Giving Blood

Home in the Rookery, Just for Laughs

I had a Dr.’s apointment today which included some blood work, and was reminded of the first time our son had blood drawn. I knew ahead of time that they would take a sample, and knew that if he could cooperate it would all go much better, so I prepped him.  I talked about why it

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Hand-picking Comments

Blogging

Anyone who’s a regular (anyone? anyone?) I’m sure has noticed all the obnoxious spammy comments that have been making it through my filter.  The eventual goal will be to provide some extra checks to automatically filter at a higher level, but in the meantime I’ve changed my options so every comment will need my approval

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7-year Old Arrested Over Dirt Bike

Rumblings

This story just blows me away.  I generally try to stay clear of ‘current events’, esp. of a potentially political nature, but the idiocy of this is just too incredible. If the kid’s dirt bike was illegal, why didn’t they take it up with the owner/his parents?  A seven-year old didn’t procure a dirt bike

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Writing and Marketing Commercial Fiction

Writing

I make no pretense about it–I want my writing to sell.  I am not ‘just writing for myself’, nor do I have pretensions of undying prose passed down through the ages. I do write from my heart, mind and soul.  I of course hope that what I write will have lasting impact and value, but

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Underwater Resort

Speculative Science

I found this link to a watery resort 1200 square feet under the sea while avoiding my math this morning.  If they pull this off, bubble structures out in space sound just a little closer–which of course sets my writerly brain parts to humming. Managed/Owned by Bruce Jones, each room is expected to go at roughly $15,000-per-person, per-week. 

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Civilizing the Pyro in Me

Home in the Rookery

I’ve always loved fire.  When I was a child, clambering over the Rocky Mountains, we understood that fire was dangerous, and our parents drilled us in fire safety.  But we also understood that, should we get lost, fire was our best friend.  We had contests, from a relatively young age, starting ‘one-match’ fires in the shortest

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Submiting Warrior’s Flame

Writing

I sent my dragon story, Warrior’s Flame, off to Realms of Fantasy today.  This is a story I worked on for a long time, and was a quarter-finalist at WOTF.  Since then I’ve trimmed some 3,000+ words. Very difficult, that.  Not only were there many ‘darling’ sentences, but two favorite characters had to go, and numerable funny

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I’m Awake! . . . awake . . .

Home in the Rookery, Rumblings

What is the point of daylight savings again?  And since when is daylight something we can ‘save’ up?  Here’s a link to a Slate report on what’s behind the clock changes.  Daylight savings is supposed to get us up with the sun so we’ll use less energy, but there doesn’t seem to be much evidence to

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Tips for a Great Book Signing

Writing

Now that I’m a bestselling author, with 16 book tours behind me, I thought I’d pass out a few words of wisdom. Err, yeah. But I did find a great outline of how to have a successful book signing for those of you who do have this on your mind, and hey, no harm in

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Top Ten Reasons to Make it a Pizza

Just for Laughs

10 – It’s the one food I know that kids from 1 to 99 will all eat. 9 – Cheese has calcium.  Calcium is good for you. 8 – If it’s frozen and you’re bored, you can use it as a frisbee. 7 – You can put different toppings on different portions to stop any whining. 6 - If you say the

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