot, but it adds up. And my iridotomy Monday, which took way longer than I expected. The treatment itself was quick but the waiting room was slammed, possibly because they’re going out of network next month for Cigna (that’s why I made sure to come in early).

The laser treatment itself was unpleasant, feeling like static electricity coursing through my eyeballs. I’ll go back next week to see if it worked — as it was a pre-emptive strike, I can’t judge by symptoms getting better, as I didn’t have any.

Speaking of better, Plushie isn’t improving as much as the vet hoped. Not like “OMG, we have to amputate!” — in fact we can start taking him for short walks again (and we have). But not where they’d like him to be, so we’re making an appointment with the surgeon for next week.

My work for The Local Reporter was more political than usual. ICE is in the area and the Carrboro Town Council spoke out in support of immigrants. I also wrote about PORCH, one of the local hunger-fighting groups and how food insecurity is getting worse. My third story was about a legendary local activist, Braxton Foushee, getting a state award for decades of work.

Once again the amount of time I put in The Local Reporter exceeded my plans, including a couple of interviews for stories that won’t happen until December. But that means I don’t have to worry about getting them in late. I always prefer to stay well ahead of deadline.

Fingers crossed that despite the doctor and vet appointments next week, it’ll be productive. Local Reporter’s off for a week, so that’ll help. And despite the underperformance on Jekyll and Hyde I feel oddly positive about it. It is taking shape, the shape is good and it can be done. And it will be. I want to start 2026 with fresh projects and get back to writing fiction.

Wish me luck …

Leave a comment

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

Tagged as ,

November 14, 2025 · 4:30 pm

Did I delude myself, or did time turn against me?

The work I did on Jekyll and Hyde this week was good but it didn’t move anywhere near as fast as I need.

(Snowdrop eyes our Roomba warily)

Part of that is that I should have starting rewriting my initial entries a lot sooner. I didn’t. So now there’s more work and it’s taking longer. Part of it’s that I had a few distractions this week. Lack of sleep (I think the time change is still messing with me). Plushie’s recheck on Monday (he’s doing well). Increased numbers of dog exercises every day — a small addition to my schedule but it sometimes doesn’t feel like it. More contractors to deal with.

(Plushie is back to enjoying his rolls in the grass).

And my efforts to confine my newspaper work to one day of the week didn’t work, which always leads to the work expanding more than it should. I did get in a good story on Carrboro’s efforts to manage invasive plant species and why it matters. My second story isn’t online yet.

To top it off our olive-oil sprayer met Mr. Kitchen Tile this morning so we spent around 45 minutes mopping up olive oil, sweeping up glass and then vacuuming. Which made it way hard to get my brain back on track. Sigh.

I wound up skipping the Genre Book Club I’ve been attending and I moved my dental appointment next week (routine checkup) to January, after the book is in.

My writing at Atomic Junk Shop was all reposts of stuff here so no need to link. But if you’re on FB you can check out my online Con-Tinual panel on enduring comic-book favorites. One of mine was Scooby-Doo Team-Up (cover by Dario Brizuela) for reasons I blogged about here.

Wish me better luck next week.

All rights to images remain with current holders.

Leave a comment

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

Tagged as ,

November 7, 2025 · 4:15 pm

When life gives you lemons … sometimes you wind up eating lemons

Usually, for obvious reasons, I try not to schedule lots of contractors and errands for the same week, unless I’m taking a day off to deal with all of them. This week, though? Monday, Trixie’s health checkup. Tuesday, a contractor checking our basement dehumidifier still runs smoothly. Except after waiting for them (and trying not to be embroiled anything when they showed) they had to postpone to Wednesday.
Wednesday? The first contractor, plus a foundations checkup. Thursday? Trixie in for some scheduled tests.

That’s a lot of extra time and distraction. Plus somehow we had the housecleaners assigned to come Thursday and neither of us put it on the calendar. That meant three hours sitting in the spare bedroom comforting the cats. It’s surprisingly numbing. And because the cleaners were three hours late, that threw my schedule further off (I postponed stuff because I didn’t want to be in the middle of it when they arrived). I made a run to Dudley’s eye doctor to pick up some of his various drugs today; I could have done that yesterday if I’d known I’d have the time. And Trixie had to wait twonextra hours at the vet before we could reach her.

Plus the effect of a couple of nights of really bad sleep.

On the plus side, the house inspection stuff went great: no massively expensive repairs required. Trixie’s Monday recheck found she needs added daily exercises but no major problems. Thursday, we won’t know for a while. And if nothing else, having the cleaners in on a day when I was already off my game may mean more productivity later this month

The end result? I got some good work done on Jekyll and Hyde though nowhere near what I wanted to. I also sold two copies of Sex for Dinner, Death for Breakfast — whoever bought them, thank you!

I also turned in two stories for The Local Reporter, one on the biannual Carrboro record show, and one on Mental Health First Aid. At Atomic Junk Shop I blogged about Jack Kirby’s Forever People and about the story rebooting Flash’s wife Iris into a Time Traveler. How the CW missed that when it’s Flash show had so much time travel, I’ll never know.

And here’s a link to a Con-tinual panel I participated in on magic in comics and another on best and worst team leaders.

Next week should be a lot easier. Fingers crossed.

Leave a comment

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

Tagged as , ,

October 31, 2025 · 4:21 pm

They said it couldn’t be done. Wait, who are they and why do I care what they say?

I did it.

Working like crazy I got a very crude first draft of Jekyll and Hyde.

By which I mean I’ve assigned everything to chapters (some entries will be shifted around to make the lengths right) and taken all my scribbled (okay, typed) notes and turned them into synopses and commentary. Not all of it’s well written and I still have some things to watch (Hulk MCU movies for instance) but I set that as my goal and I pulled it off.

No particular trick to it, just that I prioritized writing and really made myself focus. Go me. This will make it easier to balance time next month between viewing stuff (TV, movies that need rewatching) and rewriting.

That was 90 percent of my writing week. The rest included little stuff (applying to next year’s ConGregate and ConCarolinas cons) and The Local Reporter. One of my articles was on an ongoing Carrboro lawsuit against Duke Energy. Another article dealt with a site offering Chapel Hill High School’s digitized annuals online and the differences between 1925 and 1973. At Atomic Junk Shop I blogged about Jack Kirby’s Hairies, successes and failures in late 1970 Marvel Comics —

— and the moment Superman discovered all kryptonite on Earth was common iron!

In other news Dudley is feeling very lively, enough to think he can run down the stairs. We have so far prevented this. Stitches come out Saturday which will be good (no risk of it getting infected if he rolls or licks it). Several weeks of care after that.

Plus I finally got my iridotomy eye surgery scheduled!

So a pretty good week. And as it’s Halloween, have a closing image:

Comics art by John Buscema (top) and Curt Swan. All rights to images remain with current holders.

Leave a comment

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

Tagged as , ,

October 24, 2025 · 4:15 pm

Nobody knows what it’s like — to be the sad dog

Due to Plushie’s leg problems I often wind up sitting in the cage so he can snuggle with me. As I’m Trixie’s human, she’s not happy about this.

I do my best to give her extra snuggles when we’re sitting together.

Plushie’s surgery was Tuesday. I took it off and tackled various odds and ends as I couldn’t get my head in the game for any writing. Happily Plushie came through it like a trooper. It was necessary too, as the surgeon cleared out a couple of other problems in the knee area. Oh, and our insurer came across and will cover around 90 percent. Yay.

Wednesday was a rough day; if I hadn’t been working on a Local Reporter story about Carrboro city council I’d probably have taken that one off too. The big problem was that Plushie cannot be allowed to lick his wound. They gave us a sleeve to put on the leg and he reacted very aggressively to having the bad place touched, almost biting TYG. Worse, we have to take it off when he goes out, then put it back on again. Eventually we resolved things simply by switching to the cone of shame. He can’t get the leg and he’s much more compliant. He’s also on heavy drugs so in between meals or walks, he largely dozes and I can sit with Trixie.

Other than Plush Dudley, what’s up? Well, the week started on a disappointing note. I’d made an appointment to donate blood as soon as I was able (there’s a four-month wait between power red donations). It was a close place so I got there with plenty of time, the line moved fast, I was hooked up … and then the phlebotomist kept telling me I was squeezing too hard (they have us squeeze a sponge strip to keep the blood going) and my muscles were interfering. And that I was moving my arm, same problem. Sure enough, the machine got part way through the process, then stopped. I suggested trying again; the rather pissed off phlebotomist told me no, I’d used up my slot and would have to wait the usual four months, event though I’d barely donated.

I left in a bad mood. I’ve never had that motion problem before; have I developed some tic that’s causing a problem? Are my veins scarring over enough that even slight motion is a problem? Either of these is possible, though it’s also possible my phlebotomist screwed up in some fashion.

Sunday, though, TYG and I took a nice walk around a nearby lake, though the water was low.

The work week was good. Website glitches stopped me posting anything at Atomic Junk Shop but my two Local Reporter stories from last week are up, one about a 55-year-old Carrboro daycare center and one on Carrboro’s challenges to development.

And then there was Jekyll and Hyde. I’ve now got a solid rough draft of 60,000 words. There’s more to come but realizing how much writing I’ve done makes me feel much better about my progress. Still more work ahead, of course, but I’ll get there.

Leave a comment

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

Tagged as , ,

October 17, 2025 · 5:15 am

Inch by inch, I crawl towards glory!

Which is to say this was a week of solid but unspectacular progress. Sufficient but no “I can coast now!” But “sufficient” is good.

It was an oddly disorganized week, though I can’t pin down why. Sunday afternoon it started with a zoom call for the new Ceaseless Way anthology. We’re not making the original deadline for getting all our stories in but we’re only slightly behind, much closer than we managed on the first book. We’re also beginning the critiquing, starting with my friend Ada Milenkovic Brown’s stories (I’ll get to them next week). Then come mine.

I got three Local Reporter stories in, though none of them are on the website yet. I also got back into the swing of Atomic Junk Shop blogging after several weeks away: one on the Sub-Mariner’s 1970 engagement, one on changing creative teams of the same era and one with cool comics images and the stories behind them.

Then there’s Jekyll and Hyde. I got a couple more chapters finished, completed watching Dark Shadows (er, that is, the portion relevant to my book), and watched the two Incredible Hulk TV pilot movies. Next week, more focus on writing, less on TV.

We’ve submitted the Plush One’s appeal for his CCR damage to the insurer but I’m still waiting on my eye doctor to deal with the insurance preapproval or to give me the information to handle it. Their office says it’s a billing-office problem, billing-office says not; given this was the doctor’s recommendation and they’re getting paid for it — it’s not like I’m challenging a bill — I’m baffled why this is such a slog.

Plushie is holding up well — if anything, he’s quite lively as he adjusts to his new situation. Still very needy so I sit with him in the cage a fair amount. As the vet said, he would probably end up okay if we didn’t give him the surgery but we think the outcomes are better this way. It’s next week, followed by a long stretch of recuperation. And then hopefully. as normal as our addled doggie ever gets.

I do feel a little dispirited realizing the year is ending and finishing Jekyll and Hyde will be the only goal I accomplish. I will have it done, and that’s something, but at my age the sense of running out of time constantly gnaws at me. But if I can focus as effectively on my writing next year … we’ll see.

Ceaseless Way cover by GetCovers based on concepts by Arden Brooks. Comics images by Jack Kirby (top) and Sal Buscema. All rights to images remain with current holders.

Leave a comment

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

Tagged as , ,