Renoir,

Let me preface my comments by telling you I love your name. Are you an artist as well as a programmer? I've met many great artists in this field. So many people don't understand that software engineering can be very creative, although boring at times. Anyway, my first book was never published. I wrote it when I was 19 while living in Italy. My last book I'm still trying to sell. I have a few interested parties. I hope it does well, but I also know the average book only sells 5,000 copies. My background in publishing and journalism should help get the manuscript read by editors, but it's the readers that count. The people who have read it tell me it's a page-turner, but it really boils down to a question of taste. The book is called "Misguided Desire". If you like you can read an excerpt at the following address: http://www.friendsofbluche.com. The link is at the bottom of the homepage.

Regards,

Jim

>James,
>
>I'm surprised you didn't SET BLATENT MARKETING ON and link us to your books. What are they? BTW, I was unemployed all last year and it sucked big time. I had to swing a hammer and do home repair until I finally landed a job about 4 months ago. Basically sold everything we had and started over. Gave me some perspective, but it still sucked.
>
>Renoir
>
>>At least somebody responded!
>>
>>Going independent was a huge mistake. I got beat up really bad. Pretty much lost everything. I just finished writing my second novel. I'm peddling it now. I was a journalist in New York and Philadelphia before I fell into computers. The job market is so horrible I'm thinking about a career change. Don't know what to do at this point. I've been unemployed since April when the company I worked for laid-off 300 people. Life kind of sucks sometimes. But I do have one hell of a good book!
>>
>>Jim
>>
>>>Uh... okay. Literature/poetry was never my best subject, but this message did prompt me to look up some of your past posts. I remember speaking with you at the 2001 DevCon. You had just gone independent, I think. How is that working out? Also, I missed your discussion regarding vaccinations/autism the first time around. How is you son doing now?
>>>
>>>
>>>>Little gutless scrubbing bubbles
>>>>White washing their world
>>>>Through toil and trouble
>>>>Leave no streaks and avoid discord
>>>>
>>>>Spinning yarns of social détente
>>>>Whisk away the dust and dirt
>>>>Keep the peace through sanitary language
>>>>Always careful nobody gets hurt
>>>>
>>>>Rub-a-dub-dub and away they scrub
>>>>Their world is plain vanilla
>>>>Disparaging words are never heard
>>>>Each one is so carefully censured
>>>>
>>>>Little gutless scrubbing bubbles
>>>>Always scrubbing but never thinking
>>>>A white-washed world can never redress
>>>>The very conflicts they are busy cleaning.
>>>>
>>>>James M. Weil