Greetings loyal airmen.  As we head into this Father's Day weekend, several diverse topics rise to the surface of our weekly get togethers.  The first is the loss of our beloved microwave that gave up the ghost late last night.  I was in my den (better known as Ron's Batcave) when Valerie called from the top of the stairs asking if I'd like some popcorn.  Having just munched on several handfuls of mixed nuts, I declined.  A few minutes later I could  hear her opening the cellophane wrapper and then the familiar click of the microwave starting up.  Two minutes later an unholy crackling noise arose and began sputtering weird electronic notes that made the hairs on my arm stand up. I could hear Val scrambling to shut it off and then she called out,  “I think the microwave just died.”  To which I responded, “Don't eat that popcorn.”

Thus our first topic of conversation this morning was the death of our beloved household appliance of sixteen years.  That's a long time and the thing served us well throughout.  Not only those late night popcorn snacks, but it was used to remove harmful fats from meats, to warm breads that had hardened in the fridge.  All kinds of uses that we, who live in this marvelous electronic age really do take for granted.  How on earth our parents and their parents ever got along without these modern gizmos is beyond me.

Two hours after our first morning coffee, we were in the car on our way to a wholesale club store and three hours later were driving him with a brand new Sharp microwave.  Val was delighted, as this new model is smaller and able to fit almost anywhere in the kitchen she wants to set it.  Meanwhile I was looking through the booklet and the list of special features it provides.  (Adjustable power levels.)  If you write sci-fi and comics like do, those words can have ominous significance.  (Automated defrost.) Gotcha.  (Adjust time during cooking).  Meaning if smoke starts coming out of the thing, you might need to adjust those power levels we mentioned earlier.  (Child lock.) Okay, this one caught me by surprise.  It supposedly deactivates the panel controls to prevent young children from playing with the buttons.  My question.  How does it know it is a child playing with the control and not some confused adult trying to fathom what all those darn buttons mean?  This could be a problem. There were at least another 8 function features, but I won't bore you with all of them.  Also long as the thing doesn's start talking to me in a HAL-type voice, I think we're safe.  As for the old mircowave, now sitting in the garage corner, it's landfill time.  Considering the disposal society we live in, any time you can get sixteen years from a gizmo, consider yourself lucky.  We do.

                                    
I want to thank all you airmen who wrote after reading last week's log entry about my hunt for a publisher.  All of you were too kind in wishing artist Rob Davis and I luck finding a home for our DAUGHTER OF DRACULA graphic novel.  Sadly, no nibbles from the posting,   I do appreciate the suggestions foks sent in.  Trust me, as I stated last week, we are not giving up.  I've a few other ideas and eventually, should no one want to join us in the venture, Rob and I are completely ready to self-publish.  It's out intention to have DAUGHTER OF DRACULA available for sale before this year is out.  Regardless under what imprint.

Whereas that project is on hold, another is coming to fruition rapidly and I wanted to share that news with all of you.  The first paperback I ever had published was TRAIL OF SEAHAWKS and it was co-written with Texas fantasy great, Ardath Mayhar.  We sold it to TSR and after they accepted it for publication, they requested we write another for them in the same workd, so we produced MONKEY STATION.  It too was published by TSR.  (A digression note, Wildside Books has picked up both these titles and will soon be reprinting them, both in hardback and electronic formats…I'll keep you posted when they are due out.)  Finally, Ardath and I turned our attention to writing a modern fantasy thriller, WITCHFIRE.  It tells the story of young French girl, Morgan Rein, who is raised by a loving, Scottish matron, Mother Kalavela, who just happens to be a white witch.  And of course she teaches Morgan the ways of her pure and wholesome magic.   Later, Morgan, as an adult living in a modern U.S. city, must use those skills to stop a fiendish warlock bent upon death and destruction.

Thing is, although both Ardath and I were happy with how the book came out, we could not find a publisher for it.  Ultimately we went on to other individual projects in our own careers and WITCHFIRE was relegated to our files to collect dust for the past twenty years.  About four years ago, I took the actual manuscript out of my file drawer and decided to re-write it from start to finish, and at the same time get it into my PC files.  And I am very, very happy I did so because a month ago, through a friend's prompting, I met independent publisher, Michael Poll, who asked to read the manuscript.   Michael's outfit is Cornerstone Publishing and happily, he liked the book and has agreed to publish it for us.  Of course I wasted no time recruiting Rob Davis to provide some truly wonderful interior illustrations plus the cover, when the time is ready.  Above is one of his nine illos for the book, it featuring a young Morgan and her magic teacher.  All of us, Rob, Ardath, Michael and yours truly, are tremendously excited about this book finally getting out there.  I really think you are going to like it.  More as things develop.

Lastly, Sunday is Father's Day and I want to wish all you loyal airmen who are dads, a truly wonderful, happy day.  And I want to remind my five kids, Scott, Kevin, Heather, Michelle and Alan, just how much I love them, how proud of each and every one of them I am, and being their dad has been one of the greatest honors of my
life.  Thanks for being such beautiful people.

Take care, Ron, over and out.