What do tools and my novel—Guy Going Under—have to do with each other, you might ask

Book trailer for Guy Going Under

From book trailer for Guy Going Under

Our unmatched ability to conceive, make, and use tools is something that sets Homo sapiens apart from all other species. The use of tools is easy enough to picture in factories, repair shops, kitchens, and home workbenches, for the primary definition of the word is usually: an implement, especially one held in the hand, as a hammer, saw, or file, for performing or facilitating mechanical operations (dictionary.reference.com).

But the definition of the word doesn’t stop there. Today the word is just as often used in a broader way: an item or implement used for a specific purpose. A tool can be …a technical object such as a web authoring tool or software program…a concept can also be considered a tool (businessdictionary.com). In other words, tools can also have intellectual components and be applied to intellectual pursuits.

With humans being wired the way they are, progressive or competitive people are driven to devise or seek out the best possible tools. Let me now defer to a definition from a website for this type of person, Cool Tools. Its definition of a cool tool is: …anything useful that is superior to comparable items. The constant search for such tools is a component of, and a major driver of, science and technology. I am no longer a scientist, but the idea remains ingrained in me and I recognize that even selling books requires modern tools. Hence, the book trailer below. I won’t go so far as to claim it is the ultimate cool tool, but have a look! And Cool Tools is well worth a look, too.

Guy Going Under—a hero who “kind of likes just doin’ nothing”

The author just doin’ nothing in Death Valley

I recently spent three weeks camping in Death Valley National Park. There, when not hiking canyons, I basked in the pleasant—well, hot—temperatures and eased into a languid “I kind of like just doin’ nothing, it’s something that I do” sort of existence (description courtesy of a Robert Earl Keen song—Something I Do). Continue reading

Guy Going Under: A Cave Adventure hits the shelf

Guy Going Under: A Cave Adventure

Yes, my new novel, Guy Going Under: A Cave Adventure, is now out there. It, like the bookshelf it rests on, is virtual and can be purchased as a Kindle eBook at Amazon.com. The paperback version should become available soon.

As an adolescent, I was taken with Tom Sawyer’s cave adventure because I grew up near the Mississippi River in southeast Iowa, not too far north of Hannibal, Missouri. I suppose Mark Twain’s story first planted the idea of writing my own cave tale. Yes, it took me a few decades to make it happen, but I did do it. My tale is set in the Pacific Northwest rather than in the Midwest; Seattle plays a part, but most of the action takes place on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula. Or maybe I should say under the Olympic Peninsula, since this a cave story. I’ll have a little more to say about the actual story in a follow-up post.