Casey's Just Sayin'

She lives in a one room, cozy cottage she built in the middle of a lush green forest. Her home sits in a grassy clearing, backed up to the base of a fern-covered cliff where in the Spring, sweet clean water trickles down to her waiting barrels. Tiny, baby blue flowers grow amongst the ferns on tender, too-thin stems of pale green. She is young, and happy, and full of hope. One day a pebble dislodges from the very top of the cliff. It’s not much larger than her smallest finger. It tumbles as it falls, briefly touching its brothers along the way. Seeing the pebble’s joy, the brothers break free and join his race down the steep slope. Others join, larger friends, who bring larger friends. And soon they are singing a thunderous roar of glee as they race each other ever faster down. She hears the song and runs out of her cabin, looking up to see them ripping through the ferns, plucking the flowers and consuming all in their bliss. She backs away, then trips. As she hits the gr...

I drove to Idaho to hang with my brother this weekend. He and I don’t get a whole lot of time together and I haven’t been up there in five years or more, so the trip was overdue. This weekend it struck me once again that my brother is a spectacular man. Being over four years my junior, I always thought of him as my little brother. But he’s not really, and hasn’t been for a long time. In fact, often I feel it’s the other way around. He was 14 when dad died and he was an infant when mom died. Think about that for a second. Not that our family has the market on tragedy or anything. But that one fact seems sharper when I think of my brother, the youngest. If he turned out to be a career bank robber you might say, “Well, he did lose his mom so young and his dad when he was a teen. Such formative years.” But somehow, in the way the universe delivers somehows, the opposite happened. My baby brother is generous, absolutely overflowing with love and so friendly it still...

So I stayed off social media for the summer, which is my SOP. It was not a good summer. The fires were unprecedented and before that the heat was significant. A bit glad it’s over. Throughout the summer, I’d periodically write down one thought or another. For what it’s worth... here they are. Life is not a football game, it’s a garden.  Sometimes I smell on Sunday. Also I alliterate inadvertently.  A mystery coworker leaves puddles of water on the sink in the bathroom every day. Our failing patience may be the downfall of all civilization.  My body is less of a temple and more of an amusement park: one that is fifty years old and in need of repairs. Big trucks make me smile. Really big trucks make me laugh. If you don’t allow a man his deficiencies, you’ll never recognize his excellence.   People who scream “Get in the hole!” at golf tournaments suck. I cherish the simple joy of watching my son catch a fish. Tent camping ...

We are tent campers. If you camp, you already understand that there are different types of campers. There are cabin campers, a’la KOA. There are RV campers, a’la they can afford it. There are even yurt campers a’la “Duuuuude”. But we do the tent thing. It’s how we started when we were as poor as dirt, and... I’m sitting here at Patrick’s Point this Labor Day Weekend in the Abalone loop space #35. Nice little fire going. Kettle on the cook stove for coffee. Tent to my left. Tent to my right. Love all around. So I’m old now. Fifty. And this is and has always been difficult: get all the stuff, prepare and load everything up, drive three hours, set up the tents and the campground, get the fire going, sleep on something that is not my bed, break down, drive three hours, clean and put everything way, etc. But behind all of that activity, all the prep and clean up, all the monkey business, there is now a certain panicky mourning happening. I’m starting to wonder how many more...

I stumbled upon my blog this morning while waiting to go get my first ever colonoscopy. There's an interesting sentence. I'm not sure if I want to blog anymore. But the idea of just letting the 148 previous posts stay out there in the internet, waiting forever, made me kind of sad. I should note that part of this sadness is due in the fact that I haven't eaten in nearly 40 hours and last night I shit out the contents of my entire digestive system. Meaning I'm not thinking clearly. I'm emotional. I'm hoarding my blog, which hasn't been touched in 3 years. So what do we do about that? My blog friends aren't blogging anymore. Why should I? Nobody reads these things. But maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it'll free me up to type what I wouldn't normally type. Share what I wouldn't normally share. Expose what I wouldn't normally expose. Yeah, that's always been a good idea in the history of everything. Not. But here it is....

Hugh Howey wrote this article on the NaNoWriMo site last year. The bottom line truth of what he is saying here is gold. If you want to be a novelist or screenwriter or any other kind of writer, heed these words. October 3, 2014 8:58 am NaNo Prep: The Truth of What It Takes to Be a Writer NaNo Prep season is here, and we’re asking friends of NaNo HQ to help you get ready to tell your story this November. Today, author and NaNo Writers Board member Hugh Howey reveals the truth behind the lie of what it takes to be a novelist: To paraphrase John Grisham: “Writing a novel is not as easy as some readers think. Nor is it as difficult as many writers make it out to be.” Mr. Grisham proceeded to describe his daily writing routine: He spends two to three hours every morning writing, and most of the rest of his time is spent fishing. This is enough to produce one riveting and bestselling novel in just a few months. His admission came as a revelation to those in the audience who had neve...

As I slow down, remember me healthy and hale Remember when I carried you, after I grow frail As I get cold, remember my warm embrace Remember my lighted eyes, as pain shades my face As I grow dumb, remember how I used to smile Remember me now, not as I'll be in a little while

I really like salt. No, that's not strong enough. I love salt. Um, almost. I am IN LOVE with salt. That's it. Madly, deeply, completely in love with salt. I like regular salt. I also like iodized salt, although I can't tell you which tastes better or is better for me. I think iodized salt is supposed to help protect me from some disease. Sea salt is nice. Kinda chunky. Rock salt is something I used to steal from big bags in the carport. Seasoned salt. Garlic salt. Kosher salt. Black salt. Pickling salt (oh dear yes). I found this: Salt tastes good for a few reasons. 1: It's necessary for your survival. Salt is sodium and chloride, both of which are crucial for the functioning of a lot of your body's systems. 2: It's rare in nature, so we have evolved to crave it. It's the same reason why fat (butter, oil) and sugar taste good. 3: It's been part of the first world's food culture for a while now, and something we come to expect from some fo...

Socially - George hears that Suzy has hooked up with Greg. George tells this to Marty, who tells Andrea and Bill. Of course they've all been sworn to secrecy. The next day George finds out that Suzy has not hooked up with Greg. George doesn't want to seem stupid to Marty, or more likely he has forgotten who he told, including Marty and maybe ten other people, so he doesn't say anything. In the mean time, Andrea and Bill have told everyone. Poor Suzy. Greg's not very cute and she like's Bill. Social Network-ly - George sees a meme. It supports his viewpoint and snopes.com would take more keystrokes than share... so share. Suzy, Greg, Marty, Andrea, Bill and 327 other friends see it and many share as well.  Because, you know, keystrokes. Fast forward five years and George's meme is still going strong and the 14 year old kid who created it just started his first semester at community college. He's majoring in IT chicanery.

For the ultra-passive, simply scroll past unwanted posts. For the semi-passive, press the little caret and select "Hide Post". By itself this action is completely worthless of course, because the chances of coming across that post in your feed again are nearly zero anyway. It's the online equivalent of saying "I don't like this and here's what I'm doing about it."... to an empty room. (Seinfeld reference.) For the not quite aggressive, after you "Hide Post" you can often (but not always) select "See Less from -----." In this case the ----- is the source of the meme that is causing all this selecting in the first place. This is useful, eventually. The meme factories are so vast in number, however, you have to really work to reduce the noise. You can also get a tiny bit more aggressive and select "See Less from *****." In this case the ***** is the friend who is posting the meme. This works a little faster than the p...

I came across this list today: Improvement for 12/31/13 1. Lose 20 Pounds, or hit 215, whichever is less 2. Drink less (less than once a week) 3. Ride more (at least once a week, with 2 centuries) 4. Golf more (twice a month) 5. Write more (finish novel, write a short story each month to submit) 6. Read more (at least a book a month) 7. Improve Home (one project each weekend) 8. Budget Spending Coincidentally this was the writing prompt for today: “To boldly go... An impending new year gives rise to reflection and goal set- ting. What will your goals for 2015 be? It’s never to early to start thinking about self improvement!” Universe kicking me in the hindquarters perhaps? Well, let’s look at the list first… grade my progress on the items I forgot about by January 31st. 1. I didn’t lose 20 pounds or reach 215. In fact, since my last century I’ve gained about 10 after losing about that much. So, yeah. Gotta work on that. C 2. Depending on the week, I thin...

When I was leaving my previous life in radio and looking for something new to do in late 2001 and early 2002, a job came up that I really wanted. On a qualification scale of 1 to 10, I probably ranked a 4. In fact the only listing I was less qualified for at the time was business services officer at a bank, a title I didn’t even understand. But this other job, the manager of the Redding Convention Center, that was a real job. It would be a big job in town, one I could throw about at dinner parties and get immediate admiration and recognition. I never went to dinner parties, but I could imagine being at one and really hitting it out of the park with that job title. I wanted it. So I got a suit. The interview had three parts. The first leg was a one-on-one with Vicki Wilkinson, the events coordinator for the city in an office next door to the convention center itself. Then there was a panel interview (to be my first and only) at the new city hall, followed by a written exam at th...

Why are you taking the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman so personally? The answer is I'm not really certain. Over the years, there have been many tragic deaths of public figures around my age (Philip was just under 8 months my senior) and I don't do heroin. And to be fair, the idea of me taking the death of a total stranger personally, of absorbing his passing into my own little narrative is both disrespectful to him and his son and two daughters, and Mimi for that matter, and frankly a little rude. But here I am doing it any way. I keep swinging back and forth, back and forth. On the one end I am profoundly sad at the loss of such a wonderful talent and a loss (almost a hole in reality) of the future performances he would have most certainly given the world. When the pendulum reaches the other side I feel this deep panic for my own life and a deep need I can't quite identify. A need to appreciate? A need to be more diligent? A need to work harder? A need ...

Just over 2600 words, completed this morning. It's a good start and I liked where it ended. I personally prefer to hit the chapters at around 2500 words or less, but this is close enough. After rewrites it'll either be three chapters or it won't appear in the novel at all. So I've got that going for me. But Talise's life has definitely taken a turn, a heavy, terrifying turn. Although at this point neither she nor the reader - nor the author for that matter - know exactly how sharp that turn is going to be. It's kind of exciting. Thanks for reading. Off to do other stuff... then write. Casey Posted with Blogsy

This post is just for me, to keep me accountable.   Managed to hit 300 words... barely. That amount seems to be trending towards my minimum. Of course if I do that every day, I'll have a completed novel in 10 months. I'll take that.   I got caught in what I not-so-affectionately call a decription vortex this time, started waxing poetic about Talise's scene. This is OK in a sense because it's part of my style and I feel I'm pretty good at it. But 300 words of it without a break for action and I start to get nervous that the reader will begin to fade. In a first draft it's OK. If nothing else it puts me in the proper mood to move forward. And I will certainly fall in love with a couple of nuggets within, that will make it to the final draft. Thanks for reading. Off to wax poetic... and then write.   Casey Posted with Blogsy

I'm quite certain I've gone on and on about Scrivener, the queen mother of all writing programs. It's the only way to write a novel as far as I'm concerned. I've used it for years and would recommend it to anyone without hesitation. But... no app to go along with it. And I do a lot of writing on Padrick. They keep threatening to release one, but it always seems to be months away. So I use iA Writer to work on Twin Waters when I'm not at the Mac. It's a good app. Simple, but in the best way. Wrote 300+ words on it last night. Someday Scrivener will have an app for me and I'll be first in line. One has to dream. Thanks for reading, off to check for updates on the new Scrivener App... and then write. Casey   Posted with Blogsy

Does that punctuation make it read like a Loverboy song?   Anyway, apparently I was writing for the weekend, because on the weekend, I did not write. Uh, oh. Yeah, two wasted days.   But that's in the past and regret will not write a book, so let's deal with what we can control... or mostly control.   Happy Monday!!   Thanks for reading. Off to do a bunch of other stuff so I can write tonight!   Casey   Posted with Blogsy

  Cracked That 1,000 Word Ceiling   It doesn't seem like much in the grand scheme. But I did manage to cross the 1,000 word threshold on the third day.   Talise is already in trouble, although she has no idea how much at this point in the story. Poor girl. She has such a long road ahead, both literally and figuratively.   So do I.   Thanks for reading. Off to install a new dishwasher and then write.   Casey   P.S. - "Fifty Yaaaards." - Clark Griswold - N.L.'s Vacation   Posted with Blogsy

Me and You and a Dog Named Boo While writing last night I decided to play random music on my iPad and that's what I got. This is exceptional because I didn't know, or remember that I had that song, or even when I might have purchased, burned or lifted it... or why. It's not that I don't like the song. It's just that I can't imagine going out of my way to add it to my library. Then I remembered, which means I searched for the song in my library. About a year ago we received a CD in the mail as some sort of promotional prize or something from an insurance company or HVAC company or somebody else who wanted my money. Turned out to be titled 70's Pop Hits (Vol 2 [Disc 1]). I know what you're thinking... "Where's volume 1? Is there any way we can get our hands on disc 2?" I threw it on my iPad, as I tend to do, and immediately forgot about it. What does this have to do with writing? Easy. I decided Talise needs a dog. She spends a ...

Day Two (with ominous music playing... like Bram Stoker's Dracula) First impression was frankly this: Holy cow! I can't believe how much work I've already done. That was nice. Second: I've got a Facebook notification. Third: I need my glasses. Fourth: I need a little music to drown out Bridget Jones in the next room. See where I'm going here? I was listening to Writing Excuses (great Podcast) yesterday and they were talking about a ritual at the outset of writing. I think I need a ritual... a pre-shot routine as it were... to move me into the writing mode. All that said, I did open Scrivener, read through my notes, write about a page (very slowly), and set up the Dropbox so if something hits me during the day I can throw it in there. So I can safely say day one was a success. Tonight I try to write at least another page and decide what I should include in my pre shot routine. Thanks for reading. Off to (eventually) write. Casey Posted with Bl...