GARY PRESLEY

Don't Eat the Elephant in the Room!

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:15:00 +0000

A comment about the recent post regarding James E. McWilliams' book, Just Food, noted that, "he ignores the elephant in the room--overpopulation. Even if everyone in the world turned vegetarian overnight, every year the world's population would continue to grow at an ever-faster rate."

Actually, McWilliams does speak to that issue, mostly in relation to the energy and land (which would need to be cleared/converted) required to produce meat for the earth's current population as well as the population growth expected. For example, "grains produce between 1.5 to 2.5 food calories for every calorie of fossil fuel burned."

Conversely, even "the production of range-fed beef requires 3 calories of fossil fuel for every 1 calorie of meat produced." Worse, feedlot cattle require 33 calories of fossil fuel.

The situation is complicated by the fact when a nation's income increases -- think China -- the demand for meat skyrockets. That means converting more land to grow cattle, with all the inefficiency of energy use expanded further.

McWilliams does advocate a concerted effort to increase "aquaculture" -- that is, fish farming, a technique for which he offers figures illustrating its superior efficiency.

Thus, it is evident that McWilliams is not advocating the cessation of meat consumption world-wide. He simply says there is a better way than clearing the Amazon basin for pasture or confining hundreds of thousands of cattle to feedlots and applying growth hormones and antibiotics.

If you cannot afford to buy a copy, I urge you to check the book out and read it when it arrives at your local library.

Just Food author James McWilliams also has an opinion piece in the Washington Post.
Read his opinion piece at this link.
Read the IRB's review of Just Food at this link.

A Book Review: Just Food

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:24:00 +0000

I had the good luck to be assigned James McWilliams' Just Food for a review in this month's Internet Review of Books. It's a superbly argued thesis advocating a thorough rethinking of how human beings approach the idea of food.

If you cannot afford to buy a copy, I urge you to check the book out and read it when it arrives at your local library.

Just Food author James McWilliams also has an opinion piece in today's Washington Post.

Read his opinion piece at this link.

Read the IRB's review of Just Food at this link.

Just Food ... ?

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:58:00 +0000

Click here for material on the book from Amazon.

Those interested in how food arrives on one's table should be interested in my review of the new book, James E. McWilliams' Just Food, which will be published by The Internet Review of Books in its November issue, which will be available on the 15th of November.

I find Just Food an excellent scientific analysis of something I think I understood instinctively, and it speaks intelligently to both meanings of its title.

Year of the Dog, II

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:47:00 +0000

Naptime for Daisy Girl

It is interesting to watch the interaction of the new Boxer puppy with our older dogs. We have two Boston terriers, a nine-year-old female and a four-year-old male. The female is the Alpha dog, and she has began disciplining the young Boxer, now firmly named Daisy.

A snap! A hard growl! And the older dog is allowed first out the door or the preferred place on the afghan at the foot of the bed.

We've been told that "bully breed" dogs do not settle well with same-gender companions. That was why we chose the male Boston when our retired racing Greyhound died. But frankly, I'm not one much for male dogs. I dislike the tendency to mark, and I find female dogs generally more focused and intelligent.

That's why Daisy is a girl Boxer. That, and my wife's instruction "No more male dogs!" Apparently she cannot tolerate the occasion squirt on the back of the couch.

But we're noticing no special fractiousness between the two females presently, even though each has a genetic line reaching back to the English bulldog or the English bull and terrier. Oddly enough, both the Boxer and the Boston were stabilized as breeds in the late 19th century, the Boston first apparently from the English bulldog crossed with a terrier resulting in the foundation sire of "Hooper's Judge."

Boxers are German, and reportedly a cross between the English bulldog and a breed called Bullenbeissesr.

It's interesting to think about these bloodlines evolving into companion animals. Bullenbeissers -- bull biter -- apparently were larger versions of the English bulldog, a fighting dog meant to bite and hang onto a much larger animal. I've seen that tendency only once in this pack. Kitty, the female Boston, once clamped herself onto the jaw of a Great Dane who moved to close to my wheelchair, and she had to be pried loose.

The Year of the Dog, I

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:54:00 +0000

We are dog people, my wife and I. I am so by nature. I have had dogs since I was six. She says she was free of the disease until infected by me.

We now have another dog, a Boxer puppy, a young female who came into our life because six years ago my wife met a handsome Boxer named Trooper in a hotel elevator in Rochester, Minnesota. Since we have moved from Springfield, and we now have room for a large fenced area, Belinda scratched her six year itch by acquiring Daisy.

And so now, there is this: I am enthralled with Daisy's behavior, her interaction with the other dogs (a male and female Boston terrier, both adults), and her integration into the pack that lives in this house (which besides the dogs includes a cat and four adults). Because I often think in terms of story, I have skated close to the idea of writing an imitation of Marley and Me, and calling it The Year of the Dog.

Is there not something about any dog that begs for a story to be told?

We have already Belinda's choice of Daisy from a litter of thirteen "because she had sad eyes."
We have my curiosity about Boxers specifically, and particularly about the anthropomorphic-inspiring qualities of the Brachycephalic breeds.
We have my wife's resolution that young Daisy be crated rather than given a place amongst the terriers at the foot of our bed, a decision that lasted until the second night when howls shook the windows.

Another Bit of Flash Fiction Published at Camroc Press Review

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:20:00 +0000

I Could See My Blood

Beth wore blue jeans and a pale pink bra when she slapped me. And the rest was familiar too. Our bedroom, hardwood floors, the desk and the lamp, and our wedding picture above the bed. Beth's black hair, ice pale eyes afire, the weight of her breasts, and the slope of her belly, and the cradle of her hips.

Read the complete piece at this link.

Congratulating Peter Singer

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:00:00 +0000

There is an article in The Daily Princetonian celebrating Peter Singer's ten year anniversary at that institution.

Of no special import, this article, other than it accused one of the groups leading the opposition to Singer's appointment -- the disability rights organization, Not Dead Yet -- of staging "violent protests."

The misstatement has been retracted, but it is interesting to read the article and see (if the quotes are more accurate than the words about Not Dead Yet) how many students and graduates were captured by Singer's utilitarian logic.

Of course, many people who dissect Singer's work -- for example, his theoretical idea that infanticide in certain circumstances is the proper choice -- will recognize he wrenches utilitarianism into a corkscrew twisted enough to fit through the keyhole of logic.

Were we to substitute any other class of people -- chronic alcoholics, those with five felony convictions, those in permanent custodial care because of mental disease, etc. -- for infants born with disabilities no doubt we would see support dwindle rapidly away for his so-called philosophy.

Read the article here.
Read Not Dead Yet's response here.

Less "Wheelchair-Bound" Than Before

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:43:00 +0000

The issue of the so-called "Dignity Wheelchair" came up for discussion about people with disabilities who can sometimes influence the media. One person took action, Brewster Thackeray, AARP's Disability Community Liaison.

Thackeray wrote me, "I just had a good chat with Jeff Deutscher, the media contact at Dignity Medical Services. Very nice guy. He was not familiar with disability terminology but was highly receptive to the points I made and felt they were very helpful. He and I did some marketing brainstorming and I shared a lot of disability perspective. He understood that both from a disability advocacy and an AARP-style caretaking perspective the term wheelchair-bound is misguided. He has promised to revise that term and also change "the disabled" to people with disabilities. I also learned a bit more about the product, which itself sounds rather promising."

I appreciated his action, especially since I didn't act myself. But, as I told him, the name "Dignity" continues to rubs me the wrong way, to coin a phrase. As far as I am concerned, evacuation of one's bowels or bladder is "dignity-neutral," and to imply that I need a certain type of potty/shower chair to preserve such doesn't suit my idea of myself.

Thackeray responded. "I don't use a wheelchair myself, though I have a disproportionate number of friends who do. The name didn't rub me the wrong way. I agree with you that going to the loo should be dignity-neutral, but I have seen how avoidable transfers can cut into the dignity both of the chair user and caretakers. I totally respect of course that transfers are often needed, and even desirable for circulation, etc., which is a separate discussion topic. But I can see how this chair in some circumstances could help avoid "indignifying" situations."

Perhaps I am overly radical.

An Undignified Observation

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:16:00 +0000

I keep a Google Alert running for "confined to a wheelchair" and "wheelchair bound" simply because [1] I don't like the terms and [2] I am curious about how they are still used in the English language.

This press release came up via my alert settings earlier this week, and after I read it I found it was garnished with phrases that irk.

After reading the release, I was found myself mulling over the name of the device -- "Dignity Wheelchair."

I began to think the designation might be sufficiently inelegant enough to fit a company who would send out a press release with "wheelchair bound" in the first paragraph. I am still not sure how I feel about the ... indignity of the release later using the possibility of decreasing workman's compensation costs as part of the chair's selling point.

I admit to being undignified. And more often than I would like. Nevertheless, I tend to believe that neither using a wheelchair nor the necessity of urinating or evacuating my bowels subtracts from my dignity nor differentiates me from the billions of other human beings who travel with me on this mortal coil.

Thus, I have no reason to believe that I actually need -- or require -- a special wheelchair in order to move within polite society. Dignity arises from how we act rather than how we look. I imagine Bernie Madoff looked quite dignified in the custom-tailored suits his Ponzi-scheme investment scam allowed him to purchase.

Monkeys as Service Animals

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:42:00 +0000

photograph linked to the story on the Springfield News-Leader website.

The local "monkey as service animal" case made the radio talk show to which I listen today, and Richard the Monkey earned one pro and one con vote from the hosts. In relation to "service animal," the rules are both general and specific. From an ADA Business Brief:

Service animals are animals that are individually trained to perform tasks for people with disabilities such as guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling wheelchairs, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, or performing other special tasks. Service animals are working animals, not pets.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), businesses and organizations that serve the public must allow people with disabilities to bring their service animals into all areas of the facility where customers are normally allowed to go. This federal law applies to all businesses open to the public, including restaurants, hotels, taxis and shuttles, grocery and department stores, hospitals and medical offices, theaters, health clubs, parks, and zoos.

Traditionally, we seem to think of service animals as "guide dogs," but dogs do other things, including compensating for limited range of motion. With the historical "seeing eye dog" in mind, we often leap to the conclusion that all service animals are dogs.

A friend recently posted a comment, in fact, suggesting a further definition -- that is, only dogs of a certain breed might be qualified. Reading the government's text, though, leads to the inference that other animals might be service animals, at least in a sense that access must be available to them.

An aside: our family rescued a retired racing Greyhound dog about 20 years ago. It fell to me to walk him around the neighborhood for exercise. When people would ask me, "What kind of dog is that?" I would reply, "He's my seeing leg dog."

A most interesting intellectual exercise, however, is to read the actual court decision in the "Is Richard the Monkey a Service Animal?" case. The judge avoided making law -- that is, he avoided deciding whether a monkey-not-Richard might be considered a service animal. Instead he suggested, first, that the plaintiff did not have a disability, and second, that Richard had no service animal training and did not perform any task other provided the same sort of comfort and companionship that any other animal considered a "pet" might offer.

A Bonnet Macaque Named Richard

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:09:00 +0000

The Bonnet Macaque from Wikipedia

Here in southwest Missouri, mainly in the city of Springfield, there has been an ongoing dispute about the nature of a service animal. Today a federal district judge ruled that a Macaque monkey is not a service animal in relation to a person with agoraphobia and anxiety disorder who desires to move about unrestricted in the public forum.

The local county health department was involved early on when the person made several attempts to take the monkey into restaurants. Another defendant in the court action was one of the two primary health care providers in the region, CoxHealth.

The news report is somewhat ambivalent in that there's no clear indication that a monkey cannot be recognized as a service animal under any circumstances. The dismissal of the suit seems to rest on the idea that the plaintiff was not disabled as established by law.

In her lawsuit, Rose claimed Richard is a service animal because he helps her deal with agoraphobia and anxiety disorder.

But the judge ruled that although Rose claimed to suffer from the disorders since the 1970s, she married three times, had children and worked at a variety of jobs and was not diagnosed until 2006.

The story in the Springfield News-Leader can be read at this link. Below the story are several comments, mostly derogatory personal attacks against the woman claiming disability.

Monkeys, of course, have been used as service animals for several decades, mostly in-home and to carry out physical chores for people with mobility disabilities. The plaintiff in this case apparently uses the monkey (the service animal) as psychological support.

Granting that her disability is real and that the monkey allows her to cope with it in some respect -- or to state it this way: that the monkey is a service animal meant to compensate for disability -- I am not sure that the animal should be allowed in facilities where food is served or in other places where transmission of bacteria or viruses might adversely influence a critical environment.

This monkey may be a descendant of a line of tamed ancestors, but it is a creature that can transmit disease more easily to humans than the standard service animal (dogs). The situation is made worse because tamed monkeys are so rare within the general population that people have not built up a lifetime of tolerance as they have with domesticated animals.

I'll not judge the woman's sincerity. I will say were I in need of a monkey as a service animal I think I would choose not to take it into public venues.

Detective Ironside Never Visited This Place

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:48:00 +0000

A fellow member of a disability-in-the-media discussion list found this photograph on a site called Cheezburger.com.

It reminds me why I always resented the Ironsides television show. Raymond Burr -- Detective Ironsides -- would cruise around town in his custom van (Might it have be subtly racist that his driver was an African American? Of course, Don Mitchell later became a police officer and attorney as consciousness was raised among the writers.) and stopped at various venues.

The next shot? Ironisides indoors.

I've spent enough time outside of people's houses and public places to know that only the American with Disabilities Act opened doors for people who use wheelchairs.

Too bad these people didn't remember it.

And yes, I know the shot was probably taken from a perspective that obscured the ramp.

Book Review Published

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:07:00 +0000

LIFE IN THE RING:
Lessons and Inspiration from the Sport of Boxing
By John E. Oden
Illustrated by Brooke Adams
224 pp. Hatherleigh Press $15.00

Life in the Ring is John Oden’s second book on the sweet science. Oden also penned White Collar Boxing: One Man’s Journey from the Office to the Ring.

A cynic might offer the opinion that Oden’s quest to find an audience while writing about boxing seems quixotic in this world where mixed martial arts dominate the sports page when it comes to fighting—unless another big name team player is in court because of a drunken nightclub brawl.

Life in the Ring tilts at an even more illusory windmill. Oden wants to discover universal life lessons in a sport few modern fans seem to follow.

Read the complete review here.

"Presley Is Not a Prose Stylist"

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:30:00 +0000

A review in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, which is more supportive than the sentence would suggest, especially since the reviewer soon comes describes one section with "This fear is ever-present and palpable, and lends what Presley writes an incantatory quality."

Names

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:49:00 +0000

The tradition in our family is to allow the animals that join the gang to tell us their names. Two decades ago our first cat told us her name on the drive home after we bought her. She was "Silky."

The first dog came by his name of "Beemer" because my wife wanted a BMW, and a dog was cheaper than a German import.

The newest cat, rescued from the jaws of death as manifested by a miniature Daschund, moved in two days ago, but she has yet to present her ID.

One member said she looks like a "Stormy."

Too prosaic, I thought.

Another person offered "Peaches."

I thought her name might be "Pinky," but she only answered to that because I had a jar lid full of canned mackerel in my hand.

Mice and Cat

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:07:00 +0000

It seems that a move to a house on two-and-half acres as the cold weather sweeps down from Canada means the newly-ensconced family will welcome uninvited guests in the form of the creature Walt Disney named Mickey.

But the Mick's untamed cousins carry disease, and so it was off to the local general store for mouse traps we went. It takes effort to search out the old fashioned spring and snap wooden types. Now we're offered $5 versions of the better-built mousetrap, which happen to be elaborately gated single-use plastic affairs shaped like an igloo doghouse.

And so came the cat -- or rather, the kitten, a female part-Siamese 12-week-old pink-collared Daschund-reject. A friend of one of my wife's co-workers apparently bought our nameless kitten as a companion for her long-haired miniature Daschund, who promptly and relentlessly attempted to assassinate his new feline roommate. The kitten needed a new home. My wife was seduced.

Nameless (supposedly called Casey by the Daschund's owner) is presently living in our bedroom and bathroom, enjoying chicken tidbits and learning the location of the cat box.

Our two Boston terriers have offered a mixed response. Kitty, the older female Boston, generally ignores her. Kitty was raised with a Siamese female and a Siamese-Manx cross. Doc, the younger male, is curious, and somewhat excited, although not so intent on violence as when a dog invades his territory.

Helen Keller Honored

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:39:00 +0000

One of the ironies of life on this mortal coil is that heroes are flawed. This week Helen Keller became the first person with a disability to be honored with a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda during which a statue bearing her likeness was unveiled. It’s the first statue in the Capitol showing a person with a disability.

She might have been the most highly visible person with a disability in the United States early in the 20th century, doing much by her accomplishments that disability can be irrelevant to a life lived in full. Oddly, though, Keller had a Peter Singer-like utilitarian approach to some elements of disability.

From Exceptional Family, Canada's Resource Magazine for Parents of Exceptional Children.

Among those high-profile supporters cited by Dowbiggin were utilitarian philosopher Robert G. Ingersoll, biologist and early eugenics heavyweight Charles Davenport, Food and Drug Administrator Harvey Wiley and Margaret Sanger, the founder of the American Birth Control League which eventually became Planned Parenthood. Other supporters were Helen Keller and civil rights lawyer Clarence Darrow, who advocated in 1915 that it was just to "chloroform unfit children . . . [and] show them the same mercy that is shown beasts that are no longer fit to live."

In this discussion it is perhaps interested to remember that Keller wasn't born "unfit." It is believed she lost her sight and hearing in early childhood as a result of Scarlet fever.

Here is a link to the ceremony honoring Keller.

Interstates and Other Places

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:24:00 +0000

Family called, and we saddled up our van for a five hour trip up US Highway 54, which crosses Missouri but also coincidentally runs three blocks from my teenage home in El Paso, Texas and through the middle of the town where my father was raised, Hooker, in Oklahoma's panhandle.

We can catch Highway 54 north of Buffalo at Macks Creek, and follow it southwest to northeast across Missouri, through the Lake of the Ozarks (a rich man's playground as evidenced by lakefront condos and boats with six-figure price tags), the state capitol of Jefferson City (where any traveler should stop to enjoy the Thomas Hart Benton mural in the capitol building), then skirting the edge Mexico (the city where our Senator Bond's family made a fortune in the brick business).

East of Mexico, the land grows flat and the row crops grow prolific, mainly soybeans and corn. And between Mexico and Bowling Green, there seemed to be dozens of fields of specially-identified soybeans. "Specially identified" means set number of rows (or perhaps whole fields) are marked by seed companies to monitor growth. One quarter-section apparently was planted with more than a dozen different hybrids, and on the third day of October, they were in different stages of maturity.

The only harvesting we saw was corn picking. East of Bowling Green, the land begins to fall away toward the river city of Louisiana, Missouri, and there are fewer row crops. The old highway, US Highway 54, wasn't especially busy, but there were a number of pickups, some with trailers, some not; some with dog boxes; some with four wheelers. Those who know say waterfowl numbers are exceeding wetland capacity, and so I assume duck and goose season is open.

Louisiana, Missouri (home of the famous Stark Brothers Nurseries) appears less prosperous than some other Missouri cities, but the two-lane bridge that crosses the Mississippi carries travelers past a large marina filled with runabouts, cruisers, and even large houseboats and cabin crusiers. But there's no city big enough to attract corporate franchises until a person reaches Pittsfield, Illinois.

The sign appears at the edge of the highway in the one-stop town of Atlas, Illinois, between Louisiana and Pittsfield. In the near 800-mile round-trip, though, we saw no worms, multiple great blue herons migrating south, and only one Amish family buggy-traveling west between Louisiana and Bowling Green.

America is there, but it isn't on the Interstates.

Seven Wheelchairs: A Review

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:10:00 +0000

A sophisticated and insightful review of Seven Wheelchairs: A Life beyond Polio is now appearing in Eclectica under the byline of the Canadian writer Niranjana Iyer.

Presley states that the aim of his book is to "show that a life disabled is a life worth living." But this work calls to my mind Socrates words—that the unexamined life is not worth living. Presley meticulously analyzes every instance where his actions and attitudes fell short of his own (very high) standards.

Read the complete review here.

"Look! It's Magic!"

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:21:00 +0000

I have always been intrigued with how children respond to a visible disability, something I notice because my power wheelchair attracts attention where it goes. I wrote a guest post about children and disability perceptions recently for a busy blog called Ramblings of a Texas Housewife.

Find it at this link.

The Cure: "The Holy Grail"

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:36:00 +0000

Disability "cure" has been in the news of late. There's a long piece in Newsweek about a man with a spinal code injury who has evolved away from the idea of a remedy to repair a spinal code injury will be found in his lifetime. And in the New York Times, there is a long article about scientific work to find mechanical/electronic devices to compensate for blindness.

The stories touch on an element of living the life disabled that has troubled me since the time I was pulled from the iron lung and set free to roll my way home. I cannot recall ever having a desire for cure. In fact, I don't think I ever believed in the possibility of cure. I naively prayed for a miracle, of course, but ... at some point, I decided to live within the mystery of What Is.

Along the way, though, I have met people with disabilities, or read work by people with disabilities, who offer the thought that they would not accept a cure, would not accept a miracle, would not change from living with a disability to living with full physical function.

I thought the statement disingenuous at best. It doubtless is a reflection on my character and my flawed emotional state that such statements would frustrate me to the point of anger.

Don't they know what they are missing?

I did. I remembered running. No, better. I remembered being able to do for myself all that I cannot do now -- being independent of other people, which in some way is a fallacy discussed in a recent post.

I am no longer angered by such statements, although I've yet to grow to the point that I comprehend the complexity of their meaning or that I can visualize the strength of character, the equanimity of spirit that allows a person to express that thought with sincerity.

What I do comprehend is that a rush to cure -- a choice of cure over services -- works against the full integration of people with disabilities into society.

But that's another discussion.

Re-Thinking Independence

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:52:00 +0000

William Loughborough writes in the current issue of Independence Today about how language can sometimes define the perception of disability in society.

For the first few years of our lives, all of us are totally dependent on others for survival. Then, after discovering that we can survive without a full-time personal attendant -- usually "Mommy” -- we think that we are fully independent.

Read the complete essay here.

An Interesting Piece on End-of-Life Care

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:50:00 +0000

Timothy Egan, a former reporter for the New York Times, continues to blog for the newspaper. His blog post yesterday provided an insight into end-of-life issues, as filtered through the family experience of a physician who happens to be the governor of Oregon.

What I especially appreciated was a comment by a bioethicist, Dr. Colleen Clements, which is worth reading after reading the Egan piece.

My own thoughts are that Dr. Clements comment highlights the idea that the motivation in restricting end-of-life care is financial rather than the comfort of the patient. The governor's parents were allowed to make their own decision. His mother was not required to leave the hospital because it was too expensive to treat her.

I might make the same choice to refuse some measure of treatment. I wouldn't want to be denied the right to have that choice.

Tips on Selling Short Stories from Michael Bracken

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:33:00 +0000

Michael Bracken, who has published more than 800 short stories, is guest-blogging today at Slueth's Ink Mystery Writer's Blog. Read his thirteen tips answering the question, Has Anybody Seen My Shorts?

Now Appearing at "Selling Books"

garypresley@gmail.com (Gary) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:23:00 +0000

A few things I learned while attempting to market Seven Wheelchairs: A Life beyond Polio appear as a "how to" article on the website Selling Books.

You written a book? Now what? Surprise! A book author’s work increases post-publication. And the most important facet of that job is understanding that selling the book is mostly about selling yourself.

Read the list here.