Me and Chairman Mao

Moved!

Find me here: http://www.meandchairmanmao.com.

Moving!

As in, the entire domain--to a different service. (No offense, Typepad.) If something goes screwy, that's why. Apologies in advance to all my millions of daily visitors. 

1 Million Books Sold!

Is something that Nora Roberts can now apparently say about her Kindle book sales! (Along with James Patterson and Steig Larsson, although if Steig is saying anything about his book sales the zombie uprising has begun and we should all head for the hills with as many guns as we can carry. Toilet paper and can openers wouldn't hurt either.)

As for me, I have not cracked the million mark yet. If you round down, I'm still about, oh, one million away. (Bet you saw that coming.)

But I just did actually do the math, and I have now officially cracked the 60 book barrier---63, to be exact--which as we all know is the hardest hurdle to overcome on the way to one million. So yeah, I'm pretty much there ....

On a more, shall we say, realistic note, I guess I am (sort of) closing in on one hundred, which is pretty cool, given my limited marketing budget (zero), limited ad campaign (zero), and--most importantly--limited number of people I am friends with who have bought it in Kindle form (1, maybe 2.)

Yes, 100, here I come! Hopefully before this summer ...

It's Christmas Time All Over the Word ...

Even at McDonald's! In China!

Everytime I look at this photo, I have the same thought. I have modified said photo in such a way as to give you a good idea of what that thought is:

More Christmas ... Now Almost Seasonal.

Target has had their Christmas stuff out for weeks--I think they put it out with the Halloween stuff (you didn't know Nightmare Before Christmas was so influential, did you?)--so I figure I'm well within my rights to post a Christmas picture. Well, another Christmas picture, since the beer tree has already made an appearance.

Anyway, this is another one from the "A Christmas Story" chapter of my book--the upside down stencils.

For instance, the enterprising management office for our apartment complex had used red spray paint to stencil Christmas wreaths — complete with bells — on every window in every lobby of every building, but had put most of them upside down, presumably because none of them had actually seen a real Christmas wreath and didn't know any better.

I don't know why, but for some reason this cracked me up more than anything else about that Christmas--so close, and yet so far ...