A lot has happened since my last post in December of 2012, which will explain why this blog looks different, and why it was time for change.

In late 2011, my last Mac died on me.  Some IT friends thought it was the power supply, so I replaced that via eBay . . . and it still didn’t work.  Another friend, who makes a living repairing computers, couldn’t figure out the problem.  One of these days I’ve got to drive back to Caroline County and pick it up from him.

So, during 2012, I made all my blog posts on my wife’s take-home computer from school, a PC laptop; the computers at the Glen Allen Library (“Two hours a day only, Mr. Wornom, thank you, move along and take your porn with you.”); or the rare post using a borrowed iPad — rare because typing on a digital keyboard is almost impossible for me: fumbling, laborious, and riddled with typos.

I did NOT use my computer at the Caroline Progress because I left their employ in February of 2012, and instead of doing a lot of blogging and other things for which I would never be compensated, I concentrated on two things: writing a new novel, Ghostflowers, and finding a decent job.  Yes, one can argue that the novel may prove non-compensating, but I can’t let logic keep me from telling stories . . . and if we don’t take chances every now and then, we will never discover the heights to which we can soar.

My first job of 2012 was with Davidson Media here in Richmond, which operates 4 local radio stations (AM) for niche markets.  When they laid me off after 2 1/2 months of trying to make sales, the general manager, one of the nicest and most intelligent managers I’ve ever met, not only apologized for letting me go, but he admitted that the job they asked me to do was probably not even doable in this economy.

And now I am making a stable and potentially lucrative living at Mattress Discounters, having been trained for a month and in two states, with one priority: to find the only mattress right for you that will give you a good night’s sleep for at least the next 10.5 years.  (Did you know that most mattresses only last about 10.5 years?  You do now.)

With the sale of a story, “In the Mountains of Frozen Fire,” (based on the characters of my novel, The Enigma Club, which my agent is currently marketing to publishers) to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (coming out in July!), things have started turning around.  And so it is that I couldn’t take not having a computer anymore, and, with some birthday money, I ponied up the dough and bought a computer that I didn’t want at all, but that I needed: a PC.

That it was one that I could afford was an absolutely necessity, and I thank Wal-Mart for having the sale.  It gets me online, and free word processing software (Open Office) gets me writing.

Now, I don’t have to write Ghostflowers by hand (I’ve written more than half of it by hand, and my fingers hurt!), and I can blog again, and stop bothering people at the library, and I can print, and I feel whole.

With my changes in life, I felt the blog should reflect my changes in attitude.  We all have to do whatever we have to do to survive, and so I sell mattresses, and I am using pens and paper, and now a PC instead of a beloved Mac, and I have streamlined this here blog as a result.

So I will keep on rambling.  I will keep on writing.  I will keep reviewing books (a bunch are forthcoming, if you’re interested in feminine fantasies, the art of Tarzan of the Apes, the SF comics of Simon and Kirby, a novel based on the TV show, Fringe, and a Flash Gordon art book).

Most importantly, to you, my creative friends and wacky wordies, in the spirit of Shatner and Nimoy and the Great Bird of the Galaxy . . .