Hey, Christmas! Tone it down!

Not Ready for Prime Time Town.

Many of the problems this town has had have come from growing too big too fast. We just weren't ready for it. The crony small town politics didn't grow well. And outsiders (and elected politicians who have lived here for 5 minutes and have no memory or perspective) brought unrealistic expectations, and overblown predictions to the process.

Still doing it, actually.

**********

On Monday, I made the mistake of watching House, Terra Nova, and Castle without dvr-ing first. So we sat through a RELENTLESS assault of Christmas Cheery ads, dancing and singing and mugging and otherwise attacking my senses. Pink and red and white all over the place, like a bloody crime scene in the snow.

My god, it was was bruising. I felt like hiding my eyes, covering my head. It was just awful.

Christmas....why are you beating me up like this?

**********

Call me a cynic. I don't watch Dancing With The Stars, but I predicted who would win early on just from reading a few of the descriptions. Who's winning would be the most emotionally satisfying? Yep, the injured vet. Bingo.

"Reality" is such a misnomer for these shows. (From American Idol on....) Staged competitions would be a better description. Our modern day wrestling.

I know this is no great insight, but knowing this, why do people still watch?

**********

Speaking of "stage competitions"; I haven't watched a single Republican debate and can't for the life of me imagine the appeal.

I wouldn't watch if they were Democrats, either.

Do people really believe anything is being said? Other than gatchas? Which may or may not indicate leadership abilities? Kind of like job interviews don't really predict the quality of the worker?

You know, how would Lincoln do? (By that I mean, how would he 'look'.)

God forbid you should say anything honest. You'd get drummed off the stage.

**********

Wow. How does Oregon remain in the Top Ten with two losses?

**********

We have mostly Juniper trees surrounding our house.

Do Junipers fall down much? From the wind? When I see pictures of fallen trees, they seem mostly to be pine or fir trees.

Anyone know?

**********

One more to go.

Finally finished the penultimate chapter last weekend.

One more chapter to go.

In the meantime, the events in this second to the last chapter pointed out the need for an interim chapter starring some of the characters that show up. I suspect that there will be a few more interim chapters as well.

I've more or less got the last chapter in my head, so I'm in no hurry to write it. I want it to percolate for awhile. Probably the second most important chapter to get right (after the first chapter.) Meanwhile, I can start drawing my time and continuity graphs, and character profiles and those things I'll need to do the second draft of my store right.

I'll give each chapter as I go along to Jared, to see if he has any last suggestions.

It feels really good to get this book done. Just a feeling of accomplishment, that is almost payment enough in itself. (Though that "doing it just to do it" motivations usually isn't enough to get me going, once I'm finished, it sort of turns out that "doing it" is pretty satisfying.)

I was reading some advice from some other writers about getting everything into the first draft, and then refining it. Unfortunately, I don't work that way. I tend to add lots of detail and embellishment in the second draft, which usually improves it.

I don't think I'll have to do any major plot changes, which are the biggest headache when rewriting. The polishing the writing is something that just happens when I rewrite, so what I'm looking to do is add depth and texture if possible.

This new work process has succeeded in making the story fresh for me, which is really important.

Plus -- I can't believe it -- but I used to write my books on a fricken typewriter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who do you think you are?

I'm writing this entry days before The Article comes out - for those who read the Bulletin and know what I'm talking about.

(Community Life Section, lead article, WRITE ON, Bulletin, 11/22/11.)

This kind of thing make me uncomfortable. I always think people are going to think, "Who the hell do you think you are?"

But there are a couple of reasons to go ahead.

One reason is pretty mercenary. I'm hoping that those of you have never visited my store, will give it a try (as well as those who haven't been in the store lately.)

So there's that.

I'm also hoping people will give this blog a try -- or another try.

But a bigger reason is -- it will make my 92 year old Dad very happy.

I think he'll like it. . He'll show everyone in Bend Villa Court. So that's cool. (Assuming I don't look like a total Dick in the article....)

There's one more reason, of course, and that is The Book. But that's going to be 3 to 6 months before it's ready to show the world, and by then everyone will probably have forgotten.

Like I said, I haven't read the article yet. I just want something here for comments for people who have.


Dunc

Who could've predicted?

Yes the local OSU has a faster pace of growth. But they had a much lower starting point, which makes the growth more dramatic than it appears.

"Local OSU Sets Pace In Growth." Bulletin, 11/21/11.

I also suspect that it has gotten a real boost from the economic malaise around here. When in doubt, go back to school.

If I remember correctly, there was a few years in the middle of the boom when they weren't getting enough students, and the state was thinking of shutting it down.

I'm glad they are managing to build this institution in an atmosphere of cuts.

Such an approach to growth would have been handy with Juniper Ridge, the bus system, and the water system.

Doing what's possible, instead of building a huge new campus.

Someday, when it's time, they may have a new campus, and that will be good too.

***********

Financial guy, Bill Valentine, gets props for predicting the housing bubble in March of 2006.

"Real Estate Contrarian Buys Back In." Bulletin, 11/21/11.

I think that was about the time that a lot of us bubble bloggers started speaking up about the bubble. (I started my blog in November, 2006, after reading Bend Economy Man, and Bend Bubble I and II for several months.)


After years of doubts -- I can remember wondering earlier in the decade where all these new people were coming from and where they were working-- I think it had become so obvious to some of us by 2006 that we began stating our doubts out loud.

Which is why is still bugs me when people running for office in the town, and so-called 'experts', are quoted in the paper as saying, "There was no way we could have foreseen the crash."

Stuff and nonsense.

I was also alarmed at the time by the crazy building of commercial property here in Bend. I think the powers that be have managed that crash under the radar mostly, but it's still hanging out there.

What's good for the kid, is good for the parent.

"E-books For Parents; Paper For Their Kids." Bulletin, 11/21/11.

So this is interesting. Parents who own e-books are still buying book/books for their kids: "...they say they want their kids to be surrounded print books, to experience turning physical pages as they learn..."

"...cuddling up with..." a book.

"It's the intimacy, the intimacy of reading..."

"The shape and size of a book ar part of the reading experience."

"Size and shape 'become part of the emotional experience, the intellectual experience. There's a lot you can't standardize and stick into the electronic experience."


All of which is true.

But it's equally true for the parents.

Are they going to like the sterile world of e-books in the future? What part of their brain recognizes the value of book/books and yet discards it?

Parents are just bigger versions of their kid selves -- hopefully they haven't given up on the more important elements of reading, the elements that they recognize as crucial for their own progeny.

All those virtues listed above are still what I value in books.

Quarterly graphs in the Bulletin.

Not a lot of surprises in the quarterly economic index that the Bulletin publishes. I think the economy is bumping along the bottom, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

The most important graph, to me, is the building permits, which plunged from a high of 412 in 2006 to the current 45. (Not much above the low of 11.)

This graph represents the false economy of the boom. And the drastic results. New building is where new money can be generated: in so many ways. Construction, furnishing, roofs, yards, etc. etc.

And it's dead in the water, and likely to remain so.

Meanwhile, the real economy of Bend is represented in the two tourism graphs: Airport activity and lodging tax, which are up from the bottom, and not that far down from the top.

This is our present and future economy.

Tourism. And all the minimum wages jobs it provides.

Sunday things.

College football exists to teach you the Zen of not-desire.

You can't get hurt if you don't care.

Oregon Ducks quacked it.

**********

OWS seems to be hitting some tipping point.

Interesting.

I think the kids are digging the 60's vibe, man.

**********

I feel like I can more or less ignore the digital books. I can just keep buying book/books for the store, if I think I can sell them.

But comics? DC and Marvel own about 80% of the market share between them and they are plunging willy nilly into the digital world and I can't do a thing about it. In fact, if I want to carry their product, I also apparently have to cut my own throat by having digital as part of the package.

It's their funeral, I guess.

I just keep on diversifying.

I have games as a object lesson. Biggest thing in the world are video games -- and yet I can still manage to sell old-fashioned (well, new-fashioned, old-fashioned) boardgames.

**********

I've been waking up in the middle of the night. Which isn't normal for me. Not sure why.

It takes me a couple hours to get back to sleep.

I don't feel particularly more worried than before. I've been staying up later, trying to avoid this, but it doesn't seem to be working.

Just one of those things, I guess.

**********

Interesting, when you look at a picture of protesters fleeing tear gas, you can't be sure if its Egypt or America....

**********

A year or so ago, I was drawing a neat little diagram for my customers, that explicated my analysis of the e-books.

It was a graph with two lines, that crossed in the middle.

One was the age of the ebook reader, crossed by the age of readers in general.

"When the age of the readers meets the age of the ebook reader, it will be all over."

Thing is, I had the graph backward. I can see that now. The assumption was that ebook readers would be younger, and most book readers were older, so the lines crossed in the middle, like an X.

Instead, it pretty clear that it's older, more affluent readers who are buying ebooks. So the future is already here. The lines are running parallel upward.

I think the adoption rate will slow down as those readers who are interested and can afford to go that route are absorbed.

But -- as you can see, I've been wrong before.

**********

Here we go again.

Back in 1974 or so, I took a class on the politics of protest.

The following isn't meant to be an argument for or against the Occupy Wall Street movement. (I happen to think it's important) but about the way the protest is developing and how the establishment is responding to it.

The establishment had come out of the '60's having learned to respond to mass movements very effectively. I think, in fact, that's one of the reasons there haven't been many since then. They knew better how to respond, and even more importantly, how NOT to respond.

(Well, that and the backlash by middle America against the protests. The protest movements learned from the backlash, as well. (Gay rights and feminism). But mostly, I think the establishment learned how to deal with opposition very effectively.)

One thing that was an absolute no-no in the face of non-violent protest was a forceful response.

Pouring syrup on young people sitting at a lunch counter and punching them. Letting loose dogs on them. Power blasting them with fire hoses. Pulling them off buses and beating them. Meeting them at a bridge and charging them with batons. Throwing them in jail.

Not a good idea unless you want to give the protest movement legitimacy.

Strangely enough, the second best strategy by the establishment is -- to do nothing.

You wait them out. You cooperate. You give in a little.

Even better, you "co-opt" them. That's the best strategy of all.

You say to the protest encampment, "Please pick a person who can speak for you and who we can liaison with."

Then you take that person into your sphere of influence, and you say, "Wow. I'm really impressed by your commitment to free speech. How about if we appoint you to our blue ribbon committee. Or, you know, we could pay you a small stipend to help us understand your movement."

And you keep doing that. Taking them in, watering it down, being as soft as a marshmallow. Until you own them or you've dissipated the energy. I think, really, that happened rather quickly to the Tea Party movement.

But what you don't do is dress up in black uniforms and helmets and guns bristling and pepper spray or punch them in the stomachs. This isn't a slam against the police, but against the 'look' of the authorities right now. Not a real good image. Especially if you use force.

Bad idea.

I guess the Occupy Wall Street movement is fortunate that the current mayors and university presidents don't have anyone on staff that remembers the process of co-opting. They are helping grow the movement through their ignorance. Doing all the wrongs things all over again.

Now, if the protest movement won't also repeat past mistakes, for instance, by being foul-mouthed and violent -- maybe history won't repeat itself.

But more likely:

Here we go again.

POSTSCRIPT: I keep hearing the talking heads talking about the "winter" being enough to stop the movement. That's idiotic. Maybe the numbers will fall for a few months, but as long as they can keep it going until spring, it will come back stronger than ever.

Winter? Hey, let's say I want to get to that other field, and there is a five foot fence. Big deal, man. I'll climb the fence.

How weak do they think this protest is? (You know, unless they're right. But like I said, if they keep being filmed beating and pepper spraying protesters, I think the movements got some legs.)

I mean, the 1% problem isn't going to go away over the winter.

Do you want to live here, or don't you?

I have this theory, which I haven't heard proposed anywhere else, that you build your business on the folks who like you, who want you, who want your product and are willing to pay the price you put on it.

You don't build your business on those who just want more and more, and pay less and less, and who will go elsewhere if you don't satisfy them.

Build your business on the first group, even if it's smaller, and you've built something solid.

Build your business on the second group, and you'll be in constant misery.

Sell to the people who want to buy from you, and don't sell to the people who don't.

Let them go. Some will come back. Most won't.

So -- on to the bigger picture, say you're a town like Bend, and you're hoping to entice business to come to Bend.

Who do you want?

The people who WANT to come here?

Or the people who you have to bribe with fire sales and tax concessions and no-interest loans?

I'm telling you, it may be a slower process (sometimes slower is good) but the first type of business is the one you want, not the second type of business.

Tricycle weather.

If that little bit of melting snow caused Central Oregon traffic chaos, god help us all.

That was nothing. That was, --take it in stride, as your normal due, dudes-- type weather. That was tricycle weather, and if you can't drive it, you're not ready for the big bike. That was, walk the line and tap your nose weather, and if you can't do that, you shouldn't drive. I mean, really.

One of these years we're going to have a real winter or two or three in a row. It's bound to happen. Then what happens?

The carnage on the streets will be unimaginable.

**********

Inordinately pleased that my wife wrote on her blog for the first time in two years. It was nice.

**********

Damn, damn, damn. Lost most of this entry, after laboring over it. Damn.

**********

Restart:

Desperation time at Juniper Ridge? They are offering no property taxes for 3 to 5 years.

Which just points out, really, that not very many people have been expressing interest in moving there.

And if I was someone who had already moved there, I'd be asking for the same consideration.

What's next? A fire sale?

While I doubt it's enough of a saving to entice anyone who wasn't willing to come anyway, it does guarantee that Juniper Ridge doesn't benefit the tax district for another half a decade.

This to me is the equivalent of offering a huge discount on my product. I find that usually doesn't accrue to the bottom line much, and I'm better off waiting for a real sale to a real interested customer.

Isn't this just another give-away to big business on the back of small taxpayers?

Just like there is always someone in small business who is willing to sell at a loss in order to try to capture market share, and who almost always goes out of business but in the meantime devalues the product for everyone -- there will probably always be a small government desperate enough to give into big business demands. (Facebook -- give us what we want or we'll move to Prineville!)

***********

The Bulletin used the word "heavy" in describing the snowfall, which makes me wonder about the origin of the reporter. And the editor who let that word be used.

**********

Meanwhile, the Bulletin is asking that its interest rate on its loan be lowered to 4.5%. (The Source actually has a longer article about this than the Bulletin does...)

I'm going to surprise everyone and say -- that makes sense.

When I had to go to Consumer Credit Counseling and renegotiate my debts (I had resorted to credit cards to save my business after the comic and sports card boom and busts) I was able to lower the rates on almost all my cards, sometimes to zero. (All except #$^@ Capital One, who wouldn't budge, and who still makes me cringe every time I see their commercials with the Viking dude looking into the camera and demanding, "What's in YOUR wallet?" Whimper, whimper.)

When I came out of debt about 10 years ago, I had paid off the principle and tons of interest and penalties and still had a decent credit rating and a viable business which pays taxes and has employees and is giving me a living.

I hope the Bulletin can pull it off, because I think the local area needs a local newspaper of record.

Displaced by Google.

"Did you know your brother Mike is moving to Sante Fe?" my Dad asks.

"Yeah, next year."

"He's closer to a post office there." Uh, huh. See Mike works for the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. Apparently, they don't have post offices there.

"Do you know what Sante Fe means?" he asks. The usual preliminary to a story.

"No, what?"

"I don't know."

I'm flabbergasted.

Well, you have to know my 92 year old Dad. I don't think he has EVER asked me a question he didn't know the answer.

Before there was Google, there was George McGeary. Just ask the Dr.s at St. Charles. He was a legend. I grew up in a house with 10's of thousands of books most of which he had browsed, at least. Facts stuck with him. Genius I.Q. turned to the collection of facts.

Our typical dinner would be a discussion until something came up we didn't know, then it was a scramble to the encyclopedia or dictionary or some other reference book.

I always feared that look he gave me when I said I didn't know something, like -- What kind of idiot am I raising? Of course, as the years went by and I accumulated facts of my own, I realized that there were few if any people who knew as many random facts as my Dad knew.

At the same time, he was a hell of a storyteller and the 'facts' could be --- bent, let's say. Most of us in the family knew when a story he told was being embellished, but visitors to our table were totally convinced.

So when Mom would say, "George!" when he told some whopper, we'd all laugh. And our visitors would look around and say, "What?"

There was always a grain of truth to his stories -- maybe even essentially they were true, just ...you know, fixed up to make them more interesting....

So I was talking Dad home from our weekly pizza this morning in my Toyota Camry, and he says, "Your car is smaller than Linda's...."

"Yep. The smaller the woman the bigger the SUV."

"When I was a kid, they didn't have cars. Horse and buggy."

So, here's the thing. He was born in 1920. So...well, do the math. But we just nod at his stories now, even when they are a little wacky. Which have gotten wackier and wackier.

So I pull out my Iphone, and I say, "This is the same kind of new tech. The same world changing tech..."

Dad is really deaf, so I'm never sure if he understands anything I'm saying, so I tap the dashboard and point to the cell phone.

Anyway, about then, I get an inspiration. I pull over in a parking lot, and while he's saying, "Why are we here? You turned into the wrong parking lot" I look up the meaning of Sante Fe.

I enlarge the words: "HOLY FAITH" as big as I can get them, and show him.

Well, he puzzles that out. Doesn't seem that impressed. And we go on.

What my Dad could have done with Google!

Then again, he might have felt displaced.

The Hook.

Spent the morning working on my short description of my book, I'm Only Human. The elevator pitch, if you will. The hook. The back cover description...

It's not easy. It's an art. It has to work. It has to intrigue the potential reader. We'll see.

Been doing it by using the "chat" mechanism thingy, talking to Jared, my tech and promotional guy.

Chatting online is an interesting experience.

Sentences get short. Choppy.

It's like a real conversation, false starts, overlaps.

But maybe more on point, less distracting.

It's a new world, and I'm just a newbie in it.

Crazy money.

I don't think the economy has recovered in Bend.

The more time passes, the more I think people assume that it has stabilized. But a lot of the surplus cash that was floating around when the boom went bust has probably dried up by now.

We've gained very little population in the last few years, though our city government is still acting like we're still growing rapidly. I suppose they think we'll grow rapidly in the future -- but I don't think that is any sure thing. Like, where are the jobs coming from? If it's all retirement folk, how likely are they to vote in favor of infrastructure improvements? (Hey, I'm for long term planning, but I think sometimes you have to wait for a few more confirmations about what the long term is likely to bring.)

I usually don't comment on other people's misfortune, but there are some things about the Blacksmith's bankruptcy that were interesting.

One -- the amount of money that was being invested, even recently, here in Bend -- when, like I said, I don't think the economy is going anywhere. 2.5 million dollars is a whole lot of meals, and I wonder where that money was going to come from? In that debt, was an investment from another restaurateur that I would've thought was sufficient to start a whole new restaurant or two or three.

I'd like to know more, but The Source has blocked comments -- which I think is a questionable move on the part of a public media. Public comment should be at the source of what they do. KTVZ has a few comments.

Anyway, from what little I can glean, it appears to me that all the debts are being piled on the "personal" side of the ledger, in hopes of keeping the restaurants open. I have a feeling that probably won't wash. If I was a debtor, I'd think I was more likely to get pennies on a dollar from a couple of restaurants than from a guy who has a foreclosed house and is driving a 2001 pickup.

Still, if true, I give Gavin credit for putting his entire personal life on the line, unlike some other situations where it seemed the debt accruer walked away with a nest egg.

Like with the Merenda, it isn't that hard to break out a calculator and figure out how many full meals a place has to serve to break even, much less pay off a profit, much less pay off the original investment. I don't know the dynamics of a restaurant, but it seems like overblown is overblown.

I don't think that it's just that I think small. I don't doubt that the Deschutes Brewery has gained enough market share and capacity to expand the way it has, for instance. But when the money figures I read for opening a market in the Northwest Crossing, or The Decoy, or Volo, or this 2.5 million, it always seems kind of excessive. Like I said, I break out the calculator and start figuring how many meals they have to serve, and it always seems like an unreachable number.

At least they leave a beautiful shell for someone else to come along and occupy.

Crazy money.

How many breweries will the market absorb?

It's interesting to watch the ebb and flow of business trends -- children's clothing stores seem to pop up everywhere, tattoo parlors even more so, and now beer breweries.

We won't know if there are too many breweries until one too many breweries opens, right? That last drink which makes you clumsy.

And that will happen.

I've seen it in my own business. There was a time when there was a sports card shop on every corner. Too many comic stores, too many game stores. I actually saw a pog store open, and saw several businesses who seemed to depend on beanie babies. There are two reptile shops in Bend. Really, is there a need for two?

I've also seen over and over again, successful businesses expand and multiply, and then come crashing down.

Hey, I did it myself. Four stores, two in Bend, one in Redmond and one in Sisters. What was I thinking?

McGeary's corollary to the Peter Principle. A business will expand to its level of incompetence.

The article this morning about golfer's not showing up because of the stock market volatility?

You know what? If your business depends on a stable stock market, you're in the wrong business.

My advice nowadays would be to make your business solid, build in a margin of error, and if you've done all that first, then think about expanding. However, if you expand, it probably makes more sense to get really big, instead of slightly larger. You may fail, but at least the payoff if you succeed will be there. If you get only slightly bigger, the workload increases exponentially, and the monetary payoff will be tied up in the expansion.

Can you say the word -- burnout? Can you say the words -- risky finances?

At the same time, you won't be doing those little things that made your business a success in the first place. You won't have time. You'll have to succeed being bigger by doing things differently.

You'll be in an office, instead of on the floor. Meeting lawyers, instead of customers.

It will be a different thing altogether. I know it is the American way. But is that what you really want?

A lot of small business owners open business because they want to be in control, to make their own decisions, and to do things their way.

The bigger you get, the less that is true.

Just saying, watch out what you wish for.

If I was a Corporate CEO, I'd have been fired long ago.

Once again, I've gotten a ton of material in, and by logically consolidating, I was able to fit it in, and in some ways even streamline the store.

It's amazing, though, how thousands of dollars worth of merchandise can simply blend in, disappear into the inventory.

Diamond has a Blizzard Sale every year, where I can save 10% to 20% on premium product that I'll sell throughout the rest of the year. As well as stocking up on Christmas.

It's an invitation to spend too much.

I'm buying all this stuff on faith that I can keep the trends going that I saw in the July through October period, but not level of business I'm doing in November. If the Jan. through May period next year falls back to last year's levels, I will have definitely overspent.

In a way, I'm trying to force the issue. Buy so much good product that it will do the positive numbers, not the negative numbers.

One of the things that the limited space of my store has done has made me use every foot of the store to try to generate sales. Every category is backed to the fullest extent; even categories that haven't been doing as well lately.

Earlier in the year, while I was concentrating on comics and graphic novels, as usual, and building on new books and board games, and trying to keep up with Magic, I was letting collector cards, anime and manga, and toys sort of coast.

So over the last few months, I've started to turn my attention back to these product lines. They do will enough to keep them in the store -- what I'm trying to do now is make them do better by resupplying them.

There is always a bit of doubt; that I'm just throwing good money after bad.

It doesn't matter how much stuff you have, or how good it is, if people aren't coming in the door.

But that's my business model these days -- get as much material as I can at affordable prices and hope it sells.

That's retail.

Using local settings as a spark to creativity.

Wrote half of the penultimate chapter yesterday, and plan to complete the chapter today. (I haven't been using the Title of the book on this blog, yet, because I'm not certain it will be the final title, but for what it's worth, the working title is: I'M ONLY HUMAN.)

This, after thinking about writing all day Saturday and Sunday. It seems like I think about writing for about one day for every day I actually write anything. (Not counting the vast majority of days when I neither think about nor write.)

I can't explain it. Sometimes, it's not even conscious. I just know I'm doing it. Sometimes I'm talking to myself, talking out ideas. Other times, it's further under the surface and I'm just getting glimmers of ideas.

Back in the days when I was writing full time, I had a Wishing Well metaphor in my head that I visualized, and if it was overflowing with water, or near the top, I was ready to write. If I sensed that it was depleted, I knew to avoid writing.

Anyway, mid-afternoon yesterday, I drove my car out the Badlands, and parked at a trailhead and started writing. I'm not sure why, but getting out into nature seems to help me write. Just driving the half hour to my location also helps. As does walking around.

After writing about 3 pages, I started back to Bend. Just the drive started giving me more ideas.

Since the second to the last scene I'm writing is set in the Old Mill district at twilight, I drove down there just as the sun was setting and wrote another 3 pages. I described the old trees that still exist in that part of town, I imagined my character walking over a footbridge and the river looking like a tidal pool at low tide and so on.

In other words, seeing the actual locations can really help spark the imagination.

Strangely enough, when I was writing heroic fantasy, almost all my settings were built upon Oregon terrain. If I had the protagonists climbing mountains, I went into the mountains. If I had them crossing deserts, I went out into the desert. If I had them following a river, I went to a river.

Back to the current effort:

Some of these later chapters are feeling a little sketchy.

In fact, "sketchy" is the right word for it.

Each chapter is like a preliminary sketch for a painting. Some are more detailed than others, some are more like guidelines.

Some probably stand on their own already, some are going to need a lot more work.

There is a fantasy artist I like, Royo, who also produces line-drawing sketchbooks of the same art he fully paints; and frankly, I prefer the sketches more often than not. It's like hearing a promo tape of a song and liking the early, simple version more than the completed song. (As you know, I've been listening to Daniel Johnston....)

But I know that isn't the way most readers want it -- so I'm going to need to go through these sketch chapters, one by one, and paint in the colors.

I'm glad to finish another book. It's been a long time. I really didn't have much doubt I could do it, but still....if feels good. I kept hearing others talk about writing, and it always gave me the itch, to prove "I can do that!"

Like I said yesterday, I'm going to continue the workmanlike approach for the second draft, and then go crazy on the last draft. I've warned Linda that if I get all obsessive like, I might be a little distant for a couple of months, not terribly available or responsive, so watch out.

Linda and I both write. We met in a writer's group. We give each other space to create.

Still, it's kind of a scary prospect. I'm even thinking of going on another writer's trip -- maybe not go quite so far, and maybe try to keep the expense down, but just go on a writing bender, a lost weekend.

Just a magic pill for creativity.

In talking about the creative process of writing my book, I'm told in an anonymous comment:

"Smoke some pot boyz, your creativity will improve..."

Which happened to mesh with what I've been thinking about.

First off, me and pot don't mix well. I tend to get rather paranoid, and not very motivated. Plus, if I remember from my high school days, the "creativity" was rather over-rated. I remember waking up the next day seeking out my written down "profound" thoughts, and finding the word: "Cheese." Or something like that.

Plus, it's illegal. And I tend to be a bit of a stick in the mud about that.

Still --- I sometimes think I'm just, sooooo close to getting my fiction right. That I just need one more boost.

I wish for a 'performance enhancer." Much like I imagine an athlete does.

I hate drugs. O.K.? But what it - what if - you had a one half hour length of time that could make you millions? (Jeopardy, a job interview, a stock market manipulation) and you knew by taking a powerful drug you could ace it?

Of course, it wouldn't work that way. You'd be so screwed up from a drug you'd never taken before, that it probably wouldn't work. And if you took it enough to to get used to it, it becomes it's own problem. Something like that.

But you can see the temptation.

Alcohol used to be a pretty good help to me, in writing. Sometimes, just sitting down with a beer or two, I could write for hours. Sometimes, after half a bottle of wine, my mind was just spinning out ideas. But I'm noticing that -- 25 years later -- it doesn't seem to work the same way. (I rarely drink, anymore -- the cost the next day is higher than the benefit of the moment.)

Now, I just get sleepy. Or I feel bloated. Or....nothing happens, and I'm sitting there wondering, "Why did I just do that?"

But I still wish for a magic pill. Not so much for creativity, really, but for performance. The actual nuts and bolts of getting that creative image on page. Which is -- well, writing.

But then I ask myself -- what do I prove, if I do that? Wouldn't it be better for my self image to write the book with my own resources?

If it isn't good enough, at least I tried.

In the end, it's just me and a blank page. No magic pills. No magic formula. No Santa's Little Helper.

It's all up to me.

Don't doubt we are a tourist economy.

If any Bend residents doubt we are a tourist economy, they should own a store in downtown Bend.

This month has really sucked, after 3 good months in a row. I think -- think -- I'll beat last year, but only because last year November was so dreadful.

When did November become the worst month? Even with the Black Friday shopping, it can't seem to raise itself from the muck.

Used to be -- September and January were the worst months for my store, and that correlated with the kids being in or out of school. As my customer base got older, this stopped being true. In fact, September is a pretty good month these days. I think that correlates with retired folk still traveling in moderate weather. I also don't see the huge percentage drops in January and February that I used to see. To which I must attribute to Winter sports visitors.

The bottomline is -- we are slow in-between tourist seasons. Late October and early November, for instance. Late April and early May for another instance.

We need the circulation from visitor's -- whether vacationers or visiting family.

It's what Bend does these days.

This is the book.

A parent comes in looking for a young adult book.

I recommend THE HUNGER GAMES.

"Think of your favorite book. This is... That Book... a month before you heard of it...."

"I'll think about it."

And they leave.

Or I say:

"I may be the first one to tell you about this, but I won't be the last."

"What's it about?"

"I can't tell you, because then you won't buy it..."

And they leave.

Or they say:

"I've never heard of it."

"Of course. That's why you asked. If you knew you wanted it, you'd be buying it."

Thing I always wonder -- for the 90% of the people who ignore my recommendation -- do they remember that someone told them about it? Or -- is it like a fresh discovery to them? And -- why did they ask? It's not like I was lukewarm in my recommendation....

**********

Big Business Monkey. Daniel Johnston

Big Business Monkey - Hi How Are You (1983)

Big business monkey
Nothing’s funny
Big business monkey
Everything’s money
You sold cheeseburgers with that cashier’s smile
He runs his house like a burger king manager
And the only jokes he knows
Are the ones that’ll put you down
Big business monkey
You’ll take over the world
And you can have it now
But you can’t take it with you
Everything you cling to will rot
And everything you do will be forgot
By everyone you ever tried to impress