(12/24/24)

…and Happy New Year! (2025 couldn’t get any worse, right? The wretched world remains on fire.)

Things are proceeding apace here at Two Goats Press. Meet Maybeth is now on Hoopla, an eBook service I absolutely love. It lets you check out books electronically from hundreds of participating libraries! If you’re socked-in somewhere snuggled up from the cold, please check out my book.

My friends in Southwest Georgia have also recently added me in Decatur, Miller, and Seminole Counties.

I’m still hopeful I’ll show up in a few more places yet. I sent out quite a few promotional copies this time.

Two other pieces of news I have to report:

The planning stage has begun on my fourth book. I’m gonna write a sequel to my fantasy story. What I’ve got planned is epic with lots of surprises, but don’t expect even a sniff of it for at least a year and a half.

Also, you may remember when I mentioned someone messing with my book. Well, that outfit persisted in spite of my warnings, so they’ll soon be getting the horns. (More on this bit later. And I’m no Kris Kringle, but I do now have representation. Those punks should beware.)

Though it may not be where you are, the weather here in Florida has been wonderful lately. Lesly and I recently attended an evening celebration in Monticello, and with the almost full moon it couldn’t have been any more perfect.

Pray for Peace.

D.W.

Oh! P.S. Check out Dragons Down. It’s a new 2024 mega adventure board game. We just cracked it open and it’s been a blast. I used to own its inspiration (Magic Realm) back in the day.

(2/25/24)

Lookie what came in yesterday’s mail!

I know what you’re thinking; you’re thinking this has something to do with that recent primary they held over in Nevada. Well, as amusing as the result of that was, I assure it does not. Fact is, I’ve known about that excellent Nevada state law for quite some time now.

I’m referring to Nevada’s state provision for the option “None of these candidates” to appear on all statewide, presidential, and vice presidential election ballots. If you’re like me, you’re wondering why on earth this isn’t the case everywhere!

Well, now it is… Instead of handwriting “N.O.T.C.” in all those ballot sections this year, thanks to my handy new ExcelMark custom self-inking stamps, I’ll be saving myself the writer’s cramp!

Here’s how it works:

Find a section of your ballot like in the example below and simply stamp or write “N.O.T.C.” Do it within the lines and clearly beside the options, and for Heaven’s sake don’t stamp one of the ovals.

Yes, this is technically an “undervote” and will not be counted. And, yes, it would be the same as if you had “overvoted” choosing more than one. Next, when you’re done, later on the ballot in a nice wide open space, you stamp or place your “key” explaining what that N.O.T.C. means.

Q: So, why not just undervote offending sections and leave it at that, like most people?

A: Leave a blank space for some behind-the-scenes creep in this day and age? No thank you.

Q: Oh, so you’re just a conspiracy theorist?

A: Nah, I’m sending a message.

Just imagine if this sort of thing took off—whole slates of “winning candidates” with mere fractions of the vote, their stark lack of constituency and mandate laid bare for all to see. Would we finally get better candidates? Probably not, but at least we’ll dispel the illusion.  

Anyway, consider this just a tool to use any time you vote, for all of those pesky sections where you encounter a clear devil’s bargain. Remember, you can’t just skip voting. There are too many ballot initiatives, constitutional amendments, and all those odious judges to remove.

P.S. I’m still in edits on my third project. No less than three major household appliance failures in the last month set me back quite a bit.

(8/12/23)

What else to call such an odd medley update? Let’s start with a product review, shall we?

Behold—the CR-0351F three cup rice cooker by Cuckoo!

My wife and I had been using an old Aroma model for years. Boy, had we been in the dark ages… When our Aroma gave up the ghost (and it wasn’t ever really that great), we thought to finally pounce on a fine Japanese model. After all, most Japanese products are nonpareil (Panasonic as one fine example). Well, they’re also commensurately expensive in many cases, but quality isn’t something usually up for compromise.

But what if you didn’t have to compromise?

When all was said and done, it came down to the above or one from Zojirushi (Japan). Hehe, there was one from Panasonic as well, but that sucker cost as much as a car. We opted for the cute Cuckoo which came in at half the price and well under $100. Now, Cuckoo is a Korean company, and that did initially give me pause. I thought LG was the only brand from Korea that hadn’t at one point or another given me trouble, until I found out that they used to be Goldstar (don’t get me started on Goldstar—a tale of woe for another day). But then I thought, surely a proud (Aroma ain’t that) East Asian company wouldn’t mess about with rice!

To quote Tainaka Ritsu from K-On, a literal nominal expert on the subject: “No rice, no life.”

I was right. This CR-0351F model astounds. It’s easy to clean, utterly high-end, and packed with features. Just go to their website for further details, but what we love about it most is how perfect the rice is. It comes out like a cloud and never gummy. The basin cleans easily and is well marked for even half portions. Our old Aroma model forced us to make a minimum of 2 cups. Depending upon what you’re eating, that can be quite a lot for two people. This one makes from 1-3 with half cups in between. We found the cook time to be about the same, but this one also has a turbo feature. We haven’t had occasion to try that, but if I do I’ll update you. You can even customize cook times and temperatures to whatever you could possibly desire. I’m assuming that’s for real connoisseurs who want to walk into perfectly cooking rare varieties or blends of different rice.

All I can say is my favorite Korean word gleaned from all my K-drama watching: “Yah!”

I know it’s rude to yell “Hey!” at people, but if you don’t own one of these Cuckoos, you need to wake up! Run! And go get one!

What’s that? Oh? You’ve never owned a rice cooker? Once you do, you’ll never be without one.

And now for something completely different…

This week I finished my alpha 1.0 manuscript of my third big project—a very short novel or large novella set again in the 19^th century. I like it—the story—if not yet the prose. As usual with one of my first drafts, it’s ruff, ruff, ruff. Hopefully it won’t take me too long to finish preliminary edits, but I’ve also got to make all kinds of passes from historical to character voices. It’s at least another year away, probably even more, and because of that I can’t really say much more than that its word count is almost exactly 40,000. I checked a similar book in my library and see that I’m a bit long, but when you finally see the kind of book that it is, perhaps you’ll understand.

In yet other news:

More libraries! Yes! The counties of Southwest Georgia are adding my latest book! That’s three more libraries, as before, along with a Bookmobile!

Yes, thanks to Director Whittle and all the librarians and staff of The Southwest Georgia Regional Library System, you will soon be able to check out A Southern Fried Fantasy Adventure Story from the Decatur County Public Library, the Miller County Public Library, the Seminole Public Library, and at any stop of the cute little Southwest Georgia Regional Library Bookmobile!

Click HERE for Georgia’s state PINES Library Catalogue

It was a pleasure meeting you guys in Bainbridge a few months back. I hope your patrons enjoy my book.

And finally, in news of the weird:

I recently received my largest royalty yet on my first book out of nowhere. Someone somewhere bought a big ole batch of ‘em, and for that I thank you. It wasn’t through Amazon, nor was it even BB direct. The order apparently went through one of the wholesale partners, so I don’t have much visibility. Anyway, if you enjoy it, please tell someone or show them, and remember to provide any unused copies to your nearest library. Whatever you do, just don’t let the books sit idle. Books are meant to be read.

Actually, I do have one last little note:

I’m within weeks of a decision whether to scrap the unlimited plan locking my second eBook to Amazon. Expect another post here relatively soon if I decided to open it up. The good news is that if I do, it will make the eBook available all over including via Hoopla; the bad news would be for those with unlimited who’d then have to either buy me or check me out digitally from their local library. There’s a downside for me as well, since currently this is my only means of running promotions on Amazon. They won’t let me when it becomes more widely available, so it would be goodbye to any future “countdown sales”.