C.L. Bevill's Blog, page 3
February 17, 2016
On Suicide
Yes. I know. Normally I joke or rant or sometimes use hyperbole with excessive exuberance. Today, not so much. Today, I read two articles today about depression and suicide which prompted me to be serious for a change.
The first article was from the perspective of Christine Chubbuck's brother, Greg. Christine was a media personality who during a 1974 morning show on television, shot herself. A link to the article is here. A lady who suffered from bipolar disease before it was widely diagnosed, she was unhappy with her life. There were various problems mentioned in the article from the mental illness to romantic issues to the possible inability to have children. I'm not certain why she chose to end her life so publically, but she did, and now there a few movies cropping up about her. Her brother describes her as "An interesting, gifted, flawed person." What a sad way to remember a loved one.
I feel for the family. Their loss touches me in a way most people aren't aware. My mother killed herself in 1979. She didn't do it on live television. She didn't do it in front of a crowd. Specifically, she left our family house, went to her mother's house, borrowed my grandmother's .22 pistol, and put the barrel in her mouth. She left a two-word note underneath her glasses on the table in front of her. "Forgive me," it said, and I've often wondered what happened to that note. I'm not certain if I wished I'd kept it or not.
There was a tiny article in the local paper a few days later about our mother's suicide that offended my sister and me terribly. I remember that we called up the paper's offices and said something anonymous and nasty to them. (Upon reflection that was silly, but we felt better.) I didn't get to say that she was an interesting, gifted, flawed person. Much, much later, I remember her being a kind person, but a person who kept her nose in a book, and ignored what was happening all around her. (Which is ironic considering my present profession.)
At the time of my mother's suicide, I was fifteen years old, a sophomore in high school, gleefully trotting myself down a dark path of rebelliousness. I can't say how much my mother's death was a wakeup call, and forever changed I became thereafter.
The other article I read was written by a woman who discusses her experiences with mental disease and the effects of its impact on her life. Stephanie Land speaks about what it was like to commit herself in a psychiatric hospital and the aftermath of financial responsibility. See the article here. I also took a look at some of her blog articles, which are just as compelling. See her website/blog here.
Recently my daughter asked what happened to my parents, which proves that the past is never really past. My father died in 1972 when I was eight. His death was primarily due to a heart attack caused by arteriosclerosis. (Those fried catfish done him in. Sorry, Dad.) Answering what had happened to my father came naturally if ruefully, and doesn't bother me. When it comes to answering about my mother, I had to be a little more discrete. I wouldn't have thought that I'm ashamed of my mother's death by suicide, although at one point in my life I was very much aware that I was wretchedly mortified to admit it. So in the present, it was more like I didn't want to sully my daughter's head, which leads down that same mental path that suicide/mental disease is something that is inherently dirty. I don't remember my exact words to my daughter, but it went something like, "My mother was very unhappy. Because she was so unhappy she thought that she should die. I've often wished that she talked to me or someone else about it instead." And my daughter was very understanding. I dislike lying to my daughter so I try not to lie about things like death and taxes. (The whole Santa Claus/Easter Bunny/Tooth Fairy is making me itchy under the collar because she's gotten to the age where the holiday cat should be out of the bag.)
In a similar manner, I told my daughter the truth about her grandmother. I didn't go into detail. I didn't specify how and why, and I could have because when my grandmother found my mother's body, she called me up. I ran the half block to her house and opened the front door to see my mother on the sofa with blood coming out of her ears, nose, and mouth. My grandmother was washing her hands in the sink, and I didn't immediately understand what had happened. I rushed to my mother's side, thinking she'd had some kind of stroke, and I checked her pulse. Much later, the EMTs were standing in front of her body laughing about something and I screamed at them to get out of the house because her death was not something amusing. This is very likely the most dreadful memory I have in my life.
And therefore I came to the conclusion that even now, some 37 years later, there is still a tinge of shame in the manner of my mother's death. I don't like to say that I am. I certainly can't change what happened, but I can change the way I think about it.
The impact of my mother's death continues to be felt. Not only did it color my life (I have two degrees that relate directly to the circumstances of her death) but I've suffered through three episodes of major depression in my life, including a five year period directly after her death. I don't know if my family was aware of my problems or that they chose to ignore them, but I remember getting advice like, "You should make more friends," and "You should just go out more." I had to work myself out of my depression, and I had to do it in a way that I would never recommend. My marriage was one of several keys to my recovery. HIM, the man to whom I'm married, may never know how much he truly helped me.
Mental illness continues to be swept under the carpet like a redheaded stepchild that must be hidden away in a closet when visitors appear.
For those of you who need help, here's the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline:
1-800-273-TALK or 1-800-273-8255.
The link to their website is here.
I wish this had been an option for my mother. Or for myself for that matter.
The first article was from the perspective of Christine Chubbuck's brother, Greg. Christine was a media personality who during a 1974 morning show on television, shot herself. A link to the article is here. A lady who suffered from bipolar disease before it was widely diagnosed, she was unhappy with her life. There were various problems mentioned in the article from the mental illness to romantic issues to the possible inability to have children. I'm not certain why she chose to end her life so publically, but she did, and now there a few movies cropping up about her. Her brother describes her as "An interesting, gifted, flawed person." What a sad way to remember a loved one.
I feel for the family. Their loss touches me in a way most people aren't aware. My mother killed herself in 1979. She didn't do it on live television. She didn't do it in front of a crowd. Specifically, she left our family house, went to her mother's house, borrowed my grandmother's .22 pistol, and put the barrel in her mouth. She left a two-word note underneath her glasses on the table in front of her. "Forgive me," it said, and I've often wondered what happened to that note. I'm not certain if I wished I'd kept it or not.
There was a tiny article in the local paper a few days later about our mother's suicide that offended my sister and me terribly. I remember that we called up the paper's offices and said something anonymous and nasty to them. (Upon reflection that was silly, but we felt better.) I didn't get to say that she was an interesting, gifted, flawed person. Much, much later, I remember her being a kind person, but a person who kept her nose in a book, and ignored what was happening all around her. (Which is ironic considering my present profession.)
At the time of my mother's suicide, I was fifteen years old, a sophomore in high school, gleefully trotting myself down a dark path of rebelliousness. I can't say how much my mother's death was a wakeup call, and forever changed I became thereafter.
The other article I read was written by a woman who discusses her experiences with mental disease and the effects of its impact on her life. Stephanie Land speaks about what it was like to commit herself in a psychiatric hospital and the aftermath of financial responsibility. See the article here. I also took a look at some of her blog articles, which are just as compelling. See her website/blog here.
Recently my daughter asked what happened to my parents, which proves that the past is never really past. My father died in 1972 when I was eight. His death was primarily due to a heart attack caused by arteriosclerosis. (Those fried catfish done him in. Sorry, Dad.) Answering what had happened to my father came naturally if ruefully, and doesn't bother me. When it comes to answering about my mother, I had to be a little more discrete. I wouldn't have thought that I'm ashamed of my mother's death by suicide, although at one point in my life I was very much aware that I was wretchedly mortified to admit it. So in the present, it was more like I didn't want to sully my daughter's head, which leads down that same mental path that suicide/mental disease is something that is inherently dirty. I don't remember my exact words to my daughter, but it went something like, "My mother was very unhappy. Because she was so unhappy she thought that she should die. I've often wished that she talked to me or someone else about it instead." And my daughter was very understanding. I dislike lying to my daughter so I try not to lie about things like death and taxes. (The whole Santa Claus/Easter Bunny/Tooth Fairy is making me itchy under the collar because she's gotten to the age where the holiday cat should be out of the bag.)
In a similar manner, I told my daughter the truth about her grandmother. I didn't go into detail. I didn't specify how and why, and I could have because when my grandmother found my mother's body, she called me up. I ran the half block to her house and opened the front door to see my mother on the sofa with blood coming out of her ears, nose, and mouth. My grandmother was washing her hands in the sink, and I didn't immediately understand what had happened. I rushed to my mother's side, thinking she'd had some kind of stroke, and I checked her pulse. Much later, the EMTs were standing in front of her body laughing about something and I screamed at them to get out of the house because her death was not something amusing. This is very likely the most dreadful memory I have in my life.
And therefore I came to the conclusion that even now, some 37 years later, there is still a tinge of shame in the manner of my mother's death. I don't like to say that I am. I certainly can't change what happened, but I can change the way I think about it.
The impact of my mother's death continues to be felt. Not only did it color my life (I have two degrees that relate directly to the circumstances of her death) but I've suffered through three episodes of major depression in my life, including a five year period directly after her death. I don't know if my family was aware of my problems or that they chose to ignore them, but I remember getting advice like, "You should make more friends," and "You should just go out more." I had to work myself out of my depression, and I had to do it in a way that I would never recommend. My marriage was one of several keys to my recovery. HIM, the man to whom I'm married, may never know how much he truly helped me.
Mental illness continues to be swept under the carpet like a redheaded stepchild that must be hidden away in a closet when visitors appear.
For those of you who need help, here's the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline:
1-800-273-TALK or 1-800-273-8255.
The link to their website is here.
I wish this had been an option for my mother. Or for myself for that matter.
December 24, 2015
Spoilers, Spoilers, Spoilers OR How Fat Woman Went to See The Force Awakens
Warning:
There are spoilers following this. In fact, I spoil the holy living crap out of it. I'm warning you if you haven't seen the movie, and you want to see the movie, I will spoil it. Furthermore, if you've seen the movie, and you lurve the movie, I might spoil it, too. So if you're easily upset by anyone saying stuff about Star Wars, Star Wars stuff, Star Wars merchandizing, or George Lucas, don't read this. Really. Seriously. Don't do it.
First, several memes to separate the spoiling warning from the rant.
Not sure why I think this is funny, but it is.
Slamming both Darth the V. and Office Space. Somewhere Gary Cole
is giggling.
Then I get to slam the guy from the Dos XXs
commercial and Darth the V. My work is done, but not really.Okay, three Star Wars related memes in between the warning and the rant like I promised.
Now for the actual rant, er, review.
OMFG! I can't believe I waited 31 years for this rehash of every other Star Wars movie ever fricking made. Don't fret because I shall go into dreadful and excruciating detail.
Here's the basic premise: It's 30ish years after Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi and things are not hunky-dory. The First Order has replaced the evil empire and Emperor Pruneface, er, I mean Palpatine. (But don't worry even though the First Order is now in charge they didn't bother changing the storm troopers outfits because then the audience wouldn't know who was a bad guy or not.) Luke Skywalker has vanished. The Resistance is still resisting. Everyone is looking for Luke because they need him/lurve him/want to kill him/want to tickle his neck feathers. A mysterious guy played by Max Von Sydow gives a Resistance pilot a little something-something that might lead the Resistance to Luke. The pilot, whose name is Poe Dameron, hides it in...a droid (BB-8) because the village just got attacked by the First Order and a neat black masked guy who looks a lot like Darth Vader but kewler and whose name is Kylo Ren. Rey, a scavenger on the same planet, finds the droid and Finn who is a storm trooper who deserted while rescuing Poe from Kylo Ren. Rey and Finn find the Millennium Falcon on the planet and she's so super mechank-y and super pilot-y that they evade a gazillion or so tie fighters and one of the big cruisers because well there wouldn't be much of a plot if they didn't. And the beat goes on in that way.
I sat in the theater counting points off my fucking fingers because I was getting so pissed off.
I'm not sure what was worse, the lets-hide-the-valuable-information-in-the-droid plot point or lets-have-a-brand-new-death-star-that's-ten-times-as-big-as-the-last-death-star plot point. The new death star is called a starkiller because it sucks the energy out of suns and then unleashes it on Resistance-occupied planets to blow them up because well starkiller sounds better than death star. Plus the audience gets to see the whiz bang special effects and go, "Ooooo."
I have to stop for a minute to finish cursing and also to catch my breath, so have a death star meme.
This is a dirty death star meme in case you
didn't realize it.Then there's the whole everyone's after this mysterious map to find Luke Skywalker. You see, Luke Skywalker disappeared because he wanted to disappear, not because he was a hidden treasure that someone wanted to find later. So who made the three piece map and gave it out to various and sundry plot devices? It certainly wasn't Luke $#%^!! Skywalker. Somehow later in the movie it becomes two pieces that the droids put together, because flipping humans couldn't do that shizz.
Time to take another break with a meme:
I bet the original Chewbacca is on my side. Just listen to what he says.Should I say I loved seeing Han Solo back? Chewbacca too. Yes, I should say that because I don't want it to seem like this was the worst movie ever. (It wasn't but it could have been so much better!) But as soon as Rey, Finn, and the little M&M like droid (cute replacement for R2D2) got into space they were almost instantly tracked down by Han and Chewie, who'd been looking for their missing Millennium Falcon, which coincidently happened to be on the same planet as Rey, the droid, the missing information for finding Luke Skywalker, and probably some other shizz I missed because I was busy waving the steam out of my ears. (I haven't forgotten about Princess Leia, who is now General Leia, because I'll be getting to her later.) So Han and Chewie are now hauling freight. And everyone decides to board his freighter at the exact same time because you know (PLOT DE-bleeping-VICE!) that stuff just happens like that in space. They escape in the Falcon and Han takes it over because it is his shizz.
I needed to add this one because I just did.Off to a new place with an alien named Maz in charge that looks suspiciously like E.T. Maz just happens to have Luke's original light saber, which by the way was in his hand when it was cut off by Darth Vader at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, so what the $#@%!! is up with that? Luke, as all Star Wars fans remember fell down to the bottom of Cloud City, hung out on an antenna, mentally called for Leia, and got rescued. But the fricking light saber did NOT.
Then Rey gets Luke's original light saber (the blue one) which somehow goes to Finn and has the whole movie audience going, "Who's the real replacement Jedi knight?" It turns out that Rey only had to be dangling off the edge of a icy cliff and be offered a deal to go to the dark side to realize that she was the real Jedi knight. In all that time on a desert planet, scavenging for stuff off wrecked imperial cruisers and living in a walker, marking days off waiting for her family to return because she's apparently pretty flipping naïve, she had no idea she had secret Jedi powers with which to kick serious First Order ass. But don't worry she was about to take down the biggest dark side bad ass since Darth the V. happened. And it happens so quickly, I was like, "What the frick just happened?" Seriously, I wanted to stop the projectionist guy and ask him to back it the $#@!! up because I must have blinked or had a brain fart or something like that. (The hubs said I wanted to Zapruder it.)
Anyway the latest Darth Vader replacement is the formerly mentioned Kylo Ren, who is Han and Leia's son, (One of the two big SECRETS of the movie. Don't say I didn't warn you.) and supposedly the reason why Luke left. Luke was training new Jedi knights when Kylo Ren snapped and went to the dark side. Kylo Ren snatches Rey up because he "senses" she saw the map. At this point, Han sees Kylo Ren carrying Rey into the big bad ship with the wings that fold up just before it lands. Finn sees it too. At this point the Resistance arrives with General Organa in charge.
So the song is running through my head now.I had to have a meme break because of what I'm going to say next. Carrie Fisher acts like she's got dentures in her mouth. I swear she kind of mumbled her lines and her lips were pinched like she had permanent constipation. I'm going with one of those strokes that freeze half of your face and you have to have your eyelid sewn shut or something. It wasn't very nice. I realize she's only a few years older than I am, but OMG, there was something wrong with her. I did not enjoy seeing her like this.
Of course this was followed up by the rescue on the starkiller while the starkiller was revving up on a sun to kill the planet where the Resistance was located. Finn was recruited to help turn off the starkiller's shields or something because he used to work there (as a janitor storm trooper, who knew?) (This is the scene where the second big SECRET happens, but I won't say it, even in my long, varied rant o'spoilers.) Let's just say, of course the Resistance kicked butt and Rey and Finn saved the day because they had to do it. All the X-Wing fighters also kicked starkiller butt, to include Poe from before and the guy from the original Heroes who looks a little chubby to be a pilot, but who am I to criticize a person over their weight? (No saving cheerleaders in this movie, buddy-boy.)
I needed to add a meme before winding down.Then General Organa hugs Rey because they insta-bonded having never met before. Also everyone's uber accepting of Finn. (That whole former life as a storm trooper business was just him acting up and he's completely trustworthy in 2.5 seconds.)
Rey and Chewbacca are off to follow the starmap, and who do they find at the end? Well, let's just say that Mark Hamill didn't have to memorize any lines for this movie. Supposedly he was looking for a Jedi temple. (Did you know that they have Jedi temples all over the fricking place? I'm pretty sure there's one in the 7-Eleven down the street. I want to find a meme with Apu from The Simpsons saying, "Come again. May the Force be with you." but I don't think I could find one.)
In conclusion, I didn't like the movie. Color me disappointed. I need another meme.
First, several memes to separate the spoiling warning from the rant.
Not sure why I think this is funny, but it is.
Slamming both Darth the V. and Office Space. Somewhere Gary Coleis giggling.
Then I get to slam the guy from the Dos XXscommercial and Darth the V. My work is done, but not really.Okay, three Star Wars related memes in between the warning and the rant like I promised.
Now for the actual rant, er, review.
OMFG! I can't believe I waited 31 years for this rehash of every other Star Wars movie ever fricking made. Don't fret because I shall go into dreadful and excruciating detail.
Here's the basic premise: It's 30ish years after Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi and things are not hunky-dory. The First Order has replaced the evil empire and Emperor Pruneface, er, I mean Palpatine. (But don't worry even though the First Order is now in charge they didn't bother changing the storm troopers outfits because then the audience wouldn't know who was a bad guy or not.) Luke Skywalker has vanished. The Resistance is still resisting. Everyone is looking for Luke because they need him/lurve him/want to kill him/want to tickle his neck feathers. A mysterious guy played by Max Von Sydow gives a Resistance pilot a little something-something that might lead the Resistance to Luke. The pilot, whose name is Poe Dameron, hides it in...a droid (BB-8) because the village just got attacked by the First Order and a neat black masked guy who looks a lot like Darth Vader but kewler and whose name is Kylo Ren. Rey, a scavenger on the same planet, finds the droid and Finn who is a storm trooper who deserted while rescuing Poe from Kylo Ren. Rey and Finn find the Millennium Falcon on the planet and she's so super mechank-y and super pilot-y that they evade a gazillion or so tie fighters and one of the big cruisers because well there wouldn't be much of a plot if they didn't. And the beat goes on in that way.
I sat in the theater counting points off my fucking fingers because I was getting so pissed off.
I'm not sure what was worse, the lets-hide-the-valuable-information-in-the-droid plot point or lets-have-a-brand-new-death-star-that's-ten-times-as-big-as-the-last-death-star plot point. The new death star is called a starkiller because it sucks the energy out of suns and then unleashes it on Resistance-occupied planets to blow them up because well starkiller sounds better than death star. Plus the audience gets to see the whiz bang special effects and go, "Ooooo."
I have to stop for a minute to finish cursing and also to catch my breath, so have a death star meme.
This is a dirty death star meme in case youdidn't realize it.Then there's the whole everyone's after this mysterious map to find Luke Skywalker. You see, Luke Skywalker disappeared because he wanted to disappear, not because he was a hidden treasure that someone wanted to find later. So who made the three piece map and gave it out to various and sundry plot devices? It certainly wasn't Luke $#%^!! Skywalker. Somehow later in the movie it becomes two pieces that the droids put together, because flipping humans couldn't do that shizz.
Time to take another break with a meme:
I bet the original Chewbacca is on my side. Just listen to what he says.Should I say I loved seeing Han Solo back? Chewbacca too. Yes, I should say that because I don't want it to seem like this was the worst movie ever. (It wasn't but it could have been so much better!) But as soon as Rey, Finn, and the little M&M like droid (cute replacement for R2D2) got into space they were almost instantly tracked down by Han and Chewie, who'd been looking for their missing Millennium Falcon, which coincidently happened to be on the same planet as Rey, the droid, the missing information for finding Luke Skywalker, and probably some other shizz I missed because I was busy waving the steam out of my ears. (I haven't forgotten about Princess Leia, who is now General Leia, because I'll be getting to her later.) So Han and Chewie are now hauling freight. And everyone decides to board his freighter at the exact same time because you know (PLOT DE-bleeping-VICE!) that stuff just happens like that in space. They escape in the Falcon and Han takes it over because it is his shizz.
I needed to add this one because I just did.Off to a new place with an alien named Maz in charge that looks suspiciously like E.T. Maz just happens to have Luke's original light saber, which by the way was in his hand when it was cut off by Darth Vader at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, so what the $#@%!! is up with that? Luke, as all Star Wars fans remember fell down to the bottom of Cloud City, hung out on an antenna, mentally called for Leia, and got rescued. But the fricking light saber did NOT.Then Rey gets Luke's original light saber (the blue one) which somehow goes to Finn and has the whole movie audience going, "Who's the real replacement Jedi knight?" It turns out that Rey only had to be dangling off the edge of a icy cliff and be offered a deal to go to the dark side to realize that she was the real Jedi knight. In all that time on a desert planet, scavenging for stuff off wrecked imperial cruisers and living in a walker, marking days off waiting for her family to return because she's apparently pretty flipping naïve, she had no idea she had secret Jedi powers with which to kick serious First Order ass. But don't worry she was about to take down the biggest dark side bad ass since Darth the V. happened. And it happens so quickly, I was like, "What the frick just happened?" Seriously, I wanted to stop the projectionist guy and ask him to back it the $#@!! up because I must have blinked or had a brain fart or something like that. (The hubs said I wanted to Zapruder it.)
Anyway the latest Darth Vader replacement is the formerly mentioned Kylo Ren, who is Han and Leia's son, (One of the two big SECRETS of the movie. Don't say I didn't warn you.) and supposedly the reason why Luke left. Luke was training new Jedi knights when Kylo Ren snapped and went to the dark side. Kylo Ren snatches Rey up because he "senses" she saw the map. At this point, Han sees Kylo Ren carrying Rey into the big bad ship with the wings that fold up just before it lands. Finn sees it too. At this point the Resistance arrives with General Organa in charge.
So the song is running through my head now.I had to have a meme break because of what I'm going to say next. Carrie Fisher acts like she's got dentures in her mouth. I swear she kind of mumbled her lines and her lips were pinched like she had permanent constipation. I'm going with one of those strokes that freeze half of your face and you have to have your eyelid sewn shut or something. It wasn't very nice. I realize she's only a few years older than I am, but OMG, there was something wrong with her. I did not enjoy seeing her like this.Of course this was followed up by the rescue on the starkiller while the starkiller was revving up on a sun to kill the planet where the Resistance was located. Finn was recruited to help turn off the starkiller's shields or something because he used to work there (as a janitor storm trooper, who knew?) (This is the scene where the second big SECRET happens, but I won't say it, even in my long, varied rant o'spoilers.) Let's just say, of course the Resistance kicked butt and Rey and Finn saved the day because they had to do it. All the X-Wing fighters also kicked starkiller butt, to include Poe from before and the guy from the original Heroes who looks a little chubby to be a pilot, but who am I to criticize a person over their weight? (No saving cheerleaders in this movie, buddy-boy.)
I needed to add a meme before winding down.Then General Organa hugs Rey because they insta-bonded having never met before. Also everyone's uber accepting of Finn. (That whole former life as a storm trooper business was just him acting up and he's completely trustworthy in 2.5 seconds.)Rey and Chewbacca are off to follow the starmap, and who do they find at the end? Well, let's just say that Mark Hamill didn't have to memorize any lines for this movie. Supposedly he was looking for a Jedi temple. (Did you know that they have Jedi temples all over the fricking place? I'm pretty sure there's one in the 7-Eleven down the street. I want to find a meme with Apu from The Simpsons saying, "Come again. May the Force be with you." but I don't think I could find one.)
In conclusion, I didn't like the movie. Color me disappointed. I need another meme.
October 15, 2015
Death Twitches: A Lake People Novel
Death Twitches: A Lake People Novel
Now Available!
Meli has a few problems. She’s a telepath who reluctantly works for a psychopath. Then her day becomes really bad when she “hears” that her neck might be on the chopping block. Her neck is at risk, as are her family’s necks. It’s further compounded when another person speaks with her telepathically, which has never happened before. Rousseau, a young man from a remote Louisianan town where many of the occupants have extrasensory gifts, has tuned into Meli’s fear and hurries to help her. Provoked into running, Meli becomes allies with Rousseau and ultimately realizes they are connected in a special way. However, the man Meli works for is a bona fide monster with secrets of his own, and he doesn’t want to lose his “pet” psychic. He will do anything to get her back while Meli and Rousseau will do anything to escape.
A full-length novel of about 109,000 words. Book One of the Lake People Novels is Veiled Eyes. Book Two is Disembodied Bones. Book Three is Arcanorum. Available at Amazon here. Available at B&N here. Available at Smashwords here.
Meli has a few problems. She’s a telepath who reluctantly works for a psychopath. Then her day becomes really bad when she “hears” that her neck might be on the chopping block. Her neck is at risk, as are her family’s necks. It’s further compounded when another person speaks with her telepathically, which has never happened before. Rousseau, a young man from a remote Louisianan town where many of the occupants have extrasensory gifts, has tuned into Meli’s fear and hurries to help her. Provoked into running, Meli becomes allies with Rousseau and ultimately realizes they are connected in a special way. However, the man Meli works for is a bona fide monster with secrets of his own, and he doesn’t want to lose his “pet” psychic. He will do anything to get her back while Meli and Rousseau will do anything to escape.
A full-length novel of about 109,000 words. Book One of the Lake People Novels is Veiled Eyes. Book Two is Disembodied Bones. Book Three is Arcanorum. Available at Amazon here. Available at B&N here. Available at Smashwords here.
September 26, 2015
On Writing
This isn't exactly what I picture in my head, but it's not far off.I just finished the first draft of Death Twitches, which is good. I wanted to fall over with mental exhaustion, which isn't so good. I wonder how some of the writers put out five and six books a year. I have a writing buddy who writes two books AT THE SAME TIME. That would probably cause me to have a psychotic episode. (Now I'm going to have to message her and ask her how that works out for her because I can't not know.)
No, it's not available yet, but soon mylittle reading aficionados. Soon.
I just had to put this in here because I think
the cover is so cool.
The cover is by www.derangeddoctordesign.com by the by.The last three days I ate, slept, and lived in the manuscript. I think I was so absorbed that a meteor hit the earth. There might have been a Presidential assassination and I didn't notice. Did Hilary Clinton win?
This kind of captures the moment.People write me and ask when something or other is going to be done and I kind of giggle. First I first started I could pop out four books a year. Two full length novels and two novellas. Now I'm down to two novels and a novella, and it's kind of stretching to say that was all in a 12 month period. Everyone's got their favorites. I'm sorry to say that I can't afford to write some of them. If a book doesn't sell well, there's not much point in writing a sequel. (That's disappointing. I will finish some of my favorites whether they sell or not, because they ARE my favorites.)
This obviously doesn't show the moment directly after when the cat gets tiredof the mouse and eats him with a wet little crunch, which is exactly
the same as a crazy writer. Exactly.Anyway, next week is working my way through the draft, which involves sitting and reading and rereading all of my work. I want everything to be tied up, unless there's a sequel planned. I want people to say, "Oh, I get it." I want all the readers to be happy. (Of course, there are some who will never be happy with me. Someone really hated the fact that I wrote The Life and Death of Bayou Billy and will never let me forget it. Apparently I'm kind of twisted for writing that one. Oh, well.)
Okay. It had to be said. Remember no matter where you go, there you are. September 16, 2015
August 10, 2015
Musing About Writing OR How I HAD to Comment on a Book I Read
This isn't what I was reading, but I hadto have something graphic for the first part.
Now I want
to read this book. Girls Out of Hell.
Yeah.Yes, I read. I read a lot. I have to stop reading certain genres when I'm writing. For example, if I'm writing a mystery, I can't be reading mysteries because I tend to take on the writing style of what I'm reading. (I found myself doing a distinctly Stephen King sentence last week while I was reading Mr. Mercedes. Bad, bad, bad writer.)
She doesn't really look like an office hussyto me. She looks like she's waiting to
pass gas.So I'm writing Death Twitches: A Lake People Novel, or the 4th Lake People novel, and I'm reading this, that, and the other. I get one novel which is Space Opera: Mommy Porn. (It was free or 99 cents, one or the other, and I felt like being amused, so I did it. I admit it.) I won't name the book or the author because I don't really want to embarrass the author, but I do want to comment on the author's entrepreneurial style. I really, really, really want to comment.
Here's the set-up. Aliens invade Earth, as they're wont to do. Some other aliens save our Earthly asses, as they're wont to do. But, in exchange for saving our tushes, they want our women. So all the single ladies between reasonable ages have to sign up for a draft to be an alien bride. (I can see it coming.) Cue the first lady who gets drafted. (I think the author missed out on the Uncle Sam posters that could be custom tailored for this. Really, really missed out.) She gets to go hang out with the big alien stud and if she can resist his alienly charms for a certain period then she gets to go back to Earth, without being hooked up and having to stay with the alien. I think you all can get it.
What the hell? Did theyfall in love over hammering spikes?
Was that a double entendre?
Maybe.As a hack writer myself, I can appreciate a good set-up. After all, I did happen to notice that the author has about sixteen of these alien/human puppies on Amazon, and they're not short books, mind you. It's like a 160,000 words long, which is like two of my books, if I'm not being too wordy. The author practices the give-away-the-first-one cheap method, as I do myself. I'm not ashamed to say that I bought the next three before I gave up.
I went to a flag class with mydaughter for her Girl Scout troop. The
instructor would be very
unhappy with this cover.I think the author put together a selection of what was selling the most lately and incorporated them into her world-building. If you threw out aliens, werebeasts, menage, and bdsm and said, "Fit that into a series," you might be scratching your butt. But not this author. Also she threw in that they're six foot six inches tall, have natural six packs, and they all have very large...appendages. Of course they do.
I think someone was messing withthe covers ahead of me.Furthermore, it turns out that the alien saviors come in different types, so that the author can cover all of the bases. I shall elaborate because I would have a vein in my head explode if I didn't. There's the savage ones who happen to have an issue with a knot in their penis when they mate. They also emit a certain pheromone that makes the gals super happy, if you know what I mean. Then there's the ones who are all toothy and like to suck blood when they're having sexy times, but don't make the mistake of calling them vampires. There's also the twins. They share a mate and get this, the mate needs a special fruit that makes them very elastic down in the nether region. Guess why? Well, the twins have wee wee's that fuse together and I think you can follow the drift. Finally, (finally in my reading of four books out of the series) there's the bad alien type who is conditioned to really like Christian Grey, paddles, nipples, and all.
I love meme generators. Pixar, this is parody soplease don't sue me.Anyway, I pretty much gave up after that because the plots all went like this: Her: "I hate you." Him or Hims as the case may be: "I lust for you." Her: "Don't touch me. Yes, touch me." Him: "I want to touch you. No, I can't touch you." Her: "Yes, touch me." Him: "I'll lick you." Her: "Yes, yes, yes, Meg Ryan RULES!" Him: "No, I can't." Her: "Yes, you can. Thomas the Train says you can!" Then finally, they do, and that's the end.
How could I not include this?Redneck Scotsmen.
Their famous last words are,
"Aye, hold my kilt and watch
this."I like a good romance book and I have to admire an author for throwing in everything but the kitchen sink and going for the gusto. I'm not sure I could do this. I've thought about writing more explicit romances, but I start wincing and giggling when I get into the whole cock, pussy, cunt, cum thing. I feel compelled to mention that when the author actually called a woman's natural lubrication "cunt honey" I almost threw my Kindle into the garbage.
I think I used this one before,but I couldn't help myself.Anyway, I think my IQ has dropped a few points. I need to go read a dictionary.
July 13, 2015
10 Skeletons Found in Weird Places OR How Fat Woman Wrote an Article for a Blog and Got Rejected.
So I wrote an article for a blog and they rejected it. (Kind of like in the title, except I feel forced to repeat myself.) I hate to waste a nice little list, so here it is:
Talk about skeletons in the closet, so to speak. A closet is about the only place that a skeleton isn’t located in this list, although the author was strongly tempted to Google it. We often wonder how things happen, and sometimes we wonder how something ended up in an odd location. Sometimes we even get answers. When bones are discovered, it’s up to a detective or an investigator to figure out what happened. This is complicated by the fact that when only bones are left it’s sometimes impossible to tell how the individual died. It’s further convoluted by the fact that when the bones are discovered in a weird place, we’re left muttering, “What?”
10. Bones in IKEA Bags
Who knew that those big blue bags from IKEA are good for all kinds of objects? There’s not a whole lot of mystery behind the discovery, but definite weirdness was involved. Kicki Karlén, a woman in Sweden, discovered bags and bags of bones under a tarp in a Scandinavian church in 2014. Apparently the Kläckeburga Church was refurbishing and repairing parts of its building years earlier and planned to re-inter the remains as soon as was possible. They were estimated to be the remains of people buried at the church five hundred years earlier and the bones had been exhumed in order to renovate an area of the church. Complications arose when the remains were not allowed to be removed from the immediate vicinity of the church by the church’s board. However what happened was that they got moved into bags and forgotten. Consequently, they were discovered much later by Karlén in the iconic IKEA bags. There was no comment from IKEA about the peculiar treatment of their storage bags.
Photo : Paul Nicklen/National Geographic
9. Ancient Skeleton in an Underwater Cave The scientists examining her remains named her “Naia” which is Greek for water nymph. Nevertheless, there wasn’t any water there when the teenager went exploring in a cave in Mexico about 12,000 years ago. The poor girl was looking for something unknown when she fell or was pushed into a chamber called “Hoyo Negro” or black hole. She wasn’t the only one because the divers who explored the cave also found the skeletal remains of sloths, cave bears, and saber tooth tigers, as well. One hopes they weren’t all in the cave at the same time. The really interesting part about Naia is that scientists were able to take a look at her DNA and evaluate how she was related to other early Americans Certainly being trapped in a hole was a bummer for Naia, but a boon to scientists in that they could compare her mitochondrial DNA (from her mother’s side) to the five other skeletal remains that are older than 12,000 years that exist today. The indication is that early Americans did tromp over a land bridge from Asia into the Americans, but we still need to consider that evidence is scarce at this point. We’re not sure if Naia would have been glad to help or not.
8. Skeletons in a Lake Going to the lake takes a whole new meaning for some people. 2013 was the year for discovering skeletons in lakes. The highway patrol of Oklahoma decided to try out some new sonar equipment that year. They discovered some cars at the bottom of Foss Lake, Oklahoma. This isn’t apparently unusual for cars to be found at the bottom of a lake, but when the two vehicles were pulled out, it was unusual to find the skeletal remains inside. Six sets of remains were in a 1950s Chevy and a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro (which seems like a waste of a classic muscle car to the author). It turns out that three people went missing in 1970. Jimmy Williams, 16, Leah Johnson, 18, and Michael Rios, 18, took off in a car, and vanished. The disappearance of the three was well publicized and it was even theorized that the three ran away to start a new life. However, it’s only a guess that they went to the lake instead and accidentally crashed into it. The other vehicle is connected to the disappearance of three people from nearby Canute, Oklahoma. Their disappearance was far less publicized. In 2014, DNA was used to identify one of the skeletons from the second Chevy as Clayburn Hammock. The other two were tentatively identified as Nora Duncan and Alvie Porter. The three went missing in 1969, just months before the three teenagers. It certainly is ironic that both cars ended up just yards apart at the bottom of Foss Lake. The six deaths were ruled accidental, possibly after the cars took a curve too quickly and ended up in the water.
7. Another Lake Finally Gives up the Ghost, er, Skeleton A couple named Russell and Blanch Warren vanished in 1929 near Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park in Washington State. They left behind two children who died before the mystery was resolved. Divers discovered the remains of their 1927 Chevrolet in about 170 feet of water. The couple were never seen again after Russell Warren picked up his wife, Blanch, from the nearby Port Angeles Hospital, and then picked up a new washing machine. It was speculated that the driver of the vehicle missed a turn and went into the lake. Searches were performed but found little. Skip forward to 2002, when a Park Service Dive Team found the wreckage of the Chevy deep in the lake. Two years later, a recreational diver named John Rawlings discovered some bones farther down a slope from the Warren’s car. The bones were identified as Russell Warren’s remains by DNA analysis. Alas, Blanch’s remains were not located. However, the Warren’s wreck site is a popular dive site for experienced divers and one never knows when a skeleton might tumble out of a proverbial closet, or lake as the case may be.
6. A Movie Spills the Bones, er, Beans Poltergeist came out in 1982 and certainly was the kind of movie to make a person sleep with the lights on and the television off, if not out of the room. The movie made a mint and soon enough a sequel was made. Poltergeist II didn’t make the same kind of dough as the first one but it tried its best. Rumors swirled about the first movie but it wasn’t until 2009 that one of the stars of both movies, Jo Beth Williams, revealed that the skeletons the props department used were real. It turned out that it was cheaper to use real skeletons instead of fake ones. The stars of the movie were so creeped out that Will Sampson, one of the actors in the movie, as well, did a blessing on the spot. Apparently the Native American actor performed a sort of “exorcism” and there were no further 5. It’s Good to be the King, Until They Forget Where You’re Buried One would think a former king of England would be hard to lose, but Richard III, who ruled from 1483 to 1485, went missing over the passage of time. He might not have ruled for very long, but Shakespeare cemented the monarch’s shady reputation with the play of the same name. One of his most major transgressions was that he stole the crown from one of his two royal nephews and then had the two boys murdered. Of course, there’s a lot of debate about how bad Richard III really was or wasn’t. In the meantime, he died in battle, the last English king to do so, and was buried. Rumors abounded about whether he was really buried at Leicester at the church of the Gray Friars. He might have been dug up and his bones thrown in a river or some other unsavory location. Eventually a local university got curious and started digging. After much research, the University of Leicester’s archeologists decided on a parking lot as a possible site. When they found medieval windows and then bones, they’d struck archeological gold. One of the skeletons had evidence of war wounds and scoliosis of the spine, which Richard III reputedly possessed. Through a bunch more work with DNA analysis, it was confirmed that it was Richard III’s bones. However, the extensive analysis of the DNA has revealed possible adultery in the descending lines. The lines through the mitochondrial descendants is consistent. (That’s the girl side.) Matching up the boy side is a little trickier, but that’s a case for scientists to solve. In the meantime, one never knows what we’ll find when we dig up a parking lot.
4. Sometimes the Skeleton Can be in a Chimney Not all the bones in this list were found in a lake, or even under a parking lot, or even human, for that matter. In 2014, a man named David Martin in Bletchingly, Surrey, Great Britain was renovating his fireplace when he started finding bones. The bones he discovered weren’t human, but that of a carrier pigeon. Even more interesting was that he found a leg with a tiny red capsule attached to it. Inside the red capsule was an encrypted message dating from WWII. Thus far the code has not been decrypted, but the message came from a Sergeant Stott and was written 71 years ago. It’s theorized that the bird got tired and landed on Martin’s chimney, only to die before completing its mission. We don’t know what the message was, but odds are that it was something important.
3. It Wasn’t Really Santa, Was it? Another renovation in Abbeville, Louisiana revealed something out of the ordinary. In 2011, contractors were working on the second floor of the Abbeville National Bank when one removed a metal shield and discovered some bones lodged just above the flue of the chimney. Police work and DNA revealed that the skeletal remains were that of a man named Joseph Schexnider, who vanished in 1984. Schexnider had been a member of the National Guard and a part time worker in the circus when he disappeared. His bones were apparently stuck in the fireplace. No trauma of the bones was identified, so the police there don’t really know why Schexnider ended up in the chimney. Even Schexnider’s own mother didn’t know why he was there. When her son disappeared in the eighties she assumed he had gone off as he had before. Luckily for the police Schexnider happened to have a wallet, a lighter, a pair of gloves, and a watch with him giving them a heads up on identification.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Skeleton_diag.png
2. Skeleton in a Barn
Earlier this year, a LeFlore County, Oklahoma family found a skeleton in a rotting coffin in their barn. Interestingly enough the skeleton is over a hundred years old, and may be linked to an “odd” organization, The Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The order is a fraternal one that concentrates on charitable works and still has membership to this date. The previous owner of the property, Pete Butler, said that there were originally two sets. The skeletons once belonged to the order and were used in initiation ceremonies. He gained possession of them in the sixties and put them in the barn. One got loaned out for a Halloween prank and never was returned. The other remained in the barn until rediscovered by the Priddy family who had purchased the property. The LeFlore County Sheriff’s Office is hunting down the second skeleton for burial. Apparently, it’s not illegal to own a real skeleton, although it certainly can be considered “odd.”
http://www.scuba.com/diving-photos/2887/gotta-kiss-the-skeleton-cedar-hill-wiarton-Ontario1. Skeleton in a Scuba Suit In 2007, a recreational diver was out for a deep diving jaunt in Commencement Bay, Washington when he came across another diver. The problem was that the other diver was only a skull and bones inside a scuba suit. The suit with skeleton inside was 200 feet down and complete with tank and weights for diving. The diver reported the find to the police and an underwater robot was sent to retrieve the remains. Despite having records of missing divers in the area, the local police have been thus far, unable to identify the poor individual. Anyone missing a scuba diver?And...
Photograph by La Paz County Sheriff's Department Honorable mention A snorkeler first reported the two skeletons in lawn chairs in the Colorado River near Cienaga Springs, Arizona in May of 2015. The La Paz County Sheriff’s Department and the Buckskin Fire Department sent a diver down with a video camera to see what he could see. What he could see was that it was two plastic skeletons with sunglasses, sitting in lawn chairs, having an underwater picnic. No murder scene and strange serial killer disposal site there. Although somewhat disconcerting, the underwater picnic isn’t really illegal and the skeletons got to stay there. No word has been forthcoming on the creator of the tableau.And that's about all the bones a fat woman could dig up, folks.
Talk about skeletons in the closet, so to speak. A closet is about the only place that a skeleton isn’t located in this list, although the author was strongly tempted to Google it. We often wonder how things happen, and sometimes we wonder how something ended up in an odd location. Sometimes we even get answers. When bones are discovered, it’s up to a detective or an investigator to figure out what happened. This is complicated by the fact that when only bones are left it’s sometimes impossible to tell how the individual died. It’s further convoluted by the fact that when the bones are discovered in a weird place, we’re left muttering, “What?”
10. Bones in IKEA BagsWho knew that those big blue bags from IKEA are good for all kinds of objects? There’s not a whole lot of mystery behind the discovery, but definite weirdness was involved. Kicki Karlén, a woman in Sweden, discovered bags and bags of bones under a tarp in a Scandinavian church in 2014. Apparently the Kläckeburga Church was refurbishing and repairing parts of its building years earlier and planned to re-inter the remains as soon as was possible. They were estimated to be the remains of people buried at the church five hundred years earlier and the bones had been exhumed in order to renovate an area of the church. Complications arose when the remains were not allowed to be removed from the immediate vicinity of the church by the church’s board. However what happened was that they got moved into bags and forgotten. Consequently, they were discovered much later by Karlén in the iconic IKEA bags. There was no comment from IKEA about the peculiar treatment of their storage bags.
Photo : Paul Nicklen/National Geographic 9. Ancient Skeleton in an Underwater Cave The scientists examining her remains named her “Naia” which is Greek for water nymph. Nevertheless, there wasn’t any water there when the teenager went exploring in a cave in Mexico about 12,000 years ago. The poor girl was looking for something unknown when she fell or was pushed into a chamber called “Hoyo Negro” or black hole. She wasn’t the only one because the divers who explored the cave also found the skeletal remains of sloths, cave bears, and saber tooth tigers, as well. One hopes they weren’t all in the cave at the same time. The really interesting part about Naia is that scientists were able to take a look at her DNA and evaluate how she was related to other early Americans Certainly being trapped in a hole was a bummer for Naia, but a boon to scientists in that they could compare her mitochondrial DNA (from her mother’s side) to the five other skeletal remains that are older than 12,000 years that exist today. The indication is that early Americans did tromp over a land bridge from Asia into the Americans, but we still need to consider that evidence is scarce at this point. We’re not sure if Naia would have been glad to help or not.
8. Skeletons in a Lake Going to the lake takes a whole new meaning for some people. 2013 was the year for discovering skeletons in lakes. The highway patrol of Oklahoma decided to try out some new sonar equipment that year. They discovered some cars at the bottom of Foss Lake, Oklahoma. This isn’t apparently unusual for cars to be found at the bottom of a lake, but when the two vehicles were pulled out, it was unusual to find the skeletal remains inside. Six sets of remains were in a 1950s Chevy and a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro (which seems like a waste of a classic muscle car to the author). It turns out that three people went missing in 1970. Jimmy Williams, 16, Leah Johnson, 18, and Michael Rios, 18, took off in a car, and vanished. The disappearance of the three was well publicized and it was even theorized that the three ran away to start a new life. However, it’s only a guess that they went to the lake instead and accidentally crashed into it. The other vehicle is connected to the disappearance of three people from nearby Canute, Oklahoma. Their disappearance was far less publicized. In 2014, DNA was used to identify one of the skeletons from the second Chevy as Clayburn Hammock. The other two were tentatively identified as Nora Duncan and Alvie Porter. The three went missing in 1969, just months before the three teenagers. It certainly is ironic that both cars ended up just yards apart at the bottom of Foss Lake. The six deaths were ruled accidental, possibly after the cars took a curve too quickly and ended up in the water.
7. Another Lake Finally Gives up the Ghost, er, Skeleton A couple named Russell and Blanch Warren vanished in 1929 near Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park in Washington State. They left behind two children who died before the mystery was resolved. Divers discovered the remains of their 1927 Chevrolet in about 170 feet of water. The couple were never seen again after Russell Warren picked up his wife, Blanch, from the nearby Port Angeles Hospital, and then picked up a new washing machine. It was speculated that the driver of the vehicle missed a turn and went into the lake. Searches were performed but found little. Skip forward to 2002, when a Park Service Dive Team found the wreckage of the Chevy deep in the lake. Two years later, a recreational diver named John Rawlings discovered some bones farther down a slope from the Warren’s car. The bones were identified as Russell Warren’s remains by DNA analysis. Alas, Blanch’s remains were not located. However, the Warren’s wreck site is a popular dive site for experienced divers and one never knows when a skeleton might tumble out of a proverbial closet, or lake as the case may be.
6. A Movie Spills the Bones, er, Beans Poltergeist came out in 1982 and certainly was the kind of movie to make a person sleep with the lights on and the television off, if not out of the room. The movie made a mint and soon enough a sequel was made. Poltergeist II didn’t make the same kind of dough as the first one but it tried its best. Rumors swirled about the first movie but it wasn’t until 2009 that one of the stars of both movies, Jo Beth Williams, revealed that the skeletons the props department used were real. It turned out that it was cheaper to use real skeletons instead of fake ones. The stars of the movie were so creeped out that Will Sampson, one of the actors in the movie, as well, did a blessing on the spot. Apparently the Native American actor performed a sort of “exorcism” and there were no further 5. It’s Good to be the King, Until They Forget Where You’re Buried One would think a former king of England would be hard to lose, but Richard III, who ruled from 1483 to 1485, went missing over the passage of time. He might not have ruled for very long, but Shakespeare cemented the monarch’s shady reputation with the play of the same name. One of his most major transgressions was that he stole the crown from one of his two royal nephews and then had the two boys murdered. Of course, there’s a lot of debate about how bad Richard III really was or wasn’t. In the meantime, he died in battle, the last English king to do so, and was buried. Rumors abounded about whether he was really buried at Leicester at the church of the Gray Friars. He might have been dug up and his bones thrown in a river or some other unsavory location. Eventually a local university got curious and started digging. After much research, the University of Leicester’s archeologists decided on a parking lot as a possible site. When they found medieval windows and then bones, they’d struck archeological gold. One of the skeletons had evidence of war wounds and scoliosis of the spine, which Richard III reputedly possessed. Through a bunch more work with DNA analysis, it was confirmed that it was Richard III’s bones. However, the extensive analysis of the DNA has revealed possible adultery in the descending lines. The lines through the mitochondrial descendants is consistent. (That’s the girl side.) Matching up the boy side is a little trickier, but that’s a case for scientists to solve. In the meantime, one never knows what we’ll find when we dig up a parking lot.
4. Sometimes the Skeleton Can be in a Chimney Not all the bones in this list were found in a lake, or even under a parking lot, or even human, for that matter. In 2014, a man named David Martin in Bletchingly, Surrey, Great Britain was renovating his fireplace when he started finding bones. The bones he discovered weren’t human, but that of a carrier pigeon. Even more interesting was that he found a leg with a tiny red capsule attached to it. Inside the red capsule was an encrypted message dating from WWII. Thus far the code has not been decrypted, but the message came from a Sergeant Stott and was written 71 years ago. It’s theorized that the bird got tired and landed on Martin’s chimney, only to die before completing its mission. We don’t know what the message was, but odds are that it was something important.
3. It Wasn’t Really Santa, Was it? Another renovation in Abbeville, Louisiana revealed something out of the ordinary. In 2011, contractors were working on the second floor of the Abbeville National Bank when one removed a metal shield and discovered some bones lodged just above the flue of the chimney. Police work and DNA revealed that the skeletal remains were that of a man named Joseph Schexnider, who vanished in 1984. Schexnider had been a member of the National Guard and a part time worker in the circus when he disappeared. His bones were apparently stuck in the fireplace. No trauma of the bones was identified, so the police there don’t really know why Schexnider ended up in the chimney. Even Schexnider’s own mother didn’t know why he was there. When her son disappeared in the eighties she assumed he had gone off as he had before. Luckily for the police Schexnider happened to have a wallet, a lighter, a pair of gloves, and a watch with him giving them a heads up on identification.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Skeleton_diag.png2. Skeleton in a Barn
Earlier this year, a LeFlore County, Oklahoma family found a skeleton in a rotting coffin in their barn. Interestingly enough the skeleton is over a hundred years old, and may be linked to an “odd” organization, The Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The order is a fraternal one that concentrates on charitable works and still has membership to this date. The previous owner of the property, Pete Butler, said that there were originally two sets. The skeletons once belonged to the order and were used in initiation ceremonies. He gained possession of them in the sixties and put them in the barn. One got loaned out for a Halloween prank and never was returned. The other remained in the barn until rediscovered by the Priddy family who had purchased the property. The LeFlore County Sheriff’s Office is hunting down the second skeleton for burial. Apparently, it’s not illegal to own a real skeleton, although it certainly can be considered “odd.”
http://www.scuba.com/diving-photos/2887/gotta-kiss-the-skeleton-cedar-hill-wiarton-Ontario1. Skeleton in a Scuba Suit In 2007, a recreational diver was out for a deep diving jaunt in Commencement Bay, Washington when he came across another diver. The problem was that the other diver was only a skull and bones inside a scuba suit. The suit with skeleton inside was 200 feet down and complete with tank and weights for diving. The diver reported the find to the police and an underwater robot was sent to retrieve the remains. Despite having records of missing divers in the area, the local police have been thus far, unable to identify the poor individual. Anyone missing a scuba diver?And...
Photograph by La Paz County Sheriff's Department Honorable mention A snorkeler first reported the two skeletons in lawn chairs in the Colorado River near Cienaga Springs, Arizona in May of 2015. The La Paz County Sheriff’s Department and the Buckskin Fire Department sent a diver down with a video camera to see what he could see. What he could see was that it was two plastic skeletons with sunglasses, sitting in lawn chairs, having an underwater picnic. No murder scene and strange serial killer disposal site there. Although somewhat disconcerting, the underwater picnic isn’t really illegal and the skeletons got to stay there. No word has been forthcoming on the creator of the tableau.And that's about all the bones a fat woman could dig up, folks. June 17, 2015
Iron Moon: A Cat Clan Novella is Out!
Iron Moon: A Cat Clan Novella is now available!Lena is a werecat from the Los Angeles Clan and is on the trail of Martinez, an evil shifter responsible for the kidnappings and deaths of other weres. Lena travels a precarious path through the shadow realms of South America as she searches to bring Martinez to justice. Yves, a wolf shifter, is also on the trail of something equally important. The elusive scent of his mate has brought him to Peru, just in time to see Lena taken away into a dark pit of a world where females are a commodity and no one is really safe. Together they will face their burgeoning attraction and the untold dangers of Ukhu Pacha, the underworld of ancient Inca gods.
A novella of about 36,000 words.Purchase here on Amazon. Purchase here on Smashwords. Purchase here on B&N.
June 7, 2015
Blogging on Cold Meds OR How I Should Hide in a Closet While I'm Sick
Sick again. Sinusitis for those of you who have to know. The actual definition for sinusitis is: Your entire face feels like it will simultaneously blow up and fall off and implode all at the same time plus lots of mucus.
Therefore...wait for it...I decided to voluntarily go to the doctor. Since it's Sunday, it's urgent care for me. Whee. That should be a song. Sing it, baby. It's urgent care for me. It's where I want to be. It's the only one for me. Me and the doctor, so happy together. (They've been playing Happy Together in some commercial a lot and it's really stuck in my brain but good. Yeah, baby, the Turtles, back in the sixties. God, I'm old.)
Okay, I know I have a sinus infection. I tell the nurse that. I tell the doctor that. But here comes the problem. Before I can list my symptoms, the doctor wants to make a commentary on The Walking Dead shirt I'm wearing. In other words, the doctor has just decided to tell me what he thinks of people who like to watch, quoting here, "Those zombie shows." Although I'm sick, running a fever, and my head feels like it's just going to fall off while I'm sitting on the examination table, I'm still polite enough to not say anything. Also it occurs to me that the doctor from the urgent care center thinks that all his patients are morons. Dr. Don'tgiveashizz says, "It's my theory that people who watch zombie shows are able to get into that violence and gore through the show." Let me explain this. Dr. Don't thinks that I'm secretly into violence and gore AND I'm too stupid to realize what he's just implied about me.
I want to say, "Shut up and give me a script for antibiotics." Instead I say, "The Walking Dead isn't about violence and gore." Dr. Don't gives me the high eyebrow raise which I take to mean, "Shut the front door." It's then that I realize that this poor man has never watched The Walking Dead, and has probably never seen any zombie movie, ever. We should feel sorry for this poor, stupid bastard.
Well, then Dr. Don't moves along to the sinusitis part of the equation. He wants to know if I'm diabetic because I take meds for pre-diabetes. Once this has been confirmed/denied, he plows into the obligatory WEIGHT issue. Dr. Don't says, "Have you tried to loose weight?"
I
HATE
DOCTORS.
I hate doctors. I hate doctors. I hate doctors. I...HATE...DOCTORS. I hate doctors.
Dr. Don't has instantly transformed himself into Dr. Dumbass in my head. He proceeds to make it worse by saying, "You should try eating on smaller plates." My first instinct was act stupid, pour on the redneck accent, and say, "Smaller plates. Gall dang. I ain't never thought of that. You've saved me, Oh Mystical Doctor of Epic Proportion (this part wanders out of the poor yokel response, but the hell with it), you and this wondrous Urgent Care Center. Kin I get that antibiotic now?"
But I didn't say that. What I said was, "Oh, I don't know, you can fit a whole lot of food on a small plate."
Then Dr. Dumbass looked just like this:
He had perceived the irony, and was obligated to make a I-just-ate-a-sour-lemon look of disapproval because I must be put in my place.
Anyway, sinus infection it is. Dr. Dumbass sent a nurse in to give me a shot in the ass, just because I said that about small plates. (Well, that's what I think.)
And I swear I got the sinus infection germs from the collision place where I went last went to look at our wrecked car. (Yes, our new car, only five weeks in our driveway, was rear ended by not one, but two morons who couldn't stop on a clear day with no turns in the road. That's a blog in progress since I'm still ranting about, er, discussing doctors and sinus infections.)
I love Gary Cole. Do you think people come up to him
in the street and do Office Space impersonations?
Probably. I'm sure he's sick of it.The best news of all is that Dr. Dumbass did prescribe enough drugs that I feel well enough to blog. I should probably cut him a break. Probably. I'd have to find a small plate to put it on, though.
Bwahaha. Off to see how many pain pills I can morally take today.
Therefore...wait for it...I decided to voluntarily go to the doctor. Since it's Sunday, it's urgent care for me. Whee. That should be a song. Sing it, baby. It's urgent care for me. It's where I want to be. It's the only one for me. Me and the doctor, so happy together. (They've been playing Happy Together in some commercial a lot and it's really stuck in my brain but good. Yeah, baby, the Turtles, back in the sixties. God, I'm old.)Okay, I know I have a sinus infection. I tell the nurse that. I tell the doctor that. But here comes the problem. Before I can list my symptoms, the doctor wants to make a commentary on The Walking Dead shirt I'm wearing. In other words, the doctor has just decided to tell me what he thinks of people who like to watch, quoting here, "Those zombie shows." Although I'm sick, running a fever, and my head feels like it's just going to fall off while I'm sitting on the examination table, I'm still polite enough to not say anything. Also it occurs to me that the doctor from the urgent care center thinks that all his patients are morons. Dr. Don'tgiveashizz says, "It's my theory that people who watch zombie shows are able to get into that violence and gore through the show." Let me explain this. Dr. Don't thinks that I'm secretly into violence and gore AND I'm too stupid to realize what he's just implied about me.
I want to say, "Shut up and give me a script for antibiotics." Instead I say, "The Walking Dead isn't about violence and gore." Dr. Don't gives me the high eyebrow raise which I take to mean, "Shut the front door." It's then that I realize that this poor man has never watched The Walking Dead, and has probably never seen any zombie movie, ever. We should feel sorry for this poor, stupid bastard.
Well, then Dr. Don't moves along to the sinusitis part of the equation. He wants to know if I'm diabetic because I take meds for pre-diabetes. Once this has been confirmed/denied, he plows into the obligatory WEIGHT issue. Dr. Don't says, "Have you tried to loose weight?"I
HATE
DOCTORS.
I hate doctors. I hate doctors. I hate doctors. I...HATE...DOCTORS. I hate doctors.
Dr. Don't has instantly transformed himself into Dr. Dumbass in my head. He proceeds to make it worse by saying, "You should try eating on smaller plates." My first instinct was act stupid, pour on the redneck accent, and say, "Smaller plates. Gall dang. I ain't never thought of that. You've saved me, Oh Mystical Doctor of Epic Proportion (this part wanders out of the poor yokel response, but the hell with it), you and this wondrous Urgent Care Center. Kin I get that antibiotic now?"
But I didn't say that. What I said was, "Oh, I don't know, you can fit a whole lot of food on a small plate."
Then Dr. Dumbass looked just like this:
He had perceived the irony, and was obligated to make a I-just-ate-a-sour-lemon look of disapproval because I must be put in my place.Anyway, sinus infection it is. Dr. Dumbass sent a nurse in to give me a shot in the ass, just because I said that about small plates. (Well, that's what I think.)
And I swear I got the sinus infection germs from the collision place where I went last went to look at our wrecked car. (Yes, our new car, only five weeks in our driveway, was rear ended by not one, but two morons who couldn't stop on a clear day with no turns in the road. That's a blog in progress since I'm still ranting about, er, discussing doctors and sinus infections.)
I love Gary Cole. Do you think people come up to himin the street and do Office Space impersonations?
Probably. I'm sure he's sick of it.The best news of all is that Dr. Dumbass did prescribe enough drugs that I feel well enough to blog. I should probably cut him a break. Probably. I'd have to find a small plate to put it on, though.
Bwahaha. Off to see how many pain pills I can morally take today.
May 20, 2015
I Didn't Die OR the Blogging Shall Recommence
Warning!!!! Change of subjects may occur frequently.
Okay, I haven't really blogged lately. I suppose there's a few factors involved. I went through a round of writer's block, which has been resolved through diet, exercise, drugs from a deep Amazonian forest, and lots of imagination. (In fact, I just finished Iron Moon: A Cat Clan Novella, which is in the editing process right now. Yeaness!)
Iron Moon: A Cat Clan Novella will
be available soon! Soon I say! Sooooooon!I suppose I didn't feel like my usual round of hyperbole. My usual subjects (the cats, my husband, HIM, my only child, customer service, any old odd thing that happened to me) weren't calling my name and insisting that I rant about them. Don't you readers get tired of me ranting about stuff?
Sometimes I feel like a comedian and I have to be careful what I blog about. (Off limit items still include my mother-in-law, my sister, my sex life, anything that will potentially embarrass someone beyond belief. That reminds me of the time my sister and I went to Tijuana and whoops...nevermind.)
So my daughter recently wanted to have...a pedicure. I went with her and although I was somewhat embarrassed about my calloused tootsies, I had one, too.
I look at this meme and I don't necessarily see pedicure.
I see feet in concrete because his wife is PO'd.It was probably a good thing that I didn't understand Vietnamese because the man who was doing my feet was saying stuff. Since I didn't understand, I was all like, "I bet I know what you're saying." I was going to do some neat illustrations with my toe nails prominent and various "translations" as interpreted by moi, but my bamboo pad decided to flip me the bird. HIM has informed me that buying another one is a business expense, so it's on order. Anyhoo, we're at the place and Cressy's sitting next to me getting hers done. The guy doing her feet asks her how old she is, (11), and then proceeds to flirt with her. I mean, OMFG, RIGHT NEXT TO ME! I mean, her mother is SITTING RIGHT THERE! I had a strong urge to smack him with my Zoom, which would have been bad for the Zoom and might involved the police coming to arrest me. I told HIM about it and HIM said, "It's probably because he thought she was older." To which I responded, "But HE ASKED HOW OLD SHE WAS!" in a voice that could probably be heard by neighboring states. (The understated part was, "AND HE STILL FLIRTED WITH HER! The perv!")
This is probably what the guy doing my feet was thinking of using.I guess this is a mommy issue. What mommy wants to know men are looking at her daughter like she's a woman? (I had an entire issue with some snot nosed kid wanting to give her a "diamond" when she was in the first grade. Blog material gold.)
We didn't get these toenail paint jobs for very happy demons, but
it's always an option for next time. (How do you wear shoes with these?)This is also the last week of school for the kid. (I warned ya about subject changing abruptness!) Sure she's going, but they're not actually doing anything. Yesterday they had a "hygiene" class. (Today is the day to "use" "these" "guys." In my head I see someone doing the curved fingers and then myself slapping them. The fingers, that is.) So what hygiene class means is that they talk about female issues. I don't know what they did in the boy class because I don't have a little spy to comes home to tell me all the details like I do for the girl class. Pardon me, "girl" and "boy" class. They sent home a little prep package for that wondrous first day that they might have a "period." (I need to stop and remove the little keys that have the caption marks on them before I go too far.)
Well, I already had this talk with my daughter. (About ten times so far and yes, my daughter is counting.) And I got her all the stuff she needs. And I got her the American Girl book. And I feel like I'm on top of this issue. And the school is not her mommy. And I feel sorry for all the little girls whose mommies are not on top of this issue. Actually my sister got her the American Girl book. But I made sure she read the American Girl book that my sister got for her. (My talk: My aunt got me a copy of Our Bodies; Ourselves, which was a freaking eye opener if you've never had the talk before that moment. If you haven't read it, it had pictures of suggested sexual positions in it, as well as all the other necessary stuff.) (I should probably just go step on a land mine right now.)
Okay, I probably shouldn't have included this one but what else can you
do when your only child has a major life event?
Why, make a cake!
They didn't include the after shot for this one. That would
be the shot where the girl picks up the cake and throws it
at the cake maker.
For the record, I did not actually do this.
I would never do this.
I would probably get the kid some chocolate and midol,
but not this.
I would also never buy this t-shirt,
but I would put it in a blog.So since I'm zipping off in a dozen different directions (makes you wonder how I actually finish a novel, doesn't it?) I finally bought a new car. All I can say (not true because I can say a lot) is that it's red (red, red, reddity RED!) and has got more electronics on it than a 777 jumbo jet. Every time I see a button that I have not previously identified, I have to stop the car, pull out the ten pound manual, and look it up. Amazingly there's still a few buttons I have yet to identify. (Like Willy Wonka's Wonkavator, I'm pretty sure.) (Did you know that the kid from the original movie grew up to be a veterinarian? This is the kind of weird shizz that goes through my head.)
Unfortunately the inside of my car doesn't really look like
a Wonkavator, which is a shame. I loved Gene Wilder but
he was much better in Young Frankenstein.Also in this blog's report, the two cats of the house (the moron cat and the fat cat) have recently decided to fight every night for total world domination.
One will just be sitting there minding his own feline biz when the other one comes strolling past. Then the first one will whack the second one in the ass. Then the second one takes offense (as most would) and turns around and whacks the first one in the head. Then the first one gets up and jumps on the second one. There are certainly variations on this scenario. Sometimes the second one skips the whack on the head and proceeds directly to jumping on the first one. Sometimes the cat's positions are reversed. Occasionally one holds the throat of the other one until they stop moving (and not in a "dead" way. Whoops. I used those things again.) and surrender.
Am I the only wondering if the black and white cat is
actually still alive?Voila. Cat World War III or XIIM, if you read Roman numerals. I'm pretty sure I've lost count.
So there it is in a nutshell. My blogging might have slowed down, but I'm still alive.
Fat woman out.
Okay, I haven't really blogged lately. I suppose there's a few factors involved. I went through a round of writer's block, which has been resolved through diet, exercise, drugs from a deep Amazonian forest, and lots of imagination. (In fact, I just finished Iron Moon: A Cat Clan Novella, which is in the editing process right now. Yeaness!)
Iron Moon: A Cat Clan Novella willbe available soon! Soon I say! Sooooooon!I suppose I didn't feel like my usual round of hyperbole. My usual subjects (the cats, my husband, HIM, my only child, customer service, any old odd thing that happened to me) weren't calling my name and insisting that I rant about them. Don't you readers get tired of me ranting about stuff?
Sometimes I feel like a comedian and I have to be careful what I blog about. (Off limit items still include my mother-in-law, my sister, my sex life, anything that will potentially embarrass someone beyond belief. That reminds me of the time my sister and I went to Tijuana and whoops...nevermind.)
So my daughter recently wanted to have...a pedicure. I went with her and although I was somewhat embarrassed about my calloused tootsies, I had one, too.
I look at this meme and I don't necessarily see pedicure.I see feet in concrete because his wife is PO'd.It was probably a good thing that I didn't understand Vietnamese because the man who was doing my feet was saying stuff. Since I didn't understand, I was all like, "I bet I know what you're saying." I was going to do some neat illustrations with my toe nails prominent and various "translations" as interpreted by moi, but my bamboo pad decided to flip me the bird. HIM has informed me that buying another one is a business expense, so it's on order. Anyhoo, we're at the place and Cressy's sitting next to me getting hers done. The guy doing her feet asks her how old she is, (11), and then proceeds to flirt with her. I mean, OMFG, RIGHT NEXT TO ME! I mean, her mother is SITTING RIGHT THERE! I had a strong urge to smack him with my Zoom, which would have been bad for the Zoom and might involved the police coming to arrest me. I told HIM about it and HIM said, "It's probably because he thought she was older." To which I responded, "But HE ASKED HOW OLD SHE WAS!" in a voice that could probably be heard by neighboring states. (The understated part was, "AND HE STILL FLIRTED WITH HER! The perv!")
This is probably what the guy doing my feet was thinking of using.I guess this is a mommy issue. What mommy wants to know men are looking at her daughter like she's a woman? (I had an entire issue with some snot nosed kid wanting to give her a "diamond" when she was in the first grade. Blog material gold.)
We didn't get these toenail paint jobs for very happy demons, butit's always an option for next time. (How do you wear shoes with these?)This is also the last week of school for the kid. (I warned ya about subject changing abruptness!) Sure she's going, but they're not actually doing anything. Yesterday they had a "hygiene" class. (Today is the day to "use" "these" "guys." In my head I see someone doing the curved fingers and then myself slapping them. The fingers, that is.) So what hygiene class means is that they talk about female issues. I don't know what they did in the boy class because I don't have a little spy to comes home to tell me all the details like I do for the girl class. Pardon me, "girl" and "boy" class. They sent home a little prep package for that wondrous first day that they might have a "period." (I need to stop and remove the little keys that have the caption marks on them before I go too far.)
Well, I already had this talk with my daughter. (About ten times so far and yes, my daughter is counting.) And I got her all the stuff she needs. And I got her the American Girl book. And I feel like I'm on top of this issue. And the school is not her mommy. And I feel sorry for all the little girls whose mommies are not on top of this issue. Actually my sister got her the American Girl book. But I made sure she read the American Girl book that my sister got for her. (My talk: My aunt got me a copy of Our Bodies; Ourselves, which was a freaking eye opener if you've never had the talk before that moment. If you haven't read it, it had pictures of suggested sexual positions in it, as well as all the other necessary stuff.) (I should probably just go step on a land mine right now.)
Okay, I probably shouldn't have included this one but what else can youdo when your only child has a major life event?
Why, make a cake!
They didn't include the after shot for this one. That would
be the shot where the girl picks up the cake and throws it
at the cake maker.
For the record, I did not actually do this.
I would never do this.
I would probably get the kid some chocolate and midol,
but not this.
I would also never buy this t-shirt,but I would put it in a blog.So since I'm zipping off in a dozen different directions (makes you wonder how I actually finish a novel, doesn't it?) I finally bought a new car. All I can say (not true because I can say a lot) is that it's red (red, red, reddity RED!) and has got more electronics on it than a 777 jumbo jet. Every time I see a button that I have not previously identified, I have to stop the car, pull out the ten pound manual, and look it up. Amazingly there's still a few buttons I have yet to identify. (Like Willy Wonka's Wonkavator, I'm pretty sure.) (Did you know that the kid from the original movie grew up to be a veterinarian? This is the kind of weird shizz that goes through my head.)
Unfortunately the inside of my car doesn't really look likea Wonkavator, which is a shame. I loved Gene Wilder but
he was much better in Young Frankenstein.Also in this blog's report, the two cats of the house (the moron cat and the fat cat) have recently decided to fight every night for total world domination.
One will just be sitting there minding his own feline biz when the other one comes strolling past. Then the first one will whack the second one in the ass. Then the second one takes offense (as most would) and turns around and whacks the first one in the head. Then the first one gets up and jumps on the second one. There are certainly variations on this scenario. Sometimes the second one skips the whack on the head and proceeds directly to jumping on the first one. Sometimes the cat's positions are reversed. Occasionally one holds the throat of the other one until they stop moving (and not in a "dead" way. Whoops. I used those things again.) and surrender.
Am I the only wondering if the black and white cat isactually still alive?Voila. Cat World War III or XIIM, if you read Roman numerals. I'm pretty sure I've lost count.
So there it is in a nutshell. My blogging might have slowed down, but I'm still alive.
Fat woman out.
