A beautiful pic!

 

Greetings, Bearers!

In light of the coming game tomorrow, I had to post this.  Go Blue!

See you in the Vein!

J. Dean

Football coming up, and price changes announced.

Greetings, Bearers!

So the waning days of summer are upon us.  Hard to believe fall is just around the corner.  On the one hand I’m happy, because it means that football is starting up: college (Go Blue!), pro (Go Pack Go!) and my son’s Upward flag football league (Go… Titans!?).  But on the other hand, it also means that I’m school-bound again.  Back to the classroom grind 😦

But on another good note that won’t require me to think about teaching right now, Alternate Endings is on its way to being done!  That’s right: soon my collection of short stories will be finished, and I hope to get it out to you in the next month or two.  I’m shooting for the beginning of October at the very latest, but am working my tail off to get it done before then.  One of the funny things about writing that I’ve  learned is that the deadline you set isn’t always the deadline you make.  I don’t know if that’s something unique to me, or if other authors have this trouble, but it’s not fun.  That being said, it’s good to get the work done, and get the stories to you.

As a little treat, I’m also including a short story which serves as a backdrop for the upcoming third novel in the Vein series The Summoning of Kran.  Think of it as a bonus in addition to the other stories included in the collection!

Also, I’m announcing a price change.  As of October 1st, I will be upping the price of my books to $2.99.  Looking at the marketplace, I’m seeing other books go for that much, some of them containing far shorter novels and stories than what I am writing (That’s not a negative criticism by the way; just an observation).  However, as I like to be given fair warning before experiencing drastic changes, I would like to give all of you (and in particular you who have downloaded free samples of the books) some time to get the books before the price raise comes, so if you go to My book links on Smashwords or Amazon between now and September 31st, you’ll still have a chance to buy the first two novels in the Vein for 99 cents!

So take advantage while you still can of the low price, because starting October the deal will be gone! 😀

Okay, back to writing and editing.  Next week I intend to put out another entry in the Vein Omnibus, so watch for it!  And get ready for some football, folks!

See you in the Vein!

J. Dean

Understanding Don McLean’s “American Pie”

Greetings, Bearers!

As a writer, I’m intrigued by the ability of other writers (including songwriters especially) who can craft works rich with symbolism and clever references in their works.  I’m happy to say that I found one such site that details a piece I’ve tried to figure out for some time now: Don McLean’s “American Pie.”

The site’s author does a very good job of explaining the song, verse by verse, and a reading through of the lyrics along with the proposed explanations makes a lot of good sense.  If you happen to like the song, but aren’t quite sure what it’s all about, I highly recommend checking out the site.  Enjoy!

Okay, back to work… or maybe I’ll take a nap..

See you in the Vein!

J. Dean