I have been working in business for over forty years and now have the time to work in special areas of interest. My passion has always been to create compelling stories of fiction. I have authored six novels and am working on my Seventh. The first novel is still in manuscript form and being utilized as a door stop in the laundry room. The second is a contemporary fiction novel of 89,000 words and is complete and I am currently seeking a publisher. I also write poetry but have not had the guts to share any with anyone. The one time I read a piece to a person their only comment was, “it doesn’t rhyme.” I will continue to write and hopefully my blog, Fiction Favorites at www.johnwhowell.com will provide some entertainment and an interesting thought or two.
I live in the Austin area with my wife Molly and an assortment of loving pets.
Today we are going to cruise the neighborhood and see what kind of decorations are up for Halloween. This year the focus will be on skeletons but there are a few others too. We are catered by Julies Noodles of Austin. Since our temperatures have dipped to below 80 degrees we need warm-up food. Our entertainment is the Bobby Pickett vintage appearance on Dick Clark’s show
Menu
HANDMADE NOODLES 手工汤面
Lamb Stewed Noodle Soup 羊肉烩面
Beef Stewed Noodle Soup 牛肉面
Noodles with Meat and Bean Sauce 炸酱面
Pork Chopped Noodles Soup 排骨面
Chicken Stewed Noodles Soup 鸡腿肉汤面
Eggs and Tomatoes Noodles 鸡蛋番茄面
Veggie Noodles Soup 素汤面
Wonton Noodles Soup 馄饨面
Seafood Noodle Soup 海鲜面
Spicy Beef Noodle 麻辣肥牛面
Spicy Beef Suan Tsai Noodles 酸菜肥牛面
So jump on the Halloween bus and let’s go.
Our first display is a basketball slam-dunk gone awry.
Greetings from the grassland.
Everlasting fishing trip with surfboard.
Swim and talk.
Welcome, all.
Greetings.
Whole house display.
Witchy witch.
Dad, kids, and dogs.
Speaking of dogs. Looks like trouble.
A homemade decoration that is a jack-o-lantern (I guess)
Yup, a transfusion and will be good as new.
We call this the Halloween house for obvious reasons.
An elaborate display. (This is a single residence)
Same by night.
I hope you enjoyed the tour and hope you have a Happy Halloween and a great week. Have some food and enjoy the music.
The coffee firm in my hand and a stroll to the backyard brings me face to face with Wile E Coyote. “How’s it going?” He looks up from the plunger. “Ready whenever you are.” This causes me to wonder how I got to be in charge of the signal for detonation. Waving my hand, I do a Pontius Pilot maneuver.” It is your job” He goes to one knee again, placing his hand on the t-bar slide. “I just thought you wanted to give the go-ahead.” Turning abruptly, a shout of “no” goes over my shoulder while heading for the house and taking cover under the heaviest sofa.
The sound of the C-4 being set free causes my molars to crack in the subsequent teeth clench. The vibration moves me like a basketball being dribbled in the NBA. The separation between me and the couch is complete just as a deathly quiet settles over the room. There is nothing compelling me to look through the shattered windows other than the distant sound of emergency vehicles sounding like a herd of cats.
Courage restored a look at the backyard brings to mind what a volcano must look like when first being born. A vast hole and at least six feet of dirt and turf surrounding it are where the safe used to be. It looks like Wile’s plan from the standpoint of moving the safe is complete. My mind immediately goes to the question, Where did it go?
To find out, processing through the security shutdown sequence and throwing open the front door is done. Wile is standing next to his flatbed truck which also harbors a smoking safe. My stunned expression must have brought some satisfaction to Wile since he smiles and hands me an envelope. He climbs up into the truck and waves goodbye. As he drives off, I can see the door of the safe open like a hatch on a tank, and Sam’s head slowly appear. Waving to Sam brings nothing in return but an obscene sign with his upraised fist. Sighing with relief and looking forward to being alone in my element, I open the envelope. Inside were two things. The first is Wile’s bill, and the second a note from Linda Hill. It reads. Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “element.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!
A breakthrough in electric vehicle fast-charging battery design from Penn State has enabled a 10-minute charge time for a typical EV battery.
The record-breaking combination of a shorter charge time and more energy required for longer travel range came from heating the battery to a Goldilocks Zone which has proven difficult for engineers thus far.
Their findings are hoped to accelerate the sale of EVs, and were announced on October 12th, in the journal Nature.
“The need for smaller, faster-charging batteries is greater than ever,” said Chao-Yang Wang, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State and lead author on the study.
“There are simply not enough batteries and critical raw materials, especially those produced domestically, to meet anticipated demand.”
In August, California’s Air Resources Board passed an extensive plan to restrict and ultimately ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars within the state. By 2035, the largest auto market in the United States will effectively retire the internal combustion engine.
If new car sales are going to shift to battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs), Wang explained, they’ll need to overcome two major drawbacks: they are too slow to recharge and too large to be efficient and affordable. Instead of taking a few minutes at the gas pump, depending on the battery, some EVs can take all day to recharge.
“Our fast-charging technology works for most energy-dense batteries and will open a new possibility to downsize electric vehicle batteries from 150 to 50 kWh without causing drivers to feel range anxiety,” said Wang, whose lab partnered with State College-based startup EC Power to develop the technology.
“The smaller, faster-charging batteries will dramatically cut down battery cost and usage of critical raw materials such as cobalt, graphite, and lithium, enabling mass adoption of affordable electric cars.”
The technology relies on internal thermal modulation, an active method of temperature control to demand the best performance possible from the battery, Wang explained.
Batteries operate most efficiently when they are hot, but not too hot. Keeping batteries consistently at just the right temperature has been a major challenge for battery engineers. Historically, they have relied on external, bulky heating and cooling systems to regulate battery temperature, which respond slowly and waste a lot of energy.
Wang and his team decided to instead regulate the temperature from inside the battery. The researchers developed a new battery structure that adds an ultrathin nickel foil as the fourth component besides anode, electrolyte, and cathode.
Acting as a stimulus, the nickel foil self-regulates the battery’s temperature and reactivity which allows for 10-minute fast charging on just about any EV battery, Wang explained.
“True fast-charging batteries would have immediate impact,” the researchers write. “Since there are not enough raw minerals for every internal combustion engine car to be replaced by a 150 kWh-equipped EV, fast charging is imperative for EVs to go mainstream.”
The study’s partner, EC Power, is working to manufacture and commercialize the fast-charging battery for an affordable and sustainable future of vehicle electrification.
The good news here is that just maybe electric vehicles will be viable for the mass population. Today’s JohnKu talks about technology. I hope you have a terrific weekend.
I’m so happy to have Jacquie Biggar as a guest on Fiction Favorites. Jacquie is a Romance author who writes stories and characters in such a way that even an old crusty like me can enjoy them. She is here to talk about her latest book, Letting Go – The Defiant Sisters Book 1. The post is yours, Jacquie.
Many thanks, John, for inviting me to visit today. And yes, Lucy and Twiggy, I’ve brought kibble treats 😊
Before then though, I’d like to talk a bit about the backstory that gave me the inspiration to write about two sisters torn apart by their father’s suicide. I know, tough topic. But if we don’t talk about it, we can’t help or heal each other, and we need to listen more than anything.
A few years ago, one of my regular customers at the café began dating a nice, caring man. She’d lost her first husband not long after giving birth to her second son which shattered the family. The newcomer, we’ll call him Sam, picked her up for lunch most days and brought her to see us, just up the street from her job at the bank. It was so sweet to watch them fall in love. He was great with her kids, and her mom, too- in a word, perfect. That is until he went into their backyard one morning as she was getting the kids ready for school and blew his head off. No one saw it coming. We were all shocked and horrified for the family, and for Sam. What drove him to do such a thing? Why didn’t we see the signs?
Fast forward a couple of years; I moved to Vancouver Island with my husband and started a new career in writing. An opportunity opened to join a writer’s group—people focused on working together to better their place in the market. Though there are more than thirty of us, we’re very close, and we regularly chat in our Facebook group and through emails. We’re friends, so it was particularly devastating to learn that one of the writer’s sons had committed suicide. He was in his mid-thirties, happily married, successful, and had three beautiful daughters. Why?
I couldn’t begin to comprehend the turbulent emotions those families had to traverse; the guilt they may have felt, the overwhelming anger, sadness—loss.
When I saw this beautiful cover created by Teagan Geneviene, I felt the story of two sisters who had gone through a terrible loss, losing each other along the way, begin to develop. Letting Go is the beginning of their journey to forgiveness.
Letting Go- The Defiant Sisters Book 1
A coming-of-age novel about the pain of misconceptions and learning from them.
When life gives you lemons…
Izzy
Mom is barely in the grave and the prodigal child is here to pick the bones clean.
I don’t want her here. My sister’s defection is a wound that won’t heal and her return simply rubs at the scabs covering my heart.
I’ve managed just fine without her. She can go back to her fancy college and forget about us- that’s what she does best anyway.
If only I didn’t need her help. Or miss her so much.
Renée
The day my dad committed suicide I ran. I’ve been running ever since.
Going home is supposed to be the answer. Instead, it makes me question every thoughtless decision I’ve made.
My sister hates me. My little brother barely knows me. And Simon… is engaged.
None of it matters- or so I tell myself. I’m here to make amends and face a past haunted by regret.
As long as I can convince myself to stay.
Letting Go is a young adult romance dealing with tragedy, restitution, and love in all its aspects. The story relates to sensitive topics that may be triggering for some readers.
JACQUIE BIGGAR is a USA Today bestselling author of Romance who writes about smart, sassy females and tough, alpha males who learn the true power is love. Free reads, excerpts, author news, and contests can be found on her website:
In Keith’s words. “Using this photo (below) as inspiration, write a short story, flash fiction, scene, poem; anything, really; even just a caption for the photograph. Either put your offering (or a link to it) in a comment or email it to me at keithchanning@gmail.com before Sunday evening UK time. If you post it on your own blog or site, a link to this page would be appreciated, but please do also mention it in a comment here. Thank you for taking part.”
Halloween falls on the Monday before the changing of clocks on November 6th. The post on that Monday will be devoted to Top Ten Things not to Do on Halloween. Therefore, it might be a good idea to discuss the fall back routine of Daylight Savings time. This post was first run on November 14th, 2016. I think the advice is still good.
* * *
I dislike the time change situation and have to guard against doing some unnatural things during the “getting used to” period. I hope this list is not too late.
Top Ten Things Not to Do When the Time Changes
10 When there is a time change, do not think “fall back ” will really give you an hour of extra sleep. If you do, at best, you will be grumpy and disappointed. At worst, you will hold a grudge against the government until the “spring forward” time comes around. (Those threatening letters to the President have a way of coming back to haunt you. Don’t they felon?)
9 When there is a time change, do not expect your pets to understand the difference. If you do, at best, you will have a lot of whining around the house. At worst, those routines that are now disrupted will cause some significant animal errors. (What part of going outside by 7:00 did you miss trying to extend the visit by an hour?)
8 When there is a time change, do not expect your boss to understand your inability to adapt. If you do, at best, your boss has the same problem. At worst, the meeting called for your performance appraisal was an hour ago. (I’ll bet you are not happy with your raise this year, Ferd. Is giving back some of last year’s a thing?)
7 When there is a time change, do not think the rest of the world needs to understand your disorganization. If you do, at best, you will only miss a couple of scheduled events. At worst, your no-show profile will be noted, and the next event invitation will conveniently arrive one hour after the event is over. (There is only so much planners can take; after all, it’s been three months since the change.)
6 When there is a time change, do not forget to reset your timers. If you do forget, at best, there will be minor inconveniences until set. At worst, that oven setting will be an hour late, and you’ll be faced with raw chicken, and you invited your boss for dinner. (Lucky you, a Kentucky Fried outlet is just down the block. What you don’t know is your boss can’t eat fried food and just walked through the front door.)
5 When there is a time change, do not forget it gets dark earlier in the fall. If you do, at best, you’ll need to remember a flashlight next time. At worst, that sinkhole visible in the light somehow disappears in the dark. (That is until you manage to step in it and go up to your knees in freezing water, huh, Bunky?)
4 When there is a time change, do not take out on others the fact that you are out of sorts. If you do, at best, you will be ignored. At worst, you will insult those whose job it is to serve you. (You can’t tell, but Tiny, the WWF champ, is heading to your table to personally deliver the perfectly cooked meal you sent back. It seems that Tiny was on probation as a chef, and your meal was the test case. Hope your health insurance is in effect, Buster.)
3 When there is a time change, do not keep one clock on the previous time. If you do, at best, you might pay attention to that clock and miss something. At worst, you will keep reminding yourself of your unfortunate lack of ability to adapt and continue to measure your life in terms of what is missing as opposed to what you have. (A deep philosophical point that can be summed up with the word “stubborn.” Right, Clyde?)
2 When there is a time change, do not be concerned that you have to calculate scheduled times for your favorite shows. If you do, at best, you will miss a few shows due to your own error. At worst, you will employ a tremendous amount of effort only to discover the shows are on at the same time as usual. (Makes one feel foolish, doesn’t it, Homer)
1 When there is a time change, do not attempt to change your car clock yourself. If you do, at best, you’ll realize quickly you need help. At worst, you’ll make some adjustment that has never been seen before and will require a replacement clock to fix. (The clock reset is a little car manufacturer humor built into each car. Maybe this is the only exception to point number three.)
Today we will take a trip to Lakeway Park to check out the String-A-Palooza. This is an event put on by school districts in and around Lakeway. Middle and grade school students all converge for a day of playing string instruments in and having fun.
We are catered today by Odd Duck of Austin. Our entertainment is Amadeus – The Electric String Quartet (of course)
The coffee machine has a mind of its own today. While waiting for the life-saving potion, a bowl of store-brand raisin bran crunch is making a poor substitute. Before long, the machine decides a strike might not produce the best result and coughs up the brew. Abandoning the bowl in favor of the mug, a sip reminds me that today is safe blow-up day.
The security system is already down, and Wile E Coyote is busy in the backyard placing packages around the perimeter of the safe. Joining him and seeing he is using ACME C4 charges. All wired to a plunger, and Wile slowly walks away from the safe with it in his hand. He is allowing the wire to slip from the coil around his arm. “Everything okay?” My question catches Wile by surprise. “Of course,” he says. “Where’s Yosemite Sam?” Wile pulls on his chin for a mini-second and responds. “I locked him inside the safe.”
The statement causes my eyebrows to join my hairline. “Is he safe in the safe?” My hand immediately goes to my mouth but too late cause that awful question is already out there.” Wile rolls his eyes. “He’s a lot safer in there than we are out here.” Another statement that threatens to send my eyebrows over the top of my head. It is clear that Wile is about to push the plunger as he gets down on one knee and yells, “Fire in the hole.”
“Just a minute.” The words hit Wile like a baseball headed for an infield double. He rises and walks to meet me. “Let me explain,” he drawls. For the first time, his Texas accent comes to prominence. Must happen when he is angry, my brain tells me.” Look, friend.” He pauses, then continues. “You and I have a contract, and how this goes down is entirely up to me to execute. Why did you stop me?”
Other than cold feet, I didn’t have an answer. My mind calculates the amount of C4 under the safe and comes to the conclusion that there is enough to send it into orbit as opposed to just lifting it over the house and onto a truck. “You think there is too much C4?” is the only response. Wile walks back to the plunger, shaking his head in that I know what I’m doing butt out sort of way. Rather than pushing the plunger, he picks up an envelope from the ground. He comes back and hands it to me, and says, “Some gal left that for you.” He walks back to the plunger and looks at me as he gets down on one knee again.
Opening the envelope, the message from Linda Hill tumbles out. Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “bowl.” Use it as a noun or a verb—use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!
275 exotic parrots are now on their way to a new wildlife sanctuary after their heroic caretaker pulled all of them up into his stilted house like Noah’s Ark to ride out Hurricane Ian.
There’s no question in Will Peratino’s mind that if he had not done so, the waves which crested his 5-foot high fencing around Malama Manu Sanctuary on Pine Island would have drowned all of them.
After the devastation, a full-scale volunteer effort transported all 275 parrots by boat through flooded canals to solid ground, where they will be taken to another wildlife sanctuary.
The efforts were led by Project Dynamo, a volunteer rescue operation from Tampa that heard about Peratino’s plight. They put together a team and four boats to put all the parrots into cat-sized pet carriers and bring them off the ravaged Pine Island.
One of the volunteers from the new sanctuary said they are likely to take the birds in for 6 months to a year.
“It’s been a long week,” Peratino said once all his birds were safely on their way. “This represents us being able to accomplish what we wanted to do, which was to save all these birds. We heard other people just abandoned their pets, and there’s no way we could do that.”
There is a lot of work ahead for this parrot-loving man, to build a new home for the flock, which includes breeding pairs meant to safeguard populations of endangered animals from becoming extinct.
It’s as close to a modern reproduction of the story of Noah as one can find.
Here is a video of the rescue.
The good news here is that even though human life was not at risk, preserving an animal species raised a call to action and response. Today’s JohnKu talks about priorities. I hope you all have a super weekend.
