Second Book of Short Stories Out on Amazon

During the last year I wrote four short read collections called the Three Twisted Tales . Today they are available in aggregate as The Clock Strikes Twelve. A 265 page paperback on Amazon. If you enjoyed The Rorschach Test you should enjoy this collection. The stories are slightly longer in length. Big thanks to Daniel Anderson who once again created a beautiful cover.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FC86JVW/ref=tsm_1_fb_lk

Hopefully you have seen the press release from the EDB about Infoblox renewing its lease in Tacoma for another six years. Growing from sixty employees to over two hundred and twenty and counting is an amazing story. I would like to take a moment to tell another one.

The company has many compelling reasons to extend their stay and grow the company here. As Co-chair of the EDB committee on the five year strategic plan for the recruitment and retention of the technology industry in the South Puget Sound, I have been part of an initiative to identify and promote reasons for dong so. One of top reasons for any company is the availability of a qualified workforce and in particular those that are coming out of our engineering programs.

When I came on board at the UWT over twenty years ago, I was a member of industry (CEO of Free Range Media), teaching as an adjunct for a group of students going through a computer science program. At the time, the program was called Computing Software and Systems. I was also on Governor Locke’s Council on the Internet, and it was not that long after that I came on board as a staff member at the Institute of Technology. It was legislated into existence and situated on the University of Washington Tacoma campus. Governor Locke actually did the announcement during my class with the full contingent of UW and State representatives on hand.

Thinking about where we began, with a cohort of around sixty Computer Science students, and where we are now, I am amazed and impressed. We are now the School of Engineering and Technology at the UWT. (There were many good reasons for the name change and I am happy to talk about it if you would like.)

We continue to grow and add programs, serving more students each year and hiring world class faculty.

So do this with me.

Have you ever gone through a tunnel as a kid (or with your kids) and had a contest to see if you could hold your breath all the way through until the exit of the tunnel?

Okay, take a deep breath. At the School of Engineering and Technology we now provide a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Systems, a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and Systems, a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology, a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, and Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering! Whew! Still in the tunnel, keep holding. A Master of Science in Computer Science, a  Master of Science in Computer Engineering, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Cybersecurity and Leadership. You can do it! I see the light at the end of the tunnel up ahead! We offer Graduate Certificates in Software Engineering, a Big Data Science Certificate and a minor in Applied Computing.

Oh yes, we also now have a Ph.D. in Computer Science.

You can breathe now.

Well over a thousand students are in our programs or are prepping to enter them.

As you can imagine, I speak with members of the technology industry and economic developers multiple times a week.  I would be happy to speak with you as well, or exchange a few emails if you would like to know more about our students, our faculty, our research or the companies that have spawned from the campus.

https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/set/programs

Being Productive as an Artist

I have my book back from the copy editor and will be accepting the changes and making small revisions over the next week before formatting it for paperback and kindle. Which got me thinking about all of my creative friends. One of the reasons I STILL enjoy Facebook is the hundreds of creative people I follow on that platform. Authors, actors, musicians and artists. SO, here are three who have recently released their work. Take a look and maybe be a patron of their art. Musician Daniel Anderson, Author Eric Hanberg and Artist Kathy Traxler Anderson. Tarantula Tapes - Released today. I was lucky enough to get an advance digital album of Tarantula Tapes from Daniel Anderson. It is an instrumental album of a genre that I was not able to pinpoint and I spent a half an hour talking to him about. Some of the cuts reminded me of the Twin Peaks theme, some reminded me of what would happen if bluegrass and smooth jazz had a baby, a few made me think about driving through the Utah National Parks. It is eclectic, hypnotic and absolutely thematic. He did use the phrase lo-fi hip-hop about one, and I have no idea what that is. What I do know that the guitar work is infinitely cool, and it has been a perfect complement to my taking walks around Tacoma and while grading homework. You may know Daniel from his days as part of the alternative rock duo Idiot Pilot or his recent Glowbug We may be sheltered in place but the amount of creativity and productivity is inspiring. Semi/Human - This YA sci-fi heist thriller is the latest release by author and all around good guy Erik Hanberg. I have known Erik for many years including several where we would gather as pat of a writers group to encourage each other. I read all of his mystery books, which were the first fiction that he published and this is the latest sci-fi work since he completed The Lattice Trilogy in 2018. As Kirkus Reviews recently stated "Hanberg deftly combines convincing high-tech (plus some surprising low-tech) touches with believable, sympathetic characters. " I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and his interpretation of the effects of A.I. on the workers in a dystopian society. He puts the auto in workforce automation. (a semi really but I wanted the pun). "Hope Grows Here" Project - There is so much good will and great art being spread by the Hope Grows Herebeing spread by the Hope Grows Hereope Grows Here project and much of that is exemplified by the sevent rather large pieces that were done by Kathy Traxler Anderson. I have loved watching these pieces develop both on Facebook and on instragram. Right now on her Instagram page is a great shot that gives a perspective shot of a piece being drawn.

The Rorschach Test and Other Stories

I have made quite a bit of progress since the end of NaNoWriMo.

The event ended with my crushing the low bar of 30,000 words that I set (the official site wouldn't let me adjust anyway) and I finished with 53,000 words written.

This equated to 18 first drafts of short suspense, horror and/or supernatural stories.  Since then I have dropped one but written two more for a total of 19 titles.

My next effort is concentrating on piecing them together into a full collection under the title:

The Rorschach Test - and other tales of suspense, horror and the supernatural

It may be tough going for me, as they are different lengths, and some decidedly different tones in some cases. You might jump from a ghost story, to a gruesome tale to a comedic piece.

My hope is that they will still hold together as a collection.

The next step for me is to collect them all together in one document and list out all the stories, though the order in which they are presented is subject to change. The book cover is just an idea so far but I have a mock up using some tweaked graphic that I found online. The final cover will be an original piece.

I am happy to have made progress beyond the original challenge and hope to publish before the end of August this year.

Looking forward to giving my first go at NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month.  Taking inspiration from my daughter Savannah who has successfully complete the event four times already, I am geared up and ready to go.

My launching point is the 30 short story ideas I generated in August of this year, with outlines for ten different stories.

The standard goal is 50,000 words, but I am setting mine at 30,000.

I have only found an hour to write per day so far, but have managed to do so for five days to date with a near 5,000 words completed.  I will have to step up the word count to make my goal but I think I can do it.  I should have at least six first draft horror/supernatural short stories by Novembers end. 

Then I can use the holidays to polish them up.

Savannah's Nine Years of Blogging

I look back over this blog which I have had for SOOOOOOO long and marvel at the drop off of posts from year to year.  With Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and so many other platforms, it is difficult to maintain any regular content.

So it is with great fatherly pride that I share Savannah Fry's ninth anniversary post.  She has struggled, (slightly) to maintain posting but relates nicely in her post the reasons for this struggle as well as how she is refocusing.

Here is her Playing in the Pages  post.

The South Sound Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

I haven't posted in over a year.  The last post was a guest blog.

This year is different.  Stay tuned.

I am going to be posting at least once per month on the topic of the South Puget Sound Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.

From early education to accelerators, incubators and investment, I am going to assess where we are today and what we need to do to continue the momentum being established.

This post will be replaced by one with more detail, but first I need to teach my class.

Andrew