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Last time I made an update to my journal, I made a mention that my father was diagnosed with mesothelioma. That was about 18 months ago; he had a 16 month battle with it, and fortunately he stayed pretty okay until the last few months, and then fell off a cliff, so he didn't really suffer very long. I'm thankful for that.
Anyway, a few months ago, I decided that one way to keep my mind from thinking about what I didn't want to be thinking about was to get back to part two of "I've Been Everywhere". As with the last version, there will probably be 24 chapters, each corresponding to the words of the second verse of the song.
I have changed the title of the first story to "IBE: The Days Of Wandering", because I really don't like the idea of numbered stories. The second verse will be called something along the lines of "IBE: The Ghosts of Rachel", which is not to say its a super natural story, or really about ghosts. I have made the decision that posting a story as I write it is bad idea, and I am not doing it this time. I am going to finish the story before editing, making sure all the chapters align with each other (these days it feels like I have no memory, and I have to constantly reference my supporting data on character biographies, events, time lines, and so on- drives me nuts).
God willing I will finish this story. The pandemic has sucked for a lot of people, but I managed to use the lockdown as a mechanism to go for a lot of very long walks, and also used the excuse of it to cut my eating habits... long story short, I read that people have gained a lot of weight the past year. Since November '19 I have lost 89 lbs. And my diabetes and hypertension are fully under control, and with minimal medication. And my average per mile time for a 5 mile walk has gone down by 5 minutes in that time. So maybe I'll make it past my mid-50s after all. Yay.
God willing, there will be four parts to the ultimate story, corresponding to the four verses of the song. Also there are a few characters I created I intend to explore more. In the meantime, though, yeah, I'm almost done with chapter 10.
Chapter 28 is currently with the editor, and I'm hoping it will post tomorrow morning; not a promise, though. Chapter 29 is about half done, and I hope to have it ready to send out to the editor by the tomorrow as well. Chapter 29 will be the last main chapter of the story, with an epilogue to cover a few other things.
There are threads of this story that are not going to be fully wrapped up by the end of it; that is by design, as I intend to write a sequel, hopefully a general series of stories revolving around George, Jill, Akilah, and Josh. I have a specific model in mind, and the next story in the series will wrap up the rest of the main threads of this story. Future stories in the series, while they will involve train travel in the background, will not be quite as much of a rail fest as the previous ones.
I noticed that with the posting of Chapter 26, there was a sudden small decrease in ratings for the story. You are under no obligations to rate the story as anyway other than you see fit, of course; my job is to provide you with good quality entertainment, and if you think I am doing a lesser job than in previous chapters, lowering your posted score is your privilege.
I would appreciate, however, that if there is something specific you don't like about the direction or content of the story, such that you feel the need to lower your score, if you would kindly drop me a message or story comment telling me the reason for that. I am not writing to reader feedback; sometimes people just don't like the story idea I have, and thats fine, but it is also the possibility that I have fallen into a trap or tunnel vision, or such like that, and being made aware of it would be appreciated.
I also got a bit of feedback from a reader who apparently rode the late-60s/early-70s Sunset Limited as operated by the Southern Pacific at a time when they were actively trying to decrease ridership; at that time private railroad companies were required to operate passenger trains along routes, as part of recompense for the public land gifted to them by our government to build their right of ways. The only way they could discontinue service on a line was to demonstrate there was insufficient demand for it to justify operations. Many operators endeavored to do that; Southern Pacific was one of the worst.
Their objection was that the train they rode at that time was horrible; coaches only, terrible service, and vending machines for food. That circumstance did exist, and it ended as a trade with the ICC to operate the train tri-weekly. Amtrak took over passenger train service as a government-run entity on May 1st 1971, and ended almost all of the practices.
I do a pretty extensive amount of research for these stories. The services and circumstances, as well as the schedules, found on the trains are correct to Amtrak service as existed on the date posted in the story. For example, when Jill and George rode the Desert Wind in The Love Express, the Desert Wind had a dining car and it was mentioned in the story. Six months later, for Eagle In The Sunset, the Desert Wind itself had no dining car; dining service for passengers on that train were provided by the dining car on the California Zephyr up to Salt Lake City; there was only lounge service west of there. That is reflected in the story.
Services at present dates have declined a bit from that offered in 1995, although nowhere near as bad as Southern Pacific trains in the final days of private passenger train operation. This story takes place in the later part of 1995, and the quality of the trains, the equipment used, the food offered, the prices found, and the nature of timekeeping on the system at that time are all as existed in 1995. 1995 was 24 years ago; it was a somewhat different world than the one we live in now.
Finally, unless something weird changes, there will be three more chapters in Eagle In The Sunset- 28, 29, and an epilogue covering a few important events that I don't want to hold off until the next book to mention. Unless I stop writing for some reason, there will be a sequel to this book that will most likely answer all questions you have with the ending.
I have not decided whether I am going to write its successor first, write the sequel to I've Been Everywhere, or do both. I also haven't decided if I am going to post them in this fashion, or write the book and then post it in regular postings once I've finished.
The sequel to I've Been Everywhere is going to be set distinctly in the future from now, cover some more events of Johnny's past relative to the end of IBE, some events of his life between the end of the first book and the beginning of the second, and contain the events around the end of his life. I sat around debating what I should do with it, and I realized I could not keep using the song-inspired location format.
I also took a look at current events as I see them, and the trends in society, and realized that his future would have to exist in a certain world; I don't particularly like that world, but it is the one I see. It should be an interesting book, with some happy and touching moments, but it is not going to be a particularly happy story.
It is not going to be a political story, in my definition of politics. I'm not going to really be talking about the correct side of left-vs-right, conservative-vs-liberal or democrat-vs-republican. But a central thrust of the story is the breakdown of the world as Johnny knew it when the story leaves off in 2009. I spent quite a lot of time talking about Johnny's perception of societies ills, and this book will continue that.
If this story is one you want me to tell, even if it is going to be more than a bit morbid and sad at times, let me know. It will not be the last story in that universe; there are quite a few individual characters who deserve substantially more investigation. If you want me to keep my perspective on this to myself and just write the adjacent stories to Johnny's lives, let me know that, too.
I'm sorry for the sad technical state of chapter 21; I will be posting a better edited version of it later today. I sent it out to Jerry for editing Friday and I have not heard back from him since, including a "You ok dude?" Email early yesterday.
At some point I set up a time-release posting of the chapter for 8AM this morning, with an intention to use that deadline to get my wife to edit it last night; she does a decent job, she just doesn't like doing it. Somehow it got posted well before the posting guideline; I'm not sure what happened, but it obviously posted sooner than that.
On top of that, they finally confirmed what my father has two days ago - Mesothelioma - and I got a phone call about it last night, I think after the time I set up that posting, but I'm not sure. The world is cloudy in my head right now, to be honest. I am in poor health, for a variety of reasons (I wasn't born very healthy to begin with, and I am both something of a glutton and a heavy drinker, and while I have managed to considerably work on those two, the damage of years of doing is what it is) and I long ago came to grips with, and frankly serenity with, my own death being somewhat young.
When we discovered my dad had cancer after he fell on Father's Day 2016, I read the life expectancy of lasting five years being somewhat slim, and I accepted that, and came to peace with it. When they removed all traces of it by removing a third of one of his lungs, I hoped it would be a permanent reprieve, but I intellectually doubted it, and resigned myself to that fact. When they found cancer again in his lung a few weeks ago, I wasn't surprised, and I was at peace with it intellectually. I was sad and disappointed, but I am usually a pragmatist.
When they called me yesterday, told me the diagnosis, I was accepting of it intellectually, and I was distressed, but I was... ok, I guess. The next topic of discussion was the arrangements they made between the time they found out and that phone call to ensure me and my wife's financial security no matter what happened, suddenly it was all different. It was obviously more real to them, and it became very very real to me.
I am in a complete fog; I don't remember exactly the order of events yesterday, but when I realized the chapter had posted, I really didn't feel like doing anything about it. I feel a bit better now. I hope to continue writing; it helps keep me in a world where my father isn't dying. I mean the diagnosis could be worse; they are hoping with the treatments he may make it up to another couple of years.
Since my store burned down, turning out these semi-decent stories and entertaining all of you has been... well the best I could accomplish, and it feels good doing it. I am grateful for your readership. I need this outlet, so I hope to continue to use it.
Sorry if I sounds like I'm whining; this is just life being unfair, the way it often can be. He isn't that young; he still stands a chance of making it to 75. I was just expecting him to live to similar ages as his parents (they both died in their late 80s), and I really shouldn't have had the temerity. I should know better than to take life for granted; I always say its too short to rush.
Its the divide between intellectual thought and gross reality, I suppose. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the content of chapter 21, if not the technical mess I posted it in. I am hoping Jerry is ok; Chapter 22 is written, chapter 23 is half written, and unless I hear from Jerry soon, chapter 22 should be following in a couple of days, followed a few days later by chapter 23, god willing.
Happy thanksgiving, everyone, and be thankful for everything you have, because you just don't know when it might be taken away from you.
Good news: Chapter 18 is with my editor Jerry and will be published after he gets through with it. I have also finished outlining the rest of the story so I know more or less where I am going with it and where it will end: Spoiler alert: I ain't gonna tell yuh, okay, or what?
Bad News: My father is a lung cancer survivor; it has come back, and this time it is inoperable. The doctor thinks he has good chances of responding to treatments; my research on Pluera cancer makes me a lot less optimistic, but she is one of the best doctors in the country on that sort of thing, so I am hopeful that she understands it better than me; actually I'm sure she does.
Anyway, I was planning on starting writing chapter 19 this afternoon, and I am just not feeling it. I have this want to be distracted more and thinking less. I am hoping to work on it, maybe a little later today, maybe more tomorrow. It is kind of hard to be writing a story taking place inside a hospital at this particular second. But I don't know. I just know what I DON'T want to be thinking about.
Let me get the first part right out: I do not intend to take down this story or anything like that. I always print a hard-cover version of my stories for my own bookshelf, and I printed a second hard-cover copy of I've Been Everywhere to share it with a family member, who complained that I should have done a soft-cover version for him to save him money and space.
I have therefore created a soft-cover version of The Love Express for his consumption. Since I went to the effort of producing a low-space edit of the story for paperback printing, I figured I would offer it to any readers who happen to want it. It is $9.95 on Lulu, and if you are interested feel free to send me a comment on this requesting the direct link to purchase it.
It would take me a bit to edit the hard-cover copies of I've Been Everywhere and The Love Express for sale, if you happen to want that. The hardcover would, of course, be more expensive. If there is strong enough demand for a paperback version of I've Been Everywhere, I would consider looking into printing that, at well. That would be more, too, given that it is longer, but obviously less than a hardcover.
I am happy to provide the stories for free, I'm just offering this to people who might want it; I created it primarily for my own pleasure. The printed version of The Love Express is changed a bit insomuch as it offers cover art, and a relevant image of some sort each chapter.
If someone wants me to add those kinds of features to I've Been Everywhere, I can do that, too.
I am making a profit from the potential sale of these books, right around $5, which probably won't change irrespective of what the book is. If you think what I'm doing is wrong, feel free to message me your opinion, too.
As I said, I promise these books will remain freely available on SOL, in the most complete form I create them in, minus pictures.
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