Happy Easter, Everyone!

Wishing everyone a happy and peaceful Easter, if you celebrate it, and a happy and peaceful Sunday regardless!

Captain Kirk and the Gorn, At It Again

In this promo for a Star Trek video game, William Shatner and his old friend the Gorn (from the Classic Trek episode "The Arena") mix it up in Shatner's living room. I've always had a soft spot for the Gorn. It's good to see him back.

To watch directly on YouTube, click here. 

More Live Audiobooks!

Once again, I was surprised to discover that more of my books are up on Audible.com!  Five Star Rigger books were released in February. That's Panglor, Dragons in the Stars, Dragon Rigger, Star Rigger's Way, and Seas of Ernathe—all of the Star Rigger books except Eternity's End.

You can see the lot of them on my author page, or go straight to the individual titles.  I'm still working with the Audible people to get the descriptions corrected (Panglor has the wrong plot description altogether), and not all of the sample buttons are working. But the books are all available. They're also for sale in the iTunes store.

The titles that went up in October are all listed now as being enabled for "Whispersync for voice," which means if you have a Kindle edition you can switch back and forth between reading the ebook and listening to the audiobook without losing your place.

Panglor audiobook

Dragons in the Stars audiobook

Dragon Rigger audiobook

Star Rigger's Way audiobook

Seas of Ernathe audiobook

Asleep in a Heap

Allysen's back from Puerto Rico, and here's how she looked soon after her arrival. The little fellow is Crunch, who hung out with us for a few hours before going to her home. The big guy, of course, is Captain Jack. They look like they could be related. But they're not.

Pausing for Breath

I've been back home for about a week now, but Allysen and Julia are still in Ponce, packing and seeing to the adoption of puppies. It turns out all the reliable rescue groups in Puerto Rico were already overwhelmed with abandoned dogs, and the shelter in Ponce was having an outbreak of parvovirus. So we got the puppies vaccinated ourselves, and a friend of Allysen's mom helped us find some new homes. Three of the seven have been placed, and homes lined up for at least three more. The puppies are wonderful, but what a job!

Here's the one we call Foremost. (Hindmost was the last to leave the crate; Foremost was first.)

Meanwhile, the labor of packing continues. Allysen's mom has a lot of books, and a lot of art, and a lot of fine things like shells and geodes and brass pieces of various kinds. Somewhere around thirty cartons of books, home movies, DVDs, CDs, etc., have been making their way to our house via media mail, and now that I'm home I need to get back to work building additional shelves in the basement. (Mind you, this is after giving away or selling a huge amount there in Ponce.) Some of this stuff will go to Fay's new place, of course. But I have a feeling at least half is going to be here for the long haul. So I guess I'd better hook up that dehumidifier that's sitting down there doing nothing.

I got back just in time a) for a foot of snow to land on us, and b) to attend Arlington Robbins Library's "Books in Bloom" event, an annual fundraiser that combines having a small army of local authors sitting at tables with their books, with a series of amazing book-themed floral arrangements. It was an enjoyable event, though it drove home to me what a small proportion of the overall reading audience actually reads science fiction. Or at least the audience that attends events like that. I did get to chat with the new library director, and talk to him some about ebooks and libraries, and how groups like Book View Café are trying to break down the barriers to easy access to ebooks for libraries.

Toward the end of the event, I was mumbling that I hoped I'd sell at least one book, to pay for the glass of wine I'd bought. Less than two minutes later, someone came along and bought a paperback—just enough to pay for the glass of wine! Perfect.