D.M. Shepard's Blog, page 2
July 29, 2021
A Long Flight and A Dark and Stormy Night
My 30 Day Space Available Adventure, Part 2 People complain about how the discomfort of airline seats. Don’t get me wrong, I think they are terribly uncomfortable, too. As if the airlines go out of their way to engineer the seats to dig into our legs and backsides. I’m not sure how some people can …
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July 26, 2021
Getting Lost and Found: The Beginning of My 30-Day Space-Available Adventure
A while back I posted this picture on social media: It was one of my most unique life adventures. For about a month during summer break from college in August of 2003, I flew around the US, wherever the military had Space Available Flights. Several followers reached out and said they would like to know …
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July 11, 2021
My Review of Immortal Honor Bound by Danielle Anacona
Intriguing Blend of Gods, Heroes, Mythology, Time Travel and Romance I enjoy reading as much as I like writing. One of the frustrating parts of trying to publish and promote a book is that it cuts into my reading time. Now that things are slowing down a little it is nice to catch back up …
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November 17, 2020
How to Make Simple Multi-Purpose Dough
Since so many of you were interested in how I was making the dough for pasta and wonton wrappers, here it is Ingredients: 2 cups of flour 3 large eggs, beaten 1 tablespoon of olive oil 1 teaspoon of salt A dish or cup of water (don’t add this immediately, I will explain what this …
November 16, 2020
Camping in the Alaska Wilderness in the Name of Writing Research-Part 2
So we decided to camp out under the Skookum Volcano in the name of researching my writing. Did I mention there’s local legends about creepy things watching from the hills that like to cut off heads? Yeah… So, where did I leave off last week? It got dark. Really dark. No ambient light whatsoever. Not …
Camping in the Alaska Wilderness in the name of Writing Research-Part 2
So we decided to camp out under the Skookum Volcano in the name of researching my writing. Did I mention there’s local legends about creepy things watching from the hills that like to cut off heads? Yeah… So, where did I leave off last week? It got dark. Really dark. No ambient light whatsoever. Not …
November 2, 2020
Getting There is Half the Adventure…My Trip into Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in the Name of Writing Research
Hey, let’s go camp under an ancient volcano in the middle of the Alaska wilderness. Oh yeah, this area has a longstanding oral tradition of creepy creatures watching from the hills that want to kill humans. Sounds like the plot of a horror story, right? Part One of our night in under the Skookum Volcano …
October 25, 2020
My Review of The Darkness Within
by Michael Nadeau, Sequel to The Darkness Returns Though he provides a brief synopsis at the beginning of what has transpired in the previous book, without missing a beat, Michael brings us right back to where we left off in the land of Lythinall. And in doing so, we start the story with a battle …
September 28, 2020
DM’s Mystery Equipment of the Week
Acetylene is a highly flammable, unstable gas used in welding and cutting of metals (particularly steel). Before acetylene could be generated and bottled safely and reliably through dissolving acetylene in acetone, it was generated with a device like this. Feeding calcium carbide into the tank to mix with water, the reaction would create acetylene. The …
September 13, 2020
A Rough Road Leads to the Stars**
My Review of Loved Mars, Hated the Food by Willie Handler **AD ASTRA PER ASTERA-Inscription on the plaque in memory of the crew of Apollo I (Gus Grisham, Ed White, Roger B. Chaffee) A little-known factoid: before MS reared its ugly head, I had ambitions of being an astronaut. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t meant to …
