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Thursday, April 19, 2012
Cities of the Dead UpdateI was going to write five more.I've written four more.No more.Time to get everything bundled, edited, re-written, proofed, and all the other associated work that needs to be done to get the series up and out the door as both a paperback an eBook by the end of May.The last of the Final Four is tentatively called "What Hristo Gruev Saw." Yup: the only character in more than one story finally gets his "own" story.I wonder if anyone will notice?Although, I think fans of the series will go bonkers over "The Coroner's Report" and "The Only Way Out is Through." Those two are about 40 pages of zombie goodness that you have never seen before.Labels: Cities of the Dead
William Young 9:40 AM #0 comments
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Tuesday, April 03, 2012
Valley Forge: I've Been There, TooAt first, I thought this book was over-written. The details of the first few months in Valley Forge seemed to be repeated every fifth paragraph as a means of beating it into the reader's head that it was cold, terrible, cold, freezing, sleety, snowy and miserable. I got the point. Otherwise, it was a well-written, well-paced story that follows the birth of the "professional" Continental Army during the stay at Valley Forge while telling the parallel tell of the British in Philadelphia going soft.For some reason, I thought that with Newt Gingrich as co-author it would tend to be over-the-top patriotic/jingoistic, but it wasn't at all. You get a nice, though fictionalized, personification of Washington and the other men (and, to a smaller extent, women) who were struggling to birth the United States of America which brings them some sense of "real person" that you miss in history class.The story ends with the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse, which was the first engagement of the new US army against the British. For those unfamiliar with the tactics of the times, the battle was more than simply two lines of soldiers shooting at each other, and the authors do an excellent job of putting you on the battlefield and seeing how the troops moved and fought.Definitely recommended if you like historical fiction that tries to focus on the history more than the fiction.Labels: Filler Material, Random Book Reviews
William Young 10:07 AM #
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Friday, March 30, 2012
Signs of the Coming Obamaclpyse and the Leftist Extinction EventSigns of the Obamaclpyse are everywhere, and they are encouraging in that people - average, normal, ordinary people - are fully aware of what this Democrats have been doing to them for the past couple of years under the leadership of Barry Obama.HotAir notes that Peggy Noonan - who I normally don't give a crap about and ignore because, like most pundits, it's easier to ignore her than engage her - has changed her mind about B. Hussein O's years at the helm. To wit, he seems to have gone from technocratic post-racial charmer to shameless huckster: "What is happening is that the president is coming across more and more as a trimmer, as an operator who's not operating in good faith."He's also finally exposed himself fully to the reality that he's little more than an anti-white racist class warrior. But if you knew what church he went to in Chicago for all those years, you already knew this.Steven Hayward notes that this last month or so has been especially bad for the left and Obama. Not that the media pointed this out to you, mind you. Like reading Pravda in the USSR, you had to read between-the-lines to figure out what was happening - that is, if you still consume MSM bilge.Of course, purging the government of leftists of all stripes at this point would only be at the elected level. It will take years of work to weed them out of the bureaucracies, maybe decades. And that requires the right's candidates to be willing to take the fight to these ideological hacks, which all-too-often they don't want to do: just look at Mittens Romney's approach to Obama. This is the point in the battle where you throw your reserves in and deal the hammer blow that shatters the enemy line, but the Republicans seem content with little more than a meeting engagement.Yeah, there's still a long way to go and "anything" can happen, but I can't see a way for the Democrats to maintain their grasp on power without massive cheating or a total collapse by Republicans. And, to be honest, both of those scenarios are highly plausible.Labels: normal blatheration AND delusional point of view, Over-Caffeinated Political Observations
William Young 8:35 AM #
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Another of the Final Five RevealedOkay, finished the rough draft of the second of the final five zombie shorts for the Cities of the Dead anthology. I'm thinking I may just get the whole shebang done and published in paper and eBook by the end of May, and since "May" was the original target date, I'm still on track.This one is tentatively titled "The Road," though I'm not sure that it'll stay so titled. Most of the shorts have started with a working title and then been renamed in the days leading to release. This one is about 12 pages.Find the series on Smashwords and Amazon.Labels: Cities of the Dead
William Young 4:15 PM #
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Sunday, March 25, 2012
Math is HardThe inevitability of the spineless RINO known as Mitt Romney continues apace:(CNN) -- Rick Santorum's convincing win in Louisiana's GOP primary does little to change the delegate math that has rival Mitt Romney with a more than 2-to-1 lead, raising questions about whether he can generate broader appeal to win the nomination....But the road ahead is a difficult one for Santorum, who is slogging it out in what has become a game of numbers to clinch the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the nomination....Going into Louisiana, Romney had 563 delegates, more than twice the 251 Santorum had....But the big question remains whether Santorum's showing in Louisiana will matter much, given Romney's huge delegate lead."Huge delegate lead?" Okay. Sure. Whatever. Let it play out. This primary is far from over, and Mittens is hardly a lock for the spot at the top of the R ticket.Labels: Filler Material, Over-Caffeinated Political Observations
William Young 9:28 AM #
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Thursday, March 22, 2012
The Signal now out in eBook on KindleGot a Kindle or a Kindle app? You know you do. March 22 is the day you can get a copy of my first published novel FREE for Kindle.Think you'll never read it? Just download it anyway! It helps my stats and its in your library on that rainy day when the latest purchase turns lame and you need something new.Bonus: You can say you know the author at your next cocktail party.Labels: Look What I Made
William Young 8:39 AM #
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Monday, March 19, 2012
Deadbeats at the GateSigh:The Corbett Administration plans to reinstate an asset test on May 1 as a way to ensure that people with a certain amount of cash or other assets top those dollars first before dipping into the pool of tax dollars.Food stamp eligibility here is now defined solely by income. If the state moves forward with the change, people under age 60 holding more than $5,500 in cash or certain other assets would lose eligibility for food stamps. For those age 60 and older, the threshold would be $9,000.A person’s home, a first car or funds being saved for a child’s education would all be exempted from the assets test, but it could include a family’s second vehicle worth more than $4,650 and other personal property such as a boat or plane.Sadly, there are Republicans - some Bucks County douchebag named DiGirolamo, namely - who think that it would be mean to require people who have - what's it called? Oh yeah: money and wealth and assets - to pay for their own food. You know, it's too bad if you have to sell your plane or second car to come up with the money to pay for your food, but you should count yourself lucky you had such things to sell so that you could feed yourself and your family.That there are legislators who think we the government should be feeding people based on how much money they have is outrageous. But as the article notes, there's no shortage of moochers looking to take whatever they can steal from the taxpayers of the state (and the flow-through federal funds, too):At a public hearing Thursday, a battery of witnesses argued that reinstating an asset test — last used for the food stamp program in Pennsylvania in 2008 — would change the program from being a support for all kinds of households having financial difficulties, to a last-resort service.That last bit is rich. The social "safety net" is now a hammock. And those volunteering to lay on it are serfs.Labels: Deadbeats at the Gate, Delusional Points of View, Over-Caffeinated Political Observations
William Young 8:49 AM #
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