Mills, Fires, and Book Blurbs

 I won't have time to do my regular blog again this weekend, but fear not! Instead I'm linking you to a fun, photo filled monthly newsletter.

Well, there are photos, anyway.

But the thing that may interest you the most is that, in the newsletter, I included the book blurb for Haunted Noble County, Indiana. The publisher has officially given the book that name, by the way. They haven't approved the blurb yet, but it isn't likely to be much different from what you'll see here:

https://mailchi.mp/11840c2e73a9/vacation-time-to-not-get-away

I also talk a little about our vacation, which was generally uneventful, and one of the larger fires in the history of Noble County (Indiana), which was generally very eventful. Sign up for the newsletter! It only goes out once a month unless there's Big News, and it's free. Also, no cost.

If the smoke rises high enough to form a mushroom cloud visible 40 miles away, it's a big fire.

We can be found ... everywhere:

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 Remember: Not reading books is--spooky.

Vacation, Time To Get Away ... Or Not

 Vacation often conjures images of relaxing on a beach, climbing mountains, or visiting places you've never been. Here, in the time of COVID, you can still very much do that. Start with the Travel Channel.

In fact, just go on down the channels, and once you've sorted through the paid programming you might see several places you've never been before. As I write this, part of my attention is on ancient Egypt. You think I could afford a plane ticket for that?

September has long been a big vacation month for us, because after Labor Day my wife's job goes down to weekends only, which means we can go places on weekdays. Well, we could. It's how we've been to National Parks, checked out Kansas and Oklahoma, and saw a total eclipse in Missouri.

My current novel in progress involves a road trip, with transportation that has all the bells and whistles.

 

But as a virus works its way through the Greek alphabet, you have to wonder if it's not time to catch up on all those books piled by the bed. And couch. And under the bathroom sink. And in six bookcases around the house.

I mean, the next COVID variant is Epsilon, and I'm pretty sure the Epsilon Variant already killed off several red shirts in the original Star Trek series. I have red shirts. Coincidence?

I'm not sure I want to go anywhere until Omega has passed by, and that character isn't scheduled to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe until 2027.

Oh, crap ... there really is one! I was just joking.

So I made up a list of things we might do at home during our vacation. I divided them into three categories: Outside stuff, inside stuff, and writing stuff. Yes, it is possible to write outside: I did much of the rough draft of Images of America: Albion and Noble County with a laptop, sitting on various benches around Pokagon State Park.

I figured in good weather we could trim those bushes that, it turns out, don't trim themselves, and don't think I didn't give them a good few years to try. We could also clean out the car, something I try to do at least as often as I trim the bushes.

Inside, we have a plan to move our office, put new flooring in the kitchen, and find out what that rustling sound is in the back of the cupboard. Last time I cleaned the cupboard, I found a can of soup that was gratefully accepted by the Museum of Ancient Foods.

The writing includes the fun stuff--two manuscripts I need to polish a little. It also includes the un-fun stuff: submitting those novels to agents and publishers, getting back on the promotion wagon, formatting a photo book we've been working on for three years, and finding out what's making that rustling sound in the back of my lower left desk drawer. All I know for sure is that my dog refuses to go near it.

Is this what they mean by meta?

How much of this will we get done? Well, I had ideas for day trips, where we could stop, enjoy the scenery while holding our breaths, and then smear on sanitizer. But then my wife hurt her knee, and her friend gave me an electric chain saw (unrelated), which I actually managed to get working. That led to one full day putting my back into yard work, followed by several more days putting my back on ice. Oh, well--we're also behind on our TV show watching. So how much will we get done?

Less than planned.

But it's a vacation, so what the heck.

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

Vacation, We Can't Get Away

So, our regular late May vacation is mostly a staycation for us this year. Not our first time, and maybe for the best, considering long range weather forecast couldn't be described as perfect.

"Scattered COVID predicted, with a chance of coronavirus ..."

I can live with that. (I mean the staycation, not corona-storms.) In addition to ongoing back problems that would make camping rough, I've just started back to work on the Albion Fire Department photo book that I made so much noise about last year, then had to set aside for various reasons. So it's a "stay away from work to do other work" thing. I suspect my wife can take that for only so long before she starts measuring me for my burial suit.

"Mark, I made you a snack. Never mind the sour smell and the strange taste ... now, you still wear a 36 waist, right?"

Like I'm going to tell her.

Maybe it's an opportunity. The Catch-22 about writing is that it's hard to make enough money at it without writing full time, but writers can't afford to quit their jobs and work full time until they've made enough money at it.

I wonder what Catch-21 is? (I looked it up; apparently it's a game show.)

We do love to travel, and I suggested going down to Missouri to see Emily's family and friends. The problem is, that involves driving through three states, any one of which *coughIllinoiscough* could arrest you just for driving through. Could we get food along the way? Fuel? An open dog park?

Just our luck, we'd get put in jail with a bunch of people with allergies like ours. Talk about a sleepless night.

Personally, I'd like to go further afield than we have in the past. The furthest west we've ever been is the junction of Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas, where there's ... a plaque, and a pile of stones.

I mean, it's a nice pile of stones, but still.

Some of our favorite trips were when we traveled around Indiana, especially while researching for our book Hoosier Hysterical. Did you know there are canyons in Indiana? I guess we couldn't see them through the corn.

This is one of the less rugged areas of Turkey Run State Park.

Then there were the waterfalls we encountered in several Hoosier locations, with my favorite being Clifty Falls State Park. Climb the observation tower, see the Ohio River and Kentucky, and get a nose bleed.

Considering the Ohio River is along Indiana's warm southern border, this view is strangely coal.

But we camped on those trips, and the campgrounds are closed. Ah, well--we'll save up for further trips in the future, and stick to our own area this time around--especially since Emily's job is finally opening up on May 24. Meanwhile we've got my almost obsessive picture taking to remember all our journeys by.

Tanks for the memories.

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

Indiana Beach ... Gone For Good?

Here's the interesting history of the "Riviera of the Middle West":

https://ndsmcobserver.com/2020/02/indiana-beach-gone/

For several years I got Indiana Beach tickets through my work, and would take my kids, and sometimes their friends, there. Later Emily and I went, once taking the grandkids. Like the local drive-in theater I've talked about before, it seemed like it was becoming a multi-generational thing.

 Now, although there are efforts to keep it going, the almost century old Indiana Beach Amusement Park seems gone for good.

The last time we visited was in rainy, dreary weather, which maybe I should have taken for a sign.

I took the news personally, because I just finished changing the title and doing a few corrections to my so-far unpublished young adult mystery, Summer Jobs Are Murder (formerly Red Is For Ick, but I'd rather we all forget that.)

The story's protagonist is a teenager who investigates a murder while also working her first job--at an Indiana amusement park. Since Indiana Beach is the only amusement park of its size within easy driving distance, I used it as an inspiration and model for my fictional park. Details were changed, of course, to protect ... well, me. I'm getting ready to send that manuscript back out on the agent hunt, so I'll let you know.

This isn't my first time stealing, as the basic layout of the town of Hopewell, in my published novel Coming Attractions, is based on Kendallville, Indiana. In the immortal words of Thomas Edison, "Why invent, when you can steal?" (Kidding!)

So I'm taking this loss a bit hard, and I hope against hope someone will step in to get the park running again. Meanwhile, I'll continue my efforts to show non-Hoosiers that there is still more than corn in Indiana.



 

 http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

What I didn't do on my summer vacation

I'm back!

Not that we went far: we had a two week vacation that was almost all spent at home, largely because of my annual super sinus infection and some family responsibilities. I did catch up on sleep--this is something all third shifters appreciate. We also caught up on some reading and watched a season of Game of Thrones, which is not what I'd call "relaxing" TV.

More important, once I was feeling up to it I got some writing done, and I'm up to 24,500 words on my work in progress. No, not that work in progress, which is awaiting Emily's editing skills. No, not that other work in progress, which I'm holding for cooler weather and involves me going through a LOT of photographs.

The other other work in progress. The one about the two spouses and their dog, and horses, and maybe ghosts, and definitely a murder mystery, and mushrooms. It was supposed to come after the other two, but I started the first scene as a whim, couldn't stop, and just hit chapter fourteen.

I'm having loads of fun writing this story. I don't know if it'll be any good, but working on it sure helps my stress levels.

Sadly, vacation's over and it's time to put some work into promotion and marketing. Oh, and return to my full time job. *sigh*

We did go on some day trips, and in one of them I got high. You can see our car from here!

Find all of our books at:
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

And most places where fine books with my name on them are sold.

Indiana Beach trip photos

Emily and I took the grand-twins to Indiana Beach, a local amusement park ... and by local I mean it was a two hour drive there and two hours back, with eight hours in between. Long day.

It rained much of the day, but the park was still fairly well attended, and with the exception of the big rides just about everything stayed open the whole time. When the temperature hits 80, a light rain isn't so very terrible.

Indiana Beach is, as the name implies, on the edge of a body of water: Lake Shafer, a ten mile long lake formed by a dam near Monticello. It's also the model I used in creating a fictional park for my unpublished YA mystery, "Red Is For Ick". If you're a publisher ... call me.

The twins have issues with heights, but that's okay: Their favorite rides were the bumper cars and the bumper boats. It makes me a little nervous to realize in five years they'll be driving real cars. (Emily has photos of me on those two rides. Hopefully she doesn't have any of how green I looked after coming off the Scrambler.)

One of Indiana Beach's first rides was the Grand Carousel, which I thought was pretty neat until Emily pointed out that all the horses look terrified.

I didn't get many good photos, as I forgot my regular camera and it was a bit gloomy (and rainy) for cell phone photos. Still, this one of the Schafer Queen, which takes half hour rides up and down the lake, came out okay.

The upper deck of the Schafer Queen was unoccupied due to a light rain, but Hunter and I chanced it while Emily and Brayden stayed on the sheltered lower deck.

Hunter was fascinated by the paddlewheel, while I listened to the Captain telling us stories about the park and the lake--he pointed out a home previously occupied by Al Capone.