Category Archives: Check In

The Latest – June 15, 2020

Needless to say, I have once more been less than diligent in keeping up this blog. So I will make the usual excuses.

Excuses, Excuses
It’s all true, I swear.

Not to mention COVID, riots, and let me re-emphasize the locusts. See Locusts Threaten Millions With Famine in Africa and Asia. It’s biblical out there, gentle readers.

Nevertheless, I have managed to get some work done. I’ve opened Kobo and Barnes And Noble Nook accounts, so you can now see most of my writing on non-Amazon sites. My Snarkey & Putts series can be found there, as can my stand-alone novel, Mr. Lake. I’ll be uploading the rest of my works to those non-Amazon sites shortly. I’ll also be putting links to all of the different sites on my book pages on this website shortly, but it’s tedious installing all these links, so bear with me for a week or two yet.

Snarkey & Putts I: Undead ArbitratorGhastly Ghostwriter
The Case of the Undead Arbitrator

In addition, I’ve been working on a new marketing campaign. If you look for Snarkey & Putts I: The Case of the Undead Arbitrator on Amazon, Kobo or B&N Nook, you’ll discover you can download it free. But hold off until next week, because the free download of Snarkey & Putts I will then entitle you to a free copy of Snarkey & Putts II: The Case of the Ghastly Ghostwriter. All I ask in return is that you sign up for my mailing list. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

 

Snarkey & Putts: Ghastly Ghostwriter
The Case of the Ghastly Ghostwriter

I didn’t think so.

Just give me a chance to get the links working. Patience, patience. If you can’t wait to sign up for the list and don’t care about the free book, you can sign up now using the new Mailing List SignUp widget in the right-hand column.

One more thing: my latest collection of short stories, Kid Stuff, featuring the re-issue of The Reincarnation of Lou Gehrig, will be available before the end of this month. It includes a variety of stories all kicking around the theme of childhood as seen through the eyes of grade-school boys.

That’s it for now. I’ll be back when Kid Stuff hits the stands.

 

What’s Going On – March 27, 2020

Here in Boston, we’re not quite locked down because of the coronavirus, but we are hunkered down by choice. Nobody’s going out. People are mostly working from home. We take walks, hoping we won’t run into anybody. We shy away from any kind of social contact. All in all, it’s pretty much the way an author lives all the time.

One good thing, for me at least, is that there’s time to do all the little things that are usually relegated to the back burner. I’ve corrected a few weaknesses in this website: had a long chat with my hosting service’s support staff, at the end of which they determined that they couldn’t help me and I’d have to fix the problem myself. I managed to do it. It only took me the better part of a week. But I now know what “Rest API” is.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say I’m aware of its existence. I don’t really have any deep understanding of it. I know when it’s creating a problem and which button I need to press to deal with it.

When you come right down to it, my relationship with Rest API is magical. I don’t mean that I’m enchanted by it. I mean that, when it acts up, I say the code equivalent of “Abracadabra” and it slithers back into whatever hole it crawled out of.

I suspect the “Abracadabra” factor in modern life explains why fantasy has become such a popular genre. When I was a boy, I knew what electricity was, at least functionally. I knew what a carburetor did. I knew what a distributor cap did. Most gadgets were mechanical. You could open them up, look inside, and, if you paid attention, you could understand them. Now, you have to speak the doggone thing’s language.

You’ll notice I’ve installed a video widget at the top of the right-hand column. Now you don’t have to scroll down my posts to see me in my videos. My bearded mug will always be at the top of the column, staring at you, urging you to press the little arrow button to listen to me read from my assorted writings. I’ll be on every page. In the age of Abracadabra, technology has sealed off every avenue of escape.

I need to get back to work, making sure all my links work and doing other such things. Maybe, before the day ends, I’ll get back to writing my current work-in-progress, “The Molasses Man,” a short story. I don’t know exactly what it’s about yet, but the characters will tell me in time.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m working on two collections at the moment, one of nostalgic stories and the other of fantasies. The former will contain my previously published but currently unavailable story, “The Reincarnation of Lou Gehrig.” It should be out in early summer. As for the latter, I’ve decided to re-issue “The Richest Man in Babylon, Revisited,” as the headliner for a number of new stories. Look for it in late summer or early fall.

That’s it for now. Stay healthy, everyone.

New Stuff as of March 7, 2018

Time for a progress report. I’m in the middle of my next Snarkey & Putts novel. It’s turning out better than I expected. That’s because, being an author, I always expect disaster. Whenever it turns out that I’ve actually come up with a plot and can see my way to the end of a story, I’m surprised. Make that “shocked.”

My sketch of the cover for "Mr. Lake."
My sketch of the cover for “Mr. Lake.”

After a great deal of deliberation, I’ve come up with a cover design for “Mr. Lake,” my fantasy novel about a 1960s sixth-grader who suspects his school janitor is the undying Knight of the Round Table, Sir Lancelot du Lac. I’ve attached my own hand-drawn sketch of the cover, the sketch I plan to send to my professional artist, Angel Nichols, who’s done all of my Snarkey & Putts covers. (See the video below, for instance. )Aren’t you glad I’ve got Angel?

In the meantime, I’ve posted a new, free story, entitled The Sweet Science. It’s a story my Dad told me about a young fellow who aspired to a boxing career. It never quite happened. Find out why by reading it, and let me know what you think. I’m starving for feedback, by which I mean praise.

Finally, I’ve done another video reading from Snarkey & Putts III, The Case of the Canine’s Curse. I won’t stop until you buy the book. You can get it as either a Kindle ebook or in paperback.

To tell the truth, I won’t stop even if you do buy it. But I might have the money to hire a professional voiceover artist instead of doing it myself.

Here’s the video. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by.

A Quick Update

Joe Eliseon blogs occasionally
The Intermittent Blogger, Me

I haven’t posted in a while, still busy setting up the website. Takes a while to learn the ins-and-outs of WordPress. But I will say that it’s much easier than it was a few years ago. Hats off to the WordPress team.

One thing I don’t seem able to do yet is get a CAPTCHA on my comments forms. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, count yourself lucky.

If you look under the “Stories” tab, you’ll see that I’ve imported a number of stories originally posted on my Google+ page. I’ve re-written them all, more or less. Can’t look at anything I’ve written without making corrections. There are a few more coming.

The Reincarnation of Lou Gehrig Cover
The Reincarnation of Lou Gehrig

I also have another couple of books to add. Still must complete my bio and even the book descriptions that are up. Oh, well. I’ll get to it. When it’s all done, I’ll start blogging daily.

What I’m busiest with now is my Snarkey & Putts, Paranormal Attorneys-at-Law series. I’ve completed my first, The Case of the Undead Arbitrator, the pair’s origin story. I’m working on the second, The Case of the Ghastly Ghostwriter. I’ve learned something from my epic comedy-satires, i.e., keep it short.

 

That's All Folks
Apologies to Warner Bros.

That’s all for now, folks.