Omachuck: Blog

Those of you who read my stories probably know I'm an alum of the University of Georgia, and as such, no fan of the Auburn Tigers. But if you haven't read auguy86's blog, you should, Every word is dead on.

In my mind, making this even worse - if that were possible - this is not Ohio State's first instance of tolerating, even idolizing an abusive coach. In the only college football game I ever watched with my father, we saw Woody Hayes slug a Clemson player who intercepted an OSU pass with 2:30 left in the game. He was then fired.

However, if you read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Hayes, you can also see that Hayes had a history of violent behavior towards the press, at least one other student athlete, and violent unsportsmanlike conduct during a game.

Until his slugging an opposing player - on the sidelines - OSU's response to their winning coach's bad behaviors was minimal.

I suspect auguy86 and I will garner some hate mail and some 1's after calling out this travesty by a major university.

Apparently, Ohio State has learned nothing.

I'm close to finishing the sequel to Siobhan. I confess that I'm somewhat surprised that it is my second most frequently downloaded story, and for quite a while it has had the most weekly downloads.

I should have the story to editors, if any remain, sometime this weekend, and I hope to start posting before I leave for vacation in Ireland in early September. Once started, the postings will continue on a regular schedule until the story is finished.

The new story relies on the reader being familiar with the characters and premises of Siobhan, so refreshing your memory is advised.

I'm out in north western Nebraska visiting my 94-years-old mother. This area is the site of my first story in THE Harem Tales sequence. I took Mom for a drive through Custer State Park to look at the bison and the wild burros, her favorite drive.

You may recall there was a serious fire in the park a short while back. The park has recovered nicely and the green lessens the impact of the fire's destruction. The burros were out, including the newest baby, and the bison were spread out in several herds - a couple on the road. Can you say traffic jam?!

Hot Springs, Chadron, HWY 20, and the Cowboy Trail remain much the same as when I described them. A few businesses closed, but none that I described.

This corner of Nebraska and South Dakota are lovely and well worth a visit.

Stories? I'm cycling through the sequel to Siobhan and two Swarm tales. All three are progressing, but my need to write on all three is slowing things down.

I haven't been getting much email nor comments, but I promised to look at downloads and story ratings when deciding on what to work on next. Tomorrow marks a year since I began posting Siobhan, and though she isn't my highest rated story, she continues to be the most frequently downloaded story every week. So...

When last we heard from Siobhan and the rest of Mishka's Nexus, they were returning to Earth after meeting with the Trade Association's council. What about the missing experiments? The new story joins sister-triplets on the day the world died. So far, there are new aliens, more friends, more duplicity, and stuff that just creeps in when I'm barely watching. Not sure when the story will be completed and posted, but I am not recapping, so you'll need to be familiar if you want to enjoy the new story.

Another measurement shows that THE Harem Tales 5: Inkie continues to be my highest scored story. So I am also working on two sequels in which Inkie, aka S'Rndult T'Blssut among the Tuull, is a character. We learn more about the Tuull as well. I think I mentioned before that the Tuull love kittens? Maybe not... but, they are not fond of adult cats. In one of the stories, we'll learn more of that conundrum.

You can influence me by writing (Omachuck@aol.com), commenting, or voting.

It's been six months since my last story was posted, yet you folks continue to read them. I don't know what download count really means, but since my stories seem to download between 500 and 1,000 times a week, my total should cross 400,000 before the month is out. That's a heck of an ego boost for someone whose first fiction was written a little over two years ago.

My thanks to you all! !

Seeing yet another blog entry about missing or corrupted files, I find myself sticking my nose in. I highly recommend to all authors starting a Dropbox account if you don't have one already. It is free, and stowing a copy of your works-in-progress, story ideas, and unfinished stories is a good idea. I had just uploaded one of the stories I just started, when Microsoft inflicted an update. It failed, but also dorked up my laptop for two days. There was peace of mind in that I knew there were current copies safe and accessible. Mind you, I'm not always good about prompt backups...

Anther benefit is giving your editor(s) access.

On my stories front, I now have two Inkie sequels in progress, a sequel to Siobhan just started, and another Swarm story just a tickle in my imagination. I don't upload until a story is complete and proofed, so it may be a while yet before one sees the dawn...