Thanksgiving Eve

     It's the day before Turkey Day and a seemingly long weekend, I may actually have a little extra time for creative writing.  Well, scratch that.  Just found out that my wife is no longer going to visit her friend this afternoon so, there goes my extra writing time.  Well, maybe not entirely, but we shall see.  I utterly amazes me sometimes because no matter how many days I have off, I never seem to get the extra time to do what I would like to do.  Some people might call that marriage.  Regardless, I wouldn't want it any other way. I've been single, married, single and married again, and as much as I like to complain about it, I enjoy being married than alone.  So, with the spirit of the holidays and family in mind. 
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
Gobble gobble turkey time!

Drakov

New chapter excerpt ROUGH DRAFT

A recent color advertisement from Macy's has given me some writing inspiration.  The advertisement depicts a man dressed in a shiny, red two-piece suit.  Something that I could envision the Headman wearing on a daily basis.  Flashy, gaudy, yet still stylish, I have him dressed up in this ensemble in my latest chapter.  Below is a ROUGH DRAFT

excerpt from "Cobra's Cesspool."  Enjoy!

 Here is the picture that inspired.

“Well good day to you Ms. Alvarez.  I’m here to see my good friend Vincent.  He should be expecting me.”  He smiled widely and tipped his hat at her.  The secretary was not as easily charmed as her younger counterpart working the front desk.  She eyed him curiously, taking in his whole elaborate ensemble.  The man was dressed in a shiny red suit, something Santa would wear if he were a couple hundred pounds lighter.  Under the suit jacket, he wore a silver shirt with a black satin tie.  Atop his head was a white fedora  with a matching red hat band.  While on his feet he wore what appeared to be white snakeskin loafers.   The outfit was so ridiculously gaudy, yet it worked.

“Charles I assume?  That really is quite an outfit you got going on there.” Her voice suggested a slight bit of  sarcasm.

“Do you like it? I figured with the holidays fast approaching, I might give it a test run. I had it custom made by my tailor.  What do you think honestly. Is it too much?” He spun around in front of her once to give her a 360 degree view, then smiled while eagerly awaiting her response.  The middle aged secretary couldn’t tell if he had been offended or flattered by her question.

“No, no I think it quite suits you.  It brings out the color of your eyes.” She lied of course and managed to smile back at the outrageously dressed man. “Daniella said you knew the doctor from the university?  I know most of Vincent’s colleagues, what program were you in?” Thinking she may have tripped him up and caught him in a lie, the extravagant man smiled again seeming completely unphased by her line of questioning.

“Vincent and I had some overlapping classes in our majors. While he went for a more traditional medical program, I focused more on the whole pharmaceuticals aspect.

MLA Formatting tips

I am a writer in my spare time, but during the day like most of you, I have another career.  185 days out of the year, I teach high school students about the wonders of science and the world.  Over the past decade or so, I have had to spend more and more time going over the basics of writing and formatting a research paper as this is something that seems to get overlooked in their Grammar courses and a skill they will need in college.  So for my blog post today, I decided to share with you what I share with my students. I call this: "the Basics of MLA Formatting."

Enjoy!

Drakov

MLA Formatting Tips

Your paper should be double spaced, Times New Roman font and size 12 font.

Do NOT use second or first person in the body of your paper.  This is only allowed in the conclusion where you are giving your opinion and possibly in your introduction.

The beginning of each paragraph is indented 5 spaces (Tab)

Papers should have an Introduction, a Body, and a Conclusion.

Name, date, teacher and class info goes on the cover page only.  NOT on page 1 of your actual paper.  Page one should have a title and the number “one” as a header.  Each following page should have “last name and page number” as the header, including your Works Cited.

Citations must be used for any information that is borrowed, copied or paraphrased that you DID NOT KNOW prior to research.  This includes: specific dates, amounts, times and other relevant facts.  When in doubt, cite your source. 

Any sources listed in your Works cited MUST BE cited at least once in your paper.

Citations are typically author and page or paragraph number, or title and page or paragraph number.  See Owl Purdue for help. (MLA)

“Works Cited” page is single spaced, reverse indented for wraparound citations.  Alphabetical order by sources with authors first, then titles if no publisher or author is available (N.p.)  Do not use bullets, numbers or letters to organize it.  WEB pages must be denoted as “Web” and include an access date.  Ex:  16 November 2017

Try Easywhois.com for web pages to find authors or publishers.                        

If you are directly quoting (word for word) 3 or more sentences it must be single-spaced and indented 10 spaces within your paper.

Proof read your work run a spelling and grammar check on Word.  Wait a few days and check your work again.

Last night's dream

     So, I had a very strange dream last night, but one I have had before in a similar form.  I dreamed about finding dead pet reptiles in my house.  Apparently in my dream, I had forgotten to feed them for close to three months and they were located in several different tanks.  One tank had water in it and there were two dead lizards, but also one that was really emaciated, but still alive that I saved.  Another tank had two dead turtles in it. Which appeared dehydrated and dead for quite some time but didn't smell. Another tank had several dead lizards, but two or three that were still alive and in really bad shape.  I provided food for the surviving reptiles and managed to save a few others.  Mainly a rather withered turtle in a tank with only a small puddle of water. I removed and buried the ones that had died in the backyard.
     I have had a similar dream before that involved an enclosed tank in which I apparently had left five different lizards for over a month without care and surprisingly, most of them were still alive.  I am trying to find out what it all means, as I have had reptiles for pets in the past that have passed away.  I currently care for two bearded dragons as pets.  And coincidentally, I did a blog post on Tiamat yesterday.  So, is my subconscious simply replaying the thoughts of the day and memories of the past? Or is there some hidden subconscious meaning yet to be revealed?
     I guess only time will tell....Thoughts anyone?

Drakov

Conan the Adventurer

Conan the Adventurer


     This may very well be one of the most overlooked and underrated cartoon series of the 1990s.  Based upon the Conan the Barbarian comic series, the show chronicles the adventures of a young and sometimes naive Conan, long before he becomes Conan the King.
     The premise of the show revolves around the possession of "star metal" and its ability to hold magical power.  Conan's father is a blacksmith and uses a fallen meteorite to create mythical weapons.  At the same time, the world is being infiltrated by evil serpent men hiding in plain site under the guise of humanity.  In addition to being able to contain magical energy, star metal also has the uncanny ability of exposing the true visage of snake men and ultimately banishing them to the abyss.  The abyss is a Hades-like region where there leader the evil God Set, a huge venomous serpent, was banished nearly a millenia ago by the good wizards of the realms.
    In order to return their banished ruler to Earth, Wrath-Amon an evil serpent man wizard must gather up enough star metal to create a series of star metal rings.  These will be set atop various temples in order to create a portal for Set to return.  In his quest to gather up all the known star metal, Wrath-Amon encounters Conan's father.  When he refuses to give the evil wizard all of his star metal, Wrath-Amon turns Conan's mother, father and grandfather into living stone statues. Conan is away at the time and upon his return, discovers the curse placed upon his family.  It is then that he vows never to rest until all the serpent men have been banished to the abyss and to obtain Wrath-Amon's black ring of power, which he believes holds the magic to undo his family's curse of living stone.
    Along the way he meets, Needle a fledgling phoenix, Epimetrius the long-dead sage, Jasmin a circus athlete, Zulu a warrior prince who can control animals, Grey Wolf a Zanthus wizard, Slag a Viking, and Falconar who has a magical winged cape.  Together with his new friends, they experience many dungeons and dragons-type adventures.
     The stories are well written, character development is excellent, villains are believable, and mythology abounds from Egypt, Sumeria and China.  My only real gripe would be some of the corny humor and the annoying behaviors of Needles and Dregs, but it was meant to be a children's cartoon, so I can live with it.  We all tolerated Orko, Polly and Snarf.  By I digress a bit.  With nearly 90 episodes and three seasons, this cartoon needs to make its way into your hopper.  Many episodes are available on Youtube, including the epic Conan the Adventurer Movie.  If you love fantasy cartoons, monsters and adventure, then I highly recommend this series and give it a wholehearted two thumbs way up!!

Cheers!
Drakov

Absolutely Love this Image!!

One of my all time favorite dragons has always been Tiamat.  As far back as I can remember, I looked forward to Saturday morning cartoons just to catch a glimpse of this majestic and powerful beauty.  Possessing the breath weapons of all the evil dragon species, Tiamat was the considered to be the mother of all the chromatic, or colored, dragons and lived in the Dragon's graveyard according to the 80s cartoon series.  I spent years trying to track down an original LJN Tiamat toy and a "Dragon of the Month" Tiamat pewter figurine to add to my personal collection, which thanks to ebay, I did some time in the late 1990s, and to this day they are still some of my prized pieces. (that and my shield shooters, cavefisher and the Knickerbocker LOTR Ring Wraith and Charger, but that's a story for another day!)  It is great to see "Wizards of the Coast" giving some love to this awesome monster once again with gaming modules, stories and magnificent art work.  Hope you enjoy my short tribute.
Cheers!
Drakov

KindleWorld Novels NOW available to Kindle Unlimited Users!!!

If you are a Kindle Unlimited (KU) user  Amazon announced today that Kindle Worlds (KW) novels are now available for download at no additional charge.

Please spread the word and check it out. If you're into G.I.Joe please check out my latest book.

Armed and Dangerous, A G.I.Joe Origins Story

by clicking:  HERE

Cheers! and Yo JOE!

Drakov