Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
I dislike it when I awaken and can’t recall my dreams, but glimpse tantalizing pieces scudding through my mind like high clouds on a late afternoon day.
That’s today’s situation. I don’t know if it’s connected, but I then began streaming bits of Jeff Wayne’s musical “War of the Worlds”, 1978. I thought I’d share some of that, with the Black Smoke Band, Richard Burton narrating “The Eve of the War”, and Justin Hayward (Moody Blues) singing.
As the weather has grown hotter and dryer every year, wildfires have become a frightening threat to our southern Oregon community. To help improve the chances of our structures surviving wildfires, Ashland participates in the Firewise USA program. Besides offering assessments on your property, the program offers building and landscaping tips to improve the chances that your property will survive.
One tip is not to have a wooden fence that attaches to the house. I mentioned that to friends as we visited with them on their back deck. “We don’t have wooden fences attached to the house.”
We were sitting on a moderate-sized wooden deck attached to their house. “What about this deck? It’s attached to your house.”
“It’s not a fence.”
Oh, I see, yes. The wildfire will burn through the wooden fence surrounding your backyard and across the trees and grass, but then will come to your wooden deck and say, “Wait! That’s not a fence. That’s a deck. We better leave this alone.” Thus their home will be saved.
Honestly.
Today’s theme music, “What I Like About You” by the Romantics, 1980, is a repeat. It was originally the theme music for May 17, 2017, when I wanted to stream something upbeat. This song is upbeat, and strikes me as a throwback type of song.
I chose it for today because of a cat. They often infloofuence my music choices. Quinn, who is ill, came to me for comfort last night. I sang a variation of this song to him, making up lyrics to fit his personality, behavior, and description. He seemed to like it, offering purrs and kneading in response.
Infloofuence (floofinition) – a housepet’s ability to have an impact on another pet or a human’s thinking, choices, or behavior.
In use: “Cats often infloofuence Michael’s theme music for the day.”
Seen on a car in Ashland, OR.
A & P was a grocery store chain. My stepfather worked at it, I thought, although he never spoke much about work. It was a well-known chain and abundant around the Pittsburgh suburbs where I lived from four years old until I was fifteen.
When I read John Updike’s short story, “A & P”, in English class in 1972, it struck me how vividly and accurately he’d portrayed the average store and its customers and employees. I had no plans to be a writer then. I just enjoyed reading. I preferred science fiction and adventure until then but then I read Catch 22, Catcher in the Rye, Pornoy’s Complaint, and Herzog, and my interests shifted.
A & P are gone now, only known through literature, entertainment, and memories.
I enjoyed good mouth organ, harmonica, and French harp playing. My favorites are Little Walter, Charles Musselwhite, Sonny Boy Williamson, Stevie Wonder, and John Popper. When I first heard Culture Club’s “Church of the Poisoned Mind”, I thought that must be Stevie Wonder playing the harmonica. I was wrong. It turned out to be Judd Lander. Since hearing him with Culture Club, I’ve listened for him, and have found him playing with numerous others.
Those guys have a style I enjoy, but I don’t have much knowledge about the players, instrument, or their relative abilities. Like other instruments, styles vary by genre. I like these guys as much because I’ve been exposed to their skills, and remember.
Do you have a favorite on this instrument? Think about it while listening to “The Church of the Poison Mind” (1983).
“Deep breath,” I told myself, and scoff, mocking myself with, “Why?” Editing and revising the first two books in the Incomplete States series had gone well. The weeks of editing and revising had flown past. This is fun and rewarding. Yes, there are challenges, but no deep breaths are required, just time, space, and coffee. Fortunately, I have all three.
Word can tell a lot about a document. In this instance, Word tells me that I began this novel on March 3, 2017. I edited it for sixteen hundred twenty-two minutes. It’s two hundred fifty-five KB. At seventy-two thousand, nine hundred seventy-nine words, it’s over twenty-five thousand words smaller than each of the first two books in the series, Four On Kyrios and Entangled LEREs. The series’ final book, An Undying Quest, is largest at one hundred fifty thousand words.
The third book’s working title is Six (with Seven). I’m ambivalent about that title. I’m not certain that’s this is the final title. I’ll find out while I’m editing it.
Doubt about the series still assails me. Have I told enough for it to make sense, or did I tell too much and bog it down? Is it too chaotic for people, becoming too challenging for them to read? The reader in me felt it read well, but I won’t have a better sense of it all until I finish all four books. That stream of thought amuses me because readers all bring and find their own meanings. Even as I’m doubtful, I’m also optimistic. I think that if readers find the series, they’ll enjoy it. I’m reminded, too, of people I know who read the first book of a series, enjoy and recommend it, but never read another book of the series.
Thinking about the four books, I’ve come across several places where I recall thinking while I was editing, there’s another book there. It seems like another book is always possible.
Meanwhile, the muses are becoming pensive. Novel ideas are erupting. Besides these new ideas, old concepts exist that I want to pursue. Part of this is because, while I’m not writing but focused on editing and revising this series, I’m reading several books a week, which fires up the muses.
While walking yesterday, I thought, this series is a science-fiction infused fictionalized history of the future. That gave me a good laugh.
Okay, time to write edit like crazy, at least one more time.
Once again, dreams thundered in like tornadoes, leaving much to contemplate in their wake. The most prominent dream was about unknown talents and changes, in my mind.
Many people were present in my dream. Most were strangers, but friends and family were present. We seemed to be in a large room in the upper floors of a tall building. Windows were on the two outer walls. This vantage let us look out across a cityscape. Crisscrossing white cement roads connect business parks surrounded by manicured green spaces reminiscent of places that I worked at in San Mateo, Palo Alto, and Foster City, California.
Inside, we were looking at long gray counters located under the windows. Strolling along, we were looking at these. To me, they looked blank. I don’t know what others saw, but looking at the gray counters absorbed them. Seeing an orange button on the table, I pushed it. Silver metal boxes arose at regular intervals on the counters. They had controls on top. Feeling bold, I examined the controls of one. They seemed simple. Although I didn’t know what they did, I pushed one.
The light changed, revealing other objects around us. Turning to another box, I pressed another button and exposed another aspect of our hidden reality. My thought was, these machines help us see the world. I was excited and wanted to talk to others, but when I did, I discovered that they didn’t see the boxes or their influence.
Taking my mother by her shoulder, I pointed to where the boxes were. When I did that, the boxes became visible to her. Likewise, when I guided her to the two boxes that I’d used and pointed out their influence, she could now see them. Understanding that I seemed to be a connection, I went to others and showed them. Excited conversation spread as more and more people were engaged. I pressed more buttons. The lights shifted into something dark that revealed bright strips of existence and threads running from the people to the sky. I couldn’t see where the threads ended, but I thought that the strings went to stars.
My friend came in. A college professor who teaches network security and cyber-forensics, I told her what had happened. She was astonished. As I told her about this, I realized that since I’d been exposed to the machines’ influence, I could now see these things without the machines.
To prove that to her, I found an old Montgomery Ward Christmas catalog. Using it, I told her, I can see the future. Then I knew, it’s not the machines or the catalog, but using them encouraged me to see.
I was astounded. Even as understanding seeped into me and epiphanies bloomed, I grasped that if I touched some of the exposed objects, I could peel away more limitations. Touching the closest thread, which was connected to my friend, I saw her future flash into existence like a giant movie screen. Gazing up into it with amazement, she and I said, “Wow.”
The dream ended.
