Infernal Affairs, Chapter 1: Martyr and Saint

I'm tough on my characters.

Take Detective Thomas Nolan, NYPD, for example.

I've killed friends.

I've killed friends of his children.

I've put him in the hospital three times.

He's been shot, stabbed, impaled, and beaten into the pavement ....

And that's just book one.

This book, well, it's time to see what Tommy can take.

Because this time, we're going to try to make him a saint.

By hook or by crook.

Welcome to Chapter 1 of Infernal Affairs.

Chapter 1: Martyr and Saint

Martyr -- a title in the Catholic Church for saints who died for their faith. One that I never expected to have.

As I sat in the front row, side seat of my church, Saint Gregory the Great, it only occurred to me that at least the former title would be slapped upon my tombstone when the bullets started to fly.

Father Jerome Delany, the celebrant, was the first to be shot. The sharp crack of the rifle echoed through as he started to talk about how God was and is Love. He shuddered with the impact as the five bullets punched into his chest. He fell back with the last bullet, which was impressive for a man as old as he had been.

My family and I were seated to the right of the altar as you faced the altar. We were less interested in being seen in the front and more interested in being in a position to drown out the guitarist on the other side of the altar from us with our singing. We weren’t good, but we were mildly in tune, unlike the guitar, or the cantor.

I was with Mariel, my wife, and Jeremy, my son. Mariel had long, wavy chestnut brown hair, round, deep-brown eyes, a pleasant heart-shaped face, and a healthy olive complexion. As Ben Franklin would say, we fit well together. Jeremy was eleven, energetic, and … very much an 11-year-old boy.

When the first shot went off, I dropped to one knee and reached for my handgun. My wife Mariel bent over to protect our unborn daughter. Our son Jeremy crouched so low he was nearly under the seats. “Plan 22 C,” I said.

Both of them nodded. Ever since the serial killer had broken into our home, we had come up with a collection of contingency plans.

Plan C was always “run while I lay down cover fire.”

Before they could even get off the floor, I jumped onto the back of the chair in front of me. It tilted forward and I jumped onto the next chair before it fell forward, and I leaped to the small rail for climbing up on the altar -- it had been installed for those who couldn't do steps without holding onto something - and then took a giant leap to the center.

I went for the top of the altar for multiple reason: first, visibility, and second, I wanted to be the biggest, clearest target. Thank God none of the paraphernalia for later in Mass was there yet.

The shooter was at the back of the church, rifle held high. Since the first shot, everyone in the church stood and ran. Few had ducked to cover, -along with those who had merely tripped those trying to run.

And half the church had run directly into the center aisle, in front of the shooters.

I dropped to one knee, gun up and ready. I grabbed the microphone from the altar and bellowed, “Freeze! Police!”

The rifle man turned, and swung his muzzle up to aim for me.

I aimed high and fired. The first bullet scraped along the barrel of the rifle, catching the ejector, and drilling into his shoulder. It turned him around before a round went off. He nearly decapitated a statue of the Virgin Mary. The second bullet struck up just right of center mass (his right, not mine). My third bullet missed by a hair, scoring him across the forehead.

The shooter’s rifle came down. He staggered back and grabbed his arm. He slumped up against the side of a pew, grabbed his rifle with his good hand, and raised the barrel to aim again.

I fired again, catching him in the breast, right beneath the clavicle. He leaned straight back this time, and went down.

The only way to get to him would have been through the horde of church goers. I frowned, thought it over a moment, and prayed a little.

I pushed forward in a leap … that was aided by a little divine intervention. The levitation trick that I prayed for was just enough to leap from the altar to the front pew. I leaped from the back of the pew to the one behind it. I leaped from one pew to another, looking like a parkour runner. I wasn’t thinking at the time, giving only a brief thought to how I would explain this if anyone had noticed -God’s little parlor trick.

I leaped off once the crowd had petered out, landing in the aisle.

This also put me in direct line of sight of the shooter.

The muzzle came up a few inches and pulled the trigger.

It clicked.

The shooter looked as confused as I felt. I lunged forward and kicked the rifle away from him. The rifle had been damaged. My first bullet jammed the ejector, and the last spent casing did not eject.

The shooter was a walking cliché: socialist, hammer and sickle badge, Che Guevara shirt.

The shooter smiled at me and laughed. “Almost got you, you capitalist pig. You won’t be lucky next time.”

There was a burst of bullets from outside. My head shot up. The automatic gunfire was unlike the shooter I just dropped. I darted out of the back of the vestibule (away from the altar), then through the front door of the church.

Outside the church was empty of people. Since I didn’t trust to locate the gunfire by sound alone (directionality of sound can be a pain in the butt), I turned right. Because there had been an active shooter in the church, and no one had appeared from the nearby police car parked near the entrance behind the altar side of the church.

I turned around the corner. Four men with M4 rifles were hosing down the three men crouched behind the patrol car. I charged the gunmen. They didn’t turn. I was within thirty feet of them when I opened fire. I emptied the magazine into two of the shooters.

The empty magazine ejected from the pistol as I came within arm’s reach of the remaining two shooters. I hammered my pistol behind the ear of the shooter on the left. His head bounced off the rear windshield he was hiding behind. A second later, I crashed into the shooter on the right. I crushed the shooter between my shoulder and the side of an SUV. I drove my elbow into the shooter’s ear, and then pistol-whipped him. I went back and forth with my pistol, smacking it against the skull of each gunman in turn until they fell down.

I kicked aside the gunmen’s weapons, reloaded my pistol, then took two steps back, covering them. I called out, “Clear! NYPD! Plain clothes!”

Why didn’t they even consider sending in more than one guy to the church? Because I’m one guy going to Mass versus being ambushed by two armed cops. Duh.

Continue reading here.

Delain - April Rain (Minniva Cover)

I think I'm going to go back to my Saturday music blog post.  I would keep up the full films posted on YouTube, but so many of those get yanked, it's not worth it. Maybe again sometime.

The artist I've picked for the next few months is Minniva. I believe she's Russian, based off of her speaking accent. She's made a lot of songs sound awesome, even when I don't like the original singer.

This is a case in point. I'm not actually a fan of Delain in most cases. Very rarely does the lead singer work for me -- the previous post is one of those times. Minniva makes almost anything easier on the ears.

Anyway, a bit of music for your listening pleasure.

While you listen to her fairly pleasant voice, I'm going to suggest that you check out some of the following books.

Enjoy.

Hell Spawn  Death Cult

 Infernal Affairs 

Music blog: Masters Of Destiny

I tripped over this one recently. It was fun.

And while you're here, can I tempt you with some sweet, sweet merch?

Hell Spawn  Death Cult

 Infernal Affairs 

The Problem of Papal Authority

Ever since Pope Francis was elected, all of us Catholics have suffered other people trying to tell us what we believe, largely based off of casual comments by Pope Francis in an interview...

Or a presser in a conversation on board a plane...

Or in a rambling, nigh-incoherent speech, even when translated by the Vatican.

As such, we've been lectured on guns, on communism, on the environment, and one of the blogs I contribute to, over the Catholic geeks have spent a ton of time refuting it. They have an entire section dedicated to it.

I think I know what the problem is. And it's not necessarily that he's totally wrong on immigration, guns and economics ... even though he is.

Everyone thinks that the Pope is some sort of monarch. That the whims of the Pope are the dictates of the church.

WRONG!

The following comes from John Zmirak's book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism, which sums it up nicely, I think. Emphasis mine

 No doubt you have read breathless accounts in the press of the exciting new changes allegedly impending in Catholic teaching. Pope Francis has used his bully pulpit tirelessly to vent his private opinions on global warming, economics, immigration, and a long list of other issues on which he is less well-informed than the average American who watches Fox news. None of that matters. As you will learn, these subjects are outside the pope's scope of divinely appointed authority. he has no more claim to anyone's deference on these subjects than a traffic cop who stops you to offer gynecological advice. Peter and his successors were guaranteed infallibility not so that Catholics would know exactly what to do about greenhouse gas emissions and income inequality, but so that that the signs identifying the narrow road that leads to heaven couldn't be switched out for the signs pointing to the broad way that leads to perdition. That, after all, is the purpose for which Jesus Christ established the papacy, the church itself, in the first place -- to show us the way to eternal salvation, not to tell us how to vote.

So guess what -- EVEN IF Pope Francis was some sort of dirty commie (which he doesn't appear to be) he couldn't make that part of Church teaching, since Communism is evil in the eyes of the church, ever since Divini Redemptoris, 1937, when the Church realized that it was going to be a thing and not a passing fad. So no Pope can change doctrine. Only an entire conference of Cardinals and Bishops can do that.

So, why is that? Why isn't the Pope a casual dictator?

Because how stupid do you think we are?

I know the Catholic church has managed some really stupid crap -- just look at the implementation of Vatican II. But we've been around 2000 years. We know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. And you probably just heard that line read in the voice of JK Simmons, and you should have.

The thing that everyone has to remember about the position of the Pope is that we've had Borgias and Medicis on the throne of Peter. Which is like having the Mafia running the church. Francis isn't the worst guy we've had in the chair. He won't even be the dumbest. We've survived 2000 years, and the church has been declared dead 7 times before the 20th century, and I swear it's been declared dead 7 more times in the last 100 years alone. And right now, the most persecuted faith on the entire planet? Christians. In China. In the Middle East. In America. If you don't know this, you're probably not plugged into the right outlets. And no, I don't mean Fox news, just the Tablet will suffice.

And what's Francis doing? He's telling the Catholic church in China to surrender to the state that wants to kill us. He hasn't directly talked about the **Christians** in the Middle East in danger -- and IF HE HAS, he hasn't gotten his message across.

[The child molester problem STILL isn't the "WE MUST REMAKE THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH TO MAKE IT UNITARIAN" the usual suspects like to talk about it. (seriously, 1% of the priesthood has been evil pricks. Find them, kill them, move on). And Francis is ACTIVELY screwing up what Benedict achieved on this front. But hanging them from lamp posts in the Vatican will certainly correct the problem. And for the namby pamby types who think "Wahh, that's so harsh, it's not Christian," my I direct you to the Biblical passage of "BETTER A MILLSTONE BE TIED AROUND THEIR NECK AND THEY BE CAST INTO THE SEA THAN THEY MESS AROUND WITH CHILDREN." Give the average short eyes an option between drowning and hanging, my bet is they're going to take the short drop with the sudden stop.]

There's a reason that in the entire history of the church, only 7 -- repeated ONLY SEVEN -- statements by Popes have been considered infallible, and five of those are up for grabs. So even Popes who USE papal infallibility don't use it like a cudgel.

But yes. We've had bad popes. Bad popes disprove the authority of the Church the way that sin in general disproves grace. In other words, it doesn't.

So, what's the job of the Pope?

The primary job of a pope is not to be a theologian or a holy man. HE'S AN ADMINISTRATOR. He's a bureaucrat. We have been SPOILED under John Paul II and Benedict. They were holy, they were theologians, and they had a great learning curve being an administrator. (Okay, Benedict was a better bureaucrat, but then, he was a German academic. I think they invented red tape).

Francis ... I'm told he has charisma. I don't see it.

But after being spoiled by two awesome Popes, we get ... Francis. There is a lot to say about Francis. He sucks at public speaking. The transcript from which we get his "opinions on guns" is a rambling mess that requires a diagram to track.

Comparatively, Francis is Dilbert's Pointy Haired Boss.

But again, we've had unholy popes in the past. We've had terrible Popes in the past .... but even Popes who've had mistresses (even when the mistress looks like she's running the church itself!) never violated papal infallibility by declaring married priests a thing, or changed premarital sex as being a sin. They never changed what was and was not a sin. It's why we even have a doctrine of Papal Infallibility -- it DOESN'T NOT MEAN HE'S ALWAYS RIGHT, it means he never teaches what's wrong in doctrine.

As the Catholic geeks noted a few times, even in the "Global warming" encyclical (and seriously, can someone read the thing before commenting on it?) he HASN'T CHANGED DOCTRINE.

Now, I will grant you, American Catholics can be very American-centric, while the Pope has to look at the world. While many of the tricks the media use is to apply all of the Pope's comments to American politics, Francis largely doesn't care. And one of his problems lately is that he should. When Francis was made Pope, many expected and desired that he should reform the bureaucracy... all he seems to do is make little cuts that only serve to piss people off. Right now, Francis should come in and break up the US Council of Catholic Bishops -- preferably with a baseball bat. If you don't believe me, look up Zmirak on Twitter, he has a few ideas on the subject.

Though all in all, I think I would have much preferred Cardinal Sarah as Pope Pius XIII. But no one listens to me on that.

 If you think these ideas are radical ... no, none of them are, really. Heck, read Infernal Affairs for some radical ideas.

Infernal Affairs Playlist

For the final battle of Infernal Affairs, I needed something epic.

I found this one going through Spotify one day and it fit.

Army of the Night, a cover of PowerWolf's song, only done by Amaranthe

Infernal Affairs can be purchased right here.

Writing Infernal Affairs

When I wrote Hell Spawn, I was shooting for a police procedural that became a horror novel. Check that.

When I wrote Death Cult, I was told it was okay for me to start things a little faster this time.

Never tell me that the pace must go "faster." I will accommodate you.  Then probably run you over.

Despite opening book 2 with a zombie attack and ending it at raiding a death cult compound, one beta reader told me it was "too slow."

That's probably even worse than telling me the book needs to be faster.

So Infernal Affairs started with a church shooting during mass. Shot priest. Screaming civilians.

Then the SWAT team knocked down our hero's door.

Then the car bomb.

Then the full frontal assault.

Then the chase throughout New York and New Jersey.

The balrog on the highway.

The parkour chase over Manhattan with hellhounds and MS-13.

You know, the little stuff.

So this one was more of a chase book than anything else. Less horror, more urban fantasy. No modern politics, a little investigation, but a lot of fighting the forces of darkness.

But by the end of the book, I had to wrap up a few things from the previous books. After all, I had a demon, I had the cult that summoned it, I had a "warlock" in the background, MS-13, and now I had to do one thing above all else....

I had to tie it all together and make it make sense.

I think I did a fairly good job of doing that.

Now our heroes have to find out who the warlock is before the warlock gets them. It's going to be quite the bloody mess.

Yeah. If you had even HALF as much fun reading this as I did writing it, you should just bulk the series in hardcover as a set so you can gift it to friends ... or to people you want to piss off ... or both.

Anyway, Infernal Affairs. It's out and ready for the fun to start.

While you're waiting for Infernal Affairs to arrive in the mail, or download, then I ask you stop by the Amazon pages for Hell Spawn or Death Cult and leave a review. Trust me, they help.

Infernal Affairs is here

It's out. Book three of my next Dragon Award nominated series, Infernal Affairs. Yes, I'm that confident, and you will be too, once you read through them.

You know, I used to think that Hell Spawn was the best thing I ever wrote. But now that I've finished book 4, and outlined book 5 and 6, that it was only the beginning.

Because buckle up, we're going to have some fun.

I figured I was going to have to up the stakes.

What's that you ask? I've attacked his family, his police station, his friends and his city, so what could I possibly do to him?

Unleash Hell, that's what.

When I outlined Infernal Affairs, I had expected to address the issue of corrupt police officers. Then, over the course of the book, I would be expanding the threat from corrupt cops to other criminal classes.

Then I realized that I was playing far, far too small.

It was time to expose Detective Tommy Nolan to a new level of threat. He's faced demons, a few zombies, fah! So what! Here's a balrog crashing into the Long Island Expressway, a parkour chase with hellhounds, and that's the first few chapters. So there! We're going to expand Tommy's horizons to a world of monsters so vast, I think I'm going to threaten his sanity a little.

It got so fast, so knuckle-intense, an alpha reader needed to take breaks. I edited it so the down time was a little longer -- meaning I kept all the tension, just gave the reader more time to breathe before all hell breaks loose again. Meaning the readers won't even STOP this time! MUAHAHAHAHAHA.

And this concludes the origin story. Heh heh heh. Yes, dear readers. The first three books are a nice warm up act for Tommy.

This is going to be so much fun.

Anyway! Infernal Affairs, out today! Take a look at it, review it when you can, and enjoy.

Brace for impact, guys, we're going to have such fun.

Book 4: City of Shadows, February
Book 5: Crusader, March
Book 6: Deus Vult, April

Covington Catholic School and the Coming Gulags

You could say that I'm a little Upset.

The links referred to are here

Tommy, NYPD, 

The Pius Trilogy 

Why no one cares about the #Oscars, 2019

I know I've already discussed how no one gives two damns for the nimrods in Hollywood and their pretensions and their BS.

But it's Tuesday, the blog is late, the Oscars are trending, and I can do this quickly without tuning my brain on.

Let's look at the latest crop of these Oscar nominations that have been forced down our throats this time.

I'll make a few guesses here and there about what's going to win, but those guesses will be made largely on content, virtue signalling, and victim points -- since CONTENT seems to be the last thing Hollyweirdoes want to even consider, unless the content is about a black hispanic homosexual being brutalized by rich white oppressors, or screaming "REPUBLICANS ARE EVIL" over and over again, but enough about the film Vice.

And no, I don't think that was cynical enough for today's insanity.

I don't think anyone cares about documentaries ... (RGB? Zion? I can't even find an IMDB page on some of these).  Foreign language films ... Poland did something about the Cold War, which probably slipped in because no one in Hollywood was looking.

For the log of God Almighty --- FIFTEEN musical score nominations? Fifteen... talk about overkill. I know they expanded nominee rosters to allow for their pretensions and for popular films, but this is insane.  Besides, they all enjoy masturbating to Lin Manuel Miranda, so we know that Mary Poppins Returns is a shoe - in. It satisfies their politics (after all, LMM might as well have started "Orange Man Bad") and has the illusion of being popular (the nicest review I heard called the film "unnecessary"). Then again, as I look closer, the only thing on this list that doesn't check all of the usual boxes is Infinity War.... unless someone really wants Thanos to be the Green Peace mascot.

Original songs ... fifteen. Again. Ugh. This is .... an amazingly terrible collection.

Short films....  who cares? Visual effects....  who cares?

Ah! Best actor! .... Let's see, Christian Bale has signaled his virtue by calling Dick Cheney "Satan." Rami Malek played gay (if he is for real, don't tell me, I don't want to know.) Bradley Cooper... may have had to act. Viggo Mortensen ... I don't want to look at what he did. I"m guessing Bale is the winner.

Best Supporting Actor. If anyone cared about acting ability, I'd even give Mahershala Ali a nod -- I've seen him, he can act. But if I recall correctly, he didn't virtue signal hard enough in Green Book, and no one will ever give anything to Sam Elliott if it can be avoided. So I'm assuming Sam Rockwell for Vice, because George W. Bush is stupid and evil, etc etc, blah blah blah.

Actress in a Leading Role..... I'm assuming it's going to either Lady Gaga for being a freak or to Melissa McCarthy because her Ghostbusters film "fought the patriarchy," thus making it "her turn," or something.

Actress, Supporting role. The Favourite, a film about women being bitchy to each other, is up twice. I'm assuming they get canceled out. I'd say Amy Adams in Vice, but that requires that people like Amy Adams. I do, but Hollywood doesn't seem to.

Animated Feature Film .... I look here and I don't care. I'm sure everyone I know wants it to be Spider-Verse. 

Cinematography .... does anyone care? Costume design, oy.

Directing ... Cold War is up for it (I found it on IMDB... Romeo and Juliet, Cold War style? Didn't more interesting things happen then?). BlackKKKlansman has the virtue signal points, but I'm not sure Spike Lee has enough by himself. Roma ("A year in the life of a middle-class family's maid in Mexico City in the early 1970s.") The Favourite and Vice. This one is more of a crap shoot -- virtue signalling on virtue signalling violence. Though Roma may win out because "working class Mexican" seems to have more victim points than anyone else right now.

Documentary ... eh. Media has decided for the last two years to do very little BUT jerk off to Ruth Bader Ginsberg. So that's my bet there.

Best picture ... already? Oy. Let's see ... Black Panther has been thrown on probably because it made a ton of money and they may not be seen as out of touch. If it wins, it'll be so they can say "we gave Marvel an award. We never have to do it ever again" and move on. Frankly, it's one of the lesser marvel films. It really is.  If BlacKKKlansman wins, they can say they gave Spike Lee something. Bohemian Rhapsody might win ... because gay, but "gay" may not have the right victim status anymore and lacks the points.  The Favourite .... "rich white girls are bitches" movie.... who cares? Green Book seems to be about people who work for a living with people who can act-- I'm almost certain it's not going to win, though it may be the only thing here that might deserve it. Vice, A Star is Born, and Roma might win for the reasons mentioned above in other categories.

Wow, such pretentious bullshit. I'm 100% certain that nothing here was nominated based on the strength of their acting, writing or directing, and based entirely on political math.  Yet again, I'm going to stay far, far away from the Oscars. Screw these guys.

Here, have some books that have no pretension whatsoever

Hell Spawn  Death Cult

The Year of Three Conventions

This is another year where I'm going to do at least three conventions.

If you're going to be nearby, come and find me



RAVENCON 14. In Williamsburg, VA, from April 5-7.

LIBERTYCON ... Yes, I scored tickets. Mainly because a fellow author at Silver Empire changed her mind on going.

Chattanooga, TN, from May 31-July 2

DRAGONCON... Did you doubt I'd be going? I'd go to this convention even if they didn't have me as an attending Pro.

As always, in Atlanta, August 30-September 2

Be sure to have plenty of copies of my books when you come. I can only carry so many copies before I hurt myself by accident.

Be well, all.

Hell Spawn  Death Cult