Taxicab Tales – It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time

 Posted by at 12:03 am  Nick's Blog
Sep 152026
 

In the past, I have shared a series of stories from my days publishing small town newspapers, from a job I had selling cars, about my time in the Army, and some tales of the offbeat adventures and misadventures I’ve gotten into in a series called Nick Happens. Now, I thought I would share some stories about a period in my life many years ago when I drove a taxicab in Tucson, Arizona. Oh, some of the things I witnessed back then! I’ve told more than one prospective author that if they really want to learn about human nature, they need to become a cop, a nurse, or a cab driver. You will see the best and worst of people in any of those jobs.

Pat was one of my favorite dispatchers at the cab company. He had a great sense of humor, treated everybody fairly, and always had a joke to tell. This was the days before GPS units, and we had to rely on maps to find our way around town. Pat seemed to know every out-of-the-way street, alley, and cul-de-sac in Tucson, and made life a lot easier for a driver trying to find an unfamiliar address.

Because we drove Yellow cabs, he would always call them ducks, saying, “I need a duck around Tucson Mall” or “Any ducks near the airport?” He could also do a pretty good imitation of Donald Duck. If it was a slow weeknight and you were having trouble keeping your eyes open, all it took was Donald getting on the radio talking to you, and you woke up fast. He also used that voice when drunks called in wanting a cab. It’s always fun to confuse a drunk, isn’t it?

As with many silly things, the whole duck issue became a part of our lives for a while. Pat would say something silly over the air, and a cab driver would reply, “You quack me up.” Someone gave Pat a T-shirt that said, “World’s greatest duck.” Not to be outdone, someone else bought him a baseball cap with a large orange duck’s bill, and he proudly wore both all the time. Before long, he had a collection of little rubber and ceramic ducks lined up on the dispatch desk.

Pat drove an old conversion van like those that were popular in the 70s, with a faded mural of some kind on both sides, an amazing sound system, and deep shag carpeting. I had a license plate made up that said “Duckmobile,” and we hung it on the front bumper. With that great sound system, it only stood to reason that when one of the drivers came across an old copy of a cassette tape of Disney’s Goin’ Quackers! with sing-along songs featuring Donald Duck, he had to give it to Pat. My buddy loved blasting it out of the van’s speakers when he would pull up to people at a traffic light. He definitely got some strange looks when he was playing his music and wearing his Donald Duck cap.

Pat’s birthday was about to roll around, and myself and Manny decided that the perfect gift for our quacked-up friend would be some quackers. We hit the local feed store and bought two dozen baby ducks. Now what to do with them? We decided we would put them in Pat’s van to surprise him when he got off work. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Do you have any idea how much poop 24 baby ducks can put out in just a few hours? Trust me, it’s a lot. And do you have any idea how hard it is to get that much duck poop out of deep shag carpeting? It’s definitely a challenge.

Pat was still trying to get it cleaned out months later when summer rolled around. If you’ve never experienced a Tucson summer, it’s kind of like living two steps below hell without air conditioning. It can be brutal. And it’s even worse when you have duck poop cooking in your carpeting. As Pat described it, every ride to work was an aromatic adventure.

***

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. I do like my soseges and backen.

Thought For The Day – You have so many talents that nobody would ever think of wanting.

Screwing Around

 Posted by at 12:03 am  Nick's Blog
Sep 142026
 

I hate to admit this, but I’m really bad at screwing. If you don’t believe me, ask my wife.

Okay, I know where your minds went, and get them right back out of the gutter, now! What you were thinking is disgusting, whether it may or may not be true. 😊

I used to say it was all due to my short sausage-like fingers, but now that I’ve lost some weight, even with my fingers still short, it’s still an issue. As I’ve gotten older, my fingers have gotten very stiff, which makes it very difficult for me to type. Not that I was ever good at that, anyway. (Are you seeing a pattern about a lot of things I’m not good at?)

Using voice to text dictation helps when it comes to typing, but when trying to do anything where I have to manipulate with my fingers, forget it. The historic license plate came for my old Chrysler the other day. When I tried to attach it to the rear bumper of the car, I couldn’t get my fingers to cooperate and kept dropping the nuts and bolts before I could get them screwed together. I had to go inside and ask Terry to come out and help me. It took her all of a minute to do everything, and that included finding the nuts I had dropped.

One thing I do know how to do though, to some extent, is electricity. A while back, the motion-detecting floodlight in the front of the house near the garage died. I purchased another one at Lowe’s, and yesterday I decided to mount and connect it. Getting the old fixture off and the wiring disconnected wasn’t a problem, and it only took me a couple of moments to connect the new light to the wiring. But when I tried to mount it, I ran into trouble. I couldn’t get the mounting screw lined up correctly. I dropped it two or three times, then I dropped the holder and fixture, broke it, and had to go to Lowe’s to get a replacement. Darn it anyway!

Back at home, I connected the wiring to the new unit, and again, it took Terry no time at all to line the screws up and get it mounted properly.

Because the new fixture is smaller than the old one, we have to get some caulk to close the gap around it. In the meantime, Terry put some duct tape on it to keep rain out. What would I do without her?

Congratulations Tony Cirocco, winner of our drawing for an autographed copy of The Ghost of Marlow House, the first book in the Haunting Danielle cozy paranormal mystery series by Bobbi Holmes, who was featured in a recent Author Spotlight. When Danielle Boatman inherits Marlow House, she dreams of turning it into a seaside bed and breakfast. Since she’s never visited the property, Danielle’s not sure what awaits her in Oregon. She certainly doesn’t expect to find one of the house’s previous owners still in residence. After all, the man has been dead for almost ninety years—shouldn’t he have moved on by now? Charming Walt Marlow convinces Danielle the only way he can move on is if she solves the mystery of his death. Danielle soon discovers her real problems may come from the living—those who have their sights on Marlow House’s other secrets.

We had 32 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon! Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 30 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

***

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – When a woman says, “I’m fine!” quietly slip away.

It’s About That Time Of Year

 Posted by at 12:03 pm  Nick's Blog
Sep 132026
 

Even though it’s still in the 80s during the daytime here in Arizona’s White Mountains, the wildlife have their own internal calendar. Saturday night, I heard elk bugling. If you’ve never heard the eerie sound of a bull elk challenging other bulls for dominance and summoning cows for mating, it’s a haunting experience. You wouldn’t think an animal that big could make such a high-pitched sound. This signals that it’s about that time of year for the rut to begin, and we’ll be hearing it for the next couple of months. That’s fine. I can’t get enough of it.

With all the rain we got Friday afternoon and well into the night, the world has turned green everywhere we look. Our grass, clover, and plants are definitely enjoying it, and the cosmos that Terry planted a while back are covered with beautiful flowers.

The other day I told you about the Oneisall 7 in 1 pet grooming system I ordered to try to help with the hair Alli is shedding all the time. But I forgot to tell you about something else that Terry ordered to deal with the same issue. It’s a Helio AirBroom 3-piece sweeper, squeegee, and dustpan set for cleaning up pet hair. It works on carpets, tile, and wet or dry wooden floors. The material for the sweeper and squeegee is some type of silicone that amazed me at how well it worked. Going over a carpet with the sweeper that she had just vacuumed, she came up with more hair than I could believe. If you’ve got critters in your house, you need this.

Besides writing another 2,500-word chapter in my new Tinder Street book yesterday, I also did some experimenting. Amazon is now offering AI translations of books into Portuguese, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. I had them do the first books in the Big Lake and John Lee Quarrels series, as well as both of the Dogs Run books. I have a friend who grew up in France before immigrating to the United States, and he ordered the Big Lake and John Lee books in French and told me he was very impressed with the translations. They are also available in Kindle Unlimited in the different languages now. I will be adding translations of more books as time allows.

I also put the word out in a couple of Facebook author groups I belong to that I needed more submissions for my weekly Author Spotlight, and so far I’ve got six new ones in the lineup and commitments for about a dozen more. They are everything from police procedurals to cozy mysteries, romances, and fantasy/science fiction titles, and I’m looking forward to profiling their authors.

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an autographed copy of The Ghost of Marlow House, the first book in the Haunting Danielle cozy paranormal mystery series by Bobbi Holmes, who was featured in a recent Author Spotlight. When Danielle Boatman inherits Marlow House, she dreams of turning it into a seaside bed and breakfast. Since she’s never visited the property, Danielle’s not sure what awaits her in Oregon. She certainly doesn’t expect to find one of the house’s previous owners still in residence. After all, the man has been dead for almost ninety years—shouldn’t he have moved on by now? Charming Walt Marlow convinces Danielle the only way he can move on is if she solves the mystery of his death. Danielle soon discovers her real problems may come from the living—those who have their sights on Marlow House’s other secrets.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 30 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

***

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. This may not be an aggressive driver, but it’s certainly a snarky one.

Thought For The Day – A man who builds his muscles without building his pocket will end up guarding the man who builds his pocket.

Over 50,000 Now

 Posted by at 12:03 am  Nick's Blog
Sep 122026
 

We had to get up at the ungodly hour of 6 o’clock yesterday morning because we had to be at the trust attorney’s office in Snowflake at 8. We originally formed our family trust in Florida back in 2021, but there are quite a few differences between Arizona law and Florida law. The easiest thing to do was just rewrite the whole thing.

Attorney Brendon Rogers was excellent to work with and covered quite a few bases that hadn’t been covered before, including having powers of attorney and medical powers of attorney drawn up for Terry and me to use in case one or the other is ill or injured and can’t make their own decisions, but also designating those responsibilities in succession to our daughter Tiffany, son-in-law Kenny, granddaughter Hailey, and granddaughter Destiny. He even printed out copies for each of us to have when and if they are ever needed. There was a lot more, but I don’t have space to go into all of it here. If you are in Arizona and need the services of a good trust attorney or estate planning attorney, I would highly recommend Brendon. There is a reason he’s been voted best at what he does in community polls several years running.

We don’t have many grocery shopping choices here in the White Mountains. Show Low has a Safeway and a Walmart superstore, and that’s about it. More than half the time when we go to Safeway, they don’t have the items we are looking for, even basic things like milk and cheese. I honestly don’t know how they stay in business. So when we left the lawyer’s office, we stopped at the Bashas in Taylor on our way home. I sure wish they had one of their locations in Show Low. It’s a huge store, and everything we wanted and more was in stock. It’s only 17 miles from our house, and as Terry pointed out, we used to drive farther than that to go to grocery stores when we lived in Alabama. We may make Bashas our regular shopping destination from now on.

Back at home, I took a nap in my recliner and then started writing, knocking out a little over 3,200 words. That puts me over 50,000 words in my new Tinder Street book. I’m pleased with how well it’s coming together.

It started raining while I was sleeping and continued for the rest of the day and much of the evening. We have been in such a drought that we need every drop of water we can get, and this definitely helped. I hope we get some decent snow this year, too.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. his week’s prize is an autographed copy of The Ghost of Marlow House, the first book in the Haunting Danielle cozy paranormal mystery series by Bobbi Holmes, who was featured in a recent Author Spotlight. When Danielle Boatman inherits Marlow House, she dreams of turning it into a seaside bed and breakfast. Since she’s never visited the property, Danielle’s not sure what awaits her in Oregon. She certainly doesn’t expect to find one of the house’s previous owners still in residence. After all, the man has been dead for almost ninety years—shouldn’t he have moved on by now? Charming Walt Marlow convinces Danielle the only way he can move on is if she solves the mystery of his death. Danielle soon discovers her real problems may come from the living—those who have their sights on Marlow House’s other secrets.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 30 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

***

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Becoming the best version of yourself comes with a lot of goodbyes,

Still In One Piece

 Posted by at 12:03 am  Nick's Blog
Sep 112026
 

I said in yesterday’s blog that I planned to put a clamp on the gas line of the Chrysler convertible to secure it to the fuel pump. I mentioned then that it would be a simple project for anybody else, but with me doing something mechanical like that, anything could go wrong. I’m happy to report that I’m still here and still in one piece.

After putting chocks under the front wheels and then using my floor jack to raise the back of the car, I put jack stands under the frame. One of my earliest memories is of being at somebody’s house where one of my mom’s cousins was working under a car with just an old-style bumper jack. The jack slipped, and the car fell on him, crushing his head like an egg and killing him instantly. I always remembered that and would never crawl under a car without knowing that it was fully supported. Even so, I had Terry come out to stand by just in case something might go wrong. There’s no such thing as being too careful.

With that chore finished, I cleaned up and started writing, knocking out another 2,400-word chapter in my new Tinder Street book. Another good writing day should put me somewhere around 50,000 words.

But that might not be today because we have to go to Snowflake for a meeting with the attorney who is revising our family trust to make sure it meets all of Arizona’s standards, since we first established the trust when we lived in Florida. Each state has its own little quirks, and we want to make sure that if something happens to us, our estate is handled properly and doesn’t have to go into probate.

Later in the afternoon, Tiffany and Kenny stopped by for a quick visit. It’s the first time we’ve seen him since we went to Texas to pick up the old car. He’s still looking pretty haggard from his surgery, and Tiffany said the doctor told them if it had gone any longer, the gallbladder might have ruptured and he would have been dealing with sepsis. I’m glad they got it out when they did.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. his week’s prize is an autographed copy of The Ghost of Marlow House, the first book in the Haunting Danielle cozy paranormal mystery series by Bobbi Holmes, who was featured in a recent Author Spotlight. When Danielle Boatman inherits Marlow House, she dreams of turning it into a seaside bed and breakfast. Since she’s never visited the property, Danielle’s not sure what awaits her in Oregon. She certainly doesn’t expect to find one of the house’s previous owners still in residence. After all, the man has been dead for almost ninety years—shouldn’t he have moved on by now? Charming Walt Marlow convinces Danielle the only way he can move on is if she solves the mystery of his death. Danielle soon discovers her real problems may come from the living—those who have their sights on Marlow House’s other secrets.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 30 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

***

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. I bet somebody just filled their tank.

Thought For The Day – Never go down the “If Only” road. It never leads anywhere good.

Words, Water, And Whatnot

 Posted by at 12:02 am  Nick's Blog
Sep 102026
 

So, what’s going on in our life? All kinds of things. Some of them good and some of them not so good.

The good news is that I talked to Kenny yesterday, and while he is still in pain, he says he is slowly getting better. But he’s off work for a week and bored to death. Kenny is the kind of guy who always has to be doing something, and idleness does not suit him. The not so good is that Terry has been fighting a chest cold for several days now, and it has really taken a toll on her. She told me that she thinks it’s starting to ease up a bit, and I sure hope so. I hate it when the people I care about are not doing well and there’s nothing I can do to help them.

I’ve been doing a lot of writing in my new Tinder Street book, over 6,000 words so far this week. As much as I love this series, it’s the hardest one to write because so much research is involved. I have to watch myself, because I’ll be looking at an old newspaper or online story from the past and the next thing I know, I’m going down a rabbit hole, looking for more stuff that I won’t use in the book but that I’m fascinated by.

Besides writing, yesterday I introduced Alli to the Oneisall 7 in 1 pet grooming system I ordered a while back. Anybody who’s ever been around a German Shepherd knows that name is not really correct. They should be called German shedders, because these remarkable dogs have a thick coat and they shed every day of the year, winter and summer. Our granddaughter Hailey is a pet groomer, but I don’t like to call on her all the time because she’s busy with her new baby and clients’ dogs, and I’m too cheap to pay her. In truth, she won’t take any money from me. Anyway, this is a great vacuum-operated system with everything from hair cutters to nail grinders to paw clippers. I knew Alli would be a little shy around it, but it has three speeds, the lowest one being not very intrusive at all. I won’t say she loved the experience, but she stood still and let me get a lot of hair off of her in the short time I used it. I plan to do a little bit at a time as she becomes more accustomed to the equipment.

One of the worst things about almost everywhere in Arizona is our hard water. That’s why in some places like Yuma and Tucson, they have water vending machines where you can fill up water bottles rather than deal with the stuff that comes out of the tap. Terry got tired of having cloudy iced tea and white mineral deposits on every glass or utensil she used, so she ordered a Bluevua countertop reverse osmosis water filter system from Amazon. It didn’t take long to set up, and after running the first few test pitchers of water and disposing of them as recommended until the various filters got settled in, she now has sparkling clean water that tastes a lot better.

Today I plan to be back at it, getting at least one more chapter written. I’m also going to try to put hose clamps on the gas line on the old Chrysler convertible, which came off a few days ago and spilled gas all over the garage floor. Even I should be able to do that. But then again, we are talking about me, so who knows what might happen?

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an autographed copy of The Ghost of Marlow House, the first book in the Haunting Danielle cozy paranormal mystery series by Bobbi Holmes, who was featured in a recent Author Spotlight. When Danielle Boatman inherits Marlow House, she dreams of turning it into a seaside bed and breakfast. Since she’s never visited the property, Danielle’s not sure what awaits her in Oregon. She certainly doesn’t expect to find one of the house’s previous owners still in residence. After all, the man has been dead for almost ninety years—shouldn’t he have moved on by now? Charming Walt Marlow convinces Danielle the only way he can move on is if she solves the mystery of his death. Danielle soon discovers her real problems may come from the living—those who have their sights on Marlow House’s other secrets.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 30 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

***

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. I’m a gun guy, but I don’t think I want to do any shooting at a range where they have signs in Braille.

Thought For The Day – Some people light up every room they leave.

Author Spotlight – David Grassé

 Posted by at 12:06 am  Nick's Blog
Sep 092026
 

In an effort to introduce my readers to other authors and their work, every week I run an Author Spotlight, sharing information about an author, their work, and how they go about writing their books.

Born in Casa Grande, David Grassé is a third-generation Arizonian, raised in Tucson. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in History and a Master’s Degree in Library Sciences. David has five published books, A Killer is What They Needed: The True, Untold Story of Commodore Perry Owens, The Bisbee Massacre: Robbery, Murder and Retribution in the Arizona Territory, 1883–1884, The True Story of Notorious Arizona Outlaw Augustine Chacón, From the Footlights to the Tenderloin: The Tragic Life of Actress Edna Loftus, and The Red Light Districts of Tucson, 1870 – 1918. He is also the author of numerous magazine, newspaper, and journal articles. David is a member of The Wild West History Association, and The Arizona Historical Society. He is employed as a reference librarian, as writing western history does not pay the bills.

A conversation with David:

When did you decide to become an author, and why?

I was encouraged by a professor at university who read a biographical paper I wrote to turn it into a book. The result was published by Graphic Publishers as A Killer is What They Needed.

How long have you been writing, and what was your first book?

My first book, A Killer is What They Needed: The True Untold Story of Commodore Perry Owens was published in 2013, and it took me about three years to write it.

What genres do you write in?

Only one – non-fiction history. More specifically, with only one exception, I write Arizona Territorial histories.

How many books do you have out?

I have five published books and the sixth will be released in early 2027.

Are you trade published, independent, or a combo?

My books are trade published.

What is your writing style? Panster or plotter or?

Panster, but then in writing history, how the story ends is predetermined.

Do you write more than one book at a time?

I will only start a new project if I hit a dead end. If for some reason, some necessary resources or documents are unavailable, I will move on to another project.

How much research is involved in your writing?

It typically takes three years to write a book. About half of this time is spent researching the subject. This includes searching online databases, visiting archives, and often traveling to the place or places which I am writing about.

Where do you write? Do you have a home office, write in a coffee shop, or what?

At home at my desk, though sometimes I write at work.

Do you use any programs like ProWriting Aid, Grammarly, or ?

Aside from the spellcheck function in MS Word, I do not use such programs, though my editor probably wishes I would.

How do you promote your books?

I regularly attend book festivals, conferences, and give presentations. Thankfully, my publisher does a lot of the marketing for me as far as contacting distributors and sending out review copies.

What are your writing goals, long and short term?

My short term goal is to have my first book published by an academic press. My long term goal is to be named as the official Arizona State Historian.

Any advice to new authors or someone who wants to become an author?

For every finished book, there are probably a thousand more that never got past being a vague desire to write a book.

You can learn more about David’s work and his books at the following links:

www.davidgrasse.com
https://www.facebook.com/davidgrasseauthorhistorian
https://www.amazon.com/stores/David-Grass%C3%A9/author/

***

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. There has to be a story behind this sign, and I want to know what it is.

Thought For The Day – The difference between the almost right word and the right word is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. – Mark Twain

Taxicab Tales – Only In America

 Posted by at 12:16 am  Nick's Blog
Sep 082026
 

In the past, I have shared a series of stories from my days publishing small town newspapers, from a job I had selling cars, about my time in the Army, and some tales of the offbeat adventures and misadventures I’ve gotten into in a series called Nick Happens. Now, I thought I would share some stories about a period in my life many years ago when I drove a taxicab in Tucson, Arizona. Oh, some of the things I witnessed back then! I’ve told more than one prospective author that if they really want to learn about human nature, they need to become a cop, a nurse, or a cab driver. You will see the best and worst of people in any of those jobs.

It was Christmas Eve, and my son was spending the holiday with his mother and sister. At the time, I shared a cab with another driver named Manny. He would drive it on the day shift, and I would drive it on the night shift, and we’d switch back and forth from days to nights every couple of weeks. Manny was also a single father, his wife had deserted the family about the time my marriage broke up, so I decided to work an extra shift to allow him to be home with his kids.

Just about the time the sun was setting over the Tucson Mountains, I got a call to pick up a fare at a music store on Speedway Boulevard. Nobody was waiting outside, and when I went into the store, I discovered my passengers were two Native Americans. One of them was looking at harmonicas and told me they’d be a few minutes, so go out to the cab and start the meter and wait.

When they got in, it was obvious they had been drinking, but they weren’t obnoxious. In fact, they were very friendly, wishing me Merry Christmas and asking if I would take them to the small town of Sells, located on the Tohono O’odam Indian Reservation, about 60 miles west of Tucson. “Don’t worry, man, we’re not going to stiff you,” one of them said, handing me a $100 bill. “If it’s more than that when we get there, I’ll pay you.” So off we went.

We made a couple of stops before we left town, one at a Jack in the Box to load up on food, them insisting on buying me dinner, and then at a carryout where they bought two cases of beer and a couple of bottles of whiskey. All the while, they talked with me, telling jokes and laughing, the three of us having a good old time.

They were twin brothers, and I wish I could remember their names. They asked me about my life and told me what it was like growing up on the reservation. When they found out I was single, they said they were going to make sure to introduce me to a “squaw,” (their word, not mine.) I was a lot skinnier back in those days, and one of them told me that once I cozied up to a big, fat Papago girl, I’d never go back to those “skinny white chicks.”

Before we got to the reservation boundary, they decided they might need more booze, so we pulled into a little store and went inside. They bought two or three more cases of beer, some more hard liquor, and what seemed like a year’s supply of beef jerky, Slim Jims, and cigarettes. They asked if there was a restroom, and the man behind the counter, who had been giving them the stink eye since we walked in the door, told them no.

They went out back to relieve themselves, and as I was walking out the door, he said, “Watch yourself with those blanket asses. First chance they get, they’ll cut your throat.” I didn’t know that my two new friends were on their way back into the store when he said that. I turned around and said, “What the hell are you talking about? Those are my cousins. I grew up with them.”

They thought that was hilarious. When we got in the cab and back on the road, they decided we should probably all cut our wrists and mingle our blood so we could be blood brothers. I told him I was going to pass because I didn’t want my throat cut or my scalp lifted. That made them howl with laughter.

As we rolled along through the dark desert night onto the reservation, I started to see Christmas lights on houses scattered along the way. “What? You didn’t think Indians celebrated Christmas?” one of them asked. “Sure we do. But we’re not real big on Columbus Day.”

The one who had bought the $400 Suzuki Chromatix harmonica pulled it out and began to play Jingle Bells, then switched to the blues. This guy was amazing! He played Sonny Boy Williamson’s Help Me, I’m A Man, made famous by Muddy Waters, and Moanin’ At Midnight. They had cracked open a bottle of Black Velvet and were passing it back and forth. I was never a drinking man, and when they handed it to me, insisting I have some, I held the bottle to my lips like I was drinking and then passed it back to them.

I couldn’t help thinking, where else would you drive a car made in Detroit with two Native Americans as passengers, one of them playing the black blues on a Japanese harmonica while drinking Canadian whiskey? Only in America.

When we got to their home, somewhere outside of Sells, they insisted I come in and meet their family. Their mother, a large, gray-haired woman, insisted on making fry bread for all of us, and I wound up sitting at the kitchen table with all of them, talking and having a wonderful time. I had decided to work because I didn’t want to be alone on Christmas Eve, but it turned out to be one of the best holidays I ever had, with an amazing, loving family. Even their cousin Elana, who was indeed a large young woman whom I was quite sure was fully capable of keeping a skinny white boy warm on cold winter nights.

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Life is too important to be taken seriously. – Oscar Wilde

Kenny’s Gut And Terry’s Butt

 Posted by at 12:03 am  Nick's Blog
Sep 072026
 

Thank you to everyone who sent emails or comments about son-in-law Kenny’s gallbladder surgery yesterday. Tiffany said they did a laparoscopic procedure, and afterward the doctor said it was in pretty bad shape. They had a bit of trouble controlling his pain after the surgery, but they got it taken care of. Tiffany stayed at the hospital with him overnight, and they finally got to come home yesterday afternoon. When I talked to her later, she said he was sleeping. I’ve always thought sleep is one of the best ways to recover from anything.

Most of the people who read my blog understand my somewhat twisted sense of humor, but apparently one reader didn’t. They sent me an email chastising me for being so insensitive that I expected Kenny to work on my car the day after he got out of the hospital. But that’s okay. I’m sure Kenny understood. I’m going to let him sleep in until at least 10 clock this morning before I start calling asking him when he’s going to get over here and get to work. You can never say I don’t care and won’t adjust my schedule to accommodate somebody when they’re having difficulties.

As for the second half of the title of today’s blog, yesterday Terry fired up the Pit Boss and smoked her first pork butt, using mesquite pellets. She cooked it for about 8 hours, stopping about halfway through to wrap it before putting it back in the smoker. Once it was done, she kept it wrapped and let it temper for another 1 1/2 hours. I sampled a bit of it while she was pulling it apart, and it was delicious. She said she didn’t get the bark she expected, but it’s a learning experience.

While she was busy with all of that, I wrote another chapter in my new Tinder Street book, The Forgotten Years. I’m just a little shy of 40,000 words so far and having a lot of fun with the story. Will I make it to my hoped for deadline at the end of the month? That remains to be seen. I never work toward a specific word count or set a date on the calendar in stone. I keep working until the story is done, whenever that might be.

Congratulations, Bridget Wiemken, winner of our drawing for an autographed copy of The Guatemala Reader by Mark Walker, who was recently profiled in an Author Spotlight. Join Mark on an epic journey through this fascinating yet often misunderstood Central American neighbor. The author has studied and written about Guatemala for fifty years, and this book focuses on some of the extraordinary people of Guatemala and their amazing stories. Given the crisis of democracy in Guatemala and the continued turmoil on our border, this is the time to understand the human realities better and take action to secure a more promising future. Guatemala draws up to 1.8 million tourists per year, whose visits start in the largest city in Central America with brief visits to ancient Mayan ruins and contemporary Maya villages, which provide a partial folkloric understanding of Guatemalan society. Over the years, Mark has traveled to places most Guatemalans have never seen and uses encounters with ordinary Guatemalans, profiles, and stories from local Mayan leaders, advocates, writers, and poets to bring a new appreciation and understanding of this amazing country.

We had 29 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon! Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 30 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – It’s hard to believe that before the internet, we thought every village only had one idiot.

I Was Wrong

 Posted by at 12:03 am  Nick's Blog
Sep 062026
 

I’m sure that I’ve told you before how much I respect and love my son-in-law Kenny, and what a hard worker he is. I think I’ve even said that he’s always there when we need him. But as much as it pains me to admit it, it turns out I was wrong. The man’s a slacker.

Kenny is a GM-trained master mechanic, and he knows how to take apart and put together anything mechanical. I’ve been wanting him to come over and tune up the Chrysler convertible we bought last week, but because he works long hours every day keeping the school buses for our town running, I haven’t pressured him too much about it. Yeah, I remind him four or five times a day, but that’s not pressure, right? I figured having a 3-day weekend, he would have plenty of time to take care of things for me.

That’s where I found out just how wrong I’ve been about him. We got a message late Friday night that Kenny was in the hospital. Can you believe he decided to have his gallbladder out rather than come and work on my car? Just when you think you know somebody.

I wrote in a blog post about our trip to Texas to pick up the old car that the night we got to the town where I bought it, we had dinner at Chili’s, and Kenny got really sick and was up all night. At that time, we thought it was food poisoning. But it turns out that it was his gallbladder.

He had surgery yesterday afternoon, and hopefully he will be on the mend soon. I see no reason why he couldn’t come and work on my car by Monday, do you?

Get well soon, Kenny! We love you.

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an autographed copy of The Guatemala Reader by Mark Walker, who was recently profiled in an Author Spotlight. Join Mark on an epic journey through this fascinating yet often misunderstood Central American neighbor. The author has studied and written about Guatemala for fifty years, and this book focuses on some of the extraordinary people of Guatemala and their amazing stories. Given the crisis of democracy in Guatemala and the continued turmoil on our border, this is the time to understand the human realities better and take action to secure a more promising future. Guatemala draws up to 1.8 million tourists per year, whose visits start in the largest city in Central America with brief visits to ancient Mayan ruins and contemporary Maya villages, which provide a partial folkloric understanding of Guatemalan society. Over the years, Mark has traveled to places most Guatemalans have never seen and uses encounters with ordinary Guatemalans, profiles, and stories from local Mayan leaders, advocates, writers, and poets to bring a new appreciation and understanding of this amazing country.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 30 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Bad days are also part of a very good life.

Late Start To A Slow Day

 Posted by at 12:03 am  Nick's Blog
Sep 052026
 

One of the nice things about the writing lifestyle is that we can set our own schedule. Sometimes I will spend most of the day at my computer working on a book, and Terry will be just as busy editing and proofreading. Other days, we may be busy with things around the house and not do much work at all. Then there are days like yesterday where we get a late start and don’t go out of our way to accomplish much.

Since we were on the go all day Thursday, with Terry getting a nerve block injection in her neck, then running some errands and having an early dinner at the Lotus Garden restaurant in Pinetop, after spending the day before digging holes and planting rose bushes and the magnolia tree, yesterday, we stayed in bed for a long time, cuddling and talking and just enjoying quiet time together.

When we did finally get in gear, I fed Alli and Declan, the porch cat, gave myself my weekly Mounjaro injection, posted my blog to Facebook and answered several emails. Then we each had a bagel, and I cleaned the toilets while Terry tidied things up around the house and did a load of laundry.

Eventually, I made my way to my office, where I wrote another chapter in my new Tinder Street book. When I finished that, I went outside, where Terry was checking on the magnolia tree and some plants we had put in, as well as pulling some weeds. I really need to cut the grass and do some more weeding, but it was late in the day and I didn’t feel up to it.

Back inside, she warmed up the leftover Chinese food from the day before for dinner, and then we watched television, and that was the extent of our day. It’s always good to start out slow and taper off.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an autographed copy of The Guatemala Reader by Mark Walker, who was recently profiled in an Author Spotlight. Join Mark on an epic journey through this fascinating yet often misunderstood Central American neighbor. The author has studied and written about Guatemala for fifty years, and this book focuses on some of the extraordinary people of Guatemala and their amazing stories. Given the crisis of democracy in Guatemala and the continued turmoil on our border, this is the time to understand the human realities better and take action to secure a more promising future. Guatemala draws up to 1.8 million tourists per year, whose visits start in the largest city in Central America with brief visits to ancient Mayan ruins and contemporary Maya villages, which provide a partial folkloric understanding of Guatemalan society. Over the years, Mark has traveled to places most Guatemalans have never seen and uses encounters with ordinary Guatemalans, profiles, and stories from local Mayan leaders, advocates, writers, and poets to bring a new appreciation and understanding of this amazing country.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 30 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – In the near future, AI is going to tell a woman she is wrong in that she needs to calm down. That, my friends, will be the end of AI.

Digging Myself Deeper

 Posted by at 12:03 am  Nick's Blog
Sep 042026
 

In the past, I’ve always had some friends handy whenever I started running my mouth and digging myself into a deeper hole, who would say, “Shut up, Nick.” Unfortunately, they’ve all died off and I’m the last man standing. So I’ve been digging some holes lately.

Terry had purchased some rose bushes from Lowe’s that she wanted planted, so the other day I dug three holes for them in the front, where we have some other rose bushes already. Fortunately, a heavy rain the day and night before had made the ground soft, which made the digging easier. But in this part of Arizona, for every shovel full of dirt you dig up, you’re going to get two shovels full of rocks, and this was no exception. A few times, I had to resort to a pick to break the ground up enough to get rocks the size of a large softball out. But I got the job done and Terry got the bushes planted.

The next order of business was to dig a larger, deeper hole in the backyard to plant a magnolia tree. Back on Arbor Day, Subaru was giving away free trees, and we picked up a nice magnolia. It was replaced to a temporary home in the greenhouse ever since, but it was time to plant it in its permanent home.

The ground in back wasn’t nearly as easy as the ground in front, and I had to resort to using my Earthquake rototiller to get the job done. The first 6 inches or so weren’t too bad. All I had to do was hold the tiller in place and let it go. Then I hit hard clay, and the thing bounced around so much I thought my arms were going to fall off. But eventually, I got deep enough that Terry could plant the tree, and it’s doing very well out there. And not once did anybody say, “Shut up, Nick.” But I’m sure I’m going to need it said sooner or later.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an autographed copy of The Guatemala Reader by Mark Walker, who was recently profiled in an Author Spotlight. Join Mark on an epic journey through this fascinating yet often misunderstood Central American neighbor. The author has studied and written about Guatemala for fifty years, and this book focuses on some of the extraordinary people of Guatemala and their amazing stories. Given the crisis of democracy in Guatemala and the continued turmoil on our border, this is the time to understand the human realities better and take action to secure a more promising future. Guatemala draws up to 1.8 million tourists per year, whose visits start in the largest city in Central America with brief visits to ancient Mayan ruins and contemporary Maya villages, which provide a partial folkloric understanding of Guatemalan society. Over the years, Mark has traveled to places most Guatemalans have never seen and  use encounters with ordinary Guatemalans, profiles, and stories from local Mayan leaders, advocates, writers, and poets to bring a new appreciation and understanding of this amazing country.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 30 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – I’ve come to accept the fact that the closest I’m going to get to an African safari is seeing a camel toe in cheetah print leggings at Walmart.

A Gas Bath

 Posted by at 12:03 am  Nick's Blog
Sep 032026
 

If there’s one thing I learned from our fast trip to Texas and back to pick up my old Chrysler convertible, it’s that I’m too damned old for 13-hour car rides two days in a row, even when I’m not the one doing the driving. It’s been five days now, and I’m still feeling worn out.

When we got home, the car would turn over but wouldn’t start, so we pushed it off the trailer and into the garage. The man I bought it from said he thought it was probably out of gas, so on Monday, after going to the Motor Vehicle Department to register it, I filled up a couple of gas cans at Circle K and came home.

I had poured about seven gallons into the car when suddenly I heard something like water running. I looked under it and realized it wasn’t water, it was gasoline! A lot of gasoline. I was able to crawl under the car enough to see that the fuel line had come off at the electric fuel pump mounted on the chassis. I quickly put my thumb over the hose to stop the flow, but in doing so I was lying in a big pool of gasoline. Terry was in the house on my phone with the credit union that financed the GMC truck, trying to get access to their system so she could make the payments online, and couldn’t hear me yelling for her.

After lying there for quite some time and feeling the gas starting to burn my skin like fire, I let go of the hose long enough to grab a large flat plastic storage container. I was able to slip it under the car to catch the gas, then stuck the hose back onto the inlet for the fuel pump. That stopped the flow, but what a mess I had to clean up.

Terry was off the phone by then and had come out to help me, and we got the car out of the garage. We left the large garage door in front and the small door in back open to air it out, with the aid of a large fan. With that done, I stripped off and jumped in the shower to wash the gas off. 24 hours later, my skin was still irritated, and there was a slight smell of gasoline in the garage and even in part of the house. With the doors open, we were able to air things out, but what an adventure that was! The good news is that the car started right up after that.

We have some errands to run today, and among those will be getting some hose clamps to put on the fuel line to make sure it doesn’t come off again. I don’t want to repeat that scenario if I can avoid it.

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an autographed copy of The Guatemala Reader by Mark Walker, who was recently profiled in an Author Spotlight. Join Mark on an epic journey through this fascinating yet often misunderstood Central American neighbor. The author has studied and written about Guatemala for fifty years, and this book focuses on some of the extraordinary people of Guatemala and their amazing stories. Given the crisis of democracy in Guatemala and the continued turmoil on our border, this is the time to understand the human realities better and take action to secure a more promising future. Guatemala draws up to 1.8 million tourists per year, whose visits start in the largest city in Central America with brief visits to ancient Mayan ruins and contemporary Maya villages, which provide a partial folkloric understanding of Guatemalan society. Over the years, Mark has traveled to places most Guatemalans have never seen and  use encounters with ordinary Guatemalans, profiles, and stories from local Mayan leaders, advocates, writers, and poets to bring a new understanding of this amazing country.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 30 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Don’t be afraid to start over. You might like your new story better.

Author Spotlight – LoLo Paige

 Posted by at 12:02 am  Nick's Blog
Sep 022026
 

In an effort to introduce my readers to other authors and their work, every week I run an Author Spotlight, sharing information about an author, their work, and how they go about writing their books.

LoLo Paige is a former wildland firefighter and award-winning author who writes the stories she always wanted to read. Her debut novel, Alaska Spark, grew out of her true account in The Anchorage Press about escaping a wildfire in Alaska, a piece that won an Alaska Press Club award. Her Blazing Hearts Wildfire series has topped Amazon Bestseller lists in the U.S., Canada, and Australia, earned features in Publishers Weekly‘s BookLife, and won the Eric Hoffer and Kindle Book Review awards for best indie romance. New York Times bestselling romantic suspense authors, Cherry Adair and Kat Martin, have endorsed her books. When she isn’t writing fire, LoLo writes romantic comedies. Everybody Loves Polar Bears, Hello Spain: Goodbye Heart, and Irish Thunder all draw from her own adventures in and out of Alaska. Under the pen name Lois Paige, she also writes historical fiction. Her coming-of-age novel, The Butte Girls’ Club has done well in Montana bookstores. It’s a nostalgic, humorous romp with four friends growing up during the chaos of the 1960s. LoLo lives in Eagle River and spends summers at her remote beach cabin on Kachemak Bay across from Homer.

A conversation with LoLo:

When did you decide to become an author and why?

I decided to become an author in the sixth grade, when I discovered several series: Nancy Drew, Judy Bolton, Beverly Gray, Beany Malone, Trixie Belden, and the Bobbsey Twins. My older sisters encouraged me to write. It wasn’t until I finished my career with the federal government that I got serious. I started out writing freelance articles in magazines and newspapers. A dream come true for me was an article I wrote about whale watching in Southcentral Alaska for Alaska Magazine. When I wrote a story about escaping a wildfire in Alaska’s Interior for The Anchorage Press, one of the judges encouraged me to write a novel about it.

How long have you been writing, and what was your first book?

I indie-published my first book, Alaska Spark, during the covid lockdown in 2020. Having to stay quarantined was the gift of time, allowing me to get this book done. Since then, I’ve published a dozen novels.

What genres do you write in?

Mostly romantic suspense because I like writing about the perils of fighting wildland fires while navigating friendships and love relationships. I put a lot of my personal firefighting experiences into my books.

How many books do you have out?

About a dozen so far, with several on the way. I just finished writing a romantic suspense trilogy with Alaska State Trooper characters, called The Glacier Cove Series, the first of which will be released this fall.

Are you trade published, independent, or a combo?

I’m a hybrid, having published independently and with a traditional publisher. Some of my romcoms are published traditionally.

What is your writing style? Panster or plotter or?

Plotter. I like structure, and that’s one of the reasons I love the romance genre with the required HEA—happily ever after. The other reason I like romance is that every other genre is a subgenre, where I can write thrillers, comedies, historical fiction, or anything else. I start with a premise, then I brainstorm story scenes, and turn them into an outline. I like following dependable structures that work for my books, like Hero’s Journey, which works well for wildland fire stories (it worked well for Star Wars!). I have a romance beat outline that I devised to mix with the HJ. Often times I stray from the outline when my brain jumps the track and takes a highway, but that’s when writing is the most fun.

Do you write more than one book at a time?

I didn’t used to, but now I have two or three going at the same time. When I get stuck on one and need to take a break from it and let it ferment in my computer for a while, I’ll switch to a romcom or the next book in my series, which are all in different stages. When I come back to the stuck book, it’s easier to solve the problems I run into. I struggle with timelines, and it drives my editors crazy.

How much research is involved in your writing?

For wildland fire there’s quite a bit. It’s been quite a while since I did it, and some equipment and strategies have changed over the years, so I keep up with those. My readers asked me to write female air tanker pilots and smokejumpers, so my last book and the current one I’m writing have those characters. It takes much research to learn the aviation world since I’m not a pilot, and I didn’t jump out of planes. All my firefighting stayed on the ground. I interview people who do, though, to get their perspective on doing those jobs. When I write my travel romcoms, I research my destinations or I base them on real tours and cruises I’ve taken. Historical fiction is an entirely different thing that requires twice the amount of research. While my memory served for much of the 1960s, for example, I still had to look up the historical events, styles, the way we talked, dressed, what we ate…I had so much fun writing that in the Butte Girls’ Club.

Where do you write? Do you have a home office, write in a coffee shop, or what?

I have a dedicated office, which is in a corner of the main floor of my home, surrounded on three sides by windows, where I look out over the Chugach Range from my perch in Eagle River Valley, Alaska. I live in a neighborhood with 80 to 100 foot spruce and birch, so the birds and wildlife feel like I live in a zoo. We have routine visits from bears, eagles, ravens, and lynx, which can be a distraction. I can’t write in coffee shops or other places. I always want to get up and go talk to people.

Do you use any programs like ProWriting Aid, Grammarly, or?

I mostly write in Word. I signed up for ProWriting Aid back when it first started, and they gave me a lifetime membership, so I use it mainly for proofreading after I’ve copy and line edited my manuscripts. Ten years of writing filled my C drive, which put a sudden stop to my projects. Had to move files to an external drive, which took some time.

How do you promote your books?

I used to sign up for newsletter blasts like Bookbub and the ones with Written Word Media like Freebooksy, but didn’t see enough sales to offset the costs of buying space in those. Now I mainly run Facebook ads, and that seems to work for me, since many of my readers are older (35+).

What are your writing goals, long and short term?

My short term goal is always write the next book. My long term goal is to get 20 books to market, so I can test the theory of 20 Books to 50K. I attended several of the 20Booksto50K writer conferences in Las Vegas, to learn what I need to keep moving forward. Once I have 20 books out, I’ll start doing larger venues for book signings. Right now, I just do ones in the area where I live, as it gets expensive flying myself and bags of books to Lower 48 book signings.

Any advice to new authors or someone who wants to become an author?

Keep writing and don’t give up, no matter what happens. You will want to throw in the towel on any given day because this is a lot of work! If you stick with it, you will have breakthroughs that make it all worthwhile. Also, join writer and author communities either in person or online, to make friends and exchange ideas. You can’t do this alone. It really does take a village to get those first books out.

Lolo says, “If it weren’t for my readers I probably would have stopped long ago. But staying in touch with them keeps me going. I have a newsletter I send out once or twice a month to update readers about upcoming books. If you’d like to join my newsletter, you can get a free prequel to my Alaska fire series on my website at lolo@lolopaige.com

You can follow LoLo on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/LoLo-Paige/author/B0872KT8QS

And on Facebook or Instagram at: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLoLoPaige and https://www.instagram.com/authorlolopaige

***

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – When writing a novel, a writer should create living people; people, not characters. A character is a caricature. — Ernest Hemingway

Taxicab Tales – Easiest $150 Ever

 Posted by at 12:03 am  Nick's Blog
Sep 012026
 

In the past, I have shared a series of stories from my days publishing small town newspapers, from a job I had selling cars, about my time in the Army, and some tales of the offbeat adventures and misadventures I’ve gotten into in a series called Nick Happens. Now, I thought I would share some stories about a period in my life many years ago when I drove a taxicab in Tucson, Arizona. Oh, some of the things I witnessed back then! I’ve told more than one prospective author that if they really want to learn about human nature, they need to become a cop, a nurse, or a cab driver. You will see the best and worst of people in any of those jobs.

We usually think someone would get into a taxicab because they needed a ride someplace, right? That’s not always the case, believe it or not. Here are two examples.

I was parked near the Greyhound bus station in downtown Tucson around midnight when a fellow walked up and got in the backseat, and said, “Just drive.” I asked where to, and he said, “It doesn’t matter, just drive, preferably someplace quiet.”

Immediately, my spidey sense kicked in. Was this fellow setting me up to be robbed, or worse? But he was a well-dressed man in his 40s carrying a leather briefcase, not like your common street thug who would hold up a cabdriver. He handed me a $50 bill and said, “Just someplace quiet, alright? I need to sleep.” Okay, whatever floats your boat.

I drove through some quiet neighborhoods while he stretched out on the back seat of the cab and seemed to fall asleep. As the meter rolled up miles, I was beginning to wonder what the heck was going on with this guy? Eventually the meter hit $50, and I wasn’t sure what to do, so I pulled to the curb and leaned over the seat and asked, “Okay, now what?” He sat up and blinked his eyes a couple of times, asked me what time it was, and then handed me two more $50s and said, “Just keep driving.” Okay, why not? I drove up through the foothills and meandered through the north side of town, keeping the radio turned low so the dispatcher wouldn’t wake Sleeping Beauty.

When the meter rolled up another $100, I again pulled to the curb and woke him. He asked where we were, and I told him, and he gave me an address near the University of Arizona. When we got there, he got out and said, “Thanks, I needed that” and went into a house. It was the last I saw of him, and I still don’t know what was going on, but it was the easiest $150 I ever made.

I also had another gentleman who would call and ask for me a couple of times a month, and all he wanted to do was drive around and talk. He told me about his marriage, which seemed to be rocky, about problems with his teenage son who was into drugs, and how he hated his job, but the pay was very good. We’d usually do this for an hour or so, and then he’d ask me to take him home. One day I asked him why he was doing what he was doing, and he said that he was overstressed and overworked and sometimes he just needed to vent. He said I was a good listener, and the cab meter only came up to $16 an hour, while a therapist cost him $100 for the same time.

I’m glad I could help him save some money and hopefully having someone to talk to who didn’t judge or argue with him was worth it.

***

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Don’t tell a person to be strong when they come to you to be weak.

Road Trip

 Posted by at 12:41 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 312026
 

Son-in-law Kenny, grandson Travis, and I left Show Low about 5:30 Friday morning on a road trip. It was fast road trip, but we covered a lot of miles. That was okay with me because Kenny did all the driving.

We took U.S. Highway 60 east to Springerville, where we picked up U.S. Highway 191 south. The route was formally called U.S. 666, but they changed the number back in 1992 because people complained it was the “Devil’s Highway,” since the number 666 matched the “Number of the Beast” in Christian theology. So much for the separation of church and state.

In Alpine, we got on U.S.180, a winding narrow highway, and followed it into New Mexico. It took us south through Silver City, a town with a violent frontier past where Old West outlaw Billy the Kid first ran afoul of the law, and eventually connected with Interstate 10 in Deming. From there it was a lot of long miles into Texas, through El Paso and on and on.

This is a route that I have traveled many times during our life as fulltime RVers, but it was the first time for Kenny and Travis. I can’t say they were much impressed with West Texas. As day turned to night, there was a magnificent lightning display and we thought we were going to get hammered by rain, but by the time we reached Boerne, in the Texas Hill Country, it had cleared up.

We checked into the Hampton Inn, then walked to the nearby Chili’s for a late dinner before going back to the hotel and to bed. In hindsight, that wasn’t the best choice for food because Kenny got very sick after going to bed and spent much of the night hugging the porcelain throne. He looked like death warmed over the next morning, but swore he was able to get up and go.

Of course, no adventure is complete unless I screw something up. In this case, we had connecting rooms. I went through the connecting door to check on Kenny and managed to close it behind me, effectively locking myself out of the room because I didn’t have my key card. No problem, I went downstairs to the desk, they gave me a new card, and I went up to get back into my room to find that the safety lock was also engaged and could only be opened from the inside. Well, darn it. So back downstairs I went, and the young lady at the desk called their maintenance man and told him to come to work fast and get me into the room, since he was the only one who knew how to defeat the safety lock. But as it turned out, he wasn’t the only one. Travis somehow managed to bypass it with a pocketknife and got the door opened.

With my overnight bag retrieved, we got in the truck, and with a still green around the gills Kenny at the wheel, we drove another 20 miles or so to meet with a gentleman named Dave Morris. The purpose of the trip was this gorgeous 1952 Chrysler Windsor Deluxe convertible, which Dave had put up for auction on the Hagerty classic car auction website. It was made the same year Terry and I were born, and as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it. I had been telling Terry that I wanted to have one more old car before I die, and this was the one. I was fortunate to have the winning bid.

The car is pretty much original, with the Spitfire 264.5 cubic-inch inline-six engine and Fluid-Matic semi-automatic transmission. This transmission is new to me. It has a clutch that you depress to shift from one gear to another when first starting out. Once you have it in gear, you don’t use the clutch anymore, even at stop signs.

By then, Kenny was feeling better, and we got the car loaded onto my flatbed trailer and tied down, and were on the road again, heading for home by 10:30. Kenny said he didn’t want to take I-10 all the way again, so instead we drove north to Comfort and left the interstate to make our way northwest along a series of U.S. and state highways. We went through the oil patch and past cotton farms, and through some interesting small towns until we eventually crossed into New Mexico on U.S. Highway 380. Kenny had always wanted to see Roswell, of alien crash fame, and he was impressed enough that he wants to take Tiffany back for a weekend visit sometime.

We stayed on 380 through Lincoln County, with its own violent Old West past, and the tiny village of Capitan, where a badly burned bear cub was found after a wildfire in 1950 and became famous as Smokey Bear, mascot of the U.S. Forest Service.

More miles brought us to Interstate 25 for a short jaunt up to U.S. 60 in Socorro. This is another route I know well from our RVing days, and we took it west through the small towns of Magdalena, Datil, Pie Town, and Quemado. Four hours later, at somewhere around 11:00 PM, we were pulling into our driveway, with 1776 miles under our belt in two days. I offered to drive a couple of times, but Kenny was fine with it and let me just sit back and enjoy the ride, so I did.

It sure was good to be home and see Terry waiting for me, along with Alli, who acted like I had been gone for a month. We got the car unloaded and into the garage, and then the guys headed home with Tiffany. It didn’t take long before Terry and I were in bed.

We slept in yesterday, as did Kenny, and then spent the day puttering around the house, not doing much of anything. I must be getting old because even being a passenger princess for that long wore me out. It’s good to be back home, and I’m looking forward to getting to know my new old car. Thanks, Kenny. It was quite an adventure, wasn’t it?

***

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. You know there has to be a story behind this sign.

Thought For The Day – If it makes you happy or gives you peace, it’s not a waste of time.

A Crystal Ball

 Posted by at 12:03 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 302026
 

I had to laugh when I saw a meme on Facebook yesterday that showed an electric car stopped on the side of the road being charged by a huge generator. Someone commented that it didn’t take a crystal ball to see where this whole electric car thing was going and that it would never work.

Well, as a matter of fact, I do have a crystal ball. Okay, I don’t know if it’s really crystal or not, but it’s a glass ball, so stop being so picky. But at any rate, I don’t need that ball to tell me that the meme and the person making those comments are completely wrong. Like it or not, no matter how you love the oil industry and don’t want things to ever change, electric cars are the future. And keep in mind that this is coming from a guy who came of age in the muscle car era and loves Detroit iron. But facts are facts and reality is reality.

As an author I do a lot of research into all kinds of different things and have many different sources, from various websites and library access to a subscription to Newspapers.com, which has proven invaluable, especially in writing my Tinder Street family saga.

I love going to the website and reading old newspaper articles from the late1800s and early 1900s when they said the same thing about the horseless carriage. It was nothing but a rich man’s toy. When it ran out of gas, you’d need a horse or mule to pull it back home because they darned sure were not going to have places to get fuel located all over.

Of course, there were plenty of people who scoffed at the idea of having electricity in your house, too. Not only was it unnecessary, it was also downright dangerous! Newspaper articles and letters to the editor talked about how people would perish in infernos having all that electricity going through their wooden houses. And it wasn’t bad enough that you were going to burn up your own family, you would probably burn up the entire neighborhood! No, forget that nonsense, it wasn’t going to happen.

But you don’t have to go that far back into history to see how wrong people were. Back in the early 1970s I remember browsing through a junk shop someplace in New England and finding a big stack of photography magazines from the mid-1950s. There were several articles about how color film was just a passing fancy and would not last. Nope, black and white photography ruled and it would continue to rule forever. I read the same things about digital photography back in the early 1990s. Are you kidding me? Replacing film with some kind of computerized camera? Dream on!

Then that damn technology thing came along and changed everything. Who knew?

As battery technology evolves, and it is evolving, the demand for electric cars will increase, and we’ll eventually find charging stations just as easy to come by as gasoline pumps. No, it won’t happen today or tomorrow but it’s coming, and it won’t be all that long. I know because my crystal ball told me so.

Thought For The Day – Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.

100 Miles From Here

 Posted by at 12:03 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 292026
 

Note: I am on the road this weekend, so here is a repost of a blog from our days of fulltime RVing.

Even if we weren’t publishing the Gypsy Journal, Miss Terry and I would still be running around the country visiting all of those little out-of-the-way places, small town museums, and historical sites that we write about. I’ve never understood people who buy an RV, go to a campground, and just sit inside and watch TV all day or play on the computer until it’s time to go down the road to the next place. You could do that back home.

People ask me where I find all the places I write about. It’s really easy. Just do a little bit of Internet research on the area where you’re at. Stop at the tourist bureaus and the Chamber of Commerce. Talk to local people. They’ll tell you about places that you never dreamed existed!

One of the popular seminars I do at RV rallies is called 100 Miles From Here. Basically, I put a digital thumbtack on a map on my computer wherever we are staying at, and start going out in circles finding places we can visit within a 100 mile radius, which is about the maximum we want to do on a day trip. You’d be surprised how much there is to see and do. Let me give you an example:

We are currently at Elkhart Campground in Elkhart, Indiana. Right here in Elkhart you can visit the RV Museum, take numerous RV factory tours, tour the Ruthmere Mansion, visit the New York Central Railroad Museum and the Midwest Museum of American Art, and stop by Grace Lawn Cemetery to pay your respects to Avery Brown, the youngest Civil War soldier, who became a drummer boy in the Union Army when he was seven years old.

copy-of-1969-stites-truck-camper-2

20 miles west of Elkhart, in South Bend, you can visit the Studebaker National Museum, Notre Dame University, and Knute Rockne’s grave at Highland Cemetery.

1904-studebaker

25 miles away in Shipshewana you can visit the huge Shipshewana Flea Market, see Amish farms and restaurants, tour the Hudson Car Museum and the Meno/Hopf Amish/Mennonite Visitor Center. Go south 25 miles to Nappanee and you can visit Amish Acres Farm.

Open that circle out to 45 miles and you’ll be in Kendallville, Indiana, home of the fascinating Mid-America Windmill Museum.

50 miles will take you to either the Hesston Steam Museum in Hesston, Indiana, or Colon, Michigan, the Magic Capital of the World.

Expand your horizons to 75 miles and you can visit the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, Indiana. Auburn is also home to the World War II Victory Museum, the Kruse Automotive and Carriage Museum, and the National Automotive and Truck Museum.

90 miles will take you to the Quilters Hall of Fame in Marion, Indiana; or to Peru, Indiana, home of the Grissom Air Museum and two excellent circus museums, along with the birthplace and boyhood home of composer Cole Porter. Or you could go north to Battle Creek, Michigan and visit the grave of abolitionist Sojurner Truth.

circus-museum

And at the 100 mile mark, the maximum distance for our day trips, you will find the Automotive Heritage Museum, in Kokomo, Indiana; Sauder Village Living History Farm in Archbold, Ohio, the Gerald Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and charming Marshsall, Michigan, home to the American Museum of Magic and the Marshall Postal Museum.

That should keep you busy for a while, and I know I missed as many places as I listed. So get out your map, start making those circles from where you are. You’ll be surprised what you might find. It’s a great big country with a whole lot to see and do. Get out and enjoy it!

Thought For The Day – The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.

Greenhouse Gone Wild

 Posted by at 12:03 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 282026
 

I may or may not have ever watched one of those Girls Gone Wild videos About sexy college co-eds cavorting on the beach wearing much of nothing at all. .And if I did, I may or may not have paused it a couple times to lust over a certain long haired blonde and a couple of redheads. But all that aside, I can tell you a thing or two about greenhouses gone wild. It seems like every couple of days Terry is out in her greenhouse trimming tomato, cucumber, and eggplants because they seem to be growing faster than Jack’s beanstalk. I wish my mom would’ve fed me some of that stuff Terry gives her plants when I was a kid. Maybe I wouldn’t be dwarf portly.

The clover I planted in the back next to the deck is also growing well. Unfortunately, Alli has decided it’s a good place for her to pee, and now I have several spots that I have to attend to once I figure out what to do about them.

Yesterday I scrounged up some short rolls of wire fencing that were left over from the previous owner, along with some makeshift stakes, and Terry and I fenced that area off so at least Alli can’t get into it and do any more damage.

Besides all of the repacking and organizing we did in the garage, yesterday Kenny and grandson Travis came over and moved two of Terry’s looms into the house. Unfortunately, her Spring loom is too wide to fit through the bedroom door where she wants to use it, so she has to take it apart a little bit to get it in there.

Kenny, grandson Travis, and I are going to have a guy’s road trip this weekend, so I won’t be online much at all. I’ll be reposting a couple of previous blogs on the days we are gone. Kenny says he is picking me up at 5 o’clock this morning. I didn’t even know there was a 5 o’clock in the morning! When did they start that? Kenny told me not to worry about it. He’s driving and I can sleep. Probably not with the kind of music he likes to listen to. 😊

***

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – In a world obsessed with being extraordinary, there is a deep peace in just being a good person.

Christmas in August

 Posted by at 12:03 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 272026
 

Terry and I have been busy the last two days rearranging things in the garage and garden shed in the back of our property, sorting through boxes of stuff we still hadn’t opened since our move from Alabama over a year ago, and deciding what to keep and what to get rid of since we haven’t needed it in a year.

Some of it has been like having Christmas in August, opening boxes and finding things that we had forgotten about. One was my DeGrazia statue, which I wrote about in a blog post titled Hello There, Ted several years ago. I was afraid it had gotten lost or damaged somewhere in the move, but when Terry found it, it was still in excellent condition. Now it sits on my desk so the old artist can watch me work. As I said in that blog post, I remember telling Ted DeGrazia that someday I wanted to write books, and he handed me a pen and a piece of paper and said, “Then write a book. Don’t wait for someday. If I never picked up a paintbrush, I would never be an artist.” How many of us have things we’ve always wanted to do but never seem to get around to?

One of the reasons for all of this sorting and reorganizing is so that Terry can get her looms set up and start weaving again. It’s been a long time, and she has missed it. And I have missed seeing the wonderful creations she makes.

It’s been in the 90s the last couple of days, and we are sure glad we had the mini-split unit installed in the garage. It has made it very comfortable working out there. Another investment that we have really come to appreciate is the 7 cubic foot Gorilla Cart that we bought a couple of months ago. I wrote about that in a blog titled She’s At It Again. This thing has proven invaluable, and I may never use a wheelbarrow again. Whether it’s hauling several big plastic totes at a time filled with things out to the garden shed, or multiple bags of potting soil, it is a workhorse. I don’t know how we ever lived without it.

I wanted to let everybody know that there’s not going to be a blog drawing this week. I’m going to be on the road and pretty much offline for a few days, and it’s too hard to keep up with the entries when I’m not near a computer. But I promise we’ll be back with a new drawing next week.

***

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Our problems have a way of sneaking into our luggage when we’re not looking. They don’t call it baggage for nothing.

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