Archived articles of "The View from Buzby Beach" from the previous site

 02/13/2021   Cold Rainy February Saturday

Have you heard of Galentine's Day? I had not until today when I came across it on Twitter. A quick check on Google taught me that Galentine's Day is a faux holiday created on a TV sit-com. The idea caught the fancy of a few people and now has become a thing in certain circles.

Galentine's Day is celebrated the day before Valentine's Day - another Hallmark holiday. Galentine's Day is a day on which women celebrate their friendships with other women. By definition, Galentine's Day excludes men. Myself, I don't mind being excluded. One less pointless card or gift I must buy.

On the book front, the title I plan to publish next is with my content editor. It has already been through the mill with my three primary proofreaders/beta readers. It has undergone several small and a couple of major changes. I am now patiently waiting to learn what comments and changes my editor will suggest.

I have also been posting some of my work on HubPages. These offerings include serialized novels, novellas, and novelettes as well as a number of short stories. If you'd like to explore these stories, you can do so for free by clicking HERE to see my HubPages profile and the work I've posted there.

WattPages is another site I've posted stories on over the last year. There are currently one serialized novel and one serialized novella on WattPad.

Besides these various published and posted stories, I am working on a new story about a boy who has a recurring dream about meeting a girl at some point in his future. Each time he dreams of her, their relationship progresses a tiny step farther along the road to romance. He begins to anticipate the day they actually meet, but will that day ever come? You'll have to wait and see.

Update: I no longer have any stories posted to WattPad. You may still enjoy some on HubPages and, now, on Kindle Vella.

12/26/2020   Only 364 Days Until Christmas

But who's counting.

Christmas here was enjoyable. I hope that, despite the challenges we all face this holiday season, you were able to experience a blessed Christmas Day.

Due to delivery delays and some communication snafus, we had a handful of duplicate gifts.

My oldest son and my missus didn't coordinate on my gift and I wound up with 2 brand new Lenovo Yoga Smart Tabs. One will be returned and the refund used towards, well, I haven't decided yet.

Much of my time during this break from teaching as been used to work on stories on Hub Pages. Currently, there are several works in progress posted to the site, including serialized novels to which chapters are still being added, serialized novellas, one of which, One Fall in New Hampshire, is complete, and several short stories. I invite you to visit and enjoy reading these beta versions of the stories before they are taken down pending publication as e-books and paperbacks.

I am also spending time during this break catching up on some reading. My list of books I'm currently reading includes the hardcover copy of Sarah Dessen's The Rest of the Story. Sarah is one of my favorite YA writers.

On my new tablet, I'm reading an alternate history, Clash of Eagles, by Alan Smale, in which Rome did not fall and in the 13th Century, sent a legion to North America to find Cahokia. Clash of Eagles is the first in what promises to be an exciting trilogy.

Finally, I am listening to Master and Commander, by Patrick O'Brian on Audible. Patrick Tull does an excellent job as the narrator of this tail of life in the British navy in the early 19th Century.

In between reading and writing, I am enjoying time with the family - both our sons are spending break with us. Both tested negative, as did we, before they came to visit.

With all my best wished for a better 2021.

DW

12/18/2020   We Made It This Far

Today was the last day of class before our Christmas Break. It was also a noon dismissal. Unlike the public schools, we were able to celebrate with Christmas Carols and a Christmas Part before we went your students home to their parents.

The party was subdued compared to prior years. Students had to stay masked other than when eating and had to stay in their socially distanced seats. Still, we had crafts, songs, and videos they were able to enjoy and the morning passed quickly.

Now, we have 16 days before we return to school on January 4, 2021. We sincerely hope and dearly pray that all of our students and their families stay safe over the break and return to us in January ready to get back to learning.

11/27/2020   NANOWRIMO 2020 Winners' Circle

On November 20, I entered the Winners' Circle of the 2020 NaNoWriMo Challenge with my story "This We Share." This is the Tenth Year in a row I have succeeded in writing at least 50.000 words in 30 days. The story now stands at 62,994 words. I would like to keep adding to it until November 30, but, yesterday, I realized I'd reached the end. Finishing only twenty days into the event was the earliest I've ever completed the challenge.
Now, I'm back to deciding which of the drafts I have waiting to work on next. There are two at the top of the stack. I'll let you know which one I choose soon.

 

11/01/2020   NANOWRIMO 2020 Has Begun

My NaNoWriMo project this year is about Mark, an Army veteran who retires after 20 years of service and moves to Buzby Beach before heading off to college as a freshman. Between retirement and starting school, Mark finds himself in some interesting situations. First, our hero deals with his high school girlfriend who is now lukewarm about her marriage to his older brother, with whom Mark does not get along. Second, he meets an attractive divorcee who spends summers and weekends with her teenage daughter and nine-year-old twin sons at the townhouse she received in the divorce 4 doors down from his, and who sometimes seems to want to be just friends and sometimes something more.

Things get more complicated when Mark, our hero, meets Cybil, a 19-year-old freshman who prefers her men to be older and more mature than the boys her own age. You can read the opening scene for yourself below.
Cybil - Chapter 1 Scene 1

Nowhere to Go and Nothing to Do

Mark laid in bed and stared at the time projected on the ceiling by his alarm clock. 04:01

My first day of retirement and my stupid internal clock still wakes me up at 0400.

His retirement ceremony had been brief. A Sergeant First Class, even one with a Distinguished Service Cross, a pair of Silver Stars, a handful of Bronze Stars, and other medals enough to make the left side of his dress blue jacket so heavy he almost had to put counterweights in his right hand pockets to keep from leaning, only rated a moderate sendoff. There had been the obligatory party his comrades in arms threw for him, and then the long drive from Fort Bragg to Buzby Beach.

Mark was too young for Desert Storm, but had taken part in nearly every action the US Army had been involved in since 9/11. He was two years into a four year enlistment when the towers fell. Had the War on Terror not begun, Mark would have left the Army after his hitch, returned home, and gone off to college.

The special talent Mark had for placing a bullet precisely on target at long range was much in demand during the War on Terror. The young soldier, a graduate of the Infantry School, the Airborne and Air Assault Schools, Ranger School, and Sniper School spent most of his next fifteen years deployed to one theater of war or another. Eventually, he became an instructor and taught a new generation of dedicated warriors how to do what he’d done so well so often.

On his ceiling, the time changed from 04:01 to 04:02. Mark got out of bed, visited his bathroom, and then made his way to the kitchen. It was a spartan kitchen. The walls bore the standard off-white paint the rental company recommended while the townhouse was an income property. The electric stove, the matching above-the-stove microwave, the side-by-side refrigerator freezer, and the dishwasher were all finished in burnished stainless steel, as was the double sink. No magnets or children’s drawings adorned the fridge. A solid oak kitchen table capable of seating six filled the bay window of what was called the breakfast nook in the brochures. The word nook suggested a coziness the space in front of the bay window overlooking the communal yard behind the townhouse could not claim.

Plain white curtains were hung on the windows and faux-wood blinds offered shade from the sun by day and privacy from prying eyes by night.

Only two small appliances dotted the composite counters designed to simulate granite. One was an antique drip coffee maker Mark refused to part with. The other was the large toaster oven he rarely used.  In truth, the only two appliances Mark used much since moving into the townhouse were the fridge/freezer and the coffee maker. Not being a fan of his own cooking, Mark rarely prepared a meal at home.

Mark bought his townhouse based on his father’s advice when the units were first being constructed. Mr. Durgess was a contractor who’d grown the business his father started into one of the largest and most highly regarded construction firms in the southeast. Mark believe, justly so, that taking his father’s advice was a safe as money in the bank.

The family company had been run by Mitchell, Mark’s older brother, since their father passed away in 2009 from prostate cancer left too long undiagnosed. Mark had never shared his father’s and brother’s interest in construction. Though Mitchell insisted there was a place for Mark in the company, should he ever want to join, the invitation was offered out of politeness and family obligation more than in any belief Mark would ever take his elder brother up on it.

Mark invested in the townhouse and set it up as a rental property. Over the years, the rents covered the mortgage along with most of the repairs and upkeep. By the time he retired, Mark owned the townhouse free and clear, along with the house he’d live in just off base near Fort Bragg - the house he sold just prior to retirement.

The clock on the microwave showed 04:23 when Mark entered the kitchen and turned on the coffee maker. The basket was already full of ground coffee, Folgers, because that’s what Mark liked to drink. The water reservoir was full. Had Mark not already been awake, the clock on the coffee maker would have turned it on and started the coffee brewing at six o’clock, the time he’d planned to get up.

After turning on the coffee maker, Mark looked in the fridge. An empty fridge looked back at him. The only thing keeping cool inside was an open box of baking soda put there by the rental company’s cleaning crew after the last tenant moved out.

I should probably stock up on a few things. Milk, juice, eggs maybe.

The freezer was just as bare. Only the bin for the automatic ice maker was full.

The plain wooden cabinets with their white ceramic door handles were, other than pots and pans and plates and cups, as empty as the refrigerator.

If I want any breakfast this morning, it looks like I’ll be eating out. I wonder what time EJ’s opens.

Mark asked Google if it knew what time EJ’s Donuts and Deli opened for breakfast. Google informed him that the shop opened at six in the morning. He glanced at the microwave again. It showed 04:31.

The coffee maker finished brewing the coffee. Mark took from the sink the stainless steel travel mug he received the day before at his retirement party. The mug displayed a set of Sergeant First Class stripes on one side and US Army Retired on the other along with the Army Star logo. He’d washed it out upon arriving at home the evening before.

Mark poured himself a mugful and took a tentative sip. He nodded and sighed contentedly. Then, he put the lid on the mug and went back to his bedroom to decide what to wear.