Saint Andrew's Day and my Annus Mirabilis!

November 30 was my name day. I was baptized and chrismated Orthodox under the name Andrew. In fact, in Romania (where we summer every year), I am known as Andrei (Andrew) because Romanian does not have a 'th' sound. People kept calling me Keet or Kees, so I just decided to become Andrei full time there.

On November 30, I received greetings from a number of Romanians who know that, for Orthodox, a name day is more important even than a birthday. And my wife introduced me to a Romanian Saint Andrew's Day tradition I had not previously experienced.

Romanians take wheat seeds, place them on cotton, and water them. And the idea is that, to the extent that the wheat germinates and grows, so will be the extent of your success in the coming year. You keep watering them through December and you have these wheat plants on your table on New Year's Eve, when you also place money and other tokens on your party table to portend prosperity for the future.

And so, I sprinkled my wheat seeds on cotton. I decided to use holy water for the watering. I mean, I'll take all the help I can get.

And my wheat plants are growing fantastically!

Here is the current progress:

Initial Watering

Four Days

One Week

So, I know what you're thinking. 

"Keith--Andrew--whatever you want to be called, how can I help you have the successful year you pray for?" 

Dear reader, thank you so much for asking! It's simple, really.

I will have the tremendously successful year that my Saint Andrew's Day Wheat Sproutings portend just so long as visitors to this blog and my other webpages will purchase one of my books or other products while they're here!

And there's so much to choose from. Let's start with the t-shirt idea that should have already earned me a million dollars:

Why have only a handful of people bought this brilliant and hilarious design? It's available on shirts, coffee cups, etc., just click to explore.

Or maybe you want to buy espionage-adventure novels from a novelist who actually practiced espionage and went on adventures? Guess what?! I have all that for you!

I was a spy at the NSA for four years after 9/11, during which time I had a number of adventures, chief of which was time spent in Iraq in 2004. The government awarded me the Civilian Service War on Terrorism Medal for my efforts. 

The novels I wrote all had to be submitted to the NSA for pre-publication approval. And they made me delete several passages before the books could go to print. But I'm equally surprised at some of the things they either didn't think were classified or just missed in their review.

Here they are, in the order you should purchase and read them. Click on the image to learn more about these espionage thrillers. Thanks for your support!