This and That

Bear with me but I feel the need to do one of those random catch up type of posts to answer a few questions and get organized.

A few asked me about Twitter. Twitter is sort of like a mini blog. You can post a quick snippet of what is going on (you only have 140 characters so it has to be short) Many make the updates from the cell phone but I haven't made that plunge. basically it just a way to communicate with others via the web or your phone. But you conversations are for the most part visible to all of your friends.

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So this time next week I'll be on a place bound for Vegas again. This time on work-related business but I'll manage to squeeze in time to play a bit of poker. I'm also taking my lap top this time so I'll be posting a few times direct from Sin City. I also plan to hit the bookstore and dive back into reading. I've been really lax lately and I've missed the distraction of falling into a good story.

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My friend Steve just took a little trip out to Seattle. While looking through the pictures he took I came across this one and made him send it to me so I could put it on here.

Steve was trying to get a shot of The Blue Angels and he was a bit annoyed that this bird got int he way. But it is the bird that I love. Look at it. It's wings are banked at he same angle as the jets as if it is practicing and inspiring to fly as fast and high as they are. That's how I feel some days about my writing. That bird can already fly and I feel like I can write, but dang would it ever be nice to streak through the atmosphere with the big boys.

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Guess who showed up in Amarillo this week? Sir Paul McCartney. It ain't everyday a Beatle is spotted tooling around the dry dusty countryside in these parts. You can read the newspaper article here. Or a first person account from my friend and fellow blogger, Bea here.

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I know not everyone is a sports fan but I'm excited about both the Olympics (the opening ceremony was stunning in HD) and the fast approaching football season. Here's hoping my beloved Nebraska Cornhuskers get back in the groove of winning under new coach Bo Pelini. On the NFL side i root for the New Orleans Saints which isn't always easy to do living in the heart of Cowboy country, but I can't stand Jerry Jones.

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Ont eh writing front I'm working on a few short stories and seeing how things go with Plundered Booty before diving into another novel project. But I do have several ideas for what comes next. Soon as one speaks louder than the rest I get back to work on what will be my fifth novel.

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What going on in y'alls world?

Happy Happy, Joy Joy

I've often heard people say ... "It was the happiest day of my life."

Well, I've got a confession. I can't say that about any particular day or event.

I can rather easily tell you when I was my angriest, saddest, proudest, or most scared. Matter of fact, for just about any emotion you come up with I can tell you the date, time, and place of my most extreme emotional output -- except for happiness. And I'm not sure why.

It's not that I'm not capable of happiness. Actually I am happy 99% of the time. I tend to be a glass-half-full kind of guy who doesn't let all the small gunk of life cloud my view.

If anything I'm guilty of being to sure that something good is just a stone's throw away. I'm quite the Polly Anna in that fashion.

I know a lot of parents will say that the births of their kids count as their ultimate moments of happiness, and I do cherish both of my boys, but confession time again. Their actual births were nerve racking affairs of futility for me. I hate to worry, but that is all I did those days.

Both boys were C-sections. The second planned, the first not. Being a life long hunter who processes his own meat, the blood and what not didn't bother me, but watching a doctor dig in my wife's innards isn't exactly a zen moment either. And then trying to check on her, tend to a squalling bundle of placenta covered joy, listening to her doctor's instruction, the boys pediatrician, the nurses, ... all while family and friends chimed in ...

Well it was stressful as hell for me. I count the days and weeks later when it was just my family at home, when the boys cooed softly or opened the eyes to stare up at them as I fed them, or the first time a soft baby fist reached up to brush my stubbled cheek. Those are all much happier times than the big event everyone else seems to describe as wondrous and miraculous and the happiest day of their lives.

Yeah I know as a dutiful husband I could say my happiest time was my wedding day. But I'd be lying. I love my wife and will forever consider myself lucky to have found a gorgeous and intelligent woman blind enough to overlook my many faults, but again the stress and pressure of that day keeps it from being my definitive moment of joy. The demands of trying to talk to every family member and friend I have, while decked out in fancy but uncomfortable duds, smiling for a thousand pictures many from an extremely irritable photographer, while waiting for everyone to go home so ... well I won't go into that.

Anyway I have so many fond memories with Jennifer that I couldn't possible designate one as my most happy time.

There was my big plan to propose at the top of a mountain, but halfway up she was out of breath and gasping from lack of oxygen, as was I, so that my visions of the sun reflecting off her diamond ring atop a majestic mountain peak, actually became a yes under the shadowy pine covered side of a mountain slope.

There are the thousands of whispered conversation we've had and still continue to have each night as we lay in bed and talk about our day.

There are the trips we've taken together, to New Orleans, Vegas, the mountains, to beaches. The many songs that remind me of her for a jillion different reasons. The memory that I ate spaghetti for supper every other day for the first month we were married. Not one of those memories overrides all the others.

Maybe my most happy moment is yet to come. Maybe I'm holding out for it. Maybe I'll never be able to define it. But I'm not complaining. If this is as good as it gets then I'm still pretty damn lucky, whether I have that one spotlight moment of happiness domination or not.

So how about all of you? Can you define your happiest day?

Twitter

I accidentally posted a one word post yesterday called MINE that has generated some great comments. I've already exceeded that word count with my explanation but here's my blog to day.

Twitter

Click on the link to see my profile.

I'm new to twittering and I don't have a firm grasp of the application, but if you twitter look me up. I can already see where it has its advantages. (and of course time suck disadvantages as well)

Mine's Bigger

Before I give y'all my lines for Two Line Tuesday, I want you to check something out. A friend of mine googled my name trying to find this blog, but instead he landed on this page. Go ahead click over and have a look. It won't take but a second. Look at the picture. Come one humor me just go look before you continue reading the rest of the this post.

I'll just hum a little while I wait for you to come back. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Isn't that strange? What are the odds that there would be two of us, both writers, though he appears to have a good bit more talents than myself as he can write songs, sing ,and play a variety of instruments, would have such similar pictures. I just thought it a funny coincidence. Also we both have goatees though mine is more of the bushy Sasquatch variety whereas his is more Shaggy-esque. (as in Scooby Doo)

Okay for two lines I've read this week I'm going to cheat a bit and use a quote that plays heavily into my novel, Plundered Booty. It comes from histories most notorious female pirate Anne Bonney and it is said to be her final words to her lover and pirate brethren Calico Jack Rackham just before his hanging.

"I am sorry to see you here, but if you had fought like a man, you needn't be hang'd like a dog."

Yeah, I know it's only one line and not two, but I love the quote and like I said it plays a role in my novel. An interesting tidbit is that after Calico Jack was hung, the then governor of Jamaica had Rackham's body gibbeted and caged at the mouth to Port Royal. An ode to that act is shown at the beginning of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie when Johnny Depp's character Captain Jack Sparrow is approaching to he port city near the start of the movie.

And in what will be the final two sentences I post from Plundered Booty for Two Line Tuesdays here is a couple from the last chapter. Matter of fact they are the last two in book.

"They say that good guys never win. They may be right."

So what do y'all think? Do good guys ever win?

Be sure and check out the originators of Two Line Tuesday over at the Women of Mystery Blog.

Mine

Taos, New Mexico - A My Kind of Town Monday Post

The word Taos means "People of the Red Willow" in the Tiwa language.

There are actually three different parts to Taos. The actual town, population 4700, the nearby ski valley, and the 1000 year old Taos Pueblo and reservation. For this post, I am only going to focus mostly on the town itself with a few pictures of the surrounding scenery. Here is a shot of the road bewtween Questa, New Mexico and Taos.


Taos came into being as a result of the Spanish conquests of the Indian pueblos in the area. Years of unrest, between the Spanish and the various Indian tribes, occurred until the United States took over the State of New Mexico in 1847. That occupation led to the Taos revolt of which you can read more about here.

In 1899 artists began to settle in the town and they eventually created the Taos Society of Arts. The Taos art scene is very much alive and vibrant to this day. Most of the galleries frown on pictures but here is a shot of a weird creation that I captured through the front glass.


The Taos Plaza also has the distinction of being one of a handful of places congress has granted the right to fly the American flag both night and day. The story goes as such ...

In 1861, Southern sympathizers ripped down the flag over the Plaza. A US Army Captain named Smith Simpson, along with the famed Kit Carson picked the tattered flag up off the ground and nailed it to the top of a tall cottonwood pole and raised it over the Plaza. They threatened to shoot anyone who tried to do the flag harm. Backing up their threat they guarded the flag both day and night. Word spread and congress later granted official permission to fly the flag at Taos Plaza round-the-clock

English novelist, D.H. Lawrence traded the original manuscript of his self-biographical novel Sons and Lovers to New York socialite Maybe Dodge Luhan for a ranch in the area. (Here's hoping I can one day trade one of my manuscripts for a ranch in the mountains.) The author's ashes lie in a memorial bearing his name at the ranch. Lawrence was also an artist. In 1929 thirteen of his paintings were confiscated by London police. Nine of those forbidden painting can be viewed at the La Fonda de Taos.

I could go on and on talking about the various rebel, free spirits and artists who have called Taos home, but the thing I love the most is that the town still has that creative vibe to it. Walking around stories and characters idea fill my head. It is something that has to be experienced as there are no words to capture the town's true essence.

The smell of pinon, the occasional whiff of reefer (Taos was home to two separate Hippie communes back in the 60's) , the pine-filled breeze of the mountains. In Taos, uniqueness is rewarded and favored. The uncommon is applauded, the creative cheered, and the questioning respected. It truly is an artisan's town.

Julia Roberts, Val Kilmer, and Donald Rumsfled (seems like an odd fit, but then again he is said to be an avid fisherman and the area certainly offer that) own homes here.

Now here are a bunch more shots I took from the area. If you get picture overload be sure to scroll down to find the links to this week's My Town Monday participants.

The following bookstore is located right on the square. It is a nice smallish store that sells mostly books of a local flair but they also carry classics and a nice children's selection.

Now this next bookstore is off of the main square. Don't you love that name. They have a nice fiction selection upstairs.

Look what I found. Lottery by fellow blogger Patricia Woods. For those of you who haven't read this novel yet what are you waiting for. It's out in softcover now. Read it you won't be sorry.

Speaking of books. Look what I spotted on a stop sign. I had to circle the block three times before Jennifer got a good shot.

Here is a shot of a Catholic church and an approaching rainstorm.

A shot of my wife's favorite restaurant. She recommends the stuffed sopapilla I prefer the blue corn flower and pinon nut pancakes. But stay away from that nut in the gaudy shirt. (He's my father-in-law)

The last two shots are of the Rio Grande River as viewed from a steel span bridge. Yes, that is the same Rio Grande that eventually separates our country from Mexico. No, I did not hike down there to fish.

MY TOWN MONDAYERS

J.L. Krueger -- Kabul, Afghanistan
David Cranmer -- Rayne Louisiana
Patti Abbott -- Detroit Michigan
Barbara Martin -- Toronto, Canada
Clair Dickson -- Livingston County, Michigan
Reb -- Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Lyzzydee -- Welwyn Garden City, England
WordVixen -- Lititz, Pennsylvania
Clare2E(Women of Mystery) Mamaroneck, New York
PretZel - Saylorville Lake, Iowa
Debra -- Blue Mountain Lake, New York
Barrie Summy -- Fenelon Falls, Ontario

Word To Your Mother

Let's talk about words. Each year the scholars over at Merriam-Webster decide which new words to add the the dictionary thus making them fair game for Scrabble players. This year they added more than a 100 new ones. Here are a few they've decided are page worthy, along with my comments. The year is parenthesis is the year that the word was first spotted in print. I have taken the words and definitions from this website.

Air quotes (1989): gesture made by raising and flexing the index and middle fingers of both hands, used to call attention to a spoken word or expression. -- For my money there is gesture in the world as annoying as this one. The air semi-colon however is one of my favorites, and both still beat playing the air guitar while listening to Foreigner's "Jukebox Hero" in your best friend's basement.

Dirty bomb (1956): bomb designed to release radioactive material -- And I thought this just meant you added olive juice to the mixture. Oh wait, that's a dirty martini.

Edamame (1951): immature green soybeans, usually in the pod -- What? These soybeans laugh at fart jokes and snicker like Beavis and Butthead when their teacher talks about Uranus? Either way they're green and nasty and I ain't eating them.

Netroots (2003): grassroots political activists who communicate via the Internet, especially by blogs. -- Those rascally bloggers

Pescatarian (1993): vegetarian whose diet includes fish. -- Hey, I'm not a carnivore after all. I'm a meatatarian.

Pretexting (1992): presenting oneself as someone else to obtain private information -- I thought maybe this is what you did if you were air quoting to warm up your fingers before sending a text message on your Iphone.

Prosecco (1881): a dry Italian sparkling wine. -- Is there a reason it took a 127 years before this word was recognized? Did this one get voted in by the old-timers committee? (If you're not a baseball fan you may not get that reference)

Racino (1995): racetrack at which slot machines are available for gamblers. -- I prefer a pokacino, but thena gian that sounds more like a drink at Starbucks than a place to play poker and wager on the ponies.

Supercross (1983): motorcycle race held in a stadium on a dirt track having hairpin turns and high jumps. -- Only 25 years for this one. Supercross says "Eat my dirt Prosecco.!"

Texas Hold 'em (1995): Poker in which each player is dealt two cards face down and all players share five cards dealt face-up. -- Come one everybody join in ...

So I handed him my bottle and he drank down my last swallow.
Then he bummed a cigarette and asked me for a light.
And the night got deathly quiet, and his face lost all expression.
Said, if you're gonna play the game, boy, ya gotta learn to play it right.

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.
There ll be time enough for countin' when the dealins done.

Call me crazy, but I think the Webster board added a gambling, wine drinker to this year's committee.