Shinerdrinker: Blog

Well. Apparently Hurricane Harvey is getting all worked up and ready for landfall around Corpus Christi, Texas. It will be a big one and here in San Antonio, we are actually worried about being hit with basically 20 inches of rain and sustained winds of over 70 miles per hour.

The weathermen or rather weather people are calling for a Biblical-qualifying rain and windy weekend for us here in Texas and I'll tell you the truth, the last time the weather folks were this worked up; well, let's just say they were pretty right on about the amount of rain.

Earlier this year back in February, we here in San Antonio got hit by a few tornado. Yes, your friendly, neighborhood SOL auteur heard the roar of the winds as they tore up trees and roofs just a couple of streets over and even found a few oddly matching sets of lawn furniture planted upside and intertwined in his yard.

But the folks on teevee are waving at green screens and showing footage of people invading the local grocery stores and buying all the bottled water and batteries they can find. I know because I saw them all around me as I placed a few packs of AA batteries beside my packs of bottled water in my cart. Also got a few Shiner Bocks because well, it was Thursday. Also, let's not forget about the bunch of canned stuffs and easily cookable like frozen pizzas and pizza like derivatives.

Oh and let us not forget the chili. It's Texas. It's a law.

So this weekend I'll be sitting around in my Ark, watching the weather marionettes pointing at their water-logged views of my lovely hometown. When the heavy rain really gets going, I'll sit outside under the back patio and listen to the deafening yet soothing waves of rain on the tin roof.

So, long story short (too late) I had planned to do some writing this weekend but I don't see myself doing any writing this weekend. But I am here to let you know since, I won't write this weekend, I will write as much as I can this evening until I am forced to go to bed. And because I love my scores of fans, I won't even open any of those beautifully chilled and refreshing Shiner Bocks staring at me oh so lovingly high atop their perches on the shelves in my refrigerator. So the writing tonight will at least be in modern English rather than Medieval Klingon.

Ark stocked. Check.

Spider Man pool floaties blown up and fastened on the biceps. (I wanted Superman but my wife bought me Spider Man. I don't think she likes me.) Check.

Hot Pockets ready for the microwave. And I also have my white sunblock for the nose cause I ain't sure if the whole sun and moon thing is actually finished with us yet. Check.

But tonight, I shall write. I'm still shooting to get this chapter done quickly since I'm also ready to find out what happens next!

Okay, that's it. No more blogging. Time for writing.

When I put up the first chapter of "Mayhem in a Pill," I was initially amazed by people actually reading my story and some of them emailing me to generally approve of my attempt at story writing. This was a very good feeling.

Then the score basically treading water and staying just below 8. I was happy with that and saw room for improvement. I mean I know I'm supposed to be saying that scores don't matter but hey, they do matter to me. Especially for my story.

Another factor was the download numbers. Many other authors I've traded emails with here have said they prefer to use the download numbers rather than scores as a barometer for the success of the story. I decided I also like that idea. The first couple of chapters took nearly a month to reach 10,000 downloads and I tried to use that as a deadline for having the next chapter ready.

But today, I realized I'll never be able to meet that deadline because in less than a week, Chapter 27 has already surpassed my arbitrary download deadline and is still going strong.

That to me is breathtaking. So thank you to my readers. And especially thank you to my editors for turning my deranged second draft of the roomful of monkeys pounding away on a computer, into something readable.

As a thank you to everyone, I want to give everyone a present.

If everything goes correctly, then my scores of fans out there will be able to read the next chapter sometime before the end of this month. I know some of you will scoff at my deadline but this time I mean it.

Sincerely.

Hello all.

Apparently I have to apologize to my legions of fans. I had told in past postings how I was well ahead in the writing of chapters. And now I did not lie, it was an absolute truth.

I have explained before I use OpenOffice for my writing because I am a cheap bastard. So each of the chapters in my small story equal between 10 - 14 pages on OpenOffice. When I last wrote, I was already a good 6 pages into the chapter. Damn near halfway depending on how the rest went. But then real life reared its ugly head and turned all my wants and desires into a mish mash of self loathing and dandruff covered artwork.

Yeah. I don't know what the hell I'm talking about either. Come on Shiner, keep focused!

Okay. I had a few things come up in real life and they all conspired to keep me from writing. Even kept me away from a vacation I was all set to go on. But fortunately, through a couple of good friends we are agreeable to postponing the trip and we will go on it this week rather than when we were supposed to go last week. Flexibility is a great byproduct of retirement.

And unfortunately, my score of fans had to wait for the next chapter and have told me they were tired of waiting. I used to have a score and a half of fans, but the waiting caused me to lose a few.

But never fear, a new chapter approaches and is this very day sent to the first editor and hopefully I'll be able to post it once the red ink monsters carve my vacuous thought and word-blanks into something hopefully useful.

I'll post it when the editors finish and I do the corrections they suggest.

Again I'm sorry you had to wait. But if I just put out whatever I write, it would sound kind of like the word vomit of a certain... oops, don't get political Shiner.

It never works out well for any involved in that.

Okay, I am completely embarrassed about the mistake but I will give an inside explanation. I was thinking of another story idea and I am in the process of setting up an outline. Yes, I am thinking about publishing it on SOL. I was thinking about a fight I had written on that other story while also writing the chapters for Mayhem. I got them confused. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often with me or other writers on SOL. Especially those writing and updating several stories at a time.

So I wrote George was watching a video replay of his fight and unconsciously rubbed his jaw where he got hit and knocked out. But eagle-eyed reader and totally coolly named Shadowfall found the mistake that George was not knocked out but rather put in choke hold and fell asleep.

Thank you Shadowfall.

For the record, I have absolutely no problem with someone pointing out a mistake like that.

And as a thank you, just for Shadowfall, I will let everyone know I am deep into the next chapter and there will not be a long drought in between chapters. I find with no football and no basketball, I have a good more amount of time to write. No set time but know that I am at least half finished with the chapter.

There you go. Since Shadowfall found the mistake, he gets me working more on the story.

(Why do I have a sudden fear of people suddenly going over inch of the story trying to find mistakes forcing me to fix them all.)

But just a minute, ESPN is now showing a couple of Canadian Football games a week and I do recognize several of the players from when they played college ball here in the states.

-- Shinerdrinker

It was dark outside and I was preparing to enjoy my new window air conditioner that forced me to pull out the winter blanket for the bed. (I'll use the crappy toilet paper to make sure the air runs at full blast in my house.) Sue me. I'm fat and we smell when we sweat. I don't wanna smell. I'd rather see my breath while watching the local news gal point out that the temps are hitting over 100 in my hometown. (I do feel for all of you who have even hotter temps but I'm going with what causes me to sweat.)

Now. Why was I blogging? Oh yeah.

The next chapter is with the first editor. I'll get that back and go over the suggested corrections and then send it along to the other editor. Then I get to go through the whole circus once again. Then I post.

I also wanted to let those score and a half of fans of my story know they may want to reread Chapters 22 and 23 just to get reacquainted with that side of the story. And the new chapter will come either this weekend or beginning of next week. It all depends on the editors.

In the meantime, I will begin working on Chapter 27 so the next chapter won't take so damn long. I know I am letting some people down by not posting the chapters quicker but my procrastination is a strong and powerful enemy. And Netflix does have some cool ass shows.

Believe me I'm trying...