StarFleet Carl: Blog

You know how real life has a tendency to fill your plate up at times? It's been that way around here. We had to take the keys away from the mother-in-law, so she couldn't drive any more. Three guesses which former car salesman (that sold her the car in the first place) got put in charge of getting the most money from it for her? (2017 Subaru Forester Premium with Eyesight, 18,500 miles, added Katskin leather seats - I'm curious what you think I managed to get for it from a dealership as a straight buy bid.)

That was fine, but she then fell, got hurt, and was in the hospital. Upon release, she had to go to assisted living, and that's where she's going to stay. So now we have to get her house in order (literally) so that my sister-in-law and I can market it, since we're both realtors. In the meantime, I've FINALLY had a qualified buyer again (only took three months!), so I've been busy showing them houses, then getting contracts written, and now going through the home inspection process.

On top of that, my wife had knee surgery Thursday. Amazing how when the pain meds finally wear off how much things hurt. (I've had my share of surgeries over the years - same day normally is great, but two days later REALLY sucks.)

All that to say that I'm ALMOST done writing Chapter 10 of Book Four, but I've been almost done writing Chapter 10 for most of the week. I still think I should have 15 chapters done by Thanksgiving ... I've got things figured out in my head, it's just getting the time to get things down now. It's not like things are incredibly convoluted in the storyline or anything, with it all being quite straight forward, right? (Yeah, I laughed at that a little, myself.)

... and I will remember.

Twenty years ago this morning I had showed up to work on a house as a contractor. We started working, and as we do, we turned the radio on to listen to the Bob & Tom show out of Indianapolis. Except they weren't being funny, they were broadcasting what they were seeing on their screens in the studio. The homeowner was there as well, and we were like everyone else - in shock. As we heard more, we realized that this was no accident. The question we all had was ... "Okay, we're at war. Who are we at war with?"

To those who survived that awful day, to those who lost loved ones, to those who raised their hands and volunteered to serve their nation and have done so with honor ... we have not forgotten you.

To those who supported this act against civilization, who cheered when the towers fell, and those who have acted without honor regarding our country ... we have not forgotten you, either.

Remember the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, the rest of the World Trade Center complex, and remember the words that will forever echo through a field in Pennsylvania, paid for with the blood of Americans. "Let's roll."

This brings Book Three to a close. Book Four should start posting around Thanksgiving - at least, that's my goal. I have eight chapters complete, working on number nine. As a full-time realtor, I'm an independent contractor, so I work my own hours. But that also means when I'm working with a client, I'm liable to spend an entire day showing properties. I also will NOT start posting until I have at LEAST a 15 chapter buffer built up, because Book Four is harder to write due to the sheer number of internal and external references I have to continually check, for plot consistency.

If you're wondering why Sunday and not Saturday ... stories post at approximately 8 AM EST. On the twentieth anniversary of 9/11/01, that seemed to me to be disrespectful as hell - which is where I hope those hijackers are right now.

End the fighting. Destroy the bad drugs. Live in peace.

Chapter 29 is uploaded for this Saturday. When I upload Chapter 30 next week - which is the last chapter of Book Three - it will NOT post until Sunday, instead of Saturday, 09/11/21. Wonder why?

I may or may not post a single chapter piece I've been writing this week. It's helped me wrap my head around how our world has changed ... and yet in so many ways remains the same ... over the last twenty years. Putting what I've internalized down 'on paper,' as it were, has been good for me. I haven't changed the way I think about things in general, it's simply allowed me to focus more.

Book Four is coming along fairly well. I'm working on Chapter 9, without what I'd call too many issues. I have zero clue at this point if I'll be able to wrap things up in Book Four, or if this is going to end up with a Book Five. I've some of the combat with Shiva already mapped out in my mind, but I also don't feel like that should be the conclusion of Cal's story. I have had someone suggest that my last scene should be Cal doing something, and then having someone show up, claiming to be the Messenger from Above. End of Story. That seems mean, evil, and totally despicable - which means I like it.

Have a good week, enjoy how Cal bows down and kowtows to Queen Elizabeth, and remember, just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, you found out Murphy was an optimist.

Chapter 28 is now in the queue for this Saturday. One of the things I've been doing with this story of an alternate Earth is to try to make it believable. Oh, I know, putting a superhero from another planet automatically puts it into the science fiction category.

Another thing that I've done is try to weave historical events into this, again in a believable way. Something I've found as I've been doing my research on these events is something many of you are going to say I'm crazy for even bringing it up this way, on this blog. I'm doing so simply because of two recent articles that were just published this past week.

One of them had this opening line: "One of the most effective ways ... to shut down an inquiry into misconduct is to say it is all a conspiracy theory."

Another had these opening lines: "Fifty years ago, journalist Gary Allen set out to write a book to prove conservative anti-communists wrong. But while researching, he realized he had not seen the "hidden picture." There indeed was a conspiracy, shielded by a narrative advanced by liberal academia and the mainstream media, both actually in the service of an elite cabal that included Rockefeller, Ford, Morgan, Rothschild, Loeb, Kennedy, and Carnegie."

I think everyone would agree that I've woven quite a number of 'conspiracy theories' into these novels. There are even a couple more of them in Chapter 28. Again, keep in mind that I've come up with everything in these novels on my own, and conducted my own, independent research. Based upon some of the emails I've gotten from you, the readers - and you're an eclectic bunch that's done a lot of stuff in a lot of places around the world DURING the time periods covered by my novels - it really sort of seems like I've hit the proverbial nail on the head and there's a lot of stuff called 'conspiracy theory' I've included that ... isn't theory, it's what really happened.

I specifically used this quote in the story earlier. 'Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.' Right now, based on my count, I'm up to twenty things I've said, hey, this sounds cool, let me put it in here. I need to figure out to make it work, so let's do some research. Then, as I'm doing my research, I'm going ... Damn! I thought ... but this says ... wait a minute, what? Maybe I'm a little touched in the head, maybe I'm now an incredible conspiracy theorist. Maybe I've found out that a lot of what we've been told not to concern ourselves with is real. Hell if I know. I thought I was making this stuff up all along. It's disturbing to find out that I'm not.

TL:DR - Carl's maybe off his rocker? Or he's found out that a lot of stuff we've been told not to worry about, it's all just conspiracy theory, is the truth. (Not all of them, but way too many for comfort.)