Thursday, July 1, 2010

Behind The Mask

Do I ever think about extraterrestrials in real life? You bet I do. I think about them all the time. But the Hollywood cutie-pie and harmless versions (like this one) never cross my mind because I really doubt if they exist. What's really out there is less comical and more diabolical. I think about and write about what might go on behind the mask of real, everyday life and what probably does.

I write about extraterrestrials all the time, too. In my blogs I often use them to deliver comedy and light-hearted entertainment (click on pic for example) but in my sci-fi thrillers I do a lot more. In my novels I show a more sinister side of the extraterrestrial phenomenon. A sample of otherworldy power and unbridled ambition that I actually tasted in real life, as a boy. That's right, I'm talking about extraterrestrial influences in my life, including abduction and medical experimentation. But the extraterrestrial interference that bothers me the most is the manipulation of life events for social and biological experimentation. You got it. The big picture.

That's right. I write about Earth as one of the biggest experimental laboratories in the Milky Way Galaxy. Maybe the biggest. And right again, based not only on my own childhood experiences, but on my continued observations of not only my own life but life on Earth in general. It's not easy to live your life while observing it at the same time.

But that's what I do. And I've been doing it all my life.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

A Sucker for a Beach Boys Summer

When I graduated from high school way back in 1969 what I wanted more than anything was to be a beach boy for the entire summer. Southern California would have been a great place to do that and I used to daydream about working in a surfboard store and surfing and having this beach bunny girlfriend and the whole nine yards.

What I got instead was a few weeks in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a job as a bus boy and dishwasher and a fickle girlfriend who liked older guys who had flashy cars, money to burn and more interesting jobs. But at least I had my big dreams and my favorite beach boy music.

I've been way too old for wanting to be a beach boy for more years than I care to remember but, when I think of the great summer sounds of The Beach Boys, I still think about the Summer of '69 and how it could have been.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

"Kindling" for your Summer Campfire

All my books are available through Amazon's Kindle Store. My full-length science fiction novels are only $3.99 each while the novella Blind Fool Running and my book of blogs, The Four Bloggers of the Apocalypse, are a mere $2.99 each. These e-Books can be purchased through Amazon's Kindle Store and read on Kindle and the Kindle application for Android, Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac and Windows Phone.

Now that's an e-Book deal everybody can live with. Click on the image below for books by me in the Amazon Kindle Store.
post updated 2-16-13

Thursday, May 6, 2010

A Sucker for Petula Clark

Back in the 1960s I was a sucker for Petula Clark and her particular brand of music. Sweet love songs with a big London street sound delivered by an attractive blonde with an English accent. I was in love the first time I heard her on the radio, even before I saw her on Ed Sullivan. It became a life-long love affair that I'll gladly take with me to my grave.

Yeah, Petula Clark was old enough to be my mother but having a crush on somebody older back in the 1960s was normal and wholesome and even chaste. Before Petula Clark came along my biggest crushes were Annette Funicello, Haley Mills and — that's right — Doris Day and Julie Andrews. It was the early 1960s. There were still plenty of good people and even innocent people in the world.

"Pet" Clark perfectly represented the "other Sixties", the overlooked part of that decade that flowed naturally out of the 1950s. The hidden side of the 60s where people still liked the way things were and wanted them to go on forever. That part of the world that still went to school and graduated and dated and fell in love and got married and had babies because that was happiness enough. It was what a lot of people wanted. It was what I wanted.

Being a teenager who "went for" Petula Clark made me understand why girls went for Elvis. I went for Petula Clark because she made me feel good about being a boy and then a man and she always made me feel good about being alive.

1. Downtown (1965)

2. Call Me (1965)

3. I Know A Place (1965)

4. You're the One (1965)


10. Kiss Me Goodbye (1968)

Thank you, YouTube.

And thanks to all the Petula Clark fans who uploaded her music to YouTube.


Thursday, April 1, 2010

Blogburg 2010

Vancouver wasn't the only place to have a great big happening in 2010. This is the year I revamped my blogs — all eight of them. I'm also in the process of migrating the Jonco Bugos blog from LiveJournal, post by post. When I'm done, LiveJournal and its nonstop Flash ads that won't let you navigate the blog until they've played out will be in my rear-view mirror forever.


Thank heavens for Blogger and especially for the new "Blogger in draft". It was a lot of work redesigning eight blogs but the great-looking templates by Josh Peterson and Tina Chen were the best foundations I could have had to build upon. I used them for all but Think-A-Holic Lounge which continues to occupy no space in the physical universe. I just gave the joint a new neon sign.

So, now that I've dressed up my blogs in their spiffy new Easter outfits for 2010 (sorry, I just couldn't resist the apropos analogy) feel free to check them all out at Science Fiction for Thinkers.com /  Blogs.
Post Update: I added this animated blog gif on 12-23-10 to add some "rich content" to this anemic posting. So, the Jonco Bugos blog looks like it was already migrated and revamped on 4-1-10, but it wasn't. As you can see, literary license also applied to blogging.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Visit Science Ficion for Thinkers.com Today

My official website has a cool new feature for 2010. My little "cyber home away from home" now has one-click links on the Home page that instantly translate Science Fiction for Thinkers.com from English into Spanish, Vietnamese, Russian, French and German. I had to delete the link to Chinese because some browsers wouldn't display the Simplified Chinese characters. But there is another link to an online Google Site Translator that can translate my website into many other languages, including Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

So, go ahead. Visit Science Fiction for Thinkers.com today.




Your world may never look the same.

Author's Update, 03-01-14: No good deed ever goes unpunished. In December 2013 I had to remove all the language translation links from my website except the main Google Translator with the drop-down box that lets you choose what Google is offering. The other tools either didn't work anymore or became hidden redirects to other Google content. I tried to make my content available to as many people on the planet as I could. But, I 'm a fool no more.

Author's Update, 12-26-10: I had to remove the one-click links that translate my website into Chinese, Korean and Japanese because I found out that these links would not display properly with the Internet Explorer browser. Firefox worked fine but not IE. However, you can still translate my website into Chinese, Korean and Japanese by clicking on either one of the two links that allow you to choose your desired language. Thanks.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Snow Porch

Photo ©2008 by Michael Casher
I guess I should do something about my exposed porch furniture in the wintertime. But then I wouldn't be able to take interesting snapshots like this one. Anyone care to sit down?

Friday, January 1, 2010

A Sucker for a Sixties Song

I'm not a sucker for a Sixties song very often. But every now and then...

1. Baby Don't Go - Sonny & Cher (1964)
2. California Dreamin' - The Mamas & the Papas (1965)
3. Turn Turn Turn - The Byrds (1965)
4. Eight Miles High - The Byrds(1966)
5. For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield (1967)
6. A Whiter Shade Of Pale - Procul Harum (1967)
7. Light My Fire - The Doors (1967)
8. Play With Fire - The Rolling Stones (1965)
9. Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan (1965)
10.Homeward Bound - Simon & Garfunkel (1966)

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Think About This...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

A Sucker for a Sad Song

Once upon a time I was a very impressionable young man who listened to sad songs every once in a while for some unexplained reason that I'm unable to remember at age 58. Thank heavens for that. Anyway, here are five such songs. Why anyone in their right mind would choose to torture himself with sad-ass old music when they have classic jazz and big band on CD and even on vinyl is totally beyond me.

Yeah...right. Listen to me. An old fart with not much left to go on except memories. Thank heavens for them.

1. In My Room (The Beach Boys - 1963 Surfer Girl Album)
2. The Dangling Conversation (Simon and Garfunkel - 1966 Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme Album)
3. Lonely Boy (Iron Butterfly - 1971 Ball Album)
4. Nights In White Satin (The Moody Blues - 1967 Days of Future Passed Album)
5. Knocking on Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan - 1973 Soundtrack to the movie Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid)

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Ghost Book

There is NO hardback version of Evermore: the Evermore Trilogy begins.

I never approved any hardback version of this novel for publication and there never will be a hardback version of this book approved by me and published by Lulu.com. Any HARDBACK version listed or offered at any online bookseller, including Amazon.com, is completely bogus, the result of an automated distribution error caused by Lulu.com.

While a hardback version was one of my 2009 Lulu projects, I did not approve it for distribution and, in fact, I "retired" it from my Lulu projects list rather than approve it because I felt that it was far too costly. How this hardback book got into distribution is a mystery I may never fathom. Only 6 x 9 U.S. Trade paperback books by Michael Casher and Jonco Bugos (my literary pen name) are written, approved and authorized by me, as far as the tangible book market is concerned.

Right now, I'm formatting all my books for Amazon's Kindle Store, which will pull me away from the word processor once again. But, like I've said before, a writer is like a shark. You either keep moving forward or you die. And, right now, forward means having a presence in the digital book market in addition to the trade paperback market.

Until next time, happy reading, no matter what your choice of genres or authors. Reading keeps your mind proactive instead of just reactive. That's the way life ought to be lived.



Saturday, August 15, 2009

The New Gooseport Lunch Counter


Earlier this year, I replaced the old, broken-down, corn trough at Gooseport, PA with this brand-new, state-of-the-art goose "lunch counter".

I left the front open so the little summering ducks wouldn't have to stand on their tiptoes or hop inside it in order to enjoy the daily special of cracked corn that I sling mainly for remaining Canada goose that lives here year round, summering ducks and visiting geese. The big-ass shingled roof really keeps the rain off their food and this particular restaurant never closes.

From what I can tell, this new Gooseport lunch counter was an instant success. Every feathered traveler I've encountered so far has given it a four-star rating. Me? I prefer a booth.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Invasion of the Quad Punks

Every summer, in Earth's northern hemisphere, quadra-wheeled pinhead punks erupt from the bowels of the Earth and cover the entire world with their terrible numbers...