Yesterday was a beautiful day, with lots of sunshine, a high of about 68o degrees, and a nice breeze blowing. A perfect day to be outside working, and that’s what we did. I think I mentioned that Terry had ordered a couple of Vego Garden raised beds for growing herbs and vegetables, but only one […]
Between itching from all of the fire ant bites and a bout of restless leg syndrome, I only got about three hours sleep Friday night. When I was a youngster I thought nothing of getting by on that little sleep, and would still go to work the next day and do my job. But I’m […]
I am a big believer in karma, and whenever someone has done me wrong, I don’t worry about getting revenge because I know that karma will come by and bite them in the butt sooner or later. The problem with karma is it goes in both directions. In yesterday’s blog I said that I had […]
A while back, somebody asked me how come I’ve got a nice Mustang and a fancy pickup truck to drive around in, and also a Kubota tractor, and a Kawasaki Mule, while poor Miss Terry didn’t get anything. How fair is that? When it comes down to it, Terry would much rather have a pickup […]
It seems that we never slow down for very long. While we might get behind schedule sometimes, like I am with my new book, we are always busy doing something. Part of that this year was traveling, part of it was writing, part of it was dealing with medical issues, and some other things that […]
Florida has seen its share of outlaws, brigands, pirates, cutthroats, and smugglers, too. And I doubt few were as popular as Bill McCoy. Even today, old-timers who spent their life on or near the water remember hearing stories about him. Born in New York in 1877, William Frederick McCoy was the son of a man […]
Definition of potpourri – 1: a mixture of flowers, herbs, and spices that is usually kept in a jar and used for scent. 2: a miscellaneous collection. The second definition above pretty much describes today’s blog, a collection of miscellaneous thoughts and info that I’m sharing because I don’t have anything else to talk about […]
In yesterday’s blog, I told you about the tree removal and about us cleaning things up afterward, and about our trip to the nursery to order some citrus trees. But there was more to our day than that. And now, in the words of the late, great Paul Harvey, here is the rest of the […]
We woke up yesterday morning to the sound of a Bobcat in our yard. No, not the wild critter. It was a bobcat used for doing heavy-duty work. The tree removal company that was supposed to be here on Thursday showed up on Friday instead, and by the time I got dressed and walked outside […]
As I’ve mentioned several times, we planted a bunch of perennial peanut plants along the side of our driveway, where we put in a retaining wall to stop erosion from the drainage canal. The folks at Lindley’s Nursery and Garden Center in New Smyrna Beach told us that they are hardy plants that require very […]
Publishing small-town newspapers on the Pacific Northwest coast and in Arizona was a lot of fun, and I like to think that sometimes my publications made a difference in the communities they served. I gained a reputation for stepping on toes, and that was all right with me because sometimes those toes really needed to […]
Usually when I upload a new book to Amazon it goes live within eight hours, and sometimes much less. As I recall, Big Lake Ninja took about 90 minutes to go live. On one occasion, early on in my self-publishing experience, I seem to recall a book taking 24 hours, but that has been the […]
After spending a few hours making the last corrections suggested by my proofreaders, at 3:43 yesterday afternoon I hit Publish on Dead Romeos, my seventh John Lee Quarrels mystery and my 38th book. It came in at 85,225 words, making it my third longest book, with only Big Lake Lynching at 100,113 words and Black […]
I’m sorry to have flaked out on everybody and not post a blog yesterday. It’s something I try very hard not to ever allow to happen. But sometimes life gets in the way. When I had my biopsy surgery on Monday, they sent me home with something called Tramadol, which is an opioid-based pain medication. […]
Sorry, but no blog today. I was having a reaction to new meds most of the day and evening and just don’t have the energy. It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an autographed copy of Big Lake Lynching, the second book in my Big Lake mystery series. […]
Travelers on Interstate 90 near Chamberlain, South Dakota are often delighted by a beautiful 50 foot tall sculpture of a Native American woman located on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River between exits 263 and 265. This amazing work of art is called Dignity and represents the courage, perseverance and wisdom of the Lakota and […]
I worked pretty much nonstop from the time I got up yesterday until around 8:30 in the evening, finishing my newest book, Big Lake Wedding. Yes, Sheriff Jimmy and Robyn finally got to walk down the aisle. But it wasn’t without plenty of challenges thrown in on their way to holy matrimony. This is my […]
Miss Terry and my other proofreaders all went the extra mile, like they always do, and finished with my latest book, Strawberry Slugbug, Monday evening. So yesterday I went through the manuscript making their corrections and getting it formatted to publish. It’s always a crap shoot as to how long Amazon’s Kindle publishing program takes […]
Well, it wasn’t as easy as I had hoped, but on the other hand it wasn’t as difficult as I had feared. My new computer is up and running, and it seems like everything is working as it should. We started setting it up on Saturday and quickly realize that there was a problem with […]
We had a busy weekend, and by the end of the day yesterday we had finished paneling one of the 50 foot long walls of the garage, except for trim pieces. Cutting the paneling to fit around the two windows was the most time-consuming part. That’s the longest continual wall. The front and back are […]