Print Edition Now Available: Finding DB Cooper

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And Createspace

Cooper Book Update

I have been busy the last few weeks formatting and editing the print edition of Finding DB Cooper. It should be ready to go by early November. I have lowered the price of the Kindle version. Once the print book is published, the current Kindle version will be replaced with the second edition, which includes about 40% more material. According to the Kindle Publishing dashboard, it can take a day or two for the new price to publish.

From the Notebook

The store I work at is closing, and the amount of work involved in closing a store is surprisingly voluminous. So I’ve been incredibly busy as of late. There are only a few days left, then I still have to stay on for a couple of weeks to help with the clean out. I haven’t had a lot of time off since the announcement, so I haven’t had time for any projects. I did start a new novel just after Christmas, but I haven’t had time to really get it going yet.

Stuff:

– Listened to an old tape of Katie Goldberg’s writing seminar: Writing the Landscape of your Mind, held in the Twin Cities in the early 90’s. It was an interesting seminar, focused mostly on Zen-like stream-of-consciousness writing. Not really my thing, but I learn something from every writing how-to I ingest.

– Saw Captain America; The Winter Soldier. It was okay, I would have made a few changes because parts of the plot didn’t make a lot of sense. The ending was kinda stupid, and Hollywood clearly has no idea how to write for a character as ostensibly conservative as Captain Steve Rogers. But there’s some good stuff in there too. I’d recommend.

-In April of 2003, I decided to make a commitment to review every book I read and movie I paid money to see in the theatres, as a writing exercise and a way to keep track of whether I was maintaining my goal of reading a book per week and seeing at least two movies per month. Since then, for the last eleven years, I have done exactly that. I started out on Amazon.com, before moving everything over to blogger. I don’t think I will be doing that anymore. I want to devote more time to novels and other “big projects” and I’m also reading fewer books and watching fewer movies.

-Good friend John Stewart (of the “Night Writer” blog) was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). He will be writing about the whole affair on this month’s Random Link:

http://nolongeriwholive.tumblr.com/

God’s Blessing to you, Mr. Stewart.

From the Notebook

I didn’t really get a chance to celebrate, so I’m going to do it again: Somehow I lasted ten years as a blogger. Over that time, I published over 5000 posts. This is an average of two posts per weekday, 50 weeks a year, for ten years. Also, between the three primary websites, I averaged just over two thousand hits per month over that ten years. I’m just a little bit proud of all that, even if it’s been an ugly and barely readable blog since 2009.

I have no plans for the future of blog. My goal is not to publish anymore junk. I want to produce longer and higher quality posts, stuff that I could publish later. Also, I want to get serious as a novelist, and this means most of my spare time will be spent on large products, not this blog. And I don’t think anyone cares enough about anymore to get all worked up over this.

Annual Traffic Report:

Nothing much to report, though it is interesting that there was a huge increase in December when I had a flood of posts as I tried to hit that 5000 post goal I set for myself.

Books Read:

Aaron Clarey’s Bachelor Pad Economics. It’s an essential purchase for young men. I’m hoping to give it a full review sometime later.

Proverbs (RSV)

Audio Books:

Pauline Epistles, Catholic Letters, Book of Revelations (KJV)

How I Write by Janet Evanovich. The story of her struggling for ten years to get an agent and a publisher should serve as an important lesson for any wannabe writer. As far as writing is concerned, her suggestions are similar to other articles and books I’ve read.

CEO of the Sofa by P.J. O’Rourke. I’ve read the book before, but the audiobook is fantastic. Very funny, if a bit dated.

Other self-education:

Kmart Forklift operation and safety training. So, it’s work-related. Sue me. Just be thankful I didn’t mention every one of the 104 other learning modules I passed.

Random Link:

http://playbooknovel.com/

From the Notebook

English: Martin Buber in Palestine/Israel עברית: מרטין בובר בארץ ישראל (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The year is over, my busy holiday schedule is over, and maybe I’ll have time to write stuff. Maybe.

In other news, I wrote the Foreword in Aaron Clarey’s new Bachelor Pad Economics, as well as worked with the manuscript. It was a lot of fun, and I’m very glad Aaron allowed me to help out. I intend to write a review here and on Amazon.com.

Books read/self-education/Movies:

The White House Mess by Christopher Buckley. Excellent. Played straight as a real memoir, the stuff Buckley parodies would be absolutely at home in any presidential administration since its publication in 1986.

Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover. Pretty good, I got really annoyed at the “Kate called into my radio show and [anecdote that proves how right I am]. Ramsey’s got a good plan, but he sells it like religion, instead of finance.

Good and Evil by Martin Buber. Hard to describe, Martin Buber examines several of the psalms, and the myths relating to Lucifer, good and evil, and even the nature of the afterlife. It is Buber’s description of the afterlife I found most interesting.

Audiobook: X-Files: Ground Zero by Kevin J. Anderson, read by Gillian Anderson. Not very good. Anderson delivers the story monotone and flat and awful. And the story isn’t interesting.

Museum of Modern Art’s Printmaking playlist on Khan Academy. Described the different forms of artistic printmaking. Quick and interesting.

The Hobbit; Desolation of Smaug: Very good, much better than the first one. Worth watching.

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From the Notebook

Busy month at work. And another busy one to go.

Self Education:

Audiobook: Acts of the Apostles. Most of the New Testament is great in audio format, but Acts requires a lot of concentration. Very difficult to follow, and that sort of defeats the purpose of listening to it.

Thor: The Dark World.  Not really “self education” I’ll admit, but I rather enjoyed the film. The climax was zany and fun, the movie almost had enough humor to balance the over-the-top seriousness of the Asgardians. Definitely better than the first “Thor”.

Related articles

• Acts of the Apostles (Mind Over Matter Series) (Paperback) (beyondfrequency.com)
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From the Notebook

Busy month, I’m helping a friend with a book, so I’ve been busy. Also, this blog is just three months shy of its ten-year anniversary. I’ll be publishing some stuff in the next three months as a celebration, including excerpts from the Nixon book.

Audiobooks:

– Gospel of Luke, Gospel of John (KJV). The Gospels work well in audio format. But I’m quickly learning Acts is not so much.

Readings:

– Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes (Older NLT)

-Walking Dead Compendium II (Issues 49-96). Surprisingly good. I’ve tried to read other graphic novels, and haven’t enjoyed the experience. But The Walking Dead is really great.

Related articles

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From the Notebook

Cover via Amazon

Hoping to get some more material onto the blog. The Kindle version of the Nixon Novel is now available, for 99 cents. Just click the picture on the sidebar.

Self-education

-Prof. Timothy Luke Johnson’s The Apostle Paul, from The Great Courses. Another audio course, and it’s excellent. Unlike the more skeptical and academic Bart Ehrman, Johnson is a believer with generally Orthodox views. This intro to the Apostle Paul, his writings and the role he played in spreading Christianity is a great balance to Ehrman’s course on Early Christianity that I reviewed earlier.

Books Read

-The Book of Job (older-NLT)

–World War Z by Max Brooks. This was a really good book. Very readable.

-Attack of the 50 foot Democrats by RK Delka. I reviewed this on Amazon. The author contacted me and asked for a review. As a struggling author myself, I agreed. And, after the first fifty or so pages, the book really picked up. It’s not art, it’s exactly as advertised.

Audio Books

-The Royal and Ancient Game by Kevin Nelson. This is basic golf lore, the stuff most golfers have heard about, but may not have the details on, like where certain golf grips come from or why Scotland became the home of golf. It’s read by George S. Irving.

– Gospel of Matthew

– Gospel of Mark

(If you’ve never listened to the New Testament, you should. The “synoptic” problem becomes very clear. And since these works were originally written to be delivered orally, you get a better understanding of the true effect these writings are supposed to have.)

Weekend Reading

Duh

Random Link

http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/index.html

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• Ehrman’s Overblown Claims – Again (str.typepad.com)
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• From the Notebook (martinandrade.wordpress.com)
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From the Notebook

Books Read:

Still working through the Old Testament…

– 2 Chronicles (older-NLT)

– Ezra (Older-NLT)

– Nehemiah (older-NLT)

– Esther (w/ additions, older-NLT)

Self Education:

– Bitcoin module on Khan Academy. It’s interesting to get an in-depth look at how Bitcoin works, but I still don’t like any currency that lacks some kind of connection to the corporeal world.

– Buddhism by Prof. Malcolm David Eckel, From The Teaching Company’s Great Courses Series. This course was awesome, Prof. Eckel was a great lecturer, and I’ll probably end up listening to this course until the tapes wear out.

– Prehistoric Art History Module on Khan Academy. Fascinating stuff. Seriously. It’s amazing the kind of education you can get for free nowadays.

Weekend Reading

After I get done with the tenth year of the blog, I’m hoping to revamp things. One of those ways will be to offer readings and random links inside of these notebook posts, instead of standalone posts that clutter up the look of the blog.

Random Link

http://theoatmeal.com/

Random Link

http://uispeccoll.tumblr.com/