Hell to Pay

A man who thinks he's losing his soul, meets a man who has.

Detective Michael Bailey is a seasoned homicide detective who can't escape the deaths of twin girls that happened on his watch. Over the years, it slashed at his sanity and sobriety, and now he stands at the crossroads of his life. The murder investigation of a young woman sends him over the edge. 

George Graham is an antique store owner who has fallen for the wrong woman. When rejected and berated in public, George runs home to find a strange old man with an antique box wanting to make a deal. George buys the box and inside finds a matted scalp, a relic of untold power. 

Hell to Pay has been rereleased on Amazon today:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G7579KQ

The books prequel, The Ballad of Mercy Tyler is available at Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/118371 

Interested in reviewing either The Ballad of Mercy Tyler, Hell to Pay, or gasp . . . both?  Leave a message, I may surprise you.

Welcome to the Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

Sorry Douglas Adams, but it felt appropriate.

Changes are afoot. My novel, Hell to Pay is currently unavailable due to the publisher ceasing operations.  From these ashes it will arise again.  I am currently in talks about doing an audio version (either reader theater or from me) and working on a rerelease of the novel in e-book (series) form and back into paper as well.  Hang with me, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Lightning may strike twice in the town of Ashton.

For a beginning to the series, The Ballad of Mercy Tyler is available from Smashwords for free! https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/118371

Norse Mythology

A new infographic from the History.com and the new show "The Vikings".


 

The Saga of Biorn

I love this.  In its honor, I will talk like a viking the rest of the week.  By Odin's Beard, watch it!!!

Story
Biôrn, an old Viking, is determined to reach Valhalla, the warrior's afterlife full of excessive drinking and debauchery. To gain entry he has to die honorably in battle, but he discovers that the right death isn't so easy.

Credits
A film by: Benjamin J. Kousholt, Daniel D. Christensen, Mads Lundgaard Christensen, Jesper A. Jensen, Jonas K. Doctor, Steffen Lyhne, Pernille Ørum-Nielsen, Frederik Bjerre-Poulsen, Jonas Georgakakis

quote

"We are fascinated by the darkness in ourselves, we are fascinated by the shadow, we are fascinated by the boogeyman."
Anthony Hopkins

Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Apocalyptical Blog

Mayans, tidal waves, supernovas, mass deaths of animals, natural disasters.  The world is coming to an end.

Not really.  Ratings are up for pseudo-science shows talking about the end of the world that feeds into the Mayan calendar coming to a quick and abrupt end.  Is the world coming to an end?  Is the apocalypse going to ruin my Christmas and New Year’s Party on 2012?  Is the clock running for us to become an endangered species or possibly a lost planet?

Mind you, end of the world is a hot topic right now.  Even George Lucas has been quoted saying it’s coming to an end:  http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/movies/2011/01/18/16927446-wenn-story.html

There are stories of Betelgeuse (not the character, but the sun (sorry, Ford Prefect) ready to go supernova and lighting our planet up with two suns and great amounts of radiation.  Mind you, Betelgeuse is one of our close solar systems.  It is about 30 light years away and astronomers have discovered that it’s rapidly shrinking.  http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/06/betelgeuse_about_to_blow.html

The problem is solar time seems to be a little different than human time.  Think the opposite in dog years.  About to happen could last a decade or even a century.  Although 30 light years is close in astronomical terms, the light will be about as bright as a crescent moon.  It will be bright enough to show in daylight and will change the right shoulder of Orion forever.  Also there may be enough radiation released to cause issues with space missions and satellites but the magnetic field around the Earth will protect us.  At least it has with the occasional stuff jettisoned from the sun.  The cool thing is that it may have already gone supernova and the light’s taking 30 years to get here. 

As for mass deaths of wildlife, this tends to happen a lot.  The poetic Edda says

“Cattle die, kinsmen die,

One day you die yourself;

but the words of praise will not die.”

The worldwide internet has given us an ability to see what’s going on simultaneously all over the world.  Odd that thousands of birds and fish die, but it happens.

http://www.andinia.com/b2evolution/index.php/outdoor-news/sciences-technology/zoology/wildlife-die-offs-are-relatively-common

Disease, parasites, fireworks, algae cause die-offs a lot.  I’ve seen entire ponds, lose their fish population due to an algae bloom stealing the oxygen from the water.

As for Mayan civilization?  Mayans died out in 950AD.  Why the calendar stops in 2012? Who knows?  Did we decipher it correctly?  Should we be impressed that the Mayans developed the calendar this far into the future?  Or is it time for us to grab the purple shrouds and cherry Kool-Aid?  My dog occasionally barks at the wall, but instead of freaking out that we have a Poltergeist, I use it to fuel my writing. 

I don’t think the world will come to an end in 2012, but could the ride be fun anyway?  Sure.  Is it a great marketing tool for horror writers, you betcha.  Will I be bummed out if I’m wrong?  I won’t be around to tell you.

"Ruminations of Thunder: Hell to Pay" will be coming out in August 2012 by Hellfire publishing.   Download it for your E-book stack pre-apocalypse.