Like a Bug on a Windshield

Living out in the woods has, at least temporarily, increased our consumption of fossil fuel in our attempt to get off the grid. Or at least reduce our connections to the grid. The nearest convenience store/gas station is about two and a half miles away. We have a Country Boy supermarket about four and a half miles away, right down the street from a Dollar General and a Sonic Drive In. Anything else is a minimum fifteen miles away. Except casinos. We have ready access to casinos. We got moved in too late in the spring to get a garden started. There is no existing garden plot, so it would take some investigation and planning to stake out the right spot. We wouldn't want to put raised beds over the septic tank. Or on the site of an old nuclear waste dump. Since the place hadn't been occupied for several years, there was a lot of mowing and brush clearing to do, just to get our immediate surroundings in workable shape. Out of nearly five acres, we only mow about a third of an

Sunday night is where CBS sends its shows to die. I can't prove this, but I think it is self-evident. It would probably be easy enough to research, but I think I can make a convincing argument without so much exertion. First of all, why would a network want to kill off a show? Well, money. The longer a popular show runs, the more money the actors are worth, the more money the writers are worth, and the more expensive the crew of special effects, stunt and prop people become. This would all be well and fine, except that the potential ad revenue eventually plateaus and stops covering all the increased cost. Second, you might ask, how does moving a show to Sunday evening kill it off? Simple. Sports. There are games earlier in the day that throw the schedule off causing the show to be on late or preempted altogether. This is especially irritating for people who set DVRs and still miss forty minutes of the show. And don't forget the games on other channels competing in the

In celebration of the publishing of Eaters Too, my new novel and the second in the Eaters series, my novel Serving Murphy is on sale for $2.99! Serving Murphy is something of a departure from my usual writing style. It is not tongue in cheek, it is twice the length of my previous novels and it has profanity and sex. Writing it was quite a journey. Fame and fortune are never a given for an author, so I write novels that I would like to read. And I do like to read them. I work very hard, first writing the best story I can, with the most readable and enjoyable prose possible, and then I reread, rewrite and polish until I have fixed every flaw I can find. My writing process sometimes takes years for one book. When I feel it is finished, I set it aside for a few weeks. After giving myself time to forget the words I've written, I read the book with sort-of fresh eyes. Usually I make a few adjustments, add or subtract a few scenes, and then I publish. Serving Murphy was a book I w

Just a reminder, Eaters Too is now available. Read a sample at http://www.amazon.com/Eaters-Too-Stephen-P-Scott-ebook/dp/B00OYBUTN4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1414891727&sr=1-1 Stephen P.

Life has been throwing a lot of changes at my wife and me the last few years. First, my job cut me back to part time and then eventually laid me off. I made a valiant effort to find a new job--a new career, really, since the printing industry, my home for over thirty years, was vanishing into the mists of time. While training and traveling in a new line of work, I began to have symptoms that led to the discovery of an encyclopedia of health problems. Between the medical bills and reduced income, we were forced to take a long hard look at life and decide what we wanted to do with what was left of ours. In the end, we decided we wanted to get away, simplify life, lose the drama and enjoy the simple things we loved. The first step was to liquidate what assets we had left, remodel and sell our house and find our perfect home. While the contractors were busy creating sawdust, we began our search. Our goal was simple: find a quiet place with lots of shade and room to relax. A view wo

It's been a couple of years since my last update, but I have a really good excuse: my dog ate my password. Okay, not so good. The truth is I've been getting to know lots of doctors and spending lots of time in hospital beds. Perhaps in some future post I will explain what that was all about, but for now, I want to try to get back in the saddle and start a new saga. Before I move on to my next post, I am proud to announce the release of the long-awaited sequel to Eaters--Eaters Too, now available as a Kindle e-book on Amazon.com. Stephen P.