The June That Was

I'm hoping you all had a great month of June, I did. Our daughter graduated from kindergarten which, as you can imagine, was the highlight. She loves school and told us today she can't wait until summer vacation is over to go back—fingers crossed that attitude stays through 12th grade, right?

Beyond that I released Nik Morton's Continuity Girl through BEAT to a PULP books and published a final short story from the late William E. Wallace. Also, I continued to work on a Thomas Paine project (I help run The Quotable Paine on Twitter) and am nearing completion on Glenn Gray's Transgemination. That novella is "a must read for fans of retro sci-fi/horror B movies, woven with real science, as only Glenn Gray can do." 

I expanded my reach as a freelance writer with an article appearing at LitReactor. As I've mentioned before this is a big deal for me because I've respected the top tier quality that appears there, especially the work of Keith Rawson.

Okay, on to July ...

Duolingo's New Approach To A Difficult Language

I may look into this: Duolingo invented a new way to teach one of the most difficult languages to learn.

Haruki Murakami: Hardboiled, Surreal, and Bewitching

My article: Hardboiled, Surreal, and Bewitching: 3 Haruki Murakami Short Stories

Everybody knows - Leonard Cohen

Alan Turing on Mortality

Sad to think of how much more Alan Turing could have accomplished if his life hadn't been cut short. Over at Brain Pickings, a sample of the great mathematician: The Binary Code of Body and Spirit: Computing Pioneer Alan Turing on Mortality.

12 Novels to Read Before TV Ruins Them

Actually the header is: 12 Novels to Read Before They Head to TV

The Tower Looms

We begin our reread of The Dark Tower VII at Criminal Element. An excerpt:

The Dark Tower is very close, but our ka-tet is spread far and wide. Roland and Eddie are in 1977 where they have just finished meeting with the author Stephen King. In 1999, Father Callahan and Jake are about to storm The Dixie Pig lounge where Susannah is being held along with Mia, who is about to give birth to an unholy demon: this child has the DNA combo of Roland and Susannah and a “co-father” in the Crimson King. So, we are very close to our destination, the stakes are high, and it’s anybody’s guess who will live to see The Dark Tower. 

The Dark Tower looms on the horizon for both our ka-tet and you, our loyal readers, as we count down the days to the premiere of The Dark Tower film. The plan is to finish the series on the Tuesday before the premiere, so we'll be splitting The Dark Tower into four sections (about 200 pages each) and meeting here at our usual time (Tuesday at 12 p.m. ET) to discuss major themes, motifs, and reactions.