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February 16, 2013

Blog Hopper (DOG EAR)

Welcome to all those who fell down Thomas Lucas’ rabbit hole. I’m Robert Raymond, an Orlando writer, and I’ve had two books of historic fiction published. Fire and Bronze is the romantic story of Princess Elisha’s struggle to found Carthage, a tale full of sailing and sex and swords. And Early Retyrement is a time-travel novel with a twist (mainly that my chrononaut doesn’t know the history of when he’s fallen or any technological tricks to assent to heroic greatness). Both are available in my link at the bottom of this page. I’m also shopping Indigo, a mid-air collision of Jonathan […]
February 16, 2013

Aircraft of World War 1 (Review)

This is not so much a review of a book as much as a review of a sliver of my life. When I was a kid, I had a full-freaking-infatuation with World War One aircraft. I drew them. I hung the models from my ceilings. I bought all the toys. I read the comic book Enemy Ace. I played Dogfight and, later, Richthofen’s War to death. I saw the play Billy Bishop goes to War. And I read every pulp novel I could find about the fliers, the planes, and their war. Sometime in the middle of all that, my […]
February 16, 2013

OpsLog – P&WV – 2/16/2013

It’s interesting to deal with the diffenence in dispatching speeds I find on different layouts. At the club, I’ve found myself writing something like 80-90 train warrents in two hours and change. Today, on Tom Wilson’s Pittsburgh & West Virgina (a beautiful coal and blast furnace route), I slipped out 31 in four hours. Not that it’s a bad thing. At the club, I’m like an air traffic controller, constantly kicking out order after order. With each one, I hold my breath, wondering if I’m going to kill anyone (like this time  ). But sometimes slower is better. I actully had […]
February 14, 2013

Writing Time (DOG EAR)

Sunday was an op session, and then Downton Abbey in the evening. Monday, work and then the train club bi-laws committee way, way over on the other side of town. And then over to the club to work building flats in Jacksonville and fuss with an alarm test way too late. Also, a fan wanted to see a sample of an unpublished book, so I had to prep that up and post it. Tuesday, ordinarily my night off, the parents are in town for diner so it’s work, then way, way over to the other side of town again.  If […]
February 10, 2013

Mirror to the Sky (Review)

This book put me to sleep. I liked it, but it just knocked me out. I don’t know why – the writing was good. The story was good. The idea was new. But I’d read it and my eyes would flutter and then I’d be in zonkland. So aliens come, ostensibly to be our buddies, but mostly to search out a threat they’ve perceived. To show us their good intentions, they display cultural art, paintings they’ve done, ones so important that every fleet that goes out carries exact duplicates of them. But their art is disturbing. When one looks at […]
February 10, 2013

OpsLog – TY&E – 2/10/2013

First runs of any railroad are always fun. There is no expectation of success, no holding to timetable or getting cars to the right places. Hell, since nobody knows what’s happening, you can answer every misroute, every cornfield, every break from railroad tradition and operating practice with a shrug. Hell, I don’t even know what TY&E stands for. But we had some fun, not only running trains but also coming up with major overhaul improvements to the trackplan, crazy enough to make owner JW scream in mortal rage. Actually, outside of some yard recommendations (man, Youngstown is just one effed-up […]
February 8, 2013

Dem’s da Brakes

There is a chic set of apartments off the corner of Lake Ave and 17-92, shoppes on the bottom, clock tower on the top, so cute. I check the time when I make my left onto Lake on my bicycle commutes in the morning. So I’m coming up 17-92 today and I’ve got one car (if a hulking Armada can be deemed a simple “car”) coming up in the far left lane. I could get across in front if it, over to my left turn, but I’m not sure where this person is going – no signals. Of course, as it goes by, its […]
February 7, 2013

By its cover (DOG EAR)

My wife and I share a strange little habit, one carried over from my bachelor days. We like to go to dinner and read. We usually go this at fast food joints, quiet places during off times when we can sit in our corner and read our respective books. Then, over desert frostees or brownies or whatever, we’ll chat about what we’ve read. Last time over at Wendy’s, an old lady got up and said how nice it was to see people reading. She even mentioned how nice it was that I was reading The Three Musketeers. We chatted with […]
February 3, 2013

Thy Kingdom Come (Review)

Thy Kingdom Come is a collection of short stories, no, two collections of short stories, all taking place fifteen minutes into the future. Or, more correctly, a horrible new century that I’m just as happy I don’t live in. One set involves young Martin Sorenson, a boy growing up in the heartland of the USA. His father has just been asked to join the “Reconstruction” party, a grass-roots right-wing organization that is just getting its start. And in that formulative first story, Dublin’s just had a nuke detonate in it. The second set, named “Armageddon” and interspersed between the “Plainview” […]
January 31, 2013

Death of a book salesman (DOG EAR)

I read today how Barnes and Noble is cutting back and closing 450 to 500 stores in the coming years. Whereas the death of this Goliath should fill me with smug satisfaction (given how many mom-n-bob nooky bookstores it killed), it doesn’t. Actually, it fills me with a cold dread. A chilling wave of digitalization, of buying whatever whenever, is washing over us. So what’s the difference between being served by a teenage Goth punk in a used bookstore as opposed to the same studded wonder doing it in a chain store? One is a sign of hip and trendy urban […]