Goal Post: Still Recovering From Fasting

Posted on October 4, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

A refresher: Yom Kippur is the day of fasting for Jews.  It started Wednesday evening and went until Thursday evening.  Since I don’t have a medical condition to prevent me from participating, I try to fast for as long as possible.  I made it to the end, but I couldn’t stay in bed and rest the whole day.  There were appointments and I was already outside, so I took my son to the park for a little Pokemon.  I still made it to the end without any real issues and got Chinese food.

Then, my body gave up on me as it tried to reset itself.  I knew something like that was going to happen.  Been under so much stress that my stomach has been iffy for a few weeks.  Fasting was going to put pressure on a strained system.  So, I had to take yesterday off to recover.  I’m still having some gut issues, but I can leave the house for more than 30-40 minutes without worry.  We’ll see how the weekend goes as far as writing.

I did get one section of Darwin & the Joy Path done yesterday.  Started up the next section enough that the stage has been set, but I didn’t want to push myself.  This will complete chapter 3 and I might be able to finish chapter 4 this weekend.  Doing the opening exposition or set up conversation the night before is actually working out since I take a while to get into the groove.  This way, I can sleep in a little more and finish recovering.

To be honest, I’m still having some trouble because Darwin is . . . Well, he’s being Darwin all the time.  I have these complex puzzles and challenges, which really would go over his head.  Yet, I end up seeing a loophole or whatever you want to call it once I start thinking like him.  It’s a tactic that only someone who doesn’t think like everyone else would come up with.  For example, there is a trap where zombies will awaken if you touch any of the treasure.  So, Darwin goes about cutting the inert zombies’ heads off while his allies are discussing how to steal the piece of treasure they need and escape.  Now, this is straight out of the DnD game I was Darwin in, so it’s a callback to that.  Still, it’s one of the many times he just goes ‘why don’t I just do this’ and I realize that the only way to stop him is by giving my traps, puzzles, and enemies plot armor.  Part of Darwin’s charm is his chaotic nature that undoes plans, so I don’t want to eliminate that.  I just don’t know if it’s a good thing that he keeps doing this to me.

There wasn’t much else that I did this week because I had my son for much of it.  Plenty of father/son time or he did his own thing while I got stuff done around the house.  I could have gotten some writing done last weekend when he was with his friends, but I chose to do errands and cleaning instead.  That way, I didn’t have to do any of that when he was around.  I’ll get to do some writing next Saturday though because he has something going on that I’m not attending.  Good writing time.

Next week is the first full week of work in a while, so I won’t be expecting to get much done in the evening.  Although, there are no appointments, which means I could make some progress on Thursday if my energy holds out.  Be nice to get through half of Darwin & the Joy Path before the end of the year.  It’ll be a great post to my battered confidence, which really needs it.  Sense of loneliness keeps slipping in since I don’t get to hang out with friends much.  If I’m not with my son, I’m usually home doing stuff or in the park where I occasionally run into other Pokemon Go players.  I think a lot of it has to deal with being in a relationship from the ages of 19 through 38 and then being single with too much trauma to try again.  Honestly, the idea of even dating causes a mild panic attack because I sucked at it when I was younger and had hope for the future.

Anyway, I’m going to be playing this week by ear in terms of writing.  Thursday and Friday are set to be crazy at work, but I can survive that.  We’re returning to work sites with our students, which always makes the days go faster.  It also means the school year will finally start feeling complete since this was the last ‘piece’ of the puzzle.  I might try to work a bit on the ‘Phi Beta Files’ notebook section during my breaks.  I stopped halfway through the short story outlines because things popped up.  Maybe I’ll work on that tonight too once I finish book writing.

Goals of the week?

  1. Makes progress with Darwin & the Joy Path.
  2. Time with son.
  3. Play Pokemon Go for fresh air.
  4. Drink tea to settle stomach.
  5. Hydrate as well.
  6. Tinker with ‘Phi Beta Files’.
  7. Finish more December blog posts. (Is it too early to review 2025?)
  8. Watch some anime when relaxing.
  9. Lego time when I need a screen break.
  10. Come up with a better goals list for next week.
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Ghost Month: Residual Hauntings and Crisis Apparitions

Posted on October 3, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

Google Image Search

So, I’m doing a few posts to cover multiple types of ghosts.  This time we have two that are fairly similar.  One could say they are the same thing, but I kept finding them mentioned as different things.  I can see how they do differ though, which is what I’m going to explain here.  At least, I’m going to try.

Residual Hauntings

These are location-specific events that replay during certain times, dates, or situations.  It involves ‘ghosts’ that do not interact with their surroundings.  Instead, they always go through the same motions until the haunting is complete.  Think of it like watching an old home movie that has poor quality and stuck on repeat.  They are supposedly created by strong emotions imprinting on the area, which is typically caused by a traumatic experience.

Many examples tend to focus on auditory and olfactory hauntings.  The Gettysburg battlefield is said to have moments of gunfire and gunpowder smells.  There are hotels where people hear dancing and music from empty rooms.  The Colosseum is said to have times where you hear cheering for gladiator fights and Edinburg Castle has a Headless Drummer Boy who people hear.  All of these tend to be chalked up to a person’s imagination, but it does make one think.

Crisis Apparition

The only true similarity between residual hauntings and crisis apparitions is that they involve strong emotions creating a ‘ghost’.  These are not repeated events, but solitary ones that can be sent from far away.  Basically, a person is either near-death, about to dying, or extremely stressed out.  They send part of themselves to a loved one to either say goodbye or let them know they are in trouble.  It can be a visual manifestation, a voice, a touch, or anything that triggers a ‘I know someone is in trouble’.  People have stated getting this sensation right before a loved one dies or when they are in trouble.

Now, this can be included in simple psychology, ghosts, or even psychic connections between between.  The interesting thing is many people can point to a time where they ‘sensed’ a loved one was dying or in trouble.  For myself, I remember when I found out I was going to be a father.  One of the first things I felt that I had to do was call my grandfather who was in the hospital to let him know.  Didn’t know why since I was previously told he was on the mend.  I was halfway done dialing the number for the hospital when I got the call that he had passed away.  This has always nibbled at my mind because it’s strange timing.  Now, this isn’t an apparition in the way you see something, but there was definitely an internal push that my grandfather was the one I had to contact as soon as possible.

Crisis apparitions stories are revolved primarily around seeing or dreaming of a loved one then finding out their dead.  Many people got these senses in the aftermath of 9/11 as their missing loved ones were being searched for.  One story talks of a man seeing an image of his brother in his home then getting a call about him dying in an accident.  This is why they seem to be final goodbyes, which people don’t recognize in the moment.

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Friday JohnKu _ AKA -TGIF – Good News/Fri-Yay -The Weight of Snow and Regret Blog Tour with Elizabeth Gauffreauwith Elizabeth Gauffreau

Posted on October 3, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

I am very happy to welcome Elizabeth Gauffreau here on Good News Friday. She has a new book and it is good news for sure.  So without any delay. Here…

Friday JohnKu _ AKA -TGIF – Good News/Fri-Yay -The Weight of Snow and Regret Blog Tour with Elizabeth Gauffreauwith Elizabeth Gauffreau
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Poetry Day: Shadows

Posted on October 2, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

Yahoo Image Search

(Fits the creepy vibe of the Halloween month.  It also comes off rather sad.)

We follow you everywhere

And rarely are acknowledged

We are by your side

Or watching your back

Or leading you in silence

Yet we are an after-thought

Us shadows have unending pain

But you do not care

How could you know

How could you even understand

This life of ours is not a life

We live in a world

That we can never touch

That is torture

You will never understand

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Ghost Month: Interactive or Intelligent Ghosts

Posted on October 1, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

Library Ghost from Ghostbusters

(I don’t see these posts being very long, but hope they are still fun for a quick and thoughtful read.)

These are a pretty standard and probably most common ghost, especially since it can cover many of the upcoming categories.  As you can tell by the names, their main trait is that they can interact with the living.  How does that come off?

  • They can move objects.
  • They can be seen.
  • They can whisper or even touch the living.
  • They can leave smells behind.
  • Some are said to even cause their targets to suddenly feel sadness or rage, which makes me think of an anxiety disorder.

In every case, these are human souls that stayed behind to retain their intelligence, free will, and sometimes even their forms.  Of course, they don’t appear solid, so there is no mistaking them for the living.  They also stay in the same spot either due to a traumatic death or having a strong connection to the place.  In some cases, the connection is to a person who happens to be staying in that location.  This could allow them to travel a bit, but that’s typically not the case outside of fiction.

There is a belief that interactive ghosts stay on Earth because they have unfinished business, which means they can move on after that is done.  The issue is that they aren’t very good at communicating.  Even if they can whisper, they aren’t usually clear on who or what they want.  It’s also disorienting to the receiver.  Another issue is that their unfinished business might be impossible to complete, but they can’t tell since they are stuck in a single location.  This can cause them to not realize how much time has passed and how the world has changed.

A final note on these ghosts is that they are typically the ones that a Ouija board or a medium might contact.  This makes sense since those are used to contact the dead and these are such spirits.  A Ouija board makes a lot of sense to me because it works off the interaction aspect.

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Teaser Tuesday: Magic in the Mess Hall

Posted on September 30, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

(A laidback blast from the distant past.  Remember, Beginning of a Hero is a free eBook!)

Fizzle’s bump-like horns perk up and he sniffs the air, his tail whipping in excitement. He looks around, his bright eyes falling on Selenia, who is ignoring the hovering drite. It is not until the drite flips in the air that the headmistress goes out of her way to walk by the table and toss an apple high into the air. With a happy squeal, the tiny dragon catches it with his tail and peels the skin off with his hind claws.

“Forest quiet. Big evil in trees. Getting bigger,” Fizzle says, his stomach rumbling louder than Luke could have imagined. The drite finishes off the last of the pie, devours the peeled apple, and inhales the peel through his pursed lips. “Many aminals moving away. Fizzle safe because Fizzle can disa . . . dista . . . not be seen. If they find Fizzle then Fizzle make them go poof.”

“Go poof?” Luke asks.

Nimby swallows a forkful of mush before explaining, “The little guy knows some pretty big spells since he’s really old. I saw him use the so-called poof spell on a giltris. I actually felt sorry for the oversized leather belt. The real name of the spell is disintegration. The problem is that the little guy doesn’t always aim and the spell is incredibly destructive.”

Luke turns to the entrance in time to see an out-of-place figure wander into the cafeteria. It is a rotund, little man with greasy, black hair and dark red eyes that are twice the size of a human’s. His graying beard is neatly trimmed, but it is as greasy as his hair. Several scorch marks are on his shirt, which used to be blue before getting covered in oil and grime. Thin-rimmed glasses hang from a shirt pocket, looking like they have been dropped and stepped on hundreds of times. Nobody else pays much attention to the gnome as he grabs a plate and sits on a lonely stool in the corner.

“Good food. Too noisy. Fizzle be in forest. If Fizzle find news on big evil, Fizzle let Luke know. Bye-bye.” The drite disappears in a shimmer of golden magic. The last sign of him is a soft rush of wind from his wings as he darts out an open window.

“I got a copy of the first year list from Kevin,” the halfling whispers, leaning under the table as if he is picking up a dropped fork. “I told him I wanted to contact the parents of a few troublemakers in my class. The copy is enchanted, so it will turn to dust by the morning or if I try to copy it. There are one hundred and eighty three kids with their names, hometown, age, and a parent or guardian’s name on file. The other first year students have been handpicked by Selenia, so it can’t be one of those if she is in the dark. It shouldn’t be too hard to track down this heir now.”

“We’ll see about that. I have martial arts with Selenia after breakfast followed by blacksmithing, so going over things will have to wait until lunch,” Luke explains, pausing to wolf down some food. He groans and drinks some water to help with the sudden stomach cramp. “We should bring in someone who knows more about monsters and . . . evil things than we do. If the big evil in the forest is what we’re up against, I would really like someone with knowledge on our side. I was thinking of talking to a half-elven priest I saw when I got here yesterday. Priests are trustworthy as long as their god is good-natured. I believe he had a sun emblem on his clothing. Do you know who I’m talking about?”

Everyone is startled by a high-pitched shriek of surprise cutting through the wall of conversations. Luke and Nimby turn to see a wooly sheep standing on one of the tables. It wanders in a tight circle, stopping to bark like an angry dog at a red-haired girl, who is keeping her plate away from it. The sheep growls at the student until Selenia gets to her feet and hurls her empty cup at the animal. The cup strikes the sheep, causing the animal to disappear in a faint glimmer of sparkles. Several students laugh about the illusion and their conversations slowly return, most students whispering about the mysterious beast. Selenia glares in the direction of the gnome, who is sifting through his breakfast like nothing happened. Without looking up, he blows the headmistress a kiss.

“What happened?” Luke asks, staring from the gnome to Selenia.

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Revisit: What Do You Look For In Romance?

Posted on September 29, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

(Originally posted on August 2, 2013.  Have at it.)

This is not my genre and I barely get it to function in my own books.  I think.  I’ve glossed over romance, but I think I gravitate toward lust or awkward beginnings.  Not the smoothest romantic plotlines, but it’s better than nothing.

There are so many varieties of romance that you can put into your story and it seems some kind of romance turns up in every series.  Even a one-night stand needs something behind it like lust, loneliness, or spite.  You’re writing characters to be believable, so you need to factor in their social relationships.  Again, this is not my area of expertise or knowledge, so I’ll get to the point.

I like romances to be natural, which is probably why the awkward stumbling romance appeals to me.  That feels like how most relationships begin and move on until the wrinkles are ironed out.  Sure, you have your smooth James Bond characters, but I don’t really believe many of those exist.  I’ve met one or two smooth operators, but even they would come across a ‘target’ that they couldn’t sweep into the bedroom.  I have to admit that watching people like that fail is highly entertaining.

Now, I can get behind a love at first sight story or one that runs surprisingly smoothly at the beginning.  Those exist and they can work for a series as long as the author challenges the relationship.  Throw in doubt, loss, betrayal, and whatever you can think of to test the characters.  Make them work for the happy ending even if they got a happy beginning.

So, what do you look for in a romantic plotline?  Do you stay away from them entirely?  Is erotica the best kind of romantic plotline?

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Ask a Stupid Question Day

Posted on September 28, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

This is just a funny holiday.  Some stupid questions I can remember either asking or hearing:

  • Have you ever died in a fencing match?
  • What kind of disease do I remind you of?
  • What if I just pull the emergency brake when I need to stop instead of using the foot brake?
  • Why does a car need an oil change anyway?
  • Can I come back during the summer to take the test I missed?
  • How am I supposed to know the teacher’s name?
  • Why do sharks stay in the water when there’s more to eat on land?
  • What do you mean chicken, eggs, and fish aren’t vegan?
  • Aren’t Jewish and Israeli the same thing?
  • Aren’t Christians and Americans the same thing?
  • How do people in the north deal with snow all year round?
  • How do people in the south deal with hurricanes all year round?

None of these were asked by small children.

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Goal Post: Rosh Hashana and Some Progress

Posted on September 27, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

The middle of the week was Rosh Hashana, which is the Jewish new year.  This meant that my son and I had off on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Family came over for the first day and we relaxed a bit.  This was good since we went to an evening showing of ‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Part 1’ on Monday.  It was really a hodgepodge week too, so I can’t say anything with solidity.  Exhaustion isn’t helping there since work was crazy for the few days we had.

Last weekend was primarily about starting and finishing my son’s Halloween costume.  I wasn’t sure how October would go, so I spent as much time as I could on it.  There were several times where I had to head out for more supplies like white pom-poms and hot glue sticks.  It was so hard finding some of those things too.  Don’t want to walk into a Michael’s craft store again for a while.  I did finish most of it, but I had to buy a wig on Tuesday and cut parts off to attach to the hat.  Let me just point out here that this required me pressing the wig strands to hot glue . . . barehanded.  My fingertips are still sensitive even today.  In the end, I finished and he liked it:

Costume is a male version of Big Mom from ‘One Piece’:

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A bonus was that I finished with enough time to write a chapter section of Darwin & the Joy Path on Sunday afternoon.  Got another done on Wednesday after my son went with his mom.  The rain was starting and I was too tired to play more Pokemon, so it all worked out.  This means I might be able to finish chapter 3 and 4 by the end of next Sunday.  It’s a good burst of progress even though I’m still twitchy about my writing ability.

The last two scenes are tough because it’s talking and meeting a new, suspicious ally, but Darwin is too trusting.  He’s trying to act mature and serious, but he keeps falling into his true nature.  His other friend isn’t faring much better.  Part of the story was supposed to be them not fully trusting this person, but needing them to succeed.  That is coming across, but the pair are so verbally and socially clumsy about it.  Guess it does work for Darwin, who is still child-like to some extent.  He’s not as naive as when he started his adventures, but I don’t think he’ll ever lose all of his innocence.  I mean, he’s made friends with demonic assassins and revenge-fueled murder hobos without thinking twice.  I can’t break this guy, which I now remember was an issue in the game when our DM tried to make him emotionally suffer.  At least he still gets anxious and has a few meltdowns with magical outbursts.

I tinkered with the ‘Phi Beta Files’ too, so I might do that a big more this weekend when I’m not doing anything with my son.  Trying to get him to hang out with friends and learn to make plans in advance.  A necessary skill, but that also means I get less time with him, which is my issue.  I have a bunch of food shopping to do anyway, so I can do that and notebook tinkering too.  This is being said when I know there’s a high chance of me needing a nap instead.  It was a rough week with insufficient sleeping patterns and far too much disease dodging.

This coming week is going to be wild as well.  At school, we have our first set of field trips, which is always tricky.  Yom Kippur (Day of Fasting) starts Wednesday night and goes through Thursday.  My son has an appointment during this, so I can’t sleep in or play video games until dinner.  Figured I would take him, use my energy for Pokemon, and then we come back for him to eat while we watch a movie.  This is why I’m not sure if I’ll be functional on Friday for work.  Fasting takes a lot out of me and causes my body to attempt a gastrointestinal reset.  I have no description for that because I can never predict what will happen when I eat or drink for 24 hours.  I’ll have to see how I’m doing when I wake up.  This time of year is always a test of patience, endurance, sanity, and intestinal fortitude.

So, what are the goals of the week?

  1. Survive fasting on Thursday.
  2. Help son study for history test.
  3. Finish two chapters of Darwin & the Joy Path.
  4. Work on ‘Phi Beta Files’.
  5. Hydrate!
  6. Handle a few parenting situations.
  7. Do a few December blog posts.
  8. Lego time when I need a screen break.
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Revisit: What Do You Look For In Flashbacks?

Posted on September 26, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

Ratatouille

(Originally posted on August 23, 2013.  Being an author of third person present tense, I really can’t use these.  They would be clunky and emersion shattering.  In general, I don’t like using them very often because they require a mental shift for the reader every time they happen.  They should be used sparingly and correctly.)

One of the biggest tools for an author is the flashback.  These can help reveal information about a character, place, or situation.  For the few that don’t know what this is, you move the attention of the book from the current situation to an event of the past.  For example, a character is being approached by something he or she is terrified of.  They have an exposition of thought that explains the origin of this phobia.  A flashback easier to do in past tense writing because it’s awkward and jarring in past tense.

Flashbacks are easy to abuse because, as the author, you know everything about the characters.  An event might trigger a funny story from your protagonist’s childhood that you ‘NEED’ to include.  The truth is that you don’t always need to include a flashback if it’s not entirely relevant to the plot.  It helps with bringing more depth to a character, but you need a believable connection to current events.  A character fighting a dragon shouldn’t suddenly flashback to a time when they burned their mouth of fresh pizza.  Make flashbacks count and use them sparingly.

I can handle flashbacks if they are used with PTSD, dreaming, prologues, and don’t tear me out of the book.  If a character is in the midst of a perilous battle, I don’t want to see a write up of their childhood in the middle.  By the time I’m brought back to the action, I need to read the beginning of the fight to get back into it.  I think a flashback should be a tool for explanation, but not at the cost of story flow.  The phrase ‘location, location, location’ comes to mind here.  Let me give you an example of horrific flashback use:

I was in college and a fellow freshman wanted to write a martial arts book.  I agreed out of boredom and being too nice for my own damn good.  He came to me with a list of actors and actresses to play the movie version.  Bad sign, but I started writing the book with him and got to the end of Page 1.  Suddenly, he yells ‘Flashback!’ and demands we put in a flashback to the character’s tragic motivational moment.  Keep in mind that this was called for in mid-conversation with another character.  Terrible and I stopped right there.

I like a flashback to seem natural in appearance as if one could believe a real person would think back to such things.  So as an author, I don’t like to plan flashbacks and let them appear as I write.

What do you think of flashbacks?

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