Keep On Smiling?

A Pause to Review

My hardcore loyal followers (you know who you are: I owe you money) have been most generous with support as I indulge myself by posting my efforts at some fiction writing. But back last winter when I ran that "LA" series about my highly charged visit with my son in Los Angeles I was getting over 300 page views a day. (Big time for me). Comments were sparse, but I think a lot of that was due to the content leaving readers a little stunned and not sure what to say.

Not Smiling

The "Smiling" series is barely getting a hundred hits a day, not much more than my usual stuff. I don't know...well, let's face it, people are far more interested in real life family drama and sex than make believe. I hate writing fiction. It sucks. I read it all the time and what I am dishing out here is Florida mystery fiction (sorta), a burgeoning genre and one I am well qualified to serve up. But still, I prefer telling mildly-stretched true tales to making stuff up. Ironically, the events in Smiling In the Sunshine COULD have happened; every character in the book is based on a real person and the events, for the most part, actually occurred, albeit twenty years ago.

But still it is fiction.

I don't seem to be growing my readership with these posts and the truth is, I thought I would be working in the real world by now and was using the series to keep the Blog alive while I hacked around with hammers and nails. But even that didn't happen and now I'm pondering on what to do about it all.

So What To Do

I could start a separate Blog page for the book and keep it going that way. I have fifteen chapters written and by feeling a little pressure to finish it I would probably (maybe) actually write the thing. The fun part of the project, for me, and hopefully for you guys, is that what you are seeing is the before- the-editor's-edition version. It's just me hacking it out and finding my way. After it's all done, I would then have to re-write the whole thing and fix all the weak stuff.

Then sell the movie rights for a gazillion bucks.

I Miss Slick Willie

As far as the family drama and sex parts go, (cue Jerry Springer) Smiling in the Sunshine could be a porno movie, almost, if I tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We were a pretty randy bunch, we were, when my crowd was facing forty, looking back like pirates and blasting around on sailboats and spending WAY too much time drunk and naked and goofing off in saloons where we could get away with just about anything, and often did...now we are all staring down sixty and most of us, (at least the ones still living), are in absolute denial about those days and yeah, there are some losses and broken homes and some jail time in the dust of the Clinton years. Fuck! The Clinton years! I miss 'em, I do!

So...”Smiling” is my fond look back and maybe I need to start over. I don't know. I really want to do up this piece of fiction but it is coming out...cheap? I just want a fun book with a little loss and heartbreak and triumph to come out. It's about the Fountain of Youth, after all...I've seen it, tasted its waters and shaken the hand of the Mango Man.

Or was that a dream I had...

PALEO MAN!

So anyway, folks, I'm not sure what to do, or where the readers are hiding. Meanwhile, my visits to the VA doctors have all been sorted out (after a year! Hey, it's the VA) and I'm having a whole new experience with weight loss and diet. My journal for the last few weeks has been kinda fun and I want to tell about it. Paleo Tim Joe is the thing and in ten days I have not ridden my bicycle less than thirty miles per. That's three hundred miles me darlin's! I am on my own wacky Trailer Park version of the Cave Man diet and I dropped thirteen pounds in those ten days. That got my attention, plus, I'm...excited! Probably just a manic mood swing but I want to type it up.

And the sad thing about the dogs on this morning's ride. (Three dogs, thirty-six miles).

Also, I have been formally evicted from the Park and I'm not sure about what's next with that situation...

Cheese and Whine Are Not Paleo

OK. This is not a cry for help. Wait, it is. Do I fiddle with posting the Smiling posts? They are pre-scheduled and changing that will be a bitch. But I ain't happy with the way things are going. I want to keep the Trailer Park Cyclist alive (in more ways than one) and I also want to not be a tease with the novel. I want to Keep On Smilin'! 

Make any suggestions you like. I never do what other people tell me to do, anyway. But if I don't un-schedule those posts and put this ramble up on Monday, nobody will see it. (Don't think I don't know that you only read my stuff while you're on the clock).

Thanks for listening.

Yer pal, tj