HOT HUMID PAGES

Just heard today of a guy in North Carolina who is spreading the word about Spartan Negotiator to all his friends on-line. This is the new WOM (Word Of Mouth). Reports indicate that these friends who are scattered across the U.S. are making inquiry at their local Barnes & Noble stores regarding Spartan Negotiator. I'm grateful for this outstanding WOM, but, not wanting to be anything but grateful, I'm hoping for more. Hoping this sharing bit goes viral. How things have changed from the old days when books changed actual hands. I'm envisioning a gnarled, soil-stained hand reaching out for an actual artifact and taking it from the fingers of the giver, probably at a camp meeting or a river crossing, or a train station. Now-a-days electrons change screens and downloads are initiated. It's the same concept but antiseptic. No dirt under the giver's fingernails...that can be seen anyway. No musty smell of humid pages wet from being transported in a wool pocket next to a hot body on a warm rainy day. No eye to eye contact. No seeing the smile wrinkles as the gift is given and received. Be these things as they may, I do not deplore virality. I actually enjoy it because...because...well, because it is the modern age and the modern way and the raft at river's edge waiting to transport passengers and mules and produce to the other side is history not modern life. In significant ways the "new" WOM is just as fascinating as a single book exchange in a rural American setting. It just takes place in cyberspace, a place that is also fantastic, mysterious, intriguing, enigmatic, and foreboding.

Read a book blurb yesterday morning about a bald woman character. It's trending. With cancer being epidemic there will be more memorable women sans hair. Davecki meets a bald woman in his latest. Way way back in the beginning, Davecki lived on a boat in a marina because the rent was cheap. Not long after that Dirty Harry turned up living on a boat in a marina because the rent was cheap. Trend setter me...ha! Speaking of ha, wasn't real fond of Frances Ha until two friends explained why it was meritorious. Thick headed I often am.

Advance Reading

     Recently finished a new book called Lambeau Leap where Davecki meets a bald woman, ends up at Lambeau for the first time, and does a reverse Lambeau Leap to save endangered Packers QB Baron von Dodgers from imminent harm...or so he thinks. It's a Packer romp in parody and I've got a copy out with an advance reader to see if it is entertaining.
      Now going back to Davecki's last adventure, Pony Girl, where he gets on the trail of a girl abducted in New Jersey when she was nine years old. Now, eleven years after the crime, the trail leads him and the girl's mother to northern Minnesota, land of 10,000 wierdnesses.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Lake Effect

by Mike Savage

Giveaway ends July 07, 2013.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

KELLY CULHANE WRITING PRIZE BACKGROUND

   
     The inspiration for the Kelly Culhane Writing Prize came from my own experience with the passing of my niece Kelly in August of 2010. As was my morning ritual on that Tuesday I walked to the upstairs rear window to look out and check the weather. Approaching the window, the horn on the neighbor's car honked once. There was nobody in the car. I stepped closer to the window to see what was happening and a brown sparrow flew to the white pine tree branch two feet away from the window. The tiny brown sparrow looked me intently in the eyes, chirped once and Kelly's presence instantly filled the room and my being. I knew instantly and certainly that she had died. I looked at the clock. It read 7:29 a.m. A half hour later Sister Joyce called to tell me what I already knew. Beloved Kelly Meier Culhane, wife, mother, daughter, sister, niece...after a three-year struggle with debilitating breast cancer, had started on her new journey at the precise time of the sparrow's visit. I am still humbled that one of her first stops on her new and irrevocable path was to say goodbye to her, "Uncle Muk."

     The sparrow's (and Kelly's) visit comforted me as much as a hug, touch, or visit. The palpable sense of her spirit with me reassured me, eased my pain and helped me heal.

     My hope for the contest is to honor Kelly of course, but also to honor and respect the spiritual nature of our living and dieing. I believe that your writing and sharing will ease and heal your process and that publishing your words of healing will be a gift to you and all who read them.

Visit www.savpress.com for more contest information and details.

The first Kelly Culhane Writing Prize anthology from 2012 can be viewed at: http://www.savpress.com/Details.asp?ProductID=170

Additional information about the authors and stories in the 2012 anthology can also be viewed at:https://www.facebook.com/34000Lives?ref=ts&fref=ts

Smashwords

The Last Spartan is up and available for $0.99 at Smashwords.

New Blog the Check On

http://www.ghostburglar.com/