Stephen Burckhardt's Blog: My Blog Ramblings, page 65

Sneak Peek Sunday!

Hello Posse, It has been a long time since I have done one of these. Since I am hard at work trying to finish book four, I thought I give you a sneak peak at the chapter I am working on. Do not justdge the following sample too harshly, it has not been edited at all yet so if you see errors don’t worry. We will catch those later. I hope you like it. P.R. and I had a lovely Thanksgiving at home with Shaggy. P.R. was forced to take it easy with a broken leg but other than that, it was a nice holiday. Tonight, I put up the tree and tomorrow we will decorate it. We are trying to do everything around when I need a break from writing. I’ve written about 5,000 words today so it’s working well at the moment. Don’t forget to check out the blog tomorrow for Movie Madness Monday. I haven’t decided yet which movie I am going to feature yet. But I do have it narrowed down to three. We’ll see what I feel like writing about tomorrow. I love them all so no matter what, it will be a good one. Take care and Happy Holidays!!! Stephen

Friday Funnies

Hello Posse, Today is a short blog because I want to get back to writing on part four, Into the West: Most Wanted. I spent yesterday with my better half and out wonder dog, Shaggy. We had a lovely quite dinner at home and then chatted with my mom for a bit. We didn't get to catch up with dad but we are going to try to do that later today. We also sent a video to my older, little sister (she's older than me but about half a foot shorter) who had a birthday yesterday. It was a good day. I hope each and everyone of you had a fabulous holiday filled with family, friends, and good food! I hope the following jokes make you laugh today, or at the very least, put a smile on your face. Have a great weekend! Stephen Why Did The Cowboy Take Hay To Bed? To feed his nightmares. What Sickness Did The Cowboy Get From Riding A Wild Horse? Bronc-itis Why did the outlaw always take a bath before a stickup? Because he wanted to make a clean getaway! Cowboy Rules Don’t squat with your spurs on. Don’t interfere with someone who ain’t bothering you none. Always drink upstream from the herd. Telling a man to “git” and making him do it are two very different endeavours. When you give a personal lesson being mean to a person or a critter, don’t be shocked when they learn it. If you’re riding ahead of the herd, look back once in a while and make sure it’s still there. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it back in your pocket. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. If you get to thinking you have influence over others, try giving someone else’s dog commands. Most important: never, ever, miss a good opportunity to shut your yap! #blog #bookblogger #writer #writingcommunity #amwriting #westerns #jokes #funnies #Friday #FridayFunnies #IAN1 #IANRTG #books #cowboys #cowboyjokes

Whatever Wednesday: Thanksgiving!

Being Native American and a vegetarian, Thanksgiving is not big holiday for me but I do still take the day to give thanks. It seemed appropriate to use this blog to mention things for which I am thankful. I have a home I get to share with the love of my life and the best mutt to ever to be rescued. We have plenty of food to eat, clothes to wear, and can afford medical care. I get to work toward building my dream job as a novelist. I have gotten great feedback from so many places about my writing and my books are starting to get noticed. I have family and friends whom I love dearly and a few of them love me back (when I'm not annoying them). There are so really many people I am grateful to have in my life, I really would not even know where to begin. I have been through some seriously trying times in my life and I would not still be here today if it weren't for the support of some of my family and friends. Today, I am not going to name names because I know I will forget someone important and I do not want anyone feeling left out or unappreciated (and I hope you already know who you all are) but please know I am thankful for you all! I know who supports me and my work. I know who goes out of their way to help spread the word about the career I am trying to build. I know who contacts me and leaves me encouraging messages and will sometimes text me just to stay in touch. I am extremely grateful for every effort that is made. I only hope you all feel as if I am just as supportive of you and your endeavours. Please know, tomorrow as P.R. and I sit down to give thanks, I will be thinking of each and every one of you and saying a little pray for your health, happiness, and success with your own goals in life. Peace be with you. With deepest gratitude, Stephen #gratitude #thanksgiving #blog #Wednesday #readers #books #writing #writer

Monday Movie Madness: Italian Style

Hello, Posse, Growing up I loved watching the late late show. Kids today will never know the thrill of getting permission to stay up and watch the last movie on TV before the station went off the air for the night. My mom and I used to stay up together and watch the Bowery Boys, Universal Studios Monster Movies, and quite a few Spaghetti Westerns. Many people assume western movies mainly appeal to American or Western audiences but in fact they have an extensive global appeal. Many countries have produced westerns over the years. The Spaghetti Western or western all'italiana (Italian-style western) was a phrase first coined by a Spanish journalist Alfonso Sánchez. This term refers to westerns movies which were produced and directed by Italians. Other terms began to emerge as other countries began to explore the western movie genre. Paelle Western referred to westerns produced in Spain and Eurowesterns referred to westerns produced in Europe. A great number of westerns were co-produced by two or more countries. Between 1960 and 1978 more than six hundred European westerns were made with the Spaghetti westerns being the most well-known among American audiences, thanks in part, to American actor Clint Eastwood. Eastwood and Italian director Sergio Leone, had a lot of success together. Spaghetti westerns had been a popular genre in Italy and Europe before this time but it was the work of Eastwood and Leone that really began to capture American audiences. Their Dollar Trilogy (Fist Full of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) is still loved by western movie fans today. This success did not come without some controversy. A Fist Full of Dollars was seen as an unauthorized remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1961 movie Yojimbo. Kurosawa won a lawsuit and was awarded all Asian right to the movie as well as 15% of the international box office. Despite this dispute, the Dollar Trilogy went on to be a success for both actors and the director. These movies are still regarded as some of the best westerns of the time. We'll explore more of Leone's westerns in future blogs. If you haven't seen these movies, I suggest giving one or all of them a try. Enjoy, Stephen

Friday Funnies: TV Edition

Hello Posse, Over the years there have been many great TV Western comedies and I think today's pick is one of my favorite. I have always loved Bruce Campbell's work but The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. has always ben at the top of the list. This show was produced my Warner Brothers Television and only ran for 27 episodes between 1993 and 1994. Warners brothers had hoped to create a series that had the same style and appeal of the old classic serial westerns. During it's short run on television, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. did acquire a small but dedicated fan following. The show was also well reviewed by critics. The show was commended for doing a great job blending various genres with a sense of humor that was well delivered by the entire cast. The storyline line began with famous Sheriff, Brisco Country, Sr. bringing a gang of criminals to trial when he is killed and the gang escapes. About this same time, a group of captive Chinese slave laborers unearth a mysterious gold orb with numerous rods sticking out from it. The orb gives many of the Chinese workers super human strength which they use to escape their slavers. When the senior Brisco, played by Ronald Lee Ermey (of Full Metal Jacket fame), is killed, the company who hired him brings in his son, Brisco County, Jr. played by Bruce Campbell, to finish the job. Brisco County, Jr. has to find the outlaws, solve his father's murder, retrieve the mysterious orb, battling rival bounty hunters, all the while trying to stay out of mischief. Which you can probably guess, Brisco was not good at doing. Below is a clip from the pilot episode. If sou get a chance you should check out the entire 27 episodes. They are well worth it! Enjoy, Stephen A three-legged dog walks into the saloon and announces, "I'm alookin' fer the man who shot my paw." A cowboy walks into a bar and orders three beers. He drinking a sip out of each glass in turn. the man becomes a regular at the bar and every time he comes in, it is the same thing: three beers, he drinks one sip from each in turn until they are gone. After a few weeks, curiosity get the better of the bartender and he speaks up. " You know beer goes flat after pouring it. Why don't you just order one beer at a time?" The cowboy smiles and explains, "Well, you see, I have two brothers. One lives in Kansas, the other is in Montana. When they moved, we all promised that when we went out, we'd drink this way to remember the days when we all drank together. So I'm drinking one beer for each of my brothers and one for myself." The bartender thought that was a pretty nice custom and never said another word about it. Months went by adn one day the man came in and only ordered two beers. All the regulars noticed and fell silent out of respect for his loss. When the cowboy asks for a second round, the bartender says, "I don't want to intrude on your grief, but I just want to offer you my condolences on your loss." The cowboy looks confused for a moment, then it dawns on him what the barkeep meant and he laughs. "Oh, no, everybody's just fine," he explains, "It's just my wife made me quit drinking. Thank God it hasn't affected my brothers any though."

Whatever Wednesday:

Hello Posse, Today, is just going to be a quick catch up while we continue to work on the audiobook, Stephen is writing part four, Into the West: Most Wanted, and we are constantly updating the social media sites. If you haven't noticed we are working on a merchandise line for the Into the West Saga Serial as well. We hope to have a few basic items up and for sale for the holidays. Go on over to the General Store to find out more. For now, with the weather turning colder and the holidays coming near, I thought I would share another recipe with you for hot chocolate. The only thing I like about cold weather is I can drink hot chocolate without feeling guilty about the calories. A few notes: I am not very fond of milk chocolate and always prefer dark. So for this recipe I use dark chocolate but you can always substitute milk chocolate if you prefer. I also use Oat Milk and non-dairy topping instead of cow#s milk products because I am a vegetarian but again you can always switch out regular milk products for the same amount. Peppermint Stick Hot Chocolate Makes 2 mugs (we use large mugs for this) 3 cups oat milk 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips 2 small peppermint candy canes, crushed Add milk to a sauce pan and heat until warm but not boiling. Add chocolate chips and crushed candy canes. Whisk until all are melted and well mixed into the milk. Pout into mugs and garnish with non-dairy whipped topping and an addition candy cane if you wish. This goes great with sugar cookies or gingerbread. Variations: If you want to kick this up to an adult level, instead of crushed candy canes you can add peppermint schnapps. Another great addition is Godiva Chocolate Liquor. It's always fun to play around with variations at the holidays, just please drink responsibly. Enjoy, Dianne #blog #amwriting #cooking #drinks #hotchocolate #western #cowboy #writingcommunity #recipies #audiobooks #historicalfiction #fiction #histfic #historical #writers #indieauthor

Monday Movie Madness: TV Edition

Hello Posse, There are so many great western movies and I have only just begun to start talking about them but today I wanted to touch on a few great TV westerns. Growing up I loved watching shows like Little House on the Prairie, Bonanza, Wild, Wild West, and Maverick. Now, I want to be clear, I was not born when all of these first aired so I am not old enough to have watched their original run on TV but I did see some in reruns and even bought a few later on VHS . . . I am that old. Maverick was one of the TV shows I absolutely loved and still do to this day. As much as I love Sean Connery, I have to say I am thankful he turned down the role of Maverick because I just can't imagine anyone doing a better job than James Garner. Garner came from Norman, Oklahoma and was one of the few actors who seemed to be able to go back and forth between TV and movies without any consequences to his career. He played Maverick in movies and in the series and was even featured in the Maverick comic books. In the first season, Garner stared alone as Bret Maverick for the first eight episodes but was then joined by Jack Kelly as his brother Bart. Both were wayward cardsharps with somewhat questionable morals at times but who always come though in the end. In the third season, Garner left the series due to a legal dispute but soon went on to a successful movie career. He later returned to TV for another beloved series, The Rockford Files. In the late 1970s, there was a was an attempt to revive the Maverick series. Garner and Kelly reprised their roles as the Maverick brothers in a made for TV movie, The New Maverick, this was intended to be a pilot for a new series titled Young Maverick In 1994, Warner Brothers produced a Maverick remake staring Mel Gibson as Bret Maverick and James Garner making an appearance has his father. The film also brought back writer Roy Higgins from the original series. If you haven't seen the original Maverick series, you should defiantly treat yourself to this show and be sure to check out some of James Garners western movies as well. Two of my favorite are Support Your Local Sheriff and Support Your Local Gunfighter. In the films, he plays similar fun-loving, wisecracking cowboys as his Bret Maverick character. Enjoy, Stephen #jamesgarner #moviemadness #monday #blog #westerns #cowboys #gambling #sheriff #wildwest #intothewest #serial #tvshows

Friday Funnies

Hey there, Posse, I hope your Friday is off to a better start than mine. This si the
second time I have written this blog. I always write all the text first
because for some reason adding a photo sometimes throws off
the text alignment in here. Unfortunately, today when I added a photo it wiped out all of the
text I had written in this blog doe not have an undo feature. I
really, really hate that! I am so close to dumping the blog feature
in here and just linking up to my old blog site on WordPress. Anyway, enough of my belly aching. Today is Friday Funnies and I
have got some good ones for you. Now, usually all of the jokes in here at completely kid friendly but a few today might be more teen and up. I had thought about sharing a few comedy TV show clips today but I think I will do that on Monday. They feature actors who are known for being hard as nails cowboys in moves but showed a great talent for comedy when they did guest appearances on comedies. You'll see what I mean come this Monday. But for now, I hope to give you all a good chuckle and get you into a great heading into the weekend! Happy Trails, everyone! Stephen I've been cast to star in a new cowboy film called "The Sun". It's set in the west. What do you call a frog cowboy? Hoppalong Cassidy. At the end of a long working day, one cowboy looked particularly worn out and haggard. Another cowboy turns to him and asks, "You have a rough day there, partner?" The cowboy shook his head and said, "Oh yea. You know, that new bull we just put in the pasture nearly did me in today." "Why, what happened?" asks the other cowboy. The cowboy replied, "I went to put out the feed, when the bull came charging at me like a train from hell. He dang near got me!" "So, how'd you get away?" asks the second cowboy. The cowboy said, "Lucky for me, the bull kept slipping and that gave me a chance to make it to the fence and jump over." "Man, that's scary!" said the second cowboy. "If it'd been me, I'd probably have pooped all over the place." "I did!" exclaimed the cowboy, "What do you think that bull was slipping in?" One day an old cowboy was visiting with his granddaughter and he told her the secret to living a long life was to sprinkle a pinch of gun powder on her oatmeal every morning. The granddaughter did as her grandfather told her and everyday she put gunpowder on her breakfast until the day she died at 103 years old. When she passed, she left behind 12 children, 32 grandchildren, 56 great-grandchildren, 24 great-great-grandchildren, and a 60-foot hole where the crematorium used to be.

Wednesday Whatever: Cold and Flu Edition

Hello Posse, My husband has been sick this week and whenever he gets to coughing and sneezing there are two things that always happens. 1. I start making soups with garlic and onion and chili with a good spicy kick to it for his sinuses. 2. It's time for the homemade hot toddy! Now, I am no doctor and I am not qualified to give any sort of medical advice. What I am doing here is just sharing a recipe for a hot winter drink we always want to drink when we do not feel good. If you are over 21, this a very tasty way to warm up when the temperature drops but if you are not 21 yet, you can still make this without the alcohol and it will warm you up just the same. Sometimes I will make this and put it in a bottle. We just take a shot now and then during the winter to get all that good vitamin C and other natural goodness from this mixture. Usually, I start out making a cup of hot tea with one bag of lemon tea and one of bag of Eucalyptus and honey. To the cup of tea I add the following: 1 tablespoon good quality whiskey 1 tablespoon honey 1 dime size slice of ginger slightly mashed to start releasing juices fresh squeezed lemon juice (about a teaspoon to a tablespoon depending on your tastes. I will often add a slice with the rind too as pictured above.) Stir to mix well and let set for about a minute for ingredients to blend. One variation I want to try is one cranberry tea bag with one lemon tea bag with the same recipe but add a cinnamon stick. You could even swap out red wine for the whisky for more of a warm holiday punch. I think that might be very good around Christmas time. Drink and enjoy! Dianne #hottoddy #cold #warmup #recipes #Fiction #cooking #cowboys #cleanreads #amwriting #Book #bookbloggers #ebook #historicalfiction #IndieAuthors #kindle #westerns #writingcommunity

Monday Movie Madness: Time for Something Different

Hello Posse,Today's flick is very different from what I normally talk about. As you may have noticed, I'm very fond of old 1940's westerns but today we make a jump into 2011. This flick is something very different from the typical western and that is what I have always loved about it. It's traditional western characters mixed with an invading alien race, something like Independence Day set in the wild west. I'm referring to Cowboys and Aliensstarring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and Olivia Wilde.I will admit, I was not too keen to see this movie when I first heard about it. While I love many of the actors in this flick, it would have been so easy for this premise to go way off the rails (thinking about Wild Wild West starring Will Smith and Kevin Kline) but the fact that it was directed by Jon Favoreau (Iron Man) convinced me to give it a chance. It turned out to be an engaging and fun movie. Not only did I enjoy watching it, I have seen it at least five times now. While that is not really a lot for me, it's still not bad. This movie is another western inspired by a graphic novel by the same name. The studio gave Faveau a budget of $163 million but with only $174.8 million in box office receipts the film was considered to be a financial disappointment. The reviews for the movie were also mixed. Many critics praised the performances of the actors but found fault with any other aspects of the film.Personally, if you can go into a movie with just the desire to be entertained for two hours, I think you will enjoy this movie. If you tend to pick apart movies for not following traditional formats, you might want to skip this one. I hope you'll give it a chance.Stephen