I’m doing a guest spot at Terry O’Dell’s blog today, talking about my approach to magic in my recent novel, Magic, Murder and Microcircuits, and how I developed the system of magic I used for that book:
http://terryodell.blogspot.com/2012/04/magic-and-science-wizards-and-physics.html
Come on over and say hello!
I may have mentioned that Harlequin bought the mass market paperback rights to A Gift For Murder, to include in their WorldWide Mystery bookclub. It’s due out in late June and I’ve gotten the new cover for it.
It’s very different from the Five Star cover, but I like it!
I grew up in a family that loved baseball. From my earliest days, the New York games in particular were a frequent topic of conversation, not surprising since we lived on Long Island. My Dad, who grew up in Brooklyn, loved the Dodgers, and only reluctantly transferred his loyalty to the Mets when they filled the National League void in the city.
I still remember my Dad taking myself and my brother to the Mayor’s Trophy Game in New York when I was a kid. (Before the days of interleague play, teams in different leagues didn’t play each other during the season. The New York teams met in a pre-season game for bragging rights to the city. Need I say that in those early days of the ‘Amazin’ Mets’ they didn’t exactly dominate the series?)
But once in high school and college I didn’t pay much attention for a few years – until I was married and had kids and discovered I like sports better than anything else as background noise for my daily life.
Because I’ve lived in North Carolina for the last many, many years, I’ve grown to root for the closest major league team, the Atlanta Braves. But most of the rest of my family lives in the Boston area, so I pull for the Red Sox, too.
Last year, when I visited my family, one of the highlights of the trip was a tour of that grand old dame of baseball parks, Fenway. Even though it rained, and in fact poured buckets during the twenty or so minutes devoted to visiting the green monster, we had a terrifc time. Below are some pictures from the tour.
The tour actually starts in the gift shop across the street where you buy tickets and try not to buy a bunch of other stuff while you wait for the tour to start.
We started by sitting in the stands just to the right of home plate while the guide told stats and stories.
The view across the park to the green monster, the scoreboard, bleachers and light stanchions.
Some of the old original wood seats, repainted but no more comfortable now than they were when first installed.
The center/right field bleachers including the "red seat" marking the spot where Ted Williams hit his monster 508-foot home run.
Close up of the bleachers, showing the red chair. The story says the ball actually punctured the hat of the man sitting in the seat at the time.
Looking back from the left side upper level back toward the main part of the stadium, including the boxes.
Heading toward the seats at the top of the Green Monster.
Jim and I in the seating area at the top of the Green Monster. It was raining buckets by then.
The Championship banners flying from the side of the stadium.
Spring is upon us, and the season brings thunderstorms with it in most of the U.S. Thunderstorms mean lighting. Do you know how dangerous lightning is to your electronics? Do you unplug your computers, televisions, stereo systems and any other electronic devices before a storm? If not, why not?
Let me tell you a true story.
Some fifteen years ago, my family and I went to a concert in a city about fifty miles away. It was a great concert and we all had a good time. We noticed on the drive back that there were increasingly large puddles on the
ground as we neared home, but didn’t think much more about it. It was late and we were all exhausted, so we went directly to bed.
My youngest daughter, who has always been an early riser, was the first one up the next morning. Her favorite thing to do at that time was to listen to the radio or a CD on the stereo (with earphones) and rock in the
rocking chair. She was dismayed when she turned on the stereo and found it didn’t work.
Instead she tried to turn on the television, but it wasn’t working either. Since the lights were on, she knew the electricity was functioning, but apparently not much else was. As a last resort, she decided to turn on the
computer and play games. You guessed it. Computer wasn’t working either.
At that point she was still the only person awake, so she grabbed a book and tried to read, but she was understandably pretty distraught.
Once the rest of us got up, we went through the house, checking everything to see what worked and what didn’t. We didn’t know until later, when we talked to neighbors, that there had been a very bad thunderstorm the night before.
There’s no way to know for sure, of course, but we have to assume that lightning hit either our house or one of the power lines very near it. The final tally of destruction: stereo receiver, VCR, television, and computer. We
were fortunate that the television and computer were both older and about due for replacement anyway.
We learned our lesson. Now when there’s a thunderstorm approaching, we unplug everything, not just from the electrical lines, but from the cable as well. If we’re going out of town for a day, we check the weather
forecast. If we’re leaving for longer, we unplug everything just for safety.
Yes, it’s a bit inconvenient, but it would be more than just inconvenient to replace our electronic equipment these days. And since I’m an author and web designer, the loss of a computer would be more than just
inconvenient. It wouldn’t kill my business because I back up relentlessly, including using an automatic, offline back up service in Carbonite. But I would likely lose several days of work time, replacing hardware and restoring software and data.
I’d rather lose an hour of work time than risk losing days’ worth.
I unplug when the weather turns nasty. Unless you live in a place that isn’t prone to thunderstorms, I strongly suggest you do so as well.
To go along with the Spring Fling contest, I’m celebrating this with a price reduction on The Night Prowlers!
For a limited time, get your copy for just $.99
I’m participating in the Spring Fling Web Hunt Contest organized by Night Owl Reviews! Click on the graphic below for more details:
Deadline: May 15th.
For those of you who’ve followed the saga of my grandson, who was born ten weeks premature on Sept. 30, 2011. He turned six months old on March 30th. At birth, he was two pounds, ten ounces. He’s now over 13 pounds, rolls over, plays with toys, and babbles up a storm.
I was interviewed today at Jackie Vick’s Writer’s Jumble blog. I answer questions about my books, my tendency to write across genres and what I’m working on now:
A grey squirrel goes nuts for Allison Carrick’s peanut-flavoured smoothie. Alison, from Stubbington, Hampshire came up with the idea of the peanut treat after getting a smoothie maker for her birthday. She says the squirrels in her garden just love it and have even learnt to drink it through a straw. Alison said: When I first offered them the drink they just lapped it up from a dish but then I put out a sundae glass and a straw to see what they would do and to my amazement before long they were sucking away to their hearts’ content. It’s great fun to watch them and it keeps them off the bird table.Picture: MIKE WALKER PICTURES
From Picture of the day at the U.K. Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/picturesoftheday/9138081/Pictures-of-the-day-12-March-2012.html?frame=2165270#?frame=2165244
