Book promo…

Raconteur Press has another anthology out- Or All Will Burn- Fierce Love

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

The blurb-

What would you do if your children were in danger? What would you do to make sure they survived… or to avenge them if they didn’t.

9 more authors answered that question. Some with humor, some with firepower, and some with all of the above.

Next is Cedar Sanderson, writing as Lilania Begley with the second short in the Sumire series- Dust Storm

The blurb-

And last, but certainly not least, Stephen Hunter has a new book out in the Swagger world- Front Sight
The blurb-

In The Night Train, Charles Swagger is on the hunt for notorious bank robber Baby Face Nelson when he traces a tip to the Chicago stock yards. While there, he’s brutally assaulted and discovers that the madman who attacked him is involved in a nearby narcotics ring with plans to spread its new drug to the residents of the disenfranchised 7th District of Chicago. Worse, this is no ordinary drug—it makes some users happy, drives others insane, and kills many of the rest. Will Charles be able to stop the ring before it’s too late? Or is he in over his head among the dark streets of Chicago?

Earl Swagger investigates a violent bank robbery in Johnny Tuesday that left two dead and a fortune missing in small-town Maryland. At every turn, however, he’s met with silence and hostility from the townsfolk, which makes sense when he uncovers municipal corruption, working-class exploitation, gang politics, jaded aristocrats, scheming gamblers, a hitman, a femme fatale. And a whole bunch of men with guns. Luckily, Earl has brought his own guns in this unputdownable noir mystery.

Finally, in Five Dolls for the Gut Hook, a thirty-two-year-old Bob Lee Swagger is back from Vietnam nearly broken over good men lost for nothing. He’s turned hard down that whiskey road to hell. But one afternoon he’s wakened from his nightmares by two men with a problem. As nearby Hot Springs tries to retool its image from gambling paradise to family resort, a butcher has begun to prey on the city’s young women, a figure straight out of a horror movie. Hot Springs Homicide is baffled. “I’m a sniper,” says Bob, “not a detective.”

“But,” comes the reply, “you are the son and grandson of two of the greatest detectives this state has ever produced.” On that premise alone, Bob takes up the hunt for a killer who not only kills but desecrates. Using his sniper’s mind, Swagger is able to see things others have missed, drawing ever closer to a showdown. But equally, we understand, Bob Lee Swagger is hunting his own salvation.

I highly recommend all of them!!!

Grrr…

Same old, same old… politics!

While the Biden administration focuses its time and resources attacking the state of Texas for its work to take up the duty of enforcing the U.S.-Mexico border abdicated by the federal government, the crisis continues to worsen. December saw another new record for the number of illegal immigrants encountered by border agents at more than 300,000, and the alarming number of illegal immigrants whose identities are flagged in terror databases continues to be a risk our country can’t afford. 

While Biden’s border crisis has been worsening since his first day in office, fixing it wouldn’t take much time according to National Border Patrol Council Vice President Chris Cabrera who sees firsthand, every day, how open-border policies enacted by Biden have created a massive draw for illegal immigrants from around the world. 

Full article, HERE.

As Cabrera says in the article, this COULD be fixed just about over night, but the current administration is choosing not to do that.

Because they believe, in their heart of hearts, all these illegals will be allowed to vote and that is 11 million, give or take, more dem voters…

So they are putting partisan goals ahead of American goals, and damn the consequences!

And there are consequences… Plenty of them… MS-13, rapes, robberies, murders, drunk drivers, etc.

But the only think they squawk about is all the illegals they are having to take care of in their ‘sanctuary cities’…

Grumble… gripe… sigh…

State of the writer…

The End is always nice to write…

Finished my little short story that grew into a 37,000 word novella! I hate it when the @#$$% characters won’t shut up and play nice! It’s out to alpha readers now, and it will probably be up in a couple of weeks, depending on Amazon as always!

Here’s a draft cover, and before you ask, this one is NOT Rimworld, it’s a stand alone novella, this is just a draft we were bouncing back and forth…

I’ve also finished an alpha read of a friend’s 90+ thousand word novel and set it off yesterday to him.

Now I need to write an actual short story to get my short story collection up for sale. It will be nine short stories from various anthologies I’m in, plus one new story!

I’m trying to decide which way to go with that one, as there are a number of ideas percolating, and Saturday’s supper threw a couple more into the mix…LOL

I’m sorry I’m so late with these, but the cataract surgery took me off line for almost 2 months due to ‘issues’ I was having. But now I’m back to slaving over a blank page.

A sad loss…

The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Sunday the death of two Navy SEALs who went missing off the coast of Somalia, according to a press release.

News broke Jan. 13 that two SEALs went missing Jan. 11 after a mission to seize a sailboat — called a dhow — loaded with parts for Iranian medium-range ballistic missiles went wrong. Since the incident, officials had been searching for the two SEALs for 10 days. CENTCOM has stated in a press release, however, that while they have not located the bodies, their status has now been “changed to deceased.”

Full article, HERE from Daily Caller.

This was not a training accident, but an operational one. One of the SEALs was knocked off a boarding ladder and his swim buddy went into the water to save him. Neither has ever been seen again.

Not all deaths come at the point of a gun, as was the case here. Training, operational, and a myriad of other things have caused untold numbers of deaths to military members over the years, but ANY death on active duty takes a father, son, brother, mother, sister, daughter away from not only the immediate family, but the military family.

My prayers go out to the families of these men, the Team, and all that knew them.

May they rest in peace, knowing others have assumed the watch.

Burp…

We did our quarterly supper last night, and had 26 show up! People were wandering, with multiple conversational groups rotating around.

This is after supper, so no food pics because most of it was GONE! Many thanks to those who prepared/brought food, drinks, and desserts!

The ‘locusts’ were appreciative!!! 😉

Yes, it was a ‘tad’ chilly, and there were folks that had to bow out for a number of reasons, but this was still more than our houses would accommodate, so it all worked out!

And no leftovers to drag home, other than the drinks. Also, thanks to those who helped clean up the rental space!

I got back to the house, unloaded, and crashed!!!

Those words…

May not mean what you think you heard…

President Joe Biden on Friday said he believed a two-state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians could still happen even with the current Israeli government in power.

“No it’s not,” he said, when asked if he thought such an outcome was impossible with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his post.

No surprise here…

Do you shop at Cabela’s or Dick’s Sporting Goods?

Have you ever bought anything with MAGA on it or from anybody whose business includes the term?

Are you a hunter or a sports shooter?

Full article, HERE at Hotair.
So an unelected bureaucrat from FinCEN decided that they needed to track people…
But the list was so generic that even if you bought fishing gear from Cabelas, you’re a terrorist… Sigh…
Oh well, just another list to be on. Veteran, retired, gun aficionado, write books with guns in them, live in Texas… Lemme see, I’m pretty sure there are a few more…
Oh yeah, big one- Internet research searches for writing…

If…

You weren’t scared of air travel before…

The Federal Aviation Administration is actively recruiting workers who suffer “severe intellectual” disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website. 

“Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring,” the FAA’s website states. “They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.”

The initiative is part of the FAA’s “Diversity and Inclusion” hiring plan, which claims “diversity is integral to achieving FAA’s mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel across our nation and beyond.”

Full article, HERE from NY Post.

You should be now… Positions apparently under consideration include ‘oversight and execution of critical safety functions’…

No, just F’ing NO!

This, IMHO, will get folks killed through pure negligence just to put checks in the hiring box…

And that’s going to add DAYS to any trips I take because I’ll be driving.

Full circle…

The Swarovski Optik Visio binoculars, with an excerpt of a 2014 xkcd comic strip called

Last week, Austria-based Swarovski Optik introduced the AX Visio 10×32 binoculars, which the company says can identify over 9,000 species of birds and mammals using image recognition technology. The company is calling the product the world’s first “smart binoculars,” and they come with a hefty price tag—$4,799.

“The AX Visio are the world’s first AI-supported binoculars,” the company says in the product’s press release. “At the touch of a button, they assist with the identification of birds and other creatures, allow discoveries to be shared, and offer a wide range of practical extra functions.”

Full article HERE from Ars Technica.

XKCD did that cartoon back in 2014, and now it’s a reality… A few more than 5 years, but having spent time in R&D, 9 years isn’t really bad.

Sometimes, those ‘hold my beer’ ideas really do turn out to be a good idea, and actually doable and marketable!

What will the next set of scientists/oddballs/inventors come up with next? Not a clue, but I’m betting it will be ‘interesting’ for various terms of interesting!!!

h/t to Stretch for the link!

Interesting…

Russian lawmaker and Vladimir Putin ally Aleksey Zhuravlyov went on national TV Friday to warn that Poland has “probably started to realize that they are next.”

“Another question is to you, guys in the West, what are you going to do about it?” Zhuravlyov asked in reference to Putin’s imperial ambitions. “They understand very well that Ukraine is finished. So what’s next? Sweden is getting ready and so are the Balkans. The Poles have quieted down a bit, they probably started to realize that they are next. Of course, we have no illusions, but we understand that all of them are getting ready for the next stage of war.”

Full article, HERE.

The real question is, is this hyperbole or an actual plan based on what Putin thinks he will be able to get away with in the next year?

If the Ukraine falls, will the Russians even have enough of a military to go against Poland or anybody else?

Personally, I don’t think they do, but I’m not an Army type so I’ll defer to the experts. And if they do try Poland, what does NATO do? Poland is a member of NATO now, and there are mutual defense requirements that would come into play.