Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, March 7, 2017, 10:45 a.m.

I haven’t really had much to do. Local sports, or at least my market value for writing about it, has subsided for a while. Bills are outstanding at both ends, which means I am both owed and owing a decent amount. I go to the mailbox each day with a sense of excitement.

Most of my creditors are not excited. They are automated.

The good news is that the least expensive means for me to live is to stay home and write. This I have been doing diligently. Lightning in a Bottle is now within range of completion, though it’s only a first draft. I think I can work my way back through it. I don’t think there’s much to fix, only much to polish.

NASCAR is headed west for three weeks. It was west last week but only a few hours. I had sort of hoped Atlanta would be my long-awaited return to the track, but those who long for it in my fantastic imagination will have to wait a while because I doubt anyone unwilling to pay my way to Hampton, Georgia, is going to be willing to send me somewhere like Phoenix, Arizona.

I’ll watch it on TV. That’s the norm. I went to Homestead, Florida, 147 races ago.

Sunday I wrote about the end of a long journey. Monday I wrote about a man getting in deeper and deeper trouble with his boss. Today he’s going to get in trouble with his girlfriend. Tomorrow I start stirring all the ingredients together to bake a fiction cake and apply the fiction icing.

Then the readers can feast!

I might be a bit giddy.

If you’d like me to mail you a signed copy of Cowboys Come Home, or any of my other novels, you can find my address and instructions at montedutton.com. (montedutton.com/blog/merchandise)

I’ve written five novels and a collection of short stories. I’ve also written a number of books about sports, mostly about NASCAR. You can find most of them here.

The Kindle versions of my books, where available, can be found above. Links below are to print editions.

My new novel is a western, Cowboys Come Home. Two World War II heroes come home from the Pacific to Texas.

I’ve written a crime novel about the corrosive effects of patronage and the rise and fall of a powerful politician and his dysfunctional family, Forgive Us Our Trespasses.

I’ve written about what happens to a football coach when he loses everything, Crazy of Natural Causes. It’s a fable of life’s absurdity.

I’ve written a tale of the Sixties in the South, centered on school integration and a high school football team, The Intangibles.

I’ve written a rollicking yarn about the feds trying to track down and manipulate a national hero who just happens to be a pot-smoking songwriter, The Audacity of Dope.

I’ve written a collection of 11 short stories, all derived from songs I wrote, Longer Songs.

 

Follow me on Twitter @montedutton, @hmdutton (about writing), and/or @wastedpilgrim (more opinionated and irreverent). I’m on Facebook (Monte.Dutton), Instagram (TUG50), and Google-Plus (MonteDuttonWriter).