Tag: authors

It’s been another week of rain, rain, and rain, with the occasional outbreak of sunshine. Last week’s rainbows were replaced with patch fog. Today looks like it might be brighter and stay dry, which would be a good thing so I can rake up the fallen leaves before they start to rot. Oh, the joys of autumn!

Over the past couple of weeks there have been warnings on the television about the possibility of power outages this winter, particularly during cold spells. It was suggested for people to prepare. I ordered four battery-operated lanterns online as the local DIY stores were out. My order was supposed to be delivered today, but I received an email informing me there was a delay with no anticipated delivery date provided.

After a few weeks with a slight downward trend in the price of gasoline (petrol) we had two three-pence increases this week, one on Tuesday and the other on Friday. So we’re now at £1.65 a liter. With the current exchange rate now $1.13, this makes the equivalent cost of a U.S. gallon $7.20, an increase of forty-eight cents since the last time I mentioned this.

The number of American college football games shown on Saturday has returned to five. This weekend, there were two from the Southeastern Conference, two from the Atlantic Coast Conference, and one from the Big Ten. As always, I recorded all of them. The Big Ten game was between Penn State and Minnesota, and I’ll watch this one tonight. Both Michigan and Michigan State were idle this week, giving both teams an extra week to prepare for their upcoming showdown next weekend (which will be televised here).

Here’s this week’s quote (Compliments of http://www.wisdomquotesandstories.com/):

“′Classic′ – a book which people praise and don’t read.” ― Mark Twain

So who was born on this date in history? Let’s find out who in the writing world was born on October 23rd, the fourth Sunday of the month:

Juan de la Cueva, Spanish dramatist; Benjamin Constant [de Rebeque], French politician and writer (Adolphe); Adalbert Stifter, Austrian author (Nachsommer); Robert Bridges, English poet (Testament of beauty) and British Poet Laureate (1913-30); Neltje Blanchan, American nature writer; Harvey Penick, American golfer, coach, author (World Golf Hall of Fame); Ned Rorem, American composer and author (Sky Music); Vasily Belov, Russian author, poet and playwright (Business as Usual, Everything’s Ahead); Michael Crichton, American novelist (Andromeda Strain, Congo, Looker) and filmmaker (Jurassic Park, ER); Nick Tosches, American writer (bio of Jerry Lee Lewis); Laurie Halse Anderson, American writer (Speak) and Meghan McCain, American columnist, author, and TV host.

Any names familiar to you? There were two for me: Michael Crichton and Meghan Mccain. Whether you recognize anyone on the list or not, if today’s your special day I hope you have a great one!

Coming Soon!

In case you missed it, I can now reveal the cover of Ultimate Escalation, which will be released by Solstice Publishing. I received the second edit pass of my manuscript from one of their editors. After going through his suggestions and making changes, it’s now back with him.

Here’s the blurb:

Punjabi militants seek to distance themselves from Indian and Pakistani dominance and interference. With the dissolution of British India in 1947, families were ripped apart as the Punjabi region was split between the two countries. Limited attacks within each country caused further persecution and heartache.

The militants have no idea how to achieve their desires–until the appearance of Vladimir Aleksandrovich Nikolaev, a disgraced Spetsnaz colonel. He offers the militants a means to spark a conflict between the two nuclear powers.

Russian subs sold on the black market and manned by Iranian and Russian sailors will surface off the coasts of the two countries and destroy Karachi and Mumbai. Propaganda machines will levy accusations against each country, leading to escalation of hostilities, pushing the countries to the brink of nuclear war.

The Bedlam organization fields their three teams to counter the violence and seek to restore calm before it’s too late. Will they be successful, or will South Asia become a smoking ruin?

My Work in Progress

I’ve resumed work on Frozen Conquest. I didn’t quite finish chapter seventeen but hope to do so this week.

The sixteen posted chapters received another eight reviews this week, bringing the total to 279. As always, plenty of good suggestions to improve my story and I’m greatly appreciative of the support.

I’ll be skipping the snippet this week but will bring you another one next time. One thing I have done is changed the name of one of the minor characters. Instead of David Walliams, he will now be known as Douglas Walliams.

I also continued working on Temples of Abydos. Chapter six is almost ready to post to the two online subscription writing sites I use. This week there were another five reviews, bringing the total thus far to forty-nine.

Here’s the blurb:

History professor Sylvia Burness and her husband, Charles Wilkie, a renowned Greek archeologist, are seeking a new project after spending years cataloging Celtic sites throughout the United Kingdom.

Long fascinated with Egypt, Charles proposes an excursion to one of the lesser-known locations, Abydos, a historic city that played an important role in ancient Egypt. Sylvia agrees and together they plan their trip.

Unbeknownst to them, an unethical antiquities group called Guardians of Shadows are using one of the Abydos temples as their hideout.

Will Sylvia and Charles be able to evade this group and escape with their lives or will they be entombed in Abydos for generations?

Promotions

This month The Kurdish Connection and Dangerous Alliance will be participating in a Kindle Unlimited Thriller Series Starters promotion. Only two books per author, and there are currently fifty participating.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/ku_thriller_series/t7qp6i4ek8

Five of my novels (all but Revenge) are also participating in a Mayhem & Motives: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Reads. This one allows five books per author and there are currently eight-five novels participating.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/mysthrillsus-oct/utj2oamorr

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 2022 Randall Krzak. All rights reserved

It’s been another week of typical autumn weather: clouds, rain, wind, occasional bursts of sunshine. We even had a couple of rainbows this week. I almost forgot: plenty of chilly weather, too. I don’t think we hit 60F (15C) at all.  The leaves keep falling en masse, but I need to wait for a sunny day to rake them up as it’s too difficult when they’re soaked.

This evening, I’ll be getting my annual flu shot along with my fourth Covid injection. Oh joy!

Once again the number of college football games shown were reduced–this time to two, instead of the normal five. With the Major League Baseball division races underway, this will continue for some time. The two games shown were both from the Southeastern Conference. I did see some of the highlights of the Michigan-Penn State game, with Michigan increasing their record to 7-0 as a result of beating Penn State, 41-17. Michigan is one of nine remaining undefeated teams in college football. Meanwhile, Michigan broke a four-game losing streak, upending Wisconsin 34-28.

Here’s this week’s quote (Compliments of http://www.wisdomquotesandstories.com/):

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” ~ Mark Twain 

So who was born on this date in history? Let’s find out who in the writing world was born on October 16th, the third Sunday of the month:

Charles Coypeau Dassoucy, French poet and singer; Albrecht von Haller, Swiss experimental physiologist, biologist and author (Acadamy of Science); Noah Webster, American lexicographer (Webster’s Dictionary); William Buell Sprague, American clergyman and author; Ferdinand van der Haeghen, Flemish librarian/bibliography; Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright and novelist (Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray); Camille Looten, Belgian priest/literature historian; J. B. Bury, Irish historian; Pieter J Kromsigt, theologist/publicist (Troffel & Sword); Helge Rode, Danish poet/essayist; Armin T Wegner, writer; Eugene O’Neill, American playwright (Desire Under the Elms-Nobel 1936); Cecile de Brunhoff, French storyteller; Dino Buzzati, Italian writer (The Tartar Steppe); Roger Vailland, French author (Drôle de jeu, La loi) and screenwriter; George Turner, Australian author; Kathleen Winsor, American writer; Günter Grass, German writer, playwright (The Tin Drum) and Nobel Prize laureate (1999); Paul Monette, American writer and LBT activist; and Marc Levy, French novelist.

Any names familiar to you? There were two for me: Noah Webster and Oscar Wilde. Whether you recognize anyone on the list or not, if today’s your special day I hope you have a great one!

Coming Soon!

I can now reveal the cover for Ultimate Escalation, which I received this week from Solstice Publishing. I also received the first edit pass of my manuscript from one of their editors. After going through his suggestions and making changes, it’s now back with him.

For those who might have missed it, here’s the blurb:

Punjabi militants seek to distance themselves from Indian and Pakistani dominance and interference. With the dissolution of British India in 1947, families were ripped apart as the Punjabi region was split between the two countries. Limited attacks within each country caused further persecution and heartache.

The militants have no idea how to achieve their desires–until the appearance of Vladimir Aleksandrovich Nikolaev, a disgraced Spetsnaz colonel. He offers the militants a means to spark a conflict between the two nuclear powers.

Russian subs sold on the black market and manned by Iranian and Russian sailors will surface off the coasts of the two countries and destroy Karachi and Mumbai. Propaganda machines will levy accusations against each country, leading to escalation of hostilities, pushing the countries to the brink of nuclear war.

The Bedlam organization fields their three teams to counter the violence and seek to restore calm before it’s too late. Will they be successful, or will South Asia become a smoking ruin?

My Work in Progress

I’ve resumed work on Frozen Conquest and hope to post chapter seventeen this week to the two online subscription writing sites I use.

The sixteen posted chapters received another five reviews this week, bringing the total to 271. As always, plenty of good suggestions to improve my story and I’m greatly appreciative of the support.

Here’s the next snippet:

David Walliams, president of the World Bank, rifled through the stack of postal mail dropped off by his secretary. Nothing worth reading. He switched on his computer and skimmed his new messages. Routine, routine. Why can’t I receive something exciting?

He deleted the spam and filed trivial reports in their respective folders. The one-word subject of the next message from an unknown email address piqued his interest. What’s this?

 

David opened the message and studied its contents.

To: David Walliams, World Bank President

From: A concerned citizen of the world

 

Behold the beast, for he wants to destroy the world. He will stop at nothing to achieve his goals. Seek him where glaciers abound.

 

David scratched his chin. Is this some kind of a joke? Why send it to me? He picked up the phone and dialed.

A deep male voice answered after the first ring. “Hello.”

“Hey, Jonny. David Walliams here. I received a strange email today. It might be from a crackpot, but with the threats against the stock markets, I thought you might be interested.” He forwarded the message to Jonny. “Just sent it to you.”

“Got it. Hmm. Just a minute—I’ll be right back.”

David listened to the classical hold music while he waited.

Moments later, Jonny came back on the line. “Sorry about that. I wanted to compare what you sent me with some earlier information that came in. I just forwarded your email to an organization already looking into this issue. If you receive anything else, just send it to me.”

“Will do, Jonny. Should I be worried?”

“You can share it with Japan, China, Germany, and the U.K., as they have the most voting power, not including the U.S. However, I recommend against sharing it with your executive directors and vice presidents. If I recall, that will push the word out to over fifty more people, and I think we should keep it contained—for now.”

“Understood.”

“Anything else, David?”

“Not today. We need to arrange another outing on the Chesapeake.”

“As soon as a quiet period appears on my schedule, I’ll let you know.”

More next time.

I also continued working on Temples of Abydos. Chapters four and five were posted to the two online subscription writing sites I use. This week there were another seventeen reviews, bringing the total thus far to forty-four.

Here’s the blurb:

History professor Sylvia Burness and her husband, Charles Wilkie, a renowned Greek archeologist, are seeking a new project after spending years cataloging Celtic sites throughout the United Kingdom.

Long fascinated with Egypt, Charles proposes an excursion to one of the lesser-known locations, Abydos, a historic city that played an important role in ancient Egypt. Sylvia agrees and together they plan their trip.

Unbeknownst to them, an unethical antiquities group called Guardians of Shadows are using one of the Abydos temples as their hideout.

Will Sylvia and Charles be able to evade this group and escape with their lives or will they be entombed in Abydos for generations?

Promotions

This month The Kurdish Connection and Dangerous Alliance will be participating in a Kindle Unlimited Thriller Series Starters promotion. Only two books per author, and there are currently fifty participating.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/ku_thriller_series/t7qp6i4ek8

Five of my novels (all but Revenge) are also participating in a Mayhem & Motives: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Reads. This one allows five books per author and there are currently eight-five novels participating.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/mysthrillsus-oct/utj2oamorr

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 2022 Randall Krzak. All rights reserved