Guys named Dave: Marriage and Poetry

Fun news for guys named Dave in my life.

One Dave, a former room mate and good friend, just got married to a great gal, Katie.  YAY!

Another Dave, a friend from Nebraska Writers Workshop (and the Guild too) wrote a poem about Repenter and its sequels.  In case you haven’t read it, people, places, and things, all manner of nouns really, tend to get burned through the course of my stories.  Dave Hufford has graciously granted me permission to post it here.  Don’t be surprised if you end up seeing his name show up as the Poet Laureate of Nebraska.  He’s quite good at the etry of po.

 

FOR THE CREATOR OF PYROTECHNICS

-Physics for Jim McG by David Hufford

Of wars with fire and pyromancers,
Torchers, Greek fire or Flame-throwers
Electric sparks and radiation,
We can say they had a burning imagination.

No sparks fly higher than the atomic past,
Incinerating myriads in a radiant blast–
Then lasers, then ray-guns–then invisible knives
Slicing whole armies like sausage in pies.

To what divine purpose do they grate and burn?
Well, not devine, but actually quite human
–to burn to a cinder a known energy
From past into future–to pieces of particles.

So, get your enemy drunk; feed him whiskey and chowder,
And ignite him with burnings of old-fashioned black powder.
Do you remember, black powder burns in alcohol?
Try it; you’ll like it for destroying all.

The means to incinerate known enemies
Is simple: tie them to a pole with straw
Or thistles–either will be enough
to turn folks into smoke on the breeze.

 

Thanks again, Mr. Hufford!

And congrats again to Dave and Katie!

Jim

EPIC!

Just set up a Facebook ad campaign to trumpet the novel.  Is it not epic?  I’ve learned that it takes many forms.  It can be a surprisingly good movie about 1970’s Formula Racers.  Or an old Faith No More song.  Or a balls to the wall game of Ultimate Frisbee that ended up going 19 to 17 in a league that plays to 7 (win by 2).  Toes were sore after that one.  Or a well made community theater rendition of Les Miz.  Or even a newly discovered beer, Boddingtons, creamy like Guinness, but blonde.  And maybe, just maybe a little book about a guy with fire who has to become a better man.

To quote Street Fighter 2: Round 1. FIGHT!

 

Ed and Fern

Here’s an excerpt from Book 2.5 between Fernallus, a jocular Dragon disguised as a Human, and Ed, a hyper-powered swordsman:

Ed nodded.  “I’ll be fine.”
The blue-haired ward eyed Ed closer. 
One of his brown eyes temporarily took on a yellow hue with a slitted pupil before reverting back. “People who say, ‘I’ll be fine,’ aren’t.”
Ed shoved him with a crooked grin.  “I’ll be conflicted, but collected.  That suit you better?”
“Not really, but we’re going in regardless, so I’ll pretend like it does.”

Ed and Fern are among my favorite characters to write.  They’re very fun and a lot lighter than Ashe’s crew.  It will be most enjoyable to meld the two worlds together in later books.

Back to it.  Keep on powering the fight.