CE Wills

    Hey. everyone. I just finished watching episode 2 (current season) of Game of Thrones. I wanted to share a few thoughts about that long lost age of Westeros. You know, those ancients that Tyrion likes to talk about; the ones with the great technology which can't be duplicated anymore. Their cities lie in ruins and the denizens have a creeping crud known as Greyscale. Jorah Moremont has a case of it.      I believe that we will learn that this ancient world was really our world. Earth, modern day. An Earth whose nations took things to the nuclear brink and beyond. Once annihilated, life started over with rudimentary tribes, then Kings and Queens and creeping things. Dragons, created in the last days by Gene Manipulation labs in China, survived for a while, because they really didn't mind the fire or radiation that much.       Just a few swords were still around, valued much for their resilience, beauty and quality. They...

    Hey, everyone. It is 09:30 on a lovely morning at the green retreat. I hope that you and your folks are well and happy. Well, I ventured forth into the haunts of men yesterday.      I met a Sony Rep, a very pleasant lady who took the time to chat about games and gaming. We liked a lot of the same games. I mentioned the new/ pending / fictitious? Playstation 4.5. She reminded me that the above-mentioned device was merely a rumor at this time. She also said that if the 4.5 exists, that it will not hinder people like me, it would merely allow 4K definition in the ultra-modern gamers' lives. Those like myself can continue with their current system, games etc. So, I went on my way rejoicing.      By the way, I finished The Order: 1886. I enjoyed it. I began to play Uncharted . I have the box set, you know, remastered and all. I loved it the first time around and decided to play it again while I am awaiting Nate's return in Uncha...

Hey, everyone. I had a lazy day today. One which will surely bore you but I'll take that chance and tell you about it. Let me start by telling you about the supper I fixed for my wife and I. We used some potatoes O'Brien, fried in a skillet. You know, with peppers and onions? I cooked them brown, then added a bunch of scrambled eggs, cheese and crumbled up pieces of bacon. Then I cooked it till they were all mushy. Served with toast, covered with apricot preserves and butter. We had some pineapple and grapes on the side. A  big glass of milk to wash it down. Not too shabby. I finished my game. ( Far Cry Primal.) Then we started a new/old game by the name of The Order, 1886. It seems that this game gives us a bit of revisionist history. I have only played Chapter 1, but I'll give some initial impressions. It seems we are in London and a member of a group of men and women who aspire, no, they are, Knights of the Round Table. We play as Galahad, a lion of the aforem...

        Hey, everyone, across the known world. I ventured forth into the haunts of men today. I had to pick up a new pair of spectacles (not shown). I also picked up some new contact lenses. It was a relief to get that chore over with. But the day was not without its pleasures.      I bought the DVD of the latest Star Wars flick. Carley and I had watched it at the theater around the holidays but I'll probably talk about it when I watch it again. When I got home it was blustery and cool but I grilled some steaks. Carley fixed baked taters (southern for potatoes), rolls and salads. She put stuff on the salads until they were a meal. Sure, lettuce, tomato, cheese, grape, pineapple, onion, boiled eggs, strawberry and dressing.     On the steaks I put Cajun, not an actual person but the spice, Greek and Montreal steak spice. The meal was good and I washed had almond-pistachio ice cream for dessert. Then I kicked ...

    Hey, y'all. (Thought I'd inject a little Southern flavor.) It is a cool day, here at the green retreat. We arose early and went to a local hamlet for breakfast. As I drove home, I thought about the book business. As most of you know, I have a number of ebooks for sale. I haven't counted them recently, but I think there are around 9 novels, 1 novelette and 20 or more short stories. Toss in about 865 blog posts published and another 115 that I have lounging around unpublished, and you have a load of work. I have been knee-deep in the ebook thing from its inception. It has been interesting, to say the least.        Filled with promise in it's beginnings, slowed by opposition and mistakes, the ebook express train has slowed somewhat. Why? Well, I can give an opinion, I suppose. 1) I think people read less. Especially men. Gaming is more exciting and takes less involvement than reading. It can also be interactive to a degree that readin...

      Hey, everyone. I thought I might speak again about the excellent game called Far Cry 2 . Though an older game, I consider it a great shooter game and would like to extend my review to a second installment.      Since we last talked, I have taken several naps, which is a hobby of mine in real life. I also accepted a contract to kill a guy at an airfield. This is not a hobby of mine in real life. Ha, ha. To complete the macabre job, I walked all night. The naps helped me to be able to function, no doubt. Plus, by traveling at night I was able to slip past a couple of camps without fighting a bunch of guys. As I approached the airfield, the sun was rising above a huge tree. (What do they call these thick rascals, a baobab tree? Wilbur Smith could tell me. At any rate, I paused to watch the sun rise, enthralled by the beauty. I crouched to walk the final few hundred meters, which made my legs stiff. I tried to approach silently but as y...

    Hey, everyone. I have been playing quite a bit of Tomb Raider on my P.C. and in fact have finished that game. It is a great game, though someone fibbed about the version I played being the "easy" level. There were numerous times that I had to replay sections 30 times in order to bypass a battle or hazard.       At times I would get on a nice run, though. Here I am pictured in Shantytown. (That's not really me, that is Lara Croft; because A: I am old and B: I am male.) Shantytown is a less than glamorous section of this lost island where many undesirables like to hang out. If a ship or plane is destroyed and their passengers wind up on the island, bad people kill or capture them. I have decimated their ranks and destroyed a good part of their playground. I got word that my friend Sam (A lady) had been taken captive and that the locals were going to make her a Queen. The Sun Queen. You say good, royal privilege and all that. Not so much. The...

    Hey, everyone. Glad to see that y'all have survived yet another work week. I have been remiss, of late, in describing a game for the puzzlers who lurk among you. My wife, Carley, is battling with a popular game that has skyrocketed into the top 10 or so games in the ole app store. It is called Bonza and as one might expect from the above pictures, it is a word game.      As I might have surmised, being a shooter gamer, myself, I am not crazy about this game. It is quite difficult, even for the puzzler contingent. This demographic, that represents the more stable, quieter, more studious and brainy members of our society, once they get their teeth into a puzzle, are like the proverbial iron-jawed mastiffs. So, Carley has played this game for several dozen hours, muttering to herself as the minutes tick by and occasionally asking me for help, which is amusing. She is like the High Priestess of puzzle games, so I was shocked, shocked I say, when ...

    Hey, everyone. I was just sitting on the porch, drinking my morning coffee. This is one of my favorite rituals. I noticed one of the local cardinals, a female, was alighting on one of the massive blooms of a Crepe Myrtle tree in my yard. When she did, blossoms went everywhere, cascading downward onto my lawn. Then she went to another bloom with a like result. Then another, and another. Soon it became apparent that she was purposely deflowering my tree on some sort of bird vendetta.     As you know, I recently had a cardinal family next to my chair, snug in their nest. They had the baby birds there and the whole domestic scene. Cool. They survived their infancy just fine and moved to other quarters recently. We got along great because I kept the cat away from them. During their residency, I did a blog about the rascals and mentioned that the lady cardinal was more drab in her mode of dress than the male.      It seems obvious to t...

   Game of Thrones Spoilers!    Hey, everyone. It is a rainy, cool July day here at the author's green retreat and I had a toothache.(No commercial intended.) So, I curled up in my recliner with some painkiller and began to work my way through the massive tome of A Storm of Swords . I must say that it is not as much fun, reading the books, once you have watched the shows. The HBO folks have done a fabulous job bringing these characters to life and I catch myself growing fond of certain characters, rogues though they may be.      I'll give you a 'for instance'. Jaime Lannister, for all his Kingslayer ways and devout kinkiness, has the rudiments of a good dude in there somewhere. The almost childlike naivete of the Knight girl (Knightess?) Brienne has restored in Jaime the desire to be a true knight. That is, to embrace those high ideals on which a knight hangs his hat. All that corny stuff like loyalty, chivalry to women, fierce devotion to h...

     Hey, everyone. It is a peaceful Sunday morning at the green retreat. I awoke at 5 A.M. and just lay in bed and thought about stuff. I thought about things I'd always wanted to do and some of those items on that list which I have actually accomplished.     These days, they have a term for everything and Bucket List is a term which is thrown around. It comes from the Jack Nicholson movie, I suppose. I found that movie sad and depressing but the subject is intriguing.      It's funny. As one goes through this life, their list undergoes transformation. You may accomplish 50% of your list. About another 40% you lose interest in doing because you decide it was stupid, or a waste of time or too much money involved, or it was just too much of a hassle.      Let's face it. I am in my sixties and I have some physical things that limit the contents of my bucket. Ha, ha. I just had a mental picture of a guy walkin...

    Hey, everyone. We have been without power for a lengthy time and I am glad to have rejoined the current century, as far as tech goes. In my area, there was a massive amount of downed trees but things are mostly copacetic (Old term for cool.) as we speak. I hate sitting in the dark, even if I am reading The Clash of Kings. For several nights, I read while in bed, which I never do, and was very happy to have the back-lit screen. I mean, Abe Lincoln must have really strained his eyes, reading by the light of a fireplace.      Hey, it is Valentine's Day, here in the states. This holiday was invented by marketers but it is a nice gesture when heartfelt, sharing your love with whomever. As a token of my dedication to the merits of love, I did something nice for my car today, which I'll tell you about shortly.      I have been writing a new western book. It started with a real bang, but I have been doing other things for a few days. I ...

   Hey, everyone. I just finished a good book and I thought I'd tell you about it. The title is Gone Tomorrow, by Lee Child. Here's the recipe from one of the latest tales in the saga of Jack Reacher.      As you may know, Jack Reacher is an ex-Army Investigator who travels the United States and stays off the grid. He owns the shirt on his back and not much else. He rides buses, hitch-hikes and takes up for the little guy.      In this installment, Jack is on a subway in New York City. One of the other passengers is acting strangely and bears a striking resemblance to the suicide bomber checklist for symptoms. Reacher approaches her and the lady pulls a gun from her gym bag and blows her own brains out. As you can imagine, Jack gets a trip to the police station for an interview.     It isn't long before Reacher finds himself working the case, even though he has no authority whatever. But, that's the nicest thing about...

    Hey, everyone. I enjoyed my weekend and it seemed to pass quickly. I finished the initial book in the Game of Thrones series by George R.R. Martin. It is a huge book and well worth the ebook price of $4.99. Its rich detail and diversity of story lines are rarely equaled in literature. For instance, the focus of the missive is on kingdoms which rise and fall and the peccadilloes of the rich. That is just the beginning of the rich tapestry, however.The Stark family's efforts to deal honorably with a decidedly dishonorable bunch of folks is the stuff that holds the reader to the tale. Then, there is a sideline of magic. This involves the former royal family of The Seven Kingdoms.     All that is left of this family is the girl Daenerys (Dany) and her older brother, Viserys. They are the so-called heirs of the dragon, though they are in exile in the desert lands beyond the sea. The brother basically sells his sister to the Khal, or big chief of the horse...

    Hey, everyone. I wanted to thank Marcia Carrington for the kind words she gave one of my books over on her blog. The book was A Lodi Kind of Guy and her blog is a good one. I'll provide a link. Marcia was giving awards for the best books she had read, of 2013, July through December. Marcia is one of the nicest ladies on the internet and I appreciate her. Also, see my post about her ebook, The Adventures of Mrs. Browning . Check out her blog and books here. http://marciasbooktalk.wordpress.com/    

   If I may, I'd like to warn you of spoilers in this post. The reading of this post would hamper the enjoyment of the movie I am discussing. I hate that, but I wanted to talk about it, without holding back, so be warned. I actually wrote this post on Monday, the 13th, but was of a mind to delete it.  At any rate, here it is.      Hey, everyone. It has been a cool, rainy day at the author's green retreat. Carley and I opted to venture forth into the wilds of society and go to a movie. To my chagrin, there was a limited number of films that called for my visual caress. Therefore, I rolled the dice for a film titled Saving Mr. Banks. What an odd show!     I found it depressing in the extreme, thought provoking and entertaining. All at once. I would have gladly left the theater at the half-way point or even later. Yet I liked it. Here's the recipe.     This is the story of Mary Poppins, in a way. It seems that the...

    Hey, everyone. I published a short story tonight. It is called, as one might discern from the picture above, Breeze and the Prom Queen . I need to explain some things about this ebook.     Several years ago, I wrote a short story called Tale of the Black Mushroom. It was really short, so I just made it free and someone downloads it every day, somewhere in the world. It was the story of a cute little 16 year old girl named Breeze. She has been raised in the wilderness by her dad. She has never watched television or dated or had any friends, really.     One day she meets a guy in the woods. His name is Jeremy and the local prom queen has sent him on a scavenger hunt for a black mushroom. If he finds the mushroom, the popular girl will be his. Breeze helps him find what he needs, but he finds something so much better than a date with the prom queen. He finds Breeze herself.     The original story ends there and it doesn'...

    Hey, everyone. It was a cold night at the green retreat. I was up early, around 5A.M. At that early hour I decided to try and finish the Thor game which I have been involved in for the past couple of months. I was glad to finish the aggravating rascal. Even on the last level, my reward of 50 Runes was not given to me. No big deal, I guess. Overall, a deep, fun game with lots of glitches. No regrets on the money spent for it. You can expect to pay for some in-apps, like I said before.     Well, the NFL Playoffs are in full swing. Yesterday I was amused during the early game when Jim Nantz said something to the effect of "The Nationwide Insurance Action Cam". The NFL, up to now, has been really good about forbidding commercials during the actual game. I guess the greed of marketers in the boardroom has finally won out. That, along with several other sensitive topics which I can't mention, has soured me on the sport. I have watched the NFL since 195...

     Hey, everyone. I hope that your New Year is going well. I really mean that and I'm not just saying it.     The weather here is a bummer tonight. We have snow on the ground, along with a 15MPH wind and temperatures which will drop into the low teens. But, that just makes it seem more snug here inside the Green Retreat. Things are not so green outside at the moment, however.     Winter used to depress me when I was younger. Somewhere amidst all the trials and tribulations of my life, I got to the point where it just quit bothering me. Why? I don't know but I suspect that I merely became a bit more resilient to ...life. As the saying goes, "Suffering produces perseverance and perseverance produces character". Also I have learned that regular exercise helps your mental outlook. When the endorphins kick in during exercise, it's a good thing for one's mood.       I started reading a new book yesterday. The...