Book Reviews and Recommendations part... the next.

Ladies and Gents, I've been in Germany for about 2 weeks, and in that time I've read three books.

Koko Takes A Holiday

On impulse, or, because I'd seen the book sitting on the bottom shelf (so many authors having a last name beginning with S, just happened to be the luck of the alphabet) and, well...  cover art counts for a lot sometimes.

BUT I do love Lori Petty.

Sometimes.

Also, specifically in this case.

The tag at the top of my copy reads: "Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon with a dash of Tank Girl attitude" - Library Journal.  Honestly haven't read or heard of Altered Carbon, but I am a fan of Tank Girl.

(The comic.  Not the movie.)

Strong recommendation?  Check.  Awesome cover?  Check.  Strong Female Protagonist?  THAT'S MY JAM!

Koko is a retired mere running a whore house on the chain of islands known as The Sixty Islands.  Run by a mega-corporation in the 25th century, the Islands cater to every perverse and violent whim of the human soul that money can buy.  In fact, nearly the entire world, after multiple wars, disappearing resources, and massive civil unrest is being retaken by mega-corporations.  When one bad night ends up with a few undesirables dead in her bar, Koko is hunted all over and above the planet by a former comrade in arms.

So, after about a month of mulling it over, I finally gave in to it burrowing into my brain and picked it up to read it in my down time.  Long story short:  It took a few days.  Getting into it was a bit difficult.  While it was definitely an entertaining read, it wasn't something that I felt was hard to put down.  It's an fun concept, the world was built very well, and instead of spending too much time explaining the ins and outs of every little thing, the story jumps into an established setting that you get to know over the course of the book.  Koko is a strong female anti-hero that - unfortunately - falls into the trope of needing a swinging dick to save her right at the end.  (Spoilers).  It was kind of disappointing in that regard.  The decidedly hardcore mercenary makes it through nearly the entire book as a badass, only to be reduced to a cliche right at the end.  Fun book, just not something I'd go out of my way for next time.  However, I am looking forward to reading more from Kieran Shea.  Strong starter for him, serious potential.

The next two are the first two of the Baxter Zevcenko series.

Apocalypse Now Now and Kill Baxter

Dark, brooding, and once again: eye catching covers.

Charlie Human delivers a powerfully funny, action packed, dark ride through a sociopathic newly introduced to a magical underworld (that shits all over Harry Potter in the best way possible) teenager's life as he struggles to manage a porn distribution business with his gang, maintaining the peace with other gangs, finding his girlfriend that got kidnapped by a serial killer, and dealing the duality of his ancient Afrikaner inner self that also happens to be half Crow - sworn to kill the other half of who he is and other fantastical creatures.

Baxter is an unlikeable, abusive, manipulative, dick.  For whatever reason, as a protagonist, he is both flawed and amazing.  Every character in this series has hard, rough edges, are at least somewhat relatable, and, not gonna lie, I was emotionally invested in more than one of them.  The humor is sharp and barbed.  The story is trippy and woven perfectly.  I finished both books in the span of three days (staying up well into the wee hours of the morning to read) because I was compelled to find out what happened next.  If you're looking for some urban magic, this is your next series.  Charlie Human is exactly where he needs to be.

Oh, and I could hear the South African accent the whole time.

All three books (by strange coincidence) are published through Titan Books.

(I may try them next).

Now now (adv.) A common South Africanism relating to the amount of time to elapse before an event occurs.  In the near future; not happening presently but to happen shortly.  -Charlie Human

A Day In My Life

Attack On Titan (SNK)

Actual Post-apocalyptic Scenes From My Backyard (in El Paso)

New Stuff!

Another Con is coming and I am determined yet again to get my body ready.  A new workout regime is up, along with some helpful tips.  Check it out here.  Or you can just look to the left side of your screen and see the new additions.

Same goes with the rest of the stuff.

I'm in school right now, getting ready to get the hell outta dodge one more time.  But, I've managed to finally take time out to write again and I love it and miss it and need to work harder because it has fallen off too much.  But I hope you can notice differences in writing styles between books.

Anyhow, here's some updated Ariana, also notably to the right side of your screen.  And, here's some legitimate M^6 (I stopped writing because the burdens of responsibility and professional life have caught up with me this weekend and I have to do homework)... and also to the right side.

Please read, enjoy, comment, freely edit things for me.

I'd throw in some pictures, but all the new one's are under the workout section.  Otherwise, this is just a brief update piece.

Look for some cosplay stuff next week and more writing.

Alright, here's some fun stuff.




-Anyway, here's wonderwall.

Make America Great Again...

...by not voting Trump.

Just when I thought I was out...

(The important part is the last few paragraphs)

As late as yesterday's post, I made the declarative statement that our political situation is an utter shit-show, as such, I'd be refraining from any further punditry.

Well, I spoke too soon.

This time, like ... 80% of the other times, I promise it's for a valid reason.

I will preface this post by saying that Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice prohibits me from actively voicing my contempt of specific elected officials.  And, while some rightly deserve it:

And not just because he looks like a melting testicle.

or I had to wait for them to die:

79 and overweight, definitely murdered.

This dick-brained fuck-knob:

A human shart, if you will.

Is not an elected official.

Let's face it, America is a pretty dumb nation full of (rightfully) suppressed bigotry, low IQ's, latent and pervasive racism, and completely irrational xenophobia.  So, yeah, I can see his broad appeal to that demographic.  He panders to the Christian right with promises of weakening the Establishment Clause and putting an end to Christian persecution in this country.  There's some significant overlap between those two groups, but as not all Christians are bad people, I can understand the support from that side too.  There's also his apparent dedication to police officers and the military.  Both of those are, to me, areas where all Presidents need to support, so I get that too.

Just a few side notes before we get any deeper into this: People are all about Trump speaking what's on his mind.  "America is too PC!" or "He's saying what we're all thinking!"  Here's the thing, the type of shit he's spewing (i.e. Muslim registration, Immigrant Rapists, etc) shouldn't BE on anyone's mind.  Being too PC is not the problem, being okay with common societal tendencies is the problem.  Rape culture, systemic racism, beating your wife, state sponsored segregation, not allowing interracial couples to marry, not allowing gay couples to marry, ALL of that was allowed and is allowed because what was and is permissible in society.  Thoughts and practices that should be phased out, abandoned, not encouraged, not upheld.  Your senile aunt that randomly shouts the N-word at Obama when he gives his address during Thanksgiving isn't being endearing or cute, she's a direct reflection of a time when that was completely acceptable.  If those types of things are on your mind (like they are on his), you are a bad person.  

I won't delve too deeply on my next point because Hemant Mehta has the issue of church and state cornered.  I will say, though, that I swore and oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, not the bible.  Christian persecution is the exact opposite of the problem we have in this country.  Persecution is telling me I'm wrong for not being Christian.  It's making me feel like my service to my country doesn't matter because I see shit like this:

in my Government work area on a regular basis.  Even at my temporary station, the post is hosting the National Prayer Luncheon.  No inclusion of Islam, Judaism, Non-theistic, or anything else.  Every invocation at every formal formation is given by the Chaplain (who is Christian), invoking God.  I'm not saying it's true with this command, but I've been in the position before where I've felt like it is incumbent upon me to participate in order to further my career.  Apply that same logic to public schools, local government, anything sponsored by tax payers.  It is not the state's obligation or place to proselytize (v. to induce someone to convert to one's faith), at all.  Christians ALWAYS push back when Islam is mentioned in any way in public school, but when they can't force their Christianity on children, it's persecution.  

Phew, shake it off, shake it off.  Back to point at hand…

Let's talk about the UCMJ again.  Specifically, how Articles 90, 91, and 92 all discuss following lawful orders.  We are legally and morally bound to follow the lawful orders of those appointed over us.  It follows that we, and those over us, are legally and morally bound to issue lawful orders.  With both of those in mind (and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone that disagrees) we are all legally and morally bound to disobey unlawful orders.

Here is Trump advocating our soldiers, MY soldiers, committing war crimes by saying we have to go after the family members of ISIS.  Here he is lauding the myth of General Pershing murdering enemy POW's, desecrating their corpses, and once again committing war crimes TO APPLAUSE.  Finally, and most importantly, what put me over the edge of needing to say something, was Donald Trump telling the American people, that it didn't matter his orders, that I would follow them.

Not only no, but fuck no.  

I know some people that would.  Some soldiers (all devout Christians) that would follow torture orders, family kill orders, pig blood orders.  Not while I'm around though.  Not while I'm an Officer in the United States Army.  

Letting that man become my Commander in Chief is completely unacceptable.  I don't care that he pontificates about dick size, I can overlook the separation thing (I assume, hopefully, that people like Hemant Mehta and other will deal with it as I can't), but I absolutely refuse to believe that America has fallen so far as to hand over the reigns to a war criminal in the making.

I will sacrifice my life for the freedom I believe in, for the country I love, and for the people that live here.  But, if that man is elected President, by the people, then they don't deserve that sacrifice.  

Fix it.

Or you'll find me here:

Updates and 8600 views?!

Been a while, no?  Well, I'm back for the foreseeable future.

Without further preamble, let's get right into it.

I've had 8600+ views!  That's a lot, for me at least.  What makes it exciting is that the more views I get, the better chance I have of getting picked up by a publisher.  Yes, Trader is published, but with the amount of revisioning I'm going to do, I'll have to re-copyright.

Nothing anyone cares about right now.

ANYWAY... Trader is no longer Trader.  Trader is now:

TRADER Book 1:

Death Of A Spaceman 

A tale of sex, drugs, and spaceships.

Catchy, no?

And with that in mind, here's a dose of new writing, taken from page 1, done this very night:

    It started with a knock on a door.
      My door.
        At 2 a.m.
    You can tell quite a bit about a person by the way they knock.  For instance; a soft, gentle rapping may signify someone shy and cautious.  There's the brief but thunderous boom of the confident, announcing not only their arrival, but their absolute certainty that this was the door they were always meant knock.
    And, like now, there is the frantic pummeling of my door, at 2 a.m., of someone that was abused as a child.  Well, that, or Rick Allen came back from the dead to tell me something vitally important.
    At 2 a.m.
    Did I mention it was early?  Because it was.

So, there you go.  What I need now is catchy, fun, cover art.  Something like a retro/minimalist version of this:

 

But not this exactly.  Because, legal issues.

Here's the rest of the final draft of chapter 1 for your reading pleasure.

Don't expect too much in the way of politics.  That's a bit of shit show right now.

-J