The Sky Journal for 4-27-2014

Click on this link to see video:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v__mzWDivQ

 

ENTRY-April 27, 2014

WOW! What a week I have had.

 

First of all, I am now 11 weeks old and my world has really grown just in the last 10 days since I arrived at my new home. During that time a lot of exciting new adventures have unfolded, fun adventures. And one scary and not-so-fun adventure. By the way, be sure to click on the link just below my picture above and you will see some of my activity during that time. I asked my daddy, Fred, to document what I have been doing and he did a fairly decent job. We'll see if he improves in the future.

 

From the very first scene in that documentary about me you will see an accomplishment of mine. What I still don't understand is why I can't just drop my deposit inside the house. My mommy, Vicki, is always trying to scoop me up just as I am getting started. I mean, really. I'm busy here, let me do my thing. But she and daddy want me to go to the big field they call the backyard to do my business. I just don't get it. My daddy sighs when this happens and tells mommy, "...give her some time she'll get it...she's only a baby." Well excuse me, I am a big girl now.

 

A couple of days ago daddy gave me this huge, and I mean huge yellow ball and said go play with it. Go play with it? I can't get my mouth around this huge beast. But I do the best I can with it. I like to chew it. I like to chew the big yellow ball, my other toys, the furniture, and even my mommy's and daddy's fingers. They don't like me to chew on their fingers. I don't quite understand that either. They say "NO" and I flinch when they say it. I am beginning to think that the word "NO" has some meaning. I think it will come to me soon enough. My daddy sometimes says to me, "What part of NO don't you understand?" Frankly, right now I don't understand any of it.

 

And now to describe the pain and suffering I went through. Mommy and daddy took me to my first doctor visit last week. First of all, when we walked in there were so many smells and sounds in there, it was overwhelming. There was some lady sitting behind a big desk, mommy calls it a counter, that was way too friendly and forward with me. She started petting me and cooing about how cute I was. True about the cute, but don't start grabbing me. A girl wants to get to know someone first before they can start petting and kissing me. That's the Rules of the Dog (more about that in coming journal entries.)

 

Then I was taken to a little room where I was prodded and poked and stared at. I had a horrible bright light blasting me in my eyes, down my throat, and in my ears. This other lady in that small room, also pawing at me, stuck this huge, uh, pointy thing, up my rear end where the poop comes out. I think she said she was taking my temperature, whatever that is. It was in there for a long time. I heard this quiet beep and thank goodness it was pulled out. I mean how degrading was that experience? Have you had that done to you lately? Not a pretty sight I can tell ya.

 

Then his huge bear-like man came in and started poking and prodding me. He then pulled out this small plastic thingie and stabbed me in my side. I yelped, well wouldn't you? I felt this cool liquid get pumped in just under my skin. For the rest of the day I was in a daze and dizzy and sleepy. They also gave me this sweet liquid forced into my mouth to take care of my worms. Worms? What are these strangers talking about? I don't eat worms, yuch! I will eat just about anything, but not worms. I think those doctor people don't know what they are talking about.

 

All in all, I can truly and honestly say I am never going back there again. But I think I heard my mommy whispering to the pushy lady at the counter "we'll be back in three weeks." Oh yeah, that's what you think. When three weeks rolls around I am hiding under the bed. Mommy and daddy will never find me.

 

Well, I am recovered now and back to my old self. I still don't quite understand this business about pooping and peeing out in the backyard my mommy thinks is so important.

 

Okay, time for my lunch...even more important than pooping or peeing. Gotta go. I'll write some more next week. Bye

 

Sky

 

 

 

Frederick Fichman

www.frederickfichman.com

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v__mzWDivQ

Sky's Journal

Ya see this beautiful face? Irresistible, without a doubt. This is a picture of our new Miniature Poodle. Her name is Sky and she just joined our family last Thursday. She is a bundle of love, affection and joy. And what has amazed me as I have observed her moods and movement over the last several days is that she is expressive and even at 10-weeks old her personality is forming. You can tell when she is happy and excited, most definitely the first thing in the morning, and when she is tired or just plain exhausted. You can watch her thinking as she processes the world in front of her as she sees it for the first time. What we take for granted, she is seeing it for the first time. I find it fascinating and exciting to study her curiosity and surprise at what she sees, hears, smells touches and tastes.

And when she stops to stare at a flower, or watch a sunset as she did this afternoon, or jerk her head around to locate the source of a dog's bark or the squeal of children, you can almost...almost hear her talking to herself. She tries to discern and categorize all that her senses take into to that small, delicate, infant canine brain of hers. And when she tries to figure out her new life and world and "talks" to herself, I listen.

Yeah right, a talking dog, sure Fred, gimme a break. But consider this, I have just published my "SETI Trilolgy" anthology of three books, over 225,000 words. In those books I have introduced multiple characters and have developed their dialogue and put on the page what I think they are thinking at that moment in the action or quiet of those three science fiction books.

I have decided to do the exact same thing for our new Sky. She is writing her journal, her diary through me. I will shoot the still images and video and will write down her weekly entries. I will post those Sky Journal entries along with my other blog entries.

There is something so special about a new puppy in your home. I think it enriches your life. Your sole concern about yourself is diminished when this helpless creature depends upon you for its very existence. It is a responsibility you can't take lightly. And what do you get back in return? Unconditional love, priceless unconditional love. And that in life can make you whole.

I want to share Sky's voyage of discovery here on our beautiful blue-green planet. I want to share her challenges of just trying to get through life. And I want to share with you her love and devotion. It will be my gift to you.

SKY’s Journal

Hi World! My name is Sky. I am a Miniature Poodle. I was born on February 7 in the year, 2014. I was born in Flagstaff, Arizona at the base of the San Francisco Mountains (no relation I think to the City of San Francisco in California I've heard about) but I now live in a small city just south of Flagstaff called Prescott Valley. It is a beautiful city with mountains, hills, lots of grass and open places so I can take care of my personal hygiene needs.

My new mommy and daddy are Vicki and Fred. They love me and I love them. As a matter of fact, it was love at first sight for all three of us.

I have decided to tell you my life story as I grow into a big girl and as I experience life and have new adventures. Ya see, at ten weeks old, EVERYTHING is new to me and I want to tell you how I see it all. My daddy will take pictures of me, and probably will want to stick his handsome face (he told me to say that) into a couple of shots, and maybe even drop in a video or two. What's a video?

All I can say is that it’s gonna be fun and exciting. You are going to see some great places around where I live and I can hardly wait to show you.

So, here it is my diary. Here is my Journal of Sky, first two entries.

ENTRY-April 17, 2014

 

Hello World!! My name is Sky Fichman. I am a 10-week old little girl originally from a place called Flagstaff. I now live in my new home in Prescott Valley with my new mommy and daddy. Their names are Vicki and Fred. Vicki is very pretty and Fred is very handsome, he told me to say that. I like them. They brought me to my new home and I like it a lot. There is great big place I saw when I just got here. It is called a backyard. It is perfect for peeing and pooping. I did both a couple of minutes ago. I am very proud of my accomplishment. One day I am going to grow up to be a big girl.

I hope my daddy takes lots of pictures of me so you can see me grow up to be big and strong. I am a miniature poodle, that’s what they tell me, although I think I am a dog but will turn into a person one day. Anyway, nice to meet you…I hope you like me. I love you, that’s what I do, unconditional love. Bye from my new warm and cozy home in Arizona.

SKY

 

ENTRY-April 20, 2014

 

Daddy...put down the camera and tell me what this big yellow thing is. Can I eat it? Sure does smell good.
 

SKY

 

 

 

 

HOT NEWS From...me, author Frederick Fichman

HOT NEWS


PRICE CHANGES FOR TWO BOOK SERIES:

SETI
Book number 1, "SETI" was $4.99 now $.99
Book number 2, "SETI, The Journey" was $4.99 now $2.99
Book number 3, "SETI, Conception" was $4.99 now $2.99
Anthology of all three books, "The SETI Trilogy" was $9.99 now $5.99

All of these books can be found under my name is the search box, Frederick Fichman at Kindle, Nook, KOBO and the Apple iBookstore

VISIT THE ZOO
All books in the 12-book series were $2.99 each now $.99 each

These books can be found under my name in the search box, Frederick Fichman at Kindle and Nook

Of course, the big question is why? Answer, I want to make these books as inexpensive as possible to make them accessible to as many people as possible.

Thank you, bye for now.

Fred F

Kickstarter Project Video for upcoming Lewis & Clark Novel-"The Feather"

The SETI Story-Idea to 3-Book Anthology

 

Evolution of a Story

From Idea-Screenplay-Manuscript-Book

By

Frederick Fichman

 

I’m going to tell you a story about Evolution. Not about single-cell aquatic creatures evolving into human beings. No, this is a tale about how a single story idea evolved and flourished. It grew into a screenplay optioned by a major Hollywood studio to a  print book published by two major international publishing companies to eBooks published and now available on Kindle, Nook, and the Apple iBookstore. In fact, that single story idea turned into an anthology of all three books published as the anthology volume, “The SETI Trilogy.”

Before Carl Sagan and after Albert Einstein there was a generation of physicists who changed life on earth as we know it. Phillip Morrison was one of those physicists. He was one of the creators of the atomic bomb, working directly under J. Robert Oppenheimer. In the back seat of a Dodge sedan, July 1945, he was in the New Mexico desert carrying the nuclear core of the Trinity test device to the test site of the world’s first nuclear detonation. He was a leader in the Project Alberta pit crew in the South Pacific on Tinian Island as that crew loaded the atomic bombs destined for history, targeted at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war he became a voice for nuclear nonproliferation, he published papers that established gamma ray astronomy, and he won numerous accolades and recognition throughout his career.

He eventually became a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. With physicist Giuseppe Cocconi he published an article in the serious academic British science journal, “Nature”, titled, “Searching for Interstellar Communications.” It was the birth of SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

From this work a worldwide search for alien radio signals in the electromagnetic spectrum is currently underway. And from his work astronomers with the help of radio and optical telescopes on the ground and in space have to-date discovered well over a thousand candidate extraterrestrial planets.

As a beginning screenplay writer, working in the corporate world at ABC-TV studios in Hollywood, I read about his work in the mid-1980’s and came to the immediate conclusion that somehow this electrifying search could be turned into a fascinating dramatic fictional story for film.

I developed a storyline, a set of characters, learned how to format and write a screenplay…and I wrote the screenplay, “SETI.” Because of my knowledge of how Hollywood worked I was able to get my screenplay in front of Producer Shel Schrager who was flush with his success from the then recently released “The Karate Kid.” I got an option for feature film development from Columbia Studios and I did several re-writes per his notes and suggestions. Then suddenly, Columbia Pictures gets sold, studio head David Putnam leaves and with him his slate of films, including “SETI.”

Disappointed, I still believed that the story and subject were solid. I was determined to turn the screenplay into a novel. Working days, writing nights for six months that is exactly what I did. The result, my manuscript, “SETI,” was published by the ROC imprint of Penguin USA in the U.S. and Canada. It was then picked up by Headline Press in London for the U.K. and Australia.

On my initial trip to New York to meet my editor at ROC we discussed my work on the manuscript for book number two in the SETI trilogy. I will never forget one minor piece of info the editor was giving me while we were in the middle of an intersection crossing some incredibly busy street in New York. He told me at that moment in the publication cycle the initial first print of “SETI” was selling better than Stephen King’s first printing of his book, “Carrie.” I stopped cold in that busy intersection stunned at the astonishing news my first book was selling better than Stephen King’s first book. I had to be dragged by the editor to the sidewalk to avoid being run over. I thought this was it, I was on my way.

Flash forward, ROC culls its list of books and authors and I am on that list.

I can’t tell you how exciting and exhilarating it is to see your book on the bookshelf in a Covent Garden mammoth bookstore in London. Stacked neatly, ten copies across. Your book. Your title. Your name. And to have it suddenly come to an end for some inexplicable reason is the antipode, the exact opposite of that feeling.

Book number two, “SETI, The Journey, had been copy-edited and was ready for press at Roc, Penguin USA. But now, the party was over.

I retreated and never gave up on my story and my dream to finish my SETI trilogy.

Flash forward again to the eBook revolution and thank the heavens above for Amazon and Jeff Bezos. Kindle starts up and the eBook publishing world explodes. I seized the opportunity and digitally published book number one, “SETI,” book number two, “SETI, The Journey,” and book number three, “SETI, Conception” and finally and recently an anthology of all three books into one volume, “The SETI Trilogy.”

A single idea, a single article from physicist Phillip Morrison set me on a long journey to fulfill my dreams to become a published author, with many more books as well. It also has made me remember and silently thank a boss I once had at ABC-TV who heard of my fledgling writing career. He gave me a great piece of advice I recall again and again to this day. He told me never hold onto a dream so tightly that no one else can see it, share it and experience it. Be bold and show it to the world.

I thought about those words of wisdom over the years. Without them, my creation of “The SETI Trilogy” would have never happened.

--Frederick Fichman is author of 25 books and can be found on Amazon Kindle, BarnesandNoble Nook, KOBO and the Apple iBookstore. www.frederickfichman.com.