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It is still free today in e-book form, this best novel I have written. I hope to give away hundreds of copies. So far, after two and a half days, I have given away 8. So, feel free to click on it in the link above. It is still free until the 15th. What could it hurt? And you might even like it.

On days when I feel sick, like today, I can do things like work on paintable miniature figures for D&D or HO-scale model train layouts at the little table in front of the fake fireplace.

I know it isn’t much. But with body aches and sore throat, it was the best I could do.

Mickey’s thinking has always been somewhat suspect. Not only is he so overly-creative that he can’t think in straight lines, only curlicues, he is also a Texas Democrat, a retired public school teacher, a Baby Boomer, an amateur cartoonist, and a writer of YA novels. Those categories are all marginalized and suspect in modern society today. So, nobody actually takes seriously any of the things that Mickey actually thinks… if he is, indeed, capable of thinking. But let’s take a sideways look at it anyway. One thing that Mickey definitely thinks is true is that, because of the invention of the internet, there has never been a better time for finding information, evaluating facts, and doing research than now. It used to be that digging in the library was a limited source because it only provided those resources the library administrator could afford, have donated by the odd bibliophile, or whimsically thought was a good source of information worth the price. You couldn’t cross-reference things and look up cited sources and verify footnotes in the same almost-instantaneous ways you can nowadays with a simple point and click, or manipulation of your monkey-thumbs on the touch-screen. So, knowing that Mickey surfs the internet on a skateboard of 1960’s comic-book notions and 1940’s radio-play morality, we can now take a look at some of the doofus notions he entertains in his stupid head because of stuff found on the internet.

1. Aliens crashed their interstellar skateboard near Roswell New Mexico in 1947. This thing Mickey thunk is based on the testimony of Major Jesse Marcel as told to UFO researcher and former physicist Stanton Friedman. And the strongest argument is why the government went to such lengths to change the story and cover something up. Weather balloons? Project Mogul? No.
2. William Shakespeare is not the real name of the author of Shakespeare’s plays. The poor man misspelled his own name on documents in the real world, yet in the world of the theater, he was an unparalleled poet and master of the language. He knew things about Italy and life in royal courts of Europe without ever having been out of the precincts of central London. Mark Twain didn’t believe it. And his name wasn’t the real name of the author of Huckleberry Finn either.
3. The political and social story of this country is controlled by grifters, con men, politicians, Republicans, Skull-and-Bonesmen, bankers, insurance salesmen, and other criminals who only tell lies. And Mickey thinks this because of first-hand eye-witness evidence and numerous bills and charges that reduced Mickey’s stock of valuable things to next to nothing. The best things in life are, indeed, free. But men with too much money and power will monetize that freedom.

And I do suppose that you’d have to be an idiot to think and believe what Mickey has thunk. But Mickey has reasons why he can’t just let it go. Truth is truth, even, sometimes when it can be proven false. And the truest thing is, Mickey will never stop thinking while he lives. Think about this; Walt Disney died before Christmas in 1966. Walt Disney not only produced Mickey Mouse cartoons, he provided a voice and life to the character. So, does that mean that since 1966, Mickey Mouse has been a zombie? A member of the walking/talking dead? Think about it like Mickey does.

Yes, it happens a lot when you are an aging diabetic. I have moved into that time of life when my six incurable diseases are much harder to bear, and can potentially be the last act in my personal play. So, what do I do when these things move in close to take a bite of me? I appreciate my life harder.

I have lived for over six decades now. I was a child when Walt Disney was still alive, and when men first landed on the moon. I experienced a few of the things that make the story of human life on earth a corking good story, well worth the read.

In some ways the study of human history is one of the most insight-inducing things you can do with your life. There are all kinds of things that were done by stupid kings, and suffering and the buffering of suffering done by heroes, and things that were explored, and knowledge uncovered, and people who have lived and loved and laughed. There was once a Joan of Arc, a Groucho and Harpo Marx, a wizard named Isaac Newton, and a Great Clown who may have been Emmett Kelly, or may have been Red Skelton, or even, possibly, Marcel Marceau.

And, what if mankind has already chosen a course of suicide on a planetary scale? The decision was made back in the 1970’s by the fossil fuel industry that short-term profits were more important than preserving our atmosphere and environment. We are now beginning to reap the whirlwind that they sowed back then, threatening to turn this planet into a Venus-like hell of heat and acid rain. Are we all gonna die?

Human beings are highly adaptable, inventive, and fully capable of finding ways to survive. That will probably be tested, but until it is all completely over, we still have a chance.

But everybody dies… eventually. All people have an expiration date. All civilizations, people, creatures, and even planets themselves have a beginning, middle, and end. And just because something is ended, it doesn’t follow that all its existence, meaning, and importance are gone. My Grandma Beyer has been gone for nearly 20 years. And yet, she is still real. I and my children could not exist without her. And that will still be true when all of us are dead.

So, I have to say, all in all, it is worth it. No matter what happens next.

I have never been a better writer, artist, or story-teller than I am right now. This is the culmination of my life, even if it ends tomorrow. I will keep living day-by-day… living… loving… and laughing. Appreciating the opportunity to exist at all. And therein lies the value of my life