Unsettling Mystery

Shoot, this was from years ago, and I don't think I ever mentioned it.

Back when I'd go to the cabin every week, I arrived one day to find a tree right in front of where I park my car, and one side of it had been torn apart.  

I thought, "Holy pee, what kind of clawed animal could have done this?"  It was further disturbing because it was so HIGH up on the tree, filling my mind with images of bears, cougars, a badger that taught itself to walk on its hind legs (and attack genitals), and dudes with facial tattoos not named Post Malone.

But when I went back to close up the cabin with my brother (this would've been November, 2021), and I pointed it out to him, he told me that it was my nephew who'd done it, with a hatchet, because he was feeling bored and destructive.  Oh.

Gee, now I sort of understand why I didn't mention it before.

Cover Me, Porkins!

I've mentioned, maybe not as often as I should, that Big Anklevich has been helping me with my covers a great deal lately.  I'm trying to get back into self-publishing, and he has a strong visual sense.  Usually, our process is that I select an image, do a mock-up for it, and then he provides a better version, like this . . .

But something happened on the way to heaven; it got hold of him and wouldn't let go, and Big, on his own, started just grabbing covers of mine I had published years ago, and designed new covers for them.  And they just keep flooding in, covers like these:

Why would he do this, you may ask yourself.  And yeah, it's a good question.

I asked him myself, and Big said that he looked at some of those old covers (those old, perfectly cromulent covers), and thought they looked terrible, so he figured he'd see if he could do better.

I think it's the font that bothered him in some of the images, but a few of them he's completely reimagined, including these two really, really dark versions:

I wish there was some way to pay him back.

Exercise Gole

Last night, I planned to exercise, even got into my running clothes, and then didn't do it.  I had also set up my microphone, meaning to get a couple more "Cormorant" chapters recorded, and at least one "Company You Keep" one done (they take way longer).

But still, March has been more productive than February, and I plan on running again tonight (heck, I could stop blogging and do it right now), especially now that it's way above freezing, even when the sun goes down.

2023 Goals - March Update

Alright, here's a check-in on how I'm doing on my 2023 goals...

1.  Record and Edit "The Cormorant" for Abigail Hilton by March Deadline (oh cool, it's an April deadline.  Very doable*).
It may be doable, but whether I do it or not is still up in the air.

2.  Finish recording and publish text of "Not The Same."
The text version is out.  

3. Put out audio version of "Not The Same."
I've got all but two chapters edited.  I can get this fairly soon.

4.  Plot out and start writing the third "Calling" story (and finish it?).
No progress.

5.  Exercise.  Some kind of doable goal.  Let's say 200 days in 2023.
I only got 27 days in the first two months, but I'm doing better.  And I only have to exercise sixteen days a month to get 200 days (at least by my math).

6.  Put out Christmas collection I was supposed to put out in 2020.
No progress.

7.   Put out Fifth Audio collection, with Introduction by Big Anklevich.
No progress.

8.  Buy no more GI Joe figures.  Enough!
Shoot, I bought some in January.  They were exclusives, and very few stores had gotten them--though that doesn't excuse my transgression.

9.  Do special "Delusions of Grandeur" episode for ROTJ 40th Anniversary.
I'm thinking it's too late now.

10.  Put out "Dead & Breakfast" collection 1.
No progress.  Except that Big is willing to do a cover for it...heck, he may have already done it on his own.

11. Get 10 episodes of TPTDSIN in 2023 (got 9 in 2022).
Well, I've put out one.

12.  Release at least 1 full-length audiobook of my own (not counting collection 5 or "Not the Same").
No progress.

13.  Put out second volume of "Caller I.D." on the Outcast . . . birthday week?
No progress.

14.  Enjoy A show as much as I enjoyed "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."
I have watched some shows, mostly with my cousin, including "The Rookie" and "Mandalorian," and "The Last of Us."  Not sure I'm there yet.

15. Publish ten (10) stories.  That's ten, mutha-fu--
So far, I've published "Not the Same," "The People We Touch," and "The Bad Man In Room 2."  Currently working on "The Company You Keep."

Look, I can do better.  And I hope that I do.  Hopefully, you'll be around to give me thumbs up, if and when I do.

*Okay, it's doable.  Just not VERY doable.

Xercise Update

I tried doing sit-ups for the first time in an entire year, and was surprised to discover that I couldn't manage a hundred.  Did I ever?

But the important thing is that I'm exercising, and pretty regularly now.  More often than I write, and less often than I edit audio.

I went on my full run last night, and about one mile in, it started to rain.  It worked wonders on getting me to exert myself, as I tried to get home before getting soaked, and was gasping and heaving when I came up the steps . . . but in a good way.  

Podcast That Dares 40: The Dead Smile

Rish presents "The Dead Smile" by F. Marion Crawford, from 1899.  Sir Hugh Ockrum takes his secret to the grave, but it behooves Gabriel and Evelyn to get the answer . . . even if it's from the dead.

To download the episode, Right-Click HERE.

To support me on Patreon, click HERE.

Logo by Gino "The Bedspread Smile" Moretto.

Lara and the Witch Thoughts

I went to the library and quite by accident, got out the Lara and the Witch novel I wrote in 2021, "When You Need It Most."*  I had given myself more than an hour to write, and I thought I would briefly format it, make sure it was in the same font, and number the chapters, and before I knew it, they announced the library was closing, and I'd only gotten a third of the way through it . . . and done no writing at all.  That was a bit vexing.

And while I'm on the subject . . .

In between chapters of "Cormorant"--which really ought to be the priority, darn my eyes--I've started recording chapters of "The Company You Keep," which is yet another LATW novella, this one about the girl meeting another witch (or someone who claims to be a witch, anyway).  And I started noticing little inconsistencies or contradictions with the other stories, such as the names of teachers, or Lara's classmates, or whether she wears her pendant always or never, or a friend who's never come up before (not just a friend, but a best friend), or the fact that Holcomb has a friend who wants to use Lara's blood for an arcane ritual . . . even though this friend has never been mentioned before or since.

I remember being a teenager, and reading a short story collection Orson Scott Card wrote, and discovering contradictions and discrepancies, that upset me at the time (it was "The Worthing Saga," I believe, though it has other names, for some reason).  There was a chink in the armor, or at least an editor asleep at the wheel.  Now I get it, though.

So, my question to you is: Does it matter?  Do inconsistencies between stories detract from the enjoyment of the stories?  Is it important that they be addressed in future stories?  If I say Lara's best pal is Chlamydia Donaldson in one story, but say her best friend is Gonorrhea James in another one . . . is that a mistake, or something I should rewrite to correct?

This is kind of new territory for me, so let me know what you think.

*I opened it because I couldn't recall which story it was, looking for one I had stopped halfway through.  It will come as no surprise to you (if you know me) that I couldn't remember what it was about, even though I found bits of it familiar (and even thought about a scene where Lara realizes the truth about the people she's living with earlier in the week . . . thinking it had been in a movie I saw, not something I had written).  That's pretty weird.

Exersize Update

I'm doing better this month.  I honestly think that having the goal board with little squares to color in has helped me.  Twice over the weekend, I considered skipping any exercise, and then thought of how I failed in my February goal (of twenty days), so it motivated me to do something (my goal for March is twenty-one days).

Here's where I stand right now.

I Guest Host "Prime Shipping" on the Anklecast

Big continues his streak of getting out a new Anklecast show every month (in bed).  I wish I had his tenacity (in bed).  

This story is called "Prime Shipping," and it deals with a man who gets a mysterious package from Amazon right when he needs it, and the sender turned out to be . . . himself?  I voice Ethan's buddy DaMarcus (in bed), and afterward discuss it with Big (over the phone).

Check it out HERE.

Rish Outcast 244: People We Touch 2

Rish finishes performing (and discussing) the Lara and the Witch story, "The People We Touch."

Download the show by right-clicking HERE.

Support my Patreon fund, now more than ever, by going HERE.

Logo by Gino "The Creeple We Touch" Moretto.

Audiobook Update

One of my February goals was to get Abbie's book halfway recorded.  Well, that I achieved, and rather easily too (the recording's the good part).  I believe I wanted to have the editing one-quarter done, and that has proved more difficult (the audio seems to be going out on my laptop, which is three steps beyond vexing).  Still, I can get there.

I keep catching mistakes, though, like misreading lines that I only catch in the edit, or a couple lines where I did the wrong voice for a character.  And if you're from the UK, it's got to suck to hear me pronounce the letter A in an American way when I'm doing an English accent . . . because it sucks for me to hear it.*  And then, of course, there are the mouth sounds.  Ohhhh, the mouth sounds.

I've been listening to the audiobook for Stephen King's "Fairy Tale," and I discovered something surprising: there are mouth sounds audible throughout the narration.  If that exists, in a major, mainstream release, maybe I'm sweating too much small stuff.

I've also been doing chapters of my book "Not the Same," here and there.  Sometimes I have to take a break from work and do something else.  I probably ought to get another Podcast That Dares done, but I thought I had two in the can, all ready to go, but when I went to my files yesterday, I couldn't find either one.  I don't have cover art for them either, so it could be the start of Early Onset Dementia.

*"Say Awe-fter, not ah-fter, you idiot!"