Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas!

That is all.

Happy Thanksgiving

I remember years ago someone told me that Thursdays are the best days to post blogs. So since then I've mostly posted my blog on Thursdays.

However this year is unique. Not only does Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) fall on Thursday as usual, but so does Christmas and New Years (Christmas and New Years always fall on the same day of the week). So the question is, do I post blogs on all those Thursdays?

Well, maybe on New Years Day.

In any case, if you live in the U.S., Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween is Different Now

I like Halloween, which is next Tuesday. It's fun to pass out candy to the kids who come to our door.

But it's meaning has subtly changed over the years.

Used to be Halloween was about the supernatural. Goblins and spooks and witches, etc. Decorations generally followed this supernatural theme. 

Kids would dress up in costumes (not always supernatural related) and go door to door for candy. 

But these days, adults seem to be more involved in Halloween and the holiday has expanded to include horror such as serial or mass killers. Like this picture I recently saw in Facebook:

I think this change has followed the change in horror movies from supernatural to things like the Saw movie franchise (which, as I understand it, is just torture porn)(because I refuse to watch it).

I liked the Halloween of my childhood better. 

How do you feel about Halloween and what it has come to represent? Let me know in the comments below.

Old Halloween Costumes

When I was a kid in the 1960s (yes, I'm that old), Halloween costumes you bought in the store were awful. For example, see the picture at left. What you usually got was a mask and a plastic top (that would probably go up in flames if it touched fire) that had a picture of the character and often their logo/name. The Bambi "costume" in the middle is a perfect example.

And, at the time, I thought "that's not a very good costume, it's more like an ad my parents pay for me to wear." So, I often wore homemade costumes. I don't ever remember wearing one of those abominations.

One year, my mother found a mask that was translucent and make me look like an adult male. I wore that with a tie a sportcoat to be an adult. I once made a robot costume out of a Clorox bottle and a devil costume. I don't remember any of my other costumes from when I was that young.

What kind of costumes did you wear at Halloween? What do you think of the costumes shown above? Let me know in the comments below.

Cyber Monday Sale

The Amazing Holiday $0.99 Book Sale

Going on now at the blog of Hans G. Schantz. Celebrate Cyber Monday by topping off your library. Select from over eighty titles each priced at $0.99, including more than a dozen that are absolutely free.

Included it The Smugglers of Mars, by me. It will be $0.99 until Wednesday. So get your copy of the first book in the Chumba of the Intelligence Corps series.

Treachery stalks the red planet...

 

Before he was Rick Bailey, before he hunted for the Treasure of the Black Hole, he was Titus Chumba of the Core Empire Intelligence Corps.

 

Sent to Mars to investigate water smuggling, First Lieutenant Chumba finds a criminal conspiracy that spans from the red planet to the asteroid belt. Will Chumba discover the deadly secrets of the smugglers of Mars, learn the identity of the mysterious woman embroiled in the conspiracy, and prevent a cold war with the reptile-like Malvalkians from turning blazing hot?

Get your $0.99 copy now! Sale runs through the second.

Black Friday Sale

The Amazing Holiday $0.99 Book Sale

Going on now at the blog of Hans G. Schantz. Celebrate Thanksgiving Weekend by topping off your library. Select from over eighty titles each priced at $0.99, including more than a dozen that are absolutely free.

Included it The Smugglers of Mars, by me. It will be $0.99 until Wednesday. So get your copy of the first book in the Chumba of the Intelligence Corps series.

Treachery stalks the red planet...

 

Before he was Rick Bailey, before he hunted for the Treasure of the Black Hole, he was Titus Chumba of the Core Empire Intelligence Corps.

 

Sent to Mars to investigate water smuggling, First Lieutenant Chumba finds a criminal conspiracy that spans from the red planet to the asteroid belt. Will Chumba discover the deadly secrets of the smugglers of Mars, learn the identity of the mysterious woman embroiled in the conspiracy, and prevent a cold war with the reptile-like Malvalkians from turning blazing hot?

Get your $0.99 copy now!

Happy Thanksgiving

 Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Don't eat too much!

Independence Day

Today is July 4th. But the holiday is called "Independence Day." That's to remind you that around this day in 1776, the United States declared its independence from England.

So, "Happy Independence Day." Spend some time today to be thankful for the freedoms you enjoy.

Flag Day

It's Flag Day in the U.S. Not a well-known holiday, but it is an excuse to use my flag picture:

Happy Halloween

Today is Halloween. Some people call it "Samhain." I have no idea why.

When I was a kid, Halloween was great, of course. Used to come home with a large paper grocery bag full of candy. And then get sick eating it. It was glorious.

These days, even adults get into the spirit of Halloween with parties and other excuses to drink alcohol. I don't drink alcohol much, so I stay home and hand out the candy. One sad thing (to me) is there are fewer kids coming to the door and exploring neighborhoods. This is likely because places like malls and stores and even schools will have trick or treating inside. For parents, this is great. It's well-lit, it's safer (no kids running into the street). But for those of us at home, it's sad. I always enjoy the interaction with the kids.

But people worry about poisoned candy or razor blades in apples. Even though that has almost never happened.

When I was a kid living in Idaho (at 4,500 feet above sea level), it usually snowed on or about Halloween. Then the snow didn't leave until late April. I remember thinking one October 31st: "It's snowing, it must be Halloween."

Well, I hope you all have a happy Halloween, or Samhain. I'll be waiting to give candy to the kids.

Happy Thanksgiving

If you're in America, Happy Thanksgiving.

And be tolerant of your uncle. He hasn't had this much fun since Joe McCarthy was chasing Commies out of the State Department. Well, less fun since the election, but still.

Independence Day

Happy Independence Day!

No, it's not "The Fourth of July." It's Independence Day. Just happens to be celebrated on the fourth of July.

Happy New Year!

Season's Greetings

Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States. This is the day we get together with family to stuff ourselves full of turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. Some folks also eat yams or sweet potatoes, but I think those are gross (they are almost squash, and I detest squash).

There's usually a football game today. I think traditionally the Detroit Lions lose to the Dallas Cowboys. Although I remember watching a Seahawks game on Thanksgiving, once.

Erma Bombeck once said (and I paraphrase) that Thanksgiving dinner takes six hours to prepare and 12 minutes to eat. And the half time of a football game lasts 12 minutes. This is not a coincidence.

Of course the cliched joke about Thanksgiving is arguing politics with Uncle Bill.

So I hope today Uncle Bill is quiet about how he feels about Trump. Or Hillary. Or whatever he wants to complain about.

Have a happy Thanksgiving if you're in the U.S. And if you're not, have a great day anyway.

My Favorite Holiday

Back to the 52-week blogging challenge and today's prompt is, fittingly, "My favorite holiday." I say "fittingly" because today is Thanksgiving, which is, I think my favorite holiday.

There's very little pressure on Thanksgiving. It's not like Valentines Day or Christmas where you have to find gifts and oh they have to be just right. No, all you do is show up. With my family, it's usually pretty calm and usually we joke and laugh.

And the food is usually really good. Sometimes there's a little work needed to get the food ready. Last Thanksgiving I went over to my mother's house early to help her get the turkey started.

Then there's the dishes, but my sister's husband (a lawyer) has always jumped in and done most of them. I like that guy.

So I guess today, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. We'll see how today goes.

What's your favorite holiday? Comment below!

Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day to all my readers in the United States. While we enjoy picnics and fireworks, let's not forget what we are celebrating: the formation of the first truly representative democracy the world had ever known.

Don't Mess with Tradition . . . Maybe

I'm not sure what made me think of this true event (except maybe that Monday was Thanksgiving in Canada).

My sister loves to experiment culinarily. She subscribes to magazines with all sorts of gourmet recipes.  Which is usually okay. She's a great cook and she's come up with some interesting things to try, most of which have been good.

One year for Thanksgiving, she wanted to try this rice stuffing for the turkey. And what sort of amazed me was how unhappy, disappointed, and frankly upset I was about it. I look forward to traditional turkey dressing all year and here it was, denied me. I don't even remember if the rice stuffing was bad or good, I just remember that it was wrong.

The lesson, of course, is don't mess with tradition. Well, except sometimes.

My wife's family has this Christmas tradition. You take turns opening presents while everyone watches. They start with the youngest and go around the room by age until everyone has opened one present. Then they start back with the youngest again and keep doing that until everyone is out of present. Some people run out of presents earlier than others so they have to sit there watching other people open presents.

One year, Christmas was at my house. So they said it was up to me to decide how to open presents. I glanced over and saw my wife's aunt, the oldest person in the room, but also the shortest adult. So I decreed we'd do it by height, shortest to tallest. Now the aunt, who was always last ,was fourth after the three children (my wife was fifth). I was second to last, my preternaturally tall brother-in-law last. I thought it worked out pretty well and no one seemed upset about it. The kids still got to go first it just changed the order of the adults.

So I guess in some ways it's okay to mess with tradition.

Just don't mess with my turkey stuffing.

Common Misconceptions

Today is "President's Day."  Everyone knows that.  Right?

Wrong.  Today is "Washington's Birthday" as an official government holiday as listed by the Office of Management and Budget.  As their website explains: "This holiday is designated as 'Washington’s Birthday' in section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code."  In 1968 a law called the "Uniform Monday Holiday Act" changed Washington's Birthday from February 22nd (his actual birthday) to the third Monday in February so that government employees and bankers can have a three-day weekend (this is also when Memorial Day and Labor Day were moved to Monday; Martin Luther King Jr. Day was designated in 1983 and was always the third Monday of January which is near his actual birthday of January 15th).

So why does pretty much everyone call the holiday today (signified by the mail not coming) "President's Day"?

Well, first of all, some states and localities have declared it to be "President's Day."  But mostly I think it's because Lincoln's birthday (which was a holiday before 1968) was sort of consolidated into Washington's Birthday and people started thinking of the day as an agglomeration of presidents' birthdays.  Then came "Presidents' Day sales" and the whole gamut until now, probably 90% of Americans believe yesterday was Presidents' Day.  And they are wrong.

But this is, I think, indicative of many misconception held by most people.  One aspect of this is what do words mean.  For example, one of my pet peeves is "hopefully" which people use to mean "I hope."  That's not what it means and I expound on that a lot here.  But I think that one is beyond repair as even the AP style book accepts the incorrect usage.

The word "jealous" has been having a resurgence lately of usage such as:

Reader One: "I just won Hammer of Thor from S. Evan Townsend's website drawing"
Reader Two: "Jealous!"

No, Reader Two is "envious."  "Envious" is when you covet (to use the Biblical phrase) what someone else has.  "You've got Hammer of Thor, oh man, I wish I had one, too!" That's envious.  "Jealous" is when you are afraid of losing something.  You are jealous that your girlfriend is flirting with the handsome author at the book signing.  You jealously guard your stash of early DC comic books.  Your friends are envious of your stash of early DC comic books.

There are so many common misconceptions about, well, so many things: history, science, economics, language, etc. that to list just a few would mean making this a very long blog post.  But we, as writers, need to be accurate and not feed into those common misconceptions.  The problem is, most people, including writers, are not aware that they are wrong.  And that causes these misconceptions to live on.

UPDATE: Because I accidentally scheduled this for the wrong day, it posted on the wrong day and therefore any time reference (i.e., "today") maybe incorrect.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

You know, the internet is an interesting thing.  You might be reading this in Kazakhstan in which case it's probably tomorrow and you don't have Thanksgiving anyway.  But that's okay, you can still be thankful for all that you have.  And eat turkey.  So happy thanksgiving!

Oh, don't forget the stuffing!