"That mountain can grow awfully heavy sometimes," Rand sighed, taking a spear and buckler from Rhuarc. "When do you find a chance to put it down awhile?"
"When you die," Lan said simply.   - From The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan

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Sad News: Robert Jordan died yesterday. He was 58.


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The Birthweekend was great. My kids gave me fun gifts, gifts I'm going to enjoy.

I wasn't capable of buying gifts like that when I was ten. Back then my twin brother and I gave mom and dad an anniversary gift we thought was super cool, but they didn't. It was a monkey statue with the monkey having six hands, all of which were put to use covering ( Read more... )

Most years I Celebrate my birthweek, dragging that one-day celebration out over seven. What can I say, I love a good excuse to perpetuate being showered with gifts and special treatment. My kids are familiar with the drill. So are other family members and friends. Familiar and perhaps bone-weary. Spent. Emotionally drained. Frazzled. Dog-tired. ( Read more... )

I was at the Hollywood bowl in Los Angeles last night. And while the evening was filled with great company, pleasant weather, and beautiful music, I was struck by the absurdity of one particular scene.

It took place before the show, while I was sitting on a picnic bench outside the entrance to the highest seating section. And let me tell you, if ( Read more... )

This weekend I spent some time in one of my favorite coffee shops. I was hiding out in an attempt to get some writing done. My high back chair was near a bookshelf, so during a break I reached over and grabbed a book Bill Cosby had written when he turned fifty.

Flipping through the thin book, I randomly stopped on a page where he was describing his ( Read more... )

A mix of both published and unpublished writers make up my LJ friends. I think it would be interesting, and helpful, if any of you who are published novelists would share the main reason you think your first publshed book got published. I'm sure there were so many reasons, but in your opinion, what was the main reason?


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 I'm a liitle behind on my writing goals for the week, so I must, must, must  keep this brief.

Because Google was invented to help people like me kill time, here's what I found:

INPUT: Drake Basketball
TOP RESULT: "Did you mean Duke Basketball?"
ME: OUCH!!! That hurt.

INPUT: Terrorist Threat Level
TOP RESULT:  "See More Sponsored Links for: Terrorist ( Read more... )

The Drake University Basketball team arrived in the Bahamas recently for a four game series.

This just in on bucky (the last one in the photo.)


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I do love a good gadget, and this one certainly qualifies as that.


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Those of you who've read my blog for a while know I'm a diehard Drake University basketball fan. I've hauled my kids with me to games at various locations around the country. In addition to traveling to games, I belong to Drake Nation, a forum where Drake fanatics post entries about games and whine about the "Big One" that got away.

The forum is ( Read more... )