Month: June 2022

A Garden Surprise

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So Camera Girl had me back in the salt mines.  Well, literally, she had me turning over some of her vegetable garden with a pitchfork.  And while I was working on a section I started noticing that the ground started moving!  I flipped over a piece of vegetation and saw this:

Apparently a rabbit somehow built a burrow inside the garden, which is surrounded by a 4 X 4 lumber rectangle.  Is there a tunnel from somewhere outside the garden?  Beats the hell out of me.

Greeting on the Ultimate Day of June 2022

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Camera Girl and I took a morning stroll around the grounds and it was encouraging.  Cone flowers are blooming, daylilies are about to pop and the first few eggplants and squash are on the vines.

 

The weeds and crab grass are growing at a prodigious rate and the local hawk has been picking off mourning does at the pace of one every other day.  Black-eyed Susans and Shasta Daisies are everywhere and the milkweed is in bloom and feeding a new cohort of Monarch butterfly caterpillars.

 

Basically, life is exploding everywhere I look.  Which means I’ll be busy watering, weeding and cutting grass for the foreseeable future.

I am on record as saying July is my favorite time of the year.  But this year I’ll be away on a trip from the 11th to the 20th.  While I’m away I’ll be viewing and photographing bison, grizzly bears, wolves, elk, moose, geysers, mountains and other items that usually don’t feature into life at the Compound.  And doubtless that will be exciting.  But in a way I’ll be sorry to miss the little milestones that happen here every July.  In July I’ll find the first praying mantis.

Me and My Shadow

In July I usually see the first fireflies.  And in the middle of the month, I always celebrate my birthday with a party.  Well, you can’t make an omelet without cracking a few eggs.

I’ll try to post from time to time but I expect before, during and after the trip there will be disruptions.  It’s been a busy month and I haven’t had a chance to cache a bunch of pictures and quotes for the interregnum.  But I’ll do my best to provide some content.  Hopefully I’ll be able to put up some interesting photos during the trip.

What is becoming clear to me is that after the trip I’ll be revising my writing schedule to facilitate my fiction writing.  It’s just too difficult to write between posts.  It’s got to become the opposite, posting between writing.  Reading about the output that Nick Cole produces filled me with envy and shame.  So, things must change.

As for the latest news of the day, why, it’s chicanery, skullduggery, buffoonery, imbecility, failure and ruin as far as the eye can see.  As the cities descend into howling chaos, hyperinflation bankrupts us and the economy continues to sputter into recession, Dementia Joe moves full speed ahead to usher in WWIII.  I guess since he’s finished off the Democrats’ chances in November, he figures he might as well go out with a bang.  It will be interesting to see if his brinksmanship ends up causing an actual war or just destroys what’s left of this country’s military reputation.

Well, I shouldn’t let this devolve into depression.  There are plenty of good things happening too.  There’s plenty to do and not enough time to do it in.  So, let’s see what I can do to keep some copy up on the site and try to keep it on the light side.  Enjoy the glorious weather.

Nick Cole Talks About Becoming An Indie Author

photog Reviews, Science Fiction / Fantasy, SF&F Book Reviews , ,

Nick Cole is one half of the writing team that has produces the highly successful (and highly entertaining) military science fiction series “Galaxy’s Edge.”

Nick talks about starting out as an indie writer and his run in with the big publishers.  After his initial success as an indie, the New York publishers gave him a contract but as soon as something in his next story offended their woke sensibilities they gave him an ultimatum; take it out of the story or lose his contract.  He chose the latter and has never looked back since.

There was some very good information on holding onto an audience once the first book in a series appears.  Unfortunately, the strategy he recommends is writing several books before publishing them.  This way they can be released at one month increments to keep the audience stocked in sequels when they are most receptive to purchasing another book.  Considering my slow progress it’s pretty discouraging to think I’ll have to finish three books before I can get publish anything.  Ah well.

It’s about an hour long so it might be a little much for most people.  But if you’re a fledging author it might be worth your while.

 

 

 

The Hat of Death

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Here at the Compound we have a species of deer fly that is specific to Dunwich.  They are known to transmit lycanthropy and a horrible syndrome known locally as Biden Brain which afflicts almost twenty percent of the population.

Because of this I have adopted a form of passive aggressive self defense, the sticky hat.

The wonderful thing about the hat is the waves of schadenfreude that envelope you when the flies are stuck on the glue but keep flapping their wings trying to escape.  The feeling of revenge is very sweet indeed.  Currently I have eight deer fly and some random black flies and mosquitoes.

I like to think as I walk around with the hat on that the flies recognize a cousin or a brother and experience horror and murderous anger and that that is what drives them to join their brethren on the Hat of Death.  Notice the bits of vegetation on the hat.  These occur when I stupidly walk under low hanging tree branches.  Eventually the glue stops working and I break out a new strip and start the fun all over again.