August Recap

Hi guys! 

I’m sorry I forgot to post this earlier. My bad. 

But I’m here for the monthly recap. 

I started babysitting a kid from church and it’s been really fun. Frankly, he’s probably more help to me than I am to his mom. Henry loves having a playmate around. 

I finished the sixth season of The 100 and now I’m not sure what to do with my life. I really liked it, aside from a few things...didn’t really dig the whole concept of redemption, just because they had the Biblical points twisted. 

I’ve been working madly on Blood as Dust in between bouts of dizziness. I’m making progress and plan to have it polished up thoroughly in time for November #faithpitch. 

I went to Living out Loud—a Christian music festival. My sisters were there and it was all sorts of fun. 

We’ve been preconditioning calves, so I’ve got in a lot of saddle time, which is always a good thing. 

My birthday is Friday. It’s not physically possible for me to be 24. Like, what???

Wednesday we find out baby’s gender. So stinking excited for that I can’t even handle it. 

Thursday (meaning today, for most of you reading this now) we are going to the state fair with my family to eat delicious unhealthy food and see Zach Williams in concert. 

Husker Football Season starts Friday and frankly, I couldn’t ask for a better birthday present...except maybe a win. A win would be great. 

I can’t believe summer is essentially at an end. The weather has turned super cool here. I’ve set the fall decorations out and PUMPKINS ARE GROWING IN MY GARDEN. It’s still raining...torrential downpours really. There’s a good chance we might have to take boats to the fair, and I’m actually not joking. 

How are you wrapping up your summer? 

The Language of Worlds~ August

Hi guys! 

Forgive me for missing last week. I helped work cattle all morning, then had a doctor appointment that afternoon. 

Today I’m joining in Liv K. Fisher’s linkup The Language of Worlds. 

1. How long have you been writing this story? 

The first draft of Blood and Dust was written during NaNoWriMo of 2017. I’m pretty sure that’s the first year I ever won. It was called Young Guns back then buy ended up being changed to The Guns for awhile. 

2. Who’s your favorite character? Why?

Oof. That’s so hard. I love so many of them. Cole, Calgary, Blake. Jason is rapidly climbing the ranks as a favorite. I think Calgary is my favorite though. She’s sassy, and strong, but also broken, vulnerable, and scared. She’s a lot of fun to write. 

3. Which character do you consider the “goodest of the good”?

Definitely Cole. He’s almost always a gentleman and tries to do the right thing. Although that is getting toned down just a tiny bit in this latest version. I’d still consider him the “goodest” though. 

4. Which character is the “baddest of the bad”?

Well the main villain, James Dermott, is definitely the worst of them, technically. I mean, he’s the one responsible for all of the troubles to begin with. But my personal burning hatred is reserved for Ridge—a gun hand who is terrible to Calgary. He’s terrible. 

5. If you were to have tea (or coffee!) with one character, which one would you pick? Why?

First of all, it’s coffee. Totally coffee. Coffee is sacred in this book. Anyway, I think I would pick Jason. Because he’s my small, injured baby. There’s a lot of layers to his character. He’s strong in some ways, and completely helpless in others. Things bother him so bad, and yet he doesn’t let on to any of it. He’s starved for personal relationships, but manages to butcher every one he has. Sounds like a perfect coffee companion. 

6. Describe your storyworld.

My story world takes place in the near future, after World War 3 ended. America went through an invasion and suffered heavy destruction, losing most of their electricity and ability to connect with each other coast to coast. Cole lives in Tennessee where the majority of the eastern countryside has rebuilt and is fully functional with a government and technology. They are actively working to reconstruct the other states. Artificial intelligence is a big part of life, but the world is still very recognizable as earth I think. 

Cody, Wyoming is where most of the book takes place. It’s in the Bomb Zone where reconstruction hasn’t started yet and the people there are even more isolated than most others in the Bomb Zone are. They live a very old style life—cooking over wood stoves, living off wild game and whatever foods they’re able to grow from seed year after year. They use the natural sulfur in the area to make their gunpowder, and anything that can make bullets is guarded and recycled vigilantly. Gangs are constantly at war in Cody. There are three of them holding different territories, with The Guns being the most powerful. People die constantly, everything is a fight for survival, and the whole place is generally wild, lawless, and terrified. 

7. You’ve fallen into your book! Which place would you be happiest at?

Noooo!! I don’t want to go!!! I guess I would pick Tennessee. Where things are safe and stable. Though I’d totally miss out on all the action. I might also hide out in Yellowstone Park. It’s beautiful, and generally undisturbed, and all I’d have to look out for is wild animals. 

8. Which place would you like to avoid at all costs? (Or, explore to know its secrets a little bit better?)

Cody. I’m pretty sure I’d get killed pretty fast. Then again, that’s where all the action is, so that’s totally where the best exploring would happen. 

9. Share an aesthetic!

10. Share a snippet!

“Where do you think they went?” Gil flipped the limp rag over her shoulder and got to work slicing chunks of venison into thin strips. 

“The cooks?” Calgary quartered a lumpy potato and threw it in the big stew pot.

“Yes.” Gil wrinkled her nose. “I don’t care where the Guns go.”

Calgary bit her lip and shrugged. “Wherever they all go, I guess.” 

“You think they just disappeared?” 

Calgary rolled her eyes. “No one just disappears. You know what I mean. There haven’t been any raids—and why would they take cooks anyway? It had to have been the other thing.” It sounded ridiculous coming out of her mouth, but what else was she supposed to call it? Random disappearances of women, with most of them resurfacing in a few months with no clues to where they’d been? That was another thing. 

Character Answers

Hi everyone!

As promised, today I’m here with answers to the Jason questions. I used the ones you sent me, along with a handful pulled from various online questionnaires.

As of this morning, I’m about halfway through Chapter 9 of Blood and Dust. Jason has made an appearance and gotten himself into a bunch of trouble.

Now, on to his answers. (By the way, I haven’t found a proper look-alike for him. I promise I did not write another character that looks just like Damon Salvatore. So any gifs used are more for the expression than his actual looks. All gifs are from Google.)

Q. Would you leave the Guns if you could?

…Well…Yeah, I mean. If I could. But there’s not really any way to. Not with my dad working alongside Dermott. The Tetons are decent, but they don’t have much. It’d just be trading one disaster for another.

Q. What’s a memory from your teenage years?

Heh, well the first one that comes to mind would be a few months ago when I found out my old man has another family outside of Cody and the boy was coming to help him with something. That was real nice. Apparently his other son is a better help to him than I am.

Q. More daredevil, or cautious?

Cautious gets you killed in Cody. If you hesitate, you die. It’s best to just dive in before anything else can happen.

Q. What is something you would fight for?

We fight for everything, I mean…What I would fight for? I guess, Mercedes. And Adam. Whatever was in my best interests.

Q. opinion on sex/relationships?

*ahem* relationships are kind of a tricky thing. I feel like you mean in the official sense, which…just doesn’t happen. But they’re nice while they last, I suppose. If you get lucky enough to have somebody of your own then you better enjoy it and try to take care of her, or else someone else will.

Q. Selfish or selfless?

Selfish.

(No, he’s selfless)

Yeah, no.

Q. What do you think of Cole?

I try not to. He’s annoying and in the way. Exactly what I would expect from someone who got to live somewhere else—away from the old man. He’s the lucky one. I don’t know why he’s all bent out of shape about be ‘left behind’. He didn’t miss anything.

Q. What seemingly insignificant memory has stuck with you?

Well…I don’t even know if it’s a memory. But, when I was a kid my mom was sick. It was the night she died, but I remember hearing her and my dad talking. I was half asleep, so I didn’t really hear the words, but I know they said my name. I could have swore they left the house together, but everyone said she died in the night. It makes a guy wonder though. I mean, girls disappear for months all the time for no reason…Except, she never came back.

Q. How is your relationship with your dad?

He comes in handy sometimes. I mean, he runs things. He can pull strings. The rest of the time we just kind of co-exist. He’s got this thing where he thinks I’m still nine and he can tell me what to do. Jokes on him—I never listened when I was nine either.

Q, Who is your best friend?

A guy named Adam. He was a Gun, but he defected over to the Tetons. Dermott wants his hide for that. But he’s a good guy, Adam. I don’t blame him for leaving.  He was just never mean enough for the Guns.

Q. What is your role in the Guns?

I get bounced around from place to place. The old man likes to keep me close by…for some reason. Dermott can’t seem to be rid of me fast enough. I don’t know what I did to either of them. Doesn’t take too long at a job before guys start complaining I’m somehow getting it easier than them because Dale Comstock is my dad. Most recently though I’ve been doing the water runs. It’s not a bad job, and for the most part I can do it alone.

Q. What do you love about this girl?

Mercedes? Well…I don’t know. I mean…she’s just nice, I guess. Those other girls are sassy. They’re fun and flirty, and Mercedes can do that too, but really she’s just sweet. I guess it’s partly because she actually likes me. She’s pretty too. Which, doesn’t hurt, obviously. She doesn’t try to mom or boss me. She lets me blaze if I want, or be down in the dumps, or just plain silly. She doesn’t care. She rolls with it all.

There ya have it! Thanks for the questions. I hope you enjoyed getting to know a little more about Jason and his story.