Falling Leaves and Word Sprints

by Catherine Dilts

Why am I surprised every fall when my schedule suddenly fills? It happens this way year after year.

The leaves turn color. They slip gracefully from branches swiftly going bare. My farmer brain completes the backyard garden harvest in preparation for holing up for the long winter.

Instead, activities clutter the calendar. Holiday events and gatherings.

So many birthdays. What was in the water nine months prior that our kids and grandkids all have fall and winter birthdays? Even my husband is a November baby.

Part of me longs for peace and quiet. Leave me alone so I can hide from the declining sunlight. I just want to read good books and, hopefully, write good stories. Until the sun comes back. (I have a mild propensity for SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder.)

Although part of me wants to hibernate, I am not seriously pursuing that option. My co-author and I have ambitious plans for a brand-new series. Book one will release - God willing and the creek don’t rise – this December. The entire series is outlined. Writing each installment according to plan will be daunting, but possible.

If that were all we were doing, I would not feel stressed. But books three and four of my Rose Creek Mystery series are in the works. Coming soon! Plus a close-to-my-heart standalone that is based on childhood memories of the early seventies, blended with a modern murder mystery. I’m in no hurry to push it to publication, but I need to do revisions, and run it through critique group.

I used to participate in the now-defunct NaNoWriMo writing challenge. 50,000 words written during the month of November. I needed that space, before I was published, to carve out leave-me-alone time. A month devoted to writing! With the interruptions of Thanksgiving and birthdays, which couldn’t be avoided.

There are alternatives to NaNoWriMo. Reedsy is offering their version: Novel Sprint. I don’t know how this operates, but it might be worth checking out. I’ve heard of a few other events out there.

I am motivated enough, and my family understands my need to write, that I don’t need to join a challenge. But maybe I need to do a better job of tracking my writing. I already log my hours and projects. Logging words written is difficult when you’re editing projects.

Word sprints. This writing technique, or trick, encourages the writer to slam down as many words as possible during a set time. Five minutes? Thirty? The object is to silence your inner editor and just get the story onto the paper or screen. You can find groups doing them in a friendly, mildly competitive environment, or go solo.

This might be the season for me to experiment with pushing my output. Once the words are on the page, revising and editing will clean up the mess.

Do you embrace the fast-approaching, busy holiday season? Or do you long for a quiet corner, to read, journal, or write?

Moving Forward Toward Indie

Hello from Portland, Maine. Shelley here, waving, but with hopefully a bit more flesh on my bones than the skeleton in the photo below. 

This was taken on a walk around the arts district in Portland on a glorious fall day. Hubby Craig and I had a marvelous time visiting an artist's studio, breakfast at the Miss Portland Diner, a few hours at the Portland Museum of Art, a drink at Novel Book Bar & Cafe, and dinner with friends. 

My Olivia Lively books are set in and around Portland, so whenever I'm there, I feel as if I'm half in the real world and half in the pages of my stories. I sort of feel like I might run into Liv at the coffee shop or strolling through an art gallery with her new friend, artist Emsley Ballard-Monihan, especially when walking in the Bayside area which has been gentrified from industrial warehouse cluster to industrial warehouse chic. 

I've made progress in my indie-publishing experiment. I made an Amazon KDP account which was a fairly simple process (until they asked me to verify my identity and upload my license info. Anytime there is an online form to fill out, the Guam quasi-status as a US territory comes into play. Is it a country? Is it a state of the USA? It's both. And neither. It doesn't play well with online forms and systems.) 

Next, I decided to invest $149 into the lifetime purchase of Atticus software for book formatting. I followed directions on pre-formatting my book in docx first (using styles), and that did, indeed, turn out well. I'm still learning the Atticus software and what it can do, but it is pretty simple. I like the various pre-formatted design templates. You can see how your book looks on various ebook devices plus print. 

The next step will be to print it out for my proofreader. Then I will need to create the full print cover with front and back and spine, make the corrections, and upload all the files to Amazon. So far, I have to say I think I'd rather learn this all myself than pay a hybrid publisher to handle it for me. I'm pretty confident I can do a good job with the design and files as long as I have these tools. The only thing I'll lack is a "publishing company logo." I'm not ready to create an LLC or an official press. Yet. 

That being said, I have so many ideas for books as well as several finished manuscripts just begging for revisions. It is quite freeing to think I can publish them if and when I want so that my loyal readers can enjoy them. 

I hope you are enjoying your October and are finding all kinds of good books to read. 

Here's what I've read lately:

Normal People by Sally Rooney

Shaw Connolly Live to Tell by Gillian French

That Summer by Jennifer Weiner

The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian

Currently Reading:

Granny Dan by Danielle Steel

___

Ciao, friends! 

75 Years of Peanuts

 by Sybil Johnson

My cataract surgeries are done. Sorry I missed my last posting day. My eyes were adjusting to their new reality. Honestly, they’re still adjusting so working on a computer is a little difficult right now. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Today I’m celebrating the Peanuts comic strip. October 2, 2025 marked 75 years since the first strip appeared in newspapers (October 2, 1950). Hard to believe it’s been around that long. The last strip was published on February 13, 2000 after Charles M. Schulz died. That’s a lot of years of writing and drawing strips that ran 7 days a week in the newspaper. I can’t imagine what that was like coming up with that much content.

Peanuts is still going strong. I still see Peanuts merchandise everywhere. Truth be told, I have a lot of it. When I see something new, I think "Do I need that?" The answer is no. "Do I want it?" Most of the time the answer is "Yes, Yes, Yes."

I am a big Peanuts fan. I may be more of a cat person, but Snoopy is my hero. I loved the strip growing up. I used to draw Snoopy and the gang in grade school. The first thing I wanted to be was a cartoonist, largely based on this comic strip. I gave that thought up after grade school when I decided I was better at other more academic pursuits. Still, I have a fondness for the Peanuts gang to this day.

It’s amazing how many things I remember. I had posters on my wall and a Snoopy stuffed animal on my bed. In the past, I have beeped my cat’s nose as a sign of great affection. (Picture a poster with Lucy beeping Snoopy on the nose to show her affection.) I also was influenced in other ways. In grade school, I used to cross my fingers when I went to bed to ward off vampires. It wasn’t until I was an adult and saw Snoopy doing this in a comic strip from the 1960s that I figured out where I got that from. 

Here are ways we all can celebrate the Peanuts gang: 

Watching the old TV Specials: We used to watch the Halloween and Christmas specials every year when they aired on TV. Without DVDs and DVRs and streaming, this was appointment TV. Your one chance to see them that year. “It’s a Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” is still my favorite with the Christmas special a close second I admit to being mildly disturbed by Woodstock in the Thanksgiving special. He just seems way to eager to eat the turkey (a fellow bird.) Now I have them on DVD so I can watch them anytime I want.

Singing Pumpkin Carols: Yes, Pumpkin Carols. In the 60s or 70s I got a little booklet that was sold as a Hallmark greeting card with the words to pumpkin carols set to the music from popular Christmas carols. There’s “Up In the Pumpkin Patch” and “A Pumpkin Wonderland”. Though a little faded, it’s still one of my prized possessions.

 

Crocheting Snoopy and Woodstock; Awhile back I got a couple Woobles kits so I’ve crocheted both Snoopy and Woodstock. I think they turned out nice.

 

Visit the Charles M. Schulz museum in person in Santa Rosa, CA or online. We went to this museum in 2007. It was sort of a pilgrimage for me. In honor of the 75th they are having a lot of special exhibits. Here I am with my good friend, Charlie Brown.

 

Learn how to draw Charlie Brown and Snoopy: I didn’t have any guidance when I was drawing the Peanuts characters as a kid. Just drew them as best I could. Now, though, there are a number of YouTube tutorials that walk you through the process. 

How to draw Snoopy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ2vZMP3AXg&t=3s 

How to draw Charlie Brown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anq4qY2XCvk 

 I’m sure there are a lot of other ways to celebrate Peanuts. Any other Peanuts fans out there?

I’m going off now to sing some Pumpkin Carols.

Writing the Difficult Obituary

 

Dr. Quintard Taylor, died September 26, 2025, in Houston, Texas. He was 76 years old.

Johnny D. Boggs, editor-in-chief of Roundup asked me to write a tribute for publication in the magazine. It was hard for me to do because of my admiration of Dr. Taylor. He was simply the finest historian I've ever known.

His friends and colleagues used old familiar words to describe their grief over Taylor’s passing. “It is with heavy heart,” and “with profound sadness we announce the death of this extraordinary man.” Yet, words are not sufficient to describe the impact this one individual had on our knowledge of black history.

The Washington Post described his landmark publication, In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West 1528-1990 as “an enthralling work that will be essential reading for years to come.” This ambitious book discussed the largely forgotten role of blacks in the West including their contributions to everything from the Brown vs. Board of Education desegregation ruling to the rise of the Black Panther Party"

Another editor stated that “Quintard Taylor fills a major void in American history and reminds us that the African American experience is unlimited by region or social status.”

With the publication of The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s Central District From 1870 Through the Civil Rights Era Taylor asserted that Seattle was a microcosm of the political progress of black communities. Lola Peters, operational coordinator for The Emerald, said, “Not only was this book a master class in history, it was also a master class in storytelling. The Forging of a Black Community was written for ordinary folks. It is the most exquisite example of "show, don't tell." The stories in the book show the interlaced strength and endurance of our local Black communities while exposing the fissures. It's an intellectually rigorous work of love.”

Yet, despite Taylor’s groundbreaking publications, his ultimate contribution to history was the creation of BlackPast.org., the world’s largest on-line encyclopedia. His goal was to create a global website that captured every bit of information about Africans.

In 2023, 6.5 million people visited the website. There are now nearly 1,000 content contributors including academic historians from colleges and universities from across the nation as well as graduate and undergraduate students, and independent historians from six continents. These contributors have written over 7,200 entries with new information being regularly added.

In addition to his academic reputation, his friends and colleagues praised his work ethic and his humility.

Taylor promised that through the creation of BlackPast, black history would never be erased.

He can rest in peace.

A Book Recommendation

By Steve Pease/Michael Chandos 

Does it seem logical to you that writers of Private Eye mysteries should have real-life experience as a PI? But that's not often the case. Famously, Samuel Dashiell Hammett worked the mean streets in San Francisco for Pinkerton before he started to write, and his books are noted for their realism, true human grime and base human motivations, and excellent dialog that sounded tough without using made-up slang and deliberate word misspellings. 

I ran my own single proprietor investigations business for 7 years, Glass Key Investigations. I was trying to write PI stories, and I decided I needed to do more research and a lot more reading. At the time, the State of Colorado had a licensing program that involved a study guide and professional standards for a PI business. I studied key Colorado laws about stalking, privacy and property. And, amazingly, the basic test was open book, so I made a notebook with copies of all the stated references, read them thoroughly, got the prerequisite Errors and Omissions insurance, liability insurance, and took the 55-question test. I think I missed one, perhaps a deliberately convoluted question designed so that no one got 100%. Also, amazingly, some people failed the 60% pass-line.

I took the test, and Shazaam, I was one. I joined the State professional PI association, took all their training, moved into a spare room in a friend's office and started marketing. While many PIs specialize in cases like legal defense, child support and consumer fraud, I accepted a wide variety of cases to maximize my experience, from clients who couldn't pay more than $50 to wealthy people and law firms that retained me for years. I put the biz to bed and I'm now mining my experiences. Writing and selling mystery and PI short stories during those 7 years. Good time spent.

Joe Gores didn't plan on becoming a PI. He needed a job and had an opportunity. He didn't plan on being a PI mystery writer either, but his experience led him to the page. He won three Edgars, two in the same year in different writing categories and one for a Kojak TV script. His mainstream stories (he often wrote beyond the PI paradigm) involve Daniel Kearny Associates, aka DKA, an investigations firm focused on difficult commercial cases, principally car repossession. The third-person written cases always involve more than being the Repo Man. They are like Hammett's stories, based on real experiences and real people.

"31 Cadillacs" was nominated for the Edgar Novel in 1992. It has a humorous tone without trying to be a "funny" story. It involves the death of an old man, an intricate Gypsy funeral rite and the coordinated theft of 32 brand-new Cadillacs from Bay Area dealerships. DKA is contracted to track down and recover the cars. The job takes the men and women of DKA all over the US, even to Hawaii, the ultimate battle of wits between street-smart PIs and a team of Gypsy car thieves trying to stage the Funeral of the Century for the passed King of the Gypsies.

Except, it's more than that.

Calling Dr. Freud, or Novel Writing for Fun and Psychoanalysis

 Over the course of my novel-writing career, it has occurred to me to wonder about the psychology of those of us who create whole worlds on paper and populate them with characters who do more or less what we want them to do. Are we indulging in self-psychoanalysis without being aware of it? I've often noted that what readers say about my books tells me more about them than it does about the books. So I'd better admit that what I write says a lot about what's going on in my unfathomable (to me) brain.

I like to write historical novels. My first series consisted of historical mysteries set in rural Okalahoma at the turn of the twentieth century, featuring Alafair Tucker, a farm wife with a very large family. The historical novel I'm working on now stars a young Irish woman named Katy, who is working her way across America from New York to San Francisco in the 1870s and '80s. How I conjured up these characters I don't really know, for neither is like me in the least. And yet they obviously are me to some extent, since they both live in my head.

Both characters live a life I never could. I couldn't abide it. I don't have the slightest desire to romanticize their lives. It was tough, and so were they, in entirely different ways. I imbue Alafair with virtues I don't have. She's self assured and doesn't second-guess herself. She's kind and tolerant of human weakness. She takes care of everyone and is patient with the follies of others – which Katy is not. Alafair is tethered to her life. Katy is tethered to nothing, not even honesty, virtue, or morality if they don't further her goal – to survive at whatever cost.

I never set out to deliver a message or make a statement when I write. I just want to tell a ripping yarn. However, I do find myself wondering what Dr. Freud would say about my stories. Both Alafair and Katy are more successful at confronting their fears than I am. They're not afraid to fail. They stick themselves out there.

Both Alafair and Katy and all the other characters I create are much more than the sum of their parts. The great British mystery novelist Graham Greene said, "The moment comes when a character says or does something you hand't shout of. At that moment, he's alive and you leave it to him." I put Alafair and Katy on the page, but then they stood up and walked away, and now I just follow where they lead. What that tells me about myself, I do not know. 

Conquering the messy middle

 As you might guess, I am in the middle of my latest Inspector Green novel, at about the halfway mark of the first draft, and I am floundering around. Not for want of story ideas but from too any. After starting off my writing career as a pantser (from the "let's dive in and see where this goes" school) I have gradually, over the course of about twenty books, become a "modified pantser". By that I mean, I dive in and see where the story goes but usually project about three or four scenes ahead. I still don't know what will happen or how it will all end, but I'm no longer flying blind from scene to scene. The reason for this is not that I have fallen in love with outlines, but that I have two or three storylines developing simultaneously, with different POV characters, and to keep this juggling act going, I have to keep track of where those storylines are going next so that timelines match up and plot revelations don't trip over each other. It really does feel like juggling, and at the moment, in this messy middle, I've got way too may balls up in the air and I'm at risk of dropping them or having them land on my head.

My creative muse visits not when I'm sitting in "outline" mode, which is bare bones and plot only, but in the creative process of writing the scene itself. Ideas come from several sources. When I'm deep in that zone, "what if" ideas fly at me from left field, often more brilliant than the one I had planned. Other times, I realize I need something to fill a void in a character's day or a reason to get him from Point A to Point B. Or in order to maintain the balance of the story, I need Character Y to do something for a few pages before we rejoin Character X. Solving these dilemmas often gives me my best ideas ever.  If I were writing entirely from outline, none of these serendipitous, unpredictable ideas would happen and the book would be the poorer for it.

But this brings me back to the surfeit of ideas I mentioned earlier. In order to keep track of these brainwaves, I pause long enough to jot them down so I don't forget them. I sometimes end up with too many possibilities for where the story could go next and what Characters X and Y should be doing. This is the real challenge of my messy middle. Do I go in this direction or that? Which will generate the most surprising, exciting story? Which will ultimately lead me out of this maze and reach the end of the book? Like any maze, there are dead ends and blind alleys, and at times the whole exercise feels overwhelming and insoluble. 

But after twenty books in which I did ultimately find the way out of the maze, I have to trust myself. Stay tune, I will report back.

Who Needs This Madness, Anyway?

by Catherine Dilts

I have asked myself, why write fiction? This pursuit feels so anonymous and unrewarding at times. I could settle into retirement. Enjoy travel, hobbies, and leisure.

During the past month and a half, my writing routine has been disrupted multiple times. First, by our two-week Alaska trip, next various writing meetings and workshops, and finally, participating in the 24 Hours of Palmer Lake endurance event. Did I mention downsizing our rarely used fifth wheel trailer for a more manageable RV, and the wheeling and dealing that required?

Obviously, more travel is in our future.

Catherine, husband Leonard, and traveling companion George

So why keep writing? Why spend time on attending writing events and zoom meetings? Not to mention outlining, endless revisions, seeking publication, and self-promotion?

During the most recent five-day hiatus, I discovered the answer. I am miserable if I’m away from my writing for too long. I have projects on my agenda that have great meaning. To me, if to no one else.

The travel and the time off? It doesn’t reduce my appetite for artistic agony. It fuels the desire to create, giving me new energy and ideas. 

Late August in Alaska is not summer

Without those breaks, I’ll admit I do get burned out. So I suppose I have to accept that life isn’t all work. Time must be carved out for fun and relaxation. Our friends and community have wondered lately why I haven’t made it to recent gatherings. I’m trying to remedy that.

We’re told life requires balance. Sometimes that balance is forced into our schedules. I’ve enjoyed the “disruptions” to my routine. The Alaska trip was wonderful. Connecting with other writers is inspiring. The 24 Hours of Palmer Lake endurance run is insanely fun.

Catherine, daughter Merida, and new friend Andrea in the middle of the night at 24 Hours of Palmer Lake

I had a revelation during the race. Writers and distance runners both share the trait of persistence. The goal may seem far away, but we pursue it anyway. It doesn't matter whether we come in first. It only matters that we complete our personal goals. With relentless determination. Occasional despair. Mild hallucinations. When we cross the finish line, or write The End, all the pain suddenly fades.

We’re ready to tackle the next race. The next short story. The next novel.

Falling Into Plot Holes.

 by Thomas Kies

I not only love reading good books, but I love watching movies.  I love the art of storytelling.  

But I hate plot holes.  A few nights ago, I tuned into a new movie on one of the streaming channels (there are so many of them now) that had gotten some “buzz” and featured some well-known actors.  I loved the way it started.  It was fast, the dialogue crisp, the storyline was dark, and I thought I would be enjoying film noir at its best. Something reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs.

I was sorely disappointed.  It was filled with action, much of it improbable, but even worse, it was chock full of plot holes.  It was as if the writers, producers, and director just didn’t care.  They wanted to throw in escalating violence and action without any thought to plot.  

It was an awful mess.  

And don’t get me started on all the unlikable characters.

Back to plot holes.  What are they…exactly? According to Wikipedia it’s: an inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot. Plot holes are usually created unintentionally, often as a result of editing or the writers simply forgetting that a new event would contradict previous events.

Or it’s being lazy.  For example, if a historical novel takes place in the mid-1880s and a character reached out to a switch to turn on the lights. That’s a pretty big plot hole. 

Or, for the sake of argument, there’s a space battle, like in Star Wars, and a ship gets blown up in space and there’s a deafening explosion.  Well, there’s no air in space, so there’s no sound. But flames and explosions are cool on film, so…

Or there’s one that really drives me crazy.  When someone hits someone else on the head and knocks them out.  Then a few minutes later, they get up, shake it off, and get back into the action. 

I’m pretty sure there would be a resultant concussion. 

I recall catching a plot hole in my first book, RANDOM ROAD, where my protagonist gets a ride with her boyfriend to someone’s house.  Intense dialogue takes place, then my heroine jumps in her car and drives off.  

After rereading the manuscript for the fifteenth time, I realized her car wasn’t there.  I had to rewrite the chapter.  

In the dinner theater I wrote, and the theater troupe is performing next week, the whole thing takes place in 1953 during the Cold War. Even though it's a comedy, I tried to get it as close to historical accuracy as possible.  Except for one line.  And I put it in to see if anyone catches it.  It's a throwaway bit of dialogue but wouldn't be accurate for another ten years.  

I don't know.  Maybe sometimes a plot hole is on purpose to see if the reader or the audience is paying attention?

Plot holes can be jarring.  They disrupt the reader of a book or the person watching the movie. When you're lost in a good story, you've suspended your disbelief.  A plot hole just brings you out of it and makes you say, "What the heck?"

  They happen.  But when they’re glaring, it tells me that the writer or movie maker didn’t really care.  

What plot holes have driven you crazy?

Television Publicity: We Can Do Scary Things

 Hello, Shelley Burbank here, still in my home state of Maine and absolutely loving the fall foliage and glorious weather. Also "enjoying" a mini-publicity tour of two events in two weeks. Stressing the "mini" aspect because I know two events is really very modest. However, both events stretched me as an author and public speaker. 

Have you ever been interviewed on your local news? I hadn't. Not until this week when I was the guest author on WABI TV Channel 5's Book Club segment on the 4 o'clock news. I spoke with Brian Sullivan at the studio--my first time in a tv studio. Before my spot, I could see the meteorologist standing at the weather map in her dress and tall boots. So chic. So cool. 

Then I was escorted into the studio and mic'd up--yes a wire run under my sweater and little mic attached to the collar. I had a quick 12345 soundcheck for my voice and after a bit of small talk to warm up, we were live on the air. Brian asked me questions, and I was able to sound somewhat coherent on the topic of my Olivia Lively series and synopses of each of the two novels and the upcoming novella. 

In 3.5 minutes, it was over. Watch the whole clip at https://www.wabi.tv/2025/10/02/mystery-womens-fiction-author-discusses-olivia-lively-mystery-series/

Here I am before the interview with PR guru, Melissa Gerety of BookMarks-Maine. She sets up the Book Club interview schedule, and I am so thankful for her because I never would have reached out to my hometown TV channel on my own. I grew up in Bangor, Maine. Yes, I know the world's most famous horror author also lived in town. Stephen King sightings were rare, but thrilling. Also, if you haven't read Tabitha King's Nodd's Ridge series of books, you are missing out! 

You can follow BookMarks-Maine on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bookmarksmaine and Facebook. 

This wasn't my only event this month. Last week I spoke at the South Freeport Church's author luncheon. They hold these four times a year, and I heard that the last speaker was none other than Tess Gerritsen. Tess. Gerritsen! Okay, that was also intimidating, but the people were so welcoming and kind. They served a fantastic lunch, and then I spoke about external versus internal storylines and how to create a character arc over a series. 

Members of the Freeport Woman's Club also attended and took this lovely photo. If I lived in Freeport I would certainly join both these groups. I had such a good time talking with everyone about Olivia Lively.

Both of my recent events caused me a little bit of stress. It's been awhile since I've had a public speaking engagement. But, my friends, we can do hard things. 

This is the lesson I'm taking from the tv interview and the author talk. I can be scared. I can prepare. I can practice. I can think deeply about what I want to say and the best way to say it. I can mess up. But the important thing to remember is, I can do hard things. I will survive them. And sometimes I might even surprise myself and do better than I expected. 

And so can you! 

DAMN GRASSHOPPERS

 The weather here at 7500ft in Colorado has been and will be lovely. 50 at night, 75 during the day, severe clear. So, instead of writing, I'm helping in the garden, wrapping up the summer, nurturing the final, ripening phase of pumpkins, apples, zucchini,  pickle cucumbers, beans, and tomatoes. Fairly successful this year, except:::::

There is no garlic. The grasshoppers ate every stalk down to ground level. Most pickles were literally nipped in the bud. The spaghetti squash have bites in their sides, ditto many tomatoes, apples, and butternut squash. The potatoes were savaged and there isn't much underground because so many leaves were eaten away. The blackberry and raspberry bushes didn't bear fruit. They are lucky to have made it this far with a few leaves still showing. Forget the peppers, three varieties, and the cilantro because the grasshoppers didn't, and the plants died before they could get established.

What can you do? We tightly wrapped each raised-bed garden with anti-hail cloth (plastic netting). We spread some bacterial agent that makes them get tummy aches, but the levels remained high. No chemicals on my organic gardens, especially when I plan to eat the produce myself. You can get ducks and chickens, maybe eat them too later, but that's a whole 'nuther enterprise I don't want to get into. Snakes, but they've been scarce since the neighborhood filled in with houses.

Electric shock, like with a cattle prod?  Flame throwers? Big flyswatters? Venus flytraps or Pitcher plants - no, the grasshoppers would eat them as they came up.

The are few natural ways to control grasshoppers. The one factory that made a strong grasshopper bait burned down a few years ago. Farmers try all the usual tricks, but there are just some plants they no longer try to grow because the grasshoppers eat them to nubs.

We can go to the Moon, but we can't control grasshoppers.

So, I started this blog tonight to spread utter damnation over my colony of grasshoppers, but in a literary way. I started with Googling "Grasshopper Quotes", but the suggestions were almost insulting. Apparently, Emily Dickinson etc loved grasshoppers as symbols of nature, freedom and happy songs. My grasshoppers don't sing because their mouths are always full.  Other literary quotes were equally fantastical, warm and fuzzy. I searched for half an hour for someone to quoteably hate grasshoppers, but no one did. I guess Shakespeare wasn't a gardener.

I think I'll stay in my writing lab tomorrow.

I Got Judged

We often hear: "Don't judge a book by its cover." Then balance that advice alongside: "Always trust your gut instinct." We humans are tribal animals, meaning we pull into groups for survival. This constant awareness to be wary of strangers is wired into our consciousness. If something about another person seems off, our antenna perks up, and we retreat into defensive mode. I was the cause of such a response even though I was only intending to be a friendly, fellow dog lover.

 

The big trend in fitness is rucking, that is, walking extended distances with either a weighted vest or a weighted backpack to add more of a cardio challenge. The term rucking has a military origin because a military backpack is called a "rucksack," shortened to "ruck,"and forced marches with rucks are known as rucking. As a former infantryman, I know quite a lot about rucking.

Although I have access to a weighted vest, I thought it too light and hipster for me so I put barbell weights in my camping backpack in an attempt to turn my morning exercise routine into "rucking."

A few blocks from my house, I ran into a man walking a little girl to school. He had a shiba inu on a leash, and so I approached, saying that I once had a dog like theirs. (My Scout who I lost last May.) The expected response is for the shiba owner to offer an enthusiastic greeting, ask if I want to pet the dog, then we trade favorite anecdotes about our canines. But this time, the man glowered and shied from me, taking a step back, and drawing his daughter behind him. Stranger danger! The man was younger and much taller than me, so I didn't see how I represented a threat. Plus I had kept a respectful distance.

Deciding to leave well enough alone, I continued my walk and wondered what about me had provoked such a suspicious reaction. Then it dawned on me. A short, dark-complexioned man like myself, with a backpack, wandering around that time of the day in a mostly White neighborhood. Who else could I be but a homeless vagrant? 

Despite his display of ethnic prejudice, I couldn't fault him. I've run into plenty of sketchy looking people and you learn, better to misjudge than to be taken by surprise. As a result, I've ditched the backpack in favor of the weighted vest and haven't been turned away since.

And now a word from our sponsor.

Until Wednesday, October 1, 2025, WordFire Press is offering this special deal. Felix Gomez in a Weird West tale for only $.99

 

 

Introvert/Extrovert

 Donis here. I've been having a bit of trouble making significant progress on my current WIP, mainly because I keep being interrupted by life situation that have to be take care of RIGHT NOW, and which take me away from the story for days, sometimes. You know how difficult it is to get back into the flow when you've been away from you WIP for even one day, much less several days.

When I do have time ... days stretching out before me with nothing that must be done but write, oh, how I love that. In fact, I don't even have to be writing to enjoy a day of nothing. Italians call this "the sweetness of doing nothing." I can diddle around and/or stare happily into space all by myself for hours on end. Because, like many authors, I am an introvert.

I heard David Morrell, author of First Blood and Murder as a Fine Art, describe himself as an introvert, and explain that being an introvert doesn't mean you're shy. It means that you are energized by being alone, and being around other people drains you. An extrovert may become bored by a day with a lot of activity, to to an introvert, quiet time is a necessity.

A few years ago I read an article on Huffpost by Carolyn Gregoire on just this topic. Gregoire listed some twenty-three indications of introversion, many of which fit me. But a few of them really hit home.

For instance, she pointed out that to an introvert, giving a talk in front of 500 people is less stressful than having to mingle with those people afterwards.

Amen, sister. In fact, I've wondered if I could have been a successful actress. When one is "on stage", one is in charge of the situation. When one is trying to make small talk in a crowd, there is no telling what the heck you're going to have to come with. It's exhausting.

An introvert, Carolyn says, has a constantly running inner monologue.

No kidding. It's a zoo in here.

Carolyn also notes that if you are an introvert, you might very well be a writer. Sadly, if you want to successfully promote your brilliant work, you're going to have to try and cultivate your inner extrovert, as well.

Surviving the chaos.

 The Jewish New Year began on Monday evening and marks the beginning of a period of introspection, personal accounting, and actions to address the wrongdoings of the past year, before culminating in a day of fasting and confession on Yom Kippur. Regardless of one's beliefs in the existence of a deity, it's a meaningful exercise to remind us to assess our successes and failures over the past year and try to recalibrate for the next year. In many ways, September seems better suited to this exercise than January, which in our culture is usually the time to make new resolutions to improve our lives. 

The past year has been one of increasing chaos and disaster in politics, nature, international relations, and technology. It feels as if the world has come loose from its bearings and is spinning ever faster out of control. I'm not going to go into detail; I know we are all feeling that sense of impending doom and struggling to keep a toehold in normalcy. It makes it difficult to stay focussed on mundane tasks, like writing the next chapter of my book or indeed remembering to write my post for Type M for Murder. I apologize once again for the long lapses! 

One suggestion for retaining our sanity is to avoid reading the news and social media. Nowadays, AI is turning truth upside down so that nothing is trustworthy any more. There are forces, whether merely malicious or deeply malignant, that are constantly trying to promote lies to mislead us. The effort to fact-check and double-check is exhausting, and as AI gurus get cleverer, we still might get sucked into some lie or scam no matter how savvy we try to be.

Decades ago, Maslow developed a theory about the hierarchy of needs that motivate our behaviour, which is still a useful lens through which to see today's struggles. Basic needs like food, water, and sleep, all essential to our individual survival, come first, and only once we have satisfied those, can we move on to safety and security, then to the need for love and belonging. More existential aspirations like self-fulfillment, betterment, and humanitarianism only become important when those more basic needs are taken care of. 

Maslow would not have conceived of a world where almost everyone can be exposed to the violence and threats occurring anywhere in world, not just in our immediate neighbourhood, through constant news feeds and social media eager to get our attention. He would not have imagined the misinformation amplifying, even directing, our perceptions. We feel a level of anxiety and insecurity greater than the reality. This is not to say that climate change is not threatening the existence of the planet and malignant leaders are not destabilizing the world order. In fact, faced with those realities, it's easy to feel powerless to make a difference.

But turning away from the screaming headlines and social media gives us respite from that pervasive, existential anxiety. So, instead of scrolling, I will spend part of my day doing peaceful things. Taking my dogs for a walk in the woods with friends, reading a good book, meeting friends for lunch... It's not just "head in the sand"; it's a survival tactic. Somewhere in there, I will find time to write another scene of my WIP. Small victories that I can control, when I can control so little on the world stage.

On the other hand, however, I think it's important not to ignore the crisis we are in. We can't all turn inward to take care only of ourselves, and let the world burn. So I will try to find small steps that I can personally control. I will vote thoughtfully. I will donate to reputable agencies whose mandate is to take care, be it food banks and shelters in my own city or international relief agencies. I will try to make environmentally wise choices. And so on.

And I will always try to write with compassion and understanding for people who are struggling. Murder is not just about thrills or chills or laughter. It's about pain and fear and desperation. The world needs more compassion.