Blog – Page 19 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

November 27, 2011

The World House (review)

I picked up Restoration because it looked like interesting scifi, and had a cool cover with an English steam engine on it. It was only when I got home that I realized I got played in the airport bookstore way, that this was the second part to The World House. I only figured this out once I started reading and had no idea who all these characters were, and what they were talking about. It’s sure not clear on the cover. Anyway, read something else and started The World House once it came. Read the set back to back. It’s […]

November 29, 2011

Summer’s end

I’m sitting at the traffic light in the evening gloom, perched in the mix of cool night air and warm exhaust, bathed in the glare of the impatiently waiting cars. Its going December in Florida and the chill is hinted. My vest sleeves are attached. A half bottle of tap water suffices where once a fully chilled container was needed. It’s nice in a hard cyclical way. You see less and less of the summer flamingos, the Sunday riders who brag about their millage – all those pointless circuits (the Hobbit’s “There and back again”). Lean your spindly, impractical bikes […]

December 4, 2011

Spelunky Junky

Okay, I admit, I’ve got a monkey (or, rather, a Spelunky) on my back. I just read Hull Zero Three, where a crewmember of a massive disabled colony ship finds out he’s been “spawned” thousands of times to attempt to right things. When he finds a pile of his own shattered bodies, it hits home. He’s died and died and died. I’ve been playing Spelunky, a wonderful platform game (which randomizes, and which you can get free HERE). It’s just great. Your little man jumps, falls, bomb-tosses and dashes his way down through dangerous subterranean levels, attempting to get to […]

December 5, 2011

OpsLog – San Diego & Eastern Az – 12/05/2011

Usually it doesn’t go this well. Doc had brought his secondary layout back into service, his tightly-spooled San Diego and Eastern Arizona. We’d run it a while ago, but not recently. And since it’s been slightly shortened and simplified, all to the better. So the boys milled in the train room while I set up the dispatching computer. A little fumbling with the clock, a scattering of radio checks, and we went hot. Timetables usually go out the window once the session starts. Sure, the railroad management might think a certain siding might be an ideal place for two trains […]

December 6, 2011

The shoe fits… perfectly!

I’ve always been insulted by modern ads which show white, middle-aged men as man-children, always seeking base pleasures, slow to react, stupid to the point of retardation. As advertisements cannot go after women, minorities, or anything else, they focus on guys. Men will grunt with pleasure before a beer, a chicken-wing, a big-screen TV. Nobody can be that stupid. Now I’m not so sure. Since I haven’t been able to ride recently, I went out on my old ten-mile loop tonight, up and around to Rollins, then down Cady way to the house. It’s a nice ride. How much stupidity […]

December 8, 2011

Movie Guide

A friend asked if I would recommend my favorite movies of all time. In that, I went through my collection, looking for dear old favorites. Many made the top set of favorites. Some just fell short – I’ll include them too, further below. The best…. Amelie – Simply put, the cutest movie ever made. Adorable. Blade Runner – We’re talking director’s cut here. Mortality and morality, all in a grim futuristic setting. The Blues Brothers – A car-crashing music video. I don’t even like R&B, but I do when I watch this. Still hate Illinois Nazis. The Blue Max – […]

December 14, 2011

Early ReTyrement – Kindlized!

It’s been a rush of a weekend. I’ve got a train show, an out-of-town trip and publication all going on at once. Anyway, got the Kindle version of Early ReTyrement finally up on Amazon (you can order it right HERE – go pick up a copy, we’ll wait). Funny thing was: I don’t own a Kindle and wanted to test the version before shipping so I sent the file to my buddy Jesse to have a look. Told him to call me as late as it would take – I needed to know if it was fit for release. Anyway, […]

December 16, 2011

DBS – the writer’s resource

As you long-time followers know, I suffered a bad experience with a contractor through eLance. I spent six weeks fighting, weeping, struggling, and hair-tearing to get my book out on both the Kindle and hardcopy (via Createspace). In the end, I had a bunch of rubbish files that had been rejected by the various quality control scanners. I ended up doing Kindle myself, which wasn’t that hard once I sat down with it. I could generate the files and then use an emulator to read it. I finished that up in about a week, which was 3 weeks quicker than […]

December 26, 2011

Worst… Book release… Ever!

Well, I mucked that up, Readers. First I burned away six weeks I did not have working with a clueless book assembler (I’ve more than covered my tearing frustrations in this blog). And even after I’d gotten hooked up with DBS (what pros – they even did a cleanup pass gratis for me), suddenly Christmas was looming just around the corner, kinda like Cloverfield. And then, of course, there was that long-planned trip to England with my siblings which fell RIGHT across release week. And even though I got the final proof the night before we flew out, the Amazon […]

December 26, 2011

London – Day Zero – Reservations

They say writing is therapeutic – I certainly hope so. It’s either that or pop a Valium. I’m writing this entry in the moment (but in the interests of home security, it will not post up until we’re back). But shades of the Italy trip (flashback HERE). This time, it’s London for Christmas (well, in the interests of kiddy soccer, we’re flying back Christmas day). We’ll be meeting my sister and brother (with his wife and kids) for our London adventure. And already I’m having doubts. As with Italy, everything rolled up at once. My boss of twelve years is […]