He’s just been busy writing.

I’m completing a nine-week collection course this week. It’s a themed class where I’ll have a collection at the end. The theme is Private Investigators. I’ve got to tweak the cover and do a few other small things, then it should go up for sale. Look for an announcement here soon.

The next collection class is on time travel, and I’ll start it later today.

I’ve also had a couple of other assignments for some shorter courses I’ve been taking. Since time is limited, I’ve chosen to focus on writing that might bring in some income over blogging. But I’m still going to blog. The blogging should pickup over the holidays and classes aren’t in session.

I’ve been on the road quite a bit lately and will be at least once more before the end of the month. Some of the travel is family related (no issues, just visits), but I just returned from Howard Days 2022 today. I was in San Antonio for the 2022 Edgar Rice Burroughs Dum-Dum the weekend before.

Look for trip reports on both of those later this week, once everything settles down and I get caught up on chores and dayjobbery..

I’m not into resolutions much. I’m more of a goals kind of guy.

Here are a few goals. These are mainly being driven by some situations at work, some of which I am not at liberty to discuss in a public forum. By that I mean legally prohibited (personnel issues). Bottom line, I will have put in enough time to be able to retire a year from now. I don’t know that I will want to then, but I want to have the freedom to exercise that option.

So, here are  few that relate to this blog. Continue reading →

I knew this day was coming.

I’ve known it for years.

I knew it when we boarded a plane with the little butterball in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I knew it when we walked down the steps of the orphanage in Shemkent the day he officially became our son.

I knew the time would fly by. I didn’t know it would fly so fast. I knew today would be bittersweet. It didn’t know it would be this bitter nor this sweet.

Sunday my son and I left home. Today I came home alone.

My son starts college on Monday. He’ll be living with my mother-in-law, which will be good for both of them. I’ve spent the last few days helping him get settled and doing some chores my MiL needed doing. I am incredibly proud of my son. I’m not going to say his name or which college he’s attending out of respect for his privacy. He has turned into a fine young man. He still has some growing up to do, but compared to the typical college freshman I see, he’s ahead of them. He’s smart, charming, handsome. And since I had nothing to do with his genetics, I can brag on him without having to assume any false modesty.

The time has come when he has to stand or fall on his own merits. I’m putting aside the doubts and second-guessing that’s normal at a time like this. Whether there was something I could have done differently or better (there was, there always is), what’s done is done. There’s very little left I can do, at least unless/until I’m asked to.

I’m not worried. He’s turned out fine, in spite of his parents at times. He’s got a great future ahead of him.

Just a note to let all of you know how it’s going. We’re all healthy, if a little stir crazy from confinement.  The governor is allowing businesses to open on a limited basis.  Here’s hoping it’s a success.  I haven’t been to a book store in over a month.

There’s a week of class left, then finals.  I’m about to be buried under a mountain of grading.  Actually, the mountain i already here.  I’ve just been ignoring it.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be helping a friend’s mother, who is in her 80s, have some trash cleared.  Some asshat dumped a load of heavy junk against her fence, and she can’t get out into the alley to take out her trash, so she walks to the end of the block and back up the alley. We’re loading it onto some trailers and taking it to the dump, which is currently only open on Wednesday and Saturday. I don’t have class tomorrow, so I’m able to help.

Then it’s back to putting in a garden.  There are two more places to till.   I’ve already planted corn, beans, and cucumbers.  Next it’s tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots, and a little okra.

I’ve got a deadline on a short story I need to finish by the end of the week.

And of course, more birthday and Retro Hugo posts.  Plus a few other things I’ve been trying to get to.  Most of those may have to wait until after finals, but I’ll get in as many as I can.  Tomorrow is the birthday of Rafael Sabatini, H. Bedford-Jones, and Jack Williamson, so I have to do something.

How’s everyone else doing.

A few nights ago, I decided to check what the traffic had been here on the blog before I went to bed.  It was high, highest it had been all month. The number on the bar graph didn’t match the total count for the day; I think it was off by two. Nothing unusual. I’ve seen that before. Just refresh the stats, and they’ll agree.

So I refreshed.  The numbers were the same.  And several page views higher than they had been before.  So I refreshed again. The numbers were climbing. And climbing.

Long story short, I was on the receiving end of some sort of attack by a bot.  I went in to the security settings and tightened things down.  Before I was done, though, that became the second highest traffic day I’d ever had.  (The highest was some years ago when a high-traffic blog linked to a post.)

Traffic seems to be back to normal, although it’s hard to be sure.  It’s been a little erratic lately, and today it is down quite a bit.  Yesterday seemed to be fine.

If anyone is having issues accessing the site, please let me know.  I tightened the security quite a bit.  Since I’m still learning about some of the security features, I don’t know if I over did it.  I would have asked this question a few days ago, but I’m got an infection hangnail, and typing has been uncomfortable, to say the least.

I haven’t posted much in the way of updates in while. There’s not a lot going on (that I want to talk about) that can make a full post, so this will be a few items that have been going on.

I participated in NaNoWriMo this year.  My goal was to write 50k words of short fiction.  I hit that with a day to go. Now I just need to finish the stories that are still incomplete.  What I thought would be short stories have turned into novelettes and novellas.  I have two science fiction, one crime, and one (very) dark fantasy to wrap up.  I’ll probably finish the fantasy since I have most of the remaining chapters fleshed out in my head and the last chapter written.

As I announced the other day, I’m going to try to post a review of a ghost story every day until Christmas. I’m also going to post other things here, so there may be days with more than one post.  I’m also going to try to post some things at Futures Past and Present relating to the 90th anniversary of Astounding/Analog.  In addition, January is Vintage Science Fiction month, so I want to try to do some posts about that.  At least until the spring semester gets rolling.

I’ve been trying to work through some courses on time management, entrepreneurship, and professional development.  Those stalled out do to Real Life commitments. I’m hoping to get back on track over the holidays.

And finally, a chance to gloat. I attended a conference in Houston just before Thanksgiving.  It was cheaper for the university to rent a car than buy me a plane ticket. This is the rental car they gave me at the airport. It only had 4 miles on it when I drove it out of the parking lot.  It had a lot more than that when I returned.  In some ways, this was the best part of the trip.