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.

Friday, February 25, 2011

The tetanus shot

No, that is not the title of my new novel. I cut my hand last Friday and had to go to Emergency to get it treated. They gave me a tetanus shot just as a precaution. The last shot I had was over twenty years ago when I got my finger caught in a fishhook.
The booster shot hurt for the first few days. The pain is mostly gone but I developed a bit of a rash around the injection area. So I checked it out on the internet. It is a reaction and not that uncommon. I found a site http://www.wisegeek.com/why-does-the-tetanus-vaccine-hurt-so-much.htm with comments from other people about their experience. Here are some of the funnier ones:


I took the first tetanus vaccine after I got hit on the head with a metal bar. They gave me the shot on my right and left arm in the ER and told me to get another after a month. No side effects. The one I took after a month was in the right arm only and I didn't expect anything to happen. I wasn't warned about any side effects.
My God!! It is a killer. A hard lump on the right arm where the injection was administered. Chills and joint aches. Muscles twitching. Throat inflammation. Neck muscles tight. A feeling of my chest being pressured downwards. Dizziness. Nausea. Loss of appetite. Weight loss. And the most weird feeling is the itching with the sensation of a worm moving up and down my skin! If only they had told me. I am so annoyed they didn't warn me. I thought I had a disease. I thought i was dying!!


I just got my tetanus shot for college. I also just started playing drums for my university's gospel choir. It’s been a day since I got it and I tried to practice playing but my arms felt weak. People at church have been welcoming me back from college (I’m on break) and have giving me pats on the arm which has also made the day hard on my arms. The moral of this story is that Tetanus shots and God don't mix.


I got my shot 3 days ago and I feel like death. The doc said it should go away in 2 days. It seems to be getting worse. After reading all these posts... Im beginning to lose faith.
My arm is useless and I wanna die. Thats all.


it does not hurt that much. very bearable. but then again, I'm strong



i am getting my injection in a couple of days and now i feel like hell from all the things i have heard i hate this needle as it is and now i am scared to even go to school.

Pirates and other criminals

Yahspirit1 left a comment regarding my last post, quoting Proverb13:8. This is what the proverb says: The ransom of a man's life are his riches: but the poor heareth not rebuke.

Like all other proverbs the meaning of this one can be interpreted in many ways. I read some of these interpretations. According to these ‘wise men’ money is the root of all evil, and it is better to be poor than rich, because you have nothing anybody else wants. You have no worries (except for all the worries being poor throws at you!).
Of course, the pirates don’t live by this principal. They want what a rich man (or woman) has and they take it by force.
Like I said before being poor is no excuse for committing a crime.
In a free, democratic country with laws to protect its citizens anyone who has ambition and is willing to work does not have to be poor. Of course, there are always those lazy ones who want to take a shortcut and, instead of working and saving, they take from the ones who do. As yahspirit1 said there has to be evil as well as good in the world. That’s fine, but good builds and evil destroys, and the evil ones have to be punished. Crime and punishment go hand in hand.
Instead of praying and waiting for some higher power to change things we have to realize if we don’t act it won’t happen. God helps those who help themselves.
Oh well, now I’m beginning to do exactly what I hate…preaching and quoting. I’m not a religious fanatic. I’m barely religious but I believe there are basic universal laws we Humans must follow, and one of those laws is to respect other people’s life and possessions. If you want something you have to earn it, not take it from others. If you violate this law you will suffer the consequences. It can’t get any more basic than that.
Thank you, yahspirit1, for leaving a comment. I appreciate it.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Somali Pirates, Murder and Justice.

I don’t always write about my books. Sometimes I need to write about other stuff, things that bug and upset me. This time it is the murder of those four people who sailed around the world, trying to enjoy life and experiencing the adventure of a lifetime. They meant no harm to anyone. The dream ended when Somali pirates captured their boat and kidnapped them. When a rescue team tried to free them, all four people had been wounded by the pirates to such an extend they died from their injuries. I wasn’t there so I don’t know any details, only what the media reports, but according to some sources it was a botched rescue attempt. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. There is one fact: four innocent, good people were kidnapped by Somali pirates. Had it not been for that they would still be alive. The pirates were taken prisoner and will stand trial in the US for kidnapping, murder, and whatever.
I hope they will all be found guilty and sentenced to death. I have no mercy or pity with criminals. Unfortunately, with all the bleeding hearts out there, they’ll find a lawyer, who doesn’t really care about justice, only about becoming famous and filling his pocketbook. Those poor Somalis…they have no choice but to rob and kill people. After all, they are living in poor conditions, no money for food, shelter and all the good things. Being poor is no excuse for committing crimes, be it in Somalia or in any other country. They do have money for arms, ammunition, and ships, though. My suggestion: get an honest job and spend your energy to change things in your country.
It’s a good thing these murderers weren’t brought to Canada. They would have been eligible to apply for refugee status, and our immigration people would have allowed them to stay here, given them money and shelter and get them established so they can maybe start up a gang and rob people here. Possibly bring all their relatives later on.
One thing I can’t understand: Why doesn’t the rest of the world get together and blow these pirate ships out of the water and get rid of them for good? We know who and where they are. I guess there is no money in it…no oil interests to protect for one thing. They do buy weapons and ammunition. Somebody is making money somewhere.
In my novel, ‘Lizard World’, the first book ‘Epsilon’ which will be published in July of this year, the main character Terrex Stonewall is put in a position where he has to deal with a criminal gang. Backed by Military Law he deals with it swiftly and efficiently by condemning them to death and immediate execution.
Sometimes we writers are asked: how much of yourself do you put into your characters? My answer to that is: Sometimes my characters are nothing at all what I am. They may say and do things I would never condone in real life, but sometimes I do put my feelings and thoughts into my characters. The way my character Terrex Stonewall deals with the situation is the way I would have dealt with it…had I been in his shoes.
I was raised in the Christian Faith and taught to forgive, not to be the aggressor. That is a noble principle…in dreams. We live in a brutal world; it is filled with all kinds of criminals, with thieves, murderers, and religious zealots who blow themselves up for idiotic reasons like promised sex in the afterlife, murdering innocent people in the process. It is filled with people who want to do you harm, who break into your home, hold you hostage, try to steal your money directly or indirectly. Drugdealers…Slavers…I could go on. You can only be forgiving for so long until you have to say: enough is enough. It is time to remove some of these people.
Ahh…I’ve ranted enough. Back to some serious writing. I’ve written 44,000 words so far in Book Six in the Xandra series. No title yet.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone who visits me.



I promised you a free copy of my short story 'Gin and Tonic'. Is is one of the stories in the digest 'Summer Sensations' from Melange Books, LLC

To get your free copy of my story send me an email to hegro@shaw.ca and ask for it.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Free copy of Stardogs Book One

To get a free download of Stardogs, Book One, Return to Redsky, just send me an email to hegro@shaw.ca and tell me what month and year Book Four of The Xandra, Lure of Seduction will be published and by what publisher.
Hint: You need to scroll down.

Sunday, February 06, 2011

The Xandra Book Four and Five

Yesterday I signed the contract with my publisher Melange Books, LLC for 'The Xandra, Book Four, Lure of Seduction' and 'The Xandra, Book Five, Escape from Paradise'. They'll be published February and April 2012. Seems a long time away, but I already have six books coming this year and one in January 2012. In the meantime I'll keep on writing. As of today I've written 34,000 words in Book six of The Xandra. I don't have a title yet, but it'll come to me when I'm done with it. It seems to flow quite nicely right now. There will definitely be a seventh book in the series, possibly even an eighth one. I went to see a movie last week (The Tourist. I enjoyed it). While watching it I was hit with an idea for a novel. I even wrote down some things. It's still vague but it deals with dimensions, maybe even time travel. But first I have to finish with the Xandra, at least with Book six and seven. That's what happens sometimes. An idea comes and wants to see the light of day. Sometimes I have to drop what I'm working on, but I must be strong...strong...

Thursday, February 03, 2011

Facebook

I have to admit when it comes to Facebook I am 'Facebook-challenged'. I wrote
some comments on my 'Wall', (I do know a couple of 'slang words'). I questioned
on that 'Wall', if anybody actually sees what I wrote? Most of the stuff on my
FB site is from a guy by the name of Miachael Todd Shields. He's got 4,800
friends. I don't even know who the guy is. Why did I become friends with him?
Most of the stuff he writes is gibberish to me. Is that some kind of new
language I don't understand? Why does his stuff appear on my site? How can I get
others to see what I wrote? As you see, I am totally lost when it comes to FB
(When I saw the letters FB for the first time I though it meant FBI, with the
'I' missing.)
I get constantly emails from people who want to make me rich. They tell me to use the 'Social networks', like Facebook, Twitter and all the others I don't even know about. Even my blog could be used. My question always is the same: How do people find me? Sure, I know about search engines and stuff like that. I belong to a number of yahoo groups where other authors post news about their books, hoping readers will see them and hopefully buy their books. I'm not even sure if readers belong to these groups, because there is always a ton of promos and excerpts from other writers and I'm wondering do readers actually see my posts and promos among all those ads. There are millions of people using the internet and there have to be millions of readers and potential buyers out there. How can you get those people to visit your blot or website without paying out a lot of money for advertising. I even question the ads from commercial advertising companies I see on the sites. Do they bring in more buyers than my own ads? I doubt it.
Lately I've spent way too much time cruising the internet for ways to advertise my books and have not discovered a satisfying way to do so.
I'd like to spend my time writing and not waste it visiting all these websites to see the same stuff over and over: ads from other hopeful authors. And many of the yahoo sites advertise nothing but personal ads from people who want to have threesomes and who-knows-what. But I guess that's the age of the internet and if I look long enough I may even find what I'm looking for. It's like looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I can only hope not too many have found the pot before me and if they did they've left a few coins for me.