Independence Day #241…

Posted on by July 3, 2017

We’ve done this a time or two…

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG, OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA , AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION UNDER GOD , INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!

 And this is a rather interesting picture, taken in 1918 at Camp Dodge in Iowa.
 FACTS:Base to Shoulder: 150 feet
Right Arm: 340 feet
Widest part of arm holding torch: 12 1/2 feet
Right thumb: 35 feet
Thickest part of body: 29 feet
Left hand length: 30 feet
Face: 60 feet
Nose: 21 feet
Longest spike of head piece: 70 feet
Torch and flame combined: 980 feet
Number of men in flame of torch: 12,000Number of men in torch: 2,800
Number of men in right arm: 1,200
Number of men in body, head and balance of figure only: 2,000Total men: 18,000

I wish each of you a Happy Fourth of July, where ever you may be! Enjoy the time with friends and family, and please remember our Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Soldiers spread across the globe defending our freedoms, as they have been for 241 years (well, except for the Air Force).
And there is something interesting if you’re in the Squaw Valley or Mammoth Mountain, California, area…. Due to the large snowfall, you can go SNOW skiing, on the 4th!!! Link, HERE.
“Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But the U.S. ARMED FORCES don’t have that problem.” ….. Ronald Reagan

Anthology Rulz…

Posted on by July 2, 2017

Everybody is wanting to know what the ‘rules’ are for the anthology..

Takes place in 2022, would ‘like’ to keep the stories around that time frame, unless you need to ‘develop’ a scenario that make take longer to develop. Consider the max to be 2032, if you want…

Money is Callors, $0.75/Callor.

Cali is considered “unfriendly” to USA, CBP patrolling border and checkpoints on all major cross border roads. Recognize all US passports, which Cali administration is trying to confiscate/stop use of by their ‘citizens’.  Mandatory ‘chipping’ of all Cali residents starts in 2024, at mandatory physicals.

Other than that, have fun…

Well, THAT was interesting…

Posted on by July 1, 2017

Due to ‘unforseen’ circumstances, myself, Tom Rogneby, and John Van Stry ended up having to do a panel to fill in for Peter and Dorothy, when they got called away to an author’s dinner…

We did what I’ll charitably call Indie publishing 101. An hour and forty-five minutes of free form this is how we do it, this is how we’ve screwed it up, no working mics, and people actually stayed and listened.

I’m considering that a win, and walking away… LOL

Regular blogging should resume Tuesday, after I recover.  Maybe I’ll get something up Monday, but don’t count on it…

LibertyCon update…

Posted on by June 30, 2017

Fun is being had by all….

You know things are going well, when one who hasn’t met all of  us says, though tears of laughter, “Oh my God, I’ve found my tribe…

And of course there is good food…

City Cafe, for those who’ve never been, is absolutely amazing for the amount of food they serve.

The picture above is the CHILD’S plate…  And the desserts are three layer cakes that are literally six-seven inches high. Not that anyone has enough room for dessert unless they don’t eat anything else…

Lots of authors, interesting conversations, interesting panels, and some not so much, but hey, you can’t have everything… And tonight I get to fill in on a panel, this should be interesting…

Sorry I haven’t been commenting on anyone’s blogs, but I’m hard pressed to do anything but go panel to panel, and try to make the ones that will help me improve my writing.

This could be interesting…

Posted on by June 27, 2017

I posted earlier about the possibility of doing an anthology around the Calexit idea, and as of today, I’ve got four people who’ve signed up to do stories!

It should be interesting to see what folks come up with, and I ‘think’ we’ll be shooting for an October release. Anybody else want to play???

On the road again…

Posted on by June 27, 2017

This time by choice… 🙂

Headed out to LibertyCon in Chattanooga, for a couple of days of learning and enjoying the company of some outstanding authors!

Commenting and blogging will be light, so go enjoy the folks on the sidebar!

This time I’m flying, though… LOL

Calexit Novella is up!!!

Posted on by June 27, 2017

First, I owe a BIG debt of thanks to both Steph and Tina for the quick turns on the editing and the cover. Both ladies did a superb job, as usual. Although both of them said, “You want it WHEN???”

Thanks ladies, I owe ya yet another one…

Anyhoo…

Click the cover to go to the novella.

The blurb-

A year after Calexit, the last US bases in Southern California are under siege, with their power and water cut off. Their perimeters are under constant probes by a now hostile nation. There is intelligence the government of California is planning a final all-out action to overwhelm the last bases and claim the spoils of victory for their own…

But the men and women in uniform aren’t going to let their bases be overrun, especially after the murder of their dependents. This is their story, a novella of the last military withdrawal from California. And if there’s one thing the Sailors and Marines are not going to do, it’s go quietly!

This is another one I’m going to blame on Peter and Lawdog… So it’s on them, not me…LOL

Seriously, if you read it, an honest review is appreciated. I know there will be questions as to why I didn’t include stuff from the other services, it’s simple… I don’t have the background with them to write in enough detail to make ‘me’ happy with the product. And a couple of folks have expressed an interest in writing additions from ‘their’ areas of expertise, so we’ll see if this novella can grow into a real anthology.

Boo, hiss…

Posted on by June 26, 2017

Dammit, SCOTUS refused to hear Peruta v. San Diego…

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take a case about the boundaries of the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms, by saying it will not review a California self-defense law.

The petitioners in Peruta v. California who asked the Supreme Court to review the case called the controversy “perhaps the single most important unresolved Second Amendment question” left to come before the Supreme Court. The high court’s action on Monday will leave that question unresolved.

Full article, HERE from The Washington Examiner.

But Justices Thomas and Gorsuch dissented… STRONGLY…

“For those of us who work in marbled halls, guarded constantly by a vigilant and dedicated police force, the guarantees of the Second Amendment might seem antiquated and superfluous. But the Framers made a clear choice: They reserved to all Americans the right to bear arms for self-defense. I do not think we should stand by idly while a State denies its citizens that right, particularly when their very lives may depend on it. I respectfully dissent.”

Full article, HERE. From Fox News.

So, once again the folks in Southern California are hung out to dry… In an area that is becoming overrun with illegals, this doesn’t bode well…

h/t NRA Media

Thank you!!!

Posted on by June 25, 2017

Thank you to those who’ve bought my scribbling, and have posted reviews on Amazon. Over 30 reviews now on Rimworld- Into the Green and still staying positive.

I know that I can’t please everybody, none of us can, but I really do appreciate those who’ve taken a chance on me and bought my books! It’s reviews and emails that keep me going, like this one…

Just finished Rimworld – Into The Green, I bought Stranded but haven’t read it yet, that will be tonight. All on Kindle, so I know you don’t get as much, but I’ll look for the real books.

Write more. And faster.   😉

Good stuff, Jim. Just what I like in military Sci-Fi.

I’ll have to check out the Grey Man stuff as well, not my genre but if Rimworld is any indication I’ll probably like that as well.

It is hard to change genres, because you’re not sure whether or not your fans will be willing to follow you, or drop you. It’s a real nail biter, especially the first week, when I put Rimworld up for sale. It’s not selling as well as The Grey Man series, but I attribute that to a couple of things.

One is the genre change, not everyone that likes current fiction likes science fiction, and vice versa. The second is people wondering if there will be a second book (and the answer is yes!), I consider myself lucky that I seemed to have struck a chord with the characters in The Grey Man series, and people enjoy them. BUT, I’ve also pissed off a few folks by killing off characters they liked… Sorry…

Due to the positive response from the Calexit novella I put up Friday, I’m going to go ahead and publish it too, hopefully later this week. It’s going to come in right around 21K words, on the low end for a novella (17,500-40,000 words), but I think/hope folks will enjoy it.

Some folks emailed me about turning it into a full length novel, offering to ‘help’ with their service, or area of California, or their ‘take’.

So here’s what I’d like to do…

Write your own short story about Calexit, email me that you have a short story, and I’ll work out the contract details with you. If we get enough participation to get this around 100K words, give or take, I’ll run it through editing, you’ll get credit for your writing, and we’ll see how it sells. I will tell you now, none of us will get rich off it…

A cup of coffee, and a burger and fries, maybe… 🙂

Questions That May Never Be Answered…

Posted on by June 24, 2017

I was going to put up a rant, but decided, what the hell, humor is MUCH better for the BP! Enjoy…

 

If a parsley farmer is sued, can they garnish his wages?

Would a fly without wings be called a walk?

Can you be a closet claustrophobic?

If the funeral procession is at night, do folks drive with their lights off?

If a stealth bomber crashes in a forest, will it make a sound?

When it rains, why don’t sheep shrink?

If the cops arrest a mime, do they tell her she has the right to remain silent?

Why is the word abbreviation so long?

If a book about failures doesn’t sell, is it a success?

Do cemetery workers prefer the graveyard shift?

What do you do when you discover an endangered animal that eats only endangered plants?

Do hungry crows have ravenous appetites?

Is it possible to be totally partial?

What’s another word for thesaurus?

When companies ship Styrofoam, what do they pack it in?

If it’s tourist season, why can’t we shoot them?

Why do they sterilize the needles for lethal injections?

Why is there an expiration date on my sour cream?

Why do kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

How do you know when it’s time to tune your bagpipes?

Is it true that cannibals don’t eat clowns because they taste funny?

When you choke a smurf, what color does it turn?

Do they have reserved parking for non-handicap people at the Special Olympics?

Why do they call it a TV set when you only get one?

Do radioactive cats have 18 half-lives?

If you shoot a mime, should you use a silencer?

What was the best thing before sliced bread?

How can they tell that twin lobsters are really twins?

How does a thermos know when to keep something hot, hot…and something cold, cold?

What is the speed of dark?

Why are there Braille signs on drive-up ATM’s?

If women wear a pair of pants, a pair of glasses, and a pair of earrings ,why don’t they wear a pair of bras?

How come you never hear about gruntled employees?

What is a “free” gift? Aren’t all gifts free?

After eating, do amphibians have to wait one hour before getting out of the water?

If white wine goes with fish, do white grapes go with sushi?

What’s another word for synonym?

If someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill himself, is it considered a hostage situation?

When sign makers go on strike, what is written on their picket signs?

Where do forest rangers go to “get away from it all”?

Why isn’t there mouse-flavored cat food?

Why are builders afraid to have a 13th floor but book publishers aren’t afraid to have a Chapter 11?

How can there be self-help groups?

Why do you need a driver’s license to buy liquor when you can’t drink and drive?

Why are cigarettes sold in gas stations when smoking is prohibited there?

If a cow laughed, would milk come out her nose?

Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?

Why is it that when you transport something by car, its called a shipment, but when you transport something by ship, its called cargo?

Why do we play in recitals and recite in plays?

Why isn’t phonetic spelled the way it sounds?

Where are Preparations A through G?

Are there seeing eye humans for blind dogs?

If knees were backwards, what would chairs look like?

When you open a new bag of cotton balls, are you supposed to throw the top one away?

When your pet bird sees you reading the newspaper, does she wonder why you’re just sitting there, staring at carpeting?

What happened to the first 6 “ups”?

If an orange is orange, why isn’t a lime called a green or a lemon called a yellow?

Why does your nose run, and your feet smell?

If olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from?