A Moonshooters Diary

It all began many moons ago. At my age, this requires a great memory...or something. Anyhow, at around age 8 or 9 I landed the role as the male lead in a production of a play at Slovenian Home in Cleveland. I grew up in an ethnic neighborhood. The kids all spoke fluent English as well as fluent Slovenian. How did I land the role? I guess I had three qualifications they needed...plus they must not have had much to pick from. Even though I was the youngest kid in the group, I was the tallest and looked 'older', I spoke Slovenian, had a good memory and could remember the lines and as a bonus...I could polka, which was part of 'the part'. Roughly, the play was about a guy who went back to the 'old country' and met up with the girl he left behind. While he was gone, this other dude kinda got 'hung up' on the girl in question. Jealousy raised it's head...big time. But in a funny way. Sound like a pretty 'adult' concept for a bunch of kid...

Sylvia was a lady who loved fine jewelry. If it wasn't 'real' she would do without rather than have a 'look alike'. Anyhow, when it came to rings, she wore more than one when she went out...among other 'adorable adornments'. Anyhow...I always told her I'd buy her a 'larger stone' to replace the one in her engagement ring. I was thinking in terms of in the neighborhood of 2 1/2 carats. Never in my wildest dreams/nightmares would she play the role of Sleeping Beauty and change the whole picture. Now the 'stone' is in the neighborhood of the 'cemetery' and the stone I'll be getting her will be a 'tombstone'. But a promise is a promise...and when I promised my honey something, I got it for her...even if it took awhile. This is one of the things I'm designing in my mind. It's what we used to do when we had our jeweler in Reno come up with a 'one-of-a -kind' piece. I'm writing this late at night, not beca...

Sometimes it's EZ to be in 'la la land' when most everything is going hunky dorey. But what happens when Murphy's Law shows up to screw up the works? Shooosh. This is when size 13 'feet of clay' trips me up and I forget...'everything happens for a reason'. The morning began as usual. I woke up. I found out later that I'd slept through a mega thunder and lightening storm. The sun was shining, the pup was still snoozin' so I had some 'free time'. I poured a cup of 'last night's coffee' (because I forgot to set up the pot) and went out to grab the morning paper off the back porch. :-( No paper! Then I went to the computer to see how much my paycheck was so I could figure out my bills. The error message informed me that I had no internet connection. :-( Next stop...the TV. I turned it on. I saw the channel numbers and could change channels but the screen was black...no picture. :-( Then the telephone idea popped into...

Before Sylvia and I were married, I told her I wanted to 'write a book'. As fate would have it I also married my biggest fan and supporter. Over the years, I took several 'writing classes' and my honey gifted me with quite a few books on writing. With each one, she'd inscribe it with special words that showed she was beside me and behind me in my 'dream'. Up until that ONE Christmas, the genre I was focused on was historical fiction. But...and there's always a 'but' when a major turning point comes up...she missed the mark and gave me a book by Stephen R. Donaldson, 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, White Gold Wielder." It was my introduction to 'fantasy fiction which is the LAST thing I would enjoy because it was in the #1 spot on my Uninterested List. But to be polite...and not to let her know my 'feelings' about it, I read it. It seemed like Tommy and I did have something in common. We both wore 'white gold w...