StarFleet Carl: Blog

Since I've had a couple of emails asking - the multitude of tornadoes that went through the Oklahoma City area Sunday night missed. Thank you for asking and your concern. All we got at my house was some rain and really strong winds. The closest actual 'nader' was over five miles away. (Yeah, the Oklahoma City metro is REALLY big.)

Well, Chapter 9 in now uploaded and in the queue for Saturday posting. I hope there isn't anything fatal that happens when Laz takes the site down tomorrow for his maintenance. Something I learned when I had to purchase a new computer recently is how far behind the times I am on computers now. They don't put cup holders in them as standard any longer. (Hush, I know that's a CD drive, I'm just being facetious.) Nor are VGA outputs - I had to buy a new monitor, too.

I think everyone would agree my story qualifies as science fiction as opposed to fantasy. The SCIENCE portion of that is a real pain in the butt to research. Cal's dad was the rocket scientist. I can only imagine how it was pre-internet days. I remember reading in a book from RAH how it took him a week and multiple trips to the library to make sure the computations were right for ONE LINE in one of his juveniles. He could have simply faked it, but he wanted it to be right. Speaking of being right - this chapter has an interesting law discussion. Before the legal beagles get on my case about something being wrong, make sure you READ the relevant section, and then RE-READ it. ESPECIALLY what Earl says. My definitions and explanations are correct. (While I don't have a JD, I do have a Master's in Criminology - which is a misunderstood degree program by a LOT of people. I studied ALL aspects of civil and criminal law, not just the Criminal Justice program that police need. That included sociology and psychology as well as the history and basis of common and constitutional law.)

AITA? Laz has given us assorted features regarding comments on our stories. One is to delete comments, and I haven't used that. The other two are to block readers from commenting on A story, or to block the reader from commenting on ANY of your stories. I finally reached that point of where I was was tired of thumping a deceased equine regarding one reader's continual whining - I'm not going to name him here, because it's pretty obvious if you've actually read the comments of this and my last novel in this series who it is - that I finally said I'm done. Begone with you! No more comments from you about this topic!

One of my editors sent me this note: Ya know... After all this build up, and waiting... THIS HAD BETTER BE ONE HELL OF A BATTLE... and Cal had BETTER survive!!!
My reply was: So, you’re saying I shouldn’t just say:
Shiva left his spaceship. I waited patiently.
________
Well, that was fun, I thought five minutes later.
HIS reply was: PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One last thought from me. I mentioned before I wrote a story for the Valentine's Day Contest. Everyone can see how many times a story has been downloaded on the New Stories page and scrolling down far enough, even clicking over to page two at this point. So you can click on the stories and read most of it, but the only people who can vote on a story are those who actually pay for membership here. As the author, I CAN see the number of votes and what the score is for my story on my stats page. I almost wish I couldn't. Ouch! At least it's doing better than any of the last 300 Mat Twassel 'stories'.

Just a comment that I find it interesting so many authors don't take advantage of the advance uploading capabilities Laz has given us. I see so many blog posts that the the next chapter is uploaded - and some time the blog post is AFTER the chapter is already available.

A few years ago, I received a couple of ratcheting belts as a present. I remember the days of the army slide belts, and wasn't too sure about these. Now that I've been wearing them, I'm never going back to the traditional hole belt again. I find that after about four months or so, I have to trim a half inch off the end, where the spikes that hold the buckle have slid, but I'm otherwise getting two - three years out of each belt, if not more. And I can change buckles between belts easily as well, to match clothing for formal occasions.

I easily survived the most recent ice event here, as it was, from my perspective, mostly a non-event. Some sleet on the roads, schools were closed, and that was about it. Further south got hit harder, and I have memories from a few years ago from the MAJOR ice storm that hit us and took months to recover. I swear, though, most drivers on the interstates here only have one gear for their car, which is flat out full speed. One of the Highway Patrol officers here got some nice dashcam video of a semi that was going too fast, hit a slick spot, then jack-knifed and tore the crap out of the restraining barrier between the lanes on the highway.

Speaking of semi trucks - congratulations to the European truck driver that did the first 1800 mile round trip delivery in his all electric semi. It only took him a full WEEK to do what would've taken two to three days, and due to the cost of recharging, it only cost TWICE what it would've to fill up with diesel. But somebody had to do it.

Also, congratulations to Tom Brady for retiring - again. Only this time it may be for real. That's one way to get rid of Gisele.

Oh, and as the Facebook Meme says - if you're keeping score, so far the Conspiracy Theorists are 37-0 on their 'theories' actually being real and the truth. :) Pesky thing, the police body cam video from Paul Pelosi's attack actually matching what NBC first reported and then later denied, even going so far as to chastise their reporter for having the temerity to report it. Or Pfizer getting caught saying they were doing gain of function research. Or Hunter finally admitting it is his laptop. Or the Steele dossier was fake. Sorry, guys - I've done so much research into the conspiracy stuff for A True History that there's a hell of a lot of them that I mention in the book that aren't theories, they're truth, that I've decided the only difference between a conspiracy theory and reality is a good publicist. (I mean, when you've got guys who were ON the Navy ships that have made depositions that they were using TWA 800 as a training exercise and accidentally shot it down... ah, well.)

One key thing to remember when reading this is that while this is ALMOST our Earth, it's still an alternate Universe. Boy, have I had fun doing research on THAT topic, while at the same time not falling into the 'Sacred Timeline' sanctimonious bullcrap of the TVA. (If you've not seen any of 'Loki' on Disney, don't worry about it.)

I also started, wrote, and completely finished a story for the Valentine's Day contest on here. The whole holiday time frame, along with the weather, is designed to totally bring us down. Of course, my birthday was early last month, then Christmas, New Year's Day, then my wife's birthday - all within a 6 week span. Ugh!

Of course, it's also that time of the year to nominate people for the Clitorides Awards. Keep in mind, this is just the nomination process and NOT the actual voting. I'm amused because another author on here called me Carl Moonglow in a work, and was upset they didn't win Author of the Year. It's all good - hell, nobody's even nominated me for that so far this year, so you may have shot! :)

Stay warm, it's still winter!

Chapter 6 is in the queue for Saturday, Chapter 7 will be in two weeks. I just finished Chapter 20 and it's in editing.