Saturday, December 26, 2015

The Wizard Next Door (Book Cover Revealed)

So I've been kind of keeping this under wraps but I'm just too excited to keep it a secret any longer.  I'm planning on self publishing my 2nd novel, "The Wizard Next Door" and I hired a Seattle-based graphic designer who previously did some work for us in the past (us being CKE Restaurants).  Anjl Rodee is her name and while she didn't charge me for the work (the lil stinker), I'm very pleased with the finished product.

Anyway, I'm hoping on having the story available for Kindle and Nook soon.  I'm still doing final edits and have the story out with some beta readers right now.  If anyone would like a free copy, please let me know and I'd be happy to send you one (when it's finished).  The only thing I ask is after you've read the story, I'd sure appreciate a review of the book regardless if it's positive or negative.

Thanks!


Saturday, December 19, 2015

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (A Long Lost Friend Rediscovered)

My wife and I went to see STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS last night.  There is this Bistro Theater in Belleville that we love to go to because you can sit in a comfortable chair, not a bad seat in the house and you can get actual food (and BEER)!  Anyway, the movie started and those famous yellow credits started scrolling across a starry night, black background with the brassy, orchestral harmony of John Williams filling the void. 

I won’t give away any spoilers if anyone hasn’t seen it but it was like seeing a long lost old friend again.   And just like seeing a long lost friend there were moments of awkwardness, especially since we had some previous bad blood (the PREQUELS) and I honestly thought I would never see this friend after our fond farewell (RETURN OF THE JEDI).  But we overcame the awkwardness (KYLO REN) and rehashed the past a bit while looking forward to the future (REY).   We laughed, we cried, we almost had a heart attack during some of the action sequences but eventually we knew we were friends once again.  At the end of our little excursion, we promised to keep in touch a little better but secretly knew we probably wouldn’t see each other again until next year (or until the DVD comes out).

So if STAR WARS is an old friend for you like it is for me, I’d say give that friend another chance.  It’s worth the effort to rekindle this particular relationship. 


Beer helps too.