Bart "J.B." Hopkins's Blog, page 23

Pines by Blake Crouch

Pines

by

Blake Crouch

The series, or trilogy, consists of three books that could be classified in so many different ways … thriller, suspense, a wee bit of mystery, some futuristic/science fiction and other elements I prefer not to divulge because I don’t want to ruin it for you. It’s hard to imagine an audience for which it wouldn’t be well-received, except perhaps the most die hard non-fiction type.

Inspired by Twin Peaks, according to the author’s site.

The quick and dirty … federal agent Ethan Burke shows up in Wayward Pines, looking for a fellow agent that disappeared in the area. Something is wrong with the people of Wayward Pines, however, and things quickly go awry.

That’s giving you very little, I know, but the books are fantastic.  This is the leader … now go to Amazon and read up on them for yourself.  You won’t regret it.

Hard-hitting, punchy scenes and dialogue such as you might get from Robert Parker, suspense like Lee Child, and so on, and so forth.

Possibly the most satisfying ending to a series I have ever encountered. Nearly perfect. Kudos, Mr. Crouch, on an amazing set of books.

Recommended for anyone who enjoys suspense, thriller, science fiction, dystopian, or futuristic reads.

Gonna name ‘er Rita?

Nine years ago today, my family and I woke up in the “Green Team” waiting area of BJACH (Bayne Jones Army Community Hospital) at Fort Polk.   We’d slept on an air mattress the doctor gave us the night before.

You see, my wife was pregnant with our youngest daughter, a week overdue, actually, and Hurricane Rita was knocking on Louisiana’s door.  At the last minute, the BJACH doctors had asked us to camp out at the hospital instead of evacuating.  They didn’t like the idea of my wife traveling … we didn’t either.

We deflated the air mattress and grabbed some cafeteria food.  Groggy.  Sleep was elusive.  Our two toddlers played with some toys they’d brought.  My parents held down the fort at my house since they’d evacuated our way from the coast of Texas.

We snuck peeks through the windows of the hospital, along with a few other patients, while Rita ripped through the area.  And we waited.  I never felt unsafe.  The hospital was big, and solid, and even though mother nature could have slapped us around, she didn’t.  It was a strange day, but finally in the late afternoon, we were cleared to drive home.

Tree branches and power lines littered the roads, but fortunately, the route to our house was relatively clear.  We stopped at the DeRidder hospital, which was nearby, and discovered they were open and running on generator power.  After all, we still had a small visitor coming.

My parents greeted us and we found our property had only sustained minor fence damage and a few missing shingles.  We settled into a powerless, waterless night, thankful for our good luck.

In the early morning hours, as we lay in puddles of sweat, my wife started having contractions.  Twenty four hours earlier we had been sleeping in a hospital, praying for contractions since we were already there, but no way, that’d be too easy.  No contractions in sight then.

My parents watched the bigger kids while we drove off to the hospital.

A few hours later on September 25th, Jacqueline was born.  I like to tell her (and Jax likes to hear) how she was our baby that was “born clean.”   Unlike most babies in the world, maybe all babies, Jackie’s body was completely clean immediately after delivery.  No trace of the stuff that covers newborns straight from the womb.

There were no flowers or hot meals, and my kids and I took cold showers in my wife’s hospital room since they had running water and our house did not.  But, life was perfect.  My third child was healthy, born on a Sunday morning like her two siblings.

The next day my wife and I were pushing our newborn through the hospital in one of those little clear baby trays when this bearded guy with a giant smile on his face asked us, “You gonna name ‘er Rita?”

We smiled.  No.  She was already a Jacqueline.  And this was her story.

Happy Birthday Eve to the baby of our house–we love you, Jax!

My Ramstein Bazaar Top 10 from 2013

Hello World,

I don’t have the time or the brain power to think of a new topic tonight, however, I thought I would do a TBT post and go back to my post from the 2013 Ramstein Bazaar.  Most of these still hold true, especially the Reisenthel phenomena.

Here goes…

The Ramstein Bazaar was an amazing experience; I hope I can participate again next year.

These are the TOP 10 things that I observed, that amused me, or otherwise tickled my fancy from the Bazaar this year.

10) People with hats like this buy books. Yep, it’s no joke. I don’t think these Hunter Caps are very common … though I did see them frequently in Ireland last year. Of the 7-10 people I saw sporting one of these, almost all stopped to talk books, and half of them purchased one. (Thanks!)

9) Reisenthel bags must be made of cocaine … they sell like crazy. I’m thinking about asking the Reisenthel vendor if we can package up my books with them next year … Can you say New York Times Bestseller?

8) Procrastinators Unite Tomorrow. I mentioned it already, but I saw a T-shirt with that emblazoned across the front, and I’ve laughed about it ever since.

7) Two or three people said something like, “Umm, I’m sorry, but I don’t know who you are …” when they’d come over to check out my books. Frankly, this baffles me … Stephen King, Lee Child, Shakespeare, Bart Hopkins … how could they not know me? Seriously though, I understand, I’m an Indie author trying to build a following grass-roots style. I don’t expect people to know my name … yet.

6) A lady said that I was very easy on the eyes … oh, yeah, I still got it!

5) I learned a wonderful new phrase. One of the German vendors nearby had a customer who’d been drinking. The vendor told me he could really smell the red wine emanating from the lady, that she reeked. He said: “Sie riecht wie ein WeinFass,” … which literally means, “She smells like a wine barrel.” I like that. Feel free to use it, as appropriate.

4) Some people come to the Bazaar for the food booths: beer can chicken, authentic tacos, Dunkin’ Donuts, pork steak sandwiches, etc. Some people come for the goods. Some people come to socialize. I think most probably come for a combination of all three.

3) There were a few times I saw kids have a little tantrum. I remember those days. When my oldest daughter was 2 or 3, she sometimes dropped to the floor in the most awkward (and public) places, laid on her back, and pushed herself around while crying. We called it mopping the floor. Parents: it’s okay. We’ve all been there.

2) Cheese, wine, and Belgian beer. No real point here. Just yummy.

1) The ROSC is the most awesome group of people ever … hard working, always smiling, and friendly. Did I mention that they are all volunteers? It’s incredible that there are people so ready to give of themselves like that. I’m at a loss for words: my hat is off to you.

Good night,

Bart

The Ten Books thing going around Facebook

So many things go around Facebook, it drives me a little nuts.  But, as a lover of books, this is one that I didn’t mind so much.  Of course, narrowing it down to ten books that “Stayed with me” isn’t simply nearly impossible, it absolutely and positively is impossible.  I took a swing at the ball, though, and here are the ten I came up with.  Oh, yeah, it was fellow author Dave Elliott that railroaded me into this, the dude that co-wrote Fluke.

Here they are in no particular order:

The Voice of the Night by Dean Koontz (writing as Brian Coffey)

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

The Stand by Stephen King

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Gunslinger by Stephen King

What I don’t like about this challenge is that I had to exclude some fantastic authors whose books I love, possibly cumulatively more than the above novels singly, but the “challenge” is for stand alone tomes. I’ll break the rules and throw out some names of prolific writers with piles of books I love: John Grisham, Robert B. Parker, James Michener, Blake Crouch, and yes, the love & death stories of Nicholas Sparks.

When I discovered the Spenser series by Robert Parker, I ripped through them.  Loved the economical writing style, the humor, the always-present good and bad, but with some overlap … because doesn’t everyone get confused now and then?

But, I digress.  Happy Reading, world!

Wool by Hugh Howey

I just finished reading Wool by author Hugh Howey, and wow, what a great book!  Or series of books.  I read the “omnibus” edition, which is just this fancy word that means the entire series formatted under a single cover.

Wool falls into that apocalyptic & dystopian area with a science fiction bent.  I think people get confused by these words, eh-hmm, I know I do, so I verified the definition of dystopia with my pal dictionary.com…

dystopia [dis-toh-pee-uh]

noun

1.

a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding.

We definitely have some of that going on.  And, it is commonly caused by some big bad thing happening … like an apocalypse.  Bingo.  Now we’ve got our backdrop for the book.  As the blurb on the Amazon site says:

“This is the story of mankind clawing for survival, of mankind on the edge. The world outside has grown unkind, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden.”

I’m a fan of both dystopian and apocalyptic stories, and right away that kind of talk appealed to me.  Plus, I’ve always been tempted to write one myself.  Of course, I was beginning to wonder just how often we could approach the topic in new and interesting ways.  Seems like the ideas are being exhausted because of the popularity.

Boy was I wrong.

Howey’s ideas and the execution of the story are so unique and so compelling … I’m sorry I didn’t read it sooner.  Huge thumbs up for the engaging and unique plot.

Another huge thumbs up for solid characters who were both understandable and relatable.

Some good metaphors sprinkled through the book.  I don’t want to spoil the fun, but the imagery and prose was good, though I would classify his writing as being a little less lush with language and more filled with action.  The balance between the two is good.

It won’t take long to hook you if the give the books a try, especially if any of the above interests you.

Some gee whiz info…

Wool started as a self-published set of ebooks, and Howey champions Independent and self-publishers.  He is prolific in his support of the things he believes in.  My hat is off to you, sir!

Howey’s success attracted traditional publishers, and eventually Howey took a healthy paycheck of about half a million bucks from Simon Schuster for them to control print versions.  But, he retains the rights to just about all other aspects of his book.  Best of both worlds–chalk up a win for the underdogs.  Good on you, Hugh … keep bringing us great fiction!

Stalk him on Twitter here:  https://twitter.com/hughhowey

Happy Reading! – BHO

America’s Got Mail

You’ve Got Mail is playing on AFN.

I have it on mostly for background noise since I took a vacation day from work to write.  And I’m writing and life is good.  Sitting at 58K words on my latest book.

But back to the movie … Tom Hanks (Joe) is talking to his co-worker, Dave Chappelle (Kevin), about the big bookstore they are bringing into the neighborhood, and how people are going to react.

This is the conversation from IMDB:

Joe Fox: [on the new Fox Books superstore] Hey, you know what? We should announce ourselves to the neighborhood. Just let them know, here we come.

Kevin: Oh, no, this is the Upper West Side, man. We might as well tell ‘em we’re opening up a crack house. They’re gonna hate us. Soon as they hear, they’re gonna be lining up…

Joe Fox, Kevin:

to picket the big bad chain store…

Kevin:

that’s out to destroy…

Joe Fox:

everything they hold dear.

Kevin: Yeah.

Joe Fox: Do you know what? We are going to seduce them. We’re going to seduce them with our square footage, and our discounts, and our deep armchairs, and…

Joe Fox, Kevin: Our cappuccino.

Joe Fox: That’s right. They’re going hate us at the beginning, but…

Joe Fox, Kevin: But we’ll get ‘em in the end.

Joe Fox: Do you know why?

Kevin: Why?

Joe Fox: Because we’re going to sell them cheap books and legal addictive stimulants. In the meantime, we’ll just put up a big sign: “Coming soon: a FoxBooks superstore and the end of civilization as you know it.”

Later on Meg Ryan slams the poor, impersonal service that she is certain the new mega-bookstore will provide.

And maybe she is right.  And maybe she is wrong.

My grandmother used to send me to pick up roast from the corner grocer, selling meat from a shop that occupied the bottom floor of his two-story house.  It was right in the middle of the neighborhood.  It was normal.  People hated it when he closed, but now, nobody is the wiser.

Another house, just a few blocks away, same set-up, except the bottom floor of her house was a salon.  It was Steel Magnolias in there.  Now?  Gone.  Probably would be illegal these days … an ordinance against it.  And they probably couldn’t compete anyway.

In a way, our foundation (obsession?) of free market opportunities, the American dream, is a double-edged sword, right?  We keep getting better, we can achieve dreams, become fiscally independent, become more efficient, but … we can also lose out when “the next best thing” comes along and demolishes whatever was there before.

Or maybe it really is the next best thing.  Who knows.

I sure don’t.  I’m just a guy that writes.  And I’ve been sidetracked from my book long enough.

Happy Reading,

Bart

 

Review: The Misremembered Man

The Misremembered Man

by Christina McKenna

The Positive

- Interesting plot elements

- A nice tribute to times past

- Some good prose … written by someone who obviously appreciates language

- Not overly written for “shock” or “gore” … PG to PG-13, which is so rare these days

The Negative

- The story moves along slowly

- Adverbs abound, in tremendous numbers, and some of the writing goes a little overboard. Think opposite of Hemingway.

- Hokey characters, to the point of being hard to believe

Overall, it was okay, however, I almost stopped reading it because it moves slowly and I found it a little boring. For me. Maybe for you it will be great. If you prefer wholesome looks at how things were in the past, then I recommend it.

 

ALS Ice bUcket Challenge

 

My friend and editor Cynthia Shepp challenged me to the ALS Ice bUcket Challenge…

CHECK OUT MY ALS ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE VIDEO HERE

 

If you haven’t done this yourself, let me pass along what is blatantly obvious … the water is COLD like the Arctic Circle.  I think my heart stopped, so technically I may have died for a few seconds.

I paid forward the challenge to my sister and her husband.

 

My son actually requested that he be challenged, so I have thrown down the gauntlet to all of them!

Check out Dave Grohl & the Foo Fighters’ ALS Ice Bucket Challenge here (it’s my favorite so far).

Most importantly … my awareness is up and my donation to ALS has been made!  See you later, World!

Bart

Prehistoric Surprise

Today, there was an awesome surprise waiting in the mail for me from my old co-worker, and friend,  Will Graff.  Can you guess what it was?

Yep, you’re right … it was a Tyrannosaurus Rex Pen!

I think the connection he was shooting for was either, 1) Like T-Rex, I am a fierce predator with well-developed jaw muscles, or 2) I’m a writer, who writes things, and this is a pen, which is the writer’s best friend.

Okay, yep, there it is in the picture. It clearly says it is for prehistoric writers who are deliciously handsome. Wait a sec… prehistoric?

What’s the big idea here!  Those sultry summer nights in Missouri must be doing weird things to my old cohort.

Seriously, thanks buddy–I really appreciate it–and it has earned a home on my (future) desk since my wife sort of has her stuff all over “our” current desk.

And so, another day ends well … keep reading, my friends!

- Bartimmus Prime

Meet My Character Blog Tour

I was tagged by author S.L. Dearing, a friendly soul, and talented writer, who I had the pleasure of meeting when our short stories shared space in two anthologies.  You can get the scoop on her by CLICKING HERE to read her biography or RIGHT HERE to see all of her works on Amazon.

Here are the rules as they were sent to me for the Meet My Character Blog Tour…

“This tour highlights a main character from your WIP (work in progress), recently published work, or soon to be published work. The person who invites you will have a set day to post. You will post one (or two) week(s) after that, the authors you tag will post one/two week(s) after you, and so on. Here are the questions to answer about your main character:

1) What is the name of your character?  I’ve got multiple characters who are brought together in different ways.  There’s a guy named Paul Harris.  He’s probably who most people will want to know more about.  Other characters include Greg Thomas, Rose Murray, and Susan Donahue.  All are fictional.

2) When and where is the story set?  Modern day Texas, between Austin and Fredericksburg.  But, mostly in Austin.

3) What should we know about him?  Paul has a temper.  He likes tuna sandwiches.  His salary is six figures.  He doesn’t take no for an answer.

4) What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?  The characters share some common commonalities.  One person’s trash is another person’s treasure–the powers of both good and evil dance with one another through these characters.

5) What is the personal goal of the character?  Paul likes to make special visits to people–house calls–and give them something they’ll never forget.

6) Is there a working title for this novel if it is a WIP, and can we read more about it?  I think I knew the title of my novel before I knew any of the contents, however, I’m not ready to throw it out there for everyone just yet.  Might give away too much, too early.   This is probably the first time it’s really been discussed openly, so you won’t find anything else about it.

7) When can we expect the book to be published?  By the end of 2014.

And, finally, my two uber-talented, tagged authors:

Jon Messenger – You can read more about Jon via his publisher CLEAN TEEN

J.C. Wing – Learn more about her on HER WEBSITE RIGHT HERE !!