WC 041520

Today's topic: Characters from books or movies I'd like to invite to dinner.

Blood, the telepathic dog from A Boy and His Dog, short story by Harlan Ellison and movie with Don Johnson. Oh, what a conversation with a dog who knows history and philosophy, yet has a keen sense of humor.

From Dragon Rider's of Pern: F'lar and Lessa. I'd ask F'lar what it's like to win a knife fight, and Lessa the joys of impressing a dragon.

From Harper Hall of Pern: Menolly. I'd beg her to let me impress one of her hatchlings of fire lizards.

 From the Fifth Element: Dallas Corbin. I'd ask about all his exploits while in service, if saving the galaxy from evil was satisfying and what it's like to bed a perfect woman. 

From Star Wars: Yoda. Drink in wisdom of an 900 year old master, I'd sit.

From Friendly Persuasion: Jess Birdwell. "You're best friend was just killed by a rebel. He shot you and grazed your skull, you disarm him and hold the rifle on him. Why did you let him go?"

From I the Jury: Mike Hammer. "When you shot a beautiful woman who just stripped to the buff in front of you and is wanting to have sex with you, and you shot her in the gut; was it easy?" 

Bond, James Bond: I'd wonder why he always wants his martini's shaken and not stirred? What it's like to dive all those marvelous cars, and why he keeps that old Astin Martin around.

Casca Rufio Longinus: I would sit mesmerized by his grey-blue eyes as he told me of one his time periods in history that he lived through.

Rhett Butler: "Why after years of trying to get Scarlet to love you and when she finally comes to her senses and tells you that she loves you, did you tell her, 'I don't give a damn.?'"

Available as e-book on Kindle. Two novellas and a few short stories. A bargain at $1.99

A swinging good time with short stories. On Kindle for .99

TTT 041520

Today topic is books I enjoyed and rarely come up on conversation or on TTT. Here are two anthologies with adult themes and lots of sexual situations. I hope readers enjoy them and I had great fun writing them under my pen name.

You can order the book here.
Bona Dea (Good Goddess) is about a love goddess who has become disillusioned by all the warfare being waged and goes into hiding as an eagle. She hears a man plead for someone to love and loves him and slowly returns to her goddess form with the help of the man and his friends. She blesses them with finding the love of their life and they begin worshipping her. Soon worshippers of Bona Dea are practicing uninhibited love across the world. The forces of war and hatred and repression unite to stop what they consider to be immoral.
Convert of Corrupt deals with the owner of a small  publishing company discovering a brilliant young woman at a job fair. She is part of a religious group that practices Quiver Full theology. Her brother brought her to the job fair wanting her to get a job and contribute financially to his family. He had not found a suitable husband for her and she is living with him. With numerous children and his wife  preganant again he needs more income. He agrees to let his sister work in the publishing company as an accountant. She's been home schooled and graduated from a Christian online university. She demonstrated remarkable mathematical skills at the interview.
The young lady finds working in a secular office intimidating and feels it's her mission field to convert the lost.. The head of the company thinks it's a test to see if she will convert him or he will corrupt her.
First Weekends A friend invites a man for a weekend of sexual games. 
Other stories include: Failure, Triple Indemnity, Toy Store, A Bull Named Fu Manchu and The Wall.

You can order the book here. 

Short stories the include a couple playing strip scores during the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Bronco Super Bowl game called Super Erotic Bowl.
First Friday's: A couple hosts a weekend a month of sexual games over a Friday night to Sunday Afternoon. They keep adding more guests each month. The one covers September, October and November.
Car Hop, where a woman marries a man for money and thinks she hit the jackpot when he doesn't want a pre-nup.
Wife Quest, a medieval knight follows his Lord on a tour of the Lord's properties and while staying at the different manor's he's looking to find a wife.
Others included are Shari Sadeyes, Companion, Shasha's Story, Do You Want to Dance, A Good Secretary, A Happy Threesome, and Sapphire, Misty and Velda.

College Pictures

Here are my pictures from college.

School picture. The tie does NOT go with that shirt!

Wayland Cross-Country team freshman year. 

That's the entire track team freshman year.

My first Cross-Country race freshman year ahead of a local boy who went to another college.

Sophomore year cross-country with new coach. When I coached track ten years later I followed my distance runners on a scooter just like he did. We went to nationals and I was in the top 300 out of over a thousand runners.

Me running at Eastern New Mexico meet. The course was half-way between Clovis and Portales. Before the race they picked up all the rattle snakes they could find, then fired the gun.

Cross-country team junior year. My best racing condition. Finished 150 out or over a thousand runners at nationals.

Plainview paper ran some nice articles and pictures about our team. Domingo Martinez was a good runner.

Texas Tech relays. I was final leg of 4X 1 mile relay. We came in third. The award was a Texas Tech sport bag. At least it was useful after I took off the TT decals.

After a good cross-country season I was looking forward to an even better track season. I twisted my knee in practice before national indoor meet and my running days were over.

Pictures from Long Ago

College friends are posting their pictures, some with me in them from when we were younger and dumber. I've matched them with mine, so I think I'll share them here too. This is photos from high school

1972 New Mexico state champion in the mile. The main reason for my victory was Anthony Sandoval of Los Alamos scratched from the race. He wanted to set the state record in the two mile. Anthony went on to Stanford and finished 4th in the Olympic trials in 1976. He finished first in the 1980 Olympic trials only to be denied the chance to win Olympic gold due to the U.S. boycott imposed by President Carter.
I earned a full scholarship to Wayland, where I went on to major in history and minored in English. Twenty seven years of teaching was made possible with this picture.

My nemesis senior year was Lionel Ortega. That's me to his right. We traded wins every time we ran against each other. He won district and I won state. Think I got the better of the wins.

 Me running, can't remember the stadium or the race.

 I was a junior and Shane Page was a sophomore. We ran an AAU race and set the state age record for a 40X440 yard two man relay. Talk about wasted after that race.

Summer after Junior year spent in Este Park, Colorado. This was my huddle group for the Fellowship of Christian Athlete camp.

Right before state meet cross-country fall of 1970.

State runner ups in state as a team fall 1970. I came in fifth. Second from the left was Richard Ramos, he finished second. I'm second from the right.

Walking the dog.

Took Sammie, my dog, on a walk today. Between her tugging on the leash and me pulling her away from something to sniff. I took some pictures.

Lilacs presently in my front yard blooming.

A wildflower all over the sidewalks and mesa.

A gorgeous Wisteria bush in a neighbor's yard.

And a beautiful red tree also in a neighbor's yard.

WC 040820

Topics I could give an impromptu speech on: Don't get me started...
Word of warning, when I taught World History and U. S. History in summer school I could pontificate four hours straight.

Rapture Theology. Also known as premillennialism as epitomized by Timothy LeHaye's abominable series known as Left Behind. If you want to know why the fundies are so crazy about Trump. They think he's going to end the world and they'll all be raptured. A word never used in the Bible. This heresy has destroyed the Christian faith and turned it into a fantasy cult. The leaders of the take over of the Southern Baptist Convention were Paige Patterson and Paul Pressler. Paige Patterson was fired as President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary because he was counseling battered women to pray for their husbands and submit to them. Paul Pressler was sued by his long time male lover for palimony. Judge Roy Moore who toured the U.S. with a two ton statue of he Ten Commandments touting his brand of morality was found to be a child predator when he tried to run for a senate seat. I'll stop there. 

Military History: I've read Sun Tzu, Basil Lidell Hart, John Keegan, and biographies of Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Fabius, Scipio Africanus, Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Caesar, Trajan and Belisarius. That's just ancient history.

Tudorian history. I've been fascinated with Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. I wish Hollywood would stop painting Bess as sleeping around. Read Elizabeth Jenkins biography Elizabeth the Great. BBC series Elizabeth R, with Glenda Jackson was based on this biography and shows how much was scared to death of the very thought of having sex.

If you're interested in how I utilize my knowledge of history try these books. Now combined as e-book and paperback at Amazon.

TTT 040720

Today's topic: Ten books I bought or rented or borrowed because....

This was a highly suggested book on TTT and WC. Still is to some extent. I really enjoyed it, bought the sequel and enjoyed it too. Looking forward to reading more of her work.

This one was highly recommended on TTT and WC. I liked the cover. Found out in the first twenty pages it's about the son of the President of the U.S. falling in love with a British Prince. Sorry not into guy on guy sex. I enjoy lesbian, but this one wasn't for me.

I was reading an anthology by Isaac Asimov of Hugo Award winners. One of the stories The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World. I have an entire library of his books now. Of all my favorite authors he's been the most influential.

Many moons ago while I was teaching world history in  summer school, the room I was using had a book case full of SSR books. While the students were reading the day's assignment I selected a book. I had seen the book in book stores and wondered what it was about. I've read well over 40 of these books in the series so far. I got middle school boys willing to read them and it made my teaching life much easier.

I was at an in-service where we listened to a family court judge discuss sexual harassment. She recommended all to get a new book just out on the market. It was only in hard back and was over twenty bucks. I passed. It was a couple of years before I found a copy at a used book store. This book had a profound impact on the serenity of my marriage. It sure cut down on the repetitive arguments. I used it in my sociology and psychology classes. I used it as a selling point to get students to sign up for the elective classes.

I took a summer seminar from National Geographic for teaching geography in the classroom. One of the instructors raved about the book Longitude by Dava Sobel. I've read it three times and have enjoyed it every time. Great non-fiction book.

In a number of James Clavell's books he mentions Sun Tzu's the Art of War. He even brought out a special edition of it with his forward. I found it very enlightening. Even talked the book room lady in letting me buy a classroom set. It really helps explain all warfare. Remember the object of war is peace.

Berthold Gambrel wrote a review of this book and a number of other of Audrey Driscol's. This is a stand lone set in Egypt around the turn of the 20th century.

Hank Bruce is a very good friend and fellow member of Writers2writers our West side writer's group. He writes different genre's, but most of books are on gardening. He works tirelessly to promote the Maringa tree to help with world hunger.

Another member of W2W is Dr. Irene Blea. She was a college professor for many years and her textbooks on women's studies are still in publication. The book that's gained the most notoriety is based on seven women whose bodies were found on the West Mesa in Albuquerque. It's a difficult book to read, but it shines light on the mother's of women who've disappeared not just in Albuquerque, but world wide.

What I'm using as a mask

I took a c-pap mask, put a c-pap filter in the tube connector and now I have a mask that I can use while shopping that won't deplete what's needed for medial workers.

100 Year Old Man book

TTT and WC had a number of bloggers recommended The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson.
The book starts off rather amusing. An old geezer on his 100th birthday decides to leave the nursing home and start walking. He makes it to the bus station with only fifty crowns. (The story is set it Sweden.)
A guy has a big suitcase and it won't fit into the bathroom and he has to go. He asks the old man to keep an eye on it for him and closes the door. His bus shows up so the old man named Allan takes the suitcase and heads out. The guy comes out of the bathroom and is not happy the suitcase is gone. He threatens the ticket seller into telling him where the bus is going and start chasing a hundred year old man and a suitcase with half a million in cash.
It's and improbable chase, but the author intersperses the chase with Allan's life story.
I was enjoying the story until it hit a snag for me. Allan is living in Los Alamos, NM when the atomic bomb is being developed. He figures out how to make it work and meets Vice President Truman. While they are having dinner Roosevelt dies and Truman becomes president. Screech, The rest of the book as his story unfolds he gives the Russians the bomb and there's a list of historical people starting with Truman, then Stalin Mao, Zedong, Churchill, De Gaul, Lyndon Johnson and so on. It all hinges on him figuring out that the fissionable material in an atomic bomb needs to be divided in half and smashed together to create critical mass.
This is one suspension of disbelief too far. There were two groups working on the bomb in Los Alamos. They knew from the start that the fissionable material needed to be smashed together. One developed a gun barrel approach the other group used an implosion technique. Not only that Truman didn't know about the Manhattan Project until he was president and they needed him to approve using it. He never visited Los Alamos. The book kind of fell apart for me at that point.
The tale of his wandering while 100 is worth reading and it is funny how the police, the prosecutor and the media start fixating on the story and blaming him for murdering three gangsters chasing the suitcase. How he talks his way out of prosecution after he's finally tracked down is priceless.

Wednesday Challenge 040120

This week is my favorite series and why.

Casca: The Eternal Mercenary series. Casca Rufius Longinus, the soldier who stabbed Jesus in the side and becomes immortal. It was started by Barry Sadler who wrote the first four or five books then turned it over to ghost writers. Each book is set in a different time. They range from 1st century to the present with every time period and continent covered, except Antarctica.
This was the series of books that I got middle school boys to want to read.
When Sadler died there were a few books by different authors until Tony Roberts took over the series. He's now written around 25 of them. Warfare and battles are well written. The society and economy of the time period is also well done.

Kastania Chronicles series, by Tony Roberts: Empire of Avarice, Throne of Envy, Prince of Wrath, House of Lust, Patch of Pride and God's of Gluttony with more on the way. 
This series in the real deal when it comes to Byzantine politics and warfare. The family soap opera and talk about really nasty religious leaders, inept governors, traitorous nobles. This series delivers the goods. The kicker it that everything that's happening in these books is also happening today.

Dark Blade Series by Tony Roberts: Faerowen is half human and half dark elf. She lived in a small fishing village with her mother until the mother dies. Cast out of the village she sets out on a quest to find her father and follows clues he leaves her. She gets training in a school on how to fight and cast spells. Leaving the school after killing one of her instructors she adds her skills of fighting to different kingdoms and becomes a Queen of one of them. She is still finding artifacts her father's left her in order to unite the dark elves and retake the elven kingdom. The plot is simple, but the tale is complex and compelling and the writing is first rate.

My dual books in one now.

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Today's topic is ten ways I let people know I read books.

1. I tell them about the books I've written. I post their covers on TTT and Wednesday Challenge. When they read them they know how much research I've put into writing them. For every page I write I read at least a hundred pages in research.
Optimus and Stephanus now available in e-book for $2.99 and paperback for $14.99 at Amazon.




2. I drive my wife crazy when watching a movie when I've already read the book. "They left out this," or "they added that." Don't get me started on the movies they made out of Tom Clancy's books or James Clavell's.

3. I write reviews of some of the books I read. Not many people leave comments about my reviews on this blog, but I also post them at Amazon to help indie writers. If the book has thousands of reviews what I have to say has already been said.

4. In conversation I'll quote from books I've read. Drives my wife nuts. Especially when I quote scripture.

5. My books shelves. I have a house full to the brim with books. Not all of them mine, wife and kids read a lot too. When we were first married and my in-laws visited our tiny apartment. My MIL asked me if I'd read all the books in my bookshelf (cinderblocks and wood planks). She was surprised when I said, "Yes."

6. While waiting in the doctor's office, or auto repair shop, or standing in line, or you name it; I'm reading on my phone or tablet. Others may play games, I read.

7. When teaching English and history I told the students stories I'd read. With 7th and 8th graders you don't take your eyes off of them for a second. I memorized the stories and spoke them aloud. Facial expressions, word inflection and eye contact helped them visualize the stories. For years I'd run into former students and they tell me they still remembered some of the stories I told.

8. Posting on TTT.

9. Posting on Wednesday Challenge.

10. Posting on Facebook.

Cherry Point, NC

I've run into an odd coincidence lately. I was born at Cherry Point, NC. 
Dad was a marine during Korea. I lived there about six months. He was shipped out and Mom took my brother and me to Colorado, with her family, while he was overseas. When he came back he was stationed in California and we moved there. When he mustered out we moved back to Pueblo, Co. Later we moved to Albuquerque and except for five years of exile in Texas while going to college and Seminary it's where I've always lived. 
I've been to both oceans, but was too young to remember them. I spent one night in Galveston  before running a district track meet in Houston my freshman year of college. So the only major body of water I've seen is the Gulf of Mexico.
All my life (and I'm not a spring chicken anymore) every time I mentioned Cherry Point everyone has asked, "Where's that?" I'd never run across anyone who's been born there. Until recently:

Coincidence 1. 

There's a very dear lady in my Writers2writers group named Dr. Irene Blea. I've posted pictures of her books and she is a brilliant writer. She grew up in Pueblo and remembers The Record Music Store, that my maternal grandparents owned. She also lived close to the CF&I steel mill where my paternal grandfather and my dad worked (before he decided going to Korea was safer than working an open hearth.)
While talking with Irene at our last W2W meeting (alas suspended) we were talking about where we were born and  I mentioned Cherry Point. Irene said she was stationed there with her ex-husband during Vietnam and that's where she bore her daughter. Wow, not only someone who actually knew where it was, but lived there and gave birth. Who would have thunk that two people with such disparate backgrounds would have so many points of contact? Before we even met!

Coincidence 2. 
My sister's daughter moved with her father to North Carolina after my sister died from Ovarian cancer. I've mentioned that she has a passage in the book Torch, about Ovarian cancer previously. My niece married a marine and they were stationed at Cherry Point.

Coincidence 3. Berthold Gambrel posts lots of book reviews on his blog. He wrote a review of I Put my Pants on for This? by Jackson Banks. It's a book of short remembrances. I finally got around to reading it and the very first story the author mentions he was born at Cherry Point, NC and lived there for eight years. (Many years after I was born there).

This is getting weird.

Optimus and Stephanus together

Now available at Amazon in one book:
Optimus: Praetorian Guard and its sequel Stephanus. In e-book it's $2.99 in paperback it's $14.99. If you have Amazon unlimited (KDP) it can be rented for free.
For a review of Optimus by Berthold Gambrel click here.