Finding Hiram Turnbloood

     After a couple of weeks hiatus, for various reasons, I got back to work on a couple of my writing projects.
     I had a couple of ideas to incorporate into my fantasy novel, and I needed to un-scramble my mystery series.
     You see, I've been planning out a series of mysteries set in a fictional Central Texas small town. I have a main character I like and a few possible story lines figured out. Early on I had great fun planning the town, based on my experiences with many different smallish towns over the years. Thinking of likely places of business and town characters has been interesting.
The program SimCity or The Sims might have been helpful for this process, I expect, but the way I was going, I may have gotten totally distracted by that process and forgotten my purpose of actually telling a story.
     So there I was, willy-nilly popping in characters and coming up with suitable names, with an eye on the whole series rather than just one novel. For this project, I'm actively using the free yWriter5 program I've written of previously. I set up one file for the overall series, treating each projected book as if it were one chapter for purposes of making notes and keeping them organized. Another file is set up for the one novel of that series I'm actively working on. The software has the capability of importing data from one file to the other, such as character files, etc.
     After some time of plugging in new ideas for the series, and working on the selected novel, a couple of things became evident. One, the list of characters in the book was digressing a bit from the list for the series. Two, I was losing track of the relationships of main and peripheral characters. Now, one of the telling characteristics of small towns is the appearance that literally all the old-timers are related to each other in some way. Not totally true, but it certainly seems that way.
     I realized as I went along that I couldn't just randomly establish that character A was an uncle to character B, or that C was an ex-wife of D. Before long that would get me into trouble. In fact,  I was already getting there. It wouldn't be so much of an issue in a one shot novel, but as a reader, I value some consistency in a series. Also, at least one of my projected story lines involved genealogy, so I decided I'd better get straight on it from the beginning.
     As I wrote in my blog on genealogy, I use the P.A.F. program from the L.D.S. folks for my genealogy pursuits. They have evolved a different name for it now, but I still think of it with the original name.
     I set up a genealogy file with that program for my townsfolk. I entered all my established characters into PAF. As I proceeded, I worked out ages and generations, who was related to who, and added a few new characters to round it all out. I actually came up with a few surprises for myself. Like "oh yeah, if this person is that one's aunt, that adds this interesting slant!"
     Yesterday I finished working it all out in the genealogy program. I printed out an alphabetized list of everyone (three columns on both sides of one sheet to save paper.) The list had names and birth dates. I went back to my story software, started correlating/adding new characters and filling in ages I now had established, marking them off the printed list as I went. I had to refer back to the genealogy now and then for relationships. "Oh yes, Susan is Claude's wife."
      I had one name left over.
     Hiram Turnblood.
     Who's that?
     I didn't recognize the name. Not a bad name. In fact, an appropriate name for the older generations of  my townsfolk. I just didn't remember who he was supposed to be. I looked in my original character list. Not there. I turned back to the genealogy program that produced the printed list. Hmm, he's not there either. No Turnblood family names, even. Not only is he not connected to anyone I entered, he does not exist in the program that generated the printout. He's there in black and white on the printout, he just doesn't exist anywhere prior to that.
     Hmmm. Okay, I guess he wants to be included. I added him to the story program character list. I don't know who he is, or what his purpose will be, but there he is. You hear writers talk about characters who take over the story, but this is totally out of left field. I wonder who he'll be.
     Maybe he'll be a Norwegian Bachelor Farmer type. (Prairie Home Companion reference, for the uninitiated.) 
     At least in my fictional world there's no shortage of potential jobs.
     Onward!


The Ultimate Writer's Name Book: A Novelist's, Screenwriter's, and Playwrighter's Resource for Naming Characters

Riding Around Part The Second

Last week at my mother's funeral in Centerpoint, Tx, I saw my cousin Charles David Millard again. Unfortunately, the last time I saw him was just a few months ago at our Aunt Annette's funeral. Charles brought his new Harley to the funeral. We talked bikes a bit. I admit I was feeling a bit frustrated that my Shadow is awaiting me to do some work. I started thinking about significant bikes in my past.
I grew up in and around my grandfather's garage at Seward Junction, near Liberty Hill, Tx. Here's a pic.

I lived with my grandparents, W.K. and Mildred Seward in the upstairs of the gas station on the right. We ran the station and store downstairs. Dad's (my grandfather's) garage is on the left. Doesn't look like much. You can just see my great-grandmother Seward's stone house behind the station to the right. The location is just on the intersection between State Highway 29 and U.S. Highway 183 between Austin and Lampasas.


Dad was a fix-anything mechanic. We took in anything, including trucks, farm machinery, autos, lawn mowers, also welding and the occasional appliance. 


When I was very young, I remember one of my uncles riding an Allstate scooter. He may have even given me a ride on some occasion. 

I seem to remember it looking something like this one. I seem to remember standing on the floorboard with the ground wooshing by below me thrilled and frightened at the same time. ( I doubt he was going any more than five miles per hour, lol.)


Some time much later, perhaps about the time I was in junior high, Dad took in a machine to repair in the shop. It looked really odd to me. It turned out to be a German-made moped. The early mopeds like that one were made to be pedaled as well as running with the motor. This one was black, the frame was slightly larger than normal tubing, and was obviously made to incorporate the gas tank, as well as the engine, I was really intrigued. Unfortunately, I've been unable to locate any pictures that match my memory of that one. Mom and Dad never seemed to like motorcycles much, so they had little sympathy for my interest. Watching the roads in front of our store, though, and pumping gas, I did get to see a few bikes now and then.


In my first years of high school a few things happened. One, an older student who lived a couple of miles away started stopping by for gas and supplies occasionally. His name, I think, was James Cole. He rode a purple Triumph Bonneville, something like this one.

One thing is very clear. This bike has always represented "THE Motorcycle" in my memory. For the first time bikes were Really Cool! 



Another thing that happened not much later than that, is that my cousin Charles David, the guy I mentioned at the opening of this posting, came to visit me and brought his Bridgestone 90 motorcycle. 

Here's one like it. This was a lot of fun. We rode it around the place while he was there, he taught me to ride it actually. Ironic, actually, since it was while visiting him and his sister in New Mexico back when I was seven, that I learned to ride a bicycle. I just realized that, small world.
I also remember that Mom, my grandmother, thought that Charles David was too reckless on the bike. It was about this same time period that a biker had a fatal accident almost in front of our store, so Mom and Dad were even more set against motorcycles.

My step-father let me take home parts to an old Cushman scooter he had lying around disassembled in his garage. I put it back together and got it running at least a little, and rode it through the pasture occasionally. It had terminal carburetor problems, I believe, and would only run for a few minutes at a time.  It wasn't nearly in as good a shape as the one in the picture, but it was mostly all there.


College, marriage, and job intervened in the early 70's. My brother Tim Barber asked me to drive for him to get his motorcycle license. In Texas then, and probably now, you had to furnish a licensed driver with a car to drive the license tester and follow the biker being tested. We did this, and, on a whim, we switched places and I tested also, getting my motorcycle license, even though I didn't have any thought of getting a bike anytime soon. 

However, it worked out well. I owned a 1964 Chevrolet Pickup that Tim needed to borrow now and then, so we traded for a weekend, or a few days several times. I got to ride his Yamaha RD350. 

My brother Steve also turned up now and then riding his friend's Kawasaki KZ750. Like this one, but green. I rode it a few times as well. At the time it seemed a bit high muscle for me, not to mention heavy. He only let me ride it off road, and one time I laid it over in the mud. I had to get all the mud off so he could go home!

Tim and I also went together on a little Yamaha dirt bike, either a 50 or 80cc. Tim found it somewhere, and we bought it and got it running again. It was a load of fun running around the pastures on, but it looked pretty funny since it looked really tiny under either one of us! The little rascal really scooted, though!

Finally, in 1993, I got my own "real" bike! It was a well-used Kawasaki KZ440. I rode it as my main transportation for a full year before wrecking it, and me. Actually, the bike came out of it really well other than a busted windshield and a crimped brake line. I wound up with several broken ribs, gouges, and a broken collar bone and arm. I was unable to ride for quite a while. I finally sold it. I hope it is still going out there somewhere. Of course, I had to endure a few "I told you so's" from my grandparents.

Now I'm up to my current ride. My 1984 Honda Shadow VT700c. I enjoy this bike, as I've said in my earlier posts. It took me a bit to get my "bike legs" back. As an older bike, it needs fixing now and then, but I'm able to do it all myself, thanks to my background in the old garage. As I write this, it has a coil out, and a replacement coil waiting for nicer weather to go on. I'll be out there riding again soon!

A Passing

My mother, Doris Evelyn (Millard) Barber, shown here with her husband Carl Edward Barber (dec'd) passed last night, Jan. 4, 2011 in Georgetown, Texas from complications following surgery. Funeral plans are not yet determined. We appreciate the support of all our friends and loved ones.

Roots in the Texas Soil.

     I was born in a log cabin. Okay, actually I wasn't. I was born in Georgetown Hospital, Georgetown, Texas August 18, 1950. My Texas roots go back 6 generations or more. One line, my mother's Millard line, goes back to Col. Henry B. Millard, who was a Colonel in the Texas Army in the battle of San Jacinto. Other family lines include, of course, Seward, Adams, Tucker, Stanley, Hunt, and a bunch of others. 
     I've been involved in genealogy, tracing family roots, most of my life. My paternal grandmother, Bertha Mildred Adams Seward sort of got me started. She and two of her sisters-in-law put together a small book on the Seward line back in the '50s. I still have a copy of that. Most copies were individually typed, some hektographed or carbons and semi bound into file folders with a hand-drawn copy of a Seward coat-of-arms on the cover. 
     Williamson County, Texas has a very good society, the Williamson County Genealogical Society, that includes many professional researchers and other resources. I was active in the WCGS for several years, as well as the Williamson County Historical Commission.
Genealogy can be a fascinating, and sometimes riveting hobby. A lot of people seem to think that they can go online, or zip down to the library and "look up" their family tree. It is rarely ever that simple. The only time that actually is productive is if someone very close to you has applied for Daughters of the Revolution, or Daughters of the Republic of Texas membership AND has put it on file AND it is actually easily located. 
     It takes a lot of digging, and luck, and talking to relatives and others who are actively researching. A good genealogical software program is of incredible help. You will be able to share files with others if your program has the capability to use .ged files. Also called gedcoms, they are pretty standard with most genealogical software programs. Current programs also have wonderful tools for adding pictures, documenting discoveries and adding notes. Many will even aid you in generating a book of your files. 
     The main program I use is Personal Ancestor File from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is still a very inexpensive program, sometimes free, with a lot of really good bells and whistles. There are lots of others available, including RootsMagic, Brother's Keeper, and on and on. Whatever looks good to you or works the way you want to work is great. I would definitely recommend the PAF, but if you use anything else, be sure it works with the gedcom files. 
     However you feel about the LDS Church, their genealogy files are extensive, and if you are a serious genealogical researcher you will definitely find a lot for you in their library. They are always very generous in sharing as well.
     One imperative for serious research is good record keeping. Start a log and give every letter, interview, email, book citation or other source of info a number as if you were making footnotes. Sometimes in the moment it is easy to forget, or seem trivial, but it certainly makes it so much easier to track down that information you have filed away. Yes, your software will also usually have a provision to annotate information, but that hard copy log will be invaluable. Trust me!
     How does it work? Perhaps you get a letter from Aunt Sally with information on cousins. You open your reference log, see what the next number in sequence is, make a note in the log of Aunt Sally's letter and the gist of the info. Don't forget to write that number on the actual letter where you can see it before you file it away. Then, in the software, where you actually enter the info, use the same reference number. At a later date someone may ask about the information and you can quickly locate the original in your files. You can do the same with emails, gedcom files, books you consult, and so on. 
     It is also very easy online to begin a family website to present your information for others you are related to. I have one at MyFamily.com. If you are family, let me know and I'll add you.
     The book I would suggest any beginning genealogist get would be Emily Croom's "Unpuzzling Your Past". Emily is a fellow Central Texan and her book is an incredibly thorough introduction to genealogy. Enjoy!

Oh to be writing!

Between recurring colds, the farmer's markets and the work out at the Sherwood booth I haven't done any writing at all except for this blog. I'm beginning to think I won't have any time for it until after Sherwood Forest Faire is over for another year, in April. Oh well, so be it. The booth is the most important goal on our plate at the moment. We really need to finish! 
At least I can make time to read!

Building the Magnificent Cat Dancing Creations Vendor Booth! Part 5

Plugging along with the booth construction. I thought I would post a few pics of the straw/mud process, as well as where we're at, now that the blog is finally up to date. 

 Here's the back wall with bamboo up several more feet and the wall filled about halfway up the doorway.

 The South end wall, about half done.

 Inside, looking out through the front door and windows. Wall is filled up to the porch roof level. You can see that the upper part is still damp.

Outside view of the front wall. See the booth number?















 
Looking up at the South end back corner. The triangular space will be a window. Staining is not quite done. Still have some bamboo to finish it out as well.

 The North end wall. Some of the rock stem wall is visible here as well.

 A close-up of some of the joinery of yours truly. Leaves make some of it look a bit strange.

 A shot from inside the rear wall. You'll see Cat stuffing some of it in a bit. The 2X4s serve a dual purpose, or maybe triple. They will be supports to hang art from on the finished wall. They also give points to tie the bamboo too, as well as lateral stabilization for the walls.

 Another close look at the inside of the South end wall. The front of the booth is to the left of the picture.

 A closer look at the wall. Kind of hairy looking, isn't it?

An even closer look at the packed straw/clay mixture.We're even getting a few green sprouts.

Here's the good stuff!

And here's where it starts. As mentioned before, the clay is mixed with water. We use both a garden fork and a paddle till it reaches this consistency, a bit like a not too thick chocolate shake.

Silas row the boat ashore! However, shore never seems to get any closer!

 Loosened straw is mixed in and left to soak for forty-five minutes or so.

There it is. Al dente! Sort of.

 The fork transfers the mix to the wheelbarrow.

Wheel it where it is needed, grab a handful.

Stuff it in the forms. Muddy hands are GOOD for you!

 Keep going till the forms are full. If you look closely you can see the bamboo sitting on the nails that hold the bases in place. A vertical 16d nail serves to hold them in place, while smaller nails are used to attach them to the horizontals and top pieces.

Holes and depressions are inevitable. You can go back and fill them in as you go. The clay also shrinks a bit, it pulls away from the wood above it and to the side, so that needs filling later as well.

 Back to tools. Here are our professional looking mixing barrels.

 These are the buckets we soak extra clay in for mixing. Also professional. Can you tell what they held originally?

 The screen. Made from half inch hardware cloth and 2x4s. At times a finer one would help, quarter inch, perhaps.

Wheelbarrows and, hey, remember that Flintstone roller? The iron barrow at bottom is the really old one. The narrow steel wheel is a problem sometimes, but it is never flat! It also doesn't flex like the plastic barrow.

 Another fun part of the project is the flower spiral garden out front by the ramp.

 A lavender plant tops the spiral, the rest is planted with snapdragons, dianthus, and alyssum. Most of the plants came from the nice folks at Bastrop Organic Gardens, along with good advice on planting. The spiral was planted on the day before the full moon while the moon was in Scorpio. We got Microbial Extract and Castings from Microbial Earth to fertilize it and get it started right. 

There it is! The spiral garden, more specifically used as an herb spiral, was a concept I learned in my Permaculture Design class. 


Work continues!

Book Review

Silent Night, Deadly Night by Lisa Lach

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


This book is a confusing read. It is apparently self-published and shows it. It would have seriously benefited from being edited. The book badly needs better organization and an index. I am very fond of local historical accounts. I am a past member of the Williamson County Historical Commission, Williamson Co. Genealogical Society, Round Rock and Liberty Hill libraries, and an author. The quoted sources were informative, but the connecting narrative was very hard to follow and suffers from grammar and typo/spelling challenges. I would only suggest reading this book if you want to see the source material, which is plentiful. Don't read it to find a coherent story.
We also are not told anything of the author's background or her purpose for writing the book.
I will finish the book, I will learn from it, but it is not a "Good Read".




View all my reviews

The above is my review of a book I am nearly done reading. The book purports to tell the true story of the lynching and Christmas Day shootout in McDade, Texas in 1883. Guess I should have been clued in by the toy cap pistol on the cover! I'm a writer, I support self-publishing. However, books like this illustrate the drawbacks.