aroslav: Blog

My high holiday of this season was last night. At 10:19 CST where I'm currently located, the earth reached the point in its annual revolution around the sun at which its rotational axis points the northern hemisphere farthest away from the sun causing the longest night and shortest day of the year-darkness lasting longest, the farther north you travel.

Or, like me, you might say the goddess has descended to convince the god of the underworld to release the light and bring back growth to the world by being reborn through her as the prince of light. I think that makes more sense.

I had a lovely celebration Solstice dinner with my girlfriend and her two kids last night and we shared in my traditions of naming what we were leaving behind from the past year, what we want to be remembered from the past year, and what we hope for the coming year. Please let me share my responses.

What are you leaving behind from the past year? Heart problems and sickness! I mean, really, I am so done with that shit! I had a miserable five months and am happy to place it firmly in the past.

What are do you want remembered from the past year? Oh, she was sitting right beside me last night. I had given up hope of ever finding love again when my long-time friend and fellow writer suddenly became my girlfriend and lover. I am blown away and want to take this relationship as far as it will go.

What are your hopes for the coming year? I'm hoping to become more mindful and participative in the important relationships I have-friends, readers, and family. I always knew I had friends and fans and family. But I never understood how deep that friendship and concern went until I was facing my possible demise this summer. People stepped up to take care of me when I couldn't take care of myself. They provided transportation, food, emergency intervention, and even money when I needed it most. I can only tell you all, thank you! I want to get more involved with my friends.

We toasted the Solstice with a glass of sparkling apple/pomegranate juice and ate a meal that really turned out quite well.

WRITING THIS YEAR. I had a big year writing, even though through parts of September the best I could do was write a hundred words before I'd fall asleep. My current stats say I've written 1,137,474 words this year. That included writing four of the five Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins novels (The first book was completed before I started posting it in January), three published Wayzgoose novels-Wild Woods, Municipal Blondes, and Stocks & Blondes-a new Wayzgoose novel that will be posted here starting in January titled American Royalty 1: Coming of Age, and another new Devon Layne book titled Things I Never Told My Wife that should start posting here by the end of January or thereabouts. Those last two will post in parallel with the continuing saga of Jacob Hopkins, which will not finish posting until November 2020.

I did all that while I was dying of heart failure. Imagine what the new year might bring now that I'm healthy! My own take on a MILF story? A story on the fringe of the SWARM universe? A sequel to The Props Master series? A sequel to Drawing on the Dark Side of the Brain? A fun new take on time travel? This is your chance to speak up. My schedule is filling rapidly.

Of course, I have a life now that includes things other than writing. Fortunately, my girlfriend is also an author and has set her own lofty goals for the New Year. I just finished editing an airline thriller from one of my clients and will be laying that book out for publication in January. I expect she will also have her new non-fiction airline book to me for editing by the time I get the first laid out. And I'll happily pick up more jobs as they come available.

After the catastrophe of last summer, I'll be picking up a Medicare supplement insurance that should only cost half in 2020 what I had to pay in bills in 2019. I'll need to pick up some more work and make sure I'm providing new material for my patrons way in advance of when it appears here. The money I received from patrons this year paid exactly what my prescriptions drugs cost and about half of the hospital bills. I couldn't survive without them. If you are interested in joining them, just put /aroslav after the Patreon web address.

Well, in my typical long-winded way, I've brought you all up to date on the happenings in my world. I hope you can tell I'm excited about the coming year.

Enjoy the stories!

Route 66 through Claremore, Oklahoma is named Lynn Riggs Boulevard after its native son, the author of Green Grow the Lilacs, the book on which the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, Oklahoma! was based. That's one of the things I've learned since coming to Claremore a week ago to spend the holiday with friends. It's a nice little town with more railroad traffic through it than any place I've ever visited. Oil, grain, cattle, cars… There's a train through town in one direction or another about every fifteen minutes.

I'm at a nice campground next to the Cherokee Casino and Will Rogers Downs. Yesterday there was an annual 'Santa Cash' event at the casino that drew close to 2,000 people! I took that opportunity to go exploring downtown. I did, however, have the excellent prime rib dinner at the casino the night before.

But, of course, none of this post is about my current location or plans for Yule next Saturday night. It's about writing and the stories that are posting here on SOL and on my own websites. First of all, Part X: Transmutation, of The Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins started posting this week with chapter 113. This is in the third book of the series, Double Tears. My apologies that the Part heading did not post as it was supposed to. If you read before Saturday, it was missing. That has been corrected by Vixen. I've been very interested in the comments to the story lately, which include a lot of speculation regarding the type of governance in the Alternate America and some of the history that would lead to it. You guys are adding a lot more depth to that topic than I considered. Thank you!

People are also reading Wayzgoose's Stocks & Blondes. That story posted chapters 9 and 10 this week and voting was turned on. Once again, thank you for your comments and your votes. The full eBook is now available and instructions for acquiring it are in the end note. Stocks & Blondes will release commercially before Christmas in both eBook and paperback.

And then there is American Royalty 1: Coming of Age. It hasn't started posting yet, but once I have all the edits in from my excellent SOL editors, I expect to start posting it in mid-January. It is also a Wayzgoose story but this one has minimal sex instead of no sex. That book won't release commercially until June, after I've done a complete rewrite and have softened up the explicit scenes-of which there aren't many. You'll get the unexpurgated version here on SOL.

So, here I sit. I'm feeling so good since my heart procedures in October and November that it drives me crazy to not be writing, even though I have a client editing project in hand. I went to my idea file and pulled out a story concept I generated a few years ago. It struck me as funny so I started writing and am 13,000 words into it now. My Sausage Grinder patrons are already starting to consume the raw copy. Here's the blurb:

I was amused some time back when I was sitting at a table with several friends being entertained by a story of a guy telling how he became a nudist. He ended up by saying, "The truth is, I just like boobs." He looked around furtively and lowered his voice. "Don't tell my wife I said that." Well, his wife was sitting right beside him and rolled her eyes. "As if I didn't know." She lifted her own prodigious boobs in each hand and waved them at us.

Well, as things do, that got me thinking. What were some of the things you'd never tell your wife? That idea, which I'd put down in my idea files a long time ago, popped up in my mind and I had to just start writing. I have no idea where this story will go and no idea how long it will be, though I don't expect it to be epic.

So, if all goes well and the editors concur, I'd guess that aroslav story will start posting late in January or early February. I'm currently calling it Things I Never Told My Wife. It's a bit sexier than most of my stories with a sex event in nearly every chapter. I don't know if it will earn the moniker "Much Sex" on SOL, though. I'll have to see what happens as I write it. As a teaser, here's the first couple of paragraphs.

I met my soulmate when I was sixteen years old.

I've filtered my memories through forty years of experience since then and I'm more convinced than ever that Jesse and I were meant to be together. Of course, I never told my wife that. I didn't meet her until I was nearly thirty. It didn't seem important by then. Who ever marries his soulmate?

This won't be a daily diary kind of thing. It will be selected events out of the narrator's life that he never felt it was necessary to tell his wife about. I think it will be lots of fun.

That's pretty much my update for today. If you want a link to become a patron and read Things I Never Told My Wife as I develop it, drop me a line. Until next week, Joyous Yule!

This is my fifth day on the road and I'm not happy about crossing the Siskiou Mountains this morning. There's no sign of snow but it's 33.6 degrees F with heavy fog. Perfect conditions for black ice. I'll be waiting at my camp in Ashland for a couple of hours for the temps to rise and the fog to clear. My route has been a little circuitous. Seattle to Coeur d'Alene. Coeur d'Alene to Pendleton. Pendleton to Portland. Portland to Ashland. I'm now getting ready to cross the Siskiou Mountains on I-5, as soon as the fog burns off and the temp rises a bit. Currently, perfect conditions for black ice to form.

I'll be following I-5 for the foreseeable future. I may cut over to CA99 at Sacramento and then cut across from Bakersfield to Barstow so I can pick I-40 eastbound. With luck, I'll be at my sister's house between Amarillo and Lubbock for Thanksgiving. Then I'm shooting northeast through Oklahoma City and Tulsa. I have a book fair I'm exhibiting at in Tulsa on December 7. If you are in the area, please stop by!

Since I try not to travel after dark, I've had good productivity in the evening. Unusual for me. I'm 60,000 words into American Royalty 1: Coming of Age. That's 12 chapters so far. I've not yet decided if I'll post this one as aroslav or as Wayzgoose. It's got a few pretty sexy scenes in it, but no matter which name I use it would be a 'Minimal Sex' story. I'm guessing it will be ready for prime time in April, like my last two or three books were.

If you are one of my patrons, I want to say thank you for standing by me through the summer and fall when my health was so perilous. I didn't know how close I'd been until the procedures were over. I'm happy to say, I'm feeling better than ever and it is good to be able to sit at my computer and write without falling asleep every ten minutes. Focus and clarity have returned.

Once again, thank you all for your support. I hope you are enjoying Double Tears. Stocks & Blondes (Wayzgoose) will begin posting soon.

I have one more doctor's appointment tomorrow and expect to be cleared for travel. Woohoozah! So, of course, I'm running around like crazy to get things done so I can hit the road Friday. I can hardly wait to get my wheels under me. My daughter will travel with me on Friday because she is not yet convinced that I should be allowed to drive six hours by myself. She'll fly back from Spokane if I pass her test. Then I plan to start my journey south on Sunday.

I had two great SOL lunches this week. The first with GMbusman and his wife. I got a chance to renew my acquaintance with the Washington State Ferry system and had a great adventure. I took him his copy of the limited edition print version of Double Tears. Good food, good friends, good conversation. The next day, I had lunch with Pixel the Cat. Our conversation focused on my new work in progress, American Royalty 1: Coming of Age. He's now completed the first edit of the first four chapters. Of course, those on my Patreon at the $10 tier are reading weekly installments as I get them written and before my editors even get them.

I'm having a huge amount of fun working on American Royalty. This will be a story set in an alternate universe where an active class structure underpins American society. As a result, it's development is a bit different than what we remember. I'm exploring both the relationship of the royal and his servant tutor and the relationship between the classes in general. As the blurb says: In an American society based on class distinctions, someone still needs to teach the heir apparent how to behave like royalty.

I expect American Royalty to be a three book series, including Coming of Age, Coming to Power, and Coming to Grips. It will probably be released as a Wayzgoose story with very little sex. Not none, but very little. If the length holds at around 110-120,000 words as I hope it will, it would be targeted for release in about June but would begin posting here on SOL by the first of May. Now, we'll see how well my predictions hold!

I've begun the final pass and formatting of Wayzgoose's Stocks & Blondes. I expect it to hit prerelease for my Patreon members next Sunday and have targeted release here on SOL in two weeks--or three at the most. This is another Deb Riley mystery and, of course, she finds herself in hot water almost immediately.

It will be difficult to maintain my usual rate of writing when I hit the road again. I will be traveling pretty much every day for nearly three weeks in order to make the journey I intend. The big mountain passes in Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado are already snowed and at risk of closure at any time. So, I plan to cut southwest, avoiding the biggest passes by traveling along the Columbia River, to Portland and then head south on I-5. That will bring me right down through the middle of California where there is more risk of fire than snow. I'll cut back east on either I-40 or I-10. depends on how good my timing is. I'd like to be at my sister's house south of Amarillo for Thanksgiving. Obviously, I-10 has lower passes across the continental divide than I-40 but is a good bit longer way around.

Finally, I plan to cut northeast toward Tulsa, Oklahoma to spend a month or two camped near my girlfriend and exhibit at a book fair in Tulsa on December 7. If it gets too cold there, I'll turn south again for the worst part of winter. There is, I'm told, a lovely nudist park just east of Austin.

So, by that time I hope to have Book 1 of American Royalty in the editing and rewriting cycle and be well on the way to Book 2. This could be a very good year!

Double Tears is getting the expected reads and some good comments. You can always read and participate in the comment section found at the end of the current last chapter of the story. I'm really enjoying the initial reactions people are expressing. Voting for the story will open on Wednesday with the posting of Chapter 103. I love seeing how people guess at the conditions of the society, suggest things they want to see, and talk about their hopes and fears of where the story might go. The story is all written and preloaded for posting on SOL every three days. So, I join the rest of you in reading each chapter on the day it is posted so it is fresh in mind as I read your comments.

I think I've hit the end of my spiel for this week. You might be able to tell I'm feeling better (fantastic!) and am getting more focused again. I hope to be bringing you new stories for many years to come.

Well, I'm off anyway. An old adage my mother would quote whenever I started another project was "He mounted his horse and rode off in all directions." Gee thanks, Mom. So good for my childhood self-esteem.

But November 1, 2019 was a big day. The first chapter of "The Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins" book 3, Double Tears, was posted. I spent a good share of the following hours uploading the other 50 chapters of the story to the posting queue so the entire book is at SOL and ready to post a chapter every three days. I really hate the yellow bars that show up over some stories that say "Inactive and Incomplete" when an author loses interest or just dries up or dies. So, the book is finished.

Early comments express some trepidation about the title Double Tears. There is one event in one chapter of the 51 chapter book that will jerk at your tear ducts. More importantly, it will show to Jacob and his pod how truly insignificant their pissing and moaning has been over imagined ills. The rest of the book is filled with fun and frolic. If you are really impatient, instructions for getting the eBook are in the end note.

November 1 was also the first day of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I went to the Seattle Region kickoff party at midnight on Halloween and joined many other writers in getting my first 2,000 words written. Then I got up in the morning and wrote another 4,000. At the end of day two, I was up to 12,000. I have a new story and it has me motivated.

American Royalty 1: Coming of Age is the title of this one. Currently I anticipate three books in this series. I have not decided yet if this is an aroslav story or if it is a Wayzgoose story. There is room for it to go either way. Right now, I'm thinking of it as character-driven literary fiction with a touch of romance and class conflict. I see it as a "Minimal Sex" story, but not "No Sex." After all, it is a coming of age story. Duh!

My Sausage Grinder tier patrons ($10.00/month) already have access to all my development notes and the first draft of the first two chapters. It's not too late to join and you'll find instructions in the end note for my stories. I won't put it here. If you can't find the link, "Send up a signal and I'll throw you a line."

And… I have started receiving edited chapters back for Wayzgoose's Stocks & Blondes, the next Deb Riley mystery. Chapters in this story are a little shorter, so it will start posting two chapters every three days as soon as I have the rest of the edits back. So, with three projects underway, I guess Mom was right and I'm riding off in all directions.

Just a quick note regarding my health. I'm slated into the hospital for a heart ablation tomorrow, November 4. My cardiologist has done hundreds of these with a good success rate and both he and I expect this will solidify my heart rate and prevent me from going into A-fib again. I'll be staying in the hospital Monday night and released on Tuesday. Pending the doctor's okay, I plan to head back to my trailer and go south for the winter. Not that my daughter, ex-wife, and step-husband haven't been more than gracious hosts, caring and concerned nurses, and willing shuttle drivers, but I've been here for six weeks and it will be good for all of us when I leave.

I appreciate all the good wishes I've received from fans. You've made my recovery assured.