Better Late Than Never

Better late than never! That's how I feel about finally beginning my new blog of the book (more like a novella) I've been working on since 2006. That's right, I started that effort 14 years ago. It's still a work in progress. I'm not at all sure it will ever come to a conclusion. To be a real book/novel it would probably need to triple in length, and I don't think I have that much life left in me. It took me so long to get this far. At that same rate of writing pages, I would be 99 at completion.

At least I finally landed on a doable method for self-publication. Imagine! is a fantasy novella in serial blog format about heaven, Jesus, and "in the beginning." Over those 14 years my nose to the grindstone toiling has been sporadic at best. Keying the thoughts and words has been an on and off process with more off than on most weeks. Remember I was working full time and traveling a lot. I had to visit our 11 grandchildren regularly who live in four different states none of which is Tennessee. All of that takes time. Now that I'm retired, I'm back at it with a vengeance! It's taken me nearly three more years of leisure to actually transform this dream into a reality without adding a single page to the manuscript. Oh, well!

That doesn't surprise me much. I was generally one to need a deadline to approach before getting out my grindstone. Except when my heart was really in a project, I would procrastinate until the zero hour was imminent. Two times in my life my actions varied from that wait until it's almost too late scenario with remarkable results.

The first was in my college British History class. When assigned Prime Minister Clement Atlee as my research paper topic, I jumped all over it. Except for some eating and sleeping, I spent the next 36 hours totally absorbed in that assignment mostly in the college library. I guess I wanted to prove something to myself and to my favorite professor Dr. Ray Muncy. I was not a history major, but I could research and write. My diligence paid off with a grade of "A" on the paper. Additionally I won the history research award at semester's end much to the chagrin of all my history-major friends.

The other memory I have of dusting off the grindstone was in planning my Arctic Ocean Road Trip in 2011. With my copy of the Milepost, other maps, and tour guides opened around me, I detailed the 12,000 mile 28-day journey as though my life depended on it. That May/June I had an amazing, once in a lifetime, solo road trip from Columbia, TN, to Deadhorse, AK, on the Arctic Ocean at Prudhoe Bay. A main trivia fact I learned first hand. It takes five days to enter Alaska from Tennessee if you average driving 1,100 miles a day. Call me Crazy!

Those two life-changing times aside, my track record is that I work better when a meaningful deadline looms on the immediate horizon. But as with yesterday's start of my serial blog Imagine!, better late than never. Much better!

The Pitt Theater

Pitt Theater circa 1949

It was the Fifties, the Age of Sputnik and the rising Cold War. The Pitt movie theater was on Elysian Fields Avenue at the corner of Robert E. Lee Boulevard in New Orleans. Built in 1949 by T.A. Pittman, the building seated 1,100 patrons. It wasn't far from where I grew up. Its proximity was probably the reason my brother and I were dropped off there many Saturday afternoons while our mother went shopping.

As I remember it, admission to the kiddie matinee was 50 cents. For another four bits we could add pop corn, coke, and a couple of candy choices. My favorites were candy-coated almonds, Necos, Snow Caps,and Bit-O'-Honey (it lasted a long, long time). We really got our money's worth at the Pitt; and the value didn't stop at the concession stand.

Once we were comfy in our theater seats, the show would start. There was always a newsreel, at least one cartoon (Road Runner and Wylie Coyote was my  favorite - talk about resilience! That coyote had it.), previews of coming attractions, and then right before the movie was my favorite part. It was the reason kids kept coming back for the Saturday afternoon kiddie matinee at the Pitt...the serial. Some sort of saga in bits and pieces with a new add-on every week. I remember Penelope getting rescued numerous times from the railroad track in the nick of time by the smiling hero on the white horse. I believe his name was Dudley Do Right.

I have a lot of time on my hands these days. First it was just retirement; today add the social distancing and quarantine that have arrived with the viral pandemic. I also have a book that is only partially finished. It was to be one of my retirement projects...for the last three years. I just couldn't decide what to do with it. Then I had these memories of the serials at the Pitt Theater all those decades ago. Since I'm back to blogging regularly in 2020, why not self-publish my novella as a serial blog? Perhaps my dozen or so followers would enjoy that.

Bit-O'-Honey

Before someone comments on this being a bad April Fool's joke, let me state that I know I'm a procrastinator and don't follow through well on resolutions. This year I have been fairly good at eating right, exercising regularly, and blogging. There is hope that I could accomplish the somewhat formidable task of a serial blog. I have worked on this book idea off and on for well over a decade...more off than on. That is about to change. I simply need to reach out to a very smart friend, husband of an avid blogger, and get a platform set up. Then I just need to start copying, pasting, and editing.

So thanks Pitt Theater for the memories and the inspiration. I didn't even have to go into my Idea File for this blog. All I need now is a  Bit-O'-Honey to keep me going. Hope somebody still makes those.