Camelot

We've been watching the TV series Camelot and I must say I am somewhat disappointed. The episode we watched last night was the one where King Arthur accompanies Guinevere to see her dying father. First of all, King Arthur would have never gone onto a journey like that without a few warriors to accompany him. And I found the whole trip without much sense. In one scene we have Arthur and Guinevere lying on furs at night studying the stars. Come on now, how boring can it get? And Morgan, Arthur's sister? I can't make up my mind if she is evil or not. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what is missing, but there seems to be no tension. I am comparing it with the last series we watched 'Game of Thrones'. Now there was a series that kept you on the edge of your seat. I can't wait for season 2 to start. Too bad about Camelot. I expected more, but I'll finish watching the series.

My website

I updated my website Herbert's World. I wish I had a counter on the site, but my website doesn't allow HTML, which means I can't install a counter. I have no idea if anyone actually visits my website, but I keep it updated anyway. Can't do much with it either. It's not even as good as my blog, which has more features. I shouldn't complain though, because my internet provider 'Shaw' supplies it for free. At least I have the option of having many pages, which is something the blog doesn't have.

Epsilon and Death of a Hero

The day has finally arrived. ‘Death of a Hero’, Book One of my contemporary thriller ‘Web of Conspiracy’ is out. I started writing the book in 2006 and it took two years to finish. Originally the title was ‘Tarnished Valor’ and it was supposed to be the novel that would help me break into the print market, but after trying to find an agent for it I gave up. Time was too precious to waste it finding an agent who would take on a new writer. So I decided to have it published electronically. Since it is such a long novel (around 180,000 words) I made it into a trilogy. Book One: Death of a Hero. Book Two: Traitors and Patriots. Book Three: Tarnished Valor. The books will also be available in print.
I enjoyed writing the book because it was something different for me, since I usually write Science Fiction. I needed to do a lot of research on it, since I’ve never been in Iraq and didn’t know anything about the country and its people, aside from what I read in the media. I learned quite a bit about the country and found it interesting. Originally, I didn’t have any erotica it the novel, but since it seems erotica sells better in e-publishing, I wrote some erotic scenes into it, but not as much as I usually have in my other stories.
My second release this month is ‘Epsilon’, Book One of my Science Fiction trilogy ‘Lizard World’, which is part of a planned series ‘The Spider Wars’. Of course, I don’t know when, if ever, I will write another novel in that series, but it is good to plan ahead. My first published book ‘The Xandra, Daughter of the Dark’ turned into a trilogy, and now I wrote three additional books which will be published in 2012, and I already started Book Seven. There may be more to follow.
My shorter novel ‘Outpost Epsilon’ which is also available from Melange Books, was the forerunner of the ‘Lizard World’ trilogy. Each book is written from a different character's viewpoint, but all three stories meld together in Book Three ‘Raptor’s Tooth’.
Epsilon tells the story from Terrex Stonewall’s viewpoint. He was the main character in ‘Outpost Epsilon’. We’ll also meet his friend Will Peters again.
I’ve always wanted to write about a world populated by dinosaurs. Well, Epsilon is that world.
If you are interested in buying the book, please click on Epsilon.
Click on Death of a Hero, if you are interested in my contemporary novel. Or buy both.

The wages of ignorance

Every action carries consequences. Some not so good. A few days ago I discovered bugs on my pepper plants. I have about 60 plants and most of them were infected. I couldn't find any information anywhere, even the garden center nearby didn't know what they were. They suggested I use 'Sevin' to kill them. So I did. I even sprayed the plants with an insect powder. A few days later some of the little critters turned completely orange. Most of them disappeared.
Now my daughter-in-law, who knows bugs, tells me, to my horror and too late, much too late, these invaders were the pupae of ladybugs. Beneficial insects any gardener wants, because they eat those pesky aphids. Why did I act so hastily? Why...why?
This morning I found a few ladybugs on my plants and my spirits lifted a little, but I also discovered many of my pepper plants had shiny leaves, which comes from the excretion of aphids. Now I have aphids on my peppers and I killed off the very little friends I could use right now.
Pupae and adult ladybugs eat aphids. Ignorance is not always a bliss, sometimes it is painful and costly.
Tomorrow morning I will spray my peppers with a homemade remedy: 2 tsp mild dish detergent, 1 tbsp canola oil mixed with 1 spray bottle of lukewarm water. I won't use 'Sevin', because then I'll kill the few ladybugs I didn't kill.

A comment about juggling

I left a comment yesterday at Ann Cory's blog. She writes about juggling your time and chores. Interesting blog. You can find it here http://anncory.blogspot.com/

Check out the comments.

An interview

Today I'm being interviewed by one of my fellow writers Teresa Jones. You can check it out on her blog:
Interview with Herbert Grosshans

Caterpillar of the Monarch Butterfly

The two caterpillars I found a few days ago in my garden disappeared, but this morning I found one wandering in the walkway of my garden, so I took another picture.

My upcoming new release

Book One of my trilogy 'Lizard World' will be available from Melange Books, LLC by the end of this month. Outpost Epsilon was the forerunner to this trilogy. The events in Lizard World take place 15 years after Outpost Epsilon. I always wanted to write a novel about dinosaurs, well, this is the one. Plenty of giant ferocious lizards, hot jungle, intelligent giant ants and bees, and other aliens who want a piece of the planet Epsilon. High adventure and Space Opera. Oh, and let's not forget hot Erotica.

How I survived cutting my lawn with my new John Deere lawn tractor

Cut my grass today with my new John Deere 21 HP Lawntractor. It’s got a hydrostatic transmission, which means no gears to shift. Just like driving a car, well, almost. The brake is on the left side which takes a little getting used to. I almost decapitated myself when I cut the grass under our plum trees. The branches are really low and I have to duck. Now driving with an automatic transmission is quite easy once you’re used to it. Take your foot off the gas pedal and the tractor slows down or comes to a complete stop.
The reverse works the same way. The first tryout of the tractor went pretty good except I misjudged the speed of the reverse and backed right into my van. Fortunately, only the tires of the van and the tractor touched. No damage done there. Driving forward went also quite well with a few rabbit jumps across the lawn.
Coming back to today. When I came close to the plum tree I wanted to slow down but forgot I was on my new tractor. After driving the old tractor for 18 years operating it was second nature. With my old one I had to shift gears manually and when I wanted to slow down I pushed down the clutch petal on the right side. Well, I did that on my new tractor. Except this was not the clutch but the gas petal. Instead of slowing down the tractor jumped forward. Panicked, I pushed the petal even more which sped up the tractor on a collision course with the tree. But since I’m here to write this post means I managed to stop before my throat was pierced by the thorny branch of the plum tree or before the branch decapitated me. Those were a few heart pounding seconds.
Now I’ve had almost 3 hours practice on the tractor and I’m almost in control of it, but I think it will take a few times of cutting the lawn until working with it will become second nature to me.
Maybe it was the heat that slowed down my quick reflexes and fried my brain a little, because it was hot today. The next few days are supposed to get extremely hot. Good to be inside an air-conditioned home.
Last night we went to the movies. Watched ‘Water for Elephants’. It was quite enjoyable. Reminded me of ‘The Notebook’. Not the same movie of course but in a similar mode…a man remembering his past and a love story.

Monarch Butterfly

When I watered my garden this morning I found a couple of visitors on one of my dillweeds. They are caterpillars which will turn into the beautiful Monarch Butterfly. Needless to say I did not disturb them. They are beautiful in their own right.
If you want to have a look at the adult Monarch Butterfly go to this site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch_%28butterfly%29

Canada Day

Yesterday was Canada Day. Didn't do much but watched the fireworks display in Selkirk, like we do every year. Well, this is only our third year since we've been doing it. It was an amazing display again. It is over in about twenty minutes and it takes us longer than that to drive home in all that traffic, but well worth the trouble. We take picnic chairs along,; they are easy to carry and set up. Then we just sit among the other spectators and enjoy the show. The people who run it set up their stuff on the other side of the Red River and it all happens over the water, so there is little danger of potential fires.
It sure is a nice change watching something like that at 11:00 pm where people have fun and are enjoying themselves, especially the young people, instead of watching the evening news and listening to reports about insurgents in Afghanistan blowing themselves up and murdering innocent people or another Canadian or American soldier getting killed while trying to help free the people in that country. Another thing that bugs are the Greeks complaining about not being able to retire at 55 with full pension and having to work more hours to make a living while the country is going bankrupt. One of the demonstrators (a woman) said "we just won't pay back the loans the other countries in Europe are giving us to bail us out." What an attitude. Of course, our postal workers and their union have a similar attitude about retiring at 55 and their 7 weeks paid holiday, while the post office is losing money. Why don't they see the writing on the wall? The mail service is a dying institution. The 'Pony Express' has run its course. People are using email or texting on their phones.
Soon nobody will be using 'snail mail'. The postal workers should be happy they still have a job. Who knows for how long. I didn't have the luxury to retire at 55. I worked past my retirement age, so don't ask me to have sympathy with them. Oh well, got carried away again. Back to my regular writing. I'm at over 50,000 words with my novel (temporary title: Conspiracy) and still waiting for ideas to finish it.
Actually, these last three days I wrote a Paranormal story which I submitted for a contest. The story is 2,750 words long and took me one day to write but a couple of days to whip in shape, which included a little rewriting.