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Return Of The Blogger

Hey, everyone. We have had a little Google Blogger outage and it's good to be back with you. May I start by saying how much I appreciate Google for providing this blog service free of charge. It's really a cool service when you think about it and I was raised not to gripe about free stuff. Dad called that 'Looking a gift horse in the mouth'. I also really enjoy their Google News and G-Mail, which is free. So there are no complaints from this quarter.
Thunder is rumbling all around and it's sprinkling rain and overcast. That makes it nicer to sit indoors and 'get my geek on'. I've been outside all morning cleaning sidewalks and decks, messing with my car and all that stuff.
Before I forget, I'd like to take time to thank Mark Stewart for his kind review of Shenandoah, over on Smashwords. Mark is an Australian author and has published many short stories and novels. I just finished reading Big Black Shiny Boots and loved the surprise ending. I have downloaded Heart Of A Spider, which is one of Mark's novels. I haven't started it yet. Here's a link, I hope. http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/46541
I saw an interesting article on a web site called Kotaku. It seems that there's a place in Japan called Gatakit Cosplay Park. Cosplay is very big in Japan , as you may know. I am so out of touch that I went to Wikipedia to find out what it is. Cosplay is short for costume play. Anyway, this place called Gatakit rents these cosplay sets by the day, for the very reasonable amount of $18. The sets have various themes such as anime, manga, wine cellars, prison cells and ancient ruins. So, you dress up and film or photograph your friends in these settings. Sounds like a good time.
By the way, for you I-Phone/I-Pad folks, there are several free games out today that you might want to try. Some are temporarily free, like Spirits. For the younger people there is one called Moto Trialz, in which you jump your motorcycle over and through various things. Let me say I haven't played these and I am not recommending them. I just like to give you a heads up on free stuff.
I am currently reading a novel called Lost Gate, by Orson Scott Card. It's a really different book for me. I usually read action, adventure, spy novels, westerns, that sort of thing. This is about a kid who can travel through gates that he creates. He just thinks about being, say, in Washington and he is instantly there. Unfortunately, there are people who want to kill him because of his gift and others who want to use his abilities for their own schemes. The book started out a bit slow and with a lot of terms being used that I had no clue about. Terms like Pathbrothers and Gate Mages and Beast Binders. I am really getting interested in it now and I'll give you my rating when I've finished it.
Speaking of books. Wow! I bought that book off Amazon and they charged me $12.99 for it as an E-Book. These publishers will keep jacking up their prices on E-Books, using the 'little at a time' method until they are charging $25 for E-Books. Not only that, they won't have all the expense of paper, ink and distribution. Are readers stupid or what?
Well, I guess that I'll get outdoors for a while and listen to some music. I'll post again this weekend, I'm sure. Adios.
From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.

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