Category Archives: Uncategorized
George W. Bush is smarter than you
I found this blog post and just had to reblog it. It used to drive me crazy how the media portrayed Pres. Bush as an idiot. Whether you’re a fan of the former Pres. or not, you should enjoy this post. Read it with an unbiased attitude. He deserves that much.
MIRROR IMAGE: Last Day for FREE!
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (Photo credit: twm1340)
Do you like psychological thrillers in the style of Alfred Hitchcock? Remember those old Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes? Good stuff. MIRROR IMAGE, the short I co-wrote with Aaron Reed is being offered for FREE for one more day. The offer ends tonight at midnight. Don’t miss this chance to get your copy of this intriguing, fast-paced short story.
If you like Alfred Hitchcock-esque stories I think you’ll like this one.
And can we ask a favor. Once you’ve read it (it’s a short, quick read) will you please leave a review on Amazon? Those reviews help more than you think they do. And if you enjoy the story, a positive review is like giving us a $20 tip.
Enjoy trying to figure out the ending!
Athol Dickson’s JANUARY JUSTICE
I’ve said this before on this blog and it’s worth saying again: Athol Dickson is one of my favorite authors. I fell in love with his writing when my wife read They Shall See God and told me I “have to read this book.” And now I have the privilege of taking part in a blog tour for Athol’s newest murder mystery, January Justice. Below is a guest post from Athol.
Please be sure to check out the book. I promise you won’t be sorry. Athol is one of those rare authors who never disappoints.
WHY I WRITE MURDER MYSTERIES (Athol Dickson)
Recently I read a fascinating article in The New York Times about what may well be the first true murder mystery novel ever written. Conventional wisdom holds that the honor belongs to Wilkie Collins, who published The Moonstone in 1868, but the author of the Times piece discovered a novel written six years earlier called The Notting Hill Mystery, which he claims has all the ingredients of a modern murder mystery, and deserves the credit as Whodunit Number One.
The novel was published in serial fashion in a periodical, as was common in those days, and the author used a pseudonym. But apparently there’s good reason to believe The Notting Hill Mystery was written by Charles Warren Adams, one of the publishers of the periodical. Hopefully, Adams will one day receive the full credit for his invention of my favorite genre. It was a monumental achievement.
But intriguing though this is to a mystery aficionado like myself, the real meat of the article for me came almost as an aside near the end, where the Times piece says, “Adams was also notably religious, which points to an unexpected characteristic of the first detective novel: it’s profoundly moral. It asks not just how evil exists, but what is to be done about it. Detective novels, like sermons, can offer gratifyingly simple answers to those questions, or thoughtful and troubling ones.”
I was delighted to read those words, because here I am, one hundred and fifty-one years later, writing murder mysteries for the same reason.
It seems to me we love a good murder mystery because in the end they’re the stories which touch most directly on death and justice.
Death is the ultimate mystery of real life. What is it, exactly? Why must it exist? What should we do about it? Even the best of murder mysteries can’t answer those questions completely, but the best murder mysteries all explore the possibilities.
And when we start exploring death, something in us cries out that it isn’t right. We all long for justice, don’t we? That’s the other thing a good murder mystery delivers: a little imitation justice. The bad guy gets his in the end, or else someone has the guts to stand and rage against the second greatest mystery of all, which is why injustice exists in the first place.
I love that about murder mysteries. It’s why I’ve read, oh, about a thousand of them. And it’s why I’m writing “The Malcolm Cutter Memoirs.”
Please leave a comment below and…
PRESS RELEASE
When Mike Dellosso won a one-year battle with colon cancer he set out to help readers of his books discover it before they had to go through what he experienced.
“I want others to avoid what I had to go through,” he says. “It was an experience that taught me a lot about myself, others, and God, but one I wouldn’t want to repeat. If I can help even one person battling this disease, it would have been worth it.”
Mike set about writing a novel quite different from what his fan base had come to expect from him. Not a thriller, but a character-driven novel, so he wrote it under a pen name, Michael King, and entitled it A Thousand Sleepless Nights. His publisher, Charisma Media, went for it and the first copies went on sale in October.
Mike’s next step was to determine whether a…
View original post 153 more words
Regrets. We all have them, sometimes on a daily basis. I should have . . . I could have . . . why didn’t I . . . If only . . .
Sound familiar? Yeah, I’m with you. The tendency is to focus on the what should have been and berate ourselves for not doing what we should have or could have. Anger precedes sorrow and finally mourning takes over. And if we don’t move through those stages and the regret lingers and grows and festers like an old sore that just won’t heal, well, some really bad stuff can happen.
I recently faced that regret monster because of a decision I didn’t make that led to one very heartbroken daughter. I cried with and for her. I scolded myself. Berated myself. Questioned myself. Why didn’t I act when I should have? Why didn’t I make the decision I should…
View original post 216 more words
Ever read something in the Bible and think, Ooh, I don’t like that. It just doesn’t seem right.
I’m guilty of it.
Every now and then I’ll run across a passage or an account or even a doctrine that rubs me the wrong way. It doesn’t seem fair (according to my sense of justice) or the timing is all off (according to my timetable) or the love seems to be missing (according to my understanding of love). It bothers me, even annoys me, that I feel that way, that I don’t understand WHY.
Psalm 44 is one of those passages. Oh, the first eight verses start out great. The writer praises God for his might and intervention in the history of his people, for his protection and faithfulness. The writer declares his faith in God and trust in Him.
But verse nine begins with one word that changes everything. BUT.
View original post 440 more words
Freaky Friday: My Secret Hatred
(Photo credit: Matti Mattila)
I hate shopping. That’s it; it’s out in the open. Now I no longer have to walk around in shame because I’ve been hiding that dirty secret. And when I say hate, I mean really hate. Loathe. Detest. HATE.
I’m not afraid of shopping or of people or of spending money. This isn’t about fear. It’s about hatred. Shopping for clothes or some new appliance or a car is akin to having every bone in my body broken one by one. I don’t even like running an errand for a single item. A can of spray paint, a quart of oil, a gallon of milk. I do it, yes, but I don’t like it.
Correction . . . I hate it.
You may think I’m weird; you have no idea.
Here’s a list of the top 10 things I’d rather do than be subject to entering a store to shop.
10. Rub chili peppers in my eyes.
9. Bathe in jelly fish.
8. Go to a Justin Bieber concert.
7. Walk a mile on broken glass.
6. Get a nasogastric tube placed.
5. Take 8th grade math over again.
4. Floss a piranha’s teeth.
3. Watch an entire professional chess tournament.
2. Get tarred and feathered.
1. Listen to Nancy Pelosi talk for an hour.
There. Now do you know how much I hate shopping?
It seems aliens are all the rage nowadays. Have been for quite some time, probably since Steven Spielberg brought us Close Encounters of the Third Kindback in 1977. Since then there’s been a slew of movies produced about aliens, books written, sightings reported, and enough close encounters to fill a flying saucer. Most of the time aliens are portrayed as mischevious at best, downright diabolical and bloodthirsty at worst.
But being an alien isn’t all that bad. In fact, it’s really quite a blessing and comes with many perks. I should know, too, because I am one.
It’s true, I am not of this world. Planet earth is not my home, it’s not where I ultimately belong; I’m only visiting.
But while I’m here I’ll do my best to endure and be a respectable and effective ambassador. It’s not easy, as you know, so I need to constantly remind…
View original post 245 more words
I think it’s part of our responsibility as parents to give our children every opportunity to succeed in life and every freedom to fail when they try.
It was time for those awful standardized tests. You remember the ones. The #2 pencils, the timer, the endless questions, the pressure, the teacher saying, “Time’s up. Pencils down. Tests closed.” The thought of it makes my palms sweat and stomach twist into a knot.
Well, for homeschooled kids the test is taken on the computer in the comfort of your own home but the pressure isn’t any less. There are no #2 pencils but a mouse and keyboard can be just as intimidating. The timer is in the upper right corner of the screen, counting down the final moments of your life. The questions scroll by as relentless as a KGB interrogator.
Our second daughter faced this just a couple weeks ago. We sat her down in front of the computer, that mouse just laughing at her, and I could see the fear on her face, the uncertainty in…
View original post 249 more words
It’s okay to disagree, but there’s a way to do it without being disagreeable. Note to self: especially apply these suggestions when disagreeing with my wife.
No two people always agree. Sooner or later there will be something that wedges between them and causes a rift. They will disagree, sometimes mildly and the matter can be resolved with an arch of the eyebrows and a nod of the chin, but sometimes they will disagree vehemently and each side will dig in their heels, roll up their sleeves, and prepare for battle.
Disagreements are a part of life. I have my opinion, you have yours, they clash . . . the makings of a disagreement. There’s little we can do to avoid these types of conflict, what we can control, however is how we handle disagreements. And how we handle them will reveal a lot about our character.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when you disagree that will keep you from being disagreeable:
- Know your position and believe in it. Don’t disagree just…
View original post 472 more words
MIKE DELLOSSO 