The Moment Has Arrived

My novella FEEDING THE SQUIRRELS has been published by SynergEbooks. For under $6 you can purchase a copy of this ebook in your choice of electronic formats. The fantastic cover was designed by the lovely Erin Rogers Pickering, and hopefully those who choose to buy it will find my prose to their liking as well. See below for a synopsis. To read an excerpt and obtain a copy for your reading pleasure,

CLICK HERE

“Feeding the Squirrels” tells the story of a self-absorbed philanderer who lives a life of leisure and usually manages to remain one step ahead of consequences for his actions. Michael reveals himself to the reader by chronicling his rapid fire sex life woman by woman. He is a prolific lover who defines himself by his various sexual conquests. Each chapter in between the first and last of this literary novella is named after a woman who has been seduced by him, and thus helped to shape his identity. Every one of the erotic encounters can be read as a story unto itself, with Michael’s single minded pursuit of pleasure being the common thread that unites them. Although his succession of affairs are singular experiences to a man who rarely thinks of yesterday or tomorrow, they eventually manage to intertwine and leave him with a web of his own design to untangle.

I love to hear from my readers, so please stop by after reading "Feeding the Squirrels" to let me know what you think.

- Roy

First Review: http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/Feedingthesquirrels.html

Champion Again - She's Your Venus

Thought I'd make a shout out to 2007 Wimbeldon champion Venus Williams for reminding the world yet again that she should never be counted out on the tennis court. Congratulations for exhibiting your skill, grace, and class on the biggest stage your sport has to offer.

Below are links to a couple articles I've written in the past about Venus and her sister Serena, and above is a rough sketch Erin did of Venus Williams (going forward she plans to draw sketches to accompany some of my postings).

The First Family of Tennis

Female Athletes in Pursuit of Greatness

I am Teething Baby, Hear Me Roar!

The lion was just completed today, and fits our current theme at home. Ava is cutting her bottom eye teeth, and a few molars, and it is driving her crazy. It is like changing, dressing, soothing, feeding - a tornado! We feel so bad for her, but anything we do to ease the pain just doesn’t last very long. So I dedicate this illustration to Ava, my little darling, as all those teeth come roaring in.

"Lion Eyes"

Ink on watercolor paper

2.5" x 3.5"

Copyright Erin Rogers Pickering

Lion ACEO at ebay

Harry Potter Mania

As a publishing phenomenon, I find the extraordinary success of the Harry Potter series of books (and movies, including the spinoffs...and live theater versions, and next up, the HBO TV Series) pretty interesting. As an avid devourer of fiction, I was unable to resist reading the first book to see what all the fuss was about. I found it to be a fairly enjoyable read [see below for what I had to say at Roy's Book Reviews], but by no means life altering. If I had read it when I was 10 years old, perhaps I would have been fully caught up in the Elvis/Beatles/Menudo-like mania (I simply could not resist a Menudo reference). But as an adult, and an author, it is beyond my comprehension why these books have become quite as popular as they have. I found nothing between the covers of the first one to be especially unique or ground breaking. To me it simply seemed to be engaging young adult fantasy fiction, well enough written to find a wide audience for sure, but not to inspire a literary revolution. If a single kid picks up a book to read that he would not otherwise have done because the Harry Potter titles make reading "cool", then it is a revolution that I wholeheartedly endorse even if I can't quite understand it. Yet as a writer who for years worked 9-5 in publishing and tries to keep abreast of what's going on in the industry, I do find it baffling that while J.K. Rowling makes an obscene amount of money due to one of the greatest jobs of marketing I've ever witnessed, there is a substantial amount of quality literature being written that cannot find homes at mainstream publishers or an audience of significant size. This I find to be a shame, not that anyone in particular is necessarily to blame for it. We simply happen to live in a world that celebrates mass appeal mediocrity over thought provoking brilliance. The phenomenon of Harry Potter makes about as much sense to me as people refusing to get bored of American Idol or young girls being allowed to wear pajama pants to school. But since we also live in a time of rapidly decreasing literacy, with the culture of long form reading [anything longer than a tweet] declining at a rapid rate (excluding bibliophile nerds mostly attracted to particular genres/tropes/authors who have turned speed reading into a game scored on social media sites such as Instagram and TikTok), let me repeat that I am in favor of anything and everything that glamourizes books. Especially the ink on paper variety. And since these days J.K. Rowling mostly makes news for letting us know how much she loathes the concept of Trans people, I welcome attention being brought back to her amusement park enhancing book franchise where it belongs.

 

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We're Back!!!

It was our initial intention for this blog to be a regular endeavor, although Erin and I never specified exactly how regularly (daily, weekly, every 2 weeks, monthly?) we would get to it. Those of you who have been stopping by have no doubt noticed the considerable gap between our previous postings and those we have entered today. What can I say about that but "Ooops, our bad". The process of day-to-day tends to interrupt even the best laid of plans. Or to put it more profoundly by paraphrasing from one of the great songs of our time - "Fish don't fry in the kitchen; Beans don't burn on the grill. Takes a whole lotta tryin' Just to get up that hill."

We won't promise to do better, but we will promise to try. After all, chronicling our best efforts at being artists / parents / spouses / entrepeneurs / legends in our own minds / is what this blog is all about. As you can tell from Erin's latest posting, we have been doing a little more than just twiddling our thumbs. Despite our back-to-back trips to Virginia and New Mexico, along with a much shorter trip to DA BRONX, Erin did manage to create another wonderful ACEO -

Elephant

- and to do some artistic brainstorming for projects she'll eventually get around to sharing with the world. As for me, I made the decision to work towards getting my novella [Feeding the Squirrels] published as an ebook. If all goes according to plan, a copy of it in electronic format will be available for purchase in the not too distant future from SynergEbooks. Erin has designed the cover, so it's guaranteed to look sharp.

I suppose I could take up some time and internet space to express the wonder of being embraced by the extraordinary landscape of New Mexico, or share my thoughts on fatherhood now that I've had the gig for over a year and almost know what I'm doing half the time, or write an essay on how to get your property landscaped for no cost and practically no effort. But for the time being I will keep these matters to myself and save the energy for future blogging, which I plan to do on a far more regular basis from this point on. When I become as accomplished at "doing" as I am at "planning to do", I will be able to officially declare myself the greatest of success stories. Until then, I have some more fish to fry and beans to burn. Take care.

- Roy

Bronx Zoo

We spent Father's Day at the Bronx Zoo - one of my most favorite places. Luckily, we arrived nice and early so were able to see lots of the animals moving about before the heat of the day set in. Ava had a blast, seeing the animals and playing with her cousins. Roy shot a full roll of film for me for future illustrations... there will be lots more to follow after the Elephant.

Elephant I, 2.5" x 3.5", ink on acid free paper

copyright Erin Rogers Pickering

Elephant

Trials & tribulations of motherhood

I have read countless times to keep my sense of humor when all goes wrong, especially as a parent. I think that is easier said than done.
Picture this… dragging a weary self out of bed at 5am on a drizzly Monday morning (we power-washed and stained the deck on Sunday, so the drizzle was more than a mood buster – the stain hadn’t dried yet), a baby that woke up ½ hour ahead of schedule in a big poop - this is the same child that is cutting molars and spent the morning acting like she had consumed the 2 cups of coffee that I desperately needed.

In my mad dash to get her bottles and food ready for daycare, and to get us all out of the house by 7am, I knock a full bottle of Brazilian rum out of the cabinet. I know, keeping formula, bottle bag and alcohol in the same cabinet might not be the best idea. The kitchen floor is ceramic tile, the bottle literally exploded on impact… rum and a million shards of glass everywhere. Including all over me - with only 4 minutes left until we have to be out the door. Now my husband has to take her to daycare without me, and has to deal with her newfound separation anxiety alone. I am home changing clothes (with limited choices since laundry took a back seat to the deck – and teething baby - this weekend), sopping up rum, mopping multiple times, then vacuuming over and over to get up an endless supply of slivers of glass. I miss my regular train – and the next one.

Laughing is not what I was doing, and cursing is what I was trying not to do. Though I did see the bright side, my daughter who is quite often under my feet in the kitchen was in the living room with my husband at the time. Not sure we could have explained it if she arrived at daycare stinking of rum.

- Erin