Blog No. 360
Because this is the 360th post. Like a circle. Get it? (I know you probably do. Ignore me. I think I’m funny). Now that Broadcast Wasteland is written (and all the editing and other work is ahead of me) I’m really not sure what this post is going to be about. We’re going on another journey together! Last weekend was Advanced Polls in Canada and my Day Job was a polling location. I usually dread it because the poll clerks aren’t always with it, the people who come in are often angry, and I get caught in circular arguments where voters scream political opinions and racist comments at me (all the while I do my best to keep my cool and remind them that you aren’t really allowed to talk about politics at a polling site, also racism is bad). It was four days of early mornings and monotonous hours, but it turned out the clerks were good and I only had one racist comment throw in my direction. Either way, I hadn’t done anything productive since I finished the first draft last Wednesday. Continue reading “Like a Circle”
The blog tour is over, so now I can get back to my safe, comfortable routine. Not that there was anything wrong with the blog tour. It was great to do something with such talented, herd working local authors. It was even nice to know what I was going to write about for four solid weeks. It was different from what I’m used to (though) and I’m not always great with change. Now that it’s over, and I know I did it to the best of my ability (and did something new to try and promote myself) I’m glad to be back inside the box. While I was away, I missed writing about a few things. I’m going to rectify that now by telling you all about them! Also, I want to give a big thanks to 
This week’s post is basically going to be a behind the writing for 
Welcome to Week One of the Blog Tour. Where I focus on someone other than me. But only partially. I’ll definitely get to me. But for the most part I’m going to be talking about Justine Alley Dowsett and her newest book, Mirror’s Deceit. It’s part of The Mirror World Series of Fantasy books.
I’ve been doing this blog for a number of years now, and I’ve never been part of a blog tour (or blog share, or whatever). I did have a guest post at one time, but it wasn’t what I had in mind, and the particular person doesn’t do much posting anymore. Given the number of authors I know who do have active blogs, I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to try again. I suppose part of it has to do with my obsessive need to not play well with others, but I genuinely like these folks and while they may not all write the kind of stuff I fancy, they are very good at what they do. (Just because a book isn’t your type of genre, doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate how well written it is). For the next four weeks (starting next week) I’m going to be featuring one of these authors and one of their works. The group came up with some formats for the posts, but I like to be difficult, so I’m doing kind of whatever comes to me in the moment. I hope they like it (and you, obviously). 
The First ChiSeries Windsor of the year was last week. You should already know because you should have been there and because you should have read last week’s blog post about how I was going to cover it this week because I didn’t want to write the post on Wednesday night for Thursday morning. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, it was awesome! I was hopeful before the event, but it really turned out to be a great night. It stormed like the dickens right before we finished, forcing folks who did come out to brave the rain to get to their cars, but it was right near the end, and I can’t control the weather (yet) so I’m taking myself off the hook and assuming they all thought it was worthwhile. 
Driving to Toronto is old hat for most Windsorites. I think. It’s certainly not a big deal for a lot of folks I know. Sometimes I take the train, when prices are reasonable and it’s just me. It’s gotten to the point where the cost of gas and parking is about the same as a train ticket anyway, so it’s all dependent on scheduling and specifics. Since I was going to the ChiSeries reading with Christian, and we could split the gas, driving was the way to go. And let me tell you, it’s not always as smooth a drive as it was last Wednesday. Construction was minimal, traffic was reasonable, and the inevitable movie and book conversations makes the time go by. The only part that could be considered a challenge was getting to the hotel and figuring out where to park. 
I’m sure I’ve mentioned it, but likely not as much as I should, but I am part of bringing a great national reading series to Windsor. When Christian and I went to Toronto earlier in the year for the 
I suppose a more accurate title for this post is how do I right, but I made the title based on a question I’ve received many times at many events over last year (and a few times before that). Also, I have to contend with Christian’s blog now, and he did a post about his writing, so I felt I had to one-up him some how. I’m going to do that by doing the same thing he did and hope that somehow works for some reason. Also, I’m going to talk about other things, because it’s my blog and I fell like it. Besides, I’m in a rotten mood because I was rear ended on Monday and I am once again fighting some illness. The disappointing thing is that I was having a good day otherwise. 
Ben Van Dongen 