Many years (okay, decades) ago, marriages and weddings used to scare me too. Scare and intimidate, and I was loud and vociferous about my objections to them to hide those fears. Every wedding I went to during my days as a young man, I would torment the groom as much as possible with stories of their impending slavery. My tag-line (which I should have made into a t-shirt and sold the rights to Vercie):
“Being married is like having a ring in your nose that your wife can use to pull you around by.”
There were usually some creative curse words embedded in the phrase, but you get the drift.
A nice well written “four spider” review of my latest novel, Software by the Kilo, over at Webb Weaver. A bit of it below:
I heartily enjoyed Software By The Kilo, with it’s well thought out and original storyline. The interaction between the techies and the goons was hysterical and a little creepy. Larry Ketchersid also did something I adore in a book… he wove fiction in with historical facts which gave the story that ‘extra something’ I am always looking for. I am not a software geek and get lost in the technical wording and language, but Larry found a way to get me through Software By The Kilo unscathed and even feeling a little bit smarter than when I began reading.
Smashwords is a very well done eBook site, but (no offense to its creator Mark Coker), the only reason I joined was to support Ed Patterson’s excellent program, Operation eBook Drop. I highly recommend it for all of my fellow authors and hope that my friends and family that are deployed (Vince, Ian, Chris, you guys listening?) will take advantage of the system Mr. Patterson has set up.
Operation eBook Drop is a simple and straightforward process to get electronic books to deployed Armed Services troops through Smashwords. Mr. Patterson has set up a clearing house of sorts, where troops or their families sends him email addresses, and he then forwards those to authors who have told him they would like to participate. These authors have uploaded their works to Smashwords, and used Smashwords coupon capability to create a coupon for the troops to use to download the books for free.
Smashwords is the perfect platform for this, as its “Meatgrinder” is able to convert uploaded books into several different formats, allowing the troops flexibility in how they read the books. Smashwords coupon capability allows the troops to download books that have a price tag associated with them on the Smashwords site for free. Smashwords has also signed some excellent distribution deals recently, making certain ebooks available through Shortcovers, Amazon and B&N.
The only downside I have found with Smashwords is that in order to get converted to the multiple different formats of ebooks the layout possibilities of the book you upload are minimal.
To learn more about Operation eBook Drop (and for info on how troops or authors can participate), read the article on the Smashwords blog, or see their Facebook Fan page.
He is now several inches taller than me, but says he still looks up to me. This certainly won’t be my last bit of advice (I remain hard to shut up), but I will keep this one short and simple: nourish and grow mind, body and spirit (balance, Weedhopper): study hard, work hard, play hard…and c’mon Baggy, get with the beat!
My wife had purchased two magnums of 1993 Silver Oak Alexander Valley several years ago. One we gave to our friend Monte for his birthday, one she gave to me to save for a special occasion. (more…)
I occasionally snicker when reading, often smile. But rarely do I bust out laughing. I did it once reading the drill sergeant scene in John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War.
But I almost got thrown off the plane for laughing so much the first time I read Lamb by Christopher Moore. I read it many years ago, but re-read it again just now since my wife got me a signed gift book edition (that, appropriately, looks like a Bible).
The subtitle tries to give a clue about the storyline: “The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal”. Lamb covers the first 30 years of Christ’s life, which are not covered in the Gospels. And, though there is no doubt this is a comedy, Moore obviously did his research (read the original afterword and the new one for this special edition to get a glimpse of Moore’s writing process), and recreates the atmosphere of the places and times. This book is truly a masterpiece of craftsmanship, with Mr. Moore skillfully weaving in comedy (including sarcasm AND it’s creation), history and a playful reverence of the boy who will be the Messiah…once he figures out how. (more…)
Our son is a senior in high school, his sister has long since graduated college and is, of course, taking the world by storm. As we look forward a different life, to the changes that our empty-nester period will bring (assuming they do not come home to roost, and we have encouraged them not to with threats of skinny dipping and smoking hookah (family inside joke)), we are walking through a lot of “Last Firsts”:
Last first day of school (true, there is college, but mom won’t be snapping pictures as he walks out of his dorm room….we hope);
Last first high school football game of the season (we’re there for the band, we even got to walk out on the field for senior parent day. Sadly, the football team is vastly undersized compared to their opponents);
Last marching band contest; at the area finals, an all day event, where the band finished higher than any in the high school’s history;
Last first homecoming date; obviously, the mom gets more excited than the son about homecoming, and my son adds a measure of excitement by having homecoming be the first date with a new girl each of the last three years…the boy is adventurous, it will serve him well;
Last first senior picnic; they played in the mud, somthing we should all do more of; ‘nuf said.
Last first Tomball High School patriotic show; for 28 years in a row, Tomball HS has put on this halftime patriotic show, featuring the high school+2 middle school bands, choir, flags and theme songs from all armed services (with veterans from the crowd behind them), fireworks and, of course, a large US Flag. This was our last one, (4 with my son, 4 with my daughter).
Last first college visit; to UT Arlington, which we all liked quite a bit, and went to the top of the young man’s college sweepstakes (has the degree he wants (Aerospace Eng) and is in Texas);
Soon, there will be a last high school graduation, and we will hopefully have done our job and duty correctly…makes you realize all the trials and tribs your own parents went through to make sure you were a happy and productive person, vs. a chain-saw wielding looney…which unfortunately would get you on the evening news, but probably would not make you very happy.
I spent of few of my early years living just outside of Cape Kennedy/Cape Canaveral. My mother would sit us on the roof to watch the Apollo launches, while my father travels to the South Atlantic in his work to retrieve and study the fallen stages of the rockets. This was in the late sixties, and the people of the world were amazed at the images of rockets heading into outer space; seeing it in person was profoundly inspiring.
So when my son told me he wanted to be an astronaut early on, I knew it was genetic; when he took the first step and had his first pilots lesson this week, I knew he was on his way.
Granted, it wasn’t an Apollo rocket or even a new generation Ares one, it was a Cessna 172. He’d been in small planes before on trips to some of the crazy places his Dad drug him to (a four seater landing on a barely visible runway in Belize comes to mind). And using that inherited charm he’s talked his way into a few cockpits. But this was his first flight where he was in control (except for takeoff and landing, lucky for all of us; and yes, he did wisecrack “this is your captain speaking” many times. (more…)
That’s the message that she SMS’d me this week, and that she was happy and felt good about herself at that weight. As the father of someone who has suffered through several years of anorexia and bulimia, I was proud…and sad. Proud because though she continues to fight it, she’s getting through it and she’s actually beginning to lead a successful life, by most definitions but most importantly by hers. Sad because I think I should have done more, though I’m not sure what that more would have been. Anorexia and Bulimia are confusing to fight, especially for guys like me that rarely miss a meal.
About seven years ago, I checked her into a hospital weighing 80ish pounds, with Osteoporosis that would have made a grandmother cringe and a multitude of other ailments. She’s been through that hospital stay, a session at a “camp”, several counseling sessions. She now has two Bachelor’s degrees, a great job and a growing self-esteem.
Normally there would be little reason to put this info into the blogosphere, but my daughter and I have found a lot of material and books aimed at those fighting this, and at the mothers, but little for the fathers. So, in the interest of sharing info with other Dad’s like myself, here are some bullets (please feel free to comment): (more…)
