Last year around Christmas I met this kid on Facebook. His name was Kody and he said he loved 8-Ball and The Kid, but that he had not yet read  The Woods of Bloody Mary. So I loaned him a copy.

He spent the next 5 nights chatting with me on Facebook and listening to all of my stories of the days of my youth work. Three months later, Kody spent an entire week sick at home. During that time, he watched Animal Planet and how cops investigated dog fighting rings and rescued Pitbulls.

It was during that week that Kody began writing a book, Wild Hearts. He did his research on the Internet, and soon he had written 50 pages. I was so impressed that I began to Save every chapter he sent me. Before long, I knew he had a book that would be worthwhile to read. Besides that, Kody was passionate about educating folks and sharing with them the unfortunate plight of Pitbulls thrown into the fighting rings across this country.

So Wild Hearts is being released this week, and Kody will be at the Lancaster Event Center May 1^st and 2^nd to sign and sell copies. The book sells for $10.00, and it is a first for this 14-year-old kid.

I will be there as well, selling copies of my books. So I hope to see you out there.

After hearing from my attorney on Monday about my copyright infringement suit in St. Louis, he told me it could be 3 months down the road before we hear back from the appellate court judges.

In the meantime, Kody and I ventured down to Gifford Farm today to walk through the obstacle course there in the woods along the Missouri River. Shawn Isaccs is planning to jump-start Kastleland, the very program I am in court over.

Shawn and Michelle have been trying for the past year to raise $500 to start a non-profit corporation known as Storm Haven, which would involve marketing Kastleland at camps nation wide. It’s too bad we can’t find funding for this to get this show on the road.

It will never see the light of day, however, if we can’t find supporters for this cause. If you have ever been through Kastleland as a camper or a counselor, take a moment to remember those summer days, and then think of some kid who could really be impacted by the message of this anti-drug program. It will sure help if we had a core group of supporters to finance this operation.

Hey, if any of you who ever wanted to challenge me with a sword, I might meet you up there at Gifford for a fund-raising battle. I’ll even bet you can’t beat me, for I am still as skilled as I was back in the day.  And if I can’t beat you, then I am sure Kody can.

Any takers?

It seems like yesterday that my gifted student, Drew Norton, died in a fire in Vermont. I met Drew when he was a 12-year-old camper at Camp Kitaki, where he came to my anti-drug program, Kastleland, wearing a legalize marijuana T-shirt. Later, I became Drew’s mentor in the Gifted program where we worked on the Kastleland video script together.

On the day of his funeral in Kearney, NE. Drew’s mom gave me a container of his ashes and asked me to sprinkle them on the lake at Camp Kitaki. The strange thing is, I had to get written permission to venture onto Camp grounds in accordance with the Federal Injunction I had won earlier that year. I did so and scattered Drew’s ashes on the moonlit waters of Kitaki lake.

Now, today, my lawyer, Brett MacArthur, is presenting my copyright infringement case in the Appellate Court of St. Louis. This is the second time I have been to court over Kastleland, which I wrote back in 1987.  All things have a purpose, and so I must believe there is a good reason I have been forced to protect my copyrighted program once again.

I just hope this is the last time I have to present this case in court.  The last time I won regarding this matter, my attorneys settled outside of court. While they reaped the benefits, I was forbidden to talk about the deal later, though I did establish my copyright and trademark. I assumed they were both protected by the law, so we will see how the judges rule after this day the 12th of April, 2010.