Category Archives: Writers

Stories from the Road: Airport Diaries Pt 1 TSA Precheck Survival Guide

For over a year, I’ve written about bookstores. It’s a pleasure for me to find new independent stores, support them with my patronage, and promote them through this blog. I will continue to do this as there are still stores I’ve not visited. Some I’ve been told about and others are still waiting to be noticed. At this time, I’m expanding my stories to include other travel tales. It’s amazing both in good, surprising, and head-shaking ways. As I share these please comment below or to my Twitter—https://twitter.com/JMcCarthyEdS–your thoughts and experiences. Have you gone through a similar experience? What have you seen. Let’s share our stories from the road…

Stories from the Road: Airport Diaries, Part 1 TSA Precheck Survival

Airport travel is an acquired skill-set that anyone can pick up. The regular security lines are a great place to learn the ropes before ever setting foot in a TSA Precheck line. That line is for all of those who went through a rigorous background check so that they can get through security faster, without taking off shoes, belts, wallets, and anything in pockets. The bonus is passing through the metal detector instead of the body scanner.

There are three things to know about TSA Precheck that makes the experience smooth and low stress for you and those in line behind you.

Do not get into the TSA Precheck line if you don’t have the clearance.

This may seem too obvious, but it happens 9 times out of 10 at Detroit Metro Airport. I enter the gate where the banner signifies the pathway for TSA Precheck only. There are four people in front of me. Three of the four people are told by the polite security personnel to go to the line for normal processing. I can understand how one person might mistakenly enter the line, but three is not an accident. The first person gets their ticket scanned and the resultant beep indicates they do not have the clearance. When this is explained, the other people in line should realize their fate.

No logo for TSA Precheck on the ticket means no entrance. Somehow they must think that their situation will be different. It’s not. The rest of us who went through the background check, set up the soonest available appointment 30 days out, and paid the fee are now held up from our short connection* because of these people who did not go through the vetting process. Please do not try to take the short line if you do not have TSA Precheck. Security will not let you through.

Just to be clear for those unfamiliar with TSA Precheck: These travelers go through a shorter and faster security check line because we’ve been vetted, and because not enough people have gone through the process to slow the line. This means we might show up for our flights under the recommended two hours, perhaps with 45 minutes to an hour before our gate closes. Time is of the essence. Each person trying to cut the line without clearance leads to unnecessary stress. Yes, we should be responsible for choosing to operate on a short timeline, but now we can blame the non-vetted person instead.

Have ticket and ID ready

During one security check in Raleigh-Durham, there was a line of five of us. We all waited patiently for our turn to see the security person reviewing tickets and id. The couple in front of me on their turn, walked up to the security and proceeded to shuffle through pockets and purse to find their ticket and ID. They took their time as if no line of TSA Precheck travelers were not burning holes into their backs.

Just as with the normal security line, please have your plane ticket and ID ready to show. This is especially important for the TSA Precheck line. You’re dealing mostly with seasoned travelers who expect everyone to do their part on getting through the line as fast as possible. Not having a ticket and ID ready is like going to present before a seasoned professional group having not prepared for the event.

Listen and follow directions

Once past the ticket and ID security point, the staff reminds everyone what they can and cannot take through the screening. What they say is specific and concrete. Some of those rules (as of this posting) are:

Leave all tech inside your bags
Empty pockets, except for wallet
Leave your shoes on
Do not take off your belt

The rest is standard fare from the normal security, such as amounts of liquids.

A first time TSA Precheck traveler may be disconcerted. That’s understandable, and why the security people endlessly repeat the above information. Listen. Follow their directions. Freezing like a scared animal is not a good tactic when there are experienced travelers waiting behind you. Best to step out of the line to gather your thoughts or turn for help. A security person or harried traveler will be happy to assist, if only to get the line moving again.

Safe travels.

Summer Snow

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It’s summer snow time! Not freak storms where six-sided frozen ice crystals fall on the ground as if it were December. I mean the fluffy seed pods that look like cotton floating in the air. Watching the aerobatics of these fuzzy flyers always brings a smile to my face. Even now as a storm brews outside, the summer snow adds lightness to the weather’s ugly background.

I’ve always wondered what creates this seasonal display and decided to do some investigation. At first I thought it to be milkweed. However, it turns out milkweed seeds let loose in the fall. After a little more digging, I found the most likely source is cottonwood (poplar) trees.

Where do they grow? Although I see their seeds flying, I can’t say I’ve ever seen a tree with pods like in the pictures I looked at. That may be because these are some of the tallest (67 – 130 ft.) growing trees around with branches too high to see the pods. Even if the pods are largely out of sight, the seeds do a great job of making the presence of the trees known.

There’s a danger to doing research into things you look at in wonder and enjoyment. It’s finding out realities that make you lose your engagement with what seems transcendent or even divine. In this case, I found my pleasure under attack from stories about how the loss of milkweed in the environment is one factor in the decline of monarch butterfly populations. Another assault came from reports that people cut down cottonwoods in a mistaken belief that it will reduce pollens that cause allergies.

My defense is to remember how much fun it is to drive through seed squalls without fear of losing visibility or traction. Another is thinking about making angels in patches of cotton on the lawn.

Playing Leapfrog

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With Knock Softly (KS) finished, it’s time to clean up. But first, the statistics.

With “The End,” KS crossed the finish line at 128,814 words, 448 pages in manuscript format, in 44 Chapters. It took 21 months to write and I compiled 28 pages of notes, plus a thick folder of printed articles. There are four main characters and four support characters as well as a cast of over two dozen doctors, nurses, lawyers and the like. There are two main settings and a couple of side trips. And two dogs. And one mysterious friend who seems to know everything. Done.

Then I played “Leapfrog” with the novel, only going backwards. I re-read chapters 43 and 44, then re-read 41 and 42, then 39 and 40 and so on, until I finished back at chapter one. This allowed me to know where I was going and to be sure each chapter led clearly and succinctly to the next. It also allowed me to “kill my darlings.” I’ve spoken of them before; those cleaver little verses that seemed so cute at the time. But in leapfrog, they appeared as obstacles that only got in the way of a good jump. I also identified areas that needed shoring up for what comes next, and those I marked with an “R/W.” I did not rewrite anything, just cut and identified what needed more work.

The manuscript now weighs in at 120,090 words, 429 mms pages. It took seven days and produced another page and a half of notes. Twenty pages went into the dust bin, 8,800 worthless words. Bye, darlings.

Now comes the real fun part; I get to play God! I will start again from the beginning, only now knowing all, I will tighten the read, heighten the valleys and smooth the jagged edges with that last chapter, last page, paragraph, the very last word, in mind.

Some of the things I will be on the lookout for are, first and foremost, character development. I want to be sure my folks develop on pace and keep with their persona. I was amazed at how many times my characters cried. I didn’t set out to make weaklings but that’s how they appeared in some scenes. I noticed a lot of character movements when a simple he said, she said, would work better, faster. Even after leapfrog, the characters are still smiling 148 times, sighing 48 times, and mad or angry 51 times. Not to mention all the tears. I’ve still got work to do.

You don’t see these things while writing first draft because you are wearing each character’s hat and navigating them through uncharted waters. Your adrenalin is flowing and you just want to keep the action moving forward. You forget they’re human, that they need to breathe, too. I don’t how much more there is to cut. I don’t have a target word count or anything. I’m letting KS sit for a few weeks before I come back to it with fresh eyes.

Am I happy? So far. Satisfied? Not yet. Eager? Yep!

Next month, we’ll take a look at correctile dysfunction; the author’s inability to line edit their own work.

-Phil

Seoul Legacy, The Orphan’s Flu is available in paperback on Abe, and on Amazon in paperback & ebook.

The Freya Project is available in hardcover and limited edition from the author. Quantities from Countinghouse Press.

If It Wasn’t for Bad Luck

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When it comes to electronics, I often think of that old saying, “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all.”

For some time I’ve been thinking about buying a new printer. My old HP Photosmart worked fine until I bought a new laptop. Actually, it worked great. Whenever I wanted to print something, I’d go to the File Menu, click on Print, decide if I wanted black or color, how many copies, and click Print again. That was it. The printer would start right up and in less than a minute I’d have my copies.

Last fall I bought a new MacBook Air and that’s when my troubles began. I’d click on Print, choose black or color, the number of copies, click Print again and nothing would happen. I mean NOTHING. The printer was as silent as a tomb.

I’d start over again. First I’d click on my wireless connection to be sure I had a strong signal. Then I’d click on the Print box. It would say things like, “Printing page 1.” or “Not connected to printer.” It didn’t really matter what it said because nothing would happen.

I would restart my computer. Then I would restart the printer. After that I would start over with the Print menu. I would try clicking Pause and then Resume. Nothing helped.

But sometimes, when I was having a lucky day, after 5 or 25 minutes, the printer would start to make noises like it was waking up from a deep sleep. Then it would grunt. Finally, and I could never figure out what I had done to make this happen, the printer would print.

I phoned Apple. They told me the printer was several years old. My laptop was too advanced for it. But, not to worry, HP would soon come out with a patch that I could download and my printer would go back to printing like it had before.

That was last fall. This is now June. HP has yet to come up with this patch, and frankly, I don’t think HP’s going to. So, much as I hated to get rid of a perfectly good printer, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a new, state-of-the-art one. After all, the man at Apple said that would solve my problem.

Come back next month to find out what happened when I bought my brand new, state-of-the-art HP printer and you’ll understand why, “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all!”

Books and Death

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I recently read a blogpost reflecting on the death of author Terry Pratchett. Terry Pratchett…why did that name sound familiar to me?

The reflective blogger lived in the UK and noted that Pratchett was a best-selling English author of fantasy novels. I guess that’s why I hadn’t heard the news. He must be a bigger deal there than here across the pond. But that name still tugged at me. Did I ever read his books?

Of course I did. I’m embarrassed to admit that. I didn’t make the connection until I did an Internet search. He wrote the Discworld series, a satirical set of stories that ties together dragons, witches, politicians, gods, cats and centaurs that live in a flat world. During high school, I dove into book series like this as well as the Myth series by Robert Aspirin and the Xanth series by Piers Anthony.

The Color of Magic was Discworld Book 1, a tale about our hero wizard, Rincewind, who travels from his home city of Ankh-Morpork to the edge of the Disc, a journey that is actually a chess game played by gods. Suddenly nostalgic, wanting to feel a part of it all and properly mourn the death of a fine writer, I searched my stash for his book.

My bookshelf boasts blank journals and an eclectic combination of my read-or-to-be-read-again books. Many of my sentimental favorites are in boxes in the basement, callously but deliberately misplaced from my reach, so I wasn’t sure I’d find anything upstairs, but that was the easiest place to start. I was surprised when I saw right there on the second shelf, third book down on the overflow sideways stack, was the book Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett.

This wasn’t the first book in the series, yet I know I bought this one for a reason. Why?

Two things caught my attention. One, the front cover blurb reads, “It’s no vacation when Death takes a holiday.” That’s what must have caught my eye because cover art does nothing for me. This version showed the Grim Reaper with scythe inside a snow globe. Charming, I suppose, but titles and taglines grab my valuable reading attention.

The second thing was the back cover. The price tag was from Borders, a bookstore chain that died almost exactly 4 years ago. Based on the book’s placement on my bookshelf, I must have bought it from the custom-built-from-scratch store that opened 8 months after I moved to Michigan. This new store was less than 3 miles from my house, freshly built for me I liked to think, but that store became the default hangout spot for my husband and me. I wandered the aisles and often took a magazine or my journal to the upstairs café before he joined me.

The store chain closed in July 2011, displacing us shortly after I became Foursquare Mayor of that location, and an appliance store snuck into those walls.

This one book brought back so many memories. It was Death in so many forms.

In December 2014, I committed one New Year’s non-Resolution to revisit an old favorite book. At the time, I had one particular book in mind, using this as an excuse to read that book for the third or fourth time. But now I think this is the one to revive and explore. Who knows? Maybe I’ll write a review about it to remember reading it this time.

Deadwood Writers Voices

Exploring writing with & for writers and readers.