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.

Monday, July 11, 2011

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

Sunday, July 10, 2011

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.

Friday, July 08, 2011

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.

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

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.

Sunday, July 03, 2011

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

Saturday, July 02, 2011

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.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Free book

Thank you for visiting. I'm giving away a pdf copy of The Xandra, Daughter of the Dark. Just send me an email to hegro@shaw.ca and ask for it.
All of my books are available from Melange Books, LLC.

Book One of 'Web of Conspiracy' and Book One of 'Lizard World' will be available in July. Book Two and Three in both trilogies will be published in the months following. If you are interested in finding out when they are available, send me an email and I will notify you.

Cats

We went to see the musical Cats last night at the Rainbow Stage in Winnipeg. What a wonderful show. Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was so relaxing to watch the show and listen to the wonderful music. It’s sure different from the stuff they play on the radio these days or what you see and hear at the New Year’s celebrations they broadcast on TV on New Year’s Eve. We don’t watch that anymore because of the noisy ‘music’. In fact most shows these days play that kind of stuff. Whatever happened to real music? Even country isn’t the same anymore. We’ve got tickets already for Andre Rieu who is coming to Winnipeg in September with his Vienna Orchestra. I can’t wait to see that show.
Like I said, Cats was wonderful. The costumes, the dancing, the beautiful voices of the singers, and the acrobatic performance of some of the dancers provided the audience with an evening of great entertainment. The actors are so talented and put their all into their performance. I wish I were in such good shape. I also wish the people in the audience were as slim as the performers. We had one big woman sitting in front of us, blocking the view, and a few rows down, right in front of me, sat a mountain of… (dare I say it or is it political incorrect? Ah, what the hell, who cares…)…a mountain of blubber. I may sound prejudiced, but big people like that should sit in a different section, not in front of regular sized people. It sort of spoiled it for me a little not to be able to see the whole stage. And we had good seats…or so it seemed at first.
All in all, we had a wonderful time and the evening was over much too soon. I wish they’d bring more plays like that, and, most importantly, at a reasonable price. Some of the shows at the Concert Hall or in the MTS Center are much too expensive and not everyone can afford to go and see them. It’s a shame.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Computers make life easier but make morons out of some of us

My last post reminded me of another incident years ago. I went to the wholesale to buy an item I needed for a job. The clerk checked out his computer and told me they didn’t have it in stock. I happened to look at the shelf behind him and spotted the item. I said, “Sure, you have it. It is sitting right there on the shelf.”
Not bothering to look the clerk said, “No, we don’t have it. It says so in my computer.”
I insisted that he had the item and told him just to look on the shelf. He did. “You are right. That’s the one,” he said.
“Good,” I said. “How much is it?”
“I don’t know. It is not marked.”
“Check your computer.”
He did.
“Well?” I said, “How much is it?”
He gave me the number, so I said, “I’ll take it.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t sell it to you,”
“Why not?”
”Because according to the computer we don’t have it.”
“You’re holding it in your hand.”
“I still can’t sell it to you.”
“Is it sold to someone else?”
“No.”
“Then what is the problem?”
“It’s not listed in the computer, which means we don’t have it. I’d have to order you one.”
“Okay. Put in the order. I’ll take the one you have in your hand. When the new one comes in you’ll just replace the one you apparently don’t have but was sitting on the shelf behind you all this time.”
He scratched his head. “I can’t do that, because then it is in the computer as stock.”
“So? It means you can sell it to the next customer because now you stock it and you’ll have gotten rid of the one that’s been sitting on the shelf for who knows how long because you didn’t have one in stock.”
“That’s too complicated and doesn’t make sense. If you want it I’ll order it for you and that will be much simpler.”
Well, I needed it so I ordered it. They probably still don’t have any in stock according to the computer, but the one they have in stock is still sitting on the shelf as unlisted and cannot be sold.
Such is the complexity of real life living with computers who were supposed to make life easier.

Monday, June 27, 2011

K.I.S.S.

What ever happened to the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) method?
I had a matching last number on my 6/49, which used to mean a free ticket. They changed that to a $2.00 win.
So I took my winning ticket to the store and asked to exchange it for another play. The clerk asks me if I want to use the $2.00 on my invoice for other stuff I bought as a credit. I said, “No, I want to play it again.” So he said, “This is $2.00 cash.” I said, “I know. Just give me another ticket.” He said, “This is cash. What do you want to do with it?” I said, “Use it for another ticket.” He told me he can’t do that. He has to put it on the invoice as a credit because the winning ticket is $2.00 cash. So I said, “Okay, put it on the invoice.”
Then he gets my new ticket and asks, “Do you want this added to the invoice?”
By now feeling like an idiot (don’t know why) I said, “Sure, put it on the invoice.”
Now, is it just me or am I getting too old and too simple minded to understand the complexity of these transactions? Wouldn’t it have been much simpler just to give me another ticket without this back and forth?
I guess had I asked for cash he would have given me the $2.00 which I would have given back to him for the new play.
Now I finally understand why old people get so frustrated when dealing with young people who still have to learn the art of Simplicity or the old K.I.S.S. method.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Game of Thrones, the last episode for the season

It is always sad to have something you like to come to an end. The season finale of Game of Thrones ended with a surprise, and I can't wait until Fall when season 2 carries on with the story. Some people were disappointed, even enraged, with last episode's ending, but the series is following the book the way George R. R. Martin wrote it. What a wonderful show it is. It is Fantasy at its finest but still close to reality. The actors are great and make the story believable. None of the stupid humor you find in some shows. Everything is taken seriously and no tongue-in-cheek stuff either. George R. R. Martin is surely a great storyteller.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Boston beats Vancouver

Okay, so the Canucks lost. Too bad, but that is life. We don't always get what we want or wish for. It would have been nice. Maybe next time.
But what I can't understand are those idiots who can't take losing. They surly are sore losers. Why would any normal person set fire to cars, buildings, smash windows, or just go crazy because his or her team lost a game. It is only a game. The world is not coming to an end.
I watched it on TV as some of these morons jumped on cars; one guy used his feet to do damage to the car, others were fighting. What kind of people are they? I can never understand how anyone can lose his (her) temper and get so violent, lose total control over their ability to think straight. Are they possessed by some evil entity or are they just plain crazy? I would throw these idiots into jail and let them rot there for a while. Give them water to drink and dry bread to eat. And no TV, no books. Just let them think about their stupidity and lack of body and mental control. And, of course, make them pay for the damages.
Those are the people who give sports-fans a bad name. One only has to think about those troublemakers from England who go from one soccer-game to another and steer up trouble. They have been banned from going to these games. People like that are not fans, they are actually criminals and need to be put in jail, because they do endanger other people's lives.
All I can say: It's only a game. There has to be a winner and a loser. Enjoy the game and don't worry who wins. After all, not everything is about winning, it is about enjoyment of the moment.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Game of Thrones, Episode 9

Wow. I didn't expect that. The ending of Episode 9 was shocking, to say the least. I am not going to reveal it here. It would spoil it for others. I can't wait to watch the next installment. I suspect Season 1 is coming to an end now. There might be only 1 more episode, but the show has been renewed and I'm looking forward to next season. Sometimes a good show comes along and Game of Thrones is certainly one of them. With so much crap on TV these days it is refreshing to watch something as different as this show. Unfortunately, sometimes these kind of shows are not popular. One never knows what people like. I'm still disappointed about 'Chicago Code' not being renewed for next year. There was another great show and I can't understand why it didn't make it. Go figure.

Monday, June 13, 2011

About writing a mystery

I have to admit I was wrong. I thought I had everything mapped out in the contemporary novel I am currently writing and I figured there would be no surprises waiting around the corner for my characters. Well, I should have known better. Sometimes the characters want to go their own way. I'm nearly at 40,000 words right now and don't know exactly where I'm going with the novel. I guess now I have to wait for more inspiration. There is no erotica in this novel, even though there are opportunities for my main character to have a sexual relationship, but I am steadfast with my resolution not to have any explicit sex scenes in this story. Sure, they would fill pages, but it is not about filling pages. I'm happy with what I've written so far, but now I need something surprising, something unexpected. I'm as anxious to discover that as my characters are. Where are you, Lady Muse? Hello...Let's have some ideas here.

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

My books on Smashwords

Here is the link to see all my available books on Smashwords

Smashwords

A few of my books are now on Smashwords. They are available in various formats including Kindle, LRF (for Sony Readers), and Palm Doc


The Xandra, Book One, Daughter of the Dark

The Xandra, Book Two, Mother of Light


The Xandra, Book Three, Goddess of Life


Stars in Chains (Book 1) Slave

Stars in Chains (Book 2) Liberator

Of course, Orion, Symbiont of Passion, is also available on Kindle from Amazon.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Episode 7 of Game of Thrones

Just finished watching another episode of 'Game of Thrones'. This is one show I'm glad I started watching. It is a bit confusing sometimes, to keep all the names straight, but nevertheless, it is a great show. Plenty of action, intrigue, erotica, and a good story. The ending of tonight's episode was surprising and I can't wait for the continuation. It is fantasy, to be sure, but it isn't any different than watching a movie about knights and kings from hundreds of years ago. Certainly a wonderful change from all the cop-shows and CSI shows. Or even all those reality shows.
The Borgias has come to an end. My wife and I really enjoyed that one also. That was not fantasy but taken from history. A bit of an eye opener about the corruption in the church and the power-play and politics that goes on, probably still to this day. Makes one wonder if the religious leaders truly believe what they preach or if they are only in it for the power and prestige their positions bring.
By the way, I've written around 22,000 words in my new novel so far. Right now it has the title 'Conspiracy', but that will change once the story is finished.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Thunder and Lightening

Talk about Mother Nature. We had quite some hail today. Our lawn was covered with ice-pellets. A small mountain stayed on the grass for hours after the storm was over. Some of the flowers on the flowerbeds were damaged, but they'll grow back. Luckily, I haven't planted my garden yet, otherwise I'd be singing the blues right now, lamenting the loss of my tomato and pepper plants, but they are still patiently waiting to be planted...safe in their little pots. That is always part of my fear after planting my garden...hail.
Apparently, a tornado touched down in St. Adolph, but no damage was done. Crazy weather. Another system is supposed to move in for Monday.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Where is Summer?

Last night we had minus 3 Celsius. Been covering up our flowers for the last three nights, but tonight the low temperature will be 7 plus. We saw our first hummingbird at the feeder today. We hung out the feeder last week. The North American Finches have been here for a while now. They probably are wondering where the warm weather is. The chokecherry tree is is full bloom as is the crab-apple tree. Maybe next week it will be warm enough so I can plant my tomatoes, peppers, and seed my garden. The summer and the growing season are so short. There isn't much time for things to grow. But we shouldn't complain. So many parts of Manitoba are under water, people have lost their houses and cottages. And all the tornadoes in the US. Terrible. So much property destroyed and so many people killed. One wonders what is going on. Mother Nature is a strong force and we are nothing but puppets and toys when she unleashes her powers and lets them run rampant.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Orola, Warrior Priestess

It seems yahoo does not put the whole link onto my posts or perhaps it is the Amazon site itself, because the link published on the post takes you to the Amazon Kindle ad site.
Well, anyway, anyone interested please, follow this link to get to my books at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1243894445/ref=sr_nr_af_1?ie=UTF8&field-is-available-new=1&rs=&sort=relevancerank&unfiltered=1&rh=n%3A!1000%2Ci%3Astripbooks%2Cp_27%3AHerbert%20Grosshans