An Era Ends

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British Royal Family, King Charles, Monarchy, Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, U.K., United Kingdom

I would like to offer my sympathies and condolences to the royal family on the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. It is the end of an era. May King Charles reign with equal compassion, strength, tolerance, dignity, and grace.

Jeremy Bulloch: Star Wars Legend

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Boba Fett, Daytona Beach, Florida, Halloween, Halloween Costume, Jeremy Bulloch, Mandalorian armor, Return of the Jedi, St. Augustine, Star Wars, Star Wars Fans, Star Wars: Episode V, The Art of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back

This is the 40th anniversary year of the Star Wars film “The Empire Strikes Back” *(Please see my two earlier posts celebrating the film and score). It is somber and poignant that the S.W. universe has lost at the end of that celebratory milestone an actor who portrayed one of its most iconic personalities.

With the passing of Jeremy Bulloch, the Star Wars character of Boba Fett has truly become legend. I, along with millions of S.W. fans around the world, consider the intergalactic bounty hunter to be one of the coolest characters in the film franchise’s lore, and possibly in all of science fiction/fantasy.

For Halloween of 2001, I visited a military surplus store in Daytona Beach, Florida with a friend to buy a flight suit and accessories so that we could make our own Boba Fett costume. We both agreed that Boba Fett would be the costume to make if we were going to be bold enough to attempt a S.W. costume. My friend was much more adept at such things. I deferred to his expertise on the engineering of the costume (The jetpack that he created from two-liter plastic bottles was astounding). I footed the bill (roughly three hundred dollars after materials and labor) and he created the most awesome non-makeup Halloween costume that I have ever worn. I say ‘non-makeup’ because the very next year his sister did a Darth Maul makeup on me for Halloween 2002. The makeup was black and white rather than the black and red of Maul’s face. It was the first physical manifestation of Marco Dark, the main character of my novel “To Sleep in the Ground.” I accented the amazing makeup job with a black, long-sleeve fishnet shirt, and black leather pants. Marco does not dress as radically in the novel, but I was experimenting with the character back then as only a couple of chapters had been written at that point. Anyway, I digress.

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More Updates Available!

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Amazon Japan, Amazon KDP, Amazon Marketplace, Amazon.co.jp, Amazon.com, e-book, e-book vs. paperback, e-mail, Manage your content and devices, To Sleep in the Ground, Update Available

I updated the content of my e-book To Sleep in the Ground in order to make it consistent with the recently released paperback version. Amazon.com has sent (or will send) e-mails to those who have purchased my e-book in the past notifying them of the updates. If you do not receive an e-mail, then just check the “Manage Your Content and Devices” page of your Amazon account. If you purchased my e-book and do not receive either of these notifications, then please let me know in the comments section of this post and I will inform Amazon.

Regretfully, as of the date of this post, updates are still not available for readers who purchased To Sleep in the Ground from Amazon.co.jp (Japan). I have brought this to Amazon’s attention, and I am in continuing communication with them about the issue. I have experienced that Amazon Japan sometimes operates differently (independently) from Amazon.com. However, Amazon.com has assured me that updates are made available for all Amazon marketplaces in all countries. Again, please let me know via this post if you have purchased the e-book version of T.S.I.T.G. from any Amazon marketplace and have not received an e-mail or notice about the updates. I will do my best to rectify the problem if it’s possible to do so.

The updates that I made to the novel are considered to be significant improvements to the quality of the e-book according to Amazon. I agree. The overall feel and appearance of the book is better, and I, again, took the time to correct grammatical issues, punctuation, and redundancies in the vocabulary. Ahh, the learning curve involved with first novels. I hope you enjoy the latest version of To Sleep in the Ground.

Thanks for reading, and stay healthy!

Happy Easter to one and all!

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blessings, charity, Christian, consideration, Easter, faith, forgiveness, hope, humanity, love, peace, respect, understanding

I hope that you all have a nice, warm, safe and blessed spring.

Prayers for Osaka

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6.1 magnitude, deadly quake, epicenter, Great East Japan Earthquake, Horror, Kansei, magnitude, March 11 2011 earthquake, nine-year-old girl, November 22 2016 earthquake, Osaka, Osaka earthquake, quake, The Big One, The Great Hanshin Earthquake, Tohoku, trepidation, warning sign

It’s been a while since I posted anything, but I felt compelled to do so today.

Osaka is my favorite big city in Japan.  I’ve been there many times over the years.  It was hit by a 6.1 magnitude earthquake this morning…lots of damage, injuries and three deaths so far.  The epicenter was on land, so the damage was severe.  The youngest victim was a nine-year-old girl who was crushed by a wall that fell while she was walking on a sidewalk on her way to school.  Horror beyond words.

People here are fearful that this quake was just a warning sign of what is yet to come. Their trepidation is based on the fact that a similar situation happened here, where I am, just a couple of days before the East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011.  We got a big quake on Wednesday, and the ‘big one’ hit on the following Friday.  Many of you know the rest of that story.

We are hoping that the worst has already happened, and that Osaka will not experience an even deadlier quake in the wake of the one that happened today.

Despite the tragedy today, I can’t help but be thankful for the fact that we were spared here in Tohoku.  I live very far away from Osaka and we didn’t feel any effects of the quake at all.

For those of us who write and dare to delve into the realm of horror fiction, we should always remember that true horror is not fictional, it happens to many people around the world every day.

I ask your prayers for the victims of the Osaka quake today, for their families and for the people of Osaka and the Kansei area of Japan.

Thank you.

 

Short and Sweet!

Just wanted to wish you all a safe and happy Easter and a wonderful spring.

More coming soon……..