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Just did the Classic Leading Man Test again, but with a twist – Jen gave the answers for me.

And here’s the result:

Your result for The Classic Leading Man Test…

Humphrey Bogart

You scored 38% Tough, 14% Roguish, 52% Friendly, and 0% Charming!

Take The Classic Leading Man Test at HelloQuizzy

So, in the interests of fair play, I’ve now answered the Classic Dames Test for Jen.

Your result for The Classic Dames Test…

Katharine Hepburn

You scored 19% grit, 52% wit, 38% flair, and 12% class!

Take The Classic Dames Test at HelloQuizzy

Today is Nunzio and Christina’s wedding anniversary.

Happy Anniversary!

Finally! A candidate (to whom) I can (give my complete) support!

Silly Party in ‘08!

Well, it’s Friday, so that’s “later this week,” and as promised, here’s the first chapter of the new novel, Walking Dead.

I have no firm release date as yet other than “Summer ‘09.” Discussions with my editor have lead me to believe it could be as early as the end of May, perhaps June, maybe July, but certainly by August, depending on what else is on Bantam’s publishing schedule. That being said, though, the book is pretty close to locked; I’m awaiting the copy-edit, which will, in turn, lead to requisite minor revisions. But structurally and story-wise, we’re final.

Unlike Patriot Acts, this is not a direct continuation from the previous novel in the Kodiak series, although it begins with the status quo as implied at the end of the previous novel; for those following who’ve been following Atticus, Walking Dead begins some three years after the end of Patriot Acts. If you’ve never read the series before, you should be able to dive into this one without confusion. In fact, that was one of the things I was hoping to accomplish in this book, that the reader could come to it with no prior experience of the series.

All in all, I suspect I’ll post the first three chapters in the coming months leading up to the release; I may post more, I’m undecided. If you’ve never read my prose work before, figure this is a good way to wet your whistle. For the rest of you who know the novels, I hope you enjoy this first taste. Comments welcome, of course.

Walking Dead, Chapter One.

Well, I can’t say I’m surprised by this turn of events.

Rarely are we plebes in the cheap seats treated to such high drama, though. Really does feel like a sweeps episode of the West Wing.

Edited to add:

From a second piece from The New York Times, this one an analysis of the day’s events with regard to the two candidates. Boldface mine.

Still, by nightfall, the day provided the younger and less experienced Mr. Obama an opportunity to, in effect, shift roles with Mr. McCain. For a moment, at least, it was Mr. Obama presenting himself as the old hand at consensus building, and as the real face of bipartisan politics.

“When you’re not worrying about who’s getting credit, or who’s getting blamed, then things tend to move forward a little more constructively,” he said.

Ain’t that the truth?

Did several interviews and like things at San Diego this past July. One of the most enjoyable was with Evie Nagy for Publisher’s Weekly. It’s Queen & Country-centric, but if you’re curious, you can find the entire interview posted at the Awesomed By Comics blog.

Enjoy!

Back in the world, now, back from vacation. Vacation was a combination birthday present-slash-eighteen-year delayed honeymoon for myself and Jennifer. We flew to Anchorage with Nunzio and Christie, then took the Sapphire Princess from Whittier down to Vancouver, a journey of some seven days of cold, rain, damp, and spectacular scenery.

I suck at vacations. I find it next to impossible not to work. I inevitably end up in a corner with the laptop, telling others to go on without me, as if I’m bleeding from some terminal bullet wound while shells are exploding all around us in Verdun. Seriously.

For a variety of reasons, most of them beginning and ending with the concerted efforts of my bride, that was not the case this time, and – despite coming down with a rather nasty cold just before the half-way mark of the trip – I think I actually, uh…vacated. Which was remarkably pleasant, once I got past the whole “must check email must finish script must keep editors happy” panic. Far as that goes, I suspect this was a once-in-a-lifetime trip for all of us, and for that reason alone, well worth it.

I was in Alaska last year for Bouchercon (which will be in Baltimore this year, by the way, beginning on the 9th of October, and which I will be attending). As it was on the last trip, the scenery left me in perpetual awe. I am not a city boy, though I suppose I can’t claim to be a country boy, either. But growing up with a father who, to this day, thinks a good time is walking in the woods and mountains for eight hours at a time did instill me with a certain familiarity with nature, as well as an appreciation of the same. I have hiked Big Sur, camped in Yosemite, nearly started a forest fire in the Sierras. I am not a stranger to spectacular scenery. But seeing Alaska from the water, as we did, was something else, and that, alone, recommends the trip.

My photography skills do not deserve a “z,” but me and my digital camera did our best all the same. Below the cut are some shots from the trip, almost all of them taken in Glacier Bay National Park. What the camera absolutely fails to capture is the sense of scale, the enormity of it all, the ice and the water and, even aboard a cruise ship, the tremendous stillness and silence.

Feel free to take a look.

I cannot wait to read this.

Seriously.

I’m sick in Ketchikan.

Just wanted to share that with ya’all.

I’d actually been thinking about posting on this point for the past couple of days; that the increase in US military action on the Pakistan border was, it seemed to me, a transparent attempt by the Bush Administration to score a “big win” in the “GWOT” and thus boost McCain.

And now I see that, according to NPR that is exactly what they’re doing.

Which begs the obvious question of why they didn’t go after him sooner. But we know the answer to that, don’t we?

Walking Dead revision is now completed.

Will be posting the first two chapters sometime in the next couple of weeks, for those interested in such things.

Carry on….