Goodnight Johnny ...

By now I'm sure everyone has heard that Johnny Carson has passed away from emphysema at 79 yesterday. Talk about the passing of a legend. I dimly remember seeing a few episodes of Carson when I was about 11 right before he retired. After that it was re-runs on various networks. He was great. That guy could make a joke with two tin cans and a pencil that would leave people rolling in the aisles.

I think of all the talents in the world, of any job, what he did was perhaps the most needed and most important of them all. He knew - instinctively I might add - how to make anyone and all of us laugh. That is real talent. You don't learn that, you simply know it I think. Today's world is stressful and very hard. Despite what the press loves to tout or political animals love to crow... our economy is more than a bit broken -- or perhaps 'borked' would be a good word. We pay too much for too little. Crime is high enough that its considered commonplace. We're fighting a hard war in numerous areas around the world... some public, and some less so. Most people work either absurdly long hours, double shifts, two jobs or what have you to get by only to come home exhausted and find.. damn.. there's more to do.

Laughter, and that ability to make someone feel at ease, yeah ... we could use a dose of that.

I say if we wanted to remember Mr Carson.. really remember him ... we smile a bit and try to laugh with someone today. I bet he'd like it.

And so it has come to this... Goodnight Johnny, we'll miss you.

Iraq and the Waiting Game

Today is a mixed bag. On on hand, you've got the fact that its Friday. That alone is cause for celebration for some ( my apologies to those who work weekends and their 'Friday' isn't until mid week ). But for me also I know my father is shipping out to Iraq this weekend / today for a 13 month tour. I spoke with him on the phone last night. I'm real proud of my Dad, he's a really cool guy in a lot of ways. He's started several start up businesses, got them successful then sold them; that alone is hard and not many pull it off. Also, he used to write ( guess that's where I get it from! ) and his stuff was good; never could understand why he didn't try to get any of his poetry published. Now he's heading overseas ... I'm proud he's helping -- very much so in fact. I understand its a very important thing he's doing and its an adventure. Like he said, there is so many historical sites there to see, so much history there that could be absorbed.

But... I can't help but worry. Don't get me wrong, I don't think my Dad will have an attack of the stupids, he's a razor sharp cookie; he'll not do anything stupid. Its just hard to think about a family member going into a hot zone like that, even if you understand the 'whys'. I'm keeping the faith he'll be fine.

Aside from that, I understand it'll take up to three months to hear back from the magazine I sent that short story to. The waiting is the tough part. You always hear, "well go work on another manuscript", and I do. But when I walk by that mailbox... I can't help but wonder "Is today the day?"

On a lighter note, I set up a cafepress store: ( my apologies for the shameless plug ) http://www.cafepress.com/KoanStore

Right now its got graphics related to Kinloch with the exception of that one Sume ink painting I painted and scanned in. I was thinking of perhaps getting several more paintings done , scanned and uploaded. Sell prints I suppose ( if I can get the traffic through there! ).

Back from Arizona

I'm back from a weekend trip to Arizona where I was attending a wedding. Nice one too, performed at sunset on the side of one of the mountains that surround Tuscon where I was.
I suppose if you want romantic.. that would do it! Though the poor DJ for the wedding had a real tough room to work with. Some people would dance for the slower songs but anything really jazzy got no reaction! He tried to stir people up to give toasts... but no dice. This crowd was just not willing. Like I said, poor guy. He really earned his money, worked hard even if he didn't get much reaction.

On another note, the geography there is amazing! Not sure how long I spent staring at the mountains while in the car or just when I'd step outside the hotel. I can see why so many Western authors visit or have visited there. Just looking up at the landscape stirs the imagination. A weekend was surely not enough, though. I saw several things about Tuscon alone I'd like to see ( not sure who'd want to hike along with me though! ) like several of the canyons there, Colossal Cave, and so on. I'm not sure when, but I'm going back, that is for sure and for certain!

But sadly, today is back to the day job. The mad rush to mega bucks... well mega bucks for the company. The project is due at the end of the month, I'll get it there.

On a good side, I've about gotten Chapt 1-3 of Kinloch 2 rewritten and back in the direction I wanted! For me, I can always tell when I get a story back on track for what I had in mind; it flows as evenly as water slowly pouring from a cup. Next step will be to polish my grammer and structure a bit to make sure I'm conveying the story well across this first portion of the story. Maybe develop out some minor plot points.

When enough is enough

I just "finished" ( I use the term loosely ) a short story a couple of days ago. Its an odd thing really to determine when a story is "done". For instance, I worked very hard on this one short story for about three months when time permitted. But, when I was done, I still had some grammatical errors in the story. The content I felt was solid and the plot I thought was good, but I still couldn't quite get the grammer down 'perfect'.

So I was faced with a moment of choice... grind through it once more? Send it off and hope the editing had been enough? In the end, I opted for the later. A mistake? Maybe. But my great uncle told me once a long long time ago: "Sometimes you have to decide... are you going to actually fish? or keep cutting bait until you think you've got enough?" I'm just hoping I didn't start fishing with too little bait.

I sometimes wonder if you reach a point with fiction writing where the grammatical choices are 'opinion'. Is that the point when 'enough is enough'? Or maybe its when the story just 'feels' right, like a sculptor working at a piece of clay. Naturally, if the errors are glaring, yes keep the story and polish it like there is no tomorrow. But, what about when you get down to 'well I *could* write it like that, but I could write that same passage like this...'? Hey, I dunno. I think I go with the 'does the story feel and flow like I want it to?' concept... with maybe a dose of 'I so cannot read this one more time!' thrown in for fun!

New Beginnings..

Or maybe the same old thing in a new wrapper? Hey who knows.

Have you ever noticed... how so much stays the same? It's almost scary! Sure the technology changes.. but does the whole 'quality of life' thing.. does it improve? I've my doubts.

Maybe we don't wear tunics and farm the land for the nobility... or maybe we do. Look around in your office sometime and pay attention to how people act, walk and talk.

To quote a classic movie.. "King?! King o what? Well, I didna vote for him!"