A belated Happy Winter Solstice to everyone. Yesterday marked the shortest day of the year and the astronomically beginning of winter.

This coming week marks Christmas and the start of Hannukah. Hope everyone enjoys the holiday season. We certainly will, as our son arrived on Christmas Eve for a few days.

The University of Michigan Wolverines loss another game this week, dropping their record to 8-3. They also dropped in the rankings fourteenth to twenty-four. Meanwhile, the Michigan State Spartans won two games, improving their record to 10-2, and climbing one spot in the rankings to twentieth. Michigan’s next game is today, and Michigan State doesn’t play again until the 30th.

In the NFL, the Detroit Lions lost their second game of the season, dropping their record to 12-2. At the same time the Minnesota Vikings won another game, improving to 12-2. At this point they are tied in the NFC North, with three games each to play before the regular season comes to an end.  Detroit is still top of the division, due to an earlier win against Minnesota. They play each other again on the 5th of January. Detroit plays Chicago today. I hope they can repeat their earlier win against the Bears.

“A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.” – E.B. White (1899-1965) American writer. Compliments of https://www.aspiringwriteracademy.com/45-motivational-quotes-for-aspiring-writers.

So who was born on this date in history? Let’s find out who in the writing world was born on December 22nd, the fourth Sunday of the month. (Compliments of https://www.onthisday.com/birthdays/).

Jean Racine, French dramatist (Phèdre, Athalie); Johann J Dillenius [Dillen], German botanist (Historia Muscorum); Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher and writer; Johann Sebastian Welhaven, Norwegian poet; Justin M’Carthy, Irish politician and novelist (Miss Misanthrope); Mark Rutherford [Hale White], English writer; Erich Schaeder, German theologist (Theocentric Theology); František Xaver Šalda, Czechoslovakian literary critic; Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet (Richard Corey); Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Italian-French prose writer, novelist, poet, and dramatist (Futurism e Futurista); Mikha`il Na’imah, Lebanese playwright; Nikolay Semyonovich Tikhonov, Russian poet and writer; Kenneth Rexroth, American poet and translator & critical essayist (Birds in the Bush); Anthony Barber Doncaster, English bookseller; Calder Willingham, American novelist and scriptwriter; Lee Salk, Russian-American child psychologist and author; Charles de Lint, Canadian sci-fi author (Moonhear, Mulengro, Yarrow); Heather Donahue, American writer and actress; Chris Adler, American writer; and Brian A. Alexander, American screenwriter and director.

Any names familiar to you? There was one for me this week: Lee Salk . Whether you recognize anyone on the list or not, if today’s your special day I hope you have a great one!

My Published Work

I found out this week that Frozen Conquest has moved from the 2024 Chanticleer International Book Awards slush pile to the long list for global thrillers. There’s plenty of competition as all members of the long list slug it out to make it onto the short list. Afterward, the competition will heat up as the semi-finals, finals, first in category winners, and category grand prize winners are still to come.

In a separate announcement, Frozen Conquest is now a finalist in the 2024 Global Book Awards for action-adventure. It’s joined by Ultimate Escalation. The gold, silver, and bronze medals winners will be announced on December 28th.

My Work In Progress

Editing of Mission: Yemen, Xavier Sear Thriller Book 2  is well underway. Since my last blog post, three more more reviews have trickled in as most of my faithful readers have already provided their input, so the total is now  645.  As always, I’ve been working hard going through the reviews, and have picked out what I think will improve the story from 465 of them, leaving 180 more to check over.

Here’s another snippet:

Sear sipped on the tea provided by Qadir and studied the faces of Bashari and his brothers. They aren’t faking. Zahid didn’t run away like I thought. They are really concerned about who might have kidnapped him.

Bashari turned to Sear. “What should we do now?”

“We need to wait to see if my colleagues learned anything from Tarik that might help us pinpoint a location for Shatara. It’s possible the same people took Zahid, which would make things easier for us.” Sear pursed his lips. “Otherwise, we will have a daunting task in front of us. However, I won’t rest until we recover your children.”

A half-smile creased Bashari’s face. “Thank you, Sayyid Sear. Your words are a comfort to me. But I am realistic. I know it will not be easy to do this.”

“I have located other missing people in the past where it seemed impossible to do so. I plan to be successful this time, too.” I just hope Shatara and Zahid are still in Yemen and not squirreled away by human traffickers.

Qadir returned carrying a folded, sealed envelope. With shaking hands, he gave it to Bashari.

He broke the seal and reached inside. Bashari pulled out a photograph and collapsed back in his seat, letting the picture fall to the floor.

Sear picked it up and stared at a photo of Zahid with a bloody nose and a black eye. Next to Zahid’s head was an Al-Bayyinah newspaper from Aden with the current date. Is he in Sana’a or Aden? Sear shook his head as he handed the photo to Bashari’s brothers.

He turned to Bashari. “Contact Yasmin’s late husband’s brothers and notify them. They can begin scouring Aden.” He turned to Omar and Rahman. “Bring your sons here. We can’t wait any longer—we must commence our search of the city—as soon as possible.”

More next time.

While going through the reviews of Mission: Yemen, I’m also working on Vendetta, the sixth story in my Bedlam series. The first fivechapters are now finished and posted to the two subscription writing sites I use. There were another nineteen reviews this week, bringing the total to seventy-one.

The cover is a filler, as the final cover won’t be done until the entire first draft is completed.  I’ll post another snippet of this story next time.

This brings us to an end for another week. I hope you found something of interest. If you have any suggestions for a topic you’d like to read about, please let me know. Until the next time, thank you for reading and hope you drop in again.

© Copyright 2024 Randall Krzak. All rights reserved