PT Dilloway Annual #1

A lot of times in comics they do an "annual" issue which is like an extra issue I guess to commemorate the end of a yearly run.  You could also think of this as the year in review.

Though of course this blog didn't start until April Fool's Day.  Sadly this blog still has fewer "followers" than my Grumpy Bulldog blog.  Probably because I haven't been doing enough blogfests to get people noticing this blog and "following" it.  Which continues to be a thorn in my craw.  (Mixing metaphors!)  I'd love to have hundreds of followers like Michael Offutt or even thousands like other blogs.  But I suppose to do that you need to spend a lot more time going to blogs and making largely generic comments and smiling and curtsying and all that kind of stuff that I never feel like doing.

Hurm, this is pretty much how my boss starts every meeting, by pissing and moaning about the same shit for ten minutes.  I tend to just mentally check out until we get down to something of importance.

Anyway, when I started 2012 I had never published a book except through self-publishing.  And now at the end of 2012 I have 2 books published by other companies.  So that ain't bad.

While the publishing front was a lot better, the writing front wasn't as good as in 2011 or especially 2010.  Most of the year I just labored to rewrite the second Scarlet Knight story.  Then I wrote all the flash fiction stories for We Are Now and the Scarlet Knight Volume 0.  Other times I might be really annoyed I haven't done so much, but this year it's been OK because I've spent a lot of time editing and marketing and all that, so really I've just been more focused on other aspects of "the business."

The goal for 2013 then would be to push for more, because that's how things go.  First you get a publishing contract (finally) and then you want a better one.  Like say a publisher who releases a physical copy at the same time or before the ebook and charges more than $2.99 and actually gives me a release date in advance.  That would be pretty awesome.

If it hasn't yet, then the first Scarlet Knight book should show up in paperback in 2013.  The fate of the rest of the series I will discuss next month so get ready for some big announcements!  In case you don't know, there are eight volumes in the series already written.  And I don't mean like George Lucas when he says he wrote 6 episodes of Star Wars or 9 or whatever but you can't really be sure about it because no one had seen them.  No, all eight are written and if you read my original Rogue Mutt blog you can even find out what they're about.  If you look at the timeline in the special features you can see the titles for them and see how they follow each other.

On top of that, I'd like to find a home for my Chances Are series.  I've mentioned that a few times, right?  The first one is about a guy who dies but thanks to an experimental drug comes back to life as a woman and then goes out to kick ass on those responsible for killing him in the first place.  (The pronouns get confusing.)  At some point I need to work out the query and send it around to see if I can get any interest.  I mean come on, I have credentials now!  If not, I might have to look around for another small publisher or self-publish.  There are three of those already written, which I may or may not have mentioned. 

Anyway, I'm supposed to be looking back, not looking ahead.  So let's get the sappy montage music playing like that Sarah Maclachlan or Green Day song used at like every high school graduation in the late 90s-early 2000s.  (Maybe they still use those for all I know.  Sixteen years from now maybe they'll play those at my niece's graduation.)

When I started this blog, I had a dream.  A dream...to sell books.  Romantic, no?  And perhaps it's been successful.  I don't really know how many books I've sold, but I know it's greater than zero, so mission accomplished.  Through it all we've laughed and cried and lived.  Or not.  Chances are, you learned far more about A Hero's Journey than you ever wanted to.  You probably learned more about old comics than you cared to know.  If you were lucky, you won some money or a free book off of me.  And you learned how to make yourself into a superhero, which is something you should never, ever actually do in real life--can't stress that enough.

Some of the features will be canceled in 2013.  The full schedule posts New Year's Day, but I will give you one hint:  the Two-Fer Tuesdays are gone.  I have something else to put in place there.  I've come up with a couple more things and shuffled a couple of things, so 2013 will get off a little bit of a different start.  Anyway, check back at the start of the year to find out all the exciting things that will be coming down the pipe.

If you've popped in today and read all this, then thanks for your support.  If you read the books, then I hoped you enjoyed them.  If you did, why not go review them on Amazon, B&N, Goodreads, etc?  (And LIKE it on Amazon too.)  And tell all your "friends" on Twitter, Facebook, and in real life.  Or you know, go stand on top of a building with a bullhorn and sing my praises.  That will get me some publicity for sure.  Not good publicity, but you know what they say about that.

Happy New Year!  See you in 2013! 

(Check in January 1, 2013 for the New Blogging Schedule!)

Thursday Review: When You Were Young (Children of Eternity 4) by Claire Lachance

If you remember last week I reviewed Book 3 of the Children of Eternity series and promised this week I would review the conclusion When You Were Young.  So that would be today!

For three years amnesiac Samantha Young has been shuttling between her home on the island of Eternity, where she's the head of 50 other displaced children, and a coastal Maine town where her boyfriend Joseph lives.  Now 17, Samantha faces a big choice about whether to stay on the island to look after the kids or to go off with Joseph to California, where he's going to college.  She's so worked up about this she goes off to a bar and gets roaring drunk.

When she wakes up, she's back on the island--in a crib!  Only then does Samantha find out the little girl named Becky she's been caring for the last 3 years is actually an old nemesis named Veronica who has a score to settle with Samantha.  Though in true comic book villain style Veronica doesn't just kill her adversary.  Instead she uses the water to make Samantha and her friends into toddlers she can torment.

Samantha and her friends manage to escape and end up at the Fountain of Youth only to find it's coated with some kind of weird red algae stuff.  When she falls into the fountain, Samantha wakes up and finds herself back in the past, just before she lost her memory.  Saying anything more about that would spoil too much of the story.

Samantha's friends Prudence and Wendell are also transported to the past, only way back to 1649-ish when they first came to Eternity with Reverend Crane.  Again I can't say too much of what's going on.

Meanwhile on the island in the present, Veronica takes Joseph hostage and tries to force him to find a way to get rid of the weird algae so she'll have access to the fountain water again.  If you want a hint at the ending, it's kind of like "Return of the Jedi" with Molly Brigham as Darth Vader.

Probably the best thing is that if you've read all the others you finally get all your questions answered.  We finally learn who Samantha was before she ended up on the island and how she lost her memory.  Plus we get to see how exactly Reverend Crane took over the island and enslaved everyone. 

The drawback is that while the first two were really for kids and the third more for teens, this one gets into more adult situations.  In large part it's because the kids are adults through much of the book.  But that does mean you probably don't want your kids to read it right away.  I'm just saying.

Tomorrow I put a bow on the year with the PT Dilloway Blog Annual #1...

Practical Superheroism: Target Lock

Disclaimer:  DON'T.  TRY.  THIS.  AT.  HOME.  There, all caps.  Now do you get it?  Good.  I'm glad this is the final time I have to say that.

This is the last edition of Practical Superheroism.  I figure by now I've imparted enough lessons that you should be ready to go all "Silver Cockatoo Begins" or whatever the hell you're going to call yourself.  I mean we've covered the name, the costume, the vehicle, the gadgets, fighting techniques, and all that stuff.  Just one last lesson to impart.  You must confront Vader again...wait, that was from something else.


Anyway, there was a lot to hate in the "Green Hornet" movie from about 2 years ago, just as there's a lot to hate in any movie that involves Seth Rogen--the #1 thing being Seth Rogen.  But it did make a couple of good points for practical superheroism.  And one of those good points is the focus of today's feature.

That is if you've got all your superhero stuff--costume, gadgets, motorcycle--together, then what?  You know there's crime happening somewhere, but how do you find it?  Now maybe if you live in a bad neighborhood you've already got an idea of this.  But if you're like me and from the suburbs, then you might not know exactly where to find "the bad part of town."  (In Detroit it's called EVERYWHERE!)

In "The Green Hornet" Seth Rogen and the real superhero Kato want to fight crime, but have no idea where crime actually is.  So they end up getting help from his secretary Cameron Diaz who conveniently has a degree in criminology.  Chances are you don't know a criminologist (or Cameron Diaz for that matter) but you can do what she did and study newspapers and so forth to figure out where the hot spots for crime are.

In Batman there's conveniently an area known as "Crime Alley" which would seem a fairly obvious place to get started.  In A Hero's Journey the really bad neighborhood is known as "The Trenches" because there was so much fighting in that area that it was like a war zone.  So it's no surprise when the Scarlet Knight needs to learn how to fight crime, her ghost trainer Marlin has her visit some spots in the Trenches.  A recurring joke in the series is that whenever a new Scarlet Knight needs trained, they wind up at this one convenience store and piss off the clerk who works there.

So anyway, unless you have a ghost to help you, you'll have to do it yourself.  Just look at the newspapers and if you can, some crime statistics, and find some hot spots.  It helps too if you have a police scanner.  Then if you're quick you can get there before the cops.  Also if you listen to it long enough you could mark where the crimes are on a map of the city and get a better picture of what's going on where.

A caveat here is that most of the crimes superheroes fight take place at NIGHT.  I remember watching this movie called "Special" where the would-be hero goes out in broad daylight in costume to look for crime.  He was supposed to be a comic book junkie too so you think he'd realize you don't do this stuff in the daytime.  I mean 1) Most crimes take place at night as I said 2) There are a lot more innocent people on the streets in the daytime and 3) Your costume sticks out a lot more in the daytime than at night.  So really, wait until the sun starts to go down before you spring into action.

There you go, with a little statistical analysis you can find where the bad guys are hanging around and maybe put a stop to their nefarious schemes.  Or not.

BTW, another good tip from "The Green Hornet" was when the Hornet gets shot and needs to go to the hospital, he's worried that it will compromise his secret identity.  I mean how could whatever his name was (Britt?  Brett? Whatever.) get shot?  So they stage a public appearance and then Kato shoots Britt/Brett/whoever with a fake gun so to everyone there it looks like he's been shot.  Plus it makes it clearer to people that Britt/Brett couldn't possibly be the Green Hornet as well.  So when you get shot, you might need to do something like that so as not to compromise your secret identity.

Anyway, I think now you've learned about all you need to learn.  Use it wisely, grasshopper.

And since now you're ready to be a superhero, learn how you can register yourself as a real superhero here!

Tomorrow I review When You Were Young (Children of Eternity #4) by Claire Lachance...

Two-Fer Tuesday #35: XMas Memories

From left to right:  Emma as the Scarlet Knight, Val, Stacey Chance, Kari

It's Tuesday, which means another Two Fer Tuesday.  If you're not acquainted with the rules, I use a random number generator to pick a page and paragraph to pluck two sentences from.  Let's see what we get this week.

Page Number: 111
Paragraph Number: 1
In the spirit of giving, I'm giving you a whole paragraph today!  Santa's got nothing on me.

When she was two, she had first seen Mickey’s Christmas Carol on television.  After that she had read the original Dickens book.  What they had in common was in both the Ghost of Christmas Past took Scrooge back into his past, where the old version of himself watched the young version of himself.

If you want more, you can now buy the whole book for just $2.99! 

Tomorrow, for Boxing Day, we have another Practical Superheroism...

Phony Photos: A Look Ahead

For this final Phony Photos of the year, if not forever, here's a look into the future of the Scarlet Knight series.  


As I think I've noted before, there are 7 other books in the series.  You can look on the timeline in the Special Features to see when they take place.  On the Character Bios of the Special Features you can see the primary cast for the first book.  But as the series goes on there are many more characters introduced.  

If you read volume 0 then you already know Isis and Merlin, who appear in Volume 3 as well.  And I did an A to Z entry on Marie Marsh.  She and the Watchmaker both appear at the end of Volume 1.  Some of them appear earlier than I have them listed here but I didn't want to list too many for each one, so they got bumped a little.  And of course there are still other characters, some of whom are pretty important.

I'm not going to say anything about the characters because that would ruin a few surprises.  Just use your imagination to figure out how everyone is involved.

Vol 2:  Time Enough to Say Goodbye
The Watchmaker	Marie Marsh	Steve Scherr
Vol 3:  The Hazards of Love
Merlin	Isis	Pepe
Vol 4:  Change of Heart
Koschei	Bykov	Katarina
Vol 5:  Betrayal Begets Blood
Akako	Tim Cooper	Megan Putnam
Vol 6:  Future Shock
Louise Earl	Renee Chiostro	Cecelia Rameau
Vol 7:  Living Sacrifice
Amanda Murdoch	Katya
Vol 8:  The Heart of Emma Earl
Dr. Emma Reed	Joanna Reed	Renee Kim

Here's a fun guessing game for you:  8 of these new characters on this graphic die, though one is brought back to life.  Which ones do you think die?  And which ones live?

Tomorrow is an XMas-themed Two-Fer Tuesday!

Holiday Blogfest: Spirit of Giving with Oculus by Michael Offutt

Yes, I've double-booked my blog for today.  So I'm going to kill two birds with one stone, though no actual birds or stones will be harmed.

The holidays are all about giving, so today I give you a preview of Michael Offutt's Oculus, the sequel to the bestselling Slipstream as part of his book tour.    And since it's the Blogathon (of doom) you can also win an advanced reader copy of Tales of the Scarlet Knight, Volume II:  Time Enough to Say Goodbye, valued at $299.99!  You're welcome.

Oculus

Michael Offutt

Genre: Sci-fi

Book Description:

Autumn has arrived in New York, and Jordan Pendragon attends his first classes as a freshman at Cornell. Born with a brilliant mathematical mind, he balances life as a research assistant with that of a student athlete.

But Jordan also has a quest. He must find the Black Tower, a monolithic edifice housing a thing that defines the very structure of the universe. Jordan believes it is buried somewhere in Antarctica under miles of prehistoric ice.

October finds Jordan earning a starting position with the Cornell hockey team. But a dark cloud gathers over his rookie season. Unexplained deaths, whispers of a cannibal cult, a prophecy, and a stone known only as the Oculus, cast a shadow over his athletic ambitions. It is the start of a terrifying journey down a path of mystery, murder, and to a confrontation with an Evil more ancient than the stars.

Free short story that's a lead-in to this book series: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/236636

About the Author:

Michael Offutt writes speculative fiction books that have science fiction, LGBT, and paranormal elements. His first book, "Slipstream" has received some critical acclaim and was published by Double Dragon in the spring. The sequel, "Oculus" came out in November 2012. He has one brother, no pets, and a few roots that keep his tree of life sufficiently watered. By day, he works for the State of Utah as a Technical Specialist. By night, he watches lots of t.v., writes, draws, and sometimes dreams of chocolate.

Michael Offutt graduated from the University of Idaho in 1994 with a Bachelor's degree in English.

He keeps a blog and would appreciate a visit or two even if all you want to do is say hi.

Website: http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/books.html

Art relating to books: http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/my-artwork.html

Blog: http://slckismet.blogspot.com

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3099632.Michael_Offutt

Twitter: @MichaelOffutt

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Slipstream/164452693676933

And here's a preview of Chapter 1:

“I can live a normal life,” Jordan said, and then he pulled the trigger.

Man.  Husband.  Father.  It didn’t matter.

It ended in a bang and the sooty smell of gunpowder.

The bullet struck; blood spattered across his Kevlar vest.  Before he could squeeze off another, the man grabbed his wrist and twisted his arm violently to the left.  Jordan spun around and hit him in the side of the head with the heel of one shoe.  Blood smeared red across the sole of his sneaker.

Things became surreal; time slowed down.  The second hand on his watch stopped.

Where was I ten minutes earlier?

They say life can change in a flash.

I was talking about college?  And now… I’m committing murder.

His life went into rewind while he stood, eyes unblinking.  He heard gunfire around him, but he felt as if he watched himself from afar.

His body engaged on autopilot.

His ears rang.  Bodies dropped.

Ten minutes ago, Kolin had asked him a question in the quiet of the woods….

“You sure that going off to college to play hockey and study physics is the best way to go about this whole quest of yours?” His British boyfriend’s voice had hovered above a whisper; above the music of crickets in the glade.

Chirp Chirp

“It’s the only way,” Jordan had replied.  “Cornell’s the university that’s got everything I need.  Hockey’s my ticket.  Without it, I wouldn’t have gotten in.”

“So you’ve said.”

Dressed in black tactical fatigues, Kolin propped his elbows on a tree trunk almost four-feet wide that had long ago crashed to the forest floor.  He peered through a pair of night vision binoculars.  The buzz of nocturnal insects and the babble of a brook nearby filled Jordan’s ears.  He rested his head against the moss at his back and stared at the stars.

He could no longer hear the crickets.

But the guns got louder and louder.  The second hand on his watch started moving again.

Dylan can track the monsters better than anyone.  He calls them azghuls.

Jordan finally blinked, but he didn’t see a monster.  He saw a man.  Blood pulsed from his neck in a thin stream.  The pistol shook in Jordan’s hand as he realized what he’d done.  With tears clinging to his eyelashes, he came about and fired, blowing the man’s brains out the back of his head.  The filthy corpse dropped into the mud and twitched for several minutes; the white eyes darkened.

Six feet behind him, Robbie cried out.  The teen fell onto his back with a loud plop.  However, Rob still managed to get off a couple of shots.  Two bright flashes and his attacker fell down, kneecaps blown and bloody.

Why am I here? Jordan thought, loosely holding his gun.  The stars…I was looking at the stars.

Jordan turned his face to the sky.

Where are the crickets?  Why is this happening?

Chirp Chirp....

He was back at the tree.

Kolin interrupted his thoughts by waving four fingers in front of his face.  He understood that Kolin had counted four men.  No—correction.  He had counted four things that used to be men.  It seemed easy now to say that, more so since he had killed one.

Kolin lowered his head to talk with him.  “Their meat’s still alive on a chain, but that could change at any time.”

Jordan felt sick.  “She’s not meat.”

Kolin gnashed his teeth.  “Sorry. That was a bit parky, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“This is all new to me,” Kolin continued.  “I’ve killed two of these things now.  If you need to think of them as beasts to bring yourself to kill them, then do it.  I need you to understand that whatever bug that’s wormed its way into their gray matter has changed them.  The last one that we came across in Colorado went specifically after you, even though Kat was closer.  I’ve been thinking about that for a while now.  I think they absorb a bloke’s memories, and your face has been on the NBC Nightly News as well as that other show…” He put finger to chin trying to think of the name.

“Ellen?” Jordan clarified.  “That’s the name of the other show.”

Kolin stared at him in silence.  “Yes, that one…she dresses like a man.  But my point is that there’s plenty of people that know who you are.”

“There’s nothing wrong with wearing pants,” Jordan whispered.  “Lots of women do.”

“Listen,” Kolin said, and then paused to make certain he had Jordan’s full attention, “the last one of these things that I killed three days ago even knew your first name.  How do you explain that?  You know what else he said?”

Jordan shook his head.

“‘Give us the boy who can hear the cry of heaven.’—the fuck that means.  At first, I dismissed their language as incoherent babble.  But now I think it’s Czech.  That suggests this isn’t random if they’re speaking the same tongue, right?  The azghuls originate from a specific group of supporters.  That means the Horcus has help.  But answer me this: where are they coming from?”

“I don’t know.”

“Exactly.  And I think that’s something that we should know.”  Kolin swung the binoculars from in front of his eyes.  They depended from a hinge attached to a head harness.  He placed a gloved hand upon Jordan’s right shoulder.  “You have a gentle heart, but these aren’t men.  Do you understand?”

Jordan trembled.  But he remained silent.

These aren’t men….

It bore repeating.

Jordan opened his eyes.  In one blink, the present had murdered the past.

He swung the barrel of his gun and shot, emptying what remained in his clip from almost point blank range into Robbie’s attacker.  He blew off an ear and a nose.  Chunks of flesh sprayed outward mixed with a few pieces of bone.  The azghul dropped with a howl, shuddered once, and died.  He wore a Brooks Brothers suit.

  #

If all that's not enough convincing, you can read my review here!

As part of the spirit of giving, you can enter to win 1 of 6 signed copies of Oculus!  Also one random commenter gets a bookmark.  Which is great if you're a Luddite who still reads paper books.  Another random commenter gets an advanced reader copy of Tales of the Scarlet Knight Volume II:  Time Enough to Say Goodbye by yours truly! 

There's a lot of winning going on!  Well it is supposed to be the end of the world today, right?

And Monday the blog gets back to normal with a Phony Photos that gives you a glimpse of the future...

Thursday Review: Young Hearts (Children of Eternity 3) by Claire Lachance

Samantha Young

Long time ago in the heady days of yore, back in September and October, I reviewed the first two books of the Children of Eternity series, which began with Forever Young and then Young Family.  The first two books chronicle the story of Samantha Young, an amnesiac who lives on an island with about 50 other children who have lived there for over 350 years thanks to the Fountain of Youth.  So now let's get back to it with the third book, which in some ways is the best of the lot.

In the first book Samantha deposed the evil Reverend Crane to free the kids of the island.  In the second book much of their little society was wiped out by a hurricane and the only remaining adult--Miss Brigham--was turned into a baby by the fountain water.  The third story picks up a few years later when Samantha is 14 and officially the head of the island.  The kids have rebuilt much of what has been lost, but a bad harvest and brutal winter has left their supplies badly depleted.  Samantha sees no choice but to finally go to the mainland to get what they need.

Prudence

So she takes her chubby friend Prudence and the nerdy Wendell with her in a crude boat across the Atlantic to a coastal Maine town.  They're picked up by a descendant of the evil Mr. Pryde who used to torment the kids of the island, but this Mr. Pryde turns out to be a nice guy who lets Samantha and her friends stay in his house.  Though she lost her memory, Samantha remembers things like TV, radio, cars, and so forth but for Prudence and Wendell it's a big shock.  Since they've been living with 17th Century technology for centuries, things like cars and TVs seem like magic to them.

Meanwhile, Mr. Pryde's son Joseph finds some ancient Native American caves with a bunch of strange old potions inside.  As a science nerd, Joseph starts to analyze the potions to unlock their secrets.  He does this in large part because he wants to find a way to look all buff and cool to impress Samantha even though she secretly already is crushing on him but doesn't have the guts to tell him.  Joseph is successful, though with the unexpected consequence that he starts turning into a huge douche bag.

When he convinces Samantha to start taking the potions too, her friends begin to notice she's becoming a total bimbo.  She doesn't believe them, thinking they're just jealous of her.  This all leads to an inevitable showdown between Joseph/Samantha and Prudence/Wendell.

Wendell

Back on the island, little Molly Brigham makes a new friend, an old lady named Veronica who has designs on the island's secrets.  [ominous music...]

Where I think this improves on the previous stories is that it gets the story out of the claustrophobic setting of the island and into the wider setting of the modern world.  I mean there's only so much you can do on a tiny rock in the middle of the ocean.  As people saw with "Lost" eventually you have to start doing crazy shit like going back in time and whatnot in order to keep things interesting.

Also while the first one especially was aimed at a younger audience, the third volume is more for older readers with romance and even thinly-veiled sex.  No, Samantha is not Bella Swan, sighing and biting her lip forever and a day before finally having sex on her wedding night.  Though Samantha is also under the influence of the potions.

Since it rotates from Sam/Joe to Prudence/Wendell plus the stuff back on the island it has a lot more epic feel to it than the previous stories.  Which is good, I think.  The story also answers that age-old question of whether a sow and an infant can drive a car.  I'm just saying.

Next week I'll wrap up the series.  Hooray!

Tomorrow you can win a free ebook and get a preview of Michael Offutt's "Oculus" in conjunction with the blogathon of doom!

Everyday Heroes: Public Service Announcement

I'm not going to point to a specific article or anything this month.  What with "Superstorm Sandy" last month, I'm sure there were a lot of articles about everyday heroes saving lives and property during that awful time.  Just like in 9/11 or Katrina or any other big disaster, the biggest heroes are the men and women on the front lines:  the cops, firemen, paramedics, ER doctors, and so forth you make sure people too stupid to get out of harm's way in the first place (when it's something you know is coming like a hurricane) don't pay for that idiocy with their lives.

Now Grumpy Bulldog will get on his soapbox for a moment.  A former paramedic once told me that the people most ungrateful for first responders like paramedics, fire departments, and cops aren't the big rich people but the ordinary middle-class types.  A lot of these people probably smoke from the Tea Party bag of rugged individualism...until a crisis strikes.  Then they're all "Where's the fucking cops?  Where's the fire department?  Someone help me!!!"

Brought to you by Grumpy Bulldog!

Here's the point:  you can't get help if you vote to slash funding for those services.  Or if you vote for people who will do that for you.  An extra $20 in property tax is worth it to have cops around to keep your streets safe or paramedics who can get to you quicker than a pizza delivery and don't have to worry their ambulance will breakdown when you're halfway to the hospital.  Or that you won't have to resort to the old bucket brigade when your house is on fire.

So really, let's stop talking out of both sides of our mouths on this stuff.  Let's not say, "You guys are heroes!" and then go to the polls and cut their funding.  Not all heroes are rich guys like Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark.  Most of them don't make much, especially for the stress they're under.

Keep them well-funded and when the next disaster strikes you can feel confident that someone will be there to give you a helping hand when you need it.  Honor your everyday heroes by keeping them on the job.

Rant over. 

If you want to see another Everyday Hero, read this post on Briane Pagel's Thinking the Lions about a heroic candy company!

Tomorrow I review Young Hearts (Children of Eternity #3) by Claire Lachance...

Two-Fer Tuesday #30: Office Romance

It's Tuesday, which means another Two Fer Tuesday.  If you're not acquainted with the rules, I use a random number generator to pick a page and paragraph to pluck two sentences from.  Let's see what we get this week.

Page Number: 19
Paragraph Number: 5 

A little office flirting here, or not? (In the first draft the answer would be yes but after edits the answer would be no.  I'm sure the PC Police have something to say about that.)


Then Connie asked, “You want to get a drink after work?  I could really use one after this.”

 

If you want more than just two puny sentences, you can now buy the whole book for just $2.99! 

Tomorrow, in the spirit of giving, we give credit to another Everyday Hero!