It’s amazing how quickly a nice healthy patch of grass can turn brown.
We had a very wet spring, but it hasn’t rained here in any amount in several weeks, so I’ve had to resort to watering the front lawn to keep it from looking like The Waste Lands. I’m not very diligent about it, but whenever I see some of the shrubbery starting to wilt I know it’s time to drag out the sprinklers and spruce things up. The plus side, I guess, is that the grass isn’t growing fast enough that I need to mow it that often, but I wouldn’t mind a little help from mother nature. Even if we caught the tail end of that tropical storm-cum-hurricane out in the gulf right now…
I have a few things up for auction on eBay for the coming week. The first lot is a batch of twelve issues of the Castle Rock Newsletter from 1988-9. When I was working on The Road to the Dark Tower, I discovered some gaps in my collection, so I had to order replacements. A couple of months ago, I found the errant issues, so now I’m putting the replacements up on the block. CRN was edited by King’s personal assistant during its first four years of publication, and by her brother for its last. The short story “Dolan’s Cadillac” was first published in its pages. A lot of familiar names appeared in its pages, including Michael R. Collings, Darrell Schweitzer, Steve Spignesi, Tyson Blue, Michael Berry — and King himself from time to time.
Also up for bids, a signed/limited edition hardcover of Lawrence Block’s first Matt Scudder novel, Sins of the Father. This copy features an introduction by King and is signed by both King and Block.
I also have an old coin up for auction — the first time I’ve tried something like that. It’s an 1892 Queen Victoria silver crown in a mounting display.
The MWA Southwest (Mystery Writers of America) conference, Hard-Boiled Heroes and Cozy Cats, takes place this weekend in north Houston. I’m not sure if I’ll get a chance to go down for part of tomorrow or not, but it might be fun.
