Off to P-Con down in Fort Worth… link HERE.
If you’re in the area, drop by and say hello! We’ll be at the Holiday Inn DFW Airport South.
14320 Centre Station Drive
Ft Worth, TX 76155
Blogging should resume on Monday. Go read the folks on the sidebar, they rite gud!
Peter Grant’s GSG funded!!!
THAT is excellent news, but he’s going to leave it open through the end of the month. Why you might ask???
Well, realistically, the surgeries he’s looking at are going to be more than $100,000 even with him paying cash. And frankly, after taxes the money they’ve raised isn’t going to be enough.
He and Dorothy had thought about a higher goal, but didn’t want to seem ‘greedy’. So let’s see if we can help them out a bit more!!! The more we give the less they will have to come out of pocket for.
The link to Peter’s GiveSendGo is HERE.
As a side note- We talked a little about this on the livestream yesterday, and if they ever manage to get it to court, it could literally be five to ten years before/if they see anything.
Thank you in advance!
Is epic as lefties lose their jobs after celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death.
What the lefties don’t seem to understand is that freedom of speech is NOT being quashed. What is happening is people are being held ACCOUNTABLE for what they are saying… There is a huge difference between the two.
And they are throwing hissy fits about being ‘cancelled’, but had no problems with it or people losing jobs when they did it to others.
No, we’re not going to play the ‘whataboutism’ game, or the moral equivalency game either…
Those ships have ‘sailed’…
Accountability- It goes both ways now…
Trust me, this is a LOT better that the other options available to us. Start teaching civics again, and teach people how to actually TALK to each other, not AT each other.
To start the week…
What Love means to a 4 to 8 year old. The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think.
‘When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.’
Rebecca- age 8
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‘When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.’
Billy – age 4
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‘Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.’
Karl – age 5
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‘Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.’
Chrissy – age 6
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‘Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.’
Terri – age 4
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‘Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.’
Danny – age 7
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‘Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss’
Emily – age 8
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‘Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.’
Bobby – age 7 (Wow!)
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‘If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,’
Nikka – age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka’s on this planet)
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‘Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.’
Noelle – age 7
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‘Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.’
Tommy – age 6
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During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.
He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore.
C indy – age 8
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‘My mommy loves me more than anybody
You don’t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.’
Clare – age 6
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‘Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.’
Elaine-age 5
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‘Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.’
Chris – age 7
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Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.’
Mary Ann – age 4
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‘I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.’
Lauren – age 4
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‘When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.’ (what an image) Karen – age 7
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‘Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn’t think it’s gross.’
Mark – age 6
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‘You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.’ Jessica – age 8
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And the final one
The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.
When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,
‘Nothing, I just helped him cry’
First up, Sarah Hoyt with her first novel in a new series Chronicles of Lost Elly up, No Man’s Land Volume 1
As always, click on the cover for the Amazon link!
The blurb-
Sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic.
On a lost colony world, mad geneticists thought they could eliminate inequality by making everyone hermaphrodite. They were wrong. Catastrophically wrong.
Now technology indistinguishable from magic courses through the veins of the inhabitants, making their barbaric civilization survivable—and Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Kayel Hayden, Viscount Webson, Envoy of the Star Empire—Skip to his friends— has just crash-landed through a time-space rift into the middle of it all.
Dodging assassins and plummeting from high windows was just the beginning. With a desperate king and an archmagician as his only allies, Scipio must outrun death itself while battling beasts, traitors, and infiltrators bent on finishing what the founders started: total destruction.
Two worlds. One chance. No time to lose.
Volume 1
The Ambassador Corps has rules: you cannot know everything, don’t get horizontal with the natives, don’t make promises you can’t keep.
They’re a lot harder to follow when assassins are hunting you, your barbarian allies could kill you for the wrong word, and death lurks around every corner.
The unwritten rule? Never identify with the natives.
Skip’s already broken that one.
Now he’s racing against time to save his new friends from slavery—or worse—while dodging energy blasts and political intrigue. One crash-landed diplomat. A world of deadly secrets. And absolutely no backup.
Next is another Raconteur Press anthology, The Best of 2024
The blurb-
Short stories contain an idea. Ask a question, then begin to answer it. In a short story, you can contain a perfect narrative, it may be short in the time it will take you to read, but not in the time it will linger with you provoking you to thought. These are those stories.
Have you ever wanted to try out the very best stories published by Raconteur Press? Well, after their author peers nominated, Ben Yalow himself chose the top ten stories for this very special collection. Truly the cream of the crop, and a perfect selection to sample the wares of the Press, or to introduce a friend into reading Indie SFF.
I am proud to say my story, Geisha, was selected as one of the 11 stories in this one!!!
Next up is another Raconteur Press anthology, Blades and Black Magic
The blurb-
Sword & Sorcery means several things to many people. To me it means Attitude and Freedom.
The Attitude to live life to the fullest—no matter what may come.
The Freedom to take that option—no matter what it may cost.
Sword & Sorcery tales are undeniably songs of deeds. So tell me tales of heroes who stand in the gap at the moment of need, who take the battle to the diabolical foes, who turn their back upon the easy life and seek a greater challenge. Any greater challenge. Every greater challenge.
This is what I asked of all those answering Raconteur Press’ first open call for Sword & Sorcery tales. As you’ll discover over the ensuing pages—they answered with roars of joy and eager smiles. With drawn blades and sly grins, with keen eyes and quick hearts, they stormed the abandoned ruined castles and dungeons filled with the stench of evil, the lairs of chaos, the horrors of the grave, and shared their tales. I smile even as I type this, recalling the stories of sheer passionate thirst for living lives that dare Death to come for them and just try to take them that lie ahead of you,
And last, but certainly not least, our friend Fred Hughes has his first novel in a new series Humanities Janissaries up, Reluctant Emissary
The blurb-
We are not alone!
On a small rock in the Kuiper Belt, 1st Lieutenant Tammy Escobar, Sol Space Marines, walks into a war being fought by two alien races.
Waking up from what she was certain was a mortal wound, Tammy finds herself aboard an alien ship. The Fylak, the little gray men of UFO legends, had rescued her… but there was a problem. The Fylak couldn’t fix her critically wounded body, so they’d transferred her mind into a synthetic body.
Alone and on her way to an alien base in the Alpha Centauri System, Tammy discovers the only way to save mankind is to help the Fylaks fight the spider-like Drizzt. Leaning on her prior training, Tammy teaches her new body to fight like a Marine, while simultaneously hoping she can convince her new friends that Earth is worth saving.
With her allies vastly overwhelmed, though, will her skills make enough of a difference?
Reluctant Emissary is a Mil Scifi LitRPG story that will take Earth to the stars… whether we’re ready or not!
I’ve read them all and enjoyed them! Highly recommended!!!
Especially now?
We’re supposed to ‘stand’ in unified opposition to the senseless killing, according to those on the left.
But we aren’t unified. We’ve been called sexist, fascist, racist, bigoted, anti-vax, ad infinitum. Oh, and the general insult, a threat to democracy, because we won’t kowtow to the left’s mantra. The last time ‘we’ stood united was after 9/11. Since then, America has been in a decline driven by political differences…
I saw this on X this yesterday morning and it prompted me to write what follows…
The Overton Window pretty much just slammed shut on the left after Charlie Kirk’s murder, IMHO. We now know that being able to express ourselves and actually talk issues out is no longer possible. I made one short post after Kirk was shot, and immediately got a ‘what about’ response, trying to divert the discussion into something else.
I was frankly amazed by the number of people who gleefully celebrated Kirk’s death, especially those in education and the public sector. These folks have obviously lived in their little bubbles for so long, believing that Kirk was an extremist who willingly incited violence (neither of which is true), and they thought that was acceptable and everyone would agree!
Personally, I believe Charlie Kirk was hated for three things. His open profession of his Christianity, his willingness to peacefully debate his opponents, and that he was ‘teaching’ young people they had a voice, and it was okay to think for themselves. And once that happened, those young people become much more realistic in their approach to life and politics.
Why should we stand with these people?
I don’t believe we should. They have openly called for murder and gotten it. And if social media is any indication, they are now calling for the murder of President Trump and any other ‘conservative’ voices that can be ‘gotten to’.
I believe it’s time to take a hard look at who our friends are, a realistic look at whom we interact with on social media and real life, and make a list of those who have advocated for murder. I’m not saying go get them (yet), but know who/where they are. And make sure you are not where they are.
I know a lot of folks carry, and now is the time to be ‘religious’ about that, besides not going stupid places or being around stupid people. Also, I would say don’t disregard the left as shooters. In conversations with an instructor, he told me there are instructors teaching the lefties how to shoot, so Custodio te literally becomes the watch word.
Don’t huddle up and change your lifestyle, thinking that will protect you. That is what the left wants. Continue to live your life as you have, but be realistic about what you believe, what you do, whom you converse with, and most of all, know that you are not alone.
And one other thing- Don’t ‘feed’ the trolls out there… just sayin…
So long, Sayonara. Typepad, the original blogging tool is going away…
We have made the difficult decision to discontinue Typepad, effective September 30, 2025.
What Does This Mean for You?
After September 30, 2025, access to Typepad – including account management, blogs, and all associated content – will no longer be available. Your account and all related services will be permanently deactivated.
Please note that after this date, you will no longer be able to access or export any blog content.
What Do You Need to Do?
If you need to retain your content, please export your content before September 30, 2025. After this date, your content will no longer be accessible to you and will not be available for export.
Full article, HERE from Typepad site. h/t Ag Tiger.
If you’re an old school blogger, you might have started/used/or still use Typepad. It was the first real blogging program back in the day.
Now it’s going away. If you still have anything over there, you have until the end of the month to go recover your data. The way to do that can be found at their website.
Sigh… seems like all the ‘stuff’ we started with, Typepad, Netscape, and a bunch of other ‘programs’ are now dead. Not that I will EVER miss Word Perfect… Grrr…
Anyhoo, it’s time (or past time) to move on. Highly recommend Open Office.
24 years on, we still remember 9/11/2001…
Each of us remembers it in our own way, where we were, what we were doing, etc.
For some, it’s visual… Anheiser’s 20th year ad, played once, just like the original.
And for some, it’s music…
The Royal Marines and Sound of Silence, for those who will never speak again.
I remember CAPT Larry Getzfred, CDR Jack Punches (USN Ret), ans AW1 Joe Pycior who all died in the Navy Ops Center in the Pentagon.
The truth IS stranger than the fiction that Thunberg is spouting…
On Monday night, social media was ablaze with reports that Swedish environmental/anti-Israel activist Greta Thunberg’s boat was struck by a bomb launched from a drone. Thunberg, who my colleague Ward Clark likes to call the “Doom Pixie,” is taking part in a civilian boat flotilla headed to Gaza to “break Israel’s naval blockade” of the Hamas-controlled territory.
News soon broke that although a fire broke out on the vessel, Thunberg and other activists were uninjured and were intent on completing their mission.
Full article, HERE from RedState
Now we ‘know’ to take anything she says with a grain (or a thousand) of salt…
And this is one more case of that. Of these 50 ‘ships’ in the convoy, most if not all probably will not make it across the Med to start with.
And it gets even better, as the rest of the story comes out… It appears the activists accidentally lit their own craft on fire with a flare!
Personally, I think this is yet another grab at the fleeting 15 seconds of fame for Thunberg. The last try failed, and I believe all of them know this effort is going the same way, but publicity is publicity…
Our friend Peter Grant is needing $$$. You can read the details at his blog, HERE.
He is facing two major surgeries, removal of a kidney and ‘fixing’ a long term issue with his back fusion. He’s been fighting with Workman’s Comp and the insurance companies for over three years over this, but it will probably end up having to go to a court case for final resolution.
To put it simply, Peter can’t wait that long, and I’m not sure that Workman’s Comp and the insurance companies aren’t hoping he dies first. No, I’m not joking…
Peter is a long time friend (over 20 years), and has been a neighbor for 9 years. He has also been a contributor of defensive weapons to a number of raffles we did for various folks, along with other GiveSendGos we’ve done.
We have watched him get worse and worse, and this is also impacting his ability to write, which is also cutting into their income. They’ve taken a second mortgage, and done other things to get as much together as they can, but it’s not enough.
His wife, Dorothy, has put up a GiveSendGo, https://www.givesendgo.com/GJPZ6 asking for help.
If you can spare anything, it would be appreciated. Every little bit helps.
Thank you in advance.