Leap Of Faith Now Available At The Kindle Store

This year I've decided to make my new book available through the Kindle store well ahead of the April 13th Launch Party, so as to allow any eager beavers out there the opportunity to read it before attending the party.  If you've got a Kindle device or any type of eReader that can handle that format (e.g. the iPad), you can buy the book here if you like.  Just remember: no spoilers at the party for everyone else!

Quantum Entanglement And The Free Will Loophole

While it's certainly true that you don't have to understand heady stuff like this fascinating Nova article about quantum entanglement and how it relates to free will in order to enjoy my new book, Leap of Faith, it's also true that it couldn't hurt!  Just sayin'.

Leap Of Faith Is In The House!

It took slightly longer than we expected to get to the front door (after being told they'd be delivered last week), but the initial print run of Leap of Faith has arrived!  It's always exciting getting those boxes and realizing, as we open them, that I really have added another book to my growing "body of work."  Dana Chapman's front cover looks awesome, the back cover is now finalized at last, and the 265 pages between them are just waiting to be discovered and enjoyed by readers over the coming months (and years).  I couldn't be prouder of the way Leap of Faith turned out and I can't wait for others to experience it.  

The Book Launch Party is now just 27 days away...

Bishops, Singers, Venuses And Rabbits

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of social activity for this so-called shut-in.  In late Feb, Vicki and I joined our friend Sue for Billy Bishop Goes to War, a funny, musical look at the life and exploits of our most famous World War I veteran.  I enjoyed it much more than I usually would a musical and learned tons of details about Bishop that I'd failed to pick up previously.

A few days later we headed out to a concert by Bashia Bulat, an extremely talented Canadian singer-songwriter whose latest album is now up for a Juno.  This was arranged by our friend Tim, the same person responsible for my love of Radiohead and Magnolia Electric Company.  The show was great, as Ms. Bulat wowed us with her voice and mastery of several different instruments, most impressively the autoharp.  Plus we got to catch up with Tim who we rarely see any more.

Last weekend, Tammy was in town to help us celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary, and the three of us met up with Sue once again for another play, Venus in Fur.  Sue had read a very glowing review of the show by none other than friend-of-the-blog, Peter J, and thought it was something we might enjoy.  Holy crap, did we ever!  All four of us were blown away by the performances of Justin Peter Quesnelle and Francesca Ranalli as well as the complex and delightful script by David Ives. It's a two-person act that features a play-within-a-play as it examines the give-and-take nature of relationships in a very extreme sense.  Had we not seen it on Closing Night, Vicki and I would almost certainly have paid a return trip later in the run, it was just that impressive.

And last night, to mark Vicki's birthday we headed downtown once again to see that same JP Quesnelle in White Rabbit Red Rabbit.  Not only does WRRR feature the producing debut of Peter J (him again!) but it also is structured such that no performer is ever allowed to do it more than once.  That's right: the dozen shows scheduled here in town this month will each have a different local artist in them!  How crazy is that?  The play, written by Iranian Nassim Soleimanpour as a way to "travel the world when he couldn't," can only ever be performed by someone who's never done it before.  Not only that, the actor or actress only receives the script as he or she walks on stage that night.  No preparation is allowed, as it's designed to be as much an act of discovery for the artist as it is for the audience.  Among the many treats of seeing Justin do White Rabbit Red Rabbit was watching the wheels turn in his head as he encountered each new twist or revelation in the script, page by page, in real-time.  Fortunately for those of us in attendance, he was more than up to the challenge!  There's even a small amount of audience participation involved in WRRR, and I was lucky enough to take part in it near the end.  That was a wonderful experience, and a terrific night overall.  We're already making plans to go see WRRR again, with (naturally) another top-notch artist on stage.

I'd say that our recent spate of live entertainment has felt like the very best Fringe experiences we've had, and that's a huge compliment.  The local arts scene is definitely alive and thriving right now!

# 37 For # 23

Today is our 23rd wedding anniversary, and Vicki surprised me with a Golden Age issue of Batman, issue # 37.  I was a little worried when I saw the cover, as it looked so familiar to me that I was sure I must already own a copy of it.  She was pretty sure I didn't, however, and eventually I solved the mystery by digging into my closet:

Of course the cover image had seemed totally familiar to me: I'd worn it on my chest dozens of times over the years! What a great treat to now own the comic, as well.

23 years and Vicki still knows how to make me happy and test my memory at the same time...

Unveiling Leap Of Faith

It's time to finally release some information about my 4th novel, Leap of Faith, which arrives on Sunday, April 13th at the Book Launch Party to be held in our home.  I've been very close-mouthed about the book up until now but that's about to change.

First of all, here's the cover, produced by Ms. Dana Chapman of Brantford, Ontario:

As for what Leap of Faith is about, here's the back cover blurb:

While waiting for the bill for her lunch, Maggie Stillwell is asked for directions by a stranger who casually mentions that he's a time traveler.  She naturally assumes he's either joking or crazy, and doesn't give it another thought.  Later that day, however, she receives an email from someone calling himself 'TimeTraveler355' despite the fact that Maggie hadn't even given the stranger her name.  The unexpected email predicts five upcoming events including a political scandal, a rigged election and the bombing of a busy American mall.  At the end of the email is an invitation to meet again at the same diner five days later.  Maggie laughs it off as a strange prank of some sort. 

But then the predictions start coming true... and Maggie slowly begins to confront the possibility that the stranger may be exactly what he claims to be.  If so, however, then what is he doing in 2014 and why is he so interested in her?

Leap of Faith, the fourth novel from Matt L. Holmes, takes the reader on an amazing journey of discovery as its female protagonist attempts to come to terms with the bizarre series of events suddenly unfolding in her life.  Prepare to have your mind blown by each new development in this tale of lost love and leaps of faith.

Mr. Holmes, author of Game Over, No Brother of Mine and Old Wounds, has crafted a wild ride that will force readers to challenge their assumptions at every turn. 

And with that, you may now discuss...

Interesting Thoughts About Quantum Mechanics And Parallel Universes

I eat this stuff up with a spoon, personally!

Huge Anti-Trust Case In California

Having spent over 20 years in the software business, this article about Apple, Google and other high tech Silicon Valley companies agreeing not to poach from each other in order to keep employee salaries from ballooning just blows my mind.  Greed really does rule the day whenever money's on the table, doesn't it?  Even obscenely large quantities of money.

Boy, That Was Stupid!

A couple of days ago I received the two print draft copies of Leap of Faith that I'd ordered the Friday before.  I was naturally very excited to see the package arrive, and Vicki and I gathered around the kitchen table while I cut open the box and pulled back the cover sheet to reveal... a pair of AgileMan-sized copies!  Somehow I'd accidentally selected 8.5" x 11" instead of 6" x 9" for the format, though I can't imagine why.  Anyway, the novel looks quite ridiculous in that oversize format, so I've had to place another order to get the right size so we can see what Leap of Faith will actually look like.  The good news is that the initial order took less than a week to complete and we're still six weeks away from publishing.  Or, to put it in project management terms: we've left ourselves some slack in the schedule!  Whew!

But what a stupid thing for me to have done...

Bitcoin: By The Privileged, For The Privileged

This is a good look at the Bitcoin controversy that's been brewing lately, for those who might be interested.

The Changing Face Of The Comic Book Industry

I blogged a few months ago about the fact that my comic reading tastes are changing after more than 40 years in the hobby.  Specifically, I'm enjoying more creator-owned titles and fewer of the big publishing house releases (notably Marvel/Disney and DC/Warners).  I think there's a huge difference in quality between those two camps right now, with the creativity shown by the former group absolutely eclipsing anything coming out of the Big Boys.  There's only so much you can do with corporately-owned figures like Batman, Superman,  Spider-Man and the X-Men, after all, and only so much creative energy that a truly talented writer or artist is likely to spend on stories about them.  Titles like Velvet, Saga, Fatale and Lazarus, on the other hand, are all creator-owned and awash with new ideas and revolutionary stories.  All four of those titles, along with the monstrously-successful Walking Dead series, by the way, are published by Image Comics.

Recently, the head honcho at Image, Eric Stephenson, delivered a speech to a gathering of comic book retailers (i.e. a roomful of Comic Store Guys, in Simpsons-speak) that I think is brilliant and dead-on.  He talks about what it will take to bring new readers to the comics industry, highlighting the importance of being innovative in terms of character and story rather than in packaging and hype.  This sort of thinking, which he's obviously backing up in practice as shown by the incredible quality coming out of Image right now (in sharp contrast to the crap they used to be known for back in the 1990s), has the potential to revolutionize the comic book industry over the next few years if it catches on.

How's That War On Drugs Coming Along, Anyway?

I got into a lengthy debate with a friend of mine a couple years ago on the topic of legalizing marijuana.  I was for it; she was against it.  My argument was basically that weed doesn't seem any worse to me than alcohol (I don't partake of either, personally) and so, if one's legal, the other should be, too.  I also pointed out how many people were ruined for life because of the single crime of possessing grass in relatively small quantities, especially under "War on Drugs" laws such as "3 Strikes."  I'm all for dangerous criminals being locked up, but wanting to get high seems no more deserving of jail time to me than wanting to get drunk (again: I have no wish to do either).  And if downing a few beers was enough to put you behind bars, most of the people I know would have criminal records today.

Anyway, recent trends in Canada and the U.S. have definitely moved in the direction of legalization of pot.  I see this as a positive development, though I know not everyone feels that way.  However, Vicki brought my attention to a recent article in which the topic is examined in much more detail than anything I could come up with.  One aspect of it particularly struck me, which is how utterly ineffective the "War on Drugs" has been in reducing the addiction rate in the States.  They show a graph (reproduced below) with a blue line indicating the addiction rate and a green line representing how much money has been spent on the effort.  Missing, I suppose, is the incarceration rate, which has skyrocketed in the U.S. thanks to severe laws aimed at deterring drug use but ultimately only serving to make the privatized prison system in America ridiculously profitable.  Anyway, here's the graph:

Like gay marriage, this is another social transformation that I believe is headed in the right direction at long last.

Is 2014 Going To Be The Year Of Godzilla?

Or could we at least finally be getting a good Godzilla flick?  The latest trailer would seem to suggest that possibility.

And considering the caliber of several of the actors in it - Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, David Strathairne and Ken Watanabe -  I think we can reasonably hope this one will be far superior to the Matthew Broderick version from about a decade ago.

I'd personally love to lay some money down to see an awesome Godzilla on the big screen!

The Sum Of All Positive Integers? That's Easy: It's - 1/12

I'll admit I was skeptical about this when I first heard about it, but it turns out to actually be true:

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + ... (to infinity) = - 1/12

While it's a completely counter-intuitive result - how can adding a set of strictly positive values possibly end up in a negative sum? - a relatively simple proof of it shows that it's true.  I'm even more impressed by the fact, referred to in the linked video, that quantum physics appears to point in this same direction.  I love stuff like this!

I have to say this reminds me of an unrelated phenomenon in computer science: because of the way numeric values are stored, a positive value that's constantly increased by 1 will (barring intervention by the operating system to prevent it) eventually go from a very high positive value to a very small negative value because of the high order bit eventually flipping from positive to negative (from 0 to 1).  Who knew that was reflecting, in a bizarre way, a functionality of the real world where infinite values are concerned?

3rd Draft Of Leap of Faith Is Now Done

Today I completed the third draft of Leap of Faith, my fourth novel, and ordered a couple of paper copies so Vicki and I can see what it looks like in printed form.  I'll be unveiling its lovely cover shortly as well as the back cover blurb that will give everyone at least a sense of what the story's about.

This latest version includes all of the edits and feedback that I received from editor Ernesto over the past several weeks as well as changes that Vicki suggested from her second full pass of the manuscript.  Ernesto succinctly summed up his assessment of Leap of Faith as "Great story, great twists, interesting characters."  I can't add much to that!

I'll be sending out my usual pre-order email about the book within the next week or two.  As this story is longer than my usual fare, it's naturally going to be a more expensive book to produce.  Not to worry: I'll be sticking to my usual $20 price tag, as that's just the easiest figure for all concerned.  Which means, of course, that my profit per book will be correspondingly less this time around, making it even more important that people let me know if they want a copy ahead of time.  The initial order is always the largest and therefore my best opportunity to save a little money by upping the quantity ordered and receiving a bigger discount.

Also of interest to some of you out there: the launch party for Leap of Faith is looking likely to happen on Sunday, April 13th, although that date's not 100% just yet.  Once we've firmed that up, I'll let everyone know for sure. A big turnout at the party always starts things off on the right foot, so hopefully we'll get a good crowd this year.

American Version Of Broadchurch Coming

As Bleeding Cool reports, an Americanization of the great British series Broadchurch is being filmed, with David Tennant reprising his dysfunctional cop role while Breaking Bad's Anna Gunn takes over as the female detective.  This version is apparently called Gracepoint, presumably the name of the small community where the murder takes place, as was the case with Broadchurch.  The original UK series was excellent, with only the revelation of the killer's identity and motivation at the very end being a little weak.  Tennant was outstanding in it, and of course I'm a huge fan of Anna Gunn and her years as Skyler White on Breaking Bad.  So this new miniseries looks extremely appealing, and one of the few compelling reasons for me to invest myself in a new Fox show in the fall.

P.S. Thanks to Tammy for encouraging Vicki, Emma and me to give Broadchurch a chance when it showed up on Showcase last year.

I Have A 60-Year-Old Brother (I Feel Old!)

Yes, it's true: my brother Richard is 60 years old today, and that does make me feel old.  The good news, of course, is that he's way older!  So there's that, at least.

Many happy returns to the birthday boy on this, his special day.

An Open Letter To Executives Leading Agile Transformations

Thanks to the Man from Mars, I saw this wonderful open letter written by Brian Irwin.  In it, he lists 10 pieces of advice for executives who are leading the introduction of Agile within their organization.  I think all of his points are excellent (and wish I'd seen them back in 2005 when we were preparing to go Agile at TV Works Canada) but I think two of them are especially important and relevant, based on what I've seen over the past 9 years:

5. Completely drop discussions of "resource allocation" and speak only of "team availability."

In my role as Agile consultant, I've repeatedly seen organizations make the mistake of believing that they can slice resources up into neat little sections, dedicating person A to project X at 30%, project Y at 30% and project Z at 40%, for example.  Despite all kinds of research showing the overwhelming cost to productivity imposed by multitasking, management types continue to behave as if resource allocations like that will somehow prove effective.  And even beyond that issue, there's also problems with team unity and priority-setting that are introduced when individuals are split over multiple fronts in that manner.

7. Give high praise for "complete" features only.

This point really speaks to me.  When I've gone into various organizations to do my Agile 101 training session, one of the course concepts that often meets with at least some resistance from both management and team members is the "done done done" principle that I preach.  This is the idea that there are only two % values that can be assigned to a feature: 0% and 100%.  I really try to drive home the point that saying a feature is "75% complete" is absolutely ludicrous, for the simple reason that you never know how much more work is involved until it's finished.  As an example of why this is true, consider how often the testing phase of a feature extends on and on and on, as more and more bugs are found as more and more fixes are made.  For that reason, at TV Works Canada we hit upon the notion of insisting that features be "done done done" (nothing at all left to do, not even documentation or last little tweaks) in order for that deliverable to be considered complete within the iteration.

Anyway, it's a very good article that I encourage anyone involved with Agile to read.   

AMC May Yet Bring Us A Preacher TV Series

Anyone who's read the comic series by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon knows just how amazing Preacher really is... And yet every attempt to bring it to the big or small screen has seemed cursed up to now.  Nevertheless, AMC is still trying to figure out a way to insert Jesse Custer and friends into its Breaking Bad-less TV lineup, and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.  For those who think that The Walking Dead was the coolest concept to ever come out of a comic book, Preacher could easily blow that misconception out of the water if it were done right.  It's chock-full of colourful characters and unexpected plot twists that blew my mind when I was reading it in the 90s, and I'd dearly love to see how it works as a TV series.

And The 2nd Draft Is Now Done

February 5, 2014: Leap of Faith Draft 2 is complete!  I can safely say the second version is an improvement over the first, as I tightened things up quite a bit and reduced many of the worst offenders in the "word overuse" category.  As usual at this stage of the project, I spend half my time thinking it's a really good book and the other half convinced it's utter crap.  And so it goes.

Soon I'll have my first feedback from outside of our home, though, as seafaring Ernesto has been sent an electronic copy and will be editing/reviewing it over the next few weeks, hopefully.  That's both exciting and terrifying, for all the obvious reasons.  Oh well: everything's fixable, as Vicki always says.