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The webpage logo, which is a Squirrel and a laptop computer within the infinity symbol  with the words "Infinite Squirrels with Infinite Keyboards"
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Another trip around the sun…

The character No-Face from "Spirited Away" eating a slice of cake

It’s my birthday weekend! I’m now, officially, in my “Late 40s.” So, um… yay? Yay.

No, seriously, yay! YAY, even! This has been a, let’s say, interesting year to say the least, but I’m still kickin’ and I’m still moving forward every day, even if it’s only a few measly millimeters (Yeah, I’m throwing metric at all yinz.)

This year has been marked by some drastic life changes for me and my spouse, some health drama, and, of course, *wildly gesticulates out the window at the world* all THAT. But in the end, my spouse and I are still standing and even, dare I say, thriving.

Probably the thing that had the biggest impact on my life in the last year was that of some upheaval in my professional life. I prefer not to go into the specifics here, but it looks like I’ve come out the other side of it finding myself in a similar, if possibly slightly better (in some ways) place. The second biggest thing was some medical drama involving my awesomely amazing and amazingly awesome spouse. Again, we’ve managed to come out the other side of it relatively fine, everything considered, to which I’m extraordinarily grateful to the universe for.

Which brings us to the third most impactful item of the last year: Finally publishing my first novel. But what do I mean by impactful? Do I mean it has impacted my life financially? Uh… no. Not really. I’ve sold maybe a dozen copies in the last 4 1/2 months. Has it impacted my life in terms of fame? Again, no, because A.) I write under a pen name, and B.) even if I didn’t, I’ve, again, sold maybe a dozen copies so the number of people who are even aware I wrote a novel could all sit comfortably on a city bus.

The characters Chihiro and No-Face sitting on an empty train at night
Conceptual depiction of the fans of my book all gathered in one place

And yet, I can’t help but feel like the simple act of creating a book and putting it out there has changed my life forever, even if I can’t define how in easily tangible ways.

Anyway, as it is my birthday, let’s talk gifts. I decided to give myself a gift this year and bought my spouse and I our first high-end dedicated gaming PC. I have been a console gamer for years, but was getting steadily frustrated with not being able to play everything I’ve wanted to because it was either A.) exclusive to a console we didn’t own (e.g. The Last of Us), or B.) already on a console generation beyond what we already own. So, instead of dropping money on yet another console that won’t have like 35% of the games we want to play/try available for it but will cost several hundred dollars and take up space we don’t have on our entertainment center, I decided to make the investment to buy a gaming PC. The biggest benefit of which is that like 97% of console exclusive titles are available on Steam for PC and I’m now set up to play all the upcoming games in the franchises I love or have been meaning to try for years, but couldn’t due to lack of correct console.

In any case, I’m practically giddy with anticipation about playing Borderlands 4, Silent Hill 2 Remake, Silent Hill 1 Remake, Silent Hill F (Wait, a non-Remake Silent Hill and it’s written by the team behind Higurashi?! Well, sign me the eff up!), The Last of Us I & II remasters, Grand Theft Auto VI, The Outer World 2, and somewhere in the far, FAR distant future, Elder Scrolls VI and Fallout 5. Oh, and the library of some like 200+ games we’ve already accumulated from Steam, GOG, and Epic. Also, I love watching my spouse play some of their favorite games, so even when the joystick’s not in my hands, I’m being entertained. That’s the classic win-win.

Moving from gifts for me, let’s talk gifts for YOU (Yes, you reading this!). That’s right, I’m pulling a Hobbit and using my birthday as a chance to give gifts to others For the next 24-hours or so, the ebook version of Tales of a Stranger Sister will be 0.99¢. That’s nearly 66% off! Heck, let’s be generous and say it’s practically 67% off! If you’ve been thinking of checking out my debut novel, or you have and know someone who might enjoy it, then today’s the day to grab a digital copy!

So, looking ahead, what’s on the horizon for the next trip around the angry flaming ball in the sky? Well, besides all the gaming I’m about to do? This next year will be interesting as I try to balance marketing the book I’ve already written while continuing to try and pen the next one. Do I expect to have a second book out by the time we meet back up here in a year’s time? Honestly? Probably not, but I do fully expect to have a clear idea when it will be ready for release as I hope to be fully engaged in the revising, rewriting, and editing phases of that project by that time. I’m not making any promises other than I’ll work hard and try my best to not make anyone hoping for another book wait an unreasonable amount of time. As I get closer to a finished draft I’ll more likely than not start sharing details of the next story, so there is that to look forward to.

So, let’s put a bow on this chat and close it out by telling anyone reading this the following:

Thank you!

Thank you for checking out my site and blog. Thank you for following me on social media. Thank you for checking out my book. Thank you for especially buying it. Thank you extra especially for reading it. Thank you extra EXTRA especially for rating and reviewing it. A year ago, I wondered if any of the previous statements could ever be true, but they’ve all happened and that might just be the best gift of all.

It’s time for another go-round on this 584-million-mile ride on a ball spinning at 1,000 miles per hour as it flies at 67,000 miles per hour through effin’ SPACE.

Anime characters riding and screaming on a roller coaster

So, please, keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times.

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Navigating down the river and into a much larger ocean…

The character Anne Shirley, a red-haired girl in a simple dress, sitting in a small boat that has sprung a leak and is filling with water.

Ever since Tales of a Stranger Sister debuted in March, it has been an Amazon exclusive. In terms of ebook sales, that will continue to be the case until at least the end of August, at which point I will have to make a decision as to whether I should leave Kindle Select and start selling on other ebook retailers.

However, as my Kindle Select membership only impacts the current availability of the ebook version, that does not prevent me from announcing that the paperback version is now available for sale outside of the Amazon ecosystem through Draft2Digital.

So, if you’ve been holding off on trying my book on the principal of not handing one of the frankly too many creepy billionaires another penny of your money, then this is some, albeit probably tempered, good news.

Full disclosure – the paperback is more expensive outside of Amazon. However, I am by no means trying to get rich off my audience. I chose a price that simply kept the same royalty-rate as I earned on Amazon, the paperback version already being smallest royalty of the three options currently available. Honestly, this is not so much about trying to make more money (I am barely making any as it stands now) and more about offering my potential audience an alternative if they are not comfortable shopping Amazon under the current world circumstances (which, hey, I totally get.)

As I am no longer on only one marketplace, I have created a books2read page and link to make it easier to see where my book is currently available for sale. As of this posting, it is still only Amazon, but in the next two weeks, it should (hopefully) begin showing up as a print book for sale from a number of different book retailers worldwide. I will be updating the links as these retailers start listing it. Anyway, here’s that link:

I hope this minor tweak in availability will help those looking for a story like mine find it. And of course, to those who have already found and read it – Thank you for giving my book a chance. I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Moving on, It’s July, so that means a whole new batch of sales data for the previous month. Let’s see if I managed to top my Scrooge McDuckian fortune that was last month’s take of one cent…

A sales chart showing 1 book sold for the month of June
Another sales chart showing 804 pages read through Kindle Unlimited in the month of June

Okay… This is a lot better than a penny. After not selling a single copy in almost 2 months, it’s nice to see the blip of life on the sales chart again. Honestly, I’m more intrigued by the KU page reads this month. It appears that someone tore through the book over the course of a 4-5 days at the beginning of the month and a second person has started it at the end. So, at least the kindle select exclusivity isn’t totally going to waste.

Well, that about wraps up this update. I always feel at a loss as how to end these posts, so… Cats?

Two grayish-brown American shorthair cats laying on a blue couch.
Cats.
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Midsummer!

Hi again! A happy, and hopefully not-sweltering, midsummer/summer solstice to everyone who reads these little snippets of my thoughts. May the longest day and shortest night of the year bring you good times with good weather and with great people.

A field of yellow dandelions under a cloudless blue sky with the sun shining down on everything

Without going into spoilers, midsummer features very prominently in Tales of a Stranger Sister, so I wanted to talk a little bit about that here. Honestly, those chapters were probably my favorite to write during both the initial draft and subsequent rewrites, and it was one of the few times during the whole process where I never struggled to move from one word to the next. A chance to put into words those feelings of pure, unadulterated joy is one of the memories I’ll most treasure as I look back on creating this book in both the near and distant future.

More than anything else, those chapters were definitely the most fun I had during the whole process, and I certainly made sure to indulge in describing as much wonderful summer food as possible. Much of it was based on, or at least heavily inspired, by the food I would indulge in as a younger man during the long summer months, and while we’re still a few more weeks away from the best sweet corn of the season here, every time I re-read those passages while editing, I could taste it in my imagination.

The other part that was an absolute joy to write was the midsummer night bonfire sequence. Again, without giving any spoilers, that whole sequence has been something I’ve wanted to do in a fantasy story for a long, long time, so I’m eternally grateful that I had the opportunity to do so with my debut novel.

Anyway, to those who’ve read it, I hope you felt the joy that I felt crafting those chapters, and to those who may be thinking of giving my story I try, I hope it brings to mind pleasant memories of long warm days, short warm nights, good food, and better company.

And to help set a mood for those chapters and for summer in general, here’s a piece of music from The Gothard Sisters that will hopefully inspire thoughts of summer festivals full of merriment and wonderful food under clear, blue skies.

Until next time, stay cool, everyone!

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Pride and Joy…

The Intersex-inclusive Progress Pride Flag
Bisexual Pride Flag

It’s June and that marks the start of Pride Month, a celebration and recognition of the LGBT+ community.

This marks my fifth pride month as an out bisexual man. I came out on my fortieth birthday which fell after pride that year. Obviously, I’ve been bisexual for a lot longer than six years. My whole life, actually, though I wasn’t comfortable expressing or even acknowledging that part of myself for large part of it.

I’m a member of the microgeneration known as Xennials. One of the defining aspects of my adolescence was the constant fear of being called “gay.” Not stupid. Or weak. Or poor. Or weird. No, it was that three-letter word, or it’s three-letter slur sibling that drove many boys from my generation to throw hands or undertake attempting something either dangerous or stupid. Usually both.

If you were branded as being “Gay” or “Queer”, you were a social pariah, especially in my rural community. I wasn’t exactly popular as it was. I wasn’t athletic. I wasn’t rich. I didn’t have cool things. I wasn’t particular attractive. I was a doughy boy who grew up to be an equally doughy man. So desperate was I to never have that label tattooed on my person, that I refused to do any introspection about who I was as a person at a time when that’s the most important thing we as humans can do for ourselves.

So, for the first few decades of my life, I simply turned a blind eye to the internal thoughts that should have made it obvious that I wasn’t 100% straight. By the time I finally acknowledged my own thoughts and attractions, I still had difficulty being able to vocalize it to others. There were a lot of reasons why, which I don’t want to rehash here or now, but when turned forty, I gave myself the gift I should’ve given that adolescent who was terrified of simply existing as they really were. I came out and stated to my friends and family, clearly and proudly that I am bisexual. From that day on, I refused to hide who I am. I don’t lead with it or make that aspect of my life the focal point of who I am, but all the same, if someone asks, I never deny it. That’s all I really, ever wanted. To simply be and not deny any part of who I am.

While things are, to put it lightly, not particularly great for the LGBT+ community right now, especially for our Trans and non-binary siblings, I am grateful that more young people are willing to not only announce who they truly are, they’re willing to accept and support those around them who do so. I have to believe this current environment of hatred is the last, futile gasps of a dying breed of bigots who will eventually be buried and forgotten, replaced by a better generation of humans.

Until the day those better humans finally claim their rightful place at the top, I’ll be here, getting Bi.

Er… getting by.

Moving on, let’s talk a little about LGBT+ representation and my own work. I would never claim that Tales of a Stranger Sister is a LGBT+ story, because those themes and issues are not the focus of the story. However, that doesn’t mean that LGBT+ representation wasn’t important or relevant to this story.

The most obvious example of this is the character of Dr. Rinaldi, who is a gay man that is married with a husband. Again, as the book wasn’t about him or his life, that aspect of his life was not fully explored, but in the same vein, it was never denied or treated as something lesser. That’s ultimately what I wanted to do with Streamhaven and Litia. I wanted to create a world where LGBT humans can simply exist in the world as themselves, and it’s not seen as strange or weird. I’ve heard such settings described as “Queernorm,” so if someone were to ask, then yes, Litia as a world is very much Queernorm.

There were four other characters who identify as LGBT+ in Tales, but I refuse to announce who they are (for now.) I don’t want to be seen as pulling a Joanne, claiming representation cred without actually stating it clearly in the work. Even though I’m the author, I don’t believe that something is truly “canon” until I put it down on paper and share it. In any case, those aspects of these characters’ lives were not the focus of my first novel.

Though, with that said, if I ever decide to return to that world and those characters, I have planned to make those aspects very relevant to the story, so I did lay out some context clues in Tales about who those particular characters are or will become if we continued to follow their lives. If you ever want to take a guess, feel free to email me or DM me on BlueSky and let me know your insights. I won’t lie if you get it right, though I may ask that you keep the info to yourself until I choose to share it.

Anyway, I hope one day we achieve not only a queernorm world, but one of fairness and justice for all humans, regardless the color of their skin, the gods they do or don’t worship, who they love, or how they express who they are. I’ll take a great amount of pride if we can achieve it in my lifetime and it’ll be a true joy to live in that world.


The “Intersex-inclusive Progress Pride Flag” and “Bisexual Pride Flag” graphics were created by the Human Rights Campaign and the whole collection along with information can be found here.

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Across a thousand, million nights and thirty years…

A sketched map of the world depicted in El-Hazard: The Magnificent World

On May 26th, 1995 the gates to the magnificent world of El-Hazard were opened.  Thirty years later, it still stands as my favorite anime series of all time, if not one of my favorite stories, period.

El-Hazard: The Magnificent World was originally a 7-part OVA [Original Video Animation – a direct-to-video series not aired on TV or released in theaters first (Note: being direct-to-video was not seen as a mark of lower quality in the anime industry during the 80s and 90s, and OVAs often had larger budgets and more freedom with runtimes than TV series.)] It was animated by Anime International Company (AIC), produced by Pioneer LDC, and created by Hiroaki Hayashi (Original concept/ Director), Ryoe Tsukimura (Writer), and Kazuto Nakazawa (Character designs), with music by Seikou Nagaoka.

Hayashi has said that El-Hazard was heavily inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs’ story A Princess of Mars, which was the beginning of the Barsoom/John Carter stories that inspired a lot of science fiction and science fantasy of the early 20th century.

Like Barsoom, El-Hazard is a portal fantasy, with a group of normal Earth humans transported to a strange, new world and where they find themselves playing vital roles in the grand events that unfold.

A sketched scene from El-Hazard: The Magnificent World.  This depicts Makoto, a young man, meeting Ifurita, a mysterious woman, for the first time in the ruins under his school.

The basic gist of the story is that Makoto Mizuhara, a high school student at Shinonome High School, is seemingly “called” to recently discovered ancient ruins under his school. When he entered the ruins, he is greeted by a beautiful and mysterious woman who acts as if she knows him, even though he’s never met her before. She informs him that she must now send him to El-Hazard where he will confront his destiny.

A moment later, he finds himself transported to an alien world full of strange creatures and peoples seemingly out of the pages of Scheherazade’s A Thousand and One Arabian Nights. Transported to this new world with him (though he is not aware of all of them at the time) are three others who were at the school at the same time. They are his history teacher, Mr. Fujisawa, his childhood friend/crush, Nanami, and his one-sided rival Katsuhiko (who is also Nanami’s older brother.)

The story takes off from there. It has almost everything! Monsters, princesses, superpowers, mistaken identities, war, comedy, drama, prophecies, quests, magical warriors, subterfuge, demon-gods, apocalyptic weapons…

A watercolor illustration of Makoto and Ifurita from El-Hazard: The Magnificent World.  Makoto has his arms around Ifurita as the pair sit under a tree.

…and even true love.

Part of me wants to recap the whole four-hour story, but a bigger part of me wants people to watch it and fall in love with it like I did when I first saw it in 1997.

The original OVA is not available currently on any streaming services and Pioneer/Geneon Entertainment went bankrupt in the 2000s, so many of their older titles have vanished or have been in licensing limbo. As of right now, it is available on Blu-Ray through a company called Nozomi Entertainment, which was bought by Crunchyroll. However, Crunchyroll have stopped selling it on their store website, so it is not known once the existing discs are sold if further pressings will be made. If you want to own a physical copy, you might want to buy one sooner rather than later.

Nozomi did release the first 45-minute English-dubbed episode of the series on their YouTube channel, so if you can probably get a good idea if you would want to see the whole thing from that:

It’s definitely a 90s anime and it does lean into some of the tropes that were popular at the time, especially considering that both Hayashi and Tsukimura were heavily involved with the original Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVAs. However, I like to think it stands out from other fare of the era and it zigged when other series zagged, but that might simply be the rose-colored nostalgia goggles firmly affixed to my face. I will let others judge for themselves.

Like many 90s series that achieved some success with the audience at the time, El-Hazard became a franchise. There was a second follow-up OVA series, as well as a 13-episode follow-up tv series that continued the original story (though without most of the original creative team.) There was also another 26-episode tv series that came out around the same time as the original OVA was being released that was a psuedo-retelling of the original story, but with many major and significant changes to the plot and characters. Unlike the original series, that version is available on streaming through Crunchyroll and on YouTube. It does lean heavier into goofball comedy than melodrama, so if that’s your thing, you might enjoy that version more.

Along with the other video versions, there were also music CDs, drama CDs, radio drama shows, a Sega Saturn video game (which was another version of the story), art books, manga [comics (which were yet another different retelling of the story)], a tabletop role-playing game, and the occasional merch from figurines to playing cards.

Honestly, I could literally sit here all day and gush about these series. I’m such an uberfan that in the days of Geocities and other website hosts, I had not one, but two websites purely dedicated to El-Hazard fandom. Even all these years later I can still make a detailed argument that there are at least 13 distinct possible timelines of events depending on which radio dramas you listen to and supplemental books you read. Gushing would not be a problem. But hey, if you remember and liked this story, too, then please feel free to drop me a line through email or Bluesky and we can geek out together sometime.

Because if you still love this story, even thirty years later, then the gates of El-Hazard will always be open to you.


El-Hazard: The Magnificent World, El-Hazard: The Wanderers, and El-HazardL The Alternative World and all associated video, images, and audio are owned by AIC, Pioneer LDC, Geneon, Nozomi Entertainment, and Crunchyroll. Copyrighted 1995. Used without permission under Fair Use doctrine covering commentary/critique

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Gone, but never forgotten…

Author Douglas Adams holding a copy of his novel "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" which simply has the words "Don't Panic" inscribed in large, friendly letters on the cover.

This month marks the 24th anniversary of the death of Douglas Adams (May 11th, 2001). I acknowledged Adams at the end of my debut novel because he is a literary, well, for lack of a better term, hero to me. He wrote the books that made me want to be a writer and while my first novel may not share a genre with Adams’ most famous works, I like to believe his influence on my own writing style put a tiny bit of his voice into my first novel.

In particular, a passage like this was heavily influenced by Adams’ style of taking ordinary ideas and making them sound ludicrous to a grand extent.

Text that reads:

Mer cheeks reddened and she laughed awkwardly. Oh, yeah... that.
I took gymnastics when I was a kid. The first time around, I mean. I
guess the muscle memory was still there even if they're not my muscles.
It probably helps that this body doesn't have a spine and joints that have
been totally wrecked from almost a decade of sitting on a crummy o6ce
chair in a kubickle."
"You've mentioned that word before, 'kubickle.' What is that?’
She gave that Question some thought and said with a playful twinkle
in her eye, Okay, imagine a box."
"Okay."
Text that reads:

"Now, imagine taking all your bitterness, resentment and regret about
every wrong life decision you've ever made and putting them into that
box"
Uh, okay, sure,’ I said, trying to imagine demon-like creatures representing those negative feelings being released from my head and put into
such a container.
"Now, imagine that for five out of every seven days you have to go
inside that box, where you'll have to sit on a wobbly, uncomfortable chair
and stare at a glowing square for nine hours a day, all the while those
unpleasant things are constantly yelling at you for not going to grad
school."
"That sounds terrible."
She shrugged. "It wasn't all bad. Sometimes someone would bring you a piece of cake because it was someone's birthday or because someone
managed to escape from their box to go work in another box, or better
yet, to stop working in boxes altogether.’
"Cake,’ I mumbled as I began to eye her skeptically. "Is all that really
true”’
She frowned. "Okay, I might have been lying about one thing. They
stopped giving us cake a few years ago. Management said it was a cost-saving measure.’ The frown slowly turned into a mischievous smirk.
I responded with a flat, annoyed look in return.

I still hope to one day write a fantasy or sci-fi comedy more akin to Adams’ novels, but for now, I’m satisfied that I was able to add a dash of Adams to my Ghibli-inspired stew.

I’ve been thinking about Adams a lot recently, now that I finally can call myself a published author. Adams died at 49. I’m about to turn 46 and while I have no plans for an early checkout from this mortal coil, I look at the short amount of time Adams was creating and am in utter awe of what he managed to put out into the universe is such a cosmically brief period. I can only hope that when I do check out, I’ve managed to put out 1/100th of the amazing he brought to our vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big universe.

Adams also died four months before September 11, 2001, and I do wonder about how he would’ve written about the world of the last 25 years. Between both the UK’s and US’s shenanigans on both the domestic and global stages, I have to believe he would have had fascinating, if not hilarious opinions on all if it. But a part of me worries that the sheer absurdity of the world we live in might have made a master of absurdist humor such as him obsolete. Moreso, as a conservationist, Adams might have simply been too dismayed at the rapid destruction of our world and its natural treasures to find any humor in this modern world as a whole.

Sadly, or maybe fortunately, we’ll never know. We can only look at the wonderful work he left behind and speculate at what he might’ve created had he not waved his towel, stuck out his thumb, and flagged down the first teaser leaving sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha.

So, please allow me a moment to lay flowers at the feet and to raise a cup of tea to the man who taught me to never panic and that the two most important things you can take with you out in a cold and uncaring universe are a towel and a book.

And I always know where I can find both.

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Contest Winners on both sides of the Atlantic

Okay, so first off, a big congratulations to the winner of my giveaway of a free Kindle copy of Tales of a Stranger Sister. The winner has been notified, and they seem excited to give my story a try. Running a promotional giveaway was an interesting experience. I believe I learned some things from my first attempt at it and am hoping to implement what I learned the next time I try it.

Speaking of contests, Today was the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest Grand Finals. I first learned about the annual European song contest, I think, around 2011-2012. A group of friends had stumbled upon videos from that year’s contest and some of the entries were so bizarre to our American musical sensibilities that we couldn’t help but fall in love with the whole concept.

Seriously, any contest that can produce this:

and this:

Is worth checking out at least once.

Since then, it’s become one of my house’s annual traditions to at least check out some of the entries while noshing on delicious eats and sugary cocktails. As we actually have access to Peacock at this moment in time, we were able to watch the whole finals this year.

I’m not going to get into the WTF-ery of the final votes (Seriously, that is a whole conversation that shouldn’t be within a thousand yards of this site. ) So, instead, I’ll keep things fun and just share my top five for 2025. I think only one of these finished in the actual top five, but these were the songs I enjoyed the most:

5. Ukraine

Ukraine’s vibe can be best described as 90’s anime about musicians trying to stop a space war by doing a homage to a 70s anime about musicians trying to stop a space war.

4. Latvia

Latvia’s entry looks like a group of Druidic familiars who have been summoned to perform the soundtrack for the next Ghost in the Shell reboot/remake/revival. It sounds awesome, but it’s not catchy.

3. Sweden

I love fun, goofy songs and Sweden’s was one of two that were my goofball favorites this year.

2. Luxembourg

I was honestly not expecting this one to hit with my brain like it did, but damn if it wasn’t so friggin poppy and catchy that I was honestly expecting it to win the whole damn thing and was legit surprised that it didn’t do better.

1. Iceland

I like fun dammit and this performance was fun, fun, and fun. Frankly, if Europe is gonna disrespect Iceland like it did this performance, then Ron Swanson was correct on his opinion of the continent as a whole.

So, that’s my very American coverage of Eurovision 2025. Congrats to Austria on winning and I’m sure I’ll be back again soon to talk about anything but the novel I should be writing but instead dedicated 6 hours of my weekend to a European song contest. 🤷‍♂️

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Give it away, give it away, give it away now…

Okay, so I decided to try something new as part of my journey of discovery in self-publishing and I’m doing my first promotional giveaway in hopes that tantalizing people with the chance to a free copy of my debut novel might spur them to share its existence with others. I have no idea if this will result in any new sales whatsoever, but I’m willing to spend a little of my money buying a redemption code to see if it might.

So, if you’re a US resident with a Bluesky acct, all you need to enter is simply repost the below post. That’s it. One click and you’re entered. Easy!

Contest ends Saturday, May 17th. Good luck to everyone who enters!

I'm doing a #giveaway!One person who reposts this will receive a free Kindle version of Tales of a Stranger Sister. Winner will be randomly selected on 5/17/25.A small-scale fantasy tale of friendship, family, festivals, & Fables![📚🪐] [📚💙] #writersky #booksky #indiefantasy #fantasybooks

J. Robert Matthewson ♾️🐿️♾️💻 (@infinitesquirrels.bsky.social) 2025-05-10T23:53:32.578Z

Rules:1. US residents only (Sorry, but the redemption code is US-based)2. Multiple reposts do not equal multiple entries (but are appreciated)3. Winner will be selected at random and will be chosen at or around 6PM on Sat. May 17th, 20254. No purchase required5. Prize Value: $2.99Good Luck!

J. Robert Matthewson ♾️🐿️♾️💻 (@infinitesquirrels.bsky.social) 2025-05-10T23:53:32.579Z
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Now with 5% more website content!

Illustration of Fraceska Kristavale. A girl in a yellow dress and wide-brimmed sun hat reading a book
Al Illustration of Samantha Robertson. A woman in professional attire holding a cup of takeout coffe while holding a tablet computer

Well, as promised, I’m back with some new website-exclusive content. This time, I wanted to give a little background on not only why I even attempted to write a novel in the first place, but why I wrote the novel that I did. You can find all the riveting details in the Trivia and Miscelania page for Tales of a Stranger Sister.

Honestly, I pretty much spent all my energy tonight on finally putting this all together as a webpage, so I’m just gonna cut things short here. I’ll try to come back in the next few days and provide some thoughts on whatever I’m having thoughts about at the moment. Probably after I actually manage to get some words down for the next book.

Take care of yourselves, folks.

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It’s the First of May…

Welcome to a brand new month. A month when some people like to start doing certain things outdoors…

…by which, I mean taking books and reading them outside, of course! Yes, outdoor reading season is officially1 upon us! Grab a book or two or ten and take them with you to the park! Or the beach! Or in a peaceful woodland clearing next to a gentle mountain stream under a canopy of verdant, green leaves.

Say, that last visual reminds me of something

Cover for Tales of a Stranger Sister.  Cover features a girl, boy and cat sitting along the edge of a stream.  In the water's reflection, a different woman sits where the girl is, holding an e-reader and coffee cup.

Okay, got the self-plug out of the way, so let’s plug some other writers! Like, for example, my amazingly awesome and talented spouse has a book as part of a collection of bundles on Itch.io in support of Mental Health Awareness Month. Please check out this and the other bundles if you like new reads and mental health representation.

#IndieApril has come and gone and it was a mixed bag for me sales-wise. Like I said in my last post, I did manage to sell one more book than last month (that’s good), but none outside the US promotion (that’s… well, not bad, but disappointing.)

I know that it takes a while for any book to find an audience and I was prepared for things to go slowly. However, it is hard not to feel like I released this book at the absolute worse time for a Kindle exclusive. Between the general Amazon backlash and boycott and the mother-lovin’ ChatGPT Ghibli GenA.I.”Art” nonsense making everyone look any art done in the Ghibi style as sus (Including my cover, and I have had to tell one person so far that no, it wasn’t generated using GenA.I.), I’m beginning to wonder how many more shoes can drop.

In any case, I wasn’t planning to stay exclusive on Amazon forever. It was always my plan to ease myself into the self-publishing ecosystem, but the way sales have been for every indie writer these last couple months, I might be accelerating my plans to go wide. I will probably stay enrolled in KDP select for at least one or two more cycles (So, hey if you were thinking of reading Tales of a Stranger Sister on KindleUnlimited, maybe get on that sooner rather than later), but I might start looking seriously at releasing the print edition wide. It’s times like these I’m glad I have a self-publishing guru.

Moving on…

More website content will be coming soon. Working on some write-ups about the history of Tales of a Stranger Sister and the people, places, and things that inspired its inception. Still working on the next novel. About four chapters down, who knows how many more to go.

So, that brings this update to a close, but before I go, the month of May officially2 marks 30 years since my favorite anime of all time (and one of my many writing inspirations) was released. Unfortunately, being one of the old Pioneer-produced anime of the 90’s, the license has fallen into many cracks and I don’t think the original 7-part OVA is streaming anywhere, but if you get a chance to see it on either DVD, Blu-ray or through… other means, please take it. It’s a wonderful story full of amazingly fun characters.

So, with grass below you and sky above, get out there and celebrates spring with a crazy little thing called… “reading outside.”

  1. Not actually official. Like, at all. ↩︎
  2. Actually official. May 26th, 1995 to be exact. ↩︎
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