Welcome to my blog

Hello visitors. On my blog I'm talking about my books, but also about what I'm currently working on and, maybe, some other stuff. Browse through my posts and don't forget to check out my older posts in the archives. If you are interested in my books, please, visit my website Fictitious Tales for more information and a few excerpts. Also, take a look at my second blog Herbert Grosshans, where I talk about fun-stuff and things that concern me.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

President Barack Obama

I watched the Inauguration of Barack Obama with a lump in my throat, because I realized that I was witnessing something that would go down in the history books as one of the momentous events in the history of the world. Yes, the world, not just the United States of America. The fact that a black man whose father was not allowed in a restaurant frequented by white people not that many years ago could become the President of the mightiest country in the world was historic in itself, but I believe that President Barack Obama has a greater ambition than just being the most powerful man on Earth. He has a vision that will bring about great changes, not all of them popular with some people. It won’t happen overnight; many people will be disappointed and wonder if they made the right choice when they voted for him, but he has a difficult job ahead of him. There will be those who will try their best to make sure he fails, those whose toes he has to step on, those who want to control him, those who want to keep things the way they are. The greedy and the power-hungry who brought the economy of the world to the gloomy state where it is right now will want him gone. The enemies of the free world want him gone. Not everybody voted for him for their own reasons. Many are afraid to have a black president, afraid of what he might do to upset the status quo. That is the chance you take every time a new president is elected, no matter what his color.
The color of President Barack Obama’s skin should not matter; what matters is his charisma and his vision. Our world is facing an uncertain future and we need men like him. Men who are not afraid to change things, men who don’t abuse the power they have been given by waving a sword in front of them but reach out with an open hand, offering help instead of threats.
Maybe this will usher in a new and better world. Let’s hope so.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Orola, Warrior Priestess

It is finally available from MSFiction: Orola, Warrior Priestess. The book was written in the space of about 10 years. It consists of a number of short stories featuring Orola. She lives on the Island of Witches. She is not quite human and possesses certain abilities. She is a warrior priestess who worships the god Solar who resides on one of the moons circling the planet she lives on. It is a primitive planet, forgotten by the rest of the Galaxy. Orola travels across hostile territories to find out what happened to one of her sisters who was the adviser of the queen in one of the provinces to the north.
The short stories are all connected. They are not about love and romance. They are dark stories, dealing with rape and revenge and contain much erotica. When I originally sent them to my publisher MSFiction I wasn't sure if the book would be accepted. It was, but my editor culled much out of the stories to make them acceptable for publication. I am happy with the way the book turned out.
To find out more about the book visit my website or check out MSFiction for an excerpt.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Changeling

We went to see the movie Changeling. Clint Eastwood did a wonderful job as the director and Angelina Jolie’s performance as the mother whose son disappears is superb. The storyline is set in the late 1920s when women had few rights. What makes it so heart wrenching is the fact that this is based on a true story.
I read the reviews before we went and as usual, some reviews were positive and some negative. This is not a movie for people who love action flicks, because it is not that kind of a movie. Younger viewers probably won’t like it either. There are no gadgets, no ear-deafening endless car chases, no computer generated animation, no mindless fight scenes. This a wonderful movie and I am glad I decided to go and see it, even though it was darn cold outside. This movie touches you heart and leaves you wondering about the awful things Humans are capable of doing to others. There are such few good movies made these days. Changeling is one of those good movies.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Of civilized men and uncivilized mice

Enough of political comments. I’m not really into politics at all, but sometimes there are things that irk me and I need to get it off my chest.
It’s cold outside today…still. Minus 34 Celsius and minus 43 windshield factor. That is damn cold. The same is forecast for tomorrow. Sometimes I wonder if I’m living on a hostile alien planet. How Humans survived in this type of environment is sometimes hard to grasp. Sure, now we live in houses heated in the winter and air-conditioned in the summer, but our ancestors didn’t. The aborigines on the North American continent lived in tents. In the summer they were plagued by mosquitoes and in the winter they had to deal with the extreme cold. The smoke from the fire in the middle of the tent couldn’t have been very pleasant.
We get our streets plowed by huge machines so we can drive in our heated cars, warm and cozy. Those natives had to stomp through high snow. They had no roads. They had no chainsaws or even other saws to get firewood, no augers to drill a hole through the ice to fish or to get drinking water.
What a hard life it must have been!
Of course, it wasn’t any different thousands of years ago in Europe or in the rest of the world. Just think about the primitive people with their weapons made from bones or stones, hiding from lions, tigers and other carnivores hunting for food. And Humans were considered food animals.
Those times fascinate me and I like to write stories about it, set on other planets where I can add my own unique dangers and challenges the people face. That is fine in stories, but actually living in those conditions is not for me. I enjoy going hunting in the fall when I spent a few days in the bush with friends. We hunt deer, walk around in the bush or sit on stands waiting for the deer to come by. It is cold sometimes. At other times it rains. It can be miserable. But we enjoy it. Don’t ask why. We sleep in a trailer or in a van.
After a week of that I am ready to go home to a warm house and a comfortable bed.
There is only so much I can stand of primitive living. Actually, compared to how the primitive people lived, those days in the bush are still quite civilized.
Talk about living in a warm place brings up another matter. There are other critters out there who also seek warm places for the winter. I’ve been busy catching them for the last week. I’m talking about rodents, mice actually. I made the mistake of leaving a bag of birdseeds standing on the floor in my garage. When I noticed holes in the plastic and seeds spilling out of the bag, I knew I had uninvited guests. They even tried to take up residency under the hood of my car. That called for extreme measures.
I bought a couple of mousetraps, baited them with peanut butter in the beginning, but now I’m using small pieces of cheese. So far I’ve caught 16 mice. They are living (sorry, were living) in the wood I have stacked up for my wood stove. It makes for perfect living conditions…for mice. I had no idea there were so many. At first I thought I had only one mouse. How naive can you be? It probably started with one. That one called all its relatives and now I have a tribe. I hope I’ll be catching the last one soon. I always worry they might decide to look for refuge inside the house. Can’t have that.
I’ve been busy with more writing on my novel ‘Epsilon’. 19 Chapters and around 57,000 words so far, but much more to go.
Orola, Warrior Priestess, should be available from MSFiction tomorrow. Finally.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Happy New Year

I can’t believe we are already four days into the year 2009. It’s been nearly a month since my last post. Our political situation has not been resolved, just postponed. The Liberals have a new leader and gained back some popularity and the NDP have lost ground with the general public. People don’t like radicals. Unfortunately, they’ll be rearing their heads again. Leighton has openly admitted that he wants to bring down the Conservative government. No matter what. This time he may not get the support from the Liberals. One can only hope. Right now is not the time to go crazy. The economy is getting worse, even though governments around the world are trying to stimulate the economy by pumping billions of dollars into it.
The autoworkers are fighting for their jobs, but if they don’t make any concessions, they’ll lose them. They’ll never find a job again that pays them that much money. An autoworker makes more money than a professor!
If they want people to buy American cars they’ll have to bring down the price and stop building gas-guzzlers.
I know our next car will probably be a foreign car. It’s just plain economics. Many are built right here on the North American continent. The workers work for lower wages. $45.00 an hour is not exactly a low wage. Just talk to anyone who works for minimum wage! The same people who buy cars.
Sometimes you have to face reality. I remember in the late 1980ies and early 1990ies after the market crash of 1987 the building industry came pretty well to a standstill. I was an Electrical Contractor at the time. All the General Contractors I worked for either retired or quit building. Suddenly, I had no work. I put in a lot of bids but couldn’t get any jobs. My prices were too high. I vowed I wouldn’t work for less, but financial hardship forced me to adjust. I lowered my price and voila, I did get jobs.
Sure, I was not happy, but at least I was making money to pay the bills.
That is the way life is. You either adapt or you perish. It’s as simple as that. You can’t force things. Force has never been the answer to anything.
Something else I would like to mention. We have a lot of problems here in Winnipeg with car theft. People are getting fed up with it. We had our car broken into a number of years back. The police did nothing. If they do catch those criminals, they usually end up on the street again so they can keep on doing their business. Stealing cars, smashing them and possibly even killing innocent people while on their joyride. A couple of days ago, one of the car thieves got beaten up when he was caught breaking into a car. His picture was put onto the internet. Big uproar from the Bleeding Hearts. It’s funny how criminals always end up the victims.
Most of these car thieves are repeat offenders. The police know their names. Many of them come from a certain ethnic background, but it can’t be mentioned because it would be considered racial slur. That is illegal in Canada.
Yeah, the criminals always hide behind the law. That’s what makes a free country like Canada and the United States so great.
Years ago someone I know beat up a guy who tried to break into his neighbor’s house. Broke his arm. Guess what? He was sued by the criminal for assault. What a joke!
It seems criminals have more rights than law abiding citizens.
I’ve been getting some writing done over the holidays. I’m trying to write something every day; even it is only a couple of paragraphs. Eventually I’ll get the story finished. I’m close to 50,000 words now with my novel Epsilon.
I also dug up some ideas I had written down. Beginning of stories.
One is about an Immortal, no title yet, but it takes place here on Earth. The other one is also about Immortals, but the background is more complex. In the far future. On some other planet. Perhaps more than one. The title so far is Yulan.
The third story starts out with a bit of humor. Titled Mark Cannon. Private Investigator. I don’t know where I’m going with that one.
A fourth story I started long time ago is about Rhodar, the Barbarian. The title Saleen. Rhodar was featured in one of my stories in the book Tapestry of Dreams.
If I get stuck with Epsilon I have those to work on. That way I won’t sit idle. Who knows, another story might just pop into my head.
My book Orola, Warrior Priestess still isn’t available. It was supposed to be published before Christmas, but it didn’t happen. My publisher at Midnight Showcase Fiction had her computer crash on her. I’m hoping the problem will be resolved soon and Orola will be available. I will post it here and on my website.
Thanks for visiting and reading.
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