How are y’all doing???

As we enter day whatever of the social distancing, what is everyone doing to cope?

PP was to the point she threw the kids outside in the rain… LOL I got out and mowed my yard today, so I got 3500 steps in.

I know some folks are using social media to help brunt the ‘pain’ of having kids at home, plus doing things like virtual gaming and video chats between folks. I think a lot of folks need to be thanking those who ARE working, especially those in small/local stores, restaurants, etc. They ARE the lifeblood of your communities and you need to support them. Do carryout, that way you don’t have to cook for a change. Let them know you appreciate what they’re doing. Most of us can’t thank the truck drivers, LEOs, Fire/Rescue, or the doctors or nurses, but posting on FB or other media does let them know somebody appreciates them.

For me, as a writer, I’m pretty much not out and about anyway… So no real change, per se. LOL But I did order takeout to support our little local diner, and will be continuing to do that through the coming week(s), because I LIKE their food. Our little grocery store had to put limits on stuff to keep from getting bought out by the locusts once they’d raided all the other big stores, and thankfully, they are pretty much back to normal, minus the usual suspects (TP, paper towels, sanitizer).

I’m having to ration the TV, otherwise I’d have blown a hole through it last week from all the BS that is out there. But on the good side, over 98K words on the WIP, and I ‘think’ I’ll have it done this week and out to the alpha readers.

Also, I’d like to thank those that spread the word about the book sales, and kudos to the other authors that did the same thing! We do appreciate the readership, and I, for one, hope you enjoy the books enough to leave reviews.

We’ve actually postponed our weekly dinners until further notice, waiting out the diminution of this whole Wuhan Flu thingie… We’ve also been wondering if we didn’t have a mild strain of this come through the area back in early January, as most of us were sick/coughing/chest colds for 3-4 weeks. Of course, hindsight is 20-20 and we’ll never know… Sigh

Take care of yourselves, reach out to friends, use that thingie on your hips and actually CALL people and talk. I know that is a novel concept, but trust me, it works…

Also, any good coping ideas appreciated!!!

I agree…

From FB via Brandon Coan and a lady named Deb…

The reports are that the truckers are getting supplies to the stores. People are stocking the shelves all night and letting old people shop first. Carnival Cruise line told Trump “We can match those big Navy Hospital ships with some fully staffed cruise ships” GM said hold our cars and watch this; we can make those ventilators where we were making cars starting next week. Women and children are making homemade masks and handing out snacks to truckers. Restaurants and schools said, We’ve got kitchens and staff; we can feed kids.” Churches are holding on-line services and taking care of their members and community. NBA basketball players said, “Hold our basketballs while we write checks to pay the arena staff.” Construction companies said, “Here are some masks for the medical staff and doctors”. Breweries are making sanitizer out of the left-over ingredients. We thought we couldn’t live without Baseball, NASCAR, NBA or going to the beach, restaurants or a bar. Instead, we’re trying to keep those businesses open by ordering take-out.

You’ve got two Democrat Governors getting told “We will make it happen” by a Republican President who has fought with them for three and half years. While the media keeps repeating itself, “We are a nation divided.”

What communist China didn’t count on was America saying “Hey, hold my beer and watch this.”

I think a Japanese Admiral in the middle of the Pacific said it best in 1941, “I think we have awakened a sleeping giant.”

Give us a few more weeks (maybe months) and we will be doing much better! And stop listening to the hysterical media!

Common sense folks… Common sense. And call your @#$% congresscritters and tell them to STOP playing political games!!!

Well, well, well…

When the excrement hit the rotary device, a ‘number’ of things changed…

There was the toilet paper, etc. hoarding (still don’t know why)

BUT, the oddity was the sudden upsurge in gun sales. It’s like people suddenly realized that ‘they’ might have to protect themselves, because LEOs and security services would have ‘other’ things going on.

Last Saturday NICS was running 3-3 1/2 hours behind and finally crashed completely early Saturday evening. I don’t know if they got it back up this morning or not, but talking to folks that are in the ‘bidness’, there is also a run on ammo that seems to almost match the 2008 run.

Ammo. com has done a dive on it, and their take is interesting!

While people stockpile toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and pantry essentials, they’re also purchasing ammunition at an unprecedented rate. Here at Ammo.com, we’ve seen a significant growth in sales that directly correlates with the rise of COVID-19 and its spread across the country. As we mentioned in a press release on March 6, 2020, we first noticed a 54% sales increase on February 23, as the search term “coronavirus” started to gain traction, according to Google Trends.

And this was just the start… Full article, HERE.

Really glad I’ve been building my stocks back up in the last few years!

Day whatever…

Writers are, by nature, solitary individuals by a large, so the whole don’t go anywhere is really no big deal for us…

However the month of March has NOT been good to us this year!

Some things you don’t miss. Others however…

And for those ‘kids’ out there who don’t remember the rules, it’s two red one white…

Have a good week and take anything the MSM says with a pound or so of salt…

Just sayin…

Books, books, and more books…

For cheep or free!

The book sale continues, here’s a link to my books on sale- JL Curtis

 

Amanda followed my example and put all her novels on sale. Here’s a link to her Amazon author page.

If you are looking for science fiction, check out Vengeance from Ashes, the first book in the Honor & Duty series.

First, they took away her command. Then they took away her freedom. But they couldn’t take away her duty and honor. Now they want her back.

Captain Ashlyn Shaw has survived two years in a brutal military prison. Now those who betrayed her are offering the chance for freedom. All she has to do is trust them not to betray her and her people again. If she can do that, and if she can survive the war that looms on the horizon, she can reclaim her life and get the vengeance she’s dreamed of for so long.

But only if she can forget the betrayal and do her duty.

If you like urban fantasy, check out Nocturnal Origins, book one in the Nocturnal Lives series.

Some things can never be forgotten, no matter how hard you try.

Detective Sergeant Mackenzie Santos knows that bitter lesson all too well. The day she died changed her life and her perception of the world forever.It doesn’t matter that everyone, even her doctors, believe a miracle occurred when she awoke in the hospital morgue. Mac knows better. It hadn’t been a miracle, at least not a holy one. As far as she’s concerned, that’s the day the dogs of Hell came for her.

Investigating one of the most horrendous murders in recent Dallas history, Mac also has to break in a new partner and deal with nosy reporters who follow her every move and who publish confidential details of the investigation without a qualm.

Complicating matters even more, Mac learns the truth about her family and herself, a truth that forces her to deal with the monster within, as well as those on the outside.But none of this matters as much as discovering the identity of the murderer before he can kill again.

Or check out Witchfire Burning, from the Eerie Side of the Tracks series.

!Long before the Others made their existence known to the world, Mossy Creek was their haven. Being from the wrong side of the tracks meant you weren’t what the rest of the world considered “normal”.
Normal was all Quinn O’Donnell wanted from life. Growing up on the “wrong side of the tracks”, she had been the only normal in the family. The moment she was old enough, she left and began life as far from her Texas hometown as possible. Now she has a job she enjoys and a daughter she loves more than life itself. Their life is normal, REALLY normal, until her daughter starts calling forth fire and wind.

Quinn knows they must go back so her mother can help five-year-old Ali learn how to control her new talents. But in Mossy Creek nothing is ever simple. Quinn’s mother has gone missing. Secrets from Quinn’s past start coming back to haunt her.

And the family home is more than a little sentient.

Can Quinn keep everyone — particularly Ali — safe? And will she ever get back her illusion of normalcy?


Here are some others from my fellow authors:

A Summer in Scarborough: A Pride & Prejudice Sequel

by Anna Ferreira

Miss Anne de Bourgh was delighted to receive a letter from her cousin Georgiana, explaining that she would be spending the summer by the sea, and requesting the pleasure of her company. A glorious few months of balls, shopping, and walking by the sea awaits- a wonderfully diverting holiday for Anne, who has rarely left Rosings before.

But Anne is a de Bourgh, and life is never simple. Before long, she finds herself caught between the attentions of two very different men, and must choose if she will follow her heart or disoblige her family. One must be disappointed, and Anne has never been very practiced in the art of disobedience. Must she give up everything she has ever known, will she find the strength to search for happiness elsewhere?


Cedar Sanderson has a permafree short story collection on her website. Check out Twisted Mindflow.

Snow in Her Eyes (Witchward book 1) is on sale.

Detective Amaya Lombard is a witch hunter and a damn good one. Hated by the magical because she works with cops, feared by cops because she works with magic, she walks a fine line between malice and murder. When an entire family dies in magic and blood, only Amaya can find the truth that lies behind the seemingly senseless mayhem…because even the dead deserve answers.

This title is a novella.

Cedar has also lowered the prices of Lab Gremlins and Jade Star. Check out her Amazon Author Page here.


Dave Freer has put several of his books on sale.

Morningstar

Across the one human colony world, a place technologically regressed to near medieval, possibly the last place humans still survive, a desperate search continues. Scattered across the deserts, tangled jungles, and alien fortresses, lie the core sections of the matter transmitter.

These sections hold the key to vast wealth, power, or… the fulfilment of the colony’s purpose: to help humankind survive the rabidly xenophobic alien Morkth who will tolerate no other intelligent species. The Morkth managed to follow the colony ship, and, despite their mothership being shot down and their queen being killed, they continue their relentless struggle to destroy humankind… and to reconstruct that incredibly valuable matter transmitter. If they succeed, they’ll be able to return to the hive with the location of the colony of vile humans, and have a new world to occupy. If they fail, they’ll destroy the planet.

The search has gone on for centuries, and it is all reaching an end point. The future hangs in the balance.

The Morkth have lasers, aircraft, nukes. Those who want the core sections for their own ends… have vast armies. Against them are three unlikely reluctant heroes: A street child thief, a dispossessed spoiled brat of a princess, and a confused, amoral Morkth-raised human, armed only with 14th century weapons and their own wits.

It’s a lost cause, a forlorn hope.

But it’s all humans have.

Dave has also put StardogsTomA Mankind Witch, and Bolg, PI: The Vampire Bride on sale. Check out his Amazon Author Page here.


Pam Uphoff has dropped the price on titles in her Barton Street Gym series (YA).

The Barton Street Gym (Doors into the Dimensions, book 1)

In a future where no one needs to sleep, homes are unnecessary. A simple dimensional cubby in a hi-rise gymnasium is all anyone needs.

Perhaps the designers ought to have considered the possibility of unintended effects from thousands of multi-dimensional bubbles in close proximity to each other. But they weren’t physicists . . .

Joe is independent, his divorced father a bit absent minded. Joe and his “bio-model” friend were exploring the pedestrian tunnels under the Barton Street Gym when they found themselves trapping in a strange landscape with a hungry dinosaur.

Alice Brown is used to getting in trouble; her parents are quite strict. But being attacked by a Tyrannosaurus Rex in a strange dimension just a step across a malfunctioning D-door is not her usual sort of trouble.

Pam has also put Chicago and Atlantis + (books 2 and 3 in the series) on sale.  Check out her Amazon Author Page here.

And DaddyBear also has a list of discounted/free books HERE.

Go check them out please. We’re trying to give a little back in this ‘interesting time’…

Thank you!

He/She who…

Has the gold, rules…

As Hollywood stars, politicians and professional athletes revealed this week that they had been tested for coronavirus — despite not always having a fever or other tell-tale symptoms of COVID-19 — they faced backlash.

Full article, HERE.

C’mon can anyone honestly say they are surprised by this? I sure as hell am not. I’m just like the rest of us peons. Praying I don’t get it and have to rely on the VA/Medicare to get tested. I don’t have $1000 to drop on a test, much less know where to find a doc that would contravene the rules for that. But then again, I’m NOT important…

The other question is how much human capital is going to be wasted on these mandatory lockdown/shelter in place requirements? And how many that aren’t infected are actually going to OBEY those requirements? Social distancing, sure. Not go out to get food, not support those local restaurants who’s lifeblood depends on the community?

What will happen in this lasts longer than a couple of weeks? Anarchy? REAL panic? Beats the hell outta me. Glad I live in a small town. SMDH…

TBT…

I can’t help but wonder how the folks that own this little restaurant in Sicily are doing…

Bouganstia, up in Motta, Sicily. First walked in there 26 years ago. The old man who ran it spoke NO English! He called and his little 10 year old granddaughter came running down and was our waitress the first time. In 2010, the last time I was there, she was now married and the owner with her husband doing the cooking! 🙂

They could seat about 24-26 people total, and the food was outstanding! I think we were some of the first Americans to try the place, and the folks on base probably kept them going through some hard times in Italy.

Posted in TBT

Corona sale…

Due to the stay at home/work from home/sequestration that is becoming the norm rather than the exception, I’m trying to do my part to alleviate some of the ‘pain’… sigh

I’m putting all of my Kindle books, shorts, and novellas on sale for the next week. 30-67% off, depending on the title. The reason for the spread is Amazon’s promotion pricing…

Anyhoo, HERE is the link to my author page, which has all my books listed. You can also select the links on the left and that will take you to specific books.

I know it’s not much, but maybe I can help alleviate some boredom.

Mondaze…

Being a man ‘of an age’, the time has come once again for ye olde colonoscopy…

Of course all I had to ‘eat’ yesterday was broth… And what did PP send me a picture of?

Both the grandkids love fruit, and they go through a lot of it. But that was NOT what I needed to see as my stomach grumbled… And then she said she had to buy tri-tip since they were out of hamburger.

Grrrr…

O.M.G. Watched the first 10 minutes of the Dems debate last night… TDS is alive and well with those two. All they wanted to do was throw money at the problem and ‘save the people’ with free everything… Turned it off before I shot the TV…

By the time you read this I will be hungry, grumpy, and heading for the doc’s office.

Sigh…

It’s turning into one of THOSE weekends…

And this one is an old Texas saying… Actually probably anywhere there are cowboys… 🙂

Hopefully tomorrow will have some semblance of sanity…