On Writing: Colm Tóibín

Writers Write Meme Gallery

 

Clear and Present Dangers……Lloyd Alexander

“Keep reading, It’s one of the most marvelous adventures that anyone can have”

~Lloyd Alexander

U.S. Coast Guard Flag

January 28, 1915 – The Coast Guard was created by an act of the U.S. Congress to fight contraband trade and aid distressed vessels at sea.

Yak Shaving Gallery, 2023

 

Hey, mom! The Meatloaf!

Motherless Children (Murder by Munchausen #4) — Now Only $.99 on Amazon!

1/23 thru 1/29

Just when you thought you could trust the robots again…

A senator’s son is strangled by a synthoid in AsiaTown and, just like two other victims, tattooed with an indecipherable barcode.

Jake and Kim, his new partner, battle political corruption, the Chinese Triad, and Internal Affairs, discovering a disturbing Fourth Law of Robotics as they decode the tattoos to stop the deviant series of murders.

Motherless Children Page at Amazon

 

 

Clear and Present Dangers……Chelsey B. Sullenberger

“Not every situation can be foreseen or anticipated. There isn’t a checklist for everything.”

~Chesley B. Sullenberger

U.S. Navy Flag

January 11, 1911 — Top Gun Maverick: For the first time an aircraft landed on a ship. Pilot Eugene B. Ely flew onto the deck of the USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco harbor.

Yak Shaving Gallery, 2023

 

Acme…A Name You Can Trust

Book Review: The Bomber Mafia

I knew about the American plans for “precision daylight bombings” during World War II and, of course, the infamous Norden bombsight.  What I didn’t know (but should have) is there was a cabal of Air Corps Generals from the Army Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field, led by Hap Arnold, acting as lobbyists for the Eighth Air Force’s Twelve O’clock High strategy.  Malcolm Gladwell lays this out beautifully in this book as well as the shortfalls of their plans and the reversion to area bombing over Japan.  Not sure why Curtis Lemay comes off as the bad guy for making that switch. He seemed to be a Patton-like can-do guy. Besides, it’s not really his fault that “dropping a bomb into a pickle barrel from six miles up” didn’t come about until the GPS smart bombs used during Desert Storm. A fascinating read.  (5 of 5 Stars)

 

Link to The Bomber Mafia on Amazon (Paid Link)

My Brother’s Keeper (White Hawk Aviation Series Book #1) — FREE on Amazon!

1/18 thru 1/22

Hollywood, 1950 – Former P-51 fighter pilot A. Gavin Byrd is on location for a movie shoot, when he gets a call from the police that his older brother, a prominent Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, has been found dead on his boat. The Lieutenant in charge of the investigation is ready to close the case as a suicide from the start, but “Hawk” doesn’t buy it and decides to find out what really happened for himself.

With help from a former starlet ex-girl friend, a friendly police sergeant whose life was saved in the war by his brother and a nosy Los Angeles Times reporter, Hawk’s search for the truth takes him through cross-fire, dog fights and mine fields in Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Burbank and Las Vegas, and leads him into some of the darker corners of his brother’s patient files and private life that he never knew existed.

My Brother’s Keeper Page at Amazon

 

 

Clear and Present Dangers……Susan Sontag

“I envy paranoids; they actually feel people are paying attention to them.”

~Susan Sontag