Book promo…

Posted on by August 20, 2025

First up is John Van Stry with the sixth book in his Wolfhounds series, End Game

As always, click on the cover for the Amazon link!

The blurb-

The fight has been a long one and a hard one with many unseen events along the way. The end however is here. The last battle of the war. The most important battle of the war. Soon they will leave for Cor Imperii, the capital of the empire. Soon they will launch a head-on attack against Speaker Phillip T Neill of the Democratic People’s Republic of Solaria. Soon Chase will do what he swore to do: Kill Neill, personally, tear down the DPRS, abolish the Secret Police, the Loyalty Officers, and re-establish the Empire of Solaria.

There’s just one last battle to fight to win the war.

Or is it? The last battle that is. Neill has his doomsday weapon, out there, somewhere, being developed in secret. It could kill billions, maybe more. Whole planets could be wiped out if it’s not found and stopped before it can be finished, before it can be used.

There’s also other players about. Other star kingdoms who have seen the inevitable decline that Neill and his government started when they lost access to the Tomb after killing off the prior emperor. In a hope to survive, or perhaps just seeing the state of the decaying Democratic People’s Republic, they’ve decided that some of those planets are ripe for the taking.

Which means that this battle may still have a few more rounds left in it before the Wolfhounds can, once and for all, return home.

Next is Pam Uphoff with the 18th novel in her Chronicles of the Fall series, Outer Tiers

The blurb-

Konstantin Aslanov is back!

And posted to an Outer Tier World with an orphaned guardian’s store–the official name of the oft rumored “Doomsday Cubes” so popular in cheesy spy movies.

He hadn’t counted on children in danger, buying a hundred race horses, or running head on into a corrupt colony government. But with newly acquired sidekicks, it’s full speed ahead to save an entire World as Plagues and Invasions hit the entirety of the Three Part Alliance!

Last but certainly not least, Josh Amos with his second book in the Orphan series, The Orphan’s Autumn

The blurb-

In “The Orphan, The Marine, and the Mastiff” Josh Amos introduced us to Brother, a broken Marine war fighter, and Mei Mei, his eight year old half sister as they struggle to overcome their respective traumas and form a family of choice.  

In “The Orphan’s Autumn” we find Brother and Mei Mei are continuing to bond together as an odd couple, and are off to a shaky but determined start as they struggle to get on with making the best lives that they can for themselves.  They are aided by the growing English Mastiff puppy Boudicca, because as Brother says “Little kids need dogs.” 

Unfortunately for the odd couple siblings, dark forces are working to take Mei Mei away from Brother and Boudicca.  Brother finds that all of this training and experience at war, are mostly inapplicable to his current challenge. To save his sister, Brother will have to find new ways to cope with his war injuries and his PTSD as he struggles to thwart the looming threat to his new family.

Highly recommend all three of these!!!

PSA…

Posted on by August 19, 2025

In case you didn’t or haven’t seen it, appears Walmart/Sams may have gotten some bad shrimp!

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday said it is actively investigating after a shipment of Walmart shrimp tested positive for a man-made radioactive material. 

Officials collected multiple samples for radionuclide analysis, confirming Cs-137 in one sample of breaded shrimp. The shrimp supplier, PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati (aka BMS Foods), was added to the “red list,” meaning its products cannot be sold in the U.S. until the issue is resolved.

FDA officials said consumers should not eat or serve Great Value raw frozen shrimp from Walmart with lot codes: 8005540-1, 8005538-1 and 8005539-1.

Full article, HERE from Fox News.

This one is odd, in that normally it’s e coli or something like that. CS-137 has a half life of 30 years, and this is the warning from the CDC website…

Exposure to Cs-137 can increase the risk for cancer. Internal exposure to Cs-137, through ingestion or inhalation, allows the radioactive material to be distributed in the soft tissues, especally muscle tissue, exposing these tissues to the beta particles and gamma radiation increasing cancer risk. 

Not particularly something one wants to eat…

Just sayin…

So, if you’ve bought Shrimp at Wally World lately, check those lot codes, and if what you bought in in one of those lots, dump it.

Posted in PSA

Snort…

Posted on by August 18, 2025

I ‘did not’ expect this… italics mine…

A funny thing happened on the way to once-Great Britain’s transformation into George Orwell’s dystopian Airstrip One: The renegade users of the anonymous 4chan forum got themselves legal representation and told British busybodies to sod off. 

A little background.

4chan’s exploits are legendary, if not always savory.

Ever wanted to know how lefties came to believe that the perfectly innocent “OK” hand gesture is some kind of secret code for white supremacy?

That was 4chan.

Full article, HERE from PJ Media.

We all know 4chan is not a nice bunch of folks. As they say, they’ve ‘weaponized’ autism and taken it to the next level.

And people ‘really’ don’t want to piss them off, because they don’t get even, they get WAY ahead…

So this was an interesting way to take on the Brits. Now I’m sure that there are ‘alternate’ plans in place if the Brits get stupid on this, but kudos to 4chan for at least trying to do it the right way.

Hopefully, the Brits are smart enough to back off and leave well enough alone. If not… well…

A little humor…

Posted on by August 17, 2025

To start the week…

It may take two or three seconds for the light to come on, but these are clever!

ARBITRATOR: A cook that leaves Arby’s to work at McDonalds

AVOIDABLE: What a bullfighter tries to do

BERNADETTE: The act of torching a mortgage

BURGLARIZE: What a crook sees with

CONTROL: A short, ugly inmate (get it??)

COUNTERFEITERS: Workers who put together kitchen cabinets

ECLIPSE: What an English barber does for a living

EYEDROPPER: A clumsy ophthalmologist

HEROES: What a guy in a boat does

LEFTBANK: What the robber did when his bag was full of money

MISTY: How golfers create divots

PARADOX: Two physicians

PARASITES: What you see from the top of the Eiffel Tower

PHARMACIST: A helper on the farm

POLARIZE: What penguins see with

PRIMATE: Removing your spouse from in front of the TV

RELIEF: What trees do in the spring

RUBBERNECK: What you do to relax your wife

SELFISH: What the owner of a seafood store does

SUDAFED: Brought litigation against a government official

Y’all have a good week!!!

Surprised???

Posted on by August 16, 2025

Not!

The plant-based meat company has reported falling sales and dwindling cash.

The end was always inevitable for Beyond Meat, because being an innovator does not mean having a moat to protect your business. The pioneering company arguably created the category of plant-based meat that acts like actual meat.

That’s clever, but it’s not a defensible business. Once Beyond Meat BYND created the category, it was inevitable that the product would become commoditized.

Full article, HERE from The Street.

While it is ‘supposedly’ more healthy, it’s interesting to note that not a single comment was made about the ‘taste’ of Beyond Meat.

No one that ‘I’ have ever talked to said they actually liked it! The other thing I’ve heard, is that it’s greasy, by comparison.

FWIW, I personally have never tried any of it. I know I’m a dinosaur, but I like my ‘meat’ to be actual MEAT! Or chicken, or pork. Not some conglomeration of…something…

And that something is not patentable, so anybody can (and has) jumped into that pool. As the pool gets more crowded, IMHO, there isn’t enough of a customer base to support the additional players. That means somebody is gonna lose. In this case, it looks like Beyond Meat is the sacrificial lamb in this case, since they threw a LOT of $$$ at cornering the market early, rather than the long term projections (which they didn’t meet for growth either)… Too many rose colored glasses?

I don’t know.

But with it seems like many things flipping back and forth being ‘good’ or ‘bad’ for us, who knows what the future holds???

What say you?

About time…

Posted on by August 15, 2025

Finnish authorities have brought charges against the captain and two senior officers of a Russia-linked ship accused of deliberately damaging critical subsea cables in the Baltic Sea.

In a statement on Monday, Finland’s National Prosecution Authority said they had brought aggravated criminal mischief and aggravated interference with communications charges against the three senior officers aboard the Eagle S, a tanker registered in the Cook Islands. The three defendants were not identified publicly.

Full article, HERE from The Record.

And HERE is the statement from the Finnish prosecutors…

The sad part is that the US has NEVER charged any of the ‘third party’ ships that have attempted to cut the Transpac cable off LA, nor the ones that have cut the Hawaii cable more than once. All of the ships ‘say’ they didn’t know they were dragging anchor, but strangely, a number of them had their AIS go ‘suspiciously dead’ at just the right time…

Grrrr…

FWIW, I hope the Finns get a judgement, and this is the start of taking this shadow fleets to task for their actions, regardless of where in the world they occur…

In other news, I finally got some writing done on my book, granted it was only about 1000 words, but it was WORDS… 🙂

 

TGIF!!!

Posted on by August 14, 2025

Whew… What a couple of weeks…

I made a promise to myself that I would ‘give back’ to the writer’s community by reading folks novels/stories as an alpha or beta reader. And I do that…

But, I didn’t expect to end up reading FOUR novels and a short story in the last couple of weeks!!!

I’m sorry I was a little longer than normal in my responses, but that was a lot of reading. I don’t do editing per se, but more of a continuity type read, e.g. MacGuffins,  hanging plots, etc… and catching the obvious misspellings… Or at least I try. And I DON’T do grammar.

Not my thing… or punctuation… I just put commas at the end of my book and tell my editor to put ’em where she wants them,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Anyhoo, hopefully I’ll be back to working on ‘my’ novel today, and keep plugging on that for the next month or so to get it finished! I know I’m behind, and I apologize, but the back issues, and ‘life’ caught up with me.

Book promo…

Posted on by August 13, 2025

First up is Rob Hampson with a short story collection, Tinker, Tailor, Bio, Spy

Click the cover for the Amazon link!

The blurb-

Seven Tales of Cells, Circuits, and Cyborgs

From battlefield surgeons to posthuman colonists, from neural firewalls to anti-augmentation fanatics—these stories explore the line between body and machine, memory and manipulation. A line where humanity must embrace the future… or lose it.

From national bestselling author Robert E. Hampson comes Journeys Beyond the Known—a series of science fiction and science fantasy collections that explore the human condition through the lens of biotechnology, space exploration, and strange futures.

The journey begins at the edge of knowledge… and ends where only story can take us.

Next up is Cedar Sanderson with a new tale, Following Trouble- A Tale of Underhill

The blurb-

Lom has a new mission, to track down illicit magical use. Something is going on in the gritty underworld of Cincinnati, where the nightclubs are still hosting gambling and the organized crime runs more smoothly than the bureaucracy. He’s about to find out if he’s going to get lucky… or get dead.

Next is Holly Chism with a new offering, Soul Inheritance

The blurb-

Fresh out of college, Evelyn Alexander’s first order of business was finding a place to live. One she could afford on her small inheritance before her job started. None of the local rental agencies had anything in her price range, but…she found a small Victorian house for sale, the only one mostly untouched in a decaying neighborhood of subdivided rental houses.

Complete with a ghost. A very attractive ghost. A very attractive ghost with a strong dislike of the idea of anyone changing his house. So, of course, she bought it. A cranky ghost for a roommate was still a better option than the tiny studio with criminal neighbors.

Between working to restore her new house, embezzlement at work and a murder next door, Evelyn has her hands full. As she works to get on her feet as a productive adult (and not fall in love with a ghost she can’t have), the problems start to snowball. And it’s only compounded by learning that her house has far more secrets than just a single, cranky (attractive) ghost…

Last but not least, Raconteur Press has a new anthology out, Alien Family Traditions

The blurb-

In a galaxy torn by war, where battles shatter civilizations, the heart of family endures. From adoptions that bridge species to foster homes offering refuge to aliens and humans alike, love becomes the ultimate rebellion against conflict. Discover uplifting tales of unlikely kin—blood, chosen, or found—building havens of hope amidst chaos. In this heartwarming collection, explore the lives of those who choose compassion over strife, the consequences that reshape worlds, and the reasons why family, in all its forms, is the brightest light in the darkest times. A feel-good celebration of unity and resilience that will leave you inspired.

Highly recommend all of them, each is different, but very good!!!

We are boomers…

Posted on by August 12, 2025

Food for thought :

We grew up in the 50s-60s.

We studied and dated in the 60s-70s.

We got married and discovered the world in the 70s-80s.

We ventured into the 70s-80s.

We stabilized in the 90s.

We got wiser in the 2000s.

And went firmly through the 2010s.

We we’ve lived through EIGHT different decades…

TWO different centuries..

TWO different millennia…

We have gone from the telephone with an operator for long-distance calls to video calls to anywhere in the world.

We have gone from slides to YouTube, from vinyl records to online music,

from handwritten letters to email and WhatsApp… from live matches on the radio, to black and white TV, and then to HDTV… We went to Blockbuster and now we watch Netflix…

We got to know the first computers, punch cards, diskettes and now we have gigabytes and megabytes in hand on our cell phones or iPads… And we wrote most of the code…

We wore shorts throughout our childhood and then long pants, oxfords, Bermuda shorts, etc.

We dodged infantile paralysis, meningitis, H1N1 flu and now COVID-19…

We rode skates, tricycles, bicycles, mopeds, gasoline or diesel cars and now we ride hybrids or 100% electric (if that’s your thing)…

Yes, we’ve been through a lot but what a great life we’ve had!

They could describe us as “exennials,” people who were born in that world of the fifties, who had an analog childhood and a digital adulthood.

We’re kind of Ya-seen-it-all.

Our generation has literally lived through and witnessed more than any other in every dimension of life.

It is our generation that has literally adapted to “CHANGE”.

A big round of applause to all the members of a very special generation, which are UNIQUE.

Here’s a precious and very true message that I received from a friend:

TIME DOES NOT STOP

Life is a task that we do ourselves every day.

When you look… it’s already six in the afternoon;

when you look.. it’s already Friday;

when you look… the month is over;

when you look… the year is over;

when you look… 50, 60, 70 and years have passed!

When you look… we no longer know where our friends are.

When you look… we lost the love of our life and now, it’s too late to go back.

Do not stop doing something you like due to lack of time.

Do not stop having someone by your side, because your children will soon not be yours, and you will have to do something with that remaining time, where the only thing that we are going to miss will be the space that can only be enjoyed with the usual friends. This time that, unfortunately, never returns…

The day is today!

WE ARE NO LONGER AT AN AGE TO POSTPONE ANYTHING.

h/t John B author unknown

Ouch!!!

Posted on by August 11, 2025

THAT is not gonna buff out…

Much of the world’s commerce at sea passes by the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. The reef is of strategic importance. In 2012, the Chinese captured it from the Philippines, creating an ongoing flash point.

In the latest naval game of chicken, Philippine Coast Guard patrol vessels received a report of harassment and “hazardous maneuvers” against Philippine fishing vessels in the area. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said one of their ships responded to the call for help.

It was then that the China Coast Guard ship CCG 3104 began pursuing the Philippine coast guard vessel BRP Suluan. The Chinese opened up water cannons and began a hazardous maneuver near the starboard rear of the Filipino ship.

Full article, HERE from PJ Media and YouTube.

And here’s the video of the ‘bumper cars’…

Stuff like this goes on all the time, not just with ships, but also with military aircraft. The Chinese caused a P-3 to crash land on a Chinese island after the pilot hit the P-3 years ago.

They have continued to do ‘close approaches’ to P-8s and other military aircraft that fly in the area, and there have been numerous close calls…

I can’t help but wonder how many Chinese sailors died in this incident…

Sigh…