StarFleet Carl: Blog

Just uploaded Chapter 16 for Saturday. Now that monsoon season seems to have ended, we've immediately gone into baking season, with near 100% humidity and 90+ degree temperatures.

Or as we like to call it, a normal Oklahoma summer.

As for progress, I've got three chapters off for final editing, and halfway through what should be the last chapter of this book. That'll have to be edited and such, so I'm going to shoot for the completed book to hit Bookapy around the end of the month. Obviously, it will NOT be the end of Cal's story.

Well, maybe not so much. Let's just say that Machapuchare and Machu Picchu aren't quite ready to give up their secrets just yet. I'm now writing Chapter 89 - which is number 29 for this book. That means it's almost done, so BE PATIENT! It'll still have to go to the editors, and then I'll do one final run through of everything before I put it up on Bookapy.

Be thankful I didn't end it at Chapter 87. There was actual discussion about that. You'll understand when you read it, but I figured that it would be too dirty of a trick to pull on everyone. I think that you can assume that means it was a cliffhanger. Lord, would it have been a cliffhanger. If I had done that - you'd all hate me. Seriously. All three of my editors agree that the ending of Chapter 87 is probably going to be incredibly controversial for those who wait to read it here.

I'm chuckling with evil anticipation, actually. Not just because I'm foreshadowing something you're not going to see on here for three more months! Well, actually, yeah, pretty much, just that. MUUAHAHAHA! Also, for those of you who have complained that I haven't had any explicit sex in this book yet ... Chapter 88 does.

When Chapter 90 is done, I'm taking a slight break. Hopefully not of a leg. I need to finish getting the rest of Book One as cleaned up, so I can see if it's worth anything. I have a story in Mushroom's 'Night of Madness' universe that I need to finish. I'm also working on buying a house myself, and we all know how much fun moving is. That means Book Four - and there'll HAVE to be a Book Four - probably won't start gracing these pages until maybe Thanksgiving. So, end the fighting, destroy the bad drugs, and live in peace!

Don't freak out today (Wednesday) - that's just the Cast of Characters updating a bit. Saturday will be when Chapter 14 posts, and it's being uploaded today as well.

I think an email response I got from previous blogs is right. Cal is a 16 year old boy, acting LIKE a 16 year old boy. Sometimes he's all grown up, and sometimes he's just a dork. How can he 'come of age' if he's acting like he's got the life experiences of a 50 (59, in my case) year old man behind him all the time? Also, Jennifer isn't necessarily the greatest judge of character as an adult - she was married to a child molester for HOW long? Only staying with him because of her own guilt due to cheating and her church.

I had hoped to have Book 3 done by Memorial Day. I'm going to miss that deadline. I have a closing on Friday, and then this weekend we're spending time with family. Of the six of us in this generation, four of us are prior service and one of us is still in the military. I know - which a lot of people don't - that this holiday isn't for us, the living, but to remember those who have served our country and are now gone.

One grandfather a US Marine in WWI. Three uncles - one a US Marine (including Iwo Jima), one in the US Navy (North Atlantic convoy duty), one in the US Army Air Corps (P-38 crew chief in South Pacific), in WWII. My wife's father, USAF. My flag flies for you, and the rest of your brothers and sisters in arms that gave their lives for our freedoms.

Those of you reading this who are also authors know that sometimes the Muse beats on the inside of your head until you finally say, "Fine, here!", and then allow what she's pushing at you spew forth from your fingers to the keyboard.

Three hours and 4,000 words later, I sent it off for checking. It needs rewriting. That was obvious to me before I even sent it out. It's a story set in Mushroom's 'Night of Madness' universe, and it's dark. Not the universe - the story. I'm four chapters away from finishing up Book Three of 'A True History'. Thank God for buffers.

I did some thinking about the recent criticism that people have been posting in my comments and in emails. I decided that since I'm not writing this to satisfy you - I'm writing this to satisfy myself, and you're the lucky recipients of my willingness to SHARE this with you, that quite frankly, I don't care what you think. I'm going to keep writing this, what I want to write, and posting it here. If you choose not to read it, that's on you. I do know one thing.

You click on the link to the Clitorides Awards, and then on the 2020 Winners, and the very first book that shows up is 'A True History - Book One', as the Epic Erotic Story of the Year 2020.

"Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand,
I don't care cause I'm still free, you can't take the sky from me."
- Sonny Rhodes

I think I'll actually have time next week to get Chapter 85 written. Two days of showings this week, inspection this afternoon, a final walk through and closing tomorrow, then showings for most of Saturday. Considering that nationally, we're more than 2.5 MILLION houses short of where we need to be, it's not going to get better any time soon.

I don't know if anyone else is reading the public comments at the end of the story. I'm amused, because of three things.

One, apparently everyone has forgotten that this story is currently taking place in 1985 and not 2021. That means you can't apply TODAY'S standards to how people were then. How old were you thirty-six years ago? Me, I was 23, and just graduating from college. You think maybe YOU might have looked at things a little differently then?

Two, in line with that, yes, I've been married to my wife for 22 years now. I know some of you have been married for 40 years. Do you remember when you'd been together with your girlfriends for only four or five MONTHS, or LESS? You're assuming that Cal has the maturity of someone who's 50 or 60 years old ... not 16. If you're male, remember what an immature jackass you were as a junior in high school (or what a nerd, that got beat up all the time)? Really, guys? Would you like me to hold that ladder, so you can climb down off your high horse?

Third ... I even got a couple of emails that said Jennifer should know better because she's so much older, and been married before. Guys, she was married to a CHILD MOLESTER! She'd mentally compartmentalized things. This is all new to her, too!

In an upcoming chapter, Cal makes a comment to the effect of, "Whoa, this is a lot of changes in only a month!", with the response from one of his ladies being, "Now you know what you've been putting US through!" Cal landed in Kansas on August 24th, 1984. Chapter 12 starts on January 13th, 1985. That's a LOT of stuff happening in what amounts to a very short time.

This is coming of age story. The characters involved are going to make mistakes. They're human, no matter what planet they were born on. How they react and learn from the conflict is what makes the drama and story worth reading. And I think my editors would agree ... you guys ain't seen nothing, yet.