Well, it’s done…I’ve published my short story via indie publisher Smashwords (thanks Naleta for the tip!). You can purchase and download “Returning the Favor” by going to the Smashwords page here. It costs a mere $.99 and is available in most formats (mobi, epub, pdf, etc.). Spread the word and if you enjoy it, please let me know!

So I wrote this short story yesterday, my first non WG based writing in years, and am now pondering just how to present it. It is far too short to attempt as a sale in book form, but would still love to find a way to present it to the public. It clocks in at about 3300 words in 11 segments, so it is fairly short…well, duh, Karl, it’s a short story…cackles. Guess I should research the web and see what options I have as far as copyright and all the other nuggets of protecting it as well as testing the market to see how it would sell and at what price.

Let me know whatbyou think, Grovers, in the comment section. Thanks!

Have you ever wondered how the Township of Willow’s Grove was laid out? Perhaps where Max lived or where Cho’s Bar & Grill was? Well, now you can see the first edition street map of Willow’s Grove! Click here to view it. It’s a little rough around the edges, but it will be improved in the second edition. Enjoy!

Howdy Grovers! Here we are with another Spiderforest.com Comic of the Week. You may have noticed I took a week off from the CotW, but that’s because Willow’s Grove was in the spotlight for the week on my fellow Spiderforest pals. We had a large boost in readers for that week and if you are now a Grover from the links to me on those other pages, I welcome you and hope you find Willow’s Grove a comic worthy of a bookmark.

This week, we spotlight the comic Riven Sol by Elaine Corvidae. The comic can be described as science fiction romance meets Lovecraftian horror! Something is wrong on Danforth Research Station. Orphaned children disappear from the slum-like “lowers,” while fearsome masked guards prowl the corridors. Death lurks around every corner, waiting to swallow the unwary. When a mysterious girl named Carter comes to Danforth, it’s up to a boy known only as “Silence” to teach her to survive. But Carter has secrets of her own, and the horror within may be far greater than the horror without.

Elaine suggests new readers start here to get your feet wet with the story arcs. Head on over and give Riven Sol a whirl, you won’t regret it and you’ll also help to support my fellow Spiderforest cartoonists!

Hey Grovers! Did you get to see the transit of Venus? Well, not directly, I hope. I hope you took the necessary precautions and didn’t look directly at the Sun. Anyway, I hope you got to see it. Once in a lifetime event and all…unless you’re immortal and will be around for the next one in 2117. I on the other hand, being in exile here in South Florida, was foiled, once again, by the weather. Don’t be fooled by the propaganda…weather down here is not always sunny skies and girls in bikinis or guys in speedos working on their skin cancer…uh, I mean, tans…no, when it comes to anything happening above the clouds, astronomically, the weather plots against me and either rains or is overcast.

There I was, all set up with a poster board and my binoculars, as well as a pinhole projector waiting for the day to roll on up, not paying attention to the weather forecast saying 60% chance of storms as the weather forecasts are sketchy at best. I think one of the ingredients of those weather models on the computer is voodoo, after all, so I take them with a grain of salt…which was a mistake, because I should have learned by now, when it comes to astronomical events, especially rare, once in a lifetime ones, those models have always been spot on. Meteor shower? Rain. Eclipse? Thick clouds. Alien landing? Hurricane.

Once again weather of South Florida, you conspired against me and I had to watch the transit of Venus on NASA TV…just like the last ever shuttle launch (which every other one was visible just by looking out my front window).

Now, I shouldn’t get my hopes up but, in 2045, when I’ll be 78 going on 79, there’s going to be a total solar eclipse, right over South Florida, which I should be able to watch simply by stepping out into my front yard. I know you’re planning to rain South Florida weather…I’m not a gambling man, but I’ll bet my last nickel in the bank I have right now on it.