Musings of a Restless Mind

Aargh, or whatever Charlie Brown used to say after Lucy pulled away the football. In preparation for my summer of cons, I published my second book of fiction That Has Such Creatures (only an ebook so far, but it’s on my todo list to make it a paperback before the end of next week, so I can sell it at the Cons along with my inconceivably rare and valuable autograph). I even set up a promotion for it in the Based Book Sale. You can also find a lot of other interesting books there from folks like Sarah Hoyt and Jeff Dunteman, all on sale cheap, real cheap. Hey if it costs less than a buck, that makes it free, right? Unlike most books that win awards and are on the coffee tables of all the right people, these are books you can have fun reading, and some might even expand your mind. Heaven forbid!

I meant to announce all this here and elsewhere, but things have gotten away from me this week. In my defense, there was the whole international shooting incident that I obliviously drove past while it was happening. Then there’s the whole vision scare I just went through. I’ve gotten used to perfect vision since my cataract surgery, and suddenly last week I found myself unable to see an occasional single letter in random words while reading on my computer screen. I could close either eye and see the missing letter but with both open, it disappeared. That led to the standard internet search of obscure diseases of the eye since the internet knows everything. The problem with the internet, of course, is that half of what it knows just ain’t so. Yesterday my eye doc examined me and reported it was a simple coordination problem between my eyes that I could correct by just wearing my very mild reading glasses when I read (whoda thunk?) since one eye has settled into 20/30 vision while the other is still 20/20.

Anyway those are my excuses, and I’m sticking to them! Now, where was I? Oh yeah, about my new book. It’s a collection of 18 stories, mostly mine, but a couple from Sharon (S. T. Gaffney), including a bonus essay from her as related by me about the topic most SF writers get asked, “Where do you get your ideas?”

So what’s the book about, you ask? To answer that question I arrogantly presume you’re asking yourself, I reply with more questions:

• How does a man find home when nowhere and everywhere is home?
• Why does a humble mixologist in a vape shop think he has the right to claim he saved baseball?
• An aging rocker sets the record straight about his controversial career and unknown love.
• A young man catches a leprechaun who changes his life in a most unexpected way.
• A wandering wizard and his young apprentice are tasked with performing a secret and dangerous task for a powerful king.
• Six years after his friend’s death, Charlie Moore finds a document that may lead to terrible consequences for all those who have connections to the late, rich, and eccentric David Larkin.
• A cat is offered a chance to protect his mistress from a mysterious creature.

These are a few of the short stories in this collection that range from science fiction, fantasy, and horror to mystery. The husband and wife team of Frank Hood and S. T. Gaffney serve up a book full of mostly fictional stories, and a few that might just be stranger than fiction.

I also got to use recommendations from famous authors:

“Very much enjoyed DARKNESS, DARKNESS.” Ray Bradbury

and,

“The man knows how to write a sentence!” Harlan Ellison

For the story of how I got the first quote, you’ll have to read the book. As to the second quote, it stems from me ambushing Harlan Ellison at The World Science Fiction Convention many years ago. If it seems like faint praise, you never knew Harlan Ellison. He’s the same man who, when J. Michael Straczynski called him to ask for marketing advice, said, “Stop writing shit!” You can see why I consider that quote from Ellison a compliment.

So, what are you waiting for? Buy my and Sharon’s new book. If all the above hasn’t convinced you to part with 99 cents, you are no reader my friend, and since you read this far, you are a reader, ipso facto!