Jay Cantrell: Blog

Hey folks,

Things certainly have not turned out like I planned.

Shortly after my last post I fell victim to Pennsylvania drivers' proclivity for passing stopped vehicles by driving on the berm. I was walking alongside the highway (as I've done almost every day for years) when a car stopped to turn left into a driveway. The driver behind was in too much of a hurry to wait 10 seconds for traffic to clear and pulled off the roadway to pass on the shoulder.

It happens dozens of times each day but this time I was also using the intended path. I jumped when I saw the inevitable and wound up with a broken pelvis and wrist. I am stuck in bed for at least another month with only my phone to keep me company. I can access SOL but I can't figure out how to upload files. If anyone knows if this is possible I'd appreciate a tutorial.

Otherwise Diamond will be on hold until I'm able to sit again.

Jay C.

Hi all,

I wanted to take a minute to let several readers down as gently as I can.

The Daze crossover was a one shot deal. The characters are mentioned farther along but the interactions are not described. I felt nostalgic as I wrote this part and brought the Daze crew back for a brief encore.

Best wishes,
Jay C.

Hi again,

I'm sad to report that "A Flawed Diamond" is going to have to on hiatus for a couple of more weeks. I'm just too busy catching up with other things on the few days I'm home to format the files and get them ready for posting. I apologize profusely. I hate to get a reader involved in a story and then take a long period of time away from it.

One of the commitments I make to the reader when I choose a serial posting format is to be consistent with the chapters. I have received such wonderful support from the SOL community during the 12 years I've been writing fiction that it truly galls me when I have to ask the reader to come back to a plot line after a long break. I know other writers do this frequently and it irks me to no end when I have to re-read six or seven chapters of a story I was enjoying because real-life pushed the updates back five months.

It won't be five months. I will assure you of that. In a couple of weeks, I'll be back at home full-time and I'll resume my normal posting schedule. In the meantime, I hope you can work your way through some of the recent chapters and ignore the odd characters. Again, this is a result of my time-deficiency. I usually take the extra step of running the chapter through a PC before posting it. It's not an arduous process (nor it is especially time consuming). At this point, however, every single second of my day appears to be accounted for from the time I awaken until I managed to put my head on the pillow sometimes 20 hours later.

I hope everyone will understand and I truly hope the fantastic readers who've offered kind words and suggestions on this story and the ones before it will return when I get my professional life back into some sort of order.

Best wishes,
Jay C.

Hey all,

I'm heading back on the road for another week or so. I hope to return by Fourth of July but it's up in the air at this point. I'll resume posting when I return.

I can barely connect to my email account while I'm at the B&B that I call home on the road. There is internet in the town (but no library or as near as I can tell WiFi hotspot). I haven't answered many of the emails I've received this month and it is unlikely I'll ever catch up. My apologies.

The odd characters that have popped up in recent chapters are the result of Mac to SOL conversion. I do my writing on a Mac laptop. It is edited and proofread on a PC and returned. I have to do the final read through on a PC or the odd-ball punctuation crops up. I didn't take the time to do that because, frankly, I had no time to spare.

Most of them are self-explanatory. If they bother you, download the text file and do a find and replace. They are ellipses, long dashes and quotation marks. I'm not sure which corresponds to which but you should be able to figure it out.

Well, I'm off. I'll resume posting when I return home.

Best wishes,
Jay C

Hi folks,
First off, thanks for all the kind words and well wishes for my health and that of my family. I truly appreciate it.

Next, I'm going to be heading South again in the next few days. Our facility is supposed to be under roof by July 3rd and I'll have to be back home to inspect the area over the Fourth of July extended weekend. If a few days go by without "Diamond" that's why.

I hope to post a chapter a day until I head out Wednesday or Thursday but I can't promise anything.

I'm a little busy with the other parts of my life that got pushed aside by my three-week absence.

Best wishes,
Jay C