Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,

Men were deceivers ever;

One foot in sea, and one on shore,

To one thing constant never.

Then sigh not so,

But let them go,

And be you blith and bonny,

Converting all your sounds of woe

Into Hey nonny, nonny.

--Shakespeare

The 15th crept upon me unawares, so this will be a short one.

I traveled to the sunny north and trod long roads south and east to arrive back at Byzantium. This week I leave for the blazing heat of the place named for the saint who slew the dragon. I don't go to slay dragons but to see the final child joined in matrimony.

I've got two stories being reviewed before I add the finishing touches and send them off for consideration in two different publications. I'm trying to figure out which short story I want to write next; I've already ruled out a couple of the calls, but I'm still thinking about some others.

I finished Sax Rohmer's Fire Tongue last week. I got the book thinking it was something in the medieval fantasy genre--probably the dragon on the cover gave me that impression. It's more of a mystery-thriller tale. The major players are the private detective, the strange American, the wealthy Englishman and his daughter, the mysterious man of the orient, and the British police detective. Although I found it interesting, ultimately, it didn't satisfy me. After the mystery had wrapped up, there was an unanswered question that was answered by more than three chapters of one of the characters telling the tale of what had happened to him many years before--and it seemed like too far to go. That tale should've been presented earlier, but the teller had sworn not to tell--thus keeping some important information from the reader until the mystery of the murder was solved.

If you haven't read my own noir mystery novel with a dash of humor, let me recommend it. If you won't take my word for it, you can read what Sarah had to say about it. Scroll down to see her new review.

That reminds me that I listened to a Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer story on the long trip last week. I forget the title, but I believe the final body count was 5.

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Let me close with a couple memes about Canada--I better share them before the tariffs get too high. Even though I love the French language, I can still understand the sentiment of this first meme: