No, it’s not Elvis Presley. He’s dead, remember? Ooooor, is he?
Anyways, it’s just me.
Hope it’s not a let-down after I’ve gotten your hopes up with the whole Elvis thing!
My girlfriend and have returned from the fun-yet-hectic family trip. We have slept in eight different places in four different cities during the past two weeks and are now patiently waiting for this incredible achievement to be entered into the Guinness World Records.
We’ve had our good share of drinking, minor injuries and other fun things. We’ve met a bunch of interesting characters. One of them was a girl of around six. Whenever she misspoke she would perform a “system reset” by closing her eyes, shaking her head side to side and saying “oi-oi-oi” in rapid succession. Another one was a guy who complained about amateur guitar players always choosing to play depressing songs. I’m not sure I’ve noticed this trend, but then again, my attention span is…wait, where was I?
What does this have to do with anything?!
In my home town of Kharkov we’ve come across this classically “Engrish” sign for the Children’s Railroad:
To put in two ends comes true free of charge!
In a tiny town of Mestecko in Czech Republic we’ve come across this simple and straightforward road sign:
It’s like two drunk guys arguing while giving you directions…
All in all it’s been great, but I wish it lasted longer. That’s what she said.
Also during the holiday I’ve gotten a pleasant surprise. Remember the “Pulling The Plug” piece I’ve submitted to DudeWrite’s flash fiction contest? Well, it’s been picked as the winner by 2 out of 3 judges, as well as getting the most popular votes, along with another great story from Chiz-Chat. You can read more details and the judges’ comments at DudeWrite, in case you want to, like, read more details…and the judges’ comments.
But enough about me, let’s talk about a few other humourists for a moment.
Another awesome surprise was Martin Bannon sending me a signed copy of his recently released Senseless Confidential. It was waiting for me in the mailbox yesterday when I arrived. I have won Martin’s “leave a comment, win a book” competition. At this rate I think I should start playing the lottery. That’ll teach me to make stupid decisions like playing the lottery! I haven’t started reading the book, but knowing Martin and judging from the great reviews it’s been getting I’m already excited to check it out.
Also I have finally started on Martin Little, Resurrected by Ella Medler. I must shamefully confess that I’ve only gotten through the first two chapters for now. However, it’s already clear that it will be a fun read! Though hey, don’t listen to me, check out the reviews for yourself.
Finally, I will have a special guest on the blog this Wednesday. His name is Scott Bartlett and he’s doing a blog tour for his book Royal Flush, which is also collecting great reviews. So you’ve got that to look forward to now!
How about all of you? Have you had any vacation? How has your life been without my posts in it for a whopping two weeks? Same? Slightly not the same at all? Kind of the same, yet also different?
Nest Expressed 
Great to have you back, Daniel.I’ll be writing about my lovely two weeks of holiday WITH NO INTERNET!! in a few hours, and posting some more pics. But at least I didn’t have to worry about family during that time, too.An unpleasant surprise was the fact that I could not play Terraria because I had to be connected to Steam to play (boo, Steam). Still, it was amusing to see my 4 1/2 year old collie teach my 4 months old collie/kelpie puppy how to dig the sand on the beaches in such deep drifts, we’ll probably be hounded by conservationists for the rest of our lives.Still, fun to be back to 1100 emails, wouldn’t you say? Took me three days to go through them. If it weren’t for pleasant interruptions such as yours and Carrie’s posts, I may have had to do something drastic and finish all of my chocolate supply, turning the house into more of a tip as I rooted through debris following my nose.Love the sign. I’ve got one, too – all the nice pieces of metal point the same direction. 🙂
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ellamedler1 Thanks! And welcome back too! Will check out your post on being without Internet – sound like a good fiction tale 😉 What’s Terraria? I’m so behind the times! Oh wait, just looked it up – something with unicorns! Nice!Hope you’ve had an awesome time overall, despite the Internet and gaming pains!
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That sign not only looks like two drunk guys arguing over directions–it looks like their confrontation quickly became physical.Looking forward to my appearance on Nest Expressed! Your readers seem like a good bunch to hang out with.
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@Scott Bartlett Heheee indeed! You’re now live, good sir!
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Thanks for the shout-out, Daniel! My “vacation” consisted of a single day at the coast on Sunday. You know how we Americans like to overwork ourselves. That’s why we become authors when we already work a regular job—so we can work some more. Naturally, I worked during my 15-hour vacation, visiting booksellers and leaving samples and media kits with them. So I hope you’ve enjoyed your lazy two weeks, you slacker… oi, oi, oi… oh, never mind…
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Martin_Bannon Some serious vacation time there, you know how to party! But hey, working on promoting your own book can’t be all that bad! Oi oi oi…
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That mess of road signs is how my brain often feels. Welcome back and congrats on your post being a winner!
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Carrie Rubin Thanks, great to be back! Looking forward to trying out a bit more fiction in the future. Although I’m always afraid of my plots ending up as that road sign!
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Daniel Nest We all suffer from lack of direction at some point in our novel’s inception. No reason for you to be any different. 🙂
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Welcome back! 🙂 Good luck with the Guinness World Record thing! – Congrads on all your achievements, well deserved I am sure.
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raeme67 Thanks! Good to be back! Will be even better once I get that World Record spot!
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