The Penultimate Genius

Cities of the Dead Update

2012-04-19T09:40:00.004-04:00

Cities of the Dead Update

I was going to write five more.

I've written four more.

No more.

Time to get everything bundled, edited, re-written, proofed, and all the other associated work that needs to be done to get the series up and out the door as both a paperback an eBook by the end of May.

The last of the Final Four is tentatively called "What Hristo Gruev Saw." Yup: the only character in more than one story finally gets his "own" story.

I wonder if anyone will notice?

Although, I think fans of the series will go bonkers over "The Coroner's Report" and "The Only Way Out is Through." Those two are about 40 pages of zombie goodness that you have never seen before.

Valley Forge: I've Been There, Too

2012-04-03T10:07:00.001-04:00

Valley Forge: I've Been There, Too

At first, I thought this book was over-written. The details of the first few months in Valley Forge seemed to be repeated every fifth paragraph as a means of beating it into the reader's head that it was cold, terrible, cold, freezing, sleety, snowy and miserable. I got the point. Otherwise, it was a well-written, well-paced story that follows the birth of the "professional" Continental Army during the stay at Valley Forge while telling the parallel tell of the British in Philadelphia going soft.

For some reason, I thought that with Newt Gingrich as co-author it would tend to be over-the-top patriotic/jingoistic, but it wasn't at all. You get a nice, though fictionalized, personification of Washington and the other men (and, to a smaller extent, women) who were struggling to birth the United States of America which brings them some sense of "real person" that you miss in history class.

The story ends with the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse, which was the first engagement of the new US army against the British. For those unfamiliar with the tactics of the times, the battle was more than simply two lines of soldiers shooting at each other, and the authors do an excellent job of putting you on the battlefield and seeing how the troops moved and fought.

Definitely recommended if you like historical fiction that tries to focus on the history more than the fiction.

Signs of the Coming Obamaclpyse and the Leftist Extinction Event

2012-03-30T08:35:00.004-04:00

Signs of the Coming Obamaclpyse and the Leftist Extinction Event

Signs of the Obamaclpyse are everywhere, and they are encouraging in that people - average, normal, ordinary people - are fully aware of what this Democrats have been doing to them for the past couple of years under the leadership of Barry Obama.

HotAir notes that Peggy Noonan - who I normally don't give a crap about and ignore because, like most pundits, it's easier to ignore her than engage her - has changed her mind about B. Hussein O's years at the helm. To wit, he seems to have gone from technocratic post-racial charmer to shameless huckster: "What is happening is that the president is coming across more and more as a trimmer, as an operator who's not operating in good faith."

He's also finally exposed himself fully to the reality that he's little more than an anti-white racist class warrior. But if you knew what church he went to in Chicago for all those years, you already knew this.

Steven Hayward notes that this last month or so has been especially bad for the left and Obama. Not that the media pointed this out to you, mind you. Like reading Pravda in the USSR, you had to read between-the-lines to figure out what was happening - that is, if you still consume MSM bilge.

Of course, purging the government of leftists of all stripes at this point would only be at the elected level. It will take years of work to weed them out of the bureaucracies, maybe decades. And that requires the right's candidates to be willing to take the fight to these ideological hacks, which all-too-often they don't want to do: just look at Mittens Romney's approach to Obama. This is the point in the battle where you throw your reserves in and deal the hammer blow that shatters the enemy line, but the Republicans seem content with little more than a meeting engagement.

Yeah, there's still a long way to go and "anything" can happen, but I can't see a way for the Democrats to maintain their grasp on power without massive cheating or a total collapse by Republicans. And, to be honest, both of those scenarios are highly plausible.

Another of the Final Five Revealed

2012-03-28T16:15:00.003-04:00

Another of the Final Five Revealed

Okay, finished the rough draft of the second of the final five zombie shorts for the Cities of the Dead anthology. I'm thinking I may just get the whole shebang done and published in paper and eBook by the end of May, and since "May" was the original target date, I'm still on track.

This one is tentatively titled "The Road," though I'm not sure that it'll stay so titled. Most of the shorts have started with a working title and then been renamed in the days leading to release. This one is about 12 pages.

Find the series on Smashwords and Amazon.

Math is Hard

2012-03-25T09:28:00.002-04:00

Math is Hard

The inevitability of the spineless RINO known as Mitt Romney continues apace:

(CNN) -- Rick Santorum's convincing win in Louisiana's GOP primary does little to change the delegate math that has rival Mitt Romney with a more than 2-to-1 lead, raising questions about whether he can generate broader appeal to win the nomination.
...
But the road ahead is a difficult one for Santorum, who is slogging it out in what has become a game of numbers to clinch the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.
...
Going into Louisiana, Romney had 563 delegates, more than twice the 251 Santorum had.
...
But the big question remains whether Santorum's showing in Louisiana will matter much, given Romney's huge delegate lead.

"Huge delegate lead?" Okay. Sure. Whatever. Let it play out. This primary is far from over, and Mittens is hardly a lock for the spot at the top of the R ticket.

The Signal now out in eBook on Kindle

2012-03-22T08:39:00.001-04:00

The Signal now out in eBook on Kindle

Got a Kindle or a Kindle app? You know you do. March 22 is the day you can get a copy of my first published novel FREE for Kindle.

Think you'll never read it? Just download it anyway! It helps my stats and its in your library on that rainy day when the latest purchase turns lame and you need something new.

Bonus: You can say you know the author at your next cocktail party.

Deadbeats at the Gate

2012-03-19T08:49:00.002-04:00

Deadbeats at the Gate

Sigh:

The Corbett Administration plans to reinstate an asset test on May 1 as a way to ensure that people with a certain amount of cash or other assets top those dollars first before dipping into the pool of tax dollars.

Food stamp eligibility here is now defined solely by income. If the state moves forward with the change, people under age 60 holding more than $5,500 in cash or certain other assets would lose eligibility for food stamps. For those age 60 and older, the threshold would be $9,000.

A person’s home, a first car or funds being saved for a child’s education would all be exempted from the assets test, but it could include a family’s second vehicle worth more than $4,650 and other personal property such as a boat or plane.

Sadly, there are Republicans - some Bucks County douchebag named DiGirolamo, namely - who think that it would be mean to require people who have - what's it called? Oh yeah: money and wealth and assets - to pay for their own food. You know, it's too bad if you have to sell your plane or second car to come up with the money to pay for your food, but you should count yourself lucky you had such things to sell so that you could feed yourself and your family.

That there are legislators who think we the government should be feeding people based on how much money they have is outrageous. But as the article notes, there's no shortage of moochers looking to take whatever they can steal from the taxpayers of the state (and the flow-through federal funds, too):

At a public hearing Thursday, a battery of witnesses argued that reinstating an asset test — last used for the food stamp program in Pennsylvania in 2008 — would change the program from being a support for all kinds of households having financial difficulties, to a last-resort service.

That last bit is rich. The social "safety net" is now a hammock. And those volunteering to lay on it are serfs.

Cities of the Dead Update

2012-03-15T10:27:00.004-04:00

Cities of the Dead Update

Yeah, I know, I don't post much anymore. But, then, the Internet doesn't stop by very often, either, so it's like a wash in the end.

Okay, what have I done? Well, just finished the first draft of the next zombie apocalypse story and am now a couple of pages deep into the one after that. The finished first draft is currently titled "The Coroner's Report" and is probably the most "horror"-ish of the series. The one after that is tentatively called "The Road" and is a normal story of life in the zombie apocalypse, if you will. And then I've got three more to crank out, then rewrite those five, then one last sweep through the whole anthology for last-minute touch-ups and rewrites before publishing the the entirety in May as both paperback and eBook.

That's the plan, anyway.

If you're keeping track, the various stories in the Cities of the Dead series have been downloaded (paid and free) about 7,000 times so far, so I'm getting noticed, especially on the Barnes and Noble website, which accounts for more than 4,200 downloads so far. Reviews have been mostly three stars and up, with the fans at Smashwords being super supportive thus far.

With any luck, I'll make enough money off the full release to buy a Porsche. I'm thinking 911, but my mind can be changed. My wife asked me what color I'm gonna get. I said probably black. But maybe blue?

Contagion: Don't Catch It

2012-03-07T21:40:00.002-05:00

Contagion: Don't Catch It

Holy batsh!t! Started watching Contagion at 8:30 tonight, and by 9:10 was nearly comatose from boredom. *This* is a epidemic thriller? But what really sunk it for me was the various world "health" organizations *instantly* responding to the initial stages of the disease and getting on the case immediately with field work and computer work-ups. Really? Only in a bizarro world propagandized by leftist government fetishists is such a thing imaginable. And, then, it's only "imaginable."

But, then, in *that* world, the US military is an incompetent and corrupt force for evil ... wait for it ... and the US military is run by the same government that employs the super-duper technocrats depicted in this film. I don't get Hollywood: government his the BEST thing ever when it comes to solving social issues and health issues and whatever, but it sucks at running the military, because unlike every other operation the government runs, the military is stuffed with low-IQ malcontents with violence issues and officered by incompetent martinets overseen by venal Pentagon types controlled by the military-industrial complex.

Act of Valor

2012-03-04T22:44:00.001-05:00

Act of Valor

Saw "Act of Valor" today. Excellent movie, awesome battle scenes. The real SEALs don't act that much more poorly than your average Saturday night SyFy channel D-grade creature feature actors do, but the rest of the film is first-rate. My only real complaint is that the plot wasn't thought out well-enough: your average PlayStation US Navy SEALs game has a more coherent plot.

The real selling point is that you're watching actual SEALs do things they really do, the way they really do them. And some of the things they do, even though you might know they do them, you don't really know they *do* them. Cool sh1t.

Democratic Politicians Not Supporters of Democracy

2012-03-01T08:52:00.002-05:00

Democratic Politicians Not Supporters of Democracy

Over the last few years, we've seen a lot of this from the Democratic Party:

Iowa House Democrats protested Republican plans to debate two gun measures on Wednesday by leaving the state Capitol and refusing to return.

They eventually came back, but the funny thing is the Democrats first instinct is to run away when faced with a legislation debate they can't defeat in a floor vote. And, as we've seen at the federal level, when they're in the majority, they just ram whatever legislation they want down the throats of the citizenry, without debate if debate would expose the legislation as being unwanted by the citizenry. As the ObamaCare process showed, they'll also vote against the will of the people on bills none of them have even read.

And, somehow, Democrats think they know what's best for me.

Things to Do in Bridgeport Before Your Dead

2012-02-27T08:41:00.003-05:00

Things to Do in Bridgeport Before Your Dead

Since 2010, I've been retooling my personal life. One of the things I've been doing is teaching myself how to play the guitar. In the time I've been doing this, I've come to the realization I'm not a very good teacher. Or student. Oh, the things I've learned the hard way.

Anyway, I have been making progress and can almost kinda-sorta play the guitar. It's probably more accurate to say that if I continue to progress at the pace I am currently going, I will be able to "play" the guitar sometime within the next year.

This wasn't always going to be the case. I had plateaued last summer into a guitarist who just wasn't able to do fingering very quickly and who had to think too much about making chords. I tried and tried and tried, but was getting nowhere.

And then I got Rocksmith for Christmas and everything changed. You just plug your guitar into your PS3 and read tabs (which I had to learn to read, but learned fairly quickly), and you quickly are addicted to playing real-life rock'n'roll guitar leads. The game builds slowly, if you will, by starting you out with songs and only having you play some of the notes. Actually, this is how it always works. You get a song by some band and the game starts with a note here and there and sees how well you can find it on the fret board.

Then it judges your ability and adds more notes. Then it adds combos. Then chords. All the time, it adds in slides and bends and sustains and sees if you can figure out how to do them. Can't figure it out? There's a tutorial for each song to show you the techniques needed to play the song.

The more you play a song, the more the software evaluates your ability. As you get better, you get more of the notes to try, until you are eventually playing every note and doing every technique.

But the "game" is more than that, as the "game" part of it is you are constantly evolving as an artist, working on playlists to perform at venues in front of "live" audiences. This is the "fun" part of the game, I suppose, and it's kinda neat to see people rocking out to you and recording you with their smartphones. Play a setlist well enough, and you get an encore. I don't know anything about the Guitar Hero/Rock Band games, but I've seen the fake instruments and never been interested in playing.

This is for real. And it's real fun. Especially if you want to learn how to play, which I do. I can't afford weekly instructions, but between this game, the various online tutorials you can find (and, new-to-me Garage Band instructional videos) and some of the how-to books I've been using, I finally feel like I'm making progress. I'm not looking to start a band, but I'd like to be able to sit around and play a song in the backyard while hanging with the family.

Learning to play is something I've wanted to do since I was a kid. I tried to teach myself in college, but ... well, let's just say I didn't have any idea how to teach myself back then, and then my guitar got knocked over and the neck snapped off, ending the endeavor after only a few months.

So, this a "bucket list" bullet point that's being checked off. Next up: SCUBA. Then: skydiving. And possibly: sword fighting (fencing?).

Here Comes the Sun

2012-02-24T08:58:00.003-05:00

Here Comes the Sun

Okay, do we really need to keep explaining that Anthropogenic Global Climate Change is nothing but a shameless attempt by leftist-collectivists (aka - organized crime gangs) to steal money through taxes from those who have money?

Alec Rawls deconstructs the latest attempt by the UN to enforce its worldview that humans are causing the various "changes" in the world's climate. You can click over there and read the whole thing, or you can read this alternate explanation: the sun.

Yup. If you've ever wondered what the primary driver of climate (temperature variation through the ages) might be, it turns out that the sun - that big nuclear fireball in the sky - is the primary culprit. Sometimes it burns hotter than other times. Sometimes it burns colder (less hot).

Most people have an almost intuitive sense of how this works, because they see/experience it on a personal level all the time. You see, in the summer, it's usually hotter than the rest of the year, because of the way the planet is pointed at the sun. Then, it starts cooling off in the fall until it gets cold in the winter (relatively speaking, of course). Then spring starts warming up and, hey look at that, summer returns and it's hot again.

Did humans do anything during those changes in climate to alter the temperature? Nope. Did the climate dramatically change based on the planet's relationship to the sun? Yup. How do you explain that? Well, you could say the sun has something to do with.

Or you could blame man's use of fossil fuels.

Barbarians at the Gates

2012-02-22T08:34:00.002-05:00

Barbarians at the Gates

For twenty years or so, I have tried and tried and tried to break-in to the fiction business. I have had zero success at even garnering the hint of a whisper of a shadow of a rumor of notice from the gatekeepers. For twenty years, I have either been mailed form letters rejecting me or been ignored, the stamps from my SASE's likely steamed off the return envelope and used by the agent/publisher to reject other writers.

So, for twenty years, I had no idea if I was any good. Still don't, but I still write all the time and try to get published.

Only now, I have flanked the publishing industry and use ePub/eBook methods to get my fiction out. I use Smashwords and Amazon's Kindle publishing services, and have self-published paperbacks through CreateSpace (an Amazon outlet), so my stuff is out there and available. It has sold. Not well, but it is selling somewhere, every day, and I have hopes that someday something (The Divine World, hopefully) will catch fire and I'll be able to earn my keep writing fiction.

But as the world changes and morphs into the unrecognizable future, those of us leading the charge around the gatekeepers of culture occasionally come across some fuddy duddy cultural luddite who bemoans the fact that he no longer knows what's any good in the arts because there are too many people producing art. Witness Roger Kimball as he clues the world in to the fact that it is now too difficult for him to figure out what kinds of novels to read, because there are too many to choose from.

He wants someone to tell him who the good writers are, so he can read them and let the rest of the world know he's read the "good books," and not wasted his time on beach reads or throw-a-way thrillers. Or any of that Young Adult vampire crap.

I was going to write a lengthy screed about this subject (which is mirrored in music and film and television, now that there's so much choice in all of it that anybody can, essentially ghettoize themselves in a micro-genre and be unaware of the "great artists" in the other genres), but this commenter summed up my points quite nicely. In short, there are no elites keeping watch over the culture any more, and anybody with an idea and a way to catch notice can get an audience. In any of the arts.

So, in this brave new future, it is up to the consumer to decide what he likes to read/watch/hear and surf his own cultural art wave. People waiting to be told what is good will be told by their friends, not some critic in a newspaper. Plus, since so many outlets let you sample the material before purchase, you don't have to buy the latest novel/album by someone and take it home only to be disappointed later that it wasn't very good: you, consumer, have a choice!

As we've moved into this post-elite-chosen future, the thing I've noticed - about books and music, especially - is how much choice I have and how enriching it is to find new artists with new ideas. I'm not forced to buy the latest Stephen King horror novel for my beach trip, nor am I required to read some boring "genius" like Jonathan Franzen just because he's the chosen one of the Arts Upper Class (note: I liked The Corrections, I just chose him at random).

There's a reason why indie bands have street cred among fans in the music community, and it's not because they suck because they couldn't get a record deal. The same is true for the arts across the spectrum: there are too many of us (and, yes, most of us do suck, as 90% of any art form sucks, at least 90% of the time, including most of the Officially Arts Products that are sold to us through Official Arts Channels [doubt me? 99% of Hollywood movies completely suck, 99.5% of Young Adult vampire romance novels suck, and etc...]).

The rule of the future for the arts is simple: figure out what YOU like, and support it with your money and time.

You can support me by purchasing (and reading) my fiction either through Smashwords or Amazon. Enjoy!

Cities of the Dead

2012-02-21T09:54:00.004-05:00

Cities of the Dead

Yeah, I keep forgetting to update this place with links to the latest stories. Sorry. I'm now up to story 15 in the series, all of which can be found at my Smashwords author page, and at my Amazon author page. Most of the stories are free at Smashwords, and can be downloaded in a variety of eBook formats, including some non-eBook formats (.html, .pdf). The Amazon stuff is all $0.99/copy, so you can make me a few shekels by getting them at Amazon if you feel like supporting your friendly neighborhood fiction writer.

Here's the latest zombie story at Amazon:

Electability and Santorum (or, the latest non-Romney)

2012-02-21T08:13:00.003-05:00

Electability and Santorum (or, the latest non-Romney)

For some reason, the VRWC has been pushing Romney since early last year. Fine. He looks like a president should look like, if Central Casting were in charge.

It's not. And by "central casting," I mean the Republican establishment, which many in the "establishment" and many who wish to be in the establishment claim doesn't exist, because of various theories involving coordination, membership cards and street credibility.

Now that Rick Santorum has risen to the top of the heap as the non-Romney, everyone in the establishment is now against him, some of them offering theoretically plausible reasons (he's too socially conservative, he comes across as a moral scold, he's a GASP! "big spender"). A lot of entrenched Republican elites are determined to derail his candidacy (fine, that's what primaries are for). The establishment types are also very touchy when someone comes along to tell them they're not sufficiently on the anti-Obama side if they're toying with not voting for Santorum if he's the nominee.

But, please, stop telling me Santorum's unelectable. He would be running against Obama, and almost nobody wants a second Obama term. Not even the precious independents who supposedly scare so easily at social issues (as the establishment experts warn). At the end of the day, I have a feeling most people will vote for whoever the non-Obama is come November, and at this point, finding that candidate is all that's necessary. I don't really think the Republicans need a neo-Reagan or a polished technocrat who understands "business" or somebody with a nice personal narrative and really great hair. The Republicans need a guy who will stand up to Obama and bring a gun to a knife fight. The Republicans need a guy who will dress down the mainstream media and call bullshit.

Santorum is doing that.

Romney's never done it.

Of course, Romney could always "sack up," but at this point, a lot of people on the right are going to figure he's just faking it for the primaries and will wimp out into full-fledged Moderate Man in the general, and if there's one thing I'm kinda pretty certain about, it's that the average anti-Obama voter is itching for is someone who will take the fight to that preening, condescending, self-important, America-scold who lied his way into the White House four years ago. They want his lies exposed, and they want someone who will fight.

And only a fool or a liar would argue that Santorum would try to set up some sort of theocracy to replace the burgeoning socialist totalitarian nightmare state the Democrats have been erecting for decades.

At the end of the day, you're either for more Obama or not, and all of the polls I've seen have the American public siding with ousting Obama.

The Shot Heard Round the World

2012-02-18T08:49:00.004-05:00

The Shot Heard Round the World

People are just now beginning to fight back against the ever-encroaching enemies of freedom. And by "fight," I mean "shoot." If things keep trending this way, expect more of this. Freedom-loving people will only be pushed so far by the totalitarian statists of the left and their never-ending attempts to constrain their liberty.

I mean: someone cares about pigeons? Really? Rats with wings? Seriously?

In the end, these idiots will be shot, not just their toy helicopter. Instead of spying on hunters, they should find something meaningful to do with their lives, like masturbating to muppet porn while drinking lite beer in darkened basements. Assholes.

The Death of 1000 Cuts

2012-02-16T08:59:00.003-05:00

The Death of 1000 Cuts

Ace muses on this idea, that every day, or, perhaps, every-so-often, some government bureaucrat or elected official creates a new regulation or law that takes something that was legal and makes it illegal, or, at least, difficult to do. Often, there's no real reason for the change in legal status other than that some official identified an issue and decided to deal with it.

Usually this happens because the "official" believes his "job" is to fix "problems," so he can tell voters what he did for them.

This is how Gulliver was tied down by the Lilliputians: one tiny strand at a time. It is how liberty is stolen from people: one tiny non-issue at a time.

This is why you can't smoke in a privately-owned bar or restaurant in most states: because some official thought you shouldn't be allowed to do it. Just. Because. *(oh, sure, they claim health issues, but that's a sham: nobody every got harmed by second-hand smoke in a bar or restaurant, although a lot of smoking Nazis got pissed off by it).

This is why, in most municipalities, there's a code enforcement office that requires you to face the "best" side of a fence away from your property should you install a fence around your property. Because, you know, you shouldn't get the benefit of the best side (if there is a best side, which there isn't always, but there is sometimes). Yeah: your government cares about your fence.

The list goes on. And on. And on. Taken individually, most of the rules don't affect most of the people on any given day, so most people don't object to them on a rule-by-rule basis. Taken collectively, the represent a massive power-grab by the government to restrict what you can and can't do and how/when/where you can do it and, to top it off, sometimes the government makes you buy a license to do it.

Stupid Bullshit

2012-01-12T08:23:00.003-05:00

Stupid Bullshit

You can quit reading this article at the end of the first graf:

Everyone who has ever become a parent can testify to the financial challenges that go with raising kids. In fact, the average cost of raising a child to age 17 is over $150,000 per year.

I've got three kids. It doesn't average me $450,000/year to raise them, and that amount is more than 4.5 times what my wife and I earn in any year. I hate assholes who write studies and stories like this. They don't know what the fuck they're talking about.

Cities of the Dead #9

2011-12-14T08:36:00.003-05:00

Cities of the Dead #9

You know, maybe I'll get back to writing posts to this site. Maybe. I mean, I haven't deleted the blog, which I've thought about doing repeatedly for about the last five years. Just because.

That said, there are millions of The Walking Dead fans out there that have to wait several months before AMC puts on the second-half of the season. Until then, enjoy my series of zombie short-stories currently serialized under the umbrella title of Cities of the Dead: Stories from the Zombie Apocalypse.

The ninth story is now available at Smashwords and Amazon:

Another one next week, then hiatus until mid-to-late January for the second half of stories.

Cities of the Dead, Story #8

2011-12-02T23:46:00.002-05:00

Cities of the Dead, Story #8

Buy it. Read it. Rate it. Tell people about the Cities of the Dead series I'm publishing. It's way better than AMC's The Walking Dead television show.

Cities of the Dead

2011-11-09T07:54:00.003-05:00

Cities of the Dead

Oops. I forgot to link here at the old blog the two most recent stories in my anthology "Cities of the Dead: Stories from the Zombie Apocalypse." Egads, how could I forget to do that here? I mean, this is my primary driving site for advertizing...

Lots of zombie killin' in this one:

And here's one that's just running for your life:

A new one comes out Friday. It's a good one: All Hell Break's Loose. If you read Day 1 and wondered how long it took for the dead to infect enough people in Los Angeles to cause a serious outbreak, well, here's your answer.

Yeah, they're not in chronological order. On purpose. I'm doing zombies different.

Obama Puts on the Grinch Costume

2011-11-09T07:51:00.002-05:00

Obama Puts on the Grinch Costume

If the feds under Barry O! can't get your dollars, they'll come for your nickels and dimes. Merry Christmas!

The State of the Nation

2011-11-06T09:26:00.003-05:00

The State of the Nation

As usual, Mark Steyn nails it:

"They’re anarchists for statism ... demanding more and more total government control of every aspect of life — just so long as it respects the fundamental human right to sloth. ... It’s a grand alliance of all those societal interests that wish to enjoy in perpetuity a lifestyle they are not willing to earn. Only the criminal class is reasonably upfront about this."

This is what you get if you vote for Democratic Party politicians. It ain't "social justice" or compassion, it's thieves using the power of government to take your stuff at the barrel of a gun.

Unfortunately, most elected-class Republicans don't get this.

It's Christoween!

2011-10-26T11:55:00.003-04:00

It's Christoween!

I've always wanted one of these:

William Young's Amazon Author Page

And now I've got one. Finally, all those years spent in a darkened room listening to the clacking of a keyboard won't have been spent in vain. The digital revolution in publishing is upon us, and I'm actually out there on the leading edge, trying desperately to attract some attention to my work and maybe, just maybe, earn enough to put a down payment on a new car.

I'm thinking Porsche, people.

But a Hyundai will do in a pinch...