ebook Update

Dan Moran and I have kicked some notions back and forth, in re the Matadors as ebooks, and will be smoothing out the details in what I suspect will be short order. 


I had hoped to get a new Matador novel done and ready to go by the time the old ones went onto the market, but the reversion process went much quicker than I had been led to believe, and no point in waiting; best to make hay while the sun shines.


The details aren't done, but at the least, what this will entail will include the following:


All of these novels will be available as ebooks via Dan's FS& store, save for The Musashi Flex. This is because that one is still on the market at Amazon.com in that format. The titles are:


The Man Who Never Missed; Matadora; The Machiavelli Interface; The 97-Step; The Albino Knife; Black Steel; Brother Death. 


The Omega Cage (with Michael Reaves), is already available there.


There will be a period of exclusivity with Dan; I dunno how long, but for a while, this will be the venue at which you can legally get 'em. I believe he said that as the publisher, he can get these into other markets. (Dan's books are in all the popular formats, easily read on Kindles, iPads 'n' Pods, phones, computers, Nooks, Kobos, etc. Buying direct makes him and me more money.)


There will be new covers, to the end of continuity, likely by an artist we both like who has done other cover work. Not the illo at the top of this post. We're talking to her now.


POD. This is a thorny problem. I've addressed this before, but let me explain why once again:


For those folks for whom treeware is a must-have, we are considering offering a formatted-print-on-demand file. What you do with this is take this on a flashmem stick to your university POD store, hand it to them, and go have lunch. They will print a book for you, about twelve bucks for a 300-pager, and have it ready when you get back. It will be designed to print just like a paper novel, margins, page numbers, etc, and will include the cover.


Alternatively, you can send it to several online book makers who will do the same thing cheaper than we can do it for you. Three hundred page book, with a cover, about eight bucks, plus shipping, so that's probably about the same cost.


And yeah, since you have to pay for the file, add that to the cost of the paper book. So in those scenarios, the book runs you $18–the cost of the POD file, the print cost, and shipping, if necessary. 


Even if we can get the price down so it is close to what a pb would cost, there will still be shipping costs. If we didn't add any profit this way, if we let it go for cost, you still wind up paying twice what the e-version cost.

That would make us nice guys, but it isn't, um, economically feasible for us, to give them away. Not when our profit on the ebooks is 100% if we sell it direct, and a 70% royalty via Amazon.com. Do the math: Six bucks @ 100% = $6. At 70% = $4.20. If we take zero royalty on a POD, it'll still cost you $12 or $13 minimum, will ship in 3-5 working days, and however long it takes to get to your house. You pay twice as much and we don't get any of it.


If print is what readers want, we can facilitate that, but is gonna run you treeware fans two-and-a-half to three times as much per book.


And I have to say this right out: Because you say you want it in paper doesn't mean you will actually buy it in paper. I've had fans tell me, "Oh, yeah, well, if you put that out in paper, I'll snap it up!" And I know for a fact they didn't because I can track every sale that Lulu makes. 


You see why retail POD isn't a good idea for a writer?


Back on the e-side, probably there will be some kind of omnibus, wherein you can buy a collection of some or all the books for a discount–we haven't talked about that, but it would make sense, and I expect that will be an option. 


More as we firm things up. Stay tuned.

Zombie Mouse in the House

Got up day before yesterday to an unpleasant reek in the kitchen. Something rotting. Whew, what is that? 


A check of the pantry and fridge, nothing gone bad. In-sink garbage disposal empty. Trashcan, nope.


Following our noses, we determined that the source seemed to be the under-the-sink cabinet. Took everything out. No rot, no moisture.


Rolled the refrigerator out from the wall. Dusty and dirty, the floor, but no dead mice, no pellets showing they'd been there. 


Climbed down into the crawl space yesterday and elbowed-and-kneed my way to the kitchen. Always a fun crawl, that, amidst the dust and spiders.


No corpses there. No squirrels, raccoons, rats, mice, nada. Nary a stink to be found under the floor.


Had the dishwasher guy come out and pull the dishwasher. Dirty under it, but nothing that seemed to be the source of the odor. Vacuumed it clean, sprayed it with bleach.


Sprayed everything else we could reach with bleach. If there's a dead critter, it has to be under the cabinet, twixt it and the floor, or in the wall behind the sink. The options here are to a) tear everything out and see what we can find, or b) wait to see if the bleach soaks in enough to help whatever it is mummify. Eventually, if there's a dead mouse, it will dry up. 


Smells nice and clean with bleach every whichwhere,


So, for the time being, we're going with (b). 


Never a dull moment.

For the Guitarists

Saw this piece via The Fretboard Journal–a guy who is making electric guitars, custom guitars, for between $400-700.


If you can get any decent sound out of them at all, this is fairly amazing.


Check him out here.


I'm not an electric guitarist, but if you look at what a new Gibson or Strat goes for, these things have to be worth more than he's charging for the parts alone ...

Teaching

I took another blues guitar lesson recently, and once again, was impressed with how patient and encouraging the teacher was. There were three students in the class, and both the other guys were better players than I, so I was working to keep up. Good and bad, that, but I've always been a slow kinetic learner, and said so.


Maybe not slow, the teacher said. Maybe you are just thorough. You want to get it precise.


Hey. I liked that. "Thorough" sounds better than being a "slow learner ..."


Contrast that to a martial art I studied briefly a couple decades ago. Early in the first session, the brown belt teacher was showing the class the art's salute. It was a variation on one a lot of arts use, a fist pressed knuckles into the other hand at heart level, right palm down, left facing the right, coupled with a short bow.


 (Unbeknownst to me, there were three of these salutes, all similar, but each with a different meaning. One was a signal of respect and readiness; one, a signal of leave-taking, signifying that the session was at an end;  and one, a challenge to combat. But he only showed us the first one.)

About to start a sequence of something or the other, I made what I thought was the respect-salute to the instructor. He bristled. "Are you challenging me? Are you challenging me?"

Well, no, I didn't think I was, and what the fuck was he talking about?

Only then did he show us the other two salutes.

Salute b) was the same as a) but the fingers open and pointing up. The third position looked like a), except that the cupping hand was shifted slightly behind the fist, nearest the chest on the thumb side.


Now the teacher could have simply showed us the three positions and explained what they were to begin with. What I suspected then, and now, was that he didn't, because he knew somebody would get it wrong, and he'd get all up in their face to prove some point. Probably because the offender would remember it after the dramatic bullshit. 


These days, with my bullshit-tolerance less than it use to be, I suspect my response to the "Are you challenging me?!" query would be, "Well, okay, sure, why not?" 


If the point was to prove he was a bad teacher and an asshole, I could see that one ...


People will make enough mistakes if you are careful in your instruction. If you deliberately set out to screw them up, that might be great for zen, but maybe not so great for encouraging confidence ...

Going to the Mattresses

We spent about a third of our lives in bed, on average, and the quest for back-comfort throughout the ages has been ongoing. When I was a kid, I could go camping, unroll a sleeping bag, and be happy with nothing between me and the ground but a thin layer of cloth.


Those days are gone, and they ain't coming back. 


It's a little known fact of physics, but the older and heavier you are? The harder the ground gets. I had Indiana Jones wishing for an air mattress when he was in a tent in Haiti during his adventure there, and he was only forty-four at the time ...


We have a nice queen-sized bed we bought back in Louisiana, California Oak, but the mattress and box springs, while a quality brand, are almost twenty-five years old. 


Nothing lasts forever, and a memory-foam pillow-top has been fighting in the Valley of Springs under my butt for the last couple of years–and the war is now lost.


It was time to get a new mattress–waking up with a sore back or numb extremities? Not good.


However: In the decades since we bought the current mattress, things have changed. 


Boy, howdy, have they.


Now, there's a Bed Mart or Sleep Country or Mattress World on every other corner, a guy waving and spinning a sign out front to draw in customers, and the range of choices has multiplied likewise, and the prices gone up logarithmically. It's overwhelming.


Fortunately, there is the internet, and a certain amount of basic research can be done at home. We looked.


Armed with that, we set off yesterday to see what was what.


Top of the what's-what list is that a mattress store is a lot like a car dealership. There's a hard sell, a manager who is willing to check shipments and put a hold on a hot-selling mattress for only 10% down, (and the 10% down is about what we paid for our current mattress, back in the day.)


Want this one? Only six grand. That one? We'll knock off a thousand bucks, only five grand. Hey, hey, look at this, only two grand, and we'll throw in a pillow!


Five thousand dollars? What else does it do? Will it cook supper? Can it walk the dogs? Does it come with a masseuse who does happy endings? For that kind of money, I want something other than a springy pad, thank you. 


So, back home and more research. We kind of wanted a memory-foam mattress, but we didn't like the way they felt. And what we didn't want was something made of petroleum that would poison us in our sleep with outgassing. 


But wait, there's natural latex! And eco-friendly organic cotton and bamboo! And, and, and ...


To make a long story shorter, we came across Parklane Mattresses. This is a local company,  the things are made in Tualatin, and they have some funny TV commercials: The one where the family goes off and leaves the dog behind, who immediately runs upstairs to lie on the bed, that tickled us. Not the best commercial–we didn't notice the company name until later–but the spot was cute.


Local company, good for the local economy, five-star reviews of their products, they have a showroom a couple miles from our house, so, what's not to like? Off we went.


The kid in the store was full of enthusiasm, he babbled on endearingly, and in short order, talked us out of the more expensive one we thought we wanted. 


When's the last time you had a salesman do that?


Better, he said, that we were happy with the product, and that we got the one that was best for us, and that based on how we slept: Back? Side? Stomach? Do you bottom out when you sit on the bed? Is your back supported? Spine and neck in line? How does it feel?


We tried them all, and the one we went to see wasn't right, but the kid showed us one that was. And at half of what the folks at Mattress World would have charged us for their cheapo shipped from China in two weeks. (Might take six or eight working days for this one, but that's because they would be making it this week at the factory.) 


Home delivery, haul away the old one, comfort-guarantee, swap it for a different one if we didn't like it. 


Nice, when you spend a fair amount of money to have it be a pleasant experience for what you see as a quality product. 


If you are in the market for a bed and you live around here, I offer that you might want to check out Parklane's factory-outlet or one of their local showrooms. Go and see Mattress World or Bed Mart or Sleep Country, then, try Parklane. 


Your mileage may vary, but for us, it was a breath of fresh air. 

1200 Pieces

Walked out into the store room this afternoon and a fluke of light through the blinds covering the window gave me this image: A  box of  brightly-illuminated Lego toys on hand for the grandkids. 


Struck me as interesting visually, so here it is. Click (or tap) on it and have a look at the large view.

Changing of the Strings

Had to change the guitar's strings last night. I've spoken to this before, but the gist of it is that for me, I can get about five or six months from a good set of classical strings–I use Aquila Alabastro Normal Tension, what they call "Nylgut™," the trebles of which are white nylon and made to replicate the warm and woody sound of gut strings. (Gut strings sound great, but they cost five times as much as nylon, they don't last long, and they go out of tune frequently. Plus you have dead sheep on your axe ...)


Nylon guitar strings are classed by tension and material; steel strings go by gauge and material, and some are coated with stuff to make them last longer and play smoother. Some are wound flat, for a smoother slide. A nylon-string guitar is something of misnomer, since the three bass strings are metal wound around a core, brass or bronze winding, sometimes silver.


String wiki here.


Guitarists tend to look for strings in the way that the Templars looked for the Holy Grail; you seek the perfect ones, but you seldom find them, unless you are lucky. I've tried fifteen brands over the years, and these are the best I've come across. They make my guitar sound better, and I like the tone. Plus I need all the help I can get.


I keep my guitar clean, wiping the fretboard and strings frequently, and so they don't get too cruddy. When the trebles get stretched past a point, they start to sound dull, and you spend more time tuning than playing, which are signs it's time to swap 'em out. 


It doesn't take that long to install a new set. I have a winder somewhere, but I usually don't bother with it. The biggest drawback to new ones, especially those on classical guitar, is that it takes a while for them to settle in, they keep stretching and going flat, so you expect to spend a few days tuning more frequently. (One trick is to tune them sharp and let the guitar rest overnight, and I've tried this, but I haven't noticed it does much good. The strings seem to have a kind of memory, and they go sharp or flat to get back to where you tuned them.) 


Mine are spendy, but at eleven bucks a package and six month's life, I can't complain. And for a few months, I'll sound better than I am ...

Grove iPad 2 Case

The long-awaited Grove bamboo iPad 2 case arrived today, hurrah!


Basically, this is a bamboo shell that encloses the sides and back of the iPad, with cut-outs for controls and camera and such, and a smart-cover of leather with stiff inserts, held in place by magnets. 


When you open the cover, the iPad switches on, and you can fold the cover back like a magazine, or you can roll it into a triangle shape that allows you to prop the iPad up into three different positions–for typing, viewing upright, or in landscape mode.


The Grove case protects the iPad fore and aft, and looks way cool ...


They also make iPhone cases and some nifty art stuff. 


Some of their stuff they have in stock, but the new iPad cases are back-ordered, and if you want one, be prepared to wait a couple months, at least. They offered several times to refund my money if I didn't want to wait, but I'm glad I waited, it's worth it and then some. 

Packin' on the Pounds

The ratings are in: Mississippi is the fattest state–six years running the champion!–in terms of its citizenry, followed by Alabama, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and, of course, Louisiana.

All that fried food ...

Colorado is the skinniest, D.C., Hawaii, Montana, and Massachusetts behind the mountain climbers and skiers ...

Oregon is closer to the lowest than to the most obese (35th fattest) and dropped three slots this year. They are one point chunkier in Washington state.

Of course, the study uses the BMI, and for one of the first times I've ever seen, admit that such doesn't take into account jocks, which is a small victory. Still, among non-jocks, I suspect the pinch-test will show that crackers are still porkier than the rest of the country.

Not really a surprise.

Yownt fries wid dat?

Because You Just Never Know

A story of interest, probably mostly to martial artists, but with implications for anybody else who might think a fist fight is innocuous ...


Apparently there was an altercation in Las Vegas yesterday, and the gist of it seems to be this: A black guy (Hawkins, of Florida), and a white guy (Massie, of Utah) were in a bathroom at O'shea's Casino, and one assumes, doing their business. 


But apparently not altogether minding their own business.


Massie apparently said something to Hawkins to the effect of, oh, look a black guy in a yellow shirt! (Two things: First, I expect that "black guy" was another word; second, I can't imagine being so stupid as to offer a derogatory racial comment to a stranger in a public bathroom, but, that's what the report was. I dunno the source.)


Hawkins apparently responded with something on the lines of  "Hey, shut the fuck up!"


Hawkins followed Massie out. Massie went to stand in front of a B.K. in the casino. Hawkins approached. More words were exchanged. Hawkins started to walk away, then turned abruptly and threw a punch that hit Massie in the face.


One punch. 


Massie fell down.


And died.


So, while it is rare, the old one-punch-one-kill does now and then happen.


I suspect that Hawkins, a football coach back in Florida, didn't think that amount of force would result in homicide. But as a result of that punch, and being the first to throw one, he's been arrested and booked on a count of Open Murder. Supposedly all on the casino's security video, and I'll be interested to see if that hits the net.


Not a good way to spend your vacation, and any way you look at it, Hawkins's ride is going to be bumpy until the investigation and/or trial is over.


Next time you think that decking the asshole giving you shit is the best option, think again.


Or that popping off to a stranger in a public restroom is much better of an idea ...

News Teaser

Okay, two things, one of which is a done deal, and the other seems to be a done deal, though one can never be sure about that until the check clears.


First, I got the rights back to the Matador novels, and sooner than expected. What this means is that Dan Moran and I will discuss this, to the end of listing the titles in his ebook store in the not-too-distant future. I don't have a precise date because we have things to do  first, contracts, cover designs, editing for assorted e-platforms, and a consideration of the possibilities of print-on-demand. I've discussed this latter business a time or five, and I don't see that it is a winner–even if we get the price down to that of a mass-market paperback, there is still the cost of shipping to be tacked onto that. But if a line forms and runs around the block, maybe.


Once Dan and I hammer out the details–mostly this means Dan does all the work and I nod and smile a lot–I'll post here and on Facebook and like that to let people know what's what.


Dan's books are available in all popular formats, so whatever reader you have, you should be able to upload and use his files just fine.  


It is still my intent to add new titles to the series, two of which are in-progress, Churl, and The Siblings of the Shroud.


Churl is a direct sequel, twenty years or so after Black Steel. Siblings is a follow-up to The Musashi Flex.


Second thing, to which I've referred in passing: It seems as if I'll be doing a new military space opera series for Ace, to number at least three books. 


A couple months back, I floated a potential opening for a few readers and got their feedback. I dialed this down and punched that up, sanded and polished it, then pitched it to Ace, and they went for it. The series will be called Cutter's Wars. It won't be the Matadors, but I confess I wouldn't be completely surprised if fans of that series found something to like in the new one. 


Once I've signed the contracts I'll be more forthcoming about delivery and publication and the like, but in theory we have a deal. 


What else? 


Oh, the artwork contest, to design an alien? I got a few entries, a couple of them not bad, but so far, nobody has hit the mark. I figured I'd get more submissions, but apparently there aren't as many starving artists out there as I thought. 

Holiday Over

The 4th came and went, and while we put a flag up and I'm happy to celebrate Independence Day, I don't do it with fireworks.


My younger dog gets spooked by the bombs going off, and a shivering dog trying to hide isn't celebratory in any way for us. 


Over the years, every other dog we've had didn't like thunderstorms, nor big firecrackers, and it's been a long time since blowing things up held any thrill for me. There are anti-anxiety drugs, but dog-doping doesn't appeal all that much.


So I just came across a Thundershirt, which is supposed to help, and we'll give that a try.


The 4th is also my older dog's birthday, so they get a special treat for that. This year, it was strawberry ice cream with a dog-treat cookie, and they gobbled both down in a hurry ...

Accidental Research

One comes across all kinds of things on the net, and today's research gave me the old Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus quote, "Si vis pacem, para bellum," which is Latin for "If you wish for peace, prepare for war." What this is generally taken to mean is that strength is more apt to keep you safe than weakness, i.e., if you are ready and willing to fight, that will sometimes deter an enemy. Meyer Baba called this "the non-violence" of the strong. 


The samurai's mutual slaying; the "Don't Tread On Me" naval battle jack; the Cold War's MAD philosophy, all examples of this. Attack at your own peril.


And I knew that the Luger pistol cartridge, the Parabellum, had to do with war, but I didn't think of it as the antithesis of Sam Colt's Single-Action Army revolver, which came to be called "the Peacemaker." The term "for war" in that Latin phrase was turned into a noun by the company that made Georg Luger's pistol, Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken.


Here, the Peacemaker. There, the War Maker. 


Interesting.

Happy Birthday, America

For all the bitching I do, in the change-it-or-lose-it vein, I'm still happy to be an American. And my wish for this holiday anniversary of the country's founding is the same as it has been for more years than I care to  think about:


Peace ...

Portland Police Oops ...

(Photos by Tyler Tjomsland, The Oregonian)

You knew I was gonna speak to this one, didn't you? 


In Portland, a mentally-ill man who was reported as possibly harassing, or menacing children was taken down by an officer with a beanbag shotgun. 


Well, actually, that's what he meant to do,  but apparently he somehow wound up with buckshot loads in his orange shotgun instead of beanbag rounds, and the mentally-ill guy is in the hospital in critical condition.


(I don't understand why the victim, Kyle Monroe, is alive. The officer–Dan Reister, a fifteen-year veteran of the PPD–fired four times, a fifth round was ejected, and all of them were live. Not great shooting, is it?)


The situation around the indicent is still not clear. (Article here), and maybe the guy needed what he got. But I'm guessing not, because the Chief and the Mayor quick like bunnies held a news conference and apologized all over the place, so I'm guessing when the wash is done, there are going to be stains on the uniform.


Might be that Reister didn't load the gun, but policy is that LTL shotguns are supposed to be unloaded at the end of each shift, and reloaded once they are checked out of the armory next time; more, you aren't even allowed to carry live rounds on your person when you are using the orange shotguns. Though you apparently can keep them in your ammo bag in the trunk mixed together. 


Unless you are seriously color-blind or loading the weapon in the dark, that yellow beanbag round ought to be obvious. Five times? That's a serious brain short-circuit.


Somebody screwed up big-time. The question is, who?

Need a New Razor?

Guy in Portland has come up with a new invention: A razor, made of iridium, with a sapphire blade, guaranteed to stay sharp enough to shave with for ten years. 


And at only $100,000 a pop? Such a deal.


Yeah, that's one hundred thousand dollars, and you have to supply your own lather.


Hurry. Supplies are limited. Then again, he hasn't actually sold any yet ...

For The Martial Artists

I have lately limited my posting on Silat Sera to my other blog, with the notion that such material is esoteric enough that a general readership is apt to skip over such here. There's a link in the sidebar if anybody wants to go look.


My most recent Sera Plinck post, on revisionist history, might be of interest to martial arts folks who drop round here, but who don't know about the blog dedicated to it, so thus ....


Some information there, and then a rant ...

Zap!

Are you tired of teenaged girls on cell phones tailgating you on the highway? When you try to change lanes, does some obnoxious driver speed up to cut you off? Wish there was some way to make that oncoming idiot dim his headlights?


You need Perry's Zapper™!


Perry's Zapper™ is a portable electromagnetic pulse generator that will instantly render any unhardened computer circuitry inert! 


Perry's Zapper™ looks, and even works, like an ordinary cell phone, but it's so much more!


Operation couldn't be any easier! Switch the unit on, and using the built-in laser sight, put the glowing green dot on your target. Push the Zap button, and all on-board computer chips in the target vehicle will be fried in a heartbeat by an EMP beam with a range of one hundred and eighty meters! Not only the automobile's control systems, but as an extra added bonus, any portable devices inside the target vehicle, such as cell phones, laptop computers, and electronic tablets will also be zapped!


The built-in safety sensors in the Perry's Zapper™ will recognize and spare pacemakers and neural stimulators, so you won't be looking at accidental manslaughter charges!


Imagine the tailgater's surprise as her phone shuts off, her car's engine dies, and she coasts to a silent stop on the side of the highway! Thrill to the sight of the oncoming high-beam headlights going dark! 


You might expect to pay four or even five hundred dollars for such a device, but no, if you call within the next fifteen minutes, you can get Perry's Zapper™, with built-in laser sight and battery charger for the ridiculously-low price of only $99.99, plus shipping and handling!


But wait! If you order in the next fifteen minutes, we'll send you a second Perry's Zapper™ absolutely free–you just pay shipping and handing charges!  


To order Perry's Zapper™, call the number on the bottom of your screen right away! (Supplies are limited, you must be twenty-one or older, and this offer is not valid in Salt Lake City, Utah. Perry's Zapper™ is not affiliated with Garry's Particle Beam Device™. Will not work on classic and antique vehicles without modern electronics. Do not use on aircraft. If your penile implant develops rigidity lasting more than four hours, call your doctor. Offer void where prohibited by law. All sales are final, and Perry's Zapper™ Inc. is not responsible for accidental or willful misuse of this product.)


Don't wait! Order now!


Operators are standing by ...

A Bridge Too Far

Two of my absolute all-time favorite sixties rock songs are 1) Hey, Jude and 2) Bridge Over Troubled Water, the latter of which is sometimes referred to as the American version of the former. Jude came out in August of 1968; Bridge, early in 1970. Best-sellers, award-winners, and the music I came of age listening to, so what's not to like?


They took the three-minute AM pop-radio format and tossed it: 7:11 for Jude, 4:55 for Bridge.


I can play Hey, Jude on the guitar. And after running it through different arrangements, decided that the key of A was best for my voice in its current incarnation, so that's how I sing it.


Once upon a time, I had a half-assed version of Bridge, but the original was, I believe E♭, (that is, three-flats, according to the handy-dandy Circle of Fifths.) Which is not a fun key for guitarists of my stripe (nor any stripe short of serious jazz guys, far as I can tell. It was written as a piano tune, and for the longest time when Paul and Artie sang it in public, they would fly Larry Knechtel, their session guy who played the piano on the recording, in to do just that one number. Must be nice.) 


I learned the song after a fashion, playing it with  D-shapes and capoing up one to get that E-flat. I managed to get something I could sing ... well, save for about half the high notes Artie could reach and I couldn't get to without sounding like a girl-on-helium screaming in a monster movie.


Hearing my voice crack was not pleasant, and the song fell out of my repertoire.


So I was digging in the songbook and came across it again, and realized that if I–duh–just played it in D without the capo, that half-step down was just low enough that I could hit the high notes, so I'm brushing up on it again. (And leaving out those F-diminished and, especially, suspended-B chords. Take away that third and replace it with a fourth in the Bsus, and it doesn't sound right in this song, better, I think, to skip on to the B-minor. Before, I had trouble playing those chords; now that I can, I don't like how they sound. My arrangement, so I don't have to; not like Simon is going to be listening and shaking his head.)


Sail on, Silver Girl ...

A Long Delayed Verse in the Song of Fire and Ice ...

Just a heads-up for Railroad Martin fans: A Dance with Dragons hits the racks–and one assumes, the internet ebook charts–on July 12th. 


As it happens, I have a copy, but pushing a thousand pages, I probably won't get done reading it before the pub date ...