Well it’s Valentine’s Day again.  In case I could have possibly forgotten
among the countless jewelry and Victoria’s Secret commercials, I received
another reminder today.  It was not from my wife, mind you.  I came
home this evening and listened to my answering machine.  I have one of
those messages where the machine speaks and says the number you have reached and
to leave a message.  There was a message from a stranger saying they wanted
to make a reservation for Friday night and to call them back at a certain
number.   I shrugged it off and deleted it.  The next message was
from the same person asking why he hadn’t received a call back yet.  I
chuckled and deleted the message.  The next message was from the same
person.  This time he was furious.  He said he was never going to eat
there again if we didn’t call him back and make a reservation.  The fourth
and final message was him again saying he couldn’t believe that no one was
calling back.  Right after I deleted it, the phone rang and the caller ID
said it was the same person.  I picked it up and said, “Hello?”  
The person immediately hung up.  I guess he didn’t want the reservation
after all.  I have this habit of always having to work on Valentine’s
night.  When you go to the grocery store at 9:30 on Valentine’s evening the
floral department is pretty bare.  One year a guy literally tried to pull
the last rose out of my hand after I had picked it up.  It wasn’t much of a
rose, but I was the one who had it and it was the last one in the store.  I
had to get a store associate to help me get him to let go.  Lesson
learned.  Ever since then I have bought my wife roses the night before and
either given them to her then or put them in a vase after she was asleep so she
would see them in the morning.  This way the selection is always good and
everyone is happy.  I picked up my youngest daughter tonight on the way to
the store to help pick them.  I am a traditional red rose guy.  My
wife never complains and they just seem right.  Tonight my daughter said,
“This year get her white ones.”  I said I wanted red ones.  She
pointed out that the red ones looked wilted already and the white ones still
looked fresh.  Then she pointed out how mad her mom would be if the roses
died in a couple of days.  I have to say, she was right.  So after a
long debate I finally bought the white ones.  I know different colored
roses are supposed to mean different things.  I have no idea what white
means and hopefully my wife doesn’t either.  She is my life.  When I
feel like I am going to falter, she is right there to hold me up.  She is
my rock and I could not imagine life without her.  Happy Valentine’s Day to
my darling wife and to all of you.  I hope your flower shopping goes well.

I was paying bills today and my wife texted me asking what I was doing. 
When I told her she jokingly said, “That sounds like fun.”  It reminded me
of something I learned in Persuasion Class back in college.  It is the one
appeal that is stronger in advertising than any other.  I am referring to
the fear appeal.  It has a stronger draw than sex, desire for gain and
basic need combined!  I noticed it as I was paying the bills.  I
wasn’t paying because I wanted to give my money away.   I wasn’t
paying out of a need to make to payee happy.  I wasn’t paying because doing
so is something basic humans need to do.  And I certainly wasn’t doing it
because it made me feel good about myself.  I was paying bills because of
that fear deep down inside.  You know that fear.  “What if I forget to
pay this and they start calling me!  Or maybe it will end up on my credit
score!  We can’t be having that now, can we?  So even though they
weren’t due for another week or so, I paid them now so I wouldn’t have to worry
about it in the future.  The fear of the consequences made me pay the
bills.  Advertisers have been tapping into this for years.  It works
so well on us because it strikes that common human trait…fear.  I love life
insurance salesmen.  Their opening line is always, “If something happened
to you, is there enough insurance on you to take care of your family for the
rest of their lives?  No one is actually going to say “Yes” in their heads
because you never will feel like you have enough insurance to take care of your
family.  Then you start to worry about all the horrible things that could
happen to your family if something happened to you.  Once the fear is
there, the salesman or commercial as it may be shows you how “affordable caring
for your loved ones can be.”  Kind of evil…isn’t it?  Even if you buy
the policy, you still will worry that it won’t be enough.  I have mentioned
this before in blogs but car repair places are the same way.  They tell you
“It doesn’t have to be fixed now but I would do it soon or it could cause an
accident.”  My favorite, of course is, “You need to have this done to make
it safe to drive.”  When you hear that you immediately start imagining all
the horrible things that could happen to your family in the car.  If you
have the means, 9 times out of 10 you have the repairs done.  Again, you
don’t do it to feel good.   You do it so you won’t worry when your
family is in the car.  Isn’t it funny how advertisers and salesmen like to
stress the fear of loss to someone close to you?  In general, people will
forgo what could be called luxury expenses for themselves.  When it comes
to those you love, however, the checkbook is open.  Let’s face it. 
The insurance salesman doesn’t say, “Hey, if you die without enough insurance I
bet you’ll feel stupid.”  Actually you won’t feel anything.  You’ll be
dead!  Now the ones you leave behind, that’s where the fear strikes. 
I wish this method was not so effective but it is.  In fact I just
remembered another bill I need to pay.  I better do that quick!

It’s been over two weeks that I have been sick and I have been to my family
doctor several times.  After rounds of steroids and antibiotics not helping
I went to a specialist today.  Apparently I have a sinusitis, bronchitis
and laryngitis.  Put that all together and they say it is like the
“Croup.”  Now I hear that word and it doesn’t sound like it’s so bad. 
There effects, however, are terrible.  I can barely speak and when I cough
I sound like someone who is a chain smoker.  I’ll have to look this up on
Web MD later.  So what did the specialist do for me?  He gave me
another round of antibiotics, steroids and an inhaler.  It is not my place
to second guess the medical establishment.  I hold them in high
esteem.  Sometimes, however, it seems like they’re fishing in the
dark.  If there’s the slightest problem they throw antibiotics at it. 
I’ll see how this goes but so far none of the medicine has made a significant
difference.  I had mentioned the other day in my blog how my 12 year old
daughter has been such a help shopping while I haven’t been able to speak. 
She’s at school right now and I need to pick up my prescriptions.  That
should be fun.  I tried picking one up last night at the drive
through.  I had to open my car door and put my mouth right next to the
speaker for them to hear.  Then they misunderstood what I was saying and I
had to keep repeating myself in a softer and softer tone as what little voice I
had faded.  After five tries they finally understood my birthday and were
able to tell me…that the medicine was not in the store and I had to come back
today.  Seriously?  After all that?  I know they have to make
sure you’re the right person before dispensing information but that seems like a
lot to go through to find out you are wasting your time.  It’s not the
pharmacist’s fault.  It’s just frustrating.  Fortunately, the one
thing I can do at this time is writing.  There is plenty of editing still
to do on “Sapphire Crucible” so I can stay busy without saying a word. 
When you edit your book it’s amazing how many changes need to be made. 
Sometimes you feel like you should get credit for the things you did
right.  Still, most of the changes are minor and often times not
necessarily errors but ways to make the book flow better.  Editors are kind
of like doctors.  Even though they may be doing something to you that hurts
at the time, they have your best interests at heart and you need to remember
they are there to help.  While I do my edits, I will dream of the good old
days when I could speak freely and wait for those days to return.

I have been honored by three more blogs.  First I have an interview on
“Between the Lines” at http://wp.me/p47cK4-it.  I want to thank
them for having me as a guest. They run a first rate blog.  Then “Stealing
Pages” wrote a piece on me as well.  You can read it at http://stealingpages.com/2014/02/07/author-interview-rival-gates/. 
I love doing interviews for different sites because the questions can vary so
much.  Most exciting is a book review done on “Mary’s Cup of Tea”, another
great blog with a huge following.  The review was most flattering and a
solid representation of “Quest for the Red Sapphire.”  It is listed
here.  http://www.mmbearcupoftea.com/2014/02/quest-for-red-sapphire-book-review.html. 
Thank you to Mary for the kind words.  Check out all these pieces for more
information. 

Today is a short blog but it contains two pieces of good news.  The first
piece is that I received the editor’s copy of Sapphire Crucible today.  Now
I will make revisions and send it through for a final read.  This is just
another step toward the publishing of the long awaited sequel to ”Quest for the
Red Sapphire”.  While I am on the subject of book 1 in the series, I have
my second piece of good news.  The blog “Between the Lines” has posted an
interview with me about it.  Check it out at http://betweenthelinesbookblog.wordpress.com/2014/02/08/author-interview-rival-gates/
I
love sharing these interviews with my fans.  Happy reading!

With the recent snowfall I noticed one of the neighbor children with a sled
trying to ride down a small slope in his yard.  He tried and tried but was
unsuccessful.  The snow simply wasn’t deep enough for the deep cutting
blades of his first class toboggan.  It made me stop and think about my own
childhood.  My siblings and I would see a good dusting of powder and head
for the big hill in the park.  I swear the thing was a mountain.  We
would climb up and try to stay out of the way of other kids sliding down. 
We didn’t have the super cool sleds but then again, neither did anyone
else.  We used garbage can lids, sheets of plastic, a shovel and sometimes
things we invented in the garage.  There was no status to maintain on the
hill.  Everyone brought what they had and made do.  If you wanted to
slide sitting down, the garbage can lid was the way to go.  Put it upside
down on a steep hill and you were flying.  The only problem was that there
was simply no way to steer.  You had to sort of slide in a general
direction and hope not to hit anyone or anything.  After some words of
wisdom from my brother I learned you could alter your direction by placing a
hand in the snow behind you as you slid and use it as a rudder.  It worked
reasonably well.  There were of course those impacts you saw coming that
you could do nothing about.  Often times it was another rider on a
collision course with you.  There were two options and you had to act
fast.  Run into the other rider and hope you just bounced off one another,
or bail out and tumble down the hill.  Neither plan usually worked out
well.  With the speeds involved there were very few “bumps” and a whole lot
of collisions that would wipe at least one of you out.  That would fill the
suit with snow pretty fast.  Bailing out was worse.  You were
guaranteed to take a fall and then you became a slow, large moving object half
way down the hill in danger of being hit several times.  If you liked to
lay down on your way down the hill you went for the plastic sheet.  They
were cheap to buy and usually came in neon colors which was always fun. 
You laid down face first and held up the front high enough to buffer the snow
but low enough to see over.  That sheet went a lot faster than the can
lid.  There was practically no resistance.  It had some of the same
dangers but at least you could steer by leaning one way or another.  The
most crashes happened when you hit a bump and couldn’t see what was ahead of
you.  Often your hat would slide over your eyes and if you tried to adjust
it, it meant letting go of the sheet with one hand which caused you to go off
course and usually crash.  Riding the shovel looks cool in the movies but
in practice is a bit too rough on your private parts as you are bouncing down
that hill and it is jamming you between the legs.  It hurts to think
about.  Invariably at the bottom of the hill some genius always had a busy
roadway.  So even if you made it down safely, you usually had to bail out
to avoid going into the street.  And do you know what we did after we
reached the bottom?  We marched back up the hill to do it again. 
There were almost never any adults and the general rule was to stay out until it
was almost dark or you had too much snow in your suit to stay outside any
longer.  You don’t see things like that these days.  Instead you see a
$75 toboggan getting stuck on a 4 foot hill.  Give me back the old
days. 

Today is our first Snow Day of the year.  The kids are off from
school.  The roads are nearly empty, and there are about 4 inches of snow
on the ground.  Compared to other parts of the country, we have had a very
light winter here in Nebraska.  It has been bitterly cold, make no mistake
about that.  But this is the first serious snow we have seen all
year.  Being from Michigan and having grown up in Canada I tend to laugh
when the weather man starts to freak out before a single flake even forms. 
Businesses close “Due to the expected bad weather”.  Really?  Just the
thought of snow sends people into a panic.  I pictured two people fighting
over the last gallon of milk at the grocery store last night.  It makes me
laugh.  Don’t get me wrong.  4 inches of snow is no fun to drive
around in but it isn’t like getting a foot of snow or sometimes two feet! 
That was insane.  It was like the world was ending.  I spoke with my
father the other day and he said the Detroit area of Michigan had already
received 50 inches of snow this winter.  Before this storm we had received
a total of 6 inches all year.  I can’t imagine being in Detroit right
now.  They are bankrupt and cannot afford to send snow plows out. 
According to my brother who lives in the area, the accidents have been out of
control.  On a totally different viewpoint, have you ever seen “I am
Legend” with Will Smith.  If you haven’t, he is the lone survivor in New
York City after a zombie apocalypse.  He goes to great lengths to prevent
the zombies from finding his home.  I always wondered what he does in the
winter.  He drives and walks all over during the day.  When the snow
builds up, wouldn’t the zombies be able to follow his tracks back to his
brownstone and pay him a visit?  Also, the zombies were barely wearing any
clothes.  Wouldn’t they die from exposure in a city with no heat in the
winter?  Have you ever noticed in zombie movies that they never seem to
dress warmly?  I mean they are zombies but you have to stay warm if you’re
going to search for brains to eat.  Then again, maybe the half-dead nature
of zombies makes them impervious to cold?  It doesn’t make much sense to me
but then again neither does the notion of a zombie apocalypse.  Still, I
think there is a better chance of that happening than having the roads plowed in
Detroit.  It’s too bad about that city.  It was once a beautiful
place.  Oh well, I’ll stay nice and warm here in Nebraska with my four
inches of snow.  I noticed that I have a lot of readers in the Palo Alto
region of California.  Hi to you all.  You probably are wondering
about all this snow talk.  Just be thankful it is not a problem where you
are.  Well, the kids have finally left their beds and want some attention
so I will leave you for the day.  I still wonder about those zombies,
though.

Well, it’s that time of year again.  Not Groundhog’s Day.  Not
President’s day.  It is officially tax season.  I like to get my taxes
done early so I know where I stand.  Many people like to do their own
taxes, which I understand.  Years ago I used to do my own as well. 
Now there are so many different deductions and so forth that I don’t trust
myself to get it right on my own.  I tried going to those little cubicles
set up in major stores and having them do my taxes.  It didn’t exactly
comfort me that the person doing my taxes was only doing this for two months of
the year.  The rest of the time they were gym instructors or what have
you.  So I decided some time ago to go to an actual accountant.  It
doesn’t cost much different than the cubicle guys and I have someone who does
tax work 12 months of the year doing my taxes.  If nothing else it gives me
piece of mind.  Since I have been going to the same person for so long, he
does my son’s return at the same time for free.  I used to see nice
returns.  Then we started owing on our taxes out of the blue.  That’s
not fun.  You go over every deduction but the government still wants
more.  What happened?  My income hasn’t changed that much.  A
year ago we found out that my wife wasn’t having enough taken out of her
checks.  I am from the school of thought that says, “It’s better to overpay
than to have to come up with a lump of cash to pay later.”  My wife, on the
other hand believes, “Why should I give the government an interest free loan for
a year?”  Both are compelling arguments when you think about them. 
Last year was a nightmare, however.  As soon as I was done at the
accountant’s I called my wife and told her to increase the amount taken out of
her checks.  She was not happy with me but did do it.  Somehow, only
the federal deductions were increased and this year we received a small refund
from the Federal Government but owe slightly more than that to the state. 
Taxes are weird.  It didn’t help that my one daughter turned 17 and we lost
a credit for her.  How is that fair?  It’s not like she turned 17 and
I kicked her out of the house.  She is as much of an expense as ever. 
How come I magically lose a deduction for her?  To all you parents who
thought you beat the system by having a child born before the end of the year
(e.g. December) and had an extra year of deductions, it’s not true.  You
just lose the deduction a year sooner to make up for it.  Uncle Sam gets
you one way or another.  Overall I lucked out.  It could have been a
lot worse.  Still my wife and I disagree over the time to pay our
taxes.  It’s a tough question.   I just hate writing the
government a check.

The good people at Nordie Writing About Books have been kind enough to interview
me and post the results.  You can follow it here at http://nordie.wordpress.com/2014/02/01/author-interview-rival-gates/
.  I hope it sheds a little more light on me and my writing.

As a writer I have come to appreciate many great things.  I especially love
being able to express myself through the written word.  There is just so
much you can convey to others when you sit down and think about what you want to
write.  Thankfully that is a gift I have not had to sacrifice (except
during the occasional computer failure).  During this week, however, I have
had to go without the ability to speak because I came down with several things
including laryngitis.  Imagine going to the drive-through pharmacy and they
can’t understand your name to get your prescription.  I had to go get my
twelve year old daughter and have her talk into the microphone just so I could
get my medicine.  We needed some things at the grocery store and I had to
have her ask the clerk where to find something and then do all the talking at
the checkout.   It would have been easier if they had asked questions
that could be answered with “Yes” or “No”.  Instead, they asked things
like, “Will this be paper or plastic?”  I pointed at one but they didn’t
get it.  Fortunately my daughter knew the answer.  Then they asked,
“How did you want to pay for this?”  I held up my check-card and the lady
asked, “Credit or debit?”  Oh man!  I started making the swiping
gesture.   She just said, “Yes, I know you want to swipe it but how do
you want it processed?”  Next I made the words with my mouth but she still
couldn’t understand me.  Fortunately, my daughter stepped in.  “He
said he wants to use it as credit and have it put in paper bags.  Also, we
could use some help out to the car with our purchase.”   What a
godsend!  I patted her on the head and then hugged her.  She thought
nothing of it and calmly led the clerk after the transaction to our car where
she told me to get in and she would tell him where everything went.  I
could not have made it without her.   My love is writing but I have
sure missed talking this week.  My wife finds it a refreshing silence from
my incessant rambling.  With my birthday last Tuesday, family called and
could not understand me on the phone.  I was shouting and they kept asking,
“What?”  It was like one of those commercials for the cellular carrier when
they would ask, “Can you hear me now?”  What is hardest of all this is that
I need to rest my voice so my throat can heal.  That is one tall
order.  Imagine communicating with others without speaking.  I have a
new found respect for deaf/mutes   It’s as though I am speaking
another language except I’m not speaking.  This has gone on for nearly a
week and I for one am more than ready to have it end.