Just Me, My Horses and a Bat Shit Crazy Dog...

I've no sliver of an idea what's gonna happen come the spring or what the hell I'm a gonna be doing, so I just keep working here... I just keep on working like spring is some far off time that will never come.

For now... these are my reasons for being...

*Cody Jack and Cora*

When every time you step outside they call to you... when they watch every time you are moving around... when they follow you around inside a pen... it touches a rider's soul. Those who know not the soul of a horse can't have any idea what I'm talking about... But those that do live with the spirit of a horse touching their own understand that "Thing" that cannot be put into words.

Lately the work has been going such that I'm sore and weary at the end of day...

*Finished Round Pen and relocated the corrals/pens*

The round pen got finished up a few days ago... at least to where it's functional. The ponies were greatly pleased to be able to move around some. They'd been cooped up for too long in their constricted pens...

The pens got moved as soon as the round pen got done. With the ponies being able to move around so much more with the big pen available I figured them to get along better. When I moved their pens I hooked them back together which allowed a bigger pen for Cora... I'd separated the pens so they wouldn't fight through the panels.

I also managed to apply some tweak to the panel CJ had busted up a few weeks back. Got it to where I could actually use it again, which stretches his pen back out a bit... so they've got bigger night pens and with the Round Pen in action they've got work to do each day which TOTALLY changes the atmosphere between my ears! __ and theirs.

The old saying that; There's Nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse is absolute Truth!

That carries over into a lot of other places... You get a lot more done when your vision isn't so dark...

One thing was, that NW corner of the patio I'm currently still working at was discovered to be a mite low... So, I added another course of stones wove in together... The fill to level that up went in today.

Then... the local range cows tore down my hay pen a couple of weeks back. Forced me to load the hay back into the trailer in the dark of night. I was NOT a pleasant cowboy... and it disrupted my "working space" in the back of the trailer... due to the fact that there was more hay so No Room for my work tables.

So... on a sliver thin budget I managed to squeeze out a few wood posts to set deeper and stiffer. Hopefully it'll make a pen good enough to hold those dang cows out... put it over by the new pens location by the round pen as well.

*New 'temporary' hay pen started*

With the hay able to be took out of the trailer again... I got to work at sunset tonight re-establishing my work space in the back of my Lakota LQ...

This time, I did things a lil' different... using the Braiding stand as my writing desk, leaves the bigger table open to allow me to do some leather work and maybe turn out a leather book/journal/album or two...

*Mr. Heater__It Works!*

Sitting there just now in the dark of morning with that lil' heater roastin' me.

Picked up my second try with a Mr. Heater just the other day. The first try ended in a mite of excitement when it kinda literally blew up. Flame was goin' ever'where.

Fairly exciting when it's parked three feet from you!

So now, with this heater I don't hardly run the main furnace at all. I blanket up at night and leave it turned almost off. The batteries in this rig aren't up to the task. They die before the night is done if I leave it turned up.

Come the morning I fire up Mr. Heater... and only start the generator to crank up my Mr. Coffee...

A Bigger Battery bank and a solar system are on the list... but... that's gonna be a bit.

Just had a thought... Why is it always Mr.? How come we can't warm up with a HOT LADY heater? or take a sip from a Sizzling Suzie coffee maker? How come it's always got to be this damned polite MR baloney?

Well, for now, this lil' Mr. Heater has cut my generator run time by 75%. Made no sense to burn propane AND gasoline to keep warm.

A routine around here in the morning is to wander out into the desert with my Mexican Dump truck... and gather rock for the two main projects on my radar.

Those two being that patio that is creeping along, and, some sort of a combination leather studio/writing shed...

I feel like that pile of stone should be a lot bigger. The way my legs were quiverin' pushin' that dumper across the desert filled up with rock the half dozen times it took for that pile...

... it SHOULD be bigger!

... If I can manage it... I've got and idea for maybe a small... as in really small__size of my current living quarters small__ stone cabin. Maybe even a small bathhouse?

Lots of ideas... the problem is... There is Always a problem hangin' somewhere around me; It cranks on me, it really really does, that these damned rats I've been battling can dig their homes out where ever they please. The Hawks flyin' around can build their nests where ever they choose and lord help you if you molest THEM!

The coyotes and cougars bunk where they want... and hunt when they want. The javelina come and go. The quail, the deer... ALL of them without requiring the permission of any others of their kind.

Only MAN requires those around him to PAY for permission to breathe and be alive on this earth.

ONLY MAN requires another man to seek permission to build himself a shelter.

ONLY MAN believes he owns and controls the earth. ONLY MAN.

All the rest just go on about the business of life...

You know what? That's me... I'm just one of those critters.

I don't seek the permissions of human soh-sigh-uh-tee... Humanity has proven that it doesn't deserve the respect I give a rat... I go about my life seeking only a couple of things Gus said;

"There's nuthin' better than riding a fine horse into new country." 

and

"My God you just don't get it!__ It ain't dyin' I'm talkin' about... It's LIVIN!"

Just me, my horses and a bat shit crazy dog... Free on the Earth.

- Brian

Beware the Black Hatted Buffalo Nudger

Yeah... I didn't know such a thing existed either.

So there I was after a few days of fighting ee-lek-trawn-icks... struggling to get a book published... The sixth western novel and the first to cause difficulty uploading...

Well, after multiple crashes, regroupings, re-Nuking and reformulation I surrendered and sent the manuscript to a computer geek lady who had it fixed and back in the time it takes to write a couple emails... and refused compensation claiming it was too small a job to bother.

One tiny little missed "click" in the formatting process on a used to be clear and open and now hidden screen... crashed the whole deal. ALL attributable to Microsoft's penchant for taking working software and improving it into cumbersome, awkward NON-intuitive malware...

SO! with the thing fixed, uploaded and published - FINALLY - I decided to reward myself with a drive through the northern end of Yellowstone before I pull out in a day or so...

Hmmmm... traffic has thinned considerable__but there's still plenty. I came to a patch of it where folks that normally live in concrete pastures were busily building a Buffalo Jam. Now__sitting on the asphalt for who know how long watching townies take pictures of Buffalo cows silhouetted against somebody's church van is not my idea of a well spent afternoon... so I kept moving.

Yup... if you idle along the Buffs will generally move out of the way. 'course if they stop you've no option but to stop too.

Well, these didn't stop... I moved... and they moved and I was on my merry way... for about 15 miles... and then the flashing lights behind me said; "Tsk Tsk Tsk... you were a bad boy!" except, I couldn't for the life of me figure out what I'd done... seeing as I was rolling 10 miles under the limit.

I pulled into a wide spot and this dang near 6' blonde Amazon Ranger walks up and wierdly... was really looking at and all over the truck.

"How are you doing?" she asks...

"Well... I -WAS- doing ok. What's up?" I say.

"I stopped you because we got a report phoned in that you were "Nudging Buffalo" ...

"Um... " I friggin' cracked up... "Are you serious? ummm... if I HAD BEEN you wouldn't be stopping me HERE! You'd be responding to the disabled truck sitting in the middle of the road with it's front end torn off!"

"If you Nudge Buffalo... those buggers Nudge Back!"

Well she grinned and laughed... and Agreed. "That's why I was looking at your truck so close... looking for damage."

Fact is... I DID... exactly what the Park Boys and Girls WANT you to do... keep moving... NOT cork the road...

We talked for some little while and she checked out my "Papers" to ensure that I wasn't some heinous jihadi looking to terrorize not only the american sheeple but a deviant terrorist hoping to sneak around NUDGING BUFFALO...

Laughed my way all the way back to camp... Walt Disney educated nature lovers are like somebody walking on a treadmill... they put out a lot of effort... they just don't get anywhere.

- Brian

P.S. Leather and Stone is now working through the distribution channels and is or soon will be available for Pre-order at Smashwords (and it's retailers) and Amazon! (I'll get an Amazon link up as soon as it's live)

When You're Stuck... Just Get Moving

I mean it. There is no such thing as "Writers Block" or any other such thing where you just can't "think"... Where you can't make a "choice".

The problem is not in your head. It is NOT sorting out the choices. It's Inertia. Once you get stuck you tend to stay that way, in Any.Thing. It's all physics. So the answer is Physics. Literally!!!

If you don't know WHAT to do... Do something. Anything. Just get moving. It's far far easier to change the direction of something that's moving, than it is to get that wagon with its wheels settled deep into the sand__Moving in the first place.

So, if your confusion (Inertia) keeps you from picking a direction just pick your foot up and go__any damn where__ just go. You can adjust your navigation once you get that mired wagon rolling.

Which is all the lead in for the last week or so...

Backing up a mite... here's the "Writing Shed" in Development. I set it just temporary all the way in back just to see how it'd work...

 The planned place is all the way forward in the horse compartment. But that spot was blocked by all my junk.

You can see the balance of my worldly possessions and precious junk showing over the divider where it's piled up beyond my "desk".

How-some-ever, with my story board hanging, the table and chair set... I could see it is going to work fine...

Just have to do something with all that "Stuff".

Yeah, so... There I am trying to get some work done in the Mountains above Gunnison... It was real pleasant sitting under the awning, stereo working easy... words flowing, breeze in the trees, sun shining... right up until...

 Arlo decided it was his job was to make writing impossible out by Gunnision...

Keep him inside and he's bouncing off the walls... put him outside and he goes to barking to come keep him company...

Then the sun goes away so I move all that "Junk" shown above so I can put the "writing shed" in its "Planned" place.

Sitting at the "desk" while the rain falls... with all that noise going on and a million other things (inertia) rattling in my head I was just spinning my wheels...
 

*A Little cozy with my junk piled against the back door... but it'll work for now*

So... working in circles and getting nowhere, jammed up on the story line... can't work on the generator for lack of "materials" and the rain... yadda yadda yadda... I hitched and hauled...

Yup... I got MOVING... right back to the front range where  I could at least have my good friends garage to work out of the rain and maybe get the gen set up.

Using the Truck as an 8500 lb diesel generator to keep the batteries juiced was just kind of a noisy hassle...

Hassles are to me like one of those tiny lil' stickers in your sock that you can't find...


They make me friggin' Crazy! I. Hate. Hassles.

So it motivated me to get where I could do what I need to do to get that generator "up".

First night back here was not looking good. I pulled in right in the middle of another colorado summer storm... that sent the Poudre and the Platte out of their banks... I thought the Lakota would float away.

But that finally passed and I could gather some bits and pieces to cobble a generator mount together.

The first problem was that being a "motorhome takeout"... the exhaust system comes out the bottom. So I had to create a stand or a pedestal to clear that exhaust.

That'll be OK too actually because it gives me the space under to arrange a starting battery and a fuel tank... as soon as I can find one that'll work... but, the genny itself is bolted down solid and functional. Though I still need to fabricate the "Cover" that'll finish that mounting off, and a few other odds and ends.

The configuration of that Onan is a little odd. Everything slopes to the left. Called Cummins/Onan to ask about it... and their "Tech" hadn't any sort of an idea what I was talking about... great. (My opinion of "Experts" is NSFW... um that's Not Safe For Work!)

I'll likely shim up that left side of the mount, to bring the crankcase level... it loses about 3/4 of an inch the way it is... and considering that the oil drain is on the right side of the crank case, draining the oil would be a lil' problematical...

I suppose I could just jack up the left side of the truck when I change generator oil. bwahahahaha.

Well... the "Movement" did as hoped. As it always does. Just as soon as that last bolt got tightened up mounting the generator, the log jam in my head broke loose and the Finish of the book I'm working on came spilling out.

Taking my mind OFF that for a bit let the pieces and parts simmer and work...

And then CLICK! It came to me how to get 'em off the mountain. ;)

Didn't even take the time to fire up the lap top. Grabbed paper and pencil and spent the next hour drinking beer and scribbling down the ideas and words and recording the pictures in my head before they went away and were lost... so I can complete that work.

Yep... if you're stuck... just get moving. Get in the truck, walk out the door... do the dishes, just put random words down on paper. Something. ANYthing... just get moving.

The rest will all come together, once you break that inertia.

Random and as Scattered as Ever
Brian

I Just Keep on Keepin' On... Making Adjustments Along the Way.

The worst thing a buster can do__is sit. Stagnation is pure death to dreams and ambitions. The longer you stay static the deeper your feet sink into the dust and the more effort it takes to pull 'em out and get moving again.

It's better to keep moving and find out you made a choice a bit off target than to sit waiting for "things to get better" or for that perfect opportunity to fall on you. If something is moving, it's far easier to redirect it to a better trail once you see you're off course a bit... than it is to get a stuck in the mud, stagnant, frozen piece of Anything moving out of its STUCK position.

As always... I set out thinking I know where I'm going and when... only to find out the world has some of it's own modifications to throw into the mix.

Thought I was going to be coming to Denver to help get the kids house ready to go on the market at the best price. Welllll... it's hard to get a house "ready" when it sells "as is" before it ever even gets listed!

So that blew an un-occupied hole in my schedule of about a month. They'll be leaving the third week of June or so... which leaves me at a bit of loose ends till then.

The old jayco is going to them to use for housing while they build... Only they've not got a truck to drag it to the Ozarks__so that's my task... but not until June I guess... Though I'd thought it would be moving Now... they need to use it the last week or so here... so that waits as well...

... buuuuut... I'm unwilling to get "Stuck"...

Sooooo... I'm occupying my close up time rigging out this new Lakota. First task was/is outfitting it with fresh dishes and such. Putting up hooks for such as I need to hang, figuring out what goes where and how to divide up cabinets for the best use...

... then... there's power...

It's not yet been decided what is going to happen with the solar power system on the old Jayco... and honestly, I've not conjured a good location for a bigger battery bank and inverter location on this Lakota LQ... so in the short term I'm going with a Generator.

Now I could (if the budget allowed which it doesn't) just trot on down and pick up a new Honda or even pricier Onan/Kohler rig... that'd only be $3500 or so for the sort of powerhouse I want. Dollars I don't have...

Yeah... I've got what dollars I do have stretched so tight they is damn near transparent! ;) 

Buuuut... there are other real acceptable options.

In pursuit of those options I'm running to Sheridan down in the Denver area to look at a Motorhome takeout this morning. It's a 4K Onan "Emerald" and would be just about the perfect gen set for this rig.

Those Onans and Kohlers that are installed in Motorhomes and such are the 1800 rpm models that run a hell of a lot quieter than the 3600 rpm "lawn mower" noise boxes. Like the Champion bolted on the tail of the Jayco I've offended a few gentle souls with!

They're quieter__and__they're "American" (who knows where the castings are made) Cast Iron that lasts dang near forever if you give 'em some reasonable care.

One thing I'm going to do "different" than those that mount such an outfit in/on their LQ's is that I'm going to mount mine on the truck.

My thinking is; #1. wherever the LQ is, the truck will be close by. #2. The truck has open space on the bed while I want to conserve space in the LQ. #3. Having the gen set mounted on the truck would be even quieter in the rig. #4. In the building of my winter camp I'm going to have a need for power at the far reaches of my little patch of dirt... to run welder, tools et al... so having it mounted real mobile on the truck would be a great advantage

So... assuming this generator I'm looking at today checks out acceptable__the appearance I've seen in a photo is good and the price is attractive ;) __ the next task will be to buy/build a generator "Box" to house it on the bed along with locating a fuel tank to equip it with and then get it all put together and operational.

I've also got a HEAVY need to get back into the current writing project... Novel #6... so I'm planning... toward the middle of the week to hitch up and go hide in the mountains somewhere and write for a few weeks until my trailer hauling services are required to roll on another circle to Missouri.

There's something that needs doing every day... so I'm keeping the dust flying and tryin' as hard as I can to not make too many off target choices__but then__it's from those; "What the hell were you thinking?" choices that the best stories come! bwahahahahaha.

Duckn' an' Runnin'
Brian

Kaleidscoping Gypsy Cowboy Writer Tangling With Characters Talking At Him From All Directions...

... Hmmmm... isn't that sort of the definition of a fella bein' a Schizo? I mean a guy "hears voices" talking to him... that nobody else can hear? :-P

... and the neighbors can likely hear him through the screen door sayin'; "wait! wait! slow down"... as the keyboard rattles as his fingers bang away... "ok... I'm ready now... keep goin'..."  ... buuuuuut those neighbors are knowin' the old fool is sittin' in there by his lonesome?

Yeah... so...

I Moved to the Pima County fairgrounds a few days back... to provide shelter for during the continuing annual gem and mineral show buying trip. Since that stuff long past lost its shine for me... the town of Tucson has small attraction as well... and the rigs in the fairgrounds are wedged in belly to butt with Vaseline and crow bars... I've been brushed up inside with Brenn Hill crooning on the Ipod and my tiny lil' brain rattling around inside a mostly empty brain pan...

After publishing my fifth Novel, The Horsemen I was planning on taking a few days off to cool out. Readers are collecting copies of that book at what's a nice rate for me and my first review has come in... and a Five star too. :) oh yes... It is a purty simple thing to inflate the ego of a puss gut mountain cowboy!

So... even though I was taking a few days off... ideas started tickling unbidden so I couldn't help but start tinkering with my notebooks__ warming up for the next project.

One, #4 in the Taylor series that will come along behind "The Horsemen" is titled "Kincaid" and the other the long delayed third volume in the Jensen series; "A Cruel Wind" (Which is only a working title - Too many already published with that moniker)

I keep a composition notebook for each book I write. All the ideas, clips, scenes and quotes that come to me while I'm out and about doing other things get copied down in there. It's as far as I go toward any sort of planning of a story. Those notebooks are like jumbled up clips of a movie taken out of all context... just flashes in a kaleidoscope.

Mostly when I sit down to write I only have a very fuzzy starting point from where I just saddle up and follow along copying down the events as they unfold.

The stories truly do get told to me by the characters and I just relay 'em to my readers. I hear voices... they speak to me and I truly work like one of those court recorders just putting down the words.

Well... there I sat all cabin fevered last week, in the mud of Snyder Hill, while Tucson got washed out with nigh on to 48 hours of rain... drinking too much coffee and doodling down kaleidoscope flashes into those notebooks...

Now... about a year or more ago I attempted to deliberately strike off and write on two stories at the same time. I've had many people tell me they are impatient and I write too slow. :-P

My thinking was that one story might could feed off the other... or ... if one hit a spot with failing inspiration I could take off with the other.

Yeah... good idea that crashed and burned for lots of reasons. Anyway... I gave it up.

Now... In sorting through the ideas for the coming Taylor book... a few things occurred to me regarding the Jensen book and I scribbled 'em down... which led me to an idea for the OTHER story... Back and forth it went... one thing after another soon gained momentum like a truck going down hill with no brakes.

The upshot of all THAT is... a  New manuscript got opened up on the laptop for each story...

... and now, quite unintentionally, I find myself torn between the two Tales. Writing on one flashes keep coming for the other which I have to stop and scribble down...

Mornings one book is on the screen... afternoons the other... and jumping back and forth between notebooks like a crackhead squirrel ALL day... 

Yeah.... You've heard the old joke about How do you drive a moron crazy? ... Ya put him in a round room and tell him there's a quarter in the corner... so... spin spin spin I go...

Both stories have fleshed out in my head much farther along their trails than any have ever before. The urge to carve them out is keeping me at the keyboard for hours and hours to see how it all unfolds.

Funny thing this Writing game... It seems akin to being a gypsy in many ways... You move along when the urge pushes... and sit still when fatigue says sit.

Brian

I'm Spreading the Word - THE HORSEMEN - is COMING SOON

I'm in the home stretch now to publish novel #5, and book #3 of the Jeb Taylor Series - THE HORSEMEN.

There's another editing pass to make, front and end matter to write as well as building the Table of Contents... and then there's Nuking it to prep for the final formatting process... buuuut I did get the cover photo bought and the cover built so progress is happening.

I kind of like this cover... how about ya'll?

Let's see if I can get this project buttoned up and out in the world in the next two weeks!

So I can dive into the next book that's pokin' at me ;)

Brian

Another Storm on the Desert...

It came in with a roar... and was gone in a whistle...

 A couple of neighbors spent a little while checking out the neighborhood a day or so before... and trying to get their bearings... Not sure they agreed on which way to go. The whole family lives in the mesquites and sage and palo verde around here. You can hear them talking every evening and often on through the day.

Mid day the clouds of the storm from the coast began building...

Truly it didn't seem so awful threatening... considering what news I'd heard... and then the lightning started flashing across the sky and it got to be one of those Desert storms... I thought; Hmmmm... this might could get interesting.

 Big ol' drops the size of a small bucket started coming down and the wind started whipping... For all of six minutes ;)

... and it rolled right on past headed for the Tonto Basin over east... and the sky started clearing right behind it just before sunset.

Yeah... it's a hard life in the desert.

Solidly into editing. Funny... I don't do that the way I'm supposed to either. They say you write it... and then you should go back and cut out 25% or better.

Hmmmm... maybe they should consider the way I write it... seems to save me a lot of heartache...

I put it down and end up adding some words when I edit! The way I go about things... I keep working on a paragraph the first time I put it down, until it's purty much where I want it... and then I move on.

So... when I come back to edit... all I have is maybe a little polishing and such. Works for me... Folks keep buying the books and leaving good words in review! :) So I must be doin' something right.

Still on sort of a roll here too. Solid story lines developed and stories are even well started on the next two books. Working on those in between editing stints on the finished book and... I continue tinkering on a cover...

That all seems to kinda balance out the dreary labor of editing... with the fresh excitement of a new story.

On the Arizona Desert
Brian

Good Light and Inspiration abounds on the Tonto

Just to the west is Four Peaks in the Mazatzal Range and Wilderness... Turn the other way and climb over that range and you drop into the Tonto Basin... Home of the Pleasant Valley War.

Like most legends... the story is one thing... the truth is often something else...

Had two days of rain... Twelve hours without letup the first night... made it a mite damp 'round here.

Which was ok... left me lil' excuse but to climb inside my head and write... which I did to the tune of something over 15,000 words in the matter of three or four days...

Odd it it... I can get locked up into a spinning storm inside my head for months... unable to form a sentence I like... and then... in the right place at the right time... they come streaming along faster than I can scribble 'em down... ok... type 'em. ;)

Somehow ths Tonto country has a good affect on me though... Probably 'cuz I'll always consider it Home.  Too bad the price of dirt round-a-bouts is more precious than gold... of which I have none!

But... it still graces me with the inspiration to spin my yarns... this one now is near complete... it'll be buttoned up before mid week I'd guess... then, I'm likely to get started on #6 while I continue to labor through the editing process of Ol' #5.

Here's just a few of the visions available to a rider hiding out on the Tonto...

*Sunrises over Roosevelt*

*Storms over the Desert*

*Western Light Over Four Peaks*

*Toward the Tonto*

*Arizona Sunsets*

It's Back to the "writing shed" for me...
Brian

*Edit*
P.S. Well... with another 1820 words that flew onto the page "The Horsemen" is a completed story. It's the third in the Jeb Taylor story. The editing, polish rewriting and Cover work should be done for a Publishing date sometime mid to late January I expect. If you've not read any of the story - and want to - you can collect the FREE First story; "A Matter of Honor" at Amazon or Barnes and Noble and almost every other E-book retailer.

Just Livin' and Whittling My Stories on the Tonto...

I've been fairly cabin bound since I pulled the hitch pin here... been camped on that table bangin' away solid hours on the keyboard.

While other folks might be re-tahrd ... I'm still a workin' stiff and hope to keep it that-a-way. Having that purpose is, I believe, a thing I need. 'course the difference these days is... I work for myself doing the things that toot my whistle...

I continue closing in fast on the final chapters of my latest Jeb Taylor book. This Tonto country has done for me what I was hopin' for. My Arizona has tickled those writin' parts for sure. The past three days has seen something like ten thousand words, and good ones too! hit the page.

Yes sir, the story has kinda caught fire. It's always like that though when I work my way into that last part of a story. Everything is built up and coming together into that last final climax and I'm as cranked up to see how it turns out as anyone.

I can't say for sure how many chapters are left... but things "seem" to be coming on to the close.

That's the odd part when somebody asks me; "How much more you got to do?" ... Fact is, I've no more clue than they do! I simply follow along watchin' that movie reel in my head copyin' down what I see as fast as I can.

The story is as new to me when I write it down as it is to folks when they read it. :)

To freshen my brain and uncross my eyes I generally get out once or twice a day to stretch my legs and clear the buzz in my head... that and a once a week or so supply run.

I can't say that Tonto Basin is un-inspiring western scenery...

I do believe this Arizona that'll always be my home is workin' its magic too... putting down the words yesterday I had a rather startling lil' development...  There was a part of the story where things got kinda intense between a couple of the characters... I don't know if I actually whittled out some pretty good words... or maybe I'm just gettin' a lil' mush brained... but I found my self sittin' there at the table with my eyes leakin' like I'd been slicin' onions...

Good thing I'm brushed up here all alone... it woulda been embarrassing... bwahahahaha...

I haven't had great opportunity for a lot of photography... my mind has mostly been immersed in the story I'm carving... but then... capturing the occasional pic seems to help that story shaping too... so... here's a few I have found on my brain clearing walks...

Yeah it's a pretty tough place to winter... but when you're a writer needing a special sort of environment to chase the dreams in your head... ya gotta suffer through such things. :-P

Brian

When There's Nothing Exciting to Write About...

... maybe the best thing is to just stay quiet.

Get up in the mornings as the sun is crackin' the night and put the coffee on... and the heater... Stand on the heater vent while I wait on the coffee...

*Sunrise on the Mazatzals*

Some times the dawn breaks soft like you'd expect...

*A sunset at dawn...*

Other mornings it tries to confuse you. You have to look at the clock wondering if you slept right on through the day until sunset... but then you think; "Hell, I don't sleep hardly at all... so that's kinda unlikely!"

Then... with a hot cup...

I go over my storyline diagram and what notes I use so I know where ever'body's at... to get my head warmed up for the story and then start peckin' the keys... Pretty quick it catches and I'm off...

Sometimes it takes off a runnin' and I get a 3000 word day or better... sometimes it just strolls along and a thousand good words get whittled... some days... My head is off somewhere else so I don't even waste the time of trying to move the story along.

It's all gotta come when the lil' wizards say it's time I guess... So I write when the words are flowin' and just breathe when it's time for that.

It's a slow and quiet time... I believe if I was one of those woo woo "the turnips are talking to me" psycho babble sorts I'd think maybe the Tonto Basin has a "vibe" flowing around that gives me inspiration to write...

whatever, the place or just the right time... I seem to be making good progress on what I "Think" is another good story...

"The Horsemen" is coming along well... I think (knock on wood)... I am superstitious ;)... Time will tell. Barring a major jam up... I could have the main manuscript zipped up middle of December...

Put in a focused effort on editing... Publish sometime in January? That'd be a fine way to start the new year. Publish my fifth Novel and start the sixth!

Back to work now to get Ol' Jebediah out of a jam before it's time to shut off the lights.

Brian

Me and The Weather... and I Don't Like Being Pushed Around...

~~~~~

A quick lil comment on the Technology post of a few days ago and then right back to today's effort... Wayne mentioned how he uses an email on his phone as sort of a "notepad" that he can keep and edit as needed... well... yeah... except that my BEST ideas seem to come when I'm rolling down the road looking through a windshield.

I can't write notes to myself when I'm shoving a rig down the road... and it seems by the time I can find a place to pull over to scribble; PFFFFFT! the idea is gone anyway! Buried up by the next idea in line flashing in my head! not to mention I'd never get anywhere if I had to stop ever'time an idea popped up...

yeah... it's often like a kaleidoscope inside this brain pan of mine... what with the flashing lights of ideas poppin' off all over the dang place!

So... in that fancy costs-to-much Samsung Galaxy gadget of mine there's a "Voice recorder" bit... so... I can roll on down the road recording whatever ideas and story lines come to me as I sit staring out the windshield while I keep on getting where I'm going at the same time!

Yeah... I think I'm kinda hopeless when it comes to gadgetry... excluding them is an enterprise unlikely to meet with much success ;)

~~~~~

 We now return you to the irregularly scheduled cowboy writer nonsense...

Yeah... so a big reason I turned to tuck back into this lil corner of Colorado for a while was because this country brings to mind, for some reason, the country I write about in my Jeb Taylor series...

It's juniper and oak brush, pines and tall mountains... and the folks around are a lot of what's left of that world. So... here I came.

*Another sunset on the peaks to the north of camp*

The first few days here I spent reading and editng the first twenty chapters or so that I had written of the next book in that series. The idea of doing that here and now was to get myself back "in" to the story...

It was after I'd gotten those written that I fell into kind of a writing funk... I don't know... when I'm surrounded by the sounds of trucks and airplanes... tractors and a soh-sigh-uh-tee that I've always had difficulty fitting into... my inspiration can have some trouble breaking out and telling a story.

So... going back up to the "front range" zoo for the summer... turned out un-conducive to fermenting the machinations of a fevered cowboy writers brain. ;)

*sunset view through the Mancos oak brush*

Basically, I think I needed to get back into country where I could fence out the majority of those distractions and focus on the work. The sweet part of that is, once I succeed in immersing into a story that fence gets taller and thicker and all those distractions lose their power and fade away.

It's as if the tale comes alive in my head. I can feel the wind on my face coming off the mountain and the rocking of the horse under me. I can hear the voices and SEE the faces in my mind... as if I was right there.

I don't have to write the story any longer. I only need copy down a description of what I see. Damn... talk about "I hear voices!" ;)

*storm clouds building*

Ha ha... I expect there's a guy with a fancy office and diplomas hangin' on the wall that could tell why that's bordering on some sort of an insanity syndrome or some such. I bet he's got just the drug to prescribe to "fix" me too... buuuuut... I do believe I'll keep that feeling I get when I'm writing... as my OWN private pharmacy! ;)

Well it worked! Fixed a "problem" in an early chapter, got my "head" back into the weird "reality" show running inside my brain and been making solid progress.

So...The only problem here, is getting to be the weather. A common problem this time of year... How long does a guy push it? See... I'm hesitant to pull out with things singin' along... buuuuut... that Canadian express that's froze up the country north and east of here is tickling this area a mite as well.

I'm sitting on the SW fringe of it I guess. While it's been down right furnace exercising chilly at night the days had been pretty fine. Now today it's broke off cloudy with some chance of rain tomorrow and Friday... but then "nice" again.

For a short they talked of snow flurries too... but now just 20% for rain again... the weather man can't make up his mind... He keeps jabbing me; "Time to get out of the mountains cowboy"... buuuut... that Jeb Taylor story keeps prodding me to stay at the keyboard and get it put down... so what's a fella to do?

Figuring to hold out here till some time Friday or maybe early Saturday to start rolling again... trouble is... I always fear getting out of sync again and having to struggle to find that looking glass again to jump into my Wonderland. ;)

We'll see what happens...

Wondering and Wandering
Brian

Living and Working in the Oak Brush... Battling Technology

I can maybe hang here for another week... though the long range weather is getting threatening...

My work has been slowly coming along as I get back into "My" rhythm... There's nothing quite like living in open and natural country to restore the soul when you've allowed yourself to be mired in the tribulations of soh-sigh-uh-tee for too long.

 I sit for long hours at the table reading and editing...

While some fresh coffee is brewing... I go out and stretch my legs then come inside and get back at it... slowly my head is getting back into that place where something inside wakes up and the stories begin to flow...

*Camp in the Oak Brush*

I've come to truly believe that being in a town, or just a place where a LOT of other people are... is for me... well... a prison that eats at my brain.

Living for that matter with a lot of technology is another task my brain has a tough time with... technology has a way of worming inside you like a virus and eating up your day... It's a thing that requires constant vigilance and attention to keep under control.

I -am- a man born out of season. Living split between two worlds can be an uncomfortable situation. Kind of like straddling a board fence for too long. Your tender parts start getting juuuuust a mite sore.

Now, I have to admit, technology is also one I've few options for, considering how important that technology is to the source of my "living". The key for me might could be something akin to culling a herd. You cut out the ones that just don't measure up... If they don't add to... they take away... so they go.

With the gadgets and such... maybe we - I - need to look hard at 'em with a cold eye. Which ones add to your day and which ones just drain your energy and give nothing back? How can I get my work done while minimizing the invasion in my life of soul eating gadgets, media and technology?

... I believe... somehow, some where... there's a balance that will fit me to be found...

*Sunset on the Peaks*

... If I just keep on hunting for that secret spot where it hides... and have the will power to turn against convention and marketing... and make the choice when I see it...

*Just before the sun breaks out at sunrise*

*Just strollin' through the oaks*

*Sunset in the pines*

*Sunrise lights up the oak brush*

Yesterday afternoon I took a stroll through the country around camp... tempting all those great white hunters to mistake me for a deer or such...

As I walked along I spotted this picture and tried a bit to capture it with my GADGET phone! ;)

I was wanting to use it for a status update on another bit of that DANGED technology... My FB writing/publishing page...

I swear... it's like heroin... or a fishhook... once it's got it's barbs dug in... that damned technology is a misery to get broke loose from!!!

anyhoo... So... I took this picture... and a short minute later... CLICK!!! an idea came busting out, conjured itself out of that photo that had me running... ok... walking fairly quickly... in as straight a line as the oak brush would allow... back to the rig so I could scribble that idea down before it slipped away in my technology/media addled brain pan.

I've been stagnated for too long with my books. Having that lil' bit of an Epiphany drop by and blow out that stagnation, producing a great and revitalizing change in the direction of my second series in the process... one that I think will also stretch my writing - was a welcome visitor to this camp.

Brian

Yeah I know... been a while...

It's an out of the box world. You can plan and wish... and it works out how it works out.

Like last winter... Heidi has decided to stay close to the store in Fort Collins and continue working it to a better condition... and me... being me... just can't tolerate a Colorado winter... so I rolled south day before yesterday, bound for my Arizona.

Had to make a stop in Denver at a suspension shop to get the springs replaced on the front axle of the rig... one had fatigued and bent a couple inches. I almost only replaced the one spring...then looking at the opposite end, and seeing the "camel hump" it was developing, thought it might be more sensible to do both... next morning I continued the migration south along I-25...

But... anybody who's read here for long knows that interstates don't tickle my whistle any...

So, on a spur of the moment sort of thing I dropped off the interstate at Walsenburg and cut southwest. I dropped anchor for the night just across the border a bit and just west of a place called Tres Piedras, New Mexico.

Just a wide spot along the road, maybe four cars passed in the early evening... and then it was as silent as any spot down on the desert... and a spot where the Verizon guy asking "can you hear me now?" ... gets no answer.

New Mexico is a lot like Arizona. Most eastern folks think it to be desert and rocks... but a goodly chunk of that northern part... and parts of the south and west are some honest to god beautiful mountain country.

I believe I admire it, along with Arizona, some degree more than the good parts of Colorado.

It's the kind of country that a man lost in the wrong damned century and culture... can breathe in.

Just now I'm boondocked in the Oak Brush just a mite east of Mancos. Another spur of the moment lead me to drop here rather than continue on down to the desert. It's still fairly warm there and can tolerate my absence for a bit more.

In the mean time I've gone back to work on the next book which remains unfinished in my laptop. This'll be a good place to brush up for a few days and get deeply back into that project. The quiet in this brush and the long view out the window should provide the necessary inspiration.

Might could be I'll take a turn through Mesa Verde for the same purpose... get the confusion of soh-sigh-uh-tee knocked off my boots and some creative juices flowing... and maybe so, recorded on the page.

Plan is, just lay up here, immersed in that work and that book... and then move on when the voices start urging.

Brian

Spring Keeps Coming... Slowly...

The warm and sunny days got run off by a couple of stormy ones... Yesterday bringing hail and some much needed rain... a good day for laundry and completion of indoor tasks.

The Journal is complete... Ready to deliver to the Charity Auction...

 Built a leather clasp closure with a nice carved pin secured with a braided cord.

Today it's threatening to shine some. I'm hopeful. Wishing to get to work on applying the epoxie resin to that saddle bag lid... so I can get 'em painted and re-installed.

Just need a relatively nice/calm day so I can get that accomplished without a lot of wind planting junk and crud in the freshly applied Resin!

Then there's the riding mower I retrieved a couple weeks ago... its blades have seen better days... They leave a grass Mohawk on every pass. Not exactly a prime job... soooo... with a bit of ambition I'll get them pulled off today and replaced...

... So I can do the mowing that machine will do... and pay my "rent" here on the farm.

Have sort of a noisy neighbor. For bein' such a purty fella... his call sounds sort of like an anemic turkey. Sort of that coarse scratching on slate kind of thing. Him and his harem live in a bit of rough pasture on the other side of the wind break. 

Time to get at it in the shop... so I can get back here to the keyboard and put some more work into a couple of books of fiction in the making... which is kinda urgent... I've gotten waaaaay off schedule with those... :-/

Yes sir... time to do do do...

Brian

There's a Steady Sound in the Rig... Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap

What can I say... the excitement around here has been... tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap... sounds a little like one of those annoying drippy faucets...

I sort of wonder, since you can hear voices from other rigs pretty easy in these tight little campgrounds... what people think when they walk past this rig... and hear a guy apparently talking to himself. :) (I read my work back out loud as I'm writing) I expect some folks think that OTHER folks have been spending too much time alone! :)

... especially when what I'm reading back to myself is an argument between two or three people! Bwahahahahahahaha!

I've been making steady progress on The Horsemen which will be #3 in the Jeb Taylor series. Still pushing for an April release... looking more like LATE April. :)

There's not a terrible lot to write about someone who's been spending the greatest amount of a day... sitting on the couch with a lap top on his lap... surrounded by notes and papers... writing.

Buuuuut, no matter how a guy might feel the need to keep his nose to the grindstone and do his "work"... he does still have to stand up... walk outside in the sun and stretch his legs a few times a day or his brain turns to this ugly green goo...  There's more to life than work... even if he has a real liking for his work.

In the interest of walking a bit... Pima County Fair Grounds has a Free RV show going on now... but you know me... walking around gazing at double axle motorhomes with basements bigger than my worn out Old Jayco and mortgages that look to me like the national debt are not what toots my whistle... even if some lunatic banker could get talked into financing the deal for an even greater nutcase refugee mountain cowboy... who would have to borrow a dime to rub two nickles together. ;)

That and the inner motivation to somehow get smaller, lighter (on both the road and the wallet) and somehow simpler... just has gotten me looking at the new and flashy with kind of a Meh attitude. 

Did get off the grounds the other day... to find a propane refill.

Hmmmm... don't you just love it when you go to the intersection you were given directions for... to find propane... and find nothing but an intersection in the desert?

One thing I like about County Fairgrounds is walking through the barns. It's a hard thing to describe. Most likely one of those "If I have to explain it you won't understand" sort of things... but... the smell of a horse barn, the sounds in it... just the feel and Sense of it when you're in it stir memories and feelings that bring back good times...

... and set a mind to drifting and wondering...

Wondering Drifting Keyboard Tapper in the Desert
Brian

Hmmm... I Seem to Have This Affect on Folks...

... and I just did my laundry too!

I pull in... and they start hitchin' up... If I wasn't such a crusty old buster... I'd get me a complex! :)

The day after the big tent shut off they started flowin' from here to wherever there is. I'd guess right in the part I can see 'round my lil' spot... half maybe 3/4 have hitched, honked and pulled out.

I could hear more already rollin' this morning before the sun ever got out of bed...

*Quartzsite Sunrise*

Gonna be less distraction and people watchin' 'round here for sure the next couple days. Maybe I'll get that rewrite done! ;) 

Yeah... I kinda goofed. In maybe ten chapters (way behind where I planned to be...but then... that's almost the routine around me ain't it?) and I realized that what I was doin' was just bone headed.

Workin' on the third installment of the Jeb Taylor series. The first two were written mostly from a first person perspective. So... bein' the bright fella I am... I started writing this book in third person.

Long about maybe a 1/3 of the way through the tale I come to realize... making a change like that after folks got used to a certain "way" in the first two books is like a guy ordering rare prime rib and you serve him up a leather tough and crusty burnt greasy burger. He's likely to have a bit of a difficulty with you!

So... went on back to the beginning and turned it 'round and put it right.

I believe it was a right choice 'cause a couple other things have come along while I'm doing that rewrite. Things that I'd missed first time through. Between them all, the fixin' of 'em has that story joggin' down the right trail now.

Now it's time to put the spurs to this thing and ride it!

Thought maybe a soft Arizona sunset, courtesy of Quartzsite, might warm up a few of you that are sufferin' through another bout of Al's global warming... 

With the sun shining... the solar panels juicin' up the lap top... and another pot using the watts to keep me caffeinated... I'm back hard at it.

Tap Tap Tappin' the Keyboard
Brian