Available Now

My epubbed anthology is now available at Smashwords (Click Here). I promised that you would love the price, and I hope you will; it's free. I figure that I was already paid once for each of these stories (three times for one of them), and it didn't cost anything but time to put this together (and the cover image), so I thought I would pass the savings on to you. (If you really, really want to pay something, put an extra fiver on the plate on Sunday, or stuff it in one of those boxes that charities leave at the counter of stores, say thanks for the book and pretend it was to me. )

I mentioned in previous posts about the changes in the publishing industry, self-publishing, electronic publishing, etc, so I wanted I to see how it worked. Outside the Wire is my contribution to the movement.

Smashwords (my profile) seems to be a great venue for those that want to publish, but as I have said, there are many many works of varying quality.

Another online community that I have found which is a good outlet for authors is Goodreads (my profile). It's also a great place for people that are interested in books, especially genre fiction, and connect with others with similar interests.

So my next step is to figure out how to get it on Amazon...

Barcelona

January 24th is an epic day in my household. (And by Epic, I mean that I had better treat it epically or there may repercussions.)

My anniversary!

Okay it's also my wife's anniversary too.

This past 24th marked 25 years of blissful matrimony. I say 'mostly' tongue in cheekily as we've been through a lot together and there have been with us, as with everyone else that marks this silver milestone, many ups and a few downs; we have walked side by side raising four wonderful children, having twelve or so changes of residences over five states (and 2 countries), six churches, college, graduate school, postdoc, Houston (need I say more), attack helicopter flying. deployment to the war in Iraq, nursing school, family (hers and mine), farm chores, all of this with the day-to-day effort of growing together and not apart.

Friends and aquantances often ask how me have managed to 'Make It' to having a good marriage. I try not to laugh when they ask. You see, I don't think we've 'made it' because it isn't over, right? It's like asking a fit person how they 'made it' . They haven't made it to 'being fit' they 'are fit', and the minute they stop working on it is the minute they will begin to atrophy and soon will no longer be fit. Fitness is a state of being, not a goal with a beginning middle and end. Our marriage is like that. We didn't make it to having a good marriage, we are having a good marriage. It is something we continually work on, together, and the minute we stop working on it, it will begin to atrophy and soon will no longer be good.

So how do I commemorate twenty-five years of working together? Well, this year it was Barcelona! (being in Tbilisi and my wife in the US, it was the nicest midway point I could find). It is a lovely place. I highly recommend it. When we got there the weather was lovely, the scenery is lovely, the food great, great museums, arts. I would go back in a heartbeat, and long before Paris..just sayin'.

We started the actual day watching the sunrise over the Mediterranean. Then a starbucks (I really miss starbucks in Georgia) and then went to the Sagrada Familia. A lovely cathedral dedicated to the Holy Family, designed by the architect Goudi. Really awe-inspiring, and I thought an appropriate place for an anniversary. We found a bar with a real American IPA (also very missed in Tbilisi) and ended the day with a fabulous paella.

So, to my wife Kelly, thank you for twenty-five Wonderful years!

(That's her in the scale model of the cathedral arches- isn't she cute?)

Coming in 2012

Outside the Wire; seven andrenaline-filled, spine-chilling tales from the Author of 'Succumbing to Gravity' and 'The Gift of the Bouda'.

Coming in 2012.

This is an anthology of six previously published short stories, including:
Succumbing to Gravity
The Gift of the Bouda
The Long Road to Sanctum
BEKs
Dougie's Hand
The Sacrifices of Automated Tabulation

and one previously unpublished short story;
The Virtual Huntress

The tales feature fallen angels, demons, lycanthropes and those with perception challenges set in the steampunked past, the postapocolyptic future, and the hardboiled present. Genre-wise; horror, urban fantasy, steampunk and near future science fiction. You'll love it. And you'll love the price.

Doorways

It's natural to reflect as you hit a milestone. We do this collectively at the turn of the calender from one year to the next. Being overseas I've been missed most of the US end-of-the-year retrospectives; only CNN's unbiased voice to let me know what happened last year. And some of the slightly left of CNN English-language Euro channels (I get more channels, but they in Georgian or Russian and it's a great exercise to learn the language, but I have no idea what they're talking about, generally). I ussually prefer to look to what's on the other side door, rather than spend too much time reflecting what has past, and 2011 was a heck of a year.

So 2012? Well, the end of the Mayan calender is in 2012, food for some good end of the world speculation. Sorry if I sound like an apocalyptic buzz kill but I think for the Mayans it already happened; the Mayan civilization (as such) was pretty much done in the 1200's, so I'm not planning on digging a fall-out shelter. Just sayin'

I'll be redeploying stateside in 2012. Will very much miss the friends I have made here in Georgia, but looking forward to getting back to the family and farm in Virginia. From a writing perspective I'll be self-publishing an ebook anthology this year. I also plan to finish up my Mil SciFi epic and begin to shop it around.

The picture should be obvious metaphorically right? And you know, Georgians have some really cool doors.