Thursday, May 09, 2019

Wake of Vultures – Lila Bowen



This one is a fun and easy read that will leave you with a LOT of sand in your boots!

Not everything is as it seems in Lila Bowen’s Wild West, and everyone is not the most likable cowpoke, but they have no trouble in the interesting department. It is a weird Western, jammed it into an old, cracked, weather-worn boot with a healthy dose of mythology. Take some monsters, mysteries, mayhem, and quirky characters, chuck them in that boot, shake ‘em up real good, and dump ‘em out. You’ll find them 
all re-arranged into a compelling coming of age/mystery/quest. Nettie Lonesome is a compelling, well-crafted protagonist who took ahold of me from the start and didn't let go.

5 stars. I will be reading the rest of her Shadow series. You should, too.

Thursday, November 08, 2018



 Together again.

Godspeed, Mom. ❤️
For those of you who are interested, we will be having a memorial Mass on December 15. Still working on details.

Sunday, July 01, 2018

Harlan Ellison -- Pay the Writer

There was still so much to learn from him. Pay the writer. Pay the artist. Pay the designer. Pay those creative people in your life. If you aren't one of the creative types, please stop and think before asking for something for free with the promise of exposure. What do you think we want? More people like you who want us to work for free for more exposure to more people who want more free stuff?

Friday, October 13, 2017


After each book in the Joe Ledger series by Jonathan Maberry I find myself wondering the same thing—how can he top that? How can he continue the tale of Joe Ledger and the Department of Military Sciences without getting repetitive and stale? And then I buy the next novel and I lose myself again in the excitement, wonder, patriotism, adrenaline, loss, and, yes, terror. Lots of terror. This one features a female protagonist that goes by the name, Mother Night. A lot of the regulars are back with a few surprises. You don’t have to start at the beginning, but this series is so good, you should!





JONATHAN MABERRY is a New York Times bestseller and multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Patient Zero, the Pine Deep Trilogy, The Wolfman, Zombie CSU, and They Bite. His work for Marvel Comics includes The Punisher, Wolverine, DoomWar, Marvel Zombie Return, and Black Panther.


Monday, August 28, 2017

SUAU-1980

Here's an old illustration that I did for a fraternity event when I was in college. It was called Suau and generally, had its origins as a spoof of another fraternity's formal "Old South" party. They wore Confederate officers uniforms, some rode horses, and flew the rebel flag. Ours was more of a redneck luau and it was much more than a party. It started weeks before the event when most of the members stopped shaving. After about a week, we would don overalls, straw hats, and flannel shirts and deliver invitations in person. Some of us carried piglets or chickens for effect.

The party itself started Friday night. We stayed up all night with out chef as he cooked the pig. Poker and beer were essentials as was a good dose of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Charlie Daniels, and the Allman Brothers. Saturday morning the party started back up with games (usually involving mass quantities of beer), lunch, more music, and usually, mud was involved somehow. After lunch, we usually dropped our dates back at their rooms and everyone got showers and naps before it all started up again at night for a little more refined dance party with most of the brothers now clean-shaven and dressed much better. The party would usually start breaking up around 1am but would continue in some form as long as the beer was still flowing. Somewhere along the way, the party lost favor and then, my fraternity was banned from campus.


Monday, August 21, 2017

Random Thoughts…

Last week, and despite all that is going on these days politically, I encountered two situations that gave me pause. The first struck me as odd when I stopped at a street vendor for lunch. She was selling hot dogs from a small hot dog cart and was being paid a visit by the Health Inspector. Nothing out of the ordinary there. The cart, I assume, passed as he finished his inspection while I was waiting and didn't appear to issue any citations. At the very least, he didn't shut her down so I assumed the food was safe. That said, as I stood and waited, I also watched. The cart operator was wearing sanitary gloves as food preparation was taking place. I am not aware of the actual law but she wore them while preparing the food and removed them before handling money—as she always does. The odd thing was that while the food inspector was rummaging around in her coolers, he did not wear gloves. Time and again, he handled raw meat and vegetables, and not once did he wear gloves. Another odd practice was that, while checking temperatures, he repeatedly used his thermometer without sanitizing it prior to sticking it into another item. I find that odd. If something was contaminated, his negligence would contaminate almost everything else in the cooler. To be fair, he did wipe it off each time BUT HE USED AN OLD STORE RECEIPT!

Saturday, I had another experience with a situation that makes me go "hmmm".  I had stopped at a Raceway in Orange Park to get gas. Not my first choice as I like to know what kind of gas is going in my car but the place looked clean and well cared for. After filling 'er up, I pulled up to the store to wait for my wife. That was when I noticed the Brinks truck. As you would expect, there was an armed guard outside waiting for the second guard to exit the store—security measures. The problem with the picture that I was seeing was that the guard positioned outside the store had one hand occupied by her cigarette and the other was very much engaged by her phone. Had I been someone with ulterior motives, her behavior would have made for an easy target.

The things that you will see when you take a few moments to really take in what's going on around you is something. I'm not sure that something is something that makes me feel better about how distracted or intimidated people are these days.  

Monday, July 31, 2017

David



I woke this morning to sad news. My cousin, David Courtney, passed away. He was so many things to me, and I know he touched many lives. When you lose a parent far too
early—as I lost my father to cancer when I was in my 20s—Dave was like a father. He was also a creative force in my life—an artist, a musician, a writer, and a master engraver. His memoir, From Tea Boy to Tiffanys, is a great read. I do hope it gets published someday. Dave was my mentor, and he was a friend. He believed in my own talents when so many others dismissed them as distractions or hobbies.

Tonight, while I grieve, I will remember the good times, the parties, and the laughter. I know that the heavens will be shining a little brighter, and I will remember the amazing family that he leaves behind, and I will keep them in my prayers.