Eleven-Eleven-Eleven

Hello dreamers, readers, innovators, excavators, those-with-hope, those-with-dope, or just those–  

Hi.

11.11.11 is coming.  What does it mean?!  For those who are Type-A and have OCD, it’s probably a satisfying day and they’ll be writing out the date over and over again all over everyone and everything they come in contact with.  Be sure to give markers, sharpies, crayons, or cans of spray paint to all of those you love with Type-A and OCD!

For the whole world, I believe it may signify a kind of synchronicity.  Yes, I do mean that seminal 1983 album by The Police, one of the most influential albums of my life….

“A connecting principle
Linked to the invisible
Almost imperceptible
Something inexpressible
Science insusceptible
Logic so inflexible
Causally connectible
Yet nothing is invincible”

I’m headed overseas for a spell, but before I go, I wanted to send a shout-out and an update.

I just finished a major edit of my full-length work of fiction, searing off nearly 17,000 words in the process.  It wasn’t that bad, actually.  Remove unnecessary adjectives, adverbs, and modifiers, and there’s real magic at your fingertips.  Who needs ‘Stupefy’ and ‘Expelliarmus’ when you’ve got the Delete button?

My agent has been sent the edited book, and with a lot of love & luck, hopefully that one will be in your hands before I’m 78.

 

The reading for ORPHANS at The Last Bookstore in downtown Los Angeles was awesome.   So many amazing and esteemed guests came down to hear some extraordinary people read from the stories.  I thought it would make the stories pop more to hear them come from the mouths and hearts and minds of others, rather than myself, and I was right, because the stories came alive vividly.  They soared.  It was epic.  I sold a nice amount of books that night, and even gave out free Orphans magnets to those who bought a book!  That was fun, cos I love magnets. Don’t you?

MAGNETS!

Here are some pictures, taken by my fave uber-artist, Christine Deitner.  {Click ‘em to see ‘em real big}

Thank you to Adam Hass Hunter, Milena Hunter, John Kern, Deb Knox, Derek Schreck, Will Collyer, Erin Noble, and Paul Keeley for taking part and making it amazing.

For those of you are still looking for some good holiday reading, or looking for some early holiday gifts, go here to getitgetit.
It’s cheap, too. $2.99, $4.99, or $10.79
I’m doing a holiday giveaway with special prizes, too. Be on the lookout for that in December!  :0)

* Amazon.com for the new Kindle Fire and Print edition
* Barnes and Noble.com for the Nook and Print
* Apple iBooks for your iPhone and iPad
* Smashwords, for all other  digital formats

Hey, if you’ve read it, raise your voice.  Share your words, share your heart.  Write me a review on the book’s Amazon.com page. Also, if you have not yet LIKED my Facebook page, hop over and clickety click.  People like those likes.

I’ll leave you with an excerpt from my new book, a story about an emotionally stilted family who can only experience their crushing loss through the depression of the family cat.  Yikes.  But you know what?  It’s true.  I read this book called, “The Cat Who Cried for Help: Attitudes, Emotions, and the Psychology of Cats” by Nicholas Dodman and it was really freekin’ cool.  Here’s a little bitty from Chapter 2.  Let me know what you think.  HAPPY 6-ELEVENS!

The abandoned house on the corner of Poppy and Saint Anthony was supposedly haunted, and rumor has it that that’s the reason it was abandoned in the first place.  It’s been that way for about seven months—since St. Patrick’s Day, the day after my mom died.  Halloween was right around the corner, so the house had smashed pumpkins on the stoop, a bloody dummy’s head hung by a noose in the broken bay window, and weather-torn old white sheets hanging from the huge oak on the front lawn and blustering in the wind like…well, like ghosts.

Asinine.  The kids in this neighborhood are so sinus supremus.

I headed up the front lawn, around to the side of the house, and I removed the same wooden slat in the fence that I tore off last time I came here to get Alice.  I walked around back and over to the hole in the ground against the house that some person or creature dug, which exposed the foundation underneath.  The hole was big enough to slide my whole body through, and then I was under the house again, where a maze of concrete slabs and columns made up the whole groundwork of the house.   It was all very cement-gray and smelled like skunk, damp soil, and something unnatural like rotted flowers and animal bones.  I inchwormed along the centermost column until I was right in the middle.  My stomach was all scraped up from the roughness of the slab.  I could feel my hoodie stuck to my body from the little droplets of blood that were seeping out.  The concrete columns went down really far—why did they go down that far?  Do all the houses have columns that go down so far?

Alice was curled up in a small ball on the lower set of beams.  I couldn’t get down there.  Last time she was on upper level of beams and I picked her up and brought her out.  Now she was lower, and unless I could find a way to shimmy down the slabs like a squirrel or a monkey…  A few rats came down the beam across from me and I hissed at them.  They stopped, sniffed the air in my direction, squeaked, and went the other way.

“Alice,” I called out. “Psss psss psss.”

She lifted her head, so slowly, looked around a minute, then over her shoulder up to where I was.  She was sitting in a tiny pool of sunlight that was raying down from outside somewhere—I looked around and then discovered a window…where the basement of the house was, I guessed, and in the smoky light Alice’s eyes were milky and pink.  She blinked and then curled into herself again.

“Alice, please.  I can’t come down there to get you.  Please.  It’s me, Tess.”  Alice sighed.  I saw her little head raise up and down.  “Please, girl.  It’s okay.  It’s okay.  Please.”  Nothing.  “Crap, Alice!”  My voice didn’t exactly echo in the space, but it sounded small, swallowed up and afraid, like how I imagined voices must sound in the catacombs under ancient European cities. (We’d been learning about those creepville places in Social Studies.)  “Alice, please.  Aww, crapper!”

I shimmied backwards back out, scraping my belly more and thankful that I was wearing my red hoodie and not my white one, because if I had been wearing my white one it would’ve been ruined by bloodstains.  As soon as I made it back out the hole, and pulled myself off the ground, I turned around and gasped to find someone standing there covered in one of the white sheets that had been hanging from the trees on the lawn of the house…. 

Aequus Nox

Aequus = equal.  Nox = night.

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” –George Eliot

Yes, it’s that time of year.  The last days of summer, the first days of fall.  The energy in the air is simply palpable.  School starts, trees change, sunlight shortens, and hoodies and hats hop into your drawers and closets.  I’m looking forward to fall….

So what’s been happening?  Well, ORPHANS is kiting high in the skywinds of readers’ hearts and minds.  Feel free to peruse the reviews on Amazon.com.  And, if you have not yet had the chance to purchase, here are all the links you need to get it before the last leaves descend from the branches.  You don’t want to be wrapped up all cozy in front of the hearth without a good book, do you?
It’s cheap, too. $2.99, $4.99, or $10.79

* Amazon.com for the Kindle and Print edition
* Barnes and Noble.com for the Nook and Print
* Apple iBooks for your iPhone and iPad
* Smashwords, for all other  digital formats

Hey, if you’ve read it, raise your voice. Share your words.  Let the world know your thoughts.  Write me a review on the book’s Amazon.com page.  Also, if you have not yet LIKED my Facebook page –please hop over and do so now.  People like those likes!

So, tonight I am doing my first public appearance as an author.  Whut??  Yeah, I will be reading for about 12 minutes over at Stories Books and Cafe on Sunset at 7:3opm.  Quite excited.  And then, next week, on Tuesday the 20th, a BIG event: I will be featuring some of LA’s most extraordinary, gorgeous, and talented actors reading passages from the stories down at The Last Bookstore in downtown LA.  If you want to come to that–and I hope you will–then check out this evite and RSVP.  That would be super-awesome.  There will be books on hand to buy, and I’ll sign them if you want, and there will be a free little gift for those who buy it.

Look at all the neato stuff I can bring with me to these events:  books, cards, postcards, gifties…green paperclips??

Wanted to show you the new & improved book cover, which my awesome friend Niki Jones at Polywog Design zooped up for me last week.  It includes the new blurbs from brilliant genius author and screenwriter Caroline Thompson, who read my book and said some pretty darn amazing things, and gorgeous Chris Corkum, my dear friend, whose incredible book XOXO Hayden (awesome book!) was both a Lambda Literary Award Finalist and a Rainbow Award Finalist.  Kick ass, Chris.

And by the way, for those of you looking for a compelling and intriguing tale of suburbia-g0ne-goth-wonkadoodle, then do yourself a favor and read Caroline’s first book, First Born. You won’t be sorry…but you might be checking under beds, tables, in closets, and jumping at the slightest sound of some kind of creepy scuttling.

That’s all for now, folks.  Enjoy the gentle onslaught of autumn.  Fill your closets with browns, grays, and maroons.  Stock your shelves with soups, pie-makings, and hot chocolate.  Cover your walls with spiders, witches, and ghosts.  <<<<”>>>>

As always, I’d like to leave you with some interesting words-of-wisdom:

* A beautiful blog post by one of my all-time favorite writers, Robert Olen Butler 

* A really provocative blog post by one of my all-time favorite trouble-makers, Joe Konrath

* A really cool page on Shelfari that features some statistical stuff and yummy morsels about my book.

Orphaned Irish Firemen: A Midsummer Mashup

 

“It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse” –Adlai E. Stevenson

Great quote.  A fitting one for today’s post, which is basically a mashup of two worlds that I’ve been utterly and lovingly steeped in this summer:  writing, and acting.   (I won’t do this often, mix up the acting schmacting with the writing stuff, so consider this post a rarity, a b-side, a special-edition addition.)

The reason for the mashup though is that I was asked by an acquaintance recently if I felt self-conscious about doing so much, and whether I felt I was being shameless, and charging forward without any prudence or necessary self-containment (or something to that effect).  We got into it a bit, and whatever…but I ended up having to state, “I’m just being me. I’m just busy. I’m just creative.”  I still don’t know why I would feel shameful or self-conscious about doing so much.  I used the above quote to clarify…because my creativity is the calvary charge, and me getting it out there is the horse.  The moral of the story:  don’t feel funny on your horse. Charge forward people, for fu**’s sake. Last I checked, no one ever got anywhere standing still.

ORPHANS stories is soaring.  It’s been a little over a month since its release, and I’m getting really great feedback, and I have you to thank for that.  Check out some readers’ thoughts and feelings on the book’s Amazon.com page. I’m flabbergasted and flattered.

And hey, if you haven’t yet given me that little click o’ love, then LIKE me on the mighty Faceplace!  It’s a great little page.

Haven’t purchased the book yet? It’s cheap ($2.99, $4.99, or $10.79), and here are all the links you could ever want and/or need:
* Amazon.com for the Kindle and Print edition
* Barnes and Noble.com for the Nook
* Apple iBooks for your iPhone and iPad
* Smashwords, for all other  digital formats and special deals!

Author events and signings in LA and NY are still being worked out.  Details to come!

ALEX LOVES ORPHANS!

So, about the show I’m in now–

It’s called THE WALWORTH FARCE, by Enda Walsh, and it is playing at the awesome Theatre Banshee in Burbank.  It is an astounding play and I really do hope you’ll come see it.  We run Fri and Sat  nights at 8pm, and Sun at 2pm through Sept. 4th.  You can get tickets via the website.  (You can also check LA Stage Alliance, Goldstar, etc. for discounts.)

There are a lot of reviews out there for the show, some awesome, some not-so-awesome, but that’s okay–it’s a very challenging play, and what audience members and critics alike have agreed with regardless is that the acting and the production are phenomenal.  So, that’s good.  And I did a little interview about it for A-Through-Z Productions.

Next up:  This past week I had the extraordinary honor of assisting Kim Maxwell (goddess & co-founder of the Ojai Playwrights Conference, and all around Queen of Awesomeness) with the Youth Workshop.  I got to meet and work with thirteen incredible youngsters, aged 13-18 whose writing, spirit, energy, talent, and purity moved, changed, and bettered me.  Here’s a pic of us with the fantastic playwright Stephen Belber, who came in and worked with us one afternoon.  It was an astounding week.

Lastly, I’m headed back to NYC to do the 10-year anniversary performances of Anne Nelson’s play about 9/11, THE GUYS. 
Here is a new article if you want to check it out.  Another one here. 

My performance is Friday September 9th at 2pm.  Contact me for info, okay?

Here I am performing it 10 years ago–whut???

NEPTUNE FOREVER + $ummer $ale

“Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune.” -Noam Chomsky

Hello readers, travelers, and Harry Potter diehards,

I launched my book last Tuesday–huzzah–and here’s the Press Release if you’d like to see it.  I wanted to share some interesting information:  I was originally hoping to launch the book on July 9th, that date being my parents’ anniversary, and so, I felt, a fitting day to send the energy out in the nether/ether.  Didn’t happen.  So, I thought, July 11 has a nice ring to it… and it looks good, too:  7/11/11.  Yeah, didn’t happen…. delays with the final green light on the print edition.

Nonetheless, for some reason I felt compelled to wait until Tuesday July 12, 2011.  Something about the day, that date, the look and feel of it, was attractive and intriguing.  I liked all the ‘t’ sounds and the ‘l’ sounds and the 2′s and the 1′s.  There was just an alluring alliteration about it, and it looked great, too.  JULY 12, 2011.   See what I mean?

So, my besty, Jen, sent me a link to an article the day after the book was launched, and I was just floored.  The article was about how July 12, 2011 was the day that Neptune completed its first revolution around the sun since we discovered it 164.79 Earth-years ago.  No sh**!  Check out this article on earthsky.org for more insight.  I just want to say that I’m thrilled to be in tune with Neptune (thanks Steve Kempster for coining that for me), cos Neptune is beautiful, powerful, a gorgeous glowing blue, and also the God of the Sea!

Isn’t it fantastic when something you care deeply about is clearly in synch with the Universe?  That’s how I feel about ORPHANS.  So, that means you too must be in tune, in synch, and if you haven’t gotten the book yet…what the heck are you waiting for?!  You won’t be here in another 164.79 years, so go buy it now.

$peaking of… I know that it’s summertime and everyone is spending their extra savings on energy bills, cos your air conditioning is blasting all day and all night long.  It’s been a hot summer so far.  So, I’m going to offer a promotion that’s gonna cause a commotion, kids: 

** For the next 72 hours, the book will be on sale for the Kindle and the Nook for $2.99!  The print edition is available for $5.00 off at Amazon.com with code BYE697YH.  Also, through July 31st, other digital editions, normally priced at $8.99, will be available to the public for $2.25 (74% off!) at Smashwords. 

Gotta love a summer sale!

So, to sum up…BE ONE WITH NEPTUNE:  buy it, read it (curled up in your nice cold digs) and go share your feedback on all your 12,000,000 social networking and book retailer sites.  One should obey the God of the Sea, after all, lest one find an ancient salty pitchfork lodged up one’s… DOH.

As always, I’d like to leave you with some brain-food about the artistry of publishing independently, and I hope this both informs and inspires (and maybe evens sickens) you.

E-BOOKS = A REVOLUTION:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/nyregion/e-book-revolution-upends-columbia-publishing-course.html?_r=1&hp

TSUNAMI OF CRAP:
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/07/tsunami-of-crap.html

THE CONUNDRUMS OF EXPLOITATION:
http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2010/08/pw-select-opportunity-or-exploitation.html

“MARPROMERPUB”

“Marpromerpub” = my newly-coined term for the beast that is marketing, promotion, merchandising, and publicity! 

Hello to the people of the world, and congratulations on surviving another 4th of July. Hopefully no one caught fire.  One time, when I was little, we kids in the ‘hood got our hands on forbidden bags of fireworks (our dads were Firemen and by law were allowed to confiscate illegally-bought fireworks from the general populace. They’d bring them home to us instead…) and I was playing ‘rock star’ with one of those Roman Candles that shoot bright balls of light out of them.  The Roman Candle was my microphone, and I was doing a whole Mtv bit, you know…when some joker lit the end of the fuse and one of the balls shot up into my face.  Scared me to hell, but didn’t do TOO much damage.  I’m still here, right?  :-0

   

So what’s been happening in BOOKLAND? A lot.  A lot a lot.  I feel like I have a kid now, and I’m INNIT for the long haul….

Well, I’m prepping the launch, I hope it happens this weekend.  Either July 9th or July 11th.  I will let you know.  I have already written out the launch email, and I am excited to press SEND on that one.

Meantime, I’ve been in MARPROMERPUB-mode:
–Making inquiries about doing an author event in LA at some cool bookstore.
–Got business cards, postcards, merchandise all made up, look:

  
W:0)WZA!

–Made a Press Release, which will be unleashed this weekend.
–Waiting for all the digital formats to pass inspection….
–Waiting for the new proof of the print edition….
–Sending the book out to be reviewed.
–Planning launch party
–Generating coupons, promotional-goodies, giveaways, contests, surveys….
–Created the website, and tags, and links, and widgets, and banners, and icons, oh my….
–Getting incorporated. (thinking of calling the company TURRITOPSIS NUTRICULA, which is the planet’s only true immortal creature)
–What else…?
–Making a video; a little trailer for the book
–There’s too much stuff to list it all.  In fact, here’s the to-do list:

–Suffice it say, I’m sooperbizzy.
–Suffice it to say, I’m sooperxcited
–When it all gets too much, I go for a ride on my new sooperbike.  Here she is:

(Yes, a Schwinn!  Ain’t she sweet?  Rides like a dream….)

Back next week with more.  Thanks for reading, and subscribe to the feed for updates!
Meantime, I would like to leave you with some interesting articles to peruse:

JK, Ruler of the Whole World:  http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/06/jk-rowlings-new-pottermore-site-will-change-digital-publishing/240927/

eBooks are, like, so totally popular:  http://blogs.forbes.com/ericsavitz/2011/05/19/amazon-says-now-selling-more-e-books-than-print-books/

Kindle is the sh**: http://www.sellingbooks.com/one-million-kindle-ebooks/

Firing up the Engines.

Hello Bookstronauts, and Happy Summer Solstice.  The night skies in summer are always worth a thousand words, aren’t they?  Sometimes, though, there are no words at all for when you look up at the summer stars–but gaping in awe is allowed…. 

In last week’s introductory post I filled you in on the processes thus far of the imminent launch of my collection of stories, ORPHANS.  Well, this past week has been astoundingly productive, and I am happy to report that I am firing up the engines, and the launching of this book is going to knock the atmosphere’s socks off.  And yours, I hope.

So what has been happening, you ask?  Here’s the rundown:

1.  The proof of the print edition arrived and I scoured it for typos, grammatical glitches, and formatting.  It was awesome sweet-ass fun, and very exciting and thrilling and breathtaking to actually hold it in my hands.  See? (click on images for bigger pics)

      

2. I built a website for the book, soon to go live, (and also linked it to the online merchandise store for the artist who did the cover art).  In the meantime, here are some screen grabs to whet your big appetites: (click on images for bigger pics)

     

3. The book has been uploaded to Amazon, to Barnes and Noble, to Smashwords, and to CreateSpace (the print edition) and I am just waiting for these powerhouse outlets to give me the thumbs up and put the book on official sale on their sites.  And soon thereafter, you’ll have it in your hands…then in your hearts, and minds, and memories.

4.  I am propagating like the dickens!  Planning a launch party; a series of readings around town (and out-of-town as well); making a little video; creating coupons/contest/giveaways; and working out other aspects of marketing and promotion.  Hey, got any ideas?  Know anyone who can give a helping hand?  Thoughts and suggestions are welcome over here at this One-Man-Army Base.  Don’t be shy–slip into that sexy camo gear and come on down.

    

I’ll be back next week with more.  In the meantime, I hope your summer reading list is shaping up to be thick and thrilling.  I know mine is.

‘ORPHANS’ on the launching pad ===>

3…2…1… We have lift-off.

Hello internet land. So, after a fruitful (and capricious) six weeks filled with fourteen-hour days of publishing prep, my collection of stories, ORPHANS, is on the launching pad and nearly ready for its fiery temblor of ascension!  Oh, I feel like a mother prepping her daughter for her debutante party…or a proud dad watching his son’s first game as quarterback….or a hapless pair of foster parents watching their adopted transvestite son doll up for the junior prom.

I read six books about traditional publishing, self-publishing, indie authors, ebooks, and the many shifting paradigms of global business and marketing due to technological advances taking place at lightning speed.  “Oh is that an iPhone 4? From LAST YEAR? Duh! (rolls eyes)  That thing is, like, a dinosaur.  Get with it, you traditionalist.”

There is alottastuff happening out there. Massive changes keep coming.  I feel like in some ways legacy publishing (‘traditional publishing’) is going the way of iTunes, and pretty soon people may not buy books anymore the way people don’t really buy cd’s anymore.  I may be wrong–after all, books were always meant for the hand and the eye, cd’s you just popped in and listened to….  But it remains to be seen.  (If you are interested in reading up on some of this, I suggest checking out Ebooks and Self-Publishing – A Dialog Between Authors Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath, which is an enormously informative and entertaining conversation.)

Anyway.  I for one, feel rather relieved to have had this experience, as it was 100% DIY and I learned so much.  It was awesome.  It felt good, and right, and honest.  And to not have to worry about the endless middlemen and gatekeepers and naysayers that seem to do little more  than keep you from attaining your dream was worth what little aggravation I experienced, comparatively speaking, by having to be a one-man army to get this thing going.  I actually loved it.  Why?  Cos, people, I’ve worked in offices for fifteen years.  And I no goin’ back to tha’ sh**, nn-k?  :\

Although, I did have help.  My dear old pal from high school, with whom I got back in contact via facebook, is a graphic designer, and she (and her husband) are freekin’ awesome.  She created the layout and design of the cover, for both the digital and the print editions.  Niki Jones is her name, Deano is her hubby, and they live in Austin.  Niki takes ballet one night, and shoots guns the next.  Hello?  Awesomeness personified.  We were big fans of a goth night called ‘Communion’, held at NYC’s Limelight back in the mid 90′s when there were still cool people and cool clubs around.  Ah, memories.  Niki and Deano’s company is called Polywog Design.  I suggest you check them out, and hire them for all your graphic design needs.

We were originally going to go with this beautiful English painting called Orphans, painted by Thomas Kennington in 1885, but unfortunately I hit a wall with that one.  We could not find a high resolution print of it anywhere on the web, nor in any known publications that I endlessly hunted for and researched.  I contacted the museum in London that has the original, and they do $ELL high res copies of their artwork.  However, even though there are no copyright issues with it as it is it in the public domain, I had to fill out a form sheet that was waaaaaaaay too involved and wanted waaaaaaaay too much information.  After all that I never heard from them.  I thought I’d receive, you know, a quote on what it would cost to purchase a high-res copy, and if not that, then a quote for usage of the image. I felt like I was being ensnared into their way of finagling copyright money out of me regardless of the fact that there is no copyright.  It is London after all; they like to charge people money over there.  So, we nixed it.  And went with an original work called Nerve Forest, by the awesome OctoSpark, which in its own way, is an image more baffling and yet more befitting of the material within.

See the comparison:

Nerve Forest -vs- Orphans.

I actually love them both. I will probably find some other usage for this gorgeous Kennington rendering, sometime in the future.  For now, it’s time to move ahead…. Thanks Niki.  Thanks Deano.  Thanks Polywog!

I saw something today in a magazine that I found intriguing.  It was an article about an organization called  To Write Love On Her Arms. TWLOHA is ‘a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire, and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.’  Visit their site to get more info.  I have contacted them about donating a percentage of the book’s proceeds to their organization, as there are a few stories in ORPHANS that directly address these issues.  I’ll let you know what happens.

I’m also thinking of getting some T-shirts and mugs and badges and buttons and hats and bracelets and little fake tattoos with the awesome cover and copy.  I might sell some of them, or give them away at readings and events.  Speaking of:  my next order of business is to plan a launch party and big reading somewhere in LA.  I will keep you posted about that, too.  I’m all about the dancing, so, there will be the best DJ in the world spinning at my launch party. And don’t expect to talk to me, cos I’ll be on the dance floor.  You can commune with me there.  I’ll sign your book while we rock to Gorillaz, The Chemical Brothers, Basement Jaxx, and Scissor Sisters.

FYI:  the book will be available for your Kindle, Nook, iPad, iPhone, Android, Sony e-Reader, Kobo, computer screen, etc.  It will also be available in print via CreateSpace and other online retail outlets.  So, whatever tickles your fancy.  I own a NookColor and love it so much that I sleep with it.  I read like eight books a week on the thing.  I’m nuts.

So, as soon as it’s all ready to launch (hopefully 4th of July) I’ll be sending out word big time.  And just like my sister, bro-in-law, niece and nephew who all live near Cape Canaveral and get to actually see the sight first-hand, you too will experience lift-off.  I hope everyone’s world trembles and that the dark of their inner night skies are filled with quivering, fiery light.