Dragons

Dragons have fascinated me for a long time. I've especially enjoyed the dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey and also those by her son Todd McCaffrey. In the book I'm writing I've tried not to copy things I read in their books but of course there will be similarities.

Some of my dragons have telepathy. Others don't. My dragons were created magically and no natural equivalent existed before powerful magic users made them. Each color has distinct abilities and different breath weapons. I'll give some detail about many of them without giving away everything as I feel some of it is better left to discovery while reading the book.

Gold dragons breath fire and have no problem using this against people that get in their way. White dragons have a chill breath that freezes air and the water in the air as well as adding enough substance to encase someone in ice or at the very least give them hypothermia very fast. Silver dragons send out an ultra sonic blast when they open their mouth that can pulverize just about anything. Blue dragons breath out noxious fumes that is similar to tear gas. And then of course my dragons can cast spells and have other magical abilities.

For the above mentioned dragons, one of their main enemies is the red dragon, largest of all the dragons. They breath fire like the gold do, but the similarity ends there. Their abilities are mental and they are more intelligent than the gold and green dragons. They live on a different continent than the other dragons until the time they decide to move in and begin fighting against the others who are coming out of their long period of hiding.

I've been thinking about dragon flight speeds recently and trying to decide what they should be. I am thinking that the ride-able sized ones should have a normal flying speed of 50 miles per hour. When pursuing they can go as fast as 70 MPH and of course faster when diving or when flying with the wind. I mostly needed to figure this out so as to get flying times consistent in my novel as I have found a problem right now that seems like it took them too long to arrive somewhere. I feel it also makes sense to allow them to be able to fly two to four days straight without sleeping and without stopping but that is subject to change at this point.

With my dragons if they are out to get you and can see you, you are in trouble. They have things far more devastating and greater range than their breath weapons.

In my world these dragons want to live in peace along side human and elf nations and so don't go out of their way to hurt them. In fact their creators actually created plants and trees that give them a much better food supply than any living thing could and they tend to eat those things. So as my dragon's go about forming their nation, building defenses, and planning for the worst they try to avoid killing people. Then finally an alliance of enemy nations make them mad enough and the dragons unleash a massive assault the like of which has never before been seen in my world.

The main characters are humans that the dragons magically enhanced before they were born. One was raised by a silver dragon and the others were raised by humans with no knowledge of the dragons. When enemies launch a surprise attack and begin to track down their enhanced humans, now teenagers, the dragons are forced to recall them early. Humans who help the dragons care for the plants and animals in their forests are called foresters in my novel.

Time Travel

I seem to be spending a lot of time thinking about time travel and often try to figure out how to use time travel in my stories. Even the story I am working on which is high fantasy was going to have some time travel in it. Those scenes never made it into the story and likely won't. I'll have to leave it for another story.

In my way of thinking with my belief in God I doubt we will ever be able to time travel. This doesn't stop me from dreaming about it and writing stories about it. If time travel were possible I am of the belief that we couldn't change the past as all we would accomplish is being a part of that past even if history hadn't recorded our part in it.

So if someone were to try to prevent the assassination of president Abraham Lincoln they would fail because they did fail as we all remember that he was assassinated. One scenario that would work is if a switch took place but in that case the real Abraham Lincoln went into hiding or was whisked away to some other time, never to return.

I do not like the multiple dimensions or alternate realities themes or that if you were the time traveler you would remember how it was but everyone else would not. It seems to me that if technology can be used to time travel that there still would only be this one earth with the people on it and that no matter how hard one tries you couldn't really change the past.

This wouldn't mean I couldn't go back in time and interact with people. I could even by stocks in a company I knew would be around in my time. I could buy coins I knew would become valuable. I'm a coin collector and would try to get some 1909 S VDB coins along with gold coins. The way I see it if I did that, it already happened, and so I didn't change anything. However, up until the time I traveled back in time I probably wouldn't know about the stocks nor where the coins I'd bought were stored. Most likely I'd just bring them back with me to the future and cash out. Of course, if everyone could do this then we'd probably be living in a much more chaotic time now than we currently have.

I started this morning by tweeting about time traveling with this tweet: If you could time travel, when and where would you go? Why? To be honest, I am trying to find ways to make friends on twitter and through this blog besides simply tweeting every follower I have and asking you want to be my friend. It's not the same as having a good conversation about things that interest us. So I posed that question.

I can answer it better here with more than 140 characters. I am sure I would travel back in time as well as go to the future. I know one of my first, if not first trip, would be to go to the future and see if there was a colony or exploration trips to the moon or Mars and see if I could get on one of them. I might have to do some traveling to the past to buy things I knew would bring me wealth in the future so that I would have the money to get on an expedition.

I would likely give some serious thought to see if there were any way to fix my failed marriage before it failed, but that would only be if I believed the past could be changed - although that might be the thing I tried to change even if I were convinced that it wasn't possible.

Also I would go back in time to meet and talk with Jesus before his crucifixion. That I'm sure would be a very interesting conversation, especially as I would expect him to know I was from the future.

I think if time travel were something that I could do on a regular basis, whenever I wanted to, I'd end up using it too much to extend my days so that I could get more done which would have the effect of shortening my life span because I'd be living for say 48 hours in a 24 hour time period because I'd be in the same 24 hour period of time more than once in different places. I don't think I'd want to meet and talk to myself and that is one area that boggles my mind as to how such an encounter would play out.

Too Many Changes?

It seems in a short span of time many changes have come to me. Some, perhaps all, are my own fault - in one way or another. I often feel I have too little control over the changes and wish I could have nice long periods of time where everything just went smoothly and I could move peacefully along with my life. It seems that won't happen in my life, who knows, it might be boring. I'd like to give it a try anyway.

It seems since school for my four children has started (first week of September) that my writing time has vanished. I find I write best in the mornings when I am refreshed from a good nights rest. I thought to be able to write in the morning after dropping off my oldest, Willem, at seminary. That didn't happen as my third oldest, Liem, doesn't want to walk to the bus stop alone. It is good that I am getting more time to talk with each of my children one on one, but has been horrible for my writing. I thought to be able to commute using slug lines (instant carpools) and the subway which would have allowed me to write on a lap top for about two to three hours per day, including an hour or so in the morning. That didn't happen because by the time the bus comes for my second oldest, Adonis, it's already 7 AM and then I have to drop off Sharleen at day care. By that time the lot I would go to is full and there are no more people waiting to pick up passengers so they can go in the high occupancy vehicle lanes.

I hope this doesn't sound like I am complaining, just explaining how things are going for me. If I'm extremely best one of you who reads this will have a suggestion that will work for me on how to make time to write. I'm currently on the second draft of my story which goes very well when I actually sit down and work on it. In the evenings when I get home there is too much noise and/or I don't feel like writing and so I just sit on the computer and play games, the latest distraction there is Minecraft. Part of my problem these days after work is that I feel too tired to work on my story. Maybe that is a psychological change that I need to change again.

As for the story itself, I've made some fundamental changes that tighten it up and make it flow better. Unfortunately, by writing a couple minor characters out of the story it leaves some trickle effect changes that I have to fix because they are no longer included in the story. Plus I managed to find a way to change a chapter I liked to make it fit better and help the story along instead of it getting cut from the story. I would have cut it if it came to that, but I think this works better. It too, is causing trickle effect changes in the beginning chapters of my story.

On a brighter note, Amanda is making good progress with the cover for my book. At first I was worried that my book would be ready for publication before the cover was ready which is why I found a cover artist earlier. Well, now I think she'll have the cover ready months before I have the novel ready, unless I can etch out of my schedule time to revise on a regular basis. Hasn't happened yet, but could happen any day now. It could be as simple as needing a goal just as I had goals until I finished the first draft. I did have other goals after that and they were working fine until my schedule got thrown out of whack by the start of school and adjustments to my commute schedule not working the way I had hoped.

For those who read this please share what has worked for you to make writing time when you have to manage a household (I'm single), children (I have custody of my four children ages 16 to 10.), full time job, and three hour commute. I seem to get many ideas of what to write and how to write it but draw a blank when figuring out when I can write.

A Jawa defends his position of saving R2D2 from rusting in the desert

I have four Jawa Star Wars action figures from the 1970's. I've played with them while playing with my children and our Lego bricks. They still have the personalities from when I played with them when I was a child. Two of them are less serious, misunderstand many things in a funny way, and sometimes a bit reckless.

So my son, Adonis, and I were discussing various things while on our way to the sitters. I was using my Jawa voice and he asked why Jawa's have such a high pitched squeeky voice. I told him because of how they spoke in the first Star Wars movie I saw (now labeled Star Wars IV) and mimicked what they said when the one Jawa told all the others to come out and pick up R2D2 after one of them zapped him. And then the conversation switched and went something like this.

Son: You stole R2D2.
Jawa: No we didn't, we saved him from rusting in the desert.
Son: That's stealing.
Jawa: If we hadn't of come along when we did he would have rusted in the desert.
Son: You still stole him.
Jawa: From who?
Son: From Anakin Skywalker.
Jawa: Anakin Skywalker wasn't their owner anymore.
Son: When Darth Vader came on board the ship he was looking for them.
Jawa: He was looking for them because he wanted the plans not because he owned them. Princess Leia was their owner.

At that point the conversation turned to Anakin being able to own them even though he was dead because he was wearing clothes from Star Wars II or III. It sounded better while we were having the mock argument as we were speaking very quickly and sometimes trying to talk over each other as the Jawas have a tendency to do that and in Adonis' opinion they talk too much.

We are fans of Star Wars and get into various interesting conversations with me pretending to be one of the Jawas. Two of my other children, Liem and Sharleen, started pretending to be Jawas a few months ago and get into it too at times speaking in high pitched voices.

Another common point of discussion is the fact that the Jawas often crash Lego vehicles such as cars, trucks, space ships, planes, helicopters. It's always an accident or because two of them are fighting over who gets to drive. So today the Jawa said he hadn't crashed anything and that he was a good driver. Adonis added the word yet to imply that he would crash at some point today.

I want a space colony on the moon!

I've been following the news reports on the radio about the space shuttle program coming to an end. Tomorrow the Atlantis returns to earth never again to leave it. And it's the last flight. I think it is sad that space exploration hasn't progressed further than it has. And to leave it like this and not have something in place already, I shake my head. I'm sure there are some who will say it's too expensive and that there are better things to spend money on. I agree there are many worthy projects to spend money on and so many that would benefit people right now.

That doesn't stop me from thinking how neat it would be to have a colony on the moon and to send people to Mars and possibly set up a colony there too. A large space station, like a little city, orbiting the earth would be nice too. And I would love to be able to visit such a space station or one of those colonies.

At the very least it would be nice of the countries of the world would cooperate, or corporations for that matter, and send people to the moon again. If for no other reason than to show everyone that the US did get there in the 1960's and put to rest all the nonsense about it being a hoax.

The US should at least replace the space shuttle with something to take astronauts to the international space station even if there is no ambition to return to the moon or go on to Mars.

Friendships

As I go about the Internet trying to become known in my way and finding people to help me with my novel I am creating friendships that I hope will last a long time. Since high school I have not forged any long lasting friendships in person except perhaps at my work. There are people I know that I trust and I am friends with but at this point I doubt I will be in contact with them once I or they move.

I am still in contact with two friends from when I was in school. One I have known since middle school, the other since elementary school. We e-mail each other every few months.

I am sure some of this is the way I am and the way life changed after high school. Other than right now there is no other place I have lived longer except where I grew up. I've lived in the same house in Virginia for just over six year. Where I grew up I lived in that house in Utah for eleven years continuously.

I have some friends I only know from conversations via the Internet. Some of these I have known for about five years now.

Too me, communicating on a regular basis opens up the possibility of creating friendships. As I communicate with people and ask them to beta read my book, edit my book, and/or design the cover for my book, I hope that some of them become my friends. Most of those who volunteered to beta read my book are my friends. I realize that me hiring editors and cover designers means I have a business relationship with them, but in my mind I consider them as friends. They have chosen to help me the best they can. The depth of the friendship is something different and since I have just met them on the Internet in the past few weeks there is not much depth there yet.

It seems to me it is easier for me to make friend via the Internet than in person. I am divorced with custody of my four children and so most evenings are spent at home out of necessity. Saturdays is when I do my grocery shopping and other errands. Sometimes I don't get a chance to take a break and relax on Saturdays until the evening. Sundays I spend at church and then home relaxing. So all that leaves little time for me to strengthen friendships with people who live near me. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention I spend three hours a day commuting to and from work.

I want to find time to go visit peoples blogs and write comments. I want to participate on kindleboards more. When I do visit blogs I often can't seem to think of anything to say and the same thing seems to happen on kindleboards. There are so many wonderful people there that know so much more than me about self publishing and I learn a lot from them and for that I am thankful.

I believe I will have many more friends as time progresses, but for me it happens very slowly.

More Idea's Already?

So, now that my first draft is done I have all kinds of ideas flowing into my head for book two in the series as well as for other books, including sci-fi. Good grief. I want to finish this book first and get it published then work on book two. I am generally good at staying focused.

So far I am almost one fourth of the way through the first round of revisions. At this rate I should be finished by the end of July. I think I'll have my story ready for beta readers about mid August. As I complete each fourth of my book I am sending it off to Arkali (Yep the one at kindleboards.com) for editing. This way I will be able to include her suggestions and corrections before giving my story to my beta readers. I am surprised at how many people I have found that are willing to beta read my story. I even have a teenager and pre teen that will be reading it (not counting my children who may decide to beta read for me). I believe I will have changes made based on beta readers by the end of September and expect to turn my story over to its final editor in early October. Cherie Reich at Hazard Editing will be doing the final edit.

Now if I can just keep those story ideas at bay until I get all that done, I will be doing good.

First Draft Completed

I finished the first draft of the first novel in my series about dragons.  I added a chapter showing one of the main characters during a time of happiness.  It was actually meant to be part of another chapter but became its own chapter.

Now I think I'll read through the entire story and then start the first round of revisions.

First Draft Almost Finished

I managed to write about 800 more words in my WIP.  That was yesterday.  All the week prior I managed to get distracted by various things including preparing to go camping, camping Friday to Saturday at Lake Anna, playing runescape, and now Eden Eternal.

There is only one more chapter I need to look at and then as long as I don't think up another chapter or two the first draft of my novel will be done.  I wrote a much needed chapter to make things fit into place and took out a chapter place holder that was never going to get written.

This will be the first time I have ever finished a first draft of a novel length story.  I did write a novel before this but decided to do a major rewrite before finishing the first draft and then the story never got finished.  I keep reading that others say the first novel you ever write usually should never be published.  Hopefully that was the one that I never finished.  If the interest of my children in my current novel is any indication I would say that this novel is one that will be of interest to more people.  Time, of course, will tell.

As long as Eden Eternal doesn't distract me too much, I should have the first draft done by the end of this week or at least before the 5th of July.

More details about my story

Right now the working title of my book is Dragon Claws Rage.  I feel like I am getting closer and closer to finishing the first draft.  The story is just over 73,000 words.  I want it to be longer and believe it will be.  The reason I think this way is because some of the chapters need to be fleshed out and do more showing than telling.  Some chapters seem to be but an outline of what should happen in the chapter.

I'm not an expert and so perhaps saying that my first draft is finished inspite of these chapters may not be accurate.  However, I wrote a chapter at the end of the book and then realized it was too sad to be the end and have figured out a way to end the book on a happy note, very happy one indeed.

I have been eliminating my place holders where I marked my story that I need to return.  I use ~~~ and just search for that.  There are only two or three of them left.

What I found surprising is that my story right now has 66 chapters.  Since I know I am going to add one more it is going to at least have 67 chapters.  I think it likely as I start the second draft that some of them may get combined into one.  I tend to write short chapters.  Each chapter either has a change of character point of view or some other logical end point.

I am a member of critiquecircle.com and plan to put up the first chapter there for critique either today or within a week so that I can start getting more feed back.  I got very good information from the editor that I plan to have edit my book once it is ready for editing and so during my second draft I will make use of her very sage advice to improve my entire book watching for the things she pointed out.  I am also planning to use the emotion thesaurus at http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/ since I believe that will help me show rather than tell.  Such as show a character getting angry instead of simply saying he got angry.

More ideas are flowing about the second book and possibly the third.  I've always wanted to make this a three book series and then after that write more stories in the same world.  I have five or more short stories that I wrote over ten years ago that are in this world and I may expand one of them into a novel.  But that is for later.

The main dragon creator was a wizard named Holvien.  All the dragons he created he gave a weakness to ensure they did not turn against their creators.  Another council member, Tedorlan, didn't see the need for such a weakness.  After Holvien had created three different dragon types, Tedorlan created the largest, most intelligent dragons yet and did not give them a weakness.  These are the red dragons.  They inherited some of Tedorlan's attitude and soon turned against their creator and the nation that created dragons.  So the next two dragons Holvien created were designed to meet that threat and so they have a natural protection from the red dragons psychic powers.

The dragons Holvien created followed his pattern for using safeguards when they created altered humans to help them.  They gave these humans some of their own powers but limited the activation of that power.  Only when three of the altered humans are touching each other will the power activate.

Well, I am off to work on my story now.

Book Progress - Blurb and Dragons

Well I don't seem to be doing to well as a blogger.  Good thing I am finding time to work on my book and plan for the other things I need such as an editor and a cover designer.  I contacted a designer today that draws well since I believe I will need someone to draw what I want for my books cover.  I contacted an editor today too.  I'm now waiting for replies.

As of now my plan is to self publish for the Kindle first.  At some point after that I will get my book set up for printing on demand since I plan to print some copies for myself, my children, family, and friends.

Here is my most recent attempt at a book blurb.  I expect it is still in need of much work but it is a starting point at giving anyone who reads my blog an idea of what my book is about:

For centuries the dragons hid while following a well crafted plan.  They would initiate the final phase five years hence which would culminate in their retaking their land and founding a mighty nation.

In a day their enemies unravel the plan and threaten the dragons very existence.  One of their magically augmented humans vanishes.  Over half of the ruling dragons are slain along with their trained human leaders.  Unstoppable trackers now hunt their remaining altered humans.

The dragons take swift and decisive action.  They gather their magic altered humans and initiate the summoning that will bring the dragons to their land.  Enemies spring into action against Maikel as the dragons groom him to lead the offensive to establish themselves as a nation.

The story has changed a lot from when I first started it.  The main characters are both sixteen when the book starts.  Another main character is fourteen.  Then there are the dragons whose ages range from twenty to three hundred or more.

As a reader, I love reading books that have dragons and/or elves in them.  I've put both in my book.  As I think about my book I am surprised that elves are not more prominent in it; the dragons of course are.

In my book more than one thousand years ago their was a nation ruled by magicians.  The nation was unique in that it was a mix of humans and elves living together.  Using magic, the rulers created dragons as protectors of their nation.  Neighboring nations feared these dragons and so rose up against the dragon creating nation and defeated it.  They believed they killed all its leaders and all the dragons.  They were wrong.

Before most of the ruling council was killed they gave the land to the dragons.  The few surviving dragons went into hiding and waited for the right time to reclaim their land.  During the first book the dragons begin the process to reclaim their land and attempt to establish a nation ruled by dragons.  The color of the dragons that gather to form this nation are green, white, blue, silver, and gold.

Their land is a vast mountain range which they have kept free of most people by employing humans and elves as foresters who constantly roam the mountain range and use magic items to instill a fear in any who are not wanted so that they flee the mountain range and never return.

Of course the neighboring nations are less than pleased to learn that thousands of dragons are now living in these mountains and many battles follow.

That will give you an idea of some of what goes on in my book.  I currently have written a little over 71,000 words.  Right now I am thinking to end the first book at 80,000 or 90,000 words.  My goal is to have the book on the Kindle in September or October.  At the very least before Christmas.  Some days I am able to type about 2,000 words.  Other days I only manage a measly 151 (that would be yesterday).  Weekly I often average about 3,000 or so words.  I know there will be a second book in this series.  I would like it to be a three book series but ideas for a third book haven't come to me yet.  I plan to write most of my fantasy books in the same world with some minor characters becoming main characters and such.

Well, I think that's enough for now.

Am I a Writer?

I consider myself a writer.  I'm even a published one if you count the articles I wrote for SQLServerCentral.com.  On their website they published twenty five articles I wrote.  They also compiled the best articles and published them in printed books.  Some of my articles appear in two of those books. Those articles are technical articles about SQL Server.

I count those articles.  From my point of view I am a writer and not just because I wrote those articles but because I write.  Other than that I don't have anything published.  I am working on a fantasy novel right now which is very different from those technical articles I wrote.

All the above doesn't mean what I write is any good.  I think it is.  But of course, I'm biased.  My children like portions of the novel I am writing; mostly the battle scenes and creative use of magic.  The real test will come once I self publish this novel.  I'll say more about the novel I am writing in an upcoming blog post.

The earliest story I can remember writing must have been when I was in elementary or middle school.  It was about four Jawas who had crystal swords.  I happen to still have those very four Jawa action figures from when the first Star Wars movie came out.  Their swords were plastic semi-transparent things used for party snacks or something and they fit just nicely in those action figure Jawa hands.  Those didn't survive and I have no idea what happened to them.  I know I had that story when I moved to Virginia in 1997 but I don't know where that story is right now.

I was actively writing short stories from 1994 to 1996.  I entered a story in a contest for a literary agent and it won first prize which meant they tried to find a magazine that would publish it.  After a year or so they sent the story back saying they couldn't place it.  I paid them for editing services.  As I recall they didn't change too much which made me feel like I wasn't too bad of a writer.

I let many things get in my way and only wrote sporadically from 1997 until about 2008.  And I wasn't doing anything to try and get anything published.  I should have done more but didn't.  One of my problems before 2008 was that I almost never could figure out how to turn a short story into a novel.  I feel I wrote some good short stories.  The one novel I started but never finished did not start out as a short story.  The idea came to me and enough came that I wrote a good amount.  It was never finished.  The ideas and concepts in that book are not as uncommon as they were when I wrote it.

In August of 2008 I finally figured out how to expand one of my short stories into a novel and I've been working towards completing that novel ever since.  Of course the specific events in that short story no longer appear in the novel.  A few of the basic concepts have survived and been expanded.  After writing this I just realized that about the only things that survived the original short story is the name of the main character and the concept of him being a forester and living on a mountain with lots of trees.  That short story was one of the first that I wrote in 1994 if not the first one and was always one of my favorites.

Too me, I am a writer; a writer with no works of fiction published - yet.  Time and the people who read my book once I publish it will tell if it is any good.  As for me, I know it will be when I am through with it and I know that many will enjoy reading it.

I've thought on and off about this blog I set up and that I need to post again.  Until today I never got around to it.

I've debated if I want to have a better focus for my blog, one that appeals to me is show casing books I like to read and don't have content I object to.  I often read about these kind of books referred to as clean reads.  I dislike books that have sex scenes in them and swearing of any kind.  I am fine with some violence in the books I read.  Of course the stories I write will qualify as clean reads as defined above.

None of my stories are published yet.  I take my time about deciding what to do unless I get a feeling of urgency that tells me I need to decide now.  And so it is that it took me a month or so just to decide to self publish once I have a story ready.  I am working on a fantasy novel right now.  The first draft is about half way done.  It is shaping up nicely with each passing week.

Two weeks ago I had the best week of writing in a long time.  From 20 to 26 February 2011 I typed 4,845 words.  I wish every week were like that.  Sadly every week is not.  Many things much more important require my time now, such as raising my four children as a single father with primary custody.  And then there are other distractions such as World of Warcraft, movies (I watched Star Wars 4 and Captains Courageous with some of my children recently), and chores to name a few.

I read and learn a lot on the kindle boards.  Among the most recent thing I have been trying to decide is how much to charge for my first novel and what kind of strategy to use.  Right now I am thinking the best pricing model/strategy to use is having my first novel be a loss leader and price it at 99 cents.  Later novels in the same series would then be priced higher at $2.99 or $3.99.  I still have time to decide and my decision could changed based on what I learn between now and when I publish my first novel.

Another thing I have been planning out is the sequence of events between now and when I publish.  I am planning to find an editor, beta readers, cover designer, and to have my book critiqued at www.critiquecircle.com.

To finish off today's post I want to let everyone who read this know that there will be a smaller interval between my second and third post than there was between my first one and this second one.

Predictably Unpredictable Infinite Experiences

If you took the time to analyze and understand my blog title then you have just had a predictably unpredictable experience.  I often like to use terms that seem incompatible.  I believe I am generally a predictable person with moments of unpredictability and hope that some of this comes out in this blog.  The title was more chosen because of how much I can predict that unpredictable things will happen to me and I will be blogging about these events.

One such happened to me this past Saturday.  I went to drop off my oldest son to play basketball on our churches young mens basketball team.  I planned to stay long enough to be sure that the game was not canceled due to the snow.  The coach of the team indicated to the boys there that they had to have five boys and one adult as coach in order to play.  I was the only adult from my church there.  So I stayed and became their coach.

And so I begin my blogging experience.  I plan to blog about how my writing is going as well as about things in my life.  I don't swear and plan to keep this blog a family friendly one.  We all have negative and positive experiences in our lives, I plan to focus on the positive here and so the only real negative you will see me post is something that I feel I and others can learn from and these will even be portrayed in a positive way as much as possible.

So you know how little I know about basketball I had to confirm there were four periods and had to ask how many fouls a player could get before being out for the rest of the game.  I am not a very vocal person so I was mostly just a figure head to allow them to play.  We started with five boys.    Another boy came later.  At that point, one of the boys was trying to get my attention and during a brief break I was informed that I was the one that had to declare I was substituting a player.  I told them that they would have to let me know when since I knew almost nothing about basketball.  So they would tell me when and then I would substitute a player.

Later two other adults from my church came and they helped out with the coaching and one was more vocal than me and was giving them pointers while they were playing.  I had to explain to him toward the end of the game when he didn't understand what they were doing is that they were purposely holding onto the ball and letting the clock run down.  Our team did this after every period.

What surprised me more was that the boys would tell me I was doing a great job.  I just sat there thinking that I wasn't doing anything.  Maybe that is what they wanted.

I am happy to say that they won, the score was 23 to 35 and the only credit I take is that because I stayed as their coach they were able to play so that they could win.