This is turning out to be a busy week for my wife and me. Yesterday I bought a red maple tree from the nursery that is supposed to be planted in our back yard sometimes this week. Today we had a man out to the house to see about repairing our Corian kitchen counter top that has a small crack near the cooktop. Tomorrow we are getting our newly purchased Laz-y-boy sofa, loveseat, & recliner-swivel-rocking chair delivered. Then we hope to get our old furniture picked up by Goodwill later in the week. We are also trying to get a half cord of seasoned oak firewood delivered and stacked later this week. Plus Linda baked some gluten-free almond cookies and shipped them to my sister in Georgia who just came home from the hospital after surgery on her broken hip. Tomorrow Linda is baking a pound cake for my 92-year-old father in Macon, Ga and shipping it to him. Thursday Linda is going to Arcadia to shop & eat lunch with her Aunt Nellan. Friday morning we go to estate sales. Then Saturday is football! I hardly have time to work on the editing of the book I am editing from 4RV Publishing. Busy week!
Cheers!
Harry
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Signs of fall -- Hummingbirds abound
Tomorrow, 22 September 2010, is the first official day of fall. Here in Shreveport we are still having near record high temperatures in the upper 90s to 100 F. It doesn't feel much like fall! However, there are signs that fall is coming. College football is underway. On our last trip over to Ruston Linda pointed out several trees already beginning to turn yellow. And, the hummingbirds are swarming around my three sugar water- feeders tanking up for their migration south. All summer we have only two or three that visit these feeders at any one time. This morning we counted at least ten, maybe twelve. Five were sitting and drinking from one feeder alone. I love this time of the year when we have so many hummers visiting the feeders. Before too much longer they will all have left, not to be seen again until next June. I guess I had better enjoy them the next few weeks! I am ready, I said READY, for cooler weather to arrive. We had a near-record hot August, followed by another record hot September. Bring on the cold weather!
Cheers!
Harry
Cheers!
Harry
Monday, August 23, 2010
Bailouts Saved America From 1930s-like Depression
Alan Blinder, former vice-chairman of the Federal Reserve, and Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics and former advisor to Republican presidential candidate John McCain, have reported that econometric models confirm that the bailouts and stimulus packages saved America from suffering through another 1930s-like Great Depression. That is, the bailouts and stimulus packages worked!
Without the bailouts of the five “too big to fail” financial institutions, followed by the stimulus packages, they predict the real gross domestic product would have fallen a stunning 12 percent instead of the actual decline of only 4 percent. Twice as many jobs (some 17 million) would have disappeared, instead of the job loss actually suffered. Unemployment would have reached 16.5 percent instead of the 9.5 percent it did.
Furthermore, while the current deficit in fiscal year 2010 will hit $1.4 trillion, this amount is considerably LESS that what it would have been without the bailouts/stimulus packages. With no bailouts/stimuli, there would have been a severe lowering of tax revenue coupled with increased social spending requirements. Without the government spending that was done, they project that the 2010 deficit would have been over $2 trillion, the 2011 deficit would have reached $2.6 trillion, and the 2012 deficit would have been $2.25 trillion. Obama’s and the Democrats’ spending actually has resulted in lowering the deficit compared to what it would have been without this spending!
I have long maintained that history will show that the Republican administration of Bush/Cheney was a financial disaster of epic proportions for the American economy. They came into office with a yearly budget surplus under Clinton and ran it into a $1.1 trillion yearly deficit when they left office, if the costs of their two wars are included as rightly they should be (instead of keeping them as “special appropriations” outside the formal budget). They more than doubled the total federal deficit from $5 trillion to more than $10 trillion. Their policies let corporate greed run wild, causing the housing crisis, followed by the Wall Street derivatives crisis. They brought the American economy to the brink of national bankruptcy (a fact few Americans seem to fully comprehend!), endangering the world economy as a result. Please recall before he left office Bush began the bailouts with a $400 billion bailout to try to save the country’s economy.
Anyone who came after Bush/Cheney would have been faced with this choice:
Do nothing and watch America slide into a Great Depression with millions bankrupted, with 17 million jobs being lost, with every American who had a mortgage or credit card balance held by one of the endangered banks having to pay off their balance in cash on the spot or declare bankruptcy as those banks fought desperately to avoid going under, see the deficit soar by trillions more than it has, watch the American dollar fall in the world market and be replaced as the world monetary standard by the Euro, driving up the cost of all imports (say oil), etc OR Try to save the economy by bailing out the five “too big to fail” financial institutions and passing stimulus bills to shore up the economy. Obama did what anyone who was president in 2008 would have had to do. Yes, even McCain and Palin! History will blame the previous Republican administration for causing this disaster and will credit the Obama Democratic administration with saving the country. Ask any economist.
How can Republicans keep getting away with fooling their tea-baggers that Obama is at fault for running up the deficit and causing the economic crisis? Are they really so ill-informed that they don’t see what happened to the economy under Bush/Cheney and how Obama has done what was necessary to save America? Is Fox Entertainment (not really News) that effective in brainwashing them? I just don’t understand Republicans. And those ‘gentlemen’ will most likely succeed in regaining power to have another go at ruining America while transferring more wealth from the middle class to the elite rich class. Will the blind never ‘see’ how the Republican Party is duping them and playing them for fools? If you don’t make at least $300,000 a year and you vote Republican, you just flunked your IQ test!
Source: Newspaper column entitled "Washington saved America's economic hide" in The Shreveport Times, editorial page on Monday, 23 August 2010, by Froma Harrop, of the Creators Syndicate, Los Angeles, CA.
Without the bailouts of the five “too big to fail” financial institutions, followed by the stimulus packages, they predict the real gross domestic product would have fallen a stunning 12 percent instead of the actual decline of only 4 percent. Twice as many jobs (some 17 million) would have disappeared, instead of the job loss actually suffered. Unemployment would have reached 16.5 percent instead of the 9.5 percent it did.
Furthermore, while the current deficit in fiscal year 2010 will hit $1.4 trillion, this amount is considerably LESS that what it would have been without the bailouts/stimulus packages. With no bailouts/stimuli, there would have been a severe lowering of tax revenue coupled with increased social spending requirements. Without the government spending that was done, they project that the 2010 deficit would have been over $2 trillion, the 2011 deficit would have reached $2.6 trillion, and the 2012 deficit would have been $2.25 trillion. Obama’s and the Democrats’ spending actually has resulted in lowering the deficit compared to what it would have been without this spending!
I have long maintained that history will show that the Republican administration of Bush/Cheney was a financial disaster of epic proportions for the American economy. They came into office with a yearly budget surplus under Clinton and ran it into a $1.1 trillion yearly deficit when they left office, if the costs of their two wars are included as rightly they should be (instead of keeping them as “special appropriations” outside the formal budget). They more than doubled the total federal deficit from $5 trillion to more than $10 trillion. Their policies let corporate greed run wild, causing the housing crisis, followed by the Wall Street derivatives crisis. They brought the American economy to the brink of national bankruptcy (a fact few Americans seem to fully comprehend!), endangering the world economy as a result. Please recall before he left office Bush began the bailouts with a $400 billion bailout to try to save the country’s economy.
Anyone who came after Bush/Cheney would have been faced with this choice:
Do nothing and watch America slide into a Great Depression with millions bankrupted, with 17 million jobs being lost, with every American who had a mortgage or credit card balance held by one of the endangered banks having to pay off their balance in cash on the spot or declare bankruptcy as those banks fought desperately to avoid going under, see the deficit soar by trillions more than it has, watch the American dollar fall in the world market and be replaced as the world monetary standard by the Euro, driving up the cost of all imports (say oil), etc OR Try to save the economy by bailing out the five “too big to fail” financial institutions and passing stimulus bills to shore up the economy. Obama did what anyone who was president in 2008 would have had to do. Yes, even McCain and Palin! History will blame the previous Republican administration for causing this disaster and will credit the Obama Democratic administration with saving the country. Ask any economist.
How can Republicans keep getting away with fooling their tea-baggers that Obama is at fault for running up the deficit and causing the economic crisis? Are they really so ill-informed that they don’t see what happened to the economy under Bush/Cheney and how Obama has done what was necessary to save America? Is Fox Entertainment (not really News) that effective in brainwashing them? I just don’t understand Republicans. And those ‘gentlemen’ will most likely succeed in regaining power to have another go at ruining America while transferring more wealth from the middle class to the elite rich class. Will the blind never ‘see’ how the Republican Party is duping them and playing them for fools? If you don’t make at least $300,000 a year and you vote Republican, you just flunked your IQ test!
Source: Newspaper column entitled "Washington saved America's economic hide" in The Shreveport Times, editorial page on Monday, 23 August 2010, by Froma Harrop, of the Creators Syndicate, Los Angeles, CA.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Refreshing Rain
It was hot this afternoon -- 96 degrees in the shade, 105 Humidex reading. About thirty minutes ago in early evening, the wind picked up and gray clouds blew in, accompanied by lightning and rolling thunder. I was watching TV when flash-boom and the electricity went out. Then the hard rain came, sweeping across the yard in blowing sheets of water. I went out and sat on the bench on the front porch to watch the show. I enjoy watching rain. It is a wonder of Nature. The temperature fell fifteen degrees. The parched vegetation stretched upward to welcome and soak in the nurturing water falling from the sky. Millions, nay billions of individual droplets of water, insignificant alone but life-giving together, splashed down to the ground. Then, as quickly as it arrived, the shower moved on, heading down the road to refresh & renew some other place. I love the rain!
Cheers!
Harry
Cheers!
Harry
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
"Aldric and Anneliese" Submitted to 4RV Publishing
Well, I decided to go the small press, traditional publisher route to get my latest romance/action-adventure short novel published. I submitted
"Aldric and Anneliese" to 4RV Publishing, a small press traditional publisher. Now it's wait and see if they accept it for publication. I am an editor for 4RV, so I hopefully know what they will publish in their adult novel section. However, as an author, one never feels too confident upon submitting work any where. :-)
Wish me luck, and watch for "Aldric and Anneliese" to be published in a few more months hopefully.
Cheers!
Harry
"Aldric and Anneliese" to 4RV Publishing, a small press traditional publisher. Now it's wait and see if they accept it for publication. I am an editor for 4RV, so I hopefully know what they will publish in their adult novel section. However, as an author, one never feels too confident upon submitting work any where. :-)
Wish me luck, and watch for "Aldric and Anneliese" to be published in a few more months hopefully.
Cheers!
Harry
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
New Novel Completed: "Aldric and Anneliese"
This weekend I finished writing my latest novel. I had been "writing" it for the past two years on and off, much more off than on. LOL I had gotten so involved with reviewing on-line, editing manuscripts for 4RV Publishing, and writing poetry that the novel had been forgotten on a back burner for quite a while. Last January I cleared my desk of other activities and went back to my writing. I have written poetry as well as returning to the novel. After a few months work on the novel, I hit a roadblock and was uncertain what to do next in the story. Six weeks ago, the dam burst and the words have been pouring out. I rewrote a lot that I already had and finished the story to my satisfaction. You'd think it would be 150,000 words for the amount of time I have been "writing" on it. However, it is a "short novel" at about 42,350 words. It is a tight, fast-paced story, however.
It is entitled "Aldric and Anneliese" and is an adult, fiction (action/adventure, romance, medieval warfare and nation building), short novel. The story takes place in late 6th century in what is now Eastern Europe but is in a fictitious country in the book. One chieftain builds a united country under his rule as king out of six regions each previously led by a chieftain; he does this by war and by marriage. Then comes the intrigue. The novel features kings, knights, lovely ladies, barbarian hordes, battles, love, marriage, betrayal, revenge, etc. It should appeal to reader of action/adventure, romance, medieval warfare, etc. It contains graphic violence during battle scenes -- heads and legs lopped off, blood spurting, etc. -- and mild sexual references -- erect nipples, hard 'members' -- but nothing too graphic sexually. It has some humor, as well as some romantic emotional moments. I'm hoping readers will find it an enjoyable read once it becomes available in print.
I am not sure where I will submit it yet. I may go back to Lulu since I have five books published through them already. Or maybe I'll submit to 4RV Publishing. They have a new brick-and-mortar bookstore for their books now open in the Memphis area, by the way. It is called "4 Love of Books and Art". Check it out. It is run by Aidana WillowRaven as Shop Keeper. I'm also considering Createspace for publishing it. I'll decide this week hopefully.
So, all you readers and book buyers out there in cyberspace, mark it down and be on the lookout for "Aldric and Anneliese" when it gets published.
Cheers!
Harry
It is entitled "Aldric and Anneliese" and is an adult, fiction (action/adventure, romance, medieval warfare and nation building), short novel. The story takes place in late 6th century in what is now Eastern Europe but is in a fictitious country in the book. One chieftain builds a united country under his rule as king out of six regions each previously led by a chieftain; he does this by war and by marriage. Then comes the intrigue. The novel features kings, knights, lovely ladies, barbarian hordes, battles, love, marriage, betrayal, revenge, etc. It should appeal to reader of action/adventure, romance, medieval warfare, etc. It contains graphic violence during battle scenes -- heads and legs lopped off, blood spurting, etc. -- and mild sexual references -- erect nipples, hard 'members' -- but nothing too graphic sexually. It has some humor, as well as some romantic emotional moments. I'm hoping readers will find it an enjoyable read once it becomes available in print.
I am not sure where I will submit it yet. I may go back to Lulu since I have five books published through them already. Or maybe I'll submit to 4RV Publishing. They have a new brick-and-mortar bookstore for their books now open in the Memphis area, by the way. It is called "4 Love of Books and Art". Check it out. It is run by Aidana WillowRaven as Shop Keeper. I'm also considering Createspace for publishing it. I'll decide this week hopefully.
So, all you readers and book buyers out there in cyberspace, mark it down and be on the lookout for "Aldric and Anneliese" when it gets published.
Cheers!
Harry
Sunday, July 4, 2010
H.E. Gilleland’s BOOKS
I am known primarily as a poet, yet I have published two prose books. People still act surprised when they learn I also write prose (a novella and a short novel to date). In fact, I am back to working on a new novel at present. Of course, I have had it in progress for well over a year now (with a lapse between starting it and now trying to complete it), but this time I'm more serious about it. I find it hard to work on a novel and continue to write poetry at the same time, and I love writing poetry. Anyway. I thought I would list the five books I have published -- three poetry collections and two prose works.
Books I have published include:
“Poetry For the Common Man: Storoems and Poems”, 2003, ISBN 978-1-4116-0064-5, 197 pages, 8.5″x11″, Lulu Press. A collection of over 180 of H.E. Gilleland’s storoems and poems addressing a wide variety of topics.
“Bob the Dragon Slayer”, 2005, ISBN 978-1-4116-3315-5, 106 pages, 6″x9″, Lulu Press. A fantasy novella describing the adventures of Bob as he slays dragons and leads an army in rebellion. A charming and witty tale suitable for young teens, especially "reluctant reader males", as well as for adults of all ages.
“Gilleland Poetry: Storoems and Poems”, 2005, ISBN 978-1-4116-2927-1, 205 pages, 8.5″x11″, Lulu Press. A collection of over 170 of H.E. Gilleland’s storoems and poems addressing a wide variety of topics.
“White Lightning Road”, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4116-8693-9, 192 pages, 6″x9″, Lulu Press. This is a story of romance set in rural northern Louisiana. It follows the lives of two best friends, Jennifer James and Sally Jeffers. Each was an urban teenager whose family moved to White Lightning Road, a country road running between Vienna in Lincoln Parish and Homer in Claiborne Parish, where they became friends. Upon graduation from high school, each escaped back to the big-city life they love. Now a family tragedy has brought Jennifer back to White Lightning Road. Soon she is embroiled in a mystery involving her neighbor Michael Garrott, a man widely believed to be an unpunished murderer. Thus begin the romantic adventures of both Jenny and Sally. It is a tale of mystery and romance.
“Poetic Musings of an Old, Fat Man”, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4357-1242-3, 172 pages, 6″x9″, Lulu Press. A collection of 81 storoems and poems by H.E. Gilleland addressing a wide variety of topics. (PMOOFM has won two awards for poetry books.)
All five of the above books are available currently on Amazon.com, other on-line booksellers, and/or Lulu Press.
More information and book covers may be seen at http://www.gillelands.com/poetry/ or at http://www.lulu.com/harry .
For some good reading, check out my books!
Cheers!
Harry
Books I have published include:
“Poetry For the Common Man: Storoems and Poems”, 2003, ISBN 978-1-4116-0064-5, 197 pages, 8.5″x11″, Lulu Press. A collection of over 180 of H.E. Gilleland’s storoems and poems addressing a wide variety of topics.
“Bob the Dragon Slayer”, 2005, ISBN 978-1-4116-3315-5, 106 pages, 6″x9″, Lulu Press. A fantasy novella describing the adventures of Bob as he slays dragons and leads an army in rebellion. A charming and witty tale suitable for young teens, especially "reluctant reader males", as well as for adults of all ages.
“Gilleland Poetry: Storoems and Poems”, 2005, ISBN 978-1-4116-2927-1, 205 pages, 8.5″x11″, Lulu Press. A collection of over 170 of H.E. Gilleland’s storoems and poems addressing a wide variety of topics.
“White Lightning Road”, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4116-8693-9, 192 pages, 6″x9″, Lulu Press. This is a story of romance set in rural northern Louisiana. It follows the lives of two best friends, Jennifer James and Sally Jeffers. Each was an urban teenager whose family moved to White Lightning Road, a country road running between Vienna in Lincoln Parish and Homer in Claiborne Parish, where they became friends. Upon graduation from high school, each escaped back to the big-city life they love. Now a family tragedy has brought Jennifer back to White Lightning Road. Soon she is embroiled in a mystery involving her neighbor Michael Garrott, a man widely believed to be an unpunished murderer. Thus begin the romantic adventures of both Jenny and Sally. It is a tale of mystery and romance.
“Poetic Musings of an Old, Fat Man”, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4357-1242-3, 172 pages, 6″x9″, Lulu Press. A collection of 81 storoems and poems by H.E. Gilleland addressing a wide variety of topics. (PMOOFM has won two awards for poetry books.)
All five of the above books are available currently on Amazon.com, other on-line booksellers, and/or Lulu Press.
More information and book covers may be seen at http://www.gillelands.com/poetry/ or at http://www.lulu.com/harry .
For some good reading, check out my books!
Cheers!
Harry
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