Greetings loyal airmen.  I'm very excited about several new items this week so let's get right to them.  Ever since Hangar 27 opened for business several years ago, the one element that was missing was a forum.  Although many of you have written me personally or stopped by our table at conventions, I always wished we could have a permanent place to exchange dialogue about those things near and dear to my heart, and hopefully yours as well.

Just a little over two weeks ago a really terrific comics fan named Chuck Moore was introduced to me via another friend.  Chuch operates one of the most amazing sites devoted to comics books ever put up on the internet and its called just that; COMICS RELATED.  If it has anything to do with comics, be it the books themselves or TV and movies, you are going to find the latest on all hot topics at this truy comprehensive site.  I've added a link to Comics Related up on our Links page.  Check it out.  I guarantee you'll be glad you did and soon find yourself visiting it often.

So here's the thing.  Chuck went and offered to host Ron Fortier's Forums over at Comics Related!  And once he put them up, he quickly broke them down into a half dozen topics all of which cover my range of interests from my new pulp novels to my Pulp Fiction Reviews column and there's even a Baseball section where I, and many of you, can talk about the World Champion Red Sox and other teams of the MLB.  There's link directly to my forums right over this blog block.  Soooo..from now on, after stopping by here on your weekly visit, if you've anything to add, pro or con, please, drop by the forums and post a message.  I check them out several times a day and would love to get many of you loyal airmen on board.  This could be tons of fun for all of us.

Back on Nov. 12, 1991, Valerie and I were working the second shift at the local GE Plant.  On that particular evening we came home and were just going about our routine when the telephone rang.  It being close to midnight we were puzzled at who would be calling.  It turned out to be our son-in-law Chris telling us that he, and our daugther Michelle were at the hospital.  She had gone into labor with their first baby.  Valerie immediately grabbed her hang bag, gave me a kiss and ran out the door.   I made myself a cup of coffee and sat down to watch one of those late night talk shows.  Sometime shortly after midnight the phone rang a second time and I picked it up super fast.  It was Valerie with the awesome news, Michelle had just given birth to a beautiful baby girl and they had named her Kristi.   Thus was our very first grandchild born, the first of six thus far.  This past Monday night, Nov. 13,  that precious little miracle who transformed all our lives that eventful night turned Sweet Sixteen.

                     
She has grown into a beautiful young woman who lights up all our lives still.   Michelle invited us over to for ice cream and cake after dinner for a little informal birthday party.  We brought along Valerie's mother, Lorraine, who would turn 80 the very next day.  Also present were Kristi's friend Asher and her younger sister, Chelsea.  Chelsea turns 13 the start of next year.   At one point during evening when I was alone with Chris, I leaned over and asked softly, “You remember that night 16 years ago?”  He looked at me, nodded and then said almost sadly, “It's going by too fast.”  Amen to that.  Life sometimes just runs away with us.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTI and may you be blessed with many, many more.

Tuesday of this week I finished writing my fourth Captain Hazzard pulp novel, CAVEMEN OF NEW YORK.  It is my first solo novel in this series and was quite a challenge to write.  I'd given myself a target of 60,000 words, the average length of most pulp novels in the old magazines and came in a little over 61,000.  Not a bad finale.  Now comes the re-reading/writing and editing.  I hope to have it off to artist Rob Davis with a week.  He will then begin doing interior illustrations and designing the book.  Mark Maddox will be painting the cover.  One of the elements in the plot is a new vehicle Hazzard invents to help him and his team defeat their foes.  He calls it The Pygmy and Rob did up several sketches from my descriptions in the book for Mark to use a reference as it will mostly likely be featured on that cover.  Here's a sneek-peek for all of you.

                    
Hope this sparks your curiosity and wets your appetite for CAVEMEN OF NEW YORK.  With fingers crossed it will be available for sale sometime in Jan or Feb 08.

And that's it for another week, loyal airmen.  Thanks for stopping by.   A HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all of you and your loved ones.  Do take the time to enjoy your families and thank the Good Lord for all your many blessings.  And while you are at it, say a special prayers for all our brave men and women serving overseas in the Armed Forces.  God Bless and protect everyone of them.  See you back here next week.

Ron – Over & Out.