I'll be Doing Live Streams on 28 and 29 December with HWI

Tuesday night, 28 December, at 8 PM EST, I'll be doing a live stream on the Horror Writers Ink Facebook page along with Allen Gamboa, Steven Van Patten, and Joseph Hansen. It's a chance to get to know the writers better, ask them some questions, and see that we're not deranged lunatics hunched over a computer (well, we are, nut we're lovable lunatics).

Wednesday night, 29 December, at 7 PM EST I'll be doing another love stream with Steven Kenny, Rich Restucci, and Sylvester Barzey.

You can watch by following Horror Writers Ink Facebook page or joining the Horror Writers Ink Facebook Community page. 

 

 

Merry Christmas

 

I wanted to wish all my friends a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays. May this weekend find you happy, healthy, and with the ones you love.

Five Yuletide Video Classics for the Horrordays

Merry Christmas boils and ghouls. I hope everyone is having a pleasant last week before Christmas. Chopped down your enemies and Christmas tree. Have strung up the lights and that obnoxious co-worker. Maybe dug up... err, looked up some old friends. We all need a break during these hectic days, so I'm posting my five favorite non-traditional seasonal-themed songs. I hope you enjoy. Ho Ho Horrordays. 

My favorite since I worked nuclear weapons and ballistic missile issues for the CIA.

Another little-known Christmas classic by Weird Al Yankovic.

A twist on a traditional song for the kiddies.

And just so you don't think I hate tradition, here's All Come All Ye Faithful by Twisted Sister.

 

 And Twisted Sister's accompanying classic Silver Bells.

Operation Majestic Has Been Released

Operation Majestic is now available for Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and in paperback. Pock up yours on Amazon. The hard cover edition should be published in approximately a week. 

They make great Christmas gifts.

Once Upon an Apoclaypse Is Now Available for FREE

A Guide to surviving the End of the World... and Christmas.

Welcome to the first edition of Once Upon an Apocalypse, a festive collection of stories, articles, competitions, and more by Bestselling Authors. Check out your favorite doomsday writer, meet new ones, check out their book promotions, and just hang out. We’ve got you covered with a variety of fantastical tales to keep you entertained and help you survive the silly season. Welcome to the dark side of Christmas.

Contains my holiday classic "Deck the Malls with Bowels of Holly."

 

Grab your copy today!And it's free, our Christmas gift to you.

The Release Date for Operation Majestic Is Now 12 December

GOOD NEWS! 

The release date for Operation Majestic has been advanced to this Sunday, 12 December. So all of you who pre-ordered your copy will receive it three days early. It's still available for pre-order. 

Also, the paperback and hardcover editions of the book are in process and should be available by the 15th. More than enough time to give them as Christmas gifts.

Remembering the 80th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor

Eighty years ago today, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor designed to cripple the U.S. Pacific Fleet so Japanese forces could invade Southeast Asia and the Philippines with little interference. The Day of Infamy dragged the United States into the largest and deadliest war in history. Men and women served and died in places around the world they had never heard of before 7 December. For the first time, Americans witnessed the brutality humanity is capable of as they liberated POW camps in the Pacific and Buchenwald and Dachau in Europe.

That war also created the Greatest Generation, veterans lucky enough to have returned from combat who shaped this nation. These men and women helped America become a superpower and eventually defeat the second most dangerous threat to freedom around the globe. They built the American middle class and laid a foundation for our prosperity that was greater than what they had grown up with during the Great Depression. Despite the flaws in our political and economic systems today, what we have achieved in the 21st century was based on the foundation of that generation which served in World Wat II.

I was fortunate to have grown up surrounded by veterans of World War II. My Uncle Bob, who served with the Marines at Okinawa, was one of only eighteen men to walk away from the Battle of Sugar Loaf Hill. My father's best friend nearly lost his life at Bastogne. I heard endless war stories as a kid and came to admire their courage and what they endured. It's what inspired my love for history and eventually led me to join the Central Intelligence Agency. 

Sadly, three generations after World War II began, few veterans of that conflict are still alive. Out of the six million who served in that war, fewer than three hundred thousand are alive today and are passing away at a rate of approximately three hundred a day. Just last week, the last soldier from The Band of Brothers died. Soon, World War II will be as distant a memory as The Civil War with no one around who remembers those years.

I visited Pearl Harbor back in 1993. As I stood on the Arizona Memorial, I watched an older Japanese gentleman showing his wife the mountain pass that the IJN planes came through to launch their attack. I still regret not asking him if he was here on that day and would he be willing to tell me his side of the story. But while writing this, I recalled how serene Pearl Harbor was on the day I took the tour, the same way it looked moments before the first bombs fell on Battleship Row on 7 December 1941.

As I wrote this, I  I ask that you take a few moments this morning to think about the men and women who have served and are serving in our armed forces. They have taken on a burden and accepted a responsibility not all of us are willing to bear.Billy Ray Cyrus summed it up beautifully with his lyrics, "All gave some, some gave all."

Thank you all who served and let's hope we never experience another World War II.