Top Ten Tuesday

 

Top ten things I look for in a comfort read.

1. A fantasy world I can get lost in. Examples:

Anne McCaffrey's Dragon Riders and Harper Hall series. I want a fire lizard. Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Tony Roberts' Kastania Chronicles and Dark Blade series.

2. Historical Fiction about an interesting time period or location. Barry Saddler, now Tony Roberts' Casca: The Eternal Mercenary series, now up to 56 books. James A. Michener has some great books: The Source, Alaska, Centennial, Texas, Chesapeake, Hawaii, The Drifters. I tried to read all his books but gave up as that's all I would read for the rest of my life.

3. A particular author. Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov, James A. Michener, Tony Roberts, Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Anne Rice, Mary Stewart, Anne McCaffrey, Colleen McCullagh.

4. Writer friends: Dr. Irene Blea who has a book about the seven women found dead on the mesa: Daughters of the West Mesa, a series about her aunt's life: Suzanna, Poor People's Flowers, Beneath the Super Moon, Hank Bruce, who writes about gardening and has a children's book about the Maringa Tree, Jonathan Miller, an Attorney in town that writes legal thrillers, Paul Paul, a local writer with a wide range of topics. The Mind of a Deviant Woman is my favorite, and a good blogger friend that I have linked to many times who also writes in the horror and science fiction genres, Berthold Gambrel.   

I think I've dropped enough names and titles to satisfy the question.

One hand on the Bible the other one on a gun.

 

"Which Way Are You Goin'?"

Song by Jim Croce

 

Which way are you goin'?

Which side will you be on?

Will you stand and watch while,

All the seeds of hate are sewn?

Will you stand with those who say

Let his will be done?

 

One hand on the Bible

And one hand on the gun.

One hand on the Bible

And one hand on the gun.

 

Which way are you lookin'?

Is it hard to see?

Do you say what's wrong for him

Is not wrong for me?

You walk the streets of righteousness

But you refuse to understand.

 

Say you love the baby,

And then you crucify the man.

Say you love the baby,

And then you crucify the man.

 

Every day,

Things are changing.

Words once honored turn to lies.

People wandering

Can you blame them?

It's too far to run

And too late to hide.

 

So now you turn your back on,

Everything that you used to preach.

It's let him live in freedom,

If he lives like me.

Well your light has changed,

Confusion reigns.

What have you become?

 

All your olive branches turn to spears

When your flowers turn to guns.

All your olive branches turn to spears

When your flowers turn to guns.

Why Do You Read?

  The burning question: Why do you read? Click on the post and write your answer at Writers Supporting Writers.

I posted mine there.

Berthold Gambrel posted this question, and I decided to pass it on to my readers also.

WC Favorite Quote from a book

 

I'm deviating from today's topic. Friendly Persuasion is a book by Jesamyn West that was turned into a movie. For a more indepth review check out Berthold Gambrel's on his blog.

The problem of making the movie was that the book didn't have enough conflict, at least not the type of conflict movie goers would expect. They added the conflict of Josh, the oldest son leaving to fight against the Rebel Raiders. It is here that the greatest quotes come.

Josh has left, Jess is chopping wood when his best friend Sam Jordan and Friend Purdy ride up. Both are carrying guns. 

Purdy tries to get Jess to join them in fighting the raiders. Jess refuses. Purdy then says, "War time changes things."

Sam Jordan then says, "War changes things, but you haven't. Last week you told my son he's going to hell for fighting and today you tell Jess he has to fight. Whatever's right for Purdy has to be right for everyone else."

Nothing sums up the Evangelical thought process more completely than this statement.

Later the horse Josh took comes back without him. Jess gets his hunting rifle and starts to leave to bring him back. While going to the horse he tells his younger son, Little Jess, "Thee's the man of the house now."

Little Jess says, "Kill a Johnny Reb for me."

Jess leans down and places his hand on his son's shoulder. "Son, never says that about another man's life."

This is the true meaning of the phrase "Sanctify of human life."

My best book for today's world.

 https://www.amazon.com/Human-Sacrifices-Patrick-Prescott-ebook/dp/B004W0NPD8/ref=sr_1_11?crid=RYOV3642OD6X&keywords=Human+Sacrifices&qid=1653160197&s=digital-text&sprefix=human+sacrifices%2Cdigital-text%2C100&sr=1-11

Jan is a preacher's daughter recently graduated from a religious college with a teaching degree. She divorced her husband as he was beating her up and demanding sex.

The church they attended starts a campaign to make her return to her husband by picketing the house where she's living.

She starts seeing a face in two trees outside her window. The face of a demon feasting on her pain and despair. She names it Mal. Soon she doesn't have to look out the window as she sees Mal in her dreams.

This book is about spousal abuse, church abuse, overcoming the abuse and starting her life over as a teacher and seeing her students as her mission field to keep them out of the jaws of Mal.

Wednesday Challenge 051822

 

Today's Wednesday Challenge is, what do I do when I'm not feeling well?

I get in bed, have medicine, snacks ready to munch on, plenty of liquids, A TV with a dozen streaming services to choose from and with my trusty dog, Sammie lying next to me, suffer through it.

A big must is to have no other human bothering me.

Well, that's what I did until I gave Sammie to my son. He has a bigger yard and two kids, so the dog is much happier.

Today is the last day to get The Fan Plan Trilogy for free as an e-book at Amazon.

Sixteen Hours

 

Sixteen Hours

By

Patrick Prescott

 

Chorus:

You work sixteen hours and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

Saint Peter don’t you call me I can’t go. I owe my soul to the student loan bank.

 

Borrowed two hundred thou, to get through law school

Worked thirty years made partner, paid four hundred thou, still owe six hundred thou,

Can’t retire and enjoy my life, Ronald Reagan says, "Well bless my Soul."

Chorus

 

 Borrowed a hundred thou to become a teacher. Still work waiting tables to pay off loans.

Big political fundraiser made me work late, Republican Governor stiffed me on the tip.

Can’t buy house or drive a decent car, H. W. Bush smiles at what he’s done.

 

Chorus

 

Whether they’re cops or mechanics, nurses of para legal, they’re all indebted for life.

They all pay taxes and want the dream, but the interest eats up their future.

Living from payday to payday just to get by W Bush paints in happiness.

 

Chorus

 

Did four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, can’t get a job due to PTSD.

VA conveniently lost my file. I’m pushing a shopping cart and live under a bridge.

Broiling in summer, freezing in winter, Trump just says,” Loser, how do you think we kill the middle class and steal Social Security?”

You work sixteen hours what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Saint Peter don't you call me I can't go. I OWE MY SOUL TO THE STUDENT LOAN BANK.

 

 

 

 

Fan Plan Trilogy for free

 

Starting Saturday May 14, 2022, until Wednesday May 18, 2022. Fan Plan Trilogy will be free to purchase as an e-book.

Berthold Gambrel wrote a review on his blog that helps explain the story.

When a meteorite hits Yellowstone in 1965 the computers of Trans Global Oil predict the super volcano will erupt in 50 to 100 years.

Unlike others who know this TGO decides they will create a foundation that will build up a fund to save civilization. They call it the Fan Plan, because when it hits the fan, you have to have a plan. 

For the next three generation, up to the election of Trump in 2016, Trans Global Energy (name changed when they dropped oil due to fracking), has an island in Hawaii named World's End which will be the refuge of the family when it hits the fan.

They are building a Scientific Secret Police. When the volcanic winter is over, the SSP will stomp on any religions asshole that wants to blame God for what happened and drive civilization back to the stone age.

Fan Plan Trilogy: Meteor Strike, Preparation, Countdown - Kindle edition by Prescott, Patrick. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

WC 051122

 

Today's Wednesday Challenge:

My strongest belief is reason. I believe in reasonable faith. I believe in the scientific method; I believe that the possibility of life on other planets exists by sheer mathematical probabilities.

 I do not believe that space travel is possible based upon physics and the sheer distances involved. 

Do we have the ability to travel within our solar system? Yes. We've reached the moon. We've placed machines on Mars and working on putting either man or woman or both there.

Do I think we'll be able to travel to our closest star Alpha Centauri, no. Four light years is way too far at the speed we are capable. A ship would take four years just to get there at the speed of light. 186,000 miles per second. At that speed a speck of dust would destroy it. Space is a vacuum, but it is not empty.

Science fiction uses devices, like warp speed or gate or cryogenics, to overcome the suspension of disbelief to further the story, and the reader understands this and enjoys the story. For an alien to travel the distances to come to earth in my reasonable estimation is not probable. Anything is possible.

Top 10 Tuesday

 It's been a while since I've done a top ten, here goes.

1. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe

2. I Claudius by Robert Graves

3. Claudius the God by Robert Graves

4. The Autobiography of VIII by Margaret George.

5. The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George.

6. Elizabeth the Great by Elizabeth Jenkins.

7. Pontius Pilate by Paul Maier.

8. The Constantine Codex by Paul Maier.

9. Genuine Jesus by Paul Maier

10. I Maury by Patrick Prescott

This is the reason I've taken a break from Top Ten. The life of the father of oceanography, meteorology, and pathfinder of the seas as autobiography.

Stories of Love and Lust

 

Latest e-book 

Stories of Love and Lust - Kindle edition by Prescott, Patrick. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

WC 050422

 

OOPS, I posted wrong and doing a makeover.

My best mother in a book or movie is Eliza Birdwell from Friendly Persuasion.

For and Indepth review of this movie, check out Berthold Gambrel's blog. 

The story is about a Quaker Family during the civil war. Eliza is a Quaker minister. This is misleading as the movie doesn't explain that all believers are considered ministers because of "Priesthood of the Believer."

Throughout the movie Eliza is the glue that keeps the family faithful to their beliefs. When they go to a fair she's finds her daughter dancing, the younger son at a shell game, the older son and husband are in an altercation. She sets them straight.

Jess, the father takes Josh the elder son on his sales trip and a nurseryman. When they get back a man shows up with an organ. Jess bought it at the fair.

Eliza is appalled, a musical instrument is not allowed in their faith. When she tells him if the musical instrument goes in, she goes out to the barn. Jess moves the organ in and Eliza and her pet goose Samantha head to the barn. Samantha is a major character of the film. She's a pure pet. Jess doesn't like her because she eats his strawberries and Little Jess is constantly fighting with her because Samanta sneaks up on him and bites him.

That evening Jess joins her in the barn, the next morning they've compromised that the organ goes to the attic and no playing on First Day (Sunday).

Rebel Raiders are reported heading their way. Josh sees the damage they've caused and decides to join the fight. This is huge. Quakers are pacifists, nonviolent. At first as he's leaving, she turns her back on him. This is an expression of shunning. Because he's leaving the faith, he's dead to her and all other Quakers. Eliza turns around and hugs him, she can't go through with it.

The horse that Josh left on comes back alone. Jess then rides out to find him.

Eliza and the children are alone when a band of raiders come riding in. She greets them, tells them where the food is and even offers them a cooked meal inside.

While she's serving inside and the raiders are rounding up the livestock one spots Samantha, and decides they'll have roast goose tonight.

Eliza hears the squawking of her pet and runs outside just as the man is about to ring Samantha's neck. She grabs a broom and clobbers him about the head, he turns around and she tells him, "Samantha's a pet, she's a pure pet."

The man shakes his head and says, "I wish I'd known that sooner ma'am." Samantha walks about shaking her displeasure.

The raiders leave and Eliza is stricken with guilt. She resorted to violence.

Jess returns with Josh who's been wounded but is also agonizing about the men he killed.

Eliza is mortified when Jess finds out about her whacking a Reb. As they're leaving for First Day, he puts him arms around both and says, "Come along, veterans."