Happy Halloween…or blessed Samhain if you celebrate! It’s my favorite day of the year; in part, because it’s also my wife’s birthday. But fall is my favorite season, and no day seems to sum up autumn better than Halloween.

How’s the Writing Going?

It hit me last Tuesday that I hadn’t written an update about the previous week. It became a busy week at work, and there wasn’t much to say other than, “Still writing…”

This week, things are more clear…which is good because it’s almost November, and I’d like to release “In Cypress Cove” on the 26th. (Or even earlier that week so people in the U.S. have something to listen to if traveling for Thanksgiving.)

The problem with the story is not really a problem — just decisions to be made. Because there are jumps in time, I’m working at making those leaps not seem jarring. But for those who insist all writing must be shown…time in fiction can be a funny thing. Sometimes, to show things develop can be boring (“While the story is waiting for THIS to occur, everybody worked and did normal things…and this is not very interesting to read…”).

Sometimes small info dumps are vital, and seeing which storylines matter most need to be decided.

“In Cypress Cove” could easily be a novel. But it’s a short story. So, I’ve been writing random scenes, and this week things have come together. (Now, it’s a matter of filling in the gaps and some editing.)

What Else Is Up?

Not a whole lot of other things going on. Work and writing have kept me busy…and just the usual hanging out with loved ones and enjoying cooler mornings in North Texas. Hell, it was 38F yesterday morning, even though it climbed into a “cool” mid 70s on a sunny afternoon I know a lot of people loved…but I look forward to complete cooler days on the horizon.

I guess, since it’s Halloween, if you’ve not listened to “The Hidebehind,” it’s a good day to do so. Also, if you’re doing NaNoWriMo this year, be mighty, and have fun!

Other than that, all I’ve got are some food pics…

I used to get in and out of stories quickly. Three thousand…maybe thirty-five-hundred words was plenty.

Today, that old “normal” has almost doubled.

Even something as seemingly basic at the start, like “Milkboy,” became more than a basic story.

It’s not that the stories I now write are bloated; rather, it seems I have more to say. I consider the ripple effects of actions more than when I was younger. (Not that I explore every possibility, but I’m not as focused on one thing as I once was.)

I suppose, with age, I take time and put more into the things I do.

In Cypress Cove

I’ve talked enough about November’s Not About Lumberjacks story, “In Cypress Cove,” that you know it’s about two guys who reclaim sunken timber in East Texas spotting an ivory-billed woodpecker. I planned to share the story last November, but I knew it would take more time than I had in 2020.

Younger me would have established the woodpecker spotting, and then likely made the focus on the main characters battling a timber company told to shut down its operation to save the bird. But even a small area in East Texas being shut down for a conservation effort would have a bigger effect on the area.

With a confirmed sighting of such a rare and magnificent bird, small towns in the area would see a flood of birdwatchers. People settled in the area for generations might see restrictions on their own land. Maybe new friendships begin or old rivalries reignite. (Say…a former high school bully now owning a timber company returns to his old ways in a battle against the two people he gave the most grief decades before).

Suddenly, that 3,500-word story can grow to 5,500 words with little effort. Probably even a bit more…

Last Week

Last week was a good week for Not About Lumberjacks. I released the Behind the Cut episode for “Milkboy,” and it’s doing better than any other Behind the Cut episode in its first few days of release. Hell, it’s doing better than most full stories…and people keep listening to “Milkboy” as well. (Granted, the numbers for Not About Lumberjacks have never been worthy to merit the effort I put into it if I saw the show as something more than a thing that keeps me busy writing stories I like.)

“In Cypress Cove” has hit that point where I’m seeing its shape much better than I was at the start. Hell, I think I even know how it ends!

Still…there’s quit a bit to still write, and the sounds needed for the episode will take a bit of an effort to make.

Perhaps I got spoiled with the two-week turnaround in getting “Milkboy” written, recorded, and online. But…it’s given me a bit more time to ensure however long “In Cypress Cove” ends up, that it’s the story it needs to be…

* * *

Also, for no reason (other than she’s cool), here’s a photo of my mom’s little pot-roast of a cat, Preeda…

Not a lot to report this week. My work week was extremely busy, so only a little progress was made on the next Not About Lumberjacks story, which is tentatively called, “In Cypress Cove.” (And most work on that came on Saturday.)

But it was a good week.

For those interested, the opening of the next story:

Behind the Cut

I really love the Behind the Cut episode for “Milkboy.” It’s written, but not recorded. I’d love to release that by Friday.

What started as an essay about writing without a plan ended up an essay about friendship and struggles. In a roundabout way, that runs with the original idea…and I think you’ll like it.

Random Things

While it came out on September 28, I didn’t pick up Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land until last week. It’s a departure from All the Light We Cannot See, which I like. (You may have noticed I like different kinds of stories — even from the same author. It’s kind of the reason for Not About Lumberjacks.)

With things slowing down, I hope to spend evenings, at least in part, reading. (But, admittedly, there’s a lot of writing to be done between now and the end of the year. To that end, I think I’ve decided on the short short stories for the Christmas episode.)

Another cool thing about last week? A bottle of my favorite hot sauce arrived!

Yellowbird’s habanero sauce is exquisite, but there’s something about the umami kick from trumpet mushrooms in this sauce that makes me happy they brought it back as a limited release!

The Rest of the Week

While last week doesn’t seem exciting when it’s all written down, I was able to get into the part of “In Cypress Cove” where things really heat up. But writing about writing can be a bit drab, especially if you try not to give too much away.

I hope everybody’s week is off to a good start…and that you do something cool along the way. For me, it will be releasing the Behind the Cut episode for “Milkboy,” and losing myself to a cypress stand in the Big Thicket of East Texas…

A bit of a change this week…beginning with a new name for these weekly updates. “Chopping Away” sounds like a good thing to name regular progress updates, so there it is.

But why not another Godspeed, Crazy Mike Journal entry?

I don’t want to hurry the story.

A rough draft is done, and I quite like it. But as involved as the story is, I’d hate to rush it for an early October release. I’d love to have an expert proofread it for procedural accuracy, and that can take time.

So, does this mean no October Not About Lumberjacks story?

Absolutely not.

What’s this Milkboy Thing?

Milkboy is another based-on-truth Not About Lumberjacks story. Others include:

• Pride of the Red Card
• Bobo (almost autobiographical)
• Memorial Park (Very loosely based on truth)
• 7 Stories (the last story in the first Christmas episode)
• Christmas Miscellany 4 (the last story among the others)

“Milkboy” is about creating a fake online persona before that was really a thing. (Prior to the World Wide Web or even services like America Online became common, a friend and I used a Bulletin Board System (BBS) to create Milkboy, a fake person who had a a lot in common with our dear friend, Tim.)

In every way, Tim could have ended his friendship with me and our friend Mark for getting his hopes up about a cool person he met online, but decades later we’re all still best buds. This is a story about all that…

“Milkboy” should be out on Tim’s actual birthday, October 2.

Day by Day?

So why no day-by-day account of this week?

Mostly because my new job deserved my attention, and what little time I had to write was spent writing the first draft of “Milkboy.” A daily account would have been a cut-and-paste thing where each day’s entry would be, “Worked on ‘Milkboy’ during lunch break.” Perhaps one of two entries would have read, “Worked on ‘Milkboy’ during lunch break…and a little in the evening.”

Friday: “Didn’t work on writing ‘Milkboy’ during lunch break…I started looking for music for the episode. Went to bed early, and worked on the story in the middle of the night when I woke up for a couple hours.”

Saturday: “Worked on ‘Milkboy’ a bit during the morning. Went to bed early, and worked on it some more in the middle of the night when I woke up for a couple hours.”

To try padding those updates out would be tedious for all involved, so just know I knocked out a 5,500-word story during a very busy week at the new job.

What’s Next?

With a rough draft of “Milkboy” complete, it’s time for some editing and planning. I hope to record the story on the 24th or 25th, and then put it all together for an October 2 release date.

This should be a more interesting week, so here’s hoping next week’s update is a bit more lively than this one!

Until then…be mighty, and keep your axes sharp!