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Freedom!!!

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fouronthefourth

Happy Independence Day, America! I hope everyone has plans to enjoy good food, good fellowship with friends and loved ones, and a night filled with colorful explosions. My 4th of July started out with a listen to various people reading the Declaration of Independence on NPR as I drove out in the wee hours to participate in an early morning run. In addition to celebrating the men and women throughout our history who strove to give us freedom, today also marks a day of personal freedom–today ends the Runner’s World Run Streak.

The commitment was to run at least one mile per day from Memorial Day to July 4th. Sadly I failed, missing one run last week when I left it until the evening and a lightning storm stopped me from making it out that day. In order to celebrate the end I participated in the Ward Parkway Four on the Fourth here in Kansas City. The weather was gorgeous at the 7 a.m. start. Low 60’s, Sunny. The course was on a city street (Ward Parkway) that has several gradual inclines and declines. I was thrilled to finish the 4 miles with an 8:31 second mile average, and I ran the final mile in 7:54. Felt great!

I’m looking forward to getting back to a regular running schedule with alternating cross-training days. I’m eying my next Half-Marathon and am going to be starting that training routine.

Have a Happy Independence Day, everyone, and a Happy Thursday to those of you not celebrating today.

Tomorrow begins The Dragon’s Path Group Read. Late tonight or early tomorrow morning the schedule will be posted. Look forward to experiencing Daniel Abraham’s fantasy adventure with all of you participating.

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Summer, Summer, Summertime…Summertime!

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bhaynes

Sitting here with the laptop, ceiling fan and air-conditioning working hard to combat the 90+ degree temps, I don’t need the calendar to tell me that today is the first day of Summer. It feels like it. Oddly enough, it is not just the physical feeling of the hot sun and increased humidity. There is just that special something, isn’t there, when the seasons change? In reality today is no different than yesterday, nor will it be different than tomorrow.

But psychologically and emotionally it feels different.

Today it is Summer. Let the fun begin.

The opening image is by one of my favorite local artists, Brian Haynes. Many of his paintings are looks back on the history of the area considered to be Missouri Wine Country where my wife Mary and I love to spend our anniversaries. The rolling hills and beautiful trees, the vines and the river…it all comes together with our May anniversary to create for me this image of paradise, and Haynes captures this feeling, this spirit, so beautifully.

I was inspired to include this image by the Art Director at Tor Books, Irene Gallo. Today she wrote about 50 paintings shared with her by various artists that for them embody summertime. You can see the post with all the fantastic imagery here. The image above by Brian Haynes would be my contribution to the collection.

As I like to do every summer, I wanted to post some ambitious summer reading plans. We did it when we were kids, participating in various school or library sponsored summer reading programs. It was fun then and the enjoyment has only increased with age. Following the jump is a pictorial selection of books that I would like to get through were I to have a machine to stop time in order for me to actually get a significant amount of reading done.

Enjoy.

Continue reading Summer, Summer, Summertime…Summertime! →

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An Open Letter of Gratitude to Cathy and Arnie Fenner

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(Image property of Spectrum Fantastic Art Live)

On Friday afternoon, May 17th, 2013, after cryptic references on the Spectrum Fantastic Art Live 2 page about “there’s no telling what the future may bring” the incomparable Cathy and Arnie Fenner announced that the upcoming twentieth volume of Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art would be their last. They officially retired. The awe-inspiring annual collection of art will continue, a passing of the torch occurred that I will reference later, but the end of an era has nonetheless come upon us and I join many who cannot help but feel a bittersweet melancholy over the news.

Continue reading An Open Letter of Gratitude to Cathy and Arnie Fenner →

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Change of Schedule

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expectdelays
(Image Credit)

My Apologies: Due to drama with a capital “D” at work the later half of the week followed by a day long trip to visit the in-laws yesterday and commitments today the discussion of Ken Liu’s multiple-award-winning short story, “Paper Menagerie” will be rescheduled until next Sunday, May 5th. Just gives you more time to read it, right? 🙂

Also the big throw down, Book vs. Film discussion of Neil Gaiman’s novel Stardust and its adaptation, will most-likely not find its way here to the blog today and will be up tomorrow, including a Mr. Linky for those participating to post your links.

I do apologize, its just been that kind of an April, really. Crazy.

Hope you are having a lazy Sunday!

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Andromeda’s Fall ~William C. Dietz

When a hostile takeover of Earth’s rulership results in the wholesale killing of her family, Lady Catherine Carletto goes into hiding in the one place sure to teach her how to exact revenge: the Legion.

Author William C. Dietz takes readers back to the early days of his bestselling Legion of the Damned series to present one woman’s great fall and the hero’s journey she embarks upon to rise again and exact her revenge.

My review of Andromeda’s Fall is now live on SF Signal. It would thrill me to have you come on over to read my review and leave me some comment love, if you feel so inclined.

Click here to be transported to the review.