• Home
  • About

A Runner's Story

A Runner's Story

Category Archives: Storytelling

random stories without any related theme

The City of Flowers

24 Saturday Sep 2022

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Storytelling, Victoria BC

≈ 4 Comments

Vista 18

You spend thirty-five years with someone and you probably have a few things in common. A few things you both like to do. Places you both like to go. You likely have different favorite children but for everything else, you think alike. For Karen and me, it’s Victoria BC. We love coming here. We celebrated our anniversary last night at a swanky restaurant perched atop a tall hotel overlooking the harbor.

Sheringham Lighthouse

Today, we drove up the West Coast Hwy to Port Renfrew. If you’ve ever been to Maui, think the road to Hana – curves, more curves, and yet more curves with a few single lane bridges mixed in for fun. Along the way, we stopped off at the Sheringham Lighthouse and China Beach.

China Beach

We like to stay at the Empress when we visit but finally bought a fractional hotel condo. We intend to work from here every September and perhaps other times of year to get a better feel for the place as we think about where we might like to retire.

Japanese Gardens

Of course, we always visit Butchart Gardens. Without the summer crowds, we were able to stroll and enjoy the gardens in a much more relaxed way than on previous trips. Wherever we end up, at forty-five, fifty-five, or sixty-five years of marriage, I picture it colored with flowers.

Butchart Gardens

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Counting Families at Christmas

26 Sunday Dec 2021

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Britt&Eric, Storytelling

≈ 2 Comments

The four generations in this photo sum up what this year’s Christmas was all about. Depending on how you count them, my Christmas included at least nine families getting together.

There were young cousins – Margot and Ollie.

There were older cousins – Rachel and Ellie.

There were cousins from different schools.

And first cousins once removed.

There were aunts.

And grand-aunts.

And more grand-aunts.

Oh, so many grand-aunts.

And grand-uncles.

Oh, so many grand-uncles.

There were double-chin competitions with grandparents.

And moms holding babies wrapped as presents.

The holidays are nearing an end. Mine were blessed with family as I hope yours were.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Like Christmas for the First Time

19 Sunday Dec 2021

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Britt&Eric, Novel, Running, Storytelling

≈ 2 Comments

My first two-week vacation since starting up with a new tech firm four years ago has begun. And it begins with a clean desk. I suppose clean is a relative term, but trust me, for me, this sparkles. And loaded up on the left-hand monitor is my third novel. I intend to use this time to tap out some stories on that sparkling keyboard. I love having the time to plan out all I’m going to accomplish in the new year. Top of my list is more reading, more writing, AWS Security Certification, and more working out. I’ll use these final two weeks of the year as a springboard to all of that.

Durango

I enjoyed a super nice ten miler today on the LoBo Trail in 40° temps and full sunshine. The only thing that would have made it better was a bit of snow. My buddy from Durango texted me this photo of his run today. The snow will come. I’ll be in Austin though in a few days. Austin won’t have snow but it’s an ideal running town.

Karen and I plan to spend some time down around Town Lake. If possible, I’ll sneak in a run with my son-in-law on the Greenbelt – the best inner-city running trail in the country. Eric and Brit are already down in Austin, staying at his brother’s house. We’ve delayed our flight because Ellie Rose came home from college with the flu. The nurse at Boulder Medical said they tried to get the School of Mines to send kids home two weeks ago because of an outbreak. I wish they’d have followed that advice.

Ollie n Margot

Karen and I are good though. We’ve had our flu shots and are triple vaxxed. Looking forward to spending time with family. I can’t even remember what we did last year, probably because we did nothing. I know for some, it feels like 2021 hasn’t improved much over 2020, but being able to see family and friends again sets the two years a millennium apart as far as I’m concerned. Just look at that photo above of Margot with her Aunt Priscilla meeting her older cousin Ollie for the first time. Their first Christmas together. This is going to be a special Christmas.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Restoration

27 Saturday Nov 2021

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Britt&Eric, Running, Storytelling

≈ 4 Comments

Holiday Breakfast of Champions

The perfect holiday for me is when I have time to reflect, to be introspective of the year, and eat pie for breakfast. 2021 has been my restoration year. A return to family, running, and the first Thanksgiving dinner I’ve cooked in several years. The pie was baked by my son-in-law.

I ran this weekend over the dying landscape of an impending winter, but I’m invigorated. I learned to run comfortably with my current weight and completed my first marathon in four years. I’m a runner again.

The year started with the loss of my mother, and that was indescribably sad. Caring for her on hospice for twelve months with my brother left me prepared though. If you’ve done something similar, then you know the final passing is a blessing.

Months later, I became a grandfather. A life is marked by meaningful milestones and Margot Faye’s birth was a life changing occasion for more than just me. Our house once again has a bassinet, formula and milk bottles.

It’s impossible to top the birth of my granddaughter, but everything else has been going well too, including my writing. I’ve made a little progress on my third novel, and I’ve had other fulfilling writing outlets. I’m grateful for everything this past year. I hope it’s been as good for you.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Gojira

03 Saturday Apr 2021

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Novel, Storytelling

≈ 2 Comments

If you know me, then you’ve undoubtedly heard me say, there’s no such thing as a bad Godzilla movie. With the one exception of that Matthew Broderick cluster, there are few axioms more true. After streaming Godzilla vs Kong last night, I can report that my movie adage continues to hold truth.

I have to say, I was anxious about the outcome, so anxious that I almost didn’t watch it. I’m opposed to the notion of the world’s top two titans having to fight. A review I’d read implied one of them loses. I won’t spoil it for you. They fight multiple times in this movie and there are winners and losers each time. But I was almost furious with the director before even watching the movie believing the story might contemptuously slight the heroic majesty of either of these two creatures.

Kong represents the unmanageable force of nature as man exploits her resources. Kong has never been a more important symbol to all of us who want to protect nature. Godzilla is not too far off, conjured up by the folly of man. For me, Godzilla has always emerged to restore balance and harmony to the planet. Both these titans are far too noble to have to clash for our entertainment, as if they were just two more fighters on the MMA roster.

In the end, I wasn’t disappointed. My expectations panned out. Mostly. One does have to completely suspend their belief systems before watching a monster spectacle. Kong spends half the movie traveling to Antartica to enter a portal into the center of planet, only to exit later through a hundred meter tunnel under the city of Hong Kong. Perhaps the director recognized some alliterative value in having King Kong fight in Hong Kong. Who knows. The city has been relevant in the news lately. But it’s a classic error that I do fault the director for, to not include scenes in Tokyo. Toho Studio invented Godzilla and they deserve homage in every adaptation.

I suspect by now I’m coming across as some immature movie critic. A childish fan of monster movies. My appreciation does stem from my childhood. I never read the Marvel or DC comics. I subscribed to Mad Magazine in grade school, a rag that developed my appreciation for satire. I watched monster movies on Friday nights with my best friend Scott Sumner in Marion, Iowa. They would come on after Wolfman Jack’s Midnight Special and end with the National Anthem and a screen full of static around 1 am, back when people used to sleep. Zombies and vampires are okay. I like werewolves more, especially banshees, but Godzilla has always been my favorite. He, or she, says Matthew Broderick, was a monster I could sympathize with. Godzilla was the ultimate antihero.

The writing was bad in this movie, almost to be expected. Very little of the storyline was original or credible. I was fine with that. I know how hard it is from having written two novels. It was important to me for my cyberwar stories to be plausible. I based most of my attacks on real world events. But there comes a time in a fictional telling to drop all pretense in order to provide entertainment. Godzilla vs Kong was decent entertainment. And, despite the absence of a Tokyo presence, the storyline remained intact enough to satisfy old fans like myself.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Deep from the Heart of Texas

19 Friday Feb 2021

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Storytelling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Austin, cold, freezing, snow, Texas, winter

The hell suffered by Texans over these last brutally cold days has produced the best original content on the Internet in years. My Texas friends might single-handedly save Facebook from the repeal of Section 230. The stories from my friends have been enough to make me willing to live through decades more of Russian misinformation campaigns. Come on. Who doesn’t love some good potty humor?

I knew everyone would be okay once the jokes started flying. They were a welcome relief to the stories that made my throat harden and eyes mist over. Families sleeping in their cars. Families dying from carbon monoxide poisoning. Despite the grief, I kept reading the stories coming out of Texas. Stories from Tiger, a lateral thinker who can generate tears one minute and out-loud laughing the next, who in one photo depicting the generosity of HEB conveyed the loving heart of the Great State of Texas.

My friends’ stories captured hardships that challenged a full 2020 of Covid nightmares. Cindy saved her plants. Knowing her righteousness, I imagined her family being forced to sleep outside to make room. Steve, my brother-in-law, spent the previous weeks stockpiling excellent hardwoods for the fire pit he got for Christmas. He spent the last few days giving it all away to his neighbors. Stories like that, I only heard from Karen’s phone conversations, checking in on family.

It won’t surprise me if the next Pulitzer is awarded to one of my many talented writer friends from Texas. George is the best American nature writer since Emerson or Thoreau. He’s producing original content seemingly hourly that covers the spectrum of Texas humor, ingenuity and beauty. Of course, I hope the skies clear and the ground warms my friends up this weekend, but I can’t wait to read more stories of the human condition tomorrow morning.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

The Passing of Connye Fay

18 Monday Jan 2021

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Britt&Eric, Ellie Rose, Storytelling

≈ 9 Comments

Connye Fay Freitag Mahoney Weston 1933-2021

The winter just got a little colder with my mother’s passing early Thursday morning, after battling COPD and cancer for ten years. Surrounded by her children, she went peacefully, willing to join God and the loved ones who preceded her.

She was fortunate to meet her new grandson-in-law, Eric, before he and Brittany were married in 2019. And she lived long enough for four great grandchildren to be born in 2019 and 2020.

When you have seven children, you’re going to have a few great grandchildren. She had seven, with more on the way.

She married on September 21st, five days after her 18th birthday, because her German Protestant mother wouldn’t approve of her underage marriage to an Irish Catholic.  Demonstrating a strong work ethic, Johnny eventually won his mother-in-law over. He died young in 1967, leaving mom to raise us on her own.

A friend said to me that our parents are our one constant and true love. My body once lived inside her body. Without a father since I was five, she was everything to me. She’ll live on through me, but my world is colder without her.  

It feels to me as though everyone I’m close to, who passed in the last few decades, did so in the winter.  I can see how it might be poetic, to follow nature’s seasons. Without winter, there’d be no spring. There are yet more grandchildren to marry and more great grandchildren to be born.

My mom loved her church, Round Rock Presbyterian Church. She formed their Women’s Guild and for anyone whom wants to give in her memory, she wishes for donations to go to the RRPC Women’s Guild. Below is a joke mom shared with her grandchildren, that she heard at church.

We never truly know our parents, just the stories.  I thought of those stories a lot over the past year. Some stories where she’s the hero.  Others where she’s not.  Stories, where a single working mother, in the sixties and seventies, raised seven kids.  Until the equal credit opportunity act was signed in 1974, it must have been hard for a woman to obtain a credit card.  But we were never homeless, never hungry.  We lived well.  I was always happy.

There’s a story in my family, about my mom selling one of her children’s musical instruments.  And something about how she went about it, some of my sisters were upset.    Those memories make me feel shameful at how selfish I was.  A single working mother with seven children and I can’t think of one thing I ever did to help her.  

I should have been giving her all my discarded toys and used clothes or whatever.  I should have contributed to the hot meals and the roof over my head provided by a mother who had to sell one of her seven kid’s musical instruments.  But I was just a kid.

She loved her grandchildren. Below is Brook.

And this is her with my girls, Brit and Ellie Rose. We love you mom and grandma.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Keurig Runner

10 Sunday May 2020

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Covid-19, covid-noir, Storytelling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

blade runner, covid-noir

IMG_4230

The uber that picked me up was like out of some Ridley Scott movie.  In the age of Covid, a transparent plastic curtain held up by gray duct tape was all that separated me from the driver.  Viral transmission was too viable for my comfort level, so I squeezed the metal strip on my mask tighter over my nose.

There were less drivers on I-35 than on Mars.  Still, traffic slowed down through downtown where the highway splits into the lower and upper ramps.  It always does.

IMG_4231

The line at security was empty, but I stood behind two guys in TSA-Pre, because I was TSA-Pre.  There was no line at the airport lounge, but unless you were a well-connected woman, you had to order your cerveza take-away.

SNWM6074

I’m on a coffee run for Karen.  She has this thing for Taste of San Antonio.  You can’t buy it where I’m from.  I’ll be back for more soon.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Fall Weekends

28 Saturday Sep 2019

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Storytelling

≈ 3 Comments

ed

The grasses that hem in my trail run have turned brown.  The air has cooled.  Signs of nature’s seasonal shutdown abound.  It’s effect on me is far from melancholy.  I perk up in late September.

Nan

Perhaps remnants of the school cycle still kindle my biorhythms.  Thinking of school takes me back to Round Rock, where I attended high school at a time when they only had one instead of six.  Maybe I’m thinking of it because I was recently there, having brunch with my sister Nan on Main Street.  If it looks like everyone in that photo is staring at their phone, they were engaged in a Pokémon GO event.

mom n nan

I was in Round Rock to spend time with my Mom.  She’s in the fall of her life seasons.  Thinking of that does make me melancholy, but as you see, she can still put on a smile.  It’s the funniest thing, when she smiles for the camera, she begins laughing.  It’s like the camera tickles her.  We gave her a photo album of Brit’s wedding for her 86th birthday.

grandma

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Brittany Noel Got Married

30 Friday Aug 2019

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Britt&Eric, Storytelling

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

loveatfirstwright

69629530_10220799311472585_3857098910635917312_n

A life is measured by milestones.  Cairns marking babies’ births and daughters wed.  It’s not the years darlin’, it’s the miles.  Monday’s mile marker flashed the last twenty-seven years before me.  I revisited them during the wedding toast I gave to Eric and Brittany.  You can view them here.

Vows

I thought I might experience melancholy and cry.  The emotions that came surprised me. Despite what some might tell you, I don’t think I cried.  We were facing a strong sun during the vows.  I know I wasn’t the only one with the sun in my eyes.  The surprise came from thoughts of my expanded family and the sharing of future life events via Eric and Brittany.  It just seems to me that raising a family, and the continuing familial growth via your children’s union is what life is all about.  It was a feeling that took me back to Brittany’s birth – seven weeks premature.  She was a little four pound peanut.

brit 2 (5)

Born December 6th, she was still in her incubator on December 26th, having spent Christmas with the other little preemies.  The doctors were close to transferring Brittany to Children’s Hospital in Denver, but she proved resilient.  Twenty-seven years later, I enjoyed the pleasure of walking her down the aisle.

FOB n Bride

And I have an expanded family with the Wright clan whom I expect to spend many more happy events with like our weekend in Estes Park.  Eric’s parents, Doug and Julie, live in Boston.  Julie told me to begin training to run the Boston Marathon with her soon.  Eric’s brother Brad, his wife Priscilla, and their newborn Oliver, are from Dallas.  They all drove down to Austin last Christmas to join us for dinner.

Wright family

Ellie Rose might mark my next milestone.  She experienced a taste for weddings this past weekend.  I hope my suit still fits when that day comes.

Brittany & Eric Tie the Knot

The photos have just begun to come in.  Expect to see many more, courtesy of Hannah Kate at happylandic.com.

Brittany & Eric Tie the Knot

 

 

 

 

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Thirty-Two Years

03 Saturday Aug 2019

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Storytelling

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Estes Park, Karen Collier Mahoney, MarriedWithChildren

IMG_3471

Karen and I enjoyed the garden at the Greenbriar Inn Thursday night to celebrate thirty-two years.   Our conversation was less nostalgic, and instead focused on our daughter’s upcoming wedding.  Nothing against my childhood, it was fine, but life for me didn’t start until I married Karen.  I imagine Brittany Noel might feel the same about her life thirty-two years from now.  There’s nothing quite like growing a family.

It’s common to hear people say marriage takes work.  It has its ups and downs.  All those cliches.  I don’t know.  Maybe I’ve been blessed.  Life has hardships for sure, but marriage, fatherhood, life over the past three decades has been a dream for me.  I would change nothing and repeat everything – given the chance.

Okay, maybe I would pick a cooler month to get married.  But then Brittany Noel isn’t getting married deep in Texas like Karen and I did.  Her nuptials will be high in the mountains.  I wish her and Eric all the love Karen and I have experienced.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

On Reading

18 Saturday May 2019

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Storytelling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Best Sellers

What Happened at Midnight

Everyone thinks like a writer.  Among their many character flaws, writers feel an obligation to share their inner dialog with the rest of the world, whether or not the world is interested.  Blogs are great for that.  I find facebook less great for that.  It’s famous of course, for self-publishing, as is Twitter and all the new social media platforms, but the format doesn’t suit my style of sharing my inner dialog.

So when I was invited to play a game by my facebook friends to post seven days of books that have influenced my life, I’ve instead taken to my blog.  I don’t play facebook games in general because most of them are simply intended to share little icons that contain adware.  This game was harmless, but I prefer the long form story with mixed photos and text to seven short bursts of content.

Old Yeller

I began reading in earnest in 4th grade.  Over the next two years I read every Hardy Boys mystery on the planet, which for me was the Carnegie-built library in Marion, Iowa.  Although the most influential book from that period of my life was Old Yeller, which made me cry.  I also read a fair share of Indian Chief biographies.  Whenever I played Cowboys and Indians, I was an Indian.

By middle school, I was in an advanced English class, and was forced to read some of the classics, such as Great Expectations.  I didn’t care for stories where authors were paid by the word.  I don’t mind long books, but I’m a fan of getting to the point.  The book from those years that opened my eyes to the world and the horrors of war was The Children of the Atomic Bomb.  One of my sisters borrowed it from the West High School library in Davenport, Iowa, apparently in 1966.  It still sits on the bookshelf in my study.  Don’t tell anyone.  I read Jaws in 8th grade as well.

 

My reading diminished in high school, first in lieu of sports, and then to afford me time for girls.  I found girls too pretty to ignore.  I tended, however, to read books after my mother was finished with them.  She was into financial thrillers by Paul Erdman, first The Crash of ’79, later The Panic of ’89.  In more recent years, my favorite author of financial thrillers became Michael Lewis, although his stories are more non-fiction.  His method though is to develop the characters in a manner similar to what makes good fiction, so he blurs the line.

 

1558197450

I read less fiction in college than I did in high school.  Not enough time.  I started my subscription to the Wall Street Journal then, which I continue nearly forty years later.  As I started my career, I shifted to more non-fiction.  Sometimes I have to force myself to read more fiction.  To stay competitive in the job market, I don’t understand how a generous amount of non-fiction can be avoided.  I read a book or two on the telecom market, which preceded my graduate studies in that industry, but the first book I read to support my job as a firewall admin was Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker.  It was the tech bible at a time I found myself deploying firewalls between IBM’s Sydney data centers and the data networks supporting the 2000 Olympic Games venues.

My first truly fun read on cybersecurity was Clifford Stoll’s, The Cuckoo’s Egg.  It was also non-fiction, but read like a fictional tech thriller and was a strong influence on my desire to write a cybersecurity tech thriller.  My style though probably borrows more from reading everything Neal Stephenson has ever written, such as Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, and Reamde.

My favorite genre is historical fiction.  I’m currently reading Pillars of the Earth by one of my favorite authors, Ken Follett.  It might have been first published forty years ago, but I received the 3rd story in his Kingsbridge trilogy, A Column of Fire, for Christmas last year, and I want to read them all.  My goal as a writer is to graduate to writing historical fiction, once I think my writing has improved enough for a more literary style.  Perhaps after I’m retired and have time for the requisite travel.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Tara & Teddy

19 Friday Apr 2019

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running, Storytelling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

East Boulder Trail

IMG_3106

I found my pace on the East Boulder Trail today.  Spoiler alert, it’s slower than I’d been running.  Seems odd runners have to relearn their pace after falling out of shape, but they do.  Finding my pace allowed me to run further and to avoid walking.

Cairn

My cairn was knocked over so I rebuilt it.  You might not be surprised by this, but I felt inspired by the architecture of the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Bridge

I targeted the bridge today for my turn-around, which would have given me a five-mile run.  But with my new-found pace, I kept going.

Ashes

I ran past the spot along the Boulder Creek where I released Tara and Teddy’s ashes.  Our first dogs, they would typically run with me and cool off here in the creek.  I ran just a little further.

turn-around

I made my turn-around at the White Rocks Trailhead, resulting in an eight miler.  Longest run of the year.

return to EBT

On my return, near the end, I passed a blind lady hiking on the trail, dragging her walking stick along the edge as a guide.  She wasn’t wearing glasses but held her face up skyward with closed eyes, toward the sun.  I felt some derivative of empathy and for a moment imagined I was her, hiking a Colorado Trail without sight, but feeling my way into the sun.  She looked happy.

tara and teddy

Tara and Teddy mirror some of the traits of our current dogs.  Mostly, there were two of them then, and we have two now.  Similar sizes.  Tara and Millie were both at the top of the pecking order while the boys were both overly defensive.  Karen always says that Tara and Teddy came back as Millie and Meeko.  I don’t know, maybe they did.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

My Chair by the Window

16 Saturday Feb 2019

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Storytelling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Darwin's Radio

outside view

I’ve followed the same routine Saturday mornings for as long as I can remember.  I awake about the same time as a workday.  I sit in my chair by the window, and drinking unhealthy quantities of chicory coffee, I read the paper.  If there’s something productive on my weekend agenda, it can wait for Sunday.

Every decade or so, I change up my routine.  Around ten or eleven, I used to get up to run massive miles.  Nowadays, certainly since October, I stay in my chair by the window the entire day.  I don’t shower or shave.  Short of a national emergency, I don’t dress out of my pajama pants.  Nowadays, I continue reading throughout the day.

After I finished my paper today, I bored into my latest pulp fiction.  Well, not exactly the latest – Darwin’s Radio is twenty years old.  A biotech thriller by Greg Bear, given to me earlier in the week by my friend Wendy.  Good read.

I stood up at some point in the early afternoon to discover it was snowing, so I let the dogs out to play.  They caught the falling snow on their tongues like Snoopy in a Charlie Brown cartoon and they played hard.  I sat back down in my chair by the window and dragged another chair across the hardwood to serve as an ottoman for my feet.  And I finished my book.

Saturdays are good.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

RTFM & the EULA

05 Saturday Jan 2019

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Novel, Storytelling

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

cyberwar, Full Spectrum

Stash

The holiday break was good for my writing.  I received feedback on my draft manuscript from two of my three beta readers, and I’ve incorporated most of their suggestions.  Some of it was super helpful and will make for a better story.

It’s still overly technical, although I’m certain it’s not nearly as geeky as the first book.  I’m considering dedicating it to those techies who RTFM and the EULA.  If you understood that last sentence, you might be my target market.

I still plan to use my computer mouse tanks photo for the book cover.  I’m also looking for a publisher though.  Assuming I find one, my book cover ideas might not be mine to act on.  If finding a publisher becomes too onerous, I’ll self-publish again.  I’d like to learn the formal publishing process though.  If you know an agent or publisher who is interested in my genre, let me know.

I also, finally, came up with a title for the book, again, assuming I get to name it if I go the publishing route.  I’ve been referencing my manuscript Cyber War II.  It makes sense but didn’t feel very satisfying to me.  I came up with “Full Spectrum.”  The storyline is around Hybrid warfare.  Full spectrum references the mission statement and tactics of US Cybercom.  Another thought I have is using “Defend Forward,” because that speaks to my plot and is yet more language used by the DoD.  They’re both good.

If that’s not enough, I’ve also started writing my third book.  You could argue it’s the 3rd in a cyberwar series, but it’s 20 years into the future and is in the cyberpunk genre rather than tech thriller.  It’s already more fun.  I’m able to take more liberties with reality in this genre.

I’m also reading every day.  I got two books for Christmas gifts.  My new year’s resolution is to focus on reading and writing in 2019.  It’s all about the books.  I’ll try to share some time with health and fitness, but my aperture on personal interests has narrowed over time.  I rarely even watch sports anymore.  Reading and writing.  That’s my focus now.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Final Destination

31 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Storytelling

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Ellie Mahoney, grlpwr, Karen Collier Mahoney

Thelma And Louise

I’ll pick up where I left the girls off, in the Texas Panhandle.  Does this look like Amarillo?  Not content to view Texas in the rearview mirror, they turned around for a good look back.  Colorado is their final destination.

cotton

Thelma has a boyfriend to get back to in time for a new year’s kiss.  She told Louise to wake up early for the final leg.  When Louise tried waking her at 5:30am, she said that was too early.

Thelma Louise Road

The girls were on the road again by 6:30.  They had to turn back to Amarillo for gas though, losing 30 minutes from their early start.

Themlam_and_Louise

Thelma drove them through New Mexico.  Louise took the wheel in Raton and carried them home to Colorado.  They arrived safely in the mid-afternoon.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Texas Panhandle

29 Saturday Dec 2018

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Ellie Rose, Storytelling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Ellie Mahoney, grlpwr, Karen Collier Mahoney

31365_thelma

Karen and Ellie let me out at mom’s house Saturday morning.  They delayed their departure for better weather.  Those girls aren’t trying to beat the Post Office.  Ellie got us from Austin to Round Rock via MoPac.  Karen took the wheel heading out of town.

When I drive, I tend to steer well east of Lubbock.  It’s too early for dinner and too late for lunch, and too tempting to stop early for dinner, making the next day a longer drive.  

t and l

Coincidentally, when Karen drove it today, her map app took her through the middle of her college stompin’ grounds.  Go Tech.

lites

Karen called me after reaching Amarillo to say they had a nice ride.  Ellie drove for ninety minutes.  They were planning dinner.  

The two are driving home for the new year.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Taco Junky

27 Saturday Oct 2018

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Storytelling

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Brittany & Rachel

taco junky

Karen and I miss most of Brit’s performances, because they are typically in Denver and she plays past our bed time.  So it’s unusual that we went two Friday’s in a row.  This one was in Boulder though, on the Hill at Taco Junky.  I posted possibly the worst ever Facebook live video in the history of videos.  I started before they even warmed up and the place was loud. The good stuff didn’t start until after my battery died.

Rachel & Brit had the whole night to sing so they took some solos after first singing together.  Brit sang her cover of Lost Boy and the college crowd really got into it.  Brit followed with another cover that got the coeds singing and dancing.

That was enough for Brit to figure out what they liked so she got her phone out and began pulling up piano chords and lyrics to more songs.  It would take her a minute to study and then she would just play and sing based on reading music she barely knew.  She owned that crowd for the next hour singing dowloaded tunes.  The audience even started holding her phone for her while she played.  Pretty impressive adaptation to a crowd.

Before long, Karen was singing and dancing with the coeds.  A professional photographer showed up from nowhere with lights and began taking photos.  It turned into a rock n roll hoochie koo.  Still, we left in the middle because it was past our bed time.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Ellierose

22 Sunday Jul 2018

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Ellie Rose, Storytelling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Austria, ellierose, home coming

Ellierose text

Fräulein Ellierose navigated Fankfurt on her return flight, but not without texting her  review.  That she referenced the Munich airport over Frankfurt was just enough to make me get up and check the flight status.  She arrived to Graz via Munich but departed via Frankfurt.  Our weary little tourist clearly prefers Munich over Frankurt.  Simple typo from a worldly traveler.

DIA

I would have gone straight to bed after reaching home.  Ellierose went to a little home coming party at Wendy’s house.  Her friends were there, making it somewhat of a surprise party.  She returned home around midnight, with some leftover party-goers, making it a sleepover.  I’m not going to bother doing the math with Austria being eight hours ahead, but that had to be a 24 hour day minimum.

Wnedy's house 5

I’m grateful to Tina and Wolfgang for hosting her.  They took her to Salzburg and Vienna.  They even took her to Venice.  And Tina packed Ellierose two sandwiches for the flight.  Quite the host mother.

Wendy's house 3

I was concerned Ellierose would return with some ink or piercings.  But as Brit suggested, she returned instead with lots of new clothes.  Oh, and she changed her name.  Something girls do at about her age.  She insists we all include her middle name now, so it’s Ellierose until we’re told otherwise.  After traveling to Europe for a month on her own, she can choose her own name.

Wendy's house 4

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Fräulein Ellie

30 Saturday Jun 2018

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Ellie Rose, Storytelling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Ellie Mahoney, gotaboytogetbacktoo, SuddenlySophisticated

Processed with VSCO with b1 preset

Ellie has been texting back photos from her first week in Austria.  They prompt me to recall Audrey Hepburn in the 1954 movie, Sabrina.  I won’t be surprised if she returns with short hair.  Or maybe the modern-day equivalent, a tattoo or piercing.  Brittany tells me it’s more likely that Ellie will simply return with new clothes.

wine

More likely, Ellie will return with expectations of drinking wine at dinner.  She’s yet to obtain her driving license, but that’s not a requirement in Austria for imbibing adult beverages.  Three more weeks of Ellie exploring Europe.  Life won’t be the same when she returns.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Letting Go

23 Saturday Jun 2018

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Ellie Rose, Storytelling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Austria, Ellie Mahoney

DIA 2

A big trip for me when I was 16 was driving three hours across Texas to the beach.  Ellie wanted to leave the country.  I know, we all do.  We dropped off Ellie at DIA yesterday to fly Lufthansa to Austria – on her own.  Just watching her navigate the security line by herself was hard for Karen and me.  Letting go, one vacation at a time.

DIA 1

We embarrassed her with our photo-taking, tracking her progress through security like parents sending their 5 year old off to their first day in kindergarten.  Ellie navigated switching flights in Munich – Europe’s 7th busiest airport.  She arrived in Graz around 2pm CET and called us to let us know she was safe – 6am MDT.  She’ll be visiting her childhood friend Izzy for the next four weeks.  Karen and I will be adapting to life as empty-nesters.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

They Grow up so Fast

10 Sunday Jun 2018

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Storytelling

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Brittany Noel

Lea Marlene

We watched Brit perform a couple of skits Friday night at the Lea Marlene Acting Studio on Pearl Street.  Come to think of it, we watched her last Friday too, singing at the Denver Bicycle Cafe.  She’s become our go-to event for Fridays, no doubt risking over-exposure.

Camilla Susser

Brit acted out scenes from Steel Magnolias and The Importance of Being Earnest.  Brit played Shelby, returning home pregnant for Christmas in Magnolias.  As you can see in the photo, Brit played pretty, young Cecily in Earnest.

Brit with ellie n rachel

We hung around a bit afterward for the cast party.  Brit was happy, as you can see in the photo above with her friend Rachel and sister Ellie.  Brit is in her mid-twenties now, and it’s special to still go watch her perform, like we did when she was a child.  She’s engaged now.  I expect events will change.  Brit will turn her focus to her family.  We’ll still have Ellie for a few more years.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

SXSW

04 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Storytelling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Austin

IMG_1776Hah, fooled you.  This is not a blog covering the digital creatives that descend on Austin in March.  I am however in Austin.  I realized my mistake upon arrival at ABIA yesterday.  Conditions inside the terminal were claustrophobic.  Thank God I didn’t try to rent a car.  Still not sure how I scored a ticket on Southwest for under $100.  Must have beat the real crowds by a few days.

DIA was packed too, with home-bound skiers.  As bad as I’ve ever seen it.  Southwest maintains a seemingly random pattern of kiosks in front of the ticket counter for travelers to claim their baggage tag.  People didn’t know how to queue up efficiently.  It didn’t help that an agent walked around barking out instructions that there is no line.  No idea what she meant by that.

The lady directly in front of me panicked when her turn came.  She fumbled around in her purse for identification or her smart phone.  Her bag didn’t just spill, it literally exploded its contents onto the floor.  Apparently stressed, she shrieked like a banshee out of frustration.  Like in a scene from Home Alone, a hundred travelers all hushed themselves to stare at her as she sunk to her knees, sobbing, to collect her belongings.

After all this, my flight wasn’t full and I was able to spread out with my newspaper.  My brother picked me up and we stopped for lunch at some pub in the Domain.  I quaffed a 512, a locally crafted IPA.  Pretty tasty.  Looking forward to some more local food and beverages, and hopefully a few trail runs, over the next several weeks.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

New Traditions

31 Sunday Dec 2017

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Storytelling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

ImpeachTrump2018, Stranger Things

Matts El Rancho

My family didn’t always meet up for a post-Christmas dinner at Matt’s El Rancho, but now that I think about, I suspect we’ve been doing this for well over a decade.  For this extended family, it’s become a new tradition.  I imagine it appears to you that I’m seated at the end of the table in this photo, but I assure you that from my perspective, I was seated at the head of the table.  There’s an upside-down world reference in there somewhere.

I generally end my blog year with a contemplative post, introspective, thankful and hopeful for the year ahead.  Absent any running exploits to focus this running blog on though, it’s been a sappy December and such content has become my new genre.  I’m a regular Hallmark channel.  Doesn’t bother me though because I welcome change.  I suggested I might stop blogging altogether in my last post but what I suspect I’ll do instead is simply post stories with less regularity, and put more thought into them.

family

The photo above is of my family at my mom’s house on Christmas Eve.  She is currently in the hospital with a chest cold.  Born in September, 1933, she is 84 years old.  On the drive back home, my kids speculated on how we would celebrate Christmas when our grandparents are no longer there for us to visit.  Our traditions will evolve, likely around the new families my kids themselves will bring forth into this world.  Christmas without my mom and in-laws is something I don’t think about and prefer not to until the time comes.  There are still plenty of good memories to be made without dwelling on sad thoughts.

It’s like which side of the table I’m sitting on.  Am I avoiding conflict?  I would argue no.  I know the future will come, and I’m an optimist.  Making the most of the now is the benefit afforded to optimists.  This was a dark year for many.  I felt it as much as any other social liberal, climate concerned conservationist, or secular scientist.  I’ve refrained from sharing my political views since the primaries because, well partly because I became bored with it, but mostly because I prefer to turn my attention away from negative discussion.  I know that must make me sound like a pussy, it’s certainly not very aggressive.  I’m not that way at my job, but I am outside of work.  I’m not a protester.

graffiti wall

This photo is of the girls with their cousins the other day at the graffiti wall in Austin.  The two blondes are mine.  I can assure you, they are a passionate bunch.  Not me.  I believe the best approach to all this year’s hate-mongering speeches on campus would have been not to protest – to not attend at all.  Ignore them.  Don’t attend.  Don’t feed the beast.  Sure, physical aggression requires counter aggression.  But the hate-filled loudspeakers operating in today’s media only exist on the attention we afford them.  I think I learned this at age eight from an episode of Star Trek.

My favorite TV is the news.  This makes me a fairly boring person in conversations, but I can’t help it.  Still, I stopped watching the news this past year, after the primaries, once I determined it was only making me feel worse.  Occasionally, when there was a big week of news, I’d allow myself to watch Rachel Maddow for a couple of nights.  I mean, who else do you know that can giggle throughout their entire newscast?  I still read the morning paper but for the most part, I no longer watch the news.  I decided it wasn’t helping me, so another new tradition.  I now watch Murdoch Mysteries.  I think enough seasons remain to carry me through 2018.

I feel good about myself when I’m able to change my pattern.  I can’t say it means growth but do feel that change is usually good.  It bothers me to know just how predictable, just how pattern-bound, I am at times.  Blogging every weekend for 8 years.  Running every day.  A drink every night.  A relative commented to me over the holidays he noticed I wasn’t drinking.  He thought I’d quit.  I haven’t but I’ve gone a week now without drinking.  I quit for half a year in 2014 when I had cancer because I couldn’t drink half a beer without finding myself sitting in a dark room listening to Pink Floyd.  I don’t mind a little melancholy but that was time in my life when maintaining positive thoughts were paramount, so I simply quit drinking.  Don’t feed the beast.  Of course, I was happy to start drinking again because that signified I had moved on.

New Years resolutions are all about change.  Change is good.  At least, it can be.  Embrace it.  Set some goals for yourself for 2018.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Pensive Thoughts on Blogging, on Writing, on the Year

17 Sunday Dec 2017

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Novel, Storytelling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

writing

iStock tech gap

This was the first photo I ever blogged, on December 31, 2009.  I suppose I started blogging at work a few years before that, but it was the same photo that I started with.  I don’t consider myself visually-oriented.  If you’ve seen me dress, you’d agree, but I generally give attention to my blog photos because I feel they oftentimes tell the story better than I can in words.

I’ve been thinking about putting my blog on hiatus for a few months.  I don’t know that I will but it’s fair to say I haven’t been putting much thought into my blog stories lately, and that makes me a bit sad.  It used to be I would curate my thoughts all week before finally capturing the story into words over the weekend.  Even some of my longer posts only take me five or ten minutes to write because I’ve already written the stories in my head.

I should perhaps reword my statement above and say I haven’t been putting stories into my thoughts lately, because that’s how I think.  I wouldn’t say I’m a vocal storyteller.  I lean towards laconic.  But my pattern of thinking is to structure free thoughts into stories.  I imagine I have the same thoughts roaming around my mind as anyone else, but I typically form a narrative for them.  It’s clear to me that I should have considered a career in journalism back in college, but then writing is and has been one of the strongest components of my job and career.  From the fifty or so emails I type every day to the PowerPoints I create for Sellers and Customers.  I’ll be putting a few hours into creating a story today for how my company markets security information and event management.  In a PowerPoint form factor of course.

Working on a Sunday segues into why I might pause my blogging.  Not that I don’t have the time, as I already said it takes very little effort for me to actually write.  It’s that my free thoughts are so focused on work right now.  And I haven’t been reading much fiction lately, which has always been my muse.  I suspect I’m going through a boring phase so why write about it?

It is my personal digital platform to leverage for marketing my book, but it’s not like I’m doing anything now in that arena either.  Ellie said she would build me a website for my writing over Christmas break, maybe that will replace my blog.  I stopped blogging back in 2014 for over a month and no one seemed to notice.

I think what I’m struggling with here is that I don’t want to blog if I don’t have anything halfway interesting to share.  It is a good exercise even if I have nothing clever to say.  It helps me to be introspective.  And it’s practice writing.  I have a good friend whose writing I love to read.  Every paragraph is like a Dali painting.  Each sentence a masterpiece in creativity.  Yet he rarely writes because he says it’s a struggle and he doesn’t enjoy the process.

I’m the exact opposite.  I can write about nothing and find it easy.  That might actually be a bad habit that blogging isn’t helping me with.  If you’re a writer, than you are familiar with the strong attitudes authors have toward blogging.  They either say it’s a good exercise and serves as a marketing platform, or they despise it as cheapening the medium.  I’m asking myself that question now.  I’m wondering if it’s in my interest to continue or to take a break.  We’ll see.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...
← Older posts

Search this blog

  • Boulder Marathon
  • Britt&Eric
  • Colorado Trail
  • Covid-19
  • covid-noir
  • cyber war
  • Ellie Rose
  • Geek Horror
  • Marathons
  • Margot
  • Medical Files
  • Novel
  • Other Stories
  • Politics
  • ReBlog
  • Running
  • Snowboard
  • Snowshoe
  • Storytelling
  • training plan
  • Victoria BC

Buy Full Spectrum Cyberwar at Amazon

Buy Cyber War I at Amazon

Buy on Amazon India for ₹99

Buy on Amazon U.K. for £2.27

English Edition on Amazon Germany

Buy on Amazon Brazil for R$11.29

Archives

Blog Stats

  • 135,437 hits

Girlfriend Cult

Recent Comments

Ed Mahoney on ATX Half 2023
georgeschools on ATX Half 2023
Terry Collier on ATX Half 2023
Ed Mahoney on ATX Half 2023
Susan on ATX Half 2023

Recent Posts

  • Happy Memories March 25, 2023
  • ATX Half 2023 February 22, 2023
  • Adelsverein January 28, 2023
  • A Runner’s Day January 7, 2023
  • Last Run of the Year December 31, 2022
  • Christmas, for me… December 26, 2022
  • Craft Shopping for Christmas December 10, 2022
  • A Slow, Late Fall Run November 25, 2022
  • November Runs November 20, 2022
  • Tech Debt November 19, 2022
  • The Runner’s Field of Battle November 13, 2022
  • Stealin’ from God October 24, 2022
  • A New Start October 23, 2022
  • Baby Margot Birthday October 9, 2022
  • The City of Flowers September 24, 2022
  • Dog Park by the Sea September 19, 2022
  • The Lane of Pain September 17, 2022
  • Run Rabbit Run August 28, 2022
  • Wild Horses August 21, 2022
  • The Day Running Died August 17, 2022
  • Boulder Marathon Training – Week One August 7, 2022
  • Mount Sanitas July 30, 2022
  • The Trail and Me July 23, 2022
  • Mount Zirkel Wilderness July 13, 2022
  • Full Team Hike July 4, 2022
  • Village to Village July 3, 2022
  • Beaver Creek July 2, 2022
  • Summer is Here June 12, 2022
  • Birthdays May 22, 2022
  • Fall River Road March 25, 2022
  • A Tale of Two Gerasimov’s March 11, 2022
  • The Hero February 26, 2022
  • Full Spectrum Cyberwar February 24, 2022
  • Run Nan, Run February 20, 2022
  • Running Sunrise to Sunset February 13, 2022
  • Cyberpunk Runner February 5, 2022
  • A Winter’s Run January 15, 2022
  • Turkmenistan January 2, 2022
  • Counting Families at Christmas December 26, 2021
  • Austin Boardwalk December 23, 2021
  • Like Christmas for the First Time December 19, 2021
  • Restoration November 27, 2021
  • India Kinks November 15, 2021
  • Run a Little, Write a Little November 6, 2021
  • Horizons October 30, 2021
  • The Vitality Kick and other Abnormal Obsessive Behaviors October 19, 2021
  • The Ten Week Plan October 11, 2021
  • Pearl Street Marathon October 10, 2021
  • Confidence Builder October 2, 2021
  • Margot Faye September 25, 2021

Colorado=Security

Blogroll

  • Alohawk's Blog
  • Barbie's Blog
  • Boggy Creek Lumpster
  • George Schools Blog
  • I, Cringely
  • Prostate Chronicles
  • Shut Up + Run
  • Sustainable Sunrise
  • The Rogue Botanist

Web Sites

  • Amazon Author Page
  • Austin Marathon
  • Bolder Boulder
  • Brit's YouTube Songs
  • Colorado Marathon
  • Colorado Runner Magazine
  • Colorado Trail
  • Girlfriend Cult
  • Lobo Media Ltd
  • My YouTube Site
  • Race Pace Calculator
  • Shoes & Brews
  • Trail Runner Magazine
  • Zaremba Graphic & Web Solutions

Goodreads

Top Posts & Pages

  • Performance Enhancers
  • Foot Fetish
  • Muscari Neglectum
  • Runner Porn
  • Happy Memories

Top Clicks

  • edmahoney.files.wordpress…
  • edmahoney.files.wordpress…

RSS Feed

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • A Runner's Story
    • Join 248 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • A Runner's Story
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: