Trust but Verify

Spend a day of simple relaxation with nothing on your mind. That is, nothing except it is raining havoc on your cotton crop, the pandemic is in full force, the fall flu season is here, and the election looms dead ahead. Relax? How about a soothing swim in a beautiful stream filled with piranha?        There can be no question this year has been a challenge for everyone and the forecast for the coming months does not bode well either. Will it be trying? Yes, indeed. Can we overcome it? Without a doubt. Our immediate and extended family coped with the 2020 challenges with calm and clearly thought-out planning and implementation. Six months ago, we never heard of PPE, Social Distancing, nor of not going out for a weekend dinner or ballgame with friends. All our plans for a family reunion in Arizona, a family wedding in Colorado, and a business trip to Oklahoma were dashed with one simple word, “COVID.” Nevertheless, two basic principles guided us ...

Pandemics, Deserts, and Linguistically Challenged Narrators A writer should be satisfied when their months of research and labor reaches the peak with the words, “I’m published.” I certainly had to join that elite crew with my most recent novel, “We Were Young Once …,” a fact-based novel of human and drug trafficking. But I must admit that reaching the “You are published” era was a two-edged sword. Indeed, I am happy beyond description but also frustrated that the road to publication can also be the road to perdition. Unbeknownst to any of us, that unseen enemy we call Covid-19 was not on the horizon when my manuscript was sent to the publisher, but it was. Like any other business we take for granted, the COVID quarantines and the new term we had to grow accustomed to, “PPE,” had an impact on the publishing world. Editors, business managers, clerical staff, art departments, etc. were all impacted. Accordingly, their business and mine slowed down. What we originally thought would be...

Corona or Not   We have been in quarantine for a month. There may be the twinkle of light ahead, and it isn’t a freight train barreling down on us. It’s the very slow beginning of the end which is still a long time and distance in the future. In the meantime, my wife, Gwen, and I remain fairly quarantined but certainly not prisoners in our house. Coronavirus or not, we have made adjustments to our ordinary lives and have reasonably settled into a quieter lifestyle. Among other things, it includes an ice-cold Corona and a few chips and dip to accompany it on a bright, sunny day in our courtyard or on the rear patio. In some ways, we have made good headway on our lifestyles: creative cooking with the Instapot; experimented with the Anova pan for meat, fish, and vegetables; and, we went overboard on the breakfast omelets which includes four eggs, boiled and chopped potatoes, green peppers, chopped red onions, mushrooms, and an unhealthy serving of shredded cheese. Served...

In 2020, I am Eyeing The Russian In children’s games, we began by shouting, “Ready or not, here I come.” Times have changed, but the outcry is still appropriate for the new decade. Ready or not, it is here and I’m ready. Ready to create, to write, and to make the most of every day. It reminds me of a comment a critically ill man made when asked by a friend how he was doing. His answer was spot on. “I enjoyed my sandwich at lunch.” Such a little thing, but how accurate. It’s the little things that count. Another way of saying it is to enjoy the journey, not just wait to reach the final terminal of wherever we are going. Enjoy the journey! My journey as we start this new era is to make the most of each day as we construct my series of novels, the “Border Wars.” The series began with Color of the Prism , a fact-based novel set on the Arizona/Sonora border. Tarantino Productions purchased the movie rights but never put together the fifty-million budget to complete the film. Below i...