What happened to Fanboy Friday this week?

After a couple months of posting my weekly Fanboy Friday roundups, it finally happened. Splat. My FS writing time Yugo was run over by the 18-wheeler of my day job. I was going to try and hustle together something for y’all this weekend, but as Monday bears down on us, it’s not looking too likely. Instead, I thought I’d take a moment to give you a better idea of who I am and where my time goes.

Silence is Golden

Sorry for not writing more lately. While I’ve been ignoring this blog, I’ve been hip-deep in work on several other projects. For bush fliers, the work continues on the Tongass Fjords X package, release date TBD. I’ll try to post some screenies soon — you’ll like what you see. Also, Emma Field X is back in the works, albeit at an early stage. And for RealAir’s upcoming FSX Spitfire, there will be an updated version of my RAF West Malling airfield.

As if that wasn’t enough, I’ve also been  spending a great deal of time on my latest novel, working title: Last Thurday. As I work through the process of noveling, ideas occur to me for short essays. I’ve begun collecting them on my new writing blog Words for Writers.

Please accept my apologies for not being a more attentive FS blogger. I’ll get back on track soon, I promise. And I’ll have lots of pics to post, too! Say tuned.

A Date from Hell

Nothing pleases me more than when two of my favorite pastimes come together. I’ve been writing for several years now, and have managed to turn out one novel manuscript and start on another. In addition to my fiction, I’ve written a few FS aircraft reviews for my good friend Nick Churchill’s website, ScreenshotArtist. Nick and I were chatting recently, and I mentioned that I was growing restless with the standard pro/con review format, and wanted to try something a little different. The result is the Flight Stories series, reviews with a fictional slant.

The series began with Joyride, a tale of a reluctant plane thief and his gung-ho sidekick who liberate a restored B17 from her moorings for a jaunt over the Oregon coast. This weekend, Nick and I posted another entry. Blind Date is a story of lust gone wrong in the sky above the Idaho/Canada border. The star of the show is Eaglesoft’s lovely Columbia 400, showcased against the backdrop of a libidinous encounter that proves the old adage be careful what you wish for. As usual, Nick provides the stunning illustrations. If you haven’t gotten hooked on FS fiction yet, now is an excellent time. Check it out!

My Words, auf Deutsch

Admittedly, this is a little thing. And yes, perhaps a bit word-geeky as well. I just came across a link to the newly-posted German version of the manual for my Dillingham flight sim scenery. The original English version included a short essay I wrote, a mood piece to set the tone for hanging out in a small rural Hawaiian airport. Seeing one’s own words translated into another language is a kick, and I read enough German to be able to follow along. Couldnt’t have said it better myself!

Loosing It

Okay, this has to be said once more for the record. When you can no longer find something, you did not loose it. Arbitrary though it may be, the present tense of the verb in English is lose. That’s with one “o”. That’s the rule. Sorry to be a stickler, but man that really hangs in my craw.

Now back to life as we know it.

Dillingham Released!

Rather than expound ad nauseum about my new scenery, let me give you a blurb I wrote for the manual…

When most people think of Hawaii in general, and the island of Oahu in particular, they picture crowds. The high-rise forests of downtown Honolulu, the throngs of baking sunbathers laid out on the beaches of Waikiki like cordwood. There is another side to the island, however—figuratively, and literally.

Let’s leave behind the crowds of shoppers and surfers and take to the H1 freeway. Around Pearl City, we branch right onto the H2, and head up the valley between the hump of the Waia’nae mountains on the left, and the distant Koolaus on the right. At the last vestiges of city, we turn onto Farrington Highway, and strike out for the sparsely populated North Shore.

Out here, it’s mostly cane fields and stands of scrub Koa. The few houses you encounter might be low-slung palaces with wrought iron gates, but just as likely, they’re a patchwork of trailers with homespun additions, topped with sheets of jagged corrugated tin. The skinny poi dogs sit on their haunches and watch you roll by, their eyes drooping at half-mast.

The earth here is a deep red that spills onto the edge of the road and clings to the tires of the rusted pickup trucks. You pass a stand of papaya trees swaying, and the blackened hulk of yet another burned out car melting into the roadside landscape. This is local Hawaii, a slow and easy mélange of lush green, salty air, and tropical decay.

Up ahead on the left is Dillingham airfield. It’s definitely no big-city airport. The few buildings are made of sturdy concrete block to withstand the corrosive sea air. The asphalt is a maze of cracks, bristling with stiff, stubborn grass. The disused WWII taxiways have faded away, with only their ghostly outlines still visible.

Swinging into the parking lot, you notice the signage belying what brings tourists to this far-flung stretch of beach. They’re day-glow yellow, in English and Japanese, announcing glider rides and skydiving outfits. If this is a weekend, look out! That rippling flag-in-the-wind sound just might be hordes of feet about to drop on you from above as another flock of parachutists drift back to earth.

Check out the rows of sagging old planes resting on the ramp. There aren’t too many glamorous hangar queens here, mostly old workhorses waiting to be hitched to gliders or taken aloft for yet another spin around the nearby mountains. They’re none too proud, but you won’t find a sturdier group of battle-tested old birds anywhere.

If you’re from a big city, you might feel a little uncomfortable the first time someone just walks up to you and starts talking. Hawaiians love to “talk story,” and they’ll happily shoot the breeze with you for hours, watching the planes buzzing around overhead. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself falling into their relaxed cadence, and smiling more than you’re used to. You’re on island time now.

You can purchase and download from the Aerosoft product page.

Joyriding in a B-17

As readers of this blog know, two of my primary passions are writing and flightsimming. As time goes on, I’m finding new and interesting ways to combine the two. The latest endeavor is Joyride, a short story based on a sim flight experience. I provided the words, and my buddy Nick Churchill did the images. This was fun, and I’m sure you’ll be seeing more work in this vein soon. Grab a coffee and head on over to check it out!

Naught to say today…

So I’ll let Emily Dickinson do it for me.

FAITH is a fine invention
For gentlemen who see;
But microscopes are prudent
In an emergency!

We don’t get nearly enough poetry in our lives these days. Drink up some more Dickinson, and a lot of other wonderful works, on Bartleby.com.