Mom's Day on Sunday!

#FREE EBOOK at Amazon May 10–14

Mother's Day is coming up on Sunday and you still have time to get her something nice. If your mom is in the same generation as my mom she grew up in the 1920s and 1930s, experienced WWII as an adult, and is fond of stories set in rural America, this is a book she will enjoy. Also, if she's sight-impaired, it's available in a Large Print paperback and audiobook.

These are stories about my father. He's passed now, but he took great pleasure reading his almost true tall tales. I think you'll enjoy them too. The descriptions of stories below are of particular interest to mothers.

Here are the buy links:
Large Print Paperback Amazon $7.99

Large Print Hardcover Amazon $12.99
Ebook:  Kindle Ebook  #FREE EBOOK at Amazon May 10–14
Smashwords EPUB/MOBI Name your own price as low as 99 cents.

Audiobook (also available through Amazon) Audible.com (only $6.95)

Here are a few of the twenty-one stories included in the book.

Ma’s Story

Mothers have their own joys and sorrows. Too often they keep their feelings to themselves and even their own families don’t know.

WHEN I WAS a boy, my Ma was a woman of few words, which surprised quite a few folks. The town ladies came out to visit on occasion and she’d go to town to return the favor, but mostly she listened. That did set her apart from the gossipers and them that just liked to talk to hear themselves.

Crossin’ the Creek

Kids went to school, but they didn’t exactly catch the school bus outside the house. Getting to school could be an adventure.

IT’D BEEN RAINING forty days and forty nights is what Ma said, but I only counted up eleven days myself. She did tend to put things in Bible sayin’s, so I won’t say she was lyin’, just exaggeratin’ for effect.

The Thief

The Great Depression was beginning to seep into the lives of the people in West Texas. Insulated to some extent, they began to see the repercussions of the droughts by the people who came south from Oklahoma for relief from the dust storms.

IT ALWAYS MEANS a good time when Pa lets me go with him in the truck. I liked the truck a lot and sometimes he’d let me drive a ways, too. This time, Pa planned on goin’ further than Hereford. We were goin’ to go to Amarillo, the trip some fifty miles. It would take us most of one day to get there and do what we needed to do, so we’d have to camp overnight somewhere along the way.

Out of the Chicken Coop

Most animals on the farm were there for a purpose, rarely as pets. That meant that animals were not allowed in the house like they are today. If they got in, however, it wasn’t always easy to get them out again.

WHEN I WAS just a little kid, no more’n seven if I remember rightly, I was down in the chicken yard tossin’ grain like I was tol’. This one little red hen started followin’ me around instead of peckin’ up the grain like the other chickens. I thought it strange but just went about my business.

Operation Kindle Book Drop

A fellow writer has started up a Kindle books collection for servicemen and women overseas. Quite a few have Kindles, but cannot download from Amazon or any other source since they're outside the US.

Edward C. Patterson, formerly SPEC 5 E. Patterson, 6th Batallion, 60th Artillery (1966-1968), is the coordinator behind this worthy project. Writers with Kindle books they can give away can contact Edward through the KindleBoards forum:

http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,13352.0.html

I donated two books via Smashwords by providing a link and coupon code for both. Edward downloaded the copies and can send them to as many service personnel as he likes.

Here are the details direct from Edward:

1- I (Edward) will maintain a list of service personnel email addresses as they come in to me.

2- Authors should have available a DRM Free Kindle compatible version of yourbook or books.

3- If you don't have that available, the easiest (and beneficial way to you as well) is to put your books up at Smashwords.com. And then download a free copy to yourself.(One author has suggested using Smashword's coupon system, which is an option. Iwill be emailing my books directly, however, anyway that you can get the book tothe troops, is fine)

4- Once you have the book in place, let me know. I'd like to have your email address. Right now, I'm using PMs, but as this takes off (and I have no doubt that it will), it will be easier for me to email new troop email addresses out to all the participating authors in one email.

5- Once the author has the email address, just send the book(s) - if many, then ZIP -and put in your subject line: Operation Kindle Book Drop. Whatever you want to put in the body of the email is up to you, and I guarantee that among the obvious good deed done stuff, you will get a response from the troop. I plan to save mine, to read on those days when I get a 1-star review and feel that I have failed somewhere.

Readers can participate by getting the word out or helping with nifty links.

Did a book ever really bug you?

I was getting ready for bed and my nightly reading session. The book I'm reading is from the library, so it's a hardback. It also happens to be 900 pages long. Don't know if that has anything to do with it, but when I picked up the book I saw a couple of ants crawling across the page ends. Then, I noticed that there were ants crawling across my bookshelf-style headboard.

I looked closely at the bottom of the book and noticed a slightly lump in the pages and an ant crawling out.

I took the book into the kitchen where we keep the ant spray (unscented) and after squashing a as many of the ants as I could see, I gave the book a light spray between the book's cover and the wrap-around outer cover.

I opened the the book to the page with the lumpy part and found a chunk of something white and hard. Glue? Don't know, but I pried it off, and resprayed the book. Lightly, mind you. I'm not one for destroying books.

This is definitely a very weird experience considering a story I wrote recently having to do with ants invading a home. Not just your average annoying ants, but ants bent on revenge (at least in the addled mind of the main character).

I'm returning the book to the library without finishing it. I'll get a copy later in paperback. I'll also examine the book closely before purchasing. Oh, the book? Anathem by Neal Stephenson (see the post below).

Freaky.

Something to keep you entertained

Here's one of those fun quizzes. What book are you?

You're Cat's Cradle!

by Kurt Vonnegut

You believe quite firmly that free will deserted you long ago and far away. As a result, it's hard to take responsibility for anything. Even though you show great potential as a leader of a small 3rd world country, the choices are all made ahead of time. You're rather fond of games involving string. Your fear of nuclear weaponry is trumped only by your fear of ice.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Review by Ed Cox - The Dog at the Foot of the Bed

THE DOG AT THE FOOT OF THE BED
by Tyree Campbell
Reviewed by Edward Cox
Click here for the rest of the review

Since the beginning of history, family sagas have never failed to captivate the human race. Across the globe, the religions and mythologies of every culture are littered with tales of kith and kin. For millennia we have dined upon the wars and passions between rival siblings, the unconditional bonds of mothers, and the many splintered facades of a father’s love. Yet, we never grow bored, and like some fundamental meme, they remain forever in our blood.

Not least of all does this relate to the stories of the ancient Celts, and the heroes and villains from pre-Roman Britain. And in The Dog at the Foot of the Bed, Tyree Campbell raises the ghost of our Celtic forefathers, and delivers a SciFi family saga that is as intriguing as it is complex.

Set in the same futurescape as Campbell’s first novel Nyx, The Dog at the Foot of the Bed follows the exploits of the Shannen siblings, a family whose heritage lies somewhere in the misty past of Ireland. Living on a remote world, the Shannens’ life, though far from uncomplicated, is peaceful enough. That peace is shattered, however, when past exploits and old rivalries begin coming back to haunt them.

Siobhan, the oldest of the Shannen sisters, is something of a family renegade. She is a major in the military, and no longer lives with her siblings. One day she learns from her superiors that somebody, somewhere in the galaxy, had gained the terrifying means and power to destroy entire planets. With dire force, the strikes come with little warning, and are without apparent motive. Siobhan is ordered to discover the culprit behind the attacks, and quickly finds herself in the midst of a political quagmire. Here, she is forced to rekindle relations with the family she once walked away from.

Click here for the rest of the review

Nomadic Delirium Press

This is the first of what I hope will be a regular run of interviews by publishers and writers. I think these are folks that deserve your attention, so I'm hoping you're interest will be piqued to take a look at what they have to offer.

This interview is with J Erwine, the new owner of Nomadic Delirium Press.

Check the website at: Nomadic Delirium Press

Q: Hello, Mr. Erwine, how are you today?

A: I can't complain. Spring has definitely sprung here in the Front Range of the Rockies. After all of the storms we had during the winter, it's nice to have some decent weather, although as warm as it is now, I'm sure we'll be facing a brutal summer.

Q: I recently heard that you are the new owner of Nomadic Delirium Press. What possessed you to add that iron to your fire?

A: Simple answer...I'm insane! I was already doing a lot of the legwork for it, and when the owners wanted out, it seemed like the logical next step...I think the first answer is probably more accurate.

Q: What's available from Nomadic Delirium now?

A: Currently we have my novel, The Opium of the People, my short story collection, Marionettes on the Moon, and an anthology about crime in the future called Future Syndicate.


We will soon be re-releasing a novel by the late James Baker entitled The Poet. After that we'll be opening to submissions for a new anthology, and we will also be doing a couple of novels as well.

Q: Nomadic Delirium currently carries science fiction titles. Are you planning to expand to the related genres of horror and fantasy?

A: At the moment, there are no plans to expand into other genres. However, I am toying with the idea of creating an RPG...we'll see where we go with that.

Q: Where will Nomadic Delirium's books be carried?

A: At the moment, they are available from most on-line booksellers. We are working on getting them into some brick and mortar stores as well, but that's very hard for the small press. Hopefully we will have some new reviews in the next couple of weeks which might get us in the door.

Q: What else would you like to tell my readers about ND?

A: Like many small presses, we really do offer some good alternatives to what the big boys are putting out. It's so hard now for writers to break into the larger markets, we're just glad we can be there for some truly talented writers.