James M. Vargo Books

This getting to be a habit. My blog posts? Not really. Actually, my mom would say that a lot growing up. Amusingly, the last time I remember her saying it was feeding her at the hospital during a bad UTI episode. A couple spoonfuls in and she goes, "this is getting to be a habit". I was more stunned to hear it than laugh. "Ya, gotta eat mother..." I'm a week late to acknowledge mom - Mother's Day being last Sunday. I guess I didn't feel a blog in me last week. She passed in March and joined dad who went in 2018. Good memories and still some things we may never understand, as in most families. Mom was mom. Just take me along when you slide on down . That song comes to mind now. Commonplace lyrics, from Hey Nineteen by Steely Dan, aren't so commonplace anymore. If I talk music with someone a lot younger than me, I can no longer make assumptions. A c onversation might have sounded something like this: "Y eah, that was that group you may have heard...

  Bill Murray's famous toast in Groundhog Day, "I like to say a prayer and drink to world peace," is very much how I handle my blog entries. I've taken a break from rereading and editing (and yes, I do like where things are he aded - book-wise) and I thought a blogpost and prayer will inspire and bring peace to the masses. Alright, in truth, I want to write something and short stories do not pour out of me - only those pesky epic fantasies - so to blog or not to blog. I'm blogging. At this unforeseen turn in my life, I have ventured at once into known and unknown territory. I've seldom had this much say in my own doings - life had a regimented structure which was rather consuming. The last four years took away even my ability to write, or maybe questioned the need. No blame, just a reality check. I'm pretty sure we need to take the time for art and looking beyond just what is before us. And certainly, look up once in a while. I must conf...

 Let's make this sweet and not too short - honestly, this isn't much of a book blog. The less I write, the more it becomes personal, and don't we love having other folks personal lives pushed on us. Not! Joking aside, life happens. Can't predict it. Can't even try to control it. But God knows what he is doing, and if you don't think he is the one in control, I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you. Writing-wise, since I have my computer up and running, the one that gave us books three and four, perhaps more magic lie ahead. God knows. I am in the process of re-reading and editing, but there is a lot to catch up on. I left book four in a bit of turmoil. That won't end anytime soon, as my many characters have a lot of issues. Wait, maybe this blog is about my personal life. Ha! I might rather discuss the mental aspect of what we do and why. Some people become intensely absorbed in what they do - hobbies, gaming, pets, groups, adventure, or whatever m...

  I’ve said it before, I dislike the Year in Review. One of those seemingly unnecessary capsulations by our devoted news channels of events that just happened. Really, it just happened. Let’s hold off the review for a couple more years. Rant over. So, what’s the deal with this hypocritical entry: 2020 – the year in review? Strangely, this is the first time in memory I recall no Year in Review reports on the airwaves. I must have missed them. Maybe it’s my reluctance to turn on the news and face another day of chaos; but even so, I heard no mention of it. Perhaps even the news networks tired of the endless oddity we called “2020”. And what a year it was. Lives of families were altered, from the inconvenienced to the outright torn apart. For those of us blessed to keep some semblance of normalcy, where daily worries consisted of how well my mask is positioned on my face, we have right to be grateful. Many had it much worse. My Year in Review isn’t much of a review, but a commenta...

I recall JRR Tolkien in his biography spelling out the lapsed time between his writings. How he changed 'his country, his house, and his chair' over time, to paraphrase. He seemed as dreadfully a slow writer as I am. Now as I look shamefully at the lapse of time between my own entries, I realized he wasn't alone in change. But this is a book blog, and I have every intention of carrying on what I started many years ago - longer than many of you imagine - and my growing list of Outcasts can carry on with their adventures. So in this busyness of my own doing - happily may I add - a place is setting itself for new surroundings...and  that new chair, among other things. At the right time will come time to begin again (actually, it's book five that needs restarted and hardly a beginning at all). So bear with me a little longer and let's get back to the business of storytelling. the latest chapter....

In an attempt at the world's worst salesmanship, I've made nary an attempt to sell the Lords of Winterfell , let alone market my fourth installment to the Outcast Alliance series. It's what I do (or don't do -- depending on your perspective). In case you think I've slacked, you're wrong...ok, you are once again right, but I have written some stuff. Drum roll,  please... Book Five is at 11k, which only sounds impressive to non-writers. But it's good enough to put me a couple chapters in; I think I'm somewhere into three and four. My wonderful writing software (Scrivener) makes it easier to sort and script simultaneous chapters at once. Will I write faster now? Probably not. But it's a goal. Now the big question: do I have a title? Not at all. Not even a working one. I have a loose outline to follow and a decent idea where this one ends, and yes, then book six begins. My word, six? How many more can we take? Seven. The loose answer is seven book...