Human Sacrifices

Blogger friend, Berthold Gambrell, wrote a review of Human Sacrifices. You can find it here.
I asked him as a quid pro quo for the review of his book The Directorate. He gave me some valuable insights. I wanted to get a fresh set of eyes on the story. I published it on Kindle in 2012 and it's due for a rewrite.
Most of the story gives my thoughts on the three things that should never be discussed at Thanksgiving and Christmas family dinners and parties: Sex, politics and religion.

When I was writing this story I posted each chapter on a different blog. I got feedback from a number of blogger friends. That when the blogger universe was much bigger than today. I came to a natural ending after Jan conquered her demon, but many of the writers wanted me to continue the story. I inserted an interview, but it doesn't fit. The woman in the story is based on a teacher that I knew. She was the assistant to Georgia O'Keefe before the artist died. The gal was looney tunes. I think now on the rewrite I'll delete that, maybe turn it into a separate story.

When I left off on HS, Obama was president and politically I thought things had stabilized. Now with the moral mafia having elected Trump there's a lot more I can add to it.

Ruined Chapel said that my female characters were "sex-crazed." That's a bad thing? Just kidding.

Since I wrote this I touched on marital rape, as that was in the news at the time. Since then much has come up about "rape culture" and recently with an Alabama candidate for the senate--pedophilia sanctioned supposedly by God. I'll expound upon that.

In today's world Sex, politics and religion have merged into a toxic brew. It is my desire to enlighten my readers to help them understand what's happening.

The Directorate

Longtime blogger friend, and about the only one I have left, Berthold Gambrel https://ruinedchapel.com/ has released an e-book on Kindle. I've always enjoyed his writings and he's graciously expressed his gratitude on his blog concerning my suggestions in his acknowledgments sections.

The Directorate is a plausible science fiction story set in the 23rd century when humanity has expanded to colonies on Luna, Mars and are building a space station connected by a space elevator on the moon Ceres. There is plenty of time between now and then for technology to reach this potential. The conflict between the three planets is also probable as rivalries would naturally exist between the three entities. (I know the moon isn't a planet, but it's easier to describe this way)
The setting is that after an interplanetary war The Directorate was created to preserved the peace and form a central government. A security force  was created comprising members from all three planets. They reason that integrating all the planets soldiers this will ease the tensions brought about by the previous war. There's also a mega corporation that invented most of the technology making space travel and colonization possible that has become the controlling voice in the Directorate.
The protagonist is Lieutenant Gannon from Mars. She is in the guard in what is supposed to be a time of peace, but a faction known as Earth Firsters begin making trouble. They want Planet Rights!
At first there are small terrorist attacks that escalate to an attack on Mars. There are traitors that subvert the security from within, a bumbling bureaucracy slow to respond to an existential threat, a too big to fail corporation controlling the economy, and government, plus a kick ass hero.
The story is plausible because Berthold shows an understanding of human nature, knowledge of corporate greed, as well as engrained fossilized government stupidity.
To make the story work there is a lot of backstory to set the stage, but he breaks this up throughout the story so it's not like reading a history book. Berthold is not breaking new ground on the science as the technology is pre-Star Trek. This makes it more believable. It's fast paced and reaches a satisfying ending.
Now for the teacher in me to give advice. Ruined Chapel, accept it or reject it, but it is offered in the spirit of helping your writing to improve. You've grown over the past few years tremendously and this book is by far the culmination of your hard work on the craft. It will only get better.
Here goes:
1. Your villain and the terrorists. By telling the story from only Gannon's point of view, or that of narrator on the backstory the reader only gets a glimpse of why they are revolting. They're point of view needs to be given throughout the story. By the time the villain tries to recruit Gannon its too late. I think you realized this when you have him voice why he hasn't killed her. His answer is a bit lame. But if when they were on Mars and she was under his orders you switched to him and gave us his thoughts concerning her and wanting her on his side, maybe even a romantic interest he needed to suppress for the mission... Get my drift?
2. If your going to extrapolate from States Rights to Planet Rights you need to tell why they feel the Directorate has wronged them. You could include collusion with Luna and Mars instead of making it just spoiled grapes on the part of Earth. Even have Luna and Mars units in the revolt, which would make the villain's attempt at converting Gannon to the cause more plausible. You don't have to mention the students at this time.
3. The villain's answer to the students was to kill them. He explains what's happening. The theme here is great. By taking away Literature and history the Directorate is trying to make human robots. There's a reason why those two subjects are called the humanities. The all work and no play aspect could be expanded. After the battle on the space station you could have Gannon, knowing what the directorate is doing and wanting to change this in different way than extermination she could expound on how she plans to instill humanity into all the students.
4. By taking the student she's befriended to her home on Mars before reporting to Luna with her report. This is Gannon's first break with discipline and duty. After the surviving students are moved to Luna and her friend has learned more of what it's like to be human instead of programmed science geek, she can be the virus to enlighten the other students. Wow that's a whole new book. I hope I haven't jumped the gun if that's what you're already planning.

I know your baby is out in the world and it's hard to leave it and go on to another project. The beauty of e-publishing is that you can revise and correct if you're so inclined. My suggestions may help with future writings. I want to say again this a is a really really really good book. Well Done.

PS, I've submitted a review on Amazon, but it might not show up. You mentioned me in the book and when one of my reviewers I mentioned in another book his review of Optimus was removed. Amazon is getting picky on reviews.

Some books I found and like

Here's a few authors I've discovered on Kindle that I've liked and recommend to my few remaining readers.
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1. Tony Roberts:
A. Best author I've come across since Harlan Ellison. He's continuing the Casca: The Eternal Mercenary series. He puts out one a year and takes about a day to read. His historical settings are accurate and descriptions of battles interesting.
B. His Chronicles of Kastania series, (now up to book 5) is his crown in glory. I don't know how he has a fictional empire with enemies on all sides and traitors within and can make every character from diverse backgrounds unique and come alive. He has a race of witches that I find most intriguing. I dub them sexual amazons. I devour these books and long for the next one. Just as Isaac Asimov used the Roman Empire as the basis for his Foundation series of books. Roberts is recreating and in many cases explaining everything that went on in the Byzantine Empire. An absolute don't miss series of books.
C. Chronicles of Faerowyn series. This one is more like Tolkien. It has light elves and dark elves, humans, trolls, monsters etc. It's now on its third book and immensely enjoyable. The main character is Faerowyn, a half dark elf and human on a quest to find her father trailing his bread crumbs to take over the clan and reclaim the crown of the dark elven kingdom. It sound rather simple, but like all great quest stories the journey is filled with lots of excitement. This is the best pure fantasy series of books I've read in a long long time.
D. Siren Series. So far 2 books, but number three is in the works. This series caught me by surprise. It's so totally different. It's about an actual British rock band and tells their story from inception to the lead singer's collapse and near death. The third book is eagerly anticipated to find out what else happens.
I don't know how he does it, but he's churning out four books a year and all are first rate. I hate to admit it, but though the quality of his Casca books is not an issue, but with nearly 50 books in the entire series and he's written nearly half of them, they all pale in comparison to his other works. It's not the writer just the Casca series is becoming dated.

2. Olan Thorensen: He's come up with a series of books adding elements of Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, James Clavell's Shogun, and Barry Sadler's Casca: The Eternal Mercenary. Which is quite an accomplishment.
The main character is Joseph Colsco, who is on a plane to give a speech on chemical engineering. A vessel from mysterious alien's called watchers collide with his jumbo jet and he's the sole survivor. They patch him up, using nanotechnology, and since he can't go home as he knows too much they maroon him on a planet in another galaxy. The watchers tell him that another alien race have over the centuries relocated humans to this planet so he won't be lonely. The technology on the planet in around the 1700's making his knowledge of technology a useful way of surviving, just so long as he doesn't run afoul of their religion and get burned as a witch.
He placed on an island being invaded by an evil empire from the nearest continent and I don't want to spoil the rest of the story. There are four books so far. They're well written and kept my heart pounding on numerous pages.

3. William D'Arand: If you're into gaming, this may be a good series for you. I'm not much of a gamer other than exercising with Wii.
1. He has an Otherlife series. I've read the first book and it was intriguing. Kind of like Tron, and the holograms of Star Trek series, Runner, the main character, is on long voyage and the crew get trapped in their game. He has no memory and he has to rise in class to get some of them back. He's able to access a portal that gives him his status and then fights various elements to gain points. He's the only officer left on the vessel and his quest is to rise enough in levels to regain the password to control the game and save the ship. I read the first book and am willing to read the others, but they aren't available on KDP for free. A number of authors do this, they tease you with the first book and then expect you to pay for the others. It has to be a super duper great read really waning me to read more before I'll do that, and this series doesn't fit that bill.
2. Super Sales on Super Heroes: This isn't about gaming, but the pup up windows with different abilities is similar. Here abilities are bought with points accumulated in various ways.
The society has super heroes and villains. A super villain has taken over a city and has destroyed most of the heroes. Most vices are legalized and slavery is legal.
The main character is Felix, who has a small ability of being able to change objects. He's managing a fast food restaurant and wants to rise up so he tries to buy something he can change into gold. He buys a near corpse of for super hero. His ability lets him restore the hero to life, and then he goes out and buys more. It gets really interesting when he buys and restores a beastkin that's a werewolf that can transform into numerous incarnations. Fortunately the second book was KDP and it gets even better. Waiting for the third one.

Martin Luther part 4 -- 95 Theses

After learning what Tetzel was doing to milk the people out of their money and giving only a worthless piece of paper in return; he was angry and needed to speak out. He wrote out 95 questions he wanted answered concerning the church's biblical support for indulgences. At this point he was only wanting to correct what he saw as error and mistakenly believed that the church could be persuaded to change this policy.
 Tetzel responded in writing refuting Luther's theses. His basic argument was that what he was doing was at under the authority of the Pope and he was only answerable to Him, and to question the Pope was to question God.
Luther responded that this wasn't an adequate argument. He insisted that the church show him from the bible that he was wrong. A number of other defenders of the pope rose up to denounce Luther.  The first of these was Sylvester Mazzolini of Prierio. They exchanged numerous letters with Pierio asserting the power of the Pope to be the only who interprets the bible. Luther maintained the power to interpret the bible belonged to the individual. Pierio went so far as to maintain relying on ecclesiastical law: "Although the Pope should make the whole world go with him to hell, he could be neither condemned nor deposed."
When Luther continued to quote the bible, especially on justification by faith, James Hochstraten, the inquisitor of Cologne, called for Luther's death. Luther responded by calling Hochstraten a raving murderer, blood thirsty man, and enemy of the truth.
His strongest adversary was a Johann Maier Von Eck. Doctor Eck and Luther debated at Augsburg. This was the first time Luther was required to travel and answer for  his writings. There was much haggling over a safe conduct. Frederick of Saxony guaranteed his safety. Politically Leo X needed Frederick to be on his side at first to keep Charles of Spain becoming the emperor and once he was emperor to keep Charles in check. Leo wouldn't do anything to damage the trust between them for a mere monk.
Eck was a master debater winning on points instead knowledge. This confrontation the church saw as a victory thinking that Eck defeated Luther by snide remarks, disdain and the point that hurt, comparing Luther to Huss. Many in the Empire had bad memories of the war caused by Huss. A number of the electors took sides against Luther. The general population saw things differently and became strong supporters of Luther. The scholars who were present became followers of Luther, many leaving their homes and traveling to Wittenberg to become students and attend Luther's lectures.
Luther's fame spread, his writings were changing thoughts across Europe, but the Saxon monk tried desperately to end the dispute. He wrote a letter to Leo X, declaring his loyalty to the church. The pope ignored it.

Next post will deal with the ultimate showdown between Luther and the Emperor Charles V.

Martin Luther part 3: Pre-reformers

Before I get into Luther's 95 Thesis, the book I'm reviewing mentions several men who made what Luther accomplish possible.

 Johannes Gutenberg: Without the printing press Luther's words and his challenge would have been only a local matter. Everything that Luther wrote and said was published and distributed through all of Europe. This was the major ingredient in the perfect storm of splitting the Church apart.

Desiderius Erasmus: Erasmus was a humanist, but his writings and work set the stage for the Reformation. He wrote against the excesses of the Church, but careful about getting too far under the Pope's skin. He compiled as many biblical manuscripts as he could find and buy and used them to compile a New Testament. It was these documents that Luther, and the King James scholars used to translate the bible into the vernacular (common language).

John Huss lived in Bohemia, modern day Czech Republic. He was a follower of John Wycliff of England. The Catholic Church of this day was divided between two Popes, the one in Rome and the other in Avignon, France. Alexander V in Rome controlled Bohemia.. Huss preached from Wycliff's writings and fought against Indulgences.
When the Church brought charges against Huss, he was given a Safe Conduct to attend his hearing. After he was condemned the safe conduct was revoked and he was burned at the stake.
His major crime was wanting to translate the New Testament into the Czech language.
Bohemia rose up in revolt and the Pope launched a crusade. A war was fought and the area was allowed to continue to follow the teachings of Huss. The teachings of Huss and the manner of his death would play a significant role in Luther's life and the Reformation.

Girolamo Savonarola lived in Italy and became significant in the city of Florence during the Renaissance. I used to tell my students that every party has an equal and opposite party pooper. The De Medici's ruled Florence and were patrons of the arts to some of the greatest artists of all time. There was money to lavish on splendid mansions and to decorate it with fine art. Quite a party. Then came the pooper: Savonarola was a monk who condemned the Medici's and the Pope for it's corruption and the sin of usury. The common people flocked to his sermons and rioted against the Medici's forcing them to flee for a short time. Condemning the sin of vanity by displaying artwork considered sinful countless masterpieces were piled in the plaza and burned in what he called "The bonfire of the vanities." He also burned people. After a while Alexander VI had enough of him and he was burned.


When Martin Luther posted his 95 theses, the last thing on his mind was defying the pope or breaking away from the church. The pope looked upon this attack on indulgences as a personal attack on his authority, which as the church taught was derived by God and the only the pope speaks for Jesus. Savonarola and Huss were prominent examples of how far Rome would go to preserve it's authority.

The issue--indulgences

Enter stage left the villain: John Diez or Tetzel. He was given the commission by the Church of Rome to raise money in the Holy Roman Empire with indulgences. The purpose was to rebuilt the Basilica of Saint Peter. Tetzel was a con-man of the first mark. He had a traveling troop with guards, wagons of tables, chairs and other props, and casks to be filled with coin. In each village or town he would set up shop in the square and on a pedestal preach that for only a few coins all the people's sins could be forgiven in the past, present and future. He then preached about the pain and agony of their deceased loved ones suffering in Purgatory and if they really loved them they would buy an indulgence for them too.
Here is an example of an indulgence:

May the Lord Jesus Christ have pity on thee ___________ and absolve thee by the merits of His holy passion! And I by virtue of the Apostolical power that has been confided to me, absolve thee from all ecclesiastical censures, judgements and penalties which thou mayst have incurred; moreover, from all excesses, sins, and crimes that thou mayst have committed, however great and enourmous they may be, and whatsoever cause, were even reserved for our most holy father the pope and apostolic see. I blot out all the stains of inability and all the marks of infamy that thou mayst have drawn upon thyself on this occasion. I remit the penalties that thou mayst have drawn upon thyself on this occasion. I restore thee anew to participate in the sacraments of the Church. I incorporate thee afresh in the communion of saints , and re-establish thee in the purity and innocence which thou hadst at thy baptism. So that in the hour of death, the gate by which sinners enter the place of torments and punishments shall be closed to thee, and, on the contrary, the gate leading to paradise of joy shall be open. And if thou shoulst not die for long years, this grace will remain unalterable until thy last hour shall arrive,
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Friar John Tetzel, commissary, has signed this with his own hand.

This backfired on Tetzel once. A Saxon nobleman mentioned he wished to take revenge on someone and wondered if an indulgence would let him get away with it. For 30 pieces of silver he was given an indulgence. As Tetzel was leaving the city the nobleman and his retainers beat Tetzel and stole his chest of coin. When Tetzel took him to court the man pulled out his indulgence and was set free.

Numerous princes and electors in the empire were dismayed at the fleecing of their peasants and draining their economy dry, but felt powerless against the Church.

Enter stage right the hero: Marin Luther.

Wittenberg was only four miles from the border, so many of the people in the area bought indulgences. While hearing confessions Luther encountered a problem. After the person confessed he told the person they must stop what they were doing. 'Sin no more.' The person then replied, I don't have to I have an indulgence.

Luther was incensed at this immoral document which would allow people to commit crimes and go unpunished and led them to believe they would go to heaven purchased by a few coins.

This is what decided him to challenge the doctrine of indulgences. When he left the steps of Pilate's staircase (mentioned in previous post). He broke with penance and indulgences for salvation. For the just shall live by faith, became his focus of salvation.
He wrote down his 95 theses and nailed them to the doors at the cathedral of Wittenberg. All 95 articles attacked the doctrine of indulgences. That was his focus, he did not want to split the church. He did want to challenge the Pope's authority. He wished to debate the issue and hoped by this to end such an evil practice.

My next post will cover the different councils Luther attended on the issue. 

500 years ago, how the world changed

Recently I've read this commentary on Martin Luther. It's only partly biographical as the author expounds and embellishes on Luther's thoughts. It is insightful.
Over years of teaching World History and as the Reformation is a chapter in the book; mention is always made of Luther and his break with the church. Indulgences were mentioned as well as Tetsel who sold them which angered Luther leading to his 95 Thesis. How the Pope and Church reacted which started the Reformation. That's about all a high school text will say.
Being born and raised Baptist, Luther wasn't mentioned much in church or Sunday School. When I went to a Catholic church for my sister's husbands' Christening; I noticed that a number of Luther's hymns were in their hymnal. I still wonder if Leo X is rolling over in his grave.
I began reading this book out of curiosity and put it down a number of times. It was written in French of the year 1846. It's not easy to follow and the guy does ramble on and on about how God was guiding him and making miracles happen for Luther to live past childhood. He recovered from a sword wound where he nearly bled to death and different diseases. At first this was irritating. Once Luther begins his spiritual growth and his writing stirs up lethal opposition, his mentioning God's intervention makes more sense.
Here is a condensation of what enlightenment I've obtained from reading the book. Or what I learned.
1. Luther's road to reformation: while on his sick bed and an aged monk reassured him with the Apostle's Creed where it states "I believe in the forgiveness of sins." It was this simple, yet profound belief that flew in the face of The Churches teaching on penance to work sins out of your life. That got him questioning all he believed.
2. The scripture that was to define his whole theology: Romans 1:17 NASV For in it the righteousness of God revealed from a faith to faith it is written, But the righteous man shall live by faith. [Habakkuk 2:4] Luther's thoughts centered around this truth the rest of his life: The just shall live by faith.
3. Luther's first break with the Church occurred when he visited Rome. As many in his day who visited the city for the first time he was appalled at the wealth and the depravity the priests, bishops and cardinals. While there the Pope offered an indulgence to any who would on their knees go up Pilate's Staircase. While doing this penance to receive absolution from sin, the words: The just shall live by faith, kept repeating in his head. The just shall live by faith. He rose up and walked away leaving the superstition of the Church behind him.
4. Luther's doctrine. This is the condensed version of what he repeated many times: "I...confess this article, that faith alone without works justifies before God; and I declare that it shall stand and remain forever...This is the true and holy gospel, and the declaration of me, Doctor Luther, according to the Holy Ghost. There is no one who has died for our sins, if not Jesus Christ, the Son of God...it is He alone who taketh away our sins, it cannot be ourselves or our works. But good works follow redemption as the fruit grows on the tree. This is our doctrine."

My next post will deal with Luther's battle over indulgences.

Broken a review

I knew Terry Austin for three years at Wayland Baptist College (now University). He used to wax me all over the board in chess regularly. In the past few years we've reconnected by facebook. There are some good things about social media.
I was intrigued when he posted his latest book, pictured left. He has a prologue and epilogue explaining the book. The rest is in the words of Erik Daniels.
Terry explained why he agreed to work with the man who was in essence making a death bed confession of truly horrible crimes. The man was a sociopath. His entire life was pure freudian "id." Terry said he wanted to portray him as a "sympathetic protagonist" similar to Walter White in Breaking Bad. I found sorrow in Erik's life, but not sympathy. In my perspective Erik is an object lesson.
Walter White is fictional. The crimes Erik committed had real life victims. Walter White had a purpose and reason for his actions--to leave money for his family after he was gone. Erik existed only to satisfy his basic needs and he would harm anyone who got in his way.
Erik has a compelling story. I don't want to spoil it by providing too many details. As an object lesson his confession is a window into the mind of a career criminal. Erik sums it up by saying his life was "drinking and using drugs and he financed it by stealing." As crime escalates across our country there are countless Eriks doing the same thing. Knowing why the criminals around you do what they do may provide understanding, but not sympathy.
What I took away from the man's story is understood by "The Pursuit of Happiness."
When one is at the end of his or her life and looking back over his/her time on this Earth, did he or she leave something meaningful behind. Children, grand children, a happy marriage, or did he/she live a life of quiet desperation? Are they content in knowing they've lived a good life or bitter at what they think they've lost or missed?
Erik reached out for someone to guide him in telling his story as he was terminally ill and Terry answered him.At the end of Erik's life he found misery. He only recounts one instance in his life where he felt good about something, and that was when he was a child. In recounting his crimes he felt no remorse, his only concern was not getting caught. It broke my heart to read the hard life he lived as a child. No child should be so abused, but I found no sympathy for him as he embarked on a life of crime.

Death Penalty again

Susana Martinez, our governor, has started the crusade to reinstate the death penalty. When everything in the state is falling to pieces because of her mismanagement this is a convenient way to blow smoke up the electorates tailpipes.
About a week ago when Martinez brought the subject up, to deflect our multi-million dollar budget deficit due to her cutting taxes on corporations. TV polls showed the state split down the middle.
Two days ago a ten year old girl was brutally murdered. It's about as bad as it gets. Three people were arrested, one being the girl's mother. Yesterday in her grandmotherly pose, Martinez in one sentence gave the usual politician's lament about a tragic loss of life and in the next one called for reinstating the death penalty. That day's poll showed 97% were now in favor of the death penalty.The police chief was interviewed and mentioned that four police officers have been killed in the state in the last three years and the need for the death penalty as a deterrent.
I work as a legal assistant. Politically the attorney I work for, he and I, are polar opposites. He voted for Susana. The one thing we are in agreement on is the death penalty.
One of his heroes and friend was an attorney who defended members of a motorcycle gang on death row in the 1980's. His investigation found the man who committed the crime and they were released. The person who committed the crime was not given the death penalty, he didn't even get life.
Naturally in over six years working together this topic has come up many times. When I was writing my Fan Plan Trilogy a sub plot dealt with the death penalty so he gave me invaluable advice.
We both have different reasons to be against it. The one argument against capital punishment we both agree on as the most compelling is found in Scott Turrow's book Ultimate Punishment.
My advice is to get the audio book. The prose is rather dry for reading for more than a thirty minutes at a stretch.
In true Sophist fashion he gives the arguments for both sides on every issue remaining neutral until the last page. All weighing in on this issue should read it.
In researching this book Turrow traveled the world and interviewed politicians and law enforcement in numerous countries for their reasons to have or not have the death penalty.
It was Germany that gives the most compelling of all reasons; when he asked why they don't have the death penalty the person answered: "We will never give the government the right to kill people again."

Seems to me with the nastiness in government going on at local, state and federal levels wouldn't it be nice to take the power to execute people out of their hands. I would definitely never want to see Susan Martinez with this power.

For Gilbert and Sullivan fans

https://ruinedchapel.wordpress.com/2016/05/20/the-very-model-of-a-charismatic-candidate//
Good friend and blogger has an interesting post, if you're a Gilbert and Sullivan fan check it out.

Private Bafoon has a great video

Russ Sype, who I was campaign manager of his Presidential run in 2012 is back to blogging and has some interesting stuff. Check him out. http://privatebuffoon.blogspot.com/

One Phrase Song

A One Phrase Song
By Patrick Prescott

I wrote a one phrase song,
Yes a one phrase song,
No really, a one phrase song.

On the radio all the songs are:
One phrase songs.
On tv song shows they're all:
One phrase songs

That's why I wrote a:
One phrase song
That's right a
One phrase song
Yes a one phrase song
Really, a one phrase song

I'll say it again
A one phrase song.
Everyone sings:
A one phrase song.
Will you sing along on my:
One phrase song?

One phrase song
A one phrase song
One phrase song
A one phrase song

That's all I have is a:
One phrase song
One phrase song
One phrase song
One phrase song
One phrase song

Sing it again, my:
One phrase song
One phrase song...

Farewell to a good blogger

For many years I've blogged with Michael, whenever I left  a comment on his blog he always faithfully left one on mine. Since retiring and turning to serious writing along with facebook I've not blogged very much. Now one of my few blogger friends is shutting his sight down. It's a shame as blogging was great in it's heyday. You could truly speak your mind and others would either support it or discuss it a few trolls crept in from time to time, but it was a wonderful sharing of minds. Michael, you will be sorely missed. Live long and prosper my friend.

Casca books

A long long time ago while teaching summer school the bookcase in the teacher's room had this book. I read it and was hooked. I bought and read all 22 books in the series before the author Barry Sadler died. He wrote the first four books and turned the others over to ghost writers.
Casca is the Roman soldier who stabbed Jesus on the cross. The gimmick used here is that Jesus curses Casca Rufio Longinus to never die until He comes again. This makes him immortal and he is a mercenary throughout the last two thousand years of warfare. From ancient Rome, the Vikings, Chin, the Mongols, to the present day. Each book takes you to a different part of the world and covers most of world history. There is meticulous detail concerning the commanders, strategy, tactics and weaponry on each battle.
Casca also has a group of radical monks who know about him and cause him grief. They cut off his hand and he's able to sew it back on and it works good as new. He dies a number of times in each book and no matter what he comes back to life.
When I was teaching middle schoolers I found girls didn't need much encouragement to read. All books written for this age group are designed for girls. The publishers for the most part won't accept a manuscript written for boys. A few exceptions are The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton and of course the Harry Potter franchise, but even those books are written by women.
It is really hard to get boys around the ages of 12 to 15 to read outside of what's required. This is called Alliteracy. I tried getting the boys to read a number of the books I liked at that age. Edgar Allan Poe was too hard vocabulary wise. Those rascals wouldn't go more than a few pages into Mickey Spillane. Then I hit pay dirt with Casca books.
I scoured all the used book stores in town picking up as many copies as I could get to put on the SSR book shelf and a number of the boys who boasted at the beginning of the year that they've never read a book, finished that year getting through two or three of them.
The beauty of Casca books in that they only take me around six hours to finish. For slower readers, like middle school boys it takes longer, but the light at the end of the tunnel is brighter.
After Barry Sadler's death the series stopped at 22. Over the years I picked up a couple of books on tape or CD at truck stops. I image they'd be popular with truckers. Eventually I downloaded all 22 books on tape to my computer and still enjoy listening to them at the gym while I'm trying to break a 20 minute mile on the treadmill. I used to run it in less than 4:30, those were the days.

Then to my delight I found that another author, Tony Roberts,  has picked up the Sadler mantle and has started writing new ones. He follows the tried and true formula. His books pick up with volume 25, I don't know about 23 and 24. He's now into the 40's and thanks to Amazon Prime I've been able to read them on my trusty Kindle for free, just have to send them back when through.
For my faithful readers who would like a quick read in an historical setting, lots of fighting and tragic love stories to escape this world give Casca a try.

For more information about the whole Casca series go to the Wikipedia page.

Private Buffoon is back

I'm glad to report my long time friend who got married and dropped off the face of the Earth is back to blogging. Check him out here

Balloon Time

The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta will start a week from this Saturday. Ballooning is big business in our little city. Naturally living here for over 40 years with them filling the sky year round, many of them flying over my house and landing in the lot behind me, we had to go up. Balloon rides started at $200.00 a person in the 1990's, not sure how much they are now. With a family of four that's a chunk of change.
Fortunately at the school where I was teaching a fellow teacher was a balloonist and he invited the family to a ride.
The first time we went up with Blair it was a clear day, no clouds and the wind was from the Southeast at around 3-5mph perfect for ballooning. The principal of our school was also invited. She was a harsh taskmaster, but when it came time to enter the gondola she grabbed my arm with a look of sheer fear and said, "Pat, what am I doing?"
The flight was flawless. We went up about two thousand feet in a matter of seconds and then he brought us down over the mesa spotting some large sagebrush. Blair calls them his brakes. We landed and waited for the chase crew and the others going up for a ride. Wife and kids went up next. In all the flight lasted less than five minutes, but it was thrilling. What I intuited without Blair saying anything was the first thing pilots do as they go up is look for a place to land.  Principal was grateful to be on solid ground again. From that time on until she retired we were good friends.
After Blair lifted off, landed, took on another load of passengers; it only held four at a time, and all went up once, we folded up the envelope, did the "Bun's on" by sitting on the envelope as it was packed into the gondola. We did the balloonist's ceremony of getting champagne poured on our heads and drinking a toast. All in all a very pleasant morning and something to savor. My daughter was around six or seven at the time and she still remembers the experience.
The second time was the next week. Blair was putting in hours for experience before the balloon fiesta. It was another perfect day only the wind was from the Northwest and blew us to the river. Principal sat out this day. I was in the first flight again and as we drifted across the bluff at the river's edge he tried to do a "Splash and Dash" where you descend to the river, splash down and lift off. With large cottonwoods on both banks of the river it's not as easy to accomplish as it looks on TV with helicopters videotaping the balloons doing during the fiesta. We tried to splash down, but about twenty feet above the ground the wind shifted from Northwest to East. He lifted up and tried three times and gave up. We drifted over the river and into the North Valley part of the city. Not a lot of places to land on a good day, but with tricky winds at ground level even more difficult. He spotted a lumber yard and headed towards it. Again just as we got close to the ground the wind shifted and it took up out of the yard towards the twenty foot chain link fence with concertina wire on top. I expected he would go back up, but he kept going down and I grabbed on to the two others as they grabbed on to me while we saw the razor sharp wire coming closer and closer. I envisioned it slicing through the basket like hot butter and didn't want to think what it would do to flesh. We bounced off and landed safely on a street.
Blair tethered the balloon taking the others up and down. A few neighborhood kids came to watch and he took them up too until all out of propane.
We went to the fiesta that year to crew for Blair, but he had twice as many volunteers as needed. We've never gone up again and at least I've never felt the urge for another flight.

Issue for comments

There's a blogger I read regularly named Samantha. She's liberating herself from purity culture, the most virulent of Christian fundamentalism. Most of the time I sympathize with her, understand where she's coming from having briefly flirted with fundamentalism as a teenager, fought it at a Baptist college and seminary and lived through the takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention by thieves in sheep's clothing.
One thing we have in common is that we can't find a regular church where a free exchange of ideas is permitted and have resorted to attending a small house church.
I rejoice that she and many of her commenters are fleeing the patriarchy and rape culture it breeds and mind control of religious tyrants. She's had a hard life and even harder effort to build her future while maintaining her belief.
HOWEVER
This post left me shaking my head. Please read.

I don't want to reply to it in this post, but welcome comments for a discussion there.

74 copies

From August 26 through the 30th I did a promo on Optimus. It was free as an e-book on Amazon. On fb I said I would mail a free printed copy for the first three reviews on Amazon.
74 copies were downloaded and I'm waiting for the reviews.
It's nice to know my work is out there and being read.
The deal still stands on the first three reviews and the e-book is only .99 regular price.

Madonna Diaries

S. S. Bazinet is a fellow writer here in town and graciously let me read her book. The problem with a book like this is were I to add more than what I say below it would spoil the story.

 

This story is in the horror genre which lends background, but it's mostly about the family relationship between twin brothers. One brother is bitten and will turn into a monster, nebulous whether vampire or zombie, not really important. The other brother fights to keep him alive even to the point of sacrifice. 

The story is paced from start to finish keeping the reader guessing concerning each new revelation of the family dynamic. Looking forward to more from Bazinet.

Around the House

Blogger friend Michael Manning had a post with stuff he has around the house and challenged his readers to do the same. Thought I'd try it.

The painting is by my spiritual twin, Anne Littlewolf. The little tiny specs in front of the treeline are cows. The two Nambe ware candy dishes were retirement gifts from APS. One for Dad and the other for Mom. The Nambe platter was from the secretaries union on her retirement. Hard to see but there are two amber oil lamps on the outside and two amber candlesticks on the inside. Mom has a barrel full of amber glass and that is what I chose to keep. When she goes into independent living in a couple of weeks I have no idea what I'm going to do with all that other amber glassware.

From 9th grade, (city champ in 660 yd dash) the running statue on the left until my junior year in college I accumulated a number of trophies. The biggest one for being state champ in the mile is hidden behind the center knobs. Wife and I used to bowl in a church league and we accumulated a number of trophies there as well. Arthritis ruined a good form of exercise.
Under the trophies are the beginning of a complete set of Great Books, given to me by my client to help with research on stories. He needed room in his bookcase, and now I do too.

What can I say, I'm a BS Cowboys fan (before Staubach). My heroes were Don Meredith, Don Perkins and Bob Lilly. The ice bowl game was the greatest ever played even if Lantz Rentzel missed the game winning touch down pass as time ran out. I still haven't forgiven Jerry Jones for firing Tom Landry the way he did and never will.

When first married wife worked as a secretary for a real estate company. The company gave oil paintings to customers when they bought a home. The company disbanded and wife was given her pick of the remaining paintings. She picked this one. It's forty years old, but it's still nice to look at.

Father-in-law worked at the Lincoln/Mercury dealership in Albuquerque for 35 years. From the late 50's into the 90's as parts manager. The owner gave him this set of commemorative glasses in the year the Mercury Cougar hit the market.
Going through all their estate after my in-laws passed away my brother-in-law asked what I wanted. This was it.

Smokey is not only around the house he's all over the house and under foot.

The other animal all over the house.
To all my other blogger friends why don't you try this.