Speaking of Germany

Saturday December 6, 2003 • Howard Tayler

I've got laryngitis. This is making everyday tasks like ordering from the drive-through or shouting the children into terrified submission impossible, for which my arteries and my children are probably quite thankful.

Much of the "I can't talk" is self-imposed. It hurts to make any vocal noise at all, and my voice has degraded to the point that I can't be understood anyway. Oh, and next week in Germany I'm being paid to talk for about three days straight, so I need to get better.

Speaking of Germany...

MEET HOWARD IN NUREMBERG!

If you're going to be near Nuremberg on Tuesday the 11th, head over to this thread on the Schlock forum and figure out how to take part in what is certainly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet me in person. I've done this on a couple of occasions now, meeting up wth random fans in cities I happen to be hitting, and every time it's been fun.

The last couple of times I've done this I've been able to give an inked caricature to everybody who showed. Wondering what you'd look like as a guest-star on the "Schlock Mercenary Show?" Only I can tell you.

And now, for something completely different.

Last week I finally finished Digital Knight by Ryk Spoor. Ryk is a Schlock fan, and this was his first book. It's published through Baen (the same folks who publish John Ringo's work... and John is a Schlock fan, too) and it was a lot of fun to read. I was a little leery of it -- it seemed like one of those "vampires and werewolves in a modern setting" books, but very quickly diverged from that set and into something much more complicated and engaging. I liked it a lot, and it's gotten great reader reviews at Amazon.

I'd say more, but I'm not supposed to be talking. Go read it yourself.