...on the release of his second novel, Cyndere's Midnight. It is the second book in the Auralia Thread a four book series.

The reviews for Auralia's Colors were wonderful. I encourage you to check these books out.

I'm taking a moment to send a huge congratulations to my friend Jeffrey Overstreet. His first novel Auralia's Colors Hit bookstores everywhere today.

His first book Through a Screen Darkly was published earlier this year.

Those of you who know me, know that I have no qualms about the fact that I cry at Hallmark commercials or when Lassie comes home. There's some incongruity to it, a huge man, with a definite dark side, who can be moved to tears for the silliest things. I don't know how many times I've seen The Wrath of Khan or The Return of the Jedi but I still cry at the final scene between Kirk and Spock, "The needs of the many..." or the "I want to look upon you with my own eyes," as Darth Vader transforms back into Anakin Skywalker.

I saw the movie Titanic twice in the theater (on the huge screen at the Eastgate theater that I miss so much). The first time through there were water works as expected. There is a scene where an Irish mother, is in her steerage cabin with her two children, knowing they have no hope as the ship goes down, doing her best to comfort them in their last moments. That definitely got to me. I'd gone through most of the film without tears, and then Cameron did that and I was a goner.

The second time through the film, the water works started far earlier, There's a scene as everyone is boarding the ship where we see that Irish mother and her children getting ready to board, and that scene had almost the same impact on me as the scene later in the film, because I could see these happy, full-of-life people who were looking forward to a better world and a better life for themselves, and I knew what was going to happen.

I find myself in a similar position now. Regular readers know my devotion to the fictional Honor Harrington, and that I'm working my way through David Weber's books about her for a second time. Currently I'm in the fourth book, Field of Dishonor. In it some very bad things happen to Honor and those whom she loves and cares for. The first time through I shed tears at the penultimate acts of evil. This time through I find myself sitting on my deck reading and mentally screaming "DON'T! Pay fucking attention and DON'T RESPOND!" The tears have come far earlier, because I know, I know that no amount of screaming on my part will change the inevitable outcome.

If you've never read Honor Harrington, I encourage you to do so, even if you don't like science fiction--I don't--I encourage you to read them. David Weber has given us an amazing woman in Honor Stephanie Harrington, and despite the tears, my life is the richer for it.

This IS spoiler free.

I came to the Harry Potter books late in the game. I'm sure it was the part of me that says "I'm not going to participate in anything so 'faddish'," that prevented me from picking them up. It was up to my eldest son to convince me I should do otherwise. I can't remember whether I started reading when Prisoner of Azkaban or Goblet of Fire came out. All I remember is that I devoured all of them, and then was disappointed there were no more!

I've never been a pre-ordering kind of guy, and it was for this reason that I didn't expect to get a copy of the Deathly Hallows for several weeks. However, when I was in Barnes and Noble on Sunday picking up books three and four in the Honor Harrington series I saw the table full of Harry Potter books. On my way out I asked if they had all been spoken for, and was informed, to my surprise, that they had quite a few extras. I added Hallows to my small stack of books and checked out. Getting home I plopped down in the chair on my deck and started reading, and reading and reading.

One thing that is certain is that Rowling's writing has improved over the course of seven novels. The other thing that is certain is these books are definitely not just for young adults anymore.

Over the course of the previous six novels, a lot of ground was covered, and a lot of questions needed to be answered in this book. I was not disappointed. I got all the answers I was looking for, plus a few answers I didn't expect. I also ended up with a few more questions, that will, unfortunately, go unanswered.

Sunday I got over halfway through before having to go to sleep. Monday I dashed home from work, and setup my reading area on the deck, drinks, some candy, a coat for when it got cold, my iPod, and perhaps most importantly, a couple of handkerchiefs. I was determined to finish that night, and finish I did. There was laughter, there were tears, and there was complete awe at what an amazing job this author has done of drawing me into the world she created.

For the last 200 pages or so I played Mozart's Requiem, and some of the highlight's from Wagner's Ring Cycle. Sitting on my deck, listening to that music, watching the night sky, and reading the closing chapters of that incredible story is an experience I won't soon forget.

The tears weren't just due to the story, but due to the fact that there won't be any more visits with the young wizard who has so enthralled me for more than half of the last decade.

Thank you Ms. Rowling, Thank you very very much.

First a bit of background. I do not read science fiction. It's just something that generally does not interest me. However, I am very interested in copyright, and other forms of intellectual property rights. That lack of interest, and interest collided several years ago when Baen, a publisher of science fiction and fantasy novels, published a book called War of Honor by the author, David Weber.The book came with a bound-in CD that included the complete texts of all the previous books in the series, and that work was being made freely re-distributable. I wasn't interested in the book, but I needed to support the concept so I placed my order with Amazon and waited.

The book arrived, and I checked out both it, and the CD. I put the CD in my computer to see what kind of job they'd done on all this "stuff." They'd done a very very good job, and I started reading the first book of the series On Basilisk Station in it's electronic form. I was surprised to find I was hooked after the first few pages. Reading online is a pain, so I started getting the books from the library and bookstore as fast as I could devour them.

Weber is very skillful at doing something that, in my experience, has been quite rare he is able to portray noble "bad" guys, and very ignoble "good" guys. Throughout all this is one constant, Honor Harrington. Honor is a woman who believes in doing what is right, not because she has to, but because it is just that, right. She believes in doing things well because doing them well is the correct thing to do, because doing things right and doing things well, no matter the difficulty, or the cost, brings honour, not to herself, but to others.

I've read all the books in the series once, and just started over again at the beginning. I'm passing them to my oldest son, and hoping that Ms. Harrington will have as great an impact on him as she has on me.

If you are interested, you may read the first two books in the series online at the Baen Free Library:

On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen