*Warning: discussion of health issues and bodily fluids will ensue. You’ve been warned.* So I have a health issue known as Edema. My body swells up with excess fluid. I take a drug daily to help me pee out the excess liquid, but lately it’s not as effective as it once was. After I take […]
Read MoreSeveral months ago, I came across PBS’s “Great American Read” quiz, encouraging visitors to see how many of these “Great American Reads” they themselves had read. I have to admit I was puzzled by this list: it contained an awful lot of the dusty old classics of yore — things our English Lit. instructors insisted […]
Read MoreAs most of my readers know, I’m a freelance writer. Most of my work has been done in the tabletop gaming field, where I’ve written for companies from Games Workshop to Third Eye Games, and many in between. When writing for such a diverse selection of games, it’s important to be familiar with a lot […]
Read MoreWhile we prepare and ponder adopting some new furry friends of our own, we visited one of our favorite sanctuaries over the weekend. Valley of the Kings is a non-profit big-cat rescue located in southeastern Wisconsin, near the towns of Darien and Sharon, close to the Illinois border and only a short drive from Delavan […]
Read MoreIN a shocking development, there’s a debate raging on the Internet — I know, right? Anyway, a group of self-entitled fanboys are trying to raise money to REMAKE The Last Jedi. The Star Wars movie that JUST CAME OUT a couple of months ago. Disney apparently did it wrong, according to these folks. The first […]
Read MoreYeesh; I went to add a new post today, and couldn’t log in. I called my hosting service, and they discovered activity that suggests a brute force attack was underway to try to take control of my website. The IT guy I spoke with suggested it was common practice to break in and use a […]
Read MoreThis past Monday, May 28, was Memorial Day here in the US. It’s a Federal holiday, so a great many people enjoy the day off. It’s a day when we honor our war dead, and the patriotic displays can often be overwhelming. It also happens to be the weekend of WisCon, what used to be […]
Read MoreWriting villains is easy. Writing GOOD villains is substantially more difficult. As with any character, they need to have a reason to exist, and often a reason for their evil. They have to have motivations that are grounded in reality, motivations that make sense. Even if that sense is twisted, we still have to be […]
Read MoreAs if the title weren’t obvious enough, this post contains harsh language and depressing themes. Be warned. ***** It occurs to me that, more and more, Americans (and possibly the world) revel in being complete jerks to other people. Cries of “He speaks his mind.” or “She tells it like it is!” seem to be […]
Read MoreI was having a discussion recently with an acquaintance. She had asked about my published fiction, and I was explaining that, so far, I’ve had two short stories published, and was working on a couple more, plus a novel. She replied that she never reads short stories — didn’t like them, in fact. I was […]
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