Quote by Mendalla
Though the fact that ours was a clear hate crime, more like the Buffalo shootings in that way, kind of ups the ante (the family were Muslims from Pakistan, the driver was a white supremacist piece of ****).

They're all hate crimes. It's all hate.

I'm at 98.5k words, so that is my focus. I gotta do therapy and hit the drugstore, so it will be tight, but I'm so close to typing "The End" I can smell it.

I am trying to nurture hope for American Democracy these days. It ain't easy.

Coffee and a cookie please.

Sad day in Texas.

I'll just sit here and try to write the horror away.

Peace everyone.

Nice to see you writing rather than deleting Scott. And adding to an existing world must be fun.

Happy birthday, Bob Dylan. 81. Jeez.

I blew off physical therapy. Pure laziness. Energy level is low, but I will carry on. Do my thousand words, meet the tree guy to get at the one tree I can't trim. If only there were multiple tins of cookies sitting around I could steal from to generate the necessary sugar high to get my energy levels up. Hmmm.

Hey, I have a thought!

A coffee and ALL THE COOKIES please.

Good Lord, Sara, thanks for the coffee and all the cookies. I will have fifteen snickerdoodles. I will space them out, one every hour, until bedtime.

Cool airplane, Anna May. I like the little toy airfield.

Cleaning up broken limbs today. What a mess. Gonna have to call a tree guy for one of them - wet snow busted off the top of a tree. I'd post a picture if I weren't so lazy.

Other than than, a slight warming trend, 1000 words to write, and short story critique night, so I have to critique 2 stories. Better get to it.

Appreciate the coffee and cookies!

We got a FOOT of snow last night. Several trees in the back yard cracked. We'll have to wait for a thaw to see if any of them were damaged.

And...the Mets are in Denver, and last night got snowed out, so today they are playing A DOUBLE HEADER IN THE SNOW. Should be entertaining at least.

Novel critique got canceled today too. So it's just me and Talia and the cats and the snow. I'm sure we can find something fun to do.

A coffee and a...*OMG A BANDIT JUST CAME AND TOOK ALL THE COOKIES!!!*

Hey Sara, we're physical therapy buddies! I've got another 4 weeks. Yeah, that really sucks about Scherzer. Our pitchers can't stay healthy.

Cold and rainy now, and a frikkin SNOWSTORM on the way (sorry Sara) so I've gotta prepare the garden and shut off the sprinklers. Snow? Isn't in May? checks watch

It a good day to hunker down and write, though, when chores are done.

A coffee and cookie please!

Good morning everyone!

It's No Talia Thursday. The cats seem surprisingly calm. Little do they know (evil laugh). Should hit 94K words today. Like climbing a mountain. Also physical therapy today, also actual therapy today. I like both therapy sessions, luckily.

Mets won last night, and they are playing now, but I'm saving the game for tonight. The evil Yankees are soaring - best team in baseball. Grrr.

A cookie and a coffee please. Time to make the donuts.

Gamera walks into a bar.

“You’re a shell of your former self,” said the bartender.

I’ll be here all week. Top your waitress! Sorry, that’s not very funny, but I am not fully awake yet.

Different day, same stuff on the table: write, walk, eat, baseball. You’d think I’d get bored. I’ve got 10k-ish words to go, I am in high gear. Even the cats have noticed (not really).

Coffee and a cookie please!

I am REwatching True Detective, the HBO show from several years back. It is SO good. Dark dark stuff, with a hint of cosmic horror. What really makes it works is that perfect balance between McConauhey (sp?) and Woody Harrelson. McConauhey is OUT THERE, weird and intense, and without Harrelson grounding it with his regular guy humor, it really would be too much. As is, it’s perfect.

And Alexandra Daddario is celebrity crush-worthy. Hubba Hubba.

It holds up really well.

Warm day, double header, a long stretch of time to write in: ready to begin the day.

My brain is still waking up, though, so not much to say. blink, blink

Maybe a coffee and a cookie will get my neurons stirring.

Quote by Mendalla

"In dead R'lyeh, Cthulhu waits dreaming"

If you are stuck sleeping off the eons in a tomb under the Pacific Ocean, what better way to wake up and destroy humanity than with some strong black Costa Rican coffee? Or a few cups of English Breakfast tea? Now being served here in Inspirations.

Hides strange book bound in human skin under the counter and walks away whistling

🤣 (interpret that as mad cackling rather than ROTFL)

R'lyeh lies dreaming at 48° 52′ 36″S 123° 23′ 36″W. It's where we are going to drop the space station after we quit using it. Can you say conspiracy theory? I set a story on another site there (Beneath).

I'm prolly gonna try Culbard's graphic novel "The King in Yellow."

Anyway. Long relaxing weekend, but it's time to write. The eclipse last night was mostly too cloudy to see, but caught some clear sky right after totality here.

Coffee and cookies please!

Quote by Mendalla

I read Robert Chambers' original stories about The King in Yellow decades ago, long before True Detective referenced it. Actually, the best King in Yellow story I have read is "River of Night's Dreaming" (1981) by the late Karl Edward Wagner. Brilliantly disturbing piece of horror. It first appeared in Whispers 3 edited by Stuart David Schiff, but has been reprinted a few times since. If you like King in Yellow, it is worth hunting it down. Apparently, it was also adapted for the TV series "The Hunger".

Glad to hear you had a good time at StokerCon. I have never been to one of the big cons but should do it someday.

I’m open to any suggestions you have on other books dealing with the mythos - I didn’t know much about it. I was looking around at graphic novels about it tonight - I may go that route. I’m a little scared I will find the 1890s prose a little impenetrable (like I do Lovecraft).

Stokercon was indeed cool - I recommend it. It’ll stoke (heh) up your enthusiasm to write for sure.

Quote by DenimAngel

Good morning folks

First one in ....

Putting on the tea kettle and making coffee

Yay coffee is on the way. There is red rose and Earl Grey tea in the cute tea pots on the counter .. Red Rose is in the tea pot with pink roses and Earl Grey is in the tea pot with blue roses

sits the tea chest and hot chocolate storage chest on the counter .. sits out marshmallows (nibbles a couple) yep still Fresh

peeks in the cookie jars hmm no cookie bandits yet

Woke up early ...noisy neighbors grrr. But it's LIBRARY DAY so it's a good day

Molly the monkey is hanging out and wonders who needs a monkey hug

giving the adorable critters fresh water and morning treats

climbing up in my favorite overstuffed chair with the morning paper and a cup of coffe and a couple of cookies

Stay safe everyone

I will always take a monkey hug from that little scamp. :)

Nice to see you hanging out here, lil coffee.

Back from StokerCon, and feeling refreshed and reinvigorated. So many good ideas, so many talented writers, and everyone just wants to help! Everyone there has their own skill set, and it was so nice to share what little I know, and shamelessly borrow from folks with more experience and talent. Biggest obsession, post-con, is The King in Yellow, which is a crazy strange set of four stories that sort of invented cosmic horror. That HBO show True Detective often referred to it, several years ago. Very creepy stuff. Binged a bunch of TD last night. And I’ve seen it before! Looking forward to reading the stories.

Just raked, laid down new grass seed, and watered. Frikkin tired. Way to late for coffee, but something iced and decaf would be nice. And a cookie!

Congrats to your son, Red. And again to yours Scott.

I also have reason to celebrate - I sold a story to the NoSleep podcast, and it's finally out! Season 17, episode 16, I'm about 1:12 in. It actually came out in March, but they never told me! I finally saw the payment.

Off to StokerCon this weekend, to workshops and networking (shudder). It'll be fun, if a little out of my comfort zone - my first Con (except for a Star Trek one in high school).

Yeah, our bullpen is stating to falter, Sara. I liked Reid-Foley - former Brave isn't he?

A coffee and a cookie please.

Congrats on your son's job, Scott.

Boring day today, just the way I like 'em! I broke 90k yesterday. Should come in just under 92k today. I've got an Excel chart of my progress I'm tempted to post, but I'm not sure anyone cares.

My decade old Nintendo Wii baseball came yesterday. Unsurprisingly, I hurt my shoulder pitching right away, trying to get a few more MPH on my fastball. My physical therapist will not be pleased.

Okay. Time to get to work. Coffee and a cookie would be great!

Those trilliums are beautiful, Scott. Cool flower, cool name (sounds a little science-fiction-y).

Not fully rested up, but doing better. It kicked my butt to get a thousand words down yesterday, but I did. Just broke 90k. I feel like I'm running a marathon.

Nice day today. Gotta get a haircut for StokerCon this weekend! I'll probably squeeze a walk in too.

Thanks for the coffee and cookies!

Thanks for the donuts, Carl, and the coffee, Scott.

I didn't sleep well so I'm a little irritable. It's a regular writing day, with physical therapy in the middle. This is the kind of day where I don't think I'm going to write well, because my brain isn't working, and I used to just take the day off writing. But I'm at 87k, I'm chomping (champing?) at the bit to finish. So I'll clean up the bad writing in the rewrite.

A LOT of coffee, and a Sara cookie too!

Hey, Gabby! Welcome!

Quote by Mendalla
Dreamt there was this big robot bug in my house and when I tried to smash it with a hammer, it regenerated itself. 😨

Robot bugs! What a wonderful way to begin the day! Ever see Runaway? It's pretty good.

Same ol, same ol today. I'm building raised flower bed boxes this weekend, and then sealing them - we'll set them up in a couple weekends (I'm going to StokerCon next weekend!). Also going to a play Saturday.

I hope you guys don't get sick of me droning on about baseball, but...the Mets had a 7-run ninth inning comeback last night that was thrilling. Biggest comeback win in 25 years. This may be be the year. They scored 7 runs in a 29 pitch span to take the lead. Yikes.

I really wish I could take naps - I just can't, my body won't fall asleep. I often have nights where I don't sleep well, so I want to take them. It just doesn't work.

Time to get to it.

Coffee and cookie please, thanks to Ape and Sara for making them.

Where's Ping? SOMEONE FIND PING!!!

Quote by Mendalla

Um, getting the sprinkler system up after shoulder surgery? 😒

Nice weather here. Since Verbs got the coffee going, I'll just make a pot of hot Red Rose and a pitcher of iced for the non-coffee crowd.

Typed too fast. Shoulder physical therapy. Which I'm doing to avoid surgery.

250 words to go. Sprinkler guy is here. Pedal to the metal.

There are cookies but no coffee? I can do coffee. plugs in percolator from 1964

No Talia Thursday. The cats are trembling in inchoate fear.

Busy day. Write my thousand, shoulder surgery, get the sprinkler system up and going, and try to sneak in a walk. Boring. I like boring.

Sorry about your tummy, Sara. Thanks for the cookies!

Quote by Mendalla

Nice pile of calls for submissions for themed magazine issues and anthologies. Some are weirdly specific (houses that are no longer there), others are quite broad. Genres are all over the place. There's at least one in support of Ukraine. Many are due end of this month so get cracking, literary types.

https://authorspublish.com/46-themed-submission-calls-for-may-2022/

The Kolchak anthology sounds fun!

Quote by Mendalla

Then how can you have a "writing arm"? You need both to type.😉

I guess you're right. Although technically all I need are my index fingers. I'm a fast hunt-and-pecker. Heh.

Mets swept a double header yesterday. Sorry, Sara. There's a game on right now, too, though I'm dong my usual dealio of trying to avoid the score for 8 hours and watch it tonight. 50/50 chance I'll make it.

86K words. I'm waking up every morning excited about adding the next scene. It's nice - writing is so often hard work. This is why it pays to plot in advance (something I used to be dead set against).

I'm having too much fun on our ancient Nintendo Wii lately. I just set it up in the basement. 15 year old gaming system, and I'm still hooked - best console ever. Good aerobic exercise.

Time to make the donuts. Thanks for making coffee and tea Scott.

Coffee and a cookie please.

Quote by DenimAngel
It was either Folgers or Maxwell house coffee with that commercial

Talia sez Maxwell house too.

Scott, I type too. I couldn't write a story longhand to save my life. I'm too dependent on a word processor at this point.

712 words. Time to focus.

Yes, an old school percolator! Dink-a-dink-a-dink-dink! Da-dink-a-dink-dink! Anyone remember that commercial? Folgers maybe?

Your Braves kicked our butts last night Sara. Double header today.

I having some physical therapy done on my shoulder. It's pretty minor, and not particularly time consuming--5 minutes away and half hour sessions--but some days it'll be hard to fit in. so weird to be retired and still feel like I don't have enough time in the day! Still, it'll be nice to increase my range of motion. It is, after all, my writing arm.

So, baseball and physical therapy and more baseball and writing today. Cracking 86k today, with any luck.

A cinnamon shortbread cookie and a coffee please.

Good morning all. Has no one made coffee? I'll get the percolator going (old school today!) and put on some a tea kettle.

Mets threw a no-hitter this weekend, albeit of the kind that takes 5 pitchers. It was fun to watch. Talia was napping on the couch and I told her, Wake up! You're about to experience Mets history! Her eyes appeared to be open as the final pitch as thrown, but I can't be sure.

Sara, we're taking on your Braves tonight! Should be quite a pitching duel.

Other than that, writing and walking today. Might get a haircut. I signed up for StokerCon in Denver in mid-May. Gonna stray out of my comfort zone and learn to network! Learn more about writing too!

A coffee and a n0-hitter shaped cookie please!

Man, you guys are an educated bunch! I majored in Theater Arts, minored in Education.

So, Talia is back (yay!), but this morning she left for the physical office. I woke up and both cats are looking at me like WTF!? You again!?

Warm but very windy here (sorry Sara).

Yesterday my therapist officially diagnosed my condition, and I’m quoting verbatim here, is I’m “turning into a big old softie.” I’m paying a $70 copay for this? (Actually I love my therapist.)

Okay. Time for coffee and words. A coffee and cookie would be swell.

I speak only one language, and speak even that one poorly.

Good stories on the front page - worth a look!

Today will be annoying - dentist, followed by therapy (okay, I like therapy), which leaves me only three hours to get my thousand words, and NO time to walk on a gorgeous sunny day. And no game tonight!

Oh well. Talia is home, the cats are happy, I am healthy: I'll quit complaining.

A coffee and an apple shaped chocolate cookie please!

Quote by redwriter

I am not looking forward to a hospital inspection on Monday

Hope your hospital inspection went okay.

I am happy Talia is home.

Hear that sound? That's the sound of joyful purring from Mimi, now that Talia has returned safely. When Talia came upstairs, Mimi came out of her hiding spot, shot her a passive-aggressive stink look, and slunk back to her hiding spot. It was pretty funny. They've since reconciled.

I am, needless to say, happier than Mimi at Talia's return, but my purring is quieter.

So, same day I usually have, just with Talia smiling as she works at the kitchen table. 83K words! Getting there.

And, the Mets won AGAIN! They're going to be arrested for impersonating an actual team.

So sorry for the cold, Ape and Elizabeth! It's pretty warm today, though we'll probably get a couple more snows. this being Colorado and all.

Coffee and a Talia-shaped cookie please!