Keith B. Darrell's Blog, page 38

The Inexorable Weed

I saw a lovely display of outdoor plants at the supermarket, today. I imagined how nice they would look on my patio and was tempted to buy them, until I remembered I have a black thumb. Some people are born with green thumbs, that nurture and nourish whatever flora they touch. My hands, however, are anathema to my chlorophyll producing friends that share the planet with me. Besides, I have a lovely weed at home.
Over the years, I made many attempts to populate my patio with greenery. My patio...

The Voyage of Discovery

With a new school year approaching, this is an appropriate excerpt from my new book,  Collected Essays of a Reluctant Blogger :



When we gaze into a classroom, we see the faces of 30 young students endowed with differing innate abilities and skills. They were not all designed to work the same way. Our educational system teaches them as if they were monolithic, or at least fungible entities. But they are not. One might be good with his hands, capable of creating fine pottery or crafts; a seco...

Back in the USA!!!

I'm pleased to announce my new book, Collected Essays of a Reluctant Blogger, published in June in the the European Union, is now available for purchase in the United States! Caving in to unprecedented demand, Amber Book Company will distribute Collected Essays of a Reluctant Blogger exclusively through Amazon.com.

But don't fret if you're located outside the good ole US of A! Collected Essays of a Reluctant Blogger can still be ordered from Amazon in the United Kingdom, ...

The Death Doctors

Corporations aren't people. That’s good news for Johnson & Johnson, because if corporations were people, then J&J would be locked away in a jail cell charged with murder.

One of America’s largest corporations is responsible for the deaths of many of our fellow Americans. Another one may be dying as you read this. This is a tale of corporate greed and money; of the most helpless members of our communities and families; and of the callous death dealers who masquerade as pillars of our so...

Just Published! The Halos & Horns Omnibus – In Color!

Halos and Horns: The Omnibus Edition has just been published in a deluxe paperback edition and I cannot recommend any book more highly than this one. Readers of this blog already know my passion for the Halos and Horns fantasy saga, which I have spent four years crafting. I've often compared this work of episodic fiction to television, likening each chapter to a TV episode, and each book to an entire TV season. Continuing that analogy, Halos and Horns: The Omnibus Edition is th...

Forgetting Oliver

I’m watching with great interest what’s going on in the European Union. The EU Court of Justice has ruled in favor of the Right to be Forgotten, a concept I discuss in my book, Issues in Internet Law: Society, Technology, and the Law . Europeans have a profound commitment to individual privacy, considering it a fundamental human right, whereas Americans value free speech as a core principle of a democratic society. When the two values conflict, the winner will depend upon the locale.
Europeans...

No, It’s Not OK Cupid

Popular dating Website OkCupid revealed today it has been perpetrating a fraud on its users. Until now, OkCupid stood apart from its rivals because of its unique matching algorithm based on users’ answers to questions posed by other users. The seemingly innocuous questions actually revealed a great deal about the individual, depending on how he or she answered them. The answers were weighted, based on their importance to the user reviewing them. They were then scored into percentiles, and use...

A Letter to the NSA

Social commentary mixed with a dash of humor: here's another excerpt from my new book,  Collected Essays of a Reluctant Blogger :


To: National Security Agency
    Fort Meade, Maryland, USA

Date: Classified

To Whom It May Concern:

My computer crashed last night and I lost all my e-mails. Would you please send me a copy of my e-mails, going back to 1993? Also, some of my e-mails concerned my upcoming book tour for my new novel, The Witches’ Cauldron, and I am uncertain which venues...

An Independence Day excerpt from My New Book

And now, on this Fourth of July, an appropriate excerpt from my new book, Collected Essays of a Reluctant Blogger :



On this day commemorating the founding of our republic, it is appropriate to take a moment from our barbecues and fireworks displays and reflect on the state of our country and our society. Recently, the Supreme Court, in the Citizens United case, which allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts backing political campaigns and spurred the development of superPACs, effectively...

The Pandora Chronicles

After four years – and four annual volumes – the first arc of the Halos & Horns fantasy saga has come to a close. Halos & Hornsfollowed the story of an angel and a demon on the lam from their respective realms (Heaven and Hell) who take human guise and settle in Las Vegas as private eyes. Their tale has ended… but along the way, they crossed paths with a wide array of unusual and interesting supernatural characters. Among them, were two vampires: Sharon Mordecai, an 18-year-old runawa...