Richard Paolinelli's Blog, page 4

Chasing History: Update Part II

The other day I updated my search for photos or items connected to the bowling alleys my dad and I bowled in – both together and separately – over the years. I think I’ve drawn as close to having found everything that remains out there. On those occasions when I find myself in those towns again, I’ll dig around and see if something is there.

While that search winds down another one is also drawing to a successful close. In addition to being avid bowlers, we both liked to hit the links. We’d played golf in several states: California, North Dakota, New Mexico and Texas. I’ve also played in Nevada, Colorado, and Nebraska.

For the most part, I’d kept scorecards and bought logo balls for most of the courses. But a few slipped by, mostly due to the course not having a logo ball. I’ve got it down to three courses – all three in Texas – that I don’t have a logo ball for. I’m at 100% on the scorecards and photos.

And that black and white photo is dad being greeted by my sister, Chantel, after a round of golf in Mineola, Texas in 1977.

I’ve also been chasing any photos or news clippings of Dad’s high school playing days. He played football and basketball in the late 50s and very early 60s. Unfortunately, game photos are almost non-existent. But I’ve found some news clippings, programs and headshots from school yearbooks.

When we were packing up dad’s things in Texas, we came across two yearbooks for Sabine Pass High in Texas. One had him in it but the other was while he was in elementary school. I have the one yearbook he’s in, that stays in the family as long as any of us live, but the other one I sent down to Sabine Pass High. That’s the cover of the 1957 Sabine Pass High yearbook that is now back in their library’s collection.

A few years ago one of the hurricanes that torment the Gulf Coast states all but scoured the town off the face of the earth. The high school was completely destroyed and nothing of it survived. They never even found any debris. The school was rebuilt and has been slowly gathering up what little remains of its history.

The yearbook I sent to them is the oldest yearbook they have in their possession. I’m pretty sure dad would have wanted them to have it once he was gone. I know they are very thrilled to have it and I hope to visit Sabine Pass soon and see it in their library.

Who knows, maybe one day by dad hanging on to that yearbook for over sixty years and my sending it back home, we’ll have helped someone find a piece of their family’s lost history.

And to be honest, that’s almost as cool as all of the things I’ve been able to track down over the past 13 months in our own family history.

A Military Sci-Fi Bundle You Can’t Pass Up

Get 15 Military Sci-Fi Books For As Little As $20.

The deal includes my book, Galen’s Way, and features books by Kevin J. Anderson, Richard Fox, and Declan Finn.
The Locked and Loaded Military SF Bundle – Curated by Kevin J. Anderson

Whether it’s service in the galactic marines, or defending Earth from an alien invasion, or traveling with the Federation fleet to protect a new colony, Military SF always gives readers a great story.

This new Locked and Loaded Storybundle, curated by bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson, contains fifteen action-packed books across the whole range of Mil SF.

PRISONER OF WAR by Kevin J. Anderson is an authorized sequel to Harlan Ellison’s classic Outer Limits episode “Soldier,” the acknowledged inspiration for TERMINATOR. This is the only sequel Ellison ever approved for any of his works. In a war-torn world of endless conflict, children are bred, then trained from birth to become perfect soldiers, until one man begins to get the wrong sort of indoctrination.

Enlisting into the Marines can seem like just a way off-planet . . . until it becomes a calling in Jonathan P. Brazee’s RECRUIT. In William Allen Webb’s HIGH MOUNTAIN HUNTERS, their enemies on Earth fear them; now it’s the Galactic Union’s turn! Jo Boone’s THE MAGNETAR is a second chance at life … or is it? THE SIGNAL OUT OF SPACE, by Mike Jack Stoumbos—Welcome to the Interstellar Initiative, the galaxy’s best hope for bringing enemies together for a common purpose and giving humanity a second chance for a first impression … if an uninvited guest doesn’t destroy them all first.

In GALEN’S WAY by Richard Paolinelli—they made two mistakes: The first was hiring the Andromeda Galaxy’s most dangerous mercenary to rescue a kidnapped princess. The second was trying to kill them both when he succeeded. Declan Finn’s WHITE OPS: Sean Patrick Ryan’s White Ops team sees an alien race that wants to test our galaxy for weakness. To fight the enemy in the shadows, Sean will put together a strike team to light up the darkness — with nukes if necessary.

A young Man from beyond the galaxy’s edge returns to Earth to fight against a brutal alien occupation in Richard Fox’s ASHES FALL. GEHENNA DAWN by Jay Allen: Jake Taylor fought like hell on a hostile planet far from Earth…but then he found out everything he struggled for was a lie. It started with an assassination attempt in Brent Nichols’ STARS LIKE COLD FIRE. It ended in interstellar war.

In FORCED CONVERSION, by Don Bingle, Virtual reality isn’t a game; it’s the future home of all mankind. Some people don’t want to go. A signal beckons from deep space in Jerry Shepard’s INVASION. It was a call they never should have answered.

A.R. Knight gives us a double-whammy with two books, DROP ZONE and HELIX STRIKE. Get in fast. Rescue the VIP. Get out. Sever Squad is outnumbered, outgunned, and every second on Dynas ticks them closer to a fiery end. And if you want a unique fantasy twist to your Mil SF, check out Jennifer M. Eaton’s RENEGADE MAGIC. A crew of smugglers survives by keeping one step ahead of the law, until they kidnap a tyrannical cop hoping to convince her they’re innocent…. what could possibly go wrong?

Name your price to get all 15 of these books and keep your e-reader locked and loaded! Support indie authors, and a portion of the proceeds goes to support the Challenger Learning Center for Space Science Education.

* * *

For StoryBundle, you decide what price you want to pay. For $5 (or more, if you’re feeling generous), you’ll get the basic bundle of four books in any ebook format—WORLDWIDE.

Prisoner of War by Kevin J. AndersonGehenna Dawn by Jay AllanForced Conversion by Donald J. BingleStars Like Cold Fire by Brent Nichols

If you pay at least the bonus price of just $20, you get all four of the regular books, plus eleven more books for a total of 15!

Galen’s Way by Richard PaolinelliAshes Fall by Richard FoxRecruit by Jonathan P. BrazeeINVASION by Jerry ShepardRenegade Magic by Jennifer M. EatonWhite Ops by Declan FinnThe Magnetar by Jo BooneHigh Mountain Hunters by William Alan WebbThe Signal Out of Space by Mike Jack StoumbosDouble Tap – Sever Squad Books 1 & 2 by A.R. Knight

This bundle is available only for a limited time via http://www.storybundle.com. It allows easy reading on computers, smartphones, and tablets as well as Kindle and other ereaders via file transfer, email, and other methods. You get multiple DRM-free formats (.epub, .mobi) for all books!

It’s also super easy to give the gift of reading with StoryBundle, thanks to our gift cards – which allow you to send someone a code that they can redeem for any future StoryBundle bundle – and timed delivery, which allows you to control exactly when your recipient will get the gift of StoryBundle.

Why StoryBundle? Here are just a few benefits StoryBundle provides.

Get quality reads: We’ve chosen works from excellent authors to bundle together in one convenient package.Pay what you want (minimum $5): You decide how much these fantastic books are worth. If you can only spare a little, that’s fine! You’ll still get access to a batch of exceptional titles.Support authors who support DRM-free books: StoryBundle is a platform for authors to get exposure for their works, both for the titles featured in the bundle and for the rest of their catalog. Supporting authors who let you read their books on any device you want—restriction free—will show everyone there’s nothing wrong with ditching DRM.Give to worthy causes: Bundle buyers have a chance to donate a portion of their proceeds to the Challenger Center for Space Education!Receive extra books: If you beat the bonus price, you’ll get the bonus books!

Here’s the link again: https://storybundle.com/blog/lockedandloadedmilitarysfbundle/

Chasing History: Bowling

Sometime in late June/early July, my website disappeared. As in deleted and there was no backup to be found to restore it. To date, no one has been able to figure out what happened.

The good news was that I had all of my book covers and nearly all of the links saved so I was able to quickly rebuild the site. My estimate is that I recovered and restored between 90-95% of the site within a few hours.

The bad news was that all of my blog posts were permanently lost.

Among them I’d been updating you all on my pursuit of some personal history. I began the search shortly after my dad passed away back in late 2021. So I thought I’d try to restart the blog by redoing the updates on the chase.

My dad was likely one of the best bowlers you never heard of. If the PBA Tour had larger prize funds in the 1960s he might have gone on Tour. But he made more money as a house pro in a small bowling alley in Winnemucca, Nevada – without having to drag his family around the country – so he never tried it.

Rodeo Lanes was the name of that bowling alley, and it closed up shop in the late 60s. The building became a hardware store and now lies vacant in Winnemucca. Over the past 13 months I’ve managed to locate a score sheet, a bowling pin that is showing its age, an old photo that shows a little bit of the interior when it was an active alley (that’s my dad’s league championship-winning team in the photo. He’s on the far left next to the ball return) and copies of old black & white newspaper photos of the place when it first opened. I’m told there is a location just outside town where the bowling balls were dumped when the place closed. I’m debating whether or not to mount an excavation and see if I can find just one with Rodeo Lanes engraved on it (yes, I’m just that loco enough to try) and then seeing if anyone at the current bowling alley in town ever bowled at Rodeo Lanes and has a better photo.

The first bowling alley I ever rolled a league game in was Crown Lanes in Steele, ND in the 1970s. Sadly, the house closed in the early 2000s. But recently a couple bought the building and are converting it into a roller skating rink. They kindly sent me a bowling pin, a couple of items with Crown Lanes on it and a foul light cover they found when cleaning out what was left in the lane areas. They also sent some photos of the eight-lane house before they pulled them out (At least you get an idea of what it looked like back in the day). A local woman in Steele is checking around to see if anyone has photos of the place while it was in operation, as well as photos of the Ranch House Hotel where my grandfather was a cook in 1974. As with Rodeo, I have enough to be able to show my grandkids what the places looked like, but I would love to have more.

The first bowling alley my dad and I bowled league in together was Tiffany Bowl in Odessa, TX. It was also where I won my first bowling tournament. The cash prize of $800 is long gone, but I still have the ring that came with the 243-198 victory in the championship match in 1985. It too has been closed since the late 1990s. But, I have a pin and a patch from the bowling alley and copies of photos of the alley that ran in the Odessa American (To date, this is the best photo I have of the interior).

The good news is, the former owner thinks he has some photos in storage and is looking for them and the University of Texas, Permian Basin, has the photos and negatives from the Odessa American and they are cataloging them. As soon as the run across the originals that ran in the paper, they will scan them and send me high quality copies.

The first bowling alley I ever bowled in was Divine Gardens in Turlock, CA. I’ve got a pin and some pretty good photos of the place, and this one of Divine Gardens from the late 1960s might be the best I’ll ever get of the place, but I’m still looking for more if I can find them.

As for the other lanes I’ve bowled in, including Brunswick Sands in Lancaster, CA where Dad and I won our first league championship together in 1986, I have plenty of photos and items.

So when it comes to the bowling portion of the chase, I’m pretty close to saying I’ve got the job done. But if you happen to know of anyone who might have something from one of the places above, feel free to click on this contact link and let me know.  

Coming up: Chasing History: Golf

An Unexpected Change

You’ve probably noticed a few changes here on the website in the last couple of weeks. Many of them had been in the works for some time, waiting for when we had wrapped up work at Tuscany Bay Books on getting the last five new releases of 2022 ready to go.

The one unplanned change happened on June 19th when Tuscany Bay’s co-founder/publisher Jim Christina passed away in his home in Star, Idaho. To say the last month has been difficult and challenging would be an understatement.

But, Tuscany Bay Books will go on – albeit not in the same form that it was in before. The connections to The Writer’s Block – which had its final broadcast on LA Talk Radio on June 23rd – and to Creative Edge Publicity have come to an end. We will continue to offer the Westerns and Non-Fiction books we have published, but we will no longer be accepting new submissions in those genres. We’ve also discontinued publishing children’s books.

Going forward we’re going to focus on the following four genres, and their sub-genres: Science fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, and Thrillers. Starting on August 1st, submissions will re-open in those genres and we look forward to reading some great new material.

We’ve also entered into an arrangement with a new PA service, Susan Catt. She will be in charge of our social media, newsletter and other publicity needs for our house and our authors. I’m looking forward to seeing what she’s going to be doing in the days and weeks to come. 

And finally, we are in discussions with a large publishing house to get our books listed on their online store, extending our reach into a brand new market of readers. I hope to have more on that soon.

In the meantime, we’re gearing up for Tuesday’s release of the 10th book in Declan Finn’s St. Tommy N.Y.P.D. series, Lightbringer.  You can pre-order from most online e-book retailers by clicking the link. It will also be available in paperback and hardcover formats on the 19th. Make sure you grab a copy of this book.

And I’ll be getting back to my writing soon. I have four novels in the queue that really need to get finished and released in 2023. 

So I guess you can say the seas have been somewhat rough lately, but I think we have charted a course toward a new age at Tuscany Bay Books. I know I’m very excited to see where this new chapter takes me.

A Final Show

Please join us tomorrow night at 6 p.m. PDT/9 p.m. EDT for The Writer’s Block on LA Talk Radio. http://latalkradio.com/content/writer... We will be paying tribute to our late host, Jim Christina. Joining us will be Bobbi Jean Bell, Russ Avison, and Bob Brill who along with myself have sat in the co-host chairs during the …

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The Curse Of The Stolen Cup

To my many Canadian friends, whom I greatly value, I have bad news.  You all are cursed. Of course, you already knew this, after all you have Justin “Fidel Castro Jr.” Trudeau as your PM/Tyrannical Dictator. But what you probably don’t know is: Why? What grievous sin has your country committed to warrant such a …

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Tuscany Bay Books Release Schedule Set

Tuscany Bay Books has released its current release schedule for the next 24 months. There could be some additions and date changes along the way, but for now, check out this impressive line-up. And yes, a lot of them are mine. I’m going to be quite the busy little bee in the next two years. …

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Some Authors To Check Out…and they have a free book to give you too!

Most of you that follow what I babble about here on my blog have also signed up for my newsletter. (And if you haven’t then you really should. Because you can download a free copy of my H.G. Wells’ War Of The Worlds tribute story, The Fall of Denver, if you do by signing up …

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The Fall Of Denver

A few years back I wrote a short story as part of an anthology that paid tribute to the legendary H.G. Wells, one of my early favorite authors. It appeared in that anthology, even leading it off as the first story in the collection, for some two years. Then, without explanation or warning, the editor/publisher …

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Must Read Books: Triple Play Weekend

Okay, its a three-day weekend so how about we do three books you really should be reading? First up we have Stand Against the Dark: Book 4 of the Avatar Wizard by Denton Salle. “Many have died trying this, lad. The Elder Powers are neither gentle nor kindly.” With those words from his teacher, Jeremy …

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