StanleyWheeler

Stories from the stock photo folder.

It's Twilight Zone meets Mayberry. I don't know who put this picture together but it must have a great story to go with it. 

Mirror Universe Spock is performing a mild meld on Barney Fife. Is this also a MU Barney or has has MU Spock engaged in both time travel and universe hopping?  Perhaps he's extracting from the deputy the location of the one bullet he keeps for his revolver. Maybe Spock desires to know why everyone is avoiding Aunt Bea's pickles. On second thought, it looks like Barney is in the engineering section of the Enterprise. Barney has been transported to the MU. He has traded places with Dr. McCoy and drained the universe of color. 

Here's how it looked before the Barney Rift opened.

I don't know if Barney can get back. Kirk and the rest of the crew are doomed -- maybe they all shifted to Mayberry; unless Scotty can construct a starship or transporter from stone knives and Otis' alcohol saturated corpse Federation law is coming to Mayberry.

I like this next picture better.

The thing you need to understand about this picture is that the kid who's wearing his teammate's cleat between his legs never actually jumped.

Finally, my personal favorite, the cover of my slightly humorous noir detective novel Smoke.

I don't know how this picture ended up in my stock photo's folder. That folder is reserved for strange things I find on the internet--like the two pictures above. This book is my favorite of the novels that I have written thus far. I am enjoying writing the work in progress but Smoke is the book that compelled me to stop in the middle of writing Justice Resurgent and write it instead--the story demanded that I write it. I'm not sure whether it was the first person point of view that I used in most of the book, the post-war 1940s setting, the detective story framework, the literary references, or the memorable women characters who play prominently in the story that makes it so memorable for me. Writing, reviewing, and implementing the editing suggestions eventually drains my cup of enthusiasm for a book--except for this book. If I had to go back and read one of my creations again, I would choose this one. If I pick it up and read a few lines, I'm hooked all over again and have to exert some real self control to put it down and walk away.

I have to admit to some disappointment with the cover. I do love it but had hoped for something better. I shot the picture for the cover in my office with high-end photography equipment. "High-end photography equipment" meaning a medium resolution smart phone camera. My daughter and a lady from the theater who was in a play with me at the time came over to the office and we shot some photos. I wanted to include a feminine hand with pink fingernails. The hand was to hold the cigarette with smoky coils ascending. First, I forgot to have the nice lady put on the pink fingernails that I had purchased for the project. Second, the smoke from the cigarette refused to be effectively captured in the photos. Third, the cigarette was a prop cigarette (generously provided by another theater friend) filled with cocao husks or llama droppings or something and smelled like a fire at the garbage dump (that's the prop cigarette that was filled with...and smelled like... My generous friend did not smell like a fire at the garbage dump). Fourth, I was nervous about having two other people help me with it so I rushed through it to keep from wasting their time. All things considered, it turned out pretty well.

There's a link in the upper right hand corner of this blog to look at and/or purchase the book on Amazon should one so desire. Don't kid yourself; you desire.