Michael Harling's Blog, page 5

Book Signings, Boredom, and a Big AI Fail

Well, I had my book Signing, but before I get into the good-natured ribbing of the event, allow me to assure you it was an unmitigated success as it accomplished my main objective, which was to get rid of all the books taking up space in my office.

I live in a small flat and am fortunate that my hobbies take up little room. Music is confined to a set of bagpipes and a guitar, both hanging on the wall, and my writing is contained almost totally on my laptop. This suits a work area of six and a...

Lap Topless

After my flurry of medical appointments (see previous post) my laptop decided it needed a heart transplant in the manner of a new battery. The old one, it seems, decided to stop taking a charge. I noticed this a week ago when the battery stayed at 97% for a few days. Thinking (not very hard, as it turned out) that it might just be refusing to “top up” I unplugged it until the battery was at 48% then plugged it back in, only to find it remained there over the next few days.

Having unintentiona...

AFter All this Time

One tenet I live by is this:

The less you see of doctors and lawyers, the better off you’ll be.

Rest assured I am not advocating evading these professions, simply avoiding them. If you need to interact with a lawyer or doctor, by all means, seek one out. But, overall, the fewer visits you are obligated to make to either, the happier you’ll be. This philosophy has served me well, until circumstances conspired to put me in the firing line of an alarming number of medical interactions.

So,...

Facing Up to Facebook

Much has been going on in the alternate universe that is Lindenwald Press.

I was happy to self-publish my books (Finding Rachel Davenport and The Talisman Series) on Amazon dot Com, list them on my ersatz publishing company’s website, and move on. For a while.

Made it myself

The annoyance came from Amazon listing my books as “Independently Published” (READ: self-published garbage), instead of Lindenwald Press. Other self-published writers had their books listed under equally ersatz publi...

A Blog by Any Other Name

As intimated in an earlier post, while touring the Outer Hebrides, word of this blog began to circulate among the group. This was both gratifying and awkward.

It is difficult to explain what I do, blog-wise, and why. People seem impressed, but a bit confused. I mean, it’s not my job, I don’t get anything for it, and no one is asking me to do it, so why do I do it?

That’s a question even I can’t answer. In the early days, I did it because I could. HTML was not for the faint-hearted and bein...

The Outer Hebrides North

On our first day in Stornoway, we did stones. Standing stones. A big circle of them. At Calanais. It was only 13 miles from our hotel, but then everything is nearby on Lewis, as it is only about 40 miles long and 35 miles wide.

The stone were impressive, though.

Impressive Stones

The Fair-Weather Fairy continued to bless us with fluffy white clouds and blue sky. And it was warm. In April. In Lewis. I had my Viking Jumper on and my winter-lined waterproof to hand, and I was sweating. This...

The Outer Hebrides South

The Outer Hebrides—aka The Edge of the Known World—is a place I never thought I’d go, or even thought about going to, but there I went, and with a great bunch of people.

My tourmates were all swell folks and wonderful travelling companions, and Brightwater—the company we travelled with—was terrific, and we had an outstanding tour manager and coach driver, and I am not saying this just because I told some of them about this blog and worry they might read it.

The trip began with a bus ride f...

Glasgow Hat-Trick

The Gatwick to Glasgow run is becoming so familiar that, for the first time ever in our travelling history, we negotiated the automated Check-In and Bag Drop without requiring human intervention.

For some reason, this epitomizes Glasgow; there were several of these around the town

After a quick airport breakfast, we boarded the bus—I mean, plane—and an hour and a half later we were being disappointed by our hotel. Well, I was, at least; my wife is a little more sanguine about these things, ...

Slacker

It occurred to me recently that—while living in the UK—I have been retired longer than I have had a job. That conveniently overlooks the 30 (ish) years of holding various jobs in the US, but it’s still a statistic I’m pleased with. I’ve been retired so long now that I can’t remember what it was like to have a job, but I imagine it must be awful.

And I say “Retired” as if I toiled to a ripe old age, incubated my nest egg to a respectable size, discussed this life-changing decision with my wife...

Back … Briefly

My big debut, my solo reunion gig, took place this past Saturday. Despite having a cold and singing to a crowd of disinterested 20 to 30-somethings whose parents were not yet born when the songs I was playing were popular, I’m glad I did it.

Fortunately, I received a lot of support from both my choirs, so I did have an appreciative audience, but singing over the rowdy conversations going on around me was a bit of a challenge. Still, I accomplished my main purpose, which was to prove to myself...