Monday, February 28, 2005

The Oscars with Howard

Steve standing next to the Howard Hughes's "Hercules" flying boat while attending an Oscar party being held there.

photo by Christina F. York

Tonight I took an evening off from the third Conan book to go with Chris to a special benifit Oscar party being held in honor of "The Aviator." It was held at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, about 50 miles from our home.

The Hercules flying boat is indeed a wonder. The mind simply has trouble grasping just how huge it is unless some point of reference is offered. When we first saw the plane, it was in the finally stages of assembly, and a workman was up on the horizontal tail, a surface that I'd guess is about the size of a tennis court. Every time he would walk to the edge of the tail so you could see him, the plane would seem to magically double in size. But when he walked out of sight, it seemed to shrink down again. The entire plane is a gigantic optical illusion.



Thursday, February 17, 2005

Conan book turned in

I turned in the second book in my trilogy set in the world of Robert E. Howard's Conan, "Heretic of Set" on Sunday. Now working on the third book, "Venom of Luxur."