• Challenge,  Misc

    Book Ads and Workshops Going Classic

    Yup, We Do Ads! For anyone who has picked up the paper version of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, you notice a lot of ads for many WMG books and magazines. But you will also see 1/3 page ads for books from the author of a story in the magazine. That’s right, we give the author a free 1/3 page ad to put with their story to advertise another book of theirs. We can’t do it in the electronic editions, but we do it in the paper version. From industry standards, the black and white ad is valued about $300 for the third page. So for the , we are offering any…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    Couch Surfing…

    Took On A Whole New Meaning Tonight… When that earthquake hit tonight, the second one in two days, it was again a roller, so sitting on the couch felt like sitting on a surfboard in gentle waves. Up and down and up and down and lamps moving back and forth as the couch rolled up and down. To be honest, I felt a little motion sick after a bit. We are on the top floor of our tall building, so it was a little worse because of that, but everyone around town tonight on the news said it felt the same way. We are 130 or so miles from the…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    We’ve All Been There…

    New Computer Day… And it seemed like such a good idea at the time this morning. I must have been short of sleep, because I don’t take drugs. And I don’t drink, at least at that time of the day. I bought the new computer, a big and powerful Mac about three months ago for work on the Make 100 Challenge I am doing. I loaded all the Adobe Suite onto it, loaded fonts, loaded the Microsoft office onto it, and did very little else with it, mostly doing some learning on InDesign and other small stuff. But I always intended to move it into the main position in my…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    Paul McCartney Took My Night

    In An Amazing Three Hour Concert… Living in Vegas just sucks, as you might be able to tell. (grin) We saw Lady Gaga’s jazz concert a few weeks ago and it was fantastic and tonight Kris and I headed out to dinner at the Mandalay Bay, then took the tram a mile or so and walked a short distance to where Paul McCartney and his band were playing. Three straight hours, he never stopped and never left the stage. He’s 77, looks fantastic, sings better than ever, and puts on an amazing show. And then for one song Steven Tyler got up on stage with him. Just wow. They don’t…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    Tomorrow Starts…

    Ramp Up On Exercise… Going to hit it hard. I kind of let my steps and other stuff slip after the Licensing Expo. So tomorrow I ramp for the summer. Going to 12,000 steps a day and try to keep that as a streak and no more than 1,200-1,500 calories a day intake on most days. That will drop two pounds a week, a top line on healthy weight loss. It’s a famous diet I am using. Eat Less and Move Around More. I’ve lost over 60 pounds doing that so far, and I got a marathon to run this fall. Marathon running weight is exactly 25 pounds under where…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    Very Weird Movie

    Destination Wedding… Starring Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves. The only two people that talk during the entire movie, a running discussion. Kris and I decided to stay home tonight and watch a movie and that one popped up and looked interesting and wow was it strange. I doubt it cost much to make and I doubt it even made its money back, and I bet anything critics hated it, but the writer and director Victor Levin clearly had some fun. If there was such a thing as a Pulphouse movie, Destination Wedding would be it. It is not a normal romantic comedy. It’s not a normal anything, actually. I loved…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    A Fun Evening

    Kris Finished Another Novel… So we went to see Queen with Adam Lambert to celebrate. Wow, if you get a chance to see them together, do not miss it. Let me repeat that. Do not miss it. And tonight was Freddy Mercury’s birthday, which made it all the more special. Besides being a major fan of the music, of Lambert, and of the group Queen since they started back in 1970 or so, I watched for two hours the stark reminder that age has nothing to do with anything unless you let it. Brian May and Roger Taylor were just flat stunning. Brian might be the best working guitar player,…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    Second Day of Exercise and Fun Pictures

    Just As With Writing Restart… I am ramping up slowly. I spent my first week here in Vegas resting and working around the condo. Kris would go off to one of the gyms to run and I would go with her and explore the area or do errands. This week, starting yesterday, I got on the exercise clothes (what a slightly overweight 67-year-old wears… sweat pants and a baggy tee-shirt) and went with Kris to the gym. I walked the track while she ran, doing about three miles. And actually ran about 1/8th of a mile to see how it felt. (awful) Today I went again with her and ran…

  • Misc

    Kris’s Website Is Down

    We know about the site being down and there are a host of wonderful people working on it as I type this. It should be back up by tomorrow (Monday) just fine. Ahh, aren’t these things fun. (grin)

  • Challenge,  Misc

    Rolled In After Midnight

    So I Am Back On the Coast Until the End of April… Doing workshops, Pulphouse Magazine layout, writing short stories, and packing. A ton of packing. Tomorrow night I’ll talk about my preparation for the short story challenge. Mostly mind-set preparations, since I never plan what I am writing out ahead. So that ends tonight the great cat trip. 26 hour drive, two days of rest and helping them get settled, then a flight back tonight and a drive back to the coast. The cats are safely in the condo in Vegas with Kris and doing as well as could be expected. Now back to writing tomorrow after I get…