M.L. Doyle's Blog, page 2

We’ve Got To Fix This Sh*t!

We’ve Got To Fix This Sh*T!

This is a repeat of a post I made on Feb. 23, 2018. It was not too long after the Parkland school shooting and I’d been moved by the eloquence and tenacity of the high school students who chanted, “NOT ONE MORE! NOT ONE MORE!”

Despite the chants, there have been more. A lot more. Far more than this country can stand. Even the world is now saying America is too dangerous to visit. They may not be wrong.

Now, the new chant is “DO SOMETHING! DO SOMETHING!” And that’s different, right?

They may not have felt it at the time and they may not feel it now, but those Parkland kids did do something. They may have felt as if their struggle would never end, but one can feel these things. Those kids did turn the tide. Their outrage and eloquence did become a turning point. More people died. A lot more, but this feels different, doesn’t it? El Paso and Dayton, it just feels different. The NRA is being shouted down. The idea of increased and better background checks is sounding like a given, but that’s not enough. Not nearly enough at all.

So I’m repeating my post from 2018 that ends with my list of ideas for fixing this sh*t. And we’ve got to fix this sh*t. Now. Right the hell now.

This is my rifle

February 23, 2018

**Warning** political rant – I know. as an author I’m supposed to keep my trap shut when it comes to this stuff, but feck it. I can’t right now.**

I’m a slick sleeve. I don’t have a combat patch. I don’t know what it’s like to hear a bullet meant to kill me as it zips by my head. I’ve never seen a fellow soldier killed nor have I ever killed anyone. The entire time I was in uniform, if you can imagine it, this country was at peace.  Perhaps my opinion about weapons, for those reasons, count for shit.

Despite the peace through which I served, I still had to fire a weapon at least annually. Every time I aimed my M16 at a human-shaped target, and every time I pulled the trigger, I felt mixed emotions. Part of me loved it. The power, the feeling of success for striking where I aimed –which was rare. I enjoyed the way I imagined I looked—all helmet and ammo pouches and dusty boots and that sleek looking weapon in the hands of a woman in the best shape of her life. I’d smile my wide, white smile, my dark brown skin glistening under a sweat stained helmet band and stroll out to the target, the business end of the weapon pointed down range, and count the holes I’d made. I’d analyze my shot group, which was usually crap, like I knew what I was looking at and knew exactly what to do to improve it. For most of my career in uniform I was a terrible shot.

But that didn’t stop me from looking forward to the times when we checked out weapons and spent a day on the range.

I’d get even more filled with myself when I trained with a nine millimeter pistol. That wide-legged stance, the tight, noise-dampening headphones, the safety glasses, the buck of the pistol in my fists, the unique and pervasive smell of cordite. I was much better with the pistol than I was with an M16. I loved the metallic cranking noise the paper target made as it flew at you along the trolley. That scene had been captured in movies and TV too many times for me to not see myself in some glorified role.

It wasn’t until I deployed to the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia that I had to live with a weapon for months at a time. I carried it and multiple loaded magazines while I also hefted my video camera and tripod, traveling all over the place, capturing video of the action around me, and listening to the stories people told.

I shot video of Bosnian soldiers removing landmines they’d placed but lost track of during the war, standing stupidly close and marveling at their casual attitude about the work. I shot video of old Muslim ladies throwing rocks at Serbians they accused of murdering their loved ones. They turned to me, screaming into my camera, shaking their rock filled fists. Frankly, I couldn’t blame them for their anger. It seemed as if everyone was angry at everyone in Bosnia and the hatred would never cool off long enough for the loathing to stop boiling in their veins.

But much of my time was spent shooting video of American soldiers as they labored long, hot hours in the sun, repairing roads, patrolling destroyed villages, meeting with community leaders and politicians. I went on a night patrol with a scout platoon and ended up spending more than eight hours, covered in manure smelling filth as we tried to free a Humvee from the deepest muck I had ever seen. I kept telling myself it was mud, and hoped I was right when one soldier sank up to his chest in it. No matter what they tried, it seemed, the disastrous scene only grew worse. They ended up having to call for help from an M1 tank. By the end of that night, I had even more respect for the tenacity, the ingenuity, the sheer bullheadedness of young men and women who end up thrown into shit that is literally over their heads but still find some way to get out of it.

For me and my time in uniform, my video camera and the stories I told with it were far more useful weapons than the M16 I wore strapped to my back.

I became so comfortable carrying it, the strap laying crossways on my chest, the weapon with the barrel pointed down, covering my back, that I felt naked without it. It never bothered me as I slept with it next to me on my cot, sometimes inside the sleeping bag with me, the hard metal of it like the hard metal railing of my camp bed. That weapon was my responsibility. The one with the serial number I memorized was my permanent accessory.

After reading theagingmillennialengineer’s blog post, “Fuck you, I like guns,” I felt as if, finally, I’d found someone who served in uniform, who’d fired a deadly weapon and who felt about it the same way I did. In the nine months I was deployed, my weapon was always ready. Cleaned, a magazine loaded, just waiting for me to pull back the charging handle. While I’d grown accustomed to it, while I’d spent long hours training with it, I never, ever wanted to actually use it.

Yes, I served in peacetime. Like I said, I’m a slick sleeve. I don’t have a combat patch. I’ve never been shot at. I’ve never seen a fellow soldier killed nor have I ever killed anyone. And admittedly, perhaps my opinion about weapons, for those reasons, counts for shit.

Except, the kids in that Florida school never had a combat patch either, until now. They’d never been shot at, until now. They’d never seen a fellow student killed, until now. And their opinions, in my book, count for a whole lot. Some asshats are calling them opportunists, fakes, tools of their gun hating parents who influence them.

I think the asshats are saying such things because these kids are changing the game and they are frightened. These kids are simply stating their well thought out opinions. They feel very strongly about them, because someone with a deadly weapon tried to kill them.

That night in the field, stuck in mud I could have drowned in, most of the soldiers I was with weren’t much older than those high school kids. Eighteen, nineteen, twenty. If we can send kids that young to war they absolutely have the right to offer their opinions and to be heard and not to be accused of being mouthpieces for some nefarious purpose.

From what I hear them saying, what they really want is for grownups to be grownups. They’re asking, why haven’t we fixed this shit yet? They want to know how come, with all of our talk about what a great country we live in, we can’t come together to try to ensure a basic tenant of our constitution. Life.

Other countries do it. Why can’t we?

The conversation becomes polarizing, as soon as it begins. Mostly because, as theagingmillennialengineer’s post says:

“ We restrict what types of businesses can operate in which zones of the city or county. We have a whole system of permitting for just about any activity a person wants to conduct since those activities could affect others, and we realize, as a society, that we need to try to minimize the risk to other people that comes from the chosen activities of those around them in which they have no say. Gun ownership is the one thing our country collectively refuses to manage, and the result is a lot of dead people.”

I have a few ideas for how we can manage gun ownership in a way that will keep us from a lot more dead people. Here are just a few. They are not perfect. Some might not even be possible, but they are ideas that don’t include kicking in doors and taking people’s precious deadly weapons. All I ask is that you give them consideration.

Reinstate funding for the CDC to conduct studies into gun deaths and gun use and apply that scientific research to stopping it. We used science to study car fatalities to make driving safer. Let’s use the same methods to study gun fatalities. Remove everything that hampers the CDC and other scientific outlets from doing such research.
Treat mass shootings and gun deaths as the public health epidemic it is and put our best public health professionals on the issue. Study it in terms of mental health, public safety, individual rights and science. Use those studies to develop a multi-phased program to reduce gun violence and death.
Start immediate and massive communication campaigns that are aimed at reducing gun violence, and supporting responsible gun ownership so that those responsible owners are held up as examples of what right looks like. We need to stop vilifying people simply for owning guns. People who own guns are not all evil, war mongering turds. Those who support responsible ownership should be held up as examples so that more will follow their lead. We need communications campaigns that help us think that way. You may think, with all the crap going on, that a bunch of PSAs aren’t going to do anything, but at nine o’clock, I bet we all know where the hell our damn children are now, don’t we? That kind of shit works.
When a product is manufactured in a way that negligently harms people, we can sue the manufacturer. Repeal the laws that prevent people from suing gun manufacturers.
Invest in effective registration and tracking. Car registries are on national databases. With a plate number, you can easily track who that car belongs to and any patrolman, detective and law enforcement officer can trace the plate. You can even track it via GPS. We can’t do that with guns because most registries are not in useable databases and many registries are manually input and tracked … in 2018! Fix that shit! Make it easy for new information that violates registration to be added. Revoke registrations the way a driver’s license is revoked.  When a gun license is revoked, go get the weapons! (This might already be happening, I doubt it.)
BTW, that gun registration, license, permit, whatever you have…make that an annual or bi-annual renewal. In Florida, a gun license is good for SEVEN YEARS. A lot can happen in seven years. You want to own a gun, prove you know how to own it safely every dang year. Charge fees to pay for upgrading the technology to support the requirement.
From their own website, the ATF says:

“ ATF’s National Tracing Center (NTC) is the only organization authorized to trace U.S. and foreign manufactured firearms for international, Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies. Its purpose is to provide investigative leads in the fight against violent crime and terrorism and to enhance public safety.”

Ah, WHY? Why are they the ONLY ORGANIZATION AUTHORIZED? Stop it! Just stop. It’s nonsensical, it’s putting the information in a silo and it’s just fucking stupid. Make that shit EASY to get to. Make it easy to update and upload and keep it as technically efficient as possible.

You can’t sell a car without legally transferring the title and you can’t sell a car unless you legally vouch for it’s safety and maintenance. Make the same true for transferring ownership of a weapon. That shouldn’t be hard. A lot of this can be done with a new cubicle at the DMV. Take a number pal.
I can chip my cat. Why can’t weapons be chipped to track ownership? Make it impossible to remove serial numbers. Use implanted chips on the weapons to track them. Again, from the ATF website:

“The NIBIN (National Integrated Ballistic Information Network) Program automates ballistics evaluations and provides actionable investigative leads in a timely manner. NIBIN is the only interstate automated ballistic imaging network in operation in the United States and is available to most major population centers in the United States.”

MOST major population centers? Why not ALL population centers, major or minor? Not to mention, why are they crowing about having a “national network.” In this day and age, shouldn’t that be a given? Well, it isn’t.

Use pin numbers or thumb prints to unlock a weapon before it can be taken off safe. Add alarms that will alert an owner if a weapon is being used without their permission. Someone told me some gun manufacturer tried tried this. It didn’t work. Well, we tried going to the moon a few times too before we did it? Did we let that stop us? Why, WHY do we let people with these kinds of shithole arguments win?
Above all, find out what the hell is wrong with these men! It’s not enough to call them crazy. It’s not enough to say the school was a target of opportunity. Do we really think that if that school was impregnable, that kid wouldn’t have gone somewhere else to test his assault style weapon? This is why the CDC needs to be on this crap. There’s a sickness going around. How the hell can’t we stop young men and old men from being so damn violent? It’s not an easy answer. There are lots of smart people in this country. We need to put them on it.

I went to basic training in the era when we learned the old saying, “this is my rifle, this is my gun, (as the DI grabbed his crotch). One is for killing, one is for fun.”

But as wise as drill instructors were and still are, whether you call it a rifle or a gun, if it goes bang, it can kill. At some point we have to put the lives of citizens over the recreational pleasure or even the false constitutional claims of others. At some point we have to say a child’s life is more important than your right to own every killing machine you can get your hands on. And at some point we as a society have to say, we are sick. We’ve got a serious problem. And we need to put our best and brightest onto solving it, and guess what? Our best ain’t those dumb shits in Washington.

They have no idea what they’re doing and right now, all they can talk about are guns to ban, or which clips to ban or which rights we lose and that’s all bullshit. Their NRA funded cerebrums are FUBAR* when it comes to this crap. The AR15 and weapons that copy it need to go. That’s obvious. Stop mucking about with what we know and get on with it.

Let’s do one thing right. Let’s start by putting our best and brightest scientists and public health experts, specifically the CDC, onto figuring out what is eating away our brains. Let’s prove to our young people that we can be adults and figure this shit out. Because right now, those kids in Florida are adulting far better than we are.

*Fuck Up Beyond All Recognition

Onychophagy coming on

For some authors, all they have to do is announce that their latest book is out and I’ll drop everything and buy it. If I love them, I follow them, engage with them on social media and recommend them to everyone I know. When one such author posted to his Facebook group that his latest was available, I immediately went to my Amazon app and bought it and then took a picture of my Kindle in my hand with his cover on it. About five minutes after he said it was live, the book was in my hands.

“Weird,” he said, as a comment to the picture.

In that one word, I knew exactly what he was feeling.

I don’t think I will ever get over the twisting churn of anxiety I get when a book is about to be released. In just a couple of days, The Bonding Blade will start appearing on ereaders. Some have bought it on pre-order. They will wake up to it on their device and perhaps, begin to read right away. The knowledge that this thing I’ve been working on for a couple of years will finally be available is intimidating.

It’s not just the new releases. Any time someone tells me they’ve just purchased a book or are reading something I wrote, my thoughts immediately go to a hope that they don’t hate it. After all this time, you’d think I’d get over it.

But, no. I don’t ever get over it. It’s very much like the anxiety I used to have when waiting for the results of some test that was worth 75% of the grade. Sometimes I’m unable to sleep and invest extreme efforts to avoid thinking about it for fear I’ll start biting my nails.

Did you know that nail biting is also known as onychophagy or onychophagia? A fancy way of saying that you’re busy chomping on your nails because you don’t want to be doing other things with your mouth. According to Psychology Today, this “Body-focused repetitive behavior” or BFRB is a sign of anxiety. Dah! I just love that they refer to it by an acronym. So very military of them.

So even for The Bonding Blade, this book that I’m so proud of, the book I’ve spent the last couple of years trying to cobble together, I’m still nervous. Excited and nervous. Maybe excited and relieved and nervous. Definitely excited and relieved and nervous and anxious, but I’m glad the day is almost here.

When you’re nervously waiting for something, what do you do to take your mind off things?

Here’s an excerpt from the book: 
.fusion-button.button-1 .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-1 i {color:#785510;}.fusion-button.button-1 {border-width:0px;border-color:#785510;}.fusion-button.button-1 .fusion-button-icon-divider{border-color:#785510;}.fusion-button.button-1:hover .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-1:hover i,.fusion-button.button-1:focus .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-1:focus i,.fusion-button.button-1:active .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-1:active{color:#785510;}.fusion-button.button-1:hover, .fusion-button.button-1:focus, .fusion-button.button-1:active{border-width:0px;border-color:#785510;}.fusion-button.button-1:hover .fusion-button-icon-divider, .fusion-button.button-1:hover .fusion-button-icon-divider, .fusion-button.button-1:active .fusion-button-icon-divider{border-color:#785510;}.fusion-button.button-1{background: #e8cb90;
background-image: -webkit-gradient( linear, left bottom, left top, from( #d6ad5a ), to( #e8cb90 ) );
background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient( bottom, #d6ad5a, #e8cb90 );
background-image: -moz-linear-gradient( bottom, #d6ad5a, #e8cb90 );
background-image: -o-linear-gradient( bottom, #d6ad5a, #e8cb90 );
background-image: linear-gradient( to top, #d6ad5a, #e8cb90 );}.fusion-button.button-1:hover,.button-1:focus,.fusion-button.button-1:active{background: #d6ad5a;
background-image: -webkit-gradient( linear, left bottom, left top, from( #e8cb90 ), to( #d6ad5a ) );
background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient( bottom, #e8cb90, #d6ad5a );
background-image: -moz-linear-gradient( bottom, #e8cb90, #d6ad5a );
background-image: -o-linear-gradient( bottom, #e8cb90, #d6ad5a );
background-image: linear-gradient( to top, #e8cb90, #d6ad5a );}.fusion-button.button-1{width:auto;}Amazon.fusion-button.button-2 .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-2 i {color:#785510;}.fusion-button.button-2 {border-width:0px;border-color:#785510;}.fusion-button.button-2 .fusion-button-icon-divider{border-color:#785510;}.fusion-button.button-2:hover .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-2:hover i,.fusion-button.button-2:focus .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-2:focus i,.fusion-button.button-2:active .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-2:active{color:#785510;}.fusion-button.button-2:hover, .fusion-button.button-2:focus, .fusion-button.button-2:active{border-width:0px;border-color:#785510;}.fusion-button.button-2:hover .fusion-button-icon-divider, .fusion-button.button-2:hover .fusion-button-icon-divider, .fusion-button.button-2:active .fusion-button-icon-divider{border-color:#785510;}.fusion-button.button-2{width:auto;}Online Retailers

The first time I’d been in this room, I’d felt overwhelmed by the magical elements seeping from every object but now the magic felt more like possibility than danger. I didn’t have a natural understanding of magic the way Gil, Quinn and Cassie did. My brain didn’t seem to function in the same way Reuben’s worked, and I had, evidently, not inherited my mother’s propensity for the dark arts. But the more I’d watched them wield magic, the more admiration I felt for them and what they could do.

I still wasn’t ready to trust all witches, especially the unguided, young ones who caused more trouble than they were worth, but I did respect those that had a calling for molding the natural elements to their will.

I checked my cell phone for the time again. Waiting for Fredricks began to grate at my nerves. “How does he manage to make an immortal feel like she’ll die before he finds what he’s looking for?”

Gil flashed his teeth at me before turning his most intimidating glare to the wizard.

“I thought you knew where everything was in this hovel of yours,” Gil said. “What is taking you so long?”

“I apologize, my lord. There are many references to blood contracts and many more that claim to be a way to break the contract, but upon further inspection, the breakage usually involves the death of the person who entered into the agreement.”

“Well, that won’t suit our purposes, will it, wizard?” I said.

“No, my goddess. I understand. I think I’m getting close.” He held a large book open, his hand skimming over the words. “This one is a bit different. I’m just working out the translation now, but roughly it says, ah… blood is the permanent bond for which the promise lives. Ah, it goes on, and this was the part I was unsure of. Oh yes, right here it says, ‘but the trials of Shamash bring the … the …  I just can’t figure out this word. Sword maybe? The dagger?”

“Blade,” Gil said, his voice heavy. He leaned both hands on the table in the center of the room. “The blade of Utu.”

Fredricks and I waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t.

“Gil?”

He straightened, ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. “You won’t like it, my queen.”

I crossed my arms and leaned a hip against the table. “I don’t like what’s happening to my Quinn now, sooooo…”

Gil held his hand out to Fredricks, who hefted the large tome into his hand. Gil held it up as if it weighed nothing. He skimmed the page, running his finger back and forth over the same passage a few times. His face hardened as he read. Finally, his gaze flicked up to me. “You know of Utu?”

I was so happy when that one was crushed into oblivion, Inanna said.

“Nope, but evidently, Inanna does.”

“I would hope she would. Utu is or was the lord of justice in her time. He meted out punishments, adjudicated disputes …”

“And contracts, I assume.”

“Exactly. He is quite well known for having several items which, after his death, could be used to determine the right and the wrong of things as he did while alive. A staff that would bend and twist when someone told a lie. A ring that would glow to identify the righteous party.”

“Handy. Too bad we don’t have doodads like that these days. Are you saying one of these items could be used to break Quinn’s contract?”

“No. Both of the items I spoke of were destroyed.”

“How do you know that? And how could an immortal die in the first place?”

Gil lay the large book on the table and leaned over it, a rigid set to his shoulders. “I know this because I killed him myself, and destroyed his talismans.”

Fredricks shrank back, sucking in air with a hiss, his hand to his throat. The drama queen.

I waited for Gil to elaborate, but he didn’t. The longer I waited, the more disturbed he looked. Finally, he slammed the book shut and picked it up, holding his hand out to me.

“We’ll be back, wizard. Speak to no one about this.”

No. It's not for kids

Here's how the conversation usually goes ...

Interested reader: "Are you writing anything lately?"

Me: "I'm about to release the second book in my urban fantasy series."

Reader: "Really? What's it about?"

Me: "It's about Staff Sergeant Hester Trueblood. She's on duty in Iraq when she picks up a golden coin that activates a spell that makes her the embodiment of the ancient Mesopotamian goddess Inanna. It's the second book in the series."

Reader: ...stares blankly...

Me: "Sounds crazy, I know."

Reader: "No really, it sounds great! Oh my daughter would LOVE that!"

Me: "It's not YA. I mean, it's more of an adult urban fantasy suspense kind of story. Inanna was the goddess of war, and ... love, soooo."

Reader: Now, losing interest. "Oh, well...great. Congratulations."

As an author, you'd think by now, I'd have learned that the last thing people want to hear about is writing stuff. They politely ask. I should just politely say ... something, that doesn't put them in the position to ask anything else. But I have a hard time not talking about this series.

The Bonding Spell is a Jim Butcher style, urban fantasy suspense with a couple of mysteries to solve, some bad guys to catch and a dark and twisted trail of bodies and emotional background to wade through. It's not for everyone but it's definitely not in the tween, YA catagory.

I know there are some who don't like anything with urban fantasy as a description. I get it, but I love reading that stuff and I loved writing this. And while I wouldn't recommend it for young girls,if they're mature teenagers or grown up people who like a bit of action, adventure, mystery and magic all rolled into one and topped off by an interesting main female lead ... You might like this story. Hester Trueblood is a former soldier with a salty tongue. Inanna, the goddess of love and a bunch of other things, has healthy appetites. There are trusted warriors, large guard cats and a demi-god love interest.

Just a quick note to let you know that The Bonding Blade is set for a June 20, 2019 release, and now up for pre-order on Amazon.com. If you want to get caught up, I have made the first book in the Desert Goddess series almost free. For one penny less than a buck, you can get started on the story.

After you've read it, you can decide if your daughter is ready for it!

 

No. It’s not for kids

Here’s how the conversation usually goes …

Interested reader: “Are you writing anything lately?”

Me: “I’m about to release the second book in my urban fantasy series.”

Reader: “Really? What’s it about?”

Me: “It’s about Staff Sergeant Hester Trueblood. She’s on duty in Iraq when she picks up a golden coin that activates a spell that makes her the embodiment of the ancient Mesopotamian goddess Inanna. It’s the second book in the series.”

Reader: …stares blankly…

Me: “Sounds crazy, I know.”

Reader: “No really, it sounds great! Oh my daughter would LOVE that!”

Me: “It’s not YA. I mean, it’s more of an adult urban fantasy suspense kind of story. Inanna was the goddess of war, and … love, soooo.”

Reader: Now, losing interest. “Oh, well…great. Congratulations.”

As an author, you’d think by now, I’d have learned that the last thing people want to hear about is writing stuff. They politely ask. I should just politely say … something, that doesn’t put them in the position to ask anything else. But I have a hard time not talking about this series.

The Bonding Spell is a Jim Butcher style, urban fantasy suspense with a couple of mysteries to solve, some bad guys to catch and a dark and twisted trail of bodies and emotional background to wade through. It’s not for everyone but it’s definitely not in the tween, YA catagory.

I know there are some who don’t like anything with urban fantasy as a description. I get it, but I love reading that stuff and I loved writing this. And while I wouldn’t recommend it for young girls,if they’re mature teenagers or grown up people who like a bit of action, adventure, mystery and magic all rolled into one and topped off by an interesting main female lead … You might like this story. Hester Trueblood is a former soldier with a salty tongue. Inanna, the goddess of love and a bunch of other things, has healthy appetites. There are trusted warriors, large guard cats and a demi-god love interest.

Just a quick note to let you know that The Bonding Blade is now set for a June 20, 2019, and now up for pre-order on Amazon.com. If you want to get caught up, I have made the first book in the Desert Goddess series almost free. For one penny less than a buck, you can get started on the story.

After you’ve read it, you can decide if your daughter is ready for it!

 

It’s not for kids

Here’s how the conversation usually goes …

Interested reader: “Are you writing anything lately?”

Me: “I’m about to release the second book in my urban fantasy series.”

Reader: “Really? What’s it about?”

Me: “It’s about Staff Sergeant Hester Trueblood. She’s on duty in Iraq when she picks up a golden coin that activates a spell that makes her the embodiment of the ancient Mesopotamian goddess Inanna. It’s the second book in the series.”

Reader: …stares blankly…

Me: “Sounds crazy, I know.”

Reader: “No really, it sounds great! Oh my daughter would LOVE that!”

Me: “It’s not YA. I mean, it’s more of an adult urban fantasy suspense kind of story. Inanna was the goddess of war, and … love, soooo.”

Reader: Now, losing interest. “Oh, well…great. Congratulations.”

As an author, you’d think by now, I’d have learned that the last thing people want to hear about is writing stuff. They politely ask. I should just politely say … something, that doesn’t put them in the position to ask anything else. But I have a hard time not talking about this series.

The Bonding Spell is a Jim Butcher style, urban fantasy suspense with a couple of mysteries to solve, some bad guys to catch and a dark and twisted trail of bodies and emotional background to wade through. It’s not for everyone but it’s definitely not in the tween, YA catagory.

I know there are some who don’t like anything with urban fantasy as a description. I get it, but I love reading that stuff and I loved writing this. And while I wouldn’t recommend it for young girls,if they’re mature teenagers or grown up people who like a bit of action, adventure, mystery and magic all rolled into one and topped off by an interesting main female lead … You might like this story. Hester Trueblood is a former soldier with a salty tongue. Inanna, the goddess of love and a bunch of other things, has healthy appetites. There are trusted warriors, large guard cats and a demi-god love interest.

Just a quick note to let you know that The Bonding Blade is now set for a June 20, 2019, and now up for pre-order on Amazon.com. If you want to get caught up, I have made the first book in the Desert Goddess series almost free. For one penny less than a buck, you can get started on the story.

After you’ve read it, you can decide if your daughter is ready for it!

 

Up to my neck!

After the elation of typing, “The End,” the drudgery begins. So now, I’m up to my neck in edits and marketing plans and website updates and review requests and formatting and cover design work and writing blurbs and asking authors to write blurbs and the list goes on. To be perfectly honest, this is my least favorite part about writing self-published books.

It’s. Not. Fun. Have I ever told you about my frustrations in never being able to find appropriate black and brown images in stock photo and graphic collections? A topic for another day.

The Bonding Blade is now officially set for publication and will be released on July 1, 2019. The book is up for pre-order on Amazon.com right now. It will be available at all online retailers soon. As much as I view all that other stuff as drudgery, it hasn’t taken away from the joy of having created a real, live book. The occasional emails from those who have read it or are reading have also kept me jazzed as I plod through this necessary work.

So, while I roll up my sleeves and get back to work, life goes on. Here is a picture from my brother’s amazing house and the lake, in Minneapolis, that is already devoid of ice. We saw two juvenile bald eagles swooping around the lake a couple of days ago. Spring is officially here.

It’s been a strange couple of weeks in the Doyle clan. Some medical emergencies that are now over (praise the gods), some world traveling … my sisters have just both returned from two weeks in Africa. NO! I’m NOT jealous. I’m HAPPY for them. And then there’s me, trying my best to prepare this book for its birthday.

It’s all exciting stuff which is what you expect from springtime, right? Excitement. New beginnings. Fresh starts.

For your springtime reading, The Bonding Blade is up for pre-order on Amazon and will be available on all online retailers as of July 1. If you haven’t read The Bonding Spell, the first book in the Desert Goddess Series, you might want to consider reading it now. Here is what one reader said about The Bonding Spell: “I don’t know why I waited so long to read this! It’s a real thriller. I’m going to recommend it to …. ”

Read it. I think you’ll find it’s not what you expect. If you take my recommendation, I’d love to hear what you think.

Now, back to work!!

Promises motivate

Every time someone asked me when my next book was coming out my response felt like a promise. For the last year and a half I’ve been breaking promises. I didn’t like doing that. No matter my good intentions I couldn’t get the work done. I’m a writer. I’m supposed to write. It just wasn’t working.

I could spew a long list of reasons. Like, that I felt intimidated by all the great work I’d been reading from others. Like, that I didn’t think anything I wrote was up to the task. Or that my story, an urban fantasy based on fantastical situations, was a bit trivial for all the heavy and world changing shocks we’ve been hit with in our political sphere. It has been a heavy weight as he-who-will-not-be-named has hung over our heads like Sauron’s Eye, emanating an hypnotic and paralyzing force. {{{{{Shudder}}}}} How could anyone effectively engage creative forces under that blanket of evil?

Maybe it was that I’d allowed the idea of retirement to settle into my brain to such an extent that writing while working full-time became harder and harder. I’d traveled a lot too, to writer’s conferences, workshops and just plain old running away from it all and it was hard to get reengaged with the work after long separations.

Those are all just excuses. I was failing. I was losing the fight. Then, when I was beginning to think I’d never get it done, something clicked. It was as if I’d finally found my missing gas pedal. The acceleration was slow and steady, but this time I had enough fuel to reach the end. The real, The End.

So, finally I can keep my promise. Here’s the cover for The Bonding Blade. Set for a late June or early July release. I have Advance Reader Copies available for those who would like to offer an early review (and maybe be used as a blurb for my covers). I’m considering something new for this book, so blurbs would be a great help. I’ll not make a promise about when it will be ready for pre-order but I’ll definitely announce that here.

Here’s the blurb for the new adventure:

Can the embodiment of an ancient goddess live a balanced life in modern times?

Former Army Sergeant Hester Trueblood struggles to find the answer, seven years after fate bonded her to the ancient Sumerian Goddess, Inanna. Whether engaging in battles to the death with demons or entering fight club scraps, Hester’s life is forever subjected to Inanna’s whims and insatiable lust. It hasn’t been easy to juggle the mounting perilous challenges, or to tolerate the demands of her demi-god lover, Gilgamesh.

When her warrior Quincy is stricken with a mysterious illness, Hester thinks a supernatural blade could be the answer to save him. Or it just might destroy the world.

One thing is for sure. Nobody is immune from the painful reality of loss and suffering—not even a goddess.

The Bonding Blade is the second book in my Desert Goddess series. The first book, The Bonding Spell, was published in 2015. It’s gone through a major re-edit, thanks to the amazing Scott Bury, best selling author and the force behind The Best Selling Reads Author’s Association. I have blithely offered up my babies to the world thinking they have been well edited. I was wrong. And I sincerely apologize to my readers. Seriously. I’m sorry for the wrong use of words, the commas that multiply like rabbits and the clunky sentences. I am amazed you stuck with the work while navigating that crap. Scott has put a shiny new face on The Bonding Spell. So if you haven’t read it yet, now is a good time.

Here’s what Scott Bury had to say about The Bonding Spell:

This book explores the feelings of being possessed by an ancient force of nature, and the reaction of a 21st-century woman to men who literally get down on one knee and pledge eternal devotion to her every desire.

Whenever the mood gets too gloomy, the author brightens the scene with the touching devotion of Inanna’s servants. And the appearance of the antagonist is truly entertaining, while pushing the story forward at a critical point. That’s the true sign of a great writer.

Deep, moving, original and entertaining. What more can you ask for in a book?

You can read the whole review here. What more could I ask for in a review? I can’t wait for readers to get their hands on The Bonding Blade. I’m truly happy with it and thankful that my promises kept me motivated to finally get it done. Sorry it took so long, but I hope you’ll agree it was worth it.

First Name

Last Name

Email address:

Leave this field empty if you're human:

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

A wise young NCO once said to me, “change is never good or bad. Change is just change.”

While in uniform I tended to agree with that philosophy. In the military, change usually meant you had to do it wrong the first, second and third times before you got it right. Change meant classroom training, hours of standing around while someone explained this bold, new change and more hours of everyone complaining that the new change didn’t make any sense and then some old been-there-done-that guy explaining in great detail why we should just keep doing things the old way. Sound familiar?

As a civilian working for the Army I can truthfully tell you that the reaction to change hasn’t changed much.

BUT, when it comes to this blog … or more importantly, this website, where I continue to write about women in combat boots, change was necessary. Change was critical. Change had been on my mind for a long, long time and with the help of the lovely Natasha Wilson, change is finally here!

I found Natasha through WordPress’s Upworks. I knew I was never going to create the look I wanted without help. On Upworks, I posted the job, explained what I was looking for, created a clear statement of work and several people responded to the post with examples of their designs and their ideas for the project. Some of them had impressive resumes and amazing bodies of work, but I felt their vision for the website was a bit more elaborate than I wanted. Even though I’d been vague about what I was willing to pay, none of them were so far outside of my budget parameters that I went into sticker shock. The designers clearly state their hourly fees in their profiles and each presented a resume, a star rating and plenty of information to assure me they knew what they were talking about. I could have used the option of setting a finite price for the project, but since I clearly don’t know what I don’t know, I didn’t want the final price to get in the way of the idea train. If the designer I hired presented a good idea, I wanted to hear it, so I leaned toward the hourly rate.

After some back and forth emails and an awkward phone call (we’re both clearly people who communicate better over email and text) I decided Natasha was a good fit and within a week, I finally have the website I’ve always wanted. Nothing fancy. Not a bunch of wow. Just enough clarity and professionalism that visitors might think I’m serious about writing.

And while I would rarely argue with lessons of wise NCOs, I think change sometimes IS good or bad. I’m feeling as if this change is a “GO” at this station.

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions for improvement?

And if you’re interested in seeing what Natasha can do for you, you can reach her at Brogrammers Agency – Web and Mobile App Development Agency.  Tell her Mary sent you.

Kingdom - A review

***Apologies!!***

If you're getting this post for the second time, it's because ... well, there's some new stuff going on here and when the new stuff happened, this post was lost. Now it's found. Notice anything, ahem ... a bit different? More to follow on that.

Meanwhile, back to the blog post.

I lived in Korea for a couple of years, living in downtown Seoul in an ultra-modern apartment, everything high tech and brand spanking new. Heated floors, heated toilet seats and push button custom bidet streams, for Pete’s sake.

To get to the subway, I’d walk by several small shops, often times places where the family lived in their place of business. I could see families sitting on the floor, gathered around a hibachi, eating noodles out of bowls held under their chins, or sleeping the way many Koreans do, curled up on thin mats on the floor. But that was Seoul. Ultra-modern next to traditional. High tech office buildings next to one of the ancient temples or palace walls scattered around the city.

For a long while, I didn’t have any English language TV channels. I quickly learned that, 24/7, you could always find a period show -- people in traditional Korean garb, intrigue in the royal palace, peasants starving and barely scrapping by and subject to cruelties from the ruling classes. There always seemed to be a love interest made impossible due to class or royal family. Like American soap operas, depending on the story line, people would discuss the shows, wonder what was going to happen next. It was clear the popularity of them was never going away no matter how many pop boy bands might emerge from the country.

When I saw the movie poster for Kingdom on Netflix, I knew there was no way I would skip this show. There are only six episodes, so I picked a weekend when I knew I’d be able to see them all.

My final assessment of it is … mixed, at least for the first season.

You should know that it is dubbed. I have a hard time hearing most shows, so I always have the closed captioning on. The closed captioning doesn’t match the dubbed language at all, so that was a bit confusing. The good thing is, the dubbed actors are great. It’s possible the voices are the same actors, only speaking English but I don’t know that for sure. The emotion and delivery are done well and the dubbing doesn’t detract from the story. I usually don’t like dubbing but the dialogue is quick, and subtitles would have made it difficult to keep up.

Like the traditional Korean period shows, there’s palace intrigue, starving peasants and, plenty of opportunity for some sort of love interest to develop. At the end of the six episodes the story clearly isn’t over, so there will be another season and I’m betting they’ll toss in some romance.

The story takes place in and around the area where Seoul is now, thousands of years before it was filled with skyscrapers and six lane highways. The events happen in different villages, so if you’re familiar with the city, you’ll recognize some of the neighborhoods visited during the show. That was kind of cool.

Did I mention this is a show about zombies?

The challenge with any zombie story these days is that it’s all been done. I worried that Kingdom would rely on the location and time period as their thing. The good news is, they didn’t. I won’t get into the details but these zombies operate in a way I’ve never seen before. They are fast, they are ugly, they move in hordes and the way they operate offers lots of opportunity to build suspense. The zombies are great.

But zombies are always only a vehicle for the rest of the story, and for the most part, that story is a bit predictable, slow and not all that interesting yet. There are a handful of middle-manager types that are supposed to be comic relief … a typical thing in the Korean period shows … but they’re silly and annoying and you route for them to be eaten.

Yay! That jerk is dead. Or not.

It’s a topnotch cast. You’ll recognize Doona Bae from her roles in Sense8, Cloud Atlas and others. Ji-Hoon Ju, known for his beauty, plays the prince who should be king. The production values are what you can expect from Netflix, like watching a film in every episode, and the Korean scenery is captivating.

 

 

 

 

So my final assessment is mixed but hopeful. Zombies are great. The acting and production is great. The story is a bit slow but there’s plenty of room for it to get better.

Kingdom – A review

***Apologies!!***

If you’re getting this post for the second time, it’s because … well, there’s some new stuff going on here and when the new stuff happened, this post was lost. Now it’s found. Notice anything, ahem … a bit different? More to follow on that.

Meanwhile, back to the blog post.

I lived in Korea for a couple of years, living in downtown Seoul in an ultra-modern apartment, everything high tech and brand spanking new. Heated floors, heated toilet seats and push button custom bidet streams, for Pete’s sake.

To get to the subway, I’d walk by several small shops, often times places where the family lived in their place of business. I could see families sitting on the floor, gathered around a hibachi, eating noodles out of bowls held under their chins, or sleeping the way many Koreans do, curled up on thin mats on the floor. But that was Seoul. Ultra-modern next to traditional. High tech office buildings next to one of the ancient temples or palace walls scattered around the city.

For a long while, I didn’t have any English language TV channels. I quickly learned that, 24/7, you could always find a period show — people in traditional Korean garb, intrigue in the royal palace, peasants starving and barely scrapping by and subject to cruelties from the ruling classes. There always seemed to be a love interest made impossible due to class or royal family. Like American soap operas, depending on the story line, people would discuss the shows, wonder what was going to happen next. It was clear the popularity of them was never going away no matter how many pop boy bands might emerge from the country.

When I saw the movie poster for Kingdom on Netflix, I knew there was no way I would skip this show. There are only six episodes, so I picked a weekend when I knew I’d be able to see them all.

My final assessment of it is … mixed, at least for the first season.

You should know that it is dubbed. I have a hard time hearing most shows, so I always have the closed captioning on. The closed captioning doesn’t match the dubbed language at all, so that was a bit confusing. The good thing is, the dubbed actors are great. It’s possible the voices are the same actors, only speaking English but I don’t know that for sure. The emotion and delivery are done well and the dubbing doesn’t detract from the story. I usually don’t like dubbing but the dialogue is quick, and subtitles would have made it difficult to keep up.

Like the traditional Korean period shows, there’s palace intrigue, starving peasants and, plenty of opportunity for some sort of love interest to develop. At the end of the six episodes the story clearly isn’t over, so there will be another season and I’m betting they’ll toss in some romance.

The story takes place in and around the area where Seoul is now, thousands of years before it was filled with skyscrapers and six lane highways. The events happen in different villages, so if you’re familiar with the city, you’ll recognize some of the neighborhoods visited during the show. That was kind of cool.

Did I mention this is a show about zombies?

The challenge with any zombie story these days is that it’s all been done. I worried that Kingdom would rely on the location and time period as their thing. The good news is, they didn’t. I won’t get into the details but these zombies operate in a way I’ve never seen before. They are fast, they are ugly, they move in hordes and the way they operate offers lots of opportunity to build suspense. The zombies are great.

But zombies are always only a vehicle for the rest of the story, and for the most part, that story is a bit predictable, slow and not all that interesting yet. There are a handful of middle-manager types that are supposed to be comic relief … a typical thing in the Korean period shows … but they’re silly and annoying and you route for them to be eaten.

Yay! That jerk is dead. Or not.

It’s a topnotch cast. You’ll recognize Doona Bae from her roles in Sense8, Cloud Atlas and others. Ji-Hoon Ju, known for his beauty, plays the prince who should be king. The production values are what you can expect from Netflix, like watching a film in every episode, and the Korean scenery is captivating.

 

 

 

 

So my final assessment is mixed but hopeful. Zombies are great. The acting and production is great. The story is a bit slow but there’s plenty of room for it to get better.