Greece Photos

I finally got around to posting some pictures from my trip in Greece earlier this month. I have to give credit to my wife Kelly for all of these photos (except of course the one of her...that was me.)

Anyways, I hope you enjoy them, and I will be resuming business as usual on my blog starting today. I've got some reviews, articles, and flash stories in the pipeline coming out in the next week. So I hope you enjoy!

Gotta have a picture of the Parthenon

The stadium they held the 1896 Olympics in. 68,000 person stadium comprised entirely of marble!

My wife Kelly on our balcony in Mykonos

The windmills in Mykonos

The Red Beach in Santorini

Pretty sunset in Santorini

Platamel

When you wife demands you write a story about a hybrid animal that is a cross between a platypus and a camel...well you take that in stride and see what you can come up with.

    “I can’t give that to you. Anything else, but not that.”
    “What else do you have that’s worth a damn?”
    “I...I don’t know, but you can’t have it.”
    “Do you have the money then?”
    “No. But it wasn’t a fair bet.”
    “Really now? What wasn’t fair about it?”
    “You knew what was going to happen. You knew for a fact, and you still made the bet. That’s just wrong.”
    “That’s good business sense.”
    “But you can’t make a bet on something you have inside knowledge of.”
    “Well I did, I won, and I’m here to collect.”
    “Take anything else from my zoo, but please, not the Platamel. It’s the only thing that keeps people coming.”
    “Yea, I know. It’s the only thing of value. That’s why I’m taking it, idiot.”
    “You’ve always been like that haven’t you? Ever since we were kids. I create something wonderful, and you take it away.”
    “Sure, you created something cool, but then you pissed it away be being stupid. I mean seriously, why do you ever make a wager with me anyways?”
    “Because I think that my cousin will play fair with me, that’s why.”
    “First of all, we’re second cousins. And can’t you just create some other abomination freak to attract people to this sorry excuse for a zoo.”
    “What if I refuse to give him to you?”
    “Oh yea, that’s why I brought this.”
    “Alright, I’ll get you the damn platamel. I’ll mix something even better this time though, you’ll see.”
    “Yea, I’ll see it and find a way to take it from you.”
    “You’ll see. If you thought mixing the DNA of a platypus and camel was amazing...I’ll do a crocodile and a moose! And then if you try to take it away, it’ll bite your hand off and run you over, because it’ll weigh over 800 kilos.”
    “And when that time comes, I’ll put it in a truck and haul it away...cousin.”
    “You go do that. Go get your stupid platamel and get out of here.”
    “Any advice?”
    “He bites.”

My Best Beta Reaser

    I’ve realized that my wife has found the address to both my blog and my twitter username! So I had to quickly take down all the porn and such, and I converted this site into a writers blog...phew. I hope she didn’t see it before :P

    Anyways I would like to share a couple thoughts on one of the best beta readers I’ve got. Yes, it’s my wife, Kelly.
    Most of the time, we are warned as writers to steer clear of our family members for betas because they can sugarcoat the problems in your work, or worse yet, they won’t tell you at all. While this is good for a confidence boost, it doesn’t really help your writing.
    But Kelly is different. She will point out where the pacing seems slow, or mostly in my case, rushed. She’ll tell me when characters seem off and don’t have the right motivation. She’ll tell me where my writing is weak and even where I’ve abused or underused pronouns. She’s even not afraid to tell me when something just sounds plain awkward.
    But then once I’ve gotten all battered and bruised and my ego is back where it probably should be, she has a way of dressing those wounds without re-inflating that dreaded ego. It’s pretty amazing what she does.
    So Kelly, thanks again for being my #1 beta reader, and since you’re reading this now...can you hurry up with Chapter 28? ;)

    Love you.