Coffee, I need coffee.

My writing goal is five hundred words a day. That may seem like a little or a lot depending on your point of view. In reality, it's only about a page and a half.

I'm trying to discipline myself to do it every day, preferably in the morning when my brains are fresh. I'm much more creative after a cup of coffee heavily laced with cream.

Yesterday I just couldn't get going. So, I "owe" myself five hundred words. Obviously, I work better under pressure, because it was easier to get moving today. I can't say everything I wrote is wonderful, but it's lots easier to edit once the words are down on paper and not simply rolling around in my imagination.

Status: 10 pages, or 2,782 words. Only 77, 218 words to go.

Is it fair to count contractions as two words?

Sunday Pleasures

Sometimes all we need on a quiet Sunday is a good lunch.


Mushroom ravioli with caramelized onions and sauteed mushrooms in a Marsala sauce. And a simple green salad with vinegar and oil dressing.

Lost or Found?

Two bumper stickers, same car:

If you are following me, you are lost.
Got Jesus?

Now how am I to interpret that message? Does he mean:

He has Jesus, but I if I do too, I'm lost?

He doesn't have Jesus, but if I don't either, I'm lost?

After getting a good look at him, I decided what he really meant was; If you are following me, I'm leading you to a remote area where I plan to rip your heart out. Better start praying now.

Fictional People I'd Like to Be

Fiction: The Empress File by John Sandford

Fiction is my reading of choice. Mysteries, Suspense and Thrillers are my order of preference. I love envisioning myself as the detective solving a complicated murder, or the everyman who gets pulled against his will into some government conspiracy.

Some characters are so smart, so beguiling, so naughty that I just want to live their life. For me, such a character is Joe Kidd. He's an accomplished painter, but his day job is thievery. He's a computer hacker extraordinaire, and a genius at making complicated plans to support his day job. The price he pays is usually in the form of broken bones. His redeeming grace is that he only robs bad guys.

He lives a pretty enviable life...except for that broken bone thing.

"Can't we all just get along?" R. King

Bumper sticker on dually pick-up truck.

"Republican. We work so the rest of you don't have to."

Now I'm not usually anxious to talk politics. In fact my eyes usually glaze over and I find myself measuring the distance to the nearest exit when someone around me fires up on the subject. I'm not a registered anything. I'm wishy washy. I admit it. I always vote, and in the name of full disclosure, tend to lean moderate Republican.

I just want to go on record and state that the message on this bumper sticker, does not represent me as a, once in awhile, moderate Republican. I know many fine Democrats, have been one myself more than once. I was just as hardworking as a Democrat as I was as a Republican. I can say the same for all the folks I worked with, many of whom wore their affiliations on their sleeves for all to ridicule.

Now those Libertarians...

A walk in the woods

I subscribe to a couple of writers magazines hoping they will ignite a spark of genius. Articles describing the day to day writing habits of published authors always catch my attention. I read them carefully, comparing the authors habits to my own. I guess it's some belief that if I follow the same process, that I too will some day be published. It's silly really, but there it is.

One of the things I have noticed about the dozen or more articles is how often the author mentions taking a daily walk. I take an afternoon walk myself and have done for several years, long before I started on this writer stuff. And I have to say, it's surprising how often a solution pops up to some problem that's been batting around in my brain.

It must be an oxygen content to air thing. The trees breath out, and the sludge in my brain gets blown away and replaced with fresh brain cells. Or it might be the lunch time vodka kicking in.