Dispatches from the Flying M

Dark Vengeance Tour Continues

After two somewhat relaxing weekends at home, I'm hitting the road again, trying my best to make sure everybody everywhere owns a copy or two of Dark Vengeance.

Here's where I'll be next:

Mysterious Galaxy SCIBA Meet-and-Greet

Oct 21, Redondo Beach, CA

 

Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Authors Feast

 Oct 22, Long Beach, CA

 

World Fantasy Convention Authors Meet and Greet

Oct 26, San Diego, CA

 

World Fantasy Convention

Oct 27-30, San Diego, CA

 

Tucson Comic Con

Nov 5-6, Tucson, AZ

 

TusCon

Nov 11-13, Tucson, AZ

 

Arizona Library Association Annual Convention

Nov 29, Tucson, AZ

Visiting Horses

My favorite kind of horses to have are horses that belong to someone else, but visit periodically. That way I'm free of vet bills, feed bills, and all the other bills that seem to accumulate with horse ownership. Of course, we can't saddle visitors up and go for a ride, or form the kind of lasting relationship that people and horses can have.

But there's one group of horses that does come around from time to time, and a couple of the horses are friendly. The friendliest one--who is also kind of a wack job--is one we call Little Crazy. She and her buddies were around most of the day yesterday, hanging out in our east pasture. We leave one gate to that pasture open, so it can be grazed down--otherwise, it would be vastly overgrown after each monsoon season. Cows come more often than horses, and they're not as sociable or entertaining. When the horses spend the day, we offer them water (in a wading pool, since we don't have a good-sized trough out there) and mostly leave them alone. But Little Crazy likes to be sociable. Here are a couple of pictures of them--there are many more at my personal Facebook page, so drop in if you haven't already added me.

 

Little Crazy

 

Friday Kitten Blogging

Tonks's kittens, born Sept. 25, are wide-eyed and moving around now, though they still spend most of their time curled up together and sleeping. Not for long, I'm sure...

 

McCain & Kyl: Standing up for Millionaires

Not surprisingly--but disappointingly just the same--Senators McCain and Kyl (and all the other Republicans in the Senate) took the side of .1% of Americans today, and against the other 99.9 %--specifically the 80% or so (including many millionaires) who believe that a small surtax on incomes OVER a million dollars should be levied in order to pay for job creation programs that will help the entire economy regain its footing.

So 80% of Americans believe in this, a majority of Senators believe in it, but a minority of Senators managed to block it--not from becoming law, but from even coming up for discussion, amendments, and eventually a vote.

Middle class people, unemployed people, underemployed people, economists, business tycoons, US Chamber of Commerce, Labor--who's with you? And who's not.

It's pretty clear, isn't it?

Here's An Idea...

...if you believed for an instant that President Obama wasn't born in the U.S., or was ever a Muslim, don't let the people who lied to you then influence how you vote in 2012. You might not have known better, but the people spreading those stories certainly did. The future of our country is too important to put into the hands of people like that.

Dark Vengeance: The True Story

The heretofore top secret, all-true, behind-the-scenes tale of Dark Vengeance is revealed at last--but only on the Dark Vengeance Facebook page!

Dark Vengeance on Facebook

Dark Vengeance now has its own Facebook page! There are exclusive free preview chapters, and much more content coming, to help fill the gap between Volumes 1 (Oct. 2011) and 2 (May 2012). Go check it out and "Like" it to see all the good stuff.

Steve Jobs

Since I retired my Kaypro II, every computer I have owned has been a Mac, including the MacBook Pro I'm writing this on.

But you don't have to be a user of Apple products to have been affected by the life and the creative genius of Steve Jobs. If you use a personal computer, or Microsoft Windows, or an Mp3 player, or a smartphone, or a tablet device, you're benefiting from a product that would not have existed--or would certainly be very, very different, but for him. He created the personal computer market. With Pixar he reinvigorated the animation business. With iTunes he helped save the music industry.

There are not many individuals who, through their sheer creative vision and their entrepreneurial skill, have changed the world forever.

Bell.

Edison.

Ford.

Lennon & McCartney.

Gates.

A handful of others.

To this list, one must add Steve Jobs. The world post-Jobs will never be the same as the world pre-Jobs.

Without him in it, the future is just a little dimmer.

Reminder--Win a Loaded Kindle (and The Slab)

As I posted a while ago, there's a contest going at author Red Tash's blog, through which you can win a Kindle already loaded up with tons of horror/sf/fantasy books, including my horror epic The Slab. Click through to the blog for details!

Dark Vengeance Vol. 1 on Sale Today!

Today's the day (at least in the US) that Dark Vengeance, Vol. 1 goes on sale. Look for it wherever the best books are sold!