I got drafted... or... Taking a shot!

It's been a busy couple of weeks in our little corner of the universe. And, both parts of the title are accurate within the last week!

Last week I got drafted to help out with a young men's activity. I helped out because our young men's leadership is down to... um... ONE GUY. We took the boys out shooting and had a really good time at it. One of our boys (all of 12 and not exactly buff) was a bit apprehensive (it was his first time holding a gun). By the end of the day he'd actually fired the biggest rifle we had out there (a .45-70).

As for myself I have confirmed that I have mixed feelings about certain Russian made semi-autos. Aaannd, being me, it just wouldn't be a trip out into the wild without bringing something home...

Yes, it's junk (or it looks like junk), but that seriously thick glass (left can) will get used in some upcoming projects. The right can holds some casings I recovered. Yes, I know that steel cases and rim fires can't be reloaded effectively, but... brass melts and steel can be recycled... Just for reference the casing in the glass can is a 7.62x39 that I put in there for scale...

I'm not going to talk about what I'm planning on doing with any of that stuff at this time because there's more immediate coolness.

Moving on with our theme of taking a shot...
I finished a project this week, my chainmail messenger bag. That one will be featured in an upcoming post too. Getting it finished cleared the way for a brand new project using mailing techniques I haven't played with before...

As you can see it took me a couple of shots to get the ring sizes right (the one on the right...), but I'm on my way to making new cool stuff so it was worth it.

Writing is still going on of course, but I'm not going to talk too much about that...
Instead I'd like to announce the best interruption to my writing schedule in a long time!
Lisa will be doing the official proposal meeting for her dissertation on Sept 16th!
After the meeting the real fun begins...
She'll be collecting a bunch of data; analyzing it with some big scary equations and software; and then writing up a big old honking paper that she then has to defend in front of her committee.

It's a pretty major step and I'm proud of her.

I'm really not going to say much about my writing at this point, but...

I will say...

If you'd like to find out how to get your hands on this, and other bits of shiny, stay tuned for future posts! That's right! I may be drafting you...

That's it for this one. I'll probably have Lisa write one in two...
Until then...

This just seems to be the right way to end this one... (thanks and credit to Peter Gabriel)

Plinking at progress...

Lisa reports she's feeling confident about trying to set a date for her dissertation proposal. That means, at least for the moment, most of her committee can agree about what she means on the stuff for her study (I understood most of it... oh... a year ago?). Of course once she actually has a proposal date she gets to gear up for people asking interesting questions about what she wants to study...

Over on my side of the office I've made my first foray into the world of gun smithing. Nothing really exciting I put a new grip on my snubby.

Truly one of those cases of 'if you read the instructions and think things will go OK'.

I've even succeeded in getting Lisa to do a little shooting

If I recall this one was taken while she was amazing a friend of mine by taking out her target on the first shot.

Speaking of that trip... some of my folks heard me talking about hitting the bottle...

In my world that might not mean what you think it means... But, I did find a really fun way to make the broken glass for my 'beach glass' projects! Incidentally the silvery bit is where my round hit the back side of the bottle. I'm finding there's a whole interesting sub set of ballistics here... Lisa took out her bottle on the first shot with a .38 special. Mine (above) hit the bottle in a different spot and only shattered one side of the bottle. My buddy with a .40 cal decapitated the bottle with the first shot and needed a second to shatter it... interesting... I think I need more bottles...

Here's some of the glass after the next stage of processing...

What am I going to do with it? I'm not entirely sure yet but that's the fun part!

 Warning!!! Talky wordy stuff ahead! (Gah! You'd think he'd stop talking about writing at some point!!!)

The book I was going to do related to the glass stuff has fluctuated, but is currently back on (which means I'm up to three books actively in some stage of the works, with a back list to be worked on (yikes!)).

I've started research for a new (non craft related) non-fiction. I'm not sure which is scarier: the fact that I've committed myself to read 2000 pages worth of research material, or the fact that I know exactly how many hours that will take me...

The third item on the schedule is the novel Johnson Farm which is in a read and edit mode at the moment. The first feedback is good and I am quickly moving on to the most critical segment of this part, actual young adult readers (dum, dum, DUUUM!!).

I'm also moving on to the marketing side for Johnson Farm. This will include the usual electronic commentary and advertising, and a Kickstarter Campaign  to fund the initial launch. To answer a question before it's asked I want to release the first one under my own label because I would really like it to be a Forever Mountain book. There are plans in the works to move things over to a larger publisher after a couple of critical goals (including the writing of the second book). So, hopefully I'll be doing a book signing at a Deseret book near you at some point in the near future (Maybe Seagull for you LA people...)

And yes I did mention writing the second book... That's this years NANOWRIMO project, and I'll get around to talking about it later...

More to say, but I'll save some of that for the next one... Hopefully  Lisa's got some good news for us next week, and I'll see you in two. (In the mean time anyone who keeps reading will be sent back into that interesting place I call the inside of my head... Thanks to Information Society for posting the video and as for the rest of you...   don't say I didn't warn you...)

What happened to the Honda???

"What happened to your Honda?" actual question I had to answer today...

The easy answer:
It's in for repairs.

The more detailed answer:
I told them it was the transmission, but they thought it was the front axle... then they thought it was the wheel bearing... then they figured out it was the transmission... (note: I will not be paying for the wheel barring or the axle). The upshot is that the car is in for repairs and it's taking longer than expected to fix it, but because they had so much trouble figuring it out they're comping the rental till they get the car fixed (behold the power of words... the writer (and no- car guy...) diagnosed the problem and is getting a discount...)

The long answer:
Ok, so there we were heading up Trail Creek to the secret Forever Mountain Publishing marksmanship training range (hey a security section's gotta train) when we were attacked by these ninja cows (note: most cows are not actually ninjas (but these were I tells ya))...dressed in all black...just at the edge of the shrubbery...

The car really is in for repairs and I can tell you the Civic that we have for a loaner isn't really my style... But it just fits in with the adventures...

Speaking of Other Adventures...
As I write this we're gearing up for yet another family reunion experience. Specifically Lisa is bombarding me with potential activities and I'm reassuring her that as long as I have a place to write and a soda I'm  fine...

I'm actually kind of looking forward to the family stuff but I'm also quite serious about the writing stuff (those who understand understand; those who don't understand stay away from my pen/paper/soda and nobody gets hurt ;-)  )

Also in the news we are apparently accepting tribute now...

One of the professors at ISU brought these to Lisa last week. It's actually funny, with everything going on we haven't had time to hunt for rocks. We definitely haven't had time to do anything with rocks. But... we still somehow end up with more rocks...

I also have some interesting research going on (as a writer/psychologist I can call just about anything 'research' and be at least partially accurate...)

but for some reason Lisa thinks guns and family reunions might not mix, so I'll save it for another post...

Speaking of writing (you know it had to be here somewhere...)
I'm actually fairly serious about that writing through the reunion thing... I've got an appointment for my book pitch on the 13th so I need to be ready. I also have the first draft I'm setting down to get ready for the pitch, next year's non fiction title, some short stories...

I would also like to point out to our single readers that it is a confirmed phenomenon writers attract members of the opposite sex (It's true, and if I repeat it enough I'll motivate Lisa to get her own new sidearm...). This can be a blessing or a curse... It's a blessing when it gets you something you want (like better service at a restaurant or dates for you single writers out there...) and a curse when you're stuck at a car dealership with an all out chatterbox...

Lisa reports she's got chapter three of her dissertation out for review and is well on her way to
re-reorganizing her committee so progress is being made...

I think that's it for this one...
Until next time...

beware the ninja cows!!!

Wee'reee Back!!!

Ok, so people may have noticed that we've missed a few posts here on the Adventures of Patrick and Lisa...

Well, May was an interesting month. Chainmail Bottle Carriers officially hit the market on May 4th (Yes, it was supposed to be April but the guys doing the e-book conversion didn't quite get the idea that captions belonged on the same page as the pictures...). After the e-book there was the Mother's Day shooting incident... (both of which were talked about in our last post).


Lots of wordy stuff:
Since then we have invested in a block of ISBN numbers (those weird little numbers you find on books that let you find the exact book and edition you're looking for) and filed paperwork for our own publishing label. So we are now operating as Forever Mountain Publishing! The first release under the Forever Mountain label is also Chainmail Bottle Carriers (the PDF version instead of the e-book (I hold the rights for it and they're considered different editions because they're a different kind of file...)). The PDF is available here. The e-book has much wider distribution thanks to Amazon and other sources.

About the same time the pitch for my next book, a novel called Johnson Farm, was read and critiqued live in a webinar. I have an appointment with some publishing people about the book next month, so I may be announcing a change in publishing plans before too long. In the meantime I'm fairly on track for Johnson Farm to come out in December.

I've also gotten started on the next novel... Started being the key word... I've got the first couple of  chapters in but I'm finding this one is more complicated than I expected and I'm giving myself more time to get everything worked out. This is also the book that several nieces and nephews asked if I would work their names into it... I've been working on that... That takes a bit of creativity too.
You can expect bits and pieces about this to show up in both blogs, but that's it for now...

Progress...
Lisa continues to move forward on her dissertation. She wanted to be farther than she is but it's a writing process and it takes time. She is also down to do two conferences this year and may be working on the inside of one of them.

Lisa's also been knitting up a storm and interacting in her knitting community. She's officially hitting the point where she's modifying patterns and confident enough about it that she's actually talking to people about the mods (she can talk more about that later...).

Firepower!
I actually have to tell on one of my good friends just a little bit. I picked up a new .357 snub nosed revolver a couple of weeks ago. This one is not a snap decision it's the end of a process of finding the right piece of equipment for our needs.

Well, a friend of mine (who is a shooter but not experienced with the type of weapon in question) went with me for the first run shooting it (still working on breaking it in...). Initially I don't think he was really impressed. He brought his .40 automatic which holds three times the rounds and has a longer barrel and better sights.

Initially he would have been right. The first 20 rounds or so were .38 specials; fairly mild, but good enough (not as powerful as his .40s). Then, when we switched guns for a round or two, he realized I'm actually a lot better shot than people might think...

Those .38s are a milder load but can do the job if you put them in the right place.

Then I loaded up with the .357s... Naturally I didn't hit anything on the first go with them (have to adapt to the heavier recoil and a little different trajectory), but they definitely got his attention! I mean genuine startle reaction time.

I checked a book when I got home and the .357s I was shooting had about three times the energy of the .38s and one and a half times the energy of his .40s... I may have made a new .357 fan...

Summing up...
So that's about it for now. Some projects are complete. Others are moving forward. And a few new ones are coming on line. We're looking forward to seeing some of the family and sharing some adventures with them.

Hopefully Lisa gets a chance to post next week. In the mean time there are words to be written and projects to be done.
What's this month going to look like?
Maybe...


Thanks to DocJackz for the video. Yes I'm aware that The Doctor doesn't carry a gun and James Bonds is a PPK. I'm not claiming to be entirely like either one...

Thanks for reading see you next week.