A little update

Spring is supposed to be here but looking outside it doesn’t appear that way with all of that snow still on the ground. We had some warm weather a couple of weeks ago and the snow was beginning to melt. But then it got cold again and we had another snowstorm which dumped more snow onto the ice that had been forming. The culverts are still frozen and the water has not been able to drain toward the Red River. We don’t live far from the river. I’m a bit worried that we might get water in our basement from overland flooding. We’ve never had problems before but that doesn’t mean anything. Like they say when you invest money in the stock market: Past performance does not guarantee future results.
The river rose quite a bit last week and there was some flooding along River Road. A few houses had their basements filled with water. Now the municipality raised the surface of the road by putting gravel on it. In some places the road was raised up to six feet. Actually, the road is acting like a dam that is supposed to keep the water away from the properties on the other side. The river level has dropped a little but it will rise again when the water comes up from the States. Maybe even higher than before. Apparently it is not to reach the level we had in the Flood of the Century in 1997. Much of the land south of Winnipeg will still be flooded. Winnipeg will be spared with the expansion of the floodway around the city.

This is a picture of the ice that was pushed up onto the road while it drifted down the river toward Lockport.




This is River Road with a view toward Lockport. It won’t take much until the water floods the road

We went to the Museum of Man and Nature in Winnipeg last week to see the display of dinosaur skeletons. The display was lent to the museum from China. Some of the skeletons are genuine but most were replicas of originals. To read about dinosaurs is interesting but to see the skeletons is mind boggling. It is hard to believe that these giant creatures once roamed the Earth so many millions of years ago. I’m glad I wasn’t alive then. But maybe I was? Some people call me a dinosaur.

I haven’t done much writing. Been busy installing a new floor in our kitchen. I used those laminate floorboards that just click together. Apparently it’s easy and anyone can do it. What a nightmare with all the angles around the counters! It took me a whole week of measuring, cutting, and clicking (and cursing) until I finally finished it. I still have the back hall to do but that will be a cinch now that I’m an expert. (Ha, ha…)

I’ve been tracking my sales on Fictionwise and found that my books seem to be selling quite well. Six of my books were in the top twenty sellers on March 14, with ‘Mother of Light (The Xandra, Book Two) being at number 7, Goddess of Life at number 9 and Seeds of Chaos, Book One at number 10. Seeds of Chaos, Book Two was number 5 in overall sales in the twenty days before March 21. Dual Visions was number 4 on March 21 and Cliffs of Time reached number 7 on March 29 in overall sales.
Stardogs Two (Redemption) reached number 3 in sales on February 7. How many books that translates into I have no idea. Unfortunately, the money I receive for my books is so pitiful it is hardly worth mentioning. Fictionwise takes most of the money. It seems to be the Law of the Universe: The one who does most of the work gets rewarded the least.
But that’s okay…I guess. I write for fun and not for the money (Grrr….)

King Cobra

My novel ‘Mark of the Cobra’, which I pulled from publication by MSFiction last year has now found a home. I did some revisions, changed the chapters around, changed the title to ‘King Cobra’, and sent it to another publisher. This publisher concentrates more on erotica and is more suitable for the type of novel King Cobra is.
I don’t write sweet romance. My stories are mostly geared up to male readers. I’m not saying that women can’t enjoy them if they like these kinds of stories. By all means, do read them. Most of my stories have a male protagonist. The heroes are tough and usually oversexed (horny?).
King Cobra has a lot of sex in it and also some violence, but I believe it is basically a good story, a thriller, and I didn’t want to re-write the whole book, as my editor at MSFiction suggested. Had I decided to do that it would have been a different story, not the one I wanted to tell. Maybe some day I will write a novel with the title ‘Mark of the Cobra’, but it will be another story.
I am busy with other works right now. I’ve reached 60,000 words with my Science Fiction novel ‘Epsilon’ and I have much more to go before it is finished.
Right now I’m taking a break from it and I’ve decided to write Book Four in the Xandra series. I had some ideas kicking around in my head and they wanted to come out. So far I’m at around 13,000 words. I’m aiming for 75,000 words, but this is something hard to predict. It all depends how it progresses. Usually, once the story starts to grow, more characters want to join and the novel becomes longer than planned. Strange, how things sometimes develop. A minor character who was only mentioned briefly suddenly wants a larger part in the story. And that is a good thing. That is how a story gets fleshed out and more interesting. This creation process is a wonderful thing and sometimes I ask myself Where the heck did this come from? It seems the deeper I move into the new world I’m creating the more stuff I notice and the more is to tell. Sometimes I have no idea where I’m going with what’s happening to the characters but it always seems to come together in the end. It is not only the reader who enjoys reading a story; the writer also enjoys writing it. And that is a good thing because I don’t read that much any more. If I didn’t find pleasure in writing where would I find my enjoyment? How would I be able to explore new and wonderful worlds?
Check out ‘King Cobra’ here and don’t be shocked by the explicit picture: A1AdulteBooks

You can also go to my website to read more about it.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.
Leave a comment.

More political comments

Well, Michael Ignatieff is the new leader of the Liberal Party after they ousted Stéphane Dion. Bob Rae graciously stepped back. He realized the rest of the Liberals didn’t want him. That means there was nobody else left. Talk about a democratic vote. Let’s hope Mr. Ignatieff has more sense than the rest of them, forgets about overthrowing the legally elected government of Canada, sits down with the elected Prime Minister and starts working for the country. It is time they stop bickering and begin earning their high salaries. Jack Leighton of the NDP is obviously not going to give up that ill conceived scheme. The Unions won’t let him.
The Bloc Québécois don’t care either way. Their only interest is the province of Quebec. They couldn’t care less about the rest of the country.
I’m wondering, if we should have another election and the Conservatives don’t get a majority government, will this whole cycle start again? Will they finally give up and let the democratic process take over or will they carry on with this madness?
The whole world is in turmoil. Our country is in a recession. People are losing their jobs and all these politicians can think of is saving their own skin. The country be damned.

Of course, the United States have their own problems. A governor trying the sell Obama’s vacated seat in the Senate is only one thing. Now there are forces out there who want to find out if Obama was involved in that scheme. He says he didn’t know anything. I wish that is so, because otherwise we’ll face more disaster. They’ll bury him.

The Free World has many enemies. They want to destroy the United States of America, and with it all the other democratic countries who enjoy freedom. They are using this Freedom of Choice against us. We can’t let that happen. That is one of the reasons this whole fiasco we have with our own Canadian government right now must be stopped. Democracy must prevail.

Sometimes I wonder who is behind all this turmoil in the world. Obviously, it is man-created, like most problems we’ve had throughout the centuries of man’s existence. Nobody will ever find out who is responsible for the chaos we are in, but we can be assured, somebody will make money from it. Sounds like a conspiracy theory? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.

It is fun to write about these things in a novel. But that is fantasy. It doesn’t affect us; only entertains. Possibly makes us think. What is happening right now in the world is reality and no fun at all.

Another political comment

Jack Leighton, the leader of the NDP, has been recorded as saying that the idea of overthrowing the government has been planned long before the election. They (the Liberals, the NDP, and the Bloc) have been waiting for an opportunity to put their plan into action. And Prime Minister Stephen Harper fell into the trap.
Bob Rae, Michael Ignatieff, and Dominic LeBlanc had a secret meeting yesterday to discuss who should be the next leader of the Liberals and therefore the next Prime Minister after the coup.
Their current leader, Stéphane Dion, is to be replaced because he didn’t lead the party to victory in the last election. Dion never struck me as being ‘Prime Minister’ material. I guess the Liberals realized this too late and now they are trying to discard the people’s wishes and take over the government by force.
They (the Coalition) have no concrete plans as to what they are going to do after their successful attempt. All they have are big words about what needs to be done. Their main objective right now is gaining power and keeping the money flowing into their coffers. Never mind who pays for this.
They have no plan. They don’t even know who is going to be their leader. How in the world can we trust people like that?
We send observers to other countries to make certain that voting is done in accordance with democratic principles and without cheating, yet here we are facing a hostile takeover of a government that was voted in by a democratic process. How can we ever criticize others if we allow this to happen?
Jack Leighton, Bob Rae, Michael Ignatieff, Dominic LeBlanc, Gilles Duceppe, and who knows how many others have been scheming to overthrow the legal government.
Isn’t that called Conspiracy? Isn’t that a punishable offense?
Just wondering.

Unbelievable. A political comment.

Unbelievable! We’ve finally voted in a government after spending 300 million tax-dollars on the election. Now the opposition, who promised to work with this government and try to turn the economy around, decides they want to topple it. The Liberals, the NDP, and the Bloc Québécois want to form a coalition government. The Bloc, which is a party only in and for the province of Quebec, immediately puts conditions on this preposterous plan. They want more federal money for Quebec and government employees in Quebec are required to speak only French. Pardon me? Only French? And the rest of Canada has to speak French and English? But that is another subject.
What makes this planned coup almost laughable is the blatant transparency as to the reason: 30 million dollars. That is the money the government is not going to give to the political parties. In other words, this whole thing has nothing to do with the good of the people but only the good of the politicians.
One commentator on TV said, “This is Democracy at work.”
I would like to dispute that. Democracy was at work when the people of Canada spoke in the last election. And they clearly voted for the Conservative Party. If not for the Conservatives then for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. They didn’t want the Liberals, not the NDP, and certainly not the Bloc Québécois. I still can’t understand how a party that has no members in the rest of Canada can have fifty seats in the federal government.
The Bloc has no interest in Canada. Its only interest is the province of Quebec. In fact, that party wants to destroy Canada.
Overthrowing the government by a non-confidence vote now will put Canada on the same level as the so-called Banana Republics. It will wipe out the respect we have in the world that sees us a stable country.
Right now, we need stability to bring back confidence in the markets and in the economy of Canada and the rest of the world. The kind of behavior these political parties are showing is dangerous and irresponsible. It clearly shows that they don’t have any interest in the welfare of the citizens of this country but only care for themselves.
Since the Liberals, the NDP, the Bloc, and the Green Party rely on federal money because they don’t have any backers only means they are not popular and possibly not wanted by the majority of Canadians. That is Democracy at work.
We don’t need or want a government that gets into power by force. We are still living in a Democracy and we’d like to keep it that way, even though there are forces out there that want to change that. That worries me. Maybe we should have a closer look at the people who are behind this.
Just my opinion.

Time flies

Hard to believe this is the end of November. I went on my yearly deer hunting trip from November 8 to November 14. I can't say I was successful. I didn't see any deer from my stand. The area where we hunt is changing. Many trees have died because of the beavers that build dams and flood the land. There is a lot of swamp now where forest used to be.
The weather didn't co-operate either. It rained for a couple of days. It was much too warm for the hunt. Most of the deer were still on the surrounding farmland. They only come into the bush once it gets cold and the snow gets too high. No snow this year.
I had to re-build my stand this year. The wood was beginning to rot. The old one lasted 15 years. I guess that it not bad. I didn't build a new one, as I had planned, just fixed up the old one. It should be good for many more years, but I may have to build another one at another spot. I checked out the area where we hunt and I found a nice clearing that looks promising. But that will be next year. Let's not rush it.
Since I came back I managed to write a bit for my novel Epsilon, but progress is slow. Right now I am in an organizing and cleaning up mode. My garage needed to be cleaned out. It is beginning to look good now. I never realized how big it is. I took a few trips to the dump and threw out a lot of stuff. I've retired from my Electrical Business and there was a lot of stuff I thought I could use, but that is not going to happen anymore. Things like old panels, pieces of wire, boxes, screws, bolts. I found stuff I didn't know I had.
Hard to throw things out, but sometimes you have to make a decision. You know the old saying: If you haven't looked at it for three years you don't need it. Well, some of the stuff I had was older than that, much older. It's is in the dump now.

Coming soon

Just finished sending back the edited version of 'Orola, Warrior Priestess'. My editor culled quite a bit out of the original version to make it more marketable and to make certain it doesn't contain any material that is not approved by presently accepted moral guidelines. The stories have much erotic content. I wrote them years ago when I didn't worry about having them published.
Sometimes as writers we might go a little overboard and go past what is accepted by the 'Moral Police' and what isn't. That is fine when we write for our own amusement but not when it is intended to be published. Then out comes the editor's red pen, and that is okay with me. I believe the final result is a good book and I'm looking forward to its publication.
I have to thank my editor, Jane Carver, for spending so much time with the book and caring enough to make it a good read.
Actually, it contains seven short stories featuring Orola, but they are all connected, even though I wrote them in the span of about ten years. I wrote the last story first. Then I began writing more, following Orola on her journey across a planet filled with dangers until she ended up in the place described in the final story.
The first story 'The Kiir' was already published once by itself and once in the digest 'Midnight Raunch'.
I haven't done much otherwise with my writing. The novel I'm currently working on, 'Epsilon', has progressed to about 30,000 words. I've been too busy working in the yard and getting our property ready for the winter. Once the snow is on the ground and nothing else to do outside but shoveling snow I should be getting a bit more time to devote to my writing.

The launch of my new Website

Well, I finally did it. I have a Website. I call it 'Herbert's World'. (Very imaginative, I know, since it is so close to Herbert's Place, but I think it is appropriate. I had so many ideas about what to call it, but I couldn't come up with anything better. It took me a couple of days to whip it into shape, but I found it quite easy to manage. It is not much different from a blog. In fact, I have another blog now as part of my website. Eventually, I will fade out this one with news from my writings and use it for different stuff, like discussing books and other things.
I invite you to check out my new site. Just click on 'Herbert's World' and it will take you there. Paste it into you Bookmarks so you can find it again for future visits. I'll be looking for you there. You won't find any flashing lights. The site is quite simple but functional. I'm happy with what I created. I like the option of many pages, something this blog doesn't have. It is easier to organize everything.
Should you visit, leave a comment on my new blog. There is even a picture of me there in 'About me', (no need to comment on that, though!)
See you there.

Comment by bionicperry on Mark of the Cobra

Thank you, bionicperry, for the comment. I appreciate it. Mark of the Cobra wasn't really rejected by my editor. Had I insisted, she would have published it, after a major edit, but she didn't care for the concept of the story. She didn't believe it was marketable in its present form. And I respected her view. Sometimes we have to listen to others, may they be editors or even readers.
I was disappointed, of course, not to see my hard work in print but, hey, I saw the 'error of my ways' and I move on.

Welcome Visitors

Hello visitors. Welcome to my blog and as usual when one of books is released I’ll give away a free copy of it (‘Outpost Epsilon’) to the first four who send me an e-mail to hegro@shaw.ca
I might even give away more, so don't let the number 'four' keep you from sending me an e-mail.
If you ask, I’ll also send you a free download of my anthology ‘Tapestry of Dreams’.

Mark of the Cobra

My novel Mark of the Cobra will not be published. At least not in its present form. My editor didn’t like it. According to her, it is not up to my usual ‘high standard’ as a writer. I don’t want to go into details about the reasons, but she is right. Therefore, I decided not to have it published. She gave me a lot of good suggestions and I will take her advice. She thinks it is basically a good story (a murder mystery), and I could make something better out of it. Alas, she is not the first person who didn’t care for the book. That is another reason I don’t want to see it published.
Right now, I would like to work on ‘Epsilon’. I am beginning to get a few ideas and the story is coming alive inside my head. All I need is the time to write.
I enjoy writing Science Fiction anyway more than contemporary novels. Maybe at a later date I will rewrite Mark of the Cobra, but it will be a different story. In the meantime, I’m waiting for ‘Outpost Epsilon’ to be published.

Hello

I am anxiously waiting for the release of ‘Mark of the Cobra’, my contemporary erotic thriller and the novelette ‘Outpost Epsilon’, the forerunner of the novel ‘Epsilon’, which I am currently working on.
Just for visiting, please send me an e-mail to hegro@shaw.ca and I will send you a copy of my first published novel ‘The Xandra, Daughter of the Dark’, Book One of the Xandra series. Should you already have that novel, feel free to ask for any of my other books. Just click on the cover and it will take you to the site to find out more about the book.
I’m not setting a limit to the number of visitors who will receive a copy. It depends how many are interested.

Here is an excerpt from ‘Outpost Epsilon’:

Outpost Epsilon
By
Herbert Grosshans

Chapter One

Terrex Stonewall shouldered his huge duffle bag, which held his meager possessions, and stepped from the shuttle onto the alien soil. Taking a deep breath, he inhaled the hot, humid air, registering unfamiliar scents and finding them not as unpleasant as he’d been told.
The door of the shuttle irised shut behind him, cutting off his way back should he change his mind about this new assignment, and he moved further away as the small shuttle lifted into the air. It rose then disappeared into the low hanging clouds.
Although he had been briefed, it still came as a surprise to see the giant mushrooms surrounding him. He walked slowly across the cleared area toward the enormous bubble that would be his home for the next year.
He knew what to expect.
Life on an outpost was not a holiday. Neither did it mean hardship, not usually. His job, as a scout for the Solar Union, would be to keep watch over this area of space and report any intrusion into the system.
They did not tell him why this particular outpost was so important. Epsilon happened to be the fourth planet in a solar system at the edge of controlled Human Space. There wasn’t much here, as far as Stonewall knew. Nothing anyone would want, unless you liked mushrooms.
The shrill cry of an animal hastened his steps toward the dome. Before he reached it, an opening appeared in the smooth surface of the bubble, and a man in the drab brown uniform of the Union stepped out.
“No canvassing allowed.” The man burst out laughing when he saw Stonewall’s perplexed expression. Holding out a hand, he said, “You must be Terrex Stonewall. I am William Peters. Welcome to Hell.”
“Hell?” Stonewall said. Then he nodded and grinned, suddenly aware of the wet fabric of his uniform clinging to his perspiring body. “It is damned hot.”
“Come inside.” The other man stepped back into the dome.
Stonewall followed him and stood silent for a moment, breathing in the cool air. Behind him, the door closed with a barely audible whoosh.
From the outside, the surface of the dome looked opaque, but standing inside, he could see the sky above and the forest of mushrooms as clearly as if the shell didn’t exist.
“Pretty clever,” he commented.
“It is. Don’t ask me how it’s done. I’m not a scientist. Something about bending the light waves.”
“You even have a garden,” Stonewall observed.
“That and more. Makes living on this hell-hole almost bearable.” Peters pointed to a squat building. “Those are our sleeping quarters. The kitchen and mess hall are over there. That ugly structure behind the kitchen houses the observation screens, computers and detection systems. Below it, underground, is the power grid. We call that building the Power-building.” He grinned. “Very original, don’t you agree? You’ll be spending most of your time in there.”
Stonewall saw a couple of figures moving around in the garden. Peters noticed his interest. “Don’t worry,” he said, laughing. “You won’t have to work in the garden. Those are work-drones. Robots.”
Stonewall grinned. “You had me worried there for a moment. I’m not a farmer.”
“Speaking of farmers,” Peters said, “there is the Chief right now. His name is…”
“Derrol Farmer. I know.” Stonewall smiled.
The tall man who came walking toward them, looked gaunt, like someone who hadn’t slept or eaten for days. “So, you’re the new guy,” he said with a grating voice, giving Stonewall a tight smile.
“The name’s Terrex Stonewall, sir.”
“I’m aware of that. Call me Chief. We are not that formal around here.” Farmer pointed at Stonewall’s duffel bag. “What did you bring with you? I hope all that stuff fits into your locker.” He stared at Peters. “Show him his bunk and introduce him to the others.”
Peters tipped his non-existent helmet in a sloppy salute. “Will do, Chief.”
Farmer turned and walked away.
“Is he always in this cheerful mood?” Stonewall asked when he was out of earshot.
Peters chuckled. “Not always. Today is one of his better days.” He punched Stonewall on the arm. “Come, I’ll show you to your executive suite.”
He took Stonewall to the dormitory and showed him his bunk. “Here we are. Your lavish quarters for the next year.” He grinned. “Just throw your stuff on the bed. You can stow it away later. It’s almost noon, but before we go for lunch, I want you to see your new workplace.”
When they entered the Power-building, Terrex smelled the sterile air, like the air in a hospital ward. “These instruments are quite delicate. They don’t like dust or temperature fluctuations. Better put on one of the lab coats.” Peters handed him a white coat. Then they walked down a short tunnel and through a door into a large room full of computers and electronic devices.
“Transmissions from the satellites circling Epsilon,” Peters said, pointing at the screens covering one wall. They displayed images of stars and empty space.
Only four of the computer terminals were occupied. One of the men looked up when Peters approached. “Hey, Peters,” he said. Glancing at Stonewall, he nodded. “The new guy?”
“Yep. Terrex Stonewall meet Ferd Prowler. He’s the supervisor on this shift. He’ll be your supervisor.”
“Hey, Stonewall,” Prowler said. “Welcome to Shithole. I hope you’ll be happy here.”
Stonewall smiled and lifted his hand. “Hey.”
Prowler’s expression turned serious, and he looked at Peters. “Better call the Chief. I’ve lost contact with Wong and Maisoneuve.”
“What the fuck are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I’ve lost contact with Wong and Maisoneuve, you dimwit. The beacon of the rover died an hours ago, and I can’t raise them on their personal comm. Haven’t been able for a couple of days now, but I thought maybe their comms were faulty. We’ve been having trouble with them for quite some time now. I didn’t think anything of it.”
“Fuck it!” Peters cursed again. “The Chief won’t be happy.” He grabbed Stonewall’s arm. “Come with me. Maybe your presence will keep him from executing me on the spot for being the bearer of bad news.”
“What happened?” Stonewall asked as he walked beside Peters.
“A few days ago we tracked an intruder into the system. A small ship of unknown origin. We got a fairly good image of it as it passed one of our surveillance drones. It traveled much too fast as it entered the ionosphere of this planet. And the angle was wrong, too. It crashed not far from here. We sent out two of our people to search for the ship and see if there were any survivors. They’ve been out there now for three days.”
He glanced at Stonewall. “This place might look peaceful and exotic with all those giant mushrooms, like a scene out of a fairy tale, but believe me, appearances are deceiving, literally. Danger lurks everywhere. On the ground and in the air. Even underground. You don’t want to be caught out there without a protective suit and a flash-rifle in each hand.”
Chief Farmer stayed surprisingly calm when Peters gave him the news. “We’ll have to send a team to find them,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “If anything happened to them, there’ll be hell to pay. Prowler should have notified me the minute he couldn’t contact them on their coms.”

Salsa Recipe

Three more weeks and Summer is finished. Fall starts in September. Time to harvest and store food for the winter. These days with all the different food scares one feels more and more inclined to grow vegetables in the garden. I’ve had a garden for years. Yes, it is a lot of work but it is well worth the trouble. Vegetables taste so much better and they are safer. No pesticides and other dangers to worry about. There is nothing better than a slice of homegrown tomato on a sandwich. Mind you, you need to put a slice of ham on the sandwich and that is where the problem arises. The Listeriosis found in packaged meats and sausages which caused the deaths and illness of so many people across the country makes me think twice about that slice of ham or sausage. Now it is so much more attractive to buy fresh meat and sausage from a local butcher than packages from a grocery store.
But let’s come back to the homegrown stuff. My pepper and tomato plants have produced well this year and I made some Salsa today. There are so many recipes out there. This is my own version and it tastes great.

Chop:
5 - quarts ripe tomatoes
3 - hot peppers (Hungarian banana peppers)
7 - large sweet peppers
3 - medium sized onions
5 - tablespoons fresh parsley (finely chopped)
3 - leaves fresh basil (finely chopped)
2 - teaspoons fresh Oregano (finely chopped)
3 - cloves garlic (crushed)
1 - tablespoon salt
Juice of 1 lime


Boil tomatoes for about 15 minutes in a large pot (6 quarts minimum). Remove most of the liquid to decrease cooking time. Dip a ladle into the boiling tomato pulp and let the foam run into the ladle. Don’t discard the liquid. Save it to make tomato soup.
Add the rest of the ingredients.
Boil for 30 minutes on medium heat, then simmer on medium low until thick, stirring frequently. (Total cooking time about 60 minutes or more, depending on how much liquid is in the pot). Don’t overcook, otherwise Salsa will turn to mush.
Cool and put into freezer containers, freeze, but don’t forget to leave out one container for immediate consumption.
Enjoy.

Notes: This recipe makes a mild Salsa. If you want a hotter Salsa, add more hot peppers or add some hot sauce. All of the ingredients are approximate amounts.

Here is a recipe for Tomato soup:

Cook Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
2 cups of liquid from the tomatoes
Salt to taste (if needed)
Preparation:
In heavy saucepan, heat oil and cook onions and garlic until tender. Add the tomato liquid, seasonings, stock, and pepper, and simmer for 20 minutes. Strain through a fine strainer.
In clean saucepan, melt butter and add flour; cook and stir for 2-3 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of the tomato soup; cook and stir until thickened. Add remaining mixture, cook and stir with wire whisk until soup is hot and slightly thickened. Stir in orange zest and serve.

Here is the link to Tapestry of Dreams. And here is the cover.

End of August

Time for a bit of an update. Not much has happened lately and I can't believe that August is almost coming to an end. I’m busy with domestic chores and hardly did any writing, except for doing an edit for Mark of the Cobra, which is due to come out soon, I hope. There were a few things I needed to change. I approved a cover for Outpost Epsilon, which is also on the list of releases.
My other books have fallen back in sales at Fiction Wise. It’s like anything else. Unless you advertise constantly, the customers (readers) move on to other stores (authors).
My Science Fiction novel Epsilon is not going anywhere either. I wrote some background stuff. Introduced a couple more characters, but I don’t really know where I’m going with it. My mind just isn’t with the story. Sometimes that happens. Mark of the Cobra took me a long time to write because there always seemed to be another story that wanted to be written. I hope Epsilon isn’t one of them. I really like the world I created there. The novelette Outpost Epsilon is a forerunner of the novel. I’m torn if I should write in some erotic scenes or leave them out. I’m kinda getting tired of writing erotica. Maybe I’m getting old. Maybe I wrote too many erotic novels. I don’t know.
I wish I knew if my readers buy my books because they are Science Fiction or because of the erotica. One of my stories ‘For Love of Arilee’ is part of the digest Sweet Challenge. It contained no erotica. Just a sweet love story set in the World of the Xandra. I don’t believe the digest sold that well.