OBAMA PLEDGES NOT TO KILL ANY CHILDREN FOR THREE DAYS

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WHGunControlPressConference

In an emotional news conference, sharing the stage with children who had written in to him about their fears concerning guns, President Obama announced a sweeping plan to curb gun violence in America.

To demonstrate his commitment to this issue, Obama has pledged not to kill any children in the Middle East with drones for 72 hours.  “He’s just not going to do it,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, “even if the children are playing in the vicinity of a high-value target.”

Dec. 17 airpower summary: Reapers touch enemy forces

Critics have pointed out that since the details of drone attacks are classified, there will be no way of knowing for sure whether or not the President keeps his pledge not to kill any children for three days — the President’s supporters insist, however, that “it’s the thought that counts”.

A GROWN-UP IN THE ROOM

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TLJGoldenGlobes

Tommy Lee Jones was the only person in the room at the Golden Globe Awards that I could relate to. He looked as though he was wondering, as the only grown-up on the scene, if he should put a stop to the preposterous shenanigans going on around him.

Sadly, he seems to have decided it was not his job.

A NEW REVIEW

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Lloydrattlesnakes

. . . on Amazon of my collection Fourteen Western Stories:

Great story-telling

There is language well-used here, and humor, sex, bravery, honor, shame and surprise.

In an old form, stories of and in The West, there is a modern honest appreciation of men and women (what women!) and the trouble they get into when they meet and mingle. And the pleasure that can be found even in a rough and unforgiving world.

Fonvielle’s story-telling makes it hard to stop reading, true, but don’t hurry through these . . . stories. There are only so many and you should make them last.

ALL TOGETHER NOW

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Golden Globes Hosts

Weren’t those Globes golden?

As the Hollywood community grows year by year shabbier, more vulgar and less talented, so ceremonies like the Golden Globes grow more inspiring. Who among us could not look at that room full of hacks and think, “If I were at one of those tables, I’d be among the classiest and most attractive people in the room”?

What we’re witnessing is the the democratization of celebrity — the gathering of all in a grand jamboree of mediocrity.

SALES

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Amazon offers something close to a million titles that can be bought for the Kindle. Each one has a sales rank, determined by a formula Amazon hasn’t disclosed, except that it’s a combination of total sales over time and the current rate of sales.

My book Fourteen Western Stories has cracked the #10,000 barrier in sales rank. It’s a long way from the top ten, or even the top one hundred, but it’s still startling. My novel Bloodbath, for example, published about a year ago, has a sales rank in the neighborhood of #260,000. Elmore Leonard’s collection of Western stories has a sales rank in the neighborhood of #50,000, although it’s been out for several years.

What’s more, my book has cracked the top one hundred in sales of short story collections, short story collections by single authors and Westerns for the Kindle.

Under 10K Sales Rank

I don’t know how this has happened. I only have three customer reviews, although they’re all positive, and I’m not doing any commercial advertising for the book.

These rankings fluctuate a lot, but somehow the book is finding readers, and I’m very grateful for that fact. I’m especially grateful to friends who’ve bought it and told other friends about it.