The SoapBoxers

NCAAs

Last year, Butler came tantalizingly close to winning the national title when Gordon Hayward’s three point shot at the buzzer missed.  The Bulldogs lost 61-59, star Gordon Hayward left early for the NBA draft, and everyone thought that the chance for a mid-major to win a title had evaporated.

Butler came into this year’s tournament as a #8 seed.  In spite of the absence of Hayward, they have made their way through the jungle and into the NCAA Finals once again.  Is this the year that we can finally say the Butler did it?  I certainly hope so.

Butler coach Brad Stevens is a year younger than me … and is sure to be wooed by some bigger programs with fat pocketbooks.  Will Stevens be tempted by the money?  It’s worth noting that Stevens got his start in coaching when he quit his good paying job in the “real world” for an unpaid gig at Butler.  Bulldog for life?  Maybe.

The UConn men are the forgotten team in the final – the dynastic program led by an iconic coach.  How ironic would it be for Jim Calhoun to win another title the day after the dominant UConn women’s program tasted defeat for the second time this year?

Cricket

On Saturday, India won their second ever World Cricket Cup and the first since 1983.  India beat Sri Lanka by 6 wickets, scoring 277 runs to Sri Lanka’s 274. I have a lot of friends of Indian descent, and really need to learn more about the sport, which has a slight resemblance to baseball.

Baseball

Speaking of baseball … my Rockies faced some bad news on three consecutive days.  On Friday, Ubaldo Jimenez got roughed up and the Rockies lost in extra innings.  The culprit was a split cuticle which force Ubaldo to alter his grip on the ball.  On Saturday, Jorge de la Rose shut down the Diamondbacks, but developed a blister on his finger.  Both pitcher received an extra day to recover when Sunday’s game was snowed out, pushing their next start back by a day.

One of my favorite players is former Rockies star Matt Holliday, now with the Cardinals.  Happy, as I refer to him, wasn’t so happy on Friday.  Holliday was experiencing discomfort and went to the hospital – and came out missing an appendix.  The Cardinals are hoping to avoid placing Holliday on the disabled list.  It hasn’t been good few months for projected NL division leaders, with the Cardinals losing Adam Wainwright for the season and now Holliday for an unknown number of games and the Phillies starting the season without second baseball Chase Utley.  To make things even worse, Holliday is on my fantasy team.

A Giants fan is in critical condition after being savagely beaten by two men outside Dodger stadium following Thursday’s opening day game between the two teams.  Seriously … it’s a game.  Any time you’re thinking about slugging someone, take a step back and think about what you enjoyed about the game as a kid.

First of all, if you got caught by yesterday’s April Fool’s joke, sorry about that.  For those who missed it, you’ll need to use this link to catch it in its full glory.  The “fake” ads (which did take you to the featured site, but were not tied into Adsense) were my favorite part.  I take this holiday quite seriously, and spent a fair amount of effort finding a fitting theme, making code changes, tracking down good images for ads, and then actually writing “Candy’s” article.  A big “thank you” goes out to Candy for playing along.

Lots happening around the sports world.  At long last, baseball season has begun!  I always think that the Rockies are one of the teams to watch, and this year is no different.  Pitcher Jhoulys Chacin had a really good rookie campaign in the shadow of Ubaldo Jimenez, and I expect Dexter Fowler to take a big stride foward this year.  Expect the Rockies to be in contention for the division title, especially if they can avoid digging themselves into a hole early in the season.

Expect a strong year from David Ortiz of the Red Sox, too, if he can likewise avoid his slow starts.  He has been a great player from June onward during the past couple of years, but the Aprils and Mays have people very concerned.

A big shout out to India for defeating Pakistan en route the World Cricket Cup final against Sri Lanka today.  I have a lot of friends who hail from India, and it was great to see the buzz of excitement surround the semifinal game.  (Alas, I also have friends of Pakistani heritage … sorry for your loss).

The Final Four kicks off today.  I gotta say I’m pulling for underdog VCU.  VCU didn’t even get their own line on most brackets, being listed as VCU/USC (or USC/VCU) on the 11 seed line, as they had to play their way into the main bracket of 64 teams.  I love seeingf VCU make a deep run into the tournament, but I hate seeing the tournament expand from 64 teams to 68 teams and beyond … I say make the tournament 64 teams, and if that leaves out some quality teams, so be it.  Life isn’t always fair.

If VCU wins the tournament, they will become the first team to win seven NCAA tournament games in the same year.

I’m not a huge golf fan, but I’ll be pulling for Ryo Ishikawa to do well this year.  The 19 year old Japanese golfer announced that he will donate off of his winnings this year to aid the victims of the Japanese earthquake.  Ishikawa made $1.6 million last year, so we’re not talking about peanuts.  I think a lot of athletes – and people in general – could learn a lot from this young man, who appears to be wise beyond his years.

Closing on a non-sports note … I had the opportunity to see The King’s Speech.  Good flick, especially if you have an interest in history.

Fiction Friday comes a bit early this week …

“All I’ve got ish quarters,” slurred the obviously patron. “Where can I stick them?”

Candy responded to his off-color remark and subsequent laughter by slapping him across the face. As the man staggered off, her fans showed their support for her actions by cheering and tipping generously. Candy finished her performance just as the music ended. She quickly gathered her clothing as the next dancer prepared to take the stage.

“That’s Miss Candy Rain, folks,” boomed the speakers. “You can catch her three times a week at the Roundup.”

Candy retreated to the silence of the dressing room, glad that another long shift was behind her. She slipped into a pair of blue jeans and a comfortable t-shirt. She smiled as she laced up her Adidas running shoes. Much more comfortable. Candy scrubbed the stage makeup from her face, pulled her long hair into a ponytail, and pull on a baseball cap. She smiled into the mirror and saw the “girl next door” looking back at her. She threw the costume clothes into a worn duffle back and prepared to make her exit.

“Have a good night, Candy.”

“Same to you, Frank,” she responded. Frank was a one of the regulars at the Roundup – always tipping well, but never making any trouble for anyone. He was definitely one of the good guys – a rare thing at a strip club.

Candy slammed back a Jack and Coke when she got home. Then she turned off the lights and crawled into bed. Two minutes later, she was dead to the world.

The next morning, Candy awoke, and immediately transformed into Ann mode. She powered up her MacBook and put the finishing touches on her article. An hour later, she had marked up the necessary changes on a printout and made the necessary edits. The article was finished. Her editor would be pleased – “My life as a stripper – a month in the midst of debauchery” would be ratings gold.

Ann thought about calling the Roundup to let them know she was quitting. With the story finished, she didn’t need to deal with that place any more – good riddance. After a moment’s hesitation, she decided against it. She didn’t owe them anything – she’d just leave them in the lurch and made them deal with her angry fans when she failed to appear.

Ann liked to celebrate when she finished a story – retail therapy was good for the soul. She grabbed her purse and pointed her car toward the nearest mall. Five hours later, she returned home with a trunk load of new clothes.

Ann had a bit of sticker shock as she totaled up the damage from the shopping trip. She had a bit of a tendency to go overboard with these trips – the money she spent on the celebratory shopping trips sometimes exceeded the amount she was actually paid for the story.

Ann made a resolution to make a budget and stick to it. She needed to be more careful with her spending if she was every going to have the cash for a down payment on a house.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ann saw the duffel bag on the couch. A few loose bills had escaped from the bag and lay on a couch cushion.

Or maybe she could do a few more shows as Candy Rain. Just a month, she promised herself. Just long enough to build a nice emergency fund …

 This story originally ran on June 8, 2009. It’s one of my favorites. We take you inside a day in hell, thanks to Satan’s Little Helper, Andy.

The alarm rang at 3 AM.  There is no such thing as a snooze button in the nether regions of Hell, so I forced myself out of my lumpy bed.  Someone had to manage the fires.  The union recently had an uprising and the result was that work weeks were capped at 120 hours.  The resulting shortage of manpower meant that even those of us in the inner circle had to take our turns keeping the home fires burning.  The Great Freeze of 2004 had occurred when the Boston Red Sox won the World Series.  Satan brought a bunch more nuclear reactors online and we managed to get through the crisis with substantial portions of the Great Fire still intact.  However, we still fear the Freeze to end all Freezes that will occur if the Chicago Cubs ever win the World Series.  That could result in the end of Hell as we know it.

I quickly ate my breakfast gruel and packed my lunch.  Braunschweiger, a bit of leftover blood sausage, somewhat moldy rye bread, broccoli, and prune juice.  Definitely one of my better lunches in a while.  I jumped in my Yugo and headed off toward the main fire pit.   The pot holes seemed a bit worse and a bit more frequent than they had been yesterday.  I quickly joined the assembly line and began to shovel molten fire into the box cars.  The train would take this load to an outlying region, where men would offload the fire in order to restart the dying fires in those regions.  The offloading was usually left to the young hellions, to get them acclimated to the heat slowly.  I’m really not sure why the union had fought for shorter work days – fire duty was a great job.  Lots of wonderful heat at the pit.

Finally, my shift was over and I jumped back into the Yugo and headed back to my studio apartment.  I had to check my email for messages from the boss.  Not surprisingly, my computer showed me the familiar Blue Screen of Death.  Satan kept promising to get us some Macs, but I wasn’t holding my breath.  I expected Windows to be the dominant operating system in Hell for many more years. After a few reboots, I managed to get into my email.  Just one message, but it was a bad one.

Andy,

Adolf and Eva are causing trouble in A-7 again.  I’m hearing that he’s trying to take over the sector and eventually march against me.  Run over to the Hitler home and have a chat with them.  Use your own discretion regarding punishment for this latest round of misbehavior

– Satan

I Yugo’d my way over to A-7 to have a little chat with Hitler.  After a contentious discussion, I finally got fed up and banished him to sector G-14 (telemarketers) for the next six months.  Adolf and Eva were obviously glutton for punishment, as they had been sent to G-14 at least five times in the last six years.  I can’t imagine what could possibly be worth that sort of punishment.  When Hitler had arrived here in the 1940s, he had been ushered into the inner circle and had Satan’s ear.  However, his repeated insubordination had caused him to lose his privileges, and he wasn’t even invited to the good parties any more.

The Yugo stalled a few times getting out of A-7.  Probably vapor lock.  When I got back home, I sat down in front of the computer and went onto eBay.  eBay was a bit slow over dial-up, but Satan had promised to install broadband soon.  eBay had been great for Procurement Services.  While at one time it had been necessary to wager a golden fiddle against Johnny’s immortal soul, the supply of souls on eBay had really brought the price down.  I bought fourteen souls for a grand total of $12,314.  Satan would be pleased with the purchases, although he’d be upset at the shipping charges.  Hell was outside of the normal delivery zones, so the shipping charges were out of this world.

My day’s work was over.  Time for some leisure.  I settled down on the futon and flipped on the 13 inch black and white TV.  142 channels, and all of them C-Span!  Could life get any better?

Hey! You’re a freak. I’m a freak. Everyone is a freak.

Take some time today to share unique aspects of your personality with others. You can start by chatting about it in the comments.

I have a lot of unique aspects … but the thing that probably raises the most eyebrows is my fascination with serial killers. Murder in general interest me, because law enforcement can’t talk to the victim to get any information about the perp. OK, I guess Ducky from NCIS can talk to the bodies, but most cops probably don’t … and the ones that do probably don’t expect a response.

Class dismissed!

As we stand on the cusp of baseball season, football still manages to take center stage. Usually, it’s just the scouting combine and draft getting all the coverage on sports talk radio. Now there’s also the lockout. Who is in the right and who is in the wrong?

I personally think there’s enough blame to go around. The union recently decertified in an effort to make the league subject to anti-trust legislation. I’m not a legal expert on the matter, but it seems that the NFL has anti-trust exemption if the players are represented by a union, but do not have this exemption if the players are not part of a union – the un-unionized players are allowed to file lawsuits in court.

Not surprisingly, at least one owner (Rooney of the Steelers) has suggested that it might be prudent for the National Labor Relations Board to take a look at this. Does the practice of having the players hop in an out of the union depending on which is better at the moment constitute an unfair labor practice? I would say yes. You’re either a union, or you’re not. You have to take the good with the bad. And does anyone actually believe that the players are not still unified, despite not being in a “union”?

That’s not to say the owners are blameless. They have been very reluctant to open their books. This is troublesome for the players, since the collective bargaining agreement gives the players a 60% share of revenues in excess of one billion dollars. If the union is unable to determine what the actual revenue for the league is, then they can’t determine that their share is.

I’m admittedly not an expert on the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, but it seems that the players are going to have to drop their no-union charade and the owners are going to have to open their books. Why not have the owners and players agree on an independent audit from a CPA firm. The firm wouldn’t need to share details, just state that revenue is $X. And while you’re at it, get a commissioner that is truly an unbiased mediator instead of one that basically serves as president of the owner’s group (this flaw isn’t unique to the NFL).

Or the NFL could just drop the salary cap and allow teams to bid freely on players. I hate salary caps, since they don’t exist in the real world. Imagine that you’re a programmer at Microsoft, and you can’t get a raise because the League of Computer Companies sets a salary cap that every company must abide by. It’s not that your employer doesn’t want to pay you and your co-workers more, they simply aren’t allowed to. Weird, huh? Yet, this is standard in team sports. Baseball is the holdout, with no hard salary cap. Baseball teams that exceed a certain payroll level must pay a luxury tax, but nothing prevents them from spending $500 million on payroll. (Yeah, I’m a fan of a small market team and am opposed to salary caps. Weird, huh?).

Personally, I’m on the fence. I’ve been a Vikings fans for many years, but have largely ignored the NFL for the past two years as a result of Brett Favre playing for the Vikings. I’ve lost quite a bit of interest, and really don’t miss the games very much – and if there is no football this year, I’m probably gone for good.

The first weekend of the NCAA tournament is over, and what havoc the upsets have wrought!  Three of the regions have at least one seed 8th or lower still alive, and the wacky Southwest region has the 10, 11, and 12 seeds still alive – ensuring that a 10 seed or worse will make it to the elite 8.

Virginia Commonwealth won three games in a span three games in a span of six days, beating USC in the play-in game (now known as a “first round” game) before beating #6 seed Georgetown and finally thrashing #3 seed Purdue 94-76 on Sunday.  The Rams face the Seminoles of Florida State (10 seed) in the next round.

Michigan made tournament history in their first round game, becoming the first team to ever win a tournament game without making a single free throw.  It’s not as bad as it sounds, though – the Wolverines only attempted one free throw.

I went out on a limb this year and picked a lot of upsets in my bracket.  Unfortunately, I picked the upsets that didn’t happen, while missing the ones that did.  While I correctly picked Butler to make it to the Sweet 16, I also predicted that Belmont and Bucknell would still be dancing.  Akron and Princeton also let me down, failing to win their games against Notre Dame and Kentucky.

Overall, my bracket is in horrible shape – but it can still be saved.  I have San Diego State cutting down the nets on April 4.  If that happens, I can stll emerge victorious.  Aztec Nation, I am one of you!

Disappointing sports weekend for the state of Iowa

While none of the men’s teams from Iowa made the NCAA tournament, Iowa State, Northern Iowa, and Iowa all made the field for the women’s tournament.  Unfortunately, they were all wiped out in the first round.  I forgot that the ISU women’s game was on ESPN2 until halfway through the second half.  I switched over the game, only to see Marist in full control.

At the NCAA wrestling tournament, Iowa State’s Jonathan Reader won a title in an otherwise disappointing weekend for the Cyclones.  The only bright spot was the fact that arch-rival Iowa was thwarted in their quest to win a third straight national title, as the Hawkeyes finished behind Penn State and Lehigh.  Even that silver lining had a cloud, as Penn State was lead by former Iowa State wrestler and coach Cael Sanderson.  The Nittany Lions won their first title in more than 50 years.

Get your baseball geek on

A friend of mine has developed a baseball simulation engine.  You pick a pitcher and a hitter, and he’ll spit out the results of a full season’s worth of plate appearances.  The app is now available as a web app and on Facebook, and will soon be available for Android.  More details from the mouth of the developer:

AtBatSim puts advanced simulation into the hands of baseball fans. Simulate at-bats between an MLB pitcher and hitter of your choice. While you’re watching a game, try out the simulator to get the inside track on what might happen next.

Sabermetric research has shown that pitchers have limited influence on what happens when a hitter puts a ball in play. This simulator puts an average defense on the field, and lets them react to hit balls. Fast players beat out more ground balls and stretch outfield hits into doubles and triples more often. You can simulate 700 plate appearances in seconds and get one detailed play as an example.

AtBatSim is available on the web http://www.atbatsim.com and as a Facebook app at http://apps.facebook.com/atbatsim/ . AtBatSim is targeting a release of an Android App by Opening Day 2011.

You can help by trying it out and offering feedback so the ratings and simulator improve over time…and of course by spreading the word on Facebook and telling your friends and co-workers about it.

Vance Barkley slammed the black Mizuno bat against the dirt. The donut dropped to the earth and landed with a thud. Barkley took a look around Grayson Stadium, his home for the past twelve years. He watched as a gust of wind blew a hot dog wrapper into a nearly empty section.

Appropriate that he should have such a send off. Barkley had always been a serviceable player – sometimes a starter, sometimes a reserve – but never a star. He was still a solid defender, but the bat that had once been slightly below average had become a liability, even for the hapless Dragons. Two years remained on his contract, but Barkley had made his mind up – he would walk away from the game at the end of the year. His retirement would free up some cash in the Dragons payroll and let the team fill his roster spot with an up and coming youngster from AAA.

Tucked away in the upper reaches of the stadium, a father and son were enjoying a momentous occasion – the first baseball game the kid had attended. They had taken turns recording plays on the scorecard and filling their bellies with hot dogs and cotton candy.

“Look at this,” the dad said. “Barkley got a triple in the third inning, then the homer in the fifth, and he doubled off the left field wall in the seventh. You know what that means?”

“Holy cow,” exclaimed the eight year old. “The bum just needs a single to hit for the cycle.”

“Indeed. The bum just needs a single to hit for the cycle.”

The kid on the mound had been called up from the minors in early September – a beneficiary for rosters being expanded for the final mound of the season. The consensus was that the kid would be a star one day – but he was getting knocked around pretty good so far during his first stint in the bigs.

Barkley dug into the batter’s box, tapped the plate, and stared down the kid. The first pitch was two feet over Barkley’s head and bounced harmlessly off the backstop. The kid snapped his glove angrily when a ball was tossed back to him. He overcompensated on the next pitch, a fifty nine footer that bounced across the plate inches off the ground.

The kid was talking to himself on the mound. The third baseman, Jansen, jogged to the mound to give the kid encouragement. Jansen slapped to kid on the rump with his glove and retreated back to the hot corner.

The third pitch nipped the corner of the plate at 97 miles per hour, down and away from Barkley. Barkley could see that the kid had a new ration of confidence. The fastball low and away was the pitcher’s second best friend, and Barkley knew the kid would try it again.

Barkley uncoiled and drove the next pitch straight toward Jansen at third base. The ball ricocheted off Jansen’s glove and continued into left center field.

As Barkley approached first base, he saw that the outfielders had gotten a late break on the ball and were loafing toward it. He never slowed, making the turn toward second base and sliding in ahead of the late throw. He popped up and clapped his hands together. He was in scoring position – a hit would tie the game.

The kid on the mound made Kershaw look foolish, striking him out on three straight pitches. Barkley remained crouched near second base for a moment, taking in the moment, before making the slow walk back to the dugout.

“What a loser,” commented the kid. “He should have stopped at first and gotten his cycle. He cost himself a spot in the history books.”

“He put the team first, son. He put the team first.”

I’ve heard that sentiment expressed many times over the years, in a variety of ways.  More than being merely a Rockies fan, I’m a proponent of the game itself.  I personally feel that people who only catch glimpses of the game every once and a while aren’t really getting the big picture.  For one thing, there are are between 250 and 300 plays in a baseball game.  Traditionally, we call these plays “pitches”.  Most of the pitches end innocently enough – with a foul ball, a called strike, or a weak ground ball to the second baseman.  But the game can also turn very quickly at any point.  A team’s down 1-0 in the seventh inning, bases are loaded, two outs.  If the batter makes an out, the opponent clings to a tentative lead.  If he hits a grand slam, his team has a pretty decisive lead.

There are also many games within the game itself.  Watch how a pitcher works a hitter to exploit weaknesses.  Will the manager pull the pitcher to take advantage of a better matchup (righty/lefty) or leave his ace in the game?  There’s a runner on first in the late innings of a tight game.  Do you bunt the guy over to second or let the hitter swing away?

Baseball is also a game that gives a team every opportunity to come back.  There is no clock – you’re allowed to make three outs in each innings, regardless of how long it takes.  You can rally from a 15-0 deficit with two outs in the bottom of the ninth – you simply need to keep getting hits.  The odds are stacked against you, but you still have a chance.  Let’s say you’re likewise getting clobbered in a football game – down 56-0 (roughly equivalent to a 15-0 baseball game) with a minute to go (roughly equivalent to 1/54 of a baseball game remaining).  Can you rally and win?  No.  You’d need to recover several onside kicks and then run an offensive play to score each time.  Each play eats up time, and there’s simply not enough time remaining.

An additional charm of baseball is the fact that there are still a lot of unknowns in baseball’s metrics.  Variations of the game date back as far as the mid 1700s, with the first game with a formal set of rules being played in 1846 (by comparison, James Naismith invented basketball in 1891).  Yet, 165 years after that 1846 game, much is unsettled.  Every few years, new theories abound on the best ways to measure performance.  For a while, OPS was the definitive offensive stat.  Now, wOBA is gaining steam.  And what about win shares?  How much control does a pitcher have over his ERA?  Defense is probably the biggest debate of all, with various methods to judge defensive effectiveness.

Heck, there is even a Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) – a group of volunteers who pay for the privilege of doing research.

The, of course, is a daily aspect of the game.  162 games, spanning from late March through early October, with a post-season stretching into November.  There are no teams that get into the playoffs because of a few lucky bounces.  There may be teams that are fortunate to be in a relatively weak division, but they still prove their superiority over their divisional foes by facing them repeatedly throughout the season.  There are only a handful of off days for a team during the season – and they are staggered so that there are always at least a few games taking place on any given day.  For someone who loves a sport, what could be better than games every single day?

My only complaint is that the season is too short …

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?

As we approach the 70th anniversary of Joe DiMaggio’s magical 56 game hitting streak in 1941, some have asked whether this record will ever be broken.  I’m confident in saying no.  Let’s run the numbers.

Let’s take your average run of the mill .400 hitter.  Nobody has hit .400 for a season since Ted Williams in that same year of 1941, but let’s set that aside for a moment.  Let’s also assume that the hitter gets 5 at bats in every game (that’s unreasonably high – only a few hitters approach 4.5, with most in the low 4s).  What are the odds of him getting a 56 game streak through random chance?

Well, the odds of getting at least one hit in any particular game is (1-(.6^5))  – more than 92%.  But raise that probably (.92224) to the power of 56 and we get just .01.  In an absolute best case scenario, there’s a 1% chance of this happening to that particular player in any random 56 game stretch.  Drop the at bats to 4 per game, and there’s 1 chance in 2375.  Make the batting average a more realistic .300 and the chances are 1 in 28863 with 5 at bats per game and 1 in 4,760,352 with 4.

Then, of course, you must realize that the opposing pitcher has some control.  Let’s say a guy has a 50 game hitting streak, and he’s facing the Yankees (DiMaggio’s own team).  The pitchers can’t simply walk him every time up.  That wouldn’t break the streak, as by rule a player must have an official at bat (walks are plate appearances, but not at bats) for a streak to be broken.  However, the pitchers COULD walk him after he had recorded an out in his first at bat (even a .400 hitter will make out out 60% of the time).

Sales of Mountains, Meadows, and Chasms continue at a pace best described as workmanlike.  It’s certainly not enough to retire on, but enough to satisfy my ego.  Of course, if you want to help me retire early, you can plunk down three and a half bucks and buy a copy 🙂

As a way to boost sales for the book, I am going to partner with some other bloggers.  I will write a short story starring the blogger in exchange for free publicity.  The blogger can post the story on their site as a change-on-pace from the typical fare, including a plug for my book at the end.  For an example of the type of story that might result, here is one I did for Adam at Man Vs. Debt last year.  I’m looking for bloggers with a strong, engaged audience.  (In other words, people who are likely to buy my book).  There will also be a bit of a referral bonus.  Send me a note at kosmo@ObservingCasually.com if you are interested.  If I’m not familiar with you, it make take a while for me to understand what makes you tick enough to write a story – it won’t be overnight.

I’ll be out of town on a business trip in the near future, and will be scheduling some marathon writing sessions for my upcoming novel, Casting Stones.  The main concepts have been in place for a while now, but it has been pushed to the back burner.  My word output goal for the trip is probably very optimistic … I’ll give a report of my progress upon my return.  The book is a murder mystery (but of course!) and also features a romance between a detective and a college professor.  If you like my other crime stories, your should really enjoy Casting Stones.

I’ve been keeping my newest venture close to the vest.  Now that it’s underway, I’ll share.  I have decided to launch an online fiction coaching school.  Courses will run for five weeks, with four students to a classes.  Each student will write four stories, which will be analyzed by me and peer reviewed by the other students.  I’ve been struggling to find a price point that made sense – a price that would properly compensate my for the work (analyzing sixteen stories as well as guiding the class and performing some administrative tasks) while making it affordable enough for anyone.  I finally gave up … I’m going to run 2-3 classes each year, and they will be free.  The goal is to bring together diverse groups and have them learn from each other.  If you’re interested in the next class, you can email me at kosmo@observingcasually.com.  The next class will probably take place in September, with subsequent classes beginning every 4-6 months.