Full Swing Fall

This time of year, I go on a Vincent Price kick. My favorite is The House on Haunted Hill. Granted, after seeing it the first time, I realized how predictable the story is. That’s probably why I prefer older horror movies. The stories are predictable and the effects are distorted enough that it’s easy to separate from reality. I absolutely hate jump scares and I’m not a fan of over-the-top gore.

Another Price movie I enjoy is A Comedy of Terrors. The lyricism of the dialogue alone is worth the watch. Then the symbolism of the characters topped with the final joke is excellent. Plus, it’s one of the few movies that brings together three of the top horror actors of the era, Price, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre. Basil Rathbone’s ongoing recitation of Macbeth creates an eye-rolling contrast of dignity against the stupidity of the main characters antics. It’s worth a watch if you haven’t seen it before and don’t mind campy older films.

I’ll be working Halloween again this year. Personally, I prefer working this holiday, and one might find it ironic that I’ve seen more fatalities around Christmas, but there’s something about being out and about on the night that spell adventure. Granted, I’m in a new district and it might be more interesting in comparison.

This community has a hay bale contest, which the crew is planning to build a Zombie ambulance. Different businesses and organizations design, build, and/or decorate their bales and the community votes on their favorite. There are the usual local school mascot designs, the classic guy and gal getting caught rolling in the hay and getting found in a bale (which did actually happen to a 43-year-old farmer once, though it wasn’t as part of an amorous tryst), and then there are original ideas that might just leave you shaking your head, like a wayside rest I stumbled across in South Dakota several years back.

Can’t wait to see what folks come up with this year.

Sunken Gardens in The International Peace Gardens located at the Dunseith, North Dakota and Boissevain, Manitoba port on the US/Canadian border.

Writing

The audiobook for Ghosts of Texas is in the final stages in Carlos Kasse’s capable hands. Like me, he works a day job. So it is with no offense meant when I say that I’ll wait for Carlos’s final cut before setting a release date.

There is also the logistical part of circulating the audiobook. At this point in time, I know nothing about sale options or rules regarding the circulation of audiobooks. I better get in gear and start figuring that out.

I’m also considering a return to Word Press for circulating my newsletters. I already pay for the platform to support my website and a newsletter can be posted and circulated without the additional monthly charges which makes it more affordable and frees funds for other resources. I just have to iron out a few details.

Trail to Black Coulee 1.5 is coming along slowly. I found a free plotting app that I’m trying out to help outline this novel to hopefully encourage me to move forward. It’s a free app with straightforward layout. This makes it easier to work on novels while on the go, which is my standard now with the number of transfers my current job sends me on.

Hopefully by next month I’ll have a title for that book, and maybe I’ll have the last 20k laid out in a rough draft.

Until next time,

TW

Available in EPUB and MOBI formats. Read on your Kindle, phone, tablet, computer and more

At fifty-seven, Kit thought she knew what the rest of her life would look like. Thirty-three years of marriage. Two grown children. A comfortable home. A familiar routine. Then she begins to suspect that her husband is having an affair with a younger woman. But instead of fighting to hold on to the life she has always known, Kit finds herself asking a question she has never really allowed herself to consider: What do I want? As the life she built begins to change, Kit discovers something unexpected. Maybe getting older isn’t about becoming less visible, less adventurous, or less alive. Maybe it is finally having the freedom to choose who you want to be. The Season of Herself is an emotional, uplifting story about love, friendship, second beginnings, desire, and the courage to choose yourself. Begin Kit’s journey with this special three-chapter preview.

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