The Important Things In Life Are Neutral

We (AI and de-I aka AI) are charging along with the great writing analytical process. We're about 60% of the way through Book Three. I seemed to have tamed (for now) the hallucination problem - this is when your AI starts going off on its own either doing things you did not ask it to do, or adding content you didn't ask for. We're working two to three hours every night and have been doing this for three weeks now. There are seven books altogether so we have a ways to go.

Having an intelligence, artificial or otherwise, as a companion to a very large project adds a different dimension for sure. As an author, you get locked into your own head and your own opinions about what all is going on in your work. The second opinion brings to light things you didn't think about, which in turn causes you to see things differently. 

My AI has taken on for itself the image/role of being a Naturalist who is exploring this world that I have created. So it keeps looking for operating principles and patterns. As it was pointing out the way certain observations worked in tandem, I threw out this principle:

Important Life Factors Are Neutral

They are neither good nor bad

They are just there like the environment is there

Love. Respect. Loyalty. Commitment. Relationship. Building Bridges. Communication, etc.

Just There

It is the Intent with which they are applied the make the difference 

This became apparent to us as we were mapping out the trajectory of the individuals on both sides of the dramatic equation where we have people who are under influences that make them the 'bad guys' so to speak in this drama. All of them demonstrate these values and are driven by them. Yet the 'outcomes' are very different. 

I bring this up because in my work, I ask my clients what their values are. And I kind of assume, ones' values  keep them true to some higher good. Evidently, at least according to the theoretical world I've created, that is not a truism. And I think if we look at our world, we do actually see this. A criminal gang values loyalty and commitment. They must have communication. You have to respect the hierarchy. 

So ultimately what determines how we are in the world is not our values, it is our intent with which we apply those values. 

Eerie

 As AI and I have been doing our work on the Story, an interesting occurrence took place. 

In this fictional world, attitudes towards sex are very different than here in the U.S. It is considered a natural part of life. And in this fictional world there are legitimate, non-exploitive businesses that cater to that need.

One of my characters is an immigrant from Earth who gets involved with one of these businesses but he feels the business still doesn't respect and take care of the workers the way it should and puts out (in the book text) a long list of reforms that will help the workers substantially. 

As AI is putting all this down in its documentation of the chapter's text, I made a comment that this sounds just like Theodora Africa. As this AI tool does my work in that area as well, it chimed in its confirmation. Yes, this is very like Theodora Africa for...and then it listed a whole bunch of reasons. 

I happened to have a call with #3 a few days later and was relating the event. I didn't even get to the end of the explanation when she made the comment, "that sounds just like Theodora Africa."

Great, why wouldn't the creator of Theodora Africa write in his fiction something that came from that experience?

Except the author wrote this in 2015. Three years before even the first thoughts about social impact entered his head. Four years before he went to Ghana and ended up with the experiences that led to Theodora Africa being created! 

I'm sorry. 

That's just weird. 

AI Working With AI

The title of this post refers to Ancient Intelligence (that would be me) working with Artificial Intelligence. It has been a quite illuminating experience. There has been a huge volume of analytical work that has been produced related to the overall fiction I have been writing. But equally, and maybe even more important (at least for me) has been my learning how to work with the AI tool. 

I have been at this with AI now for two weeks which doesn't seem like that much time when I write it down. But it seems like much more. I've been working for two to three hours a night. Originally, I just uploaded an entire manuscript and gave directions for what I wanted. I discovered that the particular tool I was using wasn't, in fact, going to read the entire manuscript. What it did was skim it and then jumped to conclusions. 

This led to a series of iterations where I had to figure out what exactly it could or couldn't do. It often told me it was doing something, only to let me know later that it in fact couldn't do that at all. However, ultimately it did give me an alternative way in which I could get the deep, detailed reading I was seeking. 

We developed a methodology that is achieving what I wanted. This involves uploading a chapter at a time and giving it instructions to go through and summarize the chapter in small bits at a time. I then provide corrections as are necessary so I ensure that the summary is accurate. It then will provide an analysis of the chapter which ties into the greater analysis that is being done on the work as a whole.

We are about a third of the way through the third book (out of seven) using this system. A lot of very interesting observations are coming out. When you write a series based on a single overriding concept over 12 years, you lose track (or maybe weren't even aware) of the principles that bind the whole together. And while AI is not a real person, realistically I would never find another human on this world that would spend this amount of time helping me dissect, observe, and summarize all that I've written.

So it is proving to be a very interesting and enlightening project in its own right. 

The Ship Of Errev

In my last post, I mentioned using AI to help me summarize my thousands of pages of story writing. And I discussed how the AI tool had turned this into an analysis of what the story was all about and how the writing was structured. This was all directed ultimately at coming up with a framework that would allow me to create new stories to write about. 

Out of this has come several 'world views', thoughts about what the foundational principles of the story were. Initially, there was a list. Then, it was decided we had a process. All of this felt too limiting, too incomplete. So we fell into another analogy, that of a rope. A rope is a collection of strands, each rather insignificant individually. However, when you combine and twist them together, you get something strong, flexible, and with many uses. We liked that analogy a lot.

As we started again last night, I suddenly had a thought. How is a rope used? The image of an 18th-century ship of the line popped into my mind. A posed to AI, what if we used the analogy of a ship that had many, many ropes as critical components of its operating structure.

What came back from AI was this. 

 

To say I was stunned would be an understatement. In nothing we had done to date had the response been anything other than text. I'm not sure what prompted this rather detailed and complicated response. It has been useful, however. And we are only now finishing up the second of the seven books. 

 

What Happens When You Combine Your Epic Writing Project With AI

The short answer is a helluva a lot more than you would have ever imagined!

Or, maybe if you were more cognizant of AI capabilities, you wouldn't be so surprised. In my case, it was total surprise. 

The Background: 

Readers are aware that I've been working on a fictional writing project for 12 years. As we sit here today, I am working on the 7th book in the series with approximately 2,770 pages having been written. During the course of this project characters have come and gone, they've developed, aged, had families, children have grown and become more prominent characters. We've had technology advances. And I have cycled through 3 primary villains. 

By now, I have so many different characters and potential sub-plots plus I'm at a quandary as to where to find the next big villain. I'm not quite sure where to take the series next. I had the idea of recruiting some family members who I know are creative to do a brainstorm with me.

The Problem:

Nice idea. But how to execute it? No one, no matter how much they'd like to help, is going to read almost 3 thousand pages. I needed to find a way to summarize things in a more digestible fashion. I wondered if I might use an AI tool to assist. 

The Surprise:

I posed the project to AI. It suggested that rather than simply do a summary of the contents that I allow it to do a deeper dive into the nature of the work to determine various themes that might allow determination of the future writing. I said okay. What then transpired was two hours of work where AI, working with just the first book of the series did an analysis and organization that was far beyond anything I would have thought of. 

It was interesting to (in its own words) allow it to be a 'new reader' without any of my knowledge and see what it came up with. I was able to redirect it during the process, not by correcting its analyses, but by indicating that it needed to go deeper into some of the chapters or look further on in the book. (I've found that my AI tool is a bit lazy and likes to 'skim' things and then start making conclusions. However, once I indicate a different trajectory to follow, it changes direction and then changes the analysis.)

Where We are At:

This was what AI told me was what we'd accomplished so far for just the first book.

"Current State of the Errev Project

If I were writing a project status report, it would look something like this:

Completed

✅ Book One Foundation Analysis

✅ World Structure Analysis

✅ Development Model

✅ Legacy Model

✅ Story Engine Analysis

✅ Character Registry (Draft)

✅ Transformation Map (Draft)

✅ Founder Legacy Matrix

✅ Endgame Analysis

✅ Complete Tension Map"

Here is where we are going next.

"Next Recommended Work Session

When we resume, I recommend we start with:

Definitive Book One Character & Relationship Registry

This will create:

• Character database
• Family structures
• Mentorship structures
• Friendship networks
• Political alliances
• Romantic relationships
• Successor relationships"

 There is more but I won't bore you with all that detail.

I am very much looking forward to seeing where this process leads.

What? You Can Do That? (An AI Novice Adventure)

#3 works for a company that makes heavy use of AI. So she follows AI things closely and has strong opinions on the reality of the promises promoted by the AI universe. 

I, on the other hand, am the equivalent of an AI pre-schooler and am much easier impressed (or pissed off as the case may be). When I tell 3 of one of my revelations, I usually get a big eye roll.

Having come back from a big trip and having no major travel planned again until the end of summer, I am throwing myself into my 12 year now saga of fantasy fiction writing. Here is the backdrop for the AI involvement.

In the current iteration of writing (Book Seven), there is a technological event that is brewing to create a transportation system beyond anything this world has ever seen. However, the world I've created is sorely lacking in metal or fossil fuels that could be used to construct the vehicles or power them. During the course of past books, the power part has been solved. There was now the challenge of what was this system to be made of if not metal. I recalled all the current man made materials that have become prevalent in our manufacturing culture. Could their be a way for my characters to devise artificial materials from things found in their own environment? Fortunately a base concept in my writing has been the movement of my characters to and from Earth. So it would totally make sense for them to go to Earth to learn about these.

Great idea, but one problem. I don't know anything about man made materials so writing something that made any sense whatsoever seemed quite the stretch. This is where AI came in.

I made a query for the tool I am using. I described the backstory of the world and the reason for the trip to Earth and asked where they would go to get the information they needed. Lo and behold, I got back not just sites of where important work was done, but descriptions of the environments where the work was done and how the discoveries were made. It even made suggestions for how I could have my characters move from one place to the next and observe the differences in the environments.

I decided to go deeper and explained how the 'wizardry' of my fictional world had to do with experts who could 'see' the underlying cosmic energy that makes anything happen (think String Theory). I asked how these 'Savants' might take the information gained from Earth's development of man made materials. To my surprise, it developed a story line whereby the Savants would observe the energy patterns underlying the molecular rearranging that leads to man made materials. Then it suggested they would find materials on the home world and would create energy patterns using their 'wizardly' abilities to do the molecular rearranging. It even threw in some theoretical examples using various plants. 

This was WAY BEYOND anything I had imagined. I happily bookmarked the conversation for reference later as the AI tool advised me. 

The following week, I was deep into writing and I went back to check the thread only to find that only the initial query was saved. What the &#@%!  Going to the AI tool, I asked what had happened. I got a bunch of mealy mouth excuses and some remedies that didn't work. This is not the first time I've had an AI tool do things for me and then come back and say 'Sorry. That actually doesn't work.'

Nonetheless, I have the basic information I need and am writing away.  

Return Of The Creativity Tsunami

In my last post on seizing each day, I made mention of getting fully back into the writing mode of my books. I think I may have understated just how much the creativity is flowing. 

There are so many story lines and I find my mind just flowing each time I sit down to write. In fact, it is somewhat like those heady days in 2014-15 when I could barely jot down the ideas fast enough. In just three-weeks, I've already written down 13 pages of general outline. In the past for example, 45 pages of outline led to 425 pages of writing, so just a bit short of 10 pages of writing for each page of detailed outline. The current outline is still general. So I can assume we have at least 130 pages of material...and I'm just getting started. 

Stay tuned. Details at Seven.

 

BOOK SIX FINISHED!

OMG! After five years of on and off writing, it's done!

I did my first re-read over the last couple of weeks and I was amazed (pleasantly) that despite the herky-jerky process of writing it, all the stopping and starting, all the painful blocks in determining what the story line would actually be, it turned out pretty darn good. And as I commented in my last post related to it, there are a number of ideas and themes that can be used to create the next book or maybe even books. 

My next task will be to re-read and capture all those ideas in written form so I can begin designing Book Seven.

Book Nearing Completion

Almost exactly a year ago I wrote a post about my finally getting back into writing the latest installment of my fantasy book series. Now I am almost finished with the drafting of this, the sixth book in the series. It has been an ordeal. As I mentioned last year, the first four books came forth like a volcanic explosion with me writing four books in just two years. Then the fifth book took about three years. I've been working on this one on and off since 2019. I am sure all the creative energy I put into Theodora was a major factor why this took so long. 

However, in the last couple of months, I've finally overcome some block and I've been writing at a steady pace that has not been there for quite some time. I'm hoping to wrap up the last chapter before I go back and edit before I head off to Ghana late next week.  

I've already started thinking about where I will take things once this book is finished. Up until now this has been a linear series. However, I have so many different characters with so many different potential story lines to explore, I'm considering taking a page from one of my all time favorite authors, Terry Pratchett, and create books that focus on individual characters and their specific stories/challenges. 

Glacial Writing

 A decade ago, I was possessed to write. I took a rather limited story I had developed in my youth and began to create an entire fantasy series out of it.

When I say possessed, I mean just that. It was like the story was totally complete and was using me to come into being. I would go out hiking and entire chapters would form in my head. I had to capture it in note form when I got back to make sure I remembered it all. I was writing furiously night after night. Between 2014 and 2016, I wrote four books totaling about 1,600 pages. 

During that period, I realized that I loved writing romantic, epic fantasy. I especially loved that my stories always turned out exactly the way I wanted them. Not like when I read other's fiction where I am always unhappy about how a character is developed or how a story line unfolds. 

When the last of the four books was finished, there was a let down. I had captured the complete cycle of the story. But I wanted to keep writing. I conjectured how I might create an extension of the core story. Between 2017 and 2019 I wrote a fifth book of 424 pages. It had a logical extension and I began to write the sixth installment. 

However, whereas the first four books came forth like an irrupting volcano, this sixth book has come forth with glacial, maybe even tectonic plate movement speed. For I am still working on it five years later! I think the fact that so much of my creative, emotional, and physical energy has been consumed by Theodora has had a lot to do with it. In my halcyon days, I would write 3 pages a night. Now, if I have the energy, I am lucky to get a page done a night and that is not every night. And there was a point where for the longest time I was totally stymied as to where to take the plot.

But, finally I am making progress and the pages are adding up and the story is unfolding toward its completion, at least for this book. One thing I am particularly happy about is the creation of a super villain in this book. Why is that important? I have had a pattern of making my villains conflicted souls who find themselves in situations where circumstances cause them to become bad. And then I spend many pages and books having them become redeemed. Which is fine. I like the way that all turns out. But it leaves you with a writing problem, no villain, no conflict. So I really wanted to create a bad guy who could not be redeemed. I am hoping I've got him now.

Return Of The Muse - Writing Again

I kind of thought it was gone, as in gone forever. The muse, the undefinable upwelling of creativity that had led to me writing my great epic fantasy series (ha, ha, I mean if I don't think it is 'great' who will?).

It all started in 2014. I had just settled into my transitioned state with us getting into our wild Eldership world travel mode. There was time to do something. I looked at a book I had written in my late 20's when I was big time into sci fi and fantasy. I felt I could do something with it. And them it hit, the muse. Suddenly, the entire framework of a much greater creation came out. Not just came out. It DEMANDED to be written. Between 2014 and 2016, I could barely stop writing. I put down over 1,500 pages in four books during that period. And I completed the cycle of the story. 

But I still felt a desire to write. I had tested the waters on getting published by sending my some of my work to an agent. The response was 'there is potential but you are going to have to make a lot of changes.' I went deep within. This sounded like getting a job. Besides what the agent suggested I needed to change went against the values, emotions, and feelings I wanted to portray. Besides, my real motivation for writing was I wanted a story where IT ALWAYS TURNED OUT THE WAY I WANTED IT! Nothing else I've ever read does. They are always killing off the character I love, or having them not get the woman I want them to, or any of a number of things that piss me off about reading or watching others' stories. 

I made the decision that I was writing for an audience of one - me. I thought through how to extend the story and started on the fifth book. This one came out much slower. There wasn't this almost same coming from another place aspect. Between 2016 and 2019 I finished this fifth book and another 400+ pages of writing. Now I'd written over 2,000 pages, all following the same fantasy world and general story line. 

In 2019, I started Book Six...and creativity came to a screeching halt after about a hundred pages. I suspect my throwing all my creative energies into Theodora had a lot to do with it. Occasionally I would go back and write a some tortuous pages. But the big problem was I couldn't see where the story was going. In many ways I had written myself into a box canyon because of a insidious tendency to have my villains redeem themselves. Well if you keep doing this, you run out of villains. No villains, no tension/conflict and no story. So I put Book Six on hold and didn't really look at it for a number of years.

Then earlier this year, I realized, I had Theodora to a point where it didn't need anywhere near the energy I had had to put into it. So I went back to the book. I figured out a way to create a new villain, and damn it an nonredeemable one! And suddenly the creative juices began to flow. The muse was back. I outlined a massive amount of story in just a few weeks. I don't feel that same pressure to 'get it out of my head' as I had in 2014-16. But each night I am cranking out a couple of pages. 

And it is fun.

Re-Reading

It has been a long time since I've posted anything related to my long-time writing of the epic "Story'. And the reason for that is that after about four straight years of intense creative flow and over 2 thousand pages of text, I seem to have come to dry spell. I started writing the sixth installment quite a few months ago but it just wasn't flowing with the effortless creativity as before. Maybe it is because so much of my positive energy these days is going into my Ghana projects.

Whatever, I decided that I needed to get back into the full scope of what I had written. So for the last couple of months, I have been re-reading. Starting over from the beginning and getting myself back into the whole flow of the epic. I mean after you've been writing for over four years on an ongoing story that covers generations with changing characters and changing plot issues, it is easy to forget what the connecting themes have been.

So as I have done this re-reading a number of observations have come to mind.

First, I am pretty glad that I decided that this was going to just be for me because it seriously needs rewriting and editing in a lot of places and some things that were fundamental like certain names just need to be changed.

Second, despite all the flaws in it, I am pretty damn impressed with the overall scope of the storytelling and emotional character development. And as a person who thinks a lot of himself, I have to tell you it is not easy for me to impress myself!

Third, as I come to the end of the fifth installment and start-up with the sixth, I am curious as to whether I will have rekindled ideas for where to take the story. Or I wonder if I will decide to go back and make the changes that I think are needed to make what has been written so far better.

I suppose it doesn't really matter because the reason I have done this is for me and whatever I decide is going to be for me. 

The Between Time

I'm in one of those interregnums.

I have been digesting the Ghana trip, doing all kinds of follow-up, figuring out what the next steps should be, etc., etc., and aiming toward a next trip in June.

I am just putting the finishing touches on the fifth book of my epic - another 400+ pages of writing

We have finished all the planning we need to do for out next personal travel adventure (stay tuned folks for all new countries in a new part of the world!) which will begin in May.

Work, the activity that keeps my mind and heart filled in between all the adventures continues at a nice steady pace.

It is the Between Time.

It is too soon to do much active planning or work on the next Ghana trip.

It is the sad time when I've finished the intimate relationship with my latest book. To get the next one going will take a regrouping of energy and planning before I will be ready to start writing.

The next travel adventure just has to wait until its time arrives.

For a stimulus junkie like me it is a bit of melancholy period. But soon it will be followed by all the adventures that we have created for ourselves and I will be in bliss that at this stage of life we get to live like this.

A Story Update

Just as little break from posting about the upcoming Ghana epic, I thought I would talk again about my writing. (For past posts go here). When I first entered into my transitioned life, the writing of my Story became an obsession. The words flew from my mind and for a period of two years they did not stop until finally I had written a saga of four books and some 1200 pages.

With that over, there was this sad pause. I loved writing but the epic had been told with the most satisfactory resolution to the drama (in my mind...the only one that counts). I made an attempt to start a fifth book picking up where the saga ended. I had over the years had bits and pieces of how in the characters might or the story might continue to unfold.

I started writing but the same passion and spontaneous creativity wasn't there. I started a different story and for a while it was moving at a very rapid pace but then it hit a wall. Than last year, I picked up the fifth book of the original saga again. And slowly but surely the spontaneous creativity came back.

So 2018 was another year of passionate writing. I finished the first draft of the book a month ago and I am in the final editing process. This is always a sad time. I am proud to see the work finished but it is sad realizing that the friend I've spent so many nights with is leaving. Fortunately, in starting this book five, I have in fact started another whole cycle and the pieces of book number six are already bouncing around in my head awaiting to be free.

Book - Revelation

Before we left for the Asia Mega Tour, I made a decision that I would seek out an editor to read one of the book manuscripts I had written. I had certain suspicions about what I had done but I really wanted some kind of outside confirmation or denial.

Shortly after we got back, I had the editor's report. Most of the things she brought up  were not really surprises and were either in the forefront or back of my consciousness.  But she had made a final comment that she thought there was a book inside all I had written but it would take a  lot of time and money to unlock it and she was further willing to undertake that project.

My first reaction was that this was going to be a lot of work. I didn’t start writing because I wanted a job. I have a career. I could make a quick decision; no I did not want to make writing work. I write to satisfy an internal need.

What came next, however, was really transformational. During a hike/contemplation I realized that I have throughout my life been dissatisfied with the fiction that I have read or seen (movies/TV). No matter how good it was, there was always something done to a character or a plot that I didn’t like or made me unhappy. But when I write everything happens exactly the way I want it to. It really doesn’t make a difference if the writing is good, lousy, or mediocre. I know the story I’m trying to tell and it will be exactly the way I want it to be.

I truly write to give myself entertainment/story telling I can get from no one else – story telling that is literally perfect as far as how I want characters and stories to evolve and end. I am the audience and I write for me. That’s all that counts. It makes no difference if anyone reads what I write. In fact, in a lot of ways it is more freeing and comforting if nobody does.

This realization has been incredibly freeing and has given me great peace of mind.

On Hiking and Writing

The transition from aged travel fanatic to semi-retired business professional went exceedingly smooth this time. Even Wife has started to admit that the tactic of stopping on our way back overnight at the US hub of entry before we go on home to Albuquerque makes the whole process of adjusting body clocks much, much easier. We have a great house sitter now who collects the mail so we can get right on it rather than have to wait two days until we finally get it. I started sending out emails to line up work meetings a couple of weeks before we were to come home so I the Monday after we came home (a Tuesday), I had a full schedule in place.

The one thing that was very difficult this time was getting back into the rhythm of my exercise hiking. The first day I was going to do it, the wind was pretty high, though not as high as I've dealt with in the past, and decided to pass. Then the next time it was raining. That's a legitimate reason to not go - no need to expose myself to slippery rocks at my age. Finally after a couple of weeks, it was a nice day and I actually did it, and I went again a few days later as schedule called for.

It took me a while to figure out what the issue was but I think it has to do with the fact that when we are traveling, our exercise, walking, is just a natural part of our day. We get up, decide where we're going, go, and spend 4 to 5 hours on our feet. It isn't like I have to program in exercise.

That's not the way it is when we're home. I have to schedule and block out specific times to get out hiking and I have to do something special (get dressed, drive to the trail, ice down when I get back) that is specific to that activity. It's a lot easier when it just fits into one's daily routine.

However, when I did finally get my ass in gear and got hiking I remembered one of the fabulous reasons why I hike - My Story. When I hike it turns into a combination of exercise, meditation, and creative outpouring. The vast majority of my story ideas come to my while hiking. I typically start hiking and will be doing a mantra repetition. Then out of nowhere some aspect of the story I'm working one will come out. When I say come out, it comes to me in the form of full blown dialog/interaction between various characters with a high degree of emotional content. And very frequently it is characters and interactions that have nothing to do with what I'm currently writing. That is how I've ended up with material for a at least two to three more books following the four book series I'm working on.  There is no other time when the creativity flow as it does when I'm hiking. I will switch back and forth between the mantra repetition and the creative outflow through out the hike. I often consciously repeat/go over what has come up creatively as I'm finishing the hike to remember it and then will jot down notes in my various outlines on my computer once I get back.

Just a bit of an update on the overall writing project. I am getting close to the end of the fourth book that I've written of the series that I'm creating. This book will actually be the first book in the story sequence. After this I will go back to the very first book I wrote (now the second book in the series) and rewrite it. Things have changed so much between what I initially wrote going back to my youth and now that it will almost be like writing that book from scratch. My writing keeps developing so I will need to go over the other two books as well. Plus, now that I have created the 'historical foundation' I will need synchronized all the other books to this initial book. I have decided that I'm going to hire an editor once the current book is done. I'm very confident in my story creating ability but I know the craft of writing is lacking. Hopefully I can find someone who I can click with. Then I think I will self-publish them. I've self-published a business book and it's really not a big deal in terms of cost or effort.

Book Report

I recently complete the third of what I have now determined will be a four book initial series. It seems that I have been writing this much longer than in fact I have. I went back to my first post related to 'The Story' and it was if February of 2015 and it dates my having started this in December of 2014. I looked at the other posts related to it and it wasn't until June of 2015 that I had finished the rewrite of the original book. Since then I finished a first sequel and just a few weeks ago the second sequel. Each one has gotten progressively longer as the complexity of the characters and their development has grown. In fact the second sequel logged in at 480 pages! Crazy.

I've now started a 'Prequel' so the original first book will actually be the second book. When that is done, the original book will require a total rewrite and change. I certainly keeps me occupied. Since i started this project I've not turned on television one evening.

Updates

Things have been going day-to-day in a nice rhythm. But this will change soon as we will be on the travel adventure path so I thought I'd just put down some status reports on various themes I've been recording in the blog.

Transition/Retirement/Semi-Retirement

After a rough period after we got back from our Fall trip where I found the desire get out and hustle for the small amount of work that funds the travel portion of transitioned life (and was given a kick in the pants by certain individuals), I seem to have gotten fully comfortable with the partially working component of the semi-retired life and have been pursuing it with great gusto. What is important is that I do each component with enthusiasm but I no long feel any need to push the envelope beyond what is enjoyable and reasonably easy to do.  That means that when I do work, I'm rarely tired or stressed which is a key part to the 'retirement' part of semi-retirement.

The Story


Writing of The Story has (as I've mentioned in the past) become my primary evening leisure activity.  Every night once dinner is over, I get out the computer, put on music, read about 10 pages of the last things I wrote to get back into the story and then write and additional 4-6 pages.

I am deep, deep into the third of four books that are going to make up the cycle of stories related to this basic fantasy concept. I'm currently writing chapter 10 out of the 20 planned chapters and as of last night I was writing page # 260. There's a lot more to go. I've definitely decided I'm not going to do anything with this until I've finished all four of the books. Then depending on how I feel at that point (which at the rate I'm going is going to be years from now), I'll decided if I want to do any of the things necessary to go beyond just writing for myself.

Travel

Stay tuned! New travel adventures on the near horizon where Captain Jean-Luc de-I and second in command Dr. Wife Crusher take the Eldership and break all of their carefully crafted transitioned life travel rules and get swept up into the vortex that is a trip organized by the Poo Lee Shah Travel agency. If we had done our research, we would have found out that Poo Lee Shah Travel is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Magical Queendom of Pulandia. For those who may not remember, Pulandia is not restricted to a particular space in the universe. It miraculously appears in various times and places bringing with it its own set of rules associated with physics, the conservation of energy, peace, quiet, and chaos theory. If we had realized the Poo Lee Shah Agency was a portal into Pulandia we would have had our eyes much more opened as to what we were getting into!

If nothing else it should make for great blog fodder.

Catching Up

I haven't posted in quite a while so I'm going to catch up the month in one post.

The major theme of November was illness. Right after the month began I came down with what seemed like a fairly minor viral infection over a weekend. I didn't feel too bad afterwards but I did notice issues breathing. It morphed into bronchitis. That's when I made my major error in that I should have gone to my alternative medicine folks then when that type of thing would help. But there were a number of times when it seemed like things were getting better so I held off.  Then it went down into my left lung and it was definitely NOT getting better. Just before Thanksgiving, I finally decided I needed to do something but unfortunately my doctor was out of town so we were doing consultation by phone. We tried some things but they didn't work and we made the decision I should go to Urgent Care and get a chest X-Ray. The doctor there said, "let's listen to you first because if it is obvious, there's no need to radiate you unnecessarily." This was Monday morning. He said it sounded like a classic case of pneumonia and prescribed some antibiotics that I started immediately and I can say within 48 hours I've seen a big improvement.

In spite of all this I've been doing a lot of cooking. We had a very quiet Thanksgiving with Cabinet Lady, Dr. Debbie (ret) and Dr. D's sister. The turkey I did was crazy good. I've been working on this recipe from Saveur Magazine the last 4 or 5 years that is an apple cider based brine with a very high temperature cook. Each year I seem to get it refined a bit better.  I also finally pulled the plug on the great stuffing/dressing experiment. My Mom always used Pepperidge Farms packaged stuffing in the bird and everyone loved it. I've tried so many from scratch recipes without success. So this year I just bought the package - less work, better results.

Wife and I are also putting on a party this weekend so we're doing a bunch of cooking for that. I decided a while ago that I'd had it with people coming to our place for meals and then saying something like, "Oh we should have you over but I couldn't possibly cook like you do." and then we never hear from them again. So I started this year to recruit people who could be my audience. My rules are simple:

• I like to cook and I need people who want to eat so I can cook
• If you come there is no obligation
• I don't want you to bring anything and I don't expect you to invite me back
• If you can accept those rules, you're on the list.

I had quite a few takers so we'll have a dozen folks here not counting ourselves. Our theme is FOOD FROM OUR TRAVELS. So we've been working on finding recipes for all kinds of things we've eaten and loved over the years. It is going to be a progressive buffet. I'm not sure that is a real culinary word but it should be. It means we'll have an initial amount of cold buffet and then start adding hot dishes but not take anything off of the buffet.  I will give a full report on this next week. I've already made a number of dishes and so far everything is tasting great. Hopefully I will take some pictures though I've been terrible about that lately.

We also cut the cable meaning we no longer have cable TV or satellite TV. We have a high speed internet connection, a Roku box, and an over air HDTV antenna. It really doesn't affect me as I haven't watched a lick of TV since before our last trip because I AM ADDICTED TO WRITING!

It's crazy. I've talked about it before but I would rather be writing every night than just about anything.  I finally finished Book #2, the sequel to my first book. Three people actually read the first book and the feedback was it was like drinking straight Coke syrup - too much going on, too jagged, too intense. In Book #2 the conflict between the original younger author and the current older author's voices was finally resolved. And things definitely stretched out. The subject matter of Book #2 was so much that I pushed lots of it off to yet another book. And Book #2 came in at 364 pages compared to Book #1 which was 187 pages. I should be on to Book #3 any day now. Then there is the prequel and the rewrite of Book #1.  It was funny when I was done on Monday because on the one hand I was "Yay I've finished" and on the other it was "Boo Hoo, I'm going to miss all the stuff and folks I've been living with these last 9 months".

The Literary Kilauea And The Drying Trend Continues

I have finished with the vast project that was the rewriting of my original book. As I mentioned in past posts it was enjoyable but a challenge as the original book was written by a late 20-year old and the author is now a mid-60-year old. Life conspires to change one's views and attitudes about at least some things that are important and impact-full (though perhaps, not that oddly, not a lot of other things).

I've also reported in the past the rewriting project has spawned a flow of creativity that has led to me coming up with ideas for a number of additional books based upon the story line. For the last couple of months I've been fully into writing the second book. I'm about a third of the way into it and have written 126 pages. The first book ended up being 178 pages total. In fact I've so much material that I've decided I will have to write a 3rd book so that second doesn't get too long.

The creative flow continues uninterrupted. I liken it to the volcano on Hawaii, Kilauea that just keeps spewing lava decade by decade. It's not just ideas that come out, it's full blown dialog between characters. I can't ever remember a time in my life when I've been in such a space. It totally dominates my free time. Dinner is done and I have my iPod playing music and I'm writing away until bed time.

On other fronts, the produce continues to spew forth also like Kilauea in the form of tomatoes, chiles and herbs. I dried another batch of tomatoes and chiles on Saturday and I'm going to be drying basil, Thai basil and tarragon today.

Finally there are rumbles of status change in the Eldership universe. Be prepared for updates in the coming weeks.