Friday, January 30, 2015

How to make your friends cry

You may or may not know, but I work in web and social media and I really like it. Some people treat me like a real wizard. Not my wife. She thinks I'm just a nerd. She's like, "When I met you, you were a tough Marine. Now look at you. You're a nerd. You're king of the nerds."

I don't know if king is correct, but my hands are a lot softer than they used to be when I was working construction or falling trees in the Redwood Forest in my younger days.

But now I'm king of the nerds. So all my friends at work ask me about how to make a web site and how to use the Facebook and should they get a Tweeter thing. And I try not to be condescending, and I usually fail at this. And they ask me how I know all this stuff because, says they, "you're, you know, old." And I tell them I learned this from years of blogging. And they say, "Oh you have a blog. Let me see it."

So I Google my name to get to my blog and they see pictures of Allie. "Who is that," they ask. And I say, "Get ready to cry." And then I show this video:

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Congratulations New Look Writing Contest Winners!

I accomplished something I've had as a goal for a number of years. I wrote a book. I submitted a manuscript about adopting Allie as a contest entry to Westbow Press's New Look Writing Contest last November. First, second, and third prizes were publishing contracts valued at $2,999, $1,899 and $999. Congratulations to the winners.

I was disappointed to learn I didn't win the contest as I had fantasized through the Christmas holidays about doing the book tour rounds on Good Morning America, Conan, and the Steve Colbert show, as my book was, no doubt, destined for the New York Times bestsellers list.

I'm super happy that I finished the book. Actually, I'm not totally done. An editor friend of mine has read it and has made some suggestions to punch up the content and timelines a bit. Stay tuned.