New Mohonk Mountain House video...

Here's a wonderful short history and video tour of the Mohonk Mountain House. It was shot in the Fall, so it's particularly visually striking. 


The Mountain House and Sky Top Tower (visible for a moment in the video) are featured prominently in my latest novel, Little Birdies!. Consider purchasing a copy as a gift for friends and family who are passionate about parrots, scifi/adventure stories or the Shawangunks. Sample chapters are here, reviews here...

Parrot Expo 2009...

These were just posted: Parts one and two of this year's Parrot Expo from the Long Island Parrot Society...

Long Island Parrot Society November meeting...

The 600-member Long Island Parrot Society has posted a video of their November '09 meeting:

A little history of the Cenacle...

My upcoming scifi/adventure novel, The Cenacle Scroll, opens with an archeological dig at the Cenacle, in Old Jerusalem. Believed to be the site of the Last Supper, the location has a long and storied history:

   Today, pilgrims and tourists daily fill a 45’ x 29.5 ‘Gothic room built in the 14th century to commemorate the descent of the Spirit following Christ’s resurrection. In Catholic tradition the Upper Room is known as the Cenacle, derived from a Latin word for dining and is believed to be the site of the Last Supper and the place where the Apostles gathered and lived. As such, the ancient building that stood in the chapel’s place was the site of many of the most important events in the Gospel, including the washing of the disciples’ feet, the appearance of Christ after His resurrection, and the ratification of Matthias as a replacement for Judas Iscariot (Meagher 232). The Upper Room is hailed as the epicenter of formative Christianity and the worldwide revival that emanated from the initial descent of the Holy Ghost in Acts 2.1-4.
   Following the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., it was St. Helena, the mother of Constantine, who went to Jerusalem in an effort to rediscover the ancient Christian landmarks. Under her direction, the Cenacle was purified and consecrated, and masses were said in the small church (Meagher 233). In 350 A.D., the church was restored; and in 390, a large basilica known as Hagia Sion (Holy Zion) was erected nearby (Lussier 332-333). The traditional Upper Room became a cathedral and flourished until 636 A.D., when Jerusalem was overtaken by the Moslem invaders. Omar, cousin of the Mohammed, negotiated with the Jerusalem Christians and allowed them to retain the Cenacle as a church, but the influence of Christianity was stymied by the Moslem occupancy (Meagher 233).

Read the entire article here: Revisiting the Upper Room.  

I'm hoping to have the book released sometime early in 2010. You can read a couple of sample chapters here: The Cenacle Scroll.

How's this for a satisfied customer?

I received this email from a reader a couple of days ago:

Hi Mr Lewis,

I just thought I would share with you that I immensely enjoyed your two works of fiction which I finished a little over a month ago. I had always been fascinated with the State of Montana and the people that live there and I believe you did an excellent job in painting the landscape. You did such an excellent job at doing it that I turned to my wife and said lets get out of California and go! So we literally booked a weekend away to see what it was like there and I am proud to say we turned around and bought property in Montana after visiting and meeting the people and seeing how fiercely independent the folks are just like you described in the book.

My wife and I can hardly wait to start building our new home there and getting out of California, it was like we discovered the real America we had always read and heard about compared to living in this God forsaken state we are currently "subjects" of.

Anyways I just figured I would reach out and let you know that your books really hit home with me and I really hope there is a third novel in the series in the works!

Shane XXXXXX

November 20, 2009

I've said it more than once and I'll say it again: The Third Revolution was written as political fiction, but is starting to read more and more like a history text.  It may not be the hypothesized "One Nation Act" that ends up pulling the trigger, but I suspect that nationalized healthcare or some other similar affront to state sovereignty may well do the trick. And my timeline seems to be holding up well...

The new Bird Talk issue...

As promised, here's the cover for the new issue (Jan, 2010) of Bird Talk Magazine. This issue is of special note, of course, for the editor's keen insight in featuring my new novel, Little Birdies!, in the Birdies Boutique "For You" section (pg. 32) of the magazine. If you keep parrots, canaries or finches, you need to be a little bit of a crazy person not to subscribe to Bird Talk. You can get a good deal on subscriptions here...

The poor bison can't win...

Animal activists vs. conservationists. Stand back... From today's Wall Street Journal:

AVALON, Calif. -- Conservationist Carlos de la Rosa still likes to see buffalo roaming Southern California's famed Santa Catalina Island.

Just not so many of them.

His employer, the Catalina Island Conservancy, has taken hardcore positions with all kinds of other nonnative animals, including goats and pigs.

But earlier efforts to rid island canyons of goats and pigs sometimes involved hiring sharpshooters to hang from helicopters and pick them off. They turned out to be public-relations disasters.

This time, conservancy officials are turning to a more high-tech solution: bison birth control. For weeks, conservancy staff members have been laying trails of alfalfa to lure bison into pens in the island's Cape Canyon. Starting Friday, they plan to inject females with porcine zona pellucida, or PZP, a vaccine that works by creating antibodies that glom onto eggs, blocking fertilization.

Read the entire article here: A Discouraging Word Isn't Enough to Control Catalina's Fertile Buffalo