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S. Thomas Kaza
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My News and Updates

December 2011

I hope everybody is enjoying their holidays at the end of the year. I had a nice week off from work. I managed to spend some time with my family and get some things cleaned up around the house.

Here is a summary of my writing for 2011:
I wrote two new short stories in 2011, The Caretaker and His Dogs and The Silent and the Still. Both shorts appeared on the www.goodstorytoread.com website in 2011.

I finished the first draft for a new long story, a fantasy adventure for kids. I also started wrting the second Cedric of RoseThorn book. 

Finally I wrote the poem, The Treasures I Keep. It appears in the Poetry Corner of this website.


November 2011

We had a mostly mild Autumn in Michigan. It finally snowed the other day, but the area where I live only got a dusting. I still had to clean the ice and snow off the windows of my car. Now if I don't leave the house five minutes earlier to clean my windows, I will be five minutes late for work.

I think Winter is the season that most strongly forces change on me. I have to bundle up when I leave the house. I have to wear socks, a coat, gloves, and a hat..... sometimes when I am still in the house..... or I'll freeze. And whenever I go out I have to watch the weather and check road conditions.


Unlike pleasant Spring, Summer, and Autumn, Winter never lets me forget it is here. Whether I am stepping into a freezing slush puddle, waking to a cold, dark house, or shivering from a draft when I can't find enough blanket to cover myself, Winter does not go away. I feel like I have to keep fighting her off. 


September 2011

Fall is upon us in Michigan. For the last two  weeks I have not had an opportunity to sit out on the deck early in morning and enjoy my coffee. It has been either too cold or too wet. And I now hear the crunch of leaves when I cut the grass. There really aren't enough to rake, but there will be soon.

Talk around home has turned to school projects, Halloween costumes, and when to put the barbecue away for winter storage. We have visited the local cider mills twice for donuts and cider. And I find myself trying to catch snippets of football games on the radio as I drive around town.

I finished the first draft of my next book, an adventure story for kids. It is longer than I expected. I read it to my kids over the period of two weeks. And although my kids kept asking me to "read one more chapter" before signing off for the night, they told me they did not think other kids would want to read the story. Ouch!


August 2011

I finished my summer project, which was to make a ring of berms for a winter ice rink for the kids. It took weekends and several days off to haul enough dirt. Now I need to grow grass on the berm, so it won't wash away with Spring rains next year. 

I finally put up our new tent. I expected to go on several camping trips this summer, but my plans were always sidelined by either the weather or my work schedule (plenty of business trips). I figured I should at least learn how to put the tent up and let the kids sleep out in the backyard. But with a little luck I might still get in a camping trip or two.

  I finished my latest short story, The Silent and the Still. Please go to www.goodstorytoread.com and read it. It is based on a true story told to me by my aunt.


June 2011

I was outside one evening last week watching bats. I could see them fluttering over the yard silhouetted against the twilight sky. Earlier in the evening they were not out. And later it became too dark to see them. I had to get out there at just the right time to watch them.

While I can cut the grass or drink lemonade almost anytime during the Summer, there are some activities that I can only do when the opportunity presents itself, like watching the bats, catching fireflies, running down an ice cream truck, or rarer yet witnessing the Northern lights.

It seems like Summer offers more of these opportunities than the other three seasons.Maybe it is because we spend more time outside. Or maybe it is because the days are longer. Or maybe it is simply because people are made for the Summer. I think Autumn will always be my favorite season, but I must admit Summer has a richness the other seasons cannot equal.


April 2011

After four weeks in a row of business trips I am finally reclaiming my Saturdays..... and not a day too late. I have already been outside twice to cut the grass. And the dandelions are invading the lawn! I have several projects lined up for yard this summer.And I am trying to keep up a pretty aggressive writing schedule.

But I am also planning to do some camping. On a whim we bought a 7-man tent this Spring. We have gone camping once or twice a summer in the past, but my old tent has become too small. I had to sleep in the car the last time we went.This year I would like to go at least three times- once in May or June, once in July, and once in August. But as always, it will depend on the weather.


March 2011

We took a family trip down to the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. It was the first time for my kids. We put them on a kids only tour. They got to wear helmets, overalls, and a little light on their head. They told me the rangers lead them off the beaten path through some pretty tight spots which they called “worm holes”. They had a lot of fun.

I did some spelunking in my younger days. I remember squeezing through some tight places, one with water in it. I remember the claustrophobic feeling when you realize all those thousands of tons of rock are above you. If I really concentrate, I can make myself uncomfortable thinking about it. So I don’t like to dwell on it for too long. But it is interesting that these experiences still invoke strong feelings in me.

I am fascinated by caves, although I have not really visited many famous. From what I understand, some experts believe that a good majority of the world’s caves have not been explored or even found. It just shows me that there is still so much about our world that we do not know. And somehow that makes me feel good.


February 2011
I had several business trips in February to distract me from my writing. One trip took me to warm and sunny Argentina. It was only two days, but I enjoyed every minute I was not typing in my hotel room or tied up in a meeting. There was not much time for sightseeing, but I got to see La Boca, a colorful neighbourhood in Buenos Aires, where I was told the tango was invented.

I finished my first stint as a basketball coach.The kids were a lot of fun. And although we did not win many of our games, it was fun to watch the kids develop and learn new skills. I think I am going to do it again next year.

I have been playing Talisman (fantasy flight games) almost once a week with my kids. I don't win very often, but we have some exciting games that go down to the wire.

I finished my latest short story, The Caretaker and His Dogs. Please go to www.goodstorytoread.com to read it. I wrote it to be a chilling ghost tale. I don't know if I succeeded, because I did not get any comments about it yet. I will start on my next short story from next month.

I also managed to organize a table of contents for my next long story, a childrens' fantasy adventure. I don't have each and every chapter outlined, but I now have a good grasp of the flow of the story.



January 2011
Another year has come and gone. I had some personal ups and downs in 2010. But overall I think it was a good year. Still I am looking forward to 2011.

In review, I finished writing my long story, Cedric of RoseThorn. From start to finish this project took me several years. I am currently looking for an literary agent. Since this is my first time doing this, I have no idea how long it might take. But my plan is simple. I will look for an agent first. If I fail to interest anyone, I will go directly to the publishers. If that doesn't work, I will consider publishing it myself.

I have three other books planned in the continuing saga of Cedric of RoseThorn. 30%~40% of the material has already been written. But at this point I am not planning to work on the next Cedric book in 2011. Instead I have an idea for a childrens' adventure story. I want to write it while my kids are still young, and I can see the looks on their faces when I read it to them.

My plan is to continue to write about one chapter per month until I finish this new project. I hope I can go faster, but I know I will be busy at work.

I wrote two short stories in 2010, The Seventh Night and The Stickelhopper. Both short stories appeared on the w
ww.goodstorytoread.com website. My plan is to write two more short stories in 2011.

I wrote two poems, What if we are Ghosts? and In My Fathers' Footsteps. They are both posted in the Poetry Corner of this website. My plan for 2011 is to write another poem.



What I'm Writing  

I am still working on my next short story, a science fiction story about a robot. I am planning to publish this on the www.goodstorytoread.com website by February 2012.

I have already started writing the next Cedric of RoseThorn book. I am planning to finish this book in 2012. I am also editing a collection of 12 of my short stories that I intend to self publish.

   What I'm Reading     

A Century of Great Western Stories- An Anthology of Western Fiction

Verses of the Poets Laureate 

 

    What I'm Studying  

Japanese


        Contact Me         

contactme@sthomaskaza.com



Places I Have Visited (or Lived)
and I am Better Off for It
 
- Adelaide, Australia
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Arches National Park, Utah
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico
- Baja Peninsula, Mexico
- Beijing, China
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Burlington, Vermont
- Cahokia Mounds, IL
- Chicago, Illinois
- Chief Crazy Horse Monument, South Dakota
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Columbus, Ohio
- Curitiba, Brazil
- Custer State Park, SD
- Disney Land (Anaheim, CA)
- Disney World, (Orlando,FL)
- Dubuque, Iowa
- Fort Worth, Texas
- Fukui, Japan
- Gettysbug, Pennsylvania
- Halifax, Nova Scotia
- Harding Ice Field, AK
- Hiroshima, Japan
- Hong Kong, China
- Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
- Isle Royale National Park, Michigan
- Kenai, Alaska
- Kobe, Japan
- Kyoto, Japan
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Lewes, Deleware
- Los Angeles, California
- Mackinaw City, Michigan
- Mammoth Caves, Kentucky
- Maquoketa Caves State Park, Iowa
- Montreal, Quebec
- Nagoya, Japan
- Nara, Japan
- National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
- New York City, New York
- Niagra Falls, Ontario
- Ottawa, Canada
- Perrysburg, OH
- Punxsutawney, PA
- Qingdao, China
- Quebec City, Quebec
- Shanghai, China
- Sleeping Bears National Lakeshore, Michigan
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Syracuse, New York
- Taos, New Mexico
- Tokyo, Japan
- Toledo. Ohio
- Toronto, Ontario
- Venice, Italy
- Washington D.C.
- Wharton, Texas
- Xi'an, China
- Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
- Zhuzhaigou National Park, China



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