Kewl stuff, Marc!  Happy 60th!  you have me by a year.

Jerry

Happy (belated) Birthday, Marc.   

Sounds like a really great day of shooting.  I'm an avid shooter (shotguns only with a 38 for protection) so I understand what fun you had.     I  call it instant gratification! 

Jackie wrote on Sep 23^rd, 2013 at 8:39am:


Yeah, I remember hearing about your skill set with clays.......I know enough not to embarrass myself, so I won't even shoot around you!

Besides, I'm down to two shotguns now - my old 1972 Winchester 101 12ga Field Grade which swings like an extension my arm and a newer auto loader which just ain't right, except for self defense. Everyone seems to cry about recoil with the 101, but the old girl was singing for me on Sunday, with no bruises after 300. The young guys loved running 12ga slugs down range, 9 at time with the Mossy 930 Pro. (Gotta admit it's pretty cool to ring a 16" steel plate at 200 yards with a basic Foster slug)

For personal carry - yep, I'm a wheel gun guy. My wife is deadly with her Ruger LCR-357, but my large hands need a larger frame. Besides, pistols/revolvers aren't combat weapons - they are "get off of me" guns.

Folks who don't shoot, don't understand that instant gratification concept - especially when you see all powder against a deep blue sky............

Marc

Hi All,
Sadly it's time to say Au Renoir to Paris. We had a great
time here sight seeing, shopping, and eating. The food
and wine here are to die for, but it's now time to catch
the Eurostar back to London to chill out and catch a couple
of shows up west before heading back home down under.

Hoppy.
P

My good news for today is:  I finally finished my first novel!  64,500 words, that will probably be trimmed down to about 60,000 when I finish editing.  I've always wanted to write, but never had the time.  Now since I've been laid up I've had plenty of time, and I've really been enjoying myself. 

The hard part comes now with the editing and proof-reading, then I have to see if I can find a publisher and/or an agent that is interested.  Really don't know if it is any good or not.  My daughter likes it, so I have one fan!

Joe Sprecco gets credit for trying to make it sound like I know what i'm talking about in one area, but the rest is from my fertile imagination.

Callico wrote on Sep 24^th, 2013 at 2:43am:


Wow - I guess I haven't been around enough - I didn't realize that you were a budding novelist. Congrats on that achievement, Jerry!

Marc

Thanks, Marc.  Now we  just have to see if it is good enough to publish, and then if it will sell.     If nothing else, I've learned through the experience, and I had fun doing it.  I've read a lot in my life, and I've always wanted to write one.  Wish I had started sooner.

Jerry

Jerry,

The key thing here is to just keep going. The rejection letters will seem daunting, unless you remind yourself that by far MOST submissions are bounced all over the place before the right person sees the potential.

Unless you are incredibly lucky, or extraordinarily gifted, your work may go through multiple intinerations before I can buy it on Amazon. Use your Cluster Headache experince to power through WITHOUT folding!

Marc

Guiseppi wrote on Sep 24^th, 2013 at 5:41pm:


Joe, were you taking on 17 bad guys at a time?  The Marine Corps teaches one shot one kill.   

Running and hiding now!

You got that right,!

Hi All,
Arrived back home down under last night. Now it's back to
the daily routine of domestic chore's 

Hoppy.

Congrats Jerry, we need to compare. I finished mine too. Got angry a few years ago and everyone I've been meaning to kill off in my life - I got rid of.

It was great therapy and it's ain't bad (my opinion). Still needs some tweaking, but it's put on "hold" for now until I can go back "objectively" and read it again and see where I want to tweak.

Maybe some day our friends can say they knew us back when. 

And speaking of guns.. I have an OLD .22 that belonged to my husband's grandfather (he died 48 years ago at 83), handed down to his mother and then to him. I'm keeping it for my grandson (Idiot Son would probably hock it). It's a bolt action and works great for shooting (at) coyotes.

Also have a Ruger Bearcat .22 6-shooter that Bill gave me back in '67 that's my pride and joy. short barrel and just fits my "small" hand. Still have the box it came in.

have a closet full of other guns, but those are my babies. 

Thanks for the kind words.  I'm in the edit phase right now, which seems almost the same as rewriting the book!  Then I'll see about turning it over to a professional editor.  I have considered Amazon's self-publish route, but I think I'm going with Smashwords, because it markets books in all eBook formats automatically, and lists it on all the book retailers.  If I want to have it printed I can do that also, and if it is good enough a publisher can contact me for the rights after it is published in eBook format.  I recognize the odds of that happening are extremely rare, but finding a publisher and going through all that entails for the chances of it selling well enough to make a return are slim on a first book.  Hemingway or Clancy I am not. 

I have no pie-eyed dreams about great success with it, but i surely had fun writing and am already working on a couple of other ideas for future works.  Hoping I can at least make enough to keep the wolf from the door until I can go back to work.

To those who have offered help with proof-reading, etc. I'll be back with you shortly, with gratitude.  If anyone knows a good editor that is reasonable I would love a recommendation.

Jerry