Mike Jastrzebski's Blog, page 58

Captured by a mind-sucking entity

By Mike Jastrzebski

Okay, so maybe captivated would be a better word than captured, but lately I have been unable to turn off the television. In the morning we’ve been going bicycling, but as soon as I get home I turn the damn beast on. I leave it on while I’m working on the boat. I watch programs I’ve seen before. I watch game shows. Hell, I’ve even got the TV on while I’m writing this post.

The truth is, the television is the reason I haven’t been writing lately. It’s the reason work on the boat is going slower than it should, although to be fair to myself, the boat work is coming along a little every day and right now we are on schedule to get out of here by December.

When we were in the Bahamas we didn’t have any TV and we got along just fine. We watched a couple of DVD’s, but I got a lot of reading done and we spent a good deal of time exploring the islands where we stopped; research for the book I should be writing. I didn’t seem to miss it.

So why am I hooked now that we’re back at the dock? You don’t have to write in and answer, it’s really a rhetorical question. It’s my mind numbing excuse for not working on the next book. You see, if I turn off the TV then I have no reason for not writing. I can’t blame the problem on boatwork, because as I said earlier in this post, I’m getting boatwork done. All I really have to do is turn off the television and open the computer. Maybe tomorrow?

It makes me wonder how many books have not been written since the invention of TV? How many books have not been read? How many minds have been sucked dry by this friendly glowing monster?

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Cool tools

by Christine Kling

I have a friend who sometimes helps me with projects on my boat. He’s in the construction business. I remember one time when he was helping me replace a broken rope clutch on my coach roof (that’s one of those jobs that requires two people), and he fussed at me about the quality of my tools.

“I hate cheap tools,” he said, as he tried to turn the nut with a loose, crappy little monkey wrench.

Although the entire locker under my starboard saloon birth is filled with tools, I know that some of them were cheap bargains from Home Depot. Okay, maybe most of them. And I’m certain if I, like him, worked with those tools every single day, I would want better quality tools. but even though I recognize the truth in the saying that cruising is sailing from port to port just to work on the boat, I don’t use any one of those tools but maybe twice a year.

There is, however, a tool I use every single day. That, of course, is my computer. Anyone who knows me knows that I love technology, but most of all, I love all things Apple. I admit it. I am a Mac addict. So it’s really important to me to go for quality on that tool. And though my 4 1/2 year old computer once represented top-notch technology, today it was getting a bit long in the tooth. In fact, that was the longest period I’ve ever gone without buying a new computer.

It started with the letter Q. Back in November when I was sailing in the Caribbean 1500 rally somewhere off Bermuda, I hit the Q key and when I lifted my finger, the key stayed stuck to my fingertip. You never realize how many times you hit the Q key until it becomes a wobbly little thing that continually falls off. I tried a dab of Superglue and that worked for a while, but eventually the key lost all resistance. I could type away for several minutes -click, click, click – until I hit that key and the click changed to a clunk.

Then the speakers stopped producing any sound. Like most cruisers, I like to watch movies on my computer, and though I could still do it with headphones,

The killer blow however came this week when Apple released their new operating system called Mountain Lion, and I discovered that my trusty old computer was too old for the upgrade. Techie that I am, I’d been reading for weeks about all the new features that would be built into this operating system. See, I’m one of those crazy early adopter people, and it was driving me crazy that I couldn’t grab onto this shiny bit of new tech.

So, after cruising Craigslist for several days, I finally bought a second hand but nearly new Macbook Air. One of the coolest things about this machine is that it has a solid-state hard drive. After all these years of pounding to weather and wondering if my hard drive was going to survive inside the boat, I now have a drive that has no moving parts. This new technology is great for boaters. As is the newer battery that will last nearly twice as long as the old one.

But one of the real reasons I was so keen on getting this computer is one of the new features that is built into the operating system. It’s called Dictation and I’m using it to write this blog. That’s right, I’m speaking the words to the computer and they are appearing on the screen. Sure, there have been some fairly pricey speech to text programs that could make this happen, but Dictation is a part of the operating system, so it is available in all applications that use typing to input data. It makes me wonder if 20 years from now kids will think that keyboards are these quaint old things like ringer washing machines, and they’ll shake their heads in wonder that people actually had to push all those keys to form the words that go into books.

We aren’t quite there yet, but I know that if I’m going to have to produce 150,000 words a year for the next two years, I’m going to be hammering on those keys. I’ll need the best quality tools I can get. And the fun part is that they are also way cool.

 

Fair winds!

Christine

 

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Beware of falling eels…

C.E. Grundler

I had to laugh when I read John’s post yesterday regarding the mystery fish aboard his boat, its origin and meaning. I can understand only too well his confusion, as something similar once happened to me, and it might shed some light on how the fish found its way on deck. As to the meaning behind this odd event, I’m pondering that one as well.

It happened a few summers ago, but I remember it as though it was only yesterday. I’d gone down to the boat to do my usual check-overs, run the engine a bit, and stir up some mud. Part of the routine was after running under load for ten minutes, then I’d drop back to neutral and let her idle for five before shutting down. While she’s idling, I’d do a walk around, checking everything from waterline to bridge. So I’m up on the bridge, and pause for a minute to admire the view of the river. Three gulls swoop overhead, screaming at one another, and THHUDDDSPLATTTT!!!! (Emphasis on the SPLAT!) There’s a big, fat, very dead eel laying across the bridge deck two feet away from me. Based on the slime imprint, it landed a few feet further away, and BOUNCED to its final resting place. Well, not entirely final. I still had a paper towel in hand from checking the oil, so I picked up the deceased eel and tossed it into the river. I might have been more grossed out if I wasn’t laughing so hard.

So… was this some sort of sign? I’m still trying to figure how to read into it. Interpretations, anyone?

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Fishin’s good; Catching ain’t

“Fishin’s good; catching ain’t.” These words were relayed to me by a Chesapeake Bay waterman a number of years ago. The phrase rang true many times since. Then again, sometimes you have to wait for the fish to come to you.

Take, for example, one evening when I was walking along the National Seashore on Cape Cod. A steep wave curled over and flooded up against the beach, bringing with it a small school of glistening baitfish and a large bluefish in pursuit. As quick as the wave came in, it ebbed, leaving the blue flopping along the sand. I ran over, tailed the 12 pounder, and held it up in the moonlight. A once in a lifetime event, I thought.

This past weekend I confronted another surprising catch when I stopped by to check on our sailboat. There, on the floor of the cockpit, I found a fish. This was no ordinary pesci. This was was perhaps the world’s smallest fish – imagine a striped bass or bluefish and then shrink it down to a fraction of an inch.

Readers from down south will be ready to attest that flying fish seen in tropical waters often end up on the decks of traveling craft. But I was in New England, not the BVI and this was a tadpole of a creature, not a flying fish. And even if it were a flying fish, it was so small that it would have had to have made an all too incredible leap to jump over the topsides and cockpit coaming.

So how did that little guy get into the boat? My dad had a pretty good understanding of nature and the outdoors, and I remember many conversations about the ability of birds to disperse fish from one body of water to the next. As I recall, this can occur in more than one way, involving both ends of their digestive systems. Perhaps, then, a cormorant gulped a mouthful of minnows and dropped one in onto the boat while in flight?  Or could it be that a gull enjoyed a fish meal that wasn’t fully processed when it made its flyover? Maybe, maybe not.

I suspect something else was at play here. I think someone was sending me a signal. In fact, I suspect that this was a matter of spiritual forces at work. The problem is, I am having difficulty deciphering the message. Perhaps this was nature’s way of communicating my need to be eating smaller portions? A communicae that I’m a small fish in a big pond? A sacrificial donation in return for my willingness to spare larger fish from my prowess as an angler? No, probably not.

Maybe, just maybe, this isn’t about fishing at all. Maybe it’s about writing. Maybe Neptune knew I had a blog posting coming up and he threw me one and said, “Let’s see what he has to say about this.”

What? You’re not so sure? Okay, maybe you are right. Maybe it was that overfed seagull on a flyover after all.

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Busy, busy, busy, but not writing!

Okay, need to make this quick, because the wife’s family has been visiting for two weeks from Los Angeles and my time is not my own these past days! In fact, in two weeks I’ve written one and half pages on my sequel!

I did get to read from “Car Wash Blues” during the literary event (the only one) of Hemingway Days here in the Keys and met Gary Quinn for the Irish Times. His first trip here. Now, that was fun. Got to take Brian Gordon Sinclair, the Irish-Canadian actor/playwright to the Smokin Tuna Saloon for the Friday night, North of Havana, Cigar Club Social. Brian has written several one-act plays about Hemingway’s life and performed them during Hemingway Days in Key West, as well as in Havana and Europe.Comin’ to town? Think about stopping by the Tuna on any Friday, 5 – 7 pm.

I did manage to have the wife’s family attend the past two Fridays, so I didn’t miss my cigar and drink! Some things are worth fighting for.

I send my hardy congratulation to Christine Kling, but you’ll have to read her blog to know why.

I become a writer again on Tuesday. Celine goes back to work and her brother Vincent and his family go back to Los Angeles. Then it will only be China, the dog, Ninja, the cat, Mrs. Harvey, the rabbit and the mailman (the delivery person here, there are two, are both men, so I hope mailman is PC) to distract me from writing.

I’ve actually got more than 100 pages done and edited. Nadja will edit as I go, and that way I hope to have the book available no later than Dec. (Ok wise guy, Dec. 2012, if you need exact dates). Same characters, but a lot darker and opens outside Key West, so the cover designer, Jen Musselman, can’t work on the cover until I get Murphy back to Key West. In the page and a half I’ve written in two weeks, Murphy is in Baton Rouge with Norm and Pauly and a Mexican drug lord.

Oh, least I forget, a Key West singer-songwriter, Joey Philpott, has written a song about Mad Mick Murphy. I hope to get his quickie recording of it on my website this week, so check it out! The Ballad of Mick Murphy! Now, will someone make a movie from the books? Please?

www.michaelhaskins.net

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The Lynx 3, Connectify, and wifi in the Bahamas

By Mike Jastrzebski

Before going to the Bahamas I purchased a Lynx 3 wifi antenna for the trip from WIFI Solutions. I want to be upfront about everything here. I’ve known the owner of WIFI Solutions, Al Francone, for about 6 years and worked with him for a couple of years at West Marine. I bought the Lynx because I knew Al and trusted his opinion on electronics, but I can assure you this review is non-biased.

The antenna worked perfectly for us the entire time that we were in the Bahamas, giving us great connections to both Bahamas WiMax and Out Island Internet. While there we used both services, and of the two I preferred Out Island. I had less trouble connecting to my iPad and my wife’s Netbook through Connectify with Out Island. Also, there were several days when I could not connect to Bahamas WiMax while we were in the Green Turtle Cay anchorage.

If you are not familiar with Connectify, it is a free program that allows you to use your PC as a router so that you can run more than one computer off your antenna. I have not been particularly happy with Connectify. It has trouble connecting my iPad to the internet and when it does connect it often doesn’t allow me to go online even when it shows that I am connected to the internet. Last week when I was frustrated with the service I decided to remove the software from my computer. When I went to remove it a note came up asking me why I was removing the program. I sent them a list of my problems and have not yet heard back from them. I wish I could get the program to work, but if I can’t use my iPad with the program it’s useless to me.

Getting back to the Lynx, I would like to say that I am completely satisfied with the antenna and highly recommend it to others. In fact, I am using it right now as I write this blog. Harbortown Marina, where we are staying  for the next couple of months, has free wifi. Without my antenna I find that I have 2 bars, occasionally 3 bars, in my notification tray. I have set up our antenna inside the boat leaning against our mast and find that I have 4-5 bars. I know that I could get 5 bars all the time by moving the antenna outside, but it’s just easier this way.

I spoke with Al yesterday and he told me he now has a router that works well with the Lynx, so I ordered one and he said he would ship it out today. After I’ve had a chance to try it out here at the marina I’ll do another post and let you know how it works and how easy it is to use.

As a final thought, if you go to the Bahamas and want internet service, you need an antenna. If you are interested in more information on the Lynx, contact Al Francone at www.wifisolutionslynx.com.

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On docks and deadlines

by Christine Kling

I woke up this morning in the V-berth and stretched and saw pale blue sky out the hatch. Nice, I thought. No rain. Then my mind started wandering as to what I would do on this fine day since my new pup Barney was having a sleep-over at my son’s (much as he wants a dog these days, my son recognizes the financial benefits to this rent-a-dog program), and I didn’t even have to get up to walk the dog. I’d be able to concentrate and really get some good work done on the new book without having to type with one hand while I use the other to play tug-o-war with an 11-pound Tasmanian Devil in the body of Yorkie puppy.

Then it hit me. Oh s*#t. It’s Friday morning, and I haven’t written my blog.

When I think of all I’ve been through in the last 12 months, all the miles I’ve sailed, and all the adventures I’ve had, and it’s back here at the dock that I completely blow this deadline – I decide that maybe that was it, maybe it was some kind of inner rebellion against this new path I’ve taken.

This blog represents a dream – “so you want to quit your job, move onto a boat and write.” That sounds like absolute freedom and it’s what draws so many of us to the cruising lifestyle. Yet here I am back at the dock, and yesterday I signed a document that brings with it more deadlines for years to come. Yesterday, I signed a three book contract with Thomas and Mercer, the Amazon mystery and thriller imprint and the same publisher who publishes my blogmate C.E. They are going to republish Circle of Bones, and when I told them that I intended to write two more books about Riley and Cole – to make it a trilogy – they elected to buy the rights to publish all three. I have already received the editing calendar for the month of August with exact deadlines as to when I will complete my part of the three rewrites we’re going to do to Bones, and I’ve signed a contract promising two more books within the next 24 months.

And I’m wondering when I’m going to find the time to go sailing again. Remember, it took me almost five years to write Circle of Bones.  But on the other hand, I didn’t have a deadline.

Though this morning I seem to have forgotten the blog and blown this deadline after a celebratory dinner with my son last night, generally, deadlines are a good thing for me. I get books written when I have deadlines. I do lollygag quite a bit when I don’t.

But this contract means much more than that to me. When I realized that Ballantine wouldn’t want to continue with my Seychelle series due to the fact that the books weren’t selling well enough, I went through a major crisis of confidence in myself and my ability to write. I have always believed in the theory that the cream will eventually rise to the top, and there I had my shot at the big time, and I had blown it. Not enough people bought my books and I didn’t light the lists on fire, so clearly I wasn’t a good enough writer. I beat myself up on a daily basis and couldn’t write at all for months. Eventually, I pushed on, and though I was working full-time as a college prof, I FINALLY finished the book.

Now, the whole reason why Thomas & Mercer contacted me was because Circle of Bones has been selling so well. That is how this imprint finds new writers among the self-published writers on Amazon. And the Seychelle books are selling well too, now that I have the rights back, and I am out there promoting them. Bones currently has over 75 reviews and most of them are positive. My career has taken this turn because of readers – the people who are most important in the world of a writer. I’m kind of relating to Sally Fields that year at the Academy Awards when, standing on the stage looking out into the lights with joy and wonder, she said –

So, I’m back into the world of docks and real deadlines, and I’ve got hard-wired high speed Internet in my slip. That’s sounding awfully permanent, and I’m wondering when I’ll be able to go sailing again. While I may have rebelled a bit this morning and missed my blog deadline, I’m thrilled to be a Thomas and Mercer author, and to have this opportunity to use Amazon’s amazing marketing muscle to reach even more readers.

Looking around me, I see the main salon of the boat is now covered with papers and books and notes on the new book. I’m no longer in seagoing shape. It would take a while to stow this stuff and turn this boat back into a sailor.

But I haven’t put away my charts yet.

Fair winds!

Christine

 

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Sharkbait?

Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I believe that most certainly applies to boats, and more specifically to continually repairing old boats. But the first step towards recovery is acknowledging that you have a problem, which I’m willing to admit. And while repairs are steadily progressing aboard Annabel Lee, the time since I’ve been out on the water is starting to take its toll on me, even more so when you consider how long it is since I’ve been sailing. It’s wearing on me, to the point that I find myself haunting the classifieds for some small vessel of the sailing variety to alleviate this growing restlessness. And at last, I’m happy to say, my quest is over.

To my credit, I’ll say in advance that I resisted an option that, while exceedingly tempting, represented yet another project that would likely stretch well into the future, costing me much time and money.  It was free for the taking, a lovely little collection of dry-rot and sprung planks in the shape of a 50+ year old catboat, trailer and all. Could I have repaired this little boat? Yes. Would she have been lovely in the end? Absolutely.  But with one project boat yet to be completed, the very small but rational side of my brain acknowledged that now wasn’t the time to start another. And ideally, the boat I was looking for would be something I could justify as practical, so long as it could serve as a tender to the mother-ship. What I needed was a sturdy dinghy, one that could be rowed or motored, then stowed against Annabel Lee’s transom or on her forward deck.

It’s also been said that insanity is hereditary, and I can attest to that. My parents are to blame for exposing me to boats at an early age, and for presenting me with my first sailboat back when most kids were getting bicycles for their birthday. And several decades later they’ve yet again found me the wonderful birthday gift – a Puffin dinghy!  She’s a bit rough around the edges, but nothing a weekend of work won’t remedy.  She has beautiful lines that complement the mother-ship quite nicely, and at 8’6”, she’ll fit easily into the bed of my truck and nest perfectly on Annabel Lee’s forward deck. And while this little treasure presently lacks any means to sail, that’s easily remedied. With the work I’ve done, a centerboard trunk would be easy enough, but initially I plan to experiment with removable leeboards. A rudder is simple enough, as is a mast and sail.

I’ve always felt the beauty of dinghies is that the pleasure-to-work ratio is delightfully low, and there’s something about a dink that brings out the kid in me – skimming along the water, connected to every wave, every breeze – it’s boating in its simplest, purest form. I’ll be heading up to visit mom and dad real soon, and I can’t stop grinning at the idea of playing with my new boat. She comes already named, albeit a strange and curious name for a little dinghy, and with my dark sense of humor it’s one I find amusing.  It’s almost as if this particular dinghy was meant to find me, though I’d love to know what led someone to christen her Sharkbait.

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Treasures

John H. Cunningham

Red Right Return (Buck Reilly Adventure Series) and Green to Go (Buck Reilly Adventure Series) feature series protagonist, Buck Reilly, a former treasure hunter and businessman of the failed for-profit archeology company, e-Antiquity. This fiction series is set in Key West, where the father of all treasure hunters, Mel Fisher, devoted his life to the pursuit and recovery of the Atocha, a gold, silver and emerald laden Spanish galleon that sunk some fifty miles away in a hurricane on September 5, 1621. To date they have recovered nearly $500 million worth of treasure from this wreck. I recently had the great honor to spend a few days with Sean Fisher, Mel’s grandson now responsible for managing their on-going operation, and his team, during the action packed Mel Fisher Days in Key West. What a great experience!

John with Sean Fisher at booksigning

The Buck Reilly series picks up in Key West after e-Antiquity crashed and his world fell apart, where he now operates Last Resort Charter and Salvage out of the La Concha Hotel aboard a 1946 Grumman Widgeon flying boat. In the books, Buck brushes up against the Mel Fisher team, here and there, and in Green to Go, quite a bit. Treasure hunters are always wary of one another, so it’s a friendly, but competitive relationship, and outsiders might consider them all to be modern day pirates. But after doing a book signing with Sean Fisher at their store, where he had $2 million in gold, silver and emeralds out on the table for anyone to embrace; and also going offshore to the actual location where the Atocha sank, and diving repeatedly into freshly blown craters in search of treasure with professionals who have been on Mel’s team for decades, one of which who actually found the Mother Lode back in 1985, I have enjoyed firsthand, the warmth and passion these people have, not only for the hunt, but also the history and archeological value of each and every article they find.

Life is full of treasures. Some, even, of great monetary value. The most valuable, however, are those experiences we share with people that produce incredible memories. Out on the water, in the quicksands past the Marquesas, aboard the salvage ship, J.B. Magruder, in deep holes filled with sand, shells, stingrays, bedrock and the souls of men and women who perished there nearly 400 years ago, along with a handful of adventurous ones with hearts pounding hard, I found treasure.

Without research, a writer cannot begin to put forth a credible story. Those of us that write on, about or sometimes under the water, have a special appreciation for the unique life there, and we use our experiences and research to produce what we hope are entertaining stories. We write what we know. The opportunity to hunt for treasure here in Key West, with the Mel Fisher team, made me appreciate the life I have spent on the water, and sure makes me glad I bombed my LSAT’s and that I’m not writing courtroom dramas…

To purchase John’s books click on the following links:

Red Right Return (Buck Reilly Adventure Series)

Green to Go (Buck Reilly Adventure Series)

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Writer’s block?

By Mike Jastrzebski

I’m not a big believer in writer’s block. It’s been my experience that if I want to write, I sit down at the computer and start typing. It’s always been that simple for me.

True, what I wrote might not have been very good, but bad writing can always be fixed. That’s what we call re-writing, and believe me I do lots and lots of rewriting. In fact if I don’t rewrite my novels five or six times, then you’re not going to find it available out there.

So why am I having so much trouble starting my next book. I had planned on coming back to the States, spending five or six months getting a first draft completed, then going back to the Bahamas and maybe further down into the Caribbean. Now it seems that all I can think about is what has to be done on the boat before we can leave again.

I’ve already fixed the windlass, fortunately, all I had to do was replace the circuit breaker. I’ve pulled the alternator and plan to take that in tomorrow to be rebuilt, and in the process found a broken wire that I replaced.

I’ve made a list of things I want to get finished, checked it twice, and even set up a schedule that allows me time to work on the next novel. So why haven’t I started writing?

I’m not quite sure how to answer that question. Maybe a month in paradise sapped my mental abilities. Maybe I’m watching too much television now that we’re back where I can watch it. Maybe I’m just worn out from spending month after month getting the boat ready to cruise.

And now that I’ve written my little diatribe here, I think I know exactly what I have to do. Tomorrow morning I’m going to get up, eat breakfast, brew a pot of coffee, turn on the computer, and start writing.

So this question is for all of our readers out there who are also writers–what do you do when the words just don’t want to flow?

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