Story of My Life!

 A Short Memoir Excerpt

Happy New Year! What are some of your best memories of 2022? (Or from childhood? Heh, since we're going down memory lane, might as well really go down it! As I do here in my #FreeFictionFriday post on Substack #memoir #autobiography

Me in 1972, I think. Gotta love those shorts!

Blog Under Construction

Image by Jose R. Cabello from Pixabay.

I'm going to give my blog a facelift starting this weekend. Lots of little things. Will likely keep the basic theme but get rid of a side column. 

So, main blog area plus a side column of goodies for those who visit on their laptops/desktops. Will take a few days, I'm sure, until I'm happy with the remodeled layout.

One reason for the upcoming change is that none of the side column stuff shows up on a mobile device. Just a list of blog posts. Then you have to touch a dropdown tab to see what pages are available for viewing.

That's fine. But since lots of people browse the internet via their phones, I need to make sure all my projects are just a few taps away.

On my various pages, I'll list my stories, collections, series, upcoming projects, etc. I'll keep my "about" page of course and how you can contact me. And probably add a page for direct purchase (paperbacks, especially, but also e-books via Venmo or PayPal.)

When you visit a blog - either by mobile device, tablet, or laptop/desktop - what do you look for? What features are important for you to access? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks!

~*~

"Tip a buck, get a book."

(via PayPal.Me - an e-book from Tule Fog Press.)

This blog is reader supported. Thank you for your support!

Find me on Facebook where I post nerdy memes and share about my writing projects.

One Red Paperclip Revisited

Something fun.

Affiliate link to Amazon.

Back about 10 or 15 years ago I was a pretty active blogger, putting up all sorts of interesting things on this website. I'd come across a news article and link to it and comment on it, etc. Nothing fancy, just me blogging about stuff.

One blog post (back in 2006, click here to see it) mentioned a guy named Kyle MacDonald who started out with a red paperclip and traded his way up to a three bedroom house. Remember that? His blog, called One Red Paperclip has the story.

Anyway, what makes this a bit fun is that someone from Commodity.com saw my post from 2006 and emailed me, wondering if I'd point my readers to their site where they created a pretty cool info-graphic about this concept of "trading up."

Here's part of the email I received:

We've recently published an infographic about Kyle's extraordinary story of trading a paperclip for a house. Our research uncovered some staggering stories, such as:

• How he spent the afternoon with Alice Cooper
• Why he became a mayor for the day
• And what he did next...

You'll find the answers in our full study: https://commodity.com/blog/straw-millionaire/

I've checked it out, so I'm pretty sure the link is safe. It's just a form of advertising. So I cannot vouche for the product. I'm not a sponsor or anything, if that's what you're wondering. Just something I thought I could blog about. 

 Here's the opening panel - go to their website to see the whole info-graphic that tells the whole story of Kyle MacDonald. Anyone else with similar stories? Let me know! And have a great week. - Lyn

New from Gustavo Bondoni

From my most recent Tule Fog Press newsletter...

Not sure about where you live, but Kansas is cold right now! Freezing rain expected this week. So the joy of snow and a white Christmas is over - now comes the dark dreary days of real winter.

All the more reason to read a book! And we have just the thing coming up in about a month. A new release from Tule Fog Press - Gustavo Bondoni's collection of dark fantasy called Pale Reflection.

We've created a Facebook Event Page here, so be sure to attend this special launch online, March 1, 2020. (The book will go on pre-order sale later this month!)

Gustavo is a prolific short story writer and a novelist to boot. Hailing from Argentina, his work ranges from science fiction to mainstream stories, passing through sword & sorcery and magic realism along the way. He has been published in fourteen countries and seven languages to date. To find out more about Gustavo Bondoni's projects visit his website here.

And as always, thanks for reading! 

Bits of Funny

Nothing major, just got me smiling this morning...

Fish & Chips - Singapore aquarium tagging some fish with microchips to help visitors identify the different species.

What was she thinking? 60 year old woman gives birth to twins. Just don't complain when you hear your teenagers refer to you as "my ol' lady."

Hey G-nini... Croats are using email. That's good. But they're emailing St. Anthony, a 13th century Franciscan.

Well, plenty of more smiles in the works, but that's all for now. Enjoy!

What's up with . . .

... Bode Miller?
He's got a one game contract with a minor league baseball team!

>><<

... Kyle MacDonald?
Blogger parlays one red paper clip into a three bedroom home!

UPDATE - July 12, 2020 - Here's a pretty cool info-graphic from Commodity.com about Kyle's amazing journey from owning a paper clip to a house! I got an email from Commodity dot com recently asking if I would share this info-graphic. So check it out.

>><<

... Sylvester Stallone?
He's bringing Rocky Balboa back to the ring this December!

... this Chinese Scammer?
Conned dozens of farmers out of 2 million yuan ($250,400) to grow trees he said would be used in the 2008 Olympics! (ed. note: Who said money doesn't grow on trees?)