K.C. Kendricks's Blog, page 24
June 12, 2021
Typical start to the day
June 12, 2021
June is a month of transition from spring into summer. The weather in western Maryland is always unpredictable day-to-day, and June does a fine job of showcasing its temperament.
I rolled out of bed this morning with big plans. BIG plans. HUGE! The day dawned overcast and the weather prognosticators didn't give the day much hope of sunshine. My foolish heart said, "perfect day to write!".
Well, blogging does count as writing. Not the writing train I planned to hop on and drive into the sunset, but writing nonetheless.
My first mistake was stopping at my garden corral when I took Deuce out to take care of his morning outside activities. One of the pepper plants has blooms on it so of course, I communed with all the little green plants. Next, I needed to update my calendar with a rescheduled dentist appointment for my fall cleaning. That seemed safe enough but it was, in fact, another little tangent. But wait... I decided I needed a picture of the pepper bloom for over at Holly Tree Manor.
It's never a good idea for this writer to hop over to one of the blogs. Down the rabbit hole again.
All is not lost. As I write this, it's still early in the day. The July Heat manuscript is open on the right-hand screen while I type this blog entry on the left screen. Having a dual-screen setup is, IMHO, the only way to go.
If you've read this far, thank you! If your days start off like mine, going helter-skelter until you get a few small things out of the way before moving on to the actual plan for the day, I get it.
As for the original plan to debut the July Heat cover today, well, that might come tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day on which to blog.
Enjoy your Saturday! I know I'll enjoy mine.
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KC Kendricks
My home on the web- Between the Keys: http://kckendricks.blogspot.com Visit my bookshelf at: https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/the-bookshelf-of-kc-kendricks-and-rayne.htmlSocial media links:Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com My country life at Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com Snips and clips on my YouTube channel: KC Kendricks Between the Keys
twitter.com/kckendricks pinterest.com/kckendricks/boards instagram.com/kc_kendricks facebook.com/kckendricks
May 30, 2021
Rainy days in May and the retirement countdown
May 30, 2021
I'm on vacation from the day job, so of course, it rained yesterday. The temperature didn't rise above 60F, either. That's somewhat odd in our neck of the woods for the end of May but not unheard of. Checking the local climatological site, it shows our average low for May 29 over the last thirty years is a whopping hot 54F, with an average overall temp of 66F. So we struck an unhappy medium.
Rainy days are good for writing. Writing goes better with coffee. I sense a win/win pattern here. I completed a chapter and a half, tweaked the new cover, did a read-through to check the continuity so far, did a load of laundry, and shelved canned sixteen pints of chicken breast I processed on Friday. Not a bad day's work.
While working on the new cover, I decided to go back and put the series name on the covers of Bored, Stroked and Blueprinted, and Memphis. At this point, Centerville Muscle is at least a trilogy, or it will be when the WIP is finished. I won't update the covers at the bookstores until I'm ready to upload the new book. I thought about giving Memphis a new cover but decided against it. Memphis is a different, deeper story so it's appropriate the cover has a different look from the other two in the series. Different seems to be a watchword these days. This vacation is different. This is my last May vacation before I retire. I've been talking about my retirement for a very long time, and if not for the cost of health insurance, I'd have pulled the trigger on it a long time ago. For me to go through the "Affordable Care Act" and purchase the same coverage I have through my employer it would cost me over $1500 a month. Yes, fifteen hundred dollars a month. That's not a typo. It's not "affordable" either. My choices are to pay up or to work until I'm eligible for Medicare. The safe choice is to work.
This will influence my vote for the rest of my life. Way to screw over the middle-class Americans who work and pay for everything.
All is not lost, at least not yet. I have a little countdown app on my phone and it tells me I have forty-seven weeks to go. That's 240 workdays. For me, I need to subtract the Mondays since I don't work on Monday, and this week I'm off, and that leaves only 228 workdays. Take off the remainder of my vacation time and holidays between now and my last day and I'm down to 192 days. It looks more doable this way. When we get down to it next year, I may bite the bullet and COBRA out for a month or two. It would be worth it to be home in March and April to get the spring yardwork done early.
That was me thinking out loud. It's still too soon to write that chapter no matter how much I like the sound of it.
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KC Kendricks
My home on the web- Between the Keys: http://kckendricks.blogspot.com Visit my bookshelf at: https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/the-bookshelf-of-kc-kendricks-and-rayne.htmlSocial media links: twitter.com/kckendricks pinterest.com/kckendricks/boards instagram.com/kc_kendricks facebook.com/kckendricks Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com My country life at Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com Snips and clips on my YouTube channel: KC Kendricks Between the Keys
May 28, 2021
Projects and vacations
May 28, 2021
May is always a busy month for us, and especially so this year. We enjoy our country home, and May is the month that makes or breaks the summer. If we don't have our outside projects finished or well in hand by the end of May, they won't get finished until fall. The triple-H weather of the Mid-Atlantic doesn't aid outdoor work.
Our major project for this summer was installing a patio work/cook area. We planned to purchase lumber and build the frame ourselves. We budgeted for barn-style doors and Formica countertops. We re-evaluated when we got to the home improvement center and figured the cost. It was substantially less expensive to purchase pre-made cabinets and paint them, not to mention it was also substantially less labor-intenstive.
We still have a few odds and ends to finish, installing the toe-kicks for one, but the station is completely functional. A lot of my gardening supplies are out of sight as are his grilling implements. Once we repair or replace, the power washer, I'll get the concrete deep cleaned. It's all to the good.
Today kicked off my annual vacation week. This is the only time I take off ten days straight. For the remainder of my vacation time, I take as long weekends. With this project all but done, I can kick back and relax. The most strenuous thing I'll need to do is water the peppers and tomatoes.
At least I say that now. I'm sure we'll come up with something else to do. Maybe we'll do a little pruning around the edges of the yard, or work on the little shooting range we want to create. We should take an afternoon and detail the vehicles. I'm in the home stretch of another story, the third in the Centerville Muscle series, and now that the cover is finished, I plan to wind it up.
But if we decide all we really want to do is relax on the patio, we have a great space to do it in. And at mealtime, we can dine outside protected from mosquitoes and with a clean surface upon which to fix our burgers.
That's what all the hard work was for, after all.
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KC Kendricks
My home on the web- Between the Keys: http://kckendricks.blogspot.com Visit my bookshelf at: https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/the-bookshelf-of-kc-kendricks-and-rayne.htmlSocial media links: twitter.com/kckendricks pinterest.com/kckendricks/boards instagram.com/kc_kendricks facebook.com/kckendricks Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com My country life at Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com Snips and clips on my YouTube channel: KC Kendricks Between the Keys
May 13, 2021
Amethyst Cove promo cards
May 13, 2021Switching from having all my information on a .com website to the Between the Keys blog has been a lot of intense work. I'm not complaining, just stating the facts. The thing is, I've found out I like some of my reworked promo items a lot better than the originals. Go figure!
The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted my life in strange ways. I'm essential personnel at the day job, so I've been splitting my time between the office in town and my home office. Things are shifting back to being in town more and my boredom level has ramped up to almost intolerable. Life is far from back to normal and the lack of work proves it. Why do I need to be at a desk where I've got nothing to do?
Well, your favorite author always has work to do. It may not be exactly right, but I've spent time at the day job working on some promo items, not to mention doing some blogging. And watching a few YouTube videos about gardening and canning. Let's not forget that. Anyway...
Yesterday, I reworked the little promo cards for the Amethyst Cove series and I thought I'd share them today. If you want to know more about Ian and Rick, and how they got off to a shaky start and ended up married, please visit https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/ian-coulters-amethyst-cove-by-kc.html
I think Ian and Rick's story is honest in dealing with their relationship. Sure, we all want romance, but romance takes commitment and work to last. Ian and Rick have ups and downs just like we all do. Ian is a bit commitment-phobic and Rick struggles with jealousy and insecurity, but in the end, they know life is better when they're together. It's love, commitment, and above all understanding the other person that makes it work. If that's not too close to real life for you, I think you'll enjoy this series. And yes, it's a lot better if read in order.
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KC Kendricks
My home on the web- Between the Keys: http://kckendricks.blogspot.com Visit my bookshelf at: https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/the-bookshelf-of-kc-kendricks-and-rayne.htmlSocial media links: twitter.com/kckendricks pinterest.com/kckendricks/boards instagram.com/kc_kendricks facebook.com/kckendricks Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com My country life at Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com Snips and clips on my YouTube channel: KC Kendricks Between the Keys
April 22, 2021
Centerville Muscle
April 22, 2021When I wrote Bored, Stroked, and Blueprinted, I knew I wanted to add to Mick and Logan's story. I love muscle cars, so creating a series that has them at the nexus is sort of a no-brainer for me. Bored, Stroked, and Blueprinted featured a 1969 Camaro Z/28. My first car was a 1969 Camaro, sadly not a Z. I still have quite a fondness for those first-generation Camaros.
The second book in the series was supposed to be July Heat, but as that story developed, I knew that wasn't the right title for it and so it became Memphis. Memphis is a very appropriate title for a book that became a lot more than expected. Yes, there's a 1968 Camaro in there, but the story is definitely about a man's journey back to life.
That left me with the title July Heat but no story. Happily, that didn't last long and the story is at twenty-thousand words and rapidly growing. I have the background of the cover figured out. It's going to be obvious it's a sequel to Memphis. It's really great to be enthused about a story. Most of the dust has settled around me and writing is enjoyable again. July Heat has muscle cars and my favorite pairing of characters - a slightly older man and a guy about a dozen or so years his junior. I think a bit of an age difference makes a good dynamic. Exploring the age difference helps develop the relationship between the characters as they share first the happier things they've lived through, and later, the more profound adversities.
My break is over and I'm heading back to Centerville, which, by the way, is not that far from Marionville and Easton. It's also fun to make connections between stories that long-time readers will recognize.
Will I take Centerville Muscle to twelve stories the way I did the Men of Marionville? There's no way for me to know until I get to the end of the road.
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KC Kendricks
My home on the web- Between the Keys: http://kckendricks.blogspot.com Visit my bookshelf at: https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/the-bookshelf-of-kc-kendricks-and-rayne.htmlSocial media links:Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com My country life at Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com Snips and clips on my YouTube channel: KC Kendricks Between the Keys
twitter.com/kckendricks pinterest.com/kckendricks/boards instagram.com/kc_kendricks facebook.com/kckendricks
April 14, 2021
This just in from Blogger:
April 15, 2021
Terms of Service·Privacy·Content Policy
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You are receiving this information because your blog uses the FollowByEmail widget (Feedburner).
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After July 2021, your feed will still continue to work, but the automated emails to your subscribers will no longer be supported.
April 2, 2021
Down the rabbit hole
Starting to update all the out-of-date links here at Between the Keys has taken me down the rabbit hole. There are well over one thousand blog entries spanning the last thirteen years, and all of them have a link or two - or more - included. The task is more daunting than I thought it would be.
I've begun to wonder if all the updating is truly something that needs to be done. Do people actually go back and read entries from 2008? Yes, they do. Do they click on the links? I would have to assume so, in some instances. Is having a reader click on a dead link a good thing? Nope.
It could be better to link each book to a bookseller page, but I don't like that idea. Is Blogger safer than a personal website? Probably not but I found out a personal website isn't so safe, either.
Updating the links is going to take a virtual forever, but I'm going to slough onward and do as much as I can. I may fall out of my chair with exhaustion, but until then, I will persevere.
And that is my pep talk to myself this sunny Friday afternoon. Let's hope it works.
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KC Kendricks
My home on the web- Between the Keys: http://kckendricks.blogspot.com Visit my bookshelf at: https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/the-bookshelf-of-kc-kendricks-and-rayne.htmlSocial media links:Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com My country life at Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com
twitter.com/kckendricks pinterest.com/kckendricks/boards instagram.com/kc_kendricks facebook.com/kckendricks
March 29, 2021
It's not working for me
March 29, 2021How do you know when the time is right? That's the question that keeps me awake at night. I've made decisions, but it's knowing when to implement them that's my problem.
I thought I had the website issue settled, but no. I have a front page up and running and now it seems one cannot make changes to it. An even bigger issue is when I click my shortcut, I get a 999 message. Say...what? That is something I really don't understand. It takes refreshing the page for the website to appear.
Is it hubris to desire to have my very own .com? Perhaps.
Is it absolutely necessary to have my very own .com? Perhaps.
And there it is. The author is dithering again.
I do like having a .com but what I have right now isn't going to work for very long. Right now, kckendricks.com directs everyone here to Between the Keys and that's fine in the short term. Blogger is where I hang out, be it here or at Holly Tree Manor, or at Deuce's Day (http://deucesday.blogspot.com).
And then there is the issue of all those links to kckendricks.com that have been posted over the years. How in the world does one update all of those? Who has the time? I'd have to do it thousands of times! I don't think that's in the cards.
I worried that the newer website softwares would be beyond my grasp, but I figured one out so I know I can figure out another.
It looks like I'll begin again to search for webhosting that works better for me. Hubris is both annoying and frustrating. Maybe it's just plain being hardheaded.
KC Kendricks
March 15, 2021
Caesar, beware the Ides of March - website is updated!
Well, color me relieved! The new website is live. It's not finished, but at least kckendricks.com has a home.
There is a lot more to do, so stay posted.
KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
This is becoming beyond annoying
Work on the new .com is progressing. Some decisions have been made and a few of them are already implemented. I have a new home page formatted using new software and it's...acceptable. Many of the pages of the old website have been taken down.
Why is the old site still up and the new one not? Because Yahoo has hidden the DELETE SITE button somewhere unfathomable.
Or perhaps it's because I'm of the age I like to think for myself and Yahoo does not like that. They reward herd mentality, not free-thinking (and especially not free speech).
Here's the thing. I figured out one piece of new site building, so I know I can figure out another.
Later today I'll see if I can get through to customer service, and you know how annoying THAT is going to be.
KC Kendricksin cyberspace limbo
