Stop milking this tweet thread: Funny Twitter discussion with Bernie Jackson, Melody and an absent William Shatner

Melody, Stop baiting Mr. Shatner

— Bernie Jackson (@awholelottabern) August 1, 2017

I am all for scorpions being otherwise subdued by robots (or for that matter by anyone other than me) for absolutely any reason on Earth.

— Bernie Jackson (@awholelottabern) August 2, 2017

I'm not sure why you're so concerned about scorpion milking machines anyway. Troll milking machines, now there we have something.

— Bernie Jackson (@awholelottabern) August 7, 2017

Don't get mad at me @WilliamShatner started this.

— Bernie Jackson (@awholelottabern) August 7, 2017

Melody Jackson: Quote of the Day

“I'm going to let that slide because you seemed to have been in the middle of being eaten by a monster.” He was clutching his midsection as if from pain, the squashed remnants of a soft brown cookie squeezing between his fingers as though dough from a pasta machine.”

― BMB Johnson, Melody Jackson v. the Hound from Hell

This is the 2nd book of Season One of "It Happened on Lafayette Street" series.
the eBook:  "The Hound from Hell" is currently $1.99, and is currently available at the following sites:

SmashWords Amazon iTunes Barnes and Nobel Kobo

Melody Jackson: Daliy Quote

“Melody began to mumble incomprehensibly under her breath as she worked frantically on securing her most important papers into bankers boxes.
        Her father stomped into her room, eating a banana.
        Melody looked up at him with a sweaty and nauseated look on her face. “What are you tramping around so heavily about?” she asked him.
        Bernie finished the last of the banana, and then held the peel in his hand as though it were a washcloth he had just found on the floor of a gym locker room.
        Melody pointed to her trashcan with her eyes.
        “I make an insane amount of noise when I approach you, because you once yelled at me claiming that I was 'sneaking up on you',” Bernie replied, using finger quotes on the last phrase. “That kind of treatment stays with a guy.”
        Melody shook her head. Her father knew how much she hated finger quotes. Why he insisted on using them was beyond her. “I was five at the time”, she said.
        “Ah,” Bernie said, with a knowing grin on his face. “The angry period.”

― B.M.B. Johnson, Melody Jackson v. the Hound from Hell It happened on Lafayette Street Season One

Review of Melody Jackson v. the Woman in White by Patricia Walker

Read

My rating:

1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars[ 5 of 5 stars ]

Melody Jackson v. the Woman in White (It happened on Lafayette Street Book 1) 
by B.M.B. Johnson (Goodreads Author) 

Patricia Walker's review

it was amazing

This is a great introduction to the world of Melody Jackson, her family and her curious mind that seems to uncover mystery no matter what she decides to champion at any given time. In this episode Melody shows her philanthropic side by wanting to tear down an old house across the street to make way for a park to benefit local residents. Needless to say not all goes well with this plan and we begin a race against time to solve the clues before two mysterious men in a white van who have begun stalking Melody and her family.

The story is well written with characters that meld together extremely well. There are many amusing moments between Melody and her parents that show the authors complete grasp of family angst in a household that contains a pre-teen.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes to read!


Melody Jackson v. the Woman in White (It happened on Lafayette Street Book 1)  is available from these lovely sites:

SmashWords 

Amazon 

iTunes 

Barnes and Nobel

Review of "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin"

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin 
by Benjamin Franklin, Lewis Leary (Introduction) 

really liked it

What? 4-stars only? Are you mad? This book is legendary.

Yeah, I did it. What of it?! Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of the guy, but I've got to fault him for a few things. Sure, I get it. He was a self-made man, a genius, an inventor of practical things, full of folksy sayings. However, for one thing, his writing style leaves much to be desired: his home-spun antiquated phrasings can leave a person tongue-tied, even if said person is just reading it in her head.

Also, the man wasn't quite as progressive a thinker as I always thought him. Indians are savages, and his view of women (which granted was possibly more far-thinking at his time), was far from feminism-approved, in that he thought that women should be educated, but only to the point that they could take over their husbands business should he die, and only until such time that the son became of age to take over said business.

I almost slapped you for that one, Franklin!

Quick Review of Hell House by Richard Matheson

Hell House 
by Richard Matheson 

B.M.B. Johnson's review

really liked it

One of those "TOP 20 thingies" websites told me that this was one of the scariest books of all times. It wasn't that scary at all. Where's the sadistic clowns?? Not that that's what scares me. *ahem*. Still, a well-written and interesting book.

Recent Hilarious Twitter discussion about the Upcoming Third Melody Jackson book by Melody and her father

...wet your pants? Sure. No problem.

— Melody Jackson (@mjathols) July 20, 2017

I don’t think mom knows about Twitter. Frankly, I didn’t think you did, either.

— Melody Jackson (@mjathols) July 20, 2017

Yes, and I left out the part about you wetting your pants there, too.

— Melody Jackson (@mjathols) July 20, 2017

If you say it often enough, does it become true? Also, do you have a point here someplace?

— Melody Jackson (@mjathols) July 20, 2017

I’m working on it. Some of us have lives, you know. Shouldn’t you be making a sandwich or putting cheese on a cracker or something?

— Melody Jackson (@mjathols) July 20, 2017

I believe there’s a couple of pregnant ladies in Albuquerque who enjoyed the first two books, if that’s what you mean?

— Melody Jackson (@mjathols) July 20, 2017

Don’t make me block you. And you’re no longer allowed to use emojis. It’s just too weird.

— Melody Jackson (@mjathols) July 20, 2017

I did not. I just opened my mind to less restrictive points of view. And you’re getting ahead of yourself.

— Melody Jackson (@mjathols) July 20, 2017

I guess. At least more so than “Melody Jackson v. the General Premise of the Book”

— Melody Jackson (@mjathols) July 20, 2017

Sure thing...now why don’t you go back to writing your Atari game reviews and stop tweeting me about this. IT’S IN THE WORKS!!

— Melody Jackson (@mjathols) July 20, 2017

Bernie's Blotter: the new Atari Console...

Bernie Jackson

Lafayette Street Books

Finally, a console for the rest of us. For those of us who started their gaming careers playing the Atari 2600 (or VCS – although, I don’t know of anyone who ever called it that), I most say that I’m super stoked about this machine.

Sure, we still don’t know much about it, the images look great. Although, where’s the cartridge slot??

Here’s what Atari had to say so far…

First look at the Ataribox design.

Thanks again for signing up to learn more about the Ataribox project!

We’ve been blown away by the feedback since the teaser release, and today, we’re excited to share an exclusive first look at the Ataribox design with you.  

"Our objective is to create a new product that stays true to our heritage while appealing to both old and new fans of Atari. 
Inspired by classic Atari design elements (such as the iconic use of wood, ribbed lines, and raised back); we are creating a smooth design, with ribs that flow seamlessly all around the body of the product, a front panel that can be either wood or glass, a front facing logo, indicator lights that glow through the material, and an array of new ports (HDMI, 4xUSB, SD). We intend to release two editions: a wood edition, and a black/red edition."

"As you can guess, those ports suggest modern internal specs. It also means that while we will be delivering classic gaming content, we will also be delivering current gaming content."

"We know you are hungry for more details; on specs, games, features, pricing, timing etc. We’re not teasing you intentionally; we want to get this right, so we’ve opted to share things step by step as we bring Ataribox to life, and to listen closely to Atari community feedback as we do so. There are a lot of milestones, challenges and decision points in front of us in the months ahead. We’ll be giving you lots more information and status updates as we progress, and we are thrilled to have you along for the ride!

Hope you like where we are taking this, we’ll be in touch soon.

The Ataribox Project team.

PS: Please let us know what you think via our social channels; and also please like, follow, subscribe, and share as much as possible!"

Copyright © 2017 Atari, Inc.,, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:

Atari, Inc.,

Park Avenue

New York, NY 10016

Add us to your address book

On getting recognition as an author

Hiya fellow authors:

I don't know about you all, but I've NOT had a huge success in "getting the word" out. I've spent a good deal of time here on GoodReads, Twitter, and to a small extent, Facebook. I even purchased a Facebook Ad and another on a blog site. I even a website --> all with similar results.

How many books have I sold? Erm, let's just say, not a lot. Even with good reviews (of which there are admittedly few.)

I know a lot of it is name recognition, and the fact that there's about a million new authors out there on Amazon doesn't help. There must be a sweet spot for letting people know your book puts sliced bread to shame, though.

Join the discussion  New Authors Talk Shoppe  @ GoodReads

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/191728-new-authors-talk-shoppe

Review: Nancy Drew and the Clue of the Broken Locket

Another day, another mystery.  Nancy's father doesn't have time to deal with another of his client's issues, so of course he sends his teen-age daughter out in the woods to take care of things.

"It's super dangerous, so take a couple of your friends with you -- you know to increase the carnage if things go bad," he says between the lines.  "And also feel free to invite the boyfriends along later.  They are sexless cardboard cutouts, so you'll be fine."

Maybe it was in a bad mood when I read this, but this particular tome seems a tad out of date -- perhaps even for the times in which it was written.

Although it follows the basic Nancy Drew formula:  Do something dangerous because your father has too many cases (it's awesome that he trusts her, don't get me wrong -- but he already had a wife die and every book he just shoves a pipe in my mouth and sends his daughter off to war any chance he gets); Nancy invites her friends "The bold one" and the "chubby one" (yes, even in progressive female-led books we're making fun of the overweight character);  Nancy bites off more than she can chew (or rather there's NEVER just one mystery, there's usually 3 or 4 ALL RELATED TO THE SAME ANTAGONISTS!);  as an aside -- but not usually to help to any great degree (which is usually my favorite part of the book), the boyfriends are called (usually for some kind of sock hop), and not one of them tries to make a move on the girls (?)..."Well get our own cabin, and see you in the morning!"  --apparently sex wasn't invented until the 70's;  the cops of course don't believe her at first, so Nancy and her friends get in trouble;  Nancy finds a hidden alcove so that she can overhear the bad guys [probably due to time constraints -- because the plot ran long] talking about how and why they did the bad thing they did;  and then the mystery is solved and Nancy's already musing about her next adventure (usually along with a little advertisement for the next book.)

Neat.  Tidy.  Telling instead of showing.  Unrealistic communication.  Although charming, and I'll still read the next one of these because I love them.

BMB