This is one piece i finished last night of a mermaid and her manatee pal.

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Jim & Nicole Collins, me, Don Nottingham and David Moore.

A successful night Friday night during Champions for Champions Fun, Dine, Wine and Giving Night. Much was raised through the dinner, silent auction and other fund raising activities, including some raised by my doing some drawing.

Champions for Champions mission “is to enrich family lives and values through providing and facilitating educational, sports, music, and life skill programs for people with special needs.”

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Two are for one project for the 4th Annual Critter Trail 5K Run/Walk. The other is for Thursday’s Swampy’s Florida celebration. You can see the color version there.

I penciled these first and then inked with various brush pens and a Flair marker.

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I had the opportunity to meet Bill at an event near Spring hill & Weeki Wachee, Florida on Sunday. I met him as he played Stardust and a medley from The Phantom of the Opera. He complained that he missed notes. Sounded great to me. Especially for a fellow of 94 years. Bill drove a tractor trailer most of his career in Canada after his family moved him from England as a teen.

Here’s the watercolor illustration i did of 80 year young Nancy, the birthday girl, who was being honored at the party.

A few images of the life coaching caricatures I did at an event Saturday night in Tampa, Florida.

Back in February I figured I’d been posting too many of these event photos and figured I should hold off a bit before posting more. Well, a good 15 events later, here are some more.

The first photo is of Rhoda, who is 3 generations Native Floridian from Tampa in one side of family and 5 generations Native Floridian from around Monticello on the other side. I’m going to help her plan a family reunion near Orlando to see Orange County history and not have folks running off to the kiddie amusement parks.

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Here’s a snippet of a much larger painting I did in the past few days involving George Washington and circus animals. But, don’t all paintings?

The Scarlet Letters by Ellery Queen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I love the Queen series. i just picked up another clump of them. This is one of them. However, this is not an example of the reason i picked up so many.

This Queen tale is waaaaaaay too prolonged with an involved MaGuffin that seems orderly enough, but gets monotonous quickly as little else happens involving, what appears to be, a domestic dispute. The story doesn’t make sense unless Queen jumps to too many assumptions. which is something he warns not to do in many of the Queen novels. This is a repeated inconsistency that is the only way the writers could link events, but a flimsy one and one that had me find the entire tale ridiculous.

Due to the prolonged trip through the alphabet, the few characters are very well identified. Odd that the few settings, that are repeated many times, did not have the detail they could have.

The ending is very unsatisfying considering all it took to get to the point. All proving this would have been a far better short story.

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 5 out of 5 points.

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Massacre at Powder River by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Now than I’m well into multi-dozens of Johnstone Clan read, i again come across the British ex-pat wanting to make it big in US story. This one, though, is a switch in which there are 2! A variation of other Johnstone Clan books. This book is very similar with very similar encounters, characters and outcome. A bit of a disappointment to feel like I’m re-reading a Johnstone Clan book.

The characters, as always are interesting, if not too similar to others in Johnstone Clan books. The inclusion of a historic figure is interesting but more as a plot device than to tell a story. This is basically an older Johnstone Clan book that includes Winston Churchill.

The setting is not as well told as in other books.

Still, this is a well written book and fun to read…and if you aren’t scarfing up all of the Johnstone books like me… so…

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 6 out of 10 points.

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Live hiking along the Withlacoochee River!

Kill or Die by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Number 3 in the series of ‘Flintlock’ and either the writer changed or somebody got in a big hurry to hit a deadline. One things for sure – The writer does not know swamps!

The over all story is good, but far simpler in telling than the previous two. Not helping is my reading great authors since reading the two. Folks like Walter Lippmann, Mark Greaney and John D. MacDonald.

I am so glad I read John D.’s ‘Condominium’ before reading this book. Odds of someone doing that is extremely low. The odd thing is that ‘Kill or Die’ is basically ‘Condominium’. Just that all of the characters have guns. There is the community living in the swamp, a ruthless developer out to wipe out the cypress swamp and the oncoming hurricane. The story was eerily similar.

The writing of the cypress swamp really bugged me. Obviously the writer has never stepped foot in one. I don’t know much about west of the Mississippi and all of the rocks and dirt in the west. Not my thing. But, here in Florida, I know swamps and like them a lot.

It’s supposedly late Summer in a Southern swamp. All of the characters acted comfortable. Even the most die hard Southerner sweats like crazy in late August. But most especially someone like Flintlock, used to the dry western air, would be having a hell of a time adjusting to the thick humidity.

Also, where are the bugs??? Now, most healthy swamps actually have few bugs. But this is described as home to many people. Thus, the swamp should be filled with all kinds of bugs. Few appear throughout the swamp scenes.

The BIGGEST omission, and a huge strike in my book, are the cypress knees. No one is just going to go trotting out into a swamp they don’t know and not, either, navigate around the knees or trip over them. NOT ONCE are knees mentioned. That’s impossible, for a cypress can not survive without the attached knees jutting out for air.

This is the least clever of the three Flintlocks. Rather a standard story with some excellent enhancing elements like the balloon, the odd mid-eastern valet and the description of Evangeline. The odd mysticism continues in this book, but not with the magical flair of the first two. The characters are very well done and typical of a Johnstone Clan book. The settings are lacking this time around, especially with the noted above. The ending appears to be multiple chapters tacked on, I guess, to increase page count. This is the shortest of the Flintlock series by 100 pages.

Proof to me that this is surely a different writer is that Flintlock is not described as in the other two books. The tattoo is only described on his neck and not running from the side of his face to his chest. Also, Flintlock is not described by his shorter stature or mustache. Also, O’Hara’s character has greatly altered to being more of a side kick than the drifter described in the first two.

This third book continues the trend of having a horrible cover. Still not Flintlock on the cover. Also, the background in know way looks like a Louisiana swamp.

Can’t believe I’ve caught up with a Johnstone Clan title! First series I’ve read all that are available.

Bottom l;ine: i recommend this book. 6 out of ten points.

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