Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Preorder Flatline Now

Here at last. 

I am so excited that I could stand on my head and spit nickels. Flatline is now available for Preorder on Amazon and Smashwords.
Flatline is a fantastic story full of guns, guts, and modern day outlaws in the ancient tradition of Robin Hood. Using their unique skill set of fearlessness and unwinking violence, these outlaws seek to right the scales of injustice, at least as they see it. 
I hope you get to read this story. You will not be disappointed. If stories full of crime, violence, blood and a dash of splattered brains are your thing, this story will scratch your itch. 

Troy Bittles is a retired second generation Enforcer for the world's largest motorcycle club. Caught in the angst of boredom after a life of action, power and violence, he amuses himself by writing books and helping his neighbors out of jams that fall beyond the scope of Law Enforcement. Using his unique skill set of fearsome and unflinching violence, he collects wayward children, spouses, and bail jumpers. Slumlords and bullies fear him. The only real family he has is a Mexican Cartel, Casa Rafael, who he serves as an on-call mercenary. 
Through a series of unpredictable events, Troy is thrust stumbling headlong, against his will, back into the violent world where he'd spent most of his life. Strong-armed into HITTING an entire family of accountants, he has the nerve and the tools for the job but is unwilling, no matter if it costs him his life, to kill their child. Troy creates an elaborate plan to save the boy which will certainly put a price on his own head. Within the ugliness of the deed itself, he sees the possibility for redeeming himself for one horrendous and haunting deed, a careless accident from decades earlier.
The story begins in Sacramento and runs through Arizona into the arms of a Mexican Cartel. Farther along the story, in Nicaragua, he and Silas Parker, once his bitter rival, team up to rid a community of a bully who thinks himself the new and improved Fidel Castro. Their last stop is South America where Troy leads a team of killers against the murderers of innocent children.
The ending will leave you gasping; it was even a shock to me as I wrote it.
Available for Preorder now for a September 1, 2016, release date.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Life is Like an RC Car

First, we got our five-year-old son a REAL radio control car for his birthday April 1st. Real meaning from a Hobby Store (what they call Hobby-Grade cars) not what you buy at Walmart, Target or even Toys R Us. Those all gobble dry cell batteries like I do Cheerios, and break in a week. And did I say SLOW? Tobias had gone through a dozen. All failed and ate batteries except this one; He wouldn’t die.


I thought he’d have a lot of fun with a real car as I coached from the sidelines and told him what and how to do it. As I watched, I realized one thing, I was missing a whole lot of fun.
This first car is a 1/18th scale Monster Truck made by Dromida, a division of Revell. In no time at all, Tobias was very good at driving it.
The title of this piece is, Life is Like an RC Car, which brings up my first point.
  • You can sit on the sidelines and watch someone else live life a la TV or Cable News and Reality shows or perhaps even your more adventurous friends. Or, you can get out and live it. Join in the fun.


So, I decided that WE needed a second car. Bigger and better of course. The red one on the right is our second car A Redcat Volcano. The second point in Life is Like an RC Car:
  • We live under the false impression that bigger, faster, and better—is—better.
You do know the answer to this, don’t you?
First day out, that new car dropped a steering hub with no parts locally available. Our new Golden Calf had let us down.
Once it was back up and running (a week later), it proved itself to be a whole lot of fun, but again things started to break. I now know one of the main Axioms of RC cars: They break. Get used to it.
So, anyway having one big car and one little car proved itself a mismatch and less fun than ideal… In comes the second small car. $100 Brand New at RC Country is Sacramento. The fun quotient ramped up once again.


The third point in Life is Like an RC Car:
    One, two, or even three is never enough. Rockefeller (the original) was once asked, “How much money is enough?” The world’s richest man at the time replied, “Just a little more than I have.” Same holds true for RC Cars and all the friends I have made in this hobby/sport, all agree.









'Most' of our stable
Now we have two big ones and two smaller ones and we use them often. Now that we’ve found some cool racetracks, especially Rescue Raceway in Rescue, CA , we want them to run more often which means upgrades. And, did I say faster too?
This brings up the last point I’ll make in my RC Cars as a metaphor of life.
  • Once you get it working, you want it to work better and faster.
    • And once it goes faster, the weaker systems start to break. You beef up that weaker system and now the next weakest fails. Same too in life.
Just when you think you have it all together, the next weakest link will fail. Which will cost you money, sweat, time, and frustration, but it’s worth it.

Or, you could just sit by never change and watch others have all the fun.