Books and Pasplore

I want to say how fun it is to know people who are awesome!  There are so many people who I am surrounded by who do amazing things.  This post is probably embarrassing for all of them but they will just have to deal with it.  (There are, of course, many other awesome people that I am surrounded by that aren’t mentioned in this post.)

I go to church with (at least two) authors who have self-published full-length novels!  I loved creative writing in High School but the dedication to craft an entire story and then edit, re-edit, re-edit (and, oh yeah, write it) is something I have never wanted to do.  But here are two books that two of my friends have written:

The Plasma Master, by Brian Rushton.  It is a sci-fi adventure about a teenage boy who escapes post-H.S. doldrums and saves a significant part of the galaxy (but not by playing video games).  Available for $.99 for your Kindle or Kindle App

Awakenings, ‘Neath Ancient Ruins Lie, Book One, by Mabel D. F. Cowie.  It’s a fantasy about a Scottish servant girl who deals with some unexpected guests in the dungeon.  Available in paperback for $10.95 or $.99 Kindle or Kindle App.  

OK, if that wasn’t enough, I came across this totally hilarious satire about Christmas stories, also.  The idea from the trio of authors is that there are so many stories about Christmas that are so formulaic that pretty much any topic could masquerade as a heart-felt Christmas story.  They were so daring and brave in their assertion that they found a way to somewhat randomly select titles for their stories BEFORE the stories were written.  So authors Brian Rushton, Amy Rushton and Kevin Rushton each penned a silly story (or picture book) titled, respectively, “The Christmas File”, “The Christmas Hamburger” and “The Christmas Head”. 

I read them last night, and then showed my wife the Hamburger one before church today.  We were forced to read all of them to the kids tonight after dinner and everyone laughed in all the right places.  (I am quite confident there is some social commentary going on in the Head story that I didn’t pick up, but see if you can find some humor and irony in Kevin’s choices of character names and “heads”).  This one is a FREE book that is downloadable in many eReader formats and it will only take you 10 minutes to get through the stories.  Once you read them, you might be tempted to start your own stories, like my wife and daughters did tonight.

Oh, and lastly, lest I not forget, my friend Wes Dyer has co-founded a website with his brother-in-law Chris Crittenden at www.pasplore.com. 

They created a tool that will automatically find recipes on web sites you visit.  At the touch of a button, the recipe is gathered up into digital recipe cards that Pasplore will keep handy (and organized!) for you.  I have started cooking with my laptop on the counter instead of a recipe printout.  They are still on beta, but if you like to cook or if you ever search the web for recipes, then this is a tool worth having.  I am excited that I can start my journey away from the huge binder of printed recipes we keep in the cupboard.

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