Contest

Posted on April 19, 2013 by admin

I am under constant spam assault. Seems like I spend a good half hour a day erasing ridiculous spammed comments and I guess I should get with my website guy, Mike at ktf designs (hit the link below) and do something about it. But some of them are pretty entertaining, like these:

In notion I would like to put in writing like this additionally.

Continue to keep up the fairly fantastic operate.

You’ve bewitched your words and you walk off your judgments
And stick them onto all
If it don’t coincide with to what you were born into,
Then you take french leave the other trail. 

During the striving between Francis I and Charles V serious damage was caused next to the mutation of the armies invading Provence; pestilence and scarcity raged in the new zealand urban area on the side of a few years.

So, let’s have a contest. Your assignment is to use these as writing prompts. Use them any way you want, but let’s make this a flash fiction thing, so no more than 100 words (and here I hate flash fiction with a passion. Guess it does have some uses). Feel free to put your results in Comments.

The winner, judged solely by me with no criteria other than what moves me at the moment, will get my two story collections for free. Deadline? Eh, coupla weeks or so from now. Whenever.

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Whew

Posted on April 11, 2013 by admin

I just watched my DVR’d episode of Community, the Sophie B. Hawkins dance one. What a relief. Things seem to be back on track.

Because the previous episode (which was actually two weeks ago), the one about recruiting the slacker, was just bad. Real bad. Season-ending bad.

I think that’s why the following week they re-ran the InspectorSpaceTimecon one, just to assure us that some studio executive’s idiot son had not, somehow, taken over production. It was like an apology—sorry, fans, we realize the last show was a big stinking turd, so we’re going to show you a good one while we quietly take a few people out back and shoot them.

At least I hope that’s what they did.

Because Community survives only because of the frenzied fanaticism of the three or four of us who love quality TV. We are so tired of shows like Freaks and Geeks and Firefly getting summarily chopped that whenever a rare gem like Community somehow makes it onto the networks, we cling to it like drowners to spars.

But, producer dudes, if you start jumping sharks, we’re oudda here.

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Satan indwells my chainsaw

Posted on April 6, 2013 by admin

Today was the first real day of Spring. A friggin’ month late, but finally here. So lovely, it was, that I attended a lacrosse game at Shenandoah University. The Hornets also knew it was spring because they played rather languidly, losing to Randolph-Macon 20-13. There were some exciting moments, like an astonishing tackle by the Hornet goalie, #4 Tyler Quinn, (which, if you know anything about lacrosse, a goalie tackle is a rare event), and a good five-minute dustup that ranged from one end of the field to the other and culminated with a stick flying about thirty feet in the air. But, overall, languid.

I rolled out the hoses, planted the spring chard (well, actually, re-planted the spring chard since a hard freeze the other night killed the seedlings I had already planted), and generally puttered around. Chard, of course, is the tough guy of green leafy vegetables. I pulled this from the garden in January:

Who says you can’t garden in winter?

I also made my 4000th attempt since February to start my possessed chain saw. I have a stump that needs leveling so I can place a cistern on top of it. I brought it to an engine shop a couple of weeks ago, and it started right away. Since getting it home…nothing. I believe Satan is involved.

But, eh, whatever. It’s spring. A languid one.

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Take a look…

Posted on March 31, 2013 by admin

…at this site. http://www.ftsillindianagencycemetery.com/photographs/

I thought the Apache cemetery on Ft. Sill was tragic, but this…

Hats off to Rosemarie & Wahnne Clark for their extraordinary efforts to restore this cemetery.

 

Posted in Tomb Stories | Comments Off on Take a look…

Virginia is now Canada

Posted on March 30, 2013 by admin

I don’t believe in Global Warming. I don’t believe in “Global” anything: global economy, globalization, global stupidity…well, maybe that last. Mother Earth took about a million years of asteroid pounding and volcanic eruption, brushed herself off and said, “That all you got?” And we think we can affect that? C’mon.

What’s really happened is the earth tilted without us noticing, and Virginia is now where Canada used to be. I present as Exhibit A, this past Sunday night:

What the hey?

Now, I am already in Spring mode and have done some lawn fertilizing and preparation of garden beds and started some vegetable seedlings, so late snow like this is somewhat irritating. But, I gotta admit, it made my crappy neighborhood somewhat fairy-like:     

Especially the next day:

        

We ended up with 5 1/2 inches of global warming. But it was good, a reminder that, despite our self-regard, Mother Earth calls the shots.

Besides, it allowed me to sculpt a well known Wander Cat:

(Note from Gracie: Really? That’s supposed to be me?

Stick to writing, Krauss.)

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Tomb Stories: Fort Sill, OK

Posted on March 24, 2013 by admin

Set smack in the middle of Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, is the Post Cemetery.

           

 

  Fido can’t get the plot next to you, apparently.

There are some very interesting graves there, like these guys:

    

They were signatories to the Medicine Lodge Treaty, in which the US admitted the just-ended Indian Wars were pretty much our fault. Chief Santanta later led a series of raids against wagon trains when the treaty was broken. He was arrested by General Sherman and sentenced to life in prison in Hunstville, TX, where he committed suicide by diving out a window. He was buried there, but then reinterred at Ft. Sill in 1963.

Santanta was captured along with Sitting Bear, a guy so tough he was the leader of a Kiowa warrior society called the Koitsenko. While being transported by Sherman for trial, he chewed his wrists down to the bone so he could slip out of the handcuffs, stabbed one of the guards and grabbed away the rifle, but was shot down. His body was left by the side of the road for several days, and later interred here.

What a badass.

And here, Chief Ten Bears,

who gave an incredible speech at the Medicine Lodge Treaty signing.

Funny that the Kiowa, Arapaho and Comanche were buried here, while the Apache are off by themselves on the far side of the Post (see previous Tomb Stories). Guess the Apaches didn’t get along with anyone.

There are soldiers’ graves, too. Lots of these: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and some trailblazers:   

Captain Robb was a member of the 2nd Colorado Infantry , Ford’s Company, and fought the Confederates at Glorieta Pass. So, born in Philadelphia, probably went to Colorado during the Gold Rush, joined up to fight the Civil War in the New Mexico territories, and dies at age 43, buried in Oklahoma. What a life.

Lieutenant Colonel Bateman:

   Again, what a life.

And this guy, with a great name and an even greater career, the history of the 20th Century written on his stone and face:

But, then there’s this one:

Frank Vaughan, beaten to death by his mother on the last day of school in 1965 because he forgot his report card.

I went to this funeral.

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Four Rounds with Apollo Creed

Posted on March 16, 2013 by admin

I’ve made it into the quarterfinals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, which is like surviving four rounds with Apollo Creed: you’re amazed you lasted this long, but don’t think you’re going much further.

I’ve perused some of the other survivors and, man, there’s some good stuff out there. Which is encouraging- if the judges thought The Ship to Look for God carried weight in such company, that’s a pretty good pat on the back.

Go see for yourself.

And while you’re at it, download an excerpt of Ship. Or, spare yourself the trouble and just flip over to my main page and read a shorter version here. Tell me what you think.

‘Cause rounds 5-8 are coming up, and I’m not Rocky Balboa.

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The Adventures of Gracie the Wander Cat: Where No Cat Has Gone Before

Posted on March 10, 2013 by admin

One day I was fulfilling Wander Cat prerogatives and climbed up on the roof just to see what was there. Nothing really, but the view was nice and I strolled around a bit admiring things, ending over the front porch, on the pergula.

 

 

 

 

I poked around a bit and figured it was time to go check the fields for any uppity mice…and I couldn’t get down.

 

 

 

 

 

I mean, I just couldn’t! There was no place to climb down that I could see.

 

 

 

 

 

How embarrassing.

If the Wild’uns over there in the woods spotted me, I’d never live it down. They already consider us Wander Cats pussies, and this would give them material for months: “Hey, Gracie, what’s up. You?” or “Get down, Gracie girl, you know you can!” I just didn’t need that crap, so I had to think of something.

Fortunately, that D. Krauss guy was sitting on the porch drinking beer and reading, so I called out, “Hey!” The idiot looks right, then left, then goes back to his book. “Hey!” I said again. Same routine. Took me four times to get the moron to look up.

And what does he do? Starts laughing at me! “Wassamadder, Gracie, you stuck?” You know, I’m already in a bad mood and his cackling is going to attract unwanted attention so, the heck with it, I get ready to jump on him.

But he steps back and says, “No way!” Oh. c’mon! It’s not like I’m going to claw you too deep. Stop being a baby! But he keeps dodging out of the way until he’s standing next to the only place on the whole damn pergula he can get anything to grow.

 

 

“You got yourself up there, you get yourself down,” he says, and taps on the vines. What am I, a chimp? But it looks like that’s the extent of his help, so I started working my way down them. I eventually made it, no thanks to that D. Krauss guy.

Now I know how to get up and down there anytime I want. Which means that D. Krauss guy is going to get a Wander Cat leaping on his neck one morning.

Jerk. 

Posted in The Adventures of Gracie the Wander Cat | 3 Comments

All of this leads to a shameless plug

Posted on March 3, 2013 by admin

A pal of mine, Jose Bogran recently discussed tech in scifi, or, more accurately, writing low tech in scifi.  What was cutting edge in 1950’s Asimov is now quaint and laughable, and the scifi written today becomes outdated almost the moment it’s published, so maybe best keep the tech low, even non-existent.

I get the point: no one wants instant irrelevance, or downright implausibility because of tech advances, and I think JB proposed some excellent ways around it. But it’s like avoiding a murderer in your murder mystery.

I think most readers are very forgiving of classics like 2001 and Starship Troopers, even though current tech makes a lot of that stuff (HAL going crazy? Please) silly now. I’m not so sure how forgiving they are of current stuff, though, so invoking a few of JB’s suggestions should keep your scifi fresh.

But you could also go all mundane on their asses.

Mundane scifi, that is, which I think is a more accurate scifi than hard core megatech far future space operas could ever be. Although I am a big fan of Alastair Reynolds and Neal Stephenson (okay, so he’s more mundane than hard scifi, but, c’mon, Anathem?), I think things like Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars series  is a more realistic scifi, if those two words can actually go together. It’s more within our possibilities.

So when I do scifi, that’s pretty much where I stay, near earth and near time. Most of the stories in (WARNING! Shameless plug follows!) The Last Man in the World Explains All are mundane, although there’s a couple of far space ones in there, too.

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I’m opposed to hard scifi space operas.

I’m just not smart enough to write them.

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A member of the Community

Posted on February 24, 2013 by admin

The NBC TV show, I mean. It is the only show I watch on that network, which may explain why NBC came in fifth behind Univision  during sweeps. And since Community only draws about 2-3 million viewers lately, looks to me like Al Jazeera may be picking up another network real soon.

And that’s a shame, because Community is the kind of show we toffs are supposed to like: witty, edgy, completely irreverent, funny as crap, and so rapid fire I have to back the DVR up several times just to catch everything. Not only are the riffs and interplay a scream, but there’s always something insane going on in the background. It’s two! Smack! Two! Two shows in one!

Now, admittedly, the show has a penchant for over-the-toppedness which can be off-putting, like the opening show of season four. Fortunately, those are rare enough, like the occasional derecho, that you can endure them and still enjoy your summer. More typical are the ones like last week’s Inspector Space Time convention. What? You think that was over the top? Man, you have no idea.

So, give it a whirl. Watch Season 1 first, if you can, otherwise you’re going to be clueless. But, do it soon because, with these ratings and Dan Harmon’s departure,  I don’t think you’re going to have Dean Pelton to dress up anymore.

 

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