Stephen Burckhardt's Blog: My Blog Ramblings, page 62

Eureka! I've Had a Breakthrough!

Hello Posse, I know many of you have been waiting patiently for Into the West: Most Wanted. I had planned to finish this in November and have it on sale for ...

Eureka! I've Had a Breakthrough!

Hello Posse, I know many of you have been waiting patiently for Into the West: Most Wanted. I had planned to finish this in November and have it on sale for Christmas and we all know that did not happen. I have been struggling so much with this story line. I knew basically what I wanted to do but I was having a very difficult time coming up with specifics that would make the whole story line plausible. There are characters who fled Germany and came to the US in 1848 and I wanted to find a real historical reason that would explain why they fled their home land and at the same time would explain certain behaviors they have now. It took me forever to find circumstance that fit everything I needed but yesterday it happened. I had that eureka moment. It felt so good. I quickly started writing out notes so I could keep all the historical information straight and would have it at hand to weave into my story later. I also ended up having to do math. I never would have seen that coming being a fiction writer but I needed to how long it would take for a marshal to travel from a town in Texas to a town in the Kansas territory. It just about gave me a headache but I did figure it out. I also enlisted Dianne's design skills to create a map for me to help keep a few more things straight as I move forward with this saga. I am going to see if I can put it this book. I think the new upgrade on my formatting program does allow for two page image spreads so I might have to try it. However, if you do not want to wait to see the map now, I'm going to put it on the Member's Only page as a free download. If you are not a member, it is easy to join. Just go to the Exclusives tab in the website menu and select Members Only page. It is free to sign up and you can cancel your membership at any time. You will find more freebies the on this page with many more to come. Keep watching my blogs for more updates coming soon.

Friday Funnies: Gone to the Dogs!

Hello Posse! We are coming up on the anniversary of when we adopted our rescue dog, Shaggy. In honor of one of the best days of my married life, I want to share a few jokes about dogs. If you ever have the chance to rescue a dog, I highly recommend it. If you can't rescue, consider fostering. You would be in good company. Here is a very short list of celebrities who have rescue dogs (to find out more click here): Selena Gomez Jake Gyllenhaal Ryan Reynolds Jane Lynch Jon Hamm Emma Stone + Andrew Garfield Kristen Bell Orlando Bloom Kaley Cuoco George Clooney Sandra Bullock Amanda Seyfried P.R. and I both want more dogs but I keep refusing to even look at any more while we are in this apartment. However, once we get a place with a yard in the next year or so . . . look out! We'll have our own pack in no time! Q: What kind of dog keeps the best time? A: A watch dog! Q: What do you get when you cross a herding dog and a rose? A: A collie-flower! Q:What did the Dalmatian say after he ate all his food? A: “That hit the spots!" Q: Why are dogs like phones? A: Because they both have collar ID! Q: What do you get when you mix a cocker spaniel, a poodle, and a rooster? A: A cockerpoodledoo! Q: Why aren't dogs good dancers? A: Because they all have two left feet! Q: Why was the dog sweating so much? A: Because it was a hot dog! Q: What dog breed LOVES living in the Big Apple? A: A New Yorkie! Q: To what kind of market should you NEVER take your dog? A: A flea market! Q: Why did the Dalmatian go to see his eye doctor? A: Because he kept seeing spots! Q: What breed of dog is the quietest? A: Hush puppies! #dadjokes #FridayFeeling #FridayThoughts #FridayFunDay #WritingCommunity #Amazon #Read #fun ##RescueDogs #dogs #rescuedog #CelebrityCatsAndDogs #celebritydogs #writer #books #readers #amwriting

Whatever Wednesday: Valentine's Day is Coming!

Hello Posse! I wanted to share a few ideas for how to have a great Valentine's Day without going for the standard heart-shaped box of candy and red roses or breaking the bank. Sometimes a loving gesture is the best gift. Bring can your loved one a cup of coffee or tea in bed. Let them lounge a bit longer before they have to start their day. If you do not usually take care of the housework, take over the chores for the day and let your significant other take the day off. Hide little love notes around the house with a single chocolate kiss or truffle (just be sure to keep this out of the reach of any pets). Find a photo booth and have some cute photos made together or just of you to gift to them. You can also make a homemade popup card like the one in the video below. This year my husband and I have agreed to no store bought gifts.
Instead it will be handwritten love notes and homemade cookies
or maybe brownies. We wanted to give each other a gift that was
more personal and to be honest, I'm really looking forward to it. One cute project I have been wanting to do with my husband is to
make a homemade fingerprint necklace with our finger prints on
it. This is a quick, easy project and is very personal. This would
be something I would keep forever. I wish I would have thought of
this before my grandmother passed. It would have been a
great memento of her. Here is another DIY project I am considering. We have a few frames we are not using and this would be a cute keepsake for us. If you don't have a frame on hand you could always find one for very little cash at places like Dollar General, Dollar Tree, or Big Lots in the US or the Euro Store, Kik, or Flying Tiger in the EU. I want to use maps from five places, or maybe six to give us an even number. They would be where we were each born (him Chile, me Kansas), where we met/married (Hunan Cafe in Old Town/Cowtown Museum in Wichita, KS), where we first lived together (Denmark), and where we live now (Germany). We can easily print out the maps and even the background with text on our computer. I also want to add a photo or two of us in the frame as well. This would be a fun, easy project to do together. I would want to have a bit more interesting background than this plain white here but this is where you can let your creative side go wild. If you are not the creative type you can always go to this Etsy store and have them be creative for you. So this holiday, why not go for something more personal? Please share your suggestions and ideas in the comments. We would love to hear from you! Happy Wednesday! Dianne #WednesdayWisdom #WednesdayMotivation #WednesdayThoughts #WednesdayVibes #DIY #Valentine #valentineiscoming #ValentinesDay2020 #blog #blogger #crafts #amwriting #writers #writing #WritingCommunity

Monday Movie Madness: Kurt Russell

Hello Posse! I hope you all had a great weekend. It was chilly and rainy here. I doubt we have had more than 12 hours of sunlight since December. I am seriously hoping Phil the groundhog was right and we will get an early spring. I need to see some sun! Today's movie is a little but different in that I have not only never seen this movie but I had never even heard of it until I started looking at movies online to decide what to write about today. I have no idea how I missed this film when it came out. I love Kurt Russell in westerns (and any other genre to be honest) and will automatically watch any western he stars in. He ranks up there in my book with Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot (check out next Monday's movie blog for more on them) for modern westerns. Today's film, Bone Tomahawk, was released in 2015 and is considered a western horror. The plot definitely reads like it has the potential to be a good disturbing, edge of your seat film, if you enjoy that kind of thing. The movie stars Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, David Arquette and horror movie icon Sid Haig. Bone Tomahawk was written, directed, and co-scored by S. Craig Zahler. This was Zahler's feature film debut. It tells the story of a small town sheriff played by Russell. When two townspeople are abducted, the sheriff leads a posse to rescue their citizens. Unfortunately, they discover the townspeople were taken by a cannibalistic Native American clan. Being Native myself, I was curious to know if Native Americans in North America had ever been known to commit cannibalism. I did not know of any off the top of my head and after a bit of research, it turns out there is some evidence to suggest that it has occurred. One tribe mentioned regarding this behavior is the Karankawa of southeast Texas. They were found to have at one time practiced cannibalistic rituals involving their defeated enemies. This fact just makes the movie's plot all the more disturbing. Bone Tomahawk should be available on Netflix if you feel the desire to check it out. Let me know how you feel about horror movies. I know they are not everyone's cup of tea. What do you think? Do you like a good scare as long as it's not gory? Let me know what you think in the comments. Have a great week! Stephen #MondayMotivation #mondaythoughts #MondayVibes #MondayMovieMadness #movies #blog #blogger #amwriting #writing #writerslife #writing #WritingCommunity #Reading #readers #Netflix #HorrorCommunity #SidHaig #KurtRussell #HorrorMovies #cowboy #westerns

Friday Funnies: Farm Edition!

Hello Posse! I hope everyone had a fantastic week and are looking forward to an even better weekend. I have a lot of things going on today so I will get righ...

Friday Funnies: Farm Edition!

Hello Posse! I hope everyone had a fantastic week and are looking forward to an even better weekend. I have a lot of things going on today so I will get right to it. Today is National Hot Chocolate Day and if you visit my Facebook page you will find a video with four very tasty variations on this great winter treat. Even if you don't want to make a hot chocolate, the guy who does the video is pretty entertaining to watch regardless. So mix yourself up a nice hot chocolate and check out these jokes. Just don't drink and laugh, hot chocolate coming out of your nose does not sound good! Cows: Do you know why cows have hooves instead of feet? Because they lactose (lac-toes)! A bull was talking to the herd. "My grandfather was a great knight," he said. "His name was Sir Loin." What do you call it when a cow watches another cows every move? A steak out! How to count cows? With a cowculator! What do you call a cow with a nervous twitch? Beef Jerky! Horses: What did the mother horse say to her foal? Go to bed son, it's pasture bedtime! What do you say to a cowboy who rides a tall pony? Get off your high horse! Why did the pony ask for a glass of water? Because he was a little Hoarse! Pigs: What do you get if you cross a pig and a cactus? A porky pine! What is a pig's favorite move in Karate? A pork chop! What do you get when you play tug-of-war with a pig? Pulled pork! Chickens: Why couldn't the chicken find her egg? Because she mislaid it! What do EVIL chickens lay? Devilled eggs! Who tells the best farm jokes? (besides me of course) Comedi-hens! #dadjokes #FridayFeeling #FridayThoughts #FridayFunDay #WritingCommunity #Amazon #Read #fun #HotChocolateDay

Whatever Wednesday: Guilt Pleasures

Hello Posse! I want to talk about guilty pleasures today. Now, for those of you who are Laurell K. Hamilton fans, I am not referring to her Anita Blake book Guilty Pleasures (though all of her books are a guilty pleasure of mine). What I am talking about is those things we go home after a tough day and we snuggle in to enjoy as a way to life our spirits. I have a long list of guilty pleasures most involve books and movies and a few are food. My husband is not a fan of horror movies and TV shows so when he is gone I tend to indulge in marathons of my favorites. I'll make a big bowl of popcorn with M&Ms mixed in (something I got from my brother-in-law, Mike), pull up Netfilx on the Xbox, and snuggle in a warm blanket with my dog and relax. Last night was one of those nights. I watched a few movies between writing jags. When I would get stuck on my storyline, I would watch something else to get out of my thoughts. I watched Sleep Doctor (loved it) and Good Witch, Bad Witch (love all of the Good Witch shows). Now, the second movie is not horror, it's more a chick-flick, which I truly hate admitting I watch. But I have actually watched all of The Good Witch series with Catherine Bell so I thought I should check out the movies too. For books, I love all of Laurell K. Hamilton's books as well as Patricia Briggs, and J.R. Ward. Since junior high I have periodically reread the book, Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee. I am also a big comic book fan. When I was in fifth grade I had a subscription to Thor comic books but as I got older my tasted branched out. While I do love Batman, I am otherwise a serious Marvel fangirl. Another great stress buster for me is video games. I love Red Dead Redemption and all of the Batman games. My husband and I play Tank Wars together and I try to play Call of Duty with him but he is a LOT better at it than I am (sometimes I think he enjoys killing me a bit too much). I think in all the years we have played together I have only bested him about five times and he probably let me win few of those. Besides these things I also love to indulge in the occasional hot chocolate, cafe mochas, dark chocolate and bean burritos. Not all together, of course, that would be way too much sugar and really gross. The only thing I really look forward to in winter is that I can drink a hot chocolate and not feel too guilty about the empty calories because it is keeping me warm. Now, we would love to hear from you! What are your guilty pleasures? Share them in the comments. I hope you have something fun to help you enjoy your week. Enjoy! Dianne #popcorn #LaurellKHamilton #PatriciaBriggs #JRWard #BlackDaggerBrotherhood #anitablake #MercyThompson #guiltypleasure #blog #reading #WritingCommunity #Writer #writerslife #book #videogame #CallofDuty #RedDeadRedemption2 #TankWars #batman2021 #DCComics #marvelcomics

Monday Movie Madness: Tremors

Hello Posse, I hope you had a good weekend and are having a great start to your week. My blog is going out a little late today because P.R. had to leave on a business trip so I spent the morning with P.R. then Spent the afternoon running errands. By the time I got home I was exhausted. I am just now getting around to finishing up work stuff. All that aside, I thought I would do something a little different today. I am going to talk about the Tremors monster movie franchise. I am sure you are wondering, what does this have to do with westerns or historical fiction? Just hold on, because I'm going to tell you. The Tremors franchise began in 1990 with the monster movie/comedy staring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire, and Finn Carter. It was released by Universal Pictures, a studio with a long history of successful monster movies. The story takes place in the desert of Nevada in the small out of the way town of Perfection. Two local handymen, played by Bacon and Ward, are tired of their boring lives and decide to finally move out of Perfection forever. Unfortunately, they chose to leave just one day too late and on their way out of town they begin discovering many of their fellow towns folk dead or missing under mysterious circumstances. Bacon and Ward decide they need to leave before the maniac attacking their friends gets them only to find the only road out of town is blocked and forces them to return to Perfection. The townsfolk discover a strange creature attached to the truck Bacon and Ward were driving. With the help of seismologist, played by Carter, the group begins to piece together the mystery just as they are set upon by strange giant worm-like creatures they name "Graboids" and a fight for their lives begins. Tremors was a financial success though it did gross less than the studio expected. The interest in this movie spawned five movie sequels and a TV Series. Tremors (1990) Tremors 2: Aftershocks (1996) Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001) Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004) "Prequel" Tremors 5: Bloodlines (2015) Tremors 6: A Cold Day in Hell (2018) TV: Tremors: The Series (2003) The entire original cast did not return for the sequels. However, Ward did appeared in Tremors 2: Aftershocks with Michael Gross. Gross is the only original cast member to have appeared in all the Tremor movies and the TV series. While most of the movies in the Tremors franchise are set in the current time, the prequel goes back in time to the presumed discovery of the Graboids, when the town of Perfection was first established in 1889. In the beginning, the town was named Rejection and was financed by a local silver mine. The miners had no idea that strange eggs are about to be hatched by a local hot spring. When creatures hatch, miners die, and the town has to band together to fight them. In the end, the good guys prevail with the help of teamwork and a Colt 1865 Gatling gun. I will admit, this franchise is a guilty pleasure for me. I have seen all but the last one and will probably rectify that sometime this week. I hope you will at the very least give the first movie in this franchise a try. They are not your typical blood and guts kind of scary movie. The gore factor is more just people getting dragged away out of sight and the carnage being assumed on the part of the viewer. And gore that happens on screen if move on the level people getting slimed on by the monster when it grabs them or it explodes. Even the faint of heart should be fine with this film. So grab our popcorn and M&Ms and join me getting Tremors this week! Be sure to let me know what you think of it if you do. Enjoy! Stephen #blogger #blog #Amazon #WritingCommunity #book #movie #horror #MonsterMonday #MichaelGross #KevinBacon #FredWard #UniversalMonsterMovie

Friday Funnies: Pet Edition

Happy Friday, Posse! I hope you all had a great week! P.R. got to work from home
again this week, which was great because next week P.R. has
to go on another business trip so it will just be me and Shaggy
here for the week. Tonight we are ordering dinner delivered
and sitting down together to watch the new Star Trek: Picard.
Our little geeky hearts are beating in anticipation! Until dinner time, I will be working hard on finishing the next
chapter in Into the West: Most Wanted. I think I need to go
back through what I have written so far and take out some of the clues to who the "Most Wanted" are to help string it along a bit more throughout the story. I think I am giving it all away too soon. Until I am ready to give you another "Sneak Peek" I have some great pet funnies for you to put a smile on your face. I hope you like them! Have a great weekend! Stephen Why do zou have to be extra careful when it rains cats and dogs? Because you might step in a poodle. Why did the dog chase his tail? He was trying to make both ends meet. What breed of dog does Dracula love? Bloodhounds! How can you tell the difference between a dog and a tree? By their bark! What do a dog and a cell phone have in common? They both have collar ID What is a dog’s favorite book? Harry Paw-ter and the Sorcerer’s Bone! #StarTrekPicard #FridayThoughts #FridayMotivation #FridayFeeling #fridaymorning #dogs #blogger #blogging #amwriting