Thursday, August 30, 2018
Monday, July 23, 2018
Brief reviews of several volumes in the series
RAINBOW ARC OF FIRE: A MILE-HIGH SAGA:
"...a creative and uplifting tale of a Denver gay superhero...."
-Susan Ramsey
OUT FRONT COLORADO
RAINBOW ARC OF FIRE: AUTUMN SAGA:
"...refreshingly light hearted. A welcome departure from most contemporary gay fiction...."
-Martin Garnar
Dayton Memorial Library
Regis University
RAINBOW ARC OF FIRE: SOULS WITHIN STONE:
"...Brought a tear to this old cynic's eye."
-Will Morgan
30th Century Comics
London, UK
RAINBOW ARC OF FIRE: WORLDS BENEATH US:
"...the whole is eminently satisfactory."
-Will Morgan
30th Century Comics
London, UK
RAINBOW ARC OF FIRE: SLIGHT OF MIND:
"My favourite of the series...."
-Will Morgan
30th Century Comics
London, UK
RAINBOW ARC OF FIRE: HARMONY OF SPHERES:
"...wonderfully entertaining...."
-J.A. Fludd
Author of the Environauts
RAINBOW ARC OF FIRE: WHO HAS DOMINION?:
"...the only questions that really matter in the case of series such as this are, "Do we want to see more?", "Will we fork out money for future volumes?" and the answer to those key questions is an emphatic 'yes, please.'."
-Will Morgan
RAINBOW ARC OF FIRE: A HOUSE DIVIDED:
"The good thing about the book is that Sanchez has no illusions that RAINBOW is anything but fun, a sort of mega-comic book. Sanchez's heart is in the right place. His views on disunity in the community and injustice strike a noble chord."
-The Lambda Book Report
"...This, obviously, is the most comic-book-like of the RAoF books (so far)….."
-J.A. Fludd
San Diego Comic-Con 2018 Part II
We also gave away three cases of A HOUSE DIVIDED (32 copies in each case) and three cases of WHO HAS DOMINION? (38 books per case) at the con over the five-day event. Again, I could certainly use more reviews on amazon.com
San Diego Comic-Con 2018
Bottom) The iconic Nichelle Nichols from Star Trek and Surge of Power
Friday, July 13, 2018
Rainbow Arc of Fire at Comic-Con International San Diego, CA
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
RAoF Underground headquarters entrance
It opened automatically whenever one of the RAoF heroes wanted to enter. Physically, it's along the rise of lawn before the ground flattens out to the level of the park road beyond.
Monday, June 25, 2018
Future plans
Next up will likely find us at San Diego Comicon in late July. We have our hotel in Oceanside. We figure each morning and evening we will take the train in and out of town to the convention center. We will likely have a space within the Prism Comics booth at Comicon. We'll be selling all 10 volumes of the second edition of the series, as well as all of the Rainbow Arc of Fire hero post cards. We won't have the space to give away any remaining 1st edition volumes at that convention; however, we certainly will back in the Coachella valley in August.
We will be at the Palm Spring Comic Con in late August. We just learned that it will be held in the Palm Springs Air Museum hangar rather than at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Let's hope they have sufficient parking, air conditioning in the hangar, and enough bathrooms. Mark and I will likely check out the space one of these weekends before late August since we have not been to the Air Museum yet.
For those dozens of attendees who picked up one or more copies of the series, once again if you like an individual novel, a positive review on amazon.com will be of tremendous help and encouragement.
Friday, June 22, 2018
Pictures at PS Comic XPO
Saturday, June 9, 2018
Palm Springs Comic XPO, June 22nd to 24th, Palm Springs Convention Center
Palm Springs Comic XPO
June 22 to 24th Palm Springs Convention Center
Rainbow Arc of Fire will have corner booth #315. Hope to see you there.
We'll be giving away books, hero cards, post cards, as well as selling books and RAoF hero postcards.
June 22 to 24th Palm Springs Convention Center
Rainbow Arc of Fire will have corner booth #315. Hope to see you there.
We'll be giving away books, hero cards, post cards, as well as selling books and RAoF hero postcards.
Thursday, June 7, 2018
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
Rainbow Arc of Fire retractable banner
We're also going to be making available RAoF hero postcards that list the names and the abilities of all of the members of the Rainbow Arc of Fire team.
Monday, May 28, 2018
Comic Con May-Hem, May 26th
A windy day with many enthusiastic fans, most in costume. I got to meet and have my photo taken with Matt Ryan (John Constantine on Arrow and, one of my favorite series, Legends of Tomorrow, where he will become a series regular this next season). He's very friendly and generous. This was one of my highlights, as well as meeting so many comic and super-hero fans who stopped by the booth.
The bottom two photos are of our booth at May-Hem. We will also be at the Palm Springs Comic XPO June 22nd thru June 24th in corner Booth 315 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. We will also be returning to the Comic Con Palm Springs event August 24th thru August 26th, also at the Palm Springs Convention Center. (We haven't been assigned a booth yet.)
For all of you who stopped by the booth and received or bought copies of the Rainbow Arc of Fire series, Thank You! And if you read a volume you like, a positive review on amazon.com is always welcome. Remember that every 2nd Edition volume in the series is now available as a print-on-demand copy ($4.50 to $7.00 each, depending on the length of the novel) or as a digital download ($2.99 each) on amazon.com.
Thursday, May 24, 2018
The Dunes Family Restaurant and miniature golf course
Next three photos: Mar 1963
Until I was given the shoebox filled with photos from mom that had escaped my photo album project in the 90's, I had found very few photos from 1960-1963. These almost doubled the input. I do not know where the top photo was taken, but it was, as with all of the others, with mom's old Kodak camera.
With the help of others on Facebook, I was able to learn that the Family Restaurant (Buffet) in the bottom photo was called The Dunes. I am not 100 percent certain, but I believe that the building still stands on 574 Glassell St. in Orange, CA, very near to the Holy Family Catholic church (but it's now a Chinese restaurant). The miniature golf course in the other three pictures was next to the family restaurant. Today, a large apartment complex sits where the golf course used to be. In the third photo from the top, I believe that the tower in the background behind the trees is the Holy Family bell tower, which still exists in front of the church. This trip would have been one of those several Saturdays where mom took us for the day once a month.
What I find fascinating is that this was March 1963, just three months from the night of our leaving dad and Willene and moving in with mom. They still lived on Lomita in Orange for a couple more years before selling that triplex and buying a house in Garden Grove.
California Pools II
Wherever mom would take us on our Saturday once-a-month visits, we often ended up at their house before mom had to take us home. I remember watching Dick Van Dyke shows there or ballet performances at their house in the early evening. It was at this pool that I dove off a high diving board for the first time. Quite a thrill since it was such a long drop.
California Pools I
Middle: Ann and I at the La Reina apartment pool, July 1961
Bottom: Mom and I at the La Reina apartment pool, September 1960
Our grandmother from Kansas was visiting mom in September 1960, but when they showed up and asked if they could take us two kids for the weekend, our stepmother refused. (We likely had not seen Grandma Breeze in quite some time.) Dad was not home. Between the bribe of a new model kit and cajoling, as well as pulling me toward the car (I wanted to go but knew that Willene would be nasty if I left), I got kidnapped for the weekend. Since I was only wearing jean shorts and a T-shirt, they took me to Fashion Island Shopping Center and Bullocks Department Store, to buy me a decent shirt and trousers. Since Ann was too afraid to leave with us, that's why she isn't in the bottom photo. (When we were forced to move mom to an assisted living situation in 2002, and were going through her things, I came across a court order that admonished mom from taking either of us on other than a designated visiting weekend.) I had thoroughly enjoyed the weekend away, but dad forced me to apologize to Willene for having left when she told me not to. (I was not one bit sorry but pretended to be anyway.)
Somehow, the rules must have gotten relaxed after this confrontation because we were allowed to spend more than one Saturday a month with mom as evidenced by the photo a year later with both Ann and me in that same pool. (I am not sure who the woman is sitting in the chair beside the pool behind us.) We loved swimming in pools since we did not own one ourselves.
Saturday, May 19, 2018
Dad in 1949, Ann in 1953
The bottom is dated Week of September 14, 1953. Apparently, the wheels must belong to a birthday present for my sister.
Mom and dad 1947
The center photograph says "Summer '47". But the back is dated April 17, 1947.
The bottom photograph is dated July 1947 by Eastman Kodak Company.
Circa 1951-2
The top photograph is annotated that it was of my sister and me at 1 and 2 years old in Victorville, CA, which would have been circa 1951. Dad was stationed at George Air Force Base. (I have no idea what I am carrying in my hand.) Dad was to be shipped to Korea after the outbreak of hostilities there in 1950. Since he had been a POW in WWII as a bombardier with the Army Air Corps and whose plane was going to crash after damages received over the Rumanian Ploesti oil fields, the crew bailed out and dad was soon captured by the Germans and sent to a camp in Southern Germany for the remainder of the war (primarily all of 1944 and half of 1945). He did not want to repeat that experience in Korea and, somehow, was able to leave active duty with the Air Force and return to the states. (He would remain in the Air Force Reserves for at least enough years to retire with a modest pension.)
The bottom photograph was approximately a year later when we were living on Broadway in Santa Ana, CA, after dad was out of the service. We would have been about 2 and 3 years old in 1952. This is likely a photograph taken on the front or back porch at Easter since we appear to be dressed up and it is a (rather faded) color photograph. (Again, I have no idea what I have in my hands.)
The bottom photograph was approximately a year later when we were living on Broadway in Santa Ana, CA, after dad was out of the service. We would have been about 2 and 3 years old in 1952. This is likely a photograph taken on the front or back porch at Easter since we appear to be dressed up and it is a (rather faded) color photograph. (Again, I have no idea what I have in my hands.)
These were two more photos from the newly discovered shoebox of miscellaneous photographs taken over a number of decades from the 1950's through the 1980's that my mother likely had kept and escaped my organizing project of inserting them all into large photo albums in the 1990's.
Saturday, May 12, 2018
"Every boy wants a Remco toy!"
"Every boy wants a Remco toy!"
Such was the 1959 slogan for the Remco Movieland Drive-In Theater commercial (it's on youtube with Patty Duke playing the girl who also wants a Remco toy for Christmas).
The photo above was apparently taken on Christmas morning 1959. We had spent that fall living with Willene and her two children in one three-bedroom house of a duplex across the street from the triplex dad was having built for this extended/blended family after they were married in early 1960, after dad's and mom's divorce was final.
We had liked Willene and her kids, given that we'd visited them in their Tustin home many times while she and dad were dating. She'd given us no reason to anticipate a different personality other than the one she'd projected for more than a year. We were wrong.
In that photo, in the lower right, is a box that contained a car-carrying truck made of rubber/plastic, with three cars stacked on the trailer. Unfortunately, the cars would only stay in place using three rubber bands, one for each car. At some point, Freddie took those three rubber bands because his Christmas present had been plastic figures that were now gathered together using three new rubber bands, exactly the same three rubber bands I was now missing and needed.
Such was the 1959 slogan for the Remco Movieland Drive-In Theater commercial (it's on youtube with Patty Duke playing the girl who also wants a Remco toy for Christmas).
The photo above was apparently taken on Christmas morning 1959. We had spent that fall living with Willene and her two children in one three-bedroom house of a duplex across the street from the triplex dad was having built for this extended/blended family after they were married in early 1960, after dad's and mom's divorce was final.
We had liked Willene and her kids, given that we'd visited them in their Tustin home many times while she and dad were dating. She'd given us no reason to anticipate a different personality other than the one she'd projected for more than a year. We were wrong.
In that photo, in the lower right, is a box that contained a car-carrying truck made of rubber/plastic, with three cars stacked on the trailer. Unfortunately, the cars would only stay in place using three rubber bands, one for each car. At some point, Freddie took those three rubber bands because his Christmas present had been plastic figures that were now gathered together using three new rubber bands, exactly the same three rubber bands I was now missing and needed.
I was indignant and loudly complained when I realized what had happened. (We apparently didn't have any more rubber bands, so he was either going to have to fess up to having taken them and give them back, or one of us was going to have to do without.) Something else then happened that startled and angered me and was a precursor to what would transpire for the next three and a half years. We would have to put up with this response, living under Willene's cruel thumb, along with barely tolerating the thieving nature of a step-brother who had no conscience.
Willene, also now indignant that I was accusing her precious son of theft, walked over to me and whacked me, hard, across the side of my head. This was a whole other side to this woman that we had never experienced before but would many times in the future. What was even worse that she then did--as if to justify her hitting a kid who was not even yet her stepson--was to say when dad protested, "I gave those rubber bands to Freddie!" She lied.
This was to become the worst aspect of her defense of Freddie's behavior in the years to come--to lie about what had actually happened or to pretend it never happened. (Which is worse? That Willene saw the rubber bands I was using and needed but took them to give to her own son, or that she was now lying about having given those rubber bands to Freddie, knowing that Freddie had likely taken them but was fine with lying about what had happened?)
It was a long time ago and I have made my peace with how we were treated so many years ago. What was most important is that we eventually fought back and finally demanded that we be allowed to live with our mother, a solution that was better for all concerned. We would eventually no longer allow Willene to "discipline" us, and she would be rid of two kids she never really was willing or able to raise fairly.
Willene, also now indignant that I was accusing her precious son of theft, walked over to me and whacked me, hard, across the side of my head. This was a whole other side to this woman that we had never experienced before but would many times in the future. What was even worse that she then did--as if to justify her hitting a kid who was not even yet her stepson--was to say when dad protested, "I gave those rubber bands to Freddie!" She lied.
This was to become the worst aspect of her defense of Freddie's behavior in the years to come--to lie about what had actually happened or to pretend it never happened. (Which is worse? That Willene saw the rubber bands I was using and needed but took them to give to her own son, or that she was now lying about having given those rubber bands to Freddie, knowing that Freddie had likely taken them but was fine with lying about what had happened?)
It was a long time ago and I have made my peace with how we were treated so many years ago. What was most important is that we eventually fought back and finally demanded that we be allowed to live with our mother, a solution that was better for all concerned. We would eventually no longer allow Willene to "discipline" us, and she would be rid of two kids she never really was willing or able to raise fairly.
