Amy's Baking Comany - The Fallout

Reality TV Rescues did a ten-year follow-up on what happened to Amy and Samy after their Kitchen Nightmares second episode. They also added some background details about the couple.

Movie Music I Love

For the rest of the spring and summer, let's listen to the emotional touchpoints from a lot of our favorite movies.

WARNING: Some of these may have been popular before you were born!

Rise in Prices

The current economic chaos is gouging everyone these days. Shelter, food, and gasoline are necessities. Without those, people cannot obtain work and travel to their jobs in a large part of the U.S.

Unfortunately, I'm in the same position as everyone else in the country. I find it necessary to raise prices on e-books. I've been resisting it for the last ten years.

Any e-books currently released will remain at their current prices. Any unfinished series, like Justice and Millersburg Magick Mysteries, will remain at their current price levels.

Any NEW novels or series, i.e.  any work where Book #1 or a new single title, is released on retailers after May 15, 2026, will be priced at $5.99. Novellas will be priced at $3.99.

It sucks to raise prices when we're all just trying to get by.

Fast Trips, Editing, and Proud Parents

GK was officially promoted to sergeant on May 1st. DH and I drove down to his base on Sunday, the formal ceremony occurred Monday morning, and we dove home yesterday. Thankfully, DH did most of the driving so I could get some editing done on a completed book. (No, it wasn't A Sprout of Wild!) The whirlwind trip took a lot of planning and extraneous minutia, but it was totally worth it!

For various reasons, including the COVID pandemic, DH and I've never been able to attend any of GK's ceremonies. The kid kept saying we didn't have to come to this one. But I insisted, telling him I wanted to attend ONE adult recognition ceremony.

You see, he didn't graduate from high school. He dropped out for reasons DH and I understood and supported. In our white-collar town, something like this was a major scandal, but none of the three of us cared. Not every person is cut out for cookie-cutter classroom bullshit.

During the ceremony, his 1st sergeant and captain said some wonderful things about GK's service. Their words were genuine and sincere. At the end of the ceremony, GK was called upon to make a speech. GK thanked those who had mentored him and recognized the efforts of his fellow soldiers in getting the job done. It was a humble and sweet speech from an accomplished young man who had failed his public speaking class in his teen years because of severe anxiety.

To say DH and I are proud of the man our son has become is an understatement.

When the unit was dismissed at the end, GK said he needed to take care of a couple things and then he'd meet us for dinner. His captain overheard, came over to us, and said, "Harden, you're done for today. Go spend some time with your parents."

Sarcasm, an appreciation for SF&F, and a love of chocolate are pretty much the only things GK inherited from me. He got everything else from DH. However, we both love him and are proud of him. He's everything we could want in our progeny.

And now when he calls, I'll say, "Hey, Sarge! What's up?"