Living in Florida, every time there’s the possibility of a hurricane or bad tropical storm we hear from friends and family members all over the country asking if we are all right, if we have plans to evacuate, and if we don’t, do we have enough supplies to survive in case the power grid goes down.
Yes, we are well supplied. We keep lots of non-perishable foods and bottled water on hand, along with flashlights and batteries, and we have two Honda generators and several cans of gas to provide power if we need it. But this time around we’re definitely not going to need anything because Hurricane Fred turned out to be a flop, pretty much breaking apart over the mountains on the islands in the Caribbean. The weatherman says that what remains of it will be no more than a storm that goes up through the Gulf of Mexico and will not have much impact on any part of Florida except Key West as it passes over and then the Panhandle. Here on the central Atlantic coast, we may see some rain today, but Sunday is supposed to be mostly dry.
As it turns out, there’s also another system down south of us that may or may not develop into much of anything. This is no different than living in Tornado Alley in the Midwest, or in California with all of its wildfires and earthquakes, or blizzard country in Minnesota and the Dakotas. Everywhere you live there is something, and you learn to coexist with the weather.
In a blog post the other day, I said that some books seem to write themselves and I’m just the conduit to get the words onto the screen. That’s turning out to be the case with Ka-Bar Karma, my latest John Lee Quarrels book. I had a couple of 5,000 word days earlier in the week, and then yesterday was another great writing day, with me turning out 10,234 words. I started the book on the 10th and I’m close to 25,000 words total so far, and that includes a couple of days when I didn’t do any writing at all.
And my latest release, Big Lake Shootout, is still doing very well, holding its place on Amazon’s Hot New Release lists and getting a lot of page reads by Kindle Unlimited subscribers along with sales. Not to mention 23 reviews and a five-star rating! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of you who support my work.
Miss Terry was busy yesterday, too, still setting up the loom for her latest weaving project. Until she got involved in fiber arts I had no idea how much prep work there is before the actual weaving process begins. It can take days to wind the yarn, set up the loom, and then thread it through all of the heddles. We’re talking about hundreds of pieces of yarn that are not much bigger than thread. I honestly don’t know how she has the patience for it. The math alone gives me a headache, just watching her do the calculations to figure out how much yarn she needs, to get all the tie-ups done properly to the foot pedals, and more things that I can’t even begin to understand.
Dinner was rather simple last night, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t delicious. Terry made me a generously proportioned grilled ham and cheese sandwich on homemade rye bread that she baked the other day. Wow, was that good!
She made herself a salad with cannellini beans, avocado, baby kale, tomatoes, croutons from the rye bread, sprinkled with sunflower seeds and accented with homemade tahini dressing. Terry calls something like this a quickie dinner that she just “throws together.” Yeah, right!
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 telling you, today’s employers expect more and more from people every day, don’t they?
Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Camp Timber View by my friend Jason Deas. This children’s mystery about two best friends at an amazing summer camp is a rollercoaster ride of fun, suspense, and escape that the youngsters in your family will love. 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.
Thought For The Day – The worst prison people live in is the fear of what others might think.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!