I have discovered something

I have discovered a basic fear in the process of writing a book. Oh, there is the obvious, what if no one likes it?  All that work to fail?  That kind of reasoning has never stopped me before, mostly I just do it and learn as I go.  So far I have just written the first short chapter and my problem is I do not know where this is going?   Part of me says to outline it first, develop the story and discover the characters.
Surely the Author needs to know what is happening!  I do not know.  I don't do metal work that way.
I'll give the client a very rough sketch of the project but always tell them that it is only the measurements that are important and I don't guarantee the final product will resemble the sketch at all.  What  is important to me as the metal artist is that the final piece belong.  Comfortable where it ends up and looks as though it belongs there, might have always been there.  I seldom weld on a table and perfer my work to be fixed horizontally, fixed between steel posts in my shop.  Much like a painter I can stand back to examine and see what needs to be done.  Seriously, it talks to me.
     The trick for me will be to keep the passion going, not get hung up in rules or regulations or even the order of things.  Much of this tale I spin will be out of order but it is a first draft, unedited and we can make sense of it later, right?  There will be "real facts" to this story but I will change them to make my life and the telling easier on me.  The girl involved is somewhere in Europe and I don't even have a passport so I will put her closer to home where I can be a bit lazier and my Tom-Tom will be of some use.  Parts of the story will be easy, ideas right out of the newspapers.  I just have to find a connection.
   I really, really want your comments and feedback, ideas and contributions.  It is not the story of an ex-cop or a navy seal guy.  The blog world will have a lot to do with it.  You are my investigators and my resource.  When I discover mysterious things washed up on the beach, maybe you could suggest what it is that I have found and where the story needs to go?
    So I am throwing fear out the window and begining Feb. 1st on my new blog:
mybook-stonepost.blogspot.com/ we will begin. There really is no fear.  What is so cool is if this doesn't work we can just click "delete" and it will all go away!

I am Back!

Well, maybe I'm back I want to begin a whole NEW BLOG:  mybook-stonepost.blogspot.com
First let me get you up to date since my last post.  I am still free of cancer!  That is the very good news,
just had my 2 year check up yesterday and passed with flying colors!  I have had a couple very small welding job, nothing to shake a stick at but work in this down and damned economy so I am not complaining. My little studio is finished and I have painted a little, but not too much, no stick shakin g there either.  This Spring I will be adding a window, openable for ventilation and then it will be perfect.
     Since my retirement that came a little earlier than I wanted because of the cancer thing and the economy thing, as you know, I got into painting, a little more with my metal art and blogging!  I really miss the Blogging!  I like it because I have met some great people here from all around the world. It gives me hope for the planet; we still have a chance. I also like it because it helps me think things out.  I have found wonderful kindred spirits here and people who disagree with me.  I like that too as I am not fixed in my positions and like being exposed to various ideas.  I live in Oregon, in a small valley town and if you count the nearby towns all of us might amount to 200,000 people!
No subways, no gangs, not much violence and just a little graffitee.  It is a walkable town, day or night.
   I've learned the computer during these past two years, learned about "Google" and looking up people and discovered I know (and in some cases "really know"!) some very famous people.
   To cut it short here is what has happened.  In 30 years in the construction trades, other than blue prints and the newspaper I had pretty much quit reading.  I was initially afraid to contact people from my past because my language now is pretty much what you might expect from a construction guy.  I can curse up a storm with the best of them, and yes, I have been in bar room fights, and I can dress uo, go to City Hall and get a building permit.  I have those talents now.
    When you go down one road you may not go down another.  Left or right, not both. I don't regret anything I have done and the choices that got me to where I am.  I realized one day while taking my bath that I am not stuck.  Time is a continuum and at every moment we have that choice: left or right, this or that, do I or don't I?
   One of these famous people that I know (wouldn't you know they are both women!...No, that is not true, I know a Movie Actor too!) has written ten books so I began there.  Then, for fun and because I was without direction I went on to read a bunch of books on Art History.  Just so I could know who was doing what and when.  That got me into some history books and I have just been on a reading jag.
   For Christmas I received the latest Michael Connelly books and one by James Patterson and since then have been on a mystery novel roller coaster, reading one a day and trading books with a good friend of mine.
   Last week we had a crime in our town that made the Front Page.  That Never happens!  It was so bizzare that it made the Huffington Post!  Somebody went through a skylight in one of those old industrial buildings and repelled down eighteen feet on rope, just like in "The Thomas Crown Affair"!
It was a metal shop much like mine and the guy who rented it was an artist, much like me. It wasn't your run of the mill metal theft by crazed meth addicted drug addicts looking for a fast buck.  Only 2 things were stolen and a lot of heavy, valuable metal and tools were left.  The prize was a metal sculpture that was commisioned and rejected by a ski resort.  It was mostly made of up used skis with a death mask made of recycled metal in the center.  Not deemed appropriate for a ski lodge!  Someone plotted and planned this theft and took climbing rope with them to do the job.
   So I want to write a story!  How hard can it be?  It is all a formula, isn't it?  You have to create a likable character (ME!), create  a mystery and get him to solve it.  Sounds simple.  Of course I will change all of the names, even mine!  I have the essential ingredients, a small crime that will get very complicated! famous people!  Can you have a mystery thriller book without sex?  Gee, I don't know about that part? 
    I am telling you all this because I want you to know I am still alive but also because I would like your help.  I don't have the story even outlined, so far one small chapter.  No middle, no end. It is going to be half-truths and lots of lies, that is all I know.  I want suggestions and comment and criticism and maybe we can do some of this together?  Find a direction? It might be fun and if it isn't that is okay too.  We will find something else to do!

Mixing My Blogs!

I have two Blogs, this one and the other one. The Cancer Blog is the other one and is supposed to be that story. The story of the Hero who almost doesn't make it and is constantly getting deeper in trouble before he miraculously escapes just in the nick of time, running off into the sunset with his sweetheart. This Blog is suppose to be about Art, so really it can be anything I want. They overlap. A book within a book. They are both story telling. There is a commonality to them. So, you want to hear my "Faith healer" story? It is Art, I promise.
This all happened over thirty years ago when I was very sick. I never knew what was wrong with me. I developed diarrhea like you wouldn't believe. It was like water, about twenty times a day, and all through the night. I lost over twenty pounds in a very short time. I have forgotten every single detail. I did go to my doctor who preformed a lot of tests on me, drinking barium, x-rays, lab culture stuff, the whole lot. He couldn't find the cause and wanted to do experimental, exploratory surgery on me! I told him that I really needed to delay that decision!
I was put on a diet of eating stale toast. I would toast the bread and leave it on the counter and eat it the next day, plain. That is a diet for constipation but it didn't work. This all went on for at least ten days with no improvement. I drank lots of liquids and they ran right through me.
A friend of mine is a Rosicrucian and I am not really sure what that really means. He stopped by one day and wanted to take me to a friend of his, a Mr. Dumount. He was also a Rosicrucian and had been so for years and years. He was an old guy in his late eighties. I went to the bathroom before we left and upon arrival at Mr. Dumount's house. Watery, watery, both times!
He lived in a small nondescript house on the edge of a nearby town. I remember sitting in his living room and talking about his rock collection and his explaining to me that the Earth was alive.
My friend had told me lots of stories on the way to his house. Mr. Dumount could levitate. He could hold a light bulb in his hands and turn it on. He had a book in his living room full of signatures of people that he has helped over the years. People who arrive in crutches and left on their own. I told my friend that I didn't believe in any of this. "You don't need to" he said, "he does."
After about half an hour of small chit chat and using his bathroom twice with my watery deposit, we went to a back bedroom with a little couch and I was told to lay down. Nothing weird here, I was fully clothed and he was standing over me. He never touched me. He began with his hands at the top of my head and ran them slowly, about three inches from my body, all the way down to my toes. This whole thing took about twenty minutes and the sweat was pouring off his brow. He said nothing but was very intense. His sweat was dripping on me.
When he was done he said he was very tired and needed to rest and would I please sign his book on the way out. I am thinking sure, this was a waste of time and could I please use his bathroom before we left!
This is the part that is unbelievable. Totally inexplicable. Weird. I used his bathroom and everything was normal!!! For the first time in almost two weeks I had a normal crap! There was no gradual improvement. It was instantaneous.
He would take no money although I offered it to him. Just to please sign his book. It would have been nice to have known him while I was fighting cancer but he must be long since dead. I think.