Monthly Archives: April 2017

Celebrating My 300th Post With Poetry

I’m celebrating my 300th post with poetry. Fred Proud does an excellent reading in this video. Kipling was an English Twain with his command of colloquialisms and rough hewn dialect, the plain talk of common people. But Kipling’s word play was … Continue reading

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Update on My Book Proposals

My Stanton Delaplane (internal link) book proposal has now been turned down twice. I think that’s just getting started for most writers; two proposals barely a beginning. I do think, though, that I am going to reorient my proposal. Instead of a … Continue reading

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Tracking Queries With Google’s Calendar

I’m now using Google’s Calendar feature (external link) to keep track of queries. I wish I used it before. It’s a free service with a Google account. You already have it if you use Gmail. The calendar is pretty straight … Continue reading

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Finding Your Way With QR Codes

In my Rock&Gem Magazine articles I supply GPS coordinates for sites lacking a street address. Here’s a common example, this one leading to a noteworthy monument in Catheys Valley, California: N 37° 26.292 W 120°05.177 This approach is practical but not completely … Continue reading

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Stop Government Overreach in The Auburn State Recreation Area

Could you please sign this petition? It protests the shutting down of the Auburn State Recreation Area to rockhounding and prospecting. The Auburn RSA is located about forty miles northeast of Sacramento. Over many years, I’ve found gold in quartz, … Continue reading

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The Free Public Domain USGS Multimedia Gallery

The United States Geological Survey maintains a wonderful public domain library at this address: https://www.usgs.gov/products/multimedia-gallery/overview (external link). All will do for web work and many are printable quality. Nearly all 10,000 images are at no charge and copyright free but of … Continue reading

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Working For a Content Creation Site

What’s it like to write for a content generation site? Or, as some people call it, a content mill? It reminds me a little of my past newspaper reporting. I get a topic I might know little about, I research it, and then … Continue reading

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What if Gordon Gekko Was a Coffee Addicted Writer?

I’m just starting my first cup this early morning. What would Gordon Gekko say? “Coffee, for lack of a better word, is good. Coffee is right, coffee works. Coffee clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. … Continue reading

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San Francisco and The Summer of Love

The de Young Museum (external link), in association with other groups and venues, is celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of San Francisco’s Summer of Love. Pardon me if I don’t join the festivities. As the promoters put it, “In the mid-1960s, artists, … Continue reading

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The iStory — A Way to Improve Your Writing?

NarrativeMagazine.com (external link) is promoting a new kind of writing for our too wandering thoughts, a 150-word prose form called an iStory. Here’s how they describe it: An iStory is a short, dramatic narrative, fiction or nonfiction, up to 150 … Continue reading

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