In the ink well

Dog Ear

February 13, 2020

Game (DOG EAR)

ot invited/provoked to do a game on FaceBook recently (you can follow it on my Early Retyrement Book Group. The deal was that every day for ten days, you’d post a cover of a book you loved without comment. Well, I obeyed that – inside the realm of Facebook). But here, I can say what I want about them. So here’s the list in order of appearance, along with my comments. Day 1: War of the Worlds: When I was a kid, this one opened up reading for me. I’d never heard of a story where the hero just tried […]
February 6, 2020

Thanks! (DOG EAR)

enerally the Blogatorium and its various threads are a sort of super-diary, a place where I can comment on media, write about books and recount train stories. Also, it gives me a great place to record my travels. And that’s fine – it’s one of its uses. However, it really is nice to pick up recognition for my efforts from time to time. In this, I’m speaking of the friends, the family, the various members of various clubs, even random people who will mention something I’ve posted that had an impact. Model train guys are always mentioning that they enjoyed […]
January 30, 2020

Noticed (DOG EAR)

don’t get a lot of money from this site. My references to other books get pretty much nothing (every month, Amazon mechanically tells me that, a nice confidence builder). So why do I have 1,472 entries on this site? Well, for one, it is still nice to get my own thoughts and interests out there. Look at the success of Facebook and Twitter. But it runs deeper than that. Yes, I might be a lone voice mewing into the night. Sure. And I can’t tell in WordPress (unlike Joomla) how many hits I’m getting. But I do remember I’d get […]
January 23, 2020

Breaking Eggs (DOG EAR)

ough day yesterday. Lots of work around the house, cleaning out storage, and getting my model train layout to run. And at the train club it was kinda an off night (meaning a lot of people stood around and gassed while the rest of us picked up the slack). So by the time I’d gotten home and blogged the session, I was pretty beat. Fastwind to this morning, when those two lovable kittens, Chinki and Ritz, were screaming for breakfast at 5am (as always). Fed then and found my way back to bed. With two kittens slumbering (so cutely) on […]
January 16, 2020

No time (DOG EAR)

veryone told me this would happen. “After you retire,” they assured me, “you won’t have any time.” For most of the office workers, I discounted this. I mean, what do they know? But I was hearing it from the retirees too. And yes, I know I’m a pretty busy guy. Trains. Astronomy. Writing. Reading. Travelling. Game Design. Watching damn series on Hulu and Netflix. Yeah, I knew I’d be a bit busy. But then it happened. I retired. So now I’m working that those things and finding I haven’t a spare minute. I’m getting ready to get my old layout […]
January 9, 2020

Reading is Believing (DOG EAR)

as on a long bike ride with a buddy. Back at his house after a number of two-wheeled adventures, I mentioned to him about Mortal Engines, a series I’d grown interested in and the megabomb movie that came from it. Not that the movie was bad. It just wasn’t quite there, not for the hundred million dollars they spent on it. So it goes. A franchise that wasn’t. But the thing was, my friend started warning me off the movie before I’d even admitted that, in large part of curiosity, I’d purchased it. And I liked it – it was […]
January 2, 2020

Squeamish (DOG EAR)

omething that’s been bugging me. So in Game of Thrones, the character Tyrion (as I recall) is a bit of a hideous dwarf. His eyes are lopsided, he limps along, he’s kinda grotesque. And later in the books (spoiler) he gets slashed across the face. Now he’s really messed up, with his once knobby nose is now really scrambled. I think it was actually cut open. Yeah, he was a sight to see (which made the book even more interesting since as the reader progressed, they began liking Tyrion more and more). The guy was fighting genes and family to […]
December 18, 2019

Journal Box (DOG EAR)

‘ve written novels which have been represented by agents and published by publishing houses. I’ve self-published. I’ve self-promoted. I’ve given speeches about my subjects in public (shudder!). I’ve flogged in book shows. I’ve even written radio programs. And, of course, I blog (right?). I even proof-read for others. But here’s a new one. Now I’m a magazine editor. The south-east division of the National Model Railroad Association has had (for reasons unclear to me) issues with, well, getting out its issues. Nothing has shipped for a half-year (should be quarterly). This makes the fact that everyone identifies me as a […]
December 12, 2019

Page Break (DOG EAR)

o the other day I was reading Louis L’Amour’s North to the Rails and my station came up (I was riding the train to the nearest station so I could launch the folding bike at the car shop – it is nice to have a bike that will fit in the boot of a Mini Cooper). Anyway, Longwood Station. Time to get off. And I was just to the part where our hero, Chantry, looks up from his camp to find two enemies sitting on their horses, looming over him. They were going to kill him. Koch would never have […]
December 5, 2019

Writer Inspiration (DOG EAR)

his from a book about being an American Indian (watch for the review). Words my writer friends might like…           Thomas Builds-the-Fire walked through the corridors of the tribal school by himself. Nobody wanted to be anywhere near him because of all those stories. Story after story. Thomas closed his eyes and this story came to him: “We are all given one thing by which our lives are measured, one determination. Mine are the stories which can change or not change the world. It doesn’t matter which as long as I continue to tell the stories. […]