Pop Until You Drop, Part Three

    The climax of the book takes place when Sam makes his ill-informed announcement, just as a severe thunderstorm hits.  He runs off, just like Jim and his wife did earlier.  So, Chris and his friends look for them in the building to find them, while the rest of the dinner party takes shelter in the basement.  When they find both the doors to the outside and the staircase on the first floor locked, they take shelter in a men's room.  To pass the time, Chris's friends reveal the secrets and miscommunications that ended their friendship for so long.  Now, I had much of these backstories in place for Dada, and I felt that I should include some of them here, since this break-up was an important part of how Chris is today.  The one thing I didn't include that I wanted to was the origin of their "Rounds," but I couldn't place it anywhere that made sense.  Let's start with Pete.  I added an older sister to balance out his family, but that might be a chance from the first book, as is his career as a math teacher.  I may have had him in a different field, but this is a better fit.  Originally, I was going to have him deliberately expose himself to his girlfriend, only to be caught by her father.  However, I changed this just before I wrote the chapter, as this would have made Pete a little bit too naughty.  Instead, I have him being caught by the father who unlocks the bathroom door to catch the boy who was getting too close to his daughter in a compromising situation.  This made Pete a victim like the others, albeit of a lesser nature.  Being suspended for two months was a little extreme, but it would cost him his Division I college quarterback career. I had hinted about this in the first book, particularly about his age, but the friends never cared about it that much.  Maybe if they were still together when Pete turned twenty-one, but that's beside the point.  I also came up with a pretty mundane reason for why Pete transferred to another school and moved away from his older home. I just added the twist about going to Tennessee and working on his Doctorate just to twist Chris off.  I just had to make Chris lower on the educational scale than his friends, to balance out his new-found wealthy family and all. I currently have Pete getting his degree, but getting drafted into state government (and winning) before he can use it.  For Rick, I wanted to emphasize how he was kind of shy as a kid, only to become more out-going after his operation that made him just like every other boy.  Getting a great gift in puberty didn't hurt either.  I always had Rick go into law to impress a potential girlfriend, the daughter of his attorney, rather than having her put Rick up to it, although that's what Chris had been thinking all along.  As to the doctor who put the pictures online, his outcome was always changing.  Quite a few times, I had him die of his injuries in prison, leading Rick to take up a nasty drinking habit from the guilt.  However, I didn't want the outcome of each of their troubles to end the same way.  Since a death worked better for Will, I just horrifically maimed the doctor instead.  Rick still feels guilty from this, but not enough to become a problem drinker.  Rick was still afraid of this, after Jim takes some of his beer, but I didn't want Rick to be an alcoholic, just close to being one.  I currently plan for Rick to take a long paternity leave after the birth of his second son to write a true-crime book.  It will probably make Rick more famous than Chris to the general public, and it would mark Rick's slow transition away from law.  Will was the hardest one to write, as his attack by Jim's best friend was never going to end well.  Will should have told someone what happened, but because he tried to take matters into his own hands, Will finds out about the abuse Ray was taking.  I originally had Will never see Ray after Ray graduated from high school, but I had Will see Ray at least one more time.  Ray was trying to get better, but I knew it wouldn't.  Originally, Ray was just going to stay missing, a drugged-out drifter who would barely keep in touch.  However, I kept waffling between that and having Ray die.  I felt Ray's recent death would up the factor that is splitting up Will and Jim, so Ray died.  This gave me a chance to have Will keep a secret from his brother, almost breaking them apart.  This revelation is what gives Chris the impetus to tell his brother everything once Sam is found.  I'm thinking that Will is going to partner with rehab clinics in both Kentucky and Virginia, maybe even opening one himself.  As to Jim, I have been trying to see where he will end up, but I haven't settled on anything yet, beyond that his marriage is pretty much over.  Jim's wife is out of there.  Jim, I'm still trying.  Next week, I will finish up with this overview and I will include a new revelation as well.

Pop Until You Drop Part Two

    There are many parallels between Pop and Dada.  For instance, the road trip in the first book is reflected by a plan ride in the second.  The main difference is that the brothers aren't speaking to each other.  The plane ride is also a means of showing how Chris has changed.  The flies all the time now that he had an operation on his sinuses.  To accomplish this plane trip, I had to go through a lot of complications to Chris's plans.  I mean, how likely is it for a wedding to be delayed to a secondary date, but the bachelor party and rehearsal dinner aren't moved?  For most people, this wouldn't be happening, but I felt that Chris and Sam needed to get back to Lexington as a call back to the first book.  I admit, the bachelor party was going to initially take place in New York.  I moved it for all of the complications that could arise.  This meant that not everyone could show up.  This included all of Addie's bridesmaids.  I think I forgot to mention that Addie's bridal shower/bachelorette party would be taking place the following weekend.  My bad.  At least I got Addie's parents and NASCAR themed brothers showing up.  That little nod came up just before I wrote that section.  The other major no-show was Chris's mother.  At one point, she was going to show up, but not be saying anything.  She would only be commented on by other characters.  I ultimately cut her, even to the point of not even including her part of her phone call to Chris.  This had to be done because she would be arguing with Chris's father the entire time, especially since she all but committed illegal activities when the two divorced.  Also, she would be totally dismissive towards Sam after his outburst.  She would be complaining the entire time during the sheltering from the storm.  Yes, I foreshadowed that ever since I made Addie a broadcast meteorologist.  Note how the storm threat increases as one moves forward, but the actual storm hits just after Sam's bombshell announcement.  Said announcement involves the surprise guest at the bachelor party, James 'Jim' Greenwood, the older brother of Chris's friend Will and the person who brought Chris and his friends together.  Jim was so important to Chris, he needed to be brought in, although I had to bring him down to earth just before things started to fall apart.  In Chris's memory, Jim was the tall, older father-figure that was missing from his life.  In actuality, Jim is about the same height as Chris is now, albeit with about thirty extra pounds around his waist instead of Chris's muscles.  The other fact about Jim was he partly wanted Chris to enter his brother Will's life was due to the fact that Jim had sort of a 'man-crush' on Chris. Jim even admitted it to Chris in a drunken kiss after the party.  Here is the main turning point in the story.  I didn't include what happened after that kiss until a flashback in a later chapter.  I wanted that ambiguity to make Sam's bombshell about seeing that kiss to hit harder.  In fact, nothing more happened between Chris and Jim, but I wanted it to seem like it could have happened.  I was seriously thinking to have to two men spend the night together, albeit separately, with Chris sitting on the side of the bed, but I couldn't do it.  Chris wouldn't want to hurt Addie like that, even if absolutely nothing happened or would happen.  I felt this would be truer to the character. It would also allow the tension to increase when the storm hits, and Chris and his friends would have to look for the missing Jim and Sam.  This would be the perfect set-up to get the four friends to take shelter somewhere and be forced to come clean with the many secrets they have kept from each other.  And that will be the subject of the next installment of this series.

Pop Until You Drop, Part One

    Well, it has taken me over a year and a half, but I finally finished the first draft of Pop.  You can find the first installment of the first chapter here.  It is the follow-up to Dada, which I finished earlier.  You can find the first installment to the first chapter here.  The plot for Dada:  Chris Burton, a man in his mid-twenties, suddenly finds out that he is to become the guardian of his fourteen year old half-brother Sam after an accident left Sam without any other family.  After a two day road trip back to Sam's home, Chris learns about the real reasons why he is Sam's guardian.  Namely, Sam's mother and sister died in a car accident, but Chris and Sam's father is in the hospital suffering from cancer.  He was looking for Chris, after Chris's mother abducted him after a quickie divorce, as a donor.  The accident came just as Chris was found, prompting the sudden change.  Chris and Sam's father was ready to die without Chris knowing about him, but Sam revealed all, but only after Chris caught Sam watching  hidden camera footage of him undressing.  The plot for Pop continues their story.  It's four years later.  Sam is eighteen and a recent high school graduate, bound for the University of Kentucky on a swimming scholarship.  He is six foot four, and still growing as is found out later on in the book.  Chris has put on over twenty pounds, of muscle.  He has also gotten his Master's degree online, turned a fan fiction story into a bestseller book series, and is engaged to be married in a few weeks.  As I mentioned in a previous post, this was originally going to be the first scene in the second part of Dada,  but I spun it off into a sequel instead.  I really wanted to play off the difference of the brothers in this scene.   At the end of the first book, they were looking very much alike, even wearing the same clothes.  Now, the only thing that places them as brothers is their hazel eyes, still identical after all this time.  I wanted to emphasize these differences to show how they had changed, but still alike.  I slowly build up each revelation in the first few chapters, capping it off with the biggest one--Chris and Sam's Dad survived his battle with cancer, although not without some problems.  The biggest one being that his legs never quite recovered from the long bedrest, forcing him to use a wheelchair at times.  This also meant he couldn't live in the old house, forcing him to move a few blocks away, but with Sam staying mostly with Chris in the manor.  At one point, I seriously thought about killing off Chris's father, but I changed my mind.  First, Chris deserved the chance to get to know him.  That was what Chris had been hoping for most of his life.  Second,  Jonathan Burton provided the art history background that forms the structure of the story.  See, Dada and Pop are both art movements and names used for fathers.  Both of the books are statements about the movements in the titles.  Dada was summed up in the first book as 'everything can be seen as a work of art, artwork in itself has no particular meaning, and therefore nothing in the world has additional meaning.'  For Pop, I only hinted at what I feel is the meaning of the movement, although I detailed my explanation more thoroughly.  Basically, Pop art is about how one can value an artwork for what it means to the artist, even if the work in of itself might not have the same value to the viewer.  I used examples in the book, but the same can be seen in Chris's actions, how he bought a car because of its color and features and not because it was eco-friendly. It can also be seen in how he tries to rescue a favorite building of his.  It can also be seen in the way Sam acts out when he finds out his father is taking a job at Berea College and selling the manor.  Sam can't see why his father wants to move, and Sam blames his brother for it all.  However, this is not the case.  Chris is just keeping the many secret reasons why their father needs to move away.  Chris hates keeping secrets, and this anxiety is eating him up for most of the book.  I hated to make Sam such a brat after he finds out about the manor, but it couldn't be helped.  His father didn't want to talk to Sam about his personal reasons, because he still sees Sam as a child.  Jonathan did tell Chris, causing Sam to pile all of his anger on Chris, since he doesn't want to hurt his father.  These feeling cause a wedge to form between the brothers, that will persist through the middle of the book.  The next installment will focus on this split, as well as an awkward business trip, convoluted wedding planning, and an unexpected guest.

Same Ole New Year's

    I don't know why I still stay up late for New Year's Eve.  Mostly, it is just to wait until the fireworks die down so I can fall asleep easier.  Otherwise, there is nothing 'new' going on.  I don't have any close friends who throw parties so I can get invited.  Even if I had somewhere to go, my decades of near complete social isolation would ramp up my social awkwardness to the point where I would be forced to leave.  Seriously, I like being around people, but I have a hard time interacting with many in most situations.  So instead, I watch the same tired celebrations that have simply outlived their once originality.  I wait until a minute or so before midnight to watch the mayor of New York City, along with family and/or special guests, push a giant button to start a winch lower a really big crystal ball with the occasionally updated designs and/or light displays, with a ticking every second, replaced by a 'swish' every tenth second.  At the supposed stroke of midnight, a large screen displays the new year's message as a few feeble fireworks shoot out from the sides and tons of confetti rain down and the same five songs start to play in the background, in the same order, from "Auld Lang Syne" to "Over the Rainbow," the version with the man playing a ukulele.  Compared to other cities' celebrations, this is no longer as special or relevant as it used to be.  The spectacular pyrotechnics show from other places put the NYC celebrations to shame.  Even the more low-key solemn rituals from other countries have a dignity that puts the 'ball-drop' to shame.  It didn't help that I got to watch the most recent drop twice on two different channels.  I don't know if it was due to a planned delay, my current cable service's lack of synchronization, or just a mistake somewhere.  I actually found the performances outside of the actual spectacle.  Sure, some of them were pre-recorded, but they were still good.  I especially like "Handclap" by Fitz and the Tantrums.  I actually heard the lyrics fairly clearly for one of the first times ever.  Even after I found the lyrics online, I still would sing them wrong, but now I that I heard them this clearly, I my not anymore.  Then there were the reunions of New Edition and Duran Duran.  Nice medleys, probably some lip-synching due to being outside in the cold.  Of course, the biggest on everyone was talking about was the duet between Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton of "Wrecking Ball" and "I Will Always Love You."  I had no idea those two songs could synch up so well together.  Yep, that was the highlight of the night.  Still took some time to fall asleep.  I woke up, on my back due to 'that' reason.  I went back to sleep.  Woke up slightly early, but I wound up staying in bed almost too long to check up on a game bonus.  And that was all.  Boring all-around.  No resolutions to speak of yet this year, although I did manage to keep up with one last year, although I did forget a few times.  Wow, even this post about my boring night seems boring.  Sorry.  Maybe next time will be better.

The Weather Outside Is [Insert Adjective Here]

    Last weekend marked the first major winter storm of the season.  I first heard inklings about this storm a week before it happened.  My mother heard about it from one of her contacts in the highway department, whom she first called years ago about one project or another that she was complaining about.  Anyway, she phoned him about another road work incident when he informed her about the upcoming storm.  The highway department gets direct information from the Jackson weather service, and they had just issued the first alert about the upcoming storm.  One early model had a foot of snow forecast for the area.  When I got home that night, the local television station's weather forecaster suggested not to take too much credence about this early model, as it was the US one which is frequently imprecise about long-range snow accumulation.  The European model had less than an inch of snow forecast for the area.  (I saw this model on The Weather Channel.). This model is usually better at predicting snow over a longer period of time. Regardless, I started to make preparations for the storm.  I usually make plans for Christmas well ahead of schedule anyway, but the forecast for snow and very low temperatures put a new wrinkle on the planning.  I made sure there was enough food to last through that Saturday, or even through Monday morning if alterations had to be made.  Two problems came up at the last minute though.  First, a part on my car started to act up.  It would not be a problem, yet, but an appointment was made for last Thursday to get it fixed, once a part came in.  Second, a final, emergency delivery of chocolate-covered cherries was being sent down from Barboursville.  They came in well before the store closed Thursday.  Too bad the part for my car didn't.  The dealership said to check Friday, and if the part and mechanics came in, they would try to get the car repaired.  That night, I was watching the weather almost non-stop.  By then, the forecast had removed almost all of the snow, leaving mostly a dusting less than an inch, but there would still be very strong gusty winds before the temps tumbled down into the single digits.  I left the heat on high until just before going to bed, in case the power went off in the night.  That was a mistake.  Even with just a single blanket on, I was burning up.  I was even sweating.  That, paired up with a neighbor who had kept their lights on and had a child yelling for awhile, prevented me from going to sleep for over thirty minutes.  When I did fall asleep, to the sound of light rain, it wasn't for long.  I woke up around 2:30 still slightly sweaty, but it had snowed some.  I woke up again about two hours later.  I was no longer sweaty, and the snow seemed to have covered the ground.  It was noticeably colder, so that was when I started to let the water run in my interior half bath.  I got up at my usual time Friday morning.  The temps had already plunged to the low teens, and the wind was gusty fierce.  However, the power was still on and people were still occasionally on the road.  I hadn't heard any scrappers go by, but there was barely a thin layer of ice under the dusting of snow.  I saw reports of road conditions online, with most suggesting it was possible to go out, but to be extra careful.  I started my regular morning routine to get to work, but stopped just short until I could contact the car dealership.  Turns out, not only was the part still not in, probably due to shipping problems and the icy conditions, but that the place would be closed until Monday for the holidays.  The earliest I could take the car in would be Tuesday.   So, I decided not to open the store Friday.  I just watched the weather, played a few computer games, and cocooned in a blanket to rest for the day.  I still had to go in Saturday though.  I had to check up on the store and, hopefully, have a few last-second shoppers for Christmas.  It took me twice as long as normal to clear the snow and ice off my car.  Including warming breaks.  I should have took more, as my face got very cold.  (I might need a balaclava one of these days.) I took the long way to the store, avoiding the most treacherous roads if they were still ice-covered, and left late to get the maximum road clearing and traffic flow.  Turns out, I probably could have taken my usual route, albeit slightly later than normal, but I still opened the store.  We did have two customers that morning, including one box of cherries, but no one that afternoon.  We closed early and went home.  No other problems the entire weekend, save that the air-conditioner cover had been blown off and lost, but someone found it and brought it back a few days later.  Just yesterday, multiple leaks erupted in the water lines, but none directly near me.  Still, the water pressure went down.  All-in-all, this first storm of the season was cold, but not really that bad for me. 

This Is the Winter of My Discord

     I was late in the whole email address thing, not getting my first one until 2016 or so.  I know, that seems unbelievable, but it is true.  That first email address wasn't even mine.  Technically, it was my store's, but I used it as my own for various purposes.  I have my own personal email address now, but I still have my store's email for the business uses.  One of the first things I used this address for was to sign up for a forum on a gaming website I liked.  I liked reading many of the ideas that were expressed on it, even though I couldn't comment or respond to anything I saw there.  Over the years, I have since commented on many topics devoted to the specific games I liked.  However, I only started a thread for the first time a few weeks ago.  I was kind of scared finally starting a thread, since I was still unsure about all of the features and rules of the forum, but I felt that the information I had needed to be brought up immediately, since it was time-sensitive.  Because of that forum, I started exploring other forms of social media.  For instance, this very blog was started about the same time as my joining the forum.  Well, that forum is slated to be taken down later this week, as a part of a much-needed update.  Certain game forums, other than my favorites, were not working correctly.  New sub-forums couldn't be added, as the basic structure wouldn't allow it.  There are other minor ticks as well, but you can see my point.  Hopefully, the forums will only be down a short time before they can be brought back better than ever.  However, there is the possibility that they cannot be updated.  In this case, the original forums might have to be returned, if able.  There is also no timetable for how long the forums will be down.  I'm worried that the forums might not return.  I admit that the chance for this is small, but it is there.  This possibility has got me thinking about looking into the company's Discord account.  Now, I have heard some bad press about Discord, but I'm not sure what to believe.  As the discussions on the site are private, I have never been able to look into them.  I've been studying the site for months, even before the news about my forums came out.  One the one hand, I like being connected and in the loop.  I love the process of finding out new information even better than learning what the new info is sometimes.  On the other hand, there is something about the private nature of the site that scares me.  I am also afraid about the high learning curve on the site.  As I mentioned, I still don't have a full working knowledge of many of the social media sites I'm on.  I worry that I'm doing something wrong or missing out, because I don't have the working knowledge.  I'll probably try joining Discord in the next few days.  I'm still unsure if joining one discussion panel will allow me full access to other panel, or if I have to join each one separately.  I'll do more studying before this happens, of course, but I'm not sure if where I'll find the exact answers I need. Wish me luck on my latest assault in my takeover of social media.

Have Yourself a Cherry Little Christmas

    My mother became somewhat obsessed with a gift she got a few years ago.  It was a chocolate-covered cherry from one of the other business owners here ate the shopping center where I have my store, BookNotes.   In the years since that first gift, the number of cherries have increased to three or four.  My mother became so infatuated with them that she started looking for the confectioner who made them so that she could get some on her own.  She started her search last year, but it wasn't until this fall that she was able to find the store in Barboursville, West Virginia.  She asked others for help, but not me for some reason.  I mean, it only took me a few seconds to pinpoint the store's location on my Mac's Maps app.  We could actually drive there if we ever go to the city again.  Well, my mother made BookNotes the confectioner's only Kentucky outlet.  Two weeks ago, the huge shipment arrived.  My mother had most of the boxes sold within the week, save one box that was held back and has yet to be picked up.  This has been followed by an even larger second shipment this Monday.  A customer from Pikeville had visited the main location and brought down the cherries to save on shipping costs.  This second shipment included boxes of cherries flavored with Crown Royal Canadian whisky.  I had trouble finding available space for all of these boxes.  I was sticking them in empty spots that didn't interfere with anything else.  Mostly, I stuck them around the decorations, although I unfortunately had to stick a few by the 'Clearance' sign for heavily discounted books.  As they sold, I have had to rearrange the boxes.  They no longer overwhelm the available sale space, but the reserved boxes are hogging up room until they can be picked up.  I can't even access the spot for book orders because of all of the boxes.  Now, my mother claims that people who hate chocolate-covered cherries, as evidenced by someone who picked up a few boxes for relatives and wound up almost eating a box by themselves.  On the other hand, someone else all but spit out the bite they took of a sample cherry my mother handed out to one of her friends.  I too don't like them.  I like chocolate.  I like cherries, although the preserved maraschino ones are a little much for me.  I like the two flavors when combined, as in Black Forest cake.  However, when mixed with a syrupy filling, I hate them. I have tried various other chocolate-covered cherries over the decades, and I haven't really liked any of them, mostly due to the filling.  Then again, I also don't like chocolate milk or chocolate ice cream either, so there is a precedent for hating them.  The closest I have ever gotten to liking such things is when I tried chocolate-covered blueberries.  Yes, they do exist, or they did at one time.  I haven't really seen them in awhile.  There were ten, maybe twelve, in a standard size box.  They could have put all of them in a much smaller box, but I guess the company felt they could charge more with the bigger box.  I ate the blueberries, but the filling still wasn't exactly to my liking.  I think I got a second box, either later that same year or maybe the next Christmas, but I'm not sure.  As I just mentioned, I haven't been looking for them, so they might not be a thing any more.  About half of this second shipment has been sold, and I am surrounded by twenty red boxes all around my store in two sizes, two gold boxes of the alcohol filled ones, and seven more big red boxes waiting to be picked up as I finish writing this post.  Two smaller boxes were sold just as I was beginning to write.  As a sideline, I'm glad the store is selling so much.  As a treat, I just can't wait until they are gone so I don't have to be reminded of how much I dislike eating them.