D-Day

65 years ago today was one of the most important days in the history of the world...it literally helped decide the course of history.

Let's never forget the Greatest Generation who defined that day...and made today possible.

Happy Birthday to The Duke.

In many ways, it's appropriate his birthday is here the day after Memorial Day.

Some great men only come along once in a lifetime.

Other greats only come to us once in History.

Whether you like him or not, whether you believe in him or not, there's no denying it.

He was one of a kind.

Happy Birthday, John Wayne. :)

Dancing on a cloud...

That's honestly what I feel like doing right now! :)

I can't go into why, but it involves a dear friend, and I want to keep their business exactly what it should be: private. But it's a dear friend who has been having trouble I couldn't truly appreciate without being in their shoes...but my friend is getting better, and I just wish I could do something to improve things even further by, oh, a THOUSAND times.

My very best to you, my friend!

Again, about "HELL KNIGHT"

TO YOU, THE GENTLE READER:

The setting of "HELL KNIGHT" is in the heart of a nation known by its citizens as God's Country. The United States of America. It is in the heart of this nation a secret war is about to explode between the mortal and the immortal...

At the core of the conflict is a warrior who will come from the shadows...from a realm of indescribable, unspeakable nightmares. A realm where only evil reigns. And she can make many things possible.

Her mission will be unknowable to the mortal world, but she will have mortals serve her. They will be her army...they will kill and die for her. Her enemies are equally mysterious in their purpose, but they are monstrous. Vile beyond belief.

And they are legion.

This much the world will know...

By the sharp blades of her swords, she will make blood flow like a river.

But a detective in the heart of God's Country, haunted by her past, will become obsessed to understand the truth...understand why the bloody chaos is happening.

The truth will be beyond anything she can imagine.

It is a truth that threatens to change everything.

The truth will force a mortal detective to follow a relentless, ruthless warrior from another realm into the darkest of shadows.

Both will find an unexpected, shared destiny.

But in the end, only this warrior from another realm can do everything in her unworldly power to deny the change her enemies threaten to bring.

She will become the only hope for the mortal world...in spite of one extraordinary fact.

She came from Hell.

She is the Hell Knight.

GENTLE READER, TAKE WARNING:"HELL KNIGHT" is for MATURE READERS ONLY.This novel depicts extraordinary violence, mature languageand situations, and sexual content.

Want to know more?

In fact, would you like to know where you can read the first three chapters of this novel free online? You don't have to sign or log in to squat. All you have to do is go here at Yahoo! GeoCities...

http://www.geocities.com/hellknightnovel/index.html

If you enjoy the first three chapters of this 483-page novel, then just go to www.lulu.com to find out more, or go directly to these links for the eBook or softcover deluxe-size softcover...

eBook: http://www.lulu.com/content/1067597

paperback: http://www.lulu.com/content/1044061

One of the biggest pains in the butt...

For me, that is, is that a writer must write about what he knows...and when he doesn't know, he learns one way or the other. That means losing time I could use to do other things. Things like writing in this blog sometimes, dammit. :(

I did a lot of research and fact-finding for "Hell Knight", my first book, and for all of the stories I'll ever write. If I hadn't accepted that long ago, I'd be an idiot. But it's different now...my next planned "Hell Knight" book has been diverted to a side track because I've found myself jazzed up with the idea of a very different story. Except this time I have to dig for historical dirt, and a lot of it.

Why?

I can't say much at the moment, except it will involve Steampunk...and a very different history from the one we know and have to live with, whether we like it or not.

There will be more to come as the weeks and months pass, though! ;)

There is only ONE way to respond!

This being an increasingly politically correct world, we've had some strange back and forth online between people about Somali pirates. Many of us, for example, want to be correct as all blazes and say the pirates are 'just trying to survive because they're suffering from poverty' or something oh so cute and compassionate. We're talking about pirates, all right? Johnny Depp with mascara is one thing...this is reality, where hijacking ships and taking prisoners isn't romantic OR entertaining.

And people have been responding appropriately, with deadly seriousness. Our forces of law and order aren't looking at pirates any differently than they do terrorists when hostages are taken. To hell with negotiation. If the good guys get the chance and have a clear shot with a sniper rifle, the bad guy will go down before an innocent hostage does.

And this just in, something new has entered the mix. The Italian cruise ship Melody was about to get boarded by attacking pirates today, but an Israeli private security force posted on the ship to protect it fired back and drove the attackers away. And there's a controversy about it. Some are saying it's a good thing for ships to fight back and defend their passengers. Duh! But some say that the fact that the crews of law-abiding ships are arming to defend themselves will make things worse and make the pirates more violent.

Here's my message to all of you who think that...you've got a yellow stripe going up your back.

The situation is simple. Pirates are hijacking ships. Pirating is criminal. The pirates like to take hostages for ransom. Whether things get more violent or not isn't exactly something in our control. It was in the pirates' control to be law-abiding or criminals in the first place, and they made the wrong choice.

We need to make the right choices and not worry about what MIGHT happen or any damned MOTIVATION on the part of the pirates. The forces of law and order aren't supposed to be kind and gentle with pirates. The forces of law and order have only one response to hostage-taking criminals, and that's to respond appropriately and decisively, and when necessary with deadly force. In other words, FIGHT BACK! And when a ship is attacked by pirates, again, fighting back and not letting the pirates get what they want is the best thing and the smart thing!

Savvy?

Favorites of a Video Game Geek #1: WOLFENSTEIN

I'm a gamer. I'm not shy of admitting it. Here is the start of another semi-regular series of blogs, like the Women Warriors installments!

Some of you might not have even been born before the early 1990's...the World Wide Web was launching, the U.S. played bodyguard for Kuwait by kicking Saddam Hussein's ass for the first time, and mobile phones were so big if you tried to hit a person in the head with one you'd be charged with attempted murder. A computer game came along in 1992 for MS-DOS that, while not exactly groundbreaking, became insanely popular as well as highly offensive to a very vocal few. The game was "Wolfenstein 3D", the game that put first person shooters on the video game map forever.

Broken down into shareware 'episodes', "Wolfenstein 3D" was as straightforward a game as you can imagine. The gamer is put in the combat boots of an American soldier killing Nazis in WWII and must navigate through a maze of castle halls to make a great escape. However. People were already getting correct even in the early 90's, and a big huff was raised. Wait, you must be asking, what's to object about? The object of the game is to kill Nazis! Well, even in "Wolfenstein 3D's" highly pixellated day, the results of shooting Nazis and their guard dogs and uber-nasty bosses was always gory. Protests and negative reaction came in because of Nazi imagery and...because digital dogs were being shot.

Once again. The bad guys are Nazis...what's wrong with killing 'em and the dogs they send to fetch your entrails?! Good grief!

Thankfully, in spite of the oh-so-correct nonsense, "Wolfenstein 3D" became a best seller and set the standard for FPS games in the future. The company that made it, id Software, became successful and soon made another game that put correct noses out of joint called "Doom". I have both "Wolfenstein 3D" and its 2003 sequel, "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" for the PS2 and the Xbox. A new installment is supposed to be released this year, and I'd love to get it...if I can afford a current-gen system when the time comes, dammit!

I still don't get why some would freak out over shooting a virtual Nazi...I might as well be stepping on a cockroach -- !

Uh-oh, speaking of 'incorrect'...if an animal lover is reading this, I'm in trouble! ;D