Keith B. Darrell's Blog, page 55

The Year In Review

2011... gone already? Johnny, we hardly knew ye! With theZombie Apocalypse and the Mayan Doomsday of 2012 upon us, it's appropriate tolook back over the year that has passed.
I wrote and published five books in 2011: Putting Your Business on the Internet: Your Website, Your Web Designer, & YOU! 2nd ed. (February2011); Issues In Internet Law: Society, Technology, and the Law, 6th ed.Hardcover edition (March 2011); Halos & Horns Book Two: And A Child Shall Lead Them (May 2011); Shards (August...

The Tale of a Dormouse

For many years, whenever I would stop off at the localStarbucks, I could count on seeing Dormouse squirreled away at one of thetables in the rear of the coffee shop, tapping away on her laptop as she sippedher Frappuccino. Her name wasn't Dormouse, of course. But as she slid her strawthrough her rodent-like buck teeth and torpidly dragged her fingers across herkeyboard, pausing to stare up with her beady eyes and bushy coiffure, shestruck me not as the middle-aged woman who had introduced...

Breaking News! - Cheetah is Dead!

Cheetah is dead.

Best known as Tarzan's chimpanzee companion in a host of Johnny Weissmuller films, the chimp had retired to Florida decades ago to live out his Golden Years. The actor died at the age of 80, in bed at the Florida sanctuary where he had lived since retiring in 1960.

"It is with great sadness that the community has lost a dear friend and family member on December 24, 2011," the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, Florida announced on its Web site. The 80-year-old chimp...

Death of the Pony Express

 "Neither snow nor rain nor heat norgloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of theirappointed rounds" reads theinscription on the James Farley New York City post office. Herodotus pennedthose words describing the expedition of the Greeks against the Persians around500 B.C, but the saying has become synonymous with the U.S. postal service.Nothing can impede delivery of the U.S. mail… except a Republican Congresshell-bent on destroying it.

Everyone gripes about the post...

Far From Home

Each year, I write a Christmas story on December 24. In 2009, it was "A Christmas Present For Ashley" which first appeared on my MySpace blog; in 2010, it was "The Trial of Santa Claus" which I debuted in a public reading. Continuing my tradition of penning disturbing Yuletide tales, I present the 2011 Christmas story:

Far From Home©2011 Keith B. Darrell
When you walk down the street or open your front door, youdon't expect to be murdered by a stranger. We live in a world where society...

"Blistering Barnacles!"

I read Steven Spielberg is releasing a Tintin movie. Filmadaptations seldom live up to their source material, but I'll keep my fingerscrossed. Tintin was a childhood friend and I look forward to reuniting withhim.
I first encountered Tintin in the pages of Children'sDigest. Every month, an issue of the digest-sized magazine would arrive inmy mailbox, filled with puzzles, games, and stories but the first feature Iwould turn to was the Tintin comic strip. Belgian artist Georges Remi, underthe...

Worth A Second Look

In a previous post, I told you about the eStorybooks thatwere selling well. Today, I'd like to shine the spotlight on three of myfavorite short stories that have been neglected by Kindle purchasers.
First up is Future Memories of the Butterfly Lady. 

The plot: Reporter Sylvia Bartow has only one hour to makesense of the patchwork quilt of interviews that has consumed the past threemonths of her life, as she waits to interview condemned killer Max Crenshaw -one hour before the hangman's noose...

Best Sellers (so far)

I started selling eBooks on Amazon's Kindle in February of 2011. I find it fascinating to see which titles are my best sellers and which are languishing. In February, the best seller was " Putting Your Business on the Internet ".


Of course, this was a no-brainer, since it was the only title released as an eBook at that point.


 In March and April, Paved With Good Intentions , the first book in the "Halos & Horns" fantasy series led the way.


In May, I had 15 eBook titles competing for the top spot...

Big Brother is Watching What You're Watching

The Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 makes it illegal todisclose what videotapes an individual has rented, unless he or she has giveninformed, written consent at the time the disclosure is sought.
This means you can rent a copy of Lesbians in LeatherBondage from your local video store, mail order vendor, or Web site and notworry your prim and proper neighbors will give you awkward glances at thesupermarket (so long as you've kept the volume down; walls being thin, ofcourse).
More...

Banned By The BBC?

This month marked the return of Nicola Stapleton to EastEndersafter a 17-year absence, resuming the role of Mandy Salter. 

The former "wild child" returns as a stripper. She certainlylooks a lot, ahem... different, from how I remembered her, so I hopped into mytime machine (YouTube, for the uninitiated), and found this clip of her from1992 
in which teenage Mandy lets slip the phrase "a bunch ofwankers acting like Cockneys." I was surprised at the number of YouTubercomments expressing shock...