aroslav: Blog

Happy Thanksgiving week.

It has come to my attention that many of my fans live outside the US and therefore do not celebrate this unique US holiday. In fact, I'm told that in the UK there are no holidays between Lammas and Yule. What a long time to be without a celebration.

There for, I have declared this week Devon's Good Wishes Week, a new and nationally independent holiday that can be celebrated by anyone who will accept my good wishes for Health, Happiness, and Safety.

I give them freely to you!
aroslav/Devon Layne

By this time, you all know that I write stories way ahead of when they are posted here so that the story is complete and scheduled for uploading through the end. I'm 73 years old and never want to risk a story coming to an untimely end if I do.

Not that I expect to.

This month, I'm writing book 4 in the "Photo Finish Trilogy", F/Stop. It's my 2022 NaNoWriMo project. NaNoWriMo is a challenge to write 50,000 words of a new book during November. So far, I have written 100,000 words as of this morning. I think I can do another 50,000 before the end of the month!

Unfortunately, that won't get me to the end of this one. I expect it will be like Full Frame and run around 250,000 words or more. With luck, I'll have it finished by Christmas. And be ready to start writing Follow Focus by the first of the year. Yes, that will be book 5 in the Photo Finish Trilogy. Can't count.

Of course, life would be boring if all I did was write. Right? I've been getting out to at least one show each week since I got back to Vegas. Last night, it was Christmas in Hell. The key line in the musical is "In Hell, every day is Christmas." Instead of wishing people Merry Christmas this year, we're supposed to tell them to go to hell. Can you just imagine: Christmas every day for eternity?

And NCAA Div III Women's Basketball has begun! I've already had to increase my hot spot bandwidth to the maximum Verizon allows (150gigs), and I'm already up to 110. ten more days in the cycle to go!

I got hooked on Iowa Women's Basketball last year while I was writing the Team Manager series. Specifically, The American Rivers Conference. So far, I'm sorry to say, I don't believe any of the nine teams in the conference have escaped pre-conference play with a perfect record.

On the other hand, the NAIA team I'm following because the player I modeled Natalie after (her playing, not her character) graduated from high school and is now playing for that college. She's had a few minutes of play in each game so far, but as a freshman, she hasn't worked her way up yet. Still, the Red Raiders are building on a perfect season and are ranked 25th in the NAIA.

And then there's Thanksgiving. I hope whatever your plans are they are safe and happy. I'm not going visiting, nor am I expecting visitors this week. I've established my own little Thanksgiving tradition since moving to Vegas for the winters. I'm going to the Boulder Station Broiler--wearing a jacket and tie--to enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner of Prime Rib, Baked Potato, Salad, and a glass of wine. The best part of this tradition is that I will take home enough of that meal to have for dinner the next two days!

Best of all, it will only interrupt my writing day for about two hours. Not bad!

However you celebrate, if you do, I hope you stay healthy, happy, and safe. If you don't celebrate the American Thanksgiving, please stay healthy, happy, and safe anyway!

That means I have a fresh bag of Tootsie Rolls, a new can of Stephen's Gourmet Dark Chocolate mix. Plenty of Cafe Vienna, and a new computer. Not so sure about the wisdom of that last item, but last week, a crack in the case of my laptop became a break and a chunk of it fell off. This new one has "issues" that I'm dealing with. Most of the time, though, it lets me type.

"What..." you may ask, "are you writing for NaNoWriMo this year?"

I might answer.

Of course, the short answer is that I'm writing the fourth book in the "Photo Finish Trilogy," F/Stop. Yes, and there will be a fifth book, too. Some trilogy.

My Sausage Grinder tier patrons, who want to see what I write without the benefit of rewrites and edits, will start getting access to the new draft Tuesday evening. I'll be making daily updates to my draft, and they can follow along almost as I'm writing it. Of course, the first drafts of Shutter Speed and Exposure will remain available to Sausage Grinders throughout the month and probably longer.

I don't want my Wayzgoose/NathanEverett patrons to languish. I'll also be posting the rewrite draft of my Steven George and The Dragon sequel, Steven George and the Terror for patrons. That one is not a NaNoWriMo entry because I entered it in first draft back in November of 2008. It's been sitting in my files patiently waiting for a rewrite which is now in progress. Editors can expect that one before they see F/Stop. It's much shorter.

This is my nineteenth consecutive year of participating in NaNoWriMo, and I have "won" every year. That means I completed 50,000 words of a new book. Add to that, nine "Camp NaNoWriMo" successes. Most of the books I've written while producing 2,271,924 words in those eighteen years, have been published. I am grateful to each of you who have found it in your hearts to buy one of them. Thank you!

Aside from all that, things are peaceful in Las Vegas. Have met up with my friends Al and Donna and we have already been to two shows: Reckless in Vegas, and Gary Lewis and the Playboys. Both fun shows.

I got the dental implant taken care of last week, so I shouldn't have any more problems with that. The rent is paid. I think I'm ready to roll.

Here's an interesting tidbit, though. Maybe you'll give me a hand. I hope you've read and voted for your favorite Halloween contest stories--or will tomorrow when they are released. Last year, my story didn't place. It was a Wayzgoose story called "The Burgundy Chamber." I'm thinking now of expanding it. I could create a whole series of short stories with this cast and setting, or I could do a novel that launches from this point. I've started doing research on some of the holes in the short story. It is intentionally vague about time and place, but it liberally mixes things up. If I turn it into a real novel, I need to know the time and place of the story, and a lot of backstory on the main characters. I'll probably need to find a Victorian country mansion to model the house on that fits with some of the preconceived notions I've already painted. I'd guess there is a good three months of background work and plotting to do before I jump into that story, but if you've got ideas, let me know.

Happy Halloween!

Bob says a fond farewell to all today. The final chapter of Bob's Memoir: 4,000 Years as a Free Demon has been posted.

There was an error in the initial posting that indicated the story was to be continued, but that has been corrected. Chapter 73 is the final chapter and now says "The End."

There are always a few messages that come in at a time like this from people who want to know if it will continue. Well, I've already prognosticated things into the 2030s and I'm afraid that in order to go further, I'll have to wait fifty or a hundred years to find out what Bob does next. As soon as I see that, I'll write it up and post it.

So, now there is just one aroslav story being posted for a while--Full Frame, book one of the Photo Finish series. Don't worry, though. I foresee another Wayzgoose story on the horizon. And I still have another Photo Finish story to write in November. What is an ending is always indicative of another beginning!

Enjoy!

I heard you on my wireless back in '52
Lying awake, intent at tuning in on you
If I was young, it didn't stop you coming through
--The Buggles, 1980

I've been really enjoying everyone's comments and email that started with whether Nate in Full Frame could hear WLS Chicago out in Tenbrook, IL, and progressed to people sharing stories about where WLS could be heard in the world or what other AM stations were listened to back in our youth. What great stories!

In fact, they fascinate me enough that I've opened a channel on my Discord (Aroslav's Stories), just for people to record their AM experiences. Where were you when the great DJs of the 50s, 60s, and 70s were broadcasting. I even had one reader tell me that he was listening to the radio during FDR's famous "Day in Infamy" speech that put the US in World War II after Pearl Harbor in 1941.

I think one day, if comments keep coming in, I'd like to put the whole collection up here on SOL and on my website, either as a story or in a blog post.

I can't give you the Discord address in this post or it won't appear in your feed. It is in the comments on Full Frame and, of course, I'll supply it if you request it. I do hope you will join the conversation.

I'm still in the Seattle area this week and will be in transit back to Las Vegas next Sunday. It seems it's been a busy two weeks since I came up here, with the flying trip to Indianapolis last weekend. Good times.

Mostly, I'm writing as much as possible, but these last couple of chapters have been slow going. I'd guess Exposure will still require a rewrite before I'm done... at least of the last half. I don't think I've set up the climax well enough throughout the story. That's book 3 of the "Photo Finish" series that I intended to be a trilogy and now will be a quadology. Or maybe even a pentology. I'm sure you know what those are.

I'll be devoting NaNoWriMo in November to writing book 4, F/Stop. If it goes as long as the others, there's no chance I'll finish it in November, but that still means this is a great time to join my Patreon at the Sausage Grinder tier ($10/month). Not only do you get advance access to Full Frame, but you get to see what I'm writing in the raw unedited form each week. I'm keeping the first drafts of Shutter Speed and Exposure accessible to Sausage Grinders throughout the drafting of the next book.

When I'm not typing, I'm watching Div III Women's Basketball. The season starts in three weeks so I'm watching archived copies of last season's games. If you'd asked me a year ago to name a Div III school or team, I couldn't have answered the question. I never would have thought that I'd know all nine teams in the American Rivers Conference, their mascots, and at least one player on each team. My personal fan favorite is Simpson College Storm in Indianola, Iowa. But really, I'll cheer for all the other teams in the conference.

The player whose style and skill I modeled Natalie after in the "Team Manager" series will be playing for the Northwestern Iowa College Red Raiders this fall. That presents a dilemma for me because the Raiders are an NAIA team, so I'll have to learn some of their teams while I'm watching this fall.

Should I try to follow my alma mater's Div II team, the UIndy Greyhounds? That would be the loyal thing to do, right?

And all this while I'm studying photography and society in the late 1960s and early 70s. What a job!