No, it's not, but I do it a lot. The draft folder is filled with things I wrote but ultimately decided didn't fit the brand of this blog. The brand, loosely determined, is novels I'm reading, novels I'm writing, books in general, and some fluffy personal stuff like dogs, gardening and the wife, to show I'm not a total grumpy recluse. I dabble in a couple other things and have slipped in a political comment or two, but generally try to stay away from that stuff in today's era where many people don't want to read nuance or gray areas. Everything is black and white, Trump or Never Trump, and anything political I write, which is generally done on a whim with little editing, will be taken wrong by some dunderhead looking to get their undies in a bundle.
Besides, I get all the politics I need from my day job, so this is where I try to write about the other stuff in my life. Still, after writing weekly newspaper columns for a couple decades I just can't resist the urge sometimes to vent. I just seldom hit the "publish" button. Someday, when I'm retired, I'll cut loose, probably in a different format or on a separate blog.
This is just a long-winded way of saying I've been blogging, sort of. You just haven't seen much of it.
I've also been reading and writing a lot, since there's not much else to do in Quarantine World.
I have another Mustang Lang novel in the works that features a cattle rancher turned zebra rancher, a murder and a couple Brazilians. But it hit a dead-end.
I have another novel in the works featuring a couple who met during visitation hours at the penitentiary, where they were each visiting their inmate fathers. But it hit a dead-end.
Then there's the one that really channels my inner pervert and features a serial rapist. But it hit a dead-end.
And there's the lady who found a bag full of money and drugs while on a jog and her travails in dealing with that. But it hit you know what.
But a dead-end doesn't mean, they're dead. It just meant I moved on to something else and will return to them when the mood hits.
When blockage does it, I seem to turn to the old faithful: Bags Morton. If you haven't read Bags of Bodies or Bags of Rock, you really should. I enjoy writing them and think you'd enjoy reading them. Since those two, I've finished first drafts of two more Bags books tentatively titled "Bags of Stone" and "Bags of Thermometers." They are fun.
When the opening line is "I walked out of the Moonshine Bar at 11 with a 9" you know you're in for a Bagsian treat. The other begins: "Nobody thinks they’re going to get bonked on the back of the head until it happens." That one draws on the current situation we are in, but with a virus of a different name.
My plan, as of now, to release them separately a few months apart as ebooks. Then, I'm hoping to put all four Bags novellas (about 20k words each) into one paperback edition, so ya'll get your money's worth buying a book. Think I'll call that one "Four Bags" - pretty clever, huh?
As for reading, I'm currently on my 42nd book of the year as I've about knocked out all of Lawrence Block's Scudder series. Hoping to average one book a week this year, far breaking my record, showing that there is a silver lining to this COVID crap.
