R. Scott Tyler's Blog, page 4

Good things will come to you in due time

That was the fortune from the cookie that came with lunch today. Except when I ate the cookie it had gone soggy, either from the humidity or…I didn’t want to think about the other options.

“Why can’t that good thing come right now, and be air conditioning,” I thought.

Laying spread eagle on the cot in the porch, the sweat trickling over the sides of my belly and streaking the dust that accumulated there during the day. The cloth beneath me began to get wet. It tickled as it ran, causing me to slap at my sides occasionally and increased my irritation with everything.

The job looked easy enough when I received it. Deliver the bag from Roxas to Trinoma. They gave me plenty of time, so I’d walked to save the transportation fare. The fortune cookie was an odd addition to the isaw I had for lunch, but for half a peso I couldn’t resist.

First I hoped the good thing would be in the form of a large tip from the receiver of my delivery. When the woman in the sweat stained blouse just grabbed the package from me, shouting that I was late, “Ay huli!” I was sure of no payday coming from that direction.

When the boss, on the other end of the grubby flip-phone, said “no more deliveries till tomorrow,” I decided to walk back to the porch to wait out the heat of the day. On the way, I was hissed at by a cat, given the evil eye by more than one stray dog, shoed away with a broom by the green grocer, “humawi, hooligan,” and sneered at by other sweaty walkers that thought they were clearly better than Sam, I am.

Returning to the porch I thought of as the humble carabao and felt smaller and more tired than usual. Then I remembered a story Grandma used to tell when I lived with her in the province and would complain about working so hard.

“Look at the way the carabao toils with no complaints, Samson,” she said.

She always called me by my full given name, Samson.

“In the heat of the day, with his worst enemies around him,” she continued.

Even though I remembered carabaos as being quite grumpy, I was quiet and let her go on.

“Who do you think is the carabao’s worst enemy, Samson?” She asked.

Not even thinking about it, I replied, “Flies, I guess.”

“Besides flies,” Grandma said.

“Mud?” I tried.

“Mud isn’t a ‘who’,” she answered.

Thinking for a full minute this time I next answered, “Well, I guess it must be the person with the whip, that drives the carabao to where it must go.”

“No, no, no. Think, boy,” Grandma answered, clearly irritated her story wasn’t hitting its mark with me.

Rolling my eyes, I answered back, trying not to also sound irritated, “I don’t know…maybe dogs?”

“Ah, now you’re understanding,” she answered, even though clearly, I wasn’t.

Now she continued her story in earnest.

“I once watched as the pinuno’s dog relentlessly harassed the carabao I was driving. It was a mean dog and simply wanted to bite the big cow’s nose until it tasted blood. The pinuno, whom the dog clearly took after, stood away and watched me struggle to get the carabao to move.”

I must admit, I was a little intrigued by the story now, asking, “But, why didn’t the big boss call his dog away?”

Grandma answered, “Someday you will see, Samson, that is not always in the mind of many pinunos.”

Despite my protest, she continued, “This pinuno’s dog would dart in and snap at my carabao’s face and the big cow would swing her head at him, both missing their marks. But, after several tries the dog caught a piece of the carabao’s nose with his teeth and I heard the pinuno snicker, even though he was far away.”

Now my eyes got wide. All I could think of was the four powers at work here, my grandma, the carabao, the mean dog, and the big boss, all of whom I had great respect and fear towards.

Checking on my level of interest out of the corner of her eye, Grandma decided to go on.

“Well that big carabao was so surprised by the dog’s nip to her nose that she didn’t even twitch her head the last time. However, I saw her eyes get wide and her head turned slightly towards the dog as it came in for another taste. What do you think happened, Samson?”

Quickly I replied, hoping beyond hope, “The big boss called his dog back?”

Shaking her head, Grandma continued, “When that pinuno’s dog came back in for another taste of carabao nose, that old cow lifted her front leg and, like a lightning flash, set it down again right on that dog’s shoulder.”

My eyes practically bulged out of my head now, waiting for her to continue. “Well? What happened?!”

Grandma simply smiled and answered, “Well I never did see that mean dog again. With a ton of carabao and two feet of mud on top of it, that dog stayed down there for good.”

“Then the toiling carabao won?” I asked, a smile creeping onto my lips.

Grandma sighed and put another wad of tobacco in her mouth.

“Well, right? What happened to the carabao?” I insisted.

“The pinuno came to our house the next day and shot it in the head. Papa skinned it and the whole village cooked it,” she finally answered, looking away into the sunset.

Lying back on my cot, I sighed and decided to try to think of a different antidote, but maybe one not told by my grandma.

2017 – Year of Reading Internationally

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This year I made a goal of finding, learning about, and ultimately, reading stories set internationally. The only particular requirements are that the setting has to be outside of the United States and the book must be published in English. It can be written in English or translated from some other language, but since I can only read English, that’s a deal breaker…yeah.

Ideally the author would be living in the same country as the story setting, but that isn’t a must. Generally speaking I read 99% fiction, so again, the books will likely be in that genre. Also, at least for this challenge, I’ll probably not do any science fiction or fantasy reading. Don’t get me wrong, I love those genres as well, but in this case I’d rather read about someone else’s real life situation in a country other than my own, than about someone else’s self designed world in their own fantasy land. Maybe next year I should make the challenge the ‘year of reading out-of-this-world’, which could be extremely interesting in itself.

So far, my reading list includes the following titles:(some are read, some I am reading, and the rest are on the list to be read)

The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov, Mikhail (Russia)
Sitti Nurbaya by Rusli, Marah (Indonesia)
My Brother, My Executioner (Rosales Saga, #3) by José, F. Sionil (The Philippines)
Bleak House by Dickens, Charles (England)
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Murakami, Haruki (Japan)
There Once Lived a Mother Who Loved Her Children, Until They Moved Back In: Three Novellas About Family by Petrushevskaya, Ludmilla (Russia / USSR)
Em and The Big Hoom by Pinto, Jerry (India) My favorite so far
Ruins by Kuper, Peter (Mexico) This was a graphic novel
Faceless Killers (Kurt Wallander, #1) by Mankell, Henning (Sweden)
Young Blood by Mzobe, Sifiso (Durban, Africa)
The Sympathizer by Nguyen, Viet Thanh (Vietnam)
Enigma of China (Inspector Chen Cao #8) by Qiu Xiaolong (China)
Behind the Mountains by Edwidge Danticat (Haiti)

The difference between doing what you want and doing what you know you should do…

This topic is one I have dealt with my entire life.

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In a past life I managed projects. I was good at it and I enjoyed large parts of it. I liked the investigative part, where I talked with people about what they wanted the project to accomplish. I enjoyed the design part, where I helped the technical squads understand the goals in order to fulfill them as best they were able. And I enjoyed the day to day, hands on, managing of installations because I got to see something I’d spent so much time with come to life.

I did not enjoy some of the extraordinarily complex tools that some people used. One of them was a very powerful tool called “something something” Project…I’ll leave you to guess the “something something”. Many much less successful project managers were experts with this tool. They could track, resource and time control every minuscule task to the hour, if they desired. The difference between us was that my projects came in on time and in budget, with a happy project team to the end, while their projects were wrought with unhappy team members that felt micro-managed and not listened to.

The truth is, there is a margin of both things that obviously need to be accomplished. However, ultimately I learned that, unless people really think about it or are pushed into it, they will do what they like to do (fiddle with a software program) way before they do what needs to be done (go out and work with people to get the job done).

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A New Day

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Another day breaks Free of charge With no guarantees Much of what happens is random Our response to the randomness is our own

Inspiration, perspiration, motivation

So much in life, that actually ends with tangible, worthwhile, output, is made up of all three of the things in the title of this post. Not necessarily in that order, or in equal parts, but in the end, all three are important.

The world is full of inspiration. I find it the most readily available of the three for me. There is beauty and inspiration in the sky from sunrise, through sunset, and into the starry night sky. Plants, animals, mountains, and plains have inspired songs, stories, paintings, and photography. And for me, the most powerful inspiration is always people. The way they look, live, interact, love, conspire, lie, and die. Again, not necessarily in that order, or with equal importance.

I had a lot of inspiration for the SMUGGLERS IN PARADISE series, most of it from southeast Asia and primarily from the Philippines. I actually started this inspiration series on my other website karthlake.com but I want to continue it here, on my new site dedicated solely to writing.

When I think of the Philippines, it’s hard not to think first of history, faith, and beaches.

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There is for sure a lot of natural beauty among 7100+ islands created by volcanic activity.

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But there are so many interesting people as well. Some searching, some working, some begging and so many simply living, having fun and being kind.

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I hope you enjoyed this inspiration post. Let me know what you think of this or what you do, where you go for inspiration.

New Release – PSYCHOLOGY OF CHOOSING: RIVER RUNNING

At last, the day I’ve been counting down to for several months, the day that has been elusive and fluctuating, the day which has always stayed one step ahead of me, has come.

The third book in the SMUGGLERS IN PARADISE series has been released in eBook format.

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You can find it on Amazon here.

For those of you who are waiting for the paperback edition, it will be out in about a week.

Book Blurb

I’ve been working on the final draft of PSYCHOLOGY OF CHOOSING: RIVER RUNNING and I think it’s close. Here’s the latest draft of the book blurb I’ll place on the back cover. Tell me what you think.

In PYSCHOLOGY OF CHOOSING: RIVER RUNNING, book 3 in the Smugglers in Paradise series, the chase comes full circle, landing again in Marge’s lap in Portland. They say some things skip a generation and that seems to apply in Konnor’s case. Adding another level of darkness to the series, the final game is afoot. With statistics, human trafficking, coffee shops and techno-geeks…this game is played for keeps.

Peek at the 3rd Book

Here’s a peek at the completed cover for PSYCHOLOGY OF CHOOSING: RIVER RUNNING the third book in the Smugglers in Paradise series.

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As you might be able to tell from the picture, if you’re good at recognizing bridges or horizons, the story winds up back in Portland, Oregon.

As a quick update on my progress, I’ll say that the story is complete, but I’m trying to polish it one last time. It’s been difficult to finish this book and I think there are a couple of reasons.

Initially, it was because this was the story that began the whole thing. I wrote the last book first, then went back and wrote books one and two. It’s not the route I would recommend.

Secondly, when I’m done with this book, I’m done with the story. It means the completion of my first published works and I’m having a little trouble letting go. Don’t worry, I’ll get over it and release this thing soon.

Thanks to all of you that have read the first two books and are continuing to wait for the conclusion. I’m actually getting excited to begin the next big project *he smiles to himself*.

“Follow your passion, let it lead where it will; true passion seldom leads to dead ends.”

One Fish, Two Fish, Big Fish, Little Fish: Silver Dawn

Released on June 5, 2016, One Fish, Two Fish, Big Fish, Little Fish: Silver Dawn is the second book in the Smugglers in Paradise series, a family saga pitting brother against brother and following several generations of the Ramos family from Portland to Southeast Asia and back again.

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To order the Amazon Kindle or paperback editions go here.

“Follow your passion, let it lead where it will; true passion seldom leads to dead ends.”

Game of Wit and Chance, Book One in the Smugglers in Paradise series

The first book in the ‘Smugglers in Paradise’ series is now available on Kindle Unlimited for those Amazon customers subscribing to Prime. The eBook price has been reduced to $0.99 and will stay that way while the book is in the Unlimited market.

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Game of Wit and Chance Cover

Released November 1, 2015, Game of Wit and Chance: Beginnings is the first book in the Smugglers in Paradise series, a family saga pitting brother against brother and following several generations of the Ramos family from Portland to Southeast Asia and back again.

To order the Amazon Kindle edition eBook or paperback go here.

You can also purchase the book directly from me by picking it up at my place of work (in St. Paul, Minnesota) where, if I’m there, I can autograph it as you request. To do that please contact me.

“Follow your passion, let it lead where it will; true passion seldom leads to dead ends.”