Flu shot

I got a free flu shot at work yesterday and I'm glad I did, but today I have to admit I'm not feeling so great. I had a mildly scratchy throat last night when I went to bed. Today I'm feeling rather achy in my joints and my skin has that ultra-sensitive feel to it where any pressure at all flirts in that netherland between annoyance and mild pain.

I have no idea if this is related to the flu shot (I threw out my paper that had the list of side effects on it -- Doh!). I know you can't get the flu from the shot itself because the bacteria is dead, but there are some other mild symptoms you can acquire. I would classify my symptoms as "mild" and am certainly glad I got the shot, but I'm so astoundingly busy the next few days that I hope these effects pass soon and don't get any worse.

I do owe a writing update, and some info on how I prepare my novels (by request), but I won't have time to get to that until after Christmas at the earliest. Sorry! Just keep checking back.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

Christmas Party

My company's Christmas party was this past Saturday, held at the Radisson Penn Harris Hotel in Camp Hill. A light dinner was followed by a few hours of (fake) gambling. We really had a wonderful time. We played blackjack all night, parlaying our $10,000 voucher into about $18,000 before crashing and burning. John, our very friendly and patient dealer, helped us along since we were complete noobs when it came to gambling.

I got another voucher and we were up to about $20,000 and decided to let it ride for the final bet of the night. And don't you know it, the dealer comes up with blackjack! (Curse you, John!)

I guarantee I wouldn't have had nearly as much fun if it had been my own money....

The Devil Wears Prada

I read this book because I enjoyed the movie a great deal and simply wanted to see how different the source material was, since I'd read that major changes had occurred between page and screen.

Now, I'm all for screenwriters making changes when adapting a pre-existing work for film. Things have to be changed. I have little tolerance for people who claim changes to plot or character "ruined" a book or movie. For one thing, a film adaptation doesn't change the book at all, so it can't be ruined. I believe it was John Updike who, when someone complained to him about an adaptation of his work "ruining" it, pulled the novel in question from his shelf and said, "It still looks perfectly fine to me."

The more beloved a book, the more shrill the cries of outrage when changes are made. While I have some minor issues myself with changes to THE LORD OF THE RINGS films where I thought the changes served no purpose (which should always be the defining criteria for such alterations -- are they needed in order to better tell the same story in a different medium?), I thought that overall the films were brilliant in both concept and execution. But the fans! Oh my! You would have thought that Peter Jackson had eaten their mothers and fathers for breakfast with all the gnashing of teeth that occurred online.

But I digress. I was talking about THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA.

This is one of those rare instances where the movie adaptation is actually better than the book. More streamlined, better narrative flow, characters who are more real than the rather caricature-like novel counterparts. I was rather stunned by how much better the movie was.

The book is about a recent college graduate, Andrea, who lands a job at a fictional magazine called RUNWAY working for the world's most powerful fashion editor, Miranda Priestly, who is a hateful, condescending, manipulative tyrant. In the book she is caricature, a creature so over the top that it's sometimes difficult to believe in her.

The movie's major coup is making Miranda just as much a tyrant, while also allowing us to catch glimpses of her as a human being. I was waiting for some of those moments to appear in the novel, but they never did. They were inventions of the screenwriter, Aline Brosh McKenna, and I applaud her decisions.

Perhaps those who read and enjoyed the novel first prefer it to the movie (that's often the case). But I truly do feel in this instance that the adaptation was more than a simple translations from one medium to another -- it transcended its source material, which, as I said earlier, is a rare thing, and one to be commended when it happens.

Some recent books I've read

I'm not going to do formal book reviews here. I simply don't have the time, and there are plenty of other websites and blogs that offer nothing but reviews that are far better than what I could write.

By "formal review," I mean an analysis of themes, plot, character arcs, where the book may lie in comparison to others in the genre, etc. etc. I was done with those kinds of reviews/reports when I got out of college. I enjoy reading them, but I'm no longer interested in writing them. And as I said, I really don't have the time.

I did have a "What I'm Reading" section on my website, but the blog is easier to update so I think I'll just migrate that here.

I've read a ton of books since I last updated my website, but one of the more recent books I read was THE ROAD, by Cormack McCarthy. This is a devastating novel, a tale of an unnamed father and son who live on a dying Earth and are simply trying to survive the aftermath of an unknown cataclysm. The world is cold, ashen, gray; literally a corpse across which the father and son journey on their way to the coast. They have no idea what they will find there, no real hope, but the coast is a destination, a goal, and so they flee cold and death for what they hope is something better.

The son is the moral compass for them both, reassuring his father -- and in turn asking for reassurance from the older man -- that they are the "good guys" in a world where men murder others to eat them because there is no food, no power, no civilization.

This is a grim, haunting book. It stayed with me long after I finished it. Recommended.

More later....

Work on THE COMMANDING STONE

Since this blog was originally started to chart the progress of my novels, I'll get back to that for a bit.

Book three is called THE COMMANDING STONE, and I'm presently a little more than halfway through the first draft. I'm hoping to have it completed early next year, with an anticipated publication date in very early 2009. I will be posting the prologue and perhaps chapter one before the end of this year, assuming I can find time to polish them enough to show them to the world. Right now they're in pretty rough form and I'd rather keep the momentum going with the narrative than go back and revise, but we'll see what my schedule permits.

As a reminder for anyone near Bloomsburg, tomorrow I'm holding a book signing at the Cloak and Dragon bookstore downtown from 1 -3 pm. If you're around, please stop by!

Steelers eek one out over the Browns

It was something of a nail-biter, but the Steelers pulled out a great come-from-behind victory (down 21-6 at halftime) in the second half of their home game against the hated Cleveland Browns. (It wouldn't have been nearly so close if the Steelers kicking unit knew how to, oh, I don't know, tackle the freakin' kick returner! I mean, come on, two touchdowns on kickoff returns!?)

Ben really came through in this game. With a career-long 30-yard touchdown run, and another scramble to gain a first down on third and long, he really showed his mettle as one of the premier quarterbacks in the league.

What matters in the end is the final score. But Tomlin's got some work to do with special teams. You just can't have gaffes like that in the NFL and keep winning.

"Please don't respond"

Those were her last words to me in an email I received a few days ago. "Please don't respond." I had sent an email asking if I had ever made her truly happy -- there were reasons for that question that I don't feel like getting into here. She finally broke down and replied. She told me that yes, I had made her happy, very happy, and that she would regret breaking up with me and miss me for a long time, but that this was something she had to do. The other guy is the one for her, and she has to try to make that work and move on.

"Please don't respond."

So it ends. The woman who had been my best friend, my girlfriend, my confidante. Someone I talked to several times a day, who couldn't wait to see me when we were apart. It all comes down to this.

"Please don't respond."

I think this will be my last post on this sad, sorry subject (and I'm sure a lot of you must be cheering about that!). I've never really felt compelled to write about anything the way I am about this topic. This outlet has certainly helped me in some ways. I just wish I could see where I'm going to go from here, because right now, the road is very dark indeed.

Steelers - Ravens

My team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, routed the hated Ravens in a 38-7 stomping in Pittsburgh last night. Big Ben threw five touchdown passes in the first half alone! Unfortunately, Ben was injured on a seemingly innocuous hit late in the third quarter by Terrell Suggs. Ben looked pretty shaken up at the time, but came back into the game in the fourth quarter, so it appears all is well.

All in all, a very satisfying Monday night game!

Bee Movie

I took my son to see "Bee Movie" last night. It started off rather slow and unfunny, but built nicely toward a fun and rewarding ending. It wasn't the laugh-out-loud movie I expected, but definitely worth a look.

I'm sure the handful of readers I have here are sick to death of me whining about my recent personal issues. I think I would be sick of it too if I were you. But you need to understand that I'm finding it tremendously helpful to write about what's happening. If you'd rather not read anymore about it, you should probably stop here.

On our way to the movie, my son asked me out of the blue, "Is Miss ---- still our friend?"

His question caught me completely off guard. I took a moment to compose myself, then said, "Well, not really anymore."

He asked why not? Why couldn't she just marry this other guy and be friends with us too? I tried to explain that she still liked us, but that it was hard for her to try to be friends with me and be with someone else. I also made it clear that she liked him -- my son -- very much and had told me to tell him she was sorry about what happened.

He said he missed her, then asked me if I missed her too. I told him yes, very much. He said he felt like crying, and wanted to know if I was sad. Again, I told him yes. We were at the movies by now and when I got out of the car I gave him a huge hug.

At lunch time today I'm going to buy some Unisom and see if that helps with my sleep. Last night I was up again at 4:00; the night before it was 1:30. I was hoping I could just "work through" this sleep problem (whatever the hell that really means) without resorting to medication, but apparently not.

First date

I had my first new date tonight in more than a year, and it was a complete disaster. Not in some burn-down-the-house, run-screaming-for-the-hills kind of way, but it was still pretty awful. No chemistry, no interest from either of us, awkward silences, and a desire from both of us to just end it and move on. It barely lasted an hour before we were out the door. (At least the sushi was good.)

I am a complete wreck once again. I don't know how I can handle this. The idea of having to date, of trying to find somewhere out there what I so recently lost, is so disheartening that I just want to give up.

For this first time since the breakup, I hated her. Not for very long -- it was a momentary flash, like a solar flare, that burst into life when I walked back into my dark and empty house -- but for that brief moment I despised her for making me have to go through this. For having to start over; for trying to find her, and what we had, in someone else.

Book signing schedule updates

The book signing at the Cloak and Dragon in Bloomsburg is scheduled for Saturday, November 17, from 1 to 3. Hope to see you there!

The Cloak and Dragon is located at 12 East Main Street, Bloomsburg, PA 17815.

DATE CHANGE FOR THE WYOMISSING BOOK SIGNING! The Wyomissing book signing has been moved to Saturday, December 8, from 1 to 3.

Guest blogging at the HarperCollins site

My editor asked me if I was interested in writing several guest blogs for my publisher's site, timed to the release of my second novel. My answer: Of course!

You can read them by following the links below.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Birthday

Two nights ago (Halloween), I went to a costume dinner party with some friends and had a very nice time. I need to get out more. I'm a fairly solitary person (writing has that unfortunate side effect), and for the last year most of my social life revolved around my ex, so when that imploded there was very little left for me to do except rattle around the house by myself, which was not helping my mental state. The food was excellent, the company even better, and I appreciated the opportunity to get out and do something with others.

Yesterday was my birthday. I will admit, it sucked. Not because of my birthday itself -- I'm 42, and quite honestly not bothered by my age in the least -- but because I did not hear from her at all. Part of me did not expect to. She is not terribly sentimental in some ways, and very hard in others, and I realize that it's better for her to just have a clean break and not look back.

But another part of me really wanted her to find a way to wish me a happy birthday in spite of everything. It's not as if I was ever a jerk to her, or I did something awful to cause this breakup. So I pathetically spent the day waiting for a message of some kind that never came. I will admit to a moment of severe weakness in which I emailed her some of my thoughts. I wasn't nasty or snide or accusatory, but I was hurt.

I never heard back from her.

My team at work got me a cake and card and balloon, which was great, and a good friend of mine took me to lunch and did a pretty good job of cheering me up for a while. But when I got home later that night, the weight of this came crashing down on me again. Part of why this is so hard right now is that she was planning on taking today off so we could be together. She had a wonderful birthday present planned for me (no, I'm not going to say what it was), and the idea that she might still be planning to go through with it and give it to her new/old boyfriend instead is just killing me. I had another awful, sleepless night, and I think today I need to pick up some Unisom or some other over-the-counter meds to help out.

I'm going to a Caribbean dinner party on Saturday (same group that went to the Halloween dinner), and I'm looking forward to again getting out for a while.

Book signing, Halloween party, and other thoughts

The book signing went well yesterday. I want to thank everyone that came out, both personal friends and strangers who were interested readers of the book. I think we sold about twenty-five copies, which is a pretty good number for this kind of event (and a still new and fairly unknown writer).

My son played at a friend's house all day while I was at the signing. That family was having a get together that evening, so I went over and hung out for a while. A number of the adults played a card game called "Screw your neighbor" that was very enjoyable. I'm not a card guy -- I can play gin pretty well, but I have no idea about poker, so this card game, which was very simple and took about three minutes to learn, was perfect for me. I even won the first pot!

Woke up at 4:00 again this morning, after going to bed around midnight. I'm worried that if this doesn't correct itself soon, I'm going to have to find some sort of medication to take. I try to clear my mind when I wake up in the dead of night so I can fall back asleep, but I simply can't. I try focusing on my breathing or counting backward from 100, but nothing works. My mind obsesses over my failed relationship and everything I've lost. What is hardest for me is that, over the course of the past year, she became my best friend. I've always had close relationships with women, and this one was no different. We complimented each other perfectly, and I'm still having trouble coping with this sudden, agonizing loss. To be very honest, this has been far worse than my divorce. My marriage was slowly strangled over seven long years, so that when the end came it was almost a relief. There was pain and heartache, to be sure, but nothing like this.

Sleep and scribbles

I woke up at 4:00 am this morning and could not fall back to sleep. I'm feeling wide awake now (I'm very much a morning person), but if you come out to the book signing and I look a little worn out, you'll understand why.

I've been feverishly scribbling notes over the past two weeks (has it really been that long?). I have seven pages of thoughts and ideas for a novel about this failed relationship. I will write it someday, but I have no idea if it will ever get published. The working title is LIFE LINE. Look for it in a couple of years....

Trick or Treating

Here's a picture of Alex and his two cousins out Trick or Treating. Alex is on the left, in a Jango Fett costume (a bounty hunter in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, for those of you scratching your heads). His cousin Kallie, in the middle, is a witch (obviously), and her younger brother Brennon is Optimus Prime from the Transformers movie.

A little progress

I slept until 5:15 this morning, after going to bed around 10:40. So I'm making some progress, at least.

Last night was Trick or Treat (I still have no idea why my township can't have Halloween actually on Halloween!). My son dressed up as Jango Fett (he is absolutely nuts about Star Wars). We went over to my mom's development so he could Trick or Treat with his cousins. We had a great time. It was chilly but not too cold. A local fire department stops by one of the main intersections each year with their fire truck and hands out free pizza and glow sticks, so that was a nice diversion in the middle of the evening.

My son also has an incredibly generous heart. When we got back to my mom's house, she had just about run out of candy to hand out. My son said, "Grandma, you can have some of mine, I got way too much," and proceeded to give her two big handfuls of candy. He didn't sort through to give her candy he didn't like -- he just took some out and handed it over. Now when I was a kid, I guarded my candy the way the government guards Fort Knox.

He's such a great kid. I'll post a few pictures sometime this weekend.

Lack of sleep

Since the breakup, I haven't been able to sleep past 4:30 am. Most of the time I seem to snap awake around 4:10, and then I simply can't fall back to sleep. It doesn't matter when I go to bed. My usual bedtime is 11:30-ish and I get up around 6:00, which, when things are fine, is plenty of sleep for me.

I was at a conference for work in Connecticut last week, and even on the final night, when a group of us went to dinner and then out for drinks and a dwindling number of hearty souls stayed out until 2:30, I still couldn't sleep past 5:30. And a few hours after that I had the travel day from hell trying to get home.

But four or five hours doesn't cut it. This has been going on for thirteen days, and I'm feeling run down and exhausted. Something needs to change.

Reminder: first Book Signing for THE WORDS OF MAKING is this Saturday!

For those of you in the Harrisburg area, just a reminder that I'll be at the Borders Express store in the Capital City Mall from 1-4 on Saturday. Please come out and save me from the embarrassment of sitting at a table of my books all by myself!

Random Thoughts

I have been corresponding with a lovely woman from Italy who posted kind thoughts on the blog entry about my father's birthday. I read through parts of her blog (you can find it here), and something she wrote a few months ago struck me very hard:

It is pointless to love someone who does not love you in return.

I agree with this statement completely. It is a self-evident principle. In theory, it saves countless heartaches. The truth, however, is that it is almost impossible to practice.

Let me explain. Those we do not know we have no need to love. Those who are close to us, however, can become objects of affection or desire. A friend may, in one's heart, grow to become more than a friend, though we know the friend will never see us in the same way. It is pointless to love that friend, but the heart cannot be swayed by logic, by reason. It does what it will, and cannot be persuaded from its course.

This entry is obviously informed by my recent breakup, in which I find myself in the unenviable position of loving someone who does not love me. My mind tells me to let go, to move on and find happiness elsewhere. But my heart, for now, stubbornly refuses to listen.

David and Alex and the Tent of Doom

As promised, here is the tent we slept in for two days at the Cub Scout camp. You can't really see the mouse holes chewed in the stained and moldy mattresses, or the many daddy longleggers crawling all over the canvas.

Amazingly enough, we both slept fine. I bought a couple of glow sticks to serve as a night light for him, and within a couple of minutes I think both of us were asleep.

Cub Scout Camp

After the rather moribund posts lately, I thought I'd write about a much happier time. My son and I spent two days at a Cub Scout camp back in August. The tent we slept in was utterly disgusting (I'll post a photo of it a little later), but we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

We arrived Friday evening and spent the evening around a campfire with our fellow scouts. Saturday was a day for crafts and fun. We made rope, learned how to make fire (my son begged me to buy him some flint and steel; I obliged, and he walked around making sparks all day), learned archery, shot BB guns, swam for a while, ate dinner, and then enjoyed an enormous campfire with entertainment provided by the camp counselors. Later, we made a smaller fire back at our campsite and cooked smores.

My son was, of course, absolutely exhausted when we got home on Sunday, and slept until almost 2:00 in the afternoon.

The picture is of the two of us (and his Teddy Bear, Little Friend) on our way to the rope and fire making area.

Dad's birthday

My dad, to whom I dedicated my first novel, would have been 80 today. He died more than five years ago and never knew that I'd been offered a contract for my books.

It's amazing how often I think about him. For three or four years after he died, I thought about him every single day. Often it was something my son did that I wished my dad could have been there to see. My son remembers Pop Pop Forbes a little bit, but not in any great detail. I find that sad, but at least there's some memory. My father adored Alex, and I know he was bothered by his poor health and inability to really play with him.

I still think about him often, though perhaps not every day. It's amazing how much I still miss him.

I apologize for the two recent downbeat posts, but that's just how it is at the moment. I'll try to be more cheery next time.

Happy birthday, Dad. I love you and wish you were still around.

The fickleness of the human heart

Those of you who read this know I don't write "confessional" blog entries. I started this thing a few years ago to chronicle the life of a newly-contracted writer and the process a book takes from acceptance to publication. I stated up-front that I'm not much of a diarist and that entries would probably be rather sparse. So far I've kept to my word on all counts, though I've occasionally dropped in interesting or funny stories that happened to me along the way, like the footrace with my brother that ended with me a bloody mess (and losing the race to boot -- grrr).

This is going to be a "confessional" entry, so for those of you who disdain this sort of thing, feel free to take a pass.

I've received a couple of notes asking what happened to the "Bloomsburg Fair" entry that I posted last week. (One person warned me that I might have a virus that was "eating" my posts.) Well, that rather prominently mentioned my girlfriend, who was also somewhat visible in the accompanying photo. We've been dating for almost a year, and always had a great time when we were together. We never had a fight or so much as an argument, so this morning I was caught off guard when she decided to break up with me. I quickly removed photos, emails, and other reminders, both in my house and online.

Now I want to state very clearly that I'm not mad at her, I don't hate her, I don't wish her any ill will. I don't see the point in it. A guy she was involved with before she met me started calling her around her birthday (a few weeks ago), and apparently he talks a pretty good game, because she's decided to go back to him. (Either that, or I was really lacking something that she needed.) I was surprised because she'd told me repeatedly that I didn't have to worry about him. She said she felt like she dodged a bullet by breaking up with him when she did, that she realized he was completely wrong for her, etc.

We also had a damn near perfect year. Every time we were together we were amazed at what a great time we had. It didn't matter if we were going to a wine festival, out to dinner, or just hanging out and watching TV. We always had a good time, and both of us commented on that more than once. We were comfortable and relaxed together, never pressured each other about anything, and just seemed to fit.

(I will say that I've always had a little naggling suspicion that I really wasn't attractive enough for her, but that might just be my own insecurities rearing their ugly heads.)

But this is where the fickleness of the heart comes in.

Sometimes you just can't shake someone even when you want to (and I believe she did want to, at least for a while). I've been there and done the exact same thing, so I have no room to be upset with her. After our third date last November I broke up with her over a woman who turned out to be a complete and total psychopath. Fortunately I came to that realization within a couple of days and we were able to patch things up a little later.

I'm a little sad, but I also realize I may have dodged my own bullet, since this other guy obviously wasn't out of her system. I do believe she was telling the truth when she said she was over him. I'm sure that's what she thought. But a simple phone call can wreck the best laid plans and turn everything on its head. It's a shame, but it happens. Sometimes the memory of the heart is stronger than what it holds in the present.

What's really going to suck is telling my son about it. He really liked her a lot, and I know he's going to be upset.

So that's the long-form answer as to why the Bloomsburg Fair entry is no more. It just seemed kind of stupid to leave that out there in light of recent events.

I'm going to publish this as a bit of catharsis, but I may also yank it down in a couple of days. This may be one of those things that I look back on and realize it's a terrible idea.

On a somewhat brighter note, I received my first royalty check today for THE AMBER WIZARD! Woo hoo!

Robert Jordan has died

Though I'm sure you've heard the news elsewhere by now, Robert Jordan, the pre-eminent fantasy writer of the last 17 years, has died at the age of 58. He wrote the massive, best-selling series THE WHEEL OF TIME, which included 11 books so far, with a twelfth and final volume, THE MEMORY OF LIGHT, uncompleted. It's not clear what will happen to the final book, but he had been working on it up until his death and had shared notes and story details with his wife, Harriet, and others, in case he did not survive to complete it.

Oddly enough, I just started reading the eleventh volume, KNIFE OF DREAMS, last night, a few hours after his death (though I did not find out about it until this morning).

A memorial discussion is occurring at Making Light.

Rest in peace, Robert.

Book signing in Wyomissing

I've set up a second signing at the Borders in the Berkshire Mall in Wyomissing, on Saturday, November 10, from 1 to 3 pm. The address of the mall is:

1665 State Hill Road, Wyomissing, PA 19610

I'm also working on a signing in Bloomsburg at a specialty store called the Cloak & Dragon. Again, I'll keep you posted once I have the date set.

Book signing for THE WORDS OF MAKING

The first book signing for THE WORDS OF MAKING will be at the Borders Bookstore in the Capital City Mall on October 27, from 1 to 4 pm. I hope you can make it, and bring some friends!

I'm working on some other signings within about an hour's drive of Harrisburg and will let you know as soon as I have them set up.

Dave

Mom's heart attack

Before I begin, my mom is fine. She apparently suffered a mild heart attack very early Friday morning. Unfortunately, like most elderly people, she ignored a number of warning signs. This time she was lucky.

Here's what happened:

She woke up around 1:00 am with what she thought was a very bad case of heartburn. She sipped some soda, took some antacids, but nothing helped. She wondered if she might be having a heart attack but didn't do anything about it. My brother (Bruce, from the now infamous entry A Bad Case of Dumbass-itis) lives two doors down from her. Her one brother is around the corner and her other brother is one neighborhood over. So it's not as if she didn't have a number of people very close by she could have called, in addition to the ever-present 911.

She said she sat up in her rocking chair and at 4:30 she thought, Well, Joe Mike will be up in an hour, so I'll just try to hold out until then. I politely yet firmly pointed out to her the ridiculousness of trying to hold out on a possible heart attack, since cardiac arrest events don't usually wait around until it's convenient for everyone else.

She said, Yes, well, she didn't want to call 911 because she'd be embarrassed by an ambulance roaring through the neighborhood. [thumps forehead in amazement] The next day at the hospital, I reminded her that it's better to be embarrassed than dead. One you will recover from; the other you will not.

She promised to be better if/when it happens again.

The good thing is she's fine, and there doesn't seem to be damage to her heart, though she will be undergoing a stress test next week.

The moral of the story? If you think you're having a heart attack, CALL FREAKIN' 911!

Over and out.

Messageboards have returned from the grave

Unfortunately, all of the posts made prior to the board crash are still dead and have no chance at a second life through zombie-fication (trust me, I tried). The new board is powered by Simple Machines Forum software that is part of the hosting package I have with GoDaddy (yes, that GoDaddy), well-known for having big-boobed chicks flaunt their assets in Super Bowl ads.

This board should be a bit more stable than my previous php board. You can check it out here.

THE WORDS OF MAKING cover art!

No. I'm not dead! I know I haven't been here is forever, but as I said when I started this thing, I'm not much of a diarist. I'm in the middle of switching PCs, which is a huge pain in the butt, so I'm going to make this brief.

The cover art for book two is out and it looks really good. Even better than the first book, which I liked a lot. Here's a thumbnail. Click on it for a larger version.

THE WORDS OF MAKING Chapter One now online

Chapter One has been posted online. You can find it here.

THE WORDS OF MAKING prologue now available online

My editor accepted the second draft as "final" and has moved the book into the copyedit phase. I still do not have a firm publication date but it will be late in the year, and possibly early 2008.

Go here to read the prologue! Chapter one is coming soon!

Dave