Coming to Tre Amici at The Bunker

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On December 22, I'll join K.L. Nappier for a joint book-signing appearance at Tre Amici at The Bunker, Coffee and Wine Bar. (You can see the flyer's background photo in full here.)

Newly-added to the books I'll have with me is Vampyr Verse, out from Popcorn Press, with my poem "Neighbors."



I've also received an acceptance to Goblin Fruit for my poem "Butterfly Woman."

Covenant has passed the 700-download mark on Manybooks.net. Thanks to all the readers who have downloaded from there, Smashwords, my website, and elsewhere! Thanks also to Ellen Pekar at Books for Soldiers for making the series available to troops "who are in remote areas with very little access to the internet and have requested some e-books to read on their PCs."

I am also exploring the audiobooks option for the series.

When I was part of a Conversations LIVE! author panel back in October, I was the only one not on Podiobooks. From the discussion we had, it seemed to me a good way to further distribute my material.

Podiobooks recommends that all of a book's 20-40 minute episodes be recorded ahead of time, so I've set out to do that and am currently negotiating various learning curves. I've been quizzing the very helpful folks over at the Podiobooks mentor center. If all goes well, I hope to start releasing Covenant as an audiobook some time next year.


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This is my studio set-up. About 15 years ago I composed music (you can hear some of it here) using my electronic keyboard and Proteus/2-Orchestral sound sampler with an ancient (black-and-white screen), now dead Mac and a program called EZ Vision. I'm thrilled that I again have equipment that lets me take advantage of my sound sampler. I took a break from voice recording to doodle with music a bit:

091212-SaturdayDoo...

Hosted by eSnips

I laid down the first track in Timba Mallet to get the rhythm, then overlaid Shimmer Ways. The melody is in Whistlin' Joe. Finally, I added Phaedra to the second half of the piece.

In the meantime, I've come across a species of moth I hadn't seen before.



Black Witch, Ascalapha odorata, Family Erebidae. Other common names include La Sorcière Noire (French), Mariposa de la Muerte (Spanish), Mah-Ha-Na (Mayan for "May I borrow your house?"), Money Moths or Moneybats (in the Bahamas), and Micpapalotl (in Mexico). Thanks to Cody R. Hough for the ID.

With a wingspan of up to 7 inches, the Black Witch is sometimes mistaken for a bat, according to this site, which explores the species' natural and cultural history.

According to Bugguide, the Black Witch is the only species in its genus in North America listed at All-Leps, and it is the largest of the North American owlet (Noctuoidea) moths. It ranges through South and Central America, straying far north in the United States and southern Canada, and is established in Hawaii. The light band indicates this individual is a female.

I found this poor, beat-up moth high up on our post office wall at around 5 PM several days ago. I estimate its wingspan at about six inches. We'd had some very windy days -- I don't know if its tattered condition resulted from the weather, predators, or just plain hard luck. Very few U.S. records of this species occur in December, so it may well be living on borrowed time.







Vol. 1, Deviations: Covenant (2nd Ed.)
Vol. 2, Deviations: Appetite
Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny
Free downloads at the Deviations website and on Smashwords.

Go to Manybooks.net to access Covenant, Appetite, and Destiny in even more formats!

Participant, Operation E-Book Drop. (Logo credit: K.A. M'Lady & P.M. Dittman.)

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