Goin’ Nuclear

Posted on December 7, 2013 by admin

A story of mine made it into a new anthology:

Check it out: http://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-Town-USA-Adam-Millard/dp/1494346893/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386431575&sr=1-1&keywords=nuclear+town+usa

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Dachau

Posted on November 29, 2013 by admin

The trains arrived here and offloaded:

You were marched through here:

because Arbeit Macht Frei, as it still says on the ironworks.

Here you were separated:

If you were sent to the right, you got a bunk:

and a communal bathroom:

in one of the barracks, of which only the foundations are left:

If you were sent to the left, then you marched down this pleasant, linden-lined boulevard:

to this building:

where you were stripped naked preparatory to a shower:

of Cyklon B:

They stacked your body here:

Burned it here:

and disposed of your ashes here:

Posted in Travels | 1 Comment

Another reason to live in Ulm

Posted on November 21, 2013 by admin

In Ulm, you don’t go to the bar, the bar comes to you.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kkwdnb7wl1nam0w/2013-10-05%2008.52.12.avi

 

Posted in Travels | 1 Comment

I want to live here

Posted on November 10, 2013 by admin

Ulm.

The Blue, from a shop window located next to it:

The tallest steeple in the world:

I thought Ulm was on the Danube, but my sister said it was on the Donau. Or Doner. Or something like that:

One tipsy step, and the Blue is sweeping you into the Danube. Or Donau. Doner. Whatever:

Man.

Posted in Travels | 3 Comments

The Adventures of Gracie the Wander Cat: Ten bucks and a can of tuna

Posted on October 27, 2013 by admin

This Russell issue is getting out of hand. I mean, look at the guy, sittin’ out there like he owns the place:

He’s really gettin’ on my nerves:

So off I went  to see the Wild-uns over there in the woods. They gave me the usual crap about being a sell out and going all soft and yeah, yeah, shut up, let’s get down to business: ten bucks and a can of tuna to do something about Russell. Steep, but what else could I do? Gettin’ the ten bucks wasn’t that hard and you should have heard that Krauss guy running around the house accusing everyone of raiding his wallet. Don’t leave it on the nightstand, idiot. Gettin’ the tuna can out of the cupboard and rolling it across the street was much tougher but you do what you gotta do. The Wild’uns thanked me and said, tonight.

So, about 9 o’clock, Russell is out there on the street washing his face or something when who shows up?

Mittens, the baddest of all the Wild’uns. I once saw him take on a Shih Tzu and a dachsund at the same time and beat them both.

Russell is toast!

Mittens says something about Russell’s Mom (who he says is my Mom, too, but I don’t see it), and Russell doesn’t like it:

Next thing I know, the two of them are out there in the woods having at it. I couldn’t see what was happening, but I sure could hear it (turn it up loud!):

DSCF1932

Oh, man! Russell is toast!

So, next day, I’m out on the lawn feeling pretty good:  

When I hear some noise and look over at the bushes and there:

Russell. Unscathed. “Nice try,” he says, and walks away.

Should get that can of tuna back.

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Tomb Stories: Old Cemetery, Bockingen, city of Heilbronn, Germany

Posted on October 20, 2013 by admin

German cemeteries are a little different than ours. This one is located down a little gravel road:

which is a bit off-putting, but, once you clear the gate:   you see this:

   

Nice. The Germans really take care of their plots, putting in new plants and washing the tombstones. There’s even cisterns for that purpose:

German tombstones are works of art:    

These graves are like Porsches:

Incidentally, Edward Carr, up there in the Zawada plot, is the only American buried here. He’s a retired US military ex-pat who my family knew well. Every Veteran’s Day, the American Legion places an American flag on his grave, which must be a bit jarring to the locals, especially given this:

  The World War 1 Memorial and graves of  Bockingen’s dead. And this:

 

The mass grave of the people killed during the September 10, 1944 bombing of the Bockingen train station. Which is right outside my mother’s house. The only reason she, my aunt, and my grandmother survived was the bombs missed the station and fell on the neighborhood behind the house. Results are here:  Entire families wiped out. But, I am not sympathetic. And when I upload the pictures of Dachau, you won’t be, either.

My grandparents, my uncle, and my uncle’s wife:

Another uncle:

Seem to be a lot of people in one skinny plot, and family members scattered hither and yon, hey? Well, that’s due to German cemetery policy. See, you buy a plot, but you only get to keep it for 30 years or so. It gets offered for sale again after that time, and, if there are no remaining family members willing to re-buy it, then your tombstone gets taken up and your plot covered over, and the bodies of strangers dumped on top of yours for the next 30 years or so, with no record of you being there first.

How barbaric.

But, hey, Germans.

Posted in Tomb Stories | 1 Comment

Interview of Cat Connor, Author, and President of New Zealand

Posted on October 11, 2013 by admin

Well, she SHOULD be the president of New Zealand. But she is definitely one cool writer who’s got an amazing crime series out that you really, really should be reading:

1.      “Cat” is not a name. Are you in the Witness Protection Program?

WITSEC isn’t a topic that should be discussed. Chances are I’ll disappear. Do you want that? Cat is a very good easy-to-remember name. It’s short for something but I can’t tell you what. See my earlier comment about WITSEC.

2.      Tell us about the ‘Byte series.

The _byte series is a collection of stories about FBI agent Ellie Conway and her team. The series is set predominately in Northern Virginia and Washington DC. They’re fast paced, action orientated, character driven, thrillers. I have so much fun writing this series. Huge fun. I never know where the story will go next and that is really exciting for me.

I do have plans to set at least one of the books here in NZ but that depends on my main character and how willing she is to take a teaching position at Victoria University. Ellie isn’t known for being terribly accommodating to my ideas. She pretty much does what she wants and I follow along and document it.

The series so far, in order and with loglines:

Killerbyte (1st byte)

An FBI agent is taunted by a killer who murders her friends and colleagues. Can she stop him before he kills everyone she ever cared for?

Terrorbyte (2nd byte)

A newly married FBI agent, SA Ellie Conway, investigates a series of horrific homicides that she believes are concealing other heinous crimes.

Exacerbyte (3rd byte)

A grieving FBI agent, SSA Ellie Conway, attempts to find the child trafficking terrorist behind her husband’s death.

Flashbyte (4th byte)

SSA Ellie Conway is the recipient of some unusual mail; meanwhile a terrorist from her past surfaces as she’s trying to find a killer in a hospital, and life gets messy.

Soundbyte (5th byte)

FBI agent, SSA Ellie Conway, investigates the murder of a jeweler and uncovers more than she ever expected, shaking the foundations of at least one federal agency. 

Snakebyte (5.1)

SSA Conway emerges from a tequila-filled haze to rejoin Delta A. While investigating a strangling case, she uncovers a terrifying situation involving fissile material within DC.

Databyte (6th byte)

An FBI agent framed for murder must protect an actor and clear her name while on the run.

(Release early 2014) 

Eraserbyte (7th byte)

As surveillance footage disappears in front of her, FBI agent Ellie Conway tries to piece together the events and people involved to prevent more terror attacks and deaths in Washington, DC.

(Release TBA)

3.      What other books/collections/whatnot do you have out?

I have a two short collections out: Torrent is a collection of _byte short stories and Archive is a collection of my previously published short stories. I’ve also got stories in various anthologies. I love being asked to write for anthologies. It’s different and fun for me.

4.      Other than as a “Lord of the Rings” backdrop, Americans don’t know crap about New Zealand. Explain it to us.

New Zealand is an island nation. It is NOT part of Australia. We are part of the Commonwealth. We have three official languages – NZ English, Maori and NZ sign language. We’re friendly but you don’t want to piss us off (people can disappear down here, never to be seen again). NZ is a melting pot of cultures and ethnicity. Generally speaking we’re open, fun, sporty, creative, and intensely proud of our country. Also we’re fucking good at rugby and we don’t cheat in match races (Dean Barker and the crew of Team NZ are the best yachtsmen in the world).

5.      What’s the difference between Zealanders and Aussies?

Class.

Kiwis are much classier than Aussies. It’s a fact.

Also, Aussies talk funny. Not a fan of any of the variations in the Aussie accent. It’s not at all a sexy accent.

What’s the difference between Canadians and Americans? [DustySkull note: Canadians are American-lite]

6.      How’s the literary scene in New Zealand?

As a writer my view on the literary scene here tends to be clouded by my experience and by the NZ literature I was forced to read at school. It was slow, stifled, and full of literary wanking. Stories about nothing, in which nothing happened.

Joyfully, that’s changing.

There are more genre books out there by kiwi authors now. Actual stories with plenty happening! It is still hard to get published in this country unless you write Sci Fi, cookbooks or books about blokes and their sheds. There is still a required minimum NZ content for most fiction – it’s not enough to be a kiwi author you have to write about NZ. I find that ridiculous because kiwi readers read international stories and authors, we always have. I think that harks back to the boring stories we were forced to digest as kids.

But for readers, things are changing. With eReaders and online shopping we can now enjoy a much wider selection of books and aren’t confined to the books the brick and mortar stores will stock or the books NZ publishers will publish. Paperbacks here retail between NZ$25-45 … that alone makes shopping somewhere like Book Depository very attractive!

7.      What’s your writing process?

This question always amuses me. It implies I give thought to writing and what I’m writing. I don’t. I just write. A question pops into my head, I sit down and write with no idea where it’s going or how it’ll get there. A little bit of blind faith is employed. I write until the story is finished. While I’m working on a story there is always a notebook near me. If I can’t get to my laptop for whatever reason I will write scenes in the notebook. Writing for me is a linear process. Beginning to end. No jumping about. The jumping about and fleshing out of scenes comes after the first draft is finished. At that point I go back and I catch (if I’m lucky) the lazy assed writing and those scenes I skimmed because I just wanted to see what happened next. At that stage I quite often use a huge whiteboard to draw the timeline for various crimes or whatever. My notebook ends up filled with scrawled names and places and notes pertaining to the story line, bits of research, and sometimes photographs of places in the story. Once I’m mostly happy with the story I send it to Action Man’s kindle and my kindle. We read it. We compare notes. I pull scenes out and send them to various experts – this is especially true for medical scenes. Once everyone agrees and the story is as good as I can get it, I send it to Jayne at Rebel. Then the real work begins.

8. What’s the best New Zealand beer, and how do you know?

The best NZ beer … that’s a hard question. We have a lot of excellent beers from the big breweries and then there are the craft beers. I don’t know where to start. As far as NZ beers go, I kinda like Steinlarger but really like Mac’s Gold. How do I know? Experimentation or a misspent youth, depends on your point of view.

Probably wrong to say my actual favorite beer isn’t even a NZ one?

(Corona – with lime or lemon and tequila. So good. So very good.)

9. Tell us about your next project.

My next project is Databyte. Well, it’s not really. It’s the next _byte series book. It’s due out Aprilish 2014. Currently I’m working through Databyte edits with my editor at Rebel. After Databyte comes Eraserbyte, I just finished writing that. I’ll show it to Rebel in a few months. What I am working on is Psychobyte. After deciding this year would be a one book year … having already written a novella and a novel and several short stories, it turns out there was another story that really wanted to be told and I don’t appear to have much of a say in it. I’m also writing 3 short stories for October. I’ll let you know what we’re going to do with them.

10. Where do I get that cool accent?

I don’t have an accent you do. J and I rather like yours.

But if you insist I have one and really want it. Come spend a few years in New Zealand and we’ll try and teach you. It might take a while. The accent you like so much isn’t typical kiwi. It’s what happens when Canterbury, Southland, and Wellington meet in Virginia. Am imagining the expression on your face as you try and figure that out. Does it have something to do with question number 1? You know the answer to that. I’d tell you but  …

 

Cat Connor’s blog: http://catconnor.blogspot.com/

Follow her on Twitter at: @catconnor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cat-Connor/76140493745

Posted in Writing itself | 3 Comments

Erase the Shame

Posted on September 27, 2013 by admin

The newest episode of Losing Cable2 is up and at’em: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMN24FjOZWA&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLxtVMvtRhSPiZmly9REctgvwxPIrSRW0E

Joffrey Charlemagne rides again.

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George Romero on why fast zombies suck.

Posted on September 27, 2013 by admin

If you’ve got another hour to kill (after listening to Malcolm McDowell’s Q&A below), then settle in for this Q&A with George Romero at the recent Monster-Mania. I’ll never respect a fast zombie again.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/102111101/Romero%20Q%26A2.avi

Posted in like movies and TV, Those lesser mediums | Comments Off on George Romero on why fast zombies suck.

Interview with J. H. Bogran, bon vivant and international master spy.

Posted on September 21, 2013 by admin

Okay, he’s not an international master spy. At least, that’s what he says. But he IS an author, his most recent novel, Firefall, can be found on Amazon.

Without further ado:
1. Congratulations on the release of your new book, Firefall! What’s it about?

Why, thanks!

I gotta say, I’ve been called many things in my lifetime, some of them are rated R, but it’s the first time somebody qualifies me as “bon vivant.” Well, at least to my face. 🙂

The release of Firefall is exciting, but hard work. Here’s a brief description of what it’s about:

New York City firefighter, Sebastian Martin, seeks sanctuary in spiraling alcoholic oblivion following the loss of his wife and child in an air crash. Consumed by rage and resentment, directed against his brother and uncle, he takes a last-ditch job in Dallas, Texas, investigating insurance fraud. In his first assignment, Sebastian ends up strapped to a chair facing torture at the hands of a former KGB trainee who enjoys playing with fire on his victims to get answers.

As you can see, the flawed hero seeking redemption got in more than he had bargained for.

 
2. Tell us about your other titles.

My first novel, Treasure Hunt, was published in 2011. Then I have a couple of $0.99 short stories out there. And more recently, I published a collection of short stories titled A Dozen Shorts. The title is kind of a play on words as I work in garment manufacturing making, well, shorts.

3. How did you get started writing?

I began telling lies—excuse me, stories—for amusement. Loved entertaining. Then of course, I developed a slight stage fright and thought it’d be better if I wrote things down. The idea of becoming a novelist took final shape during the 90’s when I took my first tentative steps.

4. What’s your writing process?

I think, therefore I type. Yeah, wish it were that easy.

Since I write both novels and short stories, I have two different processes. For novels, once I settled with an idea, I write down a brief outline, then as more ideas pour in, the outline morphs into a rough chapter list. Then I write the book. Thus begins the love/hate relationship with the chapter list as I keep changing it as a result from the actual writing of the novel.

The process for short stories is simpler, although a bit similar. I don’t sit down and write until I know most of the details and the end of the story. Of course, while writing, a few things change, but in general, I need to know where I’m going.

I tried pantsing a couple of times. Those unfinished stories are still accumulating digital dust in the hard drive.

5. What are some of your Spanish language writings?

Editorial Letra Negra from Guatemala published my novel Heredero del Mal (Heir of Evil), about a grandson from Adolf Hitler. It is set in the year 2000, with all of that Millennium Bug scare playing in the background.

After that I concentrated on writing screen plays. Movies are becoming a budding art form in Honduras these days.

6. Everyone and his brother thinks “magical realism” whenever Spanish authors are mentioned. Does this drive you crazy?

Magical Realism? Never heard of it. Wait, my laptop just levitated a few inches from my desk so now I must type while standing.

It bothers me sometimes because I think we can produce so much more than just that. One of the reasons you’ll see initials in the cover of my works is because we didn’t want potential readers to think the stories were translated from Spanish.

Oh, don’t get me started about how the same dude and his brother ask me about the Soccer War when they learn I am from Honduras.

7. Tela or Roatan, and why?

Why do I have to choose? They both have a unique charm. Considering location and easier access, I’d stay with Tela as it is only a 45-50 minute drive. Roatan means jumping on a plane, or driving about two hours—actually driving by Tela—to reach the city port of La Ceiba, and then take a boat to finally arrive at Roatan. Is it worth the trouble? Yes, it is!

8. Name the three best Centroamerican beers.

Man, that’s a tough one, particularly because there are varied tastes that could appeal to all sorts of customers.

I’ll try to keep it simple: Port Royal from Honduras. Gallo from Guatemala, Victoria from Nicaragua (although Toñita is the most popular), and Pilsener from El Salvador.

I recently learned, and complained, that they are making Heineken in Costa Rica. I found that blasphemous. Worst of all, every time it gets harder to find original Holland-made Heiniken in the local markets! What’s up with that?

 
9. How have those crazy people at Rebel E treated you?

Pretty well, actually. Jayne Southern, the editor, is wonderful. My only complaint is that I had to stand in line while she worked on your book.

10. What are you working on now?

It’s a little mystery, no pun intended.

It deals with a serial killer prowling New Orleans. I’m currently working on the second draft. The original goal was to have it ready by now so I could register in NANOWRIMO and work on the next novel. Didn’t happen. Well, there’s always December.

Author Bio and links:

J. H. Bográn, born and raised in Honduras, is the son of a journalist. He ironically prefers to write fiction rather than fact. José’s genre of choice is thrillers, but he likes to throw in a twist of romance into the mix. His works include novels and short stories in both English and Spanish. He’s a member of the Short Fiction Writers Guild and the International Thriller Writers where he also serves as the Thriller Roundtable Coordinator and contributor editor their official e-zine The Big Thrill.

Website at: www.jhbogran.com

Facebook profile: www.facebook.com/jhbogran

Facebook author page: http://on.fb.me/ZJwEq0

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4307673.J_H_Bogran

Twitter: @JHBogran

Firefall buy links:

Rebel E Publishers: http://rebelepublishers.com/about/our-books/firefall/

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Firefall-ebook/dp/B00F6VYDE2

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/355941

 

Posted in Interviews, Reading itself, Writing itself | 4 Comments