Patriot Smith and The Gray Man...

[MarciaA]

Hope you enjoyed your day off! Those storms up north are keeping it chilly here. Was in the upper 30's when I left for work at 6am. BRRR!

[PS Power]

Joy is a thing that I've given up on. These days I find myself lucky if I manage to survive until the next dawn. (Not that anything of note or great hardship is happening, yet. I'm just living without much emotion at all for some reason.)

It's finally raining here, and the world is melting. Now I'm mudded in, instead of snowed in! It's amazing.

[MarciaA]

Dale, please take a vacation. You need to find joy somewhere, to feel excited to see the dawn sun breaking the horizon, to watch a hummingbird sparkle as it feeds and the sunshine glints off its iridescent feathers. Be childlike with the wonders in nature. It broke my heart to read you feel no joy.
Go. Find some fun. Travel.

[PS Power]

Snowed in again. Overnight. Everything was melting so nicely, too!

*I'll live. Don't worry about me.

[PS Power]

Oh, while I need to wait for others to chime in, so far the one opinion I've gotten on Patriot Smith was very, very favorable. (Though not what was expected. Of course.)

So, yay!

[PS Power]

Did I mention that it's really patriotic? People might miss that part.

[mwdeans]

I loved the book. I can tell I did because I want to read the next one so bad right now. I may be slightly biased due to the main character being a Marine with political ideals close to my own. I thought you handled the Marine Corps quite nicely. Your descriptions of how life in the Corps works and how Marines think in certain situations felt right to me. Especially the aspects of personality shown in the character of Sebastian throughout. One of the changes that boot camp makes in the recruits that pass through it is the near complete deadening of the panic response. I think it relates to the law of diminishing returns. If you keep pushing the same emotional button again and again the impact on the recipient of said push becomes less and less. Also, there is a drastic shift in what constitutes an emergency or problem. Issues that arise, and they always do, are just things to work past. So you have a lot of work to do in a short time frame, sleep becomes optional, perfection is not needed, mission first. All of that was there in Sebastian. I don't have the characters added special combat skills but you could read my whole service jacket without any of it being held back. I ran servers and networks while fixing computers in the field. I saw a lot of things without being a participant in them. I never even fired my rifle in Iraq. I drove in convoys, mostly because the driver has the most leg space and I'm 6'6". Which is not why I was allowed to drive. I was the lowest ranking Marine in my vehicle and the other two chose to put the one guy not licensed to drive military vehicles in the driver's seat cause they didn't want to drive. Worked out ok for me. You nailed Sebastian's personality as a prior service Marine. Great book.​​

[PS Power]

I haven't been getting many of these back yet, for some reason.

The reports back are all favorable, so I don't think it's that the writing sucks... I'll go over it again myself then. (Which I would have been doing anyway.)

Don't worry, the next books up are all back to being regular sci-fi/fantasy, for a bit. This one is a little lacking in wizards and superior technology...

[MarciaA]

Well I just finished it late last night. Hadnt had much free time to read. That darn work issue, and family stuff.
I thought it was a good story, sucked me in and was frustrating every time i had to put it down!
When are you putting it up at anazon??

[PS Power]

After more editing. I've been waiting for people to get it back to me.

Work is a good reason for that one though. I'm NOT putting it out on April first. For the obvious reasons...



*Though I have been thinking about eventually getting a copy of "Grilled Cheese: Where Sauteing Meets Perfection" done finally...

I just have to have pictures for that one though.

But Yay! So far the people that I've heard back form seem to like it. The silence form so many is kind of eerie though. (
Well, that or I'm being paranoid. Which is always an option in life!)