More Than Good Enough Now Available To Buy Online

My latest novel, More Than Good Enough, is now for sale on Amazon Canada (as well as in the U.S. and the United Kingdom) in your choice of Kindle or printed formats.  It's almost 500 pages long so the price is a bit higher than usual but it should keep you entertained for about twice as long as any of my other novels.

Happy reading!

More Details On My New Novel

There's now a book launch party for my 6th novel, More Than Good Enough, scheduled for Sunday, November 26th.  If you're interested in attending but haven't received an invitation, please let me know.

In the meantime, here's a brief description of the new book:

Weighing in at almost 500 pages, More Than Good Enough is by far the longest story I've ever told.  It follows the life of Miles Galloway, starting with his childhood summers at the family cottage and running all the way through the early days of his career as a journalist.  As he grows up, Miles struggles to understand why some people are never content, no matter how much they have, while others seem able to find joy in the most meager of existences.  He also comes face-to-face with some of the darkest aspects of humanity, and begins to question his own personal set of values.

The lovely cover above was designed and created by Mark Wagter, who did the same duties on Hour of the Wolf.

Coming in November: More Than Good Enough

More details to follow...

A 25th Wedding Anniversary In Paradise Part 2

Having gotten to Maui and acquired our rental car, all that was left to do was to start enjoying our vacation.  The only problem was: it was almost 2:00 a.m. local time (or 7 a.m. to us) and we were dead tired, so instead we headed to bed!

The next morning, we finally got to check out the view from our hotel room in the daylight:

Not bad!

Then we headed out for breakfast at the nearby Beach House at the Sands of Kahana, about a 3-minute walk away, and after that did a grocery run.  Our hotel room was nicely set up with a full kitchen: fridge, stove, oven, microwave and toaster.  This allowed us to eat every subsequent breakfast "at home" as well as a handful of lunches once we'd stocked up.

We didn't do a whole lot more that first Wednesday in Maui, other than exploring the area, eating meals and watching some of the US primaries coverage on TV (this was the day after Super Tuesday).  We were still pretty tired from the 24 hours of travel and hassle the previous day.

On Thursday, though, we began a routine of getting up early and finding a beach to enjoy.  This would be our pattern for the rest of the stay, sometimes exploring new beaches and other times returning to ones we'd already hit.  Vicki kept track of the number of different beaches we got to and it was up to almost a dozen by the time we were packing up on March 15th.  Our favourite ones were always wherever the biggest waves could be found, and there were several of thoseL Napili, DT Fleming and the Big Beach at Makena.

    

As you can sort of see in the videos, Vicki enjoyed body surfing on those big waves while I was more the "stand where they break and have them crash over you, tossing you around like a straw in a hurricane" type.  We both had a ton of fun though,, and our beach mornings were always the highlight of each day.

Oh, and that "getting up early" approach started innocently enough, with us going to bed early on that first Wednesday and then waking up around 5 a.m. the next day.  However, it soon dawned on us that there were several advantages to staying on that schedule - not only could we remain on an Ontario timetable which might reduce the jet lag when we got home, but the beaches were much less crowded in the morning than they were later in the day.  And with the kind of temperatures we were getting, it tended to be perfect on the beach until about noon, after which things would usually get hot.  Once we realized that, we stuck with going bed before 9 p.m. and getting up between 5 and 6 each morning.

A 25th Wedding Anniversary In Paradise Part 1

Vicki and I have been planning to return to Maui for our 25th anniversary for over a year now, and finally the time had come for it!  Vicki did all of the bookings, arranging for us to be on the Hawaiian island from March 1st through the 15th, with our anniversary right in the middle on the 8th.  We even went back to the same hotel we'd stayed in back in 2005, as we'd liked it so much.

We drove to Detroit on February 29th after dropping Jonesy off with our friend Susan.  He wasn't crazy about the car ride across town, but we knew that after he survived that ordeal it was going to be 16 days of fun for him, getting to know a new place and a new person, as well as being treated like a prince.

Our flight the next day was scheduled for noon but we'd wanted to get to Detroit on the 29th so we wouldn't have to worry about what kind of weather we might get on the 1st.  As it turned out, that was a wise decision on Vicki's part, as a big winter storm was forecast for here for the 1st and we would've been scrambling to figure out if we could get up early enough to beat it or somehow drive through it.  Instead, we woke up in our hotel room and had a leisurely breakfast before catching the shuttle to the airport and arriving with plenty of time to spare.  Oh, and it was carry-on only for this trip, something I'd seen Vicki and Tammy pull off for their trip to Italy last year.  Vicki only winced a little over that particular detail!

We got into Maui right around midnight local time, roughly an hour late thanks to a "problem with one of the restrooms" on our second flight out of Seattle.  Because we'd been scheduled to arrive late in the day to begin with, Vicki couldn't use any of the big name car rental agencies, as all of them closed for business by 11 p.m.  Instead, we were getting our vehicle from a bunch of surfer hipsters called Maui Budget Rentals.  To their credit, they handled our even-later-than-expected arrival with exceptional grace, showing up in good spirits within minutes of when we called after finally locating a pay phone in the Maui airport.  And so, by around 1 a.m. Maui time, or 6 a.m. according to our body clocks, we were in our red 2009 Mazda 3 looking for highway 30 to take us to our hotel in Kahana.

  

My brief relationship with Mazda did not make me a fan.  The unfamiliar polygon-shaped gear shift arrangement, combined with the fact that it was pitch black outside and I'd been up for 24 hours straight, led to me putting the car into "M" rather than "D" when I started it going, and therefore driving the first mile or so in first gear.  I'd never before encountered a car with both Automatic and Manual transmissions, and as luck would have it I'd accidentally put it in Manual mode.  Luckily, the high revs of the engine clued me into there being something wrong with my choice, and at the next stoplight I figured out how to get it into Drive rather than Manual.  This was only the first of several surprises our little red piece of crap had in store for us, as the trunk refused to open for us when we got to the hotel, despite us trying everything we could think of.  We were about to pull our luggage out through the back seat when the trunk magically opened for us on our final attempt, after which we never put anything into it again.  For more fun, about 20% of the time when either of us would take the key out of the ignition, the car would beep and indicate that the doors were open, even when they weren't.  When it was in that state, it was impossible to lock the doors with the key fob... seriously?!  Through trial and error, I eventually discovered that when it did that, putting the key back into the ignition and then immediately taking it back out again would fix the problem,  Yeah, that's good design!  And, as if all that weren't enough, on our final weekend in Maui, the Tire Pressure Low indicator light suddenly came on, accompanied by an ear-splitting series of beeps, necessitating us quickly stopping at a gas station to put some air into each of the tires.  Needless to say, this car was not my friend for the two weeks I was in it...

More to follow soon.  You know: like actual vacation stuff!

Sixth Novel Update

It still takes me aback, momentarily, whenever I happen to land on the fact that I'm currently working on my sixth novel (and ninth book).  It doesn't seem possible, somehow, that I've managed to stick with that many writing projects over the past almost-decade.  And yet I have, with a lot of help from people like Vicki, my brother Rich, editor Ernesto and many others.

Which brings me back to novel # 6, now into its second chapter of writing.  Much to my delight, Tammy offered to act as the initial editor on this book last month.  Her workload is more reasonable at the new job with the Ontario Securities Commission, allowing her to commit to something as time-consuming as editing a book in her spare hours.  I know from past experience that she's an excellent editor, having gotten the benefit of her critical eye on No Brother of Mine, way back when.

For that reason, I was quite excited to receive her edits on Chapter 1 of the new book yesterday.  Vicki had read it already and offered some valuable feedback, but I knew Tammy's review of the material would go much deeper... and it did.  She spotted and excised dozens of redundant phrases, pointed out both the strongest and the weakest passages, and gave me reason to think I might actually be on the right path once again, for a first draft.

It's become increasingly clear to me that this is going to be my longest and most in-depth story to date, and I wouldn't be surprised if it weighs in at over 400 pages by the time I'm done.  (Chapter 1, for example, is a chunky 30 pages).  As always, I'm firmly convinced that this is going to be my best novel yet, as otherwise - what would be the point?

More updates later, as usual...

Christmas Eve Bike Ride!

This afternoon, with no snow to be seen and a temperature right around 8 C, I was able to make the bike ride to the comic store probably as late in the year as I ever have: Dec 24th!  I could've done without the 50 km/hr wind gusts that slowed me down at various points along the way, but overall it was a beautiful day for it.

Potentially Huge Climate Agreement Struck In Paris Last Week

The Paris Agreement on the reduction of greenhouse emissions could end up being one of those things that most people ignore while it's happening but which future generations consider among the most significant events of the 21st century.  Good on the world leaders for being able to make it happen!

At the very end of the article there's mention that

"All the countries agreed on demands from the US and European Union for five-year reviews of their emissions reductions – an exercise that had been resisted by China."

This seemingly trivial detail may turn out to be tremendously important, as it provides a framework for what's known as "inspection and adaptation" in the Agile software community.  The inclusion of a frequent, recurring process for seeing how you're doing, what's working and what isn't, allows you to adapt your methodology as you go along.  It takes away the necessity of getting everything just right from the start and empowers you to use whatever you learn along the way to do a better job.

On the other hand, it's particularly sad that the U.S. government is currently so dysfunctional that the agreement had to include wording to prevent the Luddite Republican party from vetoing America's participation in the deal.  Many Canadians like me were embarrassed by PM Stephen Harper's head-up-his-ass leadership over the past decade, but I can't imagine how awful the life of an intelligent citizen of the US must be these days with Donald Trump as the poster boy for one of the ruling parties.

Prime Minister Trudeau In The New York Times

Here's a pretty good article on PM Justin Trudeau from the Times, written by an expat Canadian who clearly knows his history.  And when he states that October's election was "nothing less than an existential struggle over what it means to be Canadian," he absolutely nails it.  Harper made a lot of us ashamed of our country with his pandering-to-the-wealthy, xenophobic, fear-mongering governing style that George W Bush would've approved of.  I don't profess to know how well Trudeau will do as a leader just yet but at least his espoused principles are much more in line with my own, something that clearly wasn't the case with his predecessor and his cronies.

December Biking

Somehow the original post about this got deleted today, so I'm just putting a Reader's Digest version back out here for my own personal records:

I got a bike ride in on Thursday this week, heading downtown for lunch with an old Canada Trust friend.  The temperature was just above freezing but it was sunny and clear, and it doesn't get much better than that in December.  I may even get another ride in this week coming up, as it's supposed to be slightly warmer still.

Last Bike Ride Of The Year?

Today I did the 25-km round trip downtown to the comic store, picking up 3 weeks' worth of comics (5 books) and getting in a substantial bike ride for the first time over that 3-week stretch.  Now that I'm no longer doing a weekly spin class, I really feel it when I get back onto the road after a layoff like that.  I can only imagine what it's going to be like in the spring when I've had several months off...

Anyway, today was a beautiful day for it: 10 C, sunny with a moderate amount of wind to cool me down whenever I needed it.  I don't know if I'll get any more opportunities before the snow comes for good, but if today was the final ride of 2015, at least it was a really good one.

9th Anniversary Of This Here Blog

While it certainly doesn't get the traffic that it used to, Kimota94's Place is still up and operating, 9 long years after I started it with a post entitled Misadventures in Blogland back on Oct 1, 2006.  A lot sure has happened since then:

• I've enjoyed 7 years of retirement so far, and have never regretted getting out of the rat race at 45 for even a moment
• I've written 8 books, starting off with 3 non-fiction before moving into the much more satisfying task of novel-writing
• Vicki has joined me as a retiree after about 15 years of off-and-on contract work
• Tammy's graduated from Western (and the Ivey School of Business) with an HBA, become an accountant and even lived in Australia for almost 2 years
• We've been fortunate enough to get the best cat ever, as Jonesy joined our family a little over 3 years ago
• I've finally tired of being a comic collector, deciding last year to begin selling off and giving away some of the 30,000 comics I'd accumulated over the course of 40+ years
• I've managed to keep in touch with the work friends who meant the most to me from both of my last two jobs, even after 14 and 7 years, respectively
• Life has gone on, as it always tends to do

Anyway, I'm not sure how much longer I'll continue to 'maintain' this blog, even at the reduced level I've sunk to lately, though it's already outlasted any reasonable prediction I might've made about its lifespan way back in October of 2006.  So that's something, anyway.

Life In The Serial Killer Capital Of The World

I wasn't actually living here in London, Ontario during the 50s through the early 80s, and now I'm kind of glad that I wasn't.  This chilling Guardian article details how our lovely little city was once the serial killer capital of the world, a distinction no city would ever want to hold.

Awesome Post By A Mormon Lawyer On The 10th Anniversary Of Marriage Equality In Canada

This Mormon Press article is definitely worth a read, both for its thoroughness in discussing the balance Canada has struck for the past 10 years between ensuring religious freedom as well as the rights of those whom certain religious representatives often seek to subjugate, and for its calming tone toward our neighbours to the south on their own recent entry into the 21st century where marriage equality is concerned.

As Ms. Oviatt puts it, "a decade into same sex marriage, the moral fabric of Canada is as strong as ever [and] families continue to be at the heart of Canadian society."  Which of course comes as a surprise to absolutely no Canadian except those few religious extremists who lack the ability to see beyond the end of their own judgmental noses.

Joining The Costco Movement

Two recent discoveries have led us to finally get a Costco membership after years of resisting the urge.

The first was that I've been hearing Costco held up as an example of a big chain store that actually treats its employees half-decently, unlike Walmart (which I've always refused to shop at).  I'd always assumed it was just as lousy an employer as Walmart but apparently it manages to offer discounted prices while still allowing its workers to earn a living wage.  Yay for Costco!

Also, our local 'Great Canadian Superstore' has gone downhill considerably over the past year or two, especially in terms of keeping their shelves well-stocked with the items I'm most likely to buy (bread, wraps, bagels, various brands of frozen foods, etc.).  The joke in our household has become that we'd better not like anything we buy there too much or else they'll soon stop carrying it.  It's gotten to the point where about half the time I go there to get a fresh loaf of bread I come home empty-handed, either because there wasn't any to be found at all or because whatever was there had a Best Before Date that was only a day or two out from the present.  I eat a fair bit of bread but even so, I need it to last for at least a week!

All of which primed me for saying to Vicki this week, "If you're at all interested in getting a Costco membership, it's fine by me..."  Needless to say, it wasn't long at all before she came home with one!  One of her first purchases was a big roll of plastic wrap (like our sister-in-law Meena has!) that will hopefully put an end to me cursing the crappy Glad Wrap that tangles up in my hands and never clings to anything I put it on.  She also bought a whole lot of pork (tenderloin and roasts) that we'll be enjoying all through the summer, based on the size of it.

Next week, I'm going to see if I can find bread at Costco, though Vicki's already warned me that I'll probably have to buy two loaves at a time.  Even so, that'd still be better than not being able to buy any at the so-called Superstore.

Taking A Twitter Break

It might seem I've been taking a blogging break, given the dearth of posts here lately... but really I just haven't had much to say.  Life has been good of late, as it often is, and that makes for boring updates I think.

But the one little kernel of news I thought I should record for posterity is that I closed my Twitter tab in the browser several days ago and haven't yet felt inclined to re-open it.  I'm not a Twitter-hater in general, but it does certainly seem to skew quite heavily to the noise side of the signal-to-noise scale sometimes, and so I'm taking a break from it.  How long it will last, I can't say.  But so far I've been enjoying not knowing what everyone else is talking about, not reading the same tired, old attempts to be topical and cool, and not wasting even a single moment of my day skimming through the cruft, looking for something to reward my attention.

Pool Season 2015 Now Officially Open

With the sudden arrival of summer today (seems like just last week it was winter!), we bit the bullet this morning and began the chore of opening the pool.  As of right now, the winter cover is off, cleaned and ready to be packed away for 4 or 5 months; a lot (but certainly not all) of the algae and worms have been vacuumed off the bottom of the pool; the water that was oily black 8 hours ago is now light blue in the shallow end and nearly-light green in the deep end, thanks to 2 kg of chlorine having been added; and the water temp is up from 55 F to 60 F, courtesy of our 4-year-old heater that started up perfectly on the first try.  Tomorrow we'll do one more vacuum of the deep end and then unleash the robot on it to do numerous passes without any human guidance (we just have to clean out its filter on a regular basis as it gets clogged quickly this time of year).

Optimistically, if all goes well, I could see taking a dip by the weekend.  Of course, where pools are concerned, things rarely go all well.  But a guy can always dream, can't he?

Poopy Bird Deterrents In Place

After last year's successful foray against the annual poopy bird crapfest, we believe we've found a winning strategy and so of course we're deploying it again this year.  The strings are up, zigzagging across the (still-closed) pool, and hopefully they'll be enough to keep the migrating grackles from dropping the feces of their young onto our deck.  We'll know within the next few weeks, anyway.

Potentially Huge Breakthrough For Alzheimer's Discovered

This news out of Australia seems extremely promising: a team there has discovered a way to use ultrasound waves to break up the material that blocks the neurons in Alzheimer's patients and causes their memory issues.  Tests with lab rats saw improved memory functions in 75% of the treated animals, which is an amazingly good result.  Considering how devastating this disease is to so many elderly men and women and their loved ones, this could prove to be a game-changer, for sure.

Still Biking At 52

I got my first bike ride of the year in today, pedaling my 2-year-old Rideau downtown to drop off my income tax return while it was -4 C (-8 C with the wind chill).  I had worried that too much of the way there would still be under ice or snow, but really the only portion like that was the final little park before the King Street bridge (right downtown).  I took a side street off Wharncliffe to bypass that section and made it to the bridge just fine.

I expect that every subsequent ride I'll make over the next 7 or 8 months will be warmer than today's, but it's still good to get that first one out of the way.  Or, as I always think to myself, "Not bad for an old guy."