A Present For Myself

Just after Thanksgiving I received an unexpected royalty payment. It wasn’t huge, but it was enough to think about buying a little something nice for the family. My wife and I wanted a couple of bikes to ride around on, especially since this area of Southern Florida is so flat. So we went to Wal Mart and I used the royalty payment on a couple of shiny new bikes. Mine was a Schwinn Varsity. It was tall, lean, and fast, and I enjoyed it a lot. Except for one thing: the darn chain rubbed against the front deraileur whenever the small gear was in 6 or 7, making so much noise that I ended up not using those two gears at all. It was annoying, and grew more and more so every time I rode and had to either stay at 2-5 or bounce up to 3-3. Way more shifting than was necessary to accomplish the same goal. I figured the guy who built the bike at Wal Mart probably just didn’t know what he was doing, so I took it to a local bike shop to have the cables adjusted.

Come to find out that the reason the bike kept making noises is because the deraileurs that came with the bike were not the right size for the bike’s gears. Huh. Go figure. You’d think the parts that come with your new $250 bike would be correct, right? The bike shop sells new deraileurs, of course. Only $80 and I could solve the problem. I wasn’t about to spend $80 to fix something that should have been right to begin with. So I took the bike back to Wal Mart. (They were VERY good about taking it back, too. Even though I’d been riding it for four weeks, they didn’t give me any trouble at all.) So today I went back to the bike shop and bought myself an early Christmas present. It cost more, but I’ve come to the conclusion that when it comes to bicycles, you really do get what you pay for. In other words, buy cheap, get cheap.

Anyway, here’s my new bicycle: A 2011 Black/Silver Specialized Crosstrail.

It’s a hybrid bike with size 700C tires that can go fast over pavement but can also do a little light off-roading. (Not the crazy stuff, mind you, but bike paths and beaches, etc.) I took it for a quick spin when I got it home and noticed an immediate improvement over the Schwinn in shifting, comfort, ride, and even the amount of effort required to get it moving. All in all, a much, much better bike. I haven’t ridden it with Cole yet, but that’s coming tomorrow. Should be fun as he loves riding.

Anyhoo, I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas (or Hannukah, or Kwanzaa, or Bah Humbugmas, if that is your thing). I’ll be spending the holidays in Maine again with the family. Hopefully we get a little snow.

Cole’s first Santa Pic

The title says it all.

And in thumbnail:

Cool, huh?

Last Day to Buy Harry Shannon’s KILL THEM ALL for Only 99 Cents!

If you guys have been following The Dead Man series, then you’ll want to grab the sixth book today. It’s KILL THEM ALL by Harry Shannon, and today is the last day it’s available for 99 cents. After today the promotional period is over and the book goes up to $2.99.

Matt Cahill was an ordinary man leading a simple life until a shocking accident changed everything. Now he can see a nightmarish netherworld that exists within our own. Now he’s on a dangerous quest for the answers to who he is and what he has become…and engaged in an epic battle to save us, and his soul, from the clutches of pure evil.

When Matt wanders into a struggling Nevada tourist trap recreation of an “old west” town, he’s unaware that he’s being trailed by a Special Ops team of professional mercenaries hired by a University desperate to unlock the secret behind his resurrection…and that he’s put everyone around him in dire jeopardy. The mercenaries have no intention of letting Matt escape…or letting any witnesses survive. Matt finds himself in a deadly bind. Somehow he must rally the peaceful citizens into defending themselves against the sadistic, well-armed mercenaries… or sacrifice himself to save them from certain death.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, that’s because it is good. I’ve read this one, too and it’s one of my favorites so far. Give it a shot, you’ll like it. And if you haven’t started the series yet, the first book is FACE OF EVIL by Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin. Give it a shot, you’ll be hooked in no time.

In other book news, the print versions of Saying Goodbye to the Sun, NASTY LITTLE F!#*ERS, and 61 A.D. are finally available on Amazon, so those of you who have been waiting to see what happens to Taras and Theron but don’t have an ereader…well, now’s your chance. These took forever to format and get ready because I’m picky. I wanted them to look good for you guys. Hopefully you enjoy them. At this point signed copies are not available because I simply don’t know how I would go about doing that. But I’m going to try and figure something out so that those of you who want signed copies can get them. (I’m open to suggestions, by the way.) But the bottom line is, the books are now available in print. Go get ‘em. Especially NASTY LITTLE F!#*ERS. It’s a great little book that gets almost no love. Not because people don’t like it (almost everyone who reads it seems to enjoy it), but because very few people have read it. Maybe it’s the subject matter? Probably. I’ve been tempted to unpublish it from time to time, but I really like it, so it will stay available whether it moves five copies or five thousand. (Five is much closer to reality, actually….)

In other other news, I have gotten back into bicycling lately. Florida is so flat and level that riding a bike seemed like an ideal way to get some exercise. So last month, when I received my royalty check for The Dead Woman, I bought this:

Cool, huh? I know it’s not a premium bike (bought it at Wal Mart, for one thing) but it’s the first skinny-tired road bike I’ve owned in over 20 years. I still like my mountain bike, but it’s back in TN. Anyway, I bought a bike seat for Cole and the two of us have gone riding almost every day since I bought it. Nothing major yet. I haven’t gone on any 10 mile rides, but it’s still been fun. (I haven’t gone on any real long rides because I don’t want to keep Cole out on the bike that long. But if an opportunity for a nice long afternoon ride should happen to pop up, I plan to take advantage of it.)

Anyway, it’s been fun and good exercise, both of which are things I need right now.

Also, it looks like we will be moving back to Tennessee ahead of schedule. When we moved down here (Souhtern FL, for those of you who don’t know), it was with the understanding that we would be here through May 2012. But last week Heather’s boss called her up and told her they needed her back in early February, instead. So we’re moving back on Feb 6.

YAY!

Seriously. Yay. I’m sick of SoFlo. I know, I know. “But David, you’re so close to the Keys. You live in the tropics. It’s warm and beautiful there. Why would you want to leave?” The truth is, Southern Florida just isn’t for me. It’s a nice place to visit, but I don’t want to live here. Nothing against it, but it’s not home, y’know? All our friends are back in Tennessee, along with our house and most of our stuff. Plus, my Mustang is there, and I miss her. A lot. So I’m excited. The McAfees are goin’ home.

Lastly, it’s finally starting to feel like Christmas around here. We have our tree up, and last night we wrapped some presents and hung the stockings while Christmas Music played in the background. This is absolutely my favorite time of year. I love seeing all the lights and imaginging the good will going around (even if it really doesn’t…). Most of all, I love the look on kids’ faces the closer we get to Christmas. Look around, all the kids are getting keyed up and excited, and it all comes to a head on Christmas morning. I have such fond memories of Christmas morning from when I was a kid, and I can’t help but think about the memories that other families will be making this month.

Mostly, I can’t help but think about the memories I get to make with my son. This will be Cole’s first Christmas, so he won’t remember it. He won’t remember opening the toy drum, or the bath tub boat, or the metal baby keys, or the Batman Little People blocks, or any of the other things we got him. But I will. I can’t wait! I know he won’t understand and probably will need help to unwrap his presents, but it’s still exciting. I remember Christmas with Hennah when she was a baby. She was only two months old when her first Christmas came along, but those memories have lasted seventeen years.

For me, anyway. She doesn’t remember a thing, which is probably good because she peed all over my lap that day.

Anyway, just wanted to catch you guys up. No book news today, other than the KILL THEM ALL stuff, but I’ll have some news to share regarding the Bachiyr soon enough, so stay tuned.