Book Review: Portrait of a Spy

Daniel Silva is back with Gabriel Allon and crew, in another exciting thriller, Portrait of a Spy, that spans the globe.

Just when Gabriel thinks his life is calm again, restoring a rare painting, walking the Italian coastline near his home, and loving his beautiful wife, terrorist attacks occur. The old team of top Israeli agents is reassembled, and this time Gabriel recruits a billionaire Saudi woman to penetrate the terrorist organization. Her money is the lure, but her beauty and negotiation skills prove resourceful. One more kicker, Gabriel assassinated her father years ago.

Layers of intrigue abound. Silva's writing heightens the pace and tension. You'll turn the pages, eager to root for Gabriel's crew of world weary richly drawn characters.

Portrait of a Spy captures today's world. Fortunately, the good guys (and gals) can still win.

ALCS: Rangers vs. Tigers

My writing career could be further ahead if I spent time writing instead of watching Texas Ranger baseball. But I'm hooked after last year, and they keep winning. It's stressful, heart attack producing baseball.

They conquered Tampa Bay in the ALDS. Now they face the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS. We attended game one on my birthday. Aaahh - fair weather fans. We enjoyed tailgating in sunshine and blue skies. In the 5th inning we lived through one rain delay, and then left during the second. Came home to watch victory (well, Ray did. I sorta snoozed) at midnight.

It started out glorious. A sea of fans in red. Huge flag on the field. Soaring rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. Then the boys of summer playing in the fall. It's a cast of unique characters, tension filled moments, uneven pacing (hey, it's the Rangers), and the plot can change direction.

Re-live awesome moments and look forward to new heart palpitations.

Rangers as of Monday evening, October 10th, head to Detroit, up two games in a best of seven series. The saga continues in the Motor City - a backdrop of decay, and the largest beers I've ever seen. It could turn noir and gritty.

I'll be watching. Go Rangers!!

State Fair of Texas - 125 Years Young

Today's my birthday (and I'm not quite 125 years old). The self-publishing adventure went nowhere this week. I appear to be in format hell, and a password circle of preposterous responses on my trying-to-design-a-website project. So, the heck with it. Ray and I took vacation on Friday October 7th to visit The State Fair of Texas

Automobile building is always a must see. Nothing like a concept Corvette to get the heart racing. Write 'em a check, honey.

Cirque Shanghai - talented Chinese acrobats wowed the crowd with fabulous feats of balance and tumbling. They conquered the Texas blustery wind.

It's not the fair without a shot of Big Tex. Dressed in new duds, his booming voice welcomes crowds and describes the day's events. From dawn to dusk, enjoy frisbee catching trick dogs, pig races, Creative Arts - photos, drawings, quilts, and canned fruits & veggies, Food & Fiber Pavilion - free ice cream, USMC band, the Midway, and so much more. The grand finale for us was the Illumination Sensations fireworks/laser light/music/fountain spectacular.

Fried food heaven. Ray and I stuck with the Fletcher corny dogs, and later a funnel cake. However, the newcomer was Fried Bubblegum. It looked sweetly sickening to me. Plenty of other products for coronary thrombosis - fried s'mores, fried butter, fried autumn pie, fried margarita ... only in Texas.

2011 State Fair of Texas - 125 years and still going strong. The Art Deco buildings in Fair Park are restored gleaming gems. The Hall of State is magnificent. Kudos to the State Fair organizers for an extraordinary entertainment extravaganza.

Self-Publishing Adventure

I am a pumpkinhead. Total mush in the old brain cavity. I thought I could read and execute written instructions. Well, the Smashwords bible has proven me wrong. They said it would take approximately two hours for a conversion from Word document to the Smashwords meat word grinder. I'm on hour five with more to go. I did figure on double the number. Silly me.

Indeed, like this lily pond at the arboretum, tentacles reach into an unknown abyss causing strange formats. I've re-done some sections two or three times. Fix one thing. Ooops. Another goes awry. Fix that, and other sections are wonky. Close to tears at times, I forged on.

Why can't it line up all pretty, like this lovely arboretum display? My guess is that the horticulturist in charge sees a flaw somewhere in this display. Just like a misplaced comma, or weird line spacings, or ... argghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd ask this young man, but he's trying to figure out formatting too. Ha!

But seriously, I sorta figured out a cover through Createspace. It's on hold, and actually Ray doesn't care for the picture. I can see his point. We'll seek some new material Friday at the State Fair (don't ask, but it's gonna work, I swear).

In regards to Smashwords, I shall conquer it. Then onwards to my Wordpress website. For some reason, I can't seem to get the correct username/password to connect. I was in a circle of hell for hours today. No wonder computer geeks are pasty white. I can see how one doesn't emerge for days during a computer project.

This is a new author adventure. I now appreciate how easy the actual writing was to do. We have far more to discuss in this publishing crusade.

Third Prize - Bedford Library Short Story Contest

Fall. Pumpkin time at the arboretum. Also, Bedford Library/ annual author roundtable. Plus the announcement of short story contest winners.

It was a veritable potpourri of author styles. Rebecca Balcarcel - rich poetry. Sarah A. Hoyt writer under several names - science fiction, fantasy, and the furniture refinishing mysteries. Roni Loren erotic romance. She did read the family friendly version of a chapter.

Good eats. Good reads. Kick off to a fantastic fall season for authors. And ... ta da - 3rd prize for my story The Babysitters.

Focus

A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention - Herbert Simon, psychologist.

This will be a short post. I'm having trouble focusing. Actually I was driving home the other day (my one hour commute) and thinking about how I used to feel I accomplished more. I seemed to read more, go to more movies, got together with friends and hung out. What am I doing with my time?

I definitely spend more time on the computer and it can be choppy - go read a book, but get up and check something. My concentration has diminished. There's a new term "executive function" which contains cognitive skills allowing us to control thoughts and impulses. I need to work on that.

There's so much information today and the world is changing rapidly. Our minds and processes have to evolve too. But there still are key factors: Pay attention, listen. I'll repeat that one -actually listen to someone if you are having a conversation. Read. Focus.

Oops ... gotta go check something.

Moneyball Review: Catch It

Moneyball, based on Michael Lewis' fascinating book, is about the science of baseball and how the anemic Oakland Athletics in 2002/2003 managed to win games with an unlikely team and lousy payroll. Sound boring? Nope. Brad Pitt fills a perfect role. He's Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A's.

Beane was a young gun with a full Stanford scholarship, who skipped college to play in the big show for the New York Mets. Unfortunately, he could never get all of his skills to connect. But he became a talent scout, thrived, and moved up the ladder. Now, as a forty-something GM, he was facing the loss of three big players (free agents) and had no money to buy replacements.

However, he did recognize some other talent - a young Yale economist graduate - Peter Brand (unassumingly played by Jonah Hill in a breakout role for him). This kid had statistics to back up player picks, looking at on-base percentages,etc. No picks based on physical looks, girlfriends, or star wattage. Strictly numbers. Billy rolls with the new method, is almost laughed out of the ballpark, until ... the A's start winning, and winning, and winning some more.

Moneyball is a modest, talks a lot film. It watches Pitt ponder and then sweat out his team's games. He battles the coach, played by a gruff Phillip Seymour Hoffman (always fabulous), and he helps Brand understand the glory of baseball, the dream, and that the key is winning that last game. Plenty of chuckles, angst, and baseball in this film. Brad Pitt ambles through it all with grace and all-American heart.

Here's to the start of a home-run hitting fall movie season.

(review published for the Little Paper of San Saba - a town without a theater)