StarFleet Carl: Blog

The house we started trying to get in May FINALLY got through probate and all the papers signed on Thursday of last week. I spent all day Friday and most of yesterday working on cleaning it out. Abandoned, foreclosure type of home, so with help, we filled up a 15 yard dumpster Friday, and a 20 yard dumpster yesterday.

Now comes the interior demolition, structural pillars (those are common here, due to settling), new roof, taking out trees, and all the fun stuff. Moving in should be about eight weeks out. That means packing is finally going to begin. Anyone got a pickup, trailer, and some teenagers (preferably from Star Home) I can borrow in January? :)

Oh, anyway, I put the prologue, preface, or whatever the heck you want to call it, and Chapter One of Book Four in the queue for Thursday morning. Thought that ought to put some smiles on people's faces. Happy Thanksgiving.

I've gotten some feedback regarding how good some of the characters are at golf. I'm not going to link to the video, simply because if I do, this won't appear on the front page. (See, it's not that tough to follow the rules here.)

In a practice round for last years Masters tournament, Jon Rahm hit a ball across a pond, skipping it like a stone over the water, instead of sending it through the air. That ball bounced a couple of times, then went onto the green, rolled along, and took a serious left curve - for a hole in one. That was his SECOND hole in one in as many days. He'd gotten two the previous week in a tournament. It's sort of like when I wrote about Cal blasting one across the lake at the course in Florida - I was writing fiction, then while I was waiting for that chapter to post, someone did it. They actually changed the rules because of it, to make that shot out of bounds.

Reality is stranger than fiction.

Quick update - the first thirteen chapters are fully proofed and totally ready to go. Which doesn't mean you won't find a mistake, but I would certainly hope not. The next three are in assorted stages of editing, and I'm 7 pages deep into Chapter 17.

Having a deep buffer is going to help. Way back in the middle of summer, the wife and I were planning on getting a house, having remodeling done on it, and then moving. It has FINALLY gotten through all of the legal steps (Folks, make sure you have a will, so your stuff doesn't have to go through probate and your kids argue about stuff, unless you really want to irritate them!) and should close on Monday. We hope! That should put us moving in the middle of January. This is Oklahoma, so we could have sub-zero temperatures, or it could be 70. Or both, within two days.

I've got my ninth sale for the year set to close in another month, and I've got several clients I'm searching for houses for, both as investment properties and homes. The market is getting better from the Covid crisis, but we're not forecasting it to recover for another couple of years. Even then, there'll still be a housing shortage due to certain economic policies that aren't helping things.

Oh, speaking of economic policies, I had ONE person tell me in email they lost respect for me as a writer because I dare to have an opinion and not be afraid to speak it. Funny, I didn't think that it was any secret over the last few years from anyone who follows the forum on here or reads my blogs that I'm from rural Indiana, served in the US Military, and I'm now in central Oklahoma. Two states that are basically the same, only 700 miles apart. Welcome to states that have conservative values, are religious (TWO days here, not just one like in Indiana), and believe the Second Amendment is our carry permit. Of course, I also got TWELVE emails that agreed with my comment. Dick Winter said it in 'Band of Brothers:' "You salute the rank, not the man." Of course, the man passed gas on Camilla Parker-Bowles (Bowels?), so ... he's at least good for a fart joke or two.

I know what kind of goodies I'd like to find in my bag after Trick or Treating. We like to call them Freedom Seeds. Just remember, guns don't kill people, Alec Baldwin kills people. If he'd actually bothered to take one of those NRA gun safety classes he vilified, he wouldn't be in the news right now for committing negligent homicide. Of course, Hollywood seems to love being full of hypocrisy - guns are evil, but let's make our money from movies with people shooting guns.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now, since you're not reading my blog to find out whether I liked the new 'Dune' or not. (I did.)

Chapter 15 is halfway complete. The first 13 chapters are completely through the editing process and other than final read through, are ready to go starting Thanksgiving. I would have liked to have had the whole book done by the end of the year, but I don't see any way of that happening now. As you know if you've read my blog, I'm a Realtor (tm). That means I could have nothing on my calendar at all and be merrily writing, and fifteen minutes later, I'm booked up for the next week showing houses. Then you have to do the inspection process, the TRR and negotiation, make sure everything proceeds through for closing, and then finally actually closes like needed, so then you get paid.

One of the things I've done is not repeat myself every chapter this book. My editors have been asking me - who's this person? What's the difference between Uhuru and Uluru? I told them that one of the complaints I had was that Cal seemed to keep tooting his own horn by repeating his accomplishments, or someone would say basically the same thing three chapters in a row. I realized that what was happening was I write in a serialized fashion. I'm assuming that you, the reader, are only going to get my information every week, and you may need reminding. However, when you read the book straight through, it's annoying, because I just said something last chapter, and here I am, repeating it again.

At least that tells me how to cut things when I go back and edit my other books again.

Well, enjoy your tricks and treats tonight, and Let's Go, Brandon!

Close enough, anyway.

The tornadoes have missed me so far. It's wonderful having spring weather in the fall. Although since Oklahoma has had tornadoes in December, welcome to life here.

I had a health issue back in July that put me in the hospital for four days inpatient. I'm curious to see what happens with the billing now - the hospital billing office didn't call the insurance for authorization on the next business day - or for almost two weeks, so insurance is only paying 50%. That ought to be an interesting issue, because I still haven't seen a bill. I suspect someone is going to get to eat some costs. I'll gladly pay the deductible I was SUPPOSED to pay, but I'm not paying anything else.

As for ATH, I'm halfway finished writing Chapter 103 - Chapter 13 of Book Four. I had to go back and add things to previously finished chapters of Book Four, because I'd sort of been focused on when kids were due - and forgot that some of the Moms had birthdays I'd completely ignored mentioning.

I had to find a flight time calculator that dealt with time zones, too. The previous flights they'd done were simply, literally, around the world. Going direct - over the North Pole - confused the hell out of me. I thought I had things figured right, and I got the times right, just got the days wrong. Take off at 9 pm on Thursday, land at 6 am Sunday - with 15 hours of flight time to cover 7,800 miles. And the reverse was fun, too. Take off Monday at 8 pm, arrive Monday at 11 pm.