Richard Paolinelli's Blog, page 2

Starting down the homestretch

I started getting paid to be a writer back in 1983. I was a 19-year-old that decided I wanted to be a freelance writer and that was that. So off I went.

My first sports assignment was a high school playoff game in Odessa, Texas. I still have the press pass for that one laying about somewhere. I covered two golfing events that included then PGA stars in Midland for one-day events. The same magazine had me do a story on the Odessa Meteorite Crater.

On the fiction side, I nearly sold a short story to a brewing company based on their use of a giant Armadillo raiding stores for their beer in a series of commercials. They were discontinuing the magazine but the editor said he loved the story and would have run it if there had been one more edition left to print.

My first fiction sale turned out to be scripts for the Elite Comic Books series, Seadragon. I still have a photocopy of that first check. Yes, its the same character that I would later write the novelization for not too long ago.

I went on to become a full-time sports writer and editor. Then a novelist and publisher. Its been a nice run these past 42 years. But I can see the finish line not too far off in the distance.

I have about a dozen novels I want to write before I’m done. There’s a couple of screenplays too. My last three projects are going to be non-fiction books, which will give me a total of five.

The first one will come out in 2031 and celebrates the 150 years of Steele, North Dakota. I hang my hat in this town now, and had lived here in the 1970s. One of the first things I did when we moved back was start letting it be known I wanted to do this and folks have been getting me photos, stories, and other items for the project.

I have two sports non-fiction projects that will follow. The Dallas Cowboys will play their 75th season in 2034. Once that season ends I want to release a book commemorating the franchise’s history. I’ve spent the last two years writing about the team over at www.insidethestar.com and its been a lot of fun.

The Los Angeles Lakers will complete their 75th season in Los Angeles in the spring of 2035. Not long after I’ll release a book about their silver jubilee too.

And that should be my grand finale. I’ll be 71 then with over 50 years of writing on the books. Over 20 novels, five non-fiction works, dozens of short-stories, and thousands of articles in newspapers, magazines, and online.

That’s a legacy I’ll take great pride in — once I get there.

For now, I’m rounding the turn and starting down a 10-years-long homestretch. I hope you’ll come along and enjoy the ride with me.

THE SORCERESS’ CURSES

By Richard Paolinelli

The late afternoon sun beat down upon the driver of the covered wagon as he approached the outskirts of Tenaxx. The villagers had better sense than to be out in the heat, so he aimed his wagon for the hut at the far edge of the gathering of small dwellings. There a boy worked, forking hay into an open stall.

The boy looked up from his task as the driver pulled up and approached as the driver stepped down from his seat. Although he had the appearance of a younger man, strong and sure in his step, the driver’s face displayed a weariness that belonged on one much older.

“I seek the home of Arexnar,” he said. “Can you tell me where I might find it?”

“You have found it,” the boy exclaimed, reaching for the edge of the tarp covering the wagon. “Have you brought a new thing for my master…”

The boy’s speech cutoff with a strangled cry as he suddenly found the point of the driver’s sword at his throat.

“You will not touch this wagon or I will have your head, boy,” the driver snapped.

“And I,” a voice calmly said from the direction of the hut, “will thank you not to threaten my apprentice. Palat may not look like much, but he is the only one I have.”

The driver turned his attention to the old man standing a few feet away.

“You are the wizard, Arexnar?”

“I am Arexnar,” he admitted, waving Palat to stand aside. “As to my being a wizard… well, there are those who say I am such. Please, put away that sword and tell me why you have come looking for me.”

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Well, that escalated quickly!

I’ve had a general idea for a Space Detective Noir story bouncing around in my head for some time. Think The Maltese Falcon, but set in space. But I never really had the specifics for it, so it languished in my ideas folder.

Natasha Carter has entered the chat.

Natasha is a relatively new author, but she now has three novels out. I read her debut novel, Unfinished Business, which is more of a spicy romance novel and not my normal reading material, and found it very well-written. I even have a signed copy on the bookshelf.

I met Natasha via X and, as I do with most authors online, I followed her. You should too because she posts some great content and has a wicked sense of humor. Those that know me best now know why I follow her on X.

Not long ago she popped up with a post that went something along the lines of: “I’m here to steal your soul.” Being the professional smart aleck that I’m best known to be, I replied with: “With some women, its worth the price of admission.”

And just like that I had the introduction of the femme fatale for my space detective noir story, the title, and the basic storyline. So, before it got away, I sat down to outline what I had planned to be a one-off novella. But first I asked Natasha if she would mind if I named the femme fatale after her, since she kind of kickstarted this whole thing.

She said yes and I started the outline.

It’s now a six-part series and could possibly be six full novels instead of novellas.

I’m still trying to figure out what just happened. I mean, its not like I don’t already have six other writing projects that are behind schedule as it is. I have to go an add another one to the pile?

Ugh…

It just goes to show you the muse can be sneaky and strike when least expected. The important thing is, when it does, even if you can’t attend to the matter right away, get what you can down on paper. Then come back to you as soon as you can.

At least I can give you a sneak peak. This is not the final version of the cover. I have a few tweaks that I need to do to it to address a couple of flaws and get it dialed in. But this should give you a hint of what’s to come.

When life keeps imitating my fiction

Back in 1998 I wrote a screenplay titled, Inauguration Day, and for a brief time it was actually being considered to be green-lighted. Long story short, it didn’t happen.

But that’s not the reason why I bring it up here.

Eventually, I decided to adapt the screenplay to a novel back in 2013. Only to realize I really needed to write the main character’s backstory as the opening novel of the series, and then adapt the screenplay.

Longer story even shorter, that book finally got released in 2016 as, Betrayals, the sequel to Reservations in the Del Rio Mystery series.

It was already with the publisher when Donald Trump descended that elevator in Trump Tower and made history. Here’s how that event, and today’s return to the White House by Trump, are connected to Betrayals.

The story in the book deals with an FBI Agent named Jack Del Rio — yes there is a joke in the book about his name being shared with an NFL football coach, but that’s another story for another post — who discovers a plot as a new President is about to be sworn in.

The plot was begun in the old Soviet Union right after the end of World War II. It’s goal was to put someone inside the White House in a position of power that would hand the country over to the Russians.

So, as the 2016 campaign unfolded and the “Russian Collusion” narrative broke out, you can imagine what was going through my head. Really Life, you had to steal my idea?

And just when I finally thought that was all behind my novel, 2024 showed up and said “hold my beer” with 2025 providing a chaser.

Because in Betrayals the President and Vice-President are attacked during their inaugurations. And now we’re hearing that it wasn’t just a concern over cold weather that moved tomorrow’s ceremonies indoors.

There is some concern of an attack against the President-elect. A concern that seems somewhat valid given there were two attempts during the campaign.

No matter your politics, I think we can all hope that tomorrow passes relatively quietly. At least a lot more than it does in Betrayals.

In the meantime, could Life start working on duplicating some of my more positive storylines from now on?

I’d appreciate it.

A new year, a new home, and renewed hope

I hadn’t been posting here too much because there’s been a lot of behind the scenes doings going on at Casa de Paolinelli.

Namely, there’s a new Casa. In a new state at that. Oh yes, we moved. Again. But it was something of a homecoming for me.

My wife took advantage of her employer cutting departments and decided to retire two years ahead of schedule. Were we ready for that?

Nope.

So things got, shall we say, interesting. But its been a good interesting as it turns out. We’ve relocated to North Dakota for what we plan on being our final move.

No, you didn’t have a stroke. You read that right. We’ve retired to North Dakota.

Trust me, we’ve been getting that reaction a lot from the locals up here. “You mean, you wanted to retire here???”

Our criteria was a small midwestern town, where it snowed a lot. Here we are. Better still, I lived in this town for nearly four years back in the 1970s, so it was kind of a homecoming. I even got the same PO Box that my family had back then.

Dropping about 3,000 feet in elevation has proven to be a godsend for our own health as well as one of our dogs, who was having some elevation-related health issues. Those seems to have gone away since we got up here.

So yes, I’ll put up with a weekend with a forecast of -50 below wind chill just for that reason alone.

In addition to the boys, we apparently have adopted a scurry of squirrels. There are three of the critters that hang out in one of the many evergreens that form a western windbreak on our property near the house.

The other day I saw them dragging some old dried out corn husks from a nearby field to eat. We had a bag of walnut pieces that I emptied out at the base of their tree.

The pile lasted less than five minutes. A week later I put another pile out there and they lasted about as long. We’ve read they love sunflower seeds so we’ll probably get them a bag a week to get through the winter.

Hey, its my rule: If you’re a critter on my land, I take care of you. Just don’t tell the State of New York about this. I don’t want them raiding the place to whack the squirrels.

Writing wise I have four books I am hoping to have wrapped up and released by the end of the year. One under one of my pen names. Yes, I have one or two of those. Consider it my cancellation insurance.

I also have two movie scripts and a streaming series pitch with the pilot episode script finished and with my IP agent.

I’m also overseeing new book trailer production for Tuscany Bay Books: https://www.youtube.com/@TuscanyBayBooks and we’re exploring the possibility of converting some, if not all, of the Dreams of the Storyteller series into some type of animated short films.

And finally I’m uploading the old A Scribe’s Journey podcast episodes to a YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Richard_Paolinelli_Scribe and I’m entertaining the idea of restarting it with a new format. I’ll keep you updated on that.

In short, 2025 is lining up to be a busy, productive, and I hope successful, year. May your year be so as well.

That One Case...

It’s a common story line in fictional detective stories. And it’s somewhat true for many real-life police detectives as well.

There’s always that one unsolved case that stays with them, even long after they’ve retired.

It almost always involves a murder victim whose murder went uncaught. Or a person that went missing and was never found, dead or alive. The reasons why vary from case to case, but there’s something about the case that lingers.

Oddly enough, it is a phenomenon not limited to law enforcement.

I’ve got my own case that lingers still. If you’ve read my short story, Phantoms’ Lodge, you’ve already got most of the story. Now, as Paul Harvey would say, here’s the rest of the story.

In Phantoms’ Lodge, Eric Christopher is an heir finder looking for Michael Collier, a reporter for a newspaper in San Francisco who mysteriously vanished over two decades before.

His search brings him to a remote location near Half Moon Bay named “Phantoms’ Lodge”, owned by Collier. There he discovers the reason why Collier disappeared and what he’d been up to all those years.

In the end, Christopher discovers a new calling in life and is introduced to the ghost of a young woman whose identity he’d never been able to discover.

That’s the fictional story. Here’s the real-life version.

Back in the late 1990s, I took a break from the newspaper life so I could attend my kids after-school functions. The job I took was — an heir finder.

It entailed taking the available information of a person who died without leaving a will and who the county authorities couldn’t locate any next of kin. Then we went about finding said missing kin.

It was a challenging job and I enjoyed it. But the writing bug kept nagging at me and I left it behind. All except this one case.

It was a young woman who died in San Luis Obispo County. She’d hooked up with a career robber and gotten herself killed during one such robbery that went south.

She was travelling with fake identification and no one could ever figure out who she really was.

When I went to work for the firm that case landed on my desk because no one else wanted it. Over the years, when I had free time, I’d dig it out and go over it. Looking for anything new that might have turned up since the last time I’d checked it.

Needless to say, I never cracked it. No one ever did as far as I know.

But even now, a quarter-century later, every so often, I catch myself thinking about that file, and that unknown woman buried under a name that really isn’t hers.

It was the inspiration for Phantoms’ Lodge, and the ending to that story is the one I could never write for myself in real life.

And that’s the rest of the story…

A brand new short story exclusively for my subs

“I’ll give you fifty thousand for it,” the customer pointed at the medallion on display.

“I’m sorry, young man,” the older owner of the antique store replied, shaking his head.

“A hundred thousand then,” another shake. “Two hundred? Name your price, man.”

“The medallion is on display. No matter how much you offer it simply isn’t for sale.”

The customer snorted in disappointment and marshalled himself to make another attempt. Neither man noticed the young woman casually browsing the items that actually were for sale. She’d been inside when the customer had entered. He’d glanced her way briefly, eyes lingering for a moment, before turning his attention to the object of his visit.

She was used to such examinations from men. She knew her looks caught their attention. She often used that to her advantage to get where she wanted to be. Nor did she mind being forgotten while the two men haggled over the availability of the medallion. This too suited her purpose.

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I'm baaaccckkkkk...

In case you were wondering, no, I didn’t die. But these last 4+ months since my last post have been interesting.

I made what I hope will be my final move, and came back home, all in one fell swoop. Moving roughly 1,000 miles north by northeast - and dropping over 3,000 feet in elevation - was quite the endeavor.

Pro tip, if you can avoid driving a dully loaded 24-foot U-Haul truck over Interstate 70 between Grand Junction, CO and Denver, do so at any cost. It wasn’t so much the hard climbs and sharper curves as it was the poorly maintained road.

At one point I was all but certain the truck was going to tip over after hitting a particularly bad stretch of chuckholes while taking one of those aforementioned curves. I was leaning so hard left in the cab that Bernie Sanders sent me a campaign mailer.

Getting settled in to the new place took some time. Now I’m writing for InsideTheStar.com and the Steele Ozone. And that’s in addition to writing my own books, a spec script and pitch deck for a streaming series, and publishing books at Tuscany Bay Books.

Free time? Who, me?

And if that wasn’t enough on the plate 2025 is shaping up to be even busier. And that’s a good thing for you.

I’ll be posting here weekly. And I’ll also be relighting the studio on my old podcast, A Scribe’s Journey. You can check out some of the old episodes recorded a few years ago back in Omaha and Colorado right here.

Back then I was also a co-host for the weekly radio show, The Writers Block on LA Talk Radio. But I shut down the podcast about the same time we shut down The Writers Block when Jim Christina passed away. There was just too much going on at the time to do either, much less both, properly. You can listen to all of the shows here.

But, things have settled down now and I want to get back to talking with other authors/creators about their journey.

And yes, I have some more writing projects in the hopper that I hope to start releasing later in 2025. And there’s a secret project or two that might just be ready to cut loose next year too.

So, to quote one John Wick, I’m thinkin’ I’m back.

Welcome to the new site

For some time I’ve had a Substack newsletter and a WordPress website. As if there isn’t enough online sites attached to my name to keep track of, right?

So I decided it was time to consolidate. In addition to a fantastic newsletter set-up, Substack also offers a fully functional website that is as good, or even better in some ways, than WordPress. And it’s a lot cheaper.

In this economy, every penny saved is a fortune. If you are a subscriber already, when you go to www.richardpaolinelli.com you end up on the home page of the website.

At the top you’ll find the menu bar with the various pages available for you to browse. There’s a contact page to send me a message or find where I hang my hat on social media. There’s even a chat option which I’ll be using more of soon too.

If you’re reading this, and you’re not a subscriber, when you click this link www.richardpaolinelli.com you’ll get a landing page asking if you want to subscribe.

The subscription is free — although there is a paid subscription option if you’re interested — so all you have to do is enter your e-mail and click subscribe. Then you’ll land on the website and away you go.

I hope the new format makes it easier for me to keep my readers up to date on the latest news, as well as provide them with early notices on upcoming releases, giveaways, and other items.

Be sure to check out the new digs and let me know what you like, what you don’t like, and what you’d like me to add.

When Your Novel Becomes Real Life

I always wait a few days before commenting on major events, because the first 48 hours are usually filled with so much wrong info it takes time to sort out what the truth is.

Last Saturday's attempt to murder Donald Trump, a candidate for POTUS, is one of those times when its best to sit back and wait. There's been so much confusion since about how this…

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