This last quarter of 2025 has been a solid winner reading-wise. Every book I picked up has driven my whee share up & significantly improved forecasts for my own creativity in 2026. Examples: The Inconvenient God; Lagoonfire; When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain; Dispelling Fantasies... TBR is love.
Indie books that have rocked my world: THERE IS NO LOVELY END by Patty Templeton In the opening scene I got solid Americana, witchcraft, a jail brawl, an epic vendetta, a little terror and some surprising laughs. SOLD. Templeton doesn't write, she skates, seamlessly going from mood to macabre mood. image
Mountain Dew out of wine glasses as beef jerky a l'orange is prepared. In praise of those out there living their best lives amidst uncalled-for fuckery fully foul.
On Oct 9th a car veered across the road toward where my car was parked behind another car. The veering car hit the car in front hard enough to push it into mine, crumpling my front end. Thankfully I wasn't in the car. Been dealing with insurance companies ever since. Got word yesterday that they've decided to total my car out. My car was 15 years old; be lucky to get bus fare for it. I'll likely do a fundraiser. I can't be without reliable transport. Too many people depend on me. So heads up.
Up with the sun if for no other reason than to confirm the Earth still exists despite the fires fuckers set.
If you know nothing else about Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, know that over the course of several days the greatest cinematic marketing campaign EVER graced newspapers, each day an image of the Enterprise above a different tagline, culminating on opening day with this full page beauty. I have each yellowing ad in a scrapbook somewhere. Part of my soul has wanted to create something worthy of touching the hem of that campaign. image
Now that the book is out, here are A's to possible Q's: It can be read as a standalone. The series ends definitively at book 3. In a fight between Bog the Unsmiling & Conan the Barbarian, Bog would simply wait for Conan to die of infection from one of his many previous untreated wounds. Bog knows the value of alcohol & a bandage. Is there a chance the Khumalos might cross paths with Milo Jetstream? As our teacher Mr Spock is fond of saying, I'd like to think there always are...possibilities. image
1000 word picture. At this point, all mistakes, flubs & missteps are on me. Physical copies on the way to the crowdfunder backers, ebooks transmitting 2day. Available via your indie shop, B&N, 'zon and everywhere else Sept 21, pback & ebook only; hardcover's backer exclusive. Cherry on top: sweet image
Decide to read something. Decide to cook. Decide to sing. Decide to rest. Get up. Swing on em. Pivot. Help somebody else. You've decided to be human. No time for anything else.
When I see something like this on Goodreads the pen feels that much lighter! "Y’all, when I finished this book, I legit had a mourning period where I couldn’t read fiction for a couple of weeks. Everything else just felt hollow and lifeless." I hope the next book fills folks to the brim and over. image