Climbing Maya on Diet Soap...

Last November, I recorded an interview for the Diet Soap podcast. This week, I'm happy to announce that the episode featuring my interview about my book, Climbing Maya, is available at this location:

http://dietsoap.podomatic.com/entry/2012-01-30T01_51_45-08_00

I hope you enjoy it. Doug Lain puts together a surreal mix of discussion and music and words. Be sure to check out the excerpt from his book, Wave of Mutilation, after the interview! And many thanks to Doug for having me on!

I can now announce...

Everyone is looking for success in their life but how can you be expected to find it if you don't know what it is?


Some time ago, as one friend was dying of leukemia, another friend succumbed to alcoholism, and I found myself unemployed, I decided to find the answer to “What is success?” If it’s different for everyone, why do we have just one term to describe it? Can it really be summed up in one word or do we need to broaden our understanding? And are the avenues of success we are so often sold – wealth, career, family – the answer to the question?

Now, I'm happy to announce that my philosophical memoir on success, Climbing Maya, will be published by Solstice Publishing.

Release dates and other details will follow...

Watch this space...

Sorry I've been so quiet of late. I've been working on some good news. I can't announce it just yet because things could fall apart at any point and then I'd even have to retract this hint that something may be coming so I'll just shut up now...

... but it's going to be pretty big...

Seizure Dog…

Wednesday night, Vicky and I were treated to something new. After she had already spent the previous week being sick and in and out of emergency room vets, Shipoopi revealed to us that she was also epileptic

… and she didn’t do it with a tasteful card, either.

Nope. We’re talking epileptic dog all over the floor.

Vicky scooped up the dog like a commando. “ER Vet! Stat!”

Okay, she might not have yelled “Stat!” but you get the idea.

As it turned out, Shipoopi’s seizure passed before we were in the car and, after a conversation with our vet the next day, we now have her on anti-seizure meds that are supposed to help. And I hope they help soon because we’re talking three nights in a row!

I don’t write just because of how sad I am for the poor dog but also because of how sad I am for our finances. The ER Vet cost a bundle – a big bundle! I don’t know how much more money we can spend on keeping this dog alive. And this bothers me because I have never been the type of person to advocate spending a bundle on keeping a pet alive. I’m usually the first to say “You can get a new one for far less.”

But love does crazy things to people and Vicky and I love Shipoopi. We must – considering how much we’re spending on her. It’s not really a rational train of thought but sometimes you’re not necessarily rational. You just do what you have to do.

So, Shipoopi is now Seizure Dog and she’ll be on seizure meds for the rest of her little life, however long that is… and I hope it’s a very long time.

Belly button logic...

Ken: If you think about it, your belly button is the youngest part of yourself.


Vicky: (disagreeing) Hair.

Ken: True... and skin... and every cell in your body which is replaced every seven years or so...

...
 
Vicky and I often have conversations like this, as strange as they may sound; I'm just glad I found a woman who speaks the same language as me. :-)

STAR WARS XXX: A PORN PARODY-official trailer

... I suppose it was bound to happen...

One night at the vet…

Shipoopi got sick this week and, of course, getting her better cost way more money than you want to know about – it was way more than I wanted to know about, believe me. Right when we’re getting back on our feet – kapow!

Vicky’s attitude is always, “Pay whatever it takes,” and while mine is more like “I have to pay what?!” I know better than to say that. I just look at Vicky with a smile and sign, sign, sign.

Ugh.

While I was sitting here, thinking about what I should write, I realized just how trite it all sounds. I mean, everyone knows someone who has been through the sick pet/sick child/sick whatever experience. It happens. So, I decided not to dwell too much on that.

There’s something else I wanted to mention, though, and it happened the second morning when we were at the emergency room vet. We had to bring Shipoopi in on Sunday night, which was a holiday, and pick her up the next morning, which was also a holiday – and that made getting her to the regular vet pretty damned interesting, too.

We’re there on Monday morning to pick her up – we were told to get there around 6am and through a series of mishaps stayed until after 9am – and Vicky is telling me about how she has to finish payroll for her employees to get paid. I, having nothing else going on in my life (it’s not like I was going to do any writing that morning or, for that matter, at all that day), said to her, “Go home and do it. I can take care of things here.” After a bit of our usual back and forth, she finally went.

And I was alone.

Inside a crowded pet ER. After a while, after I’d run out of things to kill my boredom (even my phone had died so there went that!), I began actually paying attention to the other people there. And it occurred to me that this is the last thing we do. We’re so isolated from each other, we live our lives as if we’re perpetually inside an elevator; at least, that’s how it seems to me.

I witnessed a family lose their pet. I witnessed two women fear for the health of someone they loved. I shared a moment with another couple of women as we both found ourselves caught in the same process. And it slowly began to dawn on me just how wrong it is that we are all so separated in this experience. There were easily 30-35 people in there and so many of us were distanced.

I wish I could say the experience made me a better person or that I was the person I hope to be. No. Not really. I exchanged a little small talk with the two women whose dog was also sick but that was about it. It did remind me, though, that I need to work harder at that. I tend to instinctively isolate myself and live within my own bubble and, in those instances when I’m sharing an experience with others, I need to remember to step outside that bubble and connect.

That’s all I wanted to say.

A look at ethics...

Here's why I am writing a book on ethics in one photograph.

This plastic display of plastic water bottles (in an office supply store of all places) will still be around (probably in the ocean somewhere) long after you and I are dead and, somehow, our present system of ethics doesn't tell us there's something very wrong here.

Clearly, we need a new system and I look forward to completing this book and sharing a new look at ethics soon.

Assessing and Reassessing for the New Year...

This month's Recovering The Self article comes just in time for the New Year!

http://www.recoveringself.com/guest-blogger/ken-la-salle/assessing-and-reassessing

Digital tunage, CDs, and about time I entered the 21st century…

No, I’m not selling another book… just yet. I know that what this place has been for a while but I’m taking a break… for now. (I would still appreciate if you bought one of my books, of course.)

So, I was out driving the other day, listening to some music when the cd ended. CDs are what I keep my music on. It’s a small, disk-like storage medium, which after the demise of records and tapes, lasted all of a quarter century or so. When I went to eject the disk, my cd player decided it had suffered enough embarrassment at me actually still listening to cds… and promptly died.

Aw.

Recently, I found out that Vicky is giving me an iPod for whatever the hell I celebrate as an atheist – for her, it’s Xmas or some shit – basically, it’s a day we shower each other with gifts. How’s that for an American holiday?

Knowing I was getting an iPod, I realized all my cds were going to become pointless. More than that, I realized I’d have to take each disk, one by one, and load them onto my pc so I could later load their contents onto my iPod… pain in the ass!

So, one by one, I went about it. I loaded music and audiobooks and comedy and spoken word and on and on and everything else until… actually, I’m not even done, yet. But it’s looking like I’m going to end up with 25 days worth of content for my iPod.

Twenty-five days!

Crap.

If you consider that my commute – yes, I got another job in the last few weeks. It’s a part-time tech writing gig but it pays the bills while allowing me to keep working on my writing career. Anyway, if you consider that my commute is 45 minutes long, it’s gonna take a shitload of commute for me to listen to all that shit!

Sounds like fun to me!

Holiday Shopping: A Hex Returns To Rynia...

With the holidays coming, all the Rynia books are available in digital format!


The series concludes (for now) with the final book of the Sons of Rynia trilogy: A Hex Returns to Rynia

In the first two volumes of the Sons of Rynia trilogy (A Hex To Save Rynia and A Hex Beyond Rynia), Tsurtor attacked the realm of Rynia with weapons of magic and technology, scattering its defendants to the winds. How can Tsurtor be defeated when A Hex Returns to Rynia?


You can find A Hex Returns To Rynia for all e-readers:

For the Kindle (and Kindle-app): http://www.amazon.com/Hex-Returns-Rynia-Sons-ebook/dp/B005O0QHX0/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_8

For all e-readers: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/90200

Holiday Shopping: A Hex Beyond Rynia...

With the holidays coming, all the Rynia books are available in digital format!


The series begins with the stand-alone: A Hex Upon Rynia
This is followed by the Sons of Rynia trilogy: A Hex to Save Rynia, A Hex Beyond Rynia, A Hex Returns To Rynia

A Hex To Save Rynia witnessed the first battles in the war between Rynia and its old enemy, Tsurtor. Tsurtor launches that war with devastating effect in the second book of the Sons of Rynia trilogy: A Hex Beyond Rynia.

You can find A Hex Beyond Rynia for all e-readers:
For the Kindle (and Kindle-app): http://www.amazon.com/Hex-Beyond-Rynia-Sons-ebook/dp/B005MGFL0Q/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_3
For all e-readers: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/88008

Holiday Shopping: A Hex To Save Rynia...

With the holidays coming, all the Rynia books are available in digital format!

The series begins with the stand-alone: A Hex Upon Rynia
This is followed by the Sons of Rynia trilogy: A Hex to Save Rynia, A Hex Beyond Rynia, A Hex Returns To Rynia

A Hex Upon Rynia was just the beginning. The Sons of Rynia trilogy kicks off with Tsurtor’s return, dragons, a conspiracy against the king, and a war-ravaged planet. When Hex is imprisoned back on Earth, will there be A Hex To Save Rynia?


You can find A Hex To Save Rynia for all e-readers:
For the Kindle (and Kindle-app): http://www.amazon.com/Hex-Save-Rynia-Sons-ebook/dp/B005I571HM/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_4
For all e-readers: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/82603

Holiday Shopping: A Hex Upon Rynia...

The book that began the Rynia series, A Hex Upon Rynia, is now available as an e-book!


Hex is a wizard unlike any you’ve seen before. He creates living toys from twigs and brings his skates to life! When he mistakenly brings himself and a boy named Vincent to the world of Rynia, however, he’ll need to win a war to get them home again!

You can find A Hex Upon Rynia
For your Kindle (and Kindle-App): http://www.amazon.com/A-Hex-Upon-Rynia-ebook/dp/B004ZZMS24/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2
And for all e-readers: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/58564

Holiday Shopping: The Incarnations of Death...

Death! Just in time for the holidays!

When Robert Erwon Mitchel finds a way to kill Death, he sets off a chain of events that gives birth to a new breed of superheroes. Now it is up to these heroes - Night Stalker, Fade, and Force - to find a way to stop the insane replacement for Death, one who can wipe out entire cities at a whim and who is hunting down the scientist who killed his predecessor!


Pick up The Incarnations of Death this holiday season
For your Kindle (and Kindle-App): http://www.amazon.com/The-Incarnations-of-Death-ebook/dp/B004XJ4MNU/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_9
Or for all E-Readers: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/54829

Timely Holiday Shopping: The Rohan Scripts...

Here's a blatant ploy in time for the holidays:


The Prophesies of Nicoli Rohano, The Rohan Scripts, were the stuff of legend and were all but lost to history… until now! The Rohan Scripts, the latest sci-fi adventure from Ken La Salle, brings you psychics and scientists, assassination plots and time paradox, with a single man flung through time and recording everything into a book of prognostication called: The Rohan Scripts!

You can find The Rohan Scripts
For your Kindle (and Kindle-app device): http://www.amazon.com/The-Rohan-Scripts-ebook/dp/B004Y752MG/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_10
And for all e-readers: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/56224

Do Something Impossible...

This month on Recovering the Self: Do Something Impossible! (Just click the link to check it out!)

(Yes, I know this was a short entry but - never fear - there's plenty more over at Recovering the Self!)

Holiday Shopping (now with IRONY): Vampire Society...

Who can spot the irony in my suggesting you purchase Vampire Society as a gift this season?


"Vampire Society is a guided tour through the social and political evolution that opened our century. It is a love story and an indictment against our culture of consumption, answering the most important question about love: Is real love possible in the Vampire Society?"

You can find Vampire Society
For Your Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Vampire-Society-ebook/dp/B0016NACSK/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_11
For All E-Readers: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52031

Holiday Shopping: A Grand Canyon...

Subtitled, "“How to Meet the Love of Your Life in Five Short Years… and mean it this time!”


This is for anyone curious what life was like before Vicky...

Find it for your Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Canyon-Journey-Depression-ebook/dp/B004TGSRGA/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1
Or for any e-reader: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52601

Enjoy with my many thanks!

Dear Muppets: We Like You...

So, Vicky and I went out to see The Muppets last night... it wasn't a terrible movie...

But to see the Muppets (or, for that matter, The Muppets) and come out with "It wasn't terrible," is, well, terrible. It's the Muppets, for crying out loud! It should have been great!

It could have been great!

The problem, however, was that the Muppets were so damned insecure - as were the writers, director, and just about everybody. They kept trying to impress on the audience how downright good they are, how wholesome, how much a reminder of a by-gone era. Yes, I get it! The 70's were a simpler time but that doesn't mean you have to suck up so much! We already like you! Just perform!

I kept expecting a commercial for the line of toys, because it kept feeling like the setup for a line of toys.

I'm not saying it was bad. It wasn't. It just wasn't all that good. Next time, maybe the Muppets will have a bit more confidence in themselves. Or maybe they'll just recapture that spirit of going on an adventure without having to constantly comment that they're going on an adventure and doesn't that make this a great opportunity to learn a lesson...

Just go in with your expectations low. They need your support. And maybe a hug.