The Complete Works of Declan Finn (2017)

In July, it occurred to me that I published my first book in 2012. And I had come out with quite a few things since then.

And since then, I've come out with even more. Yikes.

It's gotten to the point where I need a chart for me to keep track of.

And we start with...

It Was Only On Stun! 
(Convention Killings Book 1)

If this looks strangely unfamiliar to you, it's because Dawn Witzke redid the cover....

Because she really wanted the last one to go.

If you don't recall, It was Only on Stun! introduces the professional security specialist Sean A.P. Ryan being dumped head first into an SFF convention, and he is hip deep in nerds, genocidal madmen, terrorists, IRA gunmen, and a cartel that has a grudge with him.

A Pius Man: A Holy Thriller 
(The Pius Trilogy Volume 1)

Then I did A Pius Legacy, then A Pius Stand, which have been picked up from the publisher, to be rereleased. So there's no link. But Legacy will be back in January, and Stand in February.

Then there was Pius History and Pius Tales -- basically, the footnotes and the short stories. These were also pulled from the shelves in order to be rereleased by a publisher. But I ended up with 5 books of The Pius Trilogy. Because I'm apparently doing the Dune trilogy.

If you're new here, The Pius Trilogy is my answer to every crackpot psychopath who thinks they can jam history into a thriller so they can spread whatever Orwellian rewrite of history they like among the populous. In this case, there's a secret about the Catholic church that people are willing to kill to cover up. The only question is: who do you trust?

Then, in a post-Pius universe...

Set to Kill: 
A Sean A.P. Ryan novel 
(Convention Killings) (Volume 2)

This is the return of Sean AP Ryan, after he appears in Pius, and it's more of a postscript to Pius than it is a sequel to Stun! This time, Sean ends up in the political end of the SFF spectrum, hip deep in lunatics, armed authors, all set in the city of Atlanta for WyvernCon.

And this is the companion piece. Sort of.

Sad Puppies Bite Back: A Parody

Long long story.

And with mustn't forget my solution to dystopias ... with gun fire.

The Last Survivors

And, of course, the series everyone likes....

Love at First Bite

Take everything from Dracula about vampires.

Add philosophy and microbiology to explain how vampires work.

Add faith, redemption, a love story, Vatican ninjas, and lots of gunfire.

Honor at Stake

My first Dragon Award nominated work. For best horror, as it says on the cover.

Kick ass vampire.

A romance that works.

Three-dimensional characters, even among the side characters. 

And then there's Vatican ninjas.

Demons are Forever

Obviously, the sequel to Honor at Stake.

Take everything from book one... add in a demon that just won't die.

Live and Let Bite

Book three of the vampire series.

The 2017 Dragon Award Nominee for best horror.

And there are some shorts....

Bad Date: 
A Love at First Bite story

Blood Stained Cliffs of Dover: a Love at First Bite short story

And, of course, my nonfiction.

For All Their Wars are Merry: 
An Examination of Irish Rebel Songs

And, of course, we can't forget the short that appeared here.

Astounding Frontiers #1: 
Give us 10 minutes and we will give you a world

And we can't forget the other anthologies

Tales of the Once and Future King

Or

Lyonesse, Volume 1

MAGA 2020 &  Beyond

Don't let the title or cover fool you. This is straight up strange. It's not propaganda, since we have essays, and some stories with a simple moral of "Let's calm down here, shall we?"

And then...

Paragons:

An Anthology of Superheroes.

So, 15 books, two short stories, published in a Pulp magazine, and four anthologies-- TO DATE. Not bad for a five year run

But wait, there's more!

I've been accepted to the following anthologies thus far.

• January, 2018: Mercury (From Superversive Press)
• February, 2018: Venus (From Superversive Press)
• March, 2018: Mars (From Superversive Press)
• May, 2018: Jupiter (From Superversive Press)
• April, 2018:  Earth (From Superversive Press)
• September, 2018: Pluto (From Superversive Press)
• October, 2018: The Moon (From Superversive Press)
• Hundred Worlds (edited by JF Holmes)

8 anthologies next year ... that I know of

I've already got a three murder mysteries nearly done, so they'll be out in 2018.

I've got another project for Silver Empire press due out in September 2018

The Witzke / Finn Dark Court project, TBD.

So, God willing, by the end of 2018, I'll have 20 books published, and be in 12 anthologies, total. And that's assuming nothing else pops up.

Not bad for a start.

Review: The Awful Truth About Forgetting

It's here. I've got a Dragon Award Nominee for YA for next year.

Welcome to The Awful Truth About Forgetting the fourth of the Books of Unexpected Enlightenment.

What she knows, she dare not tell.

Rachel Griffin should be having an amazing freshman year. She has the Princess of Magical Australia and crazy orphan Sigfried the Dragonslayer for friends and a handsome sorcerer boyfriend romancing her with charms magical and otherwise.

But otherworldly forces conspire against those she loves.

While all others can be made to forget the truth, Rachel cannot. When she runs afoul of the hidden force hiding these terrible secrets, Rachel must face her most desperate hour yet.

This on top of winter fairies, missing friends, Yule gifts, flying practice, and a rampaging ogre…oh, and schoolwork.

Then there is the matter of a certain undeniably attractive older boy…

Yeah, this is the one where everything goes dark. I don't know if we have finally seen the ultimate villain for the series, or merely one of his henchmen. After all, book 1 had a cameo appearance by Lucifer himself, and not the charming hedonist played by Tom Ellis, but the Prince of Darkness.


I must say that this one was a surprise. Unlike the previous novels, book 4 doesn't open with a massive recap of the events of the last novel. It even does something strange, like take a break from the action. This one starts several days after the last novel .... instead of hours. I guess Rachel could use the break. She has had a rough couple of months. And the evil baby skeletons were probably stressful. The only real recap is that we see the fate of several of the bad guys from book #3.

This is also surprising in that I'm not sure I could summarize the plot easily. Books 1-3 were in a solid arc. #4 ... this is actually a surprise in that this is a character driven novel. No frenetic action. No Jack Bauer ticking clock. Heck, we even managed to get several months along the school year in this one. They deal with family issues, and exploration of most of the concepts in the prior novels that everyone was too busy to delve into ... mostly because everyone was too busy being shot at.

The title of the series is, after all, about Rachel's enlightenment. And the enlightenment is the majority of book #4. Character development and growth, and dealing with character-related blowback from not the last book, but all three books. It was only briefly touched on in Many Splendoured Dreamland, but Rachel is only 13. And, unlike certain other magical British student adventurers, she has enough of a personality and character that she actually needs time to recover from things that would give full adults PTSD. Because when Rachel goes through something Hellish, the roots of the event are literally straight from Hell.

However, while dealing with the personal repercussions of Rachel and Co acting as the Scooby Gang, we also discover just how deep and complicated the problems of the world truly are. Yes, because dealing with three different demons in as many books wasn't complicated enough. No. Those are the easy, "simple" problems. In fact, by the time you finish the book -- actually,when you're three quarters of the way done -- there's enough new data to see that this could end so very, very badly for everyone.

The problems with the book are the problems of ... characters. IE: They have flaws. Trust me, the Princess of Magical Down Under is one character who the reader will want to throttle at points. However, given various and sundry revelations, even that isn't as quite a simple problem as one might think.

For those of you who are saddened by the lack of 24-level threats from all comers every dozen pages or so, don't worry. The last 60 pages or so involve a full scale attack on the school.

Enjoy.

Pick up The Awful Truth About Forgetting  here.

Love at First Bite is going to die

In case you haven't noticed, my Dragon Award nominated series, Love at First Bite is no longer on Kindle Unlimited.

In fact, very shortly, it's about to be pulled from shelves entirely. So get it while you can.

Why is it leaving?

Well, as you might remember, I hate marketing. I hate banging my head against a wall. I'd much rather just write books and move along. I will do what works. I'll put in as much effort as I can until it kills me.

But, frankly, my ability to even maintain the blog is starting to become a trial. So I'm going to unpublish the book series....

Then I'm going to let my publisher do the hard work.

Yes, that's right, Love at First Bite is going to be getting a publisher. The series will die, but you can't keep a good vampire down. The publisher is Silver Empire Press again, the people rereleasing my Pius novels.

we’ll be republishing Declan Finn‘s multiple Dragon Award nominated Love at First Bite series. For those of you who have already read the books, there won’t be much call to buy the new ones. We’re doing only the lightest of editing touches here. But we will be getting them all new covers and putting the marketing push behind them that these books deserve.

But wait, there’s more!

In addition to this excellent series, we’ve also commissioned Mr. Finn to create an entirely new Urban Fantasy series. We’re not ready to share the details on this just yet, except that I can say a few things. The book is set in New York, the city that Mr. Finn knows so well. It does have some of the religious elements his fans love so much. And it will proudly feature the insane action that we’ve all come to expect from Mr. Finn.

Also, the one-paragraph pitch that Mr. Finn gave me is the best book pitch I’ve ever heard. And the outline for book one more than lives up to that pitch. And… book one is already half done.

Expect this new series to go live right after we finish republishing Love At First Bite.

Yes, the book series, code named "The Patron Saint of Detectives" until we can get a better title, is coming along fairly nicely. I haven't managed to blow up anything yet, but give me time. I'll usually find a way.

Now, obviously, this is going to be a little strange as far as the schedule goes. Since everything Love at First Bite related will be pulled from the shelves by the end of January, or February at the latest, it seems unreasonable to expect another nomination at the Dragon Awards (this time, for Good to the Last Drop). If the book isn't on the shelves, hard to say "Read the book, then nominate it."

But yeah, I'm looking forward to a little less banging my head against a wall in the foreseeable future. 

The Top 11 Catholic Geek Radio shows

Since the radio show is back on the air, it's probably time to once again look at the best of the program.

This is not going to be a voter show, or my personal favorites. This is based solely on the episodes you, my listeners, tuned in to hear.

Why top 11? Because I like to go one step beyond.

11) Fred Hembach on Alternate History (11/01/2015)
I'm fairly surprised that this made it into the top anything. Not because that Fred is a bad guest, but because he didn't show up -- meaning I was the only one talking for most of the time, aside from one call-in guest.

10) God, Robot, the panel (5/15/2016)
Not surprising that this one makes the top ten, this had everybody: the Marchettas, Josh Young, John C. Wright and L. Jagi Lamplighter, Steve Rzasa, and even Vox Day.

9) Honor at Stake and Sad Puppies Bite Back (1/31/2016)
This one is ... strange. Most of this was just me doing readings from my various projects at the time. It was only 40 minutes long. Who knew?

8) Animal Farm with Cats (2/28/2016)
Kia Heavey discussed her book Domino. It helps that she brings her own audience.

7) Live with Jeffro Johnson, (1/22/2017)
Is anyone surprised? Author of Appendix N, then the author of the Castalia House blog. I'm not surprised at all.

6) Catholic Geek Radio with Lamplighter and Wright, (2/26/2017)
John and Jagi came on and hosted the show themselves. Awesome, isn't it? Again, not surprising. John and Jagi are in THREE of the top 6 shows of all time. How's that for an audience grabber?

5) Synods and Starships, (11/08/2015)
My show, guest-hosted by Matthew Bowman, the Novel Ninja, who brought in some heavy Catholic hitters.

4) With John C. Wright and L. Jagi Lamplighter, (7/12/2015)
The first appearance on the show, they came on to discuss the Superversive literary movement, and some of their projects. I had no idea what I was in for.

3) Chasing Freedom, (1/24/2016)
Marina Fontaine came on to discuss her Dragon Award nominated novel, Chasing Freedom.

#2) John C Wright's Iron Chamber of Memory, (5/01/2016)
I don't need to explain this part, obviously.

#1) Sad Puppies 4, the Embiggening, from 1/10/2016

Starring Tom Knighton, this was during the final Puppies campaign, but almost a year and a half before we knew it was going to be the final campaign. Knighton lays out a history of the Hugos, the Puppies, and everything in between. 

Now that we're back, let's see if we can make 2018 interesting

Where's the radio show?

I needed a break back in September.

I didn't really get it.

Edits came back on two different projects at the same time. Then three different projects.

Since I wasn't allowed to rest, or break, I decided, Hell, I'll do the radio show. Why not, right? What's the harm?

And then, the lead schmuck on one of the projects I was on tried to dictate to me who I should have on my show. Not "Oh, you might want to add X or Y," no, that would have been generous. This schmuck decided that he was the only one I needed on my show. He was the only person I needed to hear from on a project with over a dozen authors. After all, he's the editor, he knows what to do and how to speak for everyone.

Now, keep in mind, I pride myself on being very generous with my show. It is the show for my guests. My guests come on, and they can play until their hearts are content. This doesn't work very well when there are some panels of guests where one person talks over everybody, but I have a workaround for that in the future. Generally, everyone has their say, and everyone can talk until they talk themselves out... hasn't happened yet.

But this dickhead, telling me who I can have on my show? No. I'm not having any of it. I canceled the show right there. I didn't tell the authors about that, but he was kind enough to hit "reply all" to that email. Several authors told me that they figured it out all on their own.

Later, I didn't feel too bad, as this same dickhead did the same thing on at least one other podcast that I know of. Because I wasn't invited on that one either... Okay, I was invited on the podcast, but only after the podcast was an hour in, and this self-important jackass decided that he had better things to do after an hour, and I was contacted as a last-minute fill in. Oops, sorry, I made other plans, and no one considered asking me to be a stand by in case this moron fell through.

But that was pretty much the point where I decided, "Why am I bothering? It eats up time that I don't have."

But now, I have a reason to bother.

This Sunday, The Catholic Geek is back, with our returning guest, Moira Greyland, on her book The Last Closet, out now.

Review: Justice League

This was a very nice two-hour television pilot with a lot of special effects, and a plot barely strong enough to hold the film together. If it were compared to Marvel films, I would say it was on part with Thor, the first one. This review will discuss a plot point in the review, though, I don't think I can spoil anything. In case you haven't guessed already, Superman will be coming back from the dead, and the villain will not destroy Earth--he can't, this is only the start of the franchise.

Premise: an alien threat called Steppenwolf has come to Earth after an attempt to conquer the planet in the days that time forgot. When he was driven off the planet the first time, he left three MacGuffin devices called Mother Boxes that he can use to reshape any planet to his wishes. If he gets his hands on the Mother Boxes, it's game over. Batfleck (sorry, Batman, played by Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman have to assemble the World's Mightiest Heroes (Trademark, Marvel) to find the Mother Boxes, and stop Steppenwolf.

Yes, Steppenwolf is Sauron, and the mother boxes are the Infinity Stones / One Ring / Genesis device.

For the record, that's the plot. The entire plot. Steppenwolf is a killing machine out to rule everything, and he's going to get the Mother boxes. That's his motivation, character, and arc. I literally can't even pad his appearance anymore. Unlike other people, I didn't mind his CGI form ... though I did object to the lip sync. Did anyone else think the mouth didn't match the dialogue?

But Steppenwolf is such a small part of this movie, he's barely worth talking about.

This film is ... okay, with a lot of great scenes. And the scenes are what keep this film from being a total failure.

Ezra Miller as The Flash is remarkably charming as "awkward nerd." And it's clear that he, like everyone else, is as the start of his hero career. And, no, we HAVEN'T seen all of the various and sundry good bits in the trailers.

... But you can find them on YouTube.

Jason Momoa's Aquaman had several fun parts, and they definitely don't want to go anywhere near the blond in the orange scales as seen in Superfriends. I think someone concluded that they had a show stopper here, and they let him try to stop the show. The best bit is him waxing on about how yeah, they're going to die, but it's a good cause to go out for as long as they stop Steppenwolf, etc etc, and it goes on for nearly two minutes ... before he realizes he's sitting on the lasso of truth.

Batfleck works a lot more than I thought he would. And he is definitely the "I'm getting too old for this" Batman as he gets beaten up, a lot. But you can believe he's Batman. You might even believe him as Bruce Wayne. There's exactly one line of dialogue I would have had rewritten, but otherwise, he was spot on.

Wonder Woman... Gal Gadot still surprises as Wonder Woman. She just works. I don't know why, she does. And she has good chemistry with Batfleck -- not sexual chemistry, though Alfred does make fun of Batman for being interested in her, despite no visible interest when the two are on screen together.

And I will compliment Ray Fisher's Cyborg / Victor Stone as being a great performance, acting through heavy CGI on his face.

So that's that positives in this one: the team is the strength here. The characters interacting is the main joy in this film. As for the overall film eh. There is no tension here. It's a world-ending threat, yet the biggest sense of danger in the movie was from ... Superman. Yes, went they bring Superman back from the dead, he wakes up cranky, and you genuinely believe that he's going to rip Batman's head off. But outside of that...wait, is Superman smiling? He's not allowed to smile! This is a Zack Snyder movie! I might actually believe this guy is Superman. But, again, downside: Henry Cavill's resurrection as Superman was so strange, and added so little, all I could think is "If this is the payoff, why did they kill him in the first place?"

And there is so much that's just off here. For example, Victor Stone becomes Cyborg after being in an accident that kills his mother, and his father uses the Mother Box to bring him back from the dead with machine parts. There's a lot of dramatic potential here. Victor feels like a freak and an outcast. He resents his father for keeping him alive like, this, and he hears an alien voice in his head from the mother box computer code. He's even cranky to Wonder Woman. Then, Cyborg's father is kidnapped by our villain. His father is saved, and Victor is on the team .... and he disappears from the rest of the film. Poof, he's gone. I've seen damsels in distress who have had more screen time. So much dramatic tension is drained from the film, and the character.

There's a lot of that going around. There's a scene with Wonder Woman and Batman after one battle that's just the two of them. There were several ways the scene could have gone, from "I'm too old for this" to "This is why we need the superpowered everybody: I'm breakable" to just following through on the romantic tension between the two of them that was clearly supposed to be in the movie.

I know that Justice League had reshoots, possibly even the final edits, done by Joss Whedon. He even has a writing credit here. Whedon started his career as a script doctor. The writer credited for Speed has said that Whedon rewrote most of the dialogue. So you'd think that if there were problems here, Whedon would fix it. No matter his personal issues, he doesn't suck at his job. But it's clear that there were instructions for the film to be exactly 120 minutes, and there are a lot of scenes where you can see the danging threads from where there were obvious cuts. If there's an extended edition, I'll try it.

Over all, the execution was serviceable. But it's Justice League. It should have been more than that. Technically, we didn't need dramatic, we needed grand and big, and we didn't get that. Don't get me wrong, it generally works. The main characters were likable. But there are things like plot, and tension. Hint: we shouldn't have more tension from a hero than the world-ending villain.

And why is the only person in the entire film to say "League" is Lex Luthor in the after-credits scene?

Taken together, I think this is a case where the sum is not greater than the finished product. The individual scenes and moments and little touches in this one are better than the film as a whole. And while I hate using this phrase... ahem... IF THEY'RE SMART...  this is a way for them to skip all of the origin stories in the individual movies, which is a good move, but there should have been more in this film.

I don't think you need to see this one on the big screen in order to appreciate it. Save your money, watch it on DVD. It's cheaper than evening tickets for two to the theater.

What The Last Jedi Needs to do to Save Star Wars

I'm not one of the legion of people who hated The Force Awakens.


I didn't cry "Mary Sue!" at Rey (Mary Sues are supposed to be super-competent, she comes off as super-lucky at best).

I didn't whine that I wanted Heir to the Empire on film (though would it have killed them to have Zahn write the screenplay? Really?).

Though, Good God, they needed about a truckload of exposition to make things make sense. I never thought I'd insist that a movie stop to just explain things.

Seriously, simple lines would have helped. ONE LINE would have helped in 90% of the cases. And I'll show you how in a minute.

But right now, I'll give you one fix, one major fix that would solve a lot of problems. Ready? Here we go....

TELL THE CAST AND CREW TO KEEP THEIR FLIPPING MOUTHS SHUT.

No, really, tell these people to shut up. I don't think I would have even noticed race in The Force Awakens if some idiot didn't boast about "We've got a Spaniard and a black guy, and womyn! ALL THE WOMYN. And this character is even a Lesbian!!!!!"

....No, really, just shut up people. The more you talk, the more I want to smother you with a pillow.

Yes, for the record, there's supposed to be lesbian character in The Last Jedi... though I have a side bet with myself that if we weren't explicitly told, we wouldn't notice, and possibly not even notice anyway.

But, yes, much of The Last Jedi's job will be double duty. It has to insert backstory, as well as a lot of exposition that should have been in The Force Awakens.

But as I said, luckily, it will require very little actual effort on their part.

Complaint: "First Order? The Resistance? WTF?"

Fix for The Last Jedi: Explain. Everything. Rey's been on not-Tatooine for her life, hearing bits and pieces of the story. Somebody can explain everything, and it should technically work. Assuming no one screwed THAT up. The best I can put together from online reseach, the line is simple..

Luke: The First Order is what's left of the Empire. The Resistance is the New Republic's mercenary army, hired and assembled specifically to wipe out the First Order.

There is a ton of this sort of crap scattered throughout The Force Awakens. Heck, there are problems here that we didn't even know at the time. Heck, the star destroyer we see in the desert after a TIE fighter crashes? That was apparently part of a major battle that happened after The Return of the Jedi. Would have been nice to know that, yes?  Seriously, can we have any idea what happened between point A and point B? Is that too much to ask? I'm not going to read Chuck Wendig. Ever.

Though, honestly, most of these could be fixed with a simple line here and there. 

Complaint: "MARY SUE! REY FIXES THE FALCON BETTER THAN HAN SOLO CAN."

Fix for The Last Jedi.

Rey: "Of course I can fix parts on the Falcon. I've spent my life in the guts of an Imperial Star Destroyer, taking apart far better tech."

... Also, does anyone remember Empire Strikes Back? Half the movie is showing Han try to fix the Falcon, badly, and failing.

Complaint: "MARY SUE! REY FLIES THE FALCON BETTER THAN HAN SOLO CAN."

Fix for The Last Jedi.

Rey: "Saying I flew the Falcon ... is generous. More like falling with the engines on."

Seriously, people saw that she was flying awesomely. I saw that she was pulling at whatever controls would work.

Complaint: "MARY SUE! SHE BEAT A FULLY TRAINED SITH."

Fix for The Last Jedi.

Luke: "You've seen Chewie's bowcaster. It's basically artillery. He shot Kylo Ren with it. If Kylo weren't busy bleeding out all over the place, or if you hadn't spent so much time running, you would have been bantha fodder. You've got some nice basic moves for a stick fighter, but you need more if you ever fight him when he's healthy."

Seriously, if you look at the behind the scenes portions, the stunt team trained Daisy Ridley (Rey) working on the presumption of simple stick fighting.

They actually put real thought into this ... they just didn't EXPLAIN anything.


Complaint: "MARY SUE! SHE FIGHTS BETTER THAN A STORMTROOPER!!!"

Fix for The Last Jedi.... None needed.

No. Really. We've all see how bad Stormtroopers are. They can't even hit anything. The joke is that a Stormtrooper fires at a red shirt, misses, the red shirt dies anyway.

I'm surprised "The First Order" has any competent people.

Complaint: "A Stormtrooper on sanitation? Really?"

Fix for The Last Jedi: I'm not sure any is needed. Vet friends of mine tell me that people who make that complaint have simply never worked in the military.

Complaint: "MARY SUE! REY HAS NO TRAINING IN THE FORCE AND DID ALL THIS!!!"

Fix for The Last Jedi.

Apparently, in the novel, they actually spell out that Kylo Ren mind-reading Rey unlocked her force abilities. Which is nice, but EXPLAIN IN THE MOVIE, PLEASE.

I don't actually have a problem with that, actually. Why? Because I saw Doctor Who do this with "The Girl in the Fireplace," and the girl there didn't have any force abilities. As the BBC show said, "An open door goes both ways," or something like that.

And in A New Hope, we're supposed to infer that Luke was already a good shot because of the Force, he just didn't know it yet. And this translates into him blowing up a Death Star, in a fighter he's never flown before.

Frankly, I thought the scene with the Storm trooper and "leave the gun" was just funny as heck. Then again, not like the trooper's have the best minds in the Empire.

Politics Kills Mercedes Grabowski (August Ames)

Let me tell you about a girl. She was born Mercedes Grabowski. When she was 17 (maybe 18) in Canada, she tended bar to make ends meet. She also liked liked Justin Bieber, a comedian named Daryn Jones, and followed MTV Canada. There's no accounting for taste when you're a teenager, so there will be no jokes about Bieber or MTV.

As you can see from her photo on the right -- taken from her long-abandoned Twitter account of 2011, @MercedesGskiii-- she was a pretty girl, even underneath the photo filter.

Her career would be unconventional, to say the least.

In 2013, she entered the world of "adult entertainment."

IE: Porn.

Mercedes worked under the professional name of August Ames. Now I can't say that I'd be a particular fan of hers, were I a connoisseur of the genre. She seems a little augmented to me in many of her photos (see below pic). But, as you can see, left, she's a pretty girl.  She has pretty eyes and a nice smile.

Earlier this month, she declined a scene with a male actor who had done male-on -male porn. I'm specific about it because I cannot merely say say "gay porn"--Miss Grabowski has been with girls during her 4 year career, so calling her homophobic is insane.

Like I said, a bit augmented -- the lips.
Again, pretty eyes.

Earlier this week, she pointed out on Twitter that her issue in starring with a man who's done other men was a simple health concern. Apparently, (her argument went) unlike the heterosexual porn market, the male-male scene does not require blood screening, or heavily utilize condoms, so this has red flares going up all over the place as an STD warning. Growing up in a house of microbiologists, PAs, pathologists, and medical educators, I can't help but concur with her issues.

Miss Grabowski posted about this on Twitter at the start of the week.

SJW jerks lost their minds. How dare she not sleep with a bi man! How homophobic must she be! Again, this about a girl whose been with other girls, so they should check their privilege, namaste, yo, right?

But no, SJW trolls came up from under their bridges and tried to feast upon her soul. Even other members of her profession decided to virtue signal their little hearts out in an attempt to shame her into compliance.

Three days later, on December 6th, Mercedes Grabowski, aka August Ames, hanged herself.

She was 23 years old....

...One more time.

She was 23 YEARS OLD. And she gets driven to suicide by a bunch of mealy mouthed sons of bitches on the internet because she wouldn't sleep with who she was told?  Funny, ain't leftists supposed to be the party of "it's my body, nobody tells me what to do with it"? But oh no, refuse to sleep with a guy of the approved victim group, and they break out the torches and pitchforks. Gee, isn't the pro-porn argument that these are consenting adults who can sleep with who they like? Isn't the difference between porn and sex slavery HAVING A CHOICE IN THE MATTER? Isn't that the choice between porn and RAPE?

But it's Liberal Leftist jerks, they're "pro-choice," but make only the choices that they like, or to Hell with you. Literally.

I'm sorry, this pisses me off more than I can intellectually grasp. I don't think I could have picked her out of a line up if I passed her on the street, and I had to look up the details about her life so I could write this blog post. I knew nothing about her when I heard about her death, and this still makes me angry.

She was 23 years old, damn it.

She was a kid.

She was entering Kindergarten when I was entering college. Even if you don't approve of her profession, that's THE PROFESSION. Personally, I don't approve of the job. But I don't like the job of "politician" either. There's usually a good reason for people doing what they do. Miss Grabowski suffered from depression, according to her friends. For all I know, her career was self-medication. I neither know or care. It was her decision. Heck, I can think more than a few of her coworkers who retire, raise families, have careers, get degrees, and have a real life after porn.

But no, all those options are gone because SJW schmucks decided to pick on someone with her own mental health issues. Great. Just great. Hope they're proud of themselves.

She was a kid who was was maliciously hounded to death by creatures of the night who decided that her rights ended when they conflicted with the ideals of the shallow beasts who call themselves "Liberals," but wouldn't know anything about Liberty if it bit them on the ass.

Hell, I have seen more kindness and understanding and sympathy for this poor dead girl from her fans and some of her coworkers on Twitter than I have from the butthurt Leftists schmucks who drove her to it. In fact, I've seen some people online saying that they wished Miss Grabowski didn't kill herself because THEY HAD MORE TO EXPLAIN TO HER.

"I wish she didn't die, I could have talked down to her more."

What sort of inhuman monster does that?

And, of course, this was the same time period the #MeToo crowd was popular on the internet, and these same people Tweeting "#MeToo" .... were going to bully someone into sex she doesn't want to have. Nicely done, you leftist douche bags, you really are rape culture. Thumbs up, all the way.

Thankfully, those self-same asshats are busy crying "brutality" now that all of Miss Grabowski's fans know that she's dead, and who drove her to it. Fun fact: bullies don't like it when they get ganged up on and beaten like a drum. A gang-bang if you will.

I have friends who have stated that there will be criminal charges over this. Hopefully, there will be.

In his Inferno, Dante wrote that those people who drove people to despair were planted upside down, up to their ankles in in boiling excrement. This is why.

Surprisingly, Miss Grabowski was more forgiving than I would have been.

If you find being mean to people-bullying them, degrading their appearance or otherwise is okay- I am sincerely and commiseratively sorry for you. I hope you find your own personal peace🔺🔻🔺

— August Ames (@AugustAmesxxx) December 2, 2017

Pity she wasn't allowed to find any peace of her own.

Avengers: Infinity War Trailer

Time to take a look at what next big thing Marvel has in store for us.

Okay, we're going to open with a bit of recap to Avengers 1,

Let's see, Strange and Wong finding a confused Banner -- which means it's probably something that takes place after the Ragnarok tag scene....


Scarlet Witch giving ... a human-looking Vision a look that might lead to some comic-book related spoilers.

Ugh, black Black Widow? Oh well. There were a half dozen or so in the comics.

Hulk, Iron Man, with Strange in the Sanctum Sanctorum.  Heh heh heh. Though the stairs need work.  In the original Infinity War comic, it did pretty much start with Strange.

Spider Man ... are the hairs standing up on his arm supposed to be Spidey-Senses? I didn't see Homecoming.

Hmm, Loki handing over the Cosmic Cube to (probably) Thanos. Who could have seen that coming... oh, yeah, everyone who saw Thor: Ragnarok.

The CGI on Thanos is ... not bad. He looks like a video game character. Though I'm surprised they went with him without the headpiece he usually wears in the comics.

Oooh, the Iron-Spidey armor! Not the gold on red from the comics, but I like it. Somehow, it looks even more canonical than the clothe version.

"Evacuate the city, engage all defenses, and get this man a shield" .... Okay, that's cool.

... Okay, Thor in space. Whatever.

Okay, and the Vision is sort of screwed. I just hope that taking the gem out of his skull isn't going to be the end of the character. I actually like what Bettany has done with him, and I'd like him to come back.

We also have Thanos with the gauntlet, but he hasn't yet collected the whole set. Which is good, because that might be the moment we get a lot of actors retired from the MCU.

There's also Bucky standing with Wakanda soldiers. Again, not a surprise. Even I guessed there might be something to that after Civil War happened... And then there's the Falcon joining in the same battle, with Hulkbuster Iron Man, and I see War Machine. Yeah, if Wakanda doesn't have an Infinity stone, I will be shocked.

Heh. And Thor, with the Guardians of the Galaxy.  Heh heh heh. Well, this is going to get strange.

If I'm going to lay money on this, I'd say there's an infinity stone in Wakanda, and much of the movie will be to get the band back together in order to stop Thanos from getting the last stone. But that's just a guess on my part.

Either way, looks like it's going to be fun.

#CyberMonday 2017: Give the Gift of Books this Christmas

As I've done every year, this is just a list to make your shopping lives easier -- for Black Friday, or for the upcoming Cyber Monday. Because giving the gift of books is always a good thing.

You might want to try some of these items below. I've even reviewed a few of them.

In short: give the gift of books to people you care about. They're cheaper than iPods. Heh.

As with last year, I will start with suggesting my own novels. Not even all of my own novels, just some of them. The newest ones, for starters.

To start with, there's the Dragon Award nominated Love at First Bite series.  Because everyone loves this novel. Is it because it's romance? It is because it's vampires? Urban Fantasy? A little YA-ish? A little Christian-fic?

I have no idea.

But if you're new here, it's about a boy meeting a girl.  One of them is a homicidal monster. The other's just a vampire. It has Vatican Ninjas, and holy water burning vampires, and sunlight killing unholy monsters AND NONE OF THE VAMPIRES SPARKLE, DAMNIT.

Ahem. Anyway.

For the record, we mustn't forget the Set to Kill. Which is basically taking Sad Puppies Bite Back, and taking it to a whole new level of insane. It's another part of the Murder Con Series, including It Was Only On Stun!

Basically, take insane security agent who is a "mundane" at an SF convention

Drop him head first into the culture.

Drop the bodies to the floor.

Hilarity ensues.

Codename: Winterborn .... the "other" novel, also strangely well reviewed. Genre: character-driven scifi espionage. While on a mission to the Islamic Republic of France, Lt. Kevin Anderson's team is betrayed by the politicians who sent them. As the only survivor, Anderson must stop the senators involved before the next team is slaughtered on the altar of political greed. He's certain he won't survive, but he will make this sacrifice, for his Codename is Winterborn.

 I recommend this for all fans of Baen novels -- like John Ringo, David Weber, and even your straight up thriller writers, like Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, et al.

There is, of course, the sequel: Codename: UnSub, which only just came out.

For those of you who might think that distopias aren't dark enough, I bring you....

Dystopias plus a superpowered serial killer.

Yes. Because I like making things even harder than they already are.

Buahahaha.

Anyway....

Several of the following books you may have seen before.

Torchship / Torchship Pilot by Karl Gallagher: For anyone who really wanted Firefly to be good, this should be your cup of tea. Heck, for fans of: Firefly, David Weber, early David Weber, and people who would be really entertained by protagonists in an SF novel doing their calculations by slide rule.

Iron Chamber of Memory - For adults only, really...or any mature 12 year old, like I was. I don't care in what format you buy it, but you owe it to yourself to buy at least one copy for yourself, though I recommend buying half a dozen, just so you can immediately hand out copies to your friends.
Review here

The Big Sheep - Perfect for anyone who likes SF mysteries, mild dystopias, and Terry Pratchett. As far as I'm concerned, if Rob Kroese wants to keep putting out books about Erasmus Keane for the rest of his life, I'll happily use him as a substitute for Sir Terry Pratchett. (Review Here)

Chasing Freedom -- for anyone who sees the USA falling to fascism, but also sees some small hope in our future. A Dystopia that doesn't make you want to slit your wrists. Yay. (Review here)

Murder in The Vatican: The Church Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes -- if you've been reading my blog for a long time, you know that I loved this one, and I can't possibly recommend it enough.... and then there's The Watson Chronicles, which is even better.  The only books I will recommend over my own, and I'm told my books are pretty awesome, so, yeah...

The Book of Helen -- dang, this was a kickass little novel.  The West Wing meets the Trojan war, this novel goes beyond the "they all lived strangely ever after" of Helen of Troy, and follows the rest of her life after she came home from Troy.  Yes, Helen did have an "after Troy."  You know the mythology, and now, this is the rest of the story.

Black Tide Rising -- For those people who hate zombies ... you can like this, at the very least.

[Review here]Ordinance 93:  I've reviewed this book (on Amazon), I've interviewed this author back when Examiner.com still existed. Ordinance 93 is a thriller that sort-of centers around abortion, but is mostly a fun chase novel. I'd actually like the next one to come up.

Infinite Space, Infinite God II .... a Catholic scifi-anthology, so, yeah...fun.

Greater Treasures -- Imagine the Maltese Falcon with dragons. Nuff said.

Stealing Jenny, by Ellen Gable: After 5 miscarriages, Jenny is about to have a pregnancy come to full term... until a psychotic woman kidnaps her and chains her in her basement with the intention of taking the child for her own. I liked this one.

Amy Lynn and Amy Lynn: Golden Angel.  Just buy them. Read them. The first one could be dark YA.  The second ... yeah, for adults only. One's a solid novel, the second one is a solid thriller. Just go with me on this one, okay?

Night Machines by Kia Heavey .... this one was interesting.  Almost Doctor Who-ish by way of Rod Serling.

And, of course, there is an endless list of books I can recommend, which happen to be a different tab at the top of the page -- includes Flynn, Ringo, Weber, Thor, etc, etc.

Tears of Paradox, by Daniella Bova, reviewed here

End of the road, by Amy Bennett: This looks like a fun one, a straight up, old fashioned murder mystery...Yes, I know I haven't read it yet, but I've been busy...

By the Hands of Men, Book One: The Old World.

Also, here's everything I suggested for the Dragon Awards in 2016

And here's everything nominated for a Dragon Award in 2016.

And everything I talked about for a Dragon Award in 2017.

And everything NOMINATED for a Dragon in 2017.

That should cover a fairly wide net.

If you have something you'd like to suggest for gifting opportunities, please feel free to mention it below.

You can also click one of the above tabs for suggested books.

Good luck with shopping, everyone.