R.A. McCandless's Blog, page 32

Naming Names and Namers—Book Titles

A title no one else had thought of!We’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but damned if we don’t.  There’s a whole industry of book cover artists and marketing experts who are doing their damnedest to get you to pick up a book off the shelf (or click on the digital link) based solely on the cover.
If that’s bad, think about the book’s title.  A really good title, or a really bad one, can be as important as the cover itself.
I made a mistake with my first published book, Tear...

In Memory of Richard Hatch and Captain Apollo

It's no feldercarb—Hatch will be missed!They took me to see Star Wars.
In the theater.
At four years old, I was sold.
Fantasy!  Science Fiction!  TOGETHER!
A year later, riding high on the wave of Star Wars Mania (yes, that was a thing), NBC launched Battlestar Galactica.  Everything was coming up Rob!  I wanted a Colonial warrior jacket more...

Sick of Being Sick

The most comfortable ever.Pneumonia isn’t fun.
That’s pretty much all I can come up with.
I’ve been living my life in four hour increments, because that’s when I have to, or get to, take the various medications I’ve been prescribed.  I’m pretty certain this is as sick as I’ve ever been.  I did that year with Crohn’s before they realized it was Crohn’s and had to have surgery, but at least with that I didn’t have chest pains, and congestion and morning coughing jags that lasted fifteen...

Note: Urgent Care is Neither

Ewww, gross!The bad news is, I’m out of everything except the inhaler the last doctor gave me that sorta made me feel better, and they didn’t give me anything else. 
I’m too tired to work up to a good rage.  There’s one to be had if you want it.  In a mostly deserted Urgent Care (a rarity), it took them two hours to take my vitals and when I was placed in a room I didn’t see the PA (yeah, no doctor for us non-sickies) for another 50 minu...

Roughriding the White House

Laughing at the "superior intellect"!For those confused or disheartened by the current administrations latest focus on non-issues, please be assured Teddy Roosevelt has got your back:
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him in so far as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact ex...

A Quote from George Orwell

Alternative Facts: I wrote all this!He picked up the children’s history book and looked at the portrait of Big Brother which formed its frontispiece. The hypnotic eyes gazed into his own. It was as though some huge force were pressing down upon you — something that penetrated inside your skull, battering against your brain, frightening you out of your beliefs, persuading you, almost, to deny the evidence of your senses. In the end the Party would announce t...

Z for Zachariah

Two men.  One woman.  What could go wrong?Feeling a little too upbeat about politics, social issues, the War on Terror or life in general?  Have I got a movie for you!
Z for Zachariah starring Margot Robbie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Chris Pine.  Oh, and there’s a dog, but she’s just a dog, and doesn’t really do much.  Z for Zachariah is an adaptation of the posthumously-published Robert O’Brien novel who also wrote Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH—that should give you an...

Not Dead Yet!

I always thought lightening was involved.Deciding that post-op recovery wasn’t nearly challenging enough, I opted to pick up whatever strain of the flu I wasn’t immunized for.
It’s been a real treat.
I’ve successfully coughed up both lungs and started in on some other major organs, but only a small portion at a time—ya know, for the lolz.
On that cheery note, an old friend of mine, the same who gave me the infamous bookmark, is visiting with his family this week.  I managed, through a cockt...

That's All Folks!

Sums it up nicely.You do not want to ask to borrow my phone.  Tuesday, while standing in the bathroom, I pulled my phone out of my pocket to check a message, lost control of my ability to hold things, and promptly dropped it into the toilet bowl.
SPLASH!
It was a clean bowl, so I had that going for me.  My thought process, moving at less than a snail’s pace, went like this:
Damn.
Don’t go in, it’s gone.
Just let it go.
That's a toilet!
I have to go in, it won’t flush down.
Arrrgh...

Westerns and Urban Fantasy

I'm not sure what McCandless is up to either!We watched two seemingly incongruent movies this past weekend: El Dorado with John Wayne and *batteries not included.  When I say “we” I really mean “me”—the boys went in and out during *batteries not included somewhat interested, but not enough to make the entire movie, and El Dorado with all its shooting and bright-red blood isn’t a movie I’m willing to let the boys see just yet.
These rolled around in my head for sometime, itching and scratc...