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Hi all!
It is a little startling to discover that with the worldwide fuel shortage and the extravagantly high prices now in effect that they now charge postage on comments and emails. It can only be this as all of a sudden, my inbox is not flooding with emails, and neither are there any comments.
So, if there is no postage imposed on comments and email to fund the war in the East, then I have no idea what is happening and what do the readers find well in the story and what not so well.
Sigh...
Here is chapter 11 of “Let the river run.” Have fun.
Enjoy.
Goodbye 4 now!
Jody.
(2026-04-23, 07:12 SAST.)
P.S. If you've already paid the digital postage and your comment or email is stuck on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, please ignore the above. Otherwise... I'm listening!
Hi all!
Slow week? Not at all. My editors might think I am having a slow week, but in reality, I was on another learning curve in my picture making software. I need to introduce a new character at around chapter 16 but could not find a suitable 3D model anywhere on the internet. That means that I had to improvise and ‘create’ the character from scratch using a 3D model of a similar character.
I had to do a scaling of the character so that the dimensions would be true. Also, there was work to be done on the character’s skin. The character supplied at $17 just did not have the same skin as the new character in the story. So, at the drawing board (Laptop) I tried different settings and eventually after 22 renders of the scene, I hit the one that I needed.
Now you are curious as you might anticipate a neon-green Martian Allain. Not quite. It will be an animal. A wild animal. As Kait told Adrian: ““Adrian! That is a Leptailurus serval. It’s a protected species and a lethal predator.”
And Adrian replied: “Yeah? Well, tell the 'lethal predator' to stop eating my biltong.”
Well there it is! Have fun. Here is chapter 10 of “Let the river run.” Enjoy.
Goodbye 4 now!
Jody.
(2026-04-20, 06:56 SAST.)
Hi all!
I texted my editor this morning: “This is going to be a wonderful day. During the night they stole the mountain and the airport.” He texted back: “How?”
Having his attention, I clarified: “🤣🤣 All covered in a thick fog. Just white. No buildings, no lights, no mountain.” He responded: “Oh…cool.” Because he knows that the flight school converters would all be inside the hangars and not disturb my peace and quiet morning coffee.
Yes. It’s nice to just feel the quiet still air and the clamminess of the fog while the rush hour traffic is miles and miles away. Bliss!
Here is chapter 9 of “Let the river run.”
Enjoy.
Goodbye 4 now!
Jody.
(2026-04-16, 09:05 SAST.)
Hi all!
My wife showed me yesterday that the tree Dalia is forming flower buds. That means that the winter is here on our doorstep. Time to break out the winter woollies and hold on for dear life. But look on the bright side – September is only seven months away. LOL!!!
Thanks for all the emails and comments. And thanks to that person who voted a 5 and turned it into a 6. Keep it up... you’ll get to a 8, 9, or a 10 before long. I have faith in you.
@johnnew1953: you are correct. It WAS 30 years since I came near a converter. If you don’t know what a converter is, ask my editor. A converter is that small little Cessnas, Pipers, and RVs that turn petrol into noise... I did not include a Sling in this as a sling sounds like a sewing machine. LOL!!!! That’s my editor’s take on it.
Lucky my editor doesn’t read my blog entries. He built a homebuilt in his garage and had the nerve to fly it too. It says a lot about a man’s trust in his own handy work. LOL!!! But now my nerves can rest as he sold it.
Here is chapter 8 of “Let the river run.”
Enjoy.
Goodbye 4 now!
Jody.
(2026-04-13, 06:51 SAST.)
Hi all!
I just love that new feature on SOL where all reader comments of all stories are listed all together. I makes sure I don’t miss a comment of any of the 15 stories listed.
Boy—did I really write fourteen and a half stories? One million, five hundred forty-six thousand, three hundred and sixty words. The number hangs in my mind like a distant echo, too large to grasp all at once. Each sentence, each paragraph, each sleepless night stitched together into something vast and quietly overwhelming. I can almost feel the weight of it in my bones—the long hours, the flicker of a screen in a dark room, the way the world shrank to ink and imagination.
I need a rest.
Not the kind of rest where you simply close your eyes and wake up to the same walls, the same routine—but a true escape. Somewhere far removed from deadlines and blinking cursors. Somewhere the air itself feels different.
A tropical island, lost in the endless blue of the Pacific Ocean. The kind of place where time dissolves into the rhythm of waves. I picture it vividly: sand so white it glows under the sun, soft as powdered sugar beneath bare feet. The ocean stretches out in impossible shades of turquoise and deep sapphire, its surface calm and glassy, disturbed only by the occasional ripple of a gentle breeze.
The horizon blurs into the sky, a seamless gradient of blue that feels almost unreal. Palm trees sway lazily, their shadows dancing across the shore like whispers. The scent of salt and warm coconut drifts through the air, mingling with the distant hush of the tide rolling in and out.
I’m lying back in a weathered wooden chair, the kind that creaks softly as you settle into it. In my hand, a cool glass beaded with condensation—something bright and orange, glowing like a captured sunset. A tiny paper umbrella leans at an angle, playful and unnecessary, while a slice of pineapple clings to the rim, golden and sweet.
The first sip is slow. Cold. Refreshing in a way that feels almost like relief itself.
No word counts. No unfinished chapters. No pressure to create.
Just the sound of the ocean, the warmth of the sun, and the quiet, well-earned stillness after a long journey of words...
Poof, the dream ends. Someone voted a 5. A freaking FIVE!
Here is chapter 7 of “Let the river run.”
Enjoy.
Goodbye 4 now!
Jody.
(2026-04-09, 07:30 SAST.)
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