Wuing You with Words ...

My newest novel, Rapture , is out. Giant thanks to my beta readers—you are worth all the bitcoins in the galaxy. Blurb, retail links, and excerpt are here .  You can win a free paperback at Goodreads. Goodreads Book Giveaway Rapture by Alex P. Wu Giveaway ends February 06, 2018. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter Giveaway I wanted to write something completely different from my first novel, Morocco, Maybe , a travel love story. My favorite TV show of all time is Battlestar Galactica. S eriously. Nothing compares. The closest contenders are maybe The Newsroom (exciting, smart, and moving) and The Walking Dead (before most of the beloved original group got offed). Thus I tried to write a story with elements similar to those that made BSG appealing to me: science, action, philosophy, politics, religion, friendship, romance ... and in particular, moral ambiguity

We usually go to the animal shelter that's within walking distance of our home, but this past Friday we drove to a couple of other shelters: West LA Animal Shelter and NKLA . On Sunday we went back to the same two shelters to look at the same dogs. Again. Most of the dogs at the two shelters were pit bull mixes, at least 90%. That gave us mixed feelings. We love pit bulls, but it was sad to see so many languishing in the cages. The yellow dog above is Max. He is 1.5 years old and supposed to be energetic but was quite mellow when we saw him. He would lean against the cage, let Michelle stroke him, and close his eyes. He was either super sleepy or trying to better enjoy the massage. Max has been adopted. Some lucky human got a swell dog. There were many lovely dogs, but I'd like to plug a few especially nice ones. The cutest thing about Frances is her wrinkled face. It makes her look so worried. She's 38 pounds and two years old. And there's  Sprout

Credit: http://snapjudgment.org/podcast Poignant stories make me cry, especially if they are true. If you're a fan of public radio, like me, then you might've heard of the show Snap Judgment . It's true stories narrated by the real people behind them. The stories tend to be short, many merely a few minutes long. Recently I heard one that made me sad. The next story made me all teary-eyed. The first one had softened me up, so I had no defenses left. In preparation for this post, I listened to both stories again. I ended up with the same reaction. Damn those storytellers. Story #1   Thom had a wonderful boss who held an annual karaoke night for the company they both worked for. The boss had a favorite song that left an emotional, lasting impact on Thom in a way he never anticipated. The song, by the way, is Radiohead's Creep . A great, melancholic song. No surprise why I love it. Story #2 Derrick had a bad heart (four heart attacks by age 27), but Emma fe