This is a picture of a variant of the German World War I Gotha G.V, the first modern heavy bomber plane, the largest airplane built during that awful conflict. For the last eight weeks or so, I’ve been bogged down trying to build a 1/32 plastic model of the Gotha and have no shame in admitting that I find it hellishly difficult. This is the model I’m trying to build, right down to the serpent decals on the fuselage.
I chose to do this because I’m rather burnt out on writing fiction and therefore decided to pass my idle hours going crazy trying to find plastic parts that are smaller than a child’s fingernail clipping, lost in a shag rug’s warp and woof. Seriously, I make progress at the proverbial snail’s pace, but plan to delay rigging the model until the instruction book arrives that I ordered. The model kit comes with instructions, but they are in the form of diagrams rather than explicit step-by-step descriptions and leave a good deal to the imagination. I hope the written instruction book will be more helpful.
On another front, somebody or something hacked my website recently, either deleting it altogether from search engines or just providing hits to spam when searched for. I’m reduced to wondering whether this is just random vandalism or if someone specifically was affronted by something I wrote on the website (perhaps some tech-savvy Neo-Confederate who took exception to my series of posts about notable scumbags of the Civil War and decided to take direct action). The website is up and running now, thanks to the kindly intervention of my most able webmistress, Fiona Jayde. Thanks and a big tip of the virtual cowboy hat to her for her invaluable assistance. Fiona also revised the website slightly. It now features an updated bibliography and a much less threatening picture of yours truly, the humble author.
Now that the website’s up and I can actually post on the blog again, I should catch up with some unattended business. First of all, my sincere apologies to everyone for taking so long to write another post. If you’re going to keep a blog, you need to post regularly and punctually. I’ll try to do better about posting from now on. Second, as I noted previously via tweets and e-mails, my voodoo horror story, Johnny Two Places, appears along with other terrifying yarns in That Hoodoo Voodoo That You Do anthology, published by Ragnarok Press. If you enjoy reading about pre-Revolution Havana, are interested in learning more about voudoun/Santeria, or just appreciate a good, old-fashioned, scary as hell horror yarn, I recommend it highly.
On other fronts, I’m getting quite a few rejection notices lately, but that simply a writer’s lot in life, to constantly be told “NO!” Like the seasoned masochist I am, I’m still plugging away nonetheless. As Mr. Micawber regularly said, “Something is bound to turn up some day!” In the meantime, while waiting for my ship to finally sail into port, here are some links. The first is to Wingnut Wings, the New Zealand manufacturer that builds the Gotha model. The second is to Ragnarok Publishing so you can order the Hoodoo Voodoo antho via Kindle or in hard copy if you’re so inclined.
I hope that everyone is doing well in the first few months of the brand spanking new year of 2015. I plan to start writing again as soon as I’m finished with the model (or maybe more accurately, when that model’s finished with me). No definite plan in mind except to write a full length Alec Pargrew novel with the title Nothing Sure But Death In Texas. Wish me luck and hopefully I’ll write another novel this year, good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.