Friday Fall Day!

And it was another wonderful early Fall day! I started the day at the house of one of my first window-cleaning clients here in Jefferson City. The first time I cleaned the windows at this house was to help prepare it to be inhabited! It's a new house that sits on a hillside overlooking NW Cole County. After cleaning the windows, I sold a copy of Betrovia to the old-time client. She said that she would "like" it on Facebook after I told her that there's a Betrovia Facebook page.

Maybe, just maybe, she may want to review it and post her review on Amazaon?

Nah, that would be too hard to believe  :)_

Viktor's relaationship to Harrak

What another beautiful early Fall day! Even though I cleaned windows at 10 different locations today, I am not thoroughly exhausted... all thanks to the warm and not-so-humid weather. And it really doesn't matter that I'm only 53, right? :)

Now, here's the aspect of Betrovia part 2 that I'm pondering today (I really should come up with a title for part 2).

Viktor, the elderly Netherene prophet, Oliver III's source for all that's important about the "truest" Netherene prophesies, might end up being a descendant of Harrak, the author of the scrolls that Patrik found and that have caused many Netherenes to be quite upset. How ironic would it be to place Viktor in Harrak's family tree? Uhm...

Fall is Great!

Happy Tuesday!

Fall in Missouri is quite wonderful this year thanks to a few inches of rain earlier this month. I like the cool mornings and the warm afternoons.

Part 2 of Betrovia is basically outlined. The fun part is still to be done, of course! Chapter one is a "flashback" to Patrik and Dalneia heading for the monastery in the Rigar Mts. seeking help for Dalneia's "sickness." It is a dramatic start for the novel but a much-needed bit of history to explain if much of Part 2 is to be appreciated. 

Here's something from Betrovia that needs to be addressed:

"Before she closed the door, she started to sing one of her favorite songs, "Emilee Trell," a favorite of her mother as well. Patrik smiled and resisted the urge to sing with her as he heard the click of the front door. Very little happened in The Lonely Fox Inn without music of some kind."


There was supposed to be more "music" in Betrovia. It's not that I forgot about this excerpt from chapter one; it's just that I had to cut back on something to finish the thing!


For the musical purists, there will be more music in the sequel!

Happy Car-Shopping Day!

Car-shopping is something I've not been fond of since the late '70s. My last two years in college I didn't even own a car (a bike and a motorcycle but no 4-wheeled contraption!). When we were told that our van's timing belt needed to be replaced to make it run again, we decided it was time to "car-shop" once again! Woot...  sigh...

Today, nearly three weeks after two guys with a rusty trailer and an even-rustier 1989 Dodge PU hauled off the van, we "almost" have a replacement for it. The prospective seller says that he has earned his PhD from MU and is selling everything to move back to Angola (where "car-shopping" probably requires creativity). If no one offers more than we do for the car by this time tomorrow, then the offer we gave him will be the best offer.

Happy Friday!

I sold a copy of Betrovia to a former co-worker last night. He's a counselor at Jeff City HS. Right before I left his office to head home, he said that as he reads the book, he may get some insight into "how I think."

Now he's the second person who's received a copy of the novel who has said this. Uhm... reading Betrovia might give someone insight into "how I think." Interesting...

My mother read the Kindle version of Betrovia last month and she said that she wants to see the movie version. If that ever comes about, will movie-viewers get an inside view of my thought processes... or would they see what the director/producer thinks?

Happy Wednesday!

I cleaned the windows of a house that is on a bluff overlooking the Osage river a few miles south of Wardsville which is about 5 miles south of Jeff City. Now that house occupies a gorgeous location for being inclined to write! It would be great to live in a house that's on a bluff 400+ feet above a river like the Osage!

On a different topic:

A character, if you want to call him that, in Betrovia is a white fox. He's not an albino because he has pitch-black eyes. The only other character who's seen him is Patrik while one other sees him in a dream/nightmare. So is he real or just a vision? One time when Patrik "sees" him, Patrik is laying flat on his back after falling into a dry creek bed. So he might just a part of the innkeeper's very active psyche.

The white fox will also be in the second part of the trilogy. But Patrik won't see him any longer; another character will be visited by the ethereal creature!

Google+ is now in the "open beta" stage. So I now have a Google+ account.

It may take awhile to get used to the "circles" concept but I do like the spartan interface of it compared to Facebook.

It's now 8 PM and I should be reading my Bible. What did I do instead? I grabbed a few more email addys from FB to add to the Betrovia address book. So what's wrong with that? If someone puts their email address on their FB Info page, that must mean they WANT email... right? Now since I'm gotten that off my chest, time to dive into Da Word!

Hello! I finished cleaning house windows in Taos and I'm now switching gears and am at MFA #280 in Freeburg! As I was driving to Freeburg, I thought about my old job: teaching English (which really means teaching reading/writing/critical thinking skills). The last time I taught was May 2005 and there's been very few thoughts about wanting to return to teaching. But that doesn't mean I haven't dreamed about teaching! It seems that I dream that I'm in the classroom somewhere... or walking the halls or realizing that I'm late for a class or that I haven't prepared for a class. Sometimes I even dream that I'm a student again... I REALLY don't miss that experience!

Hello! This is the beginning of my blog about Betrovia. A few people have asked how I got the idea for the book. The answer? It was December 2004 and I was in Sunday School. Instead of sitting in the usual place, on one of the folding chairs, I was sitting at one of the tables. And I was doodling. And sipping coffee. Then, in the middle of an inconsequential abstract doodle, it hit me. I started scribbling plot, character, conflict and setting details. I was engrossed. I was so engrossed that I didn't notice that class had ended! But before I got up from the table, I folded up that piece of paper and determined to transform it into sentences, paragraphs and even chapters.