Kill Me Once Again - and Again

Kill Me Once Again is now available at Barnes and Noble for Nook, iPad/iBook and other Apple digital book reading devices. Check it out!

Kill Me Once Again

KILL ME ONCE AGAIN

My second book, Kill Me Once Again, first available on Amazon.com as an eBook, is now available on Smashwords.com as an eBook. Smashwords provides a multi-format choice which permits users of Nook, Kindle (.mobi for Kindle devices), Epub for Apple iPad/iBooks, Sony Reader, Kobo, Stanza, Aldiko, and RTF formats to enjoy their products.

Here's a look at what Kill Me Once Again brings to your bookshelf and reading pleasure.

In Kill Me Once Again, Major Scott Wilson is fragged during a CIA black ops mission when he refuses to help his mutinous men smuggle captured Afghan heroin to the States. Scott dies in the med-evac chopper, but a determined Army field surgeon revives him. He recovers except for PTSD and retrograde amnesia, specifically any memory of the fragging. “If not remembering that mission doesn’t bother you, go home. Have a good life. It’s not important,” the VA shrink tells him. But now, it is important. Scott’s life may depend on remembering who killed him the first time.

After forced medical retirement, Scott’s boss and good friend, Jonas, has the Witness Protection Program relocate him with a new identity.

Five years later, in present-day Myrtle Beach, SC, assassins kill a girl driving Scott’s car and attack him. Scott kills one thug before a grazing head shot knocks him out. He wakes in a hospital where FBI agents say nothing was found at the site of the attack to support his story. When FBI Special Agent Kathy Saunders’ partner is murdered, she realizes she’s in danger, too. Unable to tell friend from foe and Scott’s WITSEC identity compromised, Scott and Kathy go into hiding. Electronic bugs, hidden GPS tracking devices, snipers, a bullying NSA Lt. Colonel and his henchmen, and merciless Russian assassins greet them at every turn. What's more, best friend Jonas is lying to him.

And here's a sneak peek at Kill Me Once Again. 

Chapter 1

Balghis Province, Afghanistan, 1998

THUP! THUP! THUP! THUP! Rotors pound. Pulsing blasts of air push down on me. A cyclone of sand swirls, stings my face and hands. Someone slings me over his shoulder. I hang limply, bouncing as he carries me at a run towards the Huey. Its screaming jet engine demands attention. The hot acrid smell of its exhaust pulls me back to the flood of pain in my head and chest. Strong hands drag me into the MedEvac chopper. I feel the chopper rise as we dust off. “Hang on, Major. Stay with me now, stay with me. We’re only twenty clicks out.”

I struggle to open my eyes. A tube runs from a needle in my arm to a bag swinging overhead in the dim red lights of night ops.

“Oh, God! What the hell are you doing? Get off my chest. Christ! Get off me, you bastard!”

“Easy, Major, easy. Come back to me, now. Come on, Major. Dammit!” he pleads. “Can’t this freakin’ bird go any faster?” he shouts into the intercom mike attached to his helmet.

Then nothing. That’s all my dreams tell me. That’s all I know.

That was five years ago. That’s the day I died.

The Saga of Lance Armstrong

The Saga of Lance Armstrong

By

C. Neuroticus Absolutus

According to the caption below a picture of Lance Armstrong in The Roanoke Times (Saturday, August 25, 2012), “Lance Armstrong, who helped change the image of cycling, was deemed guilty of doping.” (The italics are mine.)

The accompanying article by The Roanoke Times Reporter Aaron McFarling said, “. . . Armstrong dropped his fight against doping charges by declining to enter the U. S. Anti-Doping Agency's arbitration process.”

Mr. McFarling gives the Times readers “three schools of thought” from which to choose: 1) Lance cheated but denies it. 2) Whether Lance cheated or not is not relevant because of his fund-raising efforts for cancer research. Or, 3)Lance is innocent, a target of a witch hunt.” Then Mr. McFarling says, “With all due respect, I don't know how anybody can believe No. 3 anymore. It just doesn't seem possible. Cycling is the dirtiest sport in the world. Everybody cheats. And yet Lance was the one guy who didn't—AND he beat all the cheaters? Seven times?. . .”

Do these statements allude to Mr. McFarling's personal contention that Armstrong is guilty? What do we care what Mr. McFarling thinks? This isn't reporting the news, this is an opinion piece. So what is it doing on the front page with the news? At least move it to the Sports section where such drivel is quoted and printed regularly.

I thought The Roanoke Times had an editorial page in addition to a policy of vetting all statements to ensure truth in publication. “Everybody cheats?” If the USADA couldn't prove it for one guy (Armstrong) how can you include everyone in the sport in your comment? And, “Cycling is the dirtiest sport in the world?” Lets see you prove that!

An examination of the choice of words in this article leads me to believe that the article was written by a freshman journalist. However, I assume Mr. McFarling's credentials are far better than that.

The Merriam-Webster On-line Dictionary defines the word deem as follows:

“Transitive verb: to come to think or judge: consider, < deemed it wise to go slow >

Intransitive verb: to have an opinion: believe

Synonyms: allow [chiefly Southern & Midland], conceive, consider, believe, esteem, feel, figure, guess, hold, imagine, judge, reckon [chiefly dialect], suppose, think

Related Words: regard, view, perceive, depend, rely, trust, assume, presume, presuppose, surmise, conclude, deduce, infer, accept”

Inserting some of these synonyms in place of “deem” in the first sentence of this story provides the following possibilities:

“Lance Armstrong . . . was believed to be guilty . . .”

was considered to be guilty . . .”

we guessed he was guilty . . .”

we imagined him to be guilty

we supposed he was guilty

we presumed he was guilty

we reckoned he was guilty

we inferred he was guilty

we surmised he was guilty.

we figured he was guilty

etc., etc, etc.”

Got the picture yet? There was no standard burden of proof used in making the original statement, “deemed guilty.” Harsh words but perhaps appropriate when someone is being tried in the court of world opinion or the media.

Check out the amazing Olympic record of Michael Phelps. I suspect that by Mr. McFarling's yardstick, Phelps must certainly be deemed guilty of doping to have won so often and accumulated so many medals. Otherwise, it's just not possible!

What is the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) anyway? The following is quoted from the USADA website at www.usada.org/about/:

“As a non-profit, non-governmental agency, our programs:

—Provide deterrence and preservation of sport for athletes, coaches, students, teachers, parents, scientists and more through education and resources;

—Include numerous protections for athletes to ensure that only athletes who are guilty of a doping violation are sanctioned;

—Strive to systematically identify those individuals who are engaged in the effort to gain advantage over athletes who are competing clean; and

—Fund pioneering research for the detection of doping substances and techniques, and the pursuit of scientific excellence in doping control.” (the highlighting is mine.)

By the way, these people report to no one but their own Board of Directors and are a self-proclaimed anti-doping organization.

Looking at the USADA statements above, “. . .only athletes who are guilty of a doping violation are sanctioned.” Where's the proof that Armstrong is guilty of such charges and thus should be sanctioned? (But they say they have 10 guys ready to testify that they saw Armstrong . . . Just remember, none of those witnesses have been identified and they haven't yet sworn an oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in a court of law.)

And “. . .strive to systematically identify . . ?” After all of Armstrong's tests for doping and he having failed none, perhaps the USADA hasn't striven hard enough, or truly doesn't have the capability to detect everything that might be used to produce the near super-human endurance required to win the Tour de France seven times. If this is their fault, how can they justify stripping Armstrong's medals?

Well, forget all that. We just know he's guilty.

Further, it's not just the USADA that has been trying to catch these athletes, it's the whole world. Not just in cycling, but in all sports.

So Mr. McFarling, perhaps—at least for the moment— we'll not be able to accurately judge Lance Armstrong's actions or records. I've heard it said that it is impossible to prove a negative. So how should Armstrong prove that he is not guilty of doping, arbitration or not? The USADA and the anti-doping officials at the Olympics and the Tour de France had their chance and never found one iota of evidence of Mr. Armstrong having used doping.

What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

Lastly, readers would all appreciate a little more respect for the difference between subjective storytelling and objective reporting in our newspapers. Especially on the front page.

What It Means to be Green

I remember when I lived on Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan. You could count the number of native English speakers in Hakodate on one hand, and I seldom had the opportunity to iterface with them. In my heart, I was truly lonely, although I seldom admitted it to myself and never aloud. My weekly touch of "home" was the broadcast of Miss Piggy, Kermit and friends on NHK television. I cried when I heard Kermit sing "What it Means to be Green." I knew just how he felt.

Foxhole Short Story Review

Review of

Foxhole

by James Vanore

Reviewed by C. Neuroticus Absolutus

Just finished reading Jim Vanore's short story, Foxhole. It's up for Book of the Month honors from Long and Short Mystery Reviews (LASR). Whether you have served in the military or not, you will be haunted by the tale of a son who idolizes his father and reveres his father's heroism in the Second World War. To say any more about this touching story would deprive the reader of a personal journey into that dark foxhole and discovering the depths of a man's life-long suffering.

Foxhole strikes a nerve like a tiny, almost invisible, splinter whose occasional needle-like jabs remind us to pay homage to those who endured the personal hells of war in service to their country. Thank you for reminding us, Mr. Vanore.

Put Foxhole at the top of your to-read list.

A to Z Flashes of Foxwick

A to Z Flashes of Foxwick

by Cherie Reich

A Book Review

By

C. Neuroticus Absolutus

I don't believe it's too much of a stretch to imagine Cherie Reich as a child, under the covers after lights out, a flashlight trained on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and her mind completely involved in the conversation between Alice and the Mad Hatter. Or that Ms. Reich still occasionally slips into another dimension where she enjoys a rich life in the otherworlds of her imagination.

The idea for A to Z Flashes of Foxwick is the result of Arlee Bird's Blogger Challenge where bloggers were challenged to write succeeding blogs featuring the alphabet letter of the day posted on the contest blog. Ms. Reich accepted the challenge and wrote 26 blogs using each letter of the alphabet in a series of flash-fiction stories about the Kingdom of Foxwick, its inhabitants and its neighboring lands.

The literary journey takes readers through Foxwick and neighboring Wintermill, Valedale, Shadowland, Lochhollow and Blackden Barrens, which Mrs. Reich introduces under the letter B:

“Sparse grasses swayed like a metronome. Stunted trees, blackened from fire's fury, poked from the ground. A lizard crept over the rocks and scurried into a crevasse as the phoenix glided over Blackden Barrens. . .” Poetic prose.

It's a time when fiction and reality blend into a dimension of illusions. Words melt in your mind and sentences flow into a mesmerizing sea of dreams as Ms. Reich opens the door to her world of fantasy. Hers is a world populated with dragons, fire birds, kings and queens, and ebony unicorns with silvery horns. Creatures move from her mind to the page with a childlike beauty and simplicity that ask for yet another telling of the stories. I read them twice from cover to cover.

Ms. Reich's flash-fiction stories follow each other like a lustrous string of pearls until they are finally woven into the storybook that brings the vision of Foxwick to the reader's mind. The twenty-six flash-fiction stories are followed by Lady Death, a bonus short story from Ms. Reich's book The Women of Foxwick. The short story ties characters from A to Z Flashes of Foxwick to a duel to the death between lady sword-fighting assassin Umbria and Lady Death. Way cool!

Beyond the enjoyment of Ms. Reich's world, the book also taught me that a flash-fiction piece of exactly 100 words is called a drabble. Just wait until I play Scrabble again!

I can't imagine a young reader who wouldn't enjoy A to Z Flashes of Foxwick. A dragon eating a sheep might be too much for little tykes, so I might not read the stories to them. But, with the exception of one or two words actually common in today's media, I recommend letting young readers discover the magic and charming world of Foxwick for themselves. The eBook edition is available at Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Sony and other eBook distributors.

The stories of Ms. Reich bring a dimension to flash-fiction storytelling that will surely be enjoyed by many generations to come. A fun read. Five stars and two thumbs up!

By the way, have you ever had a book get into your head and under your cliched skin? Here's what A to Z Flashes of Foxwick did to me poetically:

Dribbles and drabbles.

Quibbles and quabbles.

What fun doth Cherie bring!

A unicorn, a dragon

Whose tail is that waggin'?

Ye olde land of the king and queen.

Beware, Princess faire

Of one Shadowland lair.

The sword of Death is keen.

Works in Progress

Works in progress are the author's dreams, still not on paper or stored in a computer memory or even in a cloud somewhere in cyberspace. But the dreams of getting another book published is one of the main forces that drive a writer to sit down each day and add a few more days to the lives of the characters. My first two books, Home Again and Kill Me Once Again are already available on Amazon.com and from Smashwords eBook distributors. My current work-in-progress has a working title of The Back Nine, a reference to a murder on a golf course. I am about two-thirds of the way through the book. After that is a major editing to verify format and storyline continuity. Run spell check a dozen times and ...

a writer's life, works in progress, WIP, Home Again, Kill Me Once Again, The Back Nine, editing