Before I get to a review of the movie, I note that everything seems to be on fire. Roaring flames encroach on the old homestead across the state and evacuation notices are in place there; the hiking trail I wrote about in the previous post in on the...

"I knew the histories well enough to know that folks who pounded desks and yelled “Unity” a lot usually just wanted everyone else to shut up and do what they were told." - A Kiss for Damocles, from chapter 18, by Kenton Pierce.I just finished reading...

   That mound of gray material atop the rock, according to the sign, is ash that was all hot and sticky and formed a kind of concretesque substance when it got compacted. I didn't get to go up and examine it closely because...

  The picture isn't from Writers Cantina, it's one I created from a scene in my book, Accidental Wizard, which will be published in September.___________  I had planned to be on the road by 3 pm. The assistant who...

"[H]is instinct fortunately telling him that it was better to understand little than to misunderstand a lot.""I have enemies, and I am proud of it. I think I have deserved them."The two quotes above are from The Revolt of Angels by Anatole France. I...

 Thomas R. Yarborough's A Shau Valor takes you to the action that brought individuals recognition with wards of Congressional Medals of Honor and other distinctions for courage, bravery, and service. A lot of those recipients received the aw...

  It's pretty good, but I think it's fake.This email praising my work, I mean. This time the praise is for Crisis in Fire and Snow - the most recent novel in the Tomahawks and Dragon Fire Series. Hello Stanley Wheeler,AMAZI...

I'd like to be the sort of man the flag could boast about;I'd like to be the sort of man it cannot live without;I'd like to be the type of manThat really is American:The head-erect and shoulders-square,Clean-minded fellow, just and fair,That all men...

 I realize not everyone is a fan of Shakespeare's Hamlet, but everyone is entitled to their opinion--even a wrong one. So, if you don't find that message above highly amusing, you'll need to read the play or the posts I've done about adaptat...

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"By all their swords, by all their scars,By all their names, a mighty spell!By all their wounds, by all their wars,Arise, the mighty strain to tell!For, fiercer than fierce Hengist's strain,More impious than the heathen Dane,More grasping than all-gr...

                                     Battle of Dresden, by Thomas Char...

  Before I get to my review of Tim Powers' Declare, I must report on the weekend doings.Comedienne got baptized on Saturday and asked me to do the honors while her other grandpa performed the confirmation. I got to reacquaint myself...

'E lifted up my 'ead,An' he plugged me where I bled,An' 'e guv me 'arf-a-pint o' water-green:It was crawlin' and it stunk,But of all the drinks I've drunk,I'm gratefullest to one from Gunga Din.   It was "Din! Din! Din!--From "Gunga Di...

  The unboxing continues at Xanadu. It's nothing like the Battle of the Pyramids pictured above, except for the chaotic nature of the job. I unloaded three boxes in the garage and another three in the basement. I'm finding books and...