FOOD FOR THOUGHT

I wasn’t going to write about this but I’ve been stewing over it for the last week and I guess this is the only way I’m going to finally get past it.  So, please bear with me. 

            Around two weeks ago, I needed to make a grocery store run as the usual – milk and eggs and cereal - were running down and I was bored and wanted to see other people in the air conditioning and bright lights of our large, major grocery store.  A little background here; in our town we have two grocery stores, one a small establishment with a few chains throughout the state and one humongous store with a gazillion counterparts scattered through the country.

            The small neighborhood store carries the basic items necessary along with a very small deli section where you can select your meat and two sides to go or sit at the two or three table provided and eat there.  All the people who work in the store have always been pleasant to me and most courteous.  Their meat department is outstanding with a butcher that actually cuts the meat and you can see him through a large glass window doing so.  There are not a lot of frills there but you can walk in and get what you need and get out without much hassle.

            The “other store” boasts a floral department, a sushi section, deli and bakery, a housewares section, books, magazines, office supplies, etc. and etc.  The store is bright and inviting with music and great smells coming from both the flowers and the rotisserie chickens.  Rarely do you not encounter someone you know that you can take a moment to say hello to.  It’s like a small shopping mall close to home.

            About two weeks ago I shopped at this large store and was hustled to a checkout isle hosted by a very efficient young lady and an equally nice bagger.  When I received my receipt, I was told that I could take a few moments and answer some questions online about my experience in the store.  It was pointed out that I would receive some fuel points and so would the employee who checked me out.  Never having done one of their surveys, I went for it. I don’t think they want me to ever go there again.

            The first part of the survey asked questions about how I would rate various aspects of their efficiency and my overall customer satisfaction.  Out of five different categories, I gave them all one less than perfect.  When asked in another part of the survey why I had not rated them higher, I responded that this was a grocery store and the ratings that they had wanted from me would have been for something far more important than finding the eggs in the correct department.  Maybe a Broadway musical being preformed with free food and drinks would have helped them get closer to their ideal perfect score.

            Then the survey went on to questions about the store’s TASTE OF MEXICO promotion.  When you first walk into the produce section you are bombarded with displays of fruits and vegetables with huge colorful signs celebrating their country of origin.  This did not enhance my shopping experience or induce me to break into a Flamingo dance while juggling Avocados.  What happened to Robert Vaughn promoting the goodness of California’s Avocados? 

I found these signs everywhere.  I guess the survey wanted me to be impressed with how international my food selection had become.  When given the space to do so, I told them that all they had impressed me with was their pointing out to the consumer how dependent we have become or can be on foods grown outside of our own country and that I would try to only purchase those foods that originated in the United States either from their store or from another store that might think it more important to keep our money and our jobs here.

The last part of the survey had to do with my level of excitement as to the amount of money saved with their “New Low Prices.”  Through the use of the store card and special savings you are expected to look at your receipt and utter words like “Wow” and “Gee Wiz.”  Sure, I’m not saying you can’t get stuff on sale but let’s be realistic.  If you buy meat or produce on the last day they’re allowed to sell it and it’s marked down, they shouldn’t be able to make a big deal on your receipt as to the money you saved without the store thanking you for purchasing it before they have to get rid of it.  Also, if you buy a bottle of wine and the receipt shows that you just saved over five dollars and you know that every store in the area, including convenience stores, sells that same bottle of wine for just about the same amount as just paid for it, where is your “big store” getting its information?  I didn’t go to that specific store to get that bottle of wine, I just happened to be there shopping for other things and picked it up.

Well, I did get my 50 fuel points and I hope the checkout girl got hers.  The store is still standing a week after my tirade and nothing has changed.  I don’t think I bought any food that didn’t originate in the US and I bought that same bottle of wine and received a fantastic saving of $5.20.  My receipt thanked me for shopping with them and, it did not asked me to go online and take a short survey!

Have a great day!     

Sharon

Update on Wednesday, June 25, 2014 at 10:40AM by Jerry

My sincere condolences to the friends and family of Louis Awerbuck who passed away yesterday.  He will be missed throughout the firearms and training community for both his wisdom and his humor.

SURGICAL STRIKE or the 3 RAMBOS

The first SURGICAL STRIKE book came about because of a phone call.  We were in our office doing what ever we were doing and we get a call from the office of that big movie producer I told you about last time.  Once the connection was made, our friend the producer says, “Jerry, I want you to write a story for me with 3 RAMBOS.”   He wanted a yarn filled with action and shooting and heroic men living on the edge. 

            Yep, we took the bait, dropped everything else and spent a lot of time coming up with a story.  We gave him what he perceived he wanted that day and I think we did a pretty good job.  Three RAMBOS with different personalities all united to fight terrorism.  Coming up with a plot was as easy as reading the day’s headlines.  We sent him our synopsis and detailed outline along with weaponry ideas and anything else we felt could be helpful.  I imagine everything is still sitting on a shelf somewhere or in a dead file along with probably thousands of other ideas.

            We had fun coming up with all this but realizing that the likelihood of anything ever happening to get it on a big screen or little screen or, for that matter, any screen was remote, we decided to shop it around as a book.  An editor at Bantam Books liked the idea and gave us a contract for not one but three books based on these 3 anti-terrorist RAMBOS.  Written at a time when we still believed that America would not stand down to terrorism and that we must fight the good fight because we were the good guys and proud of it.  The 3 SURGICAL STRIKE books have been reprinted by Speaking Volumes.  www.speakingvolumes.us

BTW:  PARKING SPACE 32D   Have you heard that the parking garage in Rosslyn, Virginia, where “Deep Throat,” leaked information about the Watergate scandal to Washington Post reporter, Bob Woodward, is going to be destroyed?   A developer is going to replace the 1960s office building and parking garage with a 28 story residential building and a separate commercial building offering retail and office space.  “Deep Throat,” later identified as Mark Felt, the former deputy director of the FBI, gave information to Woodward over the course of a year, which eventually led to the resignation of President Nixon in 1974.  Felt was able to keep his identity as “Deep Throat” secret for 30 years.  I wonder how many tears will be shed for the demise of this historic spot.

Sharon

HOW DID WE WRITE THAT STUFF part 2

            Sometimes writing can take you to interesting places.  We were a couple of books into the SURVIVALIST series and hoping to get a contract for some more, seeing as how we felt we had plenty of story to work with.  Then, the contracts we were hoping for did arrive, along with a note saying that they were urgently needed back in the publisher’s hands.  Could we sign them and overnight the paperwork that same day?    At this time, there was no Express Mail service in our town and we had to travel to a town about thirty minutes away that did offer the service.  It was getting late in the day, Jerry got behind the wheel and drove off and I started reading the contracts.  The first one I looked at was missing a page or two.  Damn!  I thought, hopefully, since each contract was in triplicate, the missing pages were stapled in with the other copies.  No such luck.  I went through three copies of three separate contracts with no luck.  Pages were missing from them all.

            Our mommas didn’t raise complete fools!  We turned around, went home and got on the telephone to our editor who in turn put us on with one of the publishers.  Turns out that they "misplaced" some of the pages when they were making some changes and suggested we fly up to New York and sign the contracts in their office and take in a day or two of sightseeing, all at their expense, of course.  We couldn’t pass up the offer and made all the arrangements necessary.

            It turned out that a very well known movie producer was interested in making a SURVIVALIST movie – hence the contracts for additional books in the series.  If we had blindly signed the contracts as they had been sent to us we would have had a tough time getting any action out of the ensuing deal. Instead, we got to meet with the producer and his staff along with our publisher and participate in the deal.

            Things turned out well for us.  Not only did we make a little money – emphasis on little – we met some interesting and really nice movie people, got to sit in on a private screening of Jimmy Cagney’s last movie, visit the Guggenheim Museum, go to a Broadway matinee staring Lauren Bacall and shop at Macys Department Store!  The only disappointment was that Jerry wanted to visit the bar Mickey Spillane used to frequent and found out that it had closed just a few years before our visit.  We also got to meet our editor and created a much better working relationship and we got a handle on how many stories are optioned for movies and how few are actually made.

            We came home to life’s usual realities and settled back into our writing schedule, but, stopping to ask each other, “Do you remember when we saw what’s his name?  He looks so normal in real life.  I thought that cab driver was going to kill us all!  When he told us to think thin when he was driving in between traffic lanes on the way to the airport, I though he was kidding!”

            Ahh.  New York, New York!

Next time I’ll tell you how this visit was the birthplace of the SURGICAL STRIKE three book series.

Sharon

WE THE PEOPLE: OUR MILITARY OBLIGATIONS

  Please take a moment today to celebrate the men and women who placed their lives on the line to keep the rest of us free.  Many people died in combat for us; many more were wounded both physically and emotionally.  Families lost husbands, fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters.  Some families were broken forever while some grew stronger. 

            Our liberty has been fought for since the days of the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.  Our soldiers have fallen on foreign soil and sand helping to give this liberty, that we so many times take for granted, to others wishing to be free.

            Today is a day to give thanks to those in the military who are no longer with us. But, we also need to give thanks to those who have been there for us in the past and are now retired or otherwise no longer active duty and, for those personnel who are still serving. 

            Our freedom comes with a cost that we all must bear.  We have an obligation to support our military who through their commitment to OUR CONSTITUTION keep US free.  Let’s not let them suffer at the hands of bureaucrats and those who don’t give a damn.  Let them know that it is WE THE PEOPLE who appreciate their efforts and sacrifices for us and offer to them OUR respect and admiration.  They deserve the best care and respect that this country can bestow on them.  Let’s make sure that they get it.  Honor the memory of our peacekeepers that have died for this country and honor and support those and their families still with us.

Sharon

HOW DID WE WRITE THAT STUFF?

Dave left a comment recently asking how did we  schedule our writing.  This will probably take a few posts to explain but here is where I start.      

            Jerry and I had a somewhat unique writing schedule.  Many times we would be working on multiple projects simultaneously.  We might be gathering together and testing guns, holsters, knives, etc., for a magazine column or article and working on finishing up one of our over 80 novels while researching the next book and coming up with another story idea, all at the same time.  After a few near disasters we learned that multi-tasking was fine as long as we stuck to dissimilar projects. 

            Many writers hold down full time jobs and have to find time to write.  Writing was our full time job and we had to find other moments to fit in other necessary projects.  The majority of our books were written in our 1904 frame, 13 room house in Commerce, Georgia.  Think old.  Think wood.  Think handmade so nothing in the house was plumb.  Think nothing had been done to the place much since 1904 including heat and electricity.  Add five acres of untamed land, two young children and anybody’s guess as to pets at one time or another, etc....You get the picture.

            “Mom. Dad.  We need help!”

            “We’re trying to finish a scene.  What’s up?”

            “Well, the drainpipe musta broken again on the upstairs bathtub and water is running out of the light fixture in the bedroom ceiling down here.”

            “%%**###,” one person says.  “We’ll be right there.  Grab a bucket, turn off the light and get the @@%%## dog out of there! The cat too!”        

            Many of our stories were hashed out while driving nowhere in particular.  Usually we had a seed of an idea and nothing much else.  We would gas up the Suburban and take off in one direction or another, Jerry usually driving, me holding a legal pad and pencil.  We’d try to come up with a basic story line then let the characters take over as to what they would do in such a situation.  Occasionally we’d spend more time coming up with a character name than we took for an entire plot. 

            Once we were back in the office I would transcribe my notes – whilst I could still read my writing – and turn it into a workable outline.  While we’re on the subject of the office, this is the small room holding school and art supplies, camera equipment, a small part of our reference library, dogs, cats and sometimes a container of crickets for Jason’s tree frogs, two desks with computers and all their usual accompanying accoutrements and the two of us at those desks, facing each other.  Our office had large windows on three of the four walls which was an added distraction.  By the time I was through with framing up the outline, the phone had been ringing off the hook and/or the kids were home from school and we were now involved in something totally different.

            Series work such as THE SURVIVALIST, TRACK, THEY CALL ME THE MERCENARY, THE DEFENDER and THE TAKERS kept us busy because the publishers did have to keep up with scheduled releases.  We would faithfully promise in out contract to have such and such finished and in their hands by a certain date and we did try to keep to our promises.  Please keep in mind that not only did we have book commitments but we had articles and monthly columns in magazines and for a while a short radio segment that we wrote, produced and Jerry voiced at a local station.   We both had the attention span of a gnat.  

            I’ll tell you more next time.

Sharon