The strangeness of some internet reviews

Now that my third SF novel has been published, I've taken the time to go back and read through the couple of hundred comments my books have attracted over time.  I don't even mind the low-star reviews, provided that the reviewer makes his case and supports his points with evidence.  I really benefit from such reviews, as I read and re-read them and take them into account when writing the next book.  I did that with reviews of the first two volumes of the Maxwell Saga, and with beta reader feedback, when I delayed the publication of 'Adapt and Overcome' for two months to allow me to improve my character development and tighten up the plot and storyline.  I hope and trust you, dear readers, have found it an improvement;  and rest assured, I'll try to make Book Four better than Book Three in its turn.

Some reviews, however, are downright strange.  There's the reader who claimed he bought a copy of my first book 'at a discount but it was worth far less'.  If he didn't like it, fair enough - but my book had never been on sale at a discount when he made that comment!  Another reviewer of my first book was outraged at my description of a fork penetrating the hand of one character.  He found it completely unbelievable.  Unfortunately, that's one of the many incidents in all my books that's actually based on fact!  There are multiple eye-witnesses to its reality.  Another comment on my latest book caught my eye this evening.  The reader (?) complained that 'Some editing is still needed in places as there are obvious typos and grammar issues'.  Fair enough, if true:  but I've had a number of reviewers comment that one reason they like my books is that there are so few 'typos and grammar issues'.  In the latest book, to which this reviewer is referring, I've had no complaints whatsoever about its copy-editing - until today, at any rate.

Such problems aren't limited to my books, of course.  Most authors who've been published for a while have similar stories of reviews that appear to miss the point, or beg the question, or leave something else to be desired.  There are even some actively destructive reviewers out there.  Miss D. informs me that on Kindle Boards, where many independent authors hang out in the Writers' Cafe sub-forum, there's a well-known phenomenon.  There are 'lurkers' who watch for authors posting details of their sales figures.  As soon as someone posts a sales success story, within a day or so one or more one-star reviews will appear on their books' Amazon pages.  Someone on Kindle Boards was interested enough to do some research on this, and the pattern is inescapable.  One can only conclude that some lurkers out there are jealous of success, and determined to undermine it in any way possible.  Why, I have no idea . . .

Oh, well.  I can't account for such issues.  All I can say is, if you've read my book(s), I'll be very grateful if you'll please leave reviews on their Amazon pages.  It helps other prospective readers to assess whether or not they'll find them interesting;  and whether you liked it/them or not, your comments will help me to write better in future.  Everybody wins!

Peter

Crud update

Miss D. and I both seem to have got over the feverish light-headed stage of the flu, and hopefully we'll no longer be infectious within another day or so.  We're still coughing (hacking would be a better word for it), and relying on nebulizer and inhaler treatments to keep our lungs reasonably operational.

I can't stress too strongly, friends:  if you get the flu that's going around now, take it seriously.  It's not to be trifled with.  The CDC reports that death rates due to flu and pneumonia are 'above the epidemic threshold'.  That should give you pause for thought, right there!  The son of friends volunteers at a hospital out West, and he reported that all available beds in that institution are filled with flu patients.  They're having to turn others away due to lack of space.

I can see us needing two to three weeks to fully shake off the effects of this season's flu bug.  Again, friends, please take good care of yourselves.  I don't want to lose readers, and I'd sure hate you to lose an author!

Peter

Blogging delayed due to crud

I'm still a bit under the weather tonight, as well as dosed up on three different kinds of medication (over and above what I take every day for other problems).  I just don't have the energy to blog much right now.

Please go read some of the folks in the sidebar, and come back in the morning.  I'll put up more posts then.

Sleep well, y'all.

Peter

Crud report

So (inevitably) Miss D. started showing the same symptoms as myself.  We toddled off to the doctor this morning to get an official diagnosis of what ails us, and the appropriate treatment.  (My diagnosis of 'crud' or 'the dreaded lurgy' is apparently considered insufficiently scientific.)

Lessons learned:

• There are some questions that should be answered very carefully.  Example:  When your wife asks you lovingly whether there's anything she can get for you, it's not necessarily a good idea to reply "A red-headed virgin?"  Retaliation is a bitch when you can't move fast enough to get out of the way.
• Husband and wife getting shots in the butt in the same examination room leads to hilarity.  This can cause difficulties when the nurse is laughing so hard she has to stop the injection until she recovers.
• Saying I felt feverish was one thing.  Seeing the reading of 101.6° and realizing that I felt worse and more feverish yesterday tends to bring me down to earth with a bump.

While I collapsed into bed, Miss D. (who's feeling less under the weather than I am) picked up our prescriptions, and I woke to pills, cough medicine and an inhaler.  Hopefully they'll help both of us shake off this stuff within two to three days.

Seriously, people, be warned:  this crud is nasty.  Don't hesitate to seek professional help if you get it.

Peter

This flu sucks!

The crud that's going around at the moment is really nasty stuff.  If you haven't yet caught it, be thankful, and stock up on medications just in case.

I've been running a fever all day, and spent most of my time in bed.  Every few hours I'd get up, drink some water, some tea, and another glass of TheraFlu, then totter back to bed.  I'm now too rested to be able to just lie in bed, so I'll probably be up until the small hours, finding something to do.  (There's always Maxwell Volume 4 to write!)

Peter

The dreaded lurgy has me in thrall

I've been running a fever all evening, and took to my bed about 7 p.m.  Woke up shivering to beat the band, so I got up, had a glass of water, am now drinking a mug of hot tea, and I'll finish with a mug of Theraflu with an added shot of white rum before I head back to bed.  Guaranteed to help you sleep!

As a result, blogging will be sparse tonight.  I'll put up more posts in the morning.

(If you're wondering what 'the dreaded lurgy' means, it's from a famous Goon Show episode first broadcast in 1954, 'Lurgi Strikes Britain'.  It never fails to crack me up.  It seems insane to think that the show was broadcast 60 years ago . . . )

Peter

The Gun Show Gods smiled on me today . . .

I dropped in to our local gun show this morning, hoping to find some reasonably priced .22LR ammunition.  No such luck - all of it on display was ridiculously overpriced, even brands I'd never heard of before, imported from who knows where.  I walked the tables, didn't find anything, and decided to cut my losses and return to my truck.

As I headed for the door, I met a man with an old pump-action shotgun over his shoulder.  As he turned and I saw it, my heart skipped a beat.  It was a Winchester Model 12, often called 'the perfect repeater'.  I asked him if he was selling it and he nodded, offering it for inspection.  I looked it over, noting a silvery patina over all the metal (but not a speck of rust) and a low-six-digit serial number.  It was clearly a relatively early-production gun that had been well used, but lovingly cared for.

I was sure it would be outside my price range, but I couldn't resist.  I asked, "How much?"

"I need to get $400 for it."

I think my fingers left scorch-marks on my trousers as my hand dived into my pocket to retrieve my wallet.  I wasn't about to let this one get away!  I'd guess it's worth quite a bit more than he was asking - Model 12's aren't cheap these days.

I got home with it, only to have to fend off our housemate as he tried to persuade me to sell it to him.  (I don't think he's forgiven me yet for my refusal).  Checking the serial number online, it looks like this one was made in 1920, so it's 94 years old.  The action is buttery-smooth and the barrel and magazine tube lock solidly to the frame - it's probably seldom if ever been taken down into its two halves.  I'll have to look for a second 12ga. barrel for it, to cut down into a more defensive configuration (the original is serial-numbered to the frame, so I'd rather not alter it).

I may not have found the .22LR ammo I was looking for, but there sure were compensations today!



Peter

The print edition of 'Adapt and Overcome' is now available

After some unfortunate delays caused by formatting issues, the print edition of my latest book, 'Adapt and Overcome', is now available on Amazon.com.  At present there are two editions listed there, one for print and one for e-book, but they'll be combined during the next few days.  Until that happens, please use these links to find them:

'Adapt and Overcome', PRINT Edition

'Adapt and Overcome', KINDLE (e-book) Edition

Thanks again for all your support - and, if you've read the book, please leave a review on Amazon.com!  That really helps prospective readers to form an opinion of the book, and decide whether or not to invest their hard-earned dollars in a copy.  Thanks!

Peter

An unhappy anniversary, but with compensations

Ten years ago today, on February 13th, 2004, I was a fairly healthy man, working as a prison chaplain.  On that date I suffered an injury to my spine at work that would eventually lead to two surgeries.  The first was a laminectomy that didn't work, resulting in failed back syndrome.  That necessitated a second surgery in 2005, resulting in spinal fusion.  This stabilized my spine, but left me with titanium hardware in my lower back and permanent damage to the nerves in my left leg, and forced my medical retirement.  I've been partly physically handicapped since then.

I guess I shouldn't complain too loudly.  There are those who've suffered similar injuries to mine who can't walk any more, and are confined to wheelchairs.  I need the aid of a walking-stick to cover any sort of distance, and I can't move fast, but at least I'm still able to walk.  Even so, it's sobering to think that the only times I've been free of pain in the past ten years have been when I've been under the influence of total or local anesthesia.  (I can vividly recall the last time I was conscious and pain-free.  It was in 2005, after undergoing epidural anesthesia for the administration of steroids directly into my spine.  For six blissful hours I couldn't feel a thing below my waist.  I couldn't walk properly, couldn't even pee - but I felt no pain.  It was wonderful!  Unfortunately, the anesthetic wore off in due course . . . )

A neurosurgeon told me in 2005 that I'd never be able to work again, and I should resign myself to living on disability income.  I refused to believe him, and set about learning the craft of writing to prove him wrong.  This blog has been a big part of that, and I most sincerely thank all of you for staying with me on the journey.  My latest book has been on the market for only eight days, but it's selling better than any of my first three.  At the time of writing it's well inside the top 1,000 books in Amazon's Kindle store (out of something like 2½ million books for sale there).  That's both astonishing and gratifying to me.  I know I owe a great deal of that success to you, my blog readers and followers.  I'll never have enough words to thank you sufficiently for helping me to find a new way in which to support myself and my wife.  Just goes to show that the old proverb's true - every cloud does have a silver lining, if you're prepared to look for it and work hard to earn it.

My injury and resulting disability were also important elements in my courtship of Miss D., who is now my wife.  She's been the "pedestrian filling in a two-car sandwich", as she likes to put it, and has suffered other serious injuries on previous occasions.  It's a blessing to both of us that when one complains about pain or weakness, the other really does understand exactly what they mean!  We don't have to wonder whether the other 'gets it'.  We know they do.  Our shared pain draws us closer together, and helps us support each other on the bad days.

Thanks for being part of this journey with me for the past six-plus years on this blog.  Here's looking forward to many more years of writing, many more years with Miss D., and many more years of hobbling around!  As for the pain . . . it reminds me that I'm alive.  That's not necessarily a bad thing.

Peter

You folks are the greatest!

I have an awesome group of readers and fans!  I owe you all a big hug.

At the time of writing, less than 24 hours after publication on Amazon.com, 'Adapt and Overcome' has scorched out of nowhere to take these positions:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,011 Paid in Kindle Store (out of 2,415,245 books currently listed there)

#6 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military
#9 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military
#10 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Opera

#48 in Best Sellers - Science Fiction (all genres)
#9 in Best Sellers - Military Science Fiction
#10 in Best Sellers - Space Opera Science Fiction

#21 in Hot New Releases - Science Fiction (all genres)
#6 in Hot New Releases - Military Science Fiction
#7 in Hot New Releases - Space Opera Science Fiction

Those are absolutely fantastic results for the first day of publication, much better than the previous novel in the series - which did pretty well in its own right, as you'll recall.  This is all down to you and your support.  Thanks a million!

I hope the days to come will bring even greater success, to lay a firm foundation for the continuation of the series.  Maxwell Volume 4 is in progress!

(If you've read 'Adapt and Overcome' and like it, please leave a review on its page at Amazon.com.  That will help those who don't know it, or my earlier books, to decide whether to give it a try.)

Peter

'Adapt and Overcome' is published at last!

Thank you all very much for your patience while I worked hard to improve the book.  'Adapt and Overcome' is now available as an e-book on Amazon.com.  A print edition will follow through CreateSpace within a week to ten days - watch this space for a link to it when it becomes available.

Assigned to investigate a deadly accident, Lieutenant Steve Maxwell uncovers corruption and criminal collusion reaching far above his pay grade. To save his career he's dispatched to a distant planet to help upgrade its defense forces, in the company of an old friend and some of the most experienced Marines Steve's ever met – plus one of the most distracting.

Trouble is, the planet's antiquated defenses make its new-found wealth a very tempting target – and there are those planning to take full advantage. As Steve and his colleagues strive to whip a rusty, run-down defense establishment into shape, the clock's running out...

The hard work put in by my beta readers - whom I thank very much - has helped to lift this book to a new level for me.  I'm not saying there's nothing left to improve;  I hope every book I write will be better than the one before, because I want to be the best writer I can be!  It's feedback from beta readers - and from regular readers, too, through your comments at Amazon.com, plus your feedback here and via e-mail - that helps me to improve.

I'm also starting a monthly author e-mail newsletter, which will keep readers of my books updated about the progress of my latest work, provide an article about some aspect of writing, and host give-aways from time to time.  If you'd like to subscribe, there's a link in the sidebar beneath my book listings, and I'll be adding a hot-link to the 'About The Author' page of each e-book.  The first newsletter will come out in early March.

I have two requests, please:

1. If you have your own blog, or are active on social media, please pass the word to your readers that the book is published and available, and (if you see fit) provide a link to its page on Amazon.com.  You can copy this link, or construct your own.  I depend almost entirely on word-of-mouth to help sell my books.  Your help is VERY gratefully appreciated.
2. If you like the book, please leave a review at Amazon.com.  That helps my author rankings there and tells other prospective readers more about it.  Thanks very much!

Maxwell Volume 4 will take Steve into a situation he's never foreseen in his wildest dreams . . . one he's going to have a lot of trouble surviving.  Look for it in July.

Peter

Tired thoughts on the new book

It's been a hectic weekend of formatting and last-minute checking before my new book is published on Amazon.com later this week.  It'll mark the end of a long, challenging and sometimes frustrating learning curve - which will immediately begin all over again, at a higher level, for the next book!

When I sent 'Adapt And Overcome' to beta readers three months ago, I was fairly certain that I had a good story, but I wasn't entirely sure whether my character development was all it could be.  I'd noted comments on Amazon by readers of the first two books in the Maxwell series (I mentioned some of them last weekend in a guest post on Sarah Hoyt's blog), and I'd tried to address issues they raised in the new book, but I was too close to it to be able to look at it objectively.  My beta readers did that for me.  Some liked it pretty much as it was, but others found a great deal that needed improvement.  One in particular sent a very long critique that was invaluable in its level of detail and depth of analysis.

I accordingly decided to postpone publication (which I'd initially intended for the first half of December) until I'd been able to address these issues, and 'raise my game' to a new level.  Early in December I sat down and made detailed notes drawn from Amazon.com reviews, beta reader analysis, and every other source I could think of.  They totaled about 20 pages of things that needed to be addressed.  (A lot of them were single issues that recurred in numerous parts of the book, so that one problem might take two pages of notes to address as I listed every page that needed attention.)

That exercise produced a short list of issues and problems where I needed to do better.  I spent several weeks studying those subjects (I mentioned a couple of useful books in my guest post).  I didn't necessarily agree with all I read, but they gave me good ideas on how to improve in areas where my work appeared to be lacking.  I also used them as a frame of reference to reverse-analyze the critiques from beta readers.  Some criticisms were voiced by only a few;  others by most of the group.  I had to decide which were matters of individual taste, and which reflected real issues I needed to address.  This helped to further refine and whittle down my 20-page 'to do' list.

Finally, at the beginning of January, I sat down and started revising my manuscript.  It took me all month.  It was a bit like pulling teeth sometimes . . . cherished scenes and vignettes had to be ruthlessly discarded, or amended, or even carved up and redistributed to other parts of the book.  I added a couple of new scenes, too.  I think the exercise has been worth it.  I've certainly learned a lot in the process, and I daresay the book is very much better for the extra effort - certainly considerably improved in terms of character development, etc. compared to the first two Maxwell books.  All this hard work will also help me to make subsequent books in the series that much better.

Today I began the final formatting process.  It's a lot easier since I switched to using Microsoft Word, which is the default software and document format used by Amazon.com and other e-publishers for their source documents.  I found an infuriating niggle today.  If one compiles a manual table of contents (TOC), hot-linked to each chapter by bookmarks, it works in MS Word's DOCX format.  However, converting the DOCX file directly to Amazon Kindle's MOBI format did not produce a working, hot-linked TOC - only a list of chapter names that wasn't hot-linked.  Frustrated, I tried using Calibre to convert the DOCX file to an EPUB format e-reader file, and found that the TOC worked fine.  When I then converted that EPUB file to MOBI, it still worked.  Why didn't it work on the single-pass conversion, but did work on the three-cornered format change?  I have no idea!  Technology!  AAARGH!

I'm looking forward to getting this book out there.  I think it's my best work yet.  Now to see whether you agree!  Watch this blog for a publication announcement and link to the book later this week.

Peter

The next book is almost ready

With a huge sigh of relief, this morning I finished the major revisions to the third volume of the Maxwell Saga, 'Adapt And Overcome'.  I've got a few days of final checking ahead, to make sure that I've tied all the elements together, dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's;  but I think I'm well on track to publish the book next week.  It'll come out first in a Kindle e-book edition, followed within a week or so by a print edition.

Thank you all very much for your patience in waiting longer than expected for this book. I'm glad I took the time to put in more work on character development.  I'm not saying it's perfect, but I think it's a lot better than it was when I sent it out to beta readers last year. I'm going to draw on the lessons learned to make Maxwell Volume 4 even better than Volume 3, and hopefully onward and upward in the same way throughout the series.

Peter

Workin', like a workin' man do . . .

So I keep on workin'
Like a workin' man do
I need to buy my baby shoes
I keep on workin'
Oh, it's the only thing to do
I make my livin' by the sweat of my brow
Oh, workin' just like you

Those lyrics from Lynyrd Skynyrd's song (aptly titled " Workin' ") just about describe my writing life over the past couple of months.  In November I mentioned that I'd delayed the release of my next novel in order to improve its characterization and other aspects.  I've been hard at it, and I'm beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel.

To give my readers some idea of what I've been doing, I wrote a guest article for Sarah Hoyt.  She published it on her blog this morning.  Nip over there and read it for an 'inside' look at the trials and tribulations of many newbie authors who (like me) have to learn the trade as they go along.  (We can't all be Hemingways or Grishams or Micheners from birth, you know!)

I hope to have Maxwell Volume 3 ready by the end of the first week in February, all other things being equal.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Peter

Tired puppy

I've been working too hard on revisions and editing of Maxwell Volume 3, now only a couple of weeks from publication.  I'm stiff, I ache, and my eyes are dry and scratchy from too many hours staring at a computer screen.  I go bed now.  You come back tomorrow for more posts.

Sleep well, y'all.

Peter

Tired puppy

It's been a long day.  Miss D. and I ran around between banks, the Post Office, the local UPS depot and a friend's house.  I haven't had much time to do anything productive, but it was a good day.  (840 rounds of USGI M855 ball arrived, plus a Wilson Combat two-stage match trigger for the precision AR-15 I'm building.  Yippee!)

I'm a tired puppy tonight - too tired to compose blog articles.  Please amuse yourselves in the archives or the blogs listed in the sidebar, and I'll put up some articles tomorrow morning.

Sleep well, y'all.

Peter

Perhaps a quick visit to Africa might be in order . . .

With a trembling in my bones, I've just realized that this weekend and early next week are going to be the coldest temperatures I've ever experienced in my life.  I'm an African boy.  I grew up used to summers with heat up to or exceeding 100° Fahrenheit (38° Celsius:  sometimes rising as high as 120°/49°).  Winters very seldom dropped to below freezing, and when they did, it was only by a few degrees, and not for long.  Snow was a once-in-a-decade thing, and then only in a few cities.  It would literally stop traffic, as everyone got out of their cars to catch the few falling flakes and marvel at it!

When I first came to North America, on a seven-month work-related visit in 1996, I landed in Toronto, Canada, in a snowstorm and sub-freezing temperatures.  My sinuses instantly quit in protest, and for the next three weeks I was barely able to whimper at the chill.  I spent several weeks in what was allegedly spring in Canada and the northern USA, with snow on the ground, ice not uncommon, and a frozen African body screaming with every fiber of its being, "Take me back to the Namib Desert!"

Since then I've experienced sub-freezing temperatures on quite a few occasions, along with snow and the occasional ice storm.  The coldest I've ever known (and that only late some nights, for short periods while outside) is about 15°F/-9°C.  However, Monday is forecast to get down to a maximum of 9°F/-13°C, and Monday night the mercury's supposed to fall as low as 3°F/-16°C.  Up in Minneapolis, friends of ours will be facing a low of -19°F/-28°C.  (One of them is scheduled to fly here on Monday.  All I can say is, I hope they manage to break his plane loose from the ice floe so it can try to take off!)

In one of my favorite pubs in Swakopmund, on Namibia's coast at the lower edge of the Skeleton Coast, it'll be in the balmy 70's to 80's Fahrenheit over the weekend and into next week.  It'll be twenty to thirty degrees hotter further north and inland.  I think this is the perfect weekend for a visit there, and a nice cold Windhoek lager . . .





Peter

Lessons learned while moving to a new computer

You'll recall that last month, I asked for input about buying a new computer.  I eventually settled on a HP desktop system from Costco, which was at an almost unbeatable value-for-money point.  It arrived a couple of weeks ago, and I've slowly been moving my programs and data onto it and setting it up as my primary workstation.  I've learned a lot in the process.

First, I've used Mozilla Thunderbird as my e-mail client for many years.  I have several different e-mail accounts, depending on their purpose and scope (this blog's is only one of them).  Thunderbird lets me open them all in a single application and keep track of them without problems.  The last time I migrated to a new system, I ended up simply installing a new copy of Thunderbird and abandoning my earlier e-mails on backups, as I simply couldn't get them to migrate across successfully.  This time was far simpler.  I used the Mozbackup utility, which made the process amazingly simple once I'd figured out the correct sequence of events.  For the benefit of those who might do the same in future, here's what to do, and in this order.

1. Download Mozbackup to your old system and run it, placing the backup copy of your Thunderbird (and, if you wish, other Mozilla software such as Firefox) on an external hard disk or thumb drive.
2. Download the relevant Mozilla software (Thunderbird, Firefox, etc.) to your new computer and run it once, in order to set up each program's default profile.  Don't do anything else like enter your e-mail account details.
3. Download Mozbackup to your new system and run it.  Tell it to restore the profiles of the software you've installed, and point it to the external drive where you've stored the backed-up profiles from your old system.

That's really all there is to it.  Simple, quick and easy.  I imported eight different e-mail accounts, complete with four years of archived messages and all the settings, without a bobble.

I had some serious problems getting used to the Windows 8 interface (Windows 8.1, actually, but it's the same interface as 8.0).  It looks like a very useful product for touch-screen devices, but if you're working with keyboard and mouse, it's a pain in the butt.  I set up my new system to boot directly to the desktop screen, as in Windows 7, and installed Pokki to simulate the Windows 7 startup screen.  It works fine.

Microsoft Office 2010 gave me some serious headaches.  By default, it installs in 32-bit mode;  but Windows 8.1 is a native 64-bit application, as installed from the manufacturer on my computer.  I had some nasty compatibility issues until I figured out (by trial and error) that Office 2010 also has a 64-bit version, that can be installed by running its dedicated Setup program from the CD.  Once I'd switched to that version, things went much more easily.  I still had to locate it on my hard disk;  Windows 8.1 kept on trying to get me to load the preinstalled trial version of Office 2013 and/or pay for the Office 365 version.  I ended up uninstalling both of the latter trial versions, and now things run much more smoothly.

I've still got some music and video files to copy across to my new system, but I'm 90% finished with the migration now.  I'm already using the new system to continue editing Maxwell Book 3.  I'll be setting up a treadmill desk over the next couple of weeks, with a second screen for seated use when I'm not able to walk any further.  I'm pretty happy with the new computer so far.  It's much faster and more powerful than my old laptop.  As soon as the migration is complete, I'll upgrade the laptop's memory and install a new hard disk, and it'll become my occasional-use on-the-road computer.

Thanks to all of you who offered advice.  So far, so good!

Peter

Goodwill - and indigestion - toward men . . .

I hope and trust your Christmas has been a good one.  Mine certainly has.  I was up early, continuing to set up my new computer, and I took time out to take Oleg to the airport later in the morning, on his way to visit his parents over the holidays.  Miss D. and I will be catsitting for him.

We've just finished our Christmas dinner.  We roasted two chickens in an oven bag, which yielded 4 cups of the richest broth you could wish for, plus succulent, moist meat that fell off the bone when poked with a fork - no knife necessary.  One chicken largely disappeared tonight, accompanied by a green salad and washed down with a bottle of Tennessee white wine;  the other will be eaten over the next few days.  All the bones, the skin and the broth are already in a slow-cooker, along with 12 cups of water.  We'll simmer them overnight to harvest up to 12 cups of chicken broth for future soups and stews.

Miss D. and I have a lot to be thankful for this Christmas, despite our physical ailments and restrictions - she after being the meat filling in a two-car sandwich some years ago, and me after my back injury in 2004 and heart attack in 2009.  We're doing as well as can be expected, and a lot better than many others in our position.  That's reason enough for celebration, right there, even if it weren't for the blessings of the season.

I hope and trust your Christmas was also blessed and peaceful.  May the remainder of it be happy, and the remainder of the year relaxing and enjoyable.

Peter

Weather watch

Right now the weather sirens are blowing their tops.  We're under a tornado warning, a tornado watch, a severe thunderstorm warning and a wind advisory.  The storm front's about twenty minutes from our house.

We've been warned power may go out, so I'm not sure about more blog posts tonight.  I'll try to put some up later, if possible, otherwise I'll wait until tomorrow morning.

Peter