I started this blog on August 21, 2012, with the release of my first book, Titan Encounter. Most of those posts are now in what I call the “Early Blog.” I’m gradually updating their format and bringing them into this new journal. Back then the sole purpose of the blog was to promote my books, but gradually that changed.
That’s how it started but, over the years, I’ve mused about other things that are important to me, such as my family, my farm, rural life, and occasionally about politics and country. However, I try to limit the politics in this journal. If you want to know more about my political leaning go to The Conservative Alternative.
Unfortunately, art is one of those classes that we don’t often offer at Eek School.
We wish we could offer art more often, but reading, Writing and Math take priority and art teachers willing to come to the bush Alaska are hard to find. That doesn’t mean that our students are any less artistic. Art is very much a part of the Yup’ik culture. I wish the students would do more with traditional themes, but for some reason they often like to draw me.
Read MoreHere in Eek, Alaska snow still drifts several feet high and covers the ground as far as one can see. The river is still a frozen trail that zigzags by the village. You can still ice fish up here, but the days are getting longer. However, that doesn’t mean I have enough daylight to get everything done. Each day just seems longer and busier.
Read MoreFriday was Spring Break here in Eek, Alaska!
Okay, actually we had Friday and the weekend off for a grand total of three days! We don’t celebrate many of the holidays, like Veteran’s or President’s Day, in the village schools so three days off is actually nice.
Read MoreToday, Final Duty - The Alien War Anthology, my second book, appeared on both the Amazon.com Kindle Science Fiction anthology and the short story bestseller lists. Final Duty has been on the anthology bestseller list for four days.
Read MoreFinal Duty - The Alien War Anthology, my second book has been on the Amazon.com Kindle Science Fiction anthology bestseller list for the last two days.
The top 100 books on any Amazon bestseller list are updated hourly and yesterday morning I spotted Final Duty at the number 93 spot. After that, I watched the book climb all day until it reached the number 50 spot.
Read MoreI hope you will join me on Goodreads. Amazon recently acquired this social media service where you can catalog and share book recommendations with over 12 million members
Read MoreAs a new author what I need most of all is for people to read my stories. I’m confident that if they do read my work they will spread the word and buy later novels. So, this week I have been promoting Titan Encounter and Final Duty in various ways.—and it has paid off!
Read MoreFree on Kindle today--two of my ebooks!
If you have visited this website before you probably know that on social media I often list books that are being offered free. Well, for the next 24 hours my own books, Titan Encounter and Final Duty, will be free on Kindle.
Read MoreMy second book, Final Duty, – the Alien War Anthology, is now available on Kindle.
The anthology takes its name from the novella, Final Duty, a 15,000-word story that leads off the book. In that story, Lieutenant Amy Palmer returns to the Altair star system as an officer aboard the reconnaissance ship Mirage twenty years after the death of her father during the Battle of Altair, Almost immediately disaster strikes, and Amy, along with the crew of the Mirage, must face the possibility of performing their final duties.
Read MoreThe temperature was -20 as we waited for the plane to arrive in Eek.
That was last Thursday. The plane arrived on time, thankfully, for the flight to Bethel, Alaska. I stayed the night in Bethel and then caught the morning flight to Anchorage and another plane to Seattle. My youngest son was at the airport to pick me up for the hour and a half drive home. It was a long trip, but thankfully, I arrived home safely late on Friday.
Read MoreLeaving Eek during the winter is always an iffy proposition. Since we travel in small bush planes, if it is too foggy or windy we can’t fly, but, fortunately, the weather should be good on Thursday. However, the runway lights are broken at the airfield and no one seems to be able to fix them so we must leave during daylight. There isn’t a lot of daylight up here right now.
Read MoreThree stories, all separated by time, planets, and events, but tied together by war. I’ve been working on a novella and two short stories that I wrote long ago, but never released. I felt they were excellent stories, but I never knew what to do with them. In the end, I decided to publish the stories, totaling about 27,000 words, in a single volume. All are firmly set in the military science fiction subgenre. Here is a synopsis of each.
Read MoreNikki was my dog, or perhaps I was her human. Actually, I’m certain that it doesn’t matter. She grew from a tiny puppy on our farm in Washington State. These last few years work has taken me away from the farm more than I would like, but if I was there she was nearby. Whoever was doing the most interesting task, from her perspective, that was who she was with, but she was always close.
Read MoreWhile I was working I was playing a podcast about current technology called This Week in Google. The name is a bit misleading as they talk about a wide variety of cloud technologies on the program. One thing they just mentioned was a site called Chrome Experiments and some of the fun and interesting projects on display there. I was intrigued and visited the site.
Read MoreToday, I'm rereading and editing three short stories that I wrote while in I was in the navy.
I want to release them in 2013 as an anthology. The first story in this group, The Promise, was written while I was on deployment with the USS Sterett (CG-31) in the western Pacific. I’m certain that writing this story while living in the confined grayness of a navy ship gave it an added sense of realism.
Read MoreHalloween was again a big day here in the village. I think every student between the ages of 5 and 18 went trick or treating and visited my house. There were people both younger and older that knocked on my door, and even a few people I didn’t know—and that’s hard to imagine for a village of fewer than 200 people.
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