Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Updates, Trivia, and Musings

Boy, has it been busy. I keep wondering if I can come back to posting something here every day, but the demands of writing and editing my stories are taking too much time. I even thought about starting another blog to cover the writing and keep this one just for sports trivia. The final decision is still pending.

So what's been going on?

My upcoming ebook, Second Chance, is near completion. After the final edits, all that's left are a blurb and cover. Once the book is complete, it will be available for the Kindle and Print On Demand via Createspace. Second Chance is about a man, Gus Harrison, who is 46 years old and obsesses about and lives in the past. He would give anything to go back and save the life of the woman he loved, Penny Neal. On a fateful night in 1987, after breaking up with Gus, Penny's date with her new boyfriend goes horribly wrong and she died in a dormitory stairwell. To make matters worse, Gus's best friend became an alcoholic and later died. Since Penny's death, Gus thought of nothing but his life before Penny's death. One fateful evening, he got his chance to go back in time. What happened next? Once it's published, buy the book and find out.

July's Camp NaNoWriMo is almost upon us. Instead of writing something new, I decided to finish a novel I started after finishing the first draft of The Curse in 2011. The story is titled, Return To Origin. It's a science fiction story inspired by episodes of Ancient Aliens, which I'm a fan. The word count will be a cheat in the beginning and although my goal is 50,000 words, the story may end up being much longer than that. The pre-camp prep work has already begun. Now before you shake your head about the word count, I have an obligation that will take me away from writing during the first week. Besides, I'm tired of this incomplete story being in the pipeline, waiting to be done. It's way past time to finish the first draft.

Last night, a scene went through my head. It involved characters from my short story, A Flash In Time, a story published in The Acts of 1 - A Collection of Short Stories. The scene takes place in 1753. I wrote it out and it's not bad. It's short enough to be a flash fiction story right now, but could grow into more.

Now lets get down to some sports trivia, specifically the Last Place Update. When I last posted, the Houston Astros were on pace to three-peat, but since then they did something unfamiliar to them in recent years: winning. In fact, the Astros are nowhere near the Update's radar. So who are the Kings of the Cellar? It's the 24-41 Tampa Bay Devil Rays! They're 1-9 in their last ten games and 1-13 since May 26. However, they are ahead of the 1962 Mets, who were 18-47 after 65 games and already past the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who won only 20 games that year. The Mets lead the 25-36 Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies by three games. The 33-27 Detroit Tigers get the honorable mention. The Tigers are 3-7 in their last ten games and 6-15 since May 19.

Speaking of trivia, today in 1962, the New York Mets split a double-header with the Chicago Cubs. They played a five game series that weekend, and believe it or not, the hapless Mets won that weekend series 3-2.

Finally, here's some seriously old school baseball trivia. Today in 1918, in a defensive struggle, Bullet Joe Bush pitched the Boston Red Sox to victory over manager Pants Rowland's Chicago White Sox, 1-0. Both starting pitchers pitched complete games and their performances would have been dominating today. Bush struck out six and only allowed three hits. LP Frank Shellenback struck out four and only allowed two hits. The game also featured players with unique names, such as Bullet Joe, Stuffy McInnis, and a young player by the name of Babe Ruth, for the Red Sox, and Chick Gandil (from the Black Sox scandal the next year), Nemo Liebold, and Happy Felsch, for the White Sox. The Red Sox went on to win the World Series that year and wouldn't win another until 2004. For more about this game visit Baseball-Reference.com or the box score here.

Have a great day!!


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