Authors Electric

  After a period of stressful ‘getting the novel completed’ and ‘getting the novel edited’, it’s a wonderful feeling when the typescript is finally on its way towards publication. For me, as an ‘Indie Author’ this means having the text (interior) and cover, etc., all processed and sent over from my book and cover designer — and awaiting the final push — that of sending it off to Ingram Spark to transform it into a saleable book — and also to Amazon for Kindle. A great period for rejoicing! Though after the initial rejoicing — of completing the text, editing, etc. and after receiving the completed files, there is now a kind of hiatus before that final push, that Ingram form-filling. So, then I realized that today there’s another task which takes over — my AU contribution for September. And, surprising how these things turn up, it’s our wedding anniversary — 15th September 1973 — which makes it our fiftieth or Golden Wedding. Hum. So many couples may’ve planned, or had planned for th...

Yeah, it's that time again. Another holiday season is upon us. Here in America, the season is ushered in on Thanksgiving. The day families all over the country come together to break bread, share turkey, and alienate each other as soon as Uncle Frank (damn you, Frank!) shows up with his MAGA hat and "Lock her Up T-shirt" and berates Cousin Mike (Jesus, Mike!) in his hemp-woven parka and Bernie 2020 button for being a godless socialist all in the name of celebrating a bunch of ill-prepared Europeans almost dying of pneumonia and dysentery before a bunch of Natives took them in, showed them how to farm, and promptly died of the common cold caught from a snot-nosed baby Puritan. That's one solution. It's also that time when we show our thankfulness and goodwill toward mankind by engaging in the Black Friday Hunger Games: Shoppers run the gauntlet of shopping mall crowds and limited-supply, one-day-only-sales while dodging crying children and the fists, feet...