GEPETKA!

Gepetka, Prince of Gypsies is now available!

Am I excited? Yes!

In honor of daughter Irene's service in the US Navy, and on the day which she has officially become a civilian again, I present to you Book 3 in the Kingdom of the Falcon series.

Gypsies!

They are short on tact:

Subconsciously she touched the cut on her forehead and asked, “Is it that bad?”

His trance was abruptly broken.“Oh, no,” he waffled, “Well, it is sort of … yeah, it looks pretty bad.”

Long on humor:

She gave him a sidelong look and, leaning toward him, whispered, “An old woman, smelling of liquor, asked if you beat me.”

… “I said I hit you twice as hard as you hit me.”

Completely unpredictable:

The razor-sharp belt dagger was drawn deftly and the frightened Gypsy pricked his thumb deeply. The family of the warlord jumped at the sudden move and the blood welled up deep red and convincing.

And primed for adventure:

The crack across his nose sent him sprawling and, in an instant, Lord Nolridge possessed the sword.    …

Gepetka found his voice first and asked what everyone was thinking. “How did you learn that?”

As Lord Nolridge climbed onto Gepetka's cart, he gave the young man a pained look, then slowly replied, “I suppose the same way you learned to be a Gypsy.”

The Obligatory Mother's Day Post

In my career as a facebook stalker, I have discovered that virtually everyone thinks they have the best mother in the world. While the statistical improbability of multi-million simultaneous mutually-exclusive claims being true seems lost on most of the rest of the world, I am skeptical of those claims. They simply can't all be true.

Maybe the first one was the true one and everyone else is a copycat. Or, maybe the one who meant it most was the true one. Could there be a rotating best mom based on some logarithm? I'm not buying any of those theories.

I love my mom and I think she's awesome. That said, it seems absurd to make a completely unsubstantiatable claim of bestness.

First, assuming that one in seven residents of Planet Earth is a mother, that leaves one billion mothers to poll! At one per minute, it would take about 1900 years to do the interviews. Even people who are really bad at math can tell that is not possible.

See. My skepticism is not just me being a wet blanket, it is based on science.

Next, I wonder, are some of those people compensating for past misdeeds from their childhood? In other words, are they trying to bribe their mom out of telling the world what brats they were as kids? My mom is a writer. That cat is already out of the bag for me.

Then it occurs to me! Of course! It is all an elaborate conspiracy. Some of, maybe even most of, my friends on facebook, along with most everyone else, are cyborgs that don't actually have a mother. They are refugees, or worse, invaders from a planet where they are grown in a laboratory run by nefarious minds with no bodies. The "Best Mother" post is an alibi cover! What if they are trying to take over the world?

Only, I know the mothers of a lot of those people.

Maybe, just maybe, my friends are trying to express what they cannot touch with words. I get that, it's called writer's block. Some things just don't convey into language all that well. At least not into English. Maybe what they need is a prompter on facebook. Perhaps a form of adjective suggester would be helpful to broaden people's expressive horizons.

Since facebook isn't cooperating, I offer here a few modest examples:

1. My mom is so persistent, she got an interview with Governor Jesse Ventura.

2. My mom is so descriptive, she can elaborate about an escaped horse with at least seventy-five superlatives.

3. My mom is so directionally challenged, she can find uncharted territory in the middle of a town.

4. My mom is so first aid savvy, she can field treat most wounds in seconds.

5. My mom is so good at Taekwondo, she has a black belt! Ha!

6. My mom is so patient, she can make the best pot of beans ever.

7. My mom is so tough she raised six kids like me!

So there you have it. Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there, and to everyone who has a mom.

What Kind of Parents Let Their Kids Do That?

Conspicuously skipping daughter number three is not an omission, but rather strategic timing. Stand-by …

Meanwhile, I have written very little about our youngest, Josiah, who is our only boy. That is by no means due to a lack of material.

Josiah is entering his senior year at Visible Music College, in Memphis, Tennessee. As you may have guessed by his school of choice, he is a musician preparing for a career in the Christian music field. You may have also surmised, by his genetic heritage, there is nothing normal about him either.

As a musician, Josiah plays acoustic and electric guitars, keys, violin, drums, and I may be missing something here. Naturally, he is a vocal major. He composes scores and does a lot of other music nerdy things that I don't understand even more so than everything else I have outlined.

His book is about halfway written and will be ready for his college graduation next spring. (No pressure!) No, I am not releasing that title yet. I have some entertainment for you of a different variety today.

What does a musician do when he wants to unwind? Evidently, he plays with fire … fire poi, that is.

CAUTION! This is real fire and it is really hot! DO NOT TRY THIS unless you have mastered the bolas! You WILL hurt yourself badly!

If you liked that, there is more. This video is featured on our son-in-law's YouTube channel, where there is also a multicam fire poi video.

http://www.manatthegate.com/

Fostering Creativity

You never know what creative talents your children may have tucked away in the back of their DNA. I think fostering their creativity is imperative to their development. It is also important to note that projecting your creativity on your kids is not the same as fostering theirs. That said, at times it can be difficult to tell if you are forcing a square peg into a round hole, or keeping your kids on task.

One such experience in our home was with our daughter, Rochelle. I'm not sure if she was emulating her big sister, choosing the least offensive option, or had a passing interest in playing violin. But somehow in her growing years, we connected her with a used violin, a good teacher, and lessons to make it happen.

The result was that she actually got decent with the violin. She followed through the prescribed training and played the obligatory performances. But she was not in love with the violin.

When her required training was completed, she asked if she could trade in the violin for a different instrument. No doubt, at the time, we wrestled with that decision. Undoubtedly, we wondered if that was just going to be her next muse. Ultimately, we agreed.

Rochelle sold the violin and bought a camera.

You can be the judge, but at our house, we've never looked back. I have included a link to her website. And you will miss a treat if you do not watch the video. The video was made by our son-in-law, Stephen. The model is our oldest daughter, Vanessa. And the score was composed and recorded by our son, Josiah.

http://srochellephotography.com/

The Real Reason I Write

I have always enjoyed writing. I love it when someone is drawn into my story, and I love hearing about it when someone reads one of my books a second time.

But the real reason I write is for my kids.

They're all grown now. Our youngest is about to turn twenty-one and our oldest just turned thirty. Ouch! How did that many years sneak by?

As it happens, we have four children: three daughters and a son. They are all far more talented than me, but as Dad, I still love to write them stories.

Today I have decided to share some of their many talents. I begin with the daughters because we have this epic triptych photo of them. They are in age order here.

The middle daughter, Rochelle, is the photographer. She is the mastermind and talent behind these photos. In fact, the really good photos on my website are all hers as well. I don't know how I can stand beside her and take a photograph of the same thing, and hers are epic and mine are ... not. I'll share her website here someday soon. The book dedicated to Rochelle is Ascent of the Falcon, Book 2 in the series.

I know, I started out of order. But doing the photo credit first seemed appropriate.

The oldest is Vanessa. She also writes. I am looking forward to seeing her work published. I will someday share a tiny book she wrote for me when she was a little girl. Vanessa is the linguist and, I must say, nerd of the family. She can carry on two animated conversations simultaneously ... in two different languages. How is that possible, you ask? One is in spoken English, and the other is ASL. American Sign Language was her first degree. I don't remember what her Masters is called. Blood Trail of the Falcon, Book 1, is dedicated to her.

Irene is the youngest daughter. She is probably the most mixed bag of talents. She runs long on visual design, and she also writes, and she sings. She also has been around the world with the US Navy. How many people do you know who have been to Greece, Turkey, Italy, Bahrain, Crete, Dubai, Georgia (the country), Romania, Bulgaria, and more? Besides all that, Irene can repair numerous communication systems on ships. Gepetka, Prince of Gypsies, Book 3, is dedicated to her.

Stay tuned ...