In one year and out the other

THE NEWS:

And so 2008 winds down with a whisper. In 5 hours it will be New Year's Eve here in Calgary and it will be a quiet transition for us.

2008 was a terrific year with Calgary's annual Con-Version, followed by the once-in-a-lifetime World Fantasy Convention.

The friends were made, the connections were established and the new projects were started.

Look for the formal announcement of an anthology I'll be editing this spring for release in the fall from Dragon Moon Press. The topic is Top Secret, so don't even ask. If I told you, I'd have to kill you. *LOL*

Also on the plate is the novelization of my original vampire screenplay, the cover of which I've already spent far too many hours creating. Unlike Stand Up & Succeed, I won't be self-publishing this book but rather trying to sell it to a publisher with a little more oomph in the marketing department than my own Cometcatcher Press has demonstrated.

Stand Up & Succeed is still getting favorable responses from the readers and that's all I've ever really wanted for it, so all is good there.

For 2009, the BIG EVENT for me is actually the privilege of MCing my high school's 50th birthday variety show (and my grad year's 30 Year reunion).

Returning to the stage at Don Mills Collegiate Institute in Toronto thirty years later is going to be a real trip. The gig of a lifetime, I suppose.

So, as 2008 waves goodbye and 2009 turns the corner and strides confidently toward us, may you all have a happy, safe & prosperous year.

Ciao for now,

Tim Reynolds.
Author of Stand Up & Succeed
www.StandUpAndSucceed.com

That time of year

Yup, it's that time of the year again. Time to grab the wallet and hit the stores all the while wondering where the time went since we did this all last time.

I'm talking, of course, of the time of year when we give up on raking leaves and finally head out to buy a snow shovel. Every year I swear I'm going to buy a good one, but when it's not snowing I say "The one we've got is fine" and when it IS snowing and I need a better shovel, they're all sold out.

What I really need is to get off my ass when the temps next climb above zero (c), rake the leaves and actually place them in bags rather than calling them mulch and leaving them on the lawn "for that natural look". The snow will come when it's damned well ready but I should at least make sure that I'm finished with the last season before bitching and whining about the new one.

Of course, if Sue had her way we'd live in Arizona where all we'd have to worry about is stampeding lizards, tarantulas in the bed and keeping the air conditioning running, come hell or high dust storm. Me, I'd prefer San Diego, provided I was able to sell a screenplay or two to justify the move south of the Manson-Nixon line (the 49th parallel).

But, be that as it may, wherever we live and whatever time of the year it is, it is definitely time to get away from the keyboard and go run some errands.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Ciao for now.

Tim Reynolds.
Author of Stand Up & Succeed
www.StandUpAndSucceed.com