BRAINPAN LEAKAGE

So… Have any of you read any of the Rowan Gant Investigations e-books? You know, the electronic versions of the book. In particular, I believe these e-books are in convenient PDF format.

If so, good on you! I hope you enjoyed them. Now, let’s settle up-

For each Rowan Gant e-book title you have read, you need to send $3.95 (the average price of an e-book) to my publisher, WillowTree Press. The address is as follows: WillowTree Press, PO Box 142414, St. Louis, MO 63114-0414. Make your check payable to WillowTree Press. Please include a note listing the titles for which you are paying.

Why?

Because, there are NO Rowan Gant e-books… Yes, there ARE some PDF files floating around out there. I just found out about it today. Apparently, they have been floating around for a while now. In fact, long enough that they have been downloaded thousands of times. Illegally.

Yeah. ILLEGALLY.

And guess what? My publisher hasn’t seen a dime. Know what that means? I haven’t either. Yeah… they didn’t get paid, so I didn’t get paid.

Now… If you are one of the e-book readers, the address is listed above. Send your money in so that my publisher can pay me. If your excuse for downloading them is that you wanted to sample my books before buying, well, that’s what libraries are for. If you don’t have a library card, well, you know, there’s also a chapter sampler on my website available for download. That would have given you a sample…

You’ll have to excuse me, but I’m pissed right now. People seem to think authors are flush with cash and that we don’t need the royalties. Well, here’s how it is… It’s our friggin’ paycheck, people. How would you like it if I stopped by your place of employment on Friday, picked up YOUR paycheck and put it in MY pocket even though you did the work?

Yeah, wouldn’t be so nice now would it?

For those of you who have NOT pirated my books, and actually purchase them legally, I’m terribly sorry you had to listen to this… Please know that I truly appreciate you.

But, for now, I’m one pissed off Murv…

There are times when it seriously sucks to be the Dad.

I suppose I should back up just a bit and give you some background as to why I make that statement, because I suspect most of you know I am all about my kid. So, let me fill you in…

Some of you may or may not be aware that the animals in my novels – those being the two dogs and the three cats who share the abode with the main characters, Rowan and Felicity – are actually based on my own four-legged cohabitators. The dogs, as I have mentioned in the past, have since gone on to the other side, but they still live on in my books. So too, do the felines in many senses, as they are composites of the numerous cats we have rescued over the years. Emily – the cats in the novels are named Emily (Dickinson), Dickens (Charles), and Salinger (J.D.), go figure – is based on the real life felines, Data and Buffer, both calicos like their fictional composite. Data left us last year, peacefully, in her sleep. She was something on the order of a million years old… Well, around 18+ years to be a little more exact, but for a cat, that’s a fair piece of time. Buffer, however, was still around – until this weekend.

Buffer was only 14, but that is still a good lifetime for a feline. To be honest, where I come from, farm cats rarely made it past 5 or 6 years, but I digress as usual. The especially bad part about losing Buffer this weekend is that she went outside and got into an altercation with a vehicle.

The vehicle won.

EK and the Spawn were out shopping, which was fortunate, because I was the one who found her instead of them. As you can guess, when you are talking Feline vs. Auto, the results aren’t very pretty.

So, I found her… And, I got to be the one who cleaned up the remains, dug the hole, tried to convince my wife that the animal hadn’t suffered – though I really couldn’t know that for sure – and help console an 8 year old who misses her friend. Then, I got to toss and turn that night because the image of the aftermath played back for me each time I closed my eyes. And, you know, as it happens I miss the cat too. But, I have to be the strong one.

Hence, why it sometimes sucks to be the Dad, especially when a shovel an a shoebox are involved…

(sigh)

I suppose I should try to end this on a slightly cheerier note, so here goes…

Speaking of pets, I’m sure most everyone is aware of the latest Myspace rage, that being purchasing and selling your friends as “human pets”. Well, it seems I was purchased by an old friend, and she has since sold me… Since then I have been gifted, traded, and sold all over the place. But, just so all the bases are covered, I’ll mention here that if you purchase me, unlike Morrison, I am housebroken and fairly low maintenance.

BTW, I really like Pizza and beer, but I don’t do tricks. Well, I do, but that’s a whole ‘nother story…

More to come…

Murv