Welcome to BenWoods.com

We're having a blood drive at work today. I unfortunately will not be participating today, or ever again, because the American Red Cross refuses to stop calling me.

This is a strange predicament for me because I've been a fairly loyal donor for about 15 years. But due to the Red Cross' refusal to remove me from its calling list, I'm really not that interested in donating again.

Here are two recent releases to check out the next time you're in the need of a new book.

"Love Betrayed" is a nonfiction novel by author Karen Hinton. It's a book for traumatized wives who find themselves reinventing their lives after dedicating decades to their husbands.

I haven't had a chance to post much on my blog lately. I think most people know why I haven't ... baby on the way, new house, a bunch of new websites and a new book. Anyway, I don't want to quit on the blog completely, but I'll probably consider a new format at some point, especially since I will be contributing to the Spumoni Press blog as well. Until then, be sure to check out spumonipress.com, as well as my latest post - First year = crazy year.

I had expected this note would give you an exact date, preferably in December, to announce the launch of "Corporate Ties." Unfortunately, it will have to wait a bit longer. I've been slightly busier this fall than anticipated … we purchased a house, we're preparing for a baby in March, among other things. The good news is that once I have a decent block of time to devote to the book, I should be able to finish it.

Until then, here's a new excerpt from the book.

Fellow Baltimore writer Spencer Compton will be sharing commentary from his new book, "Get Real" at 7pm tonight (Oct. 26) at Red Emma's Bookstore and Coffee House.

Very seldom do I read an article on the Web and say to myself, "Wow! I've been wondering how that works since I learned how to make prank phone calls when I was 4 years old!"

There have been rumors for many years, that eventually, it will cost a user to send an email. And since spam has become a ridiculously annoying part of everyday work, the chatter for paid communication has picked up again.

But I still didn't believe something like this would happen anytime soon, until I saw that America Online and Yahoo are beginning to implement a system that will give preferential treatment to companies who pay for sending bulk emails.

What do Theo Huxtable, Adolf Hitler and Magnum P.I. have in common?

1. They are names of my plants.
2. They have all recently purchased an iMac.
3. The computer knew I was trying to be each of them during an Internet game.

Are you serious? How many plants do you think I have?

It's difficult for me sometimes to understand why spammers do what they do. Do they really expect that the millions and millions of emails sent will provide income from the products they are selling? Do they enjoy intentionally slowing down the Internet to a relative crawl for email users? Do they have any idea why even non-watchers of Country Music Television have noticed that Shania Twain seems to be on an endless loop infomercial on that station?

In general, I'm not a huge fan of inspirational books. I think that people have become enamored with novels like these because they need motivation to make something out of their lives. But, more times than not, once they've put the book away, they revert back to their usual lives and don't make any changes. Not only that, but many inspirational books are too shallow and bland to reach the surface of giving people hope.