On boots and bars and motorbikes...

And then there was what might someday soon be my first all-original book. Working title at very least. Not sure I’m 100 percent sold yet. In its current form, it tells 21 stories over at least three generations and 260 pages in 80,500 words. I’m not entirely certain all of the them fit with the stories told throughout the collection or the precise order everything will fall just yet, so there’s plenty still left to do: Most notably in just making it less tome-like. But it is pretty cool to see it all printed and stacked there. On the plus side, it left alone near every existing piece I had working in the can and branched of into some previously uncharted territory. It was kind of exciting to see where the stories carried me and how they ultimately align to tell a much larger overall story. At least I hope. Tis the aim, anyhow. We’ll see, I suppose. So a question I’ve fielded a lot already: What’s it about? Well, it being a collection of linked but separate stories,

You how they say a picture can say some much? Well, here's a couple. To these, the 28 years of Valentine's Days past between now and then, and many more. . . Above, the first picture taken of Jenn and I following our marriage Nov. 18, 2017, at St. Mary's Catholic Church near Hallettsville. At right, the same couple before our high school commencement ceremonies at Apache Stadium in late May 1990 in Gonzales. You know some years have passed when tape holding your picture down turns yellow: I was 17 then, seven days shy of 45, the other.