I was 22 years old in 1979..

Most people think of the music of their youth as being the music from when they were in high school.

Not me. I graduated in 1975. The mid-70s were a slough between the Beatles Era and the New Wave. I mean, come on, how else could disco have taken root?

Anyone younger than me probably doesn't realizes just how totally dominating the Beatles were in music during their time together. The result was that when they broke up, it took years for any decent music to arise again.

John Denver was a nice guy, but his songs! Remember "Sunshine"?

Back in 1979, I was slouching down the street in New York City when I heard this playing on a car stereo. I almost fell to my knees - "Oh dear God, mucic THAT I LIKE!"

Something new was in the wind.

So the music of my youth was the New Wave. Blondie, Split Enz. The Hooters. OMD. The Cars. The Ramones. Stuff like that.

Which is strange because that was when I was in the my late 20s. Late bloomer, I guess.

Recently I found this video on YouTube. It's self explanatory - and great. Enjoy.

Biography published

My biography is up on the author's page at Jim Baen's Universe. "The Witch of Waxahachie" is available as an e-arc story (electronic advance review copy). It's being published in the April issue.

No new stories so far, still have a lot bouncing around in the slush piles. "Sympathy for Salieri" is stalled for the time being - can't come up with a plausible ending. However, my "space ghost" story - "Asleep with Ghosts, and with a Tombstone for my Pillow" - seems to have come together faster and may be the next one written up.

The Demise of Sentinel S-F

It lasted just over a month, but the latest version of Sentinel S-F is gone. But first...

I haven't posted since Dec. 6. As is so common in schools and businesses, winter colds have been rampaging through my office. I held up for a good while, but on December 8 I was so feverish that I actually had to go to sleep with a fan blowing on my head.

Between battling my own cold and dealing with the staffing issues created by other people's absences - not to mention the normal holiday-related special projects - I haven't any time to write (or post) recently.

Around the middle of the month I went through the effort to read through the Sentinel S-F slush pile and pick a couple of stories. Then I found I couldn't cut and paste text into my web pages using the web page editor offered by my host, Hypermart, so I couldn't publish the stories.

I tried for over ten days to resolve the issue with Hypermart, but apparently their web editor sucks. Since I don't know how to create and upload web pages on my own, I had relied on the web editor.

The upshot is I cancelled my account and am waiting for a refund (I paid for a year in advance) So away goes the latest version of Sentinel S-F, which was on the web just over a month.

So it goes.

Latest Publication

The British magazine Twisted Tongue has published my latest story, "My Ugly Little Self.

http://www.lulu.com/content/1592090

PDF downloads are free.

This is the 8th issue of the magazine. TT is the only UK magazine - so far - to publish my stuff. They published my short "Insight" and my flash "It's Wonderful, Life" this past spring.

With the publication of "Off the Hook", my collaboration with Ed Morris, in Dark Recesses next month, I will have been published in four countries - U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada.

"My Ugly Little Self" is my 37th story published since June 2003.

If puns were a crime...

this would be a capital offense.

But I couldn't help myself.

I mentioned in my previous post foot problems. Well, this evening, I was dealing with my toenails. As a diabetic, I try to take good care of my feet, and I was trimming the nails after using a foot spa, in my private office at home.

My little toes are very cramped, and to help me get at them with the nail clippers, I stuck a pen between the small toe on my left foot and the other toes.

While I was cutting the nail, I called Patricia to get my some hydrogen peroxide. When she came in the room, she looked at me and asked, "Why are you holding a pen with your foot?"

I looked down. Yep, she was right - it looked like my foot was holding the pen. So I looked at her for a second, and said, "I was writing a foot note!"

Poor Patricia.

She's probably going to put a plastic bag over my head while I sleep tonight...

Another riddle solved

I finished up "Meet Me at the Grassy Knoll" on Monday and dropped it in the mail to Sheila on Tuesday. In that story, I solve the riddle of the second gunman at the Kennedy assassination. Hint: He wasn't shooting at Kennedy.

I am hung up right now on which short story to work on next, or whether to start on a book. I've been ponderng while dealing with another orthopedic problem. Because of my diabetes, my legs and feet are very stiff, and apparently last weekend I somehow, while sleeping at night, strained the muscle in the arch of my left foot. I must have folded the foot up a funny way. I guess a normal person might have felt it when it happened and woke up, but I didn't feel it until I got up in the morning.

I've been hobbling around all week, and this weekend I've been working in a systematic fashion to deal with the problem. But the ache has been debilitating me all week.

Last spring I had another problem with my left leg, when my flannel pajamas bunched up so tight around my knee that it was twisted. It took me two months to recover from that.

Ahh, the joys of diabetes. Well, I'm grateful that my circulation and healing remains fine, even if I have pronounced neuropathy.

I haven't posted a video in a while. Here's an oldie but goodie I found on YouTube, from the days of my youth. I guess I've been thinking of the '80s because the book outline I may start working on has a crucial plot twist that involves technology falling back to about the 1985 era - before cell phones and the interbet were common.