The beginning of July means that it is the hottest month here in Calgary. We can look forward to several weeks of the temperatures being in the mid to high 20’s, and even has high as the mid 30’s.

For my American readers that’s about 90F or higher.

During this month, it’s difficult to sleep due to the heat and as such my creativity tends to wane and I also happen to get a little on the cranky side.

But this time of year also means that the annual Calgary Stampede, dubbed and known as ‘The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth!’ begins its ten day run.

Being a Calgarian, I typically don’t bother going to the show. For me it’s a massive waste of money and time. Yeah, coming from me that is very ironic when you consider how much money I spend every year on the Expo.

I digress. Let me give you a description of the Stampede. First, take every county or state fair you have been to and that is what we have – just typically bigger. We have an average of over 100,000 people attend the exhibition each day during the ten–day run.

You have your carnival rides, the midway filled with games and of course the food vendors. That is typically one of the best parts of the Stampede, the food vendors. They have all sorts of really bad for you goodies to enjoy.

Only issue is that I’m not really willing to pay $14 for a bloody bacon-wrapped hotdog! No matter what, if you’re planning on checking out an event like this, you better bring some serious cash with you.

And as with many events like this, there is the huge display area where all manner of entrepreneurs and other people set up to show off their wares and try to sell you the newest and latest ‘must have’ gadget. Some of the items are pretty cool, others are merely something old repackaged as something new.

But the one thing that really sets the Stampede apart is the rodeo. It goes on the whole ten days and there is a lot of serious cash up for grabs, I’ve seen some purses as high as 100K for some of the events.

If you’re into Rodeo’s and everything that is involved, you really should come and check it out. It is damn expensive, but then again most things in life have gotten that way.

This event has a major impact on our city as well. For ten days the core is pretty much shut down and very little work seems to get done. Many of the major corporations throw huge parties and BBQ’s, and it’s a great time of year to get free (and quite frankly, awesome!) food.

It’s also a period of time where copious amounts of alcohol are consumed. So all in all the first ten days of July in Calgary is nothing but a massive party!

As for my weekly report on the work that I’ve accomplished, it really was not that much. I did not have too much time this week to work on my short stories. I started a brand new one, the 8^th in my series, entitled ‘Death and Life’. It’s currently sitting at just over 7,000 words and I should be finished this week.

At least I hope I will be, since I want to start writing the 9^th!

I also managed to get two issues of Wisdom from the Wastelands posted on Bookforge – Issue 13: Medical Devices and Issue 17: Artifact Conditions. I had hoped to get another issue up but I was just so busy with chores yesterday and the Stampede today that I barely had enough time to work on this blog.

As for new conversions I have simply been too busy to do any work on that front. I know that I said I was going to try and post at least one a week but this week life and my other projects just kept getting in the way.

Then again I am looking forward to writing up a new conversion from a trilogy that I’m almost finished watching. I’ll talk more about that once I’m finished.

Now Michael Varhola has brought up a possible source book for the classic SF dystopian future movie, short-lived TV series and trilogy of novels called ‘Logan’s Run’. I too remember seeing the movie, but only one or two of the episodes when I was growing up.

I also remember watching the movie and being intrigued and horrified knowing that once a person hit the magical age of 30 (which I have passed fifteen years previous), you were killed. The novels make it even worse, the age when you are killed is only 21.

Also another significant change between the books and movie was that the mythical Sanctuary was set off world in the novels; if my memory serves (it has been at least 15 years since I read the first two novels).

It is something that I would be interested in helping with, but the real kicker is the fact that I have so much on my plate. Writing my short stories, working on new material for Wisdom from the Wastelands, as well as the various other sourcebooks that I have talked about over the past 9 months for Mutant Future.

I think the best I could do when it comes to a project like this would be nothing more than a ‘creative consultant’. But who knows, I tend to be very fickle with work. I jump from project to project at the drop of a hat.

Hey, the upside is that I already have a plethora of material written for Mutant Future that could easily be incorporated into such a book!

Time will tell and who knows, if such a project gets off the ground, you know I may just have to drop what I’m currently working on and give them a hand.

Last week I finished off book 12 of Kim Harrison’s Hollows series: The Undead Pool. I felt my attention drift from time to time and it was not quite as engaging as most of her previous works have been.

Without giving anything away there were a couple of fairly significant changes in the overall novel involving several long-term characters and quite a few revelations that will end up having a serious impact in future offerings.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, just not as much as some of her previous books!

Anyhow, that’s pretty much all I have to say this week. As always I would like to invite my readers to like my personal Facebook page, and maybe follow me on Twitter if you would feel inclined.

Lastly, the image I chose for this week is the completed image from Chapter 1 of 'Sword of Kos: Dark Inheritance' by Alfonso Maesa.

Until next Sunday, peace!