Kyle Pratt's Blog: Musings & Rantings, page 4
February 29, 2020
Lunch with the director of Love INC
That’s a strange name, Love INC , but it’s real.
Lunch with Dawn, the director of Love INC.
Over the last year, I’ve learned much more about the organization and the love they show.
Let me explain. I attend a very service orientated church, but for the longest time, I knew few of the people and had little involvement. I had been involved in other places and at earlier times, but not here. Still, I listened as the pastor talked about God, Jesus, faith, and service. I believed but still held back.
Then a friend asked if I would serve on the board of Love INC (In the Name of Christ). I had very little idea what the organization did, but even so, I felt called to answer yes.
I did research while filling out the board application. Love INC is a national non-profit with local branches. They exist to assist people in need. The underpaid and volunteer staff assist area churches by screening neighbors in need and then matching them with service providers, gas or food vouchers, transportation assistance, furniture, firewood, minor home repairs and more.
Dawn, the local director, attended another church and had been hired just a few months earlier. Along with her, the staff and board were in a period of transition. We all learned our jobs by doing them over the next few months. But more than that, I met a large number of new people, learned about problems in my community and helped find some solutions. In simpler terms, while helping others, I grew.
If you’d like to donate to Love INC, click here.
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January 21, 2020
A Good Bee Day
I often think of my bees during the winter.
But since I can’t open the hive to check them on cold and wet winter days there isn’t much I can do. However, yesterday was an unusual day.
I was writing in my office when my wife called to me. I followed her outside and as we walked toward the apiary I had a good idea of what I would find. The sky had cleared, the sun shined, and the air felt almost warm on my face.
Kyle’s bees on a warm winter day (click to enlarge)
When the temperature exceeds about fifty degrees Fahrenheit bees start to fly. This time of year there isn’t any pollen for them to collect, but they’ve been clustered tight in the hive for a number of days and need a cleansing flight. Bees don’t poop in the hive.
Even before I could see them, I heard their buzz. Several hundred bees flew in the air, rested on the warm roof of the hive, or clung to one of the sides. I didn’t open the hive. The number of bees flying around me told me the colony had done well. I sighed with relief and continued to watch them for several minutes.
In the world of beekeeping there are no guarantees, but my bees had made it this far through the winter and were out enjoying the sun. For today, that would be good enough.
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January 16, 2020
An Old Time Barbershop
I’ve had the same two barbers for longer than I can remember.
A few months ago I needed a haircut and parked near the barbershop. Nick and Clay, the owners, probably know the top of my head better than anyone.
Kyle finally gets his haircut from Nick
Their establishment is a throwback to an older style of business and as I walked along the sidewalk, memories of the shop floated through my mind. They know most of their customers by name and when things are slow people often linger to discuss breaking world news and more important things like fishing and the weather. There is no television in the shop to distract from conversation, but a radio tuned to an appropriately conservative station always plays in the background.
One day a woman walked in from the local phone company. “I’d like to talk to you about your phone service.”
“We don’t have one,” Nick replied.
I looked around the small shop. “You guys don’t have a phone?”
“We don’t need one,” Clay said. “Our customers know when we’re open and we don’t take appointments. So, why have a phone.”
She shrugged, handed Clay a business card, and left.
I pushed all those memories aside as I reached the shop door and pulled.
It didn’t budge.
Inside were two empty barber chairs and no barbers. I then noticed the closed sign nearby and read the small print. “Closed till Friday for hunting.”
I should have expected it.
Click on the following links to read my author bio, about life in Lewis County, or more about my life on the farm.
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January 11, 2020
Happy New Year!
I hope so anyway.
I’m Glad 2019 is behind me because last year was tough on my health. In July I had a pacemaker implanted to aid with the treatment of my atrial fibrillation. That appears to be going well.
Kyle Pratt in the hospital
However, even before the pacemaker operation, I had begun to experience symptoms that I thought were allergies. I treated it as such but it continued to get worse. Eventually I went to the doctor. Over the next few weeks, various specialists established what I didn’t have, but were unable to confirm a diagnosis. I continued to get worse and spent my birthday in the emergency room.
Through November I lost a lot of weight as the doctors struggled to figure out what was wrong. In early December I was back in the emergency room. During the resulting eleven-day hospital stay, I was diagnosed with vasculitis, an incurable condition. In my case, it manifests itself as granulomatosis with polyangitis (I can’t even pronounce that), but what it means for me is that there is swelling of the blood vessels of my kidneys, lungs, mouth, nose, and ears.
The good news is the doctors figured it out fairly early, so treatment is possible. The bad news is that treatment is with chemo-like drugs that are now suppressing my immune system. After this the doctors will evaluate my condition and may change or continue the treatment. Right now the combination of the vasculitis and the treatment causes me extreme fatigue. Today is a good day, but that’s why I stopped writing for the last couple of months.
So, that is my current situation. My weight is stable. I’ve even gained a couple of pounds. Hopefully my health is actually improving. I feel better and I’ve started writing once again.
You can read about my upcoming novels in my recent blogpost, Facing the Delay.
Click on the following links to read my author bio, or read more about current writing projects.
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January 9, 2020
Facing the Delay
Illness delayed my writing.
More about that in my next blogpost. The good news is that I’ve begun typing again. My next novels are the post-apocalyptic sequel Facing the Storm and the third book in the Guardian Knights science fiction series, Return to Earth.
Facing the Storm
The Storm Rises, book 0 of the Solar Storm Saga by Kyle Pratt
I’ve completed over 26,000 words of Facing the Storm, or about a third of the novel. It had been scheduled for release in 2019, but now will be available sometime in 2020. I’m working hard on the story, but as yet I don’t have a release date.
In the Solar Storm Saga series Facing the Storm follows both The Storm Rises (Book 0), a 32,000-word sidequel, and the full-length novel Through the Storm (Book 1).
The series centers on two families as they deal with the very real threat of a solar storm hurtling four coronal mass ejections at the Earth. When the storm hits, mere hours later, it burns out most modern electronics and the world descends into darkness.
Return to Earth
If my health holds out I’m going to finish Return to Earth this year. That project has been started, stopped, delayed and postponed too often. I’ve written about 13,000 words of this novel and really want to see it completed this year.
Return to Earth by Kyle Pratt
As mentioned above, Return to Earth is the third book of the Guardian Knights science fiction series follows Lucas Baldwin, the young son of a powerful lord, is on his first deep-space mission. Advancing through a captured alien facility he encounters a lunatic girl about his age. Only later does he realize that the girl, Rachel, is speaking English, a long-dead language. Rachel talks of an Earth still in existence and more advanced than the horse-and-buggy world that had supposedly been destroyed.
That is my writing plan for the coming year. Let me know if you have thoughts about these, or any other of my stories, in the comment section below.
Click on the following links to read my author bio, or read more about current writing projects.
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October 21, 2019
Upcoming Book Events
I’m always trying new ways to reach readers.
Click to enlarge
Adrian, one of my readers, informed me a download link for the audiobook Final Duty didn’t work. That started a chain of events that hasn’t yet ended. However, in the next couple of weeks, the Final Duty audiobook will be in much wider distribution. Check out the graphic for just some of the places you’ll be able to buy it.
With wider distribution, I’m hoping to keep the price low, but that leads to a problem. With audiobooks, authors can suggest prices, but they don’t have direct control as they do with ebooks. Also, I want to give the Final Duty audiobook away to readers of my newsletter. That’s difficult to manage because if the audiobook is given away the host site doesn’t make any money. I’m still working on that part.
Click to buy on Amazon.
In related news, by the end of the year, the ebook version of Race to Refuge and Final Duty will go into wide distribution. For more than a year, these two ebooks have only been available on Amazon, however, they will soon be offered on Nook, Kobo, Google Play, Draft2Digital, and other sites.
If you think another of my books needs to be in wider distribution let me know in the comments section.
Click on the following links to read my author bio, read more about current writing projects, or more about my audiobooks.
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October 20, 2019
Clean Comedy
My preference for comedy is simple.
When I’m in the mood for stand up comedy I don’t want to cringe at off-color jokes or have to ignore disparaging political humor. I simply want to laugh.
That love of clean, but funny content, is why the Harmon brothers, Jeffrey and Neal, expanded their VidAngel business and created Dry Bar Comedy.
The Harmon brothers started by inviting new and upcoming comics to their studio in Provo, Utah, however as viewership grew they have been able to book bigger name comics. I think they now have a good mix. You can view show segments on YouTube for free or watch entire shows on Amazon streaming or your phone by downloading the Dry Bar app.
As I read over this blogpost it sounds like an advertisement, but it’s not. They didn’t pay me a cent for this endorsement; I just enjoy watching Dry Bar and wanted to share it with you, my readers.
Click on the video, give it a try, and let me know what you think in the comments section.
Click on the following links to read my author bio, or read more about current writing projects.
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October 19, 2019
Top Ten End of the World Stories
Since I write post-apocalyptic fiction I’m often asked what are my favorite books in the genre? I’m reluctant to answer because any list would leave some great stories out. However, some books had a profound effect on me. I still have many of those books and their topics and themes often come to mind as I write.
Over the years I’ve seen many post-apocalyptic movies and read many of the books. While vampires and the undead are all the rage right now my personal preference is for realism. With that in mind, I decided to share my top ten list of post-apocalyptic stories.
10. The Stand , by Stephen King.
I don’t enjoy reading or watching horror, so I’ve read only a few of King’s books. Still, I appreciate his writing skills. The Stand is a long post-apocalyptic story that stems from a pandemic flu virus. After the plague burns through the population one group becomes another and its evil leader. There is a supernatural element to this novel written in 1978.
9. The Postman , by David Brin
The book asks the readers many questions including how symbols work to focus society. Also, could a tiny spark provide rebirth to civilization? This 1985 novel has a significant science fiction element that I think detracts from the story. While it is a good story and did receive many awards, I actually prefer the movie with Kevin Costner.
8. The Children of Men , by P.D. James
This 1992 story is the first novel on the list that remains in my library. Just before the turn of the century human sperm rates fall to zero and no more children are born. The British government has been taken over by a tyrant. Only the narrator and a group called the Five Fishes work for reform. Most don’t care and why would they; the human race is slowly dying. As I read this book I pondered what I would do in that situation.
7. The Road , by Cormac McCarthy
If you find The Children of Men depressing you’ll probably find The Road even more so. This 2006 novel follows a father and son as they journey south across a dead and ash-covered America. Food is scarce and many have resorted to cannibalism. This dark novel received a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. While I found it thought-provoking and engaging, I also found it depressing.
6. Wool by Hugh Howey
This started as a short story and is now the Silo series. Wool follows a man named Holston, the sheriff of a subterranean silo city extending deep underground. The surface world is uninhabitable. The Silo series completes the story. Hugh Howey indie-published Wool in 2011 and his excellent story and resulting success has been an inspiration for my own indie writing career.
5. One Second After , by William Forstchen
Written in 2009 this novel is about one of the more modern apocalyptic threats, electromagnetic pulse. What would happen if every modern electronic device, and the entire electrical grid, failed at the same moment? The novel follows John Matherson, retired Army Colonel, widowed father of two daughters, and a history professor at a small college starting the day of an EMP attack on the United States. With One Year After and The Final Day, I have all three of Forstchen’s EMP Novels. Another EMP story worth reading is Lights Out by David Crawford.
4. On the Beach , by Nevil Shute
Written in 1957 during the height of the cold war, this novel is set in a world slowly dying from the radiation poisoning of World War III. The story follows one of the last American nuclear submarines, USS Scorpion, and its captain, Commander Dwight Towers. This novel haunts my thoughts for days after each reading. A copy of the book has been in my library since I was a youth.
3. Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
In the novel, Tim Hamner discovers a new comet and it’s headed toward Earth. The idea of a comet or asteroid hitting the Earth receives more attention now than it did when this novel was written in 1977. This classic novel examines a post-impact world.
2. Alas Babylon by Pat Frank
This is another novel from the cold war era. Written in 1959, the novel focuses on Randy Bragg and his directionless life in the small town of Fort Repose, Florida. His life suddenly changes after a brief, but devastating, World War III. Now he must act in order to survive. I first read this classic novel as a youth and always keep a copy in my library.
1. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
My father gave me a paperback copy of this classic novel when I was young, and I actually read it. This 1949 novel is one of the earlier examples of what we now call the post-apocalyptic genre. It follows Isherwood “Ish” Williams who, alone in the mountains, recuperates from a snake bite. After recovering he returns to a world ravaged by a pandemic. Stephen King has said that Earth Abides inspired The Stand, and so I close with this favorite novel.
Did I miss your favorite post-apocalyptic novel? Let me know in the comments section.
Click on the following links to read my author bio, or read more about current writing projects.
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September 19, 2019
An Egg Surprise
My son shouted for me to come.
I spotted him in the nearby garden. Since no panic etched his voice, I asked, “What’s up?”
“You’ve got to see this.” He waved his arm urging me to him.
I pushed my shovel in the ground and strode over to where he stood.
“Look there.” He pointed to a corner concealed behind a raised garden bed and a large bush.
Clutch of 18 eggs. (Click to enlarge)
I stepped closer and spotted a large clutch of eggs. Our egg count had been down recently and now I knew why. There, in a crude nest, hidden away under a bush were eighteen eggs. Only the number of eggs surprised us, not that it occurred. Chickens will sometimes decide to sit on a few eggs or even lay them in out-of-the-way places, but this had been growing for weeks.
We collected the eggs, but since we couldn’t be sure which had been there hours and which had been there for weeks, we disposed of them all. Then I removed the nest and cut back the bush. My wife put a plant pot on the spot.
We’ve been checking the area where the hens roam but haven’t spotted any new nests. Meanwhile, the egg count in the hen house has returned to normal.
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September 18, 2019
Glimpses of OCW
Carolyn Bickel, Debby Lee, Julie Zander, Heather Alexander with Kyle Pratt behind.
In August I attended the Oregon Christian Writers (OCW) conference in Portland. About fifteen years ago this was the first conference I ever attended. I’ve attended other conferences since then, but OCW remains special to me. Consequently, I know many of the regular attenders, but it seems that more people recognize me than I know. I’m always trying to remember names.
The conference ran for several days. I always take a few pictures, but this year I decided to make a short video of my experience. In the video I included the picture of Kelsey and me that you see in the blogpost, A Good Conference. I also included video from classes and many more pictures.
Over the days of the event, I thought I took ample pictures and video, but when back home I discovered that I didn’t have all I needed. Still, I worked to create it. Over the last few weeks, I combined what I had with some pictures that friends provided and made this six-minute video. I hope you enjoy it,
Also, if you’ve ever been to the Oregon Christian Writers (OCW) conference. press the red button below and let me know about your experience.
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