What About Brian? Coronavirus Edition

It's been awhile since I did a post specifically devoted to myself and what I'm doing but I feel like it was necessary since I haven't been updating my website and am working more on big things that I'm not posting on Twitter or Instagram. I also figured I'd give you an update since I am off from work for next two weeks due to the Covid-19 outbreak and may or may not get paid. If you would like to support my writing or research or just want to throw a couple bucks my way, you can buy me a cup of coffee over on Ko-fi.

I am almost done with the first part of my novel, Vagabond Girl. The first part focuses on middle school. The second part will focus on high school and the third part will be college and after. As I've continued writing this, more ideas have popped into my head. I enjoy writing these characters and trying to create a realistic coming-of-age story for kids who don't normally show up in coming-of-age stories. In addition, I am beginning work on 87. 87 is a combination of two stories--a group of friends growing up in a small town and the true story of a family who also lived in that small town in the 1800s. I'm doing a lot of research by looking through old newspapers to get the views of the time. I'm hoping to start some serious writing on it over the summer.

Adding to my research, I'm going back to what I'm good at. I'm doing research on the Shawnee County Poor Farm as a follow-up to the Douglas County Poor Farm research I did back in 2014. I'm hoping to get all the information by the fall and get something written for either here or an article by the end of the year. Another thing I am researching is a possible murder in Labette County, Kansas that was originally said to be a suicide. I stumbled across the news while scanning old newspapers for other research and found enough to make it into a post or article.

There are also short stories I'm working on--Mina, A Little Bit of Honey, a couple of so far untitled ones, Nzinga, and a sequel to Suicidal Tendencies. These have been taking me longer than normal to get written because I've been focusing on my novel and social media stuff. I am also working on outlining young adult stories that might be novels or might be graphic novels. I haven't decided which way I'm going to go with them yet because they are still in the planning stages.

Here's hoping that I will have some content for you in the coming months whether it's here or elsewhere, I will keep you posted. Feel free to peruse my Twitter or Instagram and, again, if you would like to support my writing or research, you can buy me a cup of coffee on Ko-fi.

Until next time, I remain...
~Brian

Tauy Creek Digest #40: What About Brian?

2017 started out with a question mark. The Great Orange Fuhrer was just elected as our president due to a major backlash against our country's first black president and a bunch of white guys feeling emasculated because the times they were a-changing. But between the politics and regular work that I do, I was actually able to get things accomplished this year and hope to continue all the good work into the new year.

The first big thing was attending our local Women's March after Inauguration Day at the Kansas State Capitol. It was great seeing hundreds of people stand up against a president and administration that doesn't have the average Americans' best interest at heart. Mostly, it was great seeing inspirational people and hearing inspirational speeches aimed at getting people involved and, when it comes right down to it, just being a decent human being. Politics have always been pretty important in my household since my first date with my wife was at Yello Sub while watching the Super Tuesday election results back in February of 2008. I also started getting more into local events, my first one was a celebration in the City of Topeka paying off the bonds to rebuild the Topeka Boulevard Bridge early. After a short speech from the mayor, a small group of people, me included, walked from the old Post Office in North Topeka across the Boulevard Bridge to the south bank of the Kansas River and back again. It was an odd thing to celebrate but I was glad I did it. February also ended with getting to see Hasan Minaj at Liberty Hall and Senator Bernie Sanders at Topeka High School.

For my birthday, I went on a tour of an area of the Flint Hills that I don't normally get to see. We went to see places in Marion, Cottonwood Falls, Strong City, Florence, and Cedar Point which gave me a better appreciation for other places in Kansas and made me want to learn even more about the state that I call home. Shortly after my birthday, I learned that I was going to be working at the Territorial Capital Museum in Lecompton over the summer as an interpreter.

While at Lecompton, I wrote a few articles for their website, got more acclaim for my research on the Douglas County Poor Farm and even gave a presentation on it. I was also on the radio talking about it and other things and hired to do some research on Lawrence history for Lawrence Magazine which came out earlier this month. As a parting gesture, I wrote a special article for the Lecompton Historical Society newsletter, The Bald Eagle, about Henry Miles Moore. Also during this time, I began working on bringing back my website and delving more into history and research.

What I hope to accomplish for 2018 is to do more research and work to get those published somewhere other than my website. I'm also working on keeping a tight schedule in relation to the Story Series and Losers Are Made, Not Born so there is no lag between issues and finishing my second book by the end of the year. But I'm also working on a collection of short stories and am going to try to get a couple of the Story Series published into book form for easier reading. I also want to finish my comprehensive research on the Miller family. I also want to use my Instagram more for cemetery pictures and other history related and also get into other types of media such as video and am currently scripting a couple of video ideas.

There's a lot I want to do over the next year from writing to research to conservation to exploring and I want to be able to share what I do. I will continue trying to post what I can online and, as always, you can catch me and whatever I write posted on Facebook (which I promise to use more in 2018), Twitter, Instagram, this very site, and Patreon where you can pledge money to me if you like what I do and would like help me do even more. I would like thank regular readers, newcomers, casual observers, basically anyone who has spent at least sometime looking over what I write. It's nice to have an audience to indulge me in my silly little works but also to entertain them. I am entering my tenth year running Tauy Creek and I'm hoping to make it the best year I've ever had. None of it I could do without you, the readers.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and a great 2018. As always, please tell your friends about this website and I remain...

~Brian