aroslav: Blog

I've just finished rereading Double Team, the fifth and last in "The Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins" series. I released the eBook version to my patrons today and decided to just re-read the book from front to back this week. It brought a lot of things home, including the social strife we are currently undergoing in America. Some of it was painful to read but it is a message of hope and possibility. I've been reminded of late that nothing I wrote, sadly, is beyond the realm of possibility. I hope it's not a reflection of reality.

In addition to making me think about our current situation, it made me think about my situation last year when I was writing the story.

First of all, let me just get this out front right now. I am ANTIFAscist, ANTIRAcist, and believe with all my heart that Black Lives Matter. If you tell me 'All lives matter,' I can only respond by saying thank you for agreeing with me. You cannot believe all lives matter if you don't believe black lives matter. All lives aren't currently in danger. Black lives are. Focus on the problem or be the problem.

Now that I have that out of the way-and I cordially invite all fascists, racists, and people using 'all lives matter' as a means of trivializing the present threat to black lives to stop reading both this post and all my stories-let me get back to when I was writing Double Team. There's more on this subject in my First Exit blog.

I keep surprisingly good records of what I write. I don't know why I can't keep such good records for my taxes. I began writing Double Team on June 30, 2019. From the first of April until the end of June, I wrote and posted for patrons, a chapter of the Jacob Hopkins saga every day. (It's a total of 237 chapters.) I began this book at that pace. On July 5th, I walked off the pickleball court where I played every morning and said I couldn't play any longer because I couldn't catch my breath. That began the summer of hell.

I managed to get a doctor's appointment at my home clinic (a 350-mile drive from my summer camp). I stopped at every rest area to take a nap because I couldn't stay awake for the whole trip. After an examination, my doctor declared I had late-developing asthma. She prescribed albuterol and a steroid inhaler and sent me back to Idaho. That was July 26th. I attended a wedding that evening and driving from Lakewood WA to Lynnwood WA after the wedding (about 50 miles) I had to stop after 20 miles and take a nap. And I left the reception hours early.

My writing productivity declined. I was managing maybe three chapters a week instead of a chapter a day. And it kept getting worse. Twice, I went to the local clinic after spending a sleepless night in a panic attack because I couldn't breathe and expected to die. After the last visit, I booked a flight back to Seattle because I knew I couldn't drive that far and I needed to see the doctor. A friend took me to the airport. When I debarked from the plane and walked to the terminal, I had to stop and rest twice. My ex-wife, with whom I have a very good relationship, took me to my doctor on Tuesday, August 20. The doctor poked, prodded, and prescribed a more powerful (and expensive) steroid for my lungs. Then, as a last-minute check, she ordered an EKG.

When she came back into the examining room and told me my heart rate was 167 beats per minute and the cardiologist in Seattle wanted to see me right now, everything changed. I found out I was in a-fib and had been for two months while taking albuterol-known to cause the heart to race. The cardiologist ordered an echocardiogram, prescribed a heart regulating drug and blood thinner, and told me to be back on October 12 for cardioversion.

By that time, I'd already been in a-fib for more than two months and the drugs didn't seem to be helping. I wasn't sleeping more than an hour at a time, but fell asleep after fifteen minutes of attempting to do anything. Like write. My pace had gone down to 100 words and then sleep. 100 words and then sleep. I knew I didn't have much further to go to finish the book, but I was having a hard time getting there. And that is how the month of September went as I lost appetite and should have lost weight, but retained water pound for pound. My legs looked like tree stumps.

On September 22, I finished the Double Team manuscript and sent it off to my editors. September 27, I turned 70 years old. The next day, a friend drove me back to Seattle where I stayed with my ex and my daughter. When I had difficulty breathing and threw up the hardboiled egg it had taken me over half an hour to eat, on Monday, my daughter called my doctor and they told her to bring me directly to the emergency room. I had cardioversion the next morning on October 1, eleven days before I was scheduled.

My heart was back in correct rhythm, but I still couldn't breathe. I had so much water in my system that I was coughing non-stop and nearly suffocating in my sleep. Lung capacity tests showed I was breathing at about 35% capacity. Enter diuretics. A big dose. I dropped thirty pounds in the next two weeks. I weighed less than I had since I was a sophomore in high school. But I could breathe at last.

There was one more step and that was an ablation where they burned out the bad part of my heart on November 4. Two weeks to make sure everything was stable and I was on the road again.

My writing is not back to the frantic pace of a chapter a day again, but it is moving along nicely. When I read what I'd written during that time of illness, it brought back the pain I was in, the horror and panic over not being able to breathe, the inability to eat, the impossibly long walks from bed to shower. I remember what was going on in my own body as I wrote the climax of "The Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins." I'm happy to say, we both survived.

I released Double Team to my patrons in eBook today. They are already well into the story in the online serial.

I took and take the pandemic seriously. I still wear my mask because even if it doesn't save me, perhaps it will save someone else. I maintain my social distance. I sit in my trailer and write yet another story (or three) to give to my readers. And I weep for the fact that in sixty years, since we marched for civil rights, protested on campuses and in the streets, and yes, even rioted when forced back by police or National Guard, we have learned nothing. We have turned back the clock on civil, gender, and individual rights. We have become less for having been here before.

Be well.

After spending two months in self-isolation amidst the flies, heat, and humidity of Phar, TX, I pulled up stakes and headed for Idaho on May 19. I arrived at Sun Meadow near Worley, ID at 2:00 Thursday afternoon May 28-ten days and 2900 miles. I am so glad to be home for the next four or five months.

I am maintaining self-isolation and social distancing. It's funny to look at a bunch of naked people wearing masks. Most of the time they aren't, of course. Technically, Idaho will stop quarantining as of today and will allow groups of up to 50 but with 6 feet social distancing. That means our gatherings will be out-of-doors, which is great for the weather this weekend but might be chilly for the coming week with temps in the 60s. That's a whole lot better than the 106 it was in Del Rio, TX when I camped on my first night out!

But I'm wearing the mask when I'm away from my immediate site. Why? Well, having nearly died of heart failure just before my 70th birthday last fall, my doctor considers me 'at risk.' I do what little I can by limiting social contact, washing frequently, and wearing a mask. I understand that I cannot depend on other people-even my closest friends-to protect me. Each of them I saw on Friday walked right up to me to shake my hand and welcome me back to camp. I understand the mask doesn't do a lot to protect me, but I've been in six states in ten days, stopping at rest areas, stopping at truck stops, stopping at RV parks. I wear the mask to protect them.

It gives me a real feeling of empowerment that I can choose a simple act to protect other people.

I also have friends on the front lines battling the virus. Nurses, doctors, and even reactivated retired military, functioning as Battle Captain for Emergency Response in the Army and working with the DoD on CoVid-19 modeling. I will not, by God, do anything to make their jobs more difficult.

I'm not going to point out any of the other crap in the world. Even as isolated as I maintain myself, I get enough news pushed in front of me to understand America and the World are really fucked up. You don't need me elaborating on it.

I've been getting some writing done while I was on the road and continue apace. I have two aroslav stories that I'm working on. Adams' Apple is a farce and lampoon revolving around a virus that renders all men in the world impotent. Except one. Fun and games ensue as I manage to lampoon the media, scientists, medicine, politics, the President, bureaucracy, religion, the military, the Secret Service, the leaders of several countries, and the chef in the kitchen. I think I'm just three or four chapters from the end of the story and have been getting edits back steadily from my editors with a few comments from my Sausage Grinder patrons who pay $10 a month to see whatever I'm writing in its raw, unedited state.

The second story is hopefully within ten chapters of being complete. Pussy Pirates is a story set in the Swarm Universe of Thinking Horndog. Of course, when I finish writing in about a month or so, it will go to the Swarm authors' group for judgment on its canon worthiness, so I could still end up with an odd story that is only available on my own website instead of as part of the proper universe. Regardless, I'm sure to be at least three months out on that one.

A couple of days ago, I finished posting Wayzgoose's Steven George & The Dragon. Reading young adult fairytales is not everyone's cup of tea, but those who enjoyed the story were vocal enough that I will probably resurrect an old draft called Steven George & The Terror, a sequel. It needs some work, but it's cute. My immediate attention, however, is on the rewrite of American Royalty 1: Coming of Age. This rewrite is so complete that I will probably repost it as a new story titled Rise and Awaken, a Destiny's Call novel. The general story concept remains the same. An American society that has carefully defined classes, a young man emerging as a leader, and a tension-filled love story between him and his former schoolmate turned advisor and assistant. The way the story is told, the names of the classes, and the kind of relationship the two have are all brand new. And it is significantly shorter than the 112,000-word original.

So, I'm hanging in there, staying healthy, and writing a lot with ideas for more banging around in my head. I hope this finds you well and safe.

Yesterday, Chapter 165 of Double Twist posted ending Part XIII of "The Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins." In it, we see that Marvel and Hopkins and their entire pod are being groomed for the National Service by promoting Service Reform. When I started this massive story, I made a list of things that could have branched the timelines of the old man Jacob and his new 14-year-old self. One of the pieces that stood out to me most was the effect of having a mandatory National Service period of two years for everyone between the ages of 18 and 21.

Last week, May 6, 2020, the Pandemic Response and Opportunity Through National Service Act was introduced in Congress. This isn't new. In 2017, the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service, was created and charged by Congress to provide a blueprint for how to expand all forms of service. The new legislation is the result.

"After two-and-a-half years of intensive research, public hearings, and conversations with Americans across the country, the Commission released its final report, Inspired to Serve. The report contains 164 recommendations for promoting and empowering Americans to serve their country.

"Taken together, the recommendations offer a comprehensive blueprint to service for Americans, beginning with civic education and service learning, starting in kindergarten; national service opportunities so accessible and incentivized that service becomes a rite of passage for millions of young adults; and new and revitalized service options for adults of any age, background, or experience." (The Brookings Institute in an article on Friday, May 15 titled "COVID-19 has made expanded national service more important than ever" by Isabel V. Sawhill and Larry Checco)

There are important differences between what has been proposed in Congress and my meagre foretelling of a National Service in Jacob's story. Jacob's story mandated every person between the ages of 18 and 21 to serve for two years, by Amendment to the Constitution. The laws supporting the amendment were hashed together and basically gave the Service over to the Military to manage. That would have resulted in 4 million new service members each year! The new bill proposes to grow AmeriCorps from 75,000 to 750,000 service opportunities over a three year period.

But they cite many of the same benefits I used in Double Twist.

"Many others in both the public and private sectors, both Democrats and Republicans, support using national service not only to help mitigate the coronavirus, but also to enhance disaster relief, provide assistance to hard-pressed first responders, supplement the staffing of many nonprofits serving the poor or unemployed as well as provide high schoolers an option to serve after graduation, at a time when colleges may not be fully open and entry-level jobs may be scarce."

Well, knowing Congress, the whole concept of an expanded National Service will ultimately be amended so many times that we'll scarcely recognize it behind the billions of dollars in relief, defense, corporate subsidies, Wall Street bailouts, and congressional salaries that will get tacked onto it. And if there aren't a bunch of major corporations along the lines of Haliburton or GEO Group, CoreCivic, or Ahtna Technical Services who can see how to make a profit off the National Service, it will never become a reality.

You heard it in my fiction first. Let's hope most of what I wrote was wrong.

There are 30 more chapters of Double Twist queued up to post over the next three months on SOL before we switch over to the last volume in the story, Double Team. My Patreon supporters will begin Double Team next Sunday, May 25.

According to my stats page, this week my Homepage Access Count topped 1,000,000. (That's not all in a week. That's my lifetime count.) At the same time, my blog reached its 250,000th viewing. Wow! Thank you all. I hope you found what you wanted.

According to some of the email I got this week, that wasn't always the case. So, I'll posture myself and do a little lecturing. No. Let's call it sharing what I know because this stuff is complicated.

Last week, I reposted the entire Model Student Series, complete with edits and re-organized books. As a result, the previously three books in the series became six books in the series. If that wasn't enough, Books 1, 4, and 6 bear the original publishing dates back in 2012 and 2013, while Books 2, 3, and 5 bear the 2020 publishing date. So, going to my page and sorting my 41 stories by date does not put the books in reading order.

There are two ways to figure out the order. The first is to access my homepage and locate any of the Model Student stories. At the top of the description, it will have a highlighted link that says Model Student and a number, 1-6. That number is the order of the book you are looking at.

The best way is to click that link. The new page displayed will be the list of all the Model Student stories in reading order. The far left column, which is untitled, contains the number of the book in order.

Why is it so complicated? Because I'm stupid.

When I originally wrote the series, I had no expectations for it other than reading on SOL. But when I released the story in eBook and print, some years later, I discovered the books were just too long for getting people to buy them. So, I broke up the first one into three books and the second one into two books. When it came time to update the series on SOL, I didn't want to delete the original three with all their scoring info, so I just added the new ones and updated the originals. That gives them the out-of-sequence dates.

Okay, so what's next?

Well, I'm not going to do that again! The only other story that would potentially create that kind of hassle is Living Next Door to Heaven and I'm not going to update that story at all. If you want to read it as ten separate books instead of three long serials, you can do that on my website or by buying the eBooks.

I am in the process of re-editing the Wonders of My World series and posting it on my website. I won't be updating it on SOL. The changes are two-fold. First, I've re-proofread everything and corrected any errors. Not terribly significant. Second, I've added in all the photos of my travel and tall tales. Those will only be available in the online format on my website where I can store the photos and keep things together. US Highways will start appearing on that site next week.

There is something new in the works. New to you, that is. It's actually a Wayzgoose book I published in 2011. Next week, I'll begin serializing Steven George & The Dragon under the author name Wayzgoose here on SOL. It's a young adult book, but at 70, I still get a kick out of it. A series of fairytales told as part of a journey by our intrepid dragonslayer. It's a fun read. No sex, like most Wayzgoose stories. However, some of the subject matter gets too mature for children. Think Grimm's fairytales, not Disney's.

Sweltering in Place

Temps here in Pharr Texas have topped 100 degrees three times this week with yesterday hitting 105. I'm looking forward to the relief of temperatures only hitting 90 this week.

Back in the early 90s I was teaching a seminar that included people from Alaska who had come to freezing cold Seattle to get warm. They'd been experiencing temperatures of -90F. We asked what -90 was like. The answer was, "It's just like -60, but faster."

Now I look at the temperature of 105 and can say, "It's just like 90 but faster." As my deceased mother-in-law used to say, "We'll die of heat prostitution!"

Be well, my friends!

If you are currently reading Model Student, Triptych, or The Prodigal, download them! Tonight, I'm going to upload the new version and it might be very difficult to find your place in one of the six books that will replace the three currently on the site. The new books will be approximately the following equivalents:
Current Model Student will become 1. Mural, 2. Rhapsody Suite, 3. Diva. In order to balance the books a bit, Diva will include a chapter or two of what is currently Triptych.
Current Triptych will become 4. Triptych, 5. Odalisque. That story was seriously way too long!
Current The Prodigal will become 6. The Prodigal.
I do not have plans to change or re-release the Triptych Interviews at this time.

In other news: I began posting Wayzgoose's Steven George & The Dragon on my site for Patrons. That means I'll start posting it here the first of May. If you want to join on Patreon to see things sooner, let me know.

Among the things that will be starting for Patrons soon is the re-edited and illustrated US Highways, Book 1 of "Wonders of My World." I'm including photos of my journey around the country. I'm having a lot of fun reliving it remotely since I'm still sweltering in place in Pharr Texas. 92 degrees with an expected high of 97 today. Highs in the upper nineties and into the 100s for the rest of the week. Sadly, it looks like I'll be another month here waiting for things to open up safely so I can travel north.

I'm glad I don't need groceries this week. Wearing long pants, long-sleeved shirt, gloves, mask, and hat can get hot. And no one can see my eyes because as soon as I don the mask my daughter sewed and sent me, my glasses fog up. One of the little things we do in life in order to keep living.

I am getting some new stuff written, too, but it's going a little slower than I hoped. I have eleven chapters of Adams' Apple written and ten chapters of Pussy Pirates in the can. I expect both to be around 20 chapters. The latter will be longer in getting to post because it will need to be reviewed by the Swarm authors for approval as part of the canon. And you know how I love to push the edges of established genres. It could take them a while to brow-beat me into submission. But they'll succeed. I have a lot of admiration for those guys.

I've had some inquiries regarding when book 5 of The Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins, Double Team, will be available for purchase. It looks like June 1. I'll post a note as soon as I have it up and ready.

I keep restraining myself from starting something else new. I've always been able to keep multiple projects in the air at once, but I have so many now that I need to try to stay focused on one or two. I think that's partly due to the quarantine and living in isolation. I keep having mental images of that one lone guy broadcasting the end of the world from a remote radio station, unaware that there is no one left to listen to him.

I'm confident, though. We're doing what needs to be done. A lot of the SOL readership is in the group of people considered highly at risk. We're old. I'd like to thank those of you who aren't for doing your part in protecting us. For that, I'll keep writing.