A DOGGONE SHAME

 

I always enjoyed Gatlinburg, especially when we could make it there on the 4th of July. There were parades and other activities that were a little different from those in your hometown. My wife and daughter had gone into a shop that specialized in ‘Ugly Gifts for Your Friends at Home,’ so I decided to wait outside and watch a group of middle school kids marching past playing their version of the National Anthem. I was dressed in my usual vacation clothes; hiking boots, a pair of worn Livi jeans, and a T-shirt. There was a motorcycle club in town and they were sporting their ‘colors’ despite the fierce heat. I walked down the street a short distance to where a roof jutted over the sidewalk and offered a little shade. Two women came strolling past dressed in their Sunday best, looking elegant but slightly out of place among the casually dressed tourists. I wondered if they were going to the mid-week prayer service at one of the local churches. They stopped beside me and were looking through the window at the display. I had glanced at it when I first stopped and assumed it was a bearskin rug. They had leaned their foreheads against the glass for a closer look, when one of them came out with a loud oath that would have made the sailors in the 7th fleet blush. I turned and took a second look and found myself looking into the soulful eyes of a large brown dog. At this point, both women were cursing, throwing threats and epithets right and left. “I’m going to gut that sorry sonof . . . A fat kid in the marching band gave a loud toot on his tuba and I missed the rest of what she had started to say. “I’ll gut him, I swear I will gut him!” she shouted as both women ran through the door into the shop. I took one more look at the sad, brown eyes of the dogskin rug and scampered down the street to the shop where my wife and daughter were shopping. I leaned against the hot brick wall beside the door. It wasn’t nearly as hot there as I remembered.

Writers are always looking for review sites. Reviews are after all the engine that drives much of an authors success. Check out this one and see what they have to offer. It is called reedsy. I hope you find what you are looking for.

https://reedsy.com/discovery

I am always interested in information that will help another writer. Here is a booklet that is aimed at freelancers. I hope this will give some of you the information you need to advance your career. Click on the link below.

https://www.websiteplanet.com/blog/ultimate-guide-to-being-a-freelancer/

ABRAHAM'S BONES VIDEO

Suspense, Romance, Politics, and the clash of religion in the Middle East.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYwDp0_0RQA&NR=1&feature=endscreen

BOOK REVIEW OF THE CUTAWAY

By suspense author Christina Kovac

There are few writers who are capable of turning out a good novel at first try. I suspect that the success of this book is the fact that Kovac is familiar with her subject matter, which is broadcast news. All of the characters in this thriller are believable. They sometimes react in ways that aren’t predictable, which keeps the attention of the reader riveted on the plot. Most thriller novels are ‘whodunits,’ but this one also has a ‘whydunit’ element woven carefully into the plot. Readers will find themselves chasing through buildings, darkened streets, and strategy meetings trying to find out the identity of the perpetrator-- and if that isn’t enough, we are treated to a very real situation where people have failed to realize their best potential. Love, jealously, rage, and vengeance all play a part in this story. If you like thrillers, mystery, suspense, and a darn good story, you are going to like this book. I give it a solid 4-star rating. You are going to like ‘The Cutaway.’ Grab a copy at your first opportunity.

WHO CREATES TV COMMERCIALS AND ARE THEY SERIOUS?

Some TV commercials are works of art. They amuse us and some are too cute for words. It seems that the worse, most annoying ones are played and replayed for most of our lifespan. I love the Breath Right commercial where the little girl is videoing her mother who is in bed with a cold. I also love the dog commercials. My least favorite is the Liberty Mutual commercial where the young student tells about a automobile named Brad that is totaled in a wreck. Everything is terrible until Liberty calls and ‘you break into your happy dance.’ While I don’t like this commercial, I was surprised at so many other people hating it. One aspiring critic said that the young woman in the commercial was a student at the University of Michigan. As he expressed it, he would like to carry her out on a date to a hair stylist and “have them teach her how to use a curling iron on her damned old hair.” That was a little too blunt for my taste, or maybe not. They do this in our living rooms so we should have a say regarding what they annoy us with. Some commercials rank up there with a Whoopee Cushion in the wrong chair at a state dinner. I have been good since I found out that Santa Clause was “Making a list and checking it twice.” Come on, guys. Try to do better with your ads. The elf on a shelf is watching you too.

I HATE OUR NEW OVEN

One of the things I learned as a computer programmer was not to get carried away with all of the bells and whistles. There are too many programmers today that would install a computer on a claw hammer if someone in management gave them a wink and a nod. One of the many features on our new oven was a feature where a Jewish person could program the oven ahead of time so it would turn on and off on the Sabbath in compliance with their datary laws. I’m not Jewish, so none of this helps me in any form or fashion. It is just one of the useless features that I have to work around in order to use the oven. The list seems endless. All I want an oven to do is start as soon as I select the temperature and cut off when I hit the stop button. No such luck with this appliance. You would have to hit more keys than it would take to write a letter to grandma explaining why your son decided to marry that snooty looking cheerleader from Auburn instead of a wholesome looking girl from the University of Tennessee. I can handle complexity when I need to, but why muddy up the pond when all you want to do is cook a biscuit.

City of Bones

by Michael Connelly

I don’t know how I missed City of Bones by Michael Connelly for so many years. I am a Connelly fan and as far as I know I have read all the others. There are far too many books today that have a boring sameness to them. By the end of the first chapter you know what is going to happen, which is often nothing, and you have to yawn your way through a couple of hundred more pages to the end. Connelly keeps you guessing from page to page. The characters are usually different from anyone you know, but are surprisingly real. I you haven’t read any of Connelly’s books, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You need to grab City of Bones and find a good seat because you are likely to be there until you reach the last page. It is a darn good read and it will keep you entertained.

https://www.amazon.com/City-Bones-Harry-Bosch-Novel-ebook/dp/B000FA65L8/

Researching your novel: How much is too much?

I search through my bookshelves occasionally, finding books I read and enjoyed many years ago. A few days ago, I ran across a book by one of the top suspense writers and remembered how much I enjoyed it twenty-five years ago. At that time in my life, I was involved with computers, writing some of my own software and buying too many gadgets. Computers offered some exciting possibilities for writers, and most of us couldn’t wait for all of those wonderful things to arrive in the marketplace. At that time, we knew there were many ideas being considered regarding operating systems. Computers were complicated, and we needed a way to make them intuitive where you could throw the manuals aside and get to work creating a bestselling novel. In this particular book, a cutting-edge company invented a device that operated somewhat like a treadmill. You walked on rubber balls down a virtual hallway wearing a pair of goggles that showed an office-like environment with file cabinets on the walls. You could open any drawer and browse through the information. It was a very clunky system that would require a lot of expensive hardware, but fascinating at that time. Computers quickly advanced beyond this concept to what we have today with Google, the Internet, and digital drives. Reading the book now, it is slightly amusing, and it is hard not to laugh at some of the passages. It is very easy for a writer to get caught up in the same trap. Regardless of how careful you research any situation, technology moves in unexpected directions because of unforeseen developments. Young people today are amused at 8-track tapes, cassette recordings, and CD storage. I research endlessly when I am writing, and you should too, but don’t write yourself into a corner explaining cutting-edge developments that will be outdated in a year or two. I have made this mistake, and it can make your wonderful book outdated a long time before it should be. A good book can be relevant for centuries, and it should be if it is carefully written. Happy writing and have a wonderful day.

    

AN ALTERNATE WAY OF DOING THINGS

There was a story on the evening news last night that made me squirm. I wasn’t listening until they were well into the story so I don’t remember the names, but the story went something like this. A well-known baseball player died. One of his fans asked the family for some of the ball player’s ashes so he could do something to honor his memory. The family complied with his request and gave him some of the remains. His idea was to scatter some of the ashes at various ballparks around the nation. He couldn’t gain access to the playing field, so he had to work out a plan. It finally occurred to him that it wasn’t necessary to gain access to the field. Instead, he went into the bathroom and sprinkled some of the ashes into the commode, then flushed it. The ashes were carried into the field lines and thus became a part of the playing field. I don’t know about you, but I have a different opinion of how to honor a fallen comrade. While there are a few people who probably need to be flushed, well --- I won’t go into that.

FORGOTTEN

A new romance/suspense novel

by

Joe Prentis

I wouldn’t knowingly start any novel if there wasn’t a romance involved in the plot. Who could ever forget Les Miserables, Gone with the Wind, or Anna Karenina? In other books, the love interests might be more subtle. You will find love stories intertwined in the main plot in most suspense novels. James Patterson does it well, and even the most hardened prison stories have romance in some fashion. It might be a long ago high school romance, but if it is worth reading, it is there, and even more poignant because it is often intertwined with anger and hate.

I don’t like what some people call romance, which is nothing but thinly disguised porn. You know the kind of story I’m talking about. The guy enters the laundry, says hello to a girl standing by the washers, and almost immediately they are on the folding table trying to increase the world’s population.

The most important question an author can ask is: ‘what do the characters want?’ That can involve many things, but the most important is love and to be loved in some fashion or the other.

‘Forgotten’ is such a story. Amber is lonely, so shy that she has almost no friend except Emily, and a driving desire to have a career as a singer. Her mother has died two months before her graduation from USC, and she has no relationship with her father except for an occasional visit from him. Who is Robert Fitzgerald, she has always wondered, or more important is the question of what he is. Her father is suddenly in her life again, showering her with gifts and offers to help her find the career she wants. But does she dare let down her defenses long enough to establish a relationship with him? Despite her reservation, her life is suddenly out of control, and she finds herself in a turbulent situation that both excites and frightens her.

Don’t miss Forgotten. It will be released on Amazon Kindle this week at the introductory price of 99¢. 

NEW RELEASE COMING ON AMAZON ON  MARCH 18th.

Lost and found is a collection of short stories by Maria Savva about ordinary people living ordinary lives, torn apart by regret, remorse, and deceit. We are all stumbling through life together.

What makes us betray a loved one? Can isolation lead to irrational behavior? Why do other people's lives look more appealing?

Here are some of the stories you will find in Maria's book:

A Different World: A young man finds friends in the most unlikely place.
An Innocent Man: Will Oliver face a prison sentence for something he didn't do?
Boomerang: A single mother wants her old life back, but will her prayers be answered?
What's Left Unsaid: When one lie leads to another.
Office Gossip: What happens when a handsome new male boss starts work in a female dominated office?
Birthday Boy: Will Victor get away with his lecherous behavior?
Happy Anniversary: Les is unhappy in his marriage but things take an unexpected turn.

 http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Found-Maria-Savva-ebook/dp/B01BX7Q6HE