R.A. McCandless's Blog, page 39

Tears of Heaven - Giveaway!

Go!  Fight!  Win!Wowee-wow-wow!  My first giveaway was over in almost 24 hours.  I had no idea there would be such amazing interest.  As such, I’m going to do a second giveaway for my first book Tears of Heaven .  If this one goes well, I may run a third for Hell Becomes Her again!
An #AmazonGiveaway for: Tears of Heaven. NoPurcNess—Ends Aug. 18. http://ow.ly/QdyF30326mg #urbanfantasy #giveaway
In the past, the children of angels and humans, the Nephilim, were allow...

Hell Becomes Her - Giveaway

Angels should be a human’s worst nightmare. Del didn’t think there was anything worse than angels, or their fallen kin, demons. She and her partner Marrin helped to keep the world safe from the horrors of escaped demons for generations. But when Del’s daughter is kidnapped by a shadowy group, Del will find that the world is even more dangerous than she suspect...

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend? Why Not!

She's so broken inside!Is anyone watching [i]Crazy Ex-Girlfriend[/i]?  While it’s uneven in parts, the majority of this sitcom is hi-freaking-larious.  We especially love the song-and-dance numbers which pay homage to, among other things “West Covina, California”, “Texmercency/Textpocalypse” and “Settle for Me”.
The series centers around Rebecca Bunch (Rachel Bloom) who, after running into her summer camp sweetheart Josh (Vincent Rodriguez III), decides to quit her high-profile legal...

Stabby-Stab-Stabberson - Parrying Daggers

Well blocked!Let’s discuss parrying daggers.  It came up recently in an interesting discussion about female arms and armor, so it’s been on my mind.  I’m not going to go into all the various sundry how-to of sword-and-dagger combinations that can be used, as there is no real definitive conclusion on the subject.  Simply put, parrying daggers add an offensive/defensive character to a combat style in many of the same ways that shield or buckler might, while at the same time remov...

Stranger Things—A Review

What do you mean only 8 episodes!?When Will By...

Travelling With Children

Road trips are no joke!We set off on the 1,209-mile road trip with my three sons and one of our homestay students in our Toyota minivan.  The boys were equipped with Kindles, headphones, water bottles, three different boxes of snacks from Costco and a DVD player.
It almost wasn’t enough.
If, as a friend noted, a family vacation is like "pretty much an extended birth control ad", then a road trip of three days up and two days back is at least three votes for a vasectomy.
Here’s hoping insura...

Going Back to Cali

If I don't move, no one will notice me.Also, I haven’t seen Star Trek: Into Darknessyet, s...

Two Arrows Are Not Better Than One

One arrow?  Hah!  Try six at the same time!You can actually shoot multiple arrows from a single bow, but that’s where Hollywood and reality diverge.  Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves make it seem as easy as taking the "Multi-Shot" feat from Dungeons & Dragons.  There are three main problems with this: power, accuracy and training.
A bow stores potential energy in the limbs when it is drawn by the archer.  That energy is transferred out of the limbs, through the string...

Cool, Clear, Water

Quaff, is the proper term.About two years ago, my wife and I went to a water conservation event put on by the local news channel.  I don’t remember what it was.  They had some reusable shopping bags filled with the usual fare—pamphlets advertising various business, cheap flashlights, and a water bottle.
My wife got one.
I did not.
I figured we’d end up throwing most of it away anyhow, and we have a ton of leaky water bottlers we already don’t use.
Once again, I was wrong.
Sexy Hydro Flas...

Ghostbusters (2016) - Review

Be slimed.  Be very slimed!The Ghostbusters are actually quite afraid of ghosts, but you shouldn’t be.
For the first two acts, the ladies in proton packs from Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot yell, scream and run from the very ghosts they set out to hunt.  Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones, spend most of their time getting slimed and mastering their streams with hilarious results.
I laughed hard enough to wake the dead.  Don't worry, more puns to follo...