StanleyWheeler

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 ...

Interview with Rachel Kovaciny 1. Please tell me a little about your current work in progress. I’m writing a retelling of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” set in the Old West.   Seven white orphans abandoned along the trail to Kansas are taken in by a wagon train of former slaves.   One orphan idolizes a beautiful immigrant who is a healer and seeks to learn how to help sick people from her, only to discover she intends to do away with her stepdaughter.   I call it One Bad Apple , and I’m planning to release it in early 2020. 2. Where did you get the idea for this book or series? I got the idea for this particular book when I was teaching one of my kids American history a couple years ago.   One of the great things about homeschooling is that I often learn new things right alongside my kids.   I got a book about African Americans in the Old West out of the library for them and, while reading it with her, discovered there was this whole west...

First there's the college football thing. Last night I watched a 2-4 team (blue) with its 3rd string QB, coming off its 3rd straight loss, beat an undefeated top-20-ranked team (orange). Blue is now at 3-4 and two of those victories have been over top-25 ranked teams. These two teams have played every year for the last several years. Every year I'm positive that blue is going to beat orange. Blue usually disappoints me. This year I was certain that orange would win--sometimes it feels good to be wrong. It's a great rivalry and I like both teams, but I would be less than sincere (so I suppose that means I would have a little bit of wax--see the etymology for "sincere" if you don't get that) if I didn't note a sliver of schadenfreude regarding some of the fans who consistently degrade blue, considering that orange will probably drop from the top 20 and will lose the shot it had at a prestigious bowl game. I think it proves that it's infinitely more fun...

The trickling began this week. Words. Those malleable bricks composed of variations of 26 unique elements representing sounds manifested in the English language which itself is spoken with such extraordinary differences around the globe that it's not one language but several. But I digress. And I will do it again, if I please. I do. The digression continues. We place various combinations of letters into words--and then we don't even pronounce some of the letters; or we pronounce them differently even though they are arranged in precisely the same way. What a language! What a rich history! Back to my point, if I had one. I did. I shall begin again taking up after the trickling thought. Words. Those malleable bricks composed of variations of 26 unique elements representing sounds in the English language began a procession into my newest book this week. Like camels, horses, pilgrims, slaves, and taskmasters with tents and rugs and provisions all bound in colorful rugs and clo...

 It began when the princess fled from her father's wrath by taking her flier and leaving the city before dawn. At dawn, as she slept on the floating craft, a party of Zarhoons shot down the flier. Warriors returning to the city on foot saw the flier and recognized the princess' personal insignia before it went down. The princess was injured in the crash but managed to hide herself within the ruins before she passed out from her injuries. The warriors and the Zarhoons search the city for the princess. This was the Wreck at the Ruins scenario for play testing my new skirmish rules in a Barsoomian setting. Of course, it went fabulously. The miniatures are from Bronze Age Miniatures:  At one point while searching the city, one of the Zarhoons was set upon by a massive pale simian.  While his partner tangled with the pale simian, the other Zarhoon found the unconscious princess but could not get away with her before being set upon by her loyal warriors. T...