aroslav: Blog

Gigabytes.

The flood originated from a flimsy coffee to go cup I set down next to my computer and then proceeded to dump all over the keyboard. I acted quickly to dry things out but within minutes I received a message to install a system on the hard drive and seconds thereafter everything went dark. No survivors.

I was just in the process of sending three new chapters of the new story I'm working on, Things I Never Told My Wife to Pixel and then to do a holiday backup onto an external drive. Neither were successful. My most recent backup was a month and a half ago when I hit the road after my heart problems.

So there you have it. Losses in the thousands of words.

This will be a long post.

As it happened, because I was traveling, I'd been working on my lightweight backup computer. I still had my production computer and restored the most recent backup on it.

Let me say first that many people have suggested that I use a cloud backup system. I understand that is logical for people who are plugged into a cable modem or corporate network. I am on a metered network. I travel a lot and wifi is often, if not usually, unavailable. So, I use a cellular hotspot. Do not be fooled by statements about "Unlimited Data". My data is high speed (4G) up to 15gb. Then it slows down to 600bps. About the speed of a 9600 baud modem. I have two "unlimited" hotspots (15gb) and this month I had to buy an extra 5gb to make it through to the end of the month. That was with my normal moving of files, movies, and layouts. If I backed up my photos, music, and all the rest of that work to the cloud I would be in excess of 60gb per month. I understand there are cellular services that have real unlimited data but they are metro area based. When I'm camping in National Parks, deserts, and along the roadway, I can't reach a signal from those providers at all. A slow signal is better than none.

What I should have done was back up more frequently.

So, I went hunting to find out what was lost.

1) I was able to restore the first ten chapters of Things I Never Told My Wife from earlier email exchanges, but lost the next three I'd written. Pixel originally thought chapter 10 would be the end but I had an idea for the next five chapters. I am struggling to recreate the storyline from there but it might end at chapter ten instead of fifteen afterall.

2) I lost most of the original files of American Royalty 1: Coming of Age but was able to restore emailed copy from Old Rotorhead. Sadly, all the material prepared and formatted for posting of the story had to be recreated so I can (and will) start posting it next week for patrons and in about three weeks here on SOL.

3) All the files for Stocks & Blondes were lost. I had email again to restore the edited version and downloaded the html files from my website, but all the prep for the eBook and print book commercial release were destroyed. I can recreate all that, but it means commercial release will be delayed at least a month. The story is complete on my website and all chapters were uploaded for posting on SOL, I just can't edit them.

4) Records of word counts and stats after Nov 7 are gone. I'll make no attempt to reconstruct those.

The good news is that except the new chapters of Things, I can recreate the other material. And all of "The Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins" books 1-5 were completed before the November 7 backup. In order to create an extra safety net, I've uploaded all existing files of my current works to my website in preparation for release.

I guess there is something to be said for starting the new year with a "clean slate". Have you had enough jokes about entering the Roaring 20s or having 2020 hindsight after the first? I have, so I won't plague you with any.

I have been following a very interesting conversation in the comments of Double Tears that started out with talking about the implementation of National Service and somehow morphed into a dialog about public assistance, taxes, and who should have to pay for the indigent. I'm happy to let people express their opinions based on experience and observation. When a "fact" is presented as absolute truth, however, I'd like to see a data source. If you don't have a data source, please don't express it as a fact.

My own opinion, based on experience and observation but not backed by a data source, differs from all the sides expressed in the very civil discussion in comments. I think we have become a people who weigh our decisions on helping someone against whether they deserve our help, have earned our help, or are entitled to our help. When did we stop helping people simply because they need it?

I wish you the very best for a happy New Year. May the best day you had in 2019 compare equally to your worst day of 2020.

author Devon Layne

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.