A November to Remember

(Subtitle: what doesn't kill you can only make you stronger)


Blogging should not be a torturous writing activity. But for me it has been! For the last month or so, I've read umpteen Facebook and Twitter posts of people I know who have joyfully announced: "My Blog! It's been updated!" Last summer, it was a goal of mine to update the Betrovia blog at least once a week -- and not with just commentaries/updates about my writing! And I felt that I had done a admirable job in maintaining that goal. (I especially like the short series on UAVs!) The goal of blogging at least once a week even carried into September. But after that month, I must confess that I've been a slacker. I suppose one reason is I've been spending a certain amount of time tweeting. Now, of course, blogging is to tweeting as having bacon, eggs and hash browns for breakfast instead of a milk-drowned bowl of Raisin Bran.

As I waved good-bye to September and welcomed the cooler but shorter days of October, the desire to tweet compared to blogging became even stronger. My desire to tweet instead of blogging was fueled with the notion that tweeting was going to be more productive in sending people to Amazon to buy my stuff. About 1/10 of my tweets have been directly about Betrovia, etc. so I don't feel that I've used my tweeting time to spam my stuff like I've seen too many authors do. (I mean, really, how self-depricating is it to beg someone via a tweet to buy or to even just "like" your book and/or Amazon author's page?)

While I munched on left-over Halloweeen candy the first few weeks of November, plans to head to Kansas for a Thanksgiving celebration began to fly into my in-box. (Wifey has developed this curious habit of emailing me her travel ideas instead of just talking to me about them!) Her plan for this year? Invite ourselves to one of her sister's place. And that is exactly what she did! We checked the long-range forecast and it appeared that neither ice nor snow was not going to hinder us from driving to Kansas on Thanksgiving day.

However, the Monday before Thanksgiving, I got a phone call from one of my older brothers who said that Dad was going in for emergency surgery on Wednesday (Thanksgiving Eve). He sressed that if Dad chose to not go through with the operation, he would most-likely die fairly soon. Our travel plans were consequently altered so I could use the 2004 Altima (which had been loaned to us by our wonderful daughter for the trip) to head to Topeka from Lawrence to visit Dad after the surgery. And there he was, laying in the hospital bed on Thanksgiving Day, watching the dog-show on NBC that people who don't want to watch NFL football choose to watch instead. We had a good talk, one of the only ones we have ever had between just the two of us. Before long my sister and Mom arrived. Before I left, there was talk about Dad undergoing a blood transfusion later that day (which is a normal follow-up procedure for the surgery he had experienced). So I volunteered to take Mom home and on the way to her place the two of us had a wonderful, one-on-one talk as well.

We made it back home before 8 PM Thanksgiving night--a perfect time for Wifey to hit the hay in preparation for getting back up at 4AM for some frenetic Black Friday shopping. So at a few minutes in front of 4AM she got up and was out the door by 4:30. I laid in bed until close to 6 when the phone suddenly rang. Of course, I thought that it was Wifey wanting to get my opinion about something she was thinking about buying. But it wasn't her; it was my eldest brother. He called to tell me that Dad had not survived the transfusion. What else could I do after getting that bad news but call Wifey? The Black Friday shopping came to an abrupt halt.

By Saturday, the funeral plans were made and the following Tuesday we headed back to Kansas. The temperature that morning was in the lower twenties when we left Jefferson City--nearly 40 degrees cooler than our excursion just six days earlier. Instead of borrowing the Altima again, we rented a 2013 Kia Optima. (I have never driven a brand-new car before so that was an interesting and thought-provoking experience!)

Dad's visitation was Tuesday night and the funeral was on Wednesday afternoon. Both took place in the first church that our family attended when we moved back to Kansas from Florida in 1968. Needless to say, it felt very strange to talk to people who said they remembered me when I was only "this" tall. It was also amazing to see three of our Jefferson City current-home church pastors walk in the door Tuesday night! It was a great blessing to have those three men there praying with us at that time!

About 30 minutes before the funeral on Wednesday, my oldest niece Sarah (who's been battling a rare form of intestinal cancer since last Spring) arrived. She was in a wheelchair. It was the first time I had seen her in at least three years. During the funeral service, I glanced a few times over at her and it looked like her head was bowed as if in prayer. After the funeral I found out that the plan was for her to go very soon to the Cancer Treatment Center of America facility located in the Chicago area. I've heard many good things about the CTCA and was hopeful that they would know what to do for her.

At the sun-lit but windy gravesite service, Mom was asked if she wanted to say anything and yes, she certainly did. She said that she felt very blessed to have such wonderful children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. By 3:30 Wednesday afternoon, we were leaving Kansas and headed for Jefferson City.

In less than a week's time, we had made two trips to Kansas in two different vehicles but for two related events. Three days ago I got an email from Sarah's dad (my oldest brother) and the CTCA people in Chicago said they were not able to do anything for Sarah that had already been done. He wrote that she promptly informed them to unplug her so she could go back to Kansas.

I told Wifey last night that I do not want to go back to Kansas for another funeral. She replied that God is a miracle-worker and that we should continue to pray for Sarah's complete healing. I had to agree. What else could I say?

Dad's sudden departure from this world and Sarah's serious and now somewhat-terminal condition have made the 2012 holiday season one destined for somber reflection. The head pastor at our church has been preaching a series on The End Times (the rapture of the church, etc.). And of course people around the world continue to over-react to this wacky Mayan calendar thing!

Like I wrote at the beginning: what doesn't kill you ...

Who can be a true worshiper? Anyone can!

Heart Hungry to Worship--Is Jesus Enough?
David Herndon

It's been awhile since I've read a book about ministry. I'm glad that I was given the opportunity to read this one! In Heart Hungry to Worship, David Herndon gracefully weaves personal histories of people he has been blessed to minister to with the uplifting histories of Bible figures like Philip the Evangelist, Saul the radical Jew who became Paul the Apostle and many others. And within the pages of this easy-to-read and entertaining book, David focuses on how all kinds of people--even those no one would expect--have become true worshippers of God.

David has compared the lives of people he knows, focusing on their fears, doubts, frustrations and failures, with the merciful insight of someone who has experienced first-hand God's grace and love. And it's because of this that Heart Hungry to Worship can be a great tool for ministry. I can see David's book being used effectively in home-based Bible studies as well traditional Sunday School settings.

At the end of a few chapters of this 14-chapter "handbook," David challenges the read to accept God's grace as it has been presented through Jesus. At the end of a few others, he suggests taking the concepts presented within those chapters and applying it to our daily walk with Jesus. So what does this mean? Heart Hungry to Worship is not just a book for someone who is already a Christian; it's also a wonderfully-inspiring read for someone who has never read about Saul, the woman at the well or even Mary Magdalene.

As with any self-respecting handbook for Christian living, David has done a fine job with referencing and explaining key Bible passages, and he does this with a much-welcomed conversational style that seemed to be missing in more than a few of the other Christian-growth texts that I have encountered. Of course, it should go without saying that it could be concluded that listening to one of David's sermons would have a similar effect!

Here's one of my favorite parts of Heart Hungry to Worship: "There is no one so bad, so evil, so immoral that He cannot redeem him or her. There is no one so tainted by sin that He cannot cleanse. There is no one so far away, so lost, that He cannot find." This passage comes from the book's conclusion. But throughout the book, David hits on this essential truth about God's amazing grace. And this makes Heart Hungry to Worship a great read for everyone!

A Heart Hungry to Worship

 

Review of Fading Empires: Volume I

Fading Empires Vol 1
Ian Kane

A few years ago, there was a computer game with the strange name of "Quake 3 Arena". It was one of more than a few "first-person shooters" on the market at the time. The opening sequence of Q3:A showed a character named Sarge, a burly ex-Marine sporing a buzz haircut and chewing on a stubby cigar. Sarge carried a massive machine gun, one that could be thought of as a .50-caliber. In this "cut scene," Sarge takes on a huge number of enemies and defeats them all. As I read the first chapter of "Fading Empires: Volume I," where the main character, Kilbane, fights his way through a dense jungle to reach an extraction point, I found it very easy to picture this Sarge character.

From that first chapter all the way to the cliff-hanger ending (it is a massive cliff-hanger as well!), "Fading Empires" delivers a ferocious amount of physical carnage, much like what can be expected when playing a "first-person shooter." The novel begins with parallel scenes: Kilbane fighting his way to an extraction point where he is picked up by a remote-controlled UAV while the other scene presents a professor being interviewed on a pirate radio/video show about the horrors of the "have's" of this dystopic futuristic US of A fighting off their respective "have-nots" Because of these first scenes, the reader is given a quick but thorough layout of the novel's main conflicts.

Yes. reading the novel got thinking (more than I wanted to) of playing a sci-fi first-person shooter like Quake 4:Arena or Modern Warfare; Kane must have spent a copious amount of time and effort to delinate the descriptions of so many kinds of hand-held rifles, machine guns, RPGs, etc.

Even though "Fading Empires" is set in a dystopian society fairly far into the future, Kane chooses to present that "global warming" will be a major cause of society's downfall. In this novel, global warming has caused the seas to rise which has moved the coastal populations further inland. One minor side note: it is interesting that the street-gangs (at least one gang, anyway) have very sophisticated weaponry but have to watch how much is discharged since ammo costs are very high.

I liked how Kane made a subtle transition from the action to show a more tender, dramatic side when Kilbane partners with two of his buddies. They are in the middle of planning a mission that will benefit not only themselves but possibly thousands of other like-minded souls when he gets a message from a childhood friend who's been badly injured in a gang-related excursion. It is from this point until the end of the novel that the main plot-line becomes (thankfully) very obvious.

Like I mentioned earlier, the novel ends with a heavy cliff-hanger. It is so abrupt that I literally grunted my out loud when I hit that proverbial concrete wall! Then I was greeted by an appendix that includes a "cast of characters" along with a glossary of terms for the weaponry, etc. described in the novel.

"Fading Empires" is a very-quick, action-intensive read that introduces gang-bangers, ex-cons, industry tycooons, and yes, military types like Kilbane. Even though Kane's first action-packed novel ends with a massive cliff-hanger (which I suppose should lead interested readers directly to volume two of the series), I give it a bloody -- but frustrated -- thumbs up!

Fading Empires: Volume I

Review of U-TURN KILLuR: Death Row edition

Gabe McLaughlin is a full-time firefighter, a lieutenant as well as a respected member of the fire department. He has a wife that loves him dearly and a three-year old daughter who thinks he's the best daddy a little girl could ever have. So what does Gabe think of them? He's too busy wrapped up in writing a novel that hopefully will take him--and them--out of their hum-drum existences into a brand-new life to even notice that they are slipping away from him. And what's wrong with that? According to Teric Darken via his revamped novel, U-TURN KILLuR, everything!

Through this novel (which appears to be a part of a series that began with KILL FM 100) Darken reveals his talent for poetic prose as well as fanciful fiction. Like his other novels, U-TURN KILLuR is a combination of live-action and stream-of-consciousness narrative and dream sequences. And because of the novel being packed with what is dream/fantasy/metaphor and what isn't, anyone looking for a thrill-by-the-minute action-packed fireman's adventure might be disillusioned with this novel.

But like he has done with his other spiritual/metaphysical pieces, Darken focuses on how a man can have everything and still miss what's most-important.

Tha author graciously provided a PDF of the manuscript and in thankful response I have uploaded this review.

U-TURN KILLuR

We have a winner!

Gratz and kudos to Lisa Vazquezanzua, one of 422 entrants in the 10-day Lycentia: Harrak's Scrolls giveaway on Goodreads! According to Goodreads, Lisa entered the giveaway on Sept. 30th.

Lisa, I mailed your copy today! Hope you enjoy it! :)

Lycentia: Harrak's Scrolls--FREE via Goodreads!

From now until Oct 5, log into Goodreads to register for a FREE paperback edition of book two of The Land of Betrovia trilogy!

FREE COPY!

That Pesky Mayan Calendar Thingy!

And so! It's the first weekend of Autumn, 2012. Not really, "autumn" yet, if the calendar is the sole indicator of the change of the seasons. But the cold front that came through MidMO yesterday afternoon brought strong, NW winds, a little over an inch of rain (which brings the total in the past week to over 4" according to the gauge on our deck!), and much-cooler as well as dryer air. Lots of folks coming into the MFA in Freeburg said their ponds are nearly full now thanks to the storms. The temp this morning when I finally got out of bed (close to 6) was 55. And that's a very-fine temperature for the start of a sunny weekend! (Wifey was already gone on another one of her Springfield adventures which is one reason why I allowed myself almost an extra hour's shut-eye!)

Before 7, I pulled the weed-wacker out of the storage shed (we use an electric, non-battery powered weed-wacker -- and it works great when tethered to about 100' of extension cords!) to prepare the yard for its first complete mowing since May! (Yes, it has been a very dry, very hot summer here in MidMO.) The grass at that time was still too wet for mowing -- but perfect for wacking -- so at a little before 9, I pulled Ryan away from his mindless Saturday-morning cartoons, and we ventured to the Habitat for Humanity "re-use" store. It's like a Salvation Army/Goodwill store, but there are no clothes or things like that. There's all kinds of used furniture, tools, larger sporting goods (bikes, exercise equipment, etc.) appliances and even plumbing and electrical supplies. But what's one nice thing to grab if we can get there right at 9?

Free donuts! Woot!

Before we finally gave up trying to find anything that we couldn't live without, I had polished off two of those wonderful somewhat-fresh pastries (Ryan, however, practiced a bit more self-control -- he had only one!). It was nice to have some REAL junkfood for the first time since my little hospital adventure three weeks ago -- especially since the pastries were FREE!

By 11, the lawn had been exposed to enough dry winds and warm sun, so we headed outside to mow the lawn. Since the mower has not been used a least once a week, like it normally is during the Summer, it just didn't want to keep running. But after fiddling with the choke and waiting for the carberator to reassimilate after such a long vacation, it finally agreed to keep running. Ryan and I traded off guiding that beast back and forth across the yard and by 12:30 the front, both sides, and the back yard were mowed! Man oh man, does the whole yard look good now! And isn't it just amazing how crabgrass and other wonderful MidMO weeds look just like regular grass when they are sufficiently watered and trimmed to about 3" high? :)

After getting a little something for lunch, I thought I would be able to plop down at my desk, watch some college football and maybe even start on the first chapter of Ahnak: Edelin's Revelation. Well, I am at my desk, and I am typing away on something. But is there any football on the tube? (I do need to add here that we do not have cable or dish; we have to rely on whatever is broadcasted via the good ol' fashioned way!) I have been given the choice of US Open tennis and some golf tournament. And so here I am, hammering away on this noisy keyboard, watching the 5 seed take on the 3 seed on the men's side of the US Open tournament. I could try to convince myself that if some college football game was on the tube that I would be hammering away on that elusive first chapter. Well, I could! (As another side note, the tennis tournament commentators keep talking about Ivan Lendl, one of the tennis greats from the middle 1980's, who just happens to be in the stands watching the same match that I am! I can't say that I liked Lendl Ivan the Great  that much when he was terrorizing the professional circuit. But I must say that he looks like he could just jump out of that box seat and show those two youngsters dancing around on the court how the game should be played!)

So when will chapter one of the final book of The Land of Betrovia trilogy be drafted?

 Who knows?

Maybe I have the goal of drafting a chapter a week, figuring on at least 16 chapters total for the book, and that would mean that the entire book would be completely drafted around the new year. And wouldn't that be nice? The goal is to publish Ahnak by Spring 2013 and having the whole thing drafted by New Years Day would be fantastic!

But will it happen? A previous goal was to have Lycentia drafted by July 4th (goal met) and published by Labor Day (another goal met).

Oh  no! Wait just a second! I almost forgot! It's that pesky Mayan calendar thing! The world as we know it is gonna end on December 21, 2012 The End of the World .

Well, so much for that!