I just finished Steven Brust's “The Phoenix Guards”, it was a fun rollicking romp. He wrote it in the style of his hero, Dumas, and at MisCon he said it was the book he had the most fun writing.


I've also been reading a number of history books on the 1870's Black Hills and Deadwood. The best with the most information has been Estelline Bennett's “Old Deadwood Days”. It was published in 1928 and is an autobiography of Estelline Bennett's young life. She and her family moved to Deadwood in 1877. Her father, Granville Bennett, was the Black Hill's first federal judge. I've been reading these stories for background for the new game I started running on Friday nights at the Sandbaggers Game Club called “Deadwood 76”. It's a role-playing game using a loose version of the World of Darkness skill based system along with my own home-brew rules.

I just finished Harry Turtledove's “The Guns of the South”. I didn't think it was that great, but it must be hard to write historical characters. Harry wrote Gen. Lee as a messianic figure and I couldn't buy into that characterization. Harry Turtledove is MisCon 24's (May 2010) Author Guest of Honor.

I'm picking up Joseph M. Marshall's “Hundred in the Hand” a historical novel of Red Cloud's war. I read his novel “The Long Knives are Crying” about the battle of the Little Bighorn and it was very good.

I am also reading Maggie Bonham's “Prophecy of the Sword”. It is packed full of action, a great sword and sorcery read. I am just finishing Tom Zoellner's “Uranium”, a natural history book about uranium, very informative.

My own writing has been slow, but I am still plunking away at it. I've started a faux diary for a character I am playing in Robert Thomson's Pathfinder game at the Sandbaggers Game club. Just for fun, but it has kept me writing. I was inspired by “The Phoenix Guards” and wanted to try something in a whimsical style.  If anyone is interested I could post it here.

MisCon 23 was a terrific convention. Nearly 600 people attended and I think they all came by the Sandbagger's room. We gave away 90 of our 20^th anniversary shirts and hosted two great parties. Fifteen Sandbaggers made the trip this year and everyone said this was the best MisCon ever.

I spent a lot of time at the writing panels and even was recruited by Justin Barba (Miscon's vice chair) to be on the opening writer's panel. He wanted me to tell the new workshop attendees what to expect at the writer's workshop.

Got to see a lot of old friends (Jessica, Sarah, Jane , Sharon, Justin, Stewart, Beth, Greg, Todd and many more that I'm sure I'm forgetting right now) and made a couple new ones.

I also spent a lot of time with authors Steven Brust and Maggie Bonham. Steven Brust turned his room into the con's smoker's lounge and many of us stopped in to smoke, talk, drink and listen to him sing. He knows a lot of humorous folk songs (many that he wrote himself). It would have been great to record some of them. I just have to say that it's very nice to meet one of your favorite authors and he turns out to be a terrific guy.

Maggie Bonham gave me a lot of encouragement and helped me work past a problem I have been having in one of my stories. She came to our Sunday night party and spent hours chatting with us (Sandbaggers) until well after midnight.

Came home Monday night wore out, but happy. I'm really pumped up to do more writing and submitting.

We have a lot of stuff going on at the Sandbaggers Game Club. Lee has been busy updating the web-site sandbaggersgameclub.org. , check it out.

I am involved in three ongoing games at the club right now: a Thursday night D&D game, a Friday night Werewolf campaign that I've been playing off and on in for sixteen years now, and a home-brew fantasy role-play using D&D rules that I run on Saturday afternoons.

The club members are very jazzed about the upcoming fantasy and science fiction convention in Missoula, Montana at the end of May. We should have 12-15 Sandbaggers making the trip over to MisCon this Memorial Day weekend (May 22-25). The Sandbaggers will sponsoring games and parties in room 260 at Ruby's again this year. We will be giving away prizes and t-shirt as always. If you plan on going to MisCon stop on by our room. We aren't trying to sell anything we are just there for the fun. We will be sponsoring an Authors and convention workers party again this year on Sunday night in room 260. Last year our theme was "Towel Day" in honor of Douglas Adams and the gathering was a big hit with everyone. Afterwards we played Kat's Buffy the Vampire Slayer game and had a great time.

Three of our members who are in the Air Force won't be able to make it to MisCon, they are in Afghanistan on a six month tour of duty. Steve, Kevin and Dave stay safe.

I have been busy the last few weeks writing RPGs to be played at the Sandbaggers Game Club. One is a campaign that will feature my World of Lustra, from which I've written a number of short stories. It is a magical fantasy world and I'll be using modified D&D 4th edition rules.

The other game I'm working on is a Call of Cthulhu RPG that will be a one-shot convention game that I'll ref at MisCon this year. I also plan on writing a creepy short story based on the setting. Maybe If I get it done in time I'll submit it to the MisCon Writer's Workshop. I can always use the advice of the writers who participate, they are terrific.

I urge all my Northwestern friends to go to MisCon in Missoula, Montana on Memorial Day weekend, May 22 – 25. It is a great little Con and you really have a chance to interact with the professional authors if writing or just reading is your thing. http://www.miscon.org/ Check out their site.

I’m sorry about the long layoff from the Blog. Blame it on seasonal depression, I have been in a funk since Montana Game Faire, but now it’s a new year and MisCon is a few months away.  Things look brighter and I’m looking forward to seeing old friends and making some new ones at MisCon 23.

I’m debating whether to enter the Writer’s Workshop at MisCon again this year.   The story I’ve been working on just isn’t right and I have been spending a lot of time creating RPG scenarios for various games.

Here’s some news from the Sandbaggers Game Club: the Sandbaggers won the first annual Montana Game Cup at Game Faire this year and Scott Readicker our club Prez won the award for best event at Game Faire. We had a small Halloween party last year, but this year is the Clubs 20^th anniversary, so we are planning a big shindig for Halloween 2009 and everyone is invited. 

On a sadder note, one of our long time members, Dale Gyles, passed away in December. Dale was a great friend and gamer. He was also my first proofreader and I owe him a lot for all his help on my manuscripts. We’ll miss you Dale.

I’ve been playing D&D 4.0 on Thursday nights and after the Super Bowl, I plan on running a D&D 4.0 homebrew of my own on Sunday afternoons at the club. It is a world I’ve been working on for about 7 years now. I’ve written a number of Magical Fantasy stories based on it that I’ve entered at the MisCon Writer’s Workshop and Writers of The Future (all have come back with an Honorable Mention). I just needed a game system that would work and I think I can tweak D&D 4.0 to do the job.

I’ll try and do better on updating this Blog. I know some of the Sandbagger’s and my friends look forward to it.

I’m back.

CJ  

We play-tested my horror/action/survival game Zombies of Zaire last night at the Sandbaggers Game Club. I had six willing victims players ready to throw themselves into the deep-end of the fun pool. The game was great, about half the group survived and they put in a lot of twists to test my on-the-fly storytelling ability. The guys really got into character and gave great constructive criticism afterwards.   I need to trim about two hours of playing time for the game to fit into the time allotted at Game Faire. We discussed what could be cut and what was essential to keep the ambiance at a high level of anxiety and mystery.     

I’m running Zombies of Zaire at Montana Game Faire, http://www.montanagamefaire.or g/  , next week Friday October 10^th at 6pm.

Thanks again victims comrades of the Sandbaggers Game Club for all your help.

Here are notes from our third session of Ben's Zombie Apocalypse, World of Darkness RPG.  The werewolves and vampires seem to be working together so far. . .

                   Chapter III:  The Fellowship of Fang and Fur

Vampire and werewolf pile into the SUV and make a run for the town’s east gate.  It’s blocked by a school bus.  Tears jumps out, changes to crinos and climbs the building.  His idea is to scare off the guards by using the delirium against them.   One is distracted by the gargoyle Erinyi and fires on her.  Two or three of the others panic and flee.  One mistakes him for one of his Black Spiral Dancer masters.  Tears leaps and kicks the guard firing at Erinyi off the roof, then he snatches the puny gun of the other.  He roars at the human to run for his life.  The wolf realizes he’s not evil, just misguided.

Unfortunately the guard that flew off the roof has other problems.  There is a small horde of zombies waiting below craving living flesh.  He shouldn’t have shot at my friend, thinks Tears. 

In the street below the fellowship is in a terrible fight with three Black Spiral Dancers.  The crazed vampire, Johnny Walker, seems to be in a frenzy for blood and is holding his own against two of the brutes.  Treblin is lying motionless in the middle of the intersection with a gaping wound in his chest .  Shad and Erinyi are dealing with another BSD.  The vampire, Kevin Wilson, is nowhere to be seen. 

Tears changes to his 90lb wolf form and quickly races, like a giant squirrel, along power cables to the building across the street.  He leaps down in crinos form and cradles the immobile vampire.  Blood may bring him back, so Tears opens a vein and drips his own blood into the vamps mouth.  That does it.  He revives and wants more.  Tears has to throw him off to stop him from feeding anymore. 

Meanwhile, Johnny dispatches two BSD’s and Shad and Erinyi deal with theirs as well.  The mystery of Kevin’s disappearance is solved when the bus moves out of the roadway.  The heroes pile into their vehicle and make a break for it.  They head for Milli Lacs.  The wolves want to consult their totem, Old Man Sea, there. 

Johnny and Treblin are acting drunk and erratic.  It seems the rage in werewolves’ veins has caused them to lose some self control.  They drop off Tears, Shad, and Kevin at the lake shore.  (Erinyi joins them as well.)  Tears then performs the rite to call the Great Spirit, Old Man Sea.  He asks Shad to help him perform the ritual.  The others look on as the two werewolves in wolf form yip, howl, pee and roll in the snow beside the lake. 

Johnny and Treblin race away towards a near hamlet where they had spotted some zombies.  They quench some of the rage and violence within, by killing some of the shambling creatures. 

Old Man Sea comes forth and greets the wolves.  They have a tête-à-tête about the holocaust the world is now in.  The Old Man asks the wolves to cleanse Milli Lacs  of the zombies and he will grant them a boon.  He also tells them there are terrible things still occurring in Minneapolis and to avoid it.  Tears and Shad look at each other, they doubt their abilities to perform such a great task.  Tears suggests that the spirits of the lake: Pike, Musky, Catfish, Bass, Crayfish, and Walleye might be awakened and possibly help them cleanse the lake.  But the cost may be too great . . . and the warning about the Twin Cities is very troubling.  What is the vampires' purpose for going there?

Chapter II:  The Fellowship of Fang and Fur

            While the vampires sleep, Tears-of-the-Northern-Star scouts out the surrounding countryside and hunts.  Game is scarce but he happens upon a cotton-tail and allays some hunger pains.  Tears investigates a country cemetery, there is something “not right” about it.  He checks the umbra; the spirit realm is eerily silent.  One stone has a large carved gargoyle looming above the rest of the other simple stone markers, but Tears, being a lupus, doesn’t see the oddity of it in this quant mid-west graveyard.   Night is falling and the awakening vampires will want to get on the move soon, so Tears returns to the farm.

            The talking-ape, Shad Altsoba, siphoned gas and did some minor repairs on the vehicle during the daylight.  He didn’t find any food and apparently didn’t bring any along for the trip.    

            Kevin Wilson, Treblin, and Johnny Walker awaken, but Andres is nowhere to be found.  The others are ready to leave and feel that Andres can take care of himself.  It’s “on him” for not completing the Prince’s mission. 

            Tears naps in the back of the SUV until Treblin hits a deer and wrecks the vehicle.  Tears is thrown clear and smells the live prey, which are nearby.  He urges Shad to change into his wolf form and come on a hunt with him.  Shad is reluctant, but decides to try – he has never hunted before.  What a shame.

            The two wolves rundown a buck and with a little effort kill it.  Tears teaches Shad to thank the deer’s spirit and Gaia for the thrill and sustenance of the hunt. 

            The disgusting vampires feed on road kill and sate their incessant thirst.  Then the deer’s carcass is somehow magically dragged into the forest.  Tears and Shad, still in wolf form, plunge into the darkness to investigate.  Johnny Walker shoots into the woods, Tears is appalled at his rashness.  (Does this being fear everything unknown to him?)  The bullet strikes stone and a feminine voice shouts, “Ouch”.   Cooler heads take over, Johnny puts down his weapon and the fellowship implores the creature to reveal itself.  It is a gargoyle, Tears senses the same strangeness that he felt in the cemetery.  This is something new to him.  It is like the vampires, but with less taint to it .  Is it because of its innocent demeanor?  (This being appears as a human teenage girl when it desires.)  Or is the species much less tainted by the Wyrm in general? 

            The gargoyle’s name is Erinyi.  She is scared -- has been scared since the Zombie Apocalypse began.  She is lost and looking for her family.  The fellowship decides to allow her to accompany them, maybe they can help her. 

            The SUV is righted, but the engine has sustained damage and will not run for long.  Tears visits the engine’s weaver spirit and offers it some gnosis, it tells the wolf that it needs to be fixed, but will do its best. 

Erinyi flies above them as they continue, she is much too large to fit in the vehicle.  Her actual form doesn’t change as a werewolf’s does; she only appears to be a young girl when she wishes.

Baxter, Minnesota is an armed camp.  It has been fortified much like Fargo.  The guards are amazed to see survivors and readily allow the travelers in after checking their papers.  One of the guards even gives Tears a pat on the head.  The group is given a place to rest at a hotel, the vampires claim weariness and ask to rest during the day before they meet with the leaders of the fortress.  Tears wants to stay out and investigate Baxter, but Treblin begs him to stay during the day and Shad reminds him that it was his charge from Dances-in-the-Rain to protect the blood-suckers in daylight.   The wolf is dismayed at the thought of being cooped up with bunch of Wyrm tainted undead without even an open window to alleviate the stink, he reluctantly complies and curls up in his Hispo (dire-wolf) form in front of the door to block any intruders. 

            A group of men come to collect the party during the day, but the vampires claim that they have taken ill and fast-talk their way out of  fatal sunburn.  The men return at dusk to take the group to see the mayor and to collect their fixed SUV.  Tears remains with Erinyi at the hotel. 

            A man in a long dark coat comes to the room, Tears instantly smells the taint on him, it is almost overwhelming.  Tears changes into his full Crinos glory and attacks.  The man responds and changes as well.  He has large bat-ears and leathery skin connected to his arms, a  Black Spiral Dancer.  He has come to take the “girl” for nefarious means.   The fight is brutal, Tears loves it and howls his fight song, it is claw to claw and fang to fang.  Just as Tears loses his hold on the BSD Erinyi strikes a mighty blow to the evil werewolf, breaking its spine killing it, but behind her a bane-spirit has pulled itself through the mirror and it attacks. 

              Shad, Treblin, Kevin, and Johnny are returning when they hear Tears’ howl, they speed to the hotel and come upon Tears and Erinyi fighting the bane-spirit.  The spirit senses that it has lost and turns into mist attempting to retreat through the mirror back into the umbra.  Tears’ thought is to fly though the mirror into the umbra, blocking the spirit’s retreat.  But before he can act one of the vampires shoots the mirror creating a hundred escape routes for the bane and it escapes.  

            The fight has wrecked two hotel rooms and the fellowship feels it is time to check out and leave town, they hear the sound of sirens as they spill into the parking lot.

To be continued. . .

I just received notice from the Great Falls Public Library that they’ve finally gotten in Margaret H. Bonham’s Prophecy of Swords in, with LACHIEI  and RUNESTONE OF TEIWAS  soon to follow. 

I make a number of library requests every year, last spring I asked them to get Diana Pharaoh Francis's books and they did.  The Library is very good with requests if there is a good reason (they always inform me that they have a very tight fiction budget). Montana author seems to be a good reason.

I live on a fixed income and am frequent user of the library.  I’m a voracious reader.  I probably read between 250-300 books a year on all subjects.  I purchase between 5-10 books a year and most of those I gift to friends. 

I encourage everyone to ask their public library to stock their favorite author’s books.  It gives those books exposure.  I often read a book from the library that makes such an impact on me that I must own it.  The most recent was this spring when I read Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.  One of the best stories I’ve read in the past five years and I read a lot of stories.      

I’m going to start posting a chronicle from the World of Darkness game I’m playing in on Friday nights at the Sandbaggers Game Club.  I think our Storyteller Ben has done a pretty good job of melding the World of Darkness with World War Z by Max Brooks.  The chronicle is from the werewolf Tears-of-the-Northern-Star's point of view, since that is the character which I am playing.

                  The Fellowship of Fang and Fur

March 6^th 20XX, Fargo, ND:  Fargo is an armed encampment, a pocket of Midwest resistance against a tide of zombies which have overrun America from the East coast to the Rocky Mountains. 

            The blessed winter has given survivors a reprieve from the zombie onslaught and has given humanity a chance to fortify positions such as Fargo within the lines of the Wyrm’s assault on Gaia’s creatures.

            Dances-in-the-Rain a Black Fury and leader of the Concordia Sept has tasked the ape, Shad Altsoba, and the lupus, Tears-of-the-Northern-Star, to accompany and guide four vampires to the scab-city of Minneapolis. 

            Kevin Wilson, Treblin, Johnny Walker, and Andres are the four vampires sent on this task by their Prince.  A shaky truce if not quite an alliance has been stuck between the clans of the vampires and the tribes of the werewolves until this zombie crisis can be resolved. 

            The vampires have not divulged their purpose for going to Minneapolis to their werewolf guides and daylight protectors.  The werewolves for their part are assessing the cooperation of the vampires and scouting the eastern routes from Fargo for zombie activity and answers both physical and spiritual for this zombie conflagration.   Shad Altsoba is trying to identify scientific explanations and the mystic, Tears-of-the-Northern-Star, is assessing the damage to the spirits and the umbral realms.

            The first night out has supplied few answers, although the group seems to get along together, Tears-of-the-Northern-Star has had no experience with the blood-suckers before this winter, but he recognizes their great power and has formed a tepid friendship with Andres.  Andres seems to be a very animalistic form of vampire and has the most in common with the werewolves. 

            The group found survivors in Lake Park, MN.  There is a powerful benevolent spirit protecting the people there.  This is info that Dances-in-the-Rain would probably like to have investigated later.  But the primary mission is to get the vampires to Minneapolis.   

            In another hamlet the vampires put a hospital to the torch because of zombie activity.  Kevin Wilson seems to be a very timid vampire compared to his fellows.  Treblin seems immature and reckless, but is a crack driver.  Johnny Walker is strong and is a brawler he must have the aspect of the Ahroun Moon upon him.   Tears-of-the-Northern-Star found the spirits of humanity chained to their zombie bodies, when the chain was severed the zombies lost the spark which motorized them.   The human spirits, ghosts, were afraid and had no control over the zombie bodies.  They longed for the peace of death. 

            The fellowship found a farm to hold up in for the day.  The farmer here killed his family then committed suicide to avoid the hell of becoming zombies.  Tears and Andres caught a few large rats for the vampire to refresh himself with.  Tears learns that the vampires must feed everyday or they begin to weaken.  Blood is their source of power.     

My Wild West RPG campaign has finished for now.  We will probably pick it up again in late autumn due to popular demand.  We’ve started a new World of Darkness game, werewolves and vampires allied against a zombie apocalypse.  There is still room for a few more players.   

            The D&D 4.0 is ongoing on Thursday nights at 7pm and there are two spots open for new players.  On Friday nights there is an opening in the Star Wars game and on Sundays a new Traveler game has started and still has a couple spots open. 

            Not much news on the writing front.  Still waiting for news from Writers of the Future on my third quarter story.   

I received a very nice rejection letter today from Misty Gersley, Editor in Chief of Withersin Magazine, it read, “Thank you for submitting "The Sin of Bliss" for our review.  We really enjoyed the piece and had a hard time with our final decisions this year, but regret we will not be accepting it for publication at this time.  Please submit again during our next open reading period.”

Alas, another rejection letter to add to the pile.  I’ll admit I’m a little down, but I am working on a short story for the fourth quarter of the Writers of the Future Contest and I have yet to hear about my third quarter submission.  I guess I'll keep plugging away.    

According to "The Big Read", the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on their list.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.  (my count =66 read)
2) Italicise those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte  
8 1984 - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger  
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger   
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck  
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame 
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis 
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood   
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Great list, thanks for passing this on Sk8er.

Reading:  Foreigner by CJ Cherryh, The Candy Bombers by Andrei Cherny (the untold history of the Berlin Airlift), Writing the Block Buster Novel by Albert Zuckerman, If I Am Missing or Dead by Janine Latus

Friday was a long, fun day.  Got up at 4:30am to go fishing with my dad and uncle, we caught 12 walleye and my uncle caught a really nice one, 25 inches, weighing 6lbs.  I came home with a couple bags of fillets and will be eating really good this week. 

Came home around 3:30 and caught some zzzzz’s until 6:30pm, then I had to go to the Sandbaggers Game Club to GM, CJ Ruby’s Wild West.  Thought I’d be too tired to do a good job, but the guys had a great time capturing a Gatling gun from corrupt Federales.  What they will use it for I’m not sure.  Ahh, and Lau Chang, nearly died trying to be too heroic.  He made it by the skin of his teeth, will teach him not to play with dynamite, hopefully. 

Tomorrow night, July 26^th, we start a D&D 4.0 game at the Sandbaggers Game Club.  I will be participating.  I have not played D&D for a long time now and never played 3E or 3.5, but I’ve looked at 4.0 and these new rules make a lot of sense.  I’m going to learn by playing, then sometime in 2009, use the rules for my own campaign set in Lustra, a fantasy world I created a few years back.  I’ve written two short stories set in Lustra, both were Honorable Mentions in L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest.  The latest, I just sent on to Withersin Magazine. 


Both the short stories are in the MisCon 21 & 22 Anthologys. 

I submitted a short story to Withersin Magazine yesterday.  Their reading period, for 2009 publication, ends July 1^st.  I finished the story and got it in with a week to spare.  I received confirmation that they received it this morning and will know its status by August 1^st. 

Now the wait begins for the rejection letter, to join the others, or, be still my beating heart... acceptance and payment.