Category Archives: Personal

Inspiration, Success Stories, Writer Reference

J.A. Konrath: Fisking Donald Maass

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

Oh. My. Goodness.

My favorite author has just spanked the Emerald City Doorman hard enough that it’s going to leave a mark.  And Mr. Maass is going to have a severe limp for quite awhile!

It’s no secret that I am an indie-publishing heretic, posting often and everywhere about how every author should look into getting themselves published without getting ridden hard and put away wet by a legacy publishing dinosaur (that’ll give you a limp for sure!).  But no one – NO ONE – takes the publishing industry or their flan-boys to task better, cleaner, and more beautifully than Mr. Konrath.

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General

1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe preserved by Library of Congress

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

CSX2287 and I have had a long and tumultuous relationship.  I have been deeply involved with Cobras, Daytonas, and GT40s since I made a mistake and sold a car for much less than I should have.  Once you make a really expensive mistake like that, you either hate your stupidity or you gain the kind of knowledge necessary so that you NEVER EVER make that mistake again.  So I learned about these cars.  I learned everything.  I knew every car in the Southern California area – who owned it, who made it – just by the sound the car made as it drove.

At one point, I found out that this particular car was somewhere in Southern California, and that – if I could find it – I’d be paid a handsome finders fee. 

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Inspiration

Arthur Conan Doyle: 19 things you didn’t know

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

Rachel Ward has written about Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle in the Telegraph.  I did know that one of his middle names was Ignatius, so I guess there were only 18 things I didn’t know about the knight.

From the article:

1. Doyle was one of the earliest motorists in Britain
He reportedly bought a car without ever having driven one before. In 1911, he took part in the Prince Henry Tour, an international road competition organised by Prince Henry of Prussia to pit British cars against German ones. Doyle paired up with his second wife, Jean, as one of the British driving teams.

2. Conan is not part of his surname
It is, in fact, only one of his two middle names. He is Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle. Shortly after he graduated from high school he began using Conan as part of his surname

In 1902, the writer was knighted by King Edward VII. He was also appointed a Deputy-Lieutenant of Surrey. However, he wasn’t knighted for having created Sherlock Holmes. He was made a knight for his work on a non-fiction pamphlet regarding the Boer War.

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General

Happy Birthday, Sherlock Holmes

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

On this date in 1854 Sherlock Holmes was born.

One of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous characters, Sherlock Holmes was a “London-based consulting detective whose abilities border on the fantastic.” Mr. Holmes was famous for his logic, reasoning, and forensic science skills.

All but four of the Sherlock Holmes stories were narrated by Dr. John Watson; of the four that weren’t, two were narrated by Holmes, and two were written in the third person.

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Inspiration

On this date, the 1,000,000th Ford rolled off the assembly line

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.”
– Henry Ford

This wasn’t a recent milestone.  On one of the 25 operating Ford assembly lines, sometime during the day, the one millionth Ford Model T rolled out of the factory and into the light in 1915.

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