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[mkwiseman]

M. K. unplugged or, Goodbye from the Blog (for now)

M. K. unplugged or, Goodbye from the Blog (for now)

I’d like to say something about the guilty weight of an un-blogged blog. But then… it’s becoming quite apparent that I am not much of a blogger. And so, gentle reader, this is goodbye to the / from the blog. For now, at least. You prefer my fiction anyhow, yes? See you in the library, or bookstore, or whichever you like most. (Hey, maybe I’ll see you over on my website. I’m on there far more…

[mkwiseman]

I'm Not A Hamster, I Swear

I’m Not A Hamster, I Swear

And suddenly we were to remain at home, socially distance, sanitize… and hopefully not go stir crazy over it. I have been very lucky in that, during the lockdown (and all that followed) we had a treadmill. We had just gotten the thing and, while I’m 1. prone to walking outdoors whenever I can and 2. not a runner, it was fortuitous. (And the source of many a ‘hamsters in a cage’ joke at our house…

[mkwiseman]

The Trouble With Home Grown Tomatoes

The Trouble With Home Grown Tomatoes

I’ve always loved garden tomatoes. And not just from that old song, from the romance and idea of it. Two summers back, I started gardening. I finally had the space for it and, by gum, I was going to have some home grown tomatoes just like my grandparents grew! The thing is, I’m the only person in my household who likes tomatoes. And, while I’ve tried for a very very modest little patch, my…

[mkwiseman]

The Longest Goodbye; or, see you on page one

The Longest Goodbye; or, see you on page one

I surprised an author friend today by saying I felt ’empty inside’ over the upcoming release of The Fatewreaker — book 3 of the ‘Bookminder’ trilogy. I mean, I can’t complain. I write books for a living. It’s marvelous. It’s fun. It’s challenging. But . . . it’s emotionally draining, too. And so often in unexpected ways. You see, I hadn’t expected to feel sad, either. (Okay, maybe I anticipated…

[mkwiseman]

O, deep sea

O more duboko Sva moja radosti Po tebi meni plovi Cvite moje mladosti I have been putting off my proof read of The Fatewreaker. Not the proofread proofread. The book is available for preorder. It is done. It is complete. What I mean is my manual read-through of the physical proof copy. I do so every time, with every book. It is a ritual of sorts, a formal finishing of the story in my mind,…

[mkwiseman]

Dangerous Potatoes

I recall my parents cooking in the kitchen years back and my dad stealing raw potato chunks on the sly before they could make it into the pot. I, impressionable youth, copied this action, finding satisfaction in the eye-roll that my mom would give. “They’re no good that way.” Then she would shake her head and position herself just so, so that it’d be a little harder for us to steal more starchy,…

[mkwiseman]

Happy Birthday, Jeremy Brett

Happy Birthday, Jeremy Brett

The publication date for Sherlock Holmes & The Ripper of Whitechapel did not happen by accident. More like happenstance, I suppose. It needed to be a Tuesday (why do books release on Tuesday?) and in November. (The latter qualifier due to mood and tone of book, overall placement within the yearly calendar, distance from my other releases… all sorts of calculus went into this.) My own birthday…

[mkwiseman]

The Longest Scarf I've Never Knit

The Longest Scarf I’ve Never Knit

So I’m starting over on an old knitting project. Again.

I’ve a number of older pieces that I have abandoned along the way. Hats. Socks. Intricately-patterned scarves…

This one, I believe, reigns supreme for how long it has waited for completion, how many times I’ve moved with it in partially-completed mode, and for the sheer number of times I’ve completely undone it and begun anew. And on…

[mkwiseman]

When I was eight...

When I was eight…

Twenty five years ago, on Sept 12, 1995, Mr. Jeremy Brett passed away.

    When I was eight…

I was an eight-year-old who adored Sherlock Holmes. I cried at the conclusion of the Final Problem and cheered for the Empty Room (as one does). And when I discovered there was an actual end to the canon, that the stories were not limitless? I simply flipped back to the front of volume one and started…

[mkwiseman]

That awkward moment when you log into your digital sailing voyage and find that you’ve gone from this

  to this

  That said, my boat has managed to cross the Atlantic at long last. Currently headed south by way of the Bay of Biscay. (And with the aid of some frightful winds. I honestly did not know you could capsize in this simulator.)

Hey, ho, away we go!

Capsized! That awkward moment when you log into your digital sailing voyage and find that you've gone from this…

[mkwiseman]

I’ve been encouraged to share some pics of my writing space. To which I replied– well, that’s because you haven’t SEEN my writing space! hahahah

Seriously, I seem to have accumulated the most amazing collection of oddities and comfort items. An example of the clutter/cozy blend? I have, just now, counted the light sources in my room. Discounting both the window and ceiling fan light (the latter of which I never use save for when I’m vacuuming), I have a desk lamp, floor lamp, three atmospheric lanterns, a fake fireplace (powered by a nightlight bulb), and four ‘Dept 52’ Literary Classics houses. Oops, I forgot. I also have a ficus tree covered in little white ‘Italian lights’. 😂😂😂 Somebody save me from myself!

Residents of this fair jumble include Doctor Who minifigs, dragons, Mike Leckrone bobblehead (a prized possession, let me assure you), Holmes and Watson–my pink flamingos, and my childhood teddy bear. There will soon be no room left for me or my characters.

But there are books, don’t worry. Dooooon’t worry. I’ve accumulated the most fascinating collection of reference materials–some rare, some ridiculous–and I just keep coming across more. I’ve an ‘ugly old orange chair’ in the corner and the writing desk that I used as a child. It has upon it the heaviest, most gorgeous Royal typewriter from 1934. Yes, it works– it has a duel color ribbon and I oil it as needed. And, yes, I type on it fairly regularly.

And that’s about it, really.      I go in. Books come out.

(If only it were that simple.)

  Where the magic happens I've been encouraged to share some pics of my writing space. To which I replied-- well, that's because you haven't SEEN my writing space!

[mkwiseman]

Per some old emailed “notes to self” I’ve unearthed, I see that I had already begun to scour library catalogs for research materials on the history of espionage way back in September 2016. In spring of 2017, one hundred forty-one pictures and a half-of-a-carry-on of books from the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C. came home with me from a business trip. Fall of 2017 was, I believe, the first time I said, aloud, at an author presentation the premise for Magical Intelligence…

Volume One releases in just under two weeks.

The launch has caught me off guard, what with all the things going on in the world with Covid-19. Every physical release event has been sidelined and my own household has gone topsy-turvy. There’s been a priority shift, you know?

But I realized that, as usual, I have ever so much to say about the how and the why of this particular story. And even if M.I. just quietly slips out into the reading world sans-fanfare and some big launch party, I would like to share a little bit of the inner workings of the book and my process in bringing it to folks.

Magical Intelligence is, like Bookminder before it, a historical fantasy. Every location in London? Absolutely findable on a map. (Granted, places associated with magical espionage tend to be… shall we say… inaccessible to us ‘ords’ and don’t always look like the type of establishments geared towards spy work. But then, I suppose, that’s the point. Also there’s the little matter of a hundred+ years having passed since the events of M.I., volume 1.) I’ve sheaves of papers and folders of pdfs detailing the different systems of laylines which cross the earth.

And then there’s those books and pictures from the Spy Museum. At the risk of giving away any spoilers (mild, and generally inconsequential, I assure you) I’m calling out a few fun ones below; things I actually put to use in book 1.

Hidden messages within hard boiled eggs!!

Hollow Coins

Cipher disk

  Other fascinating items include:

  (…some of which will most likely make appearance in future volumes, my having already worked out some plot points around these. Tobacco pipe pistol? How cool is that!)

In any event, I guess I just wanted to throw together a few fun things that I learned along the long journey of conception to publication for this next book/series.

Happy reading!

  (P.S. While not something I learned at the Spy Museum, in my research I did come across whispers and rumors of an invention obliquely referred to in M.I. by Mr. Julius Griggs: a chain-mail parasol. Queen Victoria faced several attempts on her life–another grouping of factual details appearing within the plot of M.I.–and said parasol was reportedly conceived to help shield her in the event of an attack.

P.P.S. As Mr. Julius Griggs is not available to develop one of those fascinating devices for me, I am open to considerations by other clever makers. 😉 Granted, if I find myself facing an assassin, I suppose I have entered the wrong line of work.)

The Spy History Hidden Within ‘Magical Intelligence’ book 1 Per some old emailed "notes to self" I've unearthed, I see that I had already begun to scour library catalogs for research materials on the history of espionage way back in September 2016.

[mkwiseman]

‘Wrote a note, said “Be back in a minute” Bought a boat and I sailed off in it…’

– “Knee Deep” by Zac Brown Band feat. Jimmy Buffett

  A couple years back I bought into the beta release of a sailing simulator.  Turns out that SailAway does help scratch the itch that I can’t quite reach any more, having moved away from Madison and the Hoofer Sailing Club.

So we’re going on a journey, you and I.  I’ve charted my course and set sail from Liberty Island as of yesterday evening.  Destination?  ‘Round the world.

Freedom Tower as the coastline fades into the mist of dusk and distance.

Looking up into the rigging.

Setting sail from New York

I’ll admit, I’ve tried this before and failed.  (Through the simulator, you can set whether or not the boat keeps to course when you are not logged in and manually sailing your vessel.  I, unfortunately, had not set my previous voyage up correctly and ended up aground and bee-lining back to where I had started due to missing a check point on my map.)  So there is a very good chance that, without proper planning ahead and keeping in touch with my boat, the Margaritavich, I might mess this up again.  Guess we’ll find out together.

And, no, I’m not necessarily turning this blog into a fake-sailing log.  But there will be a fair bit of it since it’s 1. something in which I have a keen interest and 2. a fun challenge.  Then again, provided I keep my pages dry, maybe I can get a bit of writing done while I sail. 😉😉

Here’s a bit of midnight starry skies and ‘wing on wing’ sailing which, frankly, I get such a kick out of:

[midnight ‘wing on wing’ sailing]

Update as of this morning:

Sunshine on sails.

A view of the heads-up display, including my navigational map. Got a long haul ahead…

  See you out on the wide waters of the world!

“Be Back in a Minute” 'Wrote a note, said "Be back in a minute" Bought a boat and I sailed off in it...'

[mkwiseman]

3, 2, 1. Let's jam!

3, 2, 1. Let’s jam!

Been in the mood for a full Cowboy Bebop rewatch lately and so I though, ‘hey, I’ll share that journey on social media.’ Popped onto Twitter with the hashtags #CowboyBebop #Rewatch and Tweet reacted as I watched Session #1, Asteroid Blues. Am parsing out my full reaction here.

First impressions: Wow. I mean WOW. I forgot how gorgeously animated this series is. Little things– like how the ‘seams’…

[mkwiseman]

It’s January and there is snow on the ground (at long last!) here in wintry Wisconsin.

Which makes it plant season . . . for me, at least.

One, there is the debate to which I have alluded in this post’s title. Do I keep my poinsettia plants, trim off the red, stick ’em in a dark closet, and hope for a reprise come next year? Usually the answer is ‘yes’ followed by about 6-8 weeks of moving them around the kitchen to get them out of my way and then, eventually, giving up on them as leaves drop off and they start to look scraggly. (Perspective: My two plants this year together cost less than $5 – a.k.a. they’re little and not meant to really last. Case in point, I had purchased a trio in late November and that third one didn’t even last the week.) I have settled for watering them and now have run away from this question to write this blog post.

Two, one of my favorite smells in all the world is that moist green-growing odor of soil and flora. And in the frozen world of a Wisconsin winter, during my undergraduate years I used to seek haven within the University Greenhouses at UW-Madison.

I’ve a number of sketch books that were moisture ruined in the D. C. Smith Greenhouse due to carelessness upon my part (read: not readying myself to leave quickly in the event that the watering system came on). But that, too, was part of the charm. My favorite time to go was when it reached -5°F or below outside. Then the glass of windows and ceiling would frost over, rendering the tropical haven into something of a private wonderland. I often was not the only student to come and spend upwards of half an hour just breathing in the vitality of the place.

[pencil sketch from D. C. Smith Greenhouse circa 2004 – leaf study]

[pencil sketch from D. C. Smith Greenhouse circa 2004 – tree]

(Pictured above- two pencil sketches, circa 2004, from the D. C. Smith Greenhouse.)

My other campus haven was the Botany Greenhouse which, while infinitely closer to my dorm and classes (we’re talking a 1-2 minute walk which, on that campus is quite a thing), had significantly more limited hours of accessibility.

Nowadays I am greenhouse-less. My world is one of coffee shops and biking paths, frozen-over creeks and libraries. A great world, yes. But lacking in that deeply concentrated misty wetness which seems to lend Life to they who breathe it in. I find that I miss it.

And so I guess I’ll keep my little struggling poinsettia plants a little longer this year. Again.

The Annual Poinsettia Debate It's January and there is snow on the ground (at long last!) here in wintry Wisconsin.

[mkwiseman]

Don't Read This Blog Entry

Don’t Read This Blog Entry

Don’t read this blog entry, please. I’m serious.

I’d rather you go watch the skies. Or bake a cake. Or read a book (of course.)

Feed the birds, perhaps. Write a poem. Walk your dog. Put on some tunes and dance in the living room.

Because if you’re reading this blog post, you are more than likely peering at it on your phone (statistically speaking).

Maybe you’re filling in a little bit of down…

[mkwiseman]

Flower bath! https://www.instagram.com/p/BwnfbcuHmQv/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ctysiffcg7ot