Christ's Mass

I have spent the bulk of this Christmas Day thus far, alone, excepting for my dogs, which are numbered four, this year. At least until the puppies are old enough to be weaned off mother Pennie's milk and sold (will be asking $200 apiece - one male, one female, CKC registered w/papers, current shots at time of sales) to hopefully happy homes. I did visit with my mother & sister for a couple hours, had some Honey Baked Ham brand turkey breast on a sandwich for Christmas Day lunch, trimmed my sister's outside ferns, which have not yet become the latest victims of Jack Frost as it's only dipped below 32 degrees Fahrenheit one night of this winter thus far.

So, here in my loft apartment, there has been computer time, listening to Traditional Christmas songs via Pandora Internet Radio via my Roku brand Internet-stream-player via my old-skool L/R Sony brand home stereo system that I've had since 1994. There has also been dog-time. The puppies like to pee on me, it seems. Then, a few minutes ago, the idea of the prose that makes up the next paragraph hit me.

Of all 365/366 days of every calendar year, including Halloween & my birthday, Christmas Day always stands head and shoulders above every other day. As soon as Midnight hits, the entire following 24 hours are part of a time-warp, of which space time becomes made entirely of snow, ice, the laughter of children, Christmas music, manger hay, Santa's cookie crumbs and reindeer corn. I sometimes get caught up in the moment, as I'm prone to do on most any day, but still: Christmas Day is pure Magic for me. Every year. This year included and, it seems, this year especially.

Merry Christmas from the most high.

......thanks for reading.......

-kjjr

Barbie Bassett & Prince Bashful

Yesterday, I met with my long-time friend, tv meterologist, local television personality and motivational speaker, Barbie Bassett, to deliver her signed-by-the-author copies of my authored books. She inspired me to write my memoir, over a year ago, mostly by writing a book herself, which I read and then a few short months later, I had written my own. There's a lot to be said for inspiring someone to do something they'd always known was in them to do.

I just wanted her to have a copy, so she could have a physical object she can look at and say to herself, "I inspired someone."

Thanks, Barbie.

....and thanks for reading....

-kjjr

Burning Dreams

I have a recurring dream. More of a recurring theme in my dreams. I'm back DJ'ing in either a familiar club with familiar faces, or a familiar yet modified club, with familiar faces. There are always familiar faces. They are always more than glad to see me - practically worshiping my return to the mic, in most of the instances.

There is usually some degree of difficulty getting the CD players and mixing board to operate correctly, which was indeed the case many times in my real-life club days.

This morning, there was some difficulty getting me to the DJ booth, oddly. I had lost track of time in the dressing room, talking at length with several dancers. The manager was somewhat of a rookie, and I didn't know her, and instead of coming to the dressing room and demanding I return to the booth, when I finally did get back there, she and several of the dancers had been trying to DJ in my place and had royally screwed up the equipment.

Then, a team of DJ's appeared and insisted that I move to a DJ booth in the balcony of the club, which resembled a theatre more than a club. Once there, I realized that I only had a mixing board and a mic - no players. The team of DJ's in the main DJ booth below me were controlling the music. My board served the sole purpose of allowing me to control the volume levels on the two channels. They wanted me to MC, and as my voice resonated throughout the massive club, the head tech started a song that immediately brought the face of a dancer into sharp focus in my mind's eye. The song was "Burning Heart" by Vandenberg, and the dancer's face was of "Colleen," from my days at Diver's Den in 1998. She had claimed that song with such passion when I first played it for her, all these years ago. She had claimed it and she owned it then and, apparently, she owns it still: in my memory of her.

And in this morning's dream, as soon as the first couple seconds of the song announced themselves, I looked to my left into what was an upper-balcony VIP room, and Colleen was gathering up her things - just finishing a private lap dance, and was making her way with determination to the stage. Then I announced her and she began to dance. Colleen was always a very graceful dancer. That song definitely fit her to a T.

(If you enjoyed this writing, you definitely should read "Prince Bashful - a strip-club disc jockey's story." Available by clicking here.)

...thanks for reading...

-kjjr

Read, Dear!

Yesterday morning, I reviewed my personal finances and decided to bite the bullet - vowing to suffer any negative criticisms from my parents (and I knew they would be voiced, and they were) about what I was about to do. I did it. I bought a Kindle Fire from Amazon.com.

I wrote my current book, "Prince Bashful - a strip-club disc jockey's story" in a little under three months. I had always paid rapt attention in any and all English classes years ago. But I am almost embarrassed to admit that I have only read about 3 books cover to cover since Jr. High School.

Vicariously, through seeing how eagerly several friends & family members acquired their own copies of Prince Bashful, and after seeing how voraciously they devoured the text - one friend even reading the entire book in a single afternoon - something inside me clicked. I had abandoned an integral element of life before I'd even entered high school. I had stopped reading. I, too, had been a voracious reader. I always blamed my becoming disinterested in reading on J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of The Rings trilogy being difficult to visualize.

For whatever reasons that had caused me to stop, I realized 2 mornings ago that since I have been missing-out on this part of life for over half of my life, it is time to reacquaint myself with reading.

My Kindle Fire is on its way, and here is my profile on Shelfari, which is a sub-site of Amazon.com.

Thanks to Amazon.com, Myra, Kevin, Wanda, David, BJ, HR, Fonda, Dezron and special thanks to Jay F. And anyone else who inspired me to make this quantum leap back into reading. Wish me luck.

...thanks for reading...


-kjjr

free Kindle classics

Click here for free Kindle classic eBooks.

orbiting dragons and free downloads

With this past weekend's "free" status marketing promotion on Amazon.com, Prince Bashful accrued 255 downloads, which means (hopefully) that 255 people from across the globe are enjoying the book. I sincerely hope that people will continue to get their copies, and that the book's readership will steadily increase across the months to come.

Yesterday, I purchased some materials for drawing storyboards for the first stealthpilot1 book. I have all these images in my head that are mostly scene-settings for the book. There seems to be a large, orbiting craft shaped like a dragon that sp1 inhabits part of the time - the "throne room" being what would be the dragon's eyes with large, smoked-glass windows facing the nuclear blaze of the white-hot star. Maybe some interesting scenes will be set there.

There are also several machine-like companions that will play important roles in the books - especially notable: his number one mode of transportation.

to be continued...

...thanks for reading...

-kjjr

new books, initial sketches/outlines

Today is my daughter's mother's 33rd birthday. Oddly enough I grabbed pen & notebook as a flood of ideas about the stealthpilot1 series of books (3) emerged, earlier this morning. As of right now, I have the 3 books' titles, the 3 colors the text on the books' covers will be (seems this matters), and the themes the 3 books will follow. All of this exists as sketches, diagrams & general storyboard-like scribblings into a notebook.

Seems it's progress towards a goal.

...thanks for reading...


-kjjr

Prince Bashful, initial publishing notes

The initial reactions to the book's being "out there" is very humbling. One friend's smile was apparent through her voice over the phone, and the fact that she was smiling about the book being published in the first place was a compliment, especially coming from her.

Another friend wrote, "Your writing is superb. I'm hooked." Wow. What a huge compliment. What am I supposed to think about that? I have no formal training as far as writing. I just paid attention in Jr High and High School English classes.

My Dad has always been my biggest fan. Maybe my writing is destined to have more fans than him. That would be cool.

Another friend wondered if she was a main character in the book. This has me feeling a little guilty that I didn't write more about certain people and certain situations that occurred around certain times. I hope people that are aware they're in it aren't disappointed at how little they're mentioned. Maybe they won't be. I just hope they know how much their friendships meant, and mean, to me. And I hope everybody buys, reads & enjoys the book immensely.

...thanks for reading... 

-kjjr