My next release

I just finished the final edit on my upcoming novel 'Mark of the Cobra', to be released in January 2012. (I can't believe another year is coming to an end!). Surprisingly, even after having it edited by my editor (she does a nice job and catches many errors), I still found a few errors. I also re-wrote the odd sentence when I thought it didn't read right. Hopefully, I finally have a clean manuscript. I sent the 'final-edited' version back to Melange Books yesterday. I still don't have a cover for it, but apparently the art's department at Melange Books is busy right now designing one. I am anxious to see what they come up with. Mark of the Cobra was supposed to be published a few years ago by Midnight Showcase. My editor at that time didn't like it. She didn't think the novel was up to my usual standards. She thought the main character was not a likable person. He was a 'wife-cheating bastard' as she put it. I agreed and pulled it. I still liked the story and after contemplating for a while, I changed a few things. Now, the main character is not married, which means he is not a wife-cheating bastard. The novel contains more explicit erotica than I usually have in my novels. I realized this after re-reading it again, but that's how it is now and I hope my readers don't mind. Everything I write these days does have little or no erotica in it. To be honest, I am actually getting somewhat bored with writing erotica. Either because I've written enough of it of maybe it's just because I'm getting older. Probably both. The last novel I submitted to Melange Books, 'Bullet of Revenge', has no explicit erotica. I still like to write about interactions of my male characters with beautiful women, but the sexual action stops at the bedroom door. It means I have to think a little harder to fill the pages with interesting writing. But even without the erotica the novel ended up to be 102,000 words plus long, which proves the erotica is not really necessary to write a long novel. I haven't made too much progress in the novel I'm busy with right now: Book Seven in the Xandra series. I'm still just below 10,000 words, but I have a skinny blueprint of the novel. Now with Christmas shopping and other stuff I just don't seem to find the time to write. Once this is all over I will concentrate again on my writing.

Raptor's Tooth, Book 3 of Lizard World

This book was supposed to be released in October, but for some reasons it didn't. It is finally here. I'm quite happy with the cover, and the story is great, too. There should be no errors in this one. I read it so many times, even after I got it back from my editor. I was amazed how many errors I still found. Nothing major, but still, they were there. Hopefully, I managed to find them all. It just goes to show again how our minds work. We think we notice when something is amiss, but we don't, because our mind fills in the blanks. Things like she instead of the. Totally amazing and sometimes annoying.
To read more about it or to buy either go to my website Herbert's World http://hegro.shawwebspace.ca (or click on the word in the welcoming paragraph at the top) or click on the cover of the book listed in the right column and it'll take you there.

Tracks in the Snow

What a change from the last couple of days! Two days ago we broke the previous record for the warmest day. It was 9 C above Zero, higher than the record in 1907, that’s over a hundred years ago. Most of the snow we received a week ago melted away. The grass was showing through patches of white. Now the temperatures dropped and last night it snowed. Everything is covered again with the white stuff. I guess it is inevitable; three more weeks and winter officially begins. Mother Nature doesn’t wait that long to bring us snow. In some years we’ve already had snow by the end of October and the snow stayed.
In a way snow is beautiful. It covers all the dirt and makes everything look nice and clean…until the winter enthusiasts make tracks in it with their snowmobiles. I have nothing against snowmobiles, except for the noise, and the damage they do to the grass if the snow isn’t deep enough.

I remember the first snowfall many years ago after we had moved into our first house. Looking out of our living room window I admired the beautiful sight of the clean snow on our front yard. I also remember how upset I was when the neighbor’s boys ran across the yard and spoiled the clean blanket of white snow with their tracks.

I still love to look at new snow and the unspoiled white blanket, but tracks in the snow don’t bother me anymore. I enjoy watching my grandchildren stomping through the snow, rolling it into a huge ball or making a snowman, heck, I even do it.

Here are a couple of pictures without tracks in the snow.

Hunting 2011 Part 2

As is evident from my last blog I enjoy hunting. I hunt ducks, geese, rabbits, grouse, and deer. Rabbits and grouse are scarce these days in our neck of the woods, and I’ve gone hunting for geese only 3 times this year. And, of course, I’ve hunted for deer.
There are many people who think hunting is a cruel sport. Hunters are cold-blooded killers who enjoy killing animals. Perhaps some are, there is always the exception, but most hunters actually love animals. It seems paradox but it is true. I love watching birds, I feed them all year. I get enjoyment from watching rabbits hopping around (as long as they don’t eat my shrubs ^_^ ), and I find pleasure in seeing does with their fawns coming out of the bush and grazing in the fields when there is no hunting season. When I hunt I shoot only what my bag limit allows me. And I eat what I shoot.
Many anti-hunters suffer from the ‘bambi-syndrom’, the Disney version of the animal world. In reality nature is cruel. At least it seems that way. Survival of the fittest...that is the law of the jungle and anywhere else in this world. Some animals are prey and others are predators. It has always been that way. Humans have hunted for their food since beginning of time. Humans have also been hunted by larger, stronger predators as food since the beginning of time. Fortunately, most of those large animals don't exist anymore; fortunately for us Humans. There are still Grizzly and polar-bears, tigers, and lions, but they are no threat to the majority of Humans.
For the Native Americans hunting was a way of life. The tribes moved with the buffalo across the prairies. They hunted deer and other animals for their survival. Parts of the animals were used as food, for clothing, shelter, weapons, and even ornaments and jewelry.
Modern man doesn’t have to hunt for food. We buy our meat in the grocery store, nicely cut, packaged, and labeled. Now we hunt for sport, for enjoyment, but also for the meat. Hunters enjoy venison, ducks, geese. Venison is not always available in stores. The regular stores don’t carry it, and the ones that do ask a hefty price for it. I’ve never seen wild ducks, geese, turkeys, wild rabbits, or game birds for sale anywhere. Heck, you can hardly find domestic rabbits in stores. They taste just as good as chickens, but when they are available they cost a fortune. The price of farm-raised geese and ducks is prohibitively expensive. Turkeys are only available for a descent price at Thanksgiving.
Of course, there are some people who think we shouldn’t eat meat at all.
The Vegetarians.
Poor misguided people. They don’t know what they are missing ^_^. Humans are part of the animal world; actually we are omnivores, which means we eat vegetables and meat. Vegetarians would not have survived for long in the northern parts of the country. The earlier people had no choice but to eat only meat in the winter. Nothing grows in the snow and when the temperature plunges to minus 20 C and colder.
Yes, we have to kill an animal to get the meat, but most hunters try to put an animal down as quickly as possible, make certain it doesn’t suffer. Lions, tigers, wolves, and other predatory animals have no such compunctions. They will rip their victim to pieces, and eat parts of it while it is still alive. Anyone who has the stomach to watch documentaries from Africa can attest to that. I’ve seen two lions chase a gazelle and rip it in half when they caught up with it. I’ve seen the fright in the eyes of a wildebeest when a lion jumped on its back and sank its teeth into its neck. The deer we shoot don’t suffer from that kind of fear.
It is not only the shooting of the animal we enjoy. The pleasure comes from being in the outdoors, breathing the crisp air, walking through the bush following a trail made by deer, elk, or even moose, getting excited when finding a deer track in the freshly fallen snow, looking at the stars on a cold, clear night, seeing the bright disk of the full moon, hearing the coyotes barking and howling in the bush, walking in the dark to our tree stand, spending time with friends, talking about past hunts, successes and missed chances. That is what hunting is all about for us.
Some people play golf, drive snowmobiles, ski, play football, hockey, or any other sport. We go fishing and we hunt. Some hunters may do all those other things, too.
Hunting is a huge industry. It creates jobs. Plenty of jobs and brings in millions of Dollars. Many people don’t think about that. All they see are a bunch of bloodthirsty rednecks with rifles killing innocent, cute animals. That is not what we are. We are regular people who just happen to enjoy hunting, a sport that is slowly becoming more and more difficult to pursue for many reasons.
Chickens are cute in their own way, so are cows, but we have no problem eating chicken eggs or buying a barbequed chicken from the store, we have no problem drinking the milk from the cows or eating steaks or roasts. Pigs are intelligent, more intelligent than dogs, and kinda cute with their snouts and curly tails, but we love bacon for breakfast with our eggs, or ribs (preferable all we can eat) when we go out for supper.
People who are against hunting have their reasons, but we don’t stop them from having them. We have our reasons for going hunting. I have mine and I will go hunting as long as I am physically able to do so. I’m not looking forward to the day when I don’t have the strength anymore to climb my tree stand, or the stamina to walk down a lonely trail through the bush on a cold fall day, looking for grouse or rabbits. But until that day comes I will enjoy every hunt with pleasure and appreciation for the privilege to do so.

Hunting for deer 2011

I spent a week in the bush hunting deer. My son and I and four friends. Our friends have a trailer while my and son and I sleep in my old work van which I transformed into a camper. Nothing fancy, just the bare essentials to make it comfortable. We have a propane heater to keep us warm and to keep the water from freezing. We sleep in sleeping bags. We grill our meat on a barbeque outside, fry eggs and sausages on a cooker inside. It is almost like home. Almost. I have to admit, sometimes it feels a bit cramped, but we are not there to be pampered. We are hunting.
We left Winnipeg at 9:15 am. The highway was good. No snow on the road and we made good time. We arrived at our campsite Thursday, November 10 in the afternoon, at around 3 pm. We’ve been going there for 25 years now. The same place, the same spot. It is in the bush. Nothing but snow-covered grass and trees. And, hopefully, deer.
By 3:30 we sat already in our deer stand for the evening hunt. We had until Sunday evening to shoot a deer with a muzzleloader.
I had a couple of so-so chances but missed. I don’t have a scope on my muzzleloader, which will be remedied next year. A scope is essential.
My son had more success. He bagged a huge buck with a great rack at 180 yards with his muzzleloader. That is quite impressive.
The general deer season started Monday, November 14. I sat in my deer stand at 7:20 am and shot my buck at 7:25 am. It was still a bit dark, but with a scope no problem. I waited until 7:50 to gut the deer. It was not a big buck, but it had antlers and I was happy. It’s been four years now since I shot my last buck. Larger than this one. Every deer hunter wants to shoot a big buck, of course, but the best meat is on smaller animals. Last year I was not successful, but two years ago I shot a nice doe.
After I shot my buck I was elated and sad at the same time. Elated at my success but sad because my hunting season was over. I stayed in my stand until noon, watching over my buck, because of the coyotes. The woods are filled with them and they will devour a downed animal in a short time. And there are also plenty of hungry crows and magpies, and the odd eagle, all eagerly waiting for something to eat. They will clean up the guts within hours, which is a good thing. In nature nothing ever gets wasted.
I went back to our camp at noon and my son drove with the quad to pick up the deer and transport it to our camp. The coyotes and birds will not come to the camp.
Years ago we used to have to drag the deer back to camp, which was a grueling task, especially if there was no snow. A large buck gave you a good workout. There were years when we shot four deer (it was legal), and dragging four large animals was exhausting. But like anything we enjoy doing, there is always a tradeoff. Nothing ever comes easy. If you want something you have to work at it. It comes with the territory.
We love venison. We skin and cut up our deer when we get home, take out the bones and package the meat. De-boning is important, because bones make the meat taste gamey. After it has been packaged it goes into the freezer, to be enjoyed with a glass of red wine in the coming year.
The last couple of days the weather turned cold and nasty. Even though I had bagged my deer, I still sat in my stand during the day, just to enjoy the outdoors and observe the wildlife, and to find out how much traffic my stand gets. A few years back I shot my two deer in the morning of the first day. I spent the rest of the week sitting in my stand and I saw the biggest bucks coming into my clearing. It was exciting but also frustrating, because my bag limit was filled…with a doe and a small buck. But that is part of the hunt. The big bucks always seem to get away…or almost always.
This time I saw only one buck on the last day. There was not much traffic in my clearing, possibly because of the weather. It was so cold the water bottle I carried in my backpack froze solid in two hours. Even my feet began to tingle a bit inside my boots. I did have toe warmers, but they were not enough.
We left our camp Thursday, November 17 at 3:15 pm. It began to snow and we drove home most of the way on a treacherous highway. We arrived home at around 7:30 pm.
Here is a picture of the buck I shot.

First snow

Well, we've had our first snowfall this season. Not much, only about 2 cm, but it stayed on the grass all day. Some areas in Manitoba did get up to 27 cm of the white stuff. I don't mind it too much. I'll be going on my yearly deer hunting trip this Thursday and a little snow is always welcome. It makes tracking the deer easier in case they need to be tracked. But I usually put my deer down on the spot, which means I don't have to track them through the bush. It is difficult to find a spur if there is no snow. But snow means cold...brrr...brrr...Not something I enjoy, especially when I have to sit in my deer stand for hours. It's the feet that get cold first, and after a while the whole body begins to chill. Of course, I shouldn't complain; after all, I'm having fun LOL. Nobody forces me to go into the cold outdoors. I bought some toe-warmers this year, so cold feet should not be a problem. As long as it doesn't rain or sleet...that is the worst. There is nothing more discouraging than a cold wet wind in your face and cold drops of water running down your neck. I'm feeling uncomfortable just writing about it. Too warm is no good either. It is pleasant to sit, but not good for hunting. The deer have to move. The cold weather also causes the bucks to got into rut, which means they'll be chasing the does and won't be so cautious.
I'm looking forward to getting away again for a few days, contemplate life and charge up the batteries. I'm not making much progress with Book Seven of The Xandra. Haven't even written ten thousand words yet. Maybe when I come back from hunting I'll be more anxious to write. Maybe I'll get some new ideas when I'm sitting in my stand waiting for the big buck to come by.
Till next time.

An enjoyable evening

We went to a social last night. The daughter of one of our friends is getting married. 500 tickets were apparently sold and it seems most people came. The hall was designed for about 380 people or so, which meant many people were standing around, but with the dancing it didn’t really matter. It was a social and Halloween party. My wife went as a cat and I went as a policeman. Most people came in a costume, which was nice. Some went a bit too far, like the two guys wearing only briefs. I think they were supposed to be wrestlers. But there were many nice costumes. People went all out with makeup and whatever. There was a group from Wizard of Oz. A couple of tinmen, a lion, and even a guy dressed as a brickwall, not bad if not a bit revealing with his skintight outfit. Some came as zombies, different varieties of cats, policemen and women, gypsies. One guy was dressed as superman, another as a vampire. A Star Trek officer, even Spock was there. And witches. I can’t remember them all. It was nice to see people getting into the spirit of Halloween. Some girls were quite attractive in there costumes. Or to be politically correct I should say Young women. Oh yes, I may be an older guy but that doesn’t stop me from looking at attractive women.
The food was delicious: Perogies, cabbage rolls, meatballs, salads, ham and sausage, and deserts.
I’ve never been to a social with such great food. Usually it is just bread and sausage.
The prizes for the silent auction were also fabulous. A 42inch TV, Jets tickets (hockey), Blue Bomber tickets (football), and many other great prizes. Too bad we didn’t win anything.
One thing that spoiled it for me was the music, or what classifies as music these days. I put pieces of Kleenex in my ears which made it bearable, but it didn’t stop my chest from vibrating to the loud beat. Why does the DJ have to scream into the microphone? I didn’t understand a word he said. Of course, the speakers were shot anyway. Not that it mattered, because I wouldn’t have enjoyed the music even if it would have been played at a normal level. Our parents used to call it jungle music. In those days it wasn’t even as bad as it is now. I don’t understand the words. Pardon me, sometimes I can actually make out one word, like one song had nothing but hot, hot, hot. That’s all I heard. But maybe it was a different word.
I realized again why I haven’t gone to a social for such a long time. I’m as far removed from the music these days as a Neanderthal is from modern man. I’m not sure though if I’m the Neanderthal or vice versa.
I love the Jim Reeves type of Country music, Barbara Mandrell and Ann Murray type of popsongs. I like to dance the waltz, the tango, the foxtrot, rumba. I like to listen to saxophone and the romantic guitar of Liona Boyd for instance, music played on the piano by Richard Clayderman and musicians like him. Music I can relax by, words I can understand, not this loud screeching of steel guitars, the drumming, the screaming of people who can’t really sing. Not for me, but that is just me. Obviously, there are plenty of mostly young people who love it, so who am I to judge? Our parents criticized the way we behaved when we were young and we called them oldfashioned.
One thing I have to say, the young people at the social behaved exemplary. There were not fights or argument. No drunken brawls. So the music was loud. It didn’t really matter. As long as everyone has fun. That is important.
The world changes, people change, customs change, tastes change, in music and everything else. That is how the human race evolves. We can only hope it is for the better.

A nice but cold day

The weather has been kind so far. Just heard about snow in Newfoundland. Here in our part of the province of Manitoba (Winnipeg) we don't have any snow yet, but it is coming. Last night we had minus 4 Celsius. There is ice on the birdbaths. Almost time to take them into the garage for the winter. Today the sun is shining and it looks like a nice day ahead. The weather people promised us about 6 plus today. No frost for tonight.
I've been going fishing quite a few times these last three weeks in Lockport. I live only about 5 minutes away. In Lockport is a lock and dam in the Red River to control the water that flows into Lake Winnipeg. Right now the walleye and other fish are coming up the river to spawn, but they are stopped by the dam, which means a lot of fish at that spot. I've been catching my limit of fish ever time I went. The limit is 4 which incidentally is also the possession limit. Needless to say we've been eating a lot of fish lately. We love fish, so forced to eat them so quickly is not a punishment. The fish I caught were mostly saugers. They are a close relative of the walleye only smaller. 4 fish usually provide about 450 g of filets, just enough for one meal for my wife and me.
In early October when I started going they were biting quite nicely, but it is slowing down now. I catch them casting with a 1/4 ounce jig and a plastic grub. You have to get the jig down to the bottom of the river, because that's where the fish are, but, unfortunately, there are also plenty of rocks and they take their share of jigs. It's what keeps the fishing stores in business.
I also caught 1 nice-sized silver bass and 4 large suckers, but we don't eat them. The suckers are bony and the silver bass taste swampy.
My first fish I caught on my first day in Lockport was a goldeye. It is in the freezer now waiting for more of its fellows. They taste good only smoked because they are so greasy.
Finding a good spot there is sometimes challenging. On some days I fished shoulder to shoulder with other fishermen. Not the most idyllic way to fish. I prefer a quiet place, but I've been catching fish, which does not always happen in a quiet spot on a lake or river. There is always a trade-off, like with most things in life.
Many of the fishermen are Filipino. They like their fish. I've seen the same people coming every time I was there and I got to know some of them. Filipino are friendly people. Often they offered me one of their jigs if I asked what they are using as bait.
Halloween is coming. I remember many uncomfortable cold Halloween evenings with rain or sleet when I used to take our sons for trick-or-treat in the neighborhood. One year we had a snowstorm and the snow stayed for the winter. You never know what Halloween brings, but it looks like it is going to be a nice, beautiful day this year.
I'm waiting for the release of Raptor's Tooth, Book 3 of my Lizard World trilogy. It is supposed to be released by the end of the month.
I haven't made much progress with Book 7 of The Xandra. So far I'm at 5,000 words. Been too busy getting the yard ready for winter and with fishing. But Winter will be here soon enough and I'll have more time to write. I hope.

Ads by Yahoo

The ads on the Yahoo sites are gone! I don't know if the complaining helped, but I am happy Yahoo seemed to have listened to people's concerns and complaints. I understand ads are a necessary evil in today's world. I advertise my books. Without ads readers wouldn't find them, without ads we wouldn't know about bargains and good deals, but when advertising becomes a nuisance and is shoved into our faces wherever we go, then they are not tools to help sell our products but only get potential buyers annoyed and turned off. Advertisers need to know this, and the only way they find this out is if consumers speak up.

Yahoo and advertising

I don't like complaining, but I hate what Yahoo is doing to us again with their advertising. I'm talking about the ads popping up in the center of the postings on the Yahoo groups. It is so hard to read the excerpts and the information other members post. I realize that Yahoo makes its money on advertising, but do we really have to be subjected to this kind of abuse? And I consider it abuse because it annoys me. It gives me heart-palpitations. I wouldn't check out these ads out of principal just because they are so annoying and irritating. I hate all this advertising on TV; they are such a waste of my time, but there I can tape a show and forward the ads. What I hate about Yahoo is that we have no choice. They don't give us a choice to opt out of these ads. I don't mind them when they appear as a sidebar or even on the top as a small strip; I can live with that, but in the middle of the webpage? Come on! Enough is enough. I checked out a forum and found plenty of other upset users. One of the monitors of the forum posted that Yahoo takes a note of these complaints, but will they act upon it? I doubt it.
At first I thought it might be my browser. I use Mozilla Firefox, but when I used Google Chrome and Internet Explorer I got the same thing.
I am totally dissatisfied with Yahoo. Too bad we have no other choice. That is the problem when somebody has a monopoly. They can do what they want. Just like the governments.

2 1/2 Men

We've watched 2 1/2 men from the beginning. At first I thought 'Charlie Sheen? In a funny sitcom? No way! He's a serious actor.' I liked him in action movies. But after watching the first show we actually liked it and became fans. Too bad Charlie had to screw up his life like this with drugs and alcohol. Anyway, we watched another episode with his replacement Kutcher. Maybe Kutcher is funny in other roles, but the character he plays in the new 2 1/2 men series is an idiot. Not funny at all. The episode was stupid but not funny. No genius who managed to make 1.2 Billion Dollars can be such a moron. If the writers and directors don't get their act together the show will bomb. Only another moron can like this new show. I'm saying this and I don't care if it is politically correct.It is almost insulting to expect normal people to watch this. And another thing...since when is farting funny? That's how the last episode ended...with Allan farting. Come on! I've already used idiot and moron. What other word can I use to express what I think about such stupid humor?
I'll give it a couple more chances, but if they decide to carry on this way I will stop watching the show. And I'm sure many other viewers will too. There are other funny sitcoms out there. Modern Family and Mike and Molly are a couple of really funny shows. Good humor.
It is hard to define what is funny and what makes people laugh, but some things are just not funny. Kutcher's character is not funny. I didn't laugh I just cringed.

News about Bullet of Revenge

Just got my contract from Melange Books, LLC for Bullet of Revenge. My publisher likes the novel and it is scheduled to be published in June 2012. That's not even a year away. Hurray. By the way, after reading and editing it three times, my wife read it and found still a bunch of mistakes. Nothing major but there are mistakes hidden in the manuscript. I'm making a note of them and when I get the novel back for a final edit I will fix them. Funny how our eyes and minds sometimes deceive us. Well, I won't have to worry about fixing anything for nearly a year. In the meantime I will write Book 7 in the Xandra series.

Epsilon City and Tarnished Valor

My new releases this month are Book 2 of Lizard World, Epsilon City and Book 3 of my contemporary thriller Web of Conspiracy, Tarnished Valor.
Anyone interested in a free pdf copy of Book 1 of Lizard World or Book 1 and 2 of Web of Conspiracy, please, send me an email to hegro@shaw.ca and ask for one.
I will give away one free copy of Epsilon City and Tarnished Valor from the list of people who send me an email.
Here is the link to Epsilon City (just click on it)
And this is the link to Tarnished Valor at Melange Books LLC.

Not a good day

September 25 is not a good day for me. Never. It was 32 years ago, September 25, 1979, when I lost my brother Arthur in a plane crash. No matter how many years go by, I recall every moment and every word when I received the call from my sister-in-law.
She asked me to come to her place, because she had something to tell my parents which she could not do.
I can also never forget when I told my parents the terrible news. I still hear my father's shouts of anguish and my mother's plaintive cries. My father never got over it. He died 4 years later.
Losing a loved one is a tragic event, and only people who have experienced it know the pain it causes inside. I've lost many friends over the years, and it is always sad. You lose a part of yourself, a part of your life, it is awful, but it cannot compare with the loss of a family member.
My brother Arthur and I were close. We could talk about things one can only discuss with someone close to you without feeling embarrassed or foolish. Things you share only with a brother (or sister if you're a woman). We used to sing and play the guitar together. Even though he was younger, he was the one who taught me the songs. He was the one with the talent for music and the better voice. He had a great sense of humor that was infectious. I've missed the years without him and I will miss him until the day I leave this plane of existence.
If there is an afterlife, I will see you again, my brother, and we will talk about our youth.

Bullet of Revenge

I just submitted my contemporary mystery/romance novel 'Bullet of Revenge' to Melange Books, LLC. The final version ended up being 102,775 words long. I edited it three times. It is amazing how many mistakes I still found the third time around. After the second edit I printed the story for the third edit. It proves again, how important it is to not rush submitting a story. Our brains are wonderful in the respect that they make us see things that are not there sometimes, like missing letters. For instance one of the company names in the story is 'Globe Labs'. Twice I forgot the e in Globe, and one time I spelled it 'Glove Labs'. Never caught that the first two edits. Hopefully, I found all the mistakes and I submitted a clean manuscript. Of course, before the story gets released, the editor will go through it, then send it back to me for another look.

Here is the blurb for ‘Bullet of Revenge’ by Herbert Grosshans

When PI Frank Hummer takes on a new case to help a woman in distress, he soon finds himself in a web of lies and deception. Ghosts from the past reach out toward him, demanding atonement for the things he committed a decade ago, things he tried hard to forget.

The story does not contain any explicit sex, but it still is an adult novel, because of erotic elements and sometimes coarse language. I hope my publisher likes it and then it will take at least a year before it gets published. Patience is important in the life of a writer.

In the meantime I still have 2 books released this month (Book 3 of Web of Conspiracy, and Book 2 of Lizard World). Next month it will be Book 3 of Lizard World. In January next year I'll have Mark of the Cobra, a contemporary novel. Following that Book 4, 5, and 6 of The Xandra. That's four books already. That will make waiting easier.
Maybe I'll even get Book 7 of The Xandra done to be published still in 2012. We'll see.

About Numbers

Woke up at 4:34, 6:36, 7:37. Sometimes I wake up at 2:22 and 4:44. What do these numbers mean? Maybe nothing. Maybe something. Who knows? Very mysterious. Maybe I should write a story about secret numbers. The Universe is made up of numbers. The letters we write on our keyboard are in reality nothing but numbers in the computer. Everything can be broken down into numbers. Even though we give every day a name, like Monday, Tuesday, they are basically only numbers. The number of the day in a week, a month, even a year. Today is the 21st day of September, the 9th month of the year, the 264th day of 2011. In 94 days it will be Christmas. In 102 days it will be the year 2012. It takes 9 minutes for the light from the sun to reach our planet, and 4.3 years to reach Alpha Centauri. Tyrannosaurus Rex walked the Earth 70 million years ago, that's about 25,550,000,000 days. What a long string of numbers. We can not even comprehend such numbers.
Numbers are important. We use them to measure distance, weights, amounts, speed, time. Numbers mean order. "I am the first. I am the second. I am the last." Without numbers there would be chaos. No way to measure anything, except maybe to say, "Give me a handful of money and I'll give you 'so many' handfuls of apples." or "I'll see you when the moon is full again."
That still doesn't explain why I wake up at such unusual times. Questions, questions...

eBook Eros

Some of my books are available now on eBook Eros. The name says it all. Check it out.
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King Tut - an interesting trip

About three weeks ago, Monday August 22, to be exact, we drove to Minneapolis to see the King Tut display in the Science Museum in Saint Paul. The first day we drove to Alexandria where we spent the night. In Alexandria we visited the Viking Museum. Very interesting display. It proved that Vikings visited North America already long before Columbus ‘discovered’ America.
The next day we drove to Bloomington. We stayed in the Comfort Inn which is near the Mall of America. Driving on the Interstate was hair-raising for me. We are not used to these highways. This was our first trip in many years. Usually we go on holidays by plane. But we made it safely to our hotel without getting off the freeway at the wrong exit.
Before we left, I studied Google maps and printed them out, so I knew exactly which exit to take. The Mall of America was sure a great experience. It is huge, but we didn’t find any bargains. We can buy the same stuff in Canada for the same price. The aquarium was interesting. We visited Bubba Gump and ate Shrimp. We also went shopping at IKEA, which is next to the Mall of America. We found the layout of IKEA strange. You go in one way and have to follow the arrows to get out again. We actually did buy some things there.
Thursday, August 25, we drove to the Science Museum. It was only a twenty-minute drive from our hotel. The King Tut display was marvelous. We spent three hours looking at everything. There was also a real mummy on display. To think all those treasures are thousands of years old. It blows your mind just to imagine it.
We left Minneapolis Friday, August 26, traveled to Grand Forks where we spent the night. We had supper at Grizzly’s Grill. Great Steak. The next day, Saturday, August 27, we went shopping in the Columbia Mall. Left after lunch to drive home. We had a good time but it was nice to sleep in my own bed again and take care of my fish and garden. I’m like an old tree. My roots are at home and when I get transplanted I don’t feel right.

After we came home, we watched a bunch of movies about the pyramids and it gets you thinking. Apparently, according to some researchers, the pyramids were built thousands of years before the age of the pharaohs. They were not built as tombs for them. The Egyptians did not have the technology to build those pyramids in the short time span most historians claim. The pyramid at Giza has 2,300,000 huge stones. If it was built in 20 years as is claimed, they would have to put up one stone every 2.3 minutes, working 12 hours a day.
Some scientists believe there were already ancient civilizations with a high technology that even surpasses ours living thousands of years ago on Earth. With the technology we possess today, we could not build the pyramids with such accuracy. The other explanation, which is also quite fascinating for me, suggests there were visitors from another planet on Earth.
Very interesting and intriguing. And it makes total sense. The evidence is there all around the globe. Unfortunately, what we can’t explain because it doesn’t fit into the established facts and theories of the scientists and historians, we ignore and shrug off. If somebody comes along with a new theory he/she is usually ridiculed by the scientific community. Nobody wants to re-write the history books. And let’s not forget the church. According to some religious people the Universe is only 6,000 years old and everything, including the fossils, was created that way. The reason for that is still a mystery. Total nonsense as far as I’m concerned. It is so illogical it doesn’t even make sense.

Maybe some day I’ll write a novel with an ancient civilization as the background. All I need is an idea and the inspiration.

Oh, here is something interesting. I’m always fascinated by numbers. Mystery numbers, that is, like waking up during the night at 4:44 or 2:22. Here is a mystery number for you. When we came home from our trip, I drove into the garage and shut off the motor. This is what the odometer showed:

Almost done

I just finished editing my latest novel for the second time. It is amazing how much I missed with the first edit. I wouldn't be surprised if I found more things wrong the next time I read it. During my first edit I looked mainly for inconsistencies, like the wrong name, time-frame, awkward dialog and sentences. The second time I concentrated more on wrong words, dialog and sentences. I printed it out and now I will read it again in the printed form to see how the story flows. After that I will send it to my publisher.
The new and most likely final title of the novel is 'Bullet of Revenge'. (The writing title was 'Conspiracy'). I had other titles which I liked better, but when I did a search on the internet those titles already existed.
The word-count of the novel is 102,700 words. I was afraid I may have to make it into 2 books, but I contacted my publisher and was told the length was fine as an ebook. Also, it looks better in print when the novel is longer.
I thoroughly enjoyed writing this novel. It presented me with many challenges. It is a contemporary novel and takes place in the present time, in 2011 to be exact. I had to make sure I got all my days and dates right.
As soon as I'm completely finished I will go back to writing Book Seven in the Xandra series. Back to Science Fiction. I'm looking forward to it.

Free copy

Thank you for visiting. To get your free pdf copy please read the post below this one.
In case you have a copy already or are interested in my other latest release, Epsilon, then please ask for that one.
Epsilon is Book One of my Science Fiction trilogy 'Lizard World'. Book Two 'Epsilon City' will be published also by the end of this month. Book Three 'Raptor's Tooth' is scheduled to be published by Melange Books in October.
If you would like to read more how I came to write 'Web of Conspiracy' then please scroll down to my blog from Sunday, July 24 and read about it.
I hope to hear from you.
Visit my website Herbert's World to see all of my books and read some excerpts.