F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Fun

And Now…I Will Leave You….

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I Will Leave You To The Dark…. (Photo © F. P. Dorchak and Jan C J Jones, 2016)
I Will Leave You To The Dark…. (Photo © F. P. Dorchak and Jan C J Jones, 2016)

Black Friday—how apropos in terms of title!

I had not planned on publishing this here. The origin of this piece is kinda funny: it had started as a blog comment on my friend, Susie Lindau’s, fun Hallowe’en blog post, “Welcome to the Wild Halloween Blogger’s Bash“! Susie is a trip, and she comes up with really cool ideas for posts, like this one, in which she’d said: “Drop a link to your blog in the comments and leave an enticing hook that penetrates the victim’s soul, if they have one.” In her post she also had a cool graphic with the words: “Join me in a blog party that will leave you breathless.”

Well…I had to try to come up with something. This was way too cool of an opportunity to pass up—and on Hallowe’en, my most favorite holiday (and yes, it really should be a holiday where you actually get the day off)!

Anywho, while in the middle of doing half a dozen other things for which I took the day off, I sat down and belted this thing out. Posted it. It literally got me chuckling like an evil little clown doll!

What I had tried to do was write up something creepy that involved imagery from as much of my writing as possible, without going too overboard. To lend an horrific flavor to my overall short story effort. It was so funny and creepy I thought, you know, I should post this on Facebook (and here). So I did. It would be my little “Hallowe’en decoration,” though I’d also posted a Hallowe’en short story, called “The Hallowe’en Tree.” It was fun, that’s all it was, and it was fitting! And with one modification, the rest is as I’d written it that day. Thanks, Susie, for the cool inspiration! The title and subject matter are also “wildly” appropriate, here, becaaause…

This concludes my free short story releases!

It’s been exactly a year of releases! I’ve released 55 short stories/poems and one essay. And I know, not all of them were, well—good—but I sincerely thank all of you who read and commented and followed my work! I had wanted to post the best of my work over the years, in as close to their original form as possible, on this site. To have a “paper trial,” if you will. Then I would heavily edit as much as possible the better of these, and put them in my first and only short story collection, which is due out next year (2017). I will also include any new stories I might come up with prior to its publication (I’m currently working on a new one). The collection is tentatively titled, Do The Dead Dream? It will be released in both e- and print book formats. I’m really excited about finally getting these out there! This has been such a labor of love and quite the trip down memory lane!

I thank Mandy Pratt for her editorial, copyediting, and proofreading assistance! Her efforts will be seen in the final versions in the 2017 collection. She has largely been in the background of these posts, but a couple of times I did employ her for a post or two that really needed an extra eye up front. “The Wreck” was one of them, as well as “Rewrite,” which was a brand new story I’d written this year.

Once again, thank you all for your support and kind words! It’s been a crazy, sometimes eye-opening journey reliving my younger-self’s mindsets and creativity, and I hope I’ve managed to both entertain and enlighten! It is truly with a measure of wistful nostalgia that I finally move on from these works into whatever future belongs to my new efforts….

This post had originally been published October 31, 2016, on Susie Lindau’s “Welcome to the Wild Halloween Blogger’s Bash.” And so…

 

I will leave you breathless

I will leave you headless

I will leave you lifeless

I will leave you soulless

 

I will leave you inside-out

I will leave you ripped about

I will leave you full of knives

I will leave you praying for doubt

 

I will leave you to the dark

I will leave you largely in parts

I will leave you worse than I came

I will leave you to my arts

 

I will leave you on the floor

I will leave you on the wall

I will leave you on the ceiling

I will leave you cloaked in pall

 

I will bruise your mind

I will rend your spirit

I will make you mine

I will have you…upon which to dine

 

I

Will never leave you.

 

Short Story Links

Links to all my posted short stories are here.

MileHiCon48

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MileHiCon48, October 28 - 30, 2016
MileHiCon48, October 28 – 30, 2016

My final “Author Event” for 2016 was MileHiCon48, in Denver. It was the fifth Author Event I’d been to. I’d done two library events, my first Comic Con, an RMFW Con, and MileHiCon. Prior to this year, the most promotion I’d ever done was two events. This event marked my third time at this Con, and it was probably the most fun I’ve had so far [at the Con]! Every year seems to get better and better!

I’d arrived just before 1:30 at the Hyatt Regency, at the Denver Tech Center (DTC), on Denver’s south end (which is continually advancing toward Castle Rock) and made my way to the Hyatt Regency’s restaurant, Root 25. As some of you may have seen, I detailed my culinary experience on FB. I had a wonderful server, named Leyla, who I came to calling “My Enabler.” She’d highly touted the brick chicken (forget it’s official menu name) with a molasses sauce, which I subsequently inhaled and which Leyla had joked “It never had a chance.” She then went on to “enable me” into…ummm…cheesecake. Yeah. Similarly dispatched.

Hence: “My Enabler.”

Leyla (she gave me permission to post this).
Leyla (she gave me permission to post this).

We ran into each other several times over the weekend. Her and two others (Angela and Traci) on the Root 25 staff were extremely attentive, friendly—at times even humorous—and efficient in the performance of their duties, and I just want to give them some well-deserved shout-outs. Everyone there was “on their game,” though the three I mentioned were who I personally dealt with each day. The Con always gets the attention, but my dealings with the Hyatt staff were also most deserving of shout-outs (and they sported cool hats, too)!

Also while having my first meal at the Hyatt, I’d struck up a conversation with another eating alongside me, a guy who’s a Gamer. His name is Ross Watson, and he’s the Managing Director of Evil Beagle Games. Anyway, Ross mentioned that he remembered me and I said I thought I’d also recognized him…but he also said he remembered me because last year I’d been walking around the Con with a mannequin head!

Ha! How cool! Much like my pseudo-stalker Sheri, from RMFW this past September, I’d again been “recognized in the wild” for something I’d done…um, in a good way! Later this past weekend, another had also mentioned the same thing to me, so Becka had really made a good impression on MileHiCon47!

This year’s panels were more lighthearted for me. I was on more fun stuff, and not having dystopian issues and serious shit all up in my grill, like last year. In fact, I’d withdrawn from one panel this year about “who’s running everything,” as in the ultimate conspiracy theory. I just don’t want to “go there” in my life anymore. I researched it for two novels, wrote the books, now I’m done with it.

This year, I was on three, “lighter issue” panels:

  • A Gentle Critique of Critique Groups
  • The Afterlife: Good, Bad, Cliché
  • Guilty Pleasures: Best Bad Stuff I Like
My notes for "The Afterlife" panel, MileHiCon48.
My notes for “The Afterlife” panel, MileHiCon48.

Though the “Guilty Pleasures” panel was fun and hilarious, “The Afterlife” panel was my favorite panel. I was on it with Connie Willis, Warren Hammond, and Robin Owens. Another was supposed to have joined us, but never showed. I loved this panel! It’s what I deal with in all my fiction. We talked about whether or to we believed in an afterlife and what we thought one might be like. Talked of ghosts and cemeteries and books and movies that had some of the best of the portrayal of the topic. One of the funnier things talked about was from Connie Willis who said that she got the following idea from another…that as she (Connie) approaches the afterlife she is going to start making a list of all the stuff she won’t miss! That sent the room into laughter. What a cool idea, huh? Instead of pining away for what you will miss when you die, why not point out some of the stuff—people and crap—that you absolutely will not miss! “I’ll never have to deal with that guy again!” kinda thing! What a cool idea!

I really loved that this panel was programmed! In fact as the room filled up, I was actually stunned at the interest! As I voiced this to the audience, a lady in the front row shouted out “We all want answers!” I thought this was great to include with all the hard-science panels, because last year I was on the “Closer & Further Than You Think” panel, and an actual scientist, when approaching the topic of souls and the afterlife said he wouldn’t touch that [topic] with a ten-foot pole! Really, I thought? That is precisely what we need to be doing—and more of it! Technology is not everything! Don’t allow it to outpace our souls! Our Humanity! Our consciences! Anyway, as to the matter of the seriously packed room, I was later told that maybe it was so packed because Connie Willis was on the panel. She is a huge draw and at least one other panel I attended that she was on was also packed…but not as much as this one (see the short stories, below).

I did two book signings, a “single-table” one with C. R. Asay, whom I first met here at last year’s MileHiCon, and a mass autographing with the rest of the authors. At this conference I sold five books. Definitely up from one last year!

"The Reading Game," MileHiCon48. Note Kevin Ikenberry in the center of the three on the left.
“The Reading Game,” MileHiCon48. Note Kevin Ikenberry in the center of the three on the left.

Of the sessions I attended as an audience member, I really loved two of them:  “The Reading Game” and “Short Stories: Lifeblood & Experimental Laboratory of the Genre World.” The Reading Game is like the dating game but for books and readers, and it’s a really fun event! Three authors are on one side of a barrier, while a reader is selected from the audience and is on the other side. We learn what the reader is interested in, the host selects from the group of authors the best fits to what the reader is interested in. The reader closes their eyes as the three authors take seats on the other side of the barrier. The reader then opens their eyes and starts asking three questions of each author. Based on their answer, the reader selects an author, and they get a free autographed novel! How cool is that? I was one of the authors last year, during its debut appearance, and I had been selected by a reader, with my supernatural murder mystery, The Uninvited. It was so much fun! Anyway, this year I got to watch others I know get the same treatment. It’s such a cool event!

The Short Story Panel, MileHiCon48.
The Short Story Panel, MileHiCon48.

The other session I really liked was the short story panel. The past year I’d gotten back into my own short stories. I’ve been going back over all the stuff I’d written over the years and am posting the better of them (which is not saying much in some cases, perhaps!) for free on this site. I’ve kept them as close as possible to their original form, with little editing. I wanted them…warts and all…as I’d last left them. Why? Not sure. It sounded like a great idea one morning at 3 a.m. last year to revisit my younger mindset and efforts…then—as I’m doing now—go over those and pull the best of those and edit the heck out of them, and release them in print and e-books formats, which I’ll be doing for 2017. Anyway, since I am currently in the short story mode, I really wanted to attend this and hear the haps on it all. It was not disappointing! It was a packed room that went “sauna” real fast, because of the overtaxed ventilation system. But we all stuck it out. It was enlightening, engaging, even humorous! One thing that always gets me is how many seem to look at short stories as test beds for novels, and I was so glad to hear Connie Willis say, yeaaaah—no. You’re wrong. Sure, they can be all that and more, but they are their own legitimate form. This I heartily agree with! Carrie Vaughn also said another thing of interest, in that there’s also been some cries of the death of short stories, but what they’re all seeing now is an actual resurgence. Where are all these declarations coming from?! They must make for good copy, but (to me anyway) always appear incredibly trite. The remaining panel members were Jennifer Campbell-Hicks, Sam Knight, and Ed Bryant, who was also the moderator.

Avistrum Battle Chess Match, MileHiCon48.
Avistrum Battle Chess Match, MileHiCon48.

On Sunday, I’d been talking with Sue Duff, and she’d been giving me all kinds of cool information about updating my pricing, etc., while behind me was going on all this noise and commotion. I finally told her I had to check out what was going on, and it was the Avistrum Battle Chess Match. It was pretty neat, so I watched some of it. I am not an Avistrum fan, but it was fun to watch!

There is so much more to mention, both people and events, but I don’t want to name names and risk missing anyone. It was so nice to meet you all! I met many from social media that I had never physically met! Met friends I used to see once or twice a year, but his year, having done five events, met them every couple of months, and that was really cool! Thank you all for making MileHiCon48 what it is and for being who you are! For making the world a better place with your energy and efforts! It really is amazing at how much writing and energy is put toward it all that is out there! The same can be applied to most anything, but wow, it’s truly staggering when you stop and think about it. Think about how much time and effort you place into you effort-of-choice and multiply that by the world population. It’s a crapload of effort and energy being pumped out into life! So, where does all that energy come from and where does it go, since it cannot be created or destroyed?

Yeah, just think about that….

Laura K. Deal, on the "What Killed It For You?" MileHiCon48 Panel.
Laura K. Deal, on the “What Killed It For You?” MileHiCon48 Panel.

And I had to post this shot of my friend, Laura Deal! Doesn’t she look great? This was on the panel, “What Killed It For You?” About what made you throw a book across a room. That was a pretty lively discussion!

Well, there’s one more thing I have to mention, and I hope I don’t embarrass the individual, but it really pleasantly surprised me! At the end of the en masse book signing on Saturday, Ed Bryant came over and chatted a bit with me. I had met Ed, geez, 20-25 years ago? Man, has it really been that long? I’m really not sure anymore, but he and John Stith used to run a critique group at a local university here, and I had gotten into it. I think we actually first met through a Pikes Peak Writers Conference that led to me finding out about the critique group. Anyway, I eventually left the group, the group is no longer active, and Ed and I had quite infrequently run into each other over the years, physically and electronically. Well, since attending these MileHiCons, we’ve renewed our contact. Ed is a great guy, dry and witty. Unassuming. Talented. Articulate. A great writer. He’s one of those guys who says stuff, and you sometimes have to pause and buffer what he’d just said, realizing he’d just said something incredibly insightful or humorous! Well, at least I do, don’t know about the rest of his more familiar friends. Anyway, I mention all this not to drop names and all, but because the legendary and esteemed Edward Bryant Jr. asked me for my autograph!

Wow.

Floored me. I was quite taken aback.

I hope I’m not making that up. Was it a dream?

Had some big, famous dude actually asked for my autograph?

MileHiCon48 Bands.
MileHiCon48 Bands.

I hope it wasn’t some hypnogogic hallucination brought on by all the excitement and exhaustion and inhalation of body-sweat bouquet (mine and others)! Thank you, Ed, for your most kind gesture! It’s weird how “little things” like that from your fellow writers can affect you! It is always a pleasure seeing and catching up with you! And thank you so much for “keeping it real,” which is ironic given what it is you do for a living….

MileHiCon48?

Freaking ausgezeichnet.

Related Article

RMFW Colorado Gold Writers Conference

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Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Wall "Light Display" (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, September 10, 2016)
Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Wall “Light Display” (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, September 10, 2016)

The very first writers conference I ever attended was somewhere around 1987 or so. I no longer remember. But what I do remember is the people and the energy of that weekend! About being a young dude of 26 or so, officially declaring myself as “a writer,” and putting myself out there. I had just moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1985 and had been bouncing around between critique groups. Through various referrals, I’d found out about this group of writers out of Denver, so I checked them out and ended up staying with them for a few years! “The Capitol Hill Group,” was my new critique group and I commuted every week to them. And they mentioned this animal called “a writers conference.”

So I went.

It was an entire world of writing! I was hooked!

But life got in the way, and, well, I ended the commute when I got married and with busy work schedules, et cetera—but I stayed in the writer’s group. Some time later their name changed to their present set of words (Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers), and I’ve always remained with them. But…I also found a local writer’s group that also formed their own conference and had gone to that one for some 20 years, volunteering, et cetera.

But one always remembers their first love with great and misty-eyed fondness!

I’d always wanted to attend another RMFW conference, but it was hard to afford paying for two conferences a year, or I’d be away on vacation or a business trip, or some other event was interfering with my plans to attend the RMFW Gold. But in rolls 2016…and I found I’d had an open calendar!

So…some 30 years later…I’d finally made my way to the RMFW writers conference!

It was…epic.

Not only were the sessions incredible and informative, but the people…oh, yes, it’s the people who make anything good or bad or indifferent, and these people were beautiful.

Yes, “beautiful”!

It was well-organized and oiled!

And I’d met new writers I hope to be able to now call new friends, and met some old friends from my Capitol Hill Critique group days! One in particular (Christine Jorgensen!) I hadn’t seen her in some 30 years!

There is so much to relate from this conference, but it would be a much looonger post, and I’m trying to be better about that, so I’m only going to relate a couple of “situations” that really stood out:

  • Being recognized “in the wild”
  • Relating “weird tales” that really happened
  • Reading porno

Being Recognized

As I checked in to the conference and stated my name…the next thing I knew, this woman was leaning across the table, pointing at me, saying: “I know you: All writing helps all writing!”

Oh, my God—my first stalker.

Clearing my throat and backing away from the table juuust a touch, I squeaked, “Excuse me?”

“You’re the one who posts on the loop with the signature tag ‘All writing helps all writing!'” this rather energetic and enthusiastic woman said, still reaching across the table with her pointy finger.

I was, um, well, kinda speechless.

Scared.

Yes, I do have that as my tag line, and yes, I do post on the RMFW loop. She was right. Her pointy finger was also still right in my face (okay, I exaggerate).

She was all smiles as she introduced herself to me as Sheri Duff (no relation to Sue Duff—they call themselves “Sisters by different mothers. And fathers.”).

So…while still keeping the table between her and me, we discoursed and I discovered that she was keenly aware of my e-mail signature block.

Wow.

To say I was stunned puts it mildly. I was also..humbled.

Here was someone “out in the wild” who had recognized not only my name…but part of my brand. Little old me. My branding had actually worked!

Turns out, Sheri and I kept running into (?!) each other throughout the conference, and she is actually a very sweet person.

But, I’m still dumbfounded, humbled, shaking my head…and checking over my shoulder….

Weird Tales

All I can say about this section, is that I am finding—without a doubt—that many people experience aspects of the supernatural than is currently realized. They just don’t talk about it much or openly.

I am not going to get into what others told me—that is not my place—but, man, it raised the Chicken Skin! It’s easy to hear this stuff around noise, commotion, and friends…and quite another to remember those conversations when you return alone to your dark room at night.

But.

I have to say, I did spook one of my friends, Susie Lindau, who write a great series of blogs! I told her about many of my “weird things that happen to me,” and then told her about the “Silver Man” who had visited me as a kid. In this relation, there’s a part where my brother, Greg, told about how the Silver Man, who had been looking at me, turned to look briefly at him—then away. I demonstrated that to Susie, and she cringed and contorted and weird mewling noises emerged from her. I don’t even know if there are vowels in the English language to convey those, um, “intonations.”

Reading Porno

Okay. Porno.

I released my fifth novel, Voice, last year (2105) about a guy’s disintegrating familial and romantic relationships. It has emotional content. It has supernatural content.

It also has erotic content.

Some might call it “pornographic,” but they would be wrong. Porno is written to excite and titillate. I did not write it to that end. It was written as part of the story of this character’s issues, within the confines of working in the fashion and modeling industry and in his dealing with a voice in his head. Yeah.

Next: back in the late 80s, when I was with The Capitol Hill critique group, one of my critique group, Kay Bergstrom, aka Cassie Miles, had signed one of her Harlequin Temptation novels, It’s Only Natural, to me. In it, she signed it as—well, read it for yourself:

Cassie Miles aka Kay Bergstrom Autograph of It's Only Natural, ©1986 (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, September 12, 2016)
Cassie Miles aka Kay Bergstrom Autograph of It’s Only Natural, ©1986 (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, September 12, 2016)

NOTE ADDED LATER: In all fairness to Kay, as I thought about this, I remembered that I’d told her to make the autographing as raunchy as she could!

Well, that has been a long running joke between Kay and me. And I’d found at this conference she and Linda Joffe Hull were presenting a session about “Writing Sex: The Ins and Outs.” Since I had written some pretty steamy sex scenes in Voice, I wanted to see if there was something I could learn from Kay and Linda…see if I’d done something wrong (turns out better writers [Stephen King, Jonathan Franzen] than me wrote far worse scenes that I remember writing…)…better learn for any future sex scenes I might write (Voice is my last and only book of “this nature”; you’ll see what I mean if you read it: be warned, it ain’t for the easily offended—or my family).

And during this session Linda and Kay made it known that they wanted someone from the audience to read a passage from this porno novel that Kay had contributed to.

Say what?

Though I sat at the very front table, I felt the awkwardness of those behind me. I doubt any eye contact was made with Kay or Linda then.

So I shot my hand into the air.

What in hell was I doing?

I don’t know. Didn’t care. Linda and Kay were unabashed, joyful, good-natured, and easygoing about the topic, and I was at the conference to have fun. Even at my own expense. Embarrassment.

I was taking a chance…putting myself out there…and trying to grow as a writer.

That‘s what-in-hell-I-was-doing.

So I found a steamy passage and told the room that I may get red-faced while reading this…but we were gonna work through it!

So…I read.

And I liked it!

I mean, well, yeah, it was fun!

That was the first time I’d done anything like that…in public.

We were all writers trying to learn about how to write legitimate sex scenes in our work. Our work is about people…and one of the things people do…is have sex…and it’s up to us to portray that in as real a fashion as possible, per the genre within which we all write. There are definite dos-and-don’ts.

Put yourselves out there.

In Summation

There is so much more to say about this past weekend, but it’s all writerly-geekness. But I’ve come away with a [re]new[ed] appreciation for newsletters (I’m going to try to restart my previously feeble efforts), “event table psychology,” writing (blogging!) legalities, and new methods of promotion. Found a new and legit need for a smartphone.

I got to meet new people (finally—faces to names!) and renewed current friendships (Karen, Aaron, Bonnie, Janet, Laura, Angie, Warren, Nathan, and so many more)! Cried on the inside at Ann Hood’s Sunday luncheon speech.

And I gained a stalker.

Nice.

What more could an up-an-coming writer ask for?

Write on.

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All Around The Fire Pit

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Dad's Fire Pit. (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 13, 2016)
Dad’s Fire Pit. (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 13, 2016)

What is it about fire that we so love?

I don’t mean all those massively destructive ones that ruin lives, but the far smaller, controllable ones that we love to sit or stand around and stare into.

The ones that seem to enrich our lives.

The ones around which we talk and weave stories and take in the crackling wood, dancing flames, and shooting sparks that fly off into the night?

I’ve read that fires bestow healing qualities to those who stare into them, and I do believe that must be the case. Maybe not so much a physically healing quality—but maybe so, who knows?—but certainly emotional and psychic healing. I love to hang around those kinds of fires. The fire pits…the camp fires. And my dad having one of these (I have to get one!) was really neat.

As the lot of us converged at my dad and stepmom’s place for our summer vacation and my dad’s 80th birthday, we hung out at the fire pit. Standing…sitting…trading stories. Conversation. Enjoying the night and the company (and Alek, Greg’s son, did a fine job of getting it started and keep it running—thanks, Alek!). On one of those nights, I stood and conversed with a friend of my dad’s who’s had a fair amount of paranormal experiences that he’d been wanting to talk about with me for some time. Every time we’d met, over the past few years, he’d bring up some really weird stuff…about how doors open or close without people doing it…or hearing footsteps in hallways while no one was there. That kind of thing. But he’s always been on his way, or we’ve been on ours. We’d always begin talking about the experiences, then would never really complete those conversations and I always got the feeling there was so much more he’d wanted to talk about. Anyway, it was fun finally getting to swap those stories in a continuous, uninterrupted conversation with him about both of our experiences!

But, it was also neat being in the “atmosphere” of the fire pit, where my other family members were also talking and laughing among themselves! While I was in conversation with my dad’s friend, I was also pleasantly conscious of the other conversations and laughing going on with the others, and it warmed my heart. Family members with whom I don’t get to see nor be physically around with much anymore, though we do communicate with in all the usual, technological ways of today. We were all standing and sitting in the backyard…in the night…around a warmly burning fire….

I felt the love…I felt the emotional and psychic “healing.”

What is it about being around fire pits?

I’m not sure…but I love it.

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The Lake Titus Camp, Summer 2016

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The Lake Titus, New York Camp. (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 14, 2016)
The Lake Titus, New York Camp. (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 14, 2016)

The Lake Titus Camp we stayed at is a few miles outside of Malone, New York, just toward and also outside of the Adirondack Park. There are many camps out on the lake, and we’ve seen them all from the lake (we had a tour of the lake and the camps several years back, when we stayed at another camp owned by the Carkeys, farther down the lake; a friend of my dad and stepmom gave us a boat ride guided tour). In fact, while staying at the Carkeys old camp, it was only accessible by boat—there was no road into it. So my wife and I took this little boat with an outboard on it and had to use it to get there every night—in the dark. It was so cool. And on the 4th of July during that trip the neatest experience happened: as we were boating out to the camp in total darkness (we had no light, but you could actually make your way in the darkness), we came upon all these people just sitting out in the water in their boats!

You read that right.

Welcome To Lake Titus! (© Photo F. P. Dorchak, August 15, 2016)
Welcome To Lake Titus! (© Photo F. P. Dorchak, August 15, 2016)

There were all these people just sitting out in the dark on the lake. We asked what was going on and were told that they were waiting for fireworks! Ha! How cool, we thought, so we stopped and hung out with everyone, also quietly chatting in the dark with these unknown faces all in a happy, joyful mood. It was the coolest thing! And when the fireworks went off, that was incredible…watching them from the lake! This will always remain as one of the neatest experiences of my life….

My Favorite Birds-On-A-Plate (© Photo F. P. Dorchak, August 14, 2016)
My Favorite Birds-On-A-Plate (© Photo F. P. Dorchak, August 14, 2016)

The camp we stayed at this time around is run by the Harwoods, and it was quite comfortable for the four of us. It has a living room, full kitchen and dining area, two bedrooms, and a bathroom with a shower in it. The living room has a pull-out sleeper couch. The view out the living-room’s windows is great! They also have a small grill out on the porch, and a fire pit in front, but we needed use of neither, since we were at my folks’ place. The camp is nestled on a steep slope of Lake Titus and has a small dock that holds a paddle boat and kayak. There is no “beach,” per se, but the water is shallow enough to get into by stepping on submerged rocks (be careful!), with a sandy bottom. The grade toward deeper water drops off quickly once you get out in. And there are fish! I don’t know what kind, but I saw all manner of them, from some three inches to what looked like (water refraction, you know) maybe six or so inches.

This trip to upstate New York was for my dad’s 80th birthday, and there wasn’t enough room for us all at my dad and stepmom’s place, so the camp was rented. My brother, Greg, his son, Alek, and my wife and I stayed here. Greg and Alek didn’t stay as long, left mid-week, but my wife and I stayed through to the next weekend. We went to my folk’s place and drove around during the day, but at night stayed here. After Greg and Alek left, in the early morning, while my wife still slept, I went down and hung out on the steps leading down to the dock and just…stared…out over the water…let my mind run wild…watched and listened to the two loons that were out there…drifting with the current and bobbing and swimming under the water to pop up somewhere else. Listened to their haunting wails, yodels, and tremolos….

Early Morning Sun. (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 20, 2016)
Early Morning Sun. (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 20, 2016)

Watched the rising sun sparkle off the still waters…

Looked out over the unknown dark depths and mountains for story inspiration…

This is the part of the country I remain heavily and spiritually tied to. Where I get recharged. I love upstate New York, the Adirondacks. Its mountains and waters and trees. I love the spirit of the land. Had I not gone the route I went in my career, I most certainly would have followed my dad’s path as a Forest Ranger. As a kid I was always in the 40 acres of woods up back behind our Lake Clear home roaming the land, climbing the trees. I loved it there.

Sigh.

Early Morning Kayak. (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 19, 2016)
Early Morning Kayak. (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 19, 2016)

Anyway…after Laura would awaken, she’d go swimming (she’s such a fish!) and I’d take out the kayak. It’s a little different than canoeing, but I love it! One day, there was a lot of mist out on the lake (it wasn’t the case every morning), and as I sat there mesmerized by it…I did watch it for a bit…it dawned on me: I have a kayak! I then made it my business to get out in that thing and cross the lake to meet up with the remaining mists before it all evaporated!

I became this Olympic kayaker, powering across Lake Titus….

And I caught up with it!

The mists danced and swirled off the waters, like wraiths evading the sun. There was this seagull on a rock as I came over…then it flew off the rock, low and across the water…it was so cool….

As I floated in among the mists I felt transported into a different world…one of eerie magical enchantment! It was stunningly beautiful and mystical! Absolutely haunting!

On my last kayak, I went down to the far end of the lake to check out the Carkey Camp. I also just wanted to head down that way because I like to go to out-of-the-way corners where not many tread, and on the way back I came across a loon! Knowing how feisty they can be, I kept my distance—maybe about 30 or so feet?—and slowly paddled past it. I was close enough to see its beady little red eyes. Sorry, no pictures, I didn’t bring the camera this time, just wanting to be in the moment without any technology. But, it was so cool!

154_9685On all my kayaks, I would go out into the middle of the lake and just…sit. Float with the current…both hands dunked into the cold, dark water, and think: It just doesn’t get any better than this!

When I was done kayaking, we’d switch and Laura would kayak and I would “mess around” in the water—I wouldn’t call what I did in the water “swimming,” per se, but I just love being in (or around) lake water. Upstate New York water. So, I’d swim out a little and back, dive under for a few strokes, and otherwise, well, just stand neck-deep in the stuff feeling all-kinds-of contented…again just staring out across the lake from a pond skater’s point of view…with a silly, complacent smile on that face of mine. Enjoying where I was…being totally in the moment. Toes squishing around in the dark lake muck below me…all kinds of fishies playing around at my feet. I’m not familiar enough with what’s in Titus, but here’s a site I found afterward.

Then, one particularly perfect morning as the sun was rising, as I looked down into the water just off the dock, I was utterly captivated by what I saw—hypnotic sun sparkles dancing off the water! They were so happy and joyful in their existence and they called out to me! These sparkles seemed to have a life of their own! This is one of my favorite videos I’ve ever taken, and yes, story idea already percolating! I simply stood there and stared into them…for I don’t know how long! Utterly mesmerized!

But…all things must come to an end…

On our last night there, Friday, the 19th, I tried taking some night shots, the moon so full and bright! No special camera, just using a couple little old, nonsmartphone cameras on various settings. I also tried to capture some of the fireworks going off across the lake, but wasn’t successful there. But…a couple of the night shots did work, you know, for being an nonprofessional. It was an incredible night!

We had an incredible stay…got to play in and on the water…had no real commitments…and just…relaxed. It was…incredible. My friend, Jan C. J. Jones, polished up one of my larger videos I’d taken (at my request) while “chasing the mists,” and turned it into a YouTube video, also adding some really cool music to cover up the scratchiness of whatever was going on when I took this video. Thanks, Jan! It turned out this was the last day I saw mists on the lake….

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Clouds!

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Cloud Watching! (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 11, 2016)
Cloud Watching! (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 11, 2016)

I love clouds!

As a kid, I used to lie on the ground many a day and just stare up at them. Forever.

A couple of weeks ago, we went on a vacation to visit family in upstate New York, and on the flight out of Colorado, I looked out the window and saw these! They were incredible—pictures never do them adequate justice—and I just couldn’t pass them up! So, I took out my iPad and began snapping shots of the cloud banks we approached.

Also as I looked outside the Embraer-175, I also noticed how squeaky clean the aircraft was! In fact, it appeared near brand new. I loved how the sun glinted off the air frame and engine! But, upon closer inspection, I did see a bunch of splatter on the leading edge of the wing. Huh, thought I, what was splattered all over that leading edge? How high do insects fly? Well, a quick look into this as I wrote this post told me that the upper range can be about 6,000 feet, but most flies and bugs seem to hit their ceiling at about 2,500 or so (+/-) feet, depending on temperature.

Squeaky Clean! (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 11, 2016)
Squeaky Clean! (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 11, 2016)

Of course, I also looked to the wing to make sure there were no…you know…creatures playing around out there with our aircraft (the Twilight Zone’s “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”)….

Nope. Nothing there. (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 11, 2016)
Nope. Nothing there. (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 11, 2016)

When we do these trips, I do, what I call, “Eating Across America.” This simply involves chowing down on whatever comes my way as I graze throughout the day, and traveling across the country is no different! I eat about six times a day, “smaller” meals (“smaller” to me is not necessarily “small” to you…), and on an aircraft, the pickins can be a tad slim, so I take what I can get! Usually I pack food with me, but this time things got away from me and I came empty-handed. Anyway, my “ingestion” can, however, be quite intimidating to the untrained observer. I’m a professional [in my own mind], so don’t try this at home. But, even to me, sometimes the aftermath isn’t pretty….

Grazing Across America (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 11, 2016)
Grazing Across America (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 11, 2016)

So, here are the photos I took of the clouds we flew over! So beautiful and breathtaking!

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