Category: Real Life and Whatnot

A Few Days Late and More Than a Few Bucks Short

The 2015 will go down as one of the most hectic in my life that I can remember. Why? I can’t say for sure but I think it’s because of 3-4—age 3-4. ‘lil is growing up and if I thought taking care of a helpless potted plant, it has nothing on a pre-school age child. That, plus work, plus my ‘second’ job of writing, and I plum tuckered out and always wondering where did my day go. Surprisingly, I’m also quite content—go figure.

I suppose I could just type out a list(s) of stuff, but that’s kinda boring—even I don’t want to read a list of what I did last year. Instead I try to do it with some pictures.

BOOKS:

Since this site is mainly devoted to my books and me as an author—what? You thought my real name was Andrew Q. Gordon—we should start with the books that came out this year.

First Love

The prequel to the Champion of the Gods—First Love—was published. It’s free from DSP Publications (If you want to buy it, its .99 cents on Amazon or B & N) First Love was released as the precursor to:

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The re-release (with an awesome new cover) of The Last Grand Master. That of course was released so that it would coincide with the long delayed release of:

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The Eye and the Arm, Book 2 in the Champion of the Gods.

Last – though certainly not least:

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The re-release of Purpose – again with it’s new cover art.

FAMILY:

I could tell you a story—I’m kinda good at that—but you know what they say about pictures and words. Here’s a novel’s worth.

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Later this week I’ll talk about what’s to come in ’16.

Happy New Year to All!

A Few Pictures from the Month of May

Since it will be Mother’s Day tomorrow, I thought I’d share a few pictures today, before I post Mother’s days pics.

First, this week was the spring ‘concert’ at ‘lil q’s school. I have videos but they’re on the video cam, and I’ve not had time to take them off and upload them.  But here is a picture of the little American Idol wanna be on her way into school:

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As some know, and others may not, yesterday was my birthday. I got numerous well wishes and I thank you all. Here’s how my day started, I got to take her to school, something I don’t get to do much so it was a treat for me:

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Then I did pretty much nothing the rest of the day—I read, wrote a bit, relaxed, a pretty much perfect day. And then Mike and my parents took me out to dinner. ‘lil q heard the band outside and she wanted to go back outside to listen. (I’m a bit worried she’s going to be dragging me to boy bands soon.) So after we ordered we went outside to listen and to ‘dance.’  Dancing meant that most of the time she danced and I watched, but I did dance with her a bit (and looked like a fool doing it I’m sure.)

 

And then, because once is never enough, she had us go back outside after dinner for another round of dancing.

Last because what would a picture post be without puppy pictures. some gratuitous moments of cute:

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3 Weeks Old (Warning Cuteness Overload)

The puppies are three weeks old. Their eyes are open and they’re moving around now. They’ve discovered how to play with each and us.  But be warned, they are really cute, look at in small doses. 😉

Puppies and Toddlers and Dogs – Oh My!

Okay, so how cliche is it that the gay man paraphrases a Judy Garland movie? Never mind.

As I mentioned, we have puppies – Six to be exact. For those who don’t know, Emma is a Vizsla, a Hungarian Pointer. There’s a whole lot that went into getting us to now, do shows, learning to show, getting the points for a championship, finding the right stud dog to complement each other, etc.  Mike did all that. I just help were I can.

‘lil q is very curious and already loves them. She has to see them when she gets up and before she goes to bed. Last night she wanted to see them being born, so we let her see some a very limited some, and she was good with it.  I’m still surprised by the lack of questions on this topic, but I’m totally not complaining.  During the height of the delivery, I took her to get ice-cream to distract her. Works every time.

One last thing before I show the pups, the breeder tends to give them temporary names that go with a theme. Each pup gets their own collar and that way we always know which one is which.  because we only have one girl, she didn’t get a collar because, well she’s fabulous enough already. 😀 Mike and I decided that since our two hobbies are over lapping—he’s got puppies and I have a new release—we’re going to give them names from my Champion of the Gods series. So here goes:

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This is Farrell – he’s the smallest, but he’s feisty.
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These are Grohl (green) and Takala (blue) – after the peregrine brothers who adopt Farrell as their brother.
Our lone girl is Penelope - after the princess of Dumbarten. She's also one of the feisty ones.
Our lone girl is Penelope – after the princess of Dumbarten. She’s also one of the feisty ones.
The orange one is Kel, and the black one is Miceral. Miceral is the largest of the group, but is really quiet mellow.
The orange one is Kel, and the black one is Miceral. Miceral is the largest of the group, but is really quite mellow.

Couple more, just because:

another picture of Farrell I was keeping his company when mama went to go eat and go outside.
Another picture of Farrell. I was keeping him company when mama went to go eat and go outside.
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Grohl was crying when mama went to eat so I was holding him. This is when he pooped on my arm. Such love.

And since we’re going for cuteness overload, here are a couple from our ice-cream social.

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Here she’s checking it out to see that I put all the things she wanted in her ice-cream.
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Happiness evidently is gummy bears and squishy red things in your frozen chocolate ice-cream.
It's all fun and smiles until the ice cream is gone.
It’s all fun and smiles until the ice cream is gone.

A Trip to Tali Spencer’s House.

‘lil q and I took a daughter/papa road trip on Thursday April 2, to Tali Spencer’s house. The occasion? You mean meeting Tali isn’t reason enough?  How about because Chris T. Kat was visiting? I’d met Chris when she was in the states two years ago, but I’d never met Tali. When Tali said she was going to have cannoli’s, that sealed the deal. So I took advantage of the occasion.  Chris didn’t want to appear in pictures so those with her in them will remain private.

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A Few Pre-Christmas ’14 pictures.

Today being Festivus, I’m wearing my Festivus shirt. I want to wish you all a very happy Festivus for the rest of us. Try not to air too many grievance and don’t let anyone get hurt during the Feats of Strength.

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Hard to believe this is my fourth Christmas as a Papa. I feel like it was just a few months ago that I took ‘lil q to see Santa for the first time  This time she actually told him what she wanted.  Sadly the picture wasn’t the best, they were moving kids in and out and didn’t even make an effort to get her to smile. Oh well, she looked cute in her dress.

We also got a tree – of course – but we’ll still decorating it – sorry, but it takes time when she ‘wants to help.’

And of course there was a Christmas ‘concert’ at the pre-school.

And Here are few videos for those who like to see things happen in real time.

This looks very similar to how she acted last year.

Three from the Christmas Concert:

GRL ’14 and Me – In Pictures

This was my first GRL and well I might have taken a few too many pictures, but I had a great time and I wanted to share a few (yes, there are way more than these).  The videos didn’t fit in the gallery so I added them at the end.

 

J.P. Found a new way to draw attention to me. It was. . .interesting to have this happen all the time. 😀

Seeing Amy Lane at the signing, well, we got a bit carried away.

If there was a better way to end GRL, I can’t think of what it would be.

 

GRL ’14 – Odds and Ends

I suspect most everyone who reads my blog knows I’ll be going to GRL (Gay Rom Lit) this year in Chicago as a Supporting Author. [That’s a fancy phrase for ‘relatively new author.] (Sorry, Fancy Nancy is ‘lil q’s new favorite and we say ‘that’s a fancy word for’ a lot these days as we try to expand her vocabulary)  Whew, talk about a digression, where was I? Oh yeah, GRL ’14 updates. Focus.

First, I was asked to be an “Honorary” member Team Prism’ Countdown to GRL ’14. Sounds glamorous, no? So of course I said yes. Turns out the honor really is all mine.  I get to run the anchor leg of their GRL Author Flash Fiction countdown.  So tomorrow my little story based on the picture prompt will be on the Prism Book Alliance Site.  I’ll post a link tomorrow, but here’s a link to the Prism Book Alliance site so you can check out the other pieces now if you like:

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Now a couple other odds and ends:

I’ve spent the spring and summer wondered what to expect and more importantly what to bring. The dreaded “S” word—swag—has been on my mind since almost the moment I received confirmation that I snagged a Supporting Author slot.  After numerous conversations with fellow authors, people who’ve attended past GRLs as either an author or a reader (or both), I cobbled together a few things to bring. One hopes I did good. Continue reading GRL ’14 – Odds and Ends

‘lil q’s 3rd Birthday

‘lil q turned three recently. (not saying what day-sorry) She had her birthday party at a bouncy house as she called it.  The day after we had the family party.  Here are some shots from both.

And a video for good measure.  Do you think we put on a bit too many pads??

A Month of Pictures – August ’14

So August was a busy month – ‘lil q grew up – a lot. We had quite a few first. She started to ride her bike by herself, we finished ‘daycare’ and moved on to ‘preschool’, we learned we liked moon bounce houses, were reminded we like cotton candy, and Papa started to teach her Italian-American slang words. (hey, it’s important to be a little different 😉 )

To start the month, ‘lil q joined me at the DC Outwrite Fest book fair. I figured Wayward Ink Publishing could use a better ‘face of the franchise’ than me so I had her sit with me for a time.

Helping Papa sell some books
Helping Papa sell some books

In an effort to corrupt . .  err. . .  teach her new things, I’m teaching her Italian-American Slang:

(That means stop being a pig at the table) Continue reading A Month of Pictures – August ’14