Wednesday, July 30, 2025

VORTEX: Book III of the Alban Saga - Last Update Before Publication!

 

 
I just wanted to give you an update on what’s happening with the third and final book of the Alban SagaVORTEX! 

The third edit was completed today, and the final read-through of the manuscript has begun!


The next time you hear from me, you will be notified that the book is ready for publication on Amazon and the date of its release! 📚 

In the meantime, you can look at the other two books in the series, Beatrice and Black Grotto, or any of my books, by clicking on the Bob’s Books link at the top of my blog.

Wednesday, July 23, 2025

ANOTHER MILESTONE: Well Over 100,000 Page Views Of My Blog From Around The Globe!

  

When we walk together, we learn from each other.


My blog has reached another milestone that I'm very excited about! Since starting my Author's Blog in November of 2013, I've had over 100,000  page views, and it's been viewed and read in over 113 countries.

I want to thank everyone for their interest in my work and for joining me on this journey!

Learn More About My Books, Poetry, Music, or To Contact Me, simply click one of the links at the top of the blog.

Saturday, July 19, 2025

Just Added Added the 113th Country Reading My Blog & Updated the Other Countries' Category

  

Readers Around the World

  

I want to say hello to everyone around the world who is reading my blog! Readers from Brunie are the latest. They are the 113th country on the list! Welcome!

Great to have all of you along on the journey!


The OTHER category is for all countries not specifically listed in the database for this blog but still counted. I'm giving those a prominent spot at the top of the list with the number of pageviews as of the day I post this entry. Plus, I've included you in the number of countries with the plus sign: 113+.

Here's a complete list of the countries where my blog is being read:
  • Other - not listed in the database by name
    • 8780 pageviews as of 19 July 2025
  • United States
  • Poland
  • Ukraine
  • France
  • Turkey
  • Germany
  • Denmark
  • China
  • Russia
  • United Kingdom
  • Spain
  • Netherlands
  • Belgium
  • Romania
  • Taiwan
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Italy
  • Canada
  • Brazil
  • Indonesia
  • Mexico
  • Vietnam
  • Thailand
  • Colombia
  • Austria
  • Macau
  • Ireland
  • India
  • Singapore
  • Moldova
  • Pakistan
  • Netherlands Antilles
  • South Africa
  • Philippines
  • Czech Republic
  • Finland
  • Malaysia
  • Kenya
  • Australia
  • Estonia
  • Japan
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Greece
  • Nepal
  • Bangladesh
  • Switzerland
  • Hungary
  • Portugal
  • Slovenia
  • Bulgaria
  • Israel
  • Mongolia
  • Puerto Rico
  • Iraq
  • Latvia
  • Serbia
  • Sweden
  • Georgia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Iceland
  • Croatia
  • Egypt
  • Algeria
  • Turkmenistan
  • Cypress
  • South Korea
  • Ecuador
  • Kenya
  • Ethiopia
  • Kazakhstan
  • Armenia
  • Morocco
  • Uzbekistan
  • Madagascar
  • Belarus
  • Mozambique
  • Albania
  • Haiti
  • Zimbabwe
  • Uruguay
  • Fiji
  • Afghanistan
  • Guinea
  • Panama
  • Hong Kong
  • Venezuela
  • Sweden
  • Argentina
  • Ecuador
  • Chile
  • Paraguay
  • Dominican Republic
  • Trininad & Tobago
  • Botswana
  • Algeria
  • Peru
  • Tunisia
  • Kuwait
  • Bahrain
  • Costa Rica
  • Kyrgyzstan
  • Bosnia & Herzegovina
  • Bolivia
  • Angola
  • Western Sahara
  • Gabon
  • Oman
  • Côte ďlvoire
  • Sri Lanka
  • Guatemala
  • Senegal
  • Brunei

 

Thursday, July 17, 2025

Famous Quotes About Diversity: Gene Roddenberry

 

Gene Roddenberry

 

Gene Roddenberry was the creator of Star Trek. I have been a fan ever since the original series! Below are two quotes of his about diversity. What an amazing man!


“The glory of creation is in its diversity.”


“If man is to survive, he will have learned to take delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life’s exciting variety, not something to fear."



Sunday, July 13, 2025

Poems With The Most Views From My Readers


Bob’s Poetry


I did some research recently to see which of the poems I've written and put on my blog have been the most popular, according to you, my readers. They are The Tent, As I Lay Dying, and Her Magical Irish Sweater. Others were close, but these three had the most views.



(Baker)


The Tent

Eyelids closed within folds of fabric
Twitch and carefully part
Barely open
Barely seeing

Warm air quilts the skin
As cold surrounds the fabric
Of this down-filled, luxurious cocoon

The tent sits
Holds firm to the earth
Quietly surrounded by saguaro cactus
Cliffrose and desert paintbrush
Milkweed and crucifixion thorn

Solar particles dance
In mathematical precision
In the air
And cause my eyes to blink
And my arms to stretch and escape
Beyond the comfort of home

My hands press the ground
Aiding soul and body
To rise together
With the morning

The cactus wren and Gambel’s quail
Click and scratch a living
Bringing me awake

Sliding my nose and chin and head outside
I’m blinded by the glorious day

Crawling out
As a dog from a hut
On all fours stretching, yawning, rubbing, scratching
Glancing back at the geometric shelter
The thin protector
Like a tortoise
Carried on my back
There and ready to fold into
In the night

With complete simplicity
And connection to the ancients
I scrape the pebbles from my palms
And stand upright
Surveying the landscape
Of the new day

Food urges grumble and move me
To set out nuts and berries and grains
And warm aromatic beans of liquid joy
To sample and devour when ready
Yoga-style on the ground with fingers
Juices running down my chin

A soft sound
Stirs the desert

A wonderful sigh
Spooks the wren

A movement
Ripples the tent
And tempts

Wiping away berry juice and brown aroma
My lips part and smile

Sliding fingers between the folds of fabric
And peering inside the tent
A hand slowly reaches out and caresses me
The other sleepily beckons
To the warmth of skin and fabric
And the familiar touch of joy
Naturally warming the body’s furnace
And igniting the tent
With pleasure
And the soft sighs of love

In the desert air

Copyright © Bob Stegner 2007

Tent Image from:
Baker, Adam. Spooky Tent. Digital image. Flickr. N.p., 1 Apr. 2010. Web. 22 Feb. 2014.






(Montgomery)


As I Lay Dying


As I lay dying
Surrounded by the immensity
Of life
And quieted by the certainty
Of death
I see your eyes

Dark dripping pools
Of concern
Worry
Fear
And the universal question
Of why?
Cascading down
Your dark, lit orbs
To mine
Holding tight to what was
Not wanting to let go

I lay
Somehow accepting

The visions and neurons
Firing with light speed
Taking me through the journey
Of my story

The warmth and joy
Of experiences
Some sad
Some happy
Some frightening
Some inspiring
But…
Intertwined
Combined
Collected
Into
It all

Knowing the days of my youth
Grabbing the ball
Playing the evening
Gathering together
By the fire
‘round the table
Into the night
Laughing
Telling stories
Being family

My homes
My friends
The food
The laughter
The lessons
My loves
The wilderness
The ocean
The rain – The wind
The sunsets
The children
The smiles

The lives
Touched
The music
The poetry
The awesome counterpoint of existence
And…
My daughter
The crux and essence
Of me

The sum of it
The undulating flow of it
The all-consuming power of it
Only I can see
Assess
And know

I am
Happy
I was here
Sad
I can’t help you
Confined
Yet free
As you look into me
Suffused in somberness
And the loneliness of
Being
Left behind

I pause and…
Know the time

I glance
While you fade

I focus on the inward beat
And breathe
Climaxing
Nearing the end
To this
A new beginning

All I can do is
Go forward
And ponder…

I came here on my own
I leave on my own
But with so much more
Do I leave

Am I ready?
Is anyone?

It’s late
It’s time
It’s here

My limp hand
Is clutched by yours
And held with tears
Of love unaware
Of my smile inside
As I know
I’ve lived completely
And
Joyfully

Copyright © Bob Stegner 2006

Image of Hands:
Montgomery, Martin/Alamy. Regrets of Dying. Digital image. Theguardian.com The Guardian, 1 Feb. 2012. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.






(Dusseault)


Her Magical Irish Sweater


Irish green landscapes glide tangibly by
In whimsical, melancholy shades and tones
Casting deep knowledge
Of old magic
Throughout my heart and life

Winter wind and rain cleanse and expand the creative soul
With a Burren of bare, harsh, minutely diverse flawlessness
Sharing ages and eons
Of billions of
Possibilities unknown

And alongside this exquisite reverie
I seem to feel the eyes and soul
Of a heart and love
So fine and true
As to bond and create
A sensual being
Of mind and body
A transformation
Of us, we two

Extending tactilely, visually, lovingly
Surrounding and holding her close
Touching first the garment
The braided, luxuriant wool
That lay on her skin
Keeping us negligibly apart,
Yet not
Her Irish sweater

A magical sweater
A mother lamb's gift
Enfolding her heart and dreams
Around love
Wrapping passions and life and mind
Into a womanly luxuriant package
Of deeply entwined
Fibers of wool

Seamlessly, without pause
As the kilometers flow by
As the limestone pads
Become reality
And permeate the day,
Along with myst and legend,
She and I
Find ourselves without concern
Touching, exploring, intermingling
Amidst the soft, slick, sensual fibers
Of her magical sweater

From that small, brilliant segment of time
Birds, plants, rocks, wind, sky, and rain
No longer exist beyond us
Environment and our singular forms fuse
Enduring without separation,
Without time

Among those fibers of luscious animal fleece
Our nerves and synapse explode and fire
Cinematizing thoughts, memories, and perceptions
As actuality, solubility, and existence itself
Alter our perception and mutate us
To a new dimension

Rock hewn fields
Her hands
Drops of rain
Our lips
Castles dripping with dew
A deep embrace
Ancient caves of limestone
Pulsing sweat and pleasure
Birds ebbing and coursing in flight
Bodies moving singly in union, in rhythm
Cliffs dizzily cascading vertically to the ocean
Eyes piercing, glazing and locking passionately
The ocean's power explodes against rock with magnificent spray and foam
Bodies lock and join in creational joy and dynamic flame
And dynamic flame

Quiet
Quiet
Rest

Becalmed,
Tranquil,
Silent
Becalmed

It's evening on the Burren's edge
The sunset rests the sea
While winds and rain and light subside
A lighthouse sits with me

A curved-winged gull paints segments
And arcs from shore to sky
But nature's there and I am here again
A window shades my eyes

It's winter as it should be
The world seems properly in place
But something's missing
Something's gone
And I cannot find its face

And then without the knowing
Or comprehending why
The digits on my left hand
Seek out the reason why

I force my eyes to look there
Where hand now knows the why
The magic of my love is gone
And emptiness abides

Yet where so close
She was with me
A soft, cream sweater lay
A textured present
That I know
I chose for her this day

I gazed at it in wonder
Thoughts churned and filled my head
My life and hers
Felt real to me
But a sweater sits instead

Oh, could this Irish sweater
With magic powers perform
A miracle
Transporting her
Back from ethereal form

The burren knows the answer
The Cliffs of Moher can say
The winds along the coastline
Can guide me on my way
The gulls can trace it in the sky
The rocks can teach the art

But only this fine sweater
Has the power

To unlock her Irish heart

Copyright © Bob Stegner 2005


Image of Sweater:
Dusseault, Lisa. Aran Jumper. Digital image. Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 19 Aug. 2003 Web. 09 Dec. 2013.