Marcus Galloway Speaks at Peru State College

On Tuesday, March 25, in the ARC Conference Room, the Creative Writing Series and the English Club sponsored Marcus Galloway's presentation at Peru State College. As Marcus Galloway's web page linked here indicates, the author makes his living from writing. As he explained to his attentive audience, Marcus writes approximately a novel a month and presently author's two Western series, The Accomplice and The Man From Boot Hill.

Recently, as he related to the audience, his hard work resulted in the chance to write a Dark Fantasy and Horror series, something he has wanted to do since he began writing professionally.

You can view a slide show of Marcus Galloway's visit by clicking
here.



Mara Giles from the Nebraska Writers Guild was instrumental in arranging for Mr. Galloway to visit Peru State College.

IAFA 2008 in Orlando

This year, the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts Conference (IAFA) moved from Ft. Lauderdale to Orlando, to the Airport Marriott Hotel. At this site, I posted a slide show of images from this year's gathering that featured Guests of Honor Vernor Vinge and Greer Gilman--and Guest Scholar Roger Luckhurst. By all accounts, everyone enjoyed the new hotel and crowned the conference a great success. A flu bug nailed me but not until after I had given my presentation on a couple children's stories by Ted Hughes, The Iron Giant and the Iron Woman. And I also serve as Treasurer for the IAFA, which keeps me very busy throughout the conference.

You can enjoy the slide show or watch the following video made from the still photographs previously linked--if you prefer, click here to watch the video on You Tube.

An Afternoon at Squaw Creek

Snow Geese at Squaw Creek

On Thursday, March 6, Linda (my wife) and I visited Squaw Creek National Wildlife Reserve. A good deal of the water remain frozen; however, the Muskrats emerge from winter relaxation, and masses of Snow Geese cover the area.

To enlarge a photograph, simply click on the image.

The White Pelicans and Yellow-headed Blackbirds I hope to photograph this spring will probably arrive in a couple weeks.

I will visit and add to the slide show, which includes a number of other birds, including Trumpeter Swans (in the distance), Coots, a Bald Eagle, Canada Geese, and the Red-wing Blackbird filled trees depicted in the following picture:

Though jumpy in places (I will bring a tripod next time), this brief video will give you a good idea of the huge numbers of Snow Geese presently that presently visit the area, filling the Squaw Creek air with impressive goose music.

I look forward to my next visit and will add more photographs to the slide show linked previously and perhaps refine the video.

Green Eggs and Ham in Tarkio, Missouri

On Monday, March 3, Chet Harper (retired Professor of Drama from Peru State College) and I went once again to Tarkio Elementary School where for the fifth year in a row, we took part in their Dr. Seuss Celebrations. The teachers and students keep inviting us back, and we enjoy our annual visits and the festivities in which we take part.



This time around, Chet read The Cat in the Hat to the students, who sported the appropriate head adornments as they listened to the story. After much laughter and my reading of Hop and Pop, everyone got into the jumping and twisting required to unpop the plastic. As the images indicate, everyone enjoyed the afternoon celebration, which included a film of Daisy Maisy--and then the youngsters in kindergarten and first grade grew flowers from atop their heads.





As the images gathered on this slide show from the day's events indicate, all the students and adults got in the Dr. Seuss act and hopped and popped with glee. Everyone also ate green eggs and ham with cup cakes afterwards. Before the concluding snacks, Chet and I entertained the red and white capped audience with our reading of Green Eggs and Ham.

And, yes, as the following video of the performance indicates, we admit to a lot of ham in the act.