I’m at Imaginarium in Louisville, KY for a con. I forgot to put up a blog post for it… my bad… Thanks to Tom and Robin for the great supper last night! Spent 2 hours on a livestream with Pete Nealan, Coop LoPresto, and Mike Kupri that was fun!
And I went to bed as soon as I finished at 2300.
It’s alive!!!
A month late, but it published yesterday evening! Rimworld- Diversions
The blurb-
Freighter captains are supposed to make the numbers, hit the routes on time, never deviate, don’t upset any passengers, and always do what the boss says.
Danny Ortega and his ship, the DSRV Ghost, fail every single one of those. No one in their right mind would hire him…
Which leaves the truly odd routes and cargos, and a rep as ‘hot shots’ that will carry special time sensitive loads anywhere, anytime.
As long as he can keep his ship, his marriage, and his crew together, Danny never worries about a fixed schedule. Pirates, plagues, enemies of his passengers trying to take them out, too little money, too much money, and getting trapped in alien mating rituals, sure, but any semblance of a schedule is merely an unanticipated cascade of opportunities.
Fortunately, his ship is full of surprises, and not all of his crew are who they appear to be…
Many thanks to the alpha and beta readers, my editor, Steph, and Joe for a great cover!
Next up is Michael Watson’s book, Hunting in the Shadows
The blurb-
This is a non-fiction book of history. The events described here took place in Borneo during the Indonesian Confrontation in the latter half of 1964 and in the Republic of Vietnam during that country’s fight for its very existence throughout 1965-1968. Malaysia, with the assistance of its allies, prevailed in the Confrontation. Unfortunately the Republic of Vietnam, after being abandoned by its allies, succumbed to a full sale Communist armored and infantry invasion in April 1975.
This is the story of an Australian Army officer who was seconded to support the efforts of the Republic of Vietnam in their clandestine war against the National Liberation Front. The story is told precisely as events unfolded without efforts to minimize or maximize. It’s a story of a brutal civil war, of a proxy war, of love, death, and revenge in a wartorn setting. Both the government of the Republic of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front (Viet Kong) engaged in systematic assassination as a matter of policy. Reading this book requires that you lens it in the context of people and events as they took place.
Note- This book is NOT for the faint of heart. It is a bit repetitive at times, and doesn’t sugarcoat any of the brutality of war… Just sayin…
I ‘really’ don’t understand this one, but…
It IS Michigan…
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) issued an executive order Wednesday that reorganizes the Michigan Department of Education and forms a new agency dedicated entirely to “lifelong learning.”
The newly established Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential will work with the Michigan Department of Education and state Board of Education and is charged with facilitating access to various programs, including child care, after-school programming, and “affordable education” for adults.
Full article, HERE from the Washington Examiner.
I guess she’s planning on expanding the bureaucracy to ‘lessen’ the impact of the failed MDoE policies, and kowtowing to the teachers union???
I don’t have a clue on this one…
I’m on the road today, so I won’t be on the net until much later today.
Somebody cut the red wire again… dammit…
Via the Writers Dojo, a good link for publishing scammers
How Scammers Are Using Amazon and Amazon Trademarks to Rip Writers Off
Go read the folks on the sidebar, I’ll be back when I get the intarwebz back. I’m not trying to do posts on this phone.
Humorous to put it mildly…
This could be interesting!
The Space Shuttle is going to look launch ready once again, although this time the retired spacecraft won’t be firing its engines.
The California Science Center is ready to kick off a six-month-long process to stack the components of the Space Shuttle into a vertical launchpad position such that it can go on display at the future Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, which is currently under construction, the science center announced on Thursday. The museum’s Go for Stack process is set to begin on July 20, which marks Space Exploration Day.
Full article, HERE from Gizmodo.
I will be curious as to how they accomplish this, since this was normally done in the VAB with all the attendant pieces, parts, and expertise right there.
AND they weren’t worried about earthquakes, which are definitely an issue in SoCal.
If they can pull it off, it will definitely be an impressive feat, and people will be able to see the full stack up close! Of course, my second question is, who’s going to be ‘cleaning’ that monstrosity once they get it put together?
That’s always the sad part of any outdoor displays, and that is the bird crap, sun fading, and graffiti that ends up getting on them.
This is getting ridiculous…
I’m sorry, but ‘patriarchal’ issues with the Bible? Really???
The archbishop of York has suggested that opening words of the Lord’s Prayer, recited by Christians all over the world for 2,000 years, may be “problematic” because of their patriarchal association.
In his opening address to a meeting of the Church of England’s ruling body, the General Synod, Stephen Cottrell dwelt on the words “Our Father”, the start of the prayer based on Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4 in the New Testament.
Once again the ‘blue’ cities death tolls rise and guess who the perps are…
If you think the skies were exploding over the long Independence Day weekend, wait until you hear what was going on in the mean streets of mostly blue cities nationwide.
The nation celebrated our freedom from British tyranny with 25 mass shootings from June 30 until the morning of July 5. One-hundred-sixty-one people were ventilated, and 25 gave up the ghost.
Chicago (of course) kicked off the summer’s July 4 “Festival of Lead” celebration with a good, old-fashioned drive-by mass shooting that left one dead and three injured. The Windy City had a similar shooting days later, leaving one dead and four wounded after roughly 100 rounds were fired at an Independence Day party. Chicago’s top police officer claimed that the cops should have “done more” and broken up the party before the shooting, relieving the “gun nuts” of responsibility for spreading mad brass around Chicago’s Southside.
Full article, HERE.
Ya know, you’d ‘think’ the left would take better care of their base, but that would mean they would actually have to make them obey the laws…
But since the left is all about laws are for thee and not for me, what can we expect?
Prayers for the families of the dead is all we can offer, and hope that sooner or later ‘somebody’ will step up and help stop the continued violence.
First up is Holly Chism with the third installment of her The Schrödinger Paradox series, Entanglement
As always, click on the cover for the Amazon link!
The blurb-
In the face of extinction, you do what you must, regardless of who stands in the way.
Tom Beadle only volunteered for NASA’s neighborhood watch program when his department said it would maybe help him get tenure.None of them counted on the Neighborhood Watch becoming a mortifying political liability when a malfunctioning probe accidently reveals an asteroid hiding behind the larger outer planets, setting off impact alarms– and politicians looking for blame. When their answer is to defund the Watch program and fire all involved, Tom’s only chance to save the earth is to lie through his teeth and try to deflect the asteroid under cover of harvesting rare not-of-this-earth elements. And even that may not work.
Next up is Fred Hughes with the 6th book in his The Prince of Britannia series, Prince Liberator
The blurb-
The former Earth colony of Serenity is safe from the Mordorian Horde… for the moment. Hazard King’s expeditionary force, battered and bruised, stands guard, protecting the system. But to complete his original mission—to get to Earth and obtain the Black Dragon information he needs to save the kingdom—Hazard will need reinforcements. His mother, Empress Elizabeth, is willing to organize that help, but it will take time.
For the moment, Hazard is on his own.
When Imperial scouts discover a major enemy base in the MT Pegasi System, Hazard’s plans change. The former colony, 90 light years from Earth, is home to a large Mordorian Fleet, a fleet that Hazard must defeat. They not only block the way forward but have enslaved two million humans.
With the majority of reinforcements yet to arrive, and against the advice of his commanders, Hazard attacks the system to open the way to Earth and free the subjugated colony. He is the man the colony needs.
He is… Prince Liberator.
Next is DJ Butler with a follow up to his Indrajit and Fix story- Between Princesses and other Jobs
The blurb-
THEY WANT TO RESCUE DAMSELS IN DISTRESS. THEY HAVE TO PAY THE BILLS.
The continuing adventures of Indrajit and Fix.
WELCOME TO KISH
Indrajit and Fix are the founding partners of the Protagonists, a jobber company in Kish. Since the seven great families of Kish farm out all tasks they and the city need doing, a jobber might one day unblock a well; the next, man a tollgate for the fair; and on the third, hunt down a murderer on the loose, all in a corrupt old city that isn’t so much governed as kept barely in bounds.
Indrajit is a poet of a dying race, looking for his successor. Fix is a failed monk, pining for his lost love. They’re swordsmen and thinkers, heroes in their hearts and in their deeds. They also recover stolen documents, unravel financial fraud, escort shipwrecked diplomats, and hunt in the ruins beneath the city for missing academics. Meanwhile, the criminals they investigate, rival jobbers, sorcerers, spies, assassins, and other mysterious parties get more and more reason to want the Protagonists dead.
Welcome to Kish.
Last but certainly not least is Kelly Grayson with a long awaited follow up to En Route, A Paramedic’s Stories of Life, Death and Everything In Between- it drops the 28th of July! On Scene
The blurb-
“Joy and tragedy are flip sides of the same coin. If you insulate yourself against the pain of feeling one, you deny yourself the ability to feel the other.” ~ Kelly Grayson
En Route showed you the beginning, now On Scene gives you an insider’s view into the growth of a man and a medic. No longer the idealistic and often arrogant medic he was, an older and wiser Kelly Grayson continues the stories of a career spent serving humanity at its worst – and best. On Scene brings us more of Grayson’s unique blend of humor and tragedy, pathos and profanity, an unflinching look at what it means to be a paramedic. From the elation of restoring a pulse where there was none moments before to the pain of telling a family that their loved one has died, Grayson shows us the power and the passion of being a responder and the struggle to retain his humanity when the tragedy he sees threatens to burn it away entirely.
I will be the first to admit I haven’t studied D-Day and Normandy all that much…
But this one caught me totally by surprise. I don’t remember EVER reading anything about a sixth beach to be assaulted!
h/t Stretch
Things like this just once again prove the ‘history’ we know isn’t necessarily what actually happened.
As more and more security clearances time out, things are coming out that shake up what we ‘think’ we know about WWII and causing history to be rewritten to take that into account.
Personally, I think the Brits are even worse with SOE, Bletchley Park, and other locations that were then and still are highly classified and those people take security more seriously than Americans do.
And as the years go by, Korea and then Vietnam information will be released, leading to even more rewrites.
The other thing I find interesting is the difference in perspectives between the troops on the pointy end and those sitting behind the lines (with the knowledge) and making decisions. Often the two perspectives are 180 out with the boots on the ground thinking the brass was either stupid or crazy or both… just sayin…