General Blog
June 11, 2012
I‘ve been thinking about this for a while. The Book and Writing blogs are what this site is about – it’s what I think a lot of the writers I’ve met and corresponded with are most interested in. Well, before I formalized the postings about writing, it used to show up in the general blog. Once I formalized it, I marked it “Dog Ear” and moved it in with the book reviews. There are people interested in reading. There are people interested in writing. But not all readers are writers and vice-versa. After some consideration, I’ve decided to break the […]
June 9, 2012
There was an old solitaire board game, years ago, called Time Tripper. It was a hoot to play – a grunt in Vietnam (contemporary when the game came out in 1980) falls back in time and finds himself fighting Romans and dinosaurs and all sorts of things. I mentioned the creativity behind it HERE. Anyway, the game is up and you can play the current cobbled version (its still being worked – not complete, but free, all the same). You can track down the free versions on our Facebook page devoted to the project by clicking HERE. The game and […]
May 26, 2012
Slow day at the sci-fi convention. 10am to 6pm, sold three books. Other sellers are making about the same rate of sales. Good point – well, besides those few sales, watching a guy manning a booth across from me read Early ReTyrement all day. Every now and then he’d laugh out loud, or call over to tell me what Mason was up to. This helped to get through the thanklessness of convention doldrums. Had a fan I didn’t even know stop by and tell me how much he liked it. Worth more than money. Also, got some leads on some […]
May 22, 2012
I’ll be at OASIS 25, the Orlando scifi convention at the Sheraton Orlando Downtown this weekend (May 25-27). Come by and get a book signed. If you don’t have a book, come by and buy a book and get it signed. If you have a signed copy, just come by and say hi! Looking forward to seeing all the crazy geeks all dressed up. Should be wacky and fun and interesting. Book review fans – the book will be in a little late sunday evening (but I’ll still get it to you). Got an interesting little indie one to look […]
May 20, 2012
Saturday was the day of my speech at the local downtown library. I’ll admit that I’m a horrible speaker. That I hadn’t done a public speech since college and was not looking forward to this. But I took my speech and focused on it like it was a hard-punching chapter of a book, adding wit and twists and all that. And at a friend’s recomendation, I worked on a delievery more atuned to role-playing reffing (as I once did). And I practiced it, tuning it tight. I even stood on the back porch while the rain came down, giving it […]
May 5, 2012
Here we go again. Wednesday at the club, I noticed that the car seemed sluggish to start. Today, when we wanted to go to lunch, it seemed inert. Dead battery. So we jumped it (what a circus that was – I had to push the car, the wife steered, and she put it into the hedge). Anyway, got it running, went out to lunch at a nearby Wendy’s. Came out and found it dead again. So home we walked, 100 degrees but lots of shade, so not bad. Brought the wife’s car out with the jumpers and started it again. […]
May 3, 2012
Okay, as promised, here is my picture of me as a carney barker. Did three hours in the hot sun, heckling some 200 people through our concrete carnival. So that’s a new career path for me…
April 29, 2012
Looks like I’ll be downtown at the local library, giving a speech on the 19th? With my usual timing, my employers are offering Dale-Carnegie courses for free at work, but they will be moving too slowly for me to have them under by belt by the time I hit the podium. But I’ve got an idea of what I’m going to say, so I’ll just work at polishing it up this week and getting it all ready for live-time. And any of you locals, if you have the time and want to watch your pal in action, come down and […]
April 27, 2012
Had to go to my colonoscopy today. I’d mentioned my concerns/dreads/exasperations HERE. No, it’s not done for fun. We’d picked up the big gallon jug of laxitive mixer over the weekend. I decided to add in the lemon-lime flavor pack – yeah, it’s a flavor, all right. Tuesday I added water and mixed it all up. And Thursday, I had to drink it. Knowing I would be short-term-renting food for the day, I only had a muffin for breakfast. Then, starting at 1pm and continuing every 30 minutes, I had to drink a full glass of the stuff until it […]
April 24, 2012
Well, I’ve got to do what old guys occasionally do. Buy a sportscar? No. Get a mistress? No. I’ve got to get a colonoscopy. Had one a few years back and they found enough polyps (good luck with that word, Mr. Spellchecker) that I had to go back. Gads. And there is no backing out of this (pun intended) – my sister is a Colonoscop-doc, and has been keeping her gloved finger firmly on the pulse of my calendar. So in I go this Friday (or in it goes this Friday). For those who’ve never had one, it’s not so […]