Still More Computer Hell

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Yesterday, last night, and probably today–all devoured by computer hell. By Malwarebytes every five minutes flashing onto the screen its demand to be updated. By outgoing email not going out, or just getting bounced back at us, undelivered. That’s goin’ to make it very hard for me to submit my articles and do my editing.

This machine needs an exorcist.

And who’s the galoot who says we oughta-gotta-gonna merge our minds with computers by the year 2020? Huzzah! Then we can all have long-term and short-term memory loss, basic functions all screwed up, reduced to hopeless babbling–yeah, it does sound like Hell.

So far the chaos has not yet reached into this blog, so I will continue for as long as I can. If I disappear, you’ll know it’s because the computer has murdered me.

And We Have a Winner!

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And the winner of the comment contest, who has posted No. 13,000, is… Phoebe!

Hey, I’m sorry about that box-full of gold coins, don’t know what happened to it, but you still win an autographed copy of one of my books. Just let me know which one you want (bearing in mind that I’m running short of copies of Bell Mountain, but you can still have one if you want it) and provide me with your mailing address–either by posting it here, and I’ll delete it after I copy it down, or sending it to me  via email at leeduigon@verizon.net .

To see and read about all the books in the series, just go to the home page and click “Books” up on top of the page.

Phoebe, you won fair and square, hit 13,000 on the nose, and thanks for being here.

The more, the merrier!

Win Fantastic Gold Coins!

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We’re so close to having a winner of our current comment contest, it should probably happen today–and wow, holy moly, what a prize!

Yes! If you’re the lucky reader who posts Comment No. 13,000 on this blog, you will win a whole shoebox full of genuine gold coins worth thousands and thousands of dollars! Fabulous wealth can now be yours–

What? I don’t have that shoebox full of gold coins anymore? Did you look under the bed? Or in the closet, under the Christmas ornaments? You did…

Well, folks, sorry about that. But you can still win an autographed copy of one of my books. Post it anywhere on this blog: I’ll see it.

All comments are eligible except: 1) comments abusive of anyone else on this blog; 2) those containing profanity or blasphemy; 3) thinly-disguised commercials, like that’s gonna fool me, I’m such a schmo; 4) anything simply too inane to bother with.

That’s that. Now all we have to do is see who wins.

Comment Contest: Less than 100 to Go

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Well, we’ve just passed the 12,000 mark, and whoever posts Comment No. 13,000 on this blog will win an autographed copy of one of my books.

I’m thinking of re-opening the contest to earlier winners, so they can win again. If this is not a stupid question, are you in favor of that?

Maybe I should also offer a prize to anyone who can figure out what happened to my Facebook and Newswithviews referrals–a mystery that has so far baffled all attempts to unravel it. Where’s Hercule Poirot when you need him?

Wahoo! Comment Contest Time

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I almost forgot to announce the new comment contest today: nothing like a bit of Swedish feminism to unsettle one’s plans.

Whoever posts Comment No. 13,000 to this blog will win an autographed copy of one of my books–and we’re already at No. 12,800 and change, so we don’t have far to go. The winning comment can be on any subject and may be addressed to any item posted on this blog. Don’t worry, I’ll find it.

Ineligible will be comments abusive to anyone else on this blog, any comments featuring profanity or blasphemy, any that are really just thinly disguised commercials, and any that are really just too inane to bother with. Apart from those, pretty much anything goes. Someone (she knows who she is!) once won one of these contests just by saying “Ugh.” Not that I’m encouraging such brevity.

I’ve lost count of how many of these contests we’ve had, which probably means something good.

This Blog Needs You

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When you come right down to it, all I can do for this little cyber-enterprise is write the articles and post the pictures. Everything else has to be done by you, the readers.

I depend on you to circulate the posts–by sharing them on Facebook, if you have it, or other social media sites, and trying a bit of word-of-mouth advertising when you think of it. We can only grow by adding new readers, new visitors.

We’ve been growing steadily since 2012, and so far 2017 is shaping up to be our best year yet.

I just wanted to say “Thank you,” and now I’ve said it.

Wanted: More Young Readers

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A fuss was generated here this week by someone who called us “all a lot of poor old fogeys” who gather on this blog. Just because I’m 126 years old, she thought I had “no feel for modern life.”

As I comb the trilobites out of my four-foot-long white beard, I’d like to mend this situation, if I can. And I think the way to do that is to invite more young people to visit this site and join us living fossils in our conversations. I think it would be fun! I’d like to hear from you. I mean, just because you’re teenagers, or somewhere under 30, doesn’t mean you have nothing worthwhile to say. I wish my Grandpa were still around for me to talk to. He used to play dominoes with Hammurabi. But as you yourself get older, you tend to run out of much older people to talk to.

Anyhow, the door is open, the welcome mat is out, and you just might like it here. Come on in and set a spell.

An Experiment (Translation: Help!)

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Gee, I feel like one of those old-time castaways whose only hope of communicating with the outside world was to put a message in a bottle and throw it into the ocean.

Since early Sunday morning I have had no, zero, Facebook referrals. Having ruled out other causes, I’m forced to believe there’s something interfering between Facebook and my blog. No one, not even my webmaster, has yet discovered what that can be.

So I can only continue to experiment.

Whoever you are out there, if you see this message anywhere on Facebook, please see if you can use it to get to this blog. I need to see if this is possible. And I’m afraid only readers can help me on this one.

Still No Facebook!

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By all indications I can discover, this blog is properly connected to Facebook. But now I’m on my third day with no referrals from Facebook–a loss of 10 to 20% of my traffic.

Even my webmaster couldn’t find anything wrong, and I was sure that if anyone would know how to straighten it out, she would.

We were on our way to a record month here, before this happened.

P.S.–Some good news, at least: the Kindle edition of The Throne (Book 9 of my Bell Mountain series) came out like gangbusters yesterday and is still in amazon.com’s Top 100 Science Fiction books this morning, even though it isn’t science fiction. Not bad for a crotchety elderly man who doesn’t know anything about fantasy.

Why Do Liberal Soreheads Visit This Blog?

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A reader took sharp exception to my March 16 post, “Are We Too Old to Appreciate Cool Fashions?” and has since taken even sharper exception to everything else she has found on this blog. I wonder if someone has taken away her Play-Doh.

Her thinking, such as it is, leads her to conclude that I, personally, physically attack people whom I perceive as being divergent from my own point of view: “And I’m sure you would have beaten up anybody who was different from you.” Actually it’s the leftids and the college “students” who are doing that, these days.

My thoughts, she says, are “dusty.” My writing is just a lot of “elderly and cliched comments.” She doesn’t much care for you, my readers, either, characterizing you as “poor old people who have no real concept of modern life.” Ooh! That was the most unkindest cut of all! Nor does she like the “stupid cat videos” I post here.

I’m not even a good fantasy writer, but only a “crotchety elderly man who knows nothing of literary fantasy more modern than C.S. Lewis.” And as for you, dear readers, “You are all old fogeys.”

Feel the love.

She does remark that she isn’t trolling. Gee, you could’ve fooled me.

I hardly feel it’s necessary to answer any of this sad, angry, Calibanesque twaddle. But I can’t help wondering why such an  unhappy individual would spend any time here at all, among people and content she detests. And do I really need to point out that the chronological age of any decently-executed fantasy is totally irrelevant?

Betcha anything she voted for Hillary.

So first we’re all deplorables, and now we’re all old fogeys. Wear those badges proudly, folks. If the people who gave you those labels were to esteem you, you could be pretty sure you have been doing something very wrong.