This has been a whirlwind month for me. It amuses me that I’m listening to Pat Metheny’s Song for the Boys from his “One Quiet Night” album (strongly recommended). It moves from subtle, gentle moments to frenetic, kinetic passages with chord structures western educated minds have learned indicate quests, adventures, grand explorations.
Such as been my month.
I said goodbye to several things. RoundTable for one. It may resurrect, I don’t know. I enjoyed the ones we did, and each succeeding session grew (to me) weaker. The panelists were great, and I’ll take full responsibility for moving on.
It comes down to my need to be interested, which most often happens when I’m either learning or stimulated. A plate of steaming Chicken-Garlic Nachoes (yes, supposedly misspelled, but not historically so) loaded with fresh cut jalapenos interests me as much as learning about the latest research in science. Both stimulate my senses because both propel me into places I’d not been before. I have Chicken-Garlic Nachoes fairly often and each time it’s new to me – Beginner’s Mind, that – and I travel to realms I’d not known before.
Part of this has to do with being synaesthetic. Yes, the sensory overlaps do repeat when presented with repeated information, and now experience and imagination kick in because my world has grown since the last time I dined on Chicken-Garlic Nachoes.
So I’m tough to please.
Except where Susan’s involved. Forty-eight years and more beautiful each day. And not due to imagination or synaesthesia.
I also said goodbye to The Authors’ Exchange program, and for reasons I’ve experienced before; I state my expectations up front, they’re repeatedly not met, I refuse to do all the work by myself, I move on. True, some noble souls did do as I asked, and not enough to make the effort effective. I hope others carry on where I did not.
Lastly I said goodbye to an authors’ group. This was, for me, another turn of the circle, another time ’round the wheel.
Groups form for a purpose. The purpose can be to blow off steam, to learn, for mutual aid, self-improvement, whatever, there’s a purpose. It may not be stated, and the purpose becomes obvious if you’re patient and observant.
Sometimes a group’s purpose changes, and transition is stressful. Part of such transitions is determining the group’s new purpose.
This is where the author in me kicks in. A big learning for wannabe authors is “Get something down on paper (or screen). You can fix what’s broken, you can’t fix what isn’t there.”
Groups in transition need to remember this (especially author groups, me thinks). Decide on a purpose, fix or change it if it isn’t working. Waiting for the perfect purpose to appear like Venus on the shell equates to time wasted (to me). I love to relax, and my two favorite relaxations are learning and being stimulated.
Go figure.
This is why I’m not good with committees (decisions are most often politically based, not fact or evidence based, which means things will need fixing or cleaning up down the road), and weak leadership. Groups with weak or non-existent leadership falter too often for my liking, and in these situations I move on, which I did.
I’ve been in several such groups. Hopefully I won’t be in such groups any more. I weary of such wheels.
Add to that several individuals who didn’t follow through on their commitments or promises (always a thorn to me). I’ve been around too many people who nod tight-lipped and look away when I explain what I’m looking for, only to not do what they agreed to do.
What confuses me is didn’t they know they could simply have said no or asked for help?
Evidently not.
And so a whirlwind month of great learning.
How was yours?
August 2026 Announcements
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| Brother Dave Duford Continues to Charm If you’re not on Dave Duford’s email list, you should be. His offerings are witty, insightful, sometimes outrageous, and always worth a read. His latest include
Note that Brother Dave is a more prolific blogger than I. |
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Rob and Joan Carter Release Book 45 of Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles – The Firefighter’s Ghost: A Paranormal Mystery of Sacrifice, Loyalty, and Redemption – In the quiet beauty of the Texas Hill Country, some secrets refuse to stay buried.
When a late-night blaze erupts in Magnolia Bluff, a beloved firefighter makes one final trip into the burning home to save the family dog. Moments later, the roof collapses. Neither makes it out.
But the tragedy is only the beginning.
As suspicious fires ignite across town, investigators discover that the people who helped convict an arsonist ten years earlier are being targeted one by one.
Meanwhile, the Magnolia Bluff Ghost Watch is called to a nearby ranch, where restless spirits point toward a far older evil—and secrets buried beneath the land for decades.
Caught between the living and the dead, a fallen firefighter and his faithful companion may hold the key to both mysteries.
In The Firefighter’s Ghost, revenge burns, the past refuses to remain buried, and sometimes the dead are the only ones who can lead the living to the truth. |
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Writers’ Month Long Workshop – August 2026’s writers’ workshop covers many if not all phases of craft and storytelling. The workshop is on Wednesdays, 5-26 August 2026, morning and evening openings available.
Note there’s an extra session this month! Go for it!
Sign up here.
You can an idea of what craziness (and learning!) will ensue on my Experiments in Writing posts. |
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Sister Rika Chandra’s Making Memories – Another joy moment in my day is receiving Sister Rika Chandra’s newsletter, and again, I strongly recommend it.
Her latest opens with
The strange thing about memories is that we rarely know we are making them.
Sister Rika has a knack for sending my racing through idea tunnels and always rejoicing where they take me. I encourage you to visit her site and read up on her offerings. I did and they’ve served me well ever since. |
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Talk with the Editors – Wilderness House Literary Review EIC Steve Glines and I (Senior Fiction Editor) hold monthly open chats with authors interested in a) writing for us, b) improving their craft in general, and/or c) increasing their chances of being accepted by other markets.
Meetings are held via Zoom on the last Friday of each month from 9-10amET.
So, want to know how to write for us? Want to know what gets our attention? Want to know how to write better for whatever market you’re interested in? Join us for our next “Meet the Editors” Zoom session. Seats limited! Sign up and talk with us. We’re relatively easy going and fun to be with. |
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Detective Marcus Carver returns in TERMINAL VERACITY – A jaded PI in a climate-ravaged future. A client out for revenge. When an assignment leads to murder, can he catch a vicious killer before they strike again?
San Antonio, 2081. Marcus Carver takes his job seriously. So when a woman in trouble asks for a ride, the dogged private detective dodges the omnipresent surveillance cameras and gets her to her underground appointment, no questions asked. But their secret puts him in the crosshairs of an influential politician and leads him into a murder scene.
As if that isn’t enough, Carver must contend with an exoskeleton-clad rival with several tricks up his sleeve while evading terrorist factions who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. And when a sniper takes aim at his client, he knows one more fanatical killer intends to silence the truth.
Can Carver put this case to rest before someone claims another life?
Terminal Veracity is a page-turning science fiction crime novel. If you like stories about hard-boiled detectives, mass surveillance and dystopian societies, then you’ll love this sleek futuristic whodunit.
Be the first to experience Terminal Veracity by downloading the opening chapter here.
And reserve your copy by pre-ordering the novel here:
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Crysalis is available as an eBook
Chrysalis is a story of personal recovery from childhood and adult trauma told in three parts:
The Echo
Welcome to My Sandbox
The Stone in God’s Sling
The Echo In a bizarre nightmare world, Gerrold is relentlessly attacked by groteques which thwart his every attempt at escape until an angelic being, Acquiesce, appears and offers him a way out. Acquiesce does not do the work of escape for Gerrold and instead guides him to make his own discoveries about escaping and what it means to be free. With Acquiesce’s help, Gerrold realizes escaping the nightmare means challenging the taking control of the nightmare and robbing it of its power over him.
Welcome to My Sandbox Freed from his personal hell, Gerrold realizes freedom comes with a price, and the price is to help others escape their personal hells. This means realizing some people would rather remain in their hells, meaning he is powerless to help him. But this confuses him; how can someone recognize they’re in hell and not want to escape?
Acquiesce explains freedom is a choice, that every moment of a person’s life is a matter of choice, and freedom’s responsibilities can be frightening to those not willing to do the work of healing and compassion.
This revelation causes Gerrold to realize some responsibilities are obvious, some are hidden, and now he wonders if he’s fully paid the price of his freedom. He decides to confront the source of his nightmare to learn the truth of it.
The Stone in God’s Sling Gerrold travels to his nightmare’s source and faces its creator only to discover he has constructed the nightmare himself. Can Gerrold destroy the part of himself which has imprisoned him, set himself free, and heal from the things he’s let happen?
Fans of Guillermo del Toro’s and M. Night Shyamalan’s work will appreciate this dark psychological fantasy which forces the reader to recognize their own hells and offers paths out of them. |
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Sister Vineeta Kommineni’s Zen Citizen moves from depletion to earned optimism. She writes
Every phase of “I feel so depleted. I can’t do this anymore.” inevitably gives way to “earned optimism”; usually after meeting someone working in the same space whose sincerity, ambition, and grasp of what Zen Citizen is trying to achieve, leave me feeling that I’ve found one more ally, and that the road ahead will be a little less difficult.
Read more on Zen Citizen’s website. |
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A Little Game – Set Theory allows for a statement to be both true and false at the same time. This can’t happen and, according to Bertrand Russell, breaks mathematics (better double check your bank and credit card statements, folks!).
However, linguistically we have statements which are both true and untrue simultaneously all the time.
More amusingly, quantum mechanics requires such dualities if it’s to work “correctly.”
Leaving quantum and mathematics aside, send me a plain language statement which is both true and untrue simultaneously. Hint: in logic, this is known as a self-contradicting statement. Go for it!
The first five people to get back to me with a correct answer get a signed Chrysalis ebook. The first person to get back to me with answers that make me laugh gets a signed print copy of Tales Told ‘Round Celestial Campfires Volume 2 (and no looking it up on the internet, folks!).
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That’s it for August. See you next month!
Enjoy!
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