The Tipsy Techie website has gone to the big domain name recycling center in the sky. That’s a shame, because I think the site had potential. I enjoyed my brief time of writing reviews for her. I was also pleased with the reviews I wrote, so I’m going to re-post them here. If they prove popular, perhaps I will add more (given the title of this website and all).
Steven M Saus, head of Alliteration Ink, is putting together a charity anthology to raise money for Greg Campbell, a writer, Navy veteran, and single parent. You see, Greg recently lost everything in a house fire. This fire happened not long after his wife died. I can’t imagine the strain such back to back tragedies would cause. Greg’s relatives set up crowdfunding campaign to help get him back on his feet. The details of it can be found here.
I’ve put my money where my mouth is and donated to the cause. More than that, I’ve given Steven permission to reprint my story, “Fangirl”, in the anthology. Even if you already own a copy of Sidekicks!, I urge you to consider purchasing this anthology. Those who contribute $25 or more will receive a copy of Life After Ashes. This book will have stories from over 50 authors including Lucy A Snyder, Nisi Shawl, Gary Graunbeck, and Tobias Buckell.
More details can be found on Alliteration Ink’s tumbler page here.
The fundraiser only has 17 more days left. After February 2nd, the book will not be available again. Even if you can’t afford $25, please consider donating what you can. Thank you!
There’s no other way to say it. 2014 was terrible for me. I lost Chaos, who was my best friend outside of my wife, to cancer. My wife had to have surgery on her foot. Despite our health insurance, this resulted in a flood of medical bills that taxed our finances after paying for Chaos’s treatment. And then, thanks to the policies of my wife’s employer, all the work done by the surgery was reversed because my wife was faced with the choice of either going back to work too soon or be unemployed. Our year in health finished out by me learning that someone very near and dear to my heart has a terminal illness they have been hiding from everyone. Continue reading
Several weeks back I wrote up a review of Context, a local convention with an emphasis on speculative fiction writing. At the end of the post, I encouraged people to attend next year. I’m afraid I’m going to have to rescind that recommendation. Continue reading
After the fourth straight day of seeing picture after picture in my Facebook feed of dogs up for adoption, I approached my wife.
“I get the feeling you’re trying to tell me something.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“The dog posts in Facebook. You keep “liking” posts about dogs up for adoption. You want to rescue another dog.”
While we had taught Chaos and Jessie a fair number of behaviors over the years, there was one trick they had taught my wife in return: The Bashful, Apologetic Eyes. She used it then, in response to my assertion. She followed it up with a pout filled, “yeah”. Continue reading
OK, maybe calling it “fan art” is a bit of stretch, but my friend, artist and web designer, Pete Vasquez drew the following portrait of Friedrich Von Krieger from my story, “The Pro Turned Weird.”
If you haven’t read it yet, you can find it over at the Stupefying Stories SHOWCASE.
I’d worked on the story for a good number of years, and Pete lived with me with during some of that time. I think he was just as happy as I was to see the story get a good home. Thanks, Pete!
Check it out, it’s free to read!
Stupefying Stories SHOWCASE
I’m going to share with you an Ohio secret. It’s not a big secret, and it’s certainly not a secret because people don’t like to talk about it. Quite the opposite, in fact. Yet, somehow, not enough folks know about it. It’s Context, a convention dedicated to the world of speculative fiction with a special emphasis on writing. Continue reading
I meant to write this months ago while Chaos was still alive. Yet, like so many other things in my life, I put it off thinking there was always tomorrow. Now tomorrow has come and I am without the most loving boy I have ever known. Chaos loved. There wasn’t a single person he met that he didn’t love. He knew the names of each of my friends. Each week on Thursday night he would become excited because he knew they were coming, even if no one told him, “It’s Thursday” (which would send him into a barking, corgi-butt wagging fit). Yet as much as he enjoyed hanging out with my D&D buddies, he loved our neighbors and their small herd of chihuahuas like family. Hanging out at their house was absolutely his favorite activity. Because of this, three years ago my wife and I thought he would like a fur brother of his own. So we started looking at rescue sites. After several weeks of searching, this photograph appeared in one of my feeds. Continue reading
I’m afraid to say that last night our beloved corgi-bear, Chaos, succumbed to the side effects of his cancer. As I’d written previously, the summer months brought with them a series of small nose bleeds. We all hoped that they were merely due to allergies, but as the months wore on they grew more and more frequent. Continue reading