Better Than Dead

Random quote of the day:

 

“If good things are coming, they will be a pleasant surprise. If bad things are, and you know in advance, you will suffer greatly before they even occur.”

—Paul Coelho, The Alchemist

 

 

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Random quote of the day:

“Debate is masculine; conversation is feminine.”

—Amos Bronson Alcott, Concord Days

 

 

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

That all-around bon vivant and right good writer has two new novels out, both of them the first in projected series:

JIMMY-DON AND THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY ORDEAL – Book 1 in the Jimmy-Don/DHSL series

Right before leaving Nashville with his tail tucked between his legs, Jimmy-Don Autry picks up a stray piece of magic on his boot. His career as an outlaw country singer temporarily in the toilet, he returns to his hometown of Kerrville, Texas to lick his wounds. But when every magical gangster in South Central Texas becomes interested in him, he finds himself on the run, unaware that hidden in his custom-made cowboy boots is the legendary Kraftkugel, the power orb of German kobolds.

Destina Garza is not only an agent for the DHSL–the Department of Human and Supernatural Liaisons–in San Antonio, she’s also a poly-supernatural: a shapeshifting sorcerer/witch. When the Department’s augury team begins tracking a ne’re-do-well country singer’s activities, Destina is assigned to get to the bottom of why various criminal groups are out to get Jimmy-Don. Having had a bad experience with a live-in boyfriend/musician, her patience for this Texas musician and his unorthodox ways is strained. And when it seems every thaumaturgic bad seed in the city is thrown into the mix, she wonders if she’ll live long enough to be promoted to district supervisor in the male-dominated DHSL.

Book One in The Battle for Amel-Gar series

The kingdom of Amel-Gar is at war. And Amel-Gar’s rulers seem to have forgotten that unpopular wars often spawn revolutions.

Aeons ago dragons reigned in Amel-Gar. Today, Ziane Kont controls the precious J-fuel necessary for the war effort, secretly extracted and synthesized from the underground bones and magic of J-mu and her dragon weyr, the greatest of their kind. Now the spirit of J-mu lives on inside Ziane, forcing her to morph into dragon form, a curse soon to be passed down to her daughter.

Nineteen-year-old Lana Kont is in love with Dallon Jaser, her freshman history professor. But when her mother orders his execution, mother and daughter are pitted against one another as they bend the pollution-based sky-haints to assume dragon form and wage war in the sky.

Corona is a half-haint, an incorporeal being in constant danger of slipping off this mortal coil. When she becomes involved with the revolutionary group, the Agony Underground, she is caught between Lana and Ziane in their struggle for supremacy―a struggle that could destroy Amel-Gar itself.

Random quote of the day:

“They say God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.”

—Emily Dickinson, letter to Mrs. J. G. Holland, Spring 1878

 

 

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Random quote of the day:

 

“Love is a djinn, crouching in the dark, waiting to get inside you….No. The djinn is what comes when love is gone, when it’s seen enough….Love gets bored. Love gets tired. It wants to go somewhere else. But when it comes out it leaves a terrible hole, a gaping wound, bleeding, hollow. A place for djinn to live.”

—Graham Joyce, Requiem

 

 

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Random quote of the day:

“Whatever walks in the family gate is not the true treasure.”

—Buddhist saying

 

 

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Did you know there used to be poetry competitions in the Olympic games? They stopped issuing medals for poetry after World War II but until then it was part of Pierre de Coubertin’s vision of an Olympic revival. Poetry had been an important part of the ancient games, you see.

In tribute to that idea, National Public Radio has held the Poetry Games over the last few weeks and this morning they announced the winner: South Africa’s Mbali Vilakazi for her poem, “Swim Your Own Race,” a tribute to Natalie du Toit, the first woman amputee to qualify for the Olympics.

Renee Montaigne asked Ms. Vilakazi why, given South Africa’s painful history, she chose to celebrate an Afrikaner woman.

“When I got the invitation to be a part of the Poetry Games, I did have a moment when I thought: OK, well, I’m a young black South African woman, how am I going to use my voice?” Vilakazi says. But she concluded that the fight against apartheid was really a struggle “about people being people and being recognized for their contributions to society, and I held onto that.”

Vilakazi says that the society — and the world — she would like to live in is one in which people have the courage to celebrate one another for what they have done, even when history makes it difficult.

“I just thought that even for a young black South African such as myself, it was important for me to choose her nonetheless,” Vilakazi explains. “I just felt that the story was just so important, we can all benefit from it.”

You can read this lovely poem at the end of the article here and even hear Ms. Vilakazi read it.

Random quote of the day:

“For the longest while it was thought that we humans were the only animal possessed of—how was it put?—possessed of an immortal soul.  Of course, those of us who have lived with Irish wolfhounds for most of our lives know that this is preposterous nonsense.”

—Edward Albee, “Chimps Don’t Draw,” Los Angeles Times Op/Ed, May 30, 2006, adapted from Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield Foundation address

 

 

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Random quote of the day:

 

“Basically, men are afraid of women and can’t handle the fact that they came out of the same thing they spend the rest of their lives trying to get back into.”

—Henry Rollins, Solipsist

 

 

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Random quote of the day:

“In the beginning the Universe was created.  This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”

—Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

 

 

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.