StanleyWheeler

    The picture isn't from Writers Cantina, it's one I created from a scene in my book, Accidental Wizard , which will be published in September. ___________    I had planned to be on the road by 3 pm. The assistant who scheduled me for the mediation did not care about my plans. The judge conducting the mediation did not care about my plans. The crime victims and others at the mediation did not care about my plans. Not one soul shed even a figurative tear that I had already missed shooting wheel locks and flintlocks. The law is a harsh mistress. My tires eventually met the asphalt trail extending from my house to the Writers Cantina. Because of the late start, I dropped my wife off at a gas station so she could hitch a ride to her sister’s house. Actually, her sister came and picked her up, and I waited for her sister to arrive before I continued the journey. In contradistinction to last year’s experience, the hotel check-in and the room were unremarkable....

I think I captured the photo above from Jay Barnson's presentation on writing pulp. I attended another presentation he did on monsters from North American myths. I let him know that I was already using some of them in my Tomahawks and Dragon Fire Series. However, I get ahead of myself. Let me back up. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. It was Writers Cantina time and my third consecutive weekend on the road. Things got interesting when I discovered that the hotel I had booked was not the pleasant place at which I had stayed the two previous years. That could be because I waited so long to make the reservation, not being certain whether I would be able to attend the cantina this year. There was no signage on the hotel and men in lift worked on a big blank space over the entrance. Once inside, a young man with ties to India greeted me at the counter and assigned me a room on the third floor. It took a couple trips for me to get my stuff to the room and I decided I s...

  Interview with Fred Phillips Author of The Gold and Fire Series and more Please tell me a little about your current work in progress. I have two projects that I hope to get across the finish line before the end of the year. One is the second book in the "Gold and Fire" series, which will be launching with "Dreams of Gold and Fire" from Raconteur Press on July 30. I think I have the title for the sequel in my head, but I'm not quite ready to commit yet. Things are always subject to change in the writing process, but I can say for sure that it will involve gold and fire. I plan to write the third book in 2026, and I'm pretty certain that it will be titled "Knight of Gold and Fire." That's as far as I have things planned, and that plan is only loose at this point. After that, we'll see where the story goes. Of course, it will be up to Raconteur when or if the others will be published. The second project is a western fantasy for adults ti...

  The weary miles betwixt Le Chateau du Chat Gris and the UCC prevented me from posting last week. Today I'll recount what I can remember with help from my recent newsletter. What I can't remember, I'll fabricate to the best of my recollection. I made certain not to arrive exceedingly early. I learned my lesson last year with the hauling of ice and comestibles with Jana, John, et al. I arrived less than a half hour before the starting gun sounded and got checked in, collected my two shirts, and caught up with Colby and Rick. I then visited the rooms and decided which presentation I would first attend. The local constabulary made an appearance and brought some strong opinions regarding our choice of vehicular positioning. Although we were a full tome of writers with our poetic licenses at the ready, we declined to throw down the gauntlet of semantics and the complete lack of prohibitory signage, and instead moved our cars to the graveled area. A noticeable improvement over l...

  I rolled into the UCCC--which does not stand for Uniform Commercial Code Conference--for the Writers Cantina around 8:30. There were two other cars in the lot, a white van and something blue that was not a van. A man occupied the driver's seat of the white van. I approached the vehicle on the passenger side, and he didn't roll up the window, drive away, or brandish a weapon, so I introduced myself. He called himself Lee and hailed from an unnamed swath of sod and sage near Vernal. He was a writer. I had arrived at the correct location, but he told me the place was locked. Another individual arrived and, without making inquiry with us, went toward the building. I lost sight of him as I continued my conversation with Lee. A fourth party arrived--and I use "party" to mean a particular individual for the express purpose of making the event sound more festive--and we three decided to storm the castle. We didn't see the third individual and therefore assumed he had go...