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.
You may have heard that Mount Rainier has been rumbling with quakes recently. Well, it’s true and I live just fifty miles south of Rainier and thirty-two miles north of Mount St. Helens. You might be thinking, “That wasn’t the best location to buy land.” Well, the simple answer is I never gave it much thought back then beyond, “Wow, living between volcanoes, that’s neat.”
Read MoreIt’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
I love a white Christmas, but this is April. Yesterday I awoke to a cold, dark, house. The power had failed, and several inches of snow covered the ground. My wife had a fire roaring in the woodstove by the time I stumbled from the bedroom. After a cup of hot chocolate, heated on the woodstove, I stepped onto the back porch and measured the snow at almost six inches deep.
Read MoreDue to the COVID virus, last year’s Southwest Washington Writers Conference had to be canceled. I helped organize and spoke at the first SWW Conference back in 2014, and so this was a disappointment. A few weeks ago, I heard that the sponsoring organization no longer wished to continue with the conference. This compounded my disappointment.
Read MoreWell, much of it anyway. Many of you know that I live on a small farm. During the winter I make up a long list of farm chores to work on during the summer. This year’s list includes repairing the greenhouse and henhouse, fixing fences around the orchard, and building a new raised bed garden for my wife.
Read MoreWhen you live on a farm, work changes with the seasons.
Winter is a time of rest, for the soil, animals, and people, but not for bees. They collect together and vibrate to keep the queen and brood warm, but all too often, they don’t survive the cold and damp of winter. Despite my efforts in the fall, my two colonies didn’t endure the harsh short days of winter.
Read MoreEvery year we lose a few hens to illness, hawks, or raccoons and need replacements. In years past we had a rooster named Colonel and he took care of that for me. I slept right through Colonel’s predawn crowing, but it drove my wife to distraction. One day she told me that the rooster had disappeared. Yeah, sure, Colonel just decided to move. I think she had him killed.
Read MoreThis has been an exciting weekend!
Even before it was released, Race to Refuge, my latest 16,000-word short story, had climbed onto the Amazon short story bestseller lists. On Friday morning, March fifteenth, when Amazon released the story I checked and was thrilled to see it at number seven on the Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Story List. But, it kept climbing all day. By evening it had reached the number two slot on the bestseller list.
Read MoreOn February 23rd I had the pleasure of speaking at the Oregon Christian Writers one-day winter conference in Salem, Oregon.
I arrived about thirty minutes late due to an accident on the freeway but, after checking in, I entered the main auditorium and listened to the keynote speaker, Carrie Stuart Parks.
Read MoreI’m giving away five signed copies of Through Many Fires!
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