Welcome to my annual report of what I did all year. My 2025 book-writing year ran mid-February ’25 to mid January ’26. Only half of this is specific to my G.I. Joe history book. First up, the non-book things:
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Photoshoot #19
At the DFW G.I. Joe and Action Figure Show in late June I bumped into Derryl DePriest, toy collector, book author, and former Hasbro VP. I joked that he should drive north to finally see my store many, many hours from where he lives. Turns out he was heading my way two months hence!
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A Real American Book! 2024 Year in Review
An artifact of being a teacher and having Winter Break is that my 2024 book-writing year ran late February ’24 to early February ’25 rather than a normal January-December. First up, the non-book things:
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Photoshoot #18
Expert/pal Chris Murray lent me a one-of-a-kind G.I. Joe toy item, as well as a rare pre-production bauble, when I saw him at JoeFest in August. We had loosely worked out that I would photograph them in his hotel room, but I didn’t bring a proper camera or lights, and I’m not enough of a photographer that I could light these items properly. Chris generously let me take them with me. I offered to mail them back a few weeks later, but Chris was concerned about shipping mishaps, and said he’d take them back in person at the next G.I. Joe convention in November. I had assumed I would attend that show, but hadn’t locked it in — three months was a long ways off and it’s hard to plan your next trip during your current trip. But that settled it, I would be attending Assembly Required in November 2024. Now I had three months to photograph these two pieces of treasure. This week I did. Make that the passive voice, have them photographed.
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Two Months at the Library – Part 2 of 2
In Part One, Tim described his feelings towards libraries, discovered that the Peggy Charren/ACT archive was close to his home, and inspected the Harvard Gutman library’s online index of Charren/ACT papers.
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Two Months at the Library – Part 1 of 2
I love libraries. I don’t often visit them because I own a book store, but the idea that we have built temples to free books and knowledge is lovely.
I wrote a paper or two in school at a big, old, stone library. There was always a feeling of discovery, to walk through the dimly lit stacks, heading towards a hidden away carrel, looking to both sides at all the amazing volumes with tantalizing titles. Some hadn’t been checked out in months or years, and library collections should be pruned, but the idea isn’t that just the most important or popular books are available. Rather, a full variety should be ready for that one time that someone needs a particular book. Libraries are for everyone.
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A Real American Book! 2023 in Review
Annual “year”-end post! My 2023 book-writing year ran not from January through December, but late February ’23 to early February ’24. This is a remnant of using winter break as a final push back when I was in an academic calendar. First up, the non-book things:
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Remembering Andre Blais
I’ve gotten a little used to posting remembrances of G.I. Joe alums from the worlds of animation, comics, and toys, where the departed were born in the 1940s or ’50s. It’s sad, although it makes sense. But I was caught off guard this summer to learn that Andre Blais had died. He didn’t work on G.I. Joe, but for me, he worked around it. Longtime readers of this blog have “met” him, as Andre was my photographer from 2008 to 2017.
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A Real American Book! 2020 in Review
It’s after mid-February, so it’s past time time for my annual “what did I do for the last 12 months” post. Rather than running January 1st to December 31st, my book year runs from about the end of January to the start of February because I teach and traditionally the winter break is a productive time.
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A Real American Book! 