StanleyWheeler

Yesterday I divested the curtilage of Christmas cheer and yuletide delight. In other words, I de-lighted the exterior of the grounds with a sortie to take down some enemy combatants the Christmas lights. Wife and daughter flew close air support. Wife gathered each strand as I defused it, one by one. Daughter a seek and destroy rescue mission on the strands around the deck. For Christmas itself, we had sickness in a plain brown wrapper. Law Student and his lovely family came Christmas Eve. The little Manette girl already had something, and shared with our couch some of the things she had eaten earlier. Law Student felt as if he wanted to engage in similar sharing but avoided such ostentatious displays. Nevertheless, the Ice Queen and Thor declined to bring the Corsican Brothers to such an environment. The next day, after the joyous morn, with breakfast for some, Law Student et al abandoned us to our own sad company--like process servers who had fulfilled their commission. That ev...

Are there Christmas songs you hate? -- My answer is at the end. There are a lot of Christmas songs. Most of them are great. Nevertheless, many are the opposite of great. Most Christmas songs are eggnog and cookies, candy canes and Christmas trees, angels and hallelujas. Others are gray, gritty snow and cold sores; frozen pipes and an ice-ball in the face. I just watched Christmas with the Tabernacle Choir featuring Kristin Chenoweth. It was very nice. I could have listened for another hour. I also heard some great music at the service this morning. I remember other music I had heard in previous weeks. Some of the choirs, small groups, and solos I've heard have not been so great. I suppose that mix of talent and quality of performance is a good metaphor for life. Our efforts are sometimes excellent; at other times they don't live up to our hopes. I have to admire those who perform and fall short of excellence. They are out trying. Maybe they'll get better with time and ex...

Author Interview with Tamara Wilhite Tamara Wilhite, Author at Liberty Island | | Liberty Island Tamara Wilhite is a science fiction and horror author, engineer, and mother of 2 (humans). Check out Tamara’s Amazon Author Page and see her on Hubpages. libertyislandmag.com Please tell me a little about your current work in progress. I have a weekly column with Liberty Island Magazine. I’ve recently been interviewing science fiction and horror authors for that publication. This year, I started publishing book reviews and author interviews with N3F or National Fantasy Fan Federation, as well. Then there’s the steady stream of work for clients. I write everything from frugal living articles to real estate copy to “what do I do about this error message on my smart fridge?” Projects like that sometimes spawn ideas for my fictional works or my technical columns. Where did you get the idea for this book or series? In the case of Liberty Island Magazine, I asked ...

Last week I had considered a humorous fisking of some comments from Greta's infamous meltdown in September, along with a bit of Jason Momoa's brief speech given a short time later to some UN group. However, after re-reading their comments, I realized a couple things. First, I really wasn't interested in rehashing either the accusatory whimpering of a pampered teen or the somewhat less dramatic--read transcendentally boring--rant of an overpaid actor/activist. Second, I imagined that anything I might say about it would be even less interesting than the original remarks. That was last week. I didn't write anything last week because I was under attack--not from activists who were threatening to place me against the wall, but from invisible invaders. Obviously, I had gone out without my tin foil hat  (check out the link and read the reviews) in a weak moment and was paying the price. Actually, I think it's merely a cold. I detected the presence of the tiny covert op...

"Bridge at Chalons" is the first episode of season 2 of Combat! It wasn't the next episode on my list for viewing. I found it looking for an episode with the theme of blowing a bridge as I wanted to try some WWII action for my skirmish game. The game has already proved itself with musketeers, frontiersmen and Indians, Martians, Trek, and probably a western on which I'm still working--but I digress. I won't do a review or recap here of this Combat! episode. I merely wanted to note that it scores 2 out of 3 on the Combat! Excellence Scale: 1. It featured combat, including a German 2-man machine gun firing from a cemetery, and grenades and explosives. 2. It wasn't about the NPCs. The guest star, Lee Marvin, did not disappoint, but he did not become the show. He also helped bring out the prominent character features/flaws in the regulars. Saunders got to shine, overcoming all obstacles, including the guest star. Only on point number 3 did the episode fail to...

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing. Those words are Shakespeare's coming from the mouth of MacBeth. I purloined a few of those words to create something upon the same sad subject but slathered with hope rather than steeped in MacBeth's bitter despair. The occasion in my case was the passing of a close cousin. Here's my version: We watched in pain as all his tomorrows slowly faded into yesterdays. The petty pace of day to day pressed him ever down the wandering path from the womb toward the clay. His candle now burns elsewhere for his hour has played out upon this stage. His syllables of sound ...

Interview with Christina Ochs Author of The Desolate Empire Series War of the Four Gods Series Christina's Books   Please tell me a little about your current work in progress. Right now, I’m in final edits on Sword of Destiny, the second book of a trilogy based on the English Civil War. Where did you get the idea for this book or series? This series emerged as a sequel to The Desolate Empire, a seven-book series based on the Thirty Years War. Since the English Civil War happened concurrently and involved some of the same people, it seemed like a natural direction to take. Do you write in more than one genre? Not yet, though at some point I might make the switch to straight up historical fiction. Tell me about something that you believe makes your writing unique or worthy of attention. I don’t know how unique it is, but in response to so much fantasy taking the grimdark direction in recent years, I wanted to show how love, family and fri...

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale--a couple perhaps. Let me begin with the movie and finish with the book. Both tales involved scoundrels, rogues, and the good guys who had to deal with them. Here's the easy one; the lesser of the two tales, but an entertaining one nonetheless: If you're looking for swashbuckling fun on the high seas, you need look no further than this little gem filled with pirate stereotypes and, arrrrhguably the greatest of them all, Blackbeard himself. Robert Newton's portrayal of Edward Teach is more fun than a barrel of puppies with eye-patches and peg legs. If you don't think that's fun, you'll be swinging from the yarrrhdarrrhm before morning, matey. Of course Teach is a terrible scoundrel and murderer. He brooks no foolishness from his crew, but being his partner or ally may be more dangerous than being his enemy. Newton provided one my favorite scenes in the movie when he tried to persuade his pirate ...