When a new book is nearing completion, and a release date is near, the contemporary self-published author likes to razzle up their brand by putting their product in a video trailer. It usually contains music, applicable graphics, text, and perhaps a voice-over to entice audiences. This ISN’T one of those times.
Tricked you.
This post is all about a new BOAT trailer. Although I’d love to show you a doozy video of my latest offering, I don’t have one. (You’ll just have to download a free copy from Smashwords instead.) It’s not all about writing dark fiction and social media ads this way, anyway. Sometimes, I like to put the words away and just go fishing.
I took possession of a new boat trailer this week, one to replace my old one. It was better to buy a brand new one than refurbish the old one.
There’s also political motivation behind getting a new one. It has to do with the family from whom we purchased the boat.
It is our family.
Our boat’s registration notification arrives each year in the mail. The boat was properly transferred to us, but the trailer wasn’t. You see, we’ve been towing an unregistered vehicle around for years.
“Did you ask your son Dave (not his real name) about it when you saw him last?”
‘Yes and no. I started to, but Jane (not her real name either) was in one of her moods again.”
Jane is Dave’s schizoid wife. She’s sensitive to everything he does or doesn’t do and says. Anyway, her family once owned the boat and trailer, and they bought them when they were newlyweds. When they sold them to us, they said they’d look into preparing the transfer documents. As I said, the boat was sorted, but the trailer remained in limbo.
Margo wanted to ask her son about the trailer, but her fear of upsetting you know who was greater than anything else. Besides, she’s sounding like a broken record now.
“Can we do a transfer without the previous owner’s signature?” I asked the registration department.
“No,” they replied.
Well, that was that. We were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Since we had no control of the paperwork, we didn’t have proof we actually owned the trailer. And we need it to take our boat to the water and back again.
Take a look at the old beast. It’s seen better days. Most people would say that it’s time to update it anyway.
Well, we did.
I say, to hell with the family’s politics and navigating someone’s fragile ego. Let’s start over. Dump the old trailer for a shiny new one and be done with the nonsense. Let’s go fishing and forget her!
Anywhere we want to!
–Michael Forman (Author of some seriously dark fiction)
Discover more from Michael Forman – Author of Dark Fiction & Drama
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