First Exit: Sweltering in Place

Back in the late 80s or maybe early 90s, there was a huge snowstorm in Seattle that totally closed everything up. People abandoned their cars in the middle of the 520 bridge and walked to safety. Temperatures plummeted and the snow and cold stayed for several days. Nor was the Pacific Northwest the only place hit. In Alaska, temperatures dipped to -90F. People took the batteries out of their cars at night into the warmth of their homes so the batteries wouldn’t die. Cars left on the pavement overnight and then started and driven away would leave the tread of their tires stuck to the pavement. It was cold and miserable.

I had a job. I needed to be in Seattle to teach my seminars on desktop publishing and had four students flying in from Alaska, as well as those from Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, and Washington. Once we were safely at the conference center and enjoying relaxing in a hot tub, my students and I chatted about life. One asked a student from Alaska what it was like at ninety below zero.

“It’s just like sixty below, but faster.”

As I look at temperatures here in Pharr, Texas this week I ask myself what’s it like to be at 105 above and 97% humidity? The answer is, “Just like ninety degrees, but faster.”

I sit inside writing and editing so I don’t die of heat prostration. Or, as Michele reminded me of her mother’s words: “We’ll die of heat prostitution.”

I intended to decamp and head north on the 23^rd of April, but I’ve extended my rent on this site through May 23 now. I see very few people, even at a distance. I manage to limit grocery shopping to once every two weeks with pharmacy once a month. I’m hoping I can get to Idaho by Memorial Day or thereabouts. Except I guess Memorial Day this year is a week early, so I’d better just say by the end of the month.

I’ve made some observations in the past month. Yes, of course I’ll share.

1.   Not washing my dishes wasn’t because I didn’t have time.
2.    The expiration date on food items seems a lot more flexible. Expires April 15? Well, it’s still April.
3.    I only need four sheets of toilet paper.
4.    I’m not retaining water. I’m retaining food.

5.    It’s not a nudist park, but if you don’t go outside, you still don’t need clothes.
6.    It’s as easy to pick up a bunch of stuff you don’t need when you shop Camping World online as it is when you go through their store.
7.    If you keep a grocery cart between you and the next person in line, that’s six feet.
8.    You can’t drink coffee through a surgical mask.
9.    It doesn’t do any good to wear nitrile gloves if you keep scratching your nose and rubbing your eyes while you’re wearing them.
10. There are people who actually believe we could whip this thing by drinking Clorox or injecting Lysol.
11. It doesn’t take an asteroid strike for the earth to start purging itself.

So, what have I been doing with all my time in isolation?

Not nearly what I intended to do. The projects I’m working on writing are not advancing at the pace I expected them to. It’s taking even longer for me to edit a boring client project than I anticipated. It’s taking even longer for my editor to edit my project. For the same reason.

What I’m making progress on is getting more of my backlist of books re-edited and put online for free reading. Last week, I started posting Steven George & The Dragon at http://nathaneverett.com/releases/stngeorge/

That means that all ten of my published Nathan Everett books are now available for free online reading! Check out the list at http://nathaneverett.com/releases/

I expect I will put more of my Nathan Everett stories online for free reading—stories that to date have not been published at all. That will probably include my newest, American Royalty: Coming of Age, which my editor and I are beginning to agree just doesn’t have the snap of my previous books. I also expect to go back in time a bit and do a refreshed version of Willow Mills, which I wrote and posted back in 2004. I have a few other unpublished stories that will never make it to Amazon, but are still fun to read. There’s even a sequel to Steven George & The Dragon titled Steven George & The Terror. It’s been buried for way too long.

Of course, that’s not all.

I now have twenty-two of my published Devon Layne books (erotic romance and adventure) available for free online reading at http://devonlayne.com/releases/index.html. This includes a new release of my first big hit in this market, The Model Student series.

This is an emotional coming of age story featuring a depressed artist at art school and the incredible changes that come in his life as he faces each new challenge.

“Dean, I’m not going to brag about what I’ve accomplished here and the opportunities that I’ve been given. I’ve been successful. But I’ve got to tell you all that I still get caught up in depression. I still question every decision I make. I’m still scared stiff that I’ll say the wrong thing or that my art won’t be good enough. Every day, Dean Peterson… every day, fellow students… every day, the toughest thing I do is come back.”

You can see the six-book set of Model Student at http://devonlayne.com/ms.html

More of my Devon Layne stories will be put up for free reading as well. You can see the full list at http://devonlayne.com/releases/index.html.

It sounds like I’m doing a lot!

It does sound like I’m accomplishing great things while in isolation. I’m reminded of a former boss and good friend, Michael Orr, who evaluated a project I was proposing. It was quite elaborate and would require a huge amount of research while I developed a ‘style prediction’ algorithm that would be able to predict trends in printing and publishing a year in advance.

He looked at my proposal and said, “It looks like work.” His comment, when explained, was that it would look like I was really doing a lot but that there wasn’t really a value to what I was proposing. I feel, at times, that is what I’m doing at the moment. A big project that looks like work, but when it comes down to it, I’m disguising the fact that I’m not really accomplishing anything new or significant. I’m not pleased with the result of the American Royalty story. I am ten chapters deep in two different Devon Layne stories that are stalled. I have a backlog of story ideas that I could be writing. And, instead, I’m putting my backlist online for free reading and convincing myself that I’m doing my part to help people cope with their isolation by providing entertaining reading at no charge.

Here’s hoping that is actually an accomplishment.