Cover yer Ass, 2006 is Coming!

Photo: Falling Snake courtesy of Infinitegtr
Copyright protected, all rights expressly reserved.

To hell with Top Ten lists from the out-going year, lets get right down to cool stuff coming up in 2006!!!

1) TCU Press is publishing a serial novel, an old-fashioned Western, consisting of 12 chapters written by 12 different authors. The book is similar to Texas Aggie football, in that one of the chapters is being written by Joe SixPack. The Fort Worth Star Telegram is running a two-part beauty contest for the 12th author. Submissions are taken January 1-20. After two rounds of voting, the favored son gets to rub elbows with Jane Robert Woods, Elmer Kelton, Dan Jenkins, Carlton Stowers, Phyllis Allen, James Ward Lee, Jim Donovan, Judy Alter, Mike Cochran, Mary Rogers and Jeff Guinn.

My writing sample is already written, and I am just waiting for the witching hour to submit it. Watch here for details on where and when to vote...

2) Last week, while flying over the tinderbox otherwise known as New Mexico, I had the good fortune of sitting beside a brilliant, talented gentleman by the name of Thomas Graves. Turns out, he is a professional photographer, and he has a great eye. Spend your new year checking out his work at www.thomasgraves.com and enjoy the show.

3) I WILL finish and publish my novel. Maybe I can get Graves to shoot the cover for me.

4) My wife is making me take a vacation. We are spending a week in Seattle. Maybe I can also get Graves to teach me a little better technique. The picture above "Falling Snake" was taken just east of Seattle (Assuming that Goggle's Hello doesn't have the picture all jacked up again, and that you can actually see it). I am already saving money now for extra film.

The day that I snapped Falling Snake, two people were killed on the same highway I took to get to the falls. There was a rock slide, and a boulder the size of a small Cadillac hit their car. I never figured out if this happend before, during or after my trip. That they died saddened me, and that it occured where I had just been frightened me. To die in the middle of such beauty though, not a bad way to go.

I have another version of the picture that I jacked up with Photoshop, the water has a golden hue to it, and the rocks in the background have a copper tinge. I have to figure out how to calibrate my printer so it prints what I see on the screen

5) In a few short weeks, I have been promised a one only CD from the second greatest musical genius of this generation. If I can figure out the audio options of this crappy blog, and can get wonder-boy's permission, I will post some of his tunes here for your listening pleasure.

6) Almost forgot, a colleague and friend has figured out once and for all how to resolve the abortion debate. Each side gets what they say they want, neither side will be completely happy, so it must be the correct solution. I don' think we can get the book out in time for the mid-term elections, but certainly in time for the Presidential primaries.

Having solved that problem, we will end world hunger with three clothespins, a gallon of Easy Cheese, an eye of newt and a good dose of... Formerly Living.