INDIE AUTHORS RISING

As another Publishing House crumbles with the filing for bankruptcy by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co. of Boston, when the publisher filed for bankruptcy in court in Manhattan taking more than twenty affiliates down with them as they go.  Slowly but surely the gates of the old Empire are falling. In the wake of this terrible news in the world of traditional publishing the Indie Authors are rising.  In the numbers of authors getting their books published, to the number of books the authors are publishing, to the dollars they are squeezing out of the coffers which were once held so tightly by the established traditional publishing companies. The report I read about the newest collapse in Traditional Publishing blames...

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Posted in: bankruptcy Publishing books affiliates Indie Authors web

AVENGERS Review!!

I’ve been a little off this week, which for a crazy person who is kind of off kilter to begin with who pours his wild imagination and the whispering from my muse into stories for readers to enjoy in the future, means I’ve been a little way off kilter.  Between my family, work (my day job), stealing time in the evenings to try and finish my third book, losing a friend this week to cancer, I’ve been plagued with all the feelings, thoughts and emotions to the point I’ve felt a little over whelmed.  So I finally went to see the other movie I’ve been dying to see, The AVENGERS! I didn’t grow up a DC Comic fan; I came into late in life and through Television and later more recently the movies.  I was and still am a huge fan of WONDER WOMAN, the television series because of an infatuation...

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Posted in: Hulk Thor Wonder Woman Allan Cole Avengers DC Comics Review

Lost the Battle and I Thank You

Thank you to all who took part in the sale of my book over the past holiday Memorial Day weekend.  I cannot express what it means to have others read your work, to purchase your work, and share the literary experience in this manner.  It validates the author’s time and work into creating and putting the work out there. Now to a much more important matter. Back In April I did a Blog Post   * A really weird Place * The following is an excerpt of that post . . . In just a matter of days around the beginning of July I will have been in my current employment twenty years, a milestone. The guy who hired me all those years ago is still a close personal friend of mine, and so is his wife. His wife has been battling cancer for over a year now, she won a few battles but its...

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Posted in: Friends Love Cancer memories memorial Demon Faith

Breaking the Rules

Is it breaking the rules when the rules are not written down, when no committee or convention has conviened to determine these are the rules?  If they are not written down, posted for all to see, or available in some format as in an instruction manual, is it breaking still breaking the rules? Case in point.  What I call elevator ettiquite. These rules are followed by all who ride together in elevators, pre-established by some social force of nature, not written or explained to the participants. When you get an on elevator and it’s empty you step in turn and face the front, select the floor you want and either stand on that side or be preemptive and move to the back or the otherside in case somebody else happens to board the elevator. One note here is that an empty elevator...

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Posted in: Elevator Rules Buttons conformity fun space Hawaiian Money

One of the reasons I enjoy writing books.

I don’t have to work as hard as I do, but I enjoy what I do (most of it – editing still sucks), so it’s a passion and drives me to do as much as I can every day to get closer to my goals as a writer.  I remember when my writing goals were not as lofty as they are now.  When I was happy to peck away and type a page or two in a day, and maybe connect with another author on-line.  To read something about writing to try and learn what I ought to know to be a successful writer. One of the reasons I enjoy writing is the sense of accomplishment it gives me when I look on my book shelf and see my two books.  Each day I know I am getting closer to more of my stories being published and joining them.  With each new book comes...

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Posted in: Writing Enjoy Passion Peck Happy Sales figure Sucks

Is Time Travel Possible?

Discover Magazine years ago posed this question to ten different physicists.  They asked each one if they thought it was possible and to provide some theory on how it might be achieved.  What I found more surprising than the ten affirmative answers was ten different theories on how one might go about attempting to effectively build a time machine. My first novel “Whisper” is a tale about a ship experimenting with sliding an object, the USS Whisper out of sync with time in order to make it disappear.  When the unknown happens while testing this phase shifter, they find themselves transported over 200 years into the past. Available on Amazon dot com on sale for 75% off this Memorial Day weekend, treat yourself to some...

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Posted in: Time Travel Memorial Day Whisper Wiley Randolph Bonus might be

The Masks We Wear

On Pinterest I have a whole board dedicated for masks. The Lone Ranger wore one, Zorro wore one, Batman wears one, they wear them for Mardi Gras, and as children we all enjoyed getting up and wearing a mask.  The masks are a symbol for my true fascination which isn’t so much the mask you can put on but the mask you wear for the world every day in public. We all do it.  Very few people are truly what you see is what you get type of people.  Most everyone wears a mask of one sort or another.  The masks we wear are every bit as elaborate as the ones on my Pinterest board. My point is that you truly don’t get to really know the people in your life unless you invest the time to get to know them.  Do things with them. ...

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History Tidbits for May 24th

Yesterday and Today May 23-24, in 1962, Scott Carpenter’s historic flight in Aurora 7, as part of the Mercury Project where American Astronaut Scott Carpenter orbited the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 Capsule. The Bismarck Also on this day in History in 1941, the German Battleship Bismarck sunk the then Pride of the Royal Navy’s Fleet, the HMS Hood.  Only three crew members survived that engagement.  Churchill made it job one to sink the Bismarck after losing the Hood.                The HMS Hood And lastly but not least one of New York’s Icons, The Brooklyn Bridge opened for traffic this day in history in 1883 after fourteen years...

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BATTLESHIP Review

In this author’s opinion the movie battleship kicked ass!  I know the reviews have been less than favorable and it can’t hold its own against the awesome cast of Super Heroes in Avengers, but I still loved it!  These days’ going to the movies is a luxury that you have to weigh into your budget.  It’s not like when we were kids and it was nothing to buy a bag of popcorn, a soda pop and go watch a movie for a couple of bucks.  Nowadays when it costs you $75 - $100 dollars to fill your cars tank up and a movie costs $8.00, and the popcorn and soda cost you more than the movie, you choose carefully if you can afford to go at all. Battleship didn’t have a deep plot, the main character was just this side of an idiot but he was...

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Posted in: Battleship Missouri Independence Japanese Aliens weapons

Dandelion Rubber

I did a blog post at the end of last March 2011, where I described some of the obstacles facing the tire industry and mentioned the rising costs of rubber.  In the post last year I mentioned Germany and Continental Tire were experimenting with rubber from dandelions to possibly replace the rubber from rubber tree plantations.  The benefit from Dandelions is they can be grown all over the place opening up the possibility of rubber farms popping up everywhere.  Dandelions don’t take five years from planting to produce rubber like the rubber trees do. Tires are made from natural rubber and synthetic rubber.  The natural rubber comes from very limited areas of the planet where the climate is sufficient to allow rubber...

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Posted in: Dandelions Tires Natural Rubber Lawns Russian German Ohio

Are We There Yet?

Anybody since World War II who has taken a vacation in car has dealt with this question at one point or another.  Of course today with video players mounted on the backs of seats where the kids can watch movies while belted into their safety seats it is somewhat better.  The advent of air conditioning has helped cut the parent rage factor down and almost eliminated the seats sticking to your legs. Yet my history tidbit today takes us back to 1843, and starts in this author’s hometown of Independence, Missouri.  Independence is probably most famous for being the home town of U.S. President Harry S. Truman, but it also noteworthy from before that as being the starting point of three great trails that headed West.  The California...

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Posted in: Oregon Trail Sante Fe California Independence Missouri

Old Friends

Back in the mid to late eighties I was in the Army and made a lot of friends and even more memories.  Through all of that I have stayed in touch with one friend from that period of my life, T.J. Hooker.  Not the TV character played by William Shatner, but an old tanker Army buddy who shared many of my adventures in the Army with me. Until Saturday night and this Sunday morning the last time I saw him was six years ago.  That was way too long.  It amazed me at how time flies when you’re not paying attention to it. It was so good to see my old friend, even with such a small visit it meant so much to me.  The flood of old memories it brought to the surface.  I know we both look much different and have changed...

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Posted in: Army Tanks Airshow Whiteman Castle Hooker Memorial Navy Air Force

The Shady Side Of Characters

Throughout history some of the most notorious and famous people have been bad guys.  If you read enough of history, past the general grade school crap you will discover that some of the most outstanding people of history weren’t so untarnished or shiny in regards to their character. Famous people who did shady things that were covered up, forgotten, downplayed in the light of their more noteworthy history making achievements. Examples include famous statesmen who were shall we say had promiscuities that history doesn’t focus on too much.  Famous sailing Captains of renown who were also notorious pirates in their time, helping their countries under a dark flag and profiting in doing so.  Generals who committed heinous acts, cavorted with dark figures to further their means, protect...

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Posted in: Notorious Captains Generals Statesman Presidents History

Guns in America

Even though the number of registered hunters is declining the number of registered gun owners is about to break an all-time high for the past twenty years. Last year there were over 600,000 thousand registered hunters in Wisconsin alone.  According to stats from one blog I’ve read that makes Wisconsin hunters the world’s eighth largest army! That’s more people with guns than men in arms in Iran.  More than France and Germany combined, and these are just seasonal hunters of Wisconsin.  That doesn’t count the 750,000 from Pennsylvania or the 700,000 from Michigan.  During hunting season in these three states alone that’s 2,050,000 that went out with loaded weapons hunting and returned home safely.   After reading...

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Posted in: Guns registered Hunters Weapons Army

Fantasy Book

I generally don’t read fantasy stories, not to say that I never have, they just generally aren’t my first choice.  Recently I started a Fantasy book that I am really enjoying, so as readers like to talk about what they are reading, I thought what a perfect time to share. Cleanse Fire: The Kinir Elite Chronicles, Book 1 Excerpt from Chapter 8 A groan escaped him as he unbuttoned his shredded tunic. His hand brushed over the crest of Kinir embroidered on the front. Two lions reared up on their hind legs, one of each side of a crown atop a letter ‘K’. Silver and green threads woven together to create a metallic green look. His fingertips felt each thread, each rise in the design. How could Palto betray us? A ragged sigh left his lips...

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Posted in: Fire Elf Dwarf Military Fantasy Kinir